14 Matching Annotations
  1. Dec 2023
      • for: polycrisis, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Cascade Institute Royal Roads University - Changemakers Speakers Series, etymology - polylcrisis

      • Talk: Hope in the Polycrisis

      • Speaker: Thomas Homer-Dixon
      • Host: Royal Roads University - Changemakers Speakers Series
      • Date: 2023

      • SUMMARY

        • Thomas Homer-Dixon is a leading complex systems scientist and director of the Cascade Institute, which he co-founded at Royal Roads University in Victoria, B.C., Canada, to study the polycrisis and identify strategic high leverage interventions that could rapidly shift humanity's trajectory in the next few critical years.
        • The talk, entitled "Hope in the polycriisis" chronicles Homer-Dixon's multi-decade journey to understand the convergence of crisis happening in the world today.
        • In a real sense, the evolution of his thinking on these complex problems are reflected in the series of books he has written over the years, culminating in the 2023 book "Commanding Hope", based on a theory of hope:

          • Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (Princeton, 1999). - a book showing how other factors combine with environmental stress to produce violence.
          • “The Ingenuity Gap: Can Poor Countries Adapt to Resource Scarcity?,” which appeared in Population and Development Review in 1995
          • “Resource Scarcity and Innovation: Can Poor Countries Attain Endogenous Growth?" ?” coauthored with Edward Barbier, which appeared in Ambio (1999)
          • The Upside of Down: Catastrophe, Creativity, and the Renewal of Civilization (2006), examined the threat to global stability of simultaneous and interacting demographic, environmental, economic, and political stresses. This led to examining energy as a major factor in our modern society.
          • "Commanding Hope: The Power we have to Renew a World in Peril"
        • Homer-Dixon also talks about practical solutions, His team at Casacade Institute is researching a promising technology called ultra-deep geothermal, which could provide unlimted energy at energy densities comprable to fossil fuels.

        • He finishes his talk with his theory of Hope and how a "Robust" hope can be the key to a successful rapid transition.
      • etymology - polycrisis

        • https://polycrisis.org/lessons/where-did-the-term-polycrisis-come-from/
        • Complexity theorists Edgar Morin and Anne Brigitte Kern first used the term polycrisis in their 1999 book, Homeland Earth, to argue that the world faces
          • “no single vital problem, but many vital problems, and it is this complex intersolidarity of problems, antagonisms, crises, uncontrolled processes, and the general crisis of the planet that constitutes the number one vital problem" (p. 74).
        • South African sociologist and sustainable transitions theorist Mark Swilling then adopted the term to capture
          • “a nested set of globally interactive socio-economic, ecological and cultural-institutional crises that defy reduction to a single cause” (2013, p. 98).
        • Climate change, rising inequality, and the threat of financial crises interact in complex ways that multiply their overall impact (Swilling 2013, 2019).
    1. eddy7346<br /> 2 years ago<br /> To anyone in college:<br /> If your history/government professor is extremely patriotic, do not ask about war crimes by the US... unless you want to get failed.<br /> P.S: This is just my experience, so that might not happen to you. My prof just happened to be a piece of shit

      the established "academia" is just another circlejerk, with teachers abusing their power as gatekeepers, to allow only "the good guys" to rise to power, and students cannot choose their teachers, because moving to a different school is expensive.<br /> this imbalance and injustice is so fundamental that it is "too big to fail". no matter what you do, the casino always wins...<br /> in my "crazy" hypothesis [1] i propose a radical solution for ths radical problem: all human relations must be balanced, so every one can live out his strength and delegate his weakspots to his friends.<br /> [1]: Pallas. Who are my friends. Group composition by personality type.<br /> github com milahu alchi

  2. Nov 2023
  3. Oct 2023
    1. Water immobilization is a cool thing! The simplest way to accomplish it is by freezing. But can you think of how water might be immobilized (so to speak) at temperatures above freezing, say at 50°F (10°C)? Think Jell-O and a new process that mimics caviar and you have two methods that nearly stop water in its tracks.

      I learned that science and cooking is always connected. Even if we don't think about it in every day life like when water evaporates or freezes it is chemistry. But what I found most interesting that I learned is how water immobilization works, or to put it more simply the science behind Jell-O. When you add gelatin to water it traps the water molecules in place which creates the sort of liquid and solid hybrid we find with Jell-O.

  4. Apr 2023
  5. books.google.com books.google.com
    1. A staff of at least 26 created the underlying index that would lay at the heart of the Great Books of the Western World which was prepared in a rented old fraternity house on the University of Chicago campus. (p. 93)

  6. Mar 2023
  7. Jan 2023
    1. https://press.princeton.edu/series/ancient-wisdom-for-modern-readers

      This appears like Princeton University Press is publishing sections of someone's commonplace books as stand alone issues per heading where each chapter has a one or more selections (in the original language with new translations).

      This almost feels like a version of The Great Books of the Western World watered down for a modern audience?

  8. Jun 2022
    1. https://www.uopeople.edu/

      Mentioned at Hypothes.is Social Learning Summit.

      Generally looks legit, though it has faced accusations of being a diploma mill and some balanced sounding reviews of it are not good.

      A masters will run about $3-4,000 in fees.

      Based in Pasadena, CA

  9. Nov 2021
  10. Mar 2021
  11. Apr 2020
  12. Jan 2019
    1. Seneca stresses the point: the practice of the self involves reading, for one could not draw everything from ones own stock or arm oneself by oneself with the principles of reason that are indispensable for self-conduct: guide or example, the help of others is necessary

      This made me think of David Bartholomae's piece, "Inventing the University." One cannot just know things and be able to write about them unless they are introduced to by some outside force. And, one cannot attempt to find new meaning unless you have prior meaning you can debunk or build upon. https://wac.colostate.edu/jbw/v5n1/bartholomae.pdf

    1. “There are only three places that have a ‘the’ in the front of their name: the Vatican, The Hague, and the Bronx.” —Mary Higgins Clark