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stray bits...

cancer and greedy dictators

to write up properly:

very close analogy - pull from GrannyD's speech; and the guy on Trevor Noah this week about data-basd and fact-based agencies having most problem with Trump

cancer cells defect in repair = repressing dissent/truth

the pathway to cancer is similar to the pathway to corruption

also humor / comedy as immunization

attacking the immune system

but also uniquely - because fewer heads can be more coordinated in its attacks on people, very systematic

attacks on the schools

1 min read

Ayn Rand and Communist Propaganda

Had a really interesting conversation with some long time Russian friends of mine.  My friend Inna told me that because of all the discussions about it she decided to read Ayn Rand's book; she said it was practically unreadable, and really reminded her of communist propaganda pieces.

The thing that both have in common, also with current propaganda about 'great russia', is ways to make people who feel low or put down feel better about themselves by feeling like their country or system is somehow great and better than others. So its sort of a cheap way of making people feel good about themselves, but manipulating them in the process.

1 min read

Vizzini...

Just finished "Its kind of a Funny Story", great book, looked up the author and found he committed suicide in 2013, 9 years after he wrote the book about depression and real friends and creativity and his 5 days in a psych ward.

And tried to find his writings, like blogs, and found this - another fan, her words made a lot of sense to me:

"If there is one thing I have learned from Vizzini, it’s that struggles are not written in pencil. You can’t erase the past, and if you try to cross it out, it only looks worse. If you try to rip out the pages of your story that you don’t like, the book won’t make any sense."

https://twloha.com/blog/thank-you-ned-vizzini/

1 min read

What I like best about the Federalist Papers

In the intro, Hamilton wrote

"It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force."

And, he expected Americans, common man in the street, to read it!   Its ok to communicate complex ideas to each other, really it is...

1 min read

Political/Community Projects I'm Doing or would Like to Do

So I was talking over ideas with my friend John, and he asked me to make a list of all the ones I've been thinking of, or trying to start, recently.  And it was a long list!  Here it is, and should anyone reading this be crazy enough to want to join forces feel free to give me a ring -----------------------------------------------------

local/remote/general/political --------------------------------------

- helping HEPAC in Nogales see http://friendsofhepac.org.  Just set up the shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/HEPACooperativa need to promote it. Recruit volunteers (maybe on volunteermatch.org) to help manage their websites.  sponsor kid at tech school there to mentor others in coder dojo.  invite people in Tucson to visit/go on a water drop for No More Deaths (same organizer)

- helping Amani daycare volunteering with my kids there with refugee kids.  follow up with dept of health and human services who are giving them a hard time.  organize other volunteers to build a community garden there.  remember to bring more folders for the kids.

- work on implementing the concept of helping communities in the course of campaigns and not only after winning elections.  https://www.dailykos.com/

4 min read

The lighter side of activism...

So I signed a petition today at dailyKos, asking congress to prevent Trump from having the authority to start a nuclear war.  And I thought, well,  petitions aren't very effective and I don't know if this will do any good.  But at least, if there is a nuclear war and we are all gonna die, at least I know I signed a petition....

hm.

I did get a bunch of people at the peace fair today to agree to make phone calls against that SB1142 bill.  Now back to aligning voter files to enable our communities product.  Would it have made any difference if I just went hiking?  But then there was Anna Maria with the families of those killed by the border patrol.  I think I'm glad I went.  Fighting back is a funny thing.

1 min read

Humility is apparently not The Goal

Just finished reading Eliyahu Goldratt's The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement.  I liked it fairly well, found it actually pretty inspiring about 2/3 of the way through, but he lost me at the end when he seemed to imply that his Theory of Constraints could solve every problem known to business, education or human endeavor.  Its the be-all-end-all syndrome that is so prevalent with consultants and trainers, because the success of consultancy is dependent on being The One with the answers.

The thing is, its ok to have a fairly good and somewhat original idea, that is sometimes helpful.  That's better than average and its a good thing.   Nothing in this book is earth-shaking, but it does show some effective sounding approaches for optimizing messy, dependent chains of operations.  It has enough concrete details that it convinces me that the author knows at least something about manufacturing.  And the idea of searching for bottlenecks, constraints and maximum leverage is a good one to keep in mind.   Its an easy read and worth an afternoon, just skip over the puffery stuff at the end.

1 min read

Someone has replayed your snap! Instant gratification for the long term.

I am not the snapchat type.  I prefer books, code, and UIs that let me drive, think about what I'm doing, and build things over time.  But with two of my kids off to college and Snapchat their preferred method of communication, I'm snapchatting.

What strikes me about the app, is the emotional bang for the buck it provides.  Low overhead - down in the tenth-of-a-second range - as well as nothing to organize later, nothing to store, and no definite expectation of response makes the 'cost' of using the app in terms of time, effort and responsibility almost zero.  The gratification of getting a snap unexpectedly (usually they seem not to be part of an ongoing conversation) or of seeing that one of your friends or family has viewed or saved your snap is fairly high, especially when its a photo of a distant family member.

Spontaneity is another plus.  Silliness is encouraged both by the app itself (filters, face swaps, etc) and by the sense of impermanence.  One might hesitate to post a dog-whiskered, clown-nosed version of oneself to a online photo album, but the sense that this is like a voice conversation that will disappear, encourages fun

1 min read

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