Shimmering Shouts of Everyday Madness

It seems two lawyer parents successfully negotiated a contract with their children's school to not have their children do homework. The Globe and Mail states:

Sherri and Tom Milley were exhausted by the weepy weeknight struggles over math problems and writing assignments with their three school-aged children. They were fed up with rushing home from soccer practice or speed skating only to stand over their kids tossing out answers so they could finish and get to bed.

And don't even get them started on the playground that their daughter, Brittany, had to build in Grade 3 from recycled materials, complete with moving parts. Or the time their eldest son, Jay, was told to cut pictures of $1-million worth of consumer goods from a catalogue.

So last week, after two years of trying to change the homework policy at the children's school, the two Calgary lawyers finally negotiated a unique legal contract: their kids will never have to do homework again....

The “differentiated homework plan” spells out the responsibilities of the students: to get their work done in class, to come to school prepared, and prep for quizzes. But their teachers will have to mark them based on what they do in class, and cannot send work home that factors into their grades.


The link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/how-one-family-won-the-battle-to-ban-homework/article1367357/


Here is the contract:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/22681699/Milleys-Differentiated-Homework-Plan

I've been looking at a series on "rich people's rooftop NYC gardens" but I'm confused. Can anyone explain to me why some NYC rooftops have big barrel looking structures on them?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwillys/2717904105/in/set-72157606566769262/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwillys/2718731018/in/set-72157606566769262/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jwillys/2717883975/in/set-72157606566769262/

I highly recommend the following video:

http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/antikythera/

Shambala (self-described) Buddhists, Church Universal and Triumphant, Theosophists, wacky highly disciplined Christian offshoots, and other organizers like you -- I strongly oppose your activities in the world.

I love the global humanity hinted to in this video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY
www.wherethehellismatt.com

Along similar lines, there really is a youth driven seachange that wants to "play" or "hack" or "subvert" the given, taken-for-granted experience of everyday life. Think: flash mobs, zombie marches, silent dance parties (hello ipods!), bubble and pillow fights, people choosing to go naked in en masse, public free international arts events, the fusion of global culture, street art, huge puppets to protest, and the like. To flesh out this point, I welcome you to check out these links:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ywLhNwSBizE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=r1ielYhUpkU
http://youtube.com/watch?v=btwo9Yx0wL4

What is being negotiated for is nothing less than greater freedom in public spaces. The boundaries and definitions of normalcy have become unbearable to many who were born into this well-regulated, increasing well-policed and corpo-media defined world. Surely the possibilities for other realities, other futures, other ways of living are endless. Is this a cry against governments, business, media, et al. in it's near totalizing impact over almost all knowledges, discourses and power relations? It may be but one theme of all of this activity is to promote diversity in public space discourses. Let us be freer! Any attempt to try to name and label -- and then try to enviably dismiss -- is exactly one of things that is trying to be subverted by this movement. And when I write "movement", I use this term purposefully. Such seemingly random and dramatic acts, are symptomatic of the first global youth movement ever to emerge, well, ever. Indeed, it's international and connected in what Canadian media master mind Marshall Mcluhan first described as the "global village". The 21st century has been it's major birth place. This is only going to expand and get bigger. And since this is being lead by a generation "tuned in, turned on, and plugged into digital recording devices" you can watch this revolution over websites like Youtube.com.

This is a revolution baby -- do you plan to join in this dance? This is an inclusive public celebration of our own humanity.

I love to dance and, dare I say, it would be odd for me to go out and not have people I met comment on how well I do it.

You need instruction that fits how you listen to music. I don't think jazz lessons or any other pre-formed sort of lessons will help.

To become a better dancer, you need practice. To begin with, I'd suggest doing it in front of a mirror and focusing on putting the beat in different parts of your body. Also, you can think about it in 3 axes: front-back, side to side and up down. Play with both body parts, the axes, and the beat and tempo. You need to work on increasing your movement repertoire.

With regards to beats, consider giving a little "snap" or accented stop at the end of each beat to give it more life and vividness. As a man, this will also help you to look more polished and less effeminate.

Another thing to consider is where your center of gravity is located. For funk or latin stuff, try to make it feel like it is lower.

As a tall guy, there's only really one type of style that I've seen work in all contexts: be affiable, dance with a smile, gentle but confident, and take the lead with making those around you feel at ease.

Under all circumstances -- don't be pretentious because this implicitly makes fun and puts down those people who do find joy in dancing.

Finally, I recommend checking out the fabulous website videojug.com. I was impressed by their video instructing men like you on how to dance in social situations.

