Okay here’s my Friday food for thought. A friend who is a commercial game producer is interested in “games for good,” the idea that games can have certain treatment effects across subgroups in society that motivate new, different, somehow “better” behaviors – or at least behaviors that feed some pathway to larger social change. ANYway, [...]
It has been an incredible week for the world of social media, thanks to the film makers and activists behind Invisible Children’s “Kony 2012″ campaign launched a week ago. There has been so much activity: social media experts, gurus, strategists, advisors, and hacks alike have all contributed to the stimulating discussion of whether or not [...]
It has been about ten years since I’ve been back to the city of constellations, that immovable bit of engraved clockwork on the land. Beside the fact that four meridians still dice the city anchored by its marble and granite triumverate, much has changed. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say the city bustles when [...]
Its World AIDS Day and we remember with sadness the grandmothers, grandchildren, orphans, users, widows, brothers, doctors, educators, lovers – the endless string of humanity affected by this disease and its effects over the last three decades. And we can look, with mixed feelings, at the progress and the challenges ahead. President Obama has pledged [...]
Kudos to Brian Boyes and all the student’s of Cabot School’s wonderful “Playing for Change” event aimed at raising funds for music education in schools around the world. Your rendition of Matisyahu’s “One Day” was so awesome! And thanks for having Patti, Ruth, and myself on hand to help with a mural – I hope [...]
There may be something like this out there already I don’t know, but endure this – its good! Came to me on a hot September day, wanting a refresher while preparing a teriyaki dinner. Here goes (makes two): Juice from one large cucumber (recommend that you shred seedless then press-strain) Juice from one lime 1/2 [...]
The poem that is the subject of this box – a steamy summery kind of musing, complete with blueberries, olympics, and humidity – is taken from the Fall 2006 ESOPUS magazine. Even though the poems, written in the ’80s by Vincent Katz, are about a breakup, I found them to be much more immediate, intimate, [...]
A post over on Tales from the Hood (??) got me hot under the collar about aid, and used stuff. Basically, the writer – a self-avowed humanitarian and aid worker – is saying Americans have these embedded (and unique) cultural norms around stuff – specifically the resale of used things that the writer dismisses as [...]
The Orion Nebula captured through NASAs Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope[A little unusual for here, but...crossposted from my day job] Just yesterday I was reading an article at physorg.org describing the remarkable discovery of an explosion within the Orion Nebula considered to be the youngest “star nursery” ever discovered. A star nursery – [...]
While I was in Ithaca last week, I had the pleasure of meeting Victoria Romanoff, restorationist and artist. One of the pieces of ‘functional salvage art’ she introduced me to was her “washboard table.” The idea is elegantly simple: for an open-faced (front and back) table, join two antique washboards together with a top surface [...]
For the last several years, I’ve had the privilege of writing a monthly round-up of news related to the field of ‘deliberative democracy’ – participation as conversation, you might say. All of the recent news about a “food crisis” – which smacks of disingenuousness in the face of years of trade liberalization – got me [...]
[Crossposted at thataway.org] Recently a couple of news items have caught my attention as exemplary of what NCDD’s Dialogue Bureau aspired to achieve. Readers might recall that during 2004 and 2005 NCDD sponsored research into the feasibility of a service that would: 1) assist news outlets make better use of dialogue and deliberation techniques to [...]
Now and then you come across a preposterous-sounding claim. Back in the day it used to be something like, “Git yer bunny gizzrd poshuns an’ lilly oyle lintmints! Garunteed tuh cure all aches an unwanted blemishes t’the skin!” Today, apparently, is sounds something like, “We know what to do. We know how to extend life. [...]
A recent article in the Economist, which led with the byline, Wall Street, the flagship of capitalism, has been bailed out by state-backed investors from emerging economies. That has people worried—for good reasons and bad …reminded me of what little I know of the death of Lord Byron. That creator of terrible and romantic visions [...]
Here is what’s proposed — please post your ideas (as a comments) and we’ll try and figure out how to work in in: Workshop strategies: Generating dialogue and group creativity through collage activity in Peace Tiles workshops Technique-sharing: What are some of your favorite technigues in collage creation? Story sharing: What have been some of [...]