windsend

School Consolidation

Our little town of Pownal has been badly bitten by Maine's school consolidation initiative, which has the noble goal of reducing the cost of education through economies of scale.  However, due to bad information, the cost allocation formula that was negotiated and approved by the towns relied on bad information.  As a consequence our town is looking at a huge tax increase with no change in the education our children receive.

Here is a letter I wrote to our governor asking for more time to renegotiate:

Dear Governor Baldacci,

 I am writing to request that you intervene in the school consolidation process to allow the new school units more time to create equitable formulas for the allocation of costs among member towns. 

When residents of my town approved restructuring we had no idea that we were accepting something in the neighborhood of $1000 per household tax increase as a result.  The numbers we had available at the time gave no hint of this, primarily as I understand it, because we did not have current school year budget numbers available.  I am certain that if the citizens here had known the true consequences of their vote our merger with Freeport and Durham would not have been approved.

While I believe the town accepted that consolidation might mean our cost per student would rise with no immediate improvement (or change) in the education our children received, we expected that the increase, if any, would be small.  We consoled ourselves with the hope that there would be some offsetting savings to the state that might eventually be returned to the town. 

Now, however, we in Pownal are faced with an overwhelming tax increase and that in an extremely difficult economy.  I own a small business which employs 6 people.  My revenues are down by 40% this year.  My bank has refused to increase my line of credit.  I am currently paying a good portion of my payroll out of my own pocket.  I can’t keep this up indefinitely.  Doubling my property taxes will not help.

I believe the other towns in our consolidated district understand the inequity of our present cost allocation formula and would be happy to work toward a more equitable distribution if only the state will allow them to do so.  

Governor, we need your intervention to allow us the time to make consolidation work for all of us.

Sincerely,

Spiderweb

Walking along the mist-shrouded shore of Hay Island in Vinalhaven's Seal Bay, I am snared.

Poptech 2006-2

Session 2

Technology’s embrace

Kevin Kelly

Transformational power of technology

Technological determinism

Looking at the world through the eyes of technology

Parameters of the web similar to the human brain at the moment, but doubling every 2 years. Web will exceed human processing in 2020-2040.

75% of power used by technium

Technology wants – MIPS, copying, no prohibitions

Ubiquity, diversity, specialization, complexity,

Clean water, air, eco-topia not prohibited

Worries – self replicating

Technology wins – altering environment for itself

Parenting our mind children find the right place for technology.

Tip the balance between problems and solutions by 1%

Technology gives choice

 

Marianne Weems

The builders association

Language of performance with technology

The connections mediated by technology presented on stage.

 

Hasan Elahi
elahi.rutgers.edu

FBI stops him in

Detroit

airport

Sleeping in airports, toilets used

Flights taken

Using technology to document his life

Flood the market w your information. Give up privacy.

 

Jason moran

Make you dance w left hand, puke w right

Mowgasm

When ML & I moved to the country 13 years ago I acquired the task of keeping about 4.5 acres mowed.  To call those acres a lawn would be overstating the case, but there is a certain amount of grass in the mix. 

Anyway, after the first year with an 18 inch walk-behind mower, I purchased a Honda lawn tractor to handle the job.   It's been a trouper, but this year, after 12 years of abuse, the Honda made it perfectly clear it was ready to retire.

The hardest part of mowing for me has always been maneuvering around the numerous trees, rocks, shrubs and flower beds that dot our property.  So I have been intrigued by the zero turn radius mowers.  Well, I don't have much time for shopping at this time of year, so I just bought what looked like a really solid machine with a Honda engine (they always seem to run well).  It's made by Hustler and called a "Fastrak Mini-Z".  All I can say is, I had no idea what I was missing.

The first time I mowed I found the controls to be  a little squirrelly, and I managed to drive it into a bog, from which  ML and I took half an hour and a load of muddy laundry to extract it.  I was a little discouraged.  But now I've had a couple of more session, and I am completely wowed.  This thing not only turns in zero radius but does so with zero effort.  Moreover, it mows at about twice the speed on the old tractor.  Bottom line - I can do my mowing in about half the time with virtually no effort.

Jim's

Wandering in Southern Pines, North Carolina, we came across the perfect family business.

I apologize for the poor quality of the image, but I only had the camera on my phone at hand.  We passed on a Sunday morning and the place was quiet, but apparently the customers are enthusiastic, to the extent that a stout steel fence is need to keep them from driving right in...

poptech 2005 wrap-up

Bob Metcalf
Bob does his famous dry and humor filled summation of the conference

Poptech 2005 12

Session 12

Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Scandal of Prediction
Value of library is the books we haven't read
We focus on what we know.  The narrative falacy - we ascribe a cause to random events
Epistemic error - over confidence in your ability to know what you know
Most pojects late and over budget.

THe limits of our ability to predict the future.

Robert Trivers
On the biological roots of behavior
deception is part of the biological repertoire
principles of deception
- rarity helps deception

ze frank at Poptech 2005

Intellegent Design and the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Poptech 2005 11

Session 11

The Future of ideas

Sam Harris
THe End of Faith - Religion Terror and The Future of Reason
We only honor belief only with regard to religion
Religious moderation prevents us from coming up with viable alternatives to faith as a blueprint
Religious books remain as an inspiration to extremism.

Susan Blackmore
Memetics

Memes C-TAP (copy me - threats and promises)
Virus memes - include religion

Poptech 2005 10

Session 10 Big Fixes

Cameron Sinclair
Rethinking architecture - Architecture for Humanity
Advocating for design to help solve social problems

Neil Gershenfeld
Computing to build.  Digitizing fabrication
Tools to build anything Fab Lab

Bunker Roy
THe Barefoot College
Adopting and teaching the traditional technology
Buildings - rainwater harvesting