Toronto, Ontario; Austin, Texas; Katy, Texas, Houston, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Fairfield, Iowa; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Montreal, Quebec; Paris, France.
Maple Leaf Lounge. Relaxed start of trip to Austin, saw Margaret Atwood at breakfast. Trip became complicated as late flight to Chicago would miss connection. Long line, but phone call revealed seats available via Newark. Rushed to commuter gates. (Toronto) 20141203Stubbs Bar-B-Q, Austin, TX. Young Tongue, opening act on a quiet Wednesday night in the Red River district, north of 6th Street. We arrived in Austin a few hours ago, having been waylaid by a missed connection. (Austin, Texas) 20141303County Line Bbq. Beef ribs, fatty beef brisket, half pound of pulled pork, as lunch for family of five. Order for 3 enough, would have been ridiculous to call for 5 plates. (Austin, Texas) 20141204Party sushi. Family from Toronto and California convening foot lunch in Katy, Texas, one day before wedding celebration. Split off women to bridal shower, men to sightseeing at museums in Central Houston and Rice University. More family still arriving. (Katy, Texas) 20141205Windsor Parks Lakes. Pavilion at east end of man-made lake in gated subdivision at the western periphery of Houston. Cool, cloudy day, but warm enough to be bicycling along winding roads around two storey houses. (Houston, Texas) 20141206Family wedding celebration. Niece is first of generation to be married. Post dinner dancing reveals a variety of skills amongst cousins not previously observed in other contexts. (Katy, Texas) 20141206
IAH Terminal C, security check. At Bush Airport, TSA Pre does not even provide bins, as laptops stay in luggage. Somehow discomforted by convenience, as I know that laptop on top of tablet should be impenetrable to x-rays. AHI and me to C gate for Chicago, him in slow lane through security. NPI was on different bus to B gate for commuter plane to Columbus. (Houston, Texas) 20141207After School Matters installation. Stained glass umbrellas overhead, and windows to both sides of corridor between Terminal 1 and 2. Designed by schoolchildren in 2008 as acrylic and hand drawings, reproduced as skylines along the path. (Chicago O’Hare) 20141207Cattle grazing. On the farm, not many distractions from writing. Hunting season, but deer know how to hide. (Iowa) 20141208Bookstore pizza. Relaxed lunch by main square in town. Sat in the spirituality book section while enjoying the half of the thin crust pizza that didn’t have cheese on it. A break from another day of writing on the computer. (Revelations Cafe, Fairfield, Iowa) 20141210Eastern Iowa Airport, pier C. Non-coniferous trees in white and blue signify holiday season has arrived. Added to the hall of flags on the bridge from landside to airside C gates. Low stress airport with most traffic back and forth to Chicago O’Hare, so few distractions for passengers waiting to depart. (Cedar Rapids CID, Iowa) 20141213Danforth Ave. w. of Woodington. Bundled up for bicycling at freezing point, trolling dollar stores for inflatable neck pillows to sleep in upright position on flight to Europe next week. Filled neck pillows now easier to find than inflatable ones. Slow bicycling up hills northbound on a dreary afternoon. (Toronto) 20141218Red bean soup. A better alternative to a birthday cake made with dairy products that I couldn’t eat, sweet soup for dessert at the end of a family Chinese meal. (Perfect Chinese Restaurant, Scarborough, Ontario) 20141224Stainless steel elk. Sculpture by Mathieu Isabelle 2013 “The Great One” in front of duty free store in the airport terminal on a Christmas Day. Changing planes for an overnight flight to Roissy Charles de Gaulle, Paris, France (Montreal Trudeau Airport) 20141225CDG information. Clerk at information booth said RER B train outage today, recommended Roissybus to Opera. RDI very tired, I listened to music for 3 hours lying down on courtesy upgrade by Air Canada. (Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France) 20141226College de France gates. Research education founded 1530, across the street from the older Sorbonne, in the Latin Quarter 5th arrondissement. Statue of Claude Bernard (1813-1878) who first decribed “milieu intérieur”, now known as ” homeostasis”. Late afternoon following morning arrival at Charles De Gaulle airport, so RDI falling asleep at almost every opportunity. We should both feel better after a good night’s sleep (Paris, France) 20141226Pont Neuf. Love locks on the Lovers Bridge seem sparser, as maintenance workers have been removing them frequently to lighten the load on the span. Strolling over the Seine and back many times with PO and BY. (Pont Neuf, Paris, France) 20141227Eiffel Tower. Unexpected Paris landmark in frame, from the Palais de Tokyo plaza overlooking the Passerelle Debillly arch crossing the Seine. Had a late Sunday start by sleeping in on second day, enduring long lines at the Foundation Louis Vuitton art museum designed by Frank Gehry, then quick stop at Musee D’art Moderne. (Paris, France) 20141228Fondation Cartier pour l’art comtemporain. Unexpected joy at complicated two-room installation taking entire first floor, with “Musings on a Glass Box” 2014 Diller Scofidio + Renfro (designers), and David Lang and Jody Elff (sounds), explained during 6:30 p.m. tour (en francais). The receiving room has huge monitor panels suspended so observers ride a reclined shop creeper on wheels to view the images of the ceiling projected from the moving bucket in the transmitting room. (Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France) 20141228 (Ballade pour une boîte de verre)CDG. Checked in at 11:58 for 13:00 flight. Got lost on way to bus to Gare du Nord, got taxi to station. Left RDI at Gare du Nord. Frustrated at RER elevators out of service, gates that won’t read tickets. On to Montreal for connection. (Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris France) 20141229New generation camera. Returned to store for Canon G7X after visit yesterday for S120. Old S90 not as reliable recently, decided to jump to larger sensor in new compact camera body. Fine details in selecting between a variety of technology options. (Downtown Camera, Toronto) 20141231
Sushi on New Year’s Eve. Quiet family dinner, with sons preparing raw salmon on vinegared rice in a professional style. Buying sushi-grade fish from Bill’s Lobster in Chinatown beats having to deal with the crowds on a popular holiday event. Sons may find friends to celebrate, parent more likely to catch up on sleep. (Toronto) 20141231
The idea of managers being proactive only dates back to 1964, as classes of functions described by Abraham Zaleznik: homeostatic, mediative, and proactive. Predispositions may or may not be altered through educational development.
