The following video was sent to me a week ago by Cynthia S.
The Carlson School of Management received a surprise visit from a saxophonist…and nearly 300 of his friends from the University of Minnesota’s School of Music this November.
“Deck the Halls” arr. Francisco J. Núñez and Jim Papoulis from “Coolside of Yuletide”
Special Thanks To: Greg Wrenn (saxophone), Campus Singers Maroon, Gold, and Mosaic; Men’s Chorus, Women’s Chorus, University Singers, Kathy S. Romey (coordinator), Judy Sagen and Kelley Sundin (choreography), Phillip O’Toole (audio), Boosey & Hawkes, Northern Lights Video, Michael Teachout, Bryan Koop (director of photography), Steve Rudolph (producer)
And my second contribution for this Christmas day was sent to me by local roofing contractor here in Payson, Bill Shreeve (greatly recommended, by the way!). Here’s what Bill sent,
The Amazing Grace Christmas House. Designed and programmed by Richard Holdman in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
FAQ
The display uses about $130 of electricity per season.
It has raised over $40,000 for the Make-a-wish foundation.
There are about 60,000 lights and located in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
Traffic at one time was backed up over a mile for people waiting to see it.
It takes about 4 people to manage the traffic.
Music is transmitted over the radio while people view it.
Wherever you are in the world, have a wonderful, loving and peaceful day.
More of the fun collection of short films about Transition.
A series of 10 delightful short films, courtesy of Transition Culture – For the introduction and the first three films, click here.
Film Four – An Egg Origin: Transition Town Forres’s Community Garden
Like many Transition initiatives, Transition Town Forres (TTF) saw the rebuilding of food resilience as a key part of its work. It sought to bring land into community management for new food production. TTF was invited to negotiate a lease with Moray Council for 0.59ha (1.45 acre) of horticultural land starting on the 1st April 2009.
With an 11 year lease, work began on the site. Rather than divide it into the traditional rectangles of allotments, it was divided into circular allotments, called ‘pods’, each one 250m2, and shared by 4-6 people. The garden now has 75 gardeners, 60 local scouts and 26 chickens (hence the egg). Participation is from a broad cross section of the community, and the dropout rate has been less than half that of other local allotments. The next step that is planned is a Farmers’ Market in the town.
Film Five – Mini Draughtbusters Origin: Transition Belsize’s Draughtbusters
Transition Belsize, one of over 40 Transition initiatives active within London, was inspired by ‘Draught Busting Saturdays’ created in South London by Sue Sheehan and a group from Hyde Farm Climate Action Network. They started working with Camden Council to deliver Draughtbusters in Belsize. The idea is a simple one. The area has many Victorian homes with leaky sash and casement windows.
Up to 15 people meet in someone’s house and learn to draught-proof by working on the host’s house. The host gets given £50 of materials, and the participants £20 worth each. It has proven very popular, and 15 local schools have also been draught-proofed by keen Draughtbusters. It has now spread to many other London Transition groups, just one example of how Transition groups can incubate ideas that can then be rapidly replicated by others. Our object here is a miniature version of the Draughtbusters team: Patrick (doing the door) and Sarah and Lauren (working on the window).
Film Six – A Clove of Garlic Origin: The Green Valley Grocer, Slaithwaite
When the local greengrocer went out of business, members of Marsden and Slaithwaite Transition Towns (MASTT) in Yorkshire wondered if perhaps the community might take over the running of the shop. They realised this would only work with the support of the community so they held a public meeting where people expressed enthusiasm for the idea.
Time was tight, so they set up an Industrial and Provident Society and designed a share launch which was unveiled three weeks later. The goal was to raise £15,000, and this was achieved within 10 days.
From initial idea to the shop opening? Two months. The shop is now a busy thriving community enterprise, and MASTT is setting up a growing co-operative called ‘Edibles’ to supply the shop with local produce.
Early on in running the shop, they found that all the wholesale garlic available to them was imported from China, and so they set up the Green Valley Grocer Garlic Challenge, making garlic cloves available to customers at cost and offering to buy back whatever people produce, with the aim of making Slaithwaite self-sufficient in garlic within two years (well you have to start somewhere…).
The final four films will be shown shortly after Christmas.
I shall avoid the temptation of writing about our need for transition, well for now that is, and just go straight to this recent article that appeared on the Transition Culture website.
