Toronto, Ontario; Helsinki, Finland; Espoo, Finland.
Fountain and boardwalk by City of Toronto Parks and Rec department, marsh and cattails by mother nature. Woodbine Park north of Lakeshore Drive is nearby Ashbridges Bay, so this planned park is reasonably close to the pre-settlement state (Toronto, Thursday) 20100902 1830Seeing off Noah for his flight to Beijing for 2 years at Renmin University. He won’t see this photo because both Tumblr and Facebook are blocked in China. We configured his blog, Google and Skype this morning. (Toronto, Sunday) 20100905 1330Melanie Doane in trio at the Shops at Don Mills on outdoor stage. Saw her last at the Horseshoe Tavern circa 2000, which became the Melvin Live album. She joked at the comparison with Tiffany playing shopping malls in the 1990s. (Toronto, Friday) 201009010 1930Big hole in the ground, in Regent Park redevelopment, south of Dundas Street, east of Sherbourne. Work in process, tax dollars at work (Toronto) 20100922 1830Lisa Rochon, Globe and Mail architecture critic, launches Revell Toronto Helsinki symposium, introducing the influence of Finnish functionalist modernist architect, Viljo Revell on Canada with the design of Toronto City Hall. 20100923 1845Quiet afternoon at Kamppi, where I am used to seeing festivals. Weather cooler than in Toronto. Number of people wearing hats outnumber the one person I saw in shorts. (Helsinki, Sunday) 20100926 1600
Iconic view of the main building of the former Helsinki University of Technology, which was stylized as their logo. In the consolidation into Aalto University, the logo is an alphabetic A. I like the old logo better! (Espoo, Finland) 20100927 1815
After our visit to the aquarium, we continued our walk along the east side of Cockle Bay, southbound. Looking west, Pyrmont Bridge would have taken us to the west side, if we were to walk across the pedestrian span.
Looking southwest, the hotels and casinos near the harbour are developments circa 2000.
The east side of the harbour is known as Cockle Bay Wharf, with restaurants, shopping and entertainment
The birds around the concrete pond looked delicate, but were sturdy metal sculptures.
Dulles, Virginia; Fairfax, Virginia; Washington, DC; Dallas, Texas; Toronto, Ontario.
Tarmac baggage pickup from gateside checkin at Washington Dulles airport. How quaint. Followed by long walk through pier, escalator up and down, train to terminal, walk to last baggage carousel and then outside to rental car pickup. IAD makes JFK and O’Hare seem intimate (Dulles, Virginia, Wednesday) 20100816 1730Banks of ventilation hoods over BBQ grills signal a serious community of Korean foodies. I opted to have my galbi cooked in the kitchen. MeeGa resto (Fairfax, VA, Wednesday) 20100816 1930Rockers with a view east onto the Potomac River, beyond the runways. From ‘historic’ terminal A of Reagan National Airport (Washington, DC, Friday) 20100820 1615Urban rail in downtown Dallas. It occurred to me that I have been to the area frequently, but never really down in the city core, and always in a car. Times change, and energy costs will continue to rise, so this is part of the future (Dallas, Texas, Friday) 20100827 0845
Shoegazing music from Aphasia band from Taiwan. Sunday night at obscure Duffy’s Tavern means small audience compared to Saturday night at Harbourfront or Monday night at Lee’s Palace. Great sound and performance seemed to lower my blood pressure. http://myspace.com/aphasiatw (Toronto, Sunday) 20100829 2130
On a family vacation, there’s somewhat less irony in following lunch at a fish market to watching fish in an aquarium. We rode the bus back to the city centre and walked west towards the harbour.
Looking south from the pedestrian bridge, the proximity of the Sydney Aquarium to the elevated roadway underscores the increased value of the real estate by the harbour.
At the Sydney Aquarium, entry for the family was through the shark’s jaws.
Like many aquariums, there are displays behind glass, like the Eastern Water Dragon.
Less common in aquariums is the tunnel in the oceanarium. We took a long ramp down, leading to areas below harbour level. It’s cool and placid down there. We waited a few moments, and a shark swam overhead. Continue reading “2009/07/03 Sydney Aquarium“
On the first morning after a long trans-Pacific flight, the fish market is good tourist destination. Earlier is better. The Sydney Fish Market is a short walk west from the bus stop in Pyrmont where we got off. After passing under the Western Distributor elevated freeway, we found low building around a big parking lot.
