The Legion of Tech has successfully popularized what we in the Pycon subculture call the Lightning Talk, which isn't always as breathless-sounding as my recent demo of the genre. You can say quite a bit in five minutes, if properly prepared, and many are already sitting on such already polished talks even as we speak.
Also at Pycons, you have a mixing box right at the point of delivery. You could specify the meticulous details, as Lindsey (a musician) does for her sound set ups, per her Free Music Blog. Such explicit instructions, about whatever technical topic, might help your sister stations get their content on line sooner and more inexpensively, whether for free or for trade.
In the case of video, you'll want to pipe signal directly from the laptop, so the slides don't have to go through the camera lens except as a part of the backdrop. If the laptop is beefy enough to play smooth animations, then so much the better.
What you get in the can at the venue (studio) is pretty much what goes out, unless the presenter wants to take on post production. We're presuming a live audience context, perhaps at a place like Duke's Landing on SE Belmont where we've been doing some pilot studies.
The speaker's head and/or full profile may be inserted as a rectangle within the slide, with editing decisions made on the fly, making post-production less tedious. On the other hand, some clients bring forward already-produced five minute (or shorter) segments, designed specifically for free and open source sharing.
Those producing this show need to think in terms of a growing inventory of replayable assets (the Portland Knowledge Lab model, likewise Children's Television Workshop's).
What we're looking for are utilitarian talks mixed with more flights of fancy. The "alternative turn signal" talk at Ignite 7 was somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.
Think of practical advise to non-profits involved in direct service. It's up to you to compress everything a non-profit executive director would need to know about open source web frameworks, in five easy to digest minutes. Other talks could zoom in.
Then we'd want medical and health care talks, sometimes with frank content, such as how to prevent the spread of this or that, along with practical agricultural advice, around urban farming, trusted food sources, tested protein combinations (e.g. beans, squash and corn). Cooking tips will remain a popular feature (Ignite 7 had that one about road kill, plus sometimes hunters waste meat like crazy so maybe learn how to harvest that as well).
Some of my clients are turned off by TV as a "push medium" though i.e. don't want to have to sit through a broadcast (sequential access), want random access instead instead (as on Youtube). Of course it's not either/or, but this bias does suggest producing five minute segments that work either way i.e. that could be part of a telecast, per some Sesame Street episode, our could be shared standalone.
This focus on "practical" segments is consistent with the original purpose of community access television, so I'm thinking this is a winning formula, perhaps even here in Portland. Both CUE and AFSC produced for community access contemporaneously with my presence. Who wants to be on TV?
Speaking of which, I've kept the "ISEPP TV" meme alive in case we want to join forces, as a source of content (e.g. Neolithic Math) if not server facilities (I keep losing track of which servers live where, have my own 4D stuff to keep track of). We haven't had much followup on my QA proposal (to check the quality of what we've already got), but then those weren't collected with the five minute restriction in mind, so we're talking brief excerpts at best.
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Monday, December 07, 2009
Hey, Teacher!
Cool executive class toyz, ready for front lines service in math teaching circles. Backed by this 1960s classic, who could go wrong? My thanks to Glenn Stockton for the gift of this book.
No, I'm not selling these to you directly, just suggesting you be on the lookout for what could become important tools in your trade.
Remember, AAB = Mite of volume 1/8th, T-volume same as A,B (1/24), the latter being for 5-fold analysis ala the hexapents (also depicted).
You don't have to start with these cellular components though. Any standard Renaissance approach to the Truncated Icosahedron and Stella Octangula should do fine (check Da Vinci?).
No, I'm not selling these to you directly, just suggesting you be on the lookout for what could become important tools in your trade.
Remember, AAB = Mite of volume 1/8th, T-volume same as A,B (1/24), the latter being for 5-fold analysis ala the hexapents (also depicted).You don't have to start with these cellular components though. Any standard Renaissance approach to the Truncated Icosahedron and Stella Octangula should do fine (check Da Vinci?).
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Portland Notes
:: octet-truss, world trade center ::
As ISEPP board member, I sometimes learn more about Terry's business, such as when I help take inventory of the many valuable tapes. The gold mine in the basement (books, Allen Taylor mags) was to service the scientific cafe, in one scenario, switching a tenant within the same block maybe (there's already a working coffee shop).
I offered to Terry at ONAMI that I could talk to Jody about the real estate, just for bouncing off purposes (she knows that stuff), but maybe he's not looking for that kind of feedback. The New Seasons across the street and down the block a piece, has broken ground on new digs.
Then it was off to Laughing Horse where I sat opposite a dog in the antechamber, west of the desk, reading Lewis Lapham's Theater of War. I went straight to the index, per usual, always the skeptic that Bucky Fuller would be mentioned (but if this is recent USA history, at all serious-minded, then how could it bleep over Bucky?) and there he was, page 185 I think. Other parts of the book were good too. He's an interesting writer (editor of Harper's) and I'm highly tempted to buy the tome.
Anyway, the Collective likes what Lindsey and Julia are doing with the Sleeping Bag Fundraisers. We went to Andy & Bax later and counted out six bags (intermediate, military grade), having twice as much money as last time thanks to PayPal donations (yes, we keep names).
The deal maker wasn't on the premises though, plus the Red Door is closed until Monday (our target disbursement point, unless Laughing Horse chooses to take more control -- Lindsey used my phone to check with Julia on her thoughts).
The anti-WTO (aka Free Trade) demonstration was lively they tell me. I'll be interested to see the quality and tone of whatever journalistic coverage.
Although we missed the event itself, we took the company car, Glenn and Amber joining us, and crashed the After Party on SE Belmont. Actually, Lindsey was present by invitation, to give the wrap up performance. After playing around with the sound system, she chose to go unamped. This was a boomer set wanting to hear itself talk, with lots of movers and shakers in the labor movement. I thought we blended in well though, and I'm happy about the pictures.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
Slavery Today
The "stop loss = slavery" campaign categorizes this "hidden draft" with other efforts at rebranding the slave trade as something else."Human trafficking" is not so much a euphemism as a way of alerting readers to true states of affairs in this world. So call me a logical positivist for working at telling the truth?
Wittgenstein was a Vienna Circle celebrity in his day and I'm on record as a Wittgenstein commentator since my Princeton days. We weren't trained to see him as a logical positivist though, not even during the Tractatus chapter -- that's considered the more uninformed view in my somewhat snobbish clique.
Quakers have a long history of fighting slavery via their underground railroad. When policymakers had exhausted their options in Vietnam, a lot of draftees went AWOL, effectively ending the draft.
This wasn't supposed to matter so much though, as the new Pentagon wasn't gonna need the big numbers like in the bad old dino days. New levels of precision and effectiveness had been attained. "Lean and mean" were the new watch words.
Fortunate is the nation that might afford to be choosy.
The current crop of pretenders doesn't have that luxury though. Certifiably ill people get returned to active duty. Those low on the totem pole have their stays extended to perform duties too expensive for the more elite mercenary troops.
Outsourcing the war to private industry to line a few pockets, while forcing Americans into servitude, is hardly a way to win hearts and minds overseas, nor domestically either.
People don't really envy Americans these days, given their obviously oppressed status. Helping Americans throw off their tyrant taskmasters is more the name of the game these days.
Friday, December 04, 2009
Freeman Dyson in Portland
Freeman Dyson came across as both relaxed and sagacious tonight. He shared a lot of history, making important points about how to make the world safer and stronger. I found it refreshing to hear such non-apocalyptic thinking for a change.
Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr. received quite a bit of appreciation for their accomplishments in this regard.
Nixon, persuaded by Kissinger who knew this guy from Harvard whose name I now forget, got biological weapons decommissioned and off the table.
Reagan and Gorbachev got very close to agreeing to eliminate nukes, even though their advisors misguidedly talked them out of it.
Bush Sr. cut the number of theater nukes dramatically by removing them from surface ships and from the army.
That one story people tell, about nukes having been effective in ending WWII, is really not how it went, according to Dyson's best guess based on a good look at the scholarship.
The emperor was following his venerated grandfather's response in 1895, to a Euro-Russian demand to quit China. Now the Russians were invading again and it was time to surrender. The nukings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not in themselves trigger any high level meetings.
Dyson thinks nukes are both morally indefensible and militarily nothing more than a headache, a liability, regardless of who has them or why.
The real challenge and focus should be dropping their numbers among the haves, who have tens of thousands of such beasts, not on Iran so much, or North Korea.
These latter foci are more sideshow distractions, ways of deliberately diverting attention from the real dangers, postponing any real reforms.
Having Kissinger, Nunn and others taking an anti-nuke position today (the current reality), could signal it's time to get it done.
