Ben Burnett's Blog (BBB)

more school stuff in the news… sad

burnettb317 — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 15:22:59 +0000

‎”…There has recently been a national furor about school reform. One must wonder how it is possible to talk of improving schools while cutting funding, demoralizing teachers, cutting scholarships to college, and increasing class sizes….”

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/02/20/ravitch.teachers.blamed/index.html?iref=obnetwork

Ben Burnett
R&D Software Engineer / Computer Scientist
ATC (Architecture Technology Corporation, http://www.atcorp.com/) (952) 829-5864 x167
http://ben.burnett.ws/

Some Favorite Programming Quotes that are Funny too…

burnettb317 — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:43:03 +0000

The trouble with programmers is that you can never tell what a programmer is doing until it’s too late. (Seymour Cray)

In order to understand recursion, one must first understand recursion. (Anonymous)

Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen. (Edward V Berard)

More: http://www.journaldev.com/240/my-25-favorite-programming-quotes-that-are-funny-too

Ben Burnett
R&D Software Engineer / Computer Scientist
ATC (Architecture Technology Corporation, http://www.atcorp.com/)

(952) 829-5864 x167
http://ben.burnett.ws/

Computational science: …Error …why scientific programming does not compute.

burnettb317 — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:32:10 +0000

Computational science: …Error

…why scientific programming does not compute.

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101013/full/467775a.html

interesting article about how programming (and bad programming) affects results and conclusions in Scientific Research….

Ben Burnett
R&D Software Engineer / Computer Scientist
ATC (Architecture Technology Corporation, http://www.atcorp.com/)

(952) 829-5864 x167
http://ben.burnett.ws/

Articles you might Like :)

burnettb317 — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:53:48 +0000

My Take: Science and spirituality should be friends
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/15/my-take-science-and-spirituality-should-be-friends/

Scientists, telescope hunt massive hidden object in space
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/15/scientists-telescope-hunt-massive-hidden-object-in-space/

Sun’s Nemesis Pelted Earth with Comets, Study Suggests
http://www.space.com/8028-sun-nemesis-pelted-earth-comets-study-suggests.html

Ben Burnett
R&D Software Engineer / Computer Scientist
ATC (Architecture Technology Corporation, http://www.atcorp.com/)

(952) 829-5864 x167
http://ben.burnett.ws/

Burnett Black Belt Service Project – http://www.burnett.ws/bin/view.pl/Main/BensBlogEntry20110211162418

burnettb317 — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 21:40:59 +0000

Burnett Black Belt Service Project -
http://www.burnett.ws/bin/view.pl/Main/BensBlogEntry20110211162418

We are working to earn our Black Belts in Ti Kwan do, in addition to the forms, and testing we also need to do a service project!!!

We are going to be doing a Food Drive for the CAP Agency in
Shakopee,MN (http://www.capagency.org/ food shelf info:
http://www.capagency.org/pages/foodshelf.htm)

We will be collecting items ourselves at home as well as eventually at Ben’s work, and at the ATA Ti Kwan do school in Prior Lake
(http://singewaldsata.com/)

Specific food items needed by CAP are:
–Canned fruit
–Peanut butter
–Baked beans
–Black beans
–Cereal
–Canned tuna
–Macaroni and cheese
–Rice

In addition… we’ll also Monetary Donations
Form CAP: “Food Shelf donations of money are welcome. In fact, monetary donations go farther than food donations, as the CAP Agency is often able to purchase many food shelf items in bulk quantities.”

If you are not local and would like to donate, we will accept monetary donations personally through Paypal (contact me at
burnettb317@gmail.com to arrange.)

We will be posting pictures and updates through the next month on this page. I will also be posting updates on facebook, our blogs and my twitter stream (such as it is).

Testing is Mar 11th, 2011.

Wish us all luck and thank you for your help and donations….

Ben Burnett
R&D Software Engineer / Computer Scientist
ATC (Architecture Technology Corporation, http://www.atcorp.com/) (952) 829-5864 x167
http://ben.burnett.ws/

Article: My War With Rush Limbaugh (http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-12-16/my-war-with-rush-limbaugh-by-john-avlon/)

burnettb317 — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:32:22 +0000

New article, checking to see if this posts

burnettb317 — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:27:13 +0000

â€Ž@Allison Ives Burnett

burnettb317 — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 23:25:08 +0000

Ben Burnett
R&D Software Engineer / Computer Scientist
ATC (Architecture Technology Corporation, http://ping.fm/d3LHl)

(952) 829-5864 x167
http://ping.fm/UwMvr

Fear-mongering hurting the public discussion

burnettb317 — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:48:21 +0000

How do you stop fear-mongering and the republican tactics without crossing the lines of free speech? this is a true problem in our current system. (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/opinion/23herbert.html )

I’ve always liked this quote: “America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.”

Unfortunately we can’t stop the fear-mongering if we truely want freedom, but there should be something we can do…. any ideas?

My facebook thread on this: http://www.facebook.com/burnettb317?v=feed&story_fbid=103413813027707

also: (From Colin Burnett): http://scienceblogs.com/primatediaries/2010/03/ann_coulter_hate_speech_and_fr.php

On that very topic.

Congress currently makes about $174K

burnettb317 — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 17:42:31 +0000

Congress currently makes about $174K a year with automatic COLA raises (unless voted to skip for a year), and despite what internet rumnors say they do use social security for retirement. I say we base their (elected officials) salary on the “average Household income in the United States” (2007 this was $50K/yr) (multiplied by 1.5 or 2) to be computed and adjust at the end of every fiscal year based on last years tax filings. This would setup the correct incentive for congresspeople/representatives to improve the salary/wage situation for their constituents. good year reward, bad years punish. non-elected officials would get the same they do now.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States