Flying Shortbread

A community parade - based on something totally arbitrary and not activist oriented. Something that will let the community have fun with each other. A dress up parade. The Bowler Hat Parade. The African Mask Parade. The Angel Parade. The Zebra Stripe Parade.

Notice the passive voice of that sentence. I didn't know that girls could get pregnant by themselves! Redi Direko put it beautifully. "How can you expel the girls, treat girls like criminals and the guys get away with it and are sluts too." Direko was expressing her disgust that people were sending SMSes and emails to her show saying that pregnant girls are sluts and they don't want sluts around their children. Source: 702

The God Delusion tired of people forcing their imaginary friends down your throat (Bill Maher phrase) scale of 1 to 7 of atheism Dawkins says he is a 6 - definitely is a very tall statement to make, unscientific, how can they KNOW there is a god Maher: religion's stories are rediculous, the talking snake religious scientists have some ideas about religion but don't believe in all the details Dawkins says readers will be atheists when they put it down Source: Dawkins Foundation

Susan Blackmore studies memes: ideas that replicate themselves from brain to brain like a virus. She makes a bold new argument: Humanity has spawned a new kind of meme, the teme, which spreads itself via technology -- and invents ways to keep itself alive Darwin's ideas explain all design, not just biological if, if, if, then - the evolutionary algorithm design must happen if there are algorithms, you don't need an original creator Darwin didn't know about genes Dawkins' the selfish gene gets copied and doesn't care about the consequences language is another replicator - another example - it has no conscious design, it just wanders meme - that which is copied from person to person the reason why they are copied is irrelevant, good, bad, intriguing, fun the pointy fold on a looroll memes use us as mememachines, copying machines genes are a kind of meme copy the useful things and the not-useful  mimetic drive - making a bigger brain that can copy more mem...

RICK WARREN the purpose-driven life (book) there's existing and living the stewardship of affluence - leadership is stewardship TED - ideas worth spreading DAN DENNET suggests that religions of the world should be taught like any other subject prohibitions, requirements, symbolism, texts, known leaders has been called totalitarian despite seeming libertarian flavor of his ideas TED - ideas worth spreading

Biologist Richard Dawkins makes a case for "thinking the improbable" by looking at how the human frame of reference limits our understanding of the universe. if you think you understand quantum theory you don't understand quantum theory it is likely that we ingest molecules of pee, unchanged are there things ungraspable we have given preference to things that TED - ideas worth spreading

Dawkins has become outspoken in his atheism , coining the word "bright" (as an alternate to atheist), and encouraging fellow non-believers to stand up and be identified. intelligent design is creationism redressed creationists are right that evolution is hostile to evolution statistical improbability of the complexity of design - intelligent design but the intelligent designer wouldn't have made such a hash - why would the designer be bothered with disapproving of our sex lives, favor our side in the war Dawkins suggest rocking the boat - attack religion as a whole taboo of speaking ill about religion - Douglas Adams said, sacred ideas at the heart of religion, holy cows, you can support any operating system you want, but the challenge of religious ideas is off limits science and religion are corrosive to each other - religious explanations are trivial and improbably, teaches people to accept authoritarianism takes the example of famous scientists and imagines ...

Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger -- the co-editor of Boing Boing (boingboing.net) and the author of the bestselling Tor Teens/HarperCollins UK novel Little Brother . He is the former European director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in London. Artists' problem is not poverty, but obscurity. His books are free, but they are digital - digital happens on a device on which sustained attention is difficult, so you would buy the book - you pay close attention to a book. Nerdvana  Scifi shows the anxieties we have about the technologies around us today. Technological Stalinism When you solve a problem you become a problem because you are invested in hanging around to keep solving the problem. Commercial and non-commercial rights can apply to the same work - the guy who make Transformers owns one of Doctorow's books for commercial activ...