With a 2009 conference in Australia, our family planned a once-in-a-lifetime vacation. We would spend almost three weeks in the land down under, beginning with seven days in Sydney. To reduce the possibility of misconnections with Eric returning from Beijing, we had him travel from Toronto so that we could all leave together, five days later. Airport check-in was slightly complicated as we discovered that Noah’s electronic travel authorization to enter Australia had not been processed properly with the rest of us.
Air Canada suggested that we board the flight from Toronto to Vancouver, and get the e-visa just before boarding on the next leg. At the Maple Leaf Lounge at YVR, the airline had to try the online application multiple times before achieving success. In the meantime, we were still catching up on being a family of six again, and enjoy the complimentary food and beverages. During the layover, our sons had time to taste all of the snacks, and sampled the variety of beer, wine and liquor (offsetting for my many years of non-consumption in airline transfers).
Vancouver to Sydney is about 15 hours on the plane. Crossing over the international date line resulted in us completely missing Canada Day. I did my usual strategic sleeping and watching movies. The flight wasn’t completely full, so we rotated into two-seat sleeping positions. From my previous trips to Australia, I expected the aircraft disinsection procedure just before landing — flight attendants on a 2-minute walk down the aisle with insecticide aerosols — and recommended that our family stay with heads under blankets until they were done.
The airport in Sydney is south of the city. Our hotel was north of the city, across the harbour. We bought tickets for the airport link and a 7-day orange travelpass for trains, ferries and buses. From the airport terminal, the first train took us to Sydney Central station.
We had left Toronto on an early summer evening flight to Vancouver, connected outbound from Vancouver almost at midnight, and boarded Sydney trains just after rush hour of a southern hemisphere winter morning. I drew attention wearing summer shorts and sandals. Donning a jacket and socks wasn’t quite warm enough, so it would be long pants for the week in Sydney.
Still a free thrill to carefully descend and ascend the arc of the bridge, holding handrails to moderate speed. Posted sign says closure in the fall, maybe time for resurfacing that happens every 10 years. Valley for the Lynn Creek is separate from the larger Capilano River, where we visited the fish hatchery. (Lynn Canyon […]
Dyadic waterfalls may follow Shinto style of complementary Odaki (masculine) and Medaki (feminine) forces of the natural world. Original small memorial garden with kasuga style lantern honouring diplomat Nitobe Inazō builtin 1935 did not survive vandalization when Japanese Canadians were sent to internment camps in the 1940s. Norman Mackenzie, president of UBC (1944-1962) recognized Nitobe […]
Overhead sculpture, light projection onto floor, + audio recording Yuan Wen (2025) Play in the Field, part of Impos(s)able Impositions: UBC Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition. At end of hall, drawings on xuan rice paper. Noises were intruding from the installation just over the wall, with sounds set for the opening night reception two […]
Outstanding view of North Vancouver mountains, and West End city centre from second floor patio on south shore of English Bay. Club is private for sailors, but upstairs is open for public. Can't remember visiting this venue when I lived in Vancouver in the 1980s. (The Galley Patio and Grill, Jericho Sailing Centre, Discovery Street, […]
Hoist from 1930s industrial heritage was moved opposite Sea Village in 2022. Prior location was hidden by Emily Carr University site 1980-2017 at 1399 Johnston Street, a building still vacant. Tower has become a landmark near southeast end of street, visible from Public Market. (Historic Yellow Crane, Johnston Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, British Columbia) 20250503
Leisurely Saturday morning breakfast with scrumpet (crumpet variant) and crepe. Observing not only are visitors smiling and unstressed, but also the worker teams seem happy. Purchases from Muffin Granny, a food stall original in the market since its 1979 opening. (Muffin Granny Crepe & Bakery Cafe, Granville Island Public Market, Johnston Street, Vancouver, British Columbia) […]
Malaysian cuisine may not be found in Seattle, so sampled roti canal, beef rendang, carmellized ginger fish, and Assam curry tofu at steadfast Vancouver restaurant. Last time together may have been 16 years ago in Toronto. Catching up on years that have passed. (Banana Leaf, Davie Street, Vancouver, British Columbia) 20250502
SUCCESS Care Home: Entertaining mother with crafty folding of paper butterfly. Since last year's visit, we were advised against offering food and snacks. Pushed wheelchair around the circular hallway. (SUCCESS Care Home, Carrall Street, Vancouver, British Columbia) 20250502
Touring halls during preparation for The Show at ECU, 5 days before official opening. Background right painting Jesse Ward (2025) Mundane Presence. Installation on the floor yet unlabelled. (Emily Carr University of Art + Design, East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia) 20250502
