Tony's Blog

Gay Marriage

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 14:20:00 -0600

“It’s very dear to me, the issue of gay marriage. Or, as I like to call it: ‘marriage’. You know, because I had lunch this afternoon, not gay lunch. I parked my car; I didn’t gay park it.”

Liz Feldman

Taken from Demotivational Posters, of all places.

Roots by the Bottle I transplanted my ghetto garden this...

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 11:25:00 -0600

Roots by the Bottle

I transplanted my ghetto garden this weekend. I built some mini global buckets using juice and milk containers. This is what my sage looked like after growing in a Sunripe container for a few months.

Courage in the Face of Pi “Leaders are fascinated by the...

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:41:00 -0600

Courage in the Face of Pi

“Leaders are fascinated by the future. You are a leader if, and only if, you are restless for change, impatient for progress, and deeply dissatisfied with the status quo. As a leader, you are never satisfied with the present, because in your head you can see a better future, and the difference between ‘what is’ and ‘what could be’ burns you, stirs you up, propels you forward. This is leadership.”

- Marcus Buckingham, Gallup

Vi Hart is a leader. You can tell that math class burns her and she’s doing something about it. From Infinite Elephants:

So you’re me and you’re in math class yet again, because they make you go, like, every single day, and they make you learn about, I don’t know, the sums of infinite series. That’s a high school topic, right? Which is odd because it’s a cool topic but they manage to ruin it anyway so I guess that’s why they allow infinite series in the curriculum.”

She has 26 videos at the time of this writing and you can bet I’m going to watch every single one of them.

LOL

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 16:28:00 -0600

“As long as the assumed purpose of media is to allow ordinary people to consume professionally created material, the proliferation of amateur-created stuff will seem incomprehensible. What amateurs do is so, well, unprofessional — lolcats as a kind of low-grade substitute for the Cartoon Network. But what if, all this time, providing professional content isn’t the only job we’ve been hiring media to do? What if we’ve also been hiring it to make us feel connected, engaged, or just less lonely? What if we’ve always wanted to produce as well as consume, but no one offered us that opportunity?

Once you accept the idea that we actually like making and sharing things, however dopey in content or poor in execution, and that making one another laugh is a different kind of activity from being made to laugh by people paid to make us laugh, then in some ways the Cartoon Network is a low-grade substitute for lolcats.”

- Clay Shirky; Cognitive Surplus

Wrappin’ with Passion You can reward someone for...

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:01:00 -0600

Wrappin’ with Passion

You can reward someone for participation in several ways. Social scientists group these rewards into two buckets: intrinsic and extrinsic. Monetary payment is considered extrinsic and is probably not responsible for Rajnikanth’s skill at packaging. This is mastery at work, the intrinsic motivation to become better at what you do.

You can’t pay for that kind of dedication. He does it for the joy and the glory. A raise would just cheapen the experience.

Sturgis North Motorcycle Rally I’m in Salmon Arm this...

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 22:51:00 -0600

Sturgis North Motorcycle Rally

I’m in Salmon Arm this weekend for the Sturgis North motorcycle rally with my dad. Tomorrow we actually enter the grounds, but today we took in the chaos that 40,000 bikers bring to a town of 16,000. This bike spits fire and can accelerate from 0 to 200 in six seconds.

A Traffic Jam with No Emissions is Still a Traffic Jam Henry...

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 22:50:00 -0600

A Traffic Jam with No Emissions is Still a Traffic Jam

Henry Ford’s great-grandson, Bill Ford, presents an excellent case for a new transportation model beyond the zero-emission automobile.

“Today there are about 800 million cars on the road worldwide. But with more people and greater prosperity worldwide, that number is going to grow to between two and four billion cars by mid century. And this is going to create the kind of global gridlock the world has never seen before…

Today, the average driver in Beijing has a five hour commute. Last summer there was a 100 mile traffic jam that took 11 days to clear in China…

The mobility model that we have today simply won’t work tomorrow. Frankly, four billion clean cars on the road are still four billion cars and a traffic jam with no emissions is still a traffic jam.”

CTV Should Try Bootleg Fireworks The Roommate and I reopened a...

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 23:50:00 -0600

CTV Should Try Bootleg Fireworks

The Roommate and I reopened a pandora’s box called Canadian network television today. We haven’t had cable for years, but Plex has a CTVGlobeMedia plugin that lets us watch The Colbert Report over the Internet, with commercials. As the Cylons used to say: “All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.”

Except this time, it’s a real pain in the ass to fast forward through the ads. Although we were safely within the Internet’s bossom of choice, we were also sitting on the couch and the keyboard was waaay over there. We had to sit patiently, all 80s-like.

