Nuclear Art

// March 2nd, 2011 // Comments Off // Opinion

Every wondered how many nuclear explosions there are have been in human history?  How about in the most relevant half century?  Well, a beginners effort in making this dataset more consumable, was released in 2003 by Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto.  It shows every nuclear explosion between 1945-1998 – apparently.  There is some conjecture that there have actually been quite a few more, involving additional countries as well.  But, lets face it, a few more or less from an approximate total of 2053 nuclear detonations?  My gods people… I had no idea there had been anywhere near that many.  The time-lapse style and map based video is quite long… but it is 10 minutes you’ll be glad you spent getting an appreciation for… well, the disturbing reality of our ‘nuclear’ human natures. Just in case you have forgotten what each of the little blips look like up close, here’s some footage of the first British nuclear test.

Insight Links for Feb 18, 9:19 pm

// February 18th, 2011 // Comments Off // Opinion

• The shadow workers of the iceberg economy, the other ‘invisible hand’, Michel Bauwens @ P2P Foundation:
  Radicals often speak as though we live in a bleak landscape in which the good has yet to be born, the revolution yet to begin. As Constantino points out, both of them are here, right now, and they always have been. They are represented in countless acts of solidarity and resistance, and sometimes they even [...]
• How Women and Men Spend Their Money, Team @ Freakonomics:
  Both men and women lie to their partners about their spending, but the money similarities between the genders seem to end there. Viviana A. Zelizer explores the differences in a Wall Street Journal article, writing that women in many different cultures…
• The LWOT: "JihadJane" expected to plead guilty; Spanish judge sets deadline on Gitmo investigation – by Andrew Lebovich, ANDREW LEBOVICH @ Foreign Policy:
  Foreign Policy and the New America Foundation bring you a twice weekly brief on the legal war on terror. You can read it on foreignpolicy.com or get it delivered directly to your inbox — just sign up here.
• The Art of Upheaval – By Christina Larson, CHRISTINA LARSON @ Foreign Policy:
  How Egyptian artists channeled a society’s immense frustrations and foreshadowed the revolution.
• A New Leader for Egypt’s Protesters? – By Blake Hounshell, BLAKE HOUNSHELL @ Foreign Policy:
  An emotional figurehead emerges after nearly two weeks in darkness, but the masses in Tahrir are moving further apart as the days progress.
• Mobile Banking Takes Off in Kenya, Team @ Freakonomics:
  A new paper by William Jack and Tavneet Suri looks at M-PESA, a mobile-money transfer service in Kenya. Mobile banking has become particularly popular in the developing world, where safe, reliable banking has historically been limited, and often availa…
• Need to Turn Off His Sex Drive? Cry, Team @ Freakonomics:
  What happens to men when women cry? A new study finds that, as in mice, human tears may serve a “chemosignaling function.” Specifically, female tears seem to reduce male sexual arousal.
• Eyeballing the Forbidden Fruit, Team @ Freakonomics:
  Ordering your significant other to ignore the attractive person at the next table might backfire, according to a new study.
• Did the Rooney Rule Really Work?, Team @ Freakonomics:
  Last week, Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim wrote a guest post about black coaches in the NFL and the introduction of the Rooney Rule, which requires teams to interview at least one minority applicant when filling head-coaching spots. Moskowitz …
• Scorecasting: A Guest Post, Team @ Freakonomics:
  When my wife saw the cover of the new book Scorecasting by Tobias J. Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim, which was sitting on my bedside table, all she could do was shake her head.

Insight Links for Jan 19, 9:19 pm

// January 19th, 2011 // Comments Off // Opinion

• Mating strategies in primates: A game theoretical approach to infanticide, Team @ Complexity Digest 2011.02:
  Infanticide by newly immigrated or newly dominant males is reported among a variety of taxa, such as birds, rodents, carnivores and primates. Here we present a game theoretical model to explain the presence and prevalence of infanticide in primate g…
• The Referendum Hangover – By Maggie Fick, MAGGIE FICK @ Foreign Policy:
  January 9 may well have been the happiest and most hopeful day Southern Sudan has seen in half a century. But there is a danger in celebrating too soon.
• Deepening crisis traps America’s have-nots, Robin Wood @ Everyone’s Blog Posts – R2 Global Meshwork:
  
  
  

  …

• Remembering Zoe Anderson, 1986 — 2010, Team @ TED Blog:
  The TED community is grieving the loss of Zoe Anderson, the 24-year-old daughter of TED Curator Chris Anderson. She died tragically of carbon monoxide poisoning on December 28, 2010. Chris has posted this beautiful tribute to Zoe’s life (including wonderful photos) and her many, many friends have created this Facebook Memorial for her. A true [...]
• Tapping Into the Power of Clarity to Live More Consciously, Robin Wood @ Everyone’s Blog Posts – R2 Global Meshwork:

  By Bill Austin

   

  The big difference between masters and masters-in-training is that masters are more conscious and aware of who they are and how people and events impact them energetically. In other words, masters tap into the power of clarity whereas…

• Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything, Team @ Complexity Digest 2011.04:
  What if there were a computer that could answer virtually any question? IBM engineers are developing such a machine, teaching it to compete on the quiz show Jeopardy. It will have to understand language, including puns and irony, and master e…
• Tunisian cyberspace as a terrain of struggle, Michel Bauwens @ P2P Foundation:
  Excerpted from a detailed report by Nate Anderson in Wired: “Here’s a guide to the part of this battle fought in cyberspace over the last month. * Web blocking: Soon after the protests began, Tunisia ramped up its attempts at controlling the internet. These started simply enough, with straight-up site blocking. In an open letter [...]
• Obama’s Other War – By Joe Bavier, JOE BAVIER @ Foreign Policy:
  Can Barack Obama really defeat Central Africa’s worst guerrilla warlord?
• Because It Works, Ian Ayres @ Freakonomics:
  To my mind, WeightWatchers is the industry leader in performing rigorous testing of their services. Under the leadership of Karen Miller-Kovach, its chief scientific officer, it has sponsored several randomized control trials comparing the effectivene…
• What Costs $25,000 an Inch on Weekdays?, Stephen J. Dubner @ Freakonomics:
  And $35,000 an inch on weekends?

Kashmir Shavism & WDM

// January 18th, 2011 // Comments Off // Opinion, Waking Down

Ahh, sorry, if you arrived at this site because you thought you were following a working link to the speaking notes for my chat for Bill Miller’s WDM and Evolutionary Spirituality teleconference series… my apologies.  Seems the link doesn’t work.  So, here’s a direct link to the speaking notes: WDM & Kashmir Shavism (166)

For those with no clue about the above, but still interested… well, Bill form the Waking Down in Mutuality community asked me to lead a discussion on Kashmir Shavism and WDM in the context of the concept of Evolutionary Spirituality.  Got so nervous presenting on this topic for the first time I wrote a complete 6000 word paper…. just without the academic standards;)

Or you can download the call here or listen to it using this player

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Enjoy…

Applying Integral Foresight

// January 5th, 2011 // Comments Off // Foresight, Opinion

Late last year I remembered that I was a member of the Shaping Tomorrow Ning group – the largest collection of futures orientated thinkers and actors in the world – and was responsible for the Integral Foresight group… very little activity I’m afraid to report.  So, in a very unsuccessful effort to prompt some discussion I wrote the following post.  Thought that since most of my posts on this site are automated, a little original content wouldn’t go astray;)

——->

I was prompted by Richard Slaughter to remember that I have some responsibility for this group, being the one to start it… I’m sure many of you would have if I hadn’t;)  That said, I note the lack of discussion and thought I’d throw a hat in the ring and see if anyone bites…

Reporting from the front lines…. Any recent stories about Integral Futures?

* Explicit
* Implicit
* Sore lack of
* Natural emergence of
* Personal journeys…

For myself, I was visiting with Saniel Bonder, founder of Waking Down in Mutuality (and teacher at the Integral Spiritual Experience series), last month when he read out a great quote that emergently clarified where I am at with ‘Integral Futures,’ or more precisely Ken Wilber’s brand of integral theory. It is by Robert Godwin PhD, in his book “One Cosmos Under God:”

His [Ken Wilber's] work is a tremendous influence on my earlier intellectual development, and to a large extent one leaves his imposing corpus asking the question, “What’s left to say?” In order to have any thoughts of my own, I had to make him sort of an “unfluence,” even though no human who deserves the name should be unfamiliar with his work.   [emphasis added]

(more…)

Insight Links for Dec 20, 9:19 pm

// December 20th, 2010 // Comments Off // Opinion

• Kill the smartphone: the slow fight against the rat race, Robin Wood @ Everyone’s Blog Posts – R2 Global Meshwork:

  Stop! Stop the rushing, racing, elbowing to compete in a hyper-wired world whose mantra is to move fast, whatever the direction. That is the message the Slow movement has been gently spreading for a quarter century. In this roadrunner world, it can sometimes feel like there is no option but to follow the hurrying herd. But there is,” says Carl Honore, whose 2004 book on the movement, “In Praise of Slowness”, became an international bestseller. (Read more…)