See: Dance Moves: An Emergency Guide For Men
http://www.videojug.com/film/dance-moves-an-emergency-guide-for-men

Choppers landing on UC Hill?  Police scaling down the wall of the Life Science building?  I think it's hilarious what my alma mater is up to.   The University of Western Ontario -- an institution dubbed by some as "The University of Wealthy Ontarians" -- claims that it should be the safest place in the country by later this week.

http://communications.uwo.ca/com/western_news/stories/visitors_encouraged_to_learn_about_crisis_response_20080507442185/

SUSHI-INSPIRED SALAD

Basic Dressing:

Pickled Ginger (making your own isn't too hard), Thick Soy Sauce (why pay money for water-down stuff?), Wasabi (regardless of how many times I've bought the powder, I prefer the pre-made paste;  you can also use red chili sauce as a substitute or go without if you're not into heat), Lime Juice, an optional dash of Real Maple Surup or Agave Syrup or Sugar (if you like things slightly sweeter) and and some Mayo (if you're really into it).

Other Ingredients (depending what you have around, is on sale, available, you can afford, etc.)

Protein:  Pan-Fried Scallops or Fresh Fish Finger Shredded, Fake Crab Meat, Egg (cook in small dish in microwave for about 30 secs and then shred with knife), Left Over Chicken or Turkey Shredded, Canned Tuna, Sashmi Grade Fish, Etc.

Greenery:  Sprouts (love almost all types),  Avacado, Fresh Parsley or Corriander Torn Up, Grated Cucumber or Carrots, Sliced Mushrooms, and/or Lettuce

Extras: Sesame Seeds (toasted is always better), Fish Eggs, and Nori (to use as a wrap or shred in)

To serve and eat, combine dressing ingredients first, then add your protein(s) so that they're nicely covered, and finally add your greenery and the extras as your taste and artistic presentations skills dictate.


"MAGICAL" HASTY PUDDING

This dessert is perfect if you have an almost barren kitchen stocked with basics or lots of hungry adults/kids that you'd like to cheaply feed.

In one bowl combine 1 c flour (white is the most available but I've used other types), 1 c milk, and 1  c brown/white sugar, with 1/4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/4 tsp salt.  Mix and pour in the bottom of a greased loaf pan.

In second bowl combine 2 c boiling water (depending how much sauce you want), 2/3 c brown sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/4 butter, and optional 1/2 tsp rum extract.  If you don't have brown sugar, you can substitute maple or corn syrup.  Pour liquid over mixture in loaf pain.

Optional steps: before pouring the contents of the second bowl into the loaf pan, sprinkle mixture already in the loaf pan with 1/4 c toasted nuts, raisins or favourite dried fruit (which can always be soaked in hot apple juice or brandy to plump it up).  You might also consider adding a pinch of cinnamon, all spice and/or ginger powder.   To make the sauce more exciting, you could experiment by adding jams, berry syrups or brandy. 

Finally, if you don't have a loaf pain, how about a bundt cake dish or individual small ceramic pots?  I suggest a loaf pan because when I've used a square dish, it's tended to fall in the center.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes in 375 degree oven, or until golden brown.  Watch with delight as little bubbles of fluffy cake rise to the top of the murky sweet water!  You should finish with a fluffy cake floating on a bed of sweet syrup.  Let your Hasty Pudding rest for at least 10 minutes before serving so that the syrup can thicken and no one burns their tongues!    This dish serves 6 adult portions easily or more if you have eaters smaller-portion eaters.

Mainstream US media says it's so.  In short:

Three years ago, Lee Spievack sliced off the tip of his finger in the propeller of a hobby shop airplane.

What happened next, Andrews reports, propelled him into the future of medicine. Spievack's brother, Alan, a medical research scientist, sent him a special powder and told him to sprinkle it on the wound.

"I powdered it on until it was covered," Spievack recalled.

To his astonishment, every bit of his fingertip grew back.

"Your finger grew back," Andrews asked Spievack, "flesh, blood, vessels and nail?"

"Four weeks," he answered.

And the mystery powder: pig bladder cellular matter.  It's too early for an April Fools joke.  Although I haven't been closely following the 'regeneration race', this sounds like a hoax.   What kind of a medical researcher would decide to send his brother his (presumably untested on human beings) power to use as his test subject?   Even if the results were miraculous, wouldn't any institution affiliated with this person object?  While public institutions would likely point to their code of medical practice code, private institutions wouldn't want such a valuable power to circulating in the public domain sans patent.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/22/sunday/main3960219.shtml

A youtube user named 'moose302' just sent me a video link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE-Nyt4Bmi8

Not sure who this person is but I love the footage.

Writing is electricity; you have to avoid a short circuit. These are the words of Bernard-Henri Lévy.