Shell kind of ruined the fun during the breaks and the Caramilk Key campaign wasn’t much better, but at least the Stampede reminded us we were being geo-targeted and that choice was only a click awaaay over there.

Do you know what would have been an awesome break between Colbert’s SuperPac and Formidable Opponent? Yup; one minute of bootleg fireworks.

Video Of Asteroid Discoveries from 1980 - 2011 If there’s...

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 23:22:00 -0600

Video Of Asteroid Discoveries from 1980 - 2011

If there’s an asteroid out there with our name on it, I’m convinced they’ll find it within my lifetime. Earth crossers are red, Earth approachers are yellow and the rest are green.

The video was created by Sott Manley. He explains some of the patterns:

Notice now the pattern of discovery follows the Earth around its orbit, most discoveries are made in the region directly opposite the Sun. You’ll also notice some clusters of discoveries on the line between Earth and Jupiter, these are the result of surveys looking for Jovian moons. Similar clusters of discoveries can be tied to the other outer planets, but those are not visible in this video.

As the video moves into the mid 1990’s we see much higher discovery rates as automated sky scanning systems come online. Most of the surveys are imaging the sky directly opposite the sun and you’ll see a region of high discovery rates aligned in this manner.

At the beginning of 2010 a new discovery pattern becomes evident, with discovery zones in a line perpendicular to the Sun-Earth vector. These new observations are the result of the WISE (Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer) which is a space mission that’s tasked with imaging the entire sky in infrared wavelengths.

It’s only a matter of time before we find an Earth-killer shaped like a throwing star.

(originally via Boing Boing)

Joys and Profit

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:51:00 -0600

Protospace had a great showing at the Hillhurst Sunnyside Famers’ Market today. I think we made about 15 sets of juggling balls with a profit of $4 from donations, not counting the joy.

That means we’re $4 closer to getting a new space, which bring us $4 closer to a laser cutter, which brings me $4 closer to a custom Settlers game set made of [broken dreams].

But it was all about the joy.

Open Hams and Revolution

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 23:25:00 -0600

I attended my first official yoga class this evening. Mom taught me a bit as a child, but that was when my body hadn’t quite learned how to fail yet.

It’s difficult for me to explain the sensation to anyone who hasn’t tried yoga. The only way I can even begin is to compare it to an equally obscure political concept: punctuated equilibrium.

It’s a model of change that tries to explain how stable systems can quickly transition to a new state without any apparent warning. The transformation seems sudden but hidden conditions form much earlier and allow the transition to happen in the first place.

In this context, the “opening” of my hamstrings was much like the fall of communism: sudden screams of revolt predicated by years of silent, debilitating neglect. There were even tears, but I was staring at my taint so I don’t think anyone noticed.

All kidding aside, the pain was worth it and Amanda was very supportive; sometimes structurally.

Bathroom Reading

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 21:30:00 -0600

It takes a special book to make good bathroom reading. It should be relatively short and engaging with sections broken up into bite-sized passages. Otherwise you might get sucked into a long chapter, pull a Murtaugh and never get off the toilet.

These are a few of my favourites. The content may not be to everyone’s liking, but most can be finished in 20-30 poops.

Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
Evil Plans by Hugh Macleod
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson
Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki
The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs by Carmine Gallo

Before and After Danger sent me some of her shots of our...

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 22:36:00 -0600

Before and After

Danger sent me some of her shots of our juggling workshop at the Market. We were too busy making sandbags to get to the actual juggling lesson. I don’t think they cared, though.

Pendulums! I’ve been searching for simple but educational...

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:20:00 -0600

Pendulums!

I’ve been searching for simple but educational projects that can make kids think about the physics in everyday objects. Protospace is currently collaborating with Shannon and Maria of the Endeavour Art Gallery to have a compound pendulum built for a joint installation. I’d like it to be pointy and gothic.

DIY Juggling Balls Today I taught some kids how to make their...

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:35:00 -0600

DIY Juggling Balls

Today I taught some kids how to make their own juggling balls out of sand and balloons. The worst part is carrying 15 pounds of sand on your back, but the kids seemed to love it.

Now all I need is a volunteer or two so I can teach them to actually juggle… if they have the balls. wakka wakka

Sorry, it’s been a long day.

Trash into Toys This presentation by Arvind Gupta embodies what...

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:55:00 -0600

Trash into Toys

This presentation by Arvind Gupta embodies what I’d like to see in Calgary this summer.

Tonight is our first Protospace meeting with the new Board and it’s our job to convince the members that we can have a community outside of a physical space (we are homeless at the end of the week). More importantly, we need to convince non-members (i.e. the rest of Calgary) of the value of doing things the hard way.

How do you build a community of makers when nobody knows (outside of Protospace, that is) what making is? For one, you do what McDonald’s does: enchant the children. Kids deserve an education that’s fun and parents deserve a babysitter that isn’t the television.

