Wanderers 2008.9.30

The Four Horses of the Apocalypse
by Sharlene Lindskog-Osorio

Duane Ray is presenting about Creationism versus Intelligent Design versus Science, projecting slides he's put a lot of work into.

Duane started his talk by claiming the Quaker's George Fox College is "a creationist college" although not militantly so.

He's not talking about cults per se (he gave some examples of what he's not talking about, including some disturbing pictures), but more about mainline American religious people who consider the Bible a literal account of creation.

Bishop James Ussher (1581 - 1656) gets a lot of credit for fixing the start of Planet Earth at October 23, 4004 BCE (a Saturday evening). Dr. Henry Morris (1918 - 2006) is also an influential thinker. Ken Ham from Australia is another articulate spokesman for creationism. Tim LaHaye (Revelation Unveiled) and Jerry B. Jenkins (Left Behind stories) are likewise contemporary popularizers of these born again views.

Bucky dome! (one of the slides -- about 620K year old ice cores).

Duane started down the "born again" path at age 15, then swerved into science (the way he sees it). He still has a lot of respect for the vibrancy and slick PR used by many creationists, which he considers effective, even though he isn't buying any of it, studies their materials to better his own counter-intelligence.

Duane took us through a complicated end times scenario, re the antichrist, horsemen of the apocalypse, seven trumpets, seven bowls, the thousand year reign of Christ etc. Creationism is in a lot of ways about ethics, using the raw material of empirical field data as grist for its mill, giving a cosmological basis for decrying homosexuality, other Wild West lawlessness.

Duane's discussion of how evolution operates was not specifically about humans and their intelligent / cultural methods for adapting quickly. That isn't the focus of Darwinism to begin with. Genes are not memes.

I'm not sure what Duane would say about Stuart Kauffman's rap, which sounds somewhat like Terry's.

I didn't say much during Duane's talk, other than to stick up for the rights of those picturesque old time Mormons and ethnic diversity. Other Wanderers helped Duane fix a couple typos in his slides.

Good seeing Dick Pugh again.

:: apocalypse now ::
(aftermath, Hurricane Ike)

Quaker Curriculum

Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks

I joined Children's Program 101 at Multnomah this afternoon, run by the head teachers, to learn about the yearly cycle. I introduced myself as "a spy from Bridge City" but of course a lot of folks knew me already and welcomed me as one of their own.

Given October marks a transition from a focus on Quaker testimonies to adjacent traditions in November, I suggested emphasizing Halloween as one of those bridge holidays connecting us to partially overlapping calendars (the Celtic cycle was already mentioned on the handout).

A field trip the The Gold Door off Hawthorne (near Oasis) might be in order? Tibet Spirit would be another good one, and of course The Dollar Scholar across the street (thinking of stocking stuffers).

Friends also seemed receptive to the idea of a field trip to The Grotto closer to Christmas, using the manger scene and Peaceable Kingdom as our bridge to the animal world (the Festival of Lights includes a petting corral). I also mentioned a certain python I knew, that could maybe visit the classroom sometime -- or we could visit the Rose City Reptiles on Division maybe?

I also received permission to replace one of three world projections already on display in one of the classrooms, with a more apolitical Fuller Projection.

I spent most of social hour talking AFSC liaison business with Multnomah's next prospective for that role, plus again met up with the young Pennsylvania crew newly moved to our neighborhood, hyping the nearby Barley Mill as a good place to have beers.

Good seeing Pan's Zoe again, now a student at Lewis & Clark.

Ram's Head

Our projects are going pretty well these days, despite some delays. I'm celebrating with a pint of Hammerhead at one of these McMenamins establishments in NW Portland.

Gordon is taking up Java, finding earlier readings in Python a boost, while Susan resumes piano teaching. Buzz is enjoying O'Reilly's Safari service, which I highly recommended: like being in Powell's Technical, yet accessible on road trips. David is making progress with his science fair software (ISEF).

At Wanderers this morning, we talked some about Scientology over bagels from Noah's, heard the story of a young Nirel coming close to exchanging her umbrella for Dianetics that time, in lieu of cash. Her dad counseled against doing so. I mentioned visiting their booth at the Parliament of World Religions in Cape Town that time, pretty much the extent of my dealings with that outfit.

We also talked about the fluid financial picture.

I kept disappearing to do work, got Razz through an overdue oil change at Jiffy Lube with the $10 discount, with Thai food at Thanh Thao to follow.