This Portland audience seemed quite on board with that analysis. This Freeman guy makes plenty of sense to us.
The balance of his talk was about bio-tech, somewhat distinct from nano-tech. He thinks bio-tech might go the way of computing, in starting out expensive and restrictive, then becoming more accessible and ubiquitous. Disruptive maybe, but on balance an OK development?
I was glad to have my mother Carol with us tonight. At the dinner, she asked if it were true that pouring molasses on nukes was a fast way to decommission them. Freeman agreed there might be something to this way of thinking. Mom also enjoyed talking to Bruce Adams.
My thanks to Terry, Don, Glenn. Leslie, missed seeing you. Aldona, good talking. Good seeing Joe Arnold, hearing his question about quantum mechanics. Lots of chuckles about string theory, which might yet end up important someday.
Presidents Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr. received quite a bit of appreciation for their accomplishments in this regard.
Nixon, persuaded by Kissinger who knew this guy from Harvard whose name I now forget, got biological weapons decommissioned and off the table.
Reagan and Gorbachev got very close to agreeing to eliminate nukes, even though their advisors misguidedly talked them out of it.
Bush Sr. cut the number of theater nukes dramatically by removing them from surface ships and from the army.
That one story people tell, about nukes having been effective in ending WWII, is really not how it went, according to Dyson's best guess based on a good look at the scholarship.
The emperor was following his venerated grandfather's response in 1895, to a Euro-Russian demand to quit China. Now the Russians were invading again and it was time to surrender. The nukings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not in themselves trigger any high level meetings.
Dyson thinks nukes are both morally indefensible and militarily nothing more than a headache, a liability, regardless of who has them or why.
The real challenge and focus should be dropping their numbers among the haves, who have tens of thousands of such beasts, not on Iran so much, or North Korea.
These latter foci are more sideshow distractions, ways of deliberately diverting attention from the real dangers, postponing any real reforms.
Having Kissinger, Nunn and others taking an anti-nuke position today (the current reality), could signal it's time to get it done.
This Portland audience seemed quite on board with that analysis. This Freeman guy makes plenty of sense to us.
The balance of his talk was about bio-tech, somewhat distinct from nano-tech. He thinks bio-tech might go the way of computing, in starting out expensive and restrictive, then becoming more accessible and ubiquitous. Disruptive maybe, but on balance an OK development?
I was glad to have my mother Carol with us tonight. At the dinner, she asked if it were true that pouring molasses on nukes was a fast way to decommission them. Freeman agreed there might be something to this way of thinking. Mom also enjoyed talking to Bruce Adams.
My thanks to Terry, Don, Glenn. Leslie, missed seeing you. Aldona, good talking. Good seeing Joe Arnold, hearing his question about quantum mechanics. Lots of chuckles about string theory, which might yet end up important someday.
:: Glenn and Carol (click for Photostream) ::
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Music for Homeless
:: sleeping bag fundraiser 2 ::
A number of those drifting through here have been sleeping outside lately. Given the dropping temperatures, that can be hard, although Dorian with the tarp and down comforter claimed he was snug. There's no heat in this book store (we're saving on funds). A lot of us are scattered on the floor. I'm in an armchair, patched in to wifi.
Lindsey, going first, has just finished her set. The original plan was to set up her equipment early, then join with activists in front of the Federal Building downtown. However, upon removing the keyboard from the trunk, an E key got bent and stopped making a sound, necessitating about three hours of improvised surgery with a Phillips screwdriver. Fortunately, the problem was reparable. Lindsey was cool under pressure, dissecting and reassembling her instrument methodically.
We've now been plunged into darkness as our second musician, Joel (City Harvest Black), cranks up his weird sounds and visuals (he's got a 16mm projector and a shot out looking film). He reminds me of Gadgetto somewhat, also NegativLand.
Seth Martin, talkative, sleep deprived, recovering from an illness, is playing a banjo, rather well I'm thinking. He was in Palestine this summer, has a rap about the role of traditional music in oppressive times. Now he's on guitar. Folk songs, somewhat tongue in cheek, poking fun at head-in-the-sand cocooners. He credits an anarcho-primitivist Quaker for the song about the prophet Amos. Query: what is it you're for, never mind what you're against. Erin Eichenberger, newly with Muddy's, followed up with some sweet guitar originals.
Nahko is a good singer and guitar player, relaxed and mellow, likes using the Bose (Lindsey's sound system). He and Seth often share the stage.
Whatever money we raise at the door goes to buy sleeping bags for the homeless, like last time.
Lindsey and Julia, both members of the Collective, are handling the organizing and promotion. James did the poster again. No one is getting paid. We're having fun though, even though it's cold.
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Politicking
Obama's speech set off a storm of political dialog in this household. I'm a skeptic of the Euro mindset, don't think its Capitalist vs Socialist Godzilla Show is smart enough to keep pace with technology (nature sets the pace, while we humans struggle to stay not too retarded).
However, if we want a safety net, then I think "school" rather than "work" should be another default, "work/study" being life long. The lie we tell ourselves, that first we go to school and learn it all, and then we get a job, and know it all, is just that, a lie. We need to oscillate (perhaps chaotically) between work mode and study mode, from cradle to grave.
The one thing no Big Sister has the right to promise is an uninterrupted career with no plans to adapt or learn new tools. Rather, there's a way to get retrained, as a math teacher (even if you're already a math teacher), as a tool user of some kind (yes, art counts as tool use).
If all Capitalism has come to mean is neo-Malthusian jungle "tooth and claw" type rhetoric, an atavistic throwback, then I don't see much chance of attracting top talent. However, not every speculative investor type is at the mercy of those reflexes, so I'm not gonna pre-judge.
However, if we want a safety net, then I think "school" rather than "work" should be another default, "work/study" being life long. The lie we tell ourselves, that first we go to school and learn it all, and then we get a job, and know it all, is just that, a lie. We need to oscillate (perhaps chaotically) between work mode and study mode, from cradle to grave.
The one thing no Big Sister has the right to promise is an uninterrupted career with no plans to adapt or learn new tools. Rather, there's a way to get retrained, as a math teacher (even if you're already a math teacher), as a tool user of some kind (yes, art counts as tool use).
If all Capitalism has come to mean is neo-Malthusian jungle "tooth and claw" type rhetoric, an atavistic throwback, then I don't see much chance of attracting top talent. However, not every speculative investor type is at the mercy of those reflexes, so I'm not gonna pre-judge.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Galumphing Back
My company surplus went directly to the public sector, so I'm thinking my outward behavior is that of a non-profit. This stands to reason as my wife was a fund accountant and our orientation was always that of showing donors that their funds had been committed to intelligible uses. GST works the same way, treating the sun as our principal donor. LW is likewise talking 501(c)(3) for her business, or some approximation thereof.
I've been anchoring PKL (or Portland Knowledge Lab) ever since my visit to LKL (London's). Sponsors would get behind it, on the model of OSDL, ONAMI or one of those. These could be colleges and universities. Whether we keep running with that or not (I've been busy archiving under that label), there's a need to coordinate, not redundantly channel in a climate somewhat unforgiving of thoughtless waste (way too much of that already).
From Synergeo last night:
I've been anchoring PKL (or Portland Knowledge Lab) ever since my visit to LKL (London's). Sponsors would get behind it, on the model of OSDL, ONAMI or one of those. These could be colleges and universities. Whether we keep running with that or not (I've been busy archiving under that label), there's a need to coordinate, not redundantly channel in a climate somewhat unforgiving of thoughtless waste (way too much of that already).
From Synergeo last night:
I think we've about reached the point where having nothing intelligent to say about Synergetics (beyond trash talkin' and easy dismissal, ala Most Beautiful Molecule) is more risky than sharing coherent views i.e. the ball is in the court of the hitherto mostly-silent, and continued silence could easily backfire. We also have a new generation growing up, less imbued with creaky old Cold Warrior reflexes.My title for this post is an allusion to Jabberwocky. My mood is one of humility and chagrin as I neglected to follow standard safety procedures and have likely added a permanent one inch scar 'neath my right eye (once it heals). Elise patched me up good with sani-strips in lieu of stitches. This accident occurred in my Castle in the Sky, a small apartment over a garage.
At least in terms of contemporary American history this is pretty much true already i.e. if you try to write recent 1900s intellectual history without taking Fuller into account (i.e. if you simply leave him out of the index) then I think you're admitting to not doing sufficient homework (meritocracy at work). Of course I think it's also true of mathematics, chemistry and architecture as well i.e. "bleeping over bucky" has become too irresponsible to get away with anymore. Too many younger people have too much curiosity to get away with any "sweeping under the rug".