Mounted early for The Show, ECU graduate Katherine Langdon (2025) The Set-Up draws the eye upon entry into hall. Is the subject with the head in the closet avoiding the situation, or showing discretion. Curtains on the framing suggest a performance? (Emily Carr University, East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia) 20250502
Two years after submitting an academic manuscript and responding to double-blind reviews, “Rethinking work, with the pandemic disruption” has now been published in the International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior (IJOTB) as earlycite. The article has a DOI (Document Object Identifier), and should be streamed with an official volume and issue number soon. The […]
The 128th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario was convened in person. The classroom was filled with current students, alumni, our regular participants, and a few curious newcomers. Moderated by Zaid Khan, the conversation was sparked by Stephen Davies and myself (David Ing) on the evolving styles in learning systems thinking. Stephen has been leading SFIN-6011 […]
The “Understanding Systems” SFIN-6011 course is a requirement in the master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCADU. For winter 2025, the class is now led by Stephen Davies, breaking the incremental evolving of content since 2008. While still on faculty at OCADU, the original course designer Peter H. Jones is now a Distinguished […]
In the 1970s, five ways of knowing were established by C. West Churchman in The Design of Inquiring Systtems. In the 1990s, his student Ian Mitroff carried on the tradition and extended that work in The Unbounded Mind. Now in the 2020s, the technology of Generative AI opens up opportunties to query or request responses […]
For readers with an interest deeper than the 15-minute presentation given in August, the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Socio-Technical Perspectives in Information Systems (STPIS 2024) have now been formally publishied. The invited paper on “Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes: From rearranging objects to repacing rhythms” was reviewed by the […]
The 125th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario coincided with the closing day for the RSD13-RSDX online program. As a regular systems convening group, we’ve had monthly meetings since January 2013. Zaid Khan moderated a discussion including me (David Ing), Tim Lloyd, Allenna Leonard, and Kelly Okamura. We recollected starting as a spinoff from Design with […]
Rhythm and pitch are primordial to language. Susan Rogers, after a career becoming Prince's recording engineer, turned to complete a PhD in psychology focused on music cognition and psychoacoustics.Read more ›
David L. Hawk (American management theorist, architect, and systems scientist) has been hosting a weekly television show broadcast on Bold Brave Tv from the New York area on Wednesdays 6pm ET, remotely from his home in Iowa. Live, callers can join…Read more ›
Following the first day lecture on Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1 for the Global University for Sustainability, Keekok Lee continued on a second day on some topics: * Anatomy as structure; physiology as function (and process); * Process ontology, and thing ontology; * Qi ju as qi-in-concentrating mode, and qi san as qi-in-dissipsating mode; and […]
The philosophy of science underlying Classical Chinese Medicine, in this lecture by Keekok Lee, provides insights into ways in which systems change may be approached, in a process ontology in contrast to the thing ontology underlying Western BioMedicine. Read more ›
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 ›
In 2024, WordPress Studio was released, making installation on a local computer simpler. The instructions were modified from MacOS to Ubuntu Linux, by Daniel Kossmann, “How to install WordPress Studio in Ubuntu Linux” | Jun 15, 2024 at https://www.danielkossmann.com/how-to-install-wordpress-studio-ubuntu-linux/ I already had NVM installed, but in Terminal, with the result “command not found”. In the […]
The appreciation of change is different in Western philosophy than in classical Chinese philosophy. JeeLoo Lin published a concise contrast on differences. Let me parse the Introduction to the journal article, that is so clearly written. The Chinese theory of time is built into a language that is tenseless. The Yijing (Book of Changes) there […]
In trying to place the World Hypotheses work of Stephen C. Pepper (with multiple root metaphors), Nicholas Rescher provides a helpful positioning. — begin paste — Philosophical perspectivism maintains that substantive philosophical positions can be maintained only from a “perspective” of some sort. But what sort? Clearly different sorts of perspectives can be conceived of, […]
Finding proper words to express system(s) change(s) can be a challenge. One alternative could be diachrony. The Oxford English dictionary provides two definitions for diachronic, the first one most generally related to time. (The second is linguistic method) diachronic ADJECTIVE Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “diachronic (adj.), sense 1,” July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3691792233. For completeness, prochronic relates “to […]
The selection of readings in the “Introduction” to Systems Thinking: Selected Readings, volume 2, Penguin (1981), edited by Fred E. Emery, reflects a turn from 1969 when a general systems theory was more fully entertained, towards an urgency towards changes in the world that were present in 1981. Systems thinking was again emphasized in contrast […]