Bill and I zoomed in on these locations from within Google Earth, running on my Ubuntu Dell laptop (same one I'm using now). We also checked out the Vatican.

OK, time's up, gotta run!

A Nation of Writers

I learned of this event from Glenn, back from Canada, and was first in line to get tickets.

Powell's Books produced a movie about the writing of a book that hearkens back to those WPA guides to all fifty states, called State By State. The project leader and movie producer were joined by three of the authors, Ms. Wisconsin, Ms. Washington, and Mr. Oregon, with an emcee guiding the panel. Their discussion led us to the movie itself, followed by Q&A with the audience.

The movie provides close up impressions of nineteen of the fifty authors, and was shot in one day in New York City, in an American Legion Hall in Harlem.

These are indeed amazing states, especially New Mexico.

Followup video: Neurotic New Yorkers (CBS News, Nancy Cordes reporting, 9/24/08)

Channel Surfing

My gym has these in your face LCDs on its newest stationary pedal machines, which you don't have to turn on, each with its own headphone jack and controls. I might go for an hour, surfing through shows. The bigger public screens hanging from the ceiling give a sense of what's on, although we have more channels than might show on ten or so panels.

The History Channel has stories about the recent past sometimes, including from the Vietnam war and more recent drug wars in the Americas. The financial shows are these days looking at the bumpy ride the stock market is having, which they say is chaordic, like fractals, part of a self-organizing system. As I posted to a physics list the other day:

So physics has some airtime, through information theory etc. (signal /noise, entropy gradient, book Into the Cool by Sagan et al). We model each region as a source and/or sink for various positives (e.g. cures) and negatives (e.g. sicknesses), talk about world trade as a self-organizing system.

Per our entropy thread earlier, keep in mind that Earth is an open system with a daily solar input, so an overall drop in entropy in biological time is not "against thermodynamics" or anything close (some older books tended to imply "entropy" was to blame for the still prevalent "white mans burden" psychological complex (talking about that famous poem by Kipling **)).

Tinkerbell, my bicycle, suffered a front tire aneurysm plus the back brakes were seated too high, wearing the fabric thin on the tire wall. I left it at the repair shop, as I'm not the best wheel tuner, don't have the right tools in my garage, although this place does let people work on their own cycles with the shop's gear, if you book the time.

Glenn is on business in Canada, I'm staying in Portland thanks to ongoing commitments.

Follow-up: Tink needed more than a new wind bladder (inner tube); she needed a new rear metal wheel, owing to the earlier one's numerous cracks, inferior spoke quality (seeing is believing in this case). Parts and labor: $104 on Visa (Visa being the paradigm chaordic enterprise the way Dee Hock tells it). I'm also ordering more DemocracyLab T-shirts.

Geeking Out

Tara and I are out doing homework with our Ubuntu laptops.

On my plate: grab Eclipse (downloading now, from the Rochester Institute of Technology) and install the Python plug-in; poke around more at Hackety Hack (somewhat esoteric); monitor the Math Forum for additions to a recent thread; compose something interesting for math-thinking-l?

We should be home in time for the CBS Evening News.

Quiet Time

I'm in my "tie-dyed freak with dark glasses" disguise, sipping Nilgiri Blue in a local coffee joint, my daughter close by doing some high schoolers' homework.

Although I'm working pretty hard today on several projects, this is also a day for pensive reflection, meditation, and thanksgiving.

I say thanksgiving because although this is a dark day on the public calendar, most flags at half mast, it was also the day of my marriage to Dawn Wicca under the care of Multnomah Monthly Meeting, in the Rhododendron Garden's wedding meadow, on a blustery but not rainy day in 1993, a happy occasion for many nearest and dearest.

Mom flew back to Philadelphia today, for AFSC meetings and such.

I had lunch with Chuck and Mary Bolton, old family friends. Their romantically situated Columbia Gorge cabin, since sold, was a favorite hideaway for our family as well.

Teaching GnuMath

Wing 101, Akbar font, VPython
click for larger view

Links: Integrated Studies; Teacher's Notes; followup on Math Forum.

Small Talk

We celebrated Tara's first day of high school by dining out at one of the excellent Mongolian grills in Greater Portland, but only after catching all of Alaska governor Palin's speech from the RNC podium, having caught big portions of the DNC show earlier. She's taking journalism this year, plus American history is interesting these days, who can deny it?

