Toronto, Ontario; Shanghai, PR China; Kalamazoo, Michigan
Pearson Airport T1: Between Gates E77 and E78, colorful glass cylinders enclosing light bulbs, suspended from overhead arches. Design by Norr Architects for OTG, a company operating high-end restaurants at the airport, including Hemant Bhagwani’s Marathi Indian. (Terminal 1, Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Ontario) 20170401Shanghai Pudong Airport: Whimsical rooster themed installation on middle of airport, lightens the spirit on the long walk from the airplane, through immigration, to the Maglev train. Impressed on short ride hitting 430 km/h peak, before slowing down at western terminus. (Pudong International Airport, Shanghai, PR China) 20170402Zhangwu Sichuan: Dinner for Qingming Tomb-Sweeping Day, since public holiday on a Monday still has most people off work. Chose Sichuan resto near Tongji University, left half of dishes filled with red peppers too spicy to eat. (Zhangwu Sichuan, Shanghai, PR China) 20170403People’s Park Pond: Father with small net skimming somethings from top of pond, and placing into small bucket for son. Game players involved in own activities in the background. Tuesday is still an extended Qingming weekend holiday, the park was popular with families. (People’s Park, Shanghai, P R China) 20170404Shanghai Gallery of Art: Yin Xiuzhen 2005 TVT-Rocket installation of three cloth towers, extends from third floor in light well up to 6th. Gallery is open to public, and closer to the Bund, but maybe the Whampoa Club upstairs enjoys less traffic. (Shanghai Gallery of Art, Three.on the Bund, Shanghai, P R China) 20170404Rockbund Art Museum: Song Dong 2017 Back Image, screen plus 50 benches. Extensive show covering long career over 6 floors. Well curated contemporary art venue, building walls show a sense of humour with dimensions marked everywhere. (Rockbund Art Museum, Huangpu Qu, Shanghai, P R China) 20170404
College of Design and Innovation, Tongji U.: Ph.D. seminar @snousala on Quantitative Methods. What is the difference between data, information, and knowledge? Describing the context before diving into big data tools. (College of Design and Innovation, Tongji University, Shanghai, P R China) 20170405Tongji U: One of many bikeshare clusters on the sidewalk boulevards in Shanghai. Mobike orange, Ofo yellow and Xiaoming blue services don’t have dockng stations, it’s easy for a subscriber to scan a barcode with a mobile phone to unlock the clamp, ride away, and drop off near destination. High volume cheap bikes everywhere are a sharp contrast to the North American style of higher quality infrastructure spread further apart. (Tongji University, Shanghai, P R China) 20170406Jz Club: Thomas Stabenow presents Li Xiaochuan, world touring famous bassist lending legitimacy to local trumpeter. Went to wrong venue in the Former French Concession, had to take taxi to meet SN late. Jazz Club is truly underground, maze of tunnels opens up unexpectedly into courtyard. (Jz Club, Julu Road, Shanghai, P R China) 20170406Baker & Spice: Convenient intercept meeting in Former French Concession, with scholars coming from Canada/Finland, China/Finland and Netherlands/Canada. Multi-hour discussion in the relaxed corner of a bakery cafe, with a toddler racing circles on a tricycle. Will consult calendars for next face-to-face with extended colleagues. (Baker & Spice, Former French Concession, Shanghai, P R China) 20170407Buynow Xujiahui: Shopped for Lenovo Yoga Pad Android, tired of hoisting powerful ThinkPad X230T around. Lightweight pen-based device matches OS on mobile phone, screen larger and can sketch notes. New alternative to netbook, without Windows or Mac OS. Full experience of registering purchase with tax authorities. (Buynow, Xujiahui, Shanghai, P R China) 20170407Yangdian Taoist Temple: Upper and lower level rooms each house one or more deities representing a variety of qualities, ringing two large buildings in the courtyard centre. Gate fee gave me a bundle of joss sticks, I followed the cue of others to light them, bow four directions, and then stand the sticks up in an urn of ashes. Musicians playing, priests chanting, echoing through the large compound. (Royal Qinci Yangdian Taoist Temple, Pudong, Shanghai, P R China) 20170408
Royal Qinci Yangdian Taoist Temple:
Woman bowing 3 times in 4 directions with joss sticks that are then left to smoke in the brazier. Couple taking paper foil joss paper from a bag, for deposit into a cylindrical brazier. From a distance within the temple, wind and string musicians can be heard, while priests’ voices are unamplified. (Royal Qinci Yangdian Taoist Temple, Pudong, Shanghai, P R China) 20170408
Chinese herb pot: Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner prescribed extra large quantity of herbs, with diagnosis of bronchitis and fatigue from travel to Asia. Three bags, each to be decocted for 45 minutes for a first serving, and then with added water on a second day. Electric clay pot was originally bought by son #2, as a better alternative to simpler steel pot on stove. (Riverside district, Toronto, Ontario) 20170409Sugar Loaf Bakery: Pastries made on-premise available mid-morning, but breakfast sandwiches out, so friend had the last croissant warmed with ham and cheese. Good conversation in a quiet corner at the back, catching up on news missed over the last month. It seems as though I visit venues that are more distant, than the places just down the street. (Sugar Loaf Bakery, Queen Street East, Riverside district, Toronto, Ontario) 20170412Hua Sheng: Busy day in Spadina Chinatown, where Good Friday isn’t an observed holiday. Since local stores on the east side are mostly closed, biked cross town on a sunny day to pick up Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa cough syrup. Looking for some symptomatic relief at home. (Hua Sheng, Chinatown, Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20170414Distillery Loop: TTC driver enjoying clear weather, pausing streetcar before scheduled northbound departure. Southern terminus of the Cherry Street line is a flat wide open, usually unoccupied yet unavailable for other purposes. The 514 line started running along King Street in June 2016, complementing the 504 line that runs farther east, and then north. (Distillery Loop, Cherry Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20170415