• The LWOT: Sweden looks for accomplices in suicide bombing; Abdulmutallab hit with more charges – by Andrew Lebovich, ANDREW LEBOVICH @ Foreign Policy:
  Foreign Policy and the New America Foundation bring you a twice weekly brief on the legal war on terror. You can read it on foreignpolicy.com or get it delivered directly to your inbox — just sign up here.
• This Week at War: Could North Korea be the next Afghanistan? – By Robert Haddick, ROBERT HADDICK @ Foreign Policy:
  East Asia on the brink of small war.
• A general public license for seeds?, Michel Bauwens @ P2P Foundation:
  Context from Sepp Hasslberger: “The same multinational corporations that are putting their proprietary, genetically modified plants into the envorinment and onto our tables are also well on the way to establishing a monopoly …on seeds. They have purchased the majority of commercial seed companies and the choices for farmers to use non-GM seeds are getting [...]
• Creating a compassionate world: Roundup of TEDPrize@UN, Matthew Trost @ TED Blog:
  On Nov. 18, TEDsters gathered at the UN to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the launch of the Charter for Compassion — Karen Armstrong’s 2008 TED Prize Wish. The event, TEDPrize@UN featured talks on compassion by a number of fascinating speakers: Karen Armstrong: “We need to apply the Golden Rule globally. It’s not just a [...]
• Why Groupon Works, Team @ Freakonomics:
  Google’s recent reported $6 billion bid for Groupon — rebuffed, for now — took observers by surprise and worried the company’s investors. James Surowiecki analyzes the deal and Groupon’s business model.
• 13th December 2010: GWOT Counterfactuals, Alex @ Alex Burns:
  Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA’s Bin Laden Unit, suggests that the 2003 Iraq War was a significant recruitment tool and self-justification for Al Qaeda. This prompts what political scientist Richard Ned Lebow calls a counterfactual: an alternative history or series of events if different choices had been made. What if the US [...]
• Between Necessity and Probability: Searching for the Definition and Origin of Life, Team @ Complexity Digest 2011.02:
  This book systematically explores the early origins and basic definition of life. It investigates the major theories of the origins of life in light of modern research with the aim of distinguishing between the necessary and the optional and …
• The Quantity C is the Radius of Curvature of All Natural law – Planet Forward, Team @ Everyone’s Blog Posts – R2 Global Meshwork:

  My post to Planet Forward’s Question reposted at Freedom Times: What theory, behavior, or norm are you or your team researching that will lead to an improvement in how we generate or use energy?

  

  …

• Thank You for Seven Years of Worldchanging, Team @ Worldchanging: Bright Green:
  WorldChanging TeamWe have some news. Seven years ago, Alex Steffen and Jamais Cascio started Worldchanging with the intention of providing access to the tools, models and…

Insight Links for Nov 20, 9:19 pm

// November 20th, 2010 // Comments Off // Opinion

• The Engagement Pyramid- Building Better Strategies for Engaging People in Your Cause or Business, Robin Wood @ Everyone’s Blog Posts – R2 Global Meshwork:

  …

• 12th November 2010: ‘Initial’ PhD Proposal, Alex @ Alex Burns:
  For the past 3-4 years I’ve been working on a PhD project. It’s gone through several topic changes and about 240,000 words of draft notes. I finally settled on a topic in early 2010: how strategic culture as a framework for understanding the decisions and preferences of national policy elites is adopted in counterterrorism studies, [...]
• Freakonomics Radio: Could a Lottery Be the Answer to America’s Poor Savings Rate?, Stephen J. Dubner @ Freakonomics:
  The Gates Foundation has just pledged $500 million to a cause that seems quite different from typical problems like disease, famine or illiteracy. That $500 million is going to help poor people learn to save money.
• The 1,000th TEDx event was today!, Team @ TED Blog:
  Photo from TEDxBoulder. From the TEDx Posterous blog: Today marks another TEDx milestone —  today’s TEDxBerlin is the 1000th TEDx event! The first TEDx event — TEDxUSC — was in March 2009, and in less than two years, one has become 1000.  Here’s to 1000 more, and some highlights of the past 1000: TEDx events [...]
• Future City Videos, Team @ Worldchanging: Bright Green:
  WorldChanging TeamAs promised, here is the video footage from our recent Future City event. Thank you to Seattle Event Video for providing the filming and editing…
• Not so happy at Drumbeat Barcelona?, Michel Bauwens @ P2P Foundation:
  I heard quite a few unhappy reactions to the Drumbeat Festival, from p2p sympathizers in Barcelona, but this may be due to the cultural clash between the customary optimism of can-do U.S. participants and a more cautious European culture? (disclaimer: I was invited at the last minute in a quite convoluted process, but declined due [...]
• Gray Areas in Accounting, Dan @ Dan Ariely:
  Every profession is bound by written and unwritten rules and policies; some of them are set by organizations while others are an integral part of the occupation you choose. For example, doctors have to swear by the Hippocratic Oath, lawyers cannot divulge any privileged attorney-client conversations, and priests cannot reveal what was said to them [...]
• TEDxYouthDay is on!, Emily McManus @ TED Blog:
  TEDxYouthDay events have begun around the world! Watch the TEDxYouthDay Livestream — or sign up for a Meetup Everywhere to watch the stream. Many events on Nov. 20, including TEDxYouth@Tokyo, TEDxYouth@HongKong, TEDxYouth@Singapore and TEDxYouth@NASA, will be collaborating through the livestream to do shout-outs and program sharing to other TEDxYouthDay events. Plus! (Read more…)
• Paying People to Fix Their Pets, Team @ Freakonomics:
  A few years back, a Freakonomics reader named Stephanie Downs wrote in with an idea: bribing people (with cash, gift certificates etc.) to spay or neuter their pets. “I found your story about the [Israeli] daycares very interesting,” she wrote. “I want…
• What I Learned While Running the New York Marathon, Team @ Freakonomics:
  When I stated on this blog that I was hoping to run the NY marathon in under four hours, I was hoping that my public commitment would spur me on. And it did. Sort of. I ran under four hours – 3:54:59 to be precise – which I’m thrilled by. So score … (Read more…)