As a planner of an upcoming conference, I'm slated to join in a site check this weekend, even though this is a familiar venue, on the way to Mt. Hood. I'm playing with the idea of heading on over the mountain, but the fantasy is too vague to call "a plan" at this point. I often entertain such mirage-like possibilities, and sure enough, some of them become reality (isn't that special -- as in special case).

I was talking to a small business owner this morning, about what's good and bad about Portland. You find a lot of young people flocking here, in search of opportunity, but sometimes psychologically unprepared for how dark it gets, how much rain. I know Dawn was that way, coming in summer, from Florida, running smack into that wall of a winter.

Some swear by full spectrum lighting (check Ikea?), others take flight for sunnier climes, some grin and bear it, and some of us actually enjoy it (no kidding). Anyway, she's working hard to make it work, feels weary a lot, is supporting a child. I like her fun crew though, they generate a warm atmosphere.

Derek is swinging by, just having a chat. We're blabbing about slack, as in cutting oneself some, something we're good at in the Church of Bob (Subgenius).

Hamlet 2 (movie review)

click for larger view?

I came to Fox Tower with my own fantasy of working under cover in some Eastern European capital, posing as some fat cat in training for some "old guy Olympics," my hot personal trainer and I getting in on faux credentials or whatever, meanwhile gathering intelligence for HQS back home.

Hamlet 2 took me out of my world and dropped me in some Arizona high school snackatorium, with lots of trauma and drama, including an ACLU princess, hammy actors, and a great drill sergeant type principal, the kind who threatens you with a pickup truck if you get obscene like he does, but in the wrong way.

New York City signs its name on the end, reminding us that big city culture is still pretty powerful, even out here in the Wild West (not called Empire State for no reason). The principal forgave his father, so powerful was the final performance (involving a time machine, shades of Idiocracy).

I noticed the salutes to Dead Poets Society (logical as a double feature) and Robin Williams in particular.

Lookin' Good

Homecoming 2 of 5

I missed my International School reunion in Manila this year, have yet to see the new campus in person, looks magnificent.

The above 2nd segment of a 5-part video briefly looks at my era of attendance (1970s).

I recommend the first segment especially for its contrast between newer and older -- lots of history.

Homecoming 1 of 5

Wanderers 2008.8.27

All but two of us have laptops this morning, eight around the table. This was my first group check-in since starting a Wanderers PbWiki, leading me to make some administrative changes.

I hadn't realized my Writers were all being notified of one another's changes, the default, leading to lots of new emails. That's a setting each Writer has some control over, but only after logging in with a unique password.

We talked quite a bit about experiments with lasers, both for transmitting power and for cooling, with Jim Buxton reading aloud from some technical article. The topic of buffalo herds also figured prominently, their effects on topography, also migrating tarantulas, Glenn corroborating some of Ron Baithwaite's scary campfire tales.

We also continued our discussion of my Ouija board model vs. simple minded conspiracy theories, with Jon having us imagine a giant planchette governed by huge numbers of people.

Affordable Utopias

What's always too expensive is trying to get everyone on the same page as to what a Utopia is, like my bias is to not like the word itself ("utopia" sounds too infantile, too namby-pamby, having been disparaged for so long, though in opposition to "oblivion" acquired some new kick).

Plus Nature herself fights mono-culture i.e. we taunt ourselves with images of a zombie-like Borg with good reason, as "mindless robot" is a synonym for "maladapted" (we didn't get to be here this long by being that stupid).

"Getting everyone to agree" is neither a prerequisite, nor even a desirable feature, when planning Utopian resort ranches, call centers, training centers, tribal casinos or whatever.

So what I was explaining over a Guinness on Hawthorne yesterday, to a good friend and neighbor, was how I wanted to at least make the "props" be affordable, like some universal studios for wannabe "my way or the highway" types, who'd find one another on the Internet, say, and then pool resources to do some trial and error.

My goal: low barrier to entry. I'd also want to keep a tight focus on recycling, i.e. a Fly's Eye Dome disassembles into Y-shaped parts (Ed Applewhite's favorite picture in Bucky Works he told me) some to be reused maybe.

Props engineers needn't be super judgmental as to what lifestyles get tried with their wares, just as the brand on some camera doesn't rub off on the pictures taken with it, or vice versa, except in terms of picture quality (which matters).

Of course engineers have their own lives, their own families to take care of, must exercise personal discretion in that regard. But your generic catalog inventory, from Ikea or whatever, needn't come with a long list of moralizing "thou shalt nots" except of course from a safety point of view i.e. the consequences of getting it wrong may be low performance, or even disastrous failure.