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Pre Thanksgiving
It's that time a year again, and I truly am grateful, to have time with family and friends. This year is unusual in that mom has stayed long enough to reach this holiday in a Pacific Northwest setting. Since around 2001, her practice has been to be in warmer climes by now, to escape our dreaded winter.
CBS News was interesting: myth busting around this idea that TG is the busiest day when it comes to flying. Not true, never has been. Also: many in congress are corrupt and in the pocket of war profiteers (I think we knew that). Obama pardoned a turkey, condemned it to DisneyLand instead. We participate in the psychology of a nation, patch in, work to make it stronger and better (thinking of USA OS again, waxing nostalgic).
Having visited ONAMI today, I'm going to pound the table on math-teach some more: the line:area:volume exponents of 1, 2 and 3, are what make nano-substances take on new properties (more with less), are what made Fuller's "dome over Manhattan" not a "crackpot idea" but an "andragogical device" (more like one of Laffoley's gizmos -- we learn from them).
Our thread was on perimeter versus area, and how you may easily disrupt the relationship. However, if you keep all the angles the same (i.e. shape), insist on self-similarity, then scaling an object results in these important power relationships that need to be included in our gnu math curriculum (per those Wikipedia pages).
OK, go ahead and nod off now, more math than you needed right before some big meal eh?
Tara is cooking a double batch of Teresina-style lentils, which I always associate with Together Friends. Speaking of Quakers and their historic allegiances, this is a season wherein many North Americans celebrate indigenous pre-Europeans, pay respects to the many lineages (story lines, still informing) already snaking through North America long before DC annexed a bunch of states for world game playing purposes.
In some virtual reality, a nation (a mindset) gets to be responsible for the whole globe and judged accordingly, by God one might say, as there's no ET audience (that we know of). The Chinese have this virtual reality philosophy already encoded in some of their emperor talk. People have been doing cybernetics for a long time, just calling it different things, like feng shui or whatever (adapting to one's environment, assuming a modicum of control).
CBS News was interesting: myth busting around this idea that TG is the busiest day when it comes to flying. Not true, never has been. Also: many in congress are corrupt and in the pocket of war profiteers (I think we knew that). Obama pardoned a turkey, condemned it to DisneyLand instead. We participate in the psychology of a nation, patch in, work to make it stronger and better (thinking of USA OS again, waxing nostalgic).
Having visited ONAMI today, I'm going to pound the table on math-teach some more: the line:area:volume exponents of 1, 2 and 3, are what make nano-substances take on new properties (more with less), are what made Fuller's "dome over Manhattan" not a "crackpot idea" but an "andragogical device" (more like one of Laffoley's gizmos -- we learn from them).
Our thread was on perimeter versus area, and how you may easily disrupt the relationship. However, if you keep all the angles the same (i.e. shape), insist on self-similarity, then scaling an object results in these important power relationships that need to be included in our gnu math curriculum (per those Wikipedia pages).
OK, go ahead and nod off now, more math than you needed right before some big meal eh?
Tara is cooking a double batch of Teresina-style lentils, which I always associate with Together Friends. Speaking of Quakers and their historic allegiances, this is a season wherein many North Americans celebrate indigenous pre-Europeans, pay respects to the many lineages (story lines, still informing) already snaking through North America long before DC annexed a bunch of states for world game playing purposes.
In some virtual reality, a nation (a mindset) gets to be responsible for the whole globe and judged accordingly, by God one might say, as there's no ET audience (that we know of). The Chinese have this virtual reality philosophy already encoded in some of their emperor talk. People have been doing cybernetics for a long time, just calling it different things, like feng shui or whatever (adapting to one's environment, assuming a modicum of control).
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Increasing Military IQ
Here's a link to me weighing in on the topic of IQ again, along with Pam, a veteran of math-teach like I am. I've never met Pam, yet consider myself her fan (likewise of Lou Talman's), whereas I'm more a sparring partner for Haim.
Sean calls these "allegiances" and is happy to see them expressed on his Wittgenstein list, so long as we don't indulge in a lot of ad hominem. As a philosopher, he's more hip to the logical fallacies than most (mistakes in debating, errors in diplomacy) whereas the math teachers just seem to shoot from the hip, seem to have more of a Wild West attitude, though with the Asiatic influence, noted by Paul, we have the potential to regain our composure and behave more like Sean's House of Lords (long story).
Back to my analysis: I'm invoking some retro aesthetics, taking us back to a smarter golden age within the UMC, when orders from the Pentagon made more sense than they later would under Nixon.
The Cold War was in full swing and the thing to do against the USSR menace was to build these newfangled radomes as DEW Line protectors. Sure, H.S.M. Coxeter got angry when he found this exquisite "geometry of nature" already had a patent adhering, wasn't automatically open source. He was prescient in that way, obedient to his natural geek intuitions. Fuller's patent on the octet-truss was in some ways even more crazy-making (the IVM belongs to nature, not men).
Today they're even patenting naturally occurring gene sequences, or trying to. Why not patent the sky, charge royalties for seeing it? Our "legally-piggily" Idiocracy is pretty far gone, with the EU a bulwark against at least software patents (an abyss of pure craziness (a litigators' heaven, an engineers' hell)).
Given the Pentagon had already sourced radomes in this period, it made sense for all that KH-derived omni-triangulated global data, so central to Critical Path (Fuller's), to be made available to the world's school children via Google Earth and such services.
This was World Game in action, the start of a global Renaissance.
The "civilian-ization" of high technology is a trend we should circle and celebrate, along with its "ephemeralization" (doing more with less).
Those enlisting for military service, having served their terms, should expect civilian work making use of some of those same GIS/GPS skills.
Taking a next generation under one's wing, providing life skills for a place in the sun, is what it means to hand on a culture, and to receive one.
NASA News: Solar tsunamis are real.
Sean calls these "allegiances" and is happy to see them expressed on his Wittgenstein list, so long as we don't indulge in a lot of ad hominem. As a philosopher, he's more hip to the logical fallacies than most (mistakes in debating, errors in diplomacy) whereas the math teachers just seem to shoot from the hip, seem to have more of a Wild West attitude, though with the Asiatic influence, noted by Paul, we have the potential to regain our composure and behave more like Sean's House of Lords (long story).
Back to my analysis: I'm invoking some retro aesthetics, taking us back to a smarter golden age within the UMC, when orders from the Pentagon made more sense than they later would under Nixon.
The Cold War was in full swing and the thing to do against the USSR menace was to build these newfangled radomes as DEW Line protectors. Sure, H.S.M. Coxeter got angry when he found this exquisite "geometry of nature" already had a patent adhering, wasn't automatically open source. He was prescient in that way, obedient to his natural geek intuitions. Fuller's patent on the octet-truss was in some ways even more crazy-making (the IVM belongs to nature, not men).
Today they're even patenting naturally occurring gene sequences, or trying to. Why not patent the sky, charge royalties for seeing it? Our "legally-piggily" Idiocracy is pretty far gone, with the EU a bulwark against at least software patents (an abyss of pure craziness (a litigators' heaven, an engineers' hell)).
Given the Pentagon had already sourced radomes in this period, it made sense for all that KH-derived omni-triangulated global data, so central to Critical Path (Fuller's), to be made available to the world's school children via Google Earth and such services.
This was World Game in action, the start of a global Renaissance.
The "civilian-ization" of high technology is a trend we should circle and celebrate, along with its "ephemeralization" (doing more with less).
Those enlisting for military service, having served their terms, should expect civilian work making use of some of those same GIS/GPS skills.
Taking a next generation under one's wing, providing life skills for a place in the sun, is what it means to hand on a culture, and to receive one.
NASA News: Solar tsunamis are real.
Monday, November 23, 2009
The Murder of Fred Hampton (movie review)
This might be viewed in sequence with several others reviewed in these blogs, hitting around the same time.
American Revolution 2, likewise a documentary, focuses on an alliance between recent immigrants to Chicago and Black Panthers. This film is more about an alliance between Black Panthers and journalists who know they can't afford, as papers of record, to be perceived as dupes. If the facts are clearly not as the police have stated them, then they have no choice but to keep asking questions.
Fred Hampton is a firebrand with an incendiary rhetoric. On the ground, his organization is working hard to win the loyalty of the people his party represents. Medical care and education are being provided.
The police seem somewhat taken aback that their story really has to hold water. The Black Panther rhetoric is so nakedly defiant that authorities assume an implicit social contract gives them carte blanch to commit mayhem.
Fred Hampton is murdered while in his bedroom with his pregnant wife, who survives to contribute an interview.