He also wrote:

My wife and I don’t use the familiar tu form of address when we talk to each other. We use the more formal vous. That’s her idea: she’s a bit old-fashioned that way. I think unconsciously she wants to create distance between us. All theoreticians of eroticism know that when there is no distance, there is no border; when there is no border, there is no taboo; when there is no taboo there is no transgression; and when there is no transgression there is no desire.


I found the following "A Life in the Day" article highly instructive: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2527428,00.html

A less-than-quite version of The Killers and The Cure? You tell me? (Btw, have you ever noticed that, medically speaking, these two bands names line up?) I am a major of each of these latter groups.

Viola, WinterKids: http://www.last.fm/music/WinterKids/+videos/+1-ezNfAbeZZmk.

Recently, I've been feeling very tainted by my Anglo continental philosophical time-space -- i.e. cultural in situ -- limits.

Sure I find Zizek unconvincing, but why am I only learning about Zhuangzi, Tomonobu Imamichi, and Okakura Kakuzo now? Kakuzo's's concept of das-in-dem-Welt-sein (to be in the being of the world) expressed in The Book of Tea was an attempt to describe Zhuangzi's philosophy for Westerners? Really? I learnt to read French and German because I third party translations of Foucault and Heidegger were unacceptable for me. Learning to read Japanese is beyond my energy threshold at this point in my life.

But Heidegger plagiarized the idea "Dasein" and attempted to pass it off as his own? And Gadamer and Imamichi didn't speak for several years because the latter brought it to the formers attention?

Is anyone else out there either familiar or surprised by such statements? Is this true? Or only fictitious hearsay?

I love the fact that although I suspect that many people consider the definition of daytime and nightime to be a celestially obvious concept, these terms are instead social constructed that have tended to be highly time-space sensitive in modern, uber-regulated societies. Today, I came across a 2003 Canadian aviation regulation regarding the defintion of day and night. It seems that yet again they've changed it. Since I got my glider and private pilot's licences in 1992 and 1994 respectively, I was sadly unaware of this development until today.

I consider the changing definitions of day and night to be a fabulous example of how some taken-for-granted facts are highly non-obvious. Below, I've cut and pasted the regulation. Bon apetite!

( Read more... )

I have been alarmed by the lack of critical evaluation regarding the upcoming October 10, 2007 Ontario referendum on whether voters want to switch to a mixed member proportional (MMP) voting system rather than the present first-past-the-post (FPTP) one.    Anti-MMP advocates seem to focus on the following cons to a MMP system in Ontario: 

• Fewer local ridings
  
• More politicians  who will be bankrolled by tax dollars
  
• Closed door party deal-making regarding who gets to govern
  
• A voting system that will confuse some people
  
• Fringe parties holding the balance of power

I find most of these reasons unconvincing.    It seems insignificant to me whether there are slightly fewer ridings or slightly more politicians on the provincial payroll.   Ontario is an economic engine for Canada.    Lest we forget that this is a country that boasts one of the highest qualities of life that the world has ever known.   In part, Ontario's success has been a result of decades of not-to-shabby governance.  To boot, I have no worries that the population will slowly become educated on how any new voting system works.  It might take a while but populations are resilient and adaptive creatures.

With regards to the notion of fringe parties holding the balance of power, I agree that this is a likely outcome.    Indeed, I witnessed this phenomenon firsthand when fresh out of graduate school,  where I earned an MA in social geography, I moved to Wellington, New Zealand back in 2001-2002.   While there, I was surprised to learn that the Green Party held the swing vote in the national legislature.     The fact that this could happen in Ontario seems highly probable to me.   But this, along with the fact that a new type of backroom politics will be born, doesn't really bother me that much.    Collectively, the government will likely continue to do some things that I like and some things that I don't. 

I do think the MMP, though, is serious business.   Here's why:


MMP effectively ends Responsible Government in Ontario

"Responsible government" is the concept that a populace holds their government, which usually tends to ruled by a strong cabinet, accountable for their decisions.   If something goes wrong and the populace is collectively unhappy, they know just who to blame.  Incidentally, it's no coincidence that responsible government was a major plank of the programme of development towards independence in Canada.   With an MMP system, we're more likely to have coalition governments where everyone points fingers and no one takes responsibility for making bad decisions.  Responsible government is the single most important issue that drives my strong opposition to MMP.   Why aren't more people shouting and singing its virtues?   Have we become so politically complacent as a people that we now collectively take for granted one of the cornerstones of our democracy and are willing to give it up with a quick referendum?   I hope not.


MMP is likely to lead to Greater Socio-Political Fragmentation and Government Paralysis

If you think our present system produces slow-moving beasts that are more sluggish than an elephant, imagine what will happen when you we have coalition governments made up of parties with more disparate views and styles of governing.   Sure, some might suspect that this will bring compromises and more balanced policies, but this presumes that policies will be made in the first place.  There are tons of laws that don't get passed because they never make it out of committees.  Our present party system allows debate and compromise.  But even more importantly, it's held together by the glue of discipline.   Without that discipline, I'm worried that we'll suddenly descend into being ruled by a government that is less transparent, less open and more mysterious to the average person.