Instructions with warnings or advisories of this type are not "fascist" just realistic. "Tend to your bridges or they could fail", "if you don't anchor your tent it could blow away in the wind" -- that kind of thing. Lots of holy writ has this flavor and with reason: experienced humans wanted to assist others from repeating their mistakes. That's a respectable motive for recording one's enjoinders, even when the intended audience has long moved on to other lifestyles.

Those with a "good eye" for community will create successful, sustainable communities, complete with permaculture, fun cartoons (like Suzan Pitt's are pretty wild), and solutions to the perennial challenges, as have many successful civilizations of the past.

Some will sell chocolate, others DVDs, some will tap into a power grid, others will be off-grid autonomous. Some will mix only some genders, some will disallow dolphins & whales (yes, that sounds dystopian, but maybe it's more a logistics issue, and besides, I don't have to live there, have choices about where I go).

And let's be clear up front: when a community disbands or disperses, that may well be by design and intention, i.e. seeing those helicopters come by and lift stuff away like that doesn't mean there were personality tensions, management problems or anything like that.

Or it may. Depends on the scenario. Not always my business to know. Yours either.

Somewhere in the literature, Bucky talked about wanting his domes to set a neutral pitch, like a holodeck (a Star Trek thing) before the show starts. It's not the job of the artifacts to dictate what goes on in them, only to clear a space in which lifestyles might unfold, making raw environmental factors less of a drag (like it's hard to perform Hamlet 2 in a blizzard I'd hazard).

Crazy Horse Play

Machine World meets Narnia?

A Summer Project

Our special thanks to Elizabeth Braithwaite

Weird Stories

[ internal memo to Wanderers, republished to blog (we're thinking of doing a Wiki) ]

I got to Wanderers late this morning, just in time to advise Barbara about an inexpensive yet good quality wifi-equipped laptop she might need in Panama, where she's headed this evening until December, wishing her a safe and fun journey.

We didn't talk too much about the Wiki idea, more about DrFrankenstein (not TheMonster). GlobalWarming could be another WikiName -- anyway you get my drift, and there's a thing you can do with square brackets [ ] -- like more punctuation -- if you want to avoid the CamelCase look.

Then I dashed downtown for this meeting at the Armory, a way cool theater these days, which went down to get room, up being out of the question in an historic landmark, although they did add a new roof (had to). Ed Schlossberg an inspiration at some level (not sure which). Check my Flickr Photostream for some pictures.

I rejoined Wanderers in their lunch setting, just as money was being collected. The idea of a "one man Bucky play" got people thinking of this manikin near Mt. St. Helens with a projected face. David suggested getting around "actor guild" restrictions (why Johnny Stallings can't play) by having his voice come from inhumanly scaled sources (too big or too small to be pigeon-holed as "actors"). We also brainstormed about finding people who genuinely believed they were Bucky, or were at least channeling (hence "not acting, so not an actor"). Such union busters we are (Fuller himself was a card carrying member of the machinists' union).

Then it was on to [ another meeting ] where I perused A compendium of certain engineering principles pertainent to Brazil's control of impending acceleration in its industrialization by R. Buckminster Fuller, Chief, Mechanical Engineer Section, Industrial Engineering Division, August 13, 1943 (so this was an anniversary of sorts).

This document is a lot about interviews with American engineers who'd been helping the Russians around the first three 5-year planning cycles, the Russians still considered a friendly ally in this picture. In the footnotes, Fuller notes how Brits and Germans tended to get political, Russians encouraging them to join in the fun, with Germans more into proselytizing for their National Socialism ideology, whereas the American engineers tended to be gruffly dismissive of politics, almost angrily apolitical, which you might think (paraphrasing Bucky) would lead to their dismissal, so disrespectful it seemed, but the Russians actually liked these stubborn china shop bulls, even agreeing to secret service protection in one case, to help reduce friction.

Also looking at Gargle & Snarky, Bil Baird's puppet troupe on Westinghouse Broadcasting, teaching Adventures in Number + Space post Sputnik (New York Times Mar 6 1958, pg. 28). [ Bucky apparently contributed a puppet to this effort -- ed ].

Home to watch Katie and Lara explain about Georgia and the Russians, including a chat with the Georgian president even, Condi also on the record.