CMS I don't know what the answer is for artists who want to play on the web. It's all about learning applications... Facebook's structure was made with CMS. But then you become a developer and not an artist. MMORPG You get these things called Multiplayer role playing games MMORPG that often are just text based... it reaches a huge audience. Movie theatres have started investigating how to get these people to come play at the movie theaters... to harvest their money. I have been finding with the kids I am teaching that 25 year olds are talking to me about the role of video games in their marriages...! FUTURE OF THE WEB AND MEDIA - IPHONE The future of the computer is that it will be gone... onto an iPhone kind of a thing... like a playstation 3 but it won't be a separate unit, it will be merged into the iphone which has already merged with the ipod - and has fantabulous application books... Anni... you have to have one! I have downloaded an ebook onto m...

People don't take things on board easily, and toy with them, see what they can get out of them and spit out the things that they don't like. They resist input, resist change. I am so not like that, that when I turn from version 3 of an application to version 4, that I embrace the newness and if, ten minutes later I turn back to 3, I have to think about the old harder. I don't mind turning back, you understand, just my mind naturally goes to 'progression', to see what the new and improved version is. I desire it, I lust it, and I investigate it in seconds and can objectively evaluate if there is an improvement, but I don't resist a backwards step. A backwards step is also a forward step because it makes you aware of stepping back. All very abstract I know.... But there is a notion lurking around in feminist circles, which I naturally have toyed with, that men are necrophiliacs, that they don't want a live, warm, thinking, disagreeing, smelling, desiring, lust...

Why do we always have to stress the qualifier 'informed' before 'consent'? What's with that? Who would accept consent without being sure it was informed... ? I suggest, someone with no scruples.

Start slowly - e.g. start with a bucket and a sponge and grow into a multi-person, uniformed, formally asked for at garages, team of carwashers Opportunity coaches - a team of people who share a context and help you recognise and start a business, mentors, advisors who each have their own field of expertise Common mistakes - research first, then market research the people you are getting, open a business account, do the things you are good at and subcontract to experts (especially accountants), save and put money back into your business, network with other businesses like yours and build overflow relationships with them (then if you need something you can ask them) Money - avoid lending from banks, make partnerships (cover all details, with contract), when will you pay out the profits, what percentages, get financial advice to govern the partnership relationship Second job - keep your day job, get someone to help you with your second job and build slowly Someone may steal my idea - don...

Isn't it amazing that we all have a 9/11 memory. Yes Collosusness scares us - fear of so many eggs being in one basket. We want to find a rock to hide under because of our fear of what would happen if we were living at the top of the mountain with the most beautiful view, viscerally engaged with babeling. Another bookbit lurks here. Source: Office for Metropolitan Architecture

One of my big issues, bugbears, points of coherence is that the communication skills of [teenagers] must be improved. I think much of the work-world disaster happening in this country can be improved by improving communication skills. (How's that for oversimplification?) And I believe that Facebook can enhance communication and should be a REQUIREMENT for everyone - an allotment of half an hour compulsory Facebook time per day - is where I stand. And libraries and internet cafés should be given incentive tax cuts to issue time cards where people can get free internet access for that half hour.... oooh I see a booky element here (thanks Cory)... the logistical issues can be solved, whatever. [snaps fingers]. Sorted. I would think, therefore, that there would be less suicide because people would be better able to measure their connection with the world; have provided themselves lots of opportunities to connect; have better work environments because of improved communication; have bet...

The movie, about the coke bottle that causes trouble in a culture that has no ready-made use for the coke bottle. They use their imagination, use it for all sorts of things, and it causes trouble because it is a scarce resource. To Caroline on Facebook. We hardly ever get this kind of cultural commonality anymore, hey... The Gods must be Crazy had a profound (yes, I used the word profound about this film) effect on my attitudes about cultural diversity. Thanks for giving me back this memory-feeling-thing. Great moment. Only we can get that feeling in the same way, don't you think. The now-generation won't get it the way we did. Or did you, now-generation? Generated by Caroline: She suggested that the internet is a coke bottle. The internet is our coke bottle in that we are being introduced to an economy that is not all about managing scarcity. There are bits and bytes all over the place. What are we going to do with this coke bottle. Ooh I am getting excited now. Thanks for thi...