If things go well this week, you should see us working the local festival circuit this summer. Hopefully you’ll have found us by following the laughter.

Doing It Yourself

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 21:08:00 -0600

“[The DIYers’] secret isn’t so much what they have as what they don’t have: a fear of failure. Most people loathe failing so much they avoid trying things that require pushing past their current abilities… Because we’ve been trained to believe that mistakes must be avoided, many of us don’t want to attempt to make or fix things, or we quit soon after we start, because our initial attempts end in failure.”

- Mark Frauenfelder; Made By Hand

It’s no secret that we live in a disposable culture. When something breaks, chances are we’ll throw it out and buy a new one without a second thought. The personality of our possessions have been reduced to a few colour options, cases and the odd sticker.

A maker’s philosophy, on the other hand, is to hold a connection to the objects in her life; the things around her should have meaning. If it breaks, it’s fixed. If it can’t be fixed, it’s rebuilt, re-purposed or recycled.

I’m trying to become a maker. I want that control over my environment and the things in it. I like having something that nobody else has because I built it. And because I built it, I can teach others how to do the same.

Looking at my apartment, I see no shortage of projects for the summer. I don’t want to electrocute myself until the fall, so I think I’ll start the week with bread (thanks to Sarah for the wicked recipe).

I’ll post a pic of the smoke.

Red Fang Plays the Distillery Tonight “What are your...

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 17:00:00 -0600

Red Fang Plays the Distillery Tonight

“What are your passions? Do you hide them under a bushel? Instead, tell the world that you love cooking, hockey, NASCAR, or knitting — whatever it is — because pursuing your passions makes you more interesting, and interesting people are more enchanting.”

- Guy Kawasaki; Enchantment

The Roommate introduced me to Red Fang a couple months ago when he found out they’ll be playing Sled tonight at the Distillery. They’ll be opening for the more technically skilled Sword, but it’s all about Red Fang for me. You’ll see why at the four-minute mark of this music video.

Heart Beats and Creativity

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 04:20:00 -0600

“Kleiber stumbled across a mysterious pattern in his research, a mathematical oddity… Scientists and animal lovers had long observed that as life gets bigger, it slows down. Flies live for hours or days, elephants for half-centuries. The hearts of birds and small animals pump blood much faster than those of giraffes and blue whales… [He] discovered that this scaling phenomenon stuck to an unvarying mathematical script called ‘negative quarter-power scaling’.

…

The math is simple enough: you take the square root of 1,000, which is (approximately) 31, and then take the square root of 31, which is (again, approximately) 5.5. This means that a cow, which is 1000 time larger than a woodchuck, will, on average, live 5.5 times longer, and have a heart rate 5.5 times slower than the woodchuck’s.”

— Steven Johnson; Where Good Ideas Come From

In the century since, Kleiber’s law has popped up everywhere, from bateria to city traffic. But when it comes to some measurements of creativity and innovation, the trend is positive instead of negative.

“A city that was ten times larger than its neighbor [sic] wasn’t ten times more innovative; it was seventeen times more innovative. A metropolis fifty times bigger than a town was 130 times more innovative.”

Steven Johnson is my kind of nerd. “Where Good Ideas Come From” focuses on seven patterns of innovation he’s found during his travels:

The Adjacent Possible
Liquid Networks
The Slow Hunch
Serendipity
Error
Exaptation
Platforms

This book changed the way I look at everything.

Good News Can Wait

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:43:00 -0600

“Compared to the vast majority of other species, humans produce few young and have the potential for very long lives. Hence, the human brain is optimized to identify and respond to bad experiences; good news can wait.”

- Clifford Nass; The Man Who Lied to His Laptop

There’s a part in all of us that loves to see the worst in everything and it’s called the thalamus. It’s the celebrity judge of the brain.

It compiles information from our senses (except for smell; interestingly) and gives each event a positive or negative vote. The thalamus is the part of the brain that loves traffic accidents and the 11 o’clock news. Good news tends to be ignored because it generally doesn’t kill us.

If it can’t make sense of the information it receives (the lizard brain doesn’t understand sarcasm coming from a straight face, for example), it sends it to the higher brain centres for interpretation and back again for a vote.

A brain that’s biased toward bad news is great from a survival perspective — the thalamus is the centre of the fight or flight response — but how does a million years of evolution react to a culture of fast food and instant gratification? What if the 11 o’clock news isn’t enough?

I often wonder if the mind turns on itself in times of physiological prosperity. Maybe low self-esteem, depression and stress are signs that the thalamus is sifting through your soul when you look in the mirror, putting all the worst parts on display for only you to see.

Or maybe it just tells you to watch TV until shit happens.

I don’t know, more reading is required.