Queen Street Dental Centre:
Watched 3-D printing of a dental crown made in 9 minutes in the neighbourhood office. Had chipped crown last installed in 2005. Dentist built up to original shape, and then use computer copy function. Onsite production saves cost of impression for temporary, and setting up room for second visit. Manufactory still expensive, maybe 5 to 7 year payback. (Queen Street Dental Centre, Queen Street East, Riverside district, Toronto, Ontario) 20170418
OCADU Richmond Campus: Full house at Systems Thinking Ontario, @DaveMallery explaining thermodynamics as a foundation for ecological economics. More of a challenge than I would inflict on a grad school class, this session was organized on request by the group while I was away. As I was skimming the prereadings, I came to appreciate how much systems theory I have internalized over 20 years. (OCADU, 205 Richmond Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20170419OCADU Richmond Campus: MuSIASEM briefing @uomo_macchina channelling @MarioGiampietro Kozo Mayumi method of accounting for analyzing socio-ecosystems, to simulate possible patterns of development. Presenting at Systems Thinking Ontario, guest visit from McGill University. Characterizing metabolic patterns of Socio-Ecological Systems. (OCADU, 205 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20170419Sky Dragon Resto: Lowkong Society Spring Festival dinner, second course of BBQ meats being served. More casual than the fall festival, maybe a signal that winter is over. (Sky Dragon Restaurant, Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20170423Woodbine Beach: Mounds of earth signal that lagoon is man-made, and the beach is renewed each spring for warm weather recreation. Public park opened in the late 1970s was originally a marsh, with major dredging in the 1920s. (Woodbine Beach, Ashbridges Bay, Toronto, Ontario) 20170427
Shwarma King : Slight diversion for Middle Eastern buffet, surprised at homemade dishes in large variety. Oriental cuisine a welcomed change from Asian cooking, fits our family demands for dairy-frer, gluten-free lunch. Resto seems family-operated, shows that food fast didn’t have to be fast food. (Shwarma King Buffet, Kalamazoo, Michigan) 20170430
The October online meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario presented an opportunity for an update on progress made by the Systems Changes Learning Circle by 2022. A slide deck had been prepared an in-person seminar at the Universitat de Barcelona Graduate Programmes in Business, organized by Ryan C. Armstrong, one week earlier. Our regular monthly meeting, […]
Just before starting a trip to Spain, I received an invitation from Ryan C. Armstrong at the Universitat de Barcelona Business School to give some lectures. The students in the bachelor’s programme in international business had a short mention of systems thinking in the first lecture of the operationa management class. With that brief entry, […]
While the adaptive cycle and panarchical connections reflect the possiblity of movement from one stable state to another, it’s possible to get “stuck” in a disfavoured trap. Social ecological systems involve both natural systems and human systems. After widespread recognition of the 2002 Panarchy book, reflections in 2010 revealed further development of the theory and […]
In order to appreciate the influence of resilience science and panarchy on ongoing research into systems changes, revisiting foundational works sometimes resurfaces insights. In the 2002 Panarchy book, Chapter 15 provides a summary of findings. In the course of the project hat led to this volume, we identified twelve conclusions (Table 15-1) in our search for […]
What might a non-anthropocentric view of sustainability look like? This would probably include regeneration of species alongside others in the ecosystem. With some recent presentations, an idea that resonates with audiences is the “The Second Life of Trees”, credited by Tim Ingold (2002) to John Knight (1998). Ingold sees continuity of life not only of […]
Towards a general theory of living systems, we should be looking beyond the singletons of a hierarchical level, i.e. (i) cell, (ii) organ, (iii) organism, (iv) group, (v) organization, (vi) community, (vii) society, and (viii) supranational level. In a scientific approach, James Grier Miller created a list of hypotheses. In the 1100+ page book, the […]
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 ›
An online version of a special issue of Paunch (1980) on "Root Metaphor: The Live Thought of Stephen C. Pepper" has been preserved on the internet Archive
Attributed to Hippocrates is the use of the term kairos in observational methodology, and the presentation of significant findings. Just to be scholarly, Hippocrates is generally reported as a institution, rather than a person. Although Hippocrates is generally accepted as the father of medicine, few have recognized, or even realized, the extent to which he […]
Autopoiesis, as coined by Humberto Maturana, is in the contextualist root metaphor of Stephen C. Pepper, rather than the organismic root metaphor, say #HowardMancing and #JenniferMarstonWilliam .