Fit the people around an organization; or an organization around the people? Working backwards, say @MitroffCrisis + #HaroldLinstone, from current concrete choices to uncertain futures, surfaces strategic assumptions in a collective decision, better than starting with an abstract scorecard to rank candidates.
Should we do, or not-do? Russell Ackoff, over many years, wrote about (negative) potential consequences: There are two possible types of decision-making mistakes, which are not equally easy to identify. (1) Errors of commission: doing something that should not have been done. (2) Errors of omission: not doing something that should have been done. For […]
The final publication of the October 2016 Relating Systems Thinking and Design Symposium workshop "Some Future Paths for Design Professionals: DesignX and Systemic Design" was published as “Systemic Design Agendas in Education and Design Research” in FormAkademisk, following 2 years of rewrites, reviews and revisions.
Federated wiki is deployed on a node.js server, an environment which has become available on some cPanel shared hosting providers. Here are some instructions written while restoring a wiki site originally installed in 2014-2015 on a cloud provider.
Reading The Undoing Project, by Michael Lewis, reminded me of a PhD course at UBC with Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, before they were recognized as Nobel prize candidates.
The story of #JosephNeedham by @simonwwriter, about the scholar behind the 27-volume Science and Civilisation in China starting in 1954 and continuing after his death in 1995. Arriving in China in 1942, Needham discovered gunpowder, printing and the magnetic compass…Read more ›
Talk at @gtalug on Let’s Learn Tech Online @torontolibrary with @p2pu @CiscoNetAcad @TorontoESS. Linux Unhatched online course conducted in groups of 8 to 12, meetings twice per week in person. Non-technical facilitator encourages peers to work out understanding together. Found…Read more ›
The WordPress O2 plugin with P2-Breathe theme results in a Facebook-like or Twitter-like streaming interface. The idea was first presented in 2013, evolving from the P2 theme in 2009 (originally launched as Prologue in 2008) when hosted on wordpress.com. “Beau…Read more ›
Talk at the Centre for Human Ecology, Glasgow, announced at http://www.che.ac.uk/tim-ingold-talks-about-the-sustainability-of-everything-10th-sept-2016/ Video posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncLv9Gk7XrI and https://vimeo.com/182572764 This digest was created by editing the text transcript generated by Youtube. View the video yourself for a more authentic reproduction. Lapses, grammatical…Read more ›
Plenary presentation by Tim Ingold, at the 2nd @AIBR_ International Conference of Anthropology. The 2nd AIBR International Conference of Anthropology brings together anthropologists from different parts of the world under the theme “Identity: Bridges, Thresholds, and Barriers.” [….] [6:58] So…Read more ›
In deciphering Yin-Yang and Five Elements (Five Phases) thinking, #Kaptchuk (1983) has a footnote and then an appendix that clarifies the way forward for appreciating foundations of Chinese medicine favouring the former.
The field theory in psychology by #KurtLewin 1943 derives from classical field theory (viz. electromagnetism and gravitation), predating quantum field theory (viz. subatomic particles). For psychology, Lewin wrote in 1943 how history (and a subjective view of the future) matters. It is correct that field theory emphasizes the importance of the fact that any event […]
Many who cite #KurtLewin haven't read the original 1947/1951 writings, say @strategybuild @ToddBridgman @kgbphd with the "refreezing" part of "unfreezing → changing → refreezing" emerging in a subsequent career of an idea that can be traced genealogically and archaeologically.
Human organizations may learn from wolves, with groups of 2 to 6 taking down elk, and cooperative expert groups of 9 to 13+ taking down larger bison. #DanielMacNulty, #AimeeTallian #DanielRStahler #DouglasWSmith (2014).
Meeting effectiveness is reduced after 7 people are involved, say @BainInsights consultants #Blenko, #Mankins, #Rogers. Follow the Rule of Seven for meetings. Who should come to a meeting is always a sensitive issue, and the basic precept is often “The more the merrier.” But more is rarely better when it comes to making decisions. Our […]
