Toronto, Ontario.
Almost finished double lobster: Down to the last pieces of shellfish from the double lobster portion of the dinner. Started with peking duck, then shark’s fin soup, whole steamed fish. Grand Ocean Seafood was my father’s choice for a well-executed family (Scarborough, Ontario) 20110801Blood pressure 129 over 84. Had acupuncture to relieve fatigue. Mental and visual acuity restored. Afterwards, Dr. David Lam took my blood pressure, finding it 129/84, which is normal for me. In May, after trip to Las Vegas, blood pressure was low, at 109/84 (Toronto) 20110802Urban forestry on Booth Avenue. Sounds of chain saws across the street, as crew removed tree from back yard. The tree in the front yard is owned by the city, and thus cared for by municipal employees. The tree in the back yard is at the property owner’s prerogative, so it’s not much different than any other plant with a life cycle. (Toronto) 20110804 1640Danforth, east of Chester, Taste of the Danforth. Despite intermittent rains and swampy heats, mobs still flock to Taste of the Danforth late on Sunday afternoon. Our family went to the first and second years’ events, when there was more community participation. Now, it seems to be mostly a local small business event. To avoid crowds and summer heat, we prefer to patronize the businesses for lunch in the dead of winter. (Toronto) 20110807 1740Toronto nightline from Polson Pier. Avoided heat by bicycling at night. Southbound to Portlands, west to Polson Pier. Cool view of downtown Toronto. Steady stream of taxis dropping off clubbers. (Toronto) 20110808 2111Withrow Park evening softball. Rode bike past Withrow Park, where a friendly game of softball was being played on a cool summer evening. On the way uphill to deliver foo jook soup to a friend. (Toronto) 20110810 1950Toronto Necropolis Mary Watson 1869. Grave marker for Mary Watson, died 1869 at age 6 years, 11 months. The oldest legible date that I saw at Toronto Necropolis, originally opened in 1850. A tranquil spot in today’s downtown Toronto that would have been far from the harbour so many years ago. Northeast of Wellesley Street and Parliament Street (Toronto) 20110811 18:05View southwest from Birchmount Road. bridge north of Ellesmere Road. Rail tracks straight shot southwest to downtown Toronto, towers in the distance. From an overpass on Ellesmere Road., which might otherwise be a flat bike ride southbound on a slow slope down to Lake Ontario. for a change of scenery, I rode subway to Kennedy station, then loaded onto front of bus up to Huntingwood Drive. Don fuelled me up with spaghetti and conversation, so I felt so much better on the ride home. (Scarborough, ON) 20110812 2002Pretzel Logic Lakeshore Mardi Gras 2011. Steely Dan cover band plays at a summer community festival in Etobicoke. If the you’re going to play covers, making ridiculously difficult content seem easy is a challenge worth taking. pretzellogic.ca (Toronto) 20110813 1841Torrential downpour at Regent Park. Should have checked the weather radar before going cycling. Rode to other side of Don River before rain started pouring down. Took refuge under big trees for five minutes until rain lightened. My preferred time for exercise coincides with after rush hour, so today’s air may have been cleaner than usual. (Toronto) 20110815 1801Brass Transit at Unionville Bandshell after dark. Sidestage at the Unionville Bandshell to hear Brass Transit covering Chicago, over 2 hours of music. Audience gave standing ovation. Bands in Toronto rearranged, as saw Paul De Long (drums), Don Breithaupt (keyboards) and Bob McAlpine (guitar) with Pretzel Logic playing Steely Dan just 5 days earlier (Unionville, ON) 20110818 20:43Edward Gardens 26th Renewal of Vows. For the 26th consecutive year, DY have returned to renew our vows at the same fountain where we were originally married, at Edward Gardens. The answer was, again, that we’re committed for another year. It pays to reflect on the year past, and look to the year forward on our relationship as a regular event. Forecast for tornado later in the evening didn’t deter us, we can’t remember ever being rained out. (Toronto) 20110824 1815Ryan checking in for YYZ-PEK on Air Canada. Family saw off son #4 to Renmin University of China. Following the pattern of three older brothers, with Noah halfway through his two years in Beijing. Will expect to hear from him on Skype by tomorrow morning our time (Toronto) 20110830 1120
Seicho no Ie temple, Scarborough, Ontario. Striking modernist temple with Japanese touches is Seicho no Ie, the world’s largest New Thought group. Never heard of this religion, had to look up on Wikipedia. In eastern Toronto, on Victoria Park Avenue just north of Danforth Avenue, encountered bicycling south from St. Clair (Scarborough, Ontario) 20110831
While the term “theory of change” is often used by funders expecting an outcome of systems change for their investment, is there really a theory there? The November 2020 Systems Thinking Ontario session was an opportunity for Peter H. Jones (OCADU) and Ryan J. A. Murphy (Memorial U. of Newfoundland) to extend talks that they […]
