Toronto, Ontario; Hamilton, Ontario; Pickering, Ontario
Hudson’s Bay Queen Street: Shopping, not for Christmas, but seasonally-decorated windows displays still draw crowds. Paused to see the rabbit’s head in a good position; it’s animated. I remember similar displays back into the 1970s, when this location was the Simpson’s Department Store. Americanization is more present with FAO Schwartz signs drawing attention to the second-floor pop-up. (Hudson’s Bay, Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20181201Sake Sushi: Family lunch in celebration of DY’s birthday, a series of servings of all-you-can-eat sushi ordered over the iPad menu. Salmon nigiri was exceptionally fresh. First fish for me in 9 months, since I negotiated with the dietitian to occasionally relax the strictly vegan options. (Sake Sushi, Highway 7, Vaughan, Ontario) 20181202 McMichael Canadian Art Collection: #AJCasson (1965) Little Island, by the youngest of the #GroupOfSeven painters. Featured by @mcacgallery exhibition in The Art of Canada: Directors Cut, tour guide mentioned that only #LawrenHarris and Casson were commercial designers in the Group of Seven, with the others full-time painter artists. Family enjoyed the works, and the walk around the grounds. Somehow, our sons had not known this venue, donated to the Province of Ontario in 1966. (McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Islington Avenue, Kleinberg, Ontario) 20181202CSI Spadina: Systems Thinking peer circle #ClimateVentures @csiTO trying examples on @Andy_Boynton #BartVictor @JoePine. Product-Process Change Matrix with (i) Invention and Mass Production where demand > supply; (ii) Continuous Improvement and Mass Customization where supply > demand. These entrepreneurs found these explained a lot of the challenges they’re experiencing. (Climate Ventures, Centre for Social Innovation, Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20181203KDMI-Semaphore: Critical making @mattratto@kmdi@UofTInfoFaculty emphasizes reflection in producing material objects. Has the difference between critique and its object reduced, asks Horkheimer? Can human beings be brought back into design? (KMDI-Semaphore, Bissell Building, University of Toronto) 20181206 Mike Hansen Studio: Exhibition of The Remix Series by @mhansen823 Mike Hansen, visualizing sound in a synaesthetic approach, translating specific pieces of music into abstract painting. Converted building is notorious as bunkered house from the 1990s for Satan’s Choice Motorcycle Club, through to 2010 for Hell’s Angels. Bright lights for the show makes visitors forget the windows are bricked over in history. (Mike Hansen Studio, Lottridge Street, Industrial Sector C, Hamilton, Ontario) 20181209 Munk School: Trends and outlooks for Asian countries @Bartapest@ADB_America@munkschool. Asian countries have to deal with the most climatic tragedies in the world, e.g. typhoons. Rapid urbanization, as well as poverty in rural areas. Population is getting old before they’re getting rich. To fill labour gaps countries could open more doors to migrants. (Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, Devonshire Place, University of Toronto) 20181210Distillery District: Crowds @TOXmasMkt Wednesday night 8:30pm @DistilleryTO. Lineups at poutine shack, couples taking selfies. Many young adults, a few children at attractions. Not shopping, just cycling through. (Distillery District, Mill Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20181212 CSI Annex: Holiday smackdown @csiTO with panel judging the best in a wide variety of cookie styles. Lively crowd, with volume of chatter rising to crescendo with the cocktail competition. Met other members coming from across the three CSI offices across the city. (CSI Annex, Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20181213Asian Legend Dundas: Casual seasonal dinner for #DesignWithDialogue #SystemsThinkingOntario #UnifyToronto core organizing group, with regrets from those escaping the shortening winter days. More formal meeting will be held in January, yet some cross-group direction has been navigated. (Asian Legend, Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20181214Grand Lake Cuisine: Dinner with family flying in all over North America, as a celebration for one who is no longer with us. Younger generation continuing ties, despite the distance. (Grand Lake Chinese Cuisine, Kennedy Road, Markham, Ontario) 20181219 Grand Lake Cuisine: Dinner of elders, on evening before final celebration of one not with us. Having family together in times of change, even briefly, interrupts our lives to remember what is important. (Grand Lake Chinese Cuisine, Kennedy Road, Markham, Ontario) 20181219Mythology Diner: Family lunch early for both my birthday and for Christmas, because sons will be on a plane tomorrow