Tumblr and WordPress hosted blogs are home to an always ever growing source of inspiration. Check out “We are the 99 Percent”, hand written stories of struggle, fear, and hope.
Related:
Metafilter: “We are the 99 percent.”
Washington Post: “‘Occupy Wall Street’ only growing stronger”
New York Times: “Protests Stir Up Voices on the Web”
Howard Hall and Helen Durando walk for suicide prevention this weekend.
You can read more about the walk at analog impulse: “Shine where it matters”.
Give.
Paul Lockhart wrote an accessible read on what is wrong with math education and the popular perception of math that is reinforced in culture that has been shared on the Web in quite a few corners. It deserves a wider read: “A Mathematician’s Lament”:
The art of proof has been replaced by a rigid step-by step pattern of uninspired formal deductions. The textbook presents a set of definitions, theorems, and proofs, the teacher copies them onto the blackboard, and the students copy them into their notebooks. They are then asked to mimic them in the exercises. Those that catch on to the pattern quickly are the “good” students.
The result is that the student becomes a passive participant in the creative act. Students are making statements to fit a preexisting proof-pattern, not because they mean them. They are being trained to ape arguments, not to intend them. So not only do they have no idea what their teacher is saying, they have no idea what they themselves are saying.
Even the traditional way in which definitions are presented is a lie. In an effort to create an illusion of “clarity” before embarking on the typical cascade of propositions and theorems, a set of definitions are provided so that statements and their proofs can be made as succinct as possible. On the surface this seems fairly innocuous; why not make some abbreviations so that things can be said more economically? The problem is that definitions matter. They come from aesthetic decisions about what distinctions you as an artist consider important. And they are problem-generated. To make a definition is to highlight and call attention to a feature or structural property. Historically this comes out of working on a problem, not as a prelude to it.
The point is you don’t start with definitions, you start with problems. Nobody ever had an idea of a number being “irrational” until Pythagoras attempted to measure the diagonal of a square and discovered that it could not be represented as a fraction. Definitions make sense when a point is reached in your argument which makes the distinction necessary. To make definitions without motivation is more likely to cause confusion.
Related:
Kevin Devlin: “Lockhart’s Lament – The Sequel”
Slashdot: “A Mathematician’s Lament — an Indictment of US Math Education”
G.H. Hardy:
A mathematician, like a painter or poet, is a maker of patterns. If his patterns are more permanent than theirs, it is because they are made with ideas.
TED.com: Kevin Slavin: Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world:
YouTube: Maker Faire: “The Long Slow Make: Understanding the Maker Movement”:
“Anil Dash shares his observations and insights into the development of the Maker movement He sees it as a kind of political movement that is apolitical in nature but also radical and inclusive. This conversation with Anil and Dale Dougherty, founder of MAKE magazine and Maker Faire, touches on the social context of making, and what it means for individuals, families and communities. How will a “long, slow make” transform our society?”
Check out the post at Boing Boing: “Understanding Makers, a conversation with Anil Dash & Dale Dougherty” for more.
GOOD: “Out in the Open”
Steve Jobs said, in his well linked commencement speech, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”.
Learning from experience, gaining perspective, carrying it forward, is the roots of wisdom.
So when we say, ‘Never Forget’, about 9/11, what is it we want our children to know? I don’t think we know yet, what we do know can’t be summarized in a single post, let alone by someone with my skills, and the story is still unfolding. The boomer generation, and my generation, is in the mix of creating that legacy right now. What will it be?
I don’t want to write about my personal memories of the day. I am thankful I was home with Richelle.
Thank you to all who put themselves in harms way to protect us.
And thoughts, prayers, and love for those who have lost so much that day, and in the days that followed.
PhillySNAP was launched during the recent Philadelphia Random Hacks for Kindness event and proivdes a service people can use to find affordable, fresh foods around them.
That’s the way the NYTimes put it in a recent piece on the Chevrolet Sonic.
Some good news to pass along.
That’s the question Alex Hillman posed in his latest post, a great introduction to the efforts of Jeff Friedman, Manager of Civic Innovation and Participation for the City of Philadelphia and Code for America. Both, along with The Media Mobilizing Project are helping to surface, and connect people and resources leveraging in great part what Tim O’Reilly had called “the architecture of participation” way back in 2004.
I’ve always believed, due to personal experience, that when you enable people to connect and communicate with who and what they need to, with each other, great things are possible. These efforts provide gateways for those who work in technology to make contributions strengthening neighborhoods, communities, and the world.
BTW – check out the NYTimes piece on IndyHall, founded by Alex, which from everything I’ve ever heard from everyone who has worked there, sounds based on enabling the above.
Related
NewAmerica.net: Preston Rhea: “How to Create a Public Computer Center”
Quora: “How should the United States Congress use social media to enhance the legislative process?”
Wired.com: “How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education”
flying kite: “Radio Revolution: West Philly’s Prometheus Promotes Stations by the People, For the People”