Musings

Mood: Waiting and hoping
Listening to: Reading The Ultimate Resource - great book.

 Precise Human Thought (PHT)

This is a way to describe how people think.
By using this approach we can write down the logic that people use in coming to decisions.


As a further benefit, this method allows one to include the conflicting thoughts that people have  and so can see how people  make different decisions depending of various factors.   Time pressure, or the effect of recent events that make certain stimulus more important, for example may get people to make different decisions.

But first, an example:

As any child knows safety lies in staying on the sidewalk ("path" in the United Kingdom).

So Rule 1 is:  "Stay on the sidewalk".

But there are exceptions to this rule.

Rule 2 is  "Act to be safe and move away from fatal danger".
Rule 3 is "If a object is getting larger quickly then it may be a threat".
Rule 4 is  "If an object is moving sideways with respect to he background it will not collide with you"
Rule 5  is "If an object is getting big quickly and if is moving toward you then you may get hit".
(Note that this last Rule is similar to earlier ones. Having Rules with similar i.e overlapping scope is allowed. )
Rule 6 is "If the object seems big - like a car then run away".
Rule 7  is : "If you are in danger then run onto the road".

As you can see there set of rules allow for a child to run in the road -
 violating  Rule 1 if there is a danger that makes this  behavior  the  most
prudent actions in the circumstances.

In this way we have been able to write done a set of rules that describe the action that the normal child will take to avoid being hit by a car.

Obviously evolution  plays a part.

Those child who do not have such rules will be killed  by staying of the side walk and the genes will not propagate to other generations.

This seems to agree with reality i.e. children with out the correct survival behaviors  fail to have further children.

This advantage of this method of describing the rules is that you can have many rules that are correct in some limited circumstances.
 
You could  program  a computer with the rules  and get the computer to
act in the same way that the person would.

Another attractive feature of this methods is that you can have rules
supplied by many experts and  the rules may conflict and the system of rules  will still work. i.e. even though the exact  time when the
child perceives the danger may be thought to be different by different experts, the rules will tend to support each other and get the same result.

This method allows one to use rules gleaned from different experts and
determine a result according to the consensus of these experts.

In older decision  making (or expert)  systems you had to decide which expert was correct  and use that expert result , discarding the other experts' views.

Using 'PHT" you can include all the differing views in the rule base and let the computer decide the result in real time.

There can also be some fine tuning which will allow some of the rules to be removed  where they are redundant.

This permits the computer to arrive to a conclusion sooner, or permits to use less powerful and cheaper  computers.

In your normal life you  can  see the rules that you and others follow in making decisions.

See what rules you children use.  This may help you understand your child's  behavior.  When you write out the rules your child uses you can us this to help him see why you and he differ - in the teenage years this will be a useful way of making him see the consequences of various choices.

If you would like to post  examples you have observed or any other
commentsyou have,  I would be delighted to see them.

This is a valuable skill as it lets them see that they can control
their health by reading and arithmetic.
It is the best example of cause and effect.

It is also the best example of how mathematics
and physics lets us pridict the future and change it
to help us.

Science is no more that understanding how the world
works.

Physics and mathematics are simple tools to help
us get  results. Unless we can do simple arithmetic,
computers will not be able to help us  understand the world.

Note: For good english and excellent grasp of events read the
economist.com.
 Even it you feel the political view is not  to your liking, the numbers used are usually correct.

The forecasts are often correct.  The authors often
correctly forecast events that happen 6 to 24 months ahead.
The style is simple and elegant.  (No, I have never written for them!)

Mood: Mildly stressed ... Hoping for good things

Perhaps you don't think that being overweigh has any effect on you.
Try this experiment. Take a backpack and put 3 soft   2 litre soft drink bottles in it.
The bottles should be full. Now put the backpack on your back and carry it around for 3 hours. Then take it off and see how much lighter you feel!
This is the equivalent of gaining and then losing  6 kgs ( 13 lbs).

This simple experiment should let you see that losing weight will
help you feel better.

Read my earlier  post a Fighting Fit fighting fat for more information.

The tools to become healthy again are a pen and paper and a weighing scales.

You may find that it helps to switch in a number of small ways:-
Try halving the amount of dressing you put on your salad ( or better yet, eat it plain.

(I recently had a salad and was about to put dressing on it. It was a chicken salad and was 170 calories. However the dressing was another 250 calories and was mostly fat.  So simply not using the dressing I had a healthy salad and saved over 250 calories.)

Stop drinking soft drinks, or alcohol. These are a huge source of calories
that are not very good for you.

You can also save money this way.

Put the money you save in a jar.
Make a list of items you would like to get. for example a CD or DVD ( $20 price)

Perhaps you want to get a new dress, or tool- drill etc How about a day at the beach, a trip to the theatre or a night out on the town?
 
The money saved to treat yourself (or your friends) is good.
It will give you the motivation to continue. If you treat  your friends,
this will  encourage you to continue your weight loss.

Remember to plot your weight loss on a chart. You can also plot the  money saved.

(Even if you go out for an expensive meal as a treat, it will probable be less  harmful than the junk food you have stopped eating.)

Perhaps you can join with one or more friends to encourage each other to  lose weight. Plot the total amount that you all lose. This too will encourage you  to continue.

Remember to set a target weight to reach. When you reach this you then
want to increase you food intake to maintain you new healthy weight.

If you are not losing weight as you expect do not worry too much.
As long as you are losing weight you are doing well.  

After a few weeks you may want to further reduce what you eat (or increase your exercise level) to help you reach your goal sooner.

A excellent book to read is  by Kenneth Cooper MD   a U.S. army doctor who designs exercise programs and studies fitness in soldiers.

1 . Aerobics Program for Total Well Being
or
2 . The New Aerobics" from  1970's.

This lets you see how many calories you burn walking, running, swimming etc.

Remember you may not see much change for about 10 days.

If you take salt - you can appear to be gaining weigh, when in fact you are simply retaining water.  In fact then is usually the trick the slimming companies use to seem to let you to loss large amounts of weight fast.
i.e.  " Lose 10 lbs in 10 days!"   say the ads. In reality to lose 1 lb each day you will have to burn 3600 calories more then you take in! Unless you are in amazingly fit and are walking to the north pole you are are most unlikely to  lose 1 lb  a day! 

 However if you have been eating a lot of salt and stop you will lose the  weight of the water loss.  

Usually people who take salt have high blood pressure so reducing salt intake can be very healthy.  Few people living in modern societies eat too little salt (NaCl).

Losing weight and taking regular exercise will help improve your health a great deal.