April 2009: Media Conference MIT6 (transcription) Jessica Clark Time based media - durable stable Space based - ephemeral How can old media participate? Allow publics to form without corporate interference Paradigm shifts Broadcast to network Consumption to conversation Situated to ubiquitous Library to Cloud Citizen is the platform Choice, 24/7, curating media, creating media, collaboration with each other and traditional media Hyperprojects for profit and not for profit Each project has multiple outlets - network of producers Futureofpublicmedia.net Ellen Hume Old media is dying, the old media didn’t ask for action, new media gives phone number, website, facebook group Writing was done for a few officials, and journos crossed their fingers that those officials would be embarrassed enough to do something Publics decide to take up issues, SeeClickFix , the public finds out here and takes it up as an issue. Citizen engagement tool for establishing priorities for...

How to prevent corruption by officials ? Solution: Uniforms with no pockets (702) How to prevent the wearing of Burkas? Make it compulsory for prostitutes to wear them (Rory Sutherland) How to popularise an ugly vegetable and make it infinitely eatable? Make it a vegetable not for plebs but only for kings, guard the fields where it is grown and don't guard them awfully well. If something is worth growing it's worth stealing. (Rory Sutherland) How to make people keep the road rules? Points loss. Start with twelve and have them taken away. "Oh dear, I only have three left." (Rory Sutherland) How to stop people from multitasking on mobile devices? Call on them. Ask them for their opinion. Ask them to extrapolate a solution based on what you were saying, ask them for an opinion or some facts and figures. (article, sorry no reference) How to manage the information that large groups hold? Take the problem to the people - internet, tagging (Clay Shirky)

Hackerspaces always have a fantastic vibe, a palpable buzz that you get from gathering a lot of smart, passionate, creative people inside each others' spheres of attention and set them to work, a cross-pollinated vigor. Hackerspaces tend to be loosely organized, governed by consensus, and infused with an almost utopian spirit of cooperation and sharing. Sounds like everyplace should be a hackerspace. I am going to start turning the space around me into a hackerspace, starting with the first three feet. A howto at Make, Technology on your Time . You need 2+2 people. Two idea people for scheming and and two implementation people to get real work done. Don't start until you have 4 and then once you've got it going, expand to 10 to start off.

"Here's a novel idea to save the planet: Remove the main cause of its woes - homo sapiens. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (VHEMT - pronounced "vehement") proposes the phasing out the human race. "When every human chooses to stop breeding, Earth's biosphere will be allowed to return to its former glory, and all remaining creatures will be free to live, die, and evolve (if they believe in evolution)," offers the movement's website. But 'it's going to take all of us going'." See www.vhemt.org SOURCE: Email invite. I thought I was the only one who thought like this. Everyone I know thanks the universe that I didn't study microbiology. I would have developed a human-specific killer virus. WE are the vermin.

From Burning Man : to Grrls group, Flashmob... somewhere, body as canvas, written on the body, on our backs, put your back into it! From London: Women's Art Movement (WAM) is an umbrella organization structured for art & business minded woman to socialize & collaborate. Creating a point of contact for social and business networking. The coffee shop combining Internet & creative facilities are available for women providing a space to be inspired, socialize, read, write, research, exhibit artwork, perform, hold readings and create art/music workshops, offering low cost usage of the WAM facilities and products. Concerts: Michelle Shocked 2008 , Tracy Chapman From Meetup.com : Mid-Month Meetups Tenpin Bowling in Menlyn Pretoria Zoo Rietvlei Dam Nature Reserve Pretoria Art Museum Hatfield Flea Market Van Gaalen Cheese-makers (083 226-7834, vgaalen@hixnet.co.za ) Welwitschia Country Market (083 302 8085, countrymarket@mweb.co.za ) GlenAfric game drive ( info@gle...