MMP may create more Government Corruption and Big Business Lobby Pressures

Political parties' lifeblood is money.   They need funds to survive.   Do you think that our present campaign financing laws are strong enough to combat a more diversified and fragmented political party landscape?   At least with a more centralized system, there are fewer parties to keep an eye on and shine a spotlight when they make decisions that are questionable. 


MPP will encourage Political Instability and Rural Political Alienation

Wealth and people in Ontario are highly unevenly distributed over space.   It is a south-heavy landscape that has a few densely-populated areas and huge expanses where few people live.   Regardless, this great expanse of land holds land rich with resources and lakes filled with fresh water.    Fresh water, I might add, that the US would love to have an ownership stake in.  When you start making major shifts in the way governments operate their voting system, fundamental constitutional and governance issues are brought to the forefront of public debate.   Do we really want to do that?   The system we have, at least by my reckoning, has been proven to work and, importantly, be stable over time.  Gosh, it wasn't so long ago that Canada was a Canada sans Quebec.     Political instability is bad for the economy because businesses pull out capital and relocate.    In turn, governments must invest money in an attempt to inspire unity and confidence.   Regardless of the amount of tax-payer dollars used to pay for expensive "provincial unity" media campaigns,  I suspect that many farmers, rural, and northern dwellers won't easily forget that a vast number of the politicians sitting in Queen's Park got there because people sitting in Toronto board rooms decided it would be so.  While I imagine that geographically remote areas are likely to spawn their own parties to advocate their own issues, I worry about the consequences of derisive territory-based politics.


If this experiment doesn't work, fixing it might Prove Very Difficult

Canada is a federal democracy.  For over a hundred years, the federal, provincial and territorial governments have jealously guarded their powers and expanded the scope of their jurisdiction.   Indeed, we only barely were able to patriate our Constitutions and, like it or not, institute our Charter in 1982.    When it comes constitutions, we are a young country.  And if Ontario's voting system experiment goes awry and the government becomes paralyzed, I can't imagine either the courts or feds being able to do much about it.    Like people, history tells us that governments do fail, fall and dissolve.  Worse,  social unrest can have violent consequences.  Where are the serious quantitative, economic, social science, cultural and legal reports examining the issue from numerous angles?  Given the risks, this political governance experiment should have safety measures crafted into it.  Rather than change Ontario's voting system permanently, I would prefer it if there was a sunset clause allowing for reevaluation of the issue after 2 or 3 elections. 

After a change in Switzerland's directory enquiries, people keep calling 118, the emergency number, to find the number of an Italian restaurant. Geneva's firemen have made a mock rap video to remind people that 118 is only for emergencies.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7010000/newsid_7010800/7010874.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&asb=1&news=1

Earlier today, I said to my boyfriend: in Canada, cars turning right at an intersection have the right of way over left turning cars; whereas in New Zealand, cars turning right have the right of way. He was confused for a while but finally got it.

My boyfriend endofunctor claims that I have an Ontario accent. For him, words like pasta, drama, sorry and the oft-mentioned "out and about" are dead give aways. At least to him. I'm the sort of person who picks up on accents. I ask questions like are you from Johannesburg or south London Uk? The differences between Edinburg and Glasgow are patently obvious to me. While he thinks I sound "Ontarian" I would argue that I have strong British verbal inclinations. Ontario locals with sensitive ears pick up on this. I have tendencies towards speaking proper, fast-paced and formal language.

He, on the other hand, sounds to be like a guy who was raised in rural Maryland. He was. And speaking of accents, I ran across this quiz today: Canadian accents explored.

A while back, I asked my little-traveled boyfriend endofunctor where besides the EU he'd like to travel to. His answer -- Israel and Tehran -- surprised me. He explained that both places were mathematical centres.

In his department, there are several Iranian, or self-decrisbed Persians, who enjoy eating cuisine native to their homeland. In the past, they've invited my boyfriend to join them for dinner at London's only Persian restaurant "Tehran" on Oxford St. Excited about this culinary experience, my boyfriend and I invited his entire department -- grad students, post docs, faculty -- to join us. The turn out was great: about 15 or so people turned out.

I had an amazing time and found the conversation highly engaging. Although most of the professors left immediately following dinner (there were young children to attend to), below are pictures of me, my boyfriend and some of the graduate students (plus a wife and post doc) who joined us.

Two days ago, I graduated with an LL.B. One Hons. B.A. and a M.A.. And this how I look like at present: