April 16, 2012 · 10:51 pm

New Caboose Photo Found!

IMG_7305

One of our ongoing projects is looking for historical photos of WP668, the railroad caboose in our backyard where I have my office. WP668 was built in 1916 but the earliest known photos are from 1973. We keep hoping that images from 1916-1972 will be discovered. I was delighted today to find another image of our caboose on p.244 of a recently-published book John bought for me: The Western Pacific by Ken Meeker, 2011 (Publisher: White River Productions; ISBN: 1-932804-11-0). The image was taken by Dave Stanley in 1973. The caption text from p.244:

Sacramento Northern’s Holland Branch was an obscure freight-only, 16-mile-long line constructed in 1929 to tap the vast agricultural riches of the Sacramento River Delta’s Holland Tract. Diverging from the SN main line at Riverview, the line provided access to numerous on-line packing sheds. Outbound shipments of asparagus, celery, pears, molasses, and sugar made the branch a moneymaker during its earlier years. After completing daily switching chores at the Clarksburg sugar refinery on September 14, 1973, Tidewater Southern 746 departed Clarksburg Junction and headed back to West Sacramento with two cards of molasses and a classic home-built WP composite bay window caboose bringing up the rear. The distinctive grade at this location was necessary to enable the tracks to reach the top of the levee that protected the narrow waterway of Winchester Lake.

Earlier in the book, there is a photo of one of WP668’s sisters, caboose WP676, with this caption:

Hard-pressed for cabooses during World War II, Western Pacific constructed 62 composite wood and steel bay window models using 15001-16000 series outside-braced Pullman-Standard box cars originally built in 1916. The composite cars were used system wide prior to the arrival of all-steel cabooses in 1955. As steel cars arrived, the composite crummies were bumped to local and branch-line assignments. February 3, 1969 finds caboose 676 (built in 1944) trailing the westbound Reno Local at Martin, Nevada.

This is the second book in which a photo of WP88 is published. The other is Western Pacific Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment by Jim Eager, 2001 (Publisher: Morning Sun Books; ISBN-10: 158248063X, ISBN-13: 978-1582480633). All of the published references to our caboose are listed on WP668.org.

Our caboose was a popular location for Easter Eggs during the great backyard hunt last week:

IMG_7096 . IMG_7094

Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson

Leave a comment

Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family

Tagged as , ,

April 12, 2012 · 9:52 pm

Bees and Democracy

IMG_2287

I have been reading a fascinating article in the March 2012 Smithsonian Magazine called “Hive Mind” by Carl Zimmer. The article describes the work of Cornell University biologist Thomas Seeley, an expert in honeybees, swarm intelligence, and collective decision making.

The decision-making power of honeybees is a prime example of what scientists call swarm intelligence. Clouds of locusts, schools of fish, flocks of birds and colonies of termites display it as well.

Seeley and his colleagues have discovered a few principles honeybees use to make smart decisions:

  1. Enthusiasm: passion in the bee communications dance
  2. Flexibility: decaying number of dance repetitions is tied to the value of what the dance is communicating
  3. Quorum: silencing lower value dance communications as the number of higher value dancers rises to a decision threshold

Seeley draws comparisons between how a honeybee hive makes decisions and how both the human brain and a democracy work:

Both swarms and brains make their decisions democratically. Despite her royal title, a honeybee queen does not make decisions for the hive. The hive makes decisions for her. In our brain, no single neuron takes in all the information from our senses and makes a decision. Millions make a collective choice. …Groups work well, he argues, if the power of leaders is minimized. A group of people can propose many different ideas – the more the better, in fact. But these ideas will only lead to a good decision if listeners take time to judge their merits for themselves… Groups also do well if they’re flexible, ensuring that good ideas don’t lose out simply because they come late in the discussion.

Just because animals do something does not mean it is also appropriate for people. Nonetheless, comparing human systems to patterns in nature presents both in an interesting context.

Image Copyright 2009 by Katy Dickinson

Leave a comment

Filed under News & Reviews, Politics

Tagged as

April 9, 2012 · 9:06 pm

Easter Egg Hunt

IMG_7101

IMG_7149

We had more than a dozen children over with their families and friends for our annual backyard Easter Egg Hunt and potluck brunch in Willow Glen (San Jose, California). Among the kids, our son Paul was the oldest egg hunter at 19 and Howard was the youngest, at age 3. The devious Bunny and his helpers came up with the following poem hints about hiding places for the coveted Gold and Silver eggs:

GOLD:
My roost once used to roll and pitch
My halo exists at other men’s whims
In finding me please don’t twitch
The creek where you’d fall, nobody swims

SILVER:
I creep at the edge of an –ito
Don’t over-step or you will cheat-o
Chameleon-like I hide
Hurry quick! I won’t abide.

The Gold egg was found quickly (on top of the electrical box behind the light on the porch of WP 668, our caboose), but the Silver egg eluded all hunters until late afternoon. It was wrapped in tape and painted to look like a stone in the arroyito.  The rules of the hunt are the same year after year:

    1. There are no eggs in the flower beds (also: no eggs are on the bank, in the cactus, or outside of the backyard)
    2. Kids get to go into the yard youngest first, and then one every 30 seconds until age 10 – after which, everyone can go
    3. Parents may not help hunt (except for the Gold and Silver eggs)
    4. The only clues are in the poems on where the Gold and Silver eggs are
    5. Kids can keep their eggs and baskets or empty out the candy and leave them with us for next year
IMG_7123 . IMG_7128

IMG_7157

Images Copyright 2012 by Katy Dickinson and John Plocher

3 Comments

Filed under Caboose Project and Other Trains, Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as , , ,

March 27, 2012 · 10:50 pm

Like Flowers But Much Heavier

IMG_6983

I brought home a load of thirty boulders on Sunday.

My late father loved his garden. On family vacations, he and I would compete for who could find the best stones to wedge into the car to take home to our rock gardens. Since the family house in San Francisco sold and the new owners will be redesigning the landscaping, I am moving the boulders out of my father’s garden into mine. Each rock has to be fitted into its new place – like flower arranging but much heavier.

Long ago, our family used to rent a vacation cabin at Fallen Leaf Lake in the mountains near Tahoe. We were last there in 1996 for my father’s 70th birthday party. The cabin was in an area where the rocks are grey and white striped. Both my father and I brought some of these wonderful stones home. On Sunday afternoon, I gardened with my father – arranging his boulders with mine around my silly concrete hippo.

Image by Katy Dickinson Copyright 2012

Leave a comment

Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as , , ,

March 23, 2012 · 11:14 am

Signing House Sale Papers

A notary from the title company came to our home in San Jose to collect my mother’s signature and fingerprint on the house sale escrow documents this morning. 35 pages! Our realtor sent us another 100 or so pages last night to review and sign (acknowledgement of receipt of the mold report, tank inspection, contractor inspection, “Seller’s Supplement to the Real Estate Transfer Disclosure” and others).

We have already made one trip to San Francisco to pick up garden sculptures, potted plants, and my father’s beloved decorative boulders. We are going again this weekend and again next week.

I will be happy to be done with all of this.

1 Comment

Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews

Tagged as , ,

March 12, 2012 · 11:05 pm

Published: “Famous Women in Computer Science”

Advancing Your Career Through Awards GHC10
“Advancing Your Career Through Awards” panel at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2010, including (L to R): Lucy Sanders, Fran Allen, Bob Walker, Katy Dickinson, Marcy Alstott, and Manuela Veloso.

In November 2009, I first published my first “Famous Women in Computer Science” blog entry. I am delighted to report that in honor of International Women’s Day 2012, the Anita Borg Institute has published an updated and expanded version of that material as a new web resource:

The Anita Borg Institute is proud to introduce – Famous Women in Computer Science. This list was compiled by our Advisory Board Awards Committee: Katy Dickinson (Director, Huawei Technologies), Fran Allen (IBM Emerita and 2006 Turing Award Winner), Dr. Chandra Krintz, (Professor, Computer Science Department, University of California at Santa Barbara) and Dr. Robert Walker (Professor and Chair, Computer Science Department, Kent State University). The women on this list are leaders in Computer Science and recognized by their peers and the technology industry through major awards and other public acknowledgements of excellence.

The ultimate goal of this list is to encourage our readers to:

  • Navigate the ABI awards web sites
  • Identify women with award-winning potential
  • Encourage those who want to understand their own potential for promotion, honors, and awards
  • Organize and inform a nomination or promotion

Awards and other honors often go begging for lack of good nominations. A great woman is often overlooked because no one mentioned her name or took the time to build her case. Increased focus is needed on awards going to great technical women at every stage in their careers.

The new “Famous Women in Computer Science” web resource is attracting attention: we have already had many requests to add more names. Our committee is reviewing and researching suggestions as we get them. The list is incomplete and growing. After reviewing what is already published, if you have a suggestion for this list please send a message to information@anitaborg.org. Here is the 8 March 2012 press release.

“Famous Women in Computer Science” is a companion resource to the “Award-Winning Career Timelines In Computer Science and Engineering”  material my amazing ABI Advisory Board committee published in 2010.

DSCN5102
“The Value of Awards and How to Get Them” at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2009, including (L to R): Katy Dickinson, Chandra Krintz, Bob Walker.

Images by Katy Dickinson 2009-2010

1 Comment

Filed under Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, News & Reviews

Tagged as , , ,

March 5, 2012 · 12:20 am

Drafting Proposals for the Hopper Conference (GHC12)

IMG_2292

I am working with two teams on panel proposals for the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women and Computing, to be held 3-4 October 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland. Submissions are due 16 March. I have been going to the Hopper Conference for many years and have presented regularly. I am particularly excited about GHC12 because all of this year’s TechWomen mentees will be attending. My daughter Jessica usually attend GHC together.

Here is what we have so far for the two proposals:

Panel Proposal #1

“Silicon Valley Inside Out: Surviving the Distance” presents a panel of very senior technical women who work in R&D in the Silicon Valley, for companies based outside of the USA. Topics to be discussed include: culture and language, effective communication, distance collaboration and management, localization, norms and taboos, conflict resolution, issues and risk-mitigation.

Panel Proposal #2

“Mentoring Between Cultures: TechWomen” is a panel on mentoring between technical women, using the successful TechWomen program as an example. The panel members are senior women who work for Silicon Valley technical companies and served as mentors to one or more women from the Middle East or North Africa (MENA) during the first TechWomen term in 2011. Topics to be discussed include: best practices and tips for mentors and mentees, mentoring program design, effective mentoring across cultures and time zones, the benefits of women mentoring women and technical mentorships, the career advantages of mentoring for both mentees and mentors, how mentoring drives transformation, etc.

GHC presentation proposals are accepted based on evaluation by several judges. Competition is ferocious. I hope we are accepted.  Wish us luck!

Image by Katy Dickinson Copyright 2011

Leave a comment

Filed under Hopper - Anita Borg Institute, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews

Tagged as , , , , , ,