Forty Two
March 13th, 2008
If this is the answer, what was the question?
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Cultures of Sustainability
March 8th, 2008
Just back from the Cultures of Sustainability event in Camden where staff and guess teachers from Schumacher College gathered at Cecil Sharp House to discuss issues relating to sustainable living.
This photo shows Satish Kumar, who chaired the afternoon, guests Gustavo Esteva and David Orr, and lecturer Brian Goodwin. Also participating were Karen Blincoe the college’s director, and Vandana Shiva.
Disruptors
March 8th, 2008
This week found me at a meeting of disruptive social innovators — The Disruptors for short. According to their Facebook page:
a group for people who are, and are inspired by, creating the precedents of the future; riders of the next wave of positive social change.
Losing it
March 2nd, 2008
I don’t play sport; I’m a bad loser. I think, when I was a kid, I disliked not being on the winning team and, subsequently, not being chosen for any team. My experience of games lessons at school was one of ungainliness. I stopped playing sport; I cut it out of my life. To a lesser extent, I have done the same with games. Although I have happy memories of playing Mastermind and a home-made 3D noughts and crosses with my brother Raymond, I stopped playing Axiom with Magdalena when I realised she was beating me most of the time. With Axiom, I was interested in exploring different dynamics of a game in which the board moves as well as the pieces; I was too impatient to stick to winning strategies. And despite not being very motivated to win, it still stung when I lost. So I quit.
Of course quitting is a strategy of mine. From 1977 until 2000 I refused to dance* because some girls laughed at me once in a high-school disco (ah the cruelty of schoolgirls). And when, finally, I allowed dancing into my life, at the age of 34, I found that I enjoyed it very much. Dancing has contributed enormously to the richness of my present life. So what about sport and games?
Lately I have been considering the following theory about games and sports: Wanting to win is part of the rules of the game. Read the rest of this entry »
That’s not IT
February 19th, 2008Today I am celebrating. This was my first day of paid work* that was not something to do with Information Technology. Read the rest of this entry »
Introducing “Social Business”
February 17th, 2008
“I’m just a guy who lends tiny little money to poor women”
With these words, Muhammad Yunus responded to his introduction and started his lecture today. Read the rest of this entry »
Certified!
February 9th, 2008
Digital Speech Standard
February 8th, 2008I just opened the CD that I got from Schumacher College — they give a CD instead of lots of paper notes — and there are audio recordings of all our lectures. Read the rest of this entry »
Ugali and cabbage
February 7th, 2008
I cooked Ugali yesterday. Solidarity with my Kenyan friends. Mr Kioko has had some property destroyed but, to the best of my knowledge, most of my friends are safe. Let it stay that way.
Ugali is a staple foodstuff in the part of Kenya I was in, it is made of maize-meal and water. The cabbage dish I cooked is not traditional Kenyan but very much the sort of thing I would have eaten while I was there: cabbage, carrot and onion sauteed with garlic and mustard seeds and then steamed in fresh orange juice.
Homework and contrails
February 3rd, 2008I’m trying to remember how it all started now. I think it was Sociocybernetics… No! It was something from one of Alan’s comments here! Read the rest of this entry »
