Scarborough, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario; Thornhill, Ontario; Frankfurt, Germany; Helsinki, Finland
Scarborough, Ontario; Toronto, Ontario; Thornhill, Ontario; Frankfurt, Germany; Helsinki, Finland
New Year’s dinner: Family starting off year together, before dispersing on diverse paths ahead. Lobster, Peking duck, plus lots of variety with 9 at table. Christmas was quiet, now enjoying the time together. (Perfect Chinese Restaurant, Scarborough, Ontario) 20160101St. Lawrence Market: Shopping for good bread and liverwurst on a late Friday afternoon with outdoor temperature above freezing. Bakeries mostly depleted, packaged for end of day. Eastern European meat store on lower floor. Bike route is flatter going west-east than climbing up the hill northbound to Danforth Greektown. (St. Lawrence Market, Toronto) 20160108Cayne’s: Selected dark roasted decaf pod for free sample coffee from machine in store. Declined on extra flavourings. Afternoon of driving around Thornhill and Markham for small errands. Not the best date for a long-married couple, but still gives us time together to talk. (Cayne’s Super Housewares, Thornhill, Ontario) 20160114New Bilan: Somalian lunch with friendly chef. Short menu of 5 meat and fish choices, ordered one of each, enjoyed as a group: goat meat, chicken steak, chicken stew, king fish, beef stew. Chicken soup with spices had us guessing flavours. Five platters came with rice, we ordered chipatti bread extra, arriving hot to the the table. Casual restaurant not frequented by tourists slightly east of downtown, unconventional choice for Sunday lunch (New Bilan Restaurant, Dundas Street East, Toronto) 20160117Francesca Bakery: Italian hot table on Friday 4:30 p.m. rather depleted, with pasta gone. Decided against calamari, chose veal sandwich and arancini (where the rice balls were hard to discern under zesty tomato sauce). Had ridden with friend out of downtown early to preempt traffic, this venue is close to McCowan transit station for my return back downtown. (Francesca Bakery, McCowan Road, Scarborough, Ontario) 20160122Absolute Bakery: Wider selection of breads in front window of neighbourhood bakery, pies and pastries in the cases behind. Chose rye bread for a change, will return for multigrain on another trip. Weather 6 degrees C and cloudy, no snow on the ground meant opportunity for bicycling on a mild Toronto day. Continuing pattern of sampling non-artisanal bakers around town. (Absolute Bakery, Parliament Street, Cabbagetown, Toronto, Ontario) 20160126First Nations School: Canoe on dry land, in front of mosaic spelling Gzaagigoo Nookmis Rose on easel planter. Translation guess: We love you (Gzaagigoo) Grandmother (Nookmis) Rose. First Nations School has junior and senior primary students in building co-sited with Dundas Public School. Multiculturalism mixes aboriginals with new immigrants on the playground. (First Nations School, Dundas Street East, Toronto) 20160127Nino D’Aversa: Racks of bread less busy than larger hot table buffet and espresso bar care areas. This brand is delivered to our local grocery store downtown, but the selection isn’t always there. Took home a loaf of ciabatta unsliced to judge freshness. Was in the neighbourhood, so a modest tour of cuisine nearby. (Nino D’Aversa Bakery, Glen Cameron Drive, Thornhill, Ontario) 20160128Pearson Terminal 1: : Express speedwalk seems slower and longer today, en route to Helsinki foot 3 weeks. Seats on flight to Frankfurt not full today. Weather at destination if expected to be about the same as at home. (Toronto Pearson Airport, Terminal 1) 20160130Frankfurt Airport Terminal A: Mobile installation in atrium of popular hub for flights across Europe. Now morning daylight, arrival was dark on overnight trans-Atlantic leg. On time schedule and loose connection have enough time for shower and leisurely breakfast in Senator Lounge. Stiffness and dull headache chills be treated, but first have to sit on another plane for a free hours. (Frankfurt Airport, Terminal A, Germany) 20160131
Hellsten Parliament: Arrived at Helsinki apartment for 3-week stay. Smaller room, just the basics for me. Teaching 2 days per week, a few other meetings, but lots of opportunities to visit with friends. (Museokatu, Helsinki, Finland) 20160131
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).