American Revolution 2, likewise a documentary, focuses on an alliance between recent immigrants to Chicago and Black Panthers. This film is more about an alliance between Black Panthers and journalists who know they can't afford, as papers of record, to be perceived as dupes. If the facts are clearly not as the police have stated them, then they have no choice but to keep asking questions.
Fred Hampton is a firebrand with an incendiary rhetoric. On the ground, his organization is working hard to win the loyalty of the people his party represents. Medical care and education are being provided.
The police seem somewhat taken aback that their story really has to hold water. The Black Panther rhetoric is so nakedly defiant that authorities assume an implicit social contract gives them carte blanch to commit mayhem.
Fred Hampton is murdered while in his bedroom with his pregnant wife, who survives to contribute an interview.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Transactions
I twittered this link to a chat about Dr. H. Kroto on the Wikieducator group, clearly a fan club.
A little earlier, I updated peers on math-thinking-l about whassup with the DM track, all that work done this summer.
Over on Wikipedia, I sassed the AFSC posting in the discussion area, finding parts of it "silly".
My daughter wanted some info on fractional exponents, so we did some algebra on that topic, deriving how A to the one half would be 2nd root of A.
In Python:
AFSC emailed this banner ad around, urging a moratorium on misguided military missions in Afghanistan, mostly of benefit to private mercenary groups and warlords, in some cases the same ones terrorizing American civilians, given the global game of weapons and drug trafficking (also human trafficking, stop loss, abductions).
A little earlier, I updated peers on math-thinking-l about whassup with the DM track, all that work done this summer.
Over on Wikipedia, I sassed the AFSC posting in the discussion area, finding parts of it "silly".
My daughter wanted some info on fractional exponents, so we did some algebra on that topic, deriving how A to the one half would be 2nd root of A.
In Python:
AFSC emailed this banner ad around, urging a moratorium on misguided military missions in Afghanistan, mostly of benefit to private mercenary groups and warlords, in some cases the same ones terrorizing American civilians, given the global game of weapons and drug trafficking (also human trafficking, stop loss, abductions).
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Wanderers 2009.11.18
::fractals on bill's box ::
I dropped Carol at some rendezvous, for the sojourn in Salem. Then I posted to Math Forum. Then I hoofed it to Wanderers for an in depth look at the Mandelbrot Set, running Java. Bill Shepard is hosting.
David Tver is here, then maybe a first timer. I'm in and out of the meeting room, attending to 2nd world business. Glenn Stockton, Jim Buxton...
We could produce this fractals segment for any teacher with a projector. Having students take turns zooming in needn't be a mind-numbing activity provided some of the lore is woven in. This is the Argand Plane after all, integral within academe since oh, a long time ago. No excuse to be boring. We could do this at Cleveland, Grant... Winterhaven.
In my spoof skit of this session, we zoom in on the small happy village where Waldo lives in the woodwork, munching on fractal PB&J.
So John Gilbrough helped Bill write this fractal explorer (which ran great on my Ubuntu Starling I'm happy to say -- in no rush for Karmic Koala). That's the same guy who did the rotating polyhedra in stereo, via Java and GWT (Google Web Toolkit).
Four of us went to Pepino's afterward, immersed ourselves in Martian Math talk a little. I need to send out some links.
Thanks to Sean for this link to a BBC program on Wittgenstein and his philo.
<< download here >>
Monday, November 16, 2009
Martian Math
:: honeycomb of Rites (a kind of Syte) ::by Claudio Rocchini
GNU Free Documentation License
What might count originally as a turn-off -- the unfamiliarity of some given material -- might be made into a turn-on instead; "a feature not a bug" as we say in the industry.
By making it Martian (the mathematics we're providing), we get to underscore its alien-seeming attributes, such as its tetrahedral units of volume.
The nomenclature of Mites, Sytes and Kites, already developed, is handsomely documented with no serious ambiguities, so it's not a matter of redoing everything from scratch.
Nor has the marketing moniker "gnu math" been abandoned, at least not by me.
We've also tried a more Korean angle.
In bringing in the ET spin, I'm clearly feeding the science fiction writers' market.
Our competitors would likely have this space-age geometry, perhaps did in Contact already.
Or (alternatively, additionally) we could simply project a future human technology, suitable for Mars, already making waves in the early 21st century. Having geodesic structures on Mars would make plenty of sense, plus we already have that sphere packing landing.
So that'd be Martian Math in yet another sense (advanced human vs. ET).
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Think Tank Techniques
:: private undercover party ::
We're setting up at Duke's for our private undercover party, discreetly advertised only through select channels. The producers each have their own ways of promoting clandestine events. DJ Troy is managing logistics, including lighting. I'm on projector, Walker on sound.
The framework is to support others showing up and wanting to take the floor, give us a presentation. A fully developed genre, say the autobiography, might be a theme for an evening, to be continued at a later date. Our event this time is more political, given our Laughing Horse Collective connection, although I argued for a stronger engineering approach on the way over, warming up for providing my piece of the gig.
Perhaps a missing ingredient, for adding down the road, is a community access television component. What community again? Well, we'd like to include Portland, given that's where we are, and given the already mature cable TV market.
On the other hand, mixing our various media feeds is probably not best accomplished in real time? Just having our videographers present will possibly supply sufficient grist for our mills, plus give us more control over what goes out over the wire.
In contrast with ISEPP lectures, more like its plans for salons, this format presumes a choppier format, with Lightning Talks of five minutes or less strongly emphasized in early promotions.
We're in a mid-sized venue pre-equipped for multi-media. Not every gathering will expect a DJ and live music, VHS tapes playing on random monitors, smoke machine, projected Internet content.
Lots of mix and match.
I'll also plan on showing some hypertoons, computed on the fly vs. pre-recorded.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Monday, November 09, 2009
Transcript (typos fixed)
Dick: Your new emotional restraint, I will appreciate it while it lasts.
I thought Quakers were about promoting peaceful alternatives to violence. Or is that wrong. Maybe Quakers are peaceful when it is convenient. I have no idea. Except I do know plenty of words are slung and thrown around at the meetings, not for happy reasons, or so I am informed by participants I know.
Kirby: When you've turned away from outward use of outward weapons, that doesn't preclude you from being a vicious attack dog Karl Rover. Quakers are not about being polite all the time.
They were always being offensive, heckling preachers, refusing to doff their hats, inciting the masses. They were imprisoned routinely.
Many got sick of that treatment and decided to create a relative utopia called Pennsylvania instead.
However, Quakers lost control of their state when the in-flooding immigrants, hot off the boat, wanted to use tax money to fight "Indians".
The Quakers had been enjoying peaceful relations with said native populations and wanted no war taxes levied. They were out-voted by a corrupt majority and Quakers have had relatively little influence on the internal affairs of Pennsylvania ever since.
The rising tide of stupidity that overwhelmed Pennsylvania then spread to the rest of the Lower48, now known as Dumbfuckistan to our inner circle (just kidding, there's no inner circle, if you've ever seen the "Quakers guts" poster -- a blog topic of late:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2009/11/local-activism.html
)
Dick: his kind of aggressive verbal behavior is perceived as strength in the Friends' circle, I suspect... Beats me.
Btw, you have been unusually tolerant of others at synergeo in the last 2 weeks.
Kirby: Probably not a lasting trend, likely I'll say something offensive here shortly.
Rybo: Ha, that is great Quaker history Kirby. Thx for that story.
[ source: Synergeo 56508, 56514 ]
I thought Quakers were about promoting peaceful alternatives to violence. Or is that wrong. Maybe Quakers are peaceful when it is convenient. I have no idea. Except I do know plenty of words are slung and thrown around at the meetings, not for happy reasons, or so I am informed by participants I know.
Kirby: When you've turned away from outward use of outward weapons, that doesn't preclude you from being a vicious attack dog Karl Rover. Quakers are not about being polite all the time.
They were always being offensive, heckling preachers, refusing to doff their hats, inciting the masses. They were imprisoned routinely.
Many got sick of that treatment and decided to create a relative utopia called Pennsylvania instead.
However, Quakers lost control of their state when the in-flooding immigrants, hot off the boat, wanted to use tax money to fight "Indians".
The Quakers had been enjoying peaceful relations with said native populations and wanted no war taxes levied. They were out-voted by a corrupt majority and Quakers have had relatively little influence on the internal affairs of Pennsylvania ever since.
The rising tide of stupidity that overwhelmed Pennsylvania then spread to the rest of the Lower48, now known as Dumbfuckistan to our inner circle (just kidding, there's no inner circle, if you've ever seen the "Quakers guts" poster -- a blog topic of late:
http://worldgame.blogspot.com/2009/11/local-activism.html
)
Dick: his kind of aggressive verbal behavior is perceived as strength in the Friends' circle, I suspect... Beats me.
