It's not only kids. From what I see through CNN and the very intense German coverage, it's also many white males between thirty and fifty. A pattern?

I think I've expressed my views on 'why' a few times within the Spring... perhaps in cultures and/or education and/or somewhere else... I don't have any answers, just guesses... my ultimate theory being that this violence stems from an unaccountability which stems from a breakdown in the bonds of a community... lots of other external factors of course... individuals responding to their situations differently... makes me tired and sad and angry and concerned to think about...

I wish I could find something intelligent to say for a change (I know YOU all wish that ALL the time, well, I just once in a while). I tried, and failed, and when I don't, I feel I failed to.

Thinking About Violence In Our Schools

Thanks, Barry. An interesting article. The only problem is that people who are prone to react to all those factors won't be reading such articles; and those who aren't either don't really care, or are not in a position to do anything about it. It's terrible, isn't it?

You know the cliche about the prophet who sees the looming train wreck but can't get anyone to listen? That's me. It has to do with a method of reasoning called Recursion. About 1% of population learn to employ recursion, which is especially powerful when doing model-based reasoning. If you grok recursion, you can become a computer programmer, analyst, detective, or peacemaker. If you don't, you can become a lawyer, policeman, politician, or tyrant.

How does Recursion work?

That's what I was wondering, Ree ree.

Oh Barry!!! Recurse this way for some more discourse on your disclosure, will ya?

The best way I know of to learn about Recursion is to play with the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. It is easy to solve with Recursion, and nearly impossible without it. Yet one can learn Recursion in about 10 minutes, and master the Tower of Hanoi in 15 minutes. If you search the Web for "Tower of Hanoi" you will find some sites with Java animations of it that you can play with. Recursion involves repeating the same procedure over and over, but in such a way that net progress is made each time around the loop. In an untamed recursion, one repeats the process indefinitely without making any net progress. We are embedded in many recursive loops and processes, frequently without the insight necessary to organize them to systematically converge toward a desired outcome. An untamed recursion is like the ninety-nine hells, the quagmire that one cannot exit. A tamed recursion is one in which every step is in a good direction, bringing us systematically ever closer to the goal and to the exit. Computer scientists learn about recursion and employ it ingeniously to solve complex problems in an elegant and efficient manner. The Tower of Hanoi is perhaps the best known exercise in learning about recursion. Another place where it is used is in computing factorials and Fibonac i numbers.

That's the clearest explanation you've given of anything, Barry. Very well said. I understand the concept now. Sometimes I read your stuff and I get lost in abstraction, but this was crystal clear. Cool.

I appreciate that, Terry. Some of these abstract ideas don't travel well in ASCII text. There have been times that I needed to invent a computer animation to express an idea. On the web, I don't have access to the means to generate animations.

You get out there sometimes Barry and lose me, but if you could explain things like you just did that would be awesome.

Yes, he's got some pretty cool thoughts in that head of his.

Just what I said! Whenever Barry gits to it and doesn't use prefabricated phrases and refrains from use of loaded lingo, I (a) understand what he says, and (b) even enjoy it! Come on, Mr. B! Gimme more!

Are prefabricated phrases those things where one actually THINKS before one says something?

It's like writing songs. One never knows which ones will be hits and which ones will be flops. One just keeps on writing songs. I think it has to do with the readiness of the audience. Every day the audience is ready for *something*. What is this audience ready for now?

More stuff that's custom-tailored, made-to-fit, and packs a load? (Riette, pre-fab phrases are the tv dinners of communication. They serve a noble function, are easy to use, work out somehow, but leave the consumer wanting.)

Platitudes might be a form of pre-fab phrases. I like your term for them! Jargonm, lingo also serve.

> More stuff that's custom-tailored, made-to-fit, and packs a load? My theory is that to do that, I need to know with some precision your affective emotional state vis-a-vis possible topics. In other words, which topics arouse your curiosity, fascination, intrigue, puzzlement, confusion, or bewilderment?

...and astonishment?! But, I forgive you! (Is that not what this topic is all about - must go back and read the posts from the beginning...)

Yah, astonishment, amazement, delight, awe, or wonder.

...works for me...*smile*

I think how one perceives of what others say depends not only on WHAT they say, but on the when, where, how and one's own state of mind.

The decoding of a message depends, among other things, on the decoding method.

Yes - THAT'S what I meant! ....i think....RIGHT, Barry??

absotively! posilutely!

The only way to tell is to repeat the decoded message back to the sender and wait for them to ACK it with "RIGHT, THAT'S IT -- ABSOTIVELY! POSILUTELY!"

Is that a fact? Barry, what do you do for a living? Are you a lecturer? No, not because you sound like you're lecturing all the time! It just sounds like you think alot about certain things all the time.

It's a theory, ackshully. I do research on learning theory. I rarely do lectures. More like seminars. And yes, I spend a lot of time thinking about a lot of stuff that needs to be thought about.

What sort of stuff? And do you sometimes think of other stuff just for the fun of it?

Stuff in Cognitive Science, stuff in Physics, stuff in Mathematics, stuff in Systems Science, stuff in Theology, stuff in Social Science. A lot of stuff I think of just for the fun of it, like Puns, Drama and Comedy.