Waiting for Rita

In a year with many bad hurricanes, I find myself waiting for the landfall of potentially the biggest of the year. And it's hard waiting.

It's one thing to watch the devastation from Katrina and be moved. You would have to be very hard-hearted indeed to not be moved by the plight of the residents of NOLA whose lives have been devastated by Katrina. Even now, several weeks later, as Katrina is pushed out of the headlines by the 'next big thing', those residents are very far from a return to normalcy. And their stories continue to be heart wrenching.

At yet, it is easy not to dwell on them continually. For most of the US, the devastation did not affect us. Even during the life wrenching plight of others in our own country, life can and does continue on. It is easy for all of us to forget that lives are still broken in LA. Most of us have not been to NOLA and do not have family there, so the affect is only tangential. It's a sad commentary on us as humans, but if we continually dwelt on the all the devastation in the world, we would walk around unable to function.

Yet, as we wait for Rita to hit, the potential for devastation hits home. For in this case, I have been to Galveston and do have family there. My brother and his family are right now on the road, fleeing northward from the approaching winds. And they leave behind everything except family, pets, and those few important articles that fit in their vehicles. Hopefully, Rita will die down and there will still be something to come back to. We'll deal with that together, later.

As for now, we wait. Chris, Kim, Samuel and Benjamin, We're all praying for you and waiting together.

Engineering Washout?

I just got finished reading this article on Tech Central Station. Go ahead and read it. Then come back and we'll discuss.

Finished? I find it hard to believe that Mr. Kern actually got TCS to publish this bit of lightweight drivel. Usually, they publish much more substantive pieces dealing with economics and politics. In this case, what they got was the same type of rant that I used to hear from fellow students my first year in college. "The classes are hard. The teachers can't teach. This information is useless. They are just trying to weed out students." Wah, wah, wah.

I admit that my first year in college for an engineering degree was hard. But looking back on it, it was not hard due to any of the listed reasons. The course material was challenging, but certainly not as hard to comprehend or master as that of some of the material I learned in later years. The teachers may not always have been the best, but it's not ultimately their job to make sure that the students master the material. The best that teachers can do is present the information. Some do it better than others, but ultimately it is the student's job to learn. And I find it hard to swallow the argument that universities and professors are purposely trying to fail students out of their programs. They all know where their money comes from.

No, the hardest challenge as a first year engineering student is learning how to learn. High schools to some extent hand feed information to students. It is possible to simply show up at class and learn the material without putting in any outside effort. And that is the situation that Mr. Kern is complaining about. He is complaining that his university expected him to put in any significant amount of effort at all. Here's his description of his liberal arts pals:

Meanwhile, my friends majoring in the liberal arts pulled dandy grades
while studying little.

At the root, Mr. Kern seems to be complaining that he wants to be spoon-fed information and not have to learn it himself. And that seems to be the root of the issue.

In my career as an engineer, I've run into many of the same people. These people are often very smart and capable individuals, much as Mr. Kern appears to be. However, they lack the ability to take that step beyond and apply themselves. When presented with a well defined problem or difficulty, they are capable of solving it. However, they can't seem to make the intellectual jump from a nebulous, ill-defined problem to a problem that can be described and solved. In short, they are still looking for someone to hand feed them. And as anyone who has spent any time in the real world knows, it's very difficult to find someone to do that on a regular basis.

Mr. Kern ends his article with a plea that the field of engineering study to changed. I am firmly against that idea. What needs to be changed is the lazy assumption that the world should be easy. Students in a university should learn the value of hard work and the fact that almost any problem can be solved if enough effort is applied.

And those are exactly the lessons that the first year of engineering study supplies.

New Orleans officials dropped the ball

In the wake of Katrina and all the finger pointing that is going on, here is an interesting email from a structural engineer who worked on the levys. The short version of the story is that the Feds have been trying to fix the levys but the local officials kept diverting the money elsewhere. And it has come out from other sources that the state of Louisianna gets more money for the Army Corps of Engineers than any other state by a large margin. However, almost all of that money gets diverted into pet projects for politicians rather than used to shore up New Orleans.

And then when something bad happens, everyone wants to point fingers at the federal government. Now, I'd be the last person in the world to say that the federal government always does things right. But it seems that they take more than their fair share of criticism when things go wrong and are not given nearly enough credit when things go right.

Let's get a little perspective here people. The US of A is a really big country. And no single government entity can possibly cope with the task of taking care of the entire thing. That's why we have state and local governments that are a little closer to the problems. And they are expected to shoulder their part of the load as well. So, to the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of LA, I respectfully say, 'Shutup'. Quit complaining about how the federal government let you down, admit that you and your state and local governments share a large part of the blame, and get on with helping the people!

To me, that is the biggest tragedy of it all. So many people involved with the disaster are more interested in pointing fingers and diverting blame. There will be a time and place for that. However, the time for that is after the flood waters have cleared and all the people affected have food, water and shelter. Until then, I don't care whose fault it is.

Attack of the killer nuts?

I was watching the Ohio State Buckeyes game the other night (If you live in Columbus, Ohio, watching at least part of every important Buckeyes game is mandatory or you'll look silly at work the next day.), and was struck by how truly absurd the mascot for the university is. Look at so many of the other mascots in college football - Longhorns, Wildcats, Wolverines, Trojans, Hawks. These are all things that are deadly and menacing. However, the mascot for OSU is a non-edible nut. Granted, if you eat them raw, you will get a stomachache. However, a minor upset stomach doesn't seem to be in the same league as being mauled by a wild animal.

That's just my minor observation for the day. I look forward to when the Buckeyes face off against the deadly Georgia Pecans or the vicious California Almonds.