Btw, you have been unusually tolerant of others at synergeo in the last 2 weeks.
Kirby: Probably not a lasting trend, likely I'll say something offensive here shortly.
Rybo: Ha, that is great Quaker history Kirby. Thx for that story.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
The End of Suburbia (movie review)
This film is somewhat paradoxical in that it sounds the death knell for a particular lifestyle made famous over the last seventy years or so by its practitioners, but without much mourning.
The city planners all decry urban sprawl as a disgraceful waste, have no special sentimentality towards low density single story strip malls consisting mostly of parking lots.
"If this was the American Dream, we're glad to be waking up" seems to be more of the message, even if the "awake state" (after taking the Red Pill with some OJ) proves sobering.
The film features a number of talking heads sounding the alarm at various levels, including Kenneth Deffeyes.
On the "scary talk" rating scale, you would think global warming talk ala Al Gore would be scarier than peak oil talk.
However I think the peak oil people are somewhat more effective at provoking a reality-based response, which is maybe not saying much given how the media response to date has consisted mostly of idle daydreaming about an impossible tomorrow (what we might call "bad philosophy" in some circles).
I watched this as a double feature with Over the Hedge, which likely colors my take.
The city planners all decry urban sprawl as a disgraceful waste, have no special sentimentality towards low density single story strip malls consisting mostly of parking lots.
"If this was the American Dream, we're glad to be waking up" seems to be more of the message, even if the "awake state" (after taking the Red Pill with some OJ) proves sobering.
The film features a number of talking heads sounding the alarm at various levels, including Kenneth Deffeyes.
On the "scary talk" rating scale, you would think global warming talk ala Al Gore would be scarier than peak oil talk.
However I think the peak oil people are somewhat more effective at provoking a reality-based response, which is maybe not saying much given how the media response to date has consisted mostly of idle daydreaming about an impossible tomorrow (what we might call "bad philosophy" in some circles).
I watched this as a double feature with Over the Hedge, which likely colors my take.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Into the Fire (movie review)
This tightly edited documentary traces the beginnings of WWII to its dress rehearsal, the fascist bombardment of Spain by the Axis powers, Hitler and Mussolini puppeting Franco, who was in rebellion against the duly elected government in Madrid. The aerial bombardment of Guernica was memorialized by Pablo Picasso. Ernest Hemingway narrated a movie from the Loyalist perspective (those loyal to a democratic, parliamentarian Spain), showed it to the Roosevelts in their White House home.
As those reading their history remember, the USA was already sick of the whole WW1 experience and was not anxious to rejoin the European adventure. However the world was shrinking owing to the development of air transport, and those watching world events could see that failing to stop the invasion of Spain by the dictators would simply postpone the day of reckoning. Many Americans got into the fight early, and this film chronicles the dedication of those called to nursing, helping mostly men on the front lines. The horror of modern warfare was just becoming apparent through newsreels. That Americans weren't lining up to join in the madness is understandable, but the situation only got worse as Hitler and Mussolini were sensing their behavior was being reinforced, they had a free hand. The ostensibly democratic governments of the USA, France and Great Britain, weren't really doing anything to get in their way.
The Spanish first stand against what would become a terrible enemy was echoed elsewhere in the world where newly literate classes were eager to manage their own affairs with less bullying from some power elite. Central governments were worried about communism. In the USA, the eugenics movement was strong. Plenty in the business class were backing fascism at first, not yet aware of the monsters in the making. Hitler was still writing Mein Kampf from prison, consuming racist pseudo-science from Cold Spring Harbor and places, well funded North American think tanks, as documented in War Against the Weak.
As those reading their history remember, the USA was already sick of the whole WW1 experience and was not anxious to rejoin the European adventure. However the world was shrinking owing to the development of air transport, and those watching world events could see that failing to stop the invasion of Spain by the dictators would simply postpone the day of reckoning. Many Americans got into the fight early, and this film chronicles the dedication of those called to nursing, helping mostly men on the front lines. The horror of modern warfare was just becoming apparent through newsreels. That Americans weren't lining up to join in the madness is understandable, but the situation only got worse as Hitler and Mussolini were sensing their behavior was being reinforced, they had a free hand. The ostensibly democratic governments of the USA, France and Great Britain, weren't really doing anything to get in their way.
The Spanish first stand against what would become a terrible enemy was echoed elsewhere in the world where newly literate classes were eager to manage their own affairs with less bullying from some power elite. Central governments were worried about communism. In the USA, the eugenics movement was strong. Plenty in the business class were backing fascism at first, not yet aware of the monsters in the making. Hitler was still writing Mein Kampf from prison, consuming racist pseudo-science from Cold Spring Harbor and places, well funded North American think tanks, as documented in War Against the Weak.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Not Following Detroit
[ typos fixed, hyperlinks-enhanced version of a math-teach posting @ Math Forum ]
On Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 7:18 AM,
Domenico Rosa wrote:
> Publisher enters new chapter in textbooks
> Houghton sells $40m high-tech teaching system
> By D.C. Denison, Globe Staff October 29, 2009
>
Whereas I agree that the mass published wood pulp textbook is no longer the most relevant distribution system for curriculum content, there's a lot of political pressure in Portland, and Oregon more generally, to "eat our own dog food" as an open source capital (Christian Science Monitor, 2005).On Sun, Nov 1, 2009 at 7:18 AM,
Domenico Rosa wrote:
> Publisher enters new chapter in textbooks
> Houghton sells $40m high-tech teaching system
> By D.C. Denison, Globe Staff October 29, 2009
>
OSCON is returning next year (Open Source Conference) and we also have OS Bridge, all thanks to the Silicon Forest serving as a champion of FOSS (or FLOSS as some call it, L for Libre or Liberal, as in Liberal Arts).
This trend extends to empowering teachers to commit to Open Education standards, ala WikiEducator and so forth. Initiatives like Maria's Math 2.0 will likely play a greater role in future curriculum writing than any dinosaur mass publishers "back east" (we tend to be snobbish out here, see "the east" as about 10 years behind the times, with California only 3 years behind).
Math Labs may use mostly recycled hardware, hand-me-down machines from the corporate sector and government agencies, although some of the more well-endowed get grants for new equipment. Mostly the money needs to go for teacher training, as math teachers especially are expected to have IT-related skills (lest their "technology in the classroom" rhetoric sound empty and hollow -- just knowing how to use a scientific calculator is no excuse for numeric literacy, or "numeracy" any more).
So I'm anticipating a lot of skepticism regarding Detroit's adoption strategies. We'll expect to learn from Detroit's mistakes perhaps?
Kirby
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Halloween 2009
:: halloween 2009 ::
Today has been productive. I got to mess around with several flavors of animal manure: chicken, horse and, inadvertently, dog (on my shoes).
This was in connection with urban gardening, an activity I still suck at, being a clueless newbie in so many dimensions. Live and learn.
I've been having some meaningful dialog on the Wittgenstein list, am glad of Sean's facility.
Tara had two friends over last night. They enjoyed cooking up a storm for breakfast this morning.
I was in the back office patched into a Math 2.0 WizIQ discussion, featuring chat, web cams, white board, the works. We joined from many time zones, with our anchor in the Middle East this time.
Our topic was WikiEducator and was most informative. I'm hoping to join a team that'll bring more spatial geometry to that wiki, including some of the more esoteric content my company is known for promulgating and producing.
Tonight, Halloween, Tara is off with her friends, working a different neighborhood. I joined the Bartons for a delightful dinner, then rushed over the Duke's. Trey is playing with his smoke machine.
We have a videographer this evening. Lindsey is delivering a tight and classic performance. She's in her element. I'm eating onion rings and drinking Double Dog Dare and patching in to the Internet. Duke, the English Mastiff, is the Grim Reaper tonight.
Mom isn't feeding the candy habits of young children tonight, has the lights off at home. Like me, she's patching in to the "2nd world", communicating with her spirit network. Boo!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thinking Outside of the Box
Posted to math-teach @ Math Forum, hyperlinks added.
> From U.S. Department of Education: See
> http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/10/10222009.html
When I read this, I get a picture of traditional classrooms filled with rows and columns, teacher up front, USA flag in the corner, chalk board... we've all seen the movie, maybe starred in it too.
It's not like all that is going away, but we have lots of other options for educating, including stitching together programs where kids do a lot more work on their home computers, watch more videos, take tests at testing centers, visit companies and government institutions for mini-courses for credit, hold internships and apprentice-ships etc.