to spend holidays with my sister’s family. Vegan cross-sampling across Filet O’Fish; Philly; Reubenator; Bacon Double Cheeseburger; Caesar Salad; Cream of Spinach Soup; Poutine; Shakes in Peppermint ChocoChip, Lemoney Meringue, Strawberry; Sweet Tart Pie. Dietary indulgence led to food coma for all. (Mythology Diner, Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20181222 Olga Korper Gallery: Family playing with steel letterforms of #RustGarden by @DonovanSiegel@OlgaKorper. Search for specific letters amongst the 700,000+ to form words on the bench isn’t as quick as one might initially think. (Olga Korper Gallery, Morrow Avenue, Toronto, Ontario) 20181222Chinese Heritage Society of Canada: Welcomed into study group by I Ching master Benfeng Zhu. Lessons are practically held in Mandarin Chinese, so aided by bilingual learners to appreciate throwing of coins, sketching hexagrams, and interpreting changes. My reading of multiple books translated into English, plus smartphone apps, have gotten me beyond beginner’s level. Deeper insight into the underlying five elements theory, and its relation to lunar calendar, will require more scholarly inquiry. The group clubhouse, active for one year, overlooks a pedestrian bridge over a small stream feeding into Petticoat Creek. (Chinese Heritage Society of Canada, Kingston Road, Pickering, Ontario) 20181224Allen Gardens: Turtle climbing on the back of another for a better view, by the waterwheel. Municipal greenhouse is true to posted schedule of opening 365 days each year. Couples day, preceded by lunch out, followed by movie. (Allen Gardens, Gerrard Street East, Toronto, Ontario) 20181225 Toronto Eaton Centre: Busy crowds on Boxing Day in Canada’s most popular tourist destination. Looking at warm gloves, even half-price seemed too rich for my current lifestyle. While I often pass by intersection to this shopping mall, I now recall that I haven’t been inside or bought anything in many years. (CF Toronto Eaton Centre, Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20181226 Toronto Reference Library: Sometimes the Dewey Decimal System works better than web search on the Internet. Exploring wu xing (five elements or five agents) theory, on second floor in Chinese philosophy, then third floor in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Successfully found The Philosophical Foundations of Classical Chinese Medicine, 2017 by Keekok Lee from Manchester University. (Toronto Reference Library, Yonge Street, Toronto, Ontario) 20181228
Nathan Phillips Square: Rink is cleared of skaters for 13 minutes, open for midday resurfacing with the Zamboni. Obedient crowds left the ice within a minute of guards blowing whistles and an announcement over the loudspeaker. Expect an even larger mob approaching midnight, as entertainers on the stage counts down to the new year. (Nathan Phillips Square, Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario) 20181231
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.
Organizations interested in scaling up (or scaling out) might revisit methods and tools associated with a process framework for mass-customizing service delivery engagements developed at IBM in the mid-1990s and early 2000s.
The history of the IBM Advanced Business Institute and Palisades Executive Conference Center from the 1990s into the 2000s is related from a first-person perspective.
The February 2019 Systems Thinking Ontario meeting was an opportunity to bring those unfamiliar with the work of Christopher Alexander on methods revealed in the Eishin School and Multi-Service Centers projects.
The wholeness generated through pattern language may be influenced by stronger foundations from advances in the systems sciences, not just in built environments, but also in other domains.
An invitation to give a talk at IBM Research Almaden presented an opportunity to trace the history of science of pattern language, as it developed inside the company, and with the external community.
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 ›
Before judging democratic systems over authoritarian, examine the functioning of governments through its diplomats, where plutocracy has an alternative in meritocracy, says @mahbubani_k @longnow @asiasocietysfx. [1:19:30] … when people compare the American government with the Chinese government, they say: “This…Read more ›
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).
If we don’t first know “what is system is”, how do we approach an intervention? #MichaelCJackson OBE and Dr. #LuisGSambo appreciate the difference between “systems thinking” (plural) and “system dynamics” (singular), and suggest expanding theory with Critical #SystemThinking in Health Systems Research. An ignorance of history is, if anything, even more pronounced among those authors […]
