Toronto, Ontario; Scarborough, Ontario; Markham, Ontario.
Beach Skateboard Park. Spring has really arrived in Toronto, but people not yet wearing shorts. Transition from winter wear to light top clothes seems practically overnight. (Ashbridges Bay, Toronto) 20150502Bike helmet selection. When safety equipment all looks about the same, is made with similar materials, and ranges in price from $22 to over $200, the conscientious shopper takes quite a while to decide. The last bike helmet may be a decade old, so the perhaps thriftiness isn’t the most important attribute. (Mountain Equipment Coop, King Street West, Toronto) 20150507Yonge and Grenville Streets. Two storey storefronts demolished, foundations for @YCcondos 66 floor glass tower in progress. Intensification of downtown core, a few blocks north of Ryerson University and Yonge-Dundas Square. I don’t remember this construction project starting, the warm weather means bicycling more frequently. (462 Yonge Street, Toronto) 20150509Silver City Fairview. No lineup at suburban Tuesday matinee of Avengers movie in its second week. Stadium seating in non-3D room, a better way to enjoy a Hollywood blockbuster. (Cineplex Silver City Cinema, Fairview Mall, North York, Ontario) 20150512Table of ten. Chinese dinner on a weekday night with aunt, cousin, sister, father. Only one son attending, so our branch not dominating the table. Lobster, Peking duck, lots of Cantonese dishes, all consumed. (Perfect Chinese Restaurant, Scarborough, Ontario) 20150513
Unwin Ave bridges. Graceful bike bridge has two lanes, chunky car bridge has single lane. Just west of the entrance of the Outer Harbour Marina in the Portlands, following the Toronto Waterfront Trail. Smokestack of the decommissioned Hearn Generating Station in the background. (475 Unwin Street, Toronto) 20150514Monarch Park underpass. StreetARToronto mural by Elicser celebrates mother nature and mothers depicted in micro-financed community development by Stephen Lewis. Ribbons were cut in November 2014, just discovered in springtime bike ride east on Danforth Ave. past Greenwood Ave, with a little turn south. (Monarch Park, Toronto) 20150516Lowkong cemetery monument Annual visit to honour ancestors, with traditional whole roasted pig and chickens for standup lunch. Four of us represented our family branch, as others travelling out of town. Declined on dinner, we’ll have our own remembrance of mom and our branch in two weeks when the family can convene. (Pine Hills Cemetery, Scarborough, Ontario) 20150517Natrel Pond, Harbourfront. Congestion of canoes and paddleboats in 2 feet of water, on a busy Victoria Day at Harbourfront Centre. Walkways filled with people enjoying the weather, ships ready to tour the harbour. (Harbourfront Toronto) 20150518Tommy Thompson Park view west. Downtown Toronto from the Minor Trail Transition view over Embayment C, by the turnaround on the Multi-Use Trail Section 2. Only halfway down the way, but going further south would cross a pedestrian bridge. Shameless disregard of signs saying the Leslie Street Spit is only open on weekends, many runners and cyclists are out on a Monday 6 pm, after construction access closes at 4:30. (Tommy Thompson Park, Toronto) 20150526Cemetery visit in the rain. Family visiting from out of town meant limited window for annual visit to gravesites. Waited on car for a break in the rain, which turned out to be brief. Digging into sod for new plants deterred by hitting clay. Threaded time together with other events on a busy weekend schedule. (Pine Hills Cemetery, Scarborough, Ontario) 20150530Trinity College 8T0 35th reunion: Actually 39 years since first meeting many of this University of Toronto class at orientation week. Wine tasting in the Combinations Room, a place to to gather while dining from the buffet in Strachan Hall, then continuing to a pub on Harbord Street. Mostly recognized the faces, names were aided by wearing labels. Group photo at 8:15 p.m., for the people who could hang on that long. (Trinity College, University of Toronto) 20150530 Photo album at https://goo.gl/photos/LMe7umtd4mVioUVX7Cheongsam store. Sister shopping for formal wear turns out to influence spouse who finds a size that fits. Day visiting family turns into running errands while in the neighbourhood. Strip plaza just east of Pacific Mall has more permanent businesses with conventional storefronts. (Bo Bo Fashion, Market Village, Markham, Ontario) 20150531
The fourth of four lectures for the Systemic Design course at OCADU SFI focused on (a) situated practice + history-making (reframing disclosing new worlds), and on (b) commitments and the language-action perspective (applying conversations for action).
The third of four lectures for the Systemic Design course at OCADU covered value(s), the science of service systems, and the socio-technical systems perspective.
A lecture on ecological systems for the OCADU SFI master's program opened up opportunities to discuss wei and wuwei, and get beyond an anthropocentric perspective the Canadian beaver in its habitat.
The second session of the Systemic Design course in the OCADU SFI master's program was an opportunity to share the current state of knowledge on Systems Change, in light of recent interest in Systems Change and Theory of Change.
A workshop with David L. Hawk at the CANSEE meeting in May 2019 led to an invitation to publish an article, "Ecology and Economy: Systems Changes Ahead?" in WEI Magazine.
Questions about governance of online social communities led to launching on the Open Learning Commons and the Digital Life Collective, while issues of content moderation on a Facebook Group has reignited.
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 ›
Social ecology and environmental psychology described @dstokols @Social_Ecology , interviewed by @katiepatrick . References #WilliamsJames on attention. Book on Social Ecology in the Digital Age released in 2018.Read more ›
Concerns on #personaldata should be reframed as interpersonal, says @sheldrake , less the nodes and more the edge connections. “I want to take back control” superficial, @hartzog says control doesn’t scale. Agency is about negotiation in the world, more rhizomatic…Read more ›
Doing science should be wayfinding (pathfinding), says #TimIngold , gaining grounding in the art of paying attention, towards research as the pursuit of truth. Truth is more than objective facts, where science and art are embraced with materials, so that we can see the quality inside the natural world as it forms, rather than as […]
We should be more vigourous, says @MazzucatoM , in debating differences between value extraction and value creation, and between profits and rents. Lecture at Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford U., January 2019Read more ›
Most destructive analogy last 100 years @DavidGelernter @econtalker : Post-Turing thinkers decided that brains were organic computers, that computation was a perfect model of what minds do ... and that mind relates to brain as software relates to computer Read more ›
Two ways of thinking about practice put (i) “plans as determinants of action”, and (ii) “plans as resources for action”. The latter has become a convention, particularly through research into Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW). While the more durable explanation appears the Suchman (1987) book (specifically section “8.2 Plans as […]
Does “the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago and the second best time is now” date back further than 1988? It is time to look long and hard at the value of the urban forest and create the broad-based efforts — in research, funding and citizen participation — needed to improve […]
Workshop led by @RohanAlexander and @prof_lyons at #CASCONxEvoke on "Barriers to Data Science Adoption: Why Existing Frameworks Aren't Working". For discussion purposes the challenges are grouped within three themes: regulatory; investment; and workforce.
“You are entitled to your own opinions, but not to your own facts” by #DanielPatrickMoynihan is predated on @Freakonomics by #BernardMBaruch 1950 “Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts”. Source: “There Are Opinions, And Then There Are Facts” | Fred Shapiro […]
Satire can be an antidote, says Prof. #PaulBabbitt @muleriders , to #bullshit (c.f. rhetoric; hypocrisy; crocodile tears; propaganda; intellectual dishonesty; politeness, etiquette and civility; commonsense and conventional wisdom; symbolic votes; platitudes and valence issues).