Issuing a national student card or simply having local authorities do that, and then creating opportunities that register for credit, ala one's transcript, is the way to go, more like Facebook but specific to building one's academic portfolio, showing off community service work, time at a math lab learning some vector graphics or whatever.
It's not gonna be that organized overnight, but let's take advantage of what home schooling families have pioneered. It's not all about "seat time" in these few factory-looking buildings scattered around town. Keep using those, but use actual houses for foreign exchange program, film some of your cooking shows in actual kitchens (many homes have nice ones) and fund families accordingly. Let the parents get in on the act, as they need training as well, need food and shelter as a part of the deal (not just more debt in exchange for deferred gratification).
Insisting that the K-12 lifestyle simply stick in the same ruts that it's been in since the 1920s and before shows a lack of imagination. Likewise teachers should have more options, such as a national program more like TSA that keeps them moving around, pinch hitting on teams, if that's the lifestyle they choose. It's less about paying the big bucks than developing lifestyles with the perks all built in. Have teachers in caravans, dispatched to conferences and workshops, more like the traveling circus model. Coordinate local projects. It's a lot like development in the 3rd world, except there's not really a 3rd world any more, just the real one and the cyber one (first and second).
A lot of people reading this are gonna think I'm crazy to suggest any of this, but then think of the military, our vast socialized system of pooled assets, government funded and ostensibly about providing training and equipment (fun, travel and adventure as the recruiters used to advertise). Any country that is able to run that many young people through a government program on that scale, should be able to provide similar opportunities for civilians -- unless of course the plan is to keep civilians in squalor such that military service is their only realistic option, in service of imperial goals.
Just don't whine about how we have no resources to serve students with better opportunities on the one hand, while squandering billions to warehouse hundreds of thousands around the world, supplied with a vast inventory of high tech toys, including entire floating cities (aka aircraft carriers). I realize it's maybe not politically correct to link these two sectors, but to the rest of the world it seems obvious that the USA could do OK for itself, if it just stopped imagining itself as some kind of world conqueror on steroids. Even students see the logic in that position.
I think if it's just a matter of recruiting vast numbers of teachers to live like the boomers, supporting public schools as we know them, then it's not gonna work, that's pretty much a guarantee.
Too many kids are eager to get out of those hell holes, would never voluntarily go back to support them. Boomer-senior culture is not one to emulate, but to transcend, the sooner the better. All boomers know how to do is whine about their crappy health care system and invade foreign countries yes? Whatever they advise you to do, do something else, would be my advice (yes, I'm a boomer, so there's some irony here).
> From U.S. Department of Education: See
> http://www.ed.gov/news/
When I read this, I get a picture of traditional classrooms filled with rows and columns, teacher up front, USA flag in the corner, chalk board... we've all seen the movie, maybe starred in it too.
It's not like all that is going away, but we have lots of other options for educating, including stitching together programs where kids do a lot more work on their home computers, watch more videos, take tests at testing centers, visit companies and government institutions for mini-courses for credit, hold internships and apprentice-ships etc.
Issuing a national student card or simply having local authorities do that, and then creating opportunities that register for credit, ala one's transcript, is the way to go, more like Facebook but specific to building one's academic portfolio, showing off community service work, time at a math lab learning some vector graphics or whatever.
It's not gonna be that organized overnight, but let's take advantage of what home schooling families have pioneered. It's not all about "seat time" in these few factory-looking buildings scattered around town. Keep using those, but use actual houses for foreign exchange program, film some of your cooking shows in actual kitchens (many homes have nice ones) and fund families accordingly. Let the parents get in on the act, as they need training as well, need food and shelter as a part of the deal (not just more debt in exchange for deferred gratification).
Insisting that the K-12 lifestyle simply stick in the same ruts that it's been in since the 1920s and before shows a lack of imagination. Likewise teachers should have more options, such as a national program more like TSA that keeps them moving around, pinch hitting on teams, if that's the lifestyle they choose. It's less about paying the big bucks than developing lifestyles with the perks all built in. Have teachers in caravans, dispatched to conferences and workshops, more like the traveling circus model. Coordinate local projects. It's a lot like development in the 3rd world, except there's not really a 3rd world any more, just the real one and the cyber one (first and second).
A lot of people reading this are gonna think I'm crazy to suggest any of this, but then think of the military, our vast socialized system of pooled assets, government funded and ostensibly about providing training and equipment (fun, travel and adventure as the recruiters used to advertise). Any country that is able to run that many young people through a government program on that scale, should be able to provide similar opportunities for civilians -- unless of course the plan is to keep civilians in squalor such that military service is their only realistic option, in service of imperial goals.
Just don't whine about how we have no resources to serve students with better opportunities on the one hand, while squandering billions to warehouse hundreds of thousands around the world, supplied with a vast inventory of high tech toys, including entire floating cities (aka aircraft carriers). I realize it's maybe not politically correct to link these two sectors, but to the rest of the world it seems obvious that the USA could do OK for itself, if it just stopped imagining itself as some kind of world conqueror on steroids. Even students see the logic in that position.
I think if it's just a matter of recruiting vast numbers of teachers to live like the boomers, supporting public schools as we know them, then it's not gonna work, that's pretty much a guarantee.
Too many kids are eager to get out of those hell holes, would never voluntarily go back to support them. Boomer-senior culture is not one to emulate, but to transcend, the sooner the better. All boomers know how to do is whine about their crappy health care system and invade foreign countries yes? Whatever they advise you to do, do something else, would be my advice (yes, I'm a boomer, so there's some irony here).
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Machuca (movie review)
This could be viewed as a double feature with Motorcycle Diaries in that it focuses on many of the same themes, namely the rise of political movements around a consciousness of class, if not also race. Or watch it with Favela Rising, about a documentary set in Sao Paolo, or with The Lost City, about Castro's Cuba.
The core setting is a boy's school, St. Patrick's in Santiago, Chile in the late 1960s, and the respective home lives of two boys, one from the privileged elite, the other from a shantytown.
Thanks to the ascendancy of the Allende regime and a supportive Catholic priest headmaster, St. Patrick's is integrating, providing some scholarships to boys from the shantytowns.
In looking through the lens of young male (a slightly younger contemporary -- I was in Junior English School in Rome about that same time), the political drama becomes a background of sound bites, with adults parading in the streets in large numbers to demonstrate their various political positions. They jump up and down and bang on pots and pans, playing commies versus snobs.
Strife flares in a parent meeting at the school, where many of the moneyed blame the introduction of the economically disadvantaged for a rise in school violence and turn on the English-speaking priest. Other privileged parents are more liberal, though are not outright Marxists.
When the tide turns against Allende and the military seizes power on 9-11, 1973 (a coup), the disadvantaged are vengefully attacked, their ideology driven underground, and the Marxist sympathizing priests are muscled aside by the ruling Pinochet junta.
The little window we get into the St. Patrick's curriculum shows that frank discussion of events of the day and their historical context is not really what's up. Civics, debating skills... not a part of this picture. The real world of social interaction and starkly contrasting lifestyles is more what kids learn about after school and during recess.
The film is well acted by all concerned and provides a better doorway to history than dry texts alone. I might assign readings along the lines of Bucky Fuller's No Race, No Class to go with it, plus I'd encourage critical questioning regarding the efficacy of politico-military solutions.
One Laptop Per Child might be more of a step in the right direction, along with enlightened urban planning ala Mayor Jaime Lerner of Curtiba, Brazil. Engineering projects and the distribution of strategic artifacts (e.g. soap, shoes... eyeglasses), and better access to global data, are more the core focus in world game playing.
The core setting is a boy's school, St. Patrick's in Santiago, Chile in the late 1960s, and the respective home lives of two boys, one from the privileged elite, the other from a shantytown.
Thanks to the ascendancy of the Allende regime and a supportive Catholic priest headmaster, St. Patrick's is integrating, providing some scholarships to boys from the shantytowns.
In looking through the lens of young male (a slightly younger contemporary -- I was in Junior English School in Rome about that same time), the political drama becomes a background of sound bites, with adults parading in the streets in large numbers to demonstrate their various political positions. They jump up and down and bang on pots and pans, playing commies versus snobs.
Strife flares in a parent meeting at the school, where many of the moneyed blame the introduction of the economically disadvantaged for a rise in school violence and turn on the English-speaking priest. Other privileged parents are more liberal, though are not outright Marxists.
When the tide turns against Allende and the military seizes power on 9-11, 1973 (a coup), the disadvantaged are vengefully attacked, their ideology driven underground, and the Marxist sympathizing priests are muscled aside by the ruling Pinochet junta.
