Friday March 23, 2007 5:30 am Lethbridge Sunrise 7:29 Sunset 19:47 Hours of daylight: 12:18

A. Morning Musings

5:30 am It is +4 C at the moment with a forecast high of +15 C

CBC Headline: Liberals Allege Ex-MP Was Paid Off To Give His Riding To Day

The Liberal party says that they found some fax documents in the offices of the opposition party, which the Conservative party occupied before the last election, and which is now occupied by the Liberal party, that show that Stockwell Day arranged for a payment of $50,000 to the former member for a BC riding so that Day could run in a by-election in 2000. The charges are serious, and if true would mean a criminal prosecution. Day claims that this is just a smear campaign and that the RCMP had investigated this situation a few years ago and found there was no evidence to support the claim. This could be the type of story that brings down the government. It will likely be a major item for the next few days.

Canadian Headline: see above

Australian Headline: (from The Australian): Shareholder Appears to Ground $11bn Qantas Bid

An institutional shareholder of Qantas as said they will not support the bid from a private equity source to obtain control of Qantas. This is viewed as an attempt to get a higher bid from the group as the shares have appreciated in value since the original offer. Qantas is one of Australia's most visible international companies and has historically been a government operation but this has recently been eroded as the government is selling some of its shares on the public market.

My weight is down 2 to 188. Finally. I have a decrease after 5 days of steady state.

From rear window	South patio
Both images taken at 1:25 PM

 

B. Plan

Immediate
Mathematics	Read & make notes on The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems	2 hr
Technology	Read manual for cell phone	1 hr
Literature	Complete reading "The Baron in the Trees " by Italo Calvino	2 hr
History	Begin reading "Maya"	1 hr
Later
Technology	Convert LPs to MP3 format
	Make notes for chap. 4 of "Switching to the Mac"
	Burn backup of images onto DVD
Mathematics	Make notes for "Mathematics: A Human Endeavor" ch 1
	Read "Fearless Symmetry" chap 9: Elliptic Curves
	Begin reading "Algebra: Abstract and Concrete" by Frederick Goodman
Model Trains	Add ground cover to oil refinery diorama
	Follow tutorial for version 8 of 3rd PlanIt
	Continue assembly of coaling tower
	Purchase DCC system
History	Read Watson "Ideas"
Philosophy	Read & make notes for "Breaking the Spell"
GO	Complete reading "Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go"
Puzzles	The Orange Puzzle Cube: puzzle #10
Major Goals
Learning	Review week's pages each Sunday
	Review all pages for the month at the end of each month
Technology	Review & edit iPhoto files for 2006
	Become proficient with cell phone
Model Trains	Become proficient with 3rd PlanIt software
	Install DCC on model train layout
GO	Learn to play GO at something better than a beginner level
Drawing	Learn to draw!! (I keep saying this, yet I have yet to put a pencil to paper).
Mathematics	Continue to play with mathematics.
Literature	Continue to read Literature
Bird Watching	Continue to engage in bird watching activities.

C. Actual/Note

6:00 am I am delighted with the progress on my weight loss program. I still have a long way to go to reach by target of 180, but the progress has been steady and I am now half way there. It has been a combination of serious walking in the coulee combined with a definite decrease in food intake. Now to make myself a cuppa and then try a little mathematics.

	Mathematics 11 March 23
Mathematics Chronology
6:30 am I want to continue with the Kelley exercises as they are oriented toward the actual activities of "doing" mathematics rather than just understanding the basic ideas. The Humongous Book of Calculus Problems (2006) by W. Michael Kelley. Chapter 2: Polynomials Section (a) Exponential and Radical Expressions 2.9 Simplify the expression . 2.10 Rewrite as a radical expression and simplify. I found this problem difficult. The real problem is understanding what a fractional exponent means. Section (b) Operations on Polynomial Expressions 2.11 Simplify the expression . 2.12 Simplify the following expression . No! 6y multiplied by -9 is -54y, not -54. One of the requirements is to order the terms in terms of decreasing degrees. This also makes it easier to keep track of the terms. Exercises 2.13 to 2.15 are easy, and not worth doing. 2.16 Evaluate the quotient using polynomial long division: I'm not sure about the phrase polynomial long division. But I would see if I can find a factor of (x+3) in the numerator. Okay. I have read Kelley's description of polynomial long division and think I understand it. However I cannot see how I can express these steps using MathType. The only way I can see for showing my work for this exercise is to do it by hand and then scan that paper and display the image. I have done the exercise, and compared it with Kelley's solution and that is okay. But I am having difficulty seeing why one might do this. The solution is just as complex as the original expression. Such division does make sense if it turns out that the divisor is a factor of the expression, but otherwise the idea of a remainder makes the activity relatively pointless. 8:15 am This is a good place to take a break.

8:20 am Here are two more photos showing the beginning of the spring activity of the May tree in our backyard.

11:20 am I noticed this Red-breasted Nuthatch at our suet feeder:

D. Reflection