Scenius

The communal form of the concept of genius is the meaning of the word Scenius. Developed by Brian Eno to describe genius embedded in a scene rather than in genes, the concept is spoken to in the The October, 2010 edition of Wired magazine. The article is "Where Ideas Come From" by Steven Johnson on pages 120-124.

"Ideas aren't self contained things; they're more like ecologies and networks; they travel in clusters."  Johnson contends that technologies desire diversity and creative environments "that allow for repeated failure."  A metaphor of special interest is that of a Coral Reef which allows for just enough disorder to mix information and produce innovation.

Certain business settings, college campuses and think tanks come to mind as places where Scenius occurs. Does it take an elite gathering of people for this to happen or can a random gathering of people embody the same experience? How can such Coral Reefs of creativity be encouraged in a multitude of locations for the good of a society? 

Holy Innocents Remembered December 28

Christians observe December 28 as a day for remembrance of all children of the world who are being, at this moment, forced into military service, sex slavery, hard labor preventing education, and violent oppression of many sorts.
This observance does not relate easily with the commercial spirit of Christmas and New Years. All the better reason to temper happiness of some in order to raise to consciousness the terror of many.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a global effort to not only raise consciousness but to affect the real life situation of many children in many world regions. Child as Citizen is the title of a collection of papers on this issue and makes up the January, 2011 edition of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
People of all religions or of no religion can join in this observance and share efforts to raise awareness as well as change legislation and practices across the globe.

Private Parts - Part 4

Marian Love of Champlin, Minnesota wrote a Commentary article in the Star Tribune today entitled: "Dignity - Devaluated - for ourselves and others."

She says "Concepts like discretion, personal boundaries, or respect for one's own or another's privacy are simply no longer modeled in popular culture. Young people with ever-greater technological savvy but less impulse control than adults are even more at risk of crossing the eroding lines of propriety."

Cultural phases come and go. The new element today is concentrated electronic information transmission as the face of the market. As the market moves to monetize as much of life as possible the balancing effect of another force is needed. Religion has provided this push back but has been greatly brought into line with market forces. I believe that religion can rise to the challenge as greater realism about how the world works pervades the religious community.

Private Parts - Part 3

News today about the airport security full-body image scanning and the objections by people, especially women, is related to my recent post about more innocent times in the 1970s. The gradual revealing of body parts for public view challenges cultural norms that have been around for a long time. The argument that the people who see the scans at the airport are not in the area of the people being scanned doesnot satisfy a sense of modesty and privacy.
So we have security and modesty in a stand off.
Even more offensive to many is the pat-down process used with persons who do not wish to have the scan. The pat downs are said to involve touching of the most private parts of the body. It is hard to imagine persons with a sense of dignity and grace undergoing the process. Both men and women are sensitive to being touched anywhere by strangers and many avoid touching within the family with the exception being their marriage or life partner.
The implications of this policy for security sake cannot yet be stated. This appears to be a new challenge to privacy which is really beyond the practices of the 1970s. The story of private parts continues.

More on Private Parts

The recent post on private parts was preparation for arriving at Peekyou.com By chance I came across this information gathering site and momentarily feel under its spell. The news this morning included stories on the plans of Facebook to take over the information about people business. The competition is getting fierce regarding our private information and parts. In an effort to gain some objectivity on this I ran it past some family members who recommended that I just avoid the whole thing.

The problem is that a significant amount of information is already on web about me. This is a hard decision because I want to avoid a slippery slide and yet need to be in touch with what is going on in this real world - at least of the USA.

One question that I keep coming back to is: What exactly is privacy?

Turbulent Markets Guidelines

American Funds Investor (Fall 2010)features an article entitled "How a simple but overlooked tool can help guide you through turbulent markets".

Using the story of the January 15, 2009 landing of a US Airways flight in the Hudson River as a starting point, the reactions of Captain Chesley Sullenberger and First Office Jeff Skiles based on using checklists of procedures is the learning point.
Apply the principle to market decisions:
1. Take emotional temperature - Emotions such as aversion to loss can cause one to rush into unwise but instant action. Just be aware of how intense emotion can lead to wrong decisions.
2. Turn down the volume - Constant news and stock quotations just complicate the emotional reaction. Use regular schedules evaluations instead of sudden flurries of action.
3. Find the broader context - Use a historical context to gain judgment on how likely a feared collapse or opportunity is likely to occur. Just get perspective.
4. Recognize the potential harm of sudden movements - Obviously.
5. Think like a contrarian - In fluid times consider the value of steadiness.
6. Check in with your financial adviser - Use expert counsel to provide perspective and manage the crisis.

This checklist can apply to much more than financial management.

Where Have All the Private Parts Gone?

While musing on past experience I happened to look at some notes taken in 1971 while on a Seminar in Germany. Among the notes was a newspaper insert that I apparently saved for some future reference. It is a small four page item entitled "Das Ende der furwitzigen Schwester Brigitte Bardot". A loose translation goes like this: "The humorous end for sister Brigitte Bordot".

The folder depicts Brigitte Bardot as a Catholic Sister in her sisterly habit, standing on the beach, likely on the Baltic Sea near Travemunde in the vicinity of Hamburg. Slowly and methodically she removes her clothing until she is naked whereupon a stroke of lightning comes and the final frame is of a small smoking spot of ash on the beach. Apparently Nature could only handle so much Brigitte.

The most remarkable part of this charming scene is that the back side of Brigitte is the only view provided. How old fashioned, one would say in the liberated world of 2010. The folder has a look on innocence about it. At the time every supermarket and kiosk had picture of suggestively unclothed persons, male and female - all rather low key in comparison to the all parts bared style of the here and now.

Once body parts were even called "privates". Now those same parts are commodified and make much money for the purveyors. Apparently the search for stimulation will have to turn to other regions of the human person. I wonder what private parts will mean in 40 years.

The Day After the Blizzard of 1940

Today, November 12, 2010 is a time to recall the aftermath of the memorable blizzard of Armistice Day, 1940. The numbers who can remember that day are fast decreasing due to memory loss and death as time claims us one by one.
As an 11 year old boy on the Dutch Charley Creek farm in southwestern Minnesota I carry some vivid memories since farm people ended up being quite isolated for many days following the storm.
We survived better than the people were off duck hunting on that day, some of whom did not live to tell their tales of wind and cold and ice. Farm people were accustomed to a survival mode without benefit of electricity and the nicities of urban life.
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