The little window we get into the St. Patrick's curriculum shows that frank discussion of events of the day and their historical context is not really what's up. Civics, debating skills... not a part of this picture. The real world of social interaction and starkly contrasting lifestyles is more what kids learn about after school and during recess.
The film is well acted by all concerned and provides a better doorway to history than dry texts alone. I might assign readings along the lines of Bucky Fuller's No Race, No Class to go with it, plus I'd encourage critical questioning regarding the efficacy of politico-military solutions.
One Laptop Per Child might be more of a step in the right direction, along with enlightened urban planning ala Mayor Jaime Lerner of Curtiba, Brazil. Engineering projects and the distribution of strategic artifacts (e.g. soap, shoes... eyeglasses), and better access to global data, are more the core focus in world game playing.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Change History
From Synergeo, hyperlinks added:
--- In synergeo@yahoogroups.com, "coyote_starship" wrote:
I've decided to excise my comments from the current discussion pages re Synergetics and Synergetics Coordinates. They'll still be in the change history plus I've archived them here. Both articles still link to resources I've authored under external links.
Having my name in the discussions might imply that I'm somehow actively involved in maintaining these pages whereas I'm more interested in distancing myself from them.
I have my own pages on the web for which I'm responsible (they're somewhat in disrepair, lots of broken links, but at least they're mine and not so much a product of group think or another author).
I'd be happy to see some good synopsis of Synergetics (Fuller's) in Wikipedia. However the time has come to pass the torch to a next generation of scholars and not hog the limelight. Let's see if any competent Fuller commentators come out of the woodwork.
Given academia has dropped the ball, it could be that we'll be skipping another generation or two. It's pretty easy to explain the concentric hierarchy of polyhedra with its tetravolumes, mites, sytes and kites. It's harder to explain the philosophy. I've proposed American Transcendentalism as a category or pigeon hole, somewhat influenced by Applewhite and his linking of Synergetics to Poe's Eureka.
Kirby
--- End forwarded message ---
--- In synergeo@yahoogroups.com, "coyote_starship"
I've decided to excise my comments from the current discussion pages re Synergetics and Synergetics Coordinates. They'll still be in the change history plus I've archived them here. Both articles still link to resources I've authored under external links.
Having my name in the discussions might imply that I'm somehow actively involved in maintaining these pages whereas I'm more interested in distancing myself from them.
I have my own pages on the web for which I'm responsible (they're somewhat in disrepair, lots of broken links, but at least they're mine and not so much a product of group think or another author).
I'd be happy to see some good synopsis of Synergetics (Fuller's) in Wikipedia. However the time has come to pass the torch to a next generation of scholars and not hog the limelight. Let's see if any competent Fuller commentators come out of the woodwork.
Given academia has dropped the ball, it could be that we'll be skipping another generation or two. It's pretty easy to explain the concentric hierarchy of polyhedra with its tetravolumes, mites, sytes and kites. It's harder to explain the philosophy. I've proposed American Transcendentalism as a category or pigeon hole, somewhat influenced by Applewhite and his linking of Synergetics to Poe's Eureka.
Kirby
--- End forwarded message ---
Friday, October 23, 2009
Gender Bender
:: claire-a-palooza @ laughing horse books ::
Lindsey organized this interesting event at Laughing Horse Books, with James inviting some of his friends as well. We had a good turn out. The movie documentary, Will: In Quotes, is boldly raw and would probably earn a TV-MA rating, even though visually it shows nothing more revealing than the occasional male torso, undergoing surgery in one scene (for breast implants).
The movie opens with Will frequenting karaoke bars in Boise, Idaho. He considers himself emotionally stunted or under-developed, albeit a decent singer. His strict religious upbringing in a polygamist Mormon household meant he wasn't allowed access to pop culture and now he's making up for lost time, seeking true love and a real family.
Even as a youngster, he'd picked up glimmers of a "trans-gendered" type of person and concluded that his enduring sense of alienation might be an indication that he belonged in this category. Whereas most who entertain such fantasies wouldn't act on them, he figured while he was still young with no children or life partner, this was his time to explore. He begins chemically altering his body, his dress, and finally flies to Thailand for the operation, taking his own video camera, which he gives to a nurse when it's time to go under. By this time she's Claire.
What made this experience especially dramatic and instructive for the audience was the star of this film had agreed to show up in person to answer questions. He's transitioning back to a male identity, is James now, having gone as far down the road being Claire as he wanted to go. He's somewhat embarrassed by the film and what people say to the film maker behind his back, so wanted to get a text message when it was over. This added to the theatrical nature of the event, plus the fact that he showed up in sunglasses with a scarf around his head, somewhat reminiscent of Michael Jackson. As the Q&A ensued, he shed the scarf, and by the end of the evening was minus the shades as well.
What impresses me about James, more than his personal journey, is his brutal honesty. He has no skeletons to hide, is out of the closet with his thoughts and feelings to a point most people would never allow. This is a somewhat constant aspect of his character, through all his transitions. One tends to inwardly cringe at some of his self-revelations, thinking "I would die before I revealed myself to the world with that level of unvarnished candor" and indeed that's what most of us will do. It's so much easier to talk about others than oneself.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Naked City
before
Naked City is a local clothing store next to The Bagdad, is also adjacent to a space formerly occupied by In Other Words, a feminist bookstore, since moved to a new location.
The fact that the window display features a male torso in a bloodied tux standing over a hacked up female per some Gothic horror movie motif (a Halloween theme) seemed radically insensitive to Julia & Lindsey. Was he the perpetrator? Was she his victim? Is this c/overt misogyny then? Why would you want customers musing along these lines?
They authored a letter of complaint in our company office and presented it. The counter clerk said he'd pass it back to the owner (a woman, if that's relevant).
Follow-up: the store's response was to add a hacked up male mannequin to the pile, sending more of an "equal opportunity" message.
after
Related posts:
Regarding Objectifying
Resident Evil
AVP 2
Monday, October 19, 2009
Apocalypse Africa (movie review)
This film aims to give some of the back story regarding coups in Africa, starting at the beginning of the so-called post colonial period.The core thesis is that the German policy of selling weapons to both sides in a conflict, so that feuding peoples would murder each other, has continued, thanks to racist thinking at the highest levels. In the foreground: disturbing, violent, horrific imagery, talking heads.
The audio track gives us more vintage Nixon. The security council guy reminds us that Dick was a small town bigot surrounded by yes men (you have to kowtow to the president, if you wanna stay in the game, not say "no" like Gen. Ed Lansdale did when asked by JFK to murder Diem, provoking a hissy fit from Secretary McNamara -- this isn't in the movie, A.J. Langguth is my source).
Nixon's mindset was reflective of middle class America's mindset at the time, informed by Tarzan movies and what not.
Docile Americans, gullible to the core, tend to believe whatever their "leaders" tell them, says the movie. Ergo Vietnam, Iraq, many other disasters. Without a vigilant and educated people, you get a lot of bad ideas put into action.
The film remains murky on many of the details, including some of its sources. Why exactly was Patrice Lumbaba killed again? They scrounge up some CIA guy from twenty years ago, but he doesn't wanna talk about it.
Regarding Liberia, we know Firestone wanted its rubber for cheap, so they could make those crummy tires for the Ford Explorers, but that's about all we know (I exaggerate -- we know plenty more).
Haile Selassie comes off as a principal anti-racist in the movie. He goes down in history for this, per the Lucy Exhibit as well.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
From Lyrik
I felt fortunate to get some face time with dear Nirel, part of a voluntary association I've branded as Coffee Shops Network (CSN).
She serves as CTO no less, consequent to her life-long dream (by this time) of carving out the salonstress role, in a next generation establishment reflective of her values and views.
I've worked in whole hearted support of that dream, given my strategy to pump healing philosophies out to a network, preferably in a mix with entertainment and even some level of game playing.
Nirel herself plays a great world game, with grace and integrity. I am blessed with such co-workers.
Fine Grind has pretty much completed its morph into Lyrik, an exercise in rebranding. Joe has done a fantastic job with the signage. Keiko is letting me sample the new winter drink: vinho quente (hot wine with fruit), a Brazilian favorite.
The previous owner of this establishment, Jody Ahn (aka Jody Francis), doubles as CFO for our network. She has morphed again as well. I feel surrounded by ninjas (a kind of mutant turtle?), which helps heal my latent misanthropy.
Next task: lurk in on the following cyber-event, before catching CBS Evening News with Katie, Lara et al.
Hey, I've been reading into Roz's book and really enjoying it. She really knows how to tell her story, generously lets us in to be there with her, albeit asynchronously.
