Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Geometric Esoterica


This seems like a good place to take stock, in light of the lattice work going on, on other channels.



Sunday, June 30, 2019

Want to Learn Orgo?


I'm imagining a billboard, kind of funny, with people pulling off the road to satisfy their curiosity.

The booth brochures (freeway rest stop?) given a sense of it:  don some VR googles, kick back, and see how much organic chemistry you might learn in an evening, a meal included, and a badge or certificate, that you were a player.

School of Tomorrow.

You'll recognize The House of Tomorrow theme perhaps.

Nana lives with her ward and believes in a future imagined by Buckminster Fuller, whom many (well, a few) dismiss as a CIA kook, I mean spook.  I mean, look at whom he hung out with.  A cold warrior, right?

But then, keeping wars cold is not always a bad calling.  Hot warriors want to end the experiments.

Anyway, the movie doesn't look at Fuller especially critically, but nor does it really have much time for any curriculum.

So I made up a School of Tomorrow to serve as a companion guide to the Bucky stuff, meaning Synergetics and the "omnidirectional halo" style of thinking (holistic) it trains us in (No More Secondhand God).

FAQ:

Question: So why is my "VR glasses" scenario fixated on organic chemistry instead?

Answer:

(A) It's not either/or and
(B) I'm living in the old stomping grounds of one Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel Prize winner and discoverer of organic molecular structures.

Dr. Pauling (Oregon State University, Cal Tech) paved the way for people to imagine, and find, buckminsterfullerene as a molecule (C60).  That's a condensed version of the story, and a segue to the Bucky chapter.

He was on on the trail seeking the structure of DNA.  One of his published papers got it wildly wrong, but he wasn't afraid to speculate.  Science would get nowhere without people risking being wrong about stuff.

He wanted to be a part of the DNA party in the Europe, but the Feds denied him a visa.  The letter denying him said visa is still on display in the special collection at OSU.

Linus was regarded as subversive, as he was always questioning the "atomic program" i.e. being honest about the real health effects.  His Peace Prize traces to all that in large degree.  He also spoke out against the internment of Americans of Japanese heritage during WW2, and tried to protect some friends from the wartime paranoia (the mental illness of his peers).

Douglas Strain was very impressed by Pauling's integrity and for that reason committed estate resources to preserving both his and his wife's Ava's papers, and keeping the Linus Pauling House on Hawthorne in decent shape.  I mention that house in my video.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

CSN Business Model (again)



What's the Coffee Shops Network?

A philosophy.  A philanthropy.

Saturday, June 22, 2019

Cultural Literacy Anyone?


I understand how math teachers get defensive, about how their curriculum is already packed with topics. Bringing back hexadecimals is bad enough, but introducing a whole different approach to the polyhedra... that's not what they signed up for.

I keep reassuring them:  don't you worry, this is for humanities people to understand. We'll work it out on the PATH side, and the STEM folks will visit, more as tourists.  Welcome to someplace alien.

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

School of Tomorrow Funded by CSN


Thanks to all the winners out there who channeled energy to a worthy cause!

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Visit Us on Facebook

philo_network

Philosophy Talk


If you want to hear more discussion of domes and stuff, and experimentation with new prototypes, you'd do well to help us converse about some neutral mathematical matters.

How shall we talk about this Quadray Coordinate System (QCS)? Shall we say it has four "basis vectors"?

If you're into linear algebra already, either learning the lingo or teaching it, you might appreciate this opportunity to emphasize what we mean by such concepts as "dimension" and "linear independence".

Different angles and different systems remind us of "possibilities" i.e. the feasibility of moving in some direction based on new horizons opened up by new language games (Wittgenstein).


Saturday, February 9, 2019

Refugee Science


Some of the first charitable gaming salons may be discovered among refugee populations, eager to help their own cause and causes like them.

I've been writing some on Refugee Science on Medium. No hypertoons on refugee camps yet, which doesn't mean we have none in the network (or the pipeline).

Stay tuned.

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Windmill City


CSN was developed in a dark age when we didn't yet share with kids about the Concentric Hierarchy and its whole number volumes.

Most of the "adults" in that time had shelved it and were planning to keep it under wraps in perpetuity.

Of course that plan was bound to fail, and by 2018 a lot of us are seeing a lot more of this stuff on our LCDs and HDTVs.

YMMV.

4D on LinkedIn

Thursday, January 3, 2019

Place Based Influences

The local Fred Meyer (Asylum District) has done something smart, especially in light of how much they stirred the customer base in rearranging where everything gets filed.

I'm talking grocery store here, with other sundries, Supermarket Math.

Freddie's, as the locals know it (a Kroger), has made its Cork & Tap more customer friendly, staffing it with more bartender aesthetics and throwing a great happy hour.  Remember, OLCC does not permit supermarkets to sell so-called "hard liquor" whereas such markets can in many states.  "Do some Cork and Taps in other states serve whiskey?"  I had that question for "Jenni-saurus" (one of the star servers).

This experimental API gives customers a chance to unwind and talk about their shopping experience, not that every conversation need wander to that topic.

Why do you think lawyers step up to the bar and pass the bar exam?  Is that because some ear listens and takes the word back?

Wasn't that also the barber's job?  Not everyone drinks.  The Bertrand Russell thing was not a show stopper in practice.

Have at least two barbers, and then no one has to cut their own hair.  I know that wasn't the paradox but the pragmatist in me doesn't want to bring Westworld to a standstill over some race condition.

Our Bishops offers customers a beer while waiting, just a gift, like you would offer any visitor looking to relax.  The business is all about cutting and styling hair, nothing to do with serving alcohol. Canned low alcohol stuff, sipped for entertainment.

Why not add a cider or two, or even a couple wines?  Wines require glasses and suddenly the world is not so simple.  Actually, Fred's (another name for it) sells wines in their own container, same as canned beer.  Hawthorne already has plenty of the old fashioned cocktail rooms, no need to go overboard.

Coffee Shops Network goes with bar aesthetics some of the time.  Think of Avalon at one end of the spectrum (no alcohol last I checked) and Quarterworld at the other (full bar).  Both feature arcade games, and CSN definitely traffics in those.

The charitable giving games are a hallmark, with the more adult settings borrowing from casino aesthetics.  I'm not against magic shows and other distractions.

I'm less interested in forcing an agenda, than in creating a space in which more agendas might happen.

How will we know which are the good ones without some chance to show off?  Strut your stuff (show us your blend of science fiction).  The "got talent" shows have helped people refine their judgement to some extent, regarding what's worthwhile.

So yes, "bartender" is not a role to make an afterthought.  Design from the inside out, starting from different viewpoints, with bartender one of them.  There's a therapist aspect, as well as pharmacologist.  There's knowing when to cut someone off.  You might need to flag a bouncer.  They say the highest IQ guy in the world is a bouncer (I saw that on an Elon Musk biography).

Some of the most skilled and wonderful people I've met have "bartender" on their resume.

You learn a lot about people, and about the town, in some Westworlds (alluding to the TV series again -- akin to Machine World).

If you're not familiar with any of the establishments I've mentioned and are looking for tourism opportunities, Asylum District is worth a gander.  Eyeball the Linus Pauling House while it still stands (my Unilever plan never went anywhere) and Alpha Helix, in front of the body art studio next door.  Bishops, Fred Meyer, Quarterworld, Avalon... and many more, are all nearby.