A New Kind of Charter

There's a vague allusion to "a new kind of science" here, plus a little irony, as in my view "all public schools are charter schools" the difference being only the kind of charter or state mandate, which of course has a lot to do with when a given school was launched, and how much cruft has since accumulated.

This new drawing board design is for a new type of public school that specializes in hosting exchange students from other parts of the country and world, meaning there's a host family piece, and also a transfer of credits piece.

Under the old system in Portland, a host family inside the Franklin district cannot host an exchange student going to Grant or Cleveland, plus the schools take very few from out of district to begin with, plus they have no obligation to offer credentials, even to an incoming senior putting in a year's worth, however worthy the work. So many wasted opportunities.

The new charters will have that international school flavor already familiar to expats, and probably a cozy relationship with various State Department bureaus, as this will be a natural recruiting ground for future diplomats, once the appropriate sponsorships (aka scholarships) have been lined up (case by case).

The goal is to serve a large number of locally based students (probably at least 50% of the students will be from Portland) plus there's the assumption of many similar academies around the globe, meaning these same PDX-based students will have easier access to opportunities in remote places, likewise in an exchange student capacity.

Odds & Ends

Plans for an upcoming gathering of Willamette Quarterly Friends are coming together, with a lively lineup of talk show hosts. We might get more history of Beanites worked in, depending on interest level.

I'd told the barista I'd buy some of the art in this coffee shop if netting a windfall, wanting a witness, told Trevor too, exactly which one.

I may not have time to post much on August 6th itself, given plans to wolf sushi, but check out these pix of contemporary Hiroshima, emailed by an old buckynaut.


Also, I'm pleased the blogosphere is keeping the Britney Spears meme alive in a science-minded context. She's right up there with Madonna as a cultural icon, blocking public high schooler access to either warranting criminal charges one would hope.

On the calendar: a casino we know will be hosting an open house with all the slots free (no money down, just testing new equipment): a family-friendly event we're hoping to attend.

Exchange Student

Our household just got assessed for an exchange student, and although I displayed some jerkiness, I think we're still on the books as potentials. She'd be going to Cleveland, like Tara, but a senior, from China. We shall see.

Anna Roys has been showing a lot of determination in the face of adversity, in trying to perform her duties within the TECC service area, TECC being her proposed school, mentioned in my Chicago talk briefly.

As a homeschooling mom, she has the right stuff to make it happen, but it takes more than one principal to make a play. Gotta have thespians, co-stars, including in those nebulous realms.

I've been sniping amidst Quakers regarding this "overpopulation" meme some still bandy about somewhat unthinkingly, betraying their schooling in Neo-Malthusianism, popular in 1960s text books, in parallel with Marxism in Eastern Bloc countries.

Given our reputation for scholarship, these reflexes are subject to extinction over time, per Darwinian genetic algorithms, i.e. we're not built to stay stupid, have practices against that. It's not that overpopulation can't be a problem, with any species, it's the level of malign neglect people use it to justify, as if wasting lives were a solution to anything.

As a Wanderer, I'm into protecting the good name of both of these gents (Darwin's too) which means not letting their necessarily time-bound snapshot views get blamed for the cruft of the ages, much as Nietzsche gets blamed for Nazi propaganda (he had nothing to do with that).

That pleasant naturalist and journal keeper who visited the Galapagos had nothing to do with any War Against the Weak either.

But I digress.

This isn't a plan to implement immediately, as Tara's room is undergoing remodeling and Carol's office is in business 24/7, like mine down the hall. No spare digs at the moment, plus we might need to travel more before school starts again.

Mining Cartoons

These cartoons from the late 1950s provide anthropologists with a goldmine.

[2019 -- cartoons redacted]

In the first one, you've got the beatnik wild man stereotype, the temptations of an evil weed. Our krew fits right in, cartoon figures that they be.

In the second one, you have Dishonest John, the tricky dick operator, slick oil man, or "cloaky Victorian" as Willow (a TV witch) might put it, with more allusions to counter-culture beatnikery, in turn affiliated with "modern art" ala cubism, plus "unintelligible" amplified music.

Within the Fuller School, we tend to regard beatniks as prototypical in their fight against "squares". That's because Bucky used to hang out in Greenwich Village with Noguchi & Co., getting loud in bars, until he decided to "dress like a banker" and/or "storekeeper" (so people would take him more seriously -- fashion matters, they say). Plus he was into triangles, not squares, and tetrahedra, not "qyoobs" so heavily.

My thanks to Alan on Synergeo for his scholarship.