For the third of three workshops by the Systems Changes Learning Circle in October 2020, Kelly Okamura, Dan Eng and Joanne Dong led a Beacon Event for Global Change Days. This session was one in a series for global changemakers. Our expectation was that they would be hands-on practitioners, with relatively low familiarity with systems […]
For the second of three workshops by the Systems Changes Learning Circle in October 2020, we convened a session for the monthly Systems Thinking Ontario meeting. The focus of this workshop was a review of progress to date on methods by the scholarly team, informed by the adoption and use by the field team. The […]
For the first of three workshops by the Systems Changes Learning Circle in October 2020, Zaid Khan led a session for the Relating Systems Thinking and Design RSD9 Symposium. Our team had developed a set of reference slides for the three workshops, from which content that would most resonate with the audience could be selected. […]
Two Major Research Projects (MRPs) — they might be called master’s theses elsewhere — by Zaid Khan and David Akermanis reflect the Systemic Design agenda within the OCADU program on Strategic Foresight and Innovation (SFI). To graduate, all SFI students complete an MRP. With many subjects and techniques covered during SFI studies, only a […]
While it’s important to appreciate the systems thinking foundations laid down by the Tavistock Institute and U. Pennsylvania Social Systems Science (S3, called S-cubed) program, practically all of the original researchers are no longer with us. Luminaries who have passed include Eric L. Trist (-1993), Fred E. Emery (-1997), and Russell L. Ackoff (-2009). This […]
In conversation, @zeynep with @ezraklein reveal authentic #SystemsThinking in (i) appreciating that “science” is constructed by human collectives, (ii) the west orients towards individual outcomes rather than population levels; and (iii) there’s an over-emphasis on problems of the moment, and…Read more ›
In the question-answer period after the lecture, #TimIngold proposes art as a discipline of inquiry, rather than ethnography. This refers to his thinking On Human Correspondence. — begin paste — [75m26s question] I am curious to know what art, or…Read more ›
How might our society show value for the long term, over the short term? Could we think about taxation over time, asks @carlotaprzperez in an interview: 92% for 1 day; 80% within 1 month; 50%-60% tax for 1 year; zero tax for 10 years.Read more ›
For the @ArchFoundation, #TimIngold distinguishes outcome-oriented making from process-oriented growing, revisiting #MartinHeidegger “Building Dwelling Thinking”. Organisms are made; artefacts grow. The distinction seems obvious, until you stop to ask what assumptions it contains, about the inside and outside of things…Read more ›
In web conference, #HermanDaly says #EcologicalEconomics used to get attacked from the right, now it's from the left. Panel @revkin @jon_d_erickson @ktkish @sophiesanniti #TimCrowshaw #KatieHorner livestreamed #sustainwhat .Read more ›
Complementing the idea of a @longnow , @nfergus provokes the challenge of a #shortthen as the online social media platforms distract the larger perspectives on history.Read more ›
Understanding Process-Function Ecology by Ashwani Vasishth leads to luminaries in the systems sciences, including C. West Churchman, Eugene P. Odum and Timothy F.H. Allen.
As an irony, the 2020 book, The Innovation Delusion by #LeeVinsel @STS_News + #AndrewLRussell @RussellProf shouldn’t be seen as an innovation, but an encouragement to join @The_Maintainers where an ongoing thought network can continue. The subtitle “How Our Obsession with the New has Disrupted the Work That Matters Most” recognizes actual innovation, as distinct from […]
An online social network reproduces content partially based on algorithms, and partially based on the judgements made by human beings. Either may be viewed as positive or negative. > The trade-offs came into focus this month [November 2020], when Facebook engineers and data scientists posted the results of a series of experiments called “P(Bad for […]
Social Systems Science graduate students in 1970s-1980s with #RussellAckoff, #EricTrist + #HasanOzbehkhan at U. Pennsylvania Wharton School were assigned the Penguin paperback #SystemsThinking reader edited by #FredEEmery, with updated editions evolving contents.
Resurfacing 1968 Buckley, “Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist: A Sourcebook” for interests in #SystemsThinking #SocioCybernetics #GeneralSystemsTheory #OrganizationScience . Republication in 2017 hardcopy may be more complete.
Proponents of #SystemsThinking often espouse holism to counter over-emphasis on reductionism. Reading some definitions from an encyclopedia positions one in the context of the other (François 2004).
