Sunday, January 28, 2018

Steven Strogatz's Wide-Ranging Q&A in Business Insider


Business Insider republished a long and enjoyable with Cornell math professor Steven Strogatz on January 4. Titled "An Ivy League professor explains chaos theory, the prisoner's dilemma, and why math isn't really boring," the interview ranges far and wide. Strogatz's answers and length and elegant, complete with charts, and almost impossible to fairly excerpt, so just follow the link and read it. 

Saturday, January 27, 2018

Janice Weiner Running for Iowa State Senate


Recently retired after a 26-year career as a political officer in the U.S. State Department, Janice Weiner is running for the Democratic nomination for the Iowa State Senate. She's seeking to represent the 37th Distict, which includes here home town of Coralville. The incumbent is retiring.

Her campaign site on Facebook provides details on her background:

After a post-graduate fellowship at an international law institute in Munich, Janice practiced law in Palo Alto CA before joining the U.S. State Department in November 1987. Her first posting was in East Berlin, both before and after the Berlin Wall fell – an experience that combined totalitarianism with a grassroots, peaceful revolution - dual lessons that Janice never forgot. She then served in Brussels, Belgium, and Ankara, Turkey, where she won awards as Embassy human rights officer during the height of the PKK insurgency, forging relationships with many who risked their lives to defend human rights. 

Subsequent posts included Washington; Warsaw, Poland; Toronto, Canada; Ankara, Turkey as political counselor; Mexico City as embassy press attaché; and Düsseldorf, Germany as Consul General. Her final posting was in the bureau of legislative affairs at the State Department, liaising with Capitol Hill. After retiring from the Foreign Service, Janice worked for the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), the bargaining unit and professional association of the Foreign Service. She moved back to Iowa in 2015 with her younger daughter, who will graduate from West High this spring.