Reason

A three-part post about reason:

(1) I'm happy to announce that The Reason Project was launched yesterday. According to their website, "The Reason Project is a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. Drawing on the talents of some of the most prominent and creative thinkers across a wide range of disciplines, The Reason Project seeks to encourage critical thinking and wise public policy through a variety of interrelated projects — all with the purpose of eroding the influence of dogmatism, superstition, and bigotry in our world."

(2) I'm reading Alan Alda's excellent "Things I overheard while talking to myself". In chapter 6 ("A passion for reason"), he quotes Thomas Jefferson:

"I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way."

(3) And since Jefferson is one of my all-time heroes, why not another quote, found on a wall in the underground of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.:

“Here, we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.”

Thomas Jefferson, 1820

The beauty of signed 16-bit integers...

A little bit of geek humor, for a change...

Rebooting computing

This is a great initiative, sponsored by the NSF, and spearheaded by heavyweight names in Computer Science. I'm particularly interested (and have signed up for) the K-8 FUNdamentals of Computing group.

FAU on Wikipedia's main page

Check it out... before it's too late: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
;-)

Make that 26

Today is April 4th. It's been 26 years since I started teaching. I guess I'll have to change the title of the blog, then. :-)

At the very least, it's a great excuse to resume posting (after such a long hiatus)... Maybe I'll catch the blogging bug again... :-)

Back to school

The Winter break is officially over.

The Spring term at FAU started on Saturday (1/3). Tomorrow I'll teach my first lectures of the semester.

I'm teaching two courses this term:

• CAP 6411 - Foundations of Vision (syllabus available here), a graduate course on human vision for engineers and computer scientists (particularly those who are interested in computer vision), and 
• CNT 4104 - Introduction to Data and Computer Communications, an undergraduate course that teaches the basics of data communications and computer networks.

As usual, I'm looking forward to going back to the classroom.

Quote of the day

I believe in sunshine, fresh air, friendship, calm sleep, beautiful thoughts.

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915).

Edge annual question - 2009

Responses to the Edge question for 2009 (What will change everything?) are out. Among them, two optimistic short essays -- one by Chris Anderson, another by Haim Harari -- on the power of the web (and technology in general) to revolutionize teaching and education and promote large-scale changes.