:: math 2.0 webinar ::
She serves as CTO no less, consequent to her life-long dream (by this time) of carving out the salonstress role, in a next generation establishment reflective of her values and views.
I've worked in whole hearted support of that dream, given my strategy to pump healing philosophies out to a network, preferably in a mix with entertainment and even some level of game playing.
Nirel herself plays a great world game, with grace and integrity. I am blessed with such co-workers.
Fine Grind has pretty much completed its morph into Lyrik, an exercise in rebranding. Joe has done a fantastic job with the signage. Keiko is letting me sample the new winter drink: vinho quente (hot wine with fruit), a Brazilian favorite.
The previous owner of this establishment, Jody Ahn (aka Jody Francis), doubles as CFO for our network. She has morphed again as well. I feel surrounded by ninjas (a kind of mutant turtle?), which helps heal my latent misanthropy.
Next task: lurk in on the following cyber-event, before catching CBS Evening News with Katie, Lara et al.
Caroline Meeks founded Solution Grove, which specializes in open source solutions for learning communities and has created sites for groups at MIT, Harvard, MGH and Boston Museum of Science. Caroline is actively involved in two open-source communities, dotLRN, which she co-founded in 2001, and Sugar (sugarlabs.org) which was developed as part of the OLPC project. This year she is piloting "Sugar on a Stick" in a Boston public elementary school. Caroline is a candidate for an MEd in 2010 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Technology, Innovation and Education Program, and is a graduate of MIT.This requires running EluminateLive! 9.5 with headphones. I trust my Starling-1 will be up for the job.
Web Sites:
http://www.solutiongrove.com
http://www.sugaronastick.com
http://www.shovelreadyed.com
Hey, I've been reading into Roz's book and really enjoying it. She really knows how to tell her story, generously lets us in to be there with her, albeit asynchronously.
:: math 2.0 webinar ::
Monday, October 12, 2009
Roz Savage
The call of the wild eventually won her allegiance and she realized one morning, like a light going on, that rowing across the Atlantic might be her thing (she eventually did that, is next facing part three of her Pacific row, having completed two legs). What gave her some inspiration was a married couple had tried, and whereas the big strapping guy had wigged out (intense agoraphobia and claustrophobia, a double whammy), the plucky misses had completed the row by herself. Roz saw herself as petite, not an athlete, not a superhero, not incredibly brave. What she had was drive and a hunger to live her life fully. She needed a project, one that wouldn't hurt the Earth, would on the contrary help with its healing (the Hopi were an inspiration here).
I've tended to see Roz as the paradigm action figure in a series of storyboards involving energy accounting, a way to teach math where we convert joules and calories into work, measured in miles rowed, other output. These simple physical equations about humans working were and are the focus of my First Person Physics meme, what Dr. Bob Fuller picked up on and intelligently steered towards the NSF. We got a lot done, with Roz easy to point to as a source of inspiration. Having listened to her stories tonight, I am as persuaded as ever that here's a great way to teach math in a way that will speak to many people. Her Earth-friendly environmental message plants many good seeds. Lindsey Walker showed up in Portland from Savannah with a similar math-teaching paradigm around bicycle riding and towing (instead of rowing).
I was joined by one other Wanderer I recognized (Jay, likewise a fan), next ahead of me in line. When she signed my copy of her book, I brought up the shared memory of our Thanksgiving soiree two years ago. She had just attempted her first leg of the Pacific back then, had capsized in a storm, was still recovering, including financially as the rescue of her craft had proved expensive. Twas my privilege to join this appreciative audience in my own zip code area (97214), at Powell's on Hawthorne. Thank you Roz Savage. I'm looking forward to reading your book.
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Wanderers 2009.10.7
Wanderers used a lot of the morning to appreciate Banksy's art and web site (two specimens above -- a scholar's excerpt).We also drove through optical illusion country, looked at some political T-shirts at The Onion, a collection of funny grave stones. Jim Buxton brought has chantrelles today, an annual ritual. Mom will be pleased.
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Odds 'n Ends
:: LW @ Angelo's (10/3) ::
We got the dishwasher fixed yesterday morning, thanks to expert tech support from Applicance World Services on SE Flavel. We're really happy to have that working again.
Replacing the motor was less wasteful given the rest of it is still in good shape, $170 for the part (Kitchenaid lists this company on its website).
Business meetings around 4D Studios are all about microphones and how to split, edit, recombine the audio tracks (plus I've toyed with the video feature on my cigarette pack sized Olympus Stylus). I suggested roping in the CTO but LW thought that might be overkill given we're still ramping up on Qbase. TC might be holding a puzzle piece?
CFO and I had a small repast on Hawthorne the other day, comparing notes. She's out of town quite a bit, in cities I've never seen except in movies or on TV.
I've noticed diversity-sig starting to come on-line and signaled other PSF members to consider joining, although with open archives, you needn't join to lurk.
This new Python group came on radar after alpha and beta versions of a PSF diversity statement had already surfaced, following Guido's request that we have one.
No, I've not seen the new Michael Moore film yet.
I've been studying the MMM slate some more, some prompted by our need for a clerk on QMP (looking to next year already) plus also wanting to sort out the liaison picture i.e. who's on first w/r to AFSC, FCNL, FWCC or whatever?
I've got the BCFM and NPYM positions with AFSC, but nothing going with MMM on that score. Yes, an alphabet soup -- yet another namespace shared by Friends (RSoF). If you poke around in these blogs or otherwise cross-reference, you'll find all these easy enough to decode.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Econovergence
:: econovergence (day two) ::
Given the title of this event, you'd expect to find some economists in the line-up, and indeed we have a couple of those leading our teach-in, here on the third floor of First Unitarian Church. Mom is the next speaker in this room.
The economist we just heard, Tom Palley (EDOS), thinks the USG wasn't aggressive enough in the face of the implosion and that we'll be suffering some more shock waves. As a GST guy (general systems theory) I compete with some schools of thought, ally with others. The sun is what energizes the earth, not money -- let's at least be clear about that.
The other economist, Helen Scharber (PERI), persuaded us the renewable energy investments create more interesting work opportunities than just dumping funds into oil and gas. That seems likely.
The Chinese system is helping to keep the USA's afloat. That probably means we should be listening to Chinese economists a lot more?
Lindsey asked about what political climate would be required to motivate the kinds of policies our panel was advising. If there's another down turn, that's certainly not a guarantee of a more healthy political climate (on the contrary...). She also questioned the rather nationalistic analysis in terms of this or that government's policies -- spoken like a true Global U student eh?
Tag and I found each other at the Free Food exhibit, sponsored by Urban Gleaners, while Lindsey tanked up on vegetables. Tag knows a lot of people here, given lots of overlap with PSU and the student / activist community.
Leslie Hickcox phoned me with her congratulations on Day One of Quarterly, of which she managed to catch a part, in addition to making the Costco run more productive and enjoyable.
Speaking of congratulations, Don Wardwell has his boat back in the water. He and Barry have been working hard on hull restoration. He phoned from Island Cafe today, first time in awhile.
Mom's WILPF group began with a Raging Grannies number. Then she took us down memory lane, reminding us of Portland's resistance to the Pentagon's pet civil defense program (bomb shelters, duck & cover, other Atomic Cafe style nuclear madness). The article in question: Portland -- the City that Chose Sanity instead of Fear by Carol Urner, Fellowship of Reconciliation magazine, January, 1965, page 11.
Portland is now remembered for being a small bubble of sanity in an intellectually lazy Lower48 (not that different from now in some ways). She also mentioned Doug Strain and that Tektronix guy, and Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R), who helped keep Oregon from buying into the military-industrial complex.
This workshop may touch on how some of that self-discipline may be slipping. There's the new army trucks contract (Daimler), the drones by Boeing (cowardly killer or spy?). No mention of Evergreen though.
Barbara is going over the USG budget. 66.3% of the spending is towards mandatory items (vs. discretionary, the various entitlements and interest on the national debt).
The DoD budget runs around $533.7B, with $23.4B for DoE. $130B goes to discretionary occupations, sorry sad imperial crap, a lot of it highly questionable not to mention dishonorable. $9.66B for intelligence (so-called). Lots more numbers going by -- back to entitlements again (veterans, interest etc.).
We have brown envelopes to open with faux defense contracts enclosed. These states could've had a lot more health care and education if not blowing money on ill-advised, loser escapades in Iraq and Afghanistan. We get to affix these contracts to maps of Oregon and Washington at the front of the room.
Someone just handed me a leaflet about the Ralph Nader talk tomorrow. Portland is certainly a happening place this weekend.
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