As part of the promotion of ‘The Transition Companion‘, Emilio Mula made these 10 short films of different stories from the book. The recent BBC series ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’ beautifully told the story of the evolution of human history illustrated by 100 objects chosen from the British Museum’s collection. We used a similar approach to tell the story of the emerging and unfolding Transition movement, which in its short life has spread to 35 countries around the world from its humble beginnings in Kinsale, Ireland. You can read more about these stories here, and here are the films…
So the first three of the films today and some more tomorrow.
Film One – A Really Quite Horrible Jumper Origin: Transition Taunton Deane
Between July and September 2009, Transition Taunton Deane ran a series of workshops with their local council looking at peak oil, climate change and resilience. What was extraordinary was that every one of the Council’s 375 employees attended, from CEO to car park attendants.
This was written up as ‘Towards a resilient Taunton Deane’ and the whole process deeply impacted the Council. They set up a Green Champions team, every department now has an energy charter, it has cut its electricity use by 14%, set up a car club and is now installing PV and insulating its buildings. After the initial workshop, a planning officer and a car park attendant got together and planted a new community orchard on public land.
Chrissie Godfrey from TTD told me “our main role is to keep telling them how brilliant they are… it just goes to show how powerful a catalyst Transitioners, in the right place at the right time, can be”.
The jumper? In 2010, the Council held a ‘Turn the Heat Down’ day where the heating in their offices was turned down and staff were invited to wear the most revolting jumper they could find to work, and prizes were awarded for the most hideous.
Film Two – Bertie & Gertie Origin: Transition Town Tooting’s Trashcatchers’ Carnival
In July 2010, Tooting was the setting for the Trashcatchers’ Carnival, the first Transition project to get Arts Council funding. Together with Project Phakama and Emergency Exit Arts, Transition Town Tooting (TTT) created a street carnival celebrating the Earth using entirely recycled materials. Over 800 people took part, including local schools, mosques and temples, and over one million plastic bottles and shopping bags, half a million crisp packets, half a ton of renewable willow and half a ton of materials were collected over a six month period to create this extravaganza, which included several structures over 6m (20ft) high.
On the day, thousands turned out, the sun shone, local restaurants fed over 1,000 people for free at the end of the event, and the community was left with the feeling of ‘if we can do that we can do anything’.
Bertie and Gertie were made entirely from recycled plastic bags by members of Tooting Bec Lido as part of their float, and represent the real Bertie and Gertie, who are often to be found swimming in the Lido.
Film Three – A Gas Lamp Bulb Origin: Transition Malvern Hills’ ‘Gasketeers’
Malvern is home to 109 Victorian gas lamps, which provided C.S. Lewis with the inspiration for the lamp that first greets Lucy in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. They are listed, part of the identity of the place, but are also hugely inefficient. At the moment each lamp costs £130 to maintain per year and £450 to maintain. They don’t even create that much light, and as local council budgets tighten, there is a risk that they will be turned off altogether.
Enter Transition Malvern Hills’ energy group, known locally as the ‘Gasketeers’. The group brought together experts in gas lighting from the local area and also from further afield. They have now started making the lamps over; their changes will mean that each lamp will now cost just £14 a year in gas and £40 a year in maintenance, reducing carbon emissions by 84%. They will also be 10 times brighter, and produce no light pollution at all. They are maintained by Lynn, the UK’s first qualified female gas lamp technician, who performs all her maintenance with a bicycle and trailer.
My rather slow response to my Versatile Blogger award!
Last Friday morning, the 16th, I turned on my PC to discover that lovely Kathryn Johnston of 4amWriter had nominated Learning from Dogs for the Versatile Blogger Award. I was blown away especially as since then the connections I have made with other writers have been wonderful.
However, a more prompt acknowledgement on LfD seems to have escaped me until today. I quickly learnt that there is a proper protocol associated with the response to the award.
Thank the award-giver and link back to them in your post.
Share 7 things about yourself.
Pass this award along to 15 blogs you enjoy reading.
Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know about the award.
So here goes!
Award logo
So first, a very big thank you to Kathryn of 4amWriter for including me in her list. As she said on her post, “This title says it all! If you love dogs, this is a must-visit!” That’s generous of Kathryn. Dogs are a very powerful reminder of an uncomplicated way to live, as described on the Home Page. The Vision behind the Blog is:
Our children require a world that understands the importance of faith, integrity and honesty
Learning from Dogs will serve as a reminder of the values of life and the power of unconditional love – as so many, many dogs prove each and every day
Constantly trying to get to the truth …
The power of greater self-awareness and faith …
Seven things about me!
H’mm, what to say.
Born in London 6 months before the end of WWII,
Been a business-to-business salesman most of my life,
Started my own business in 1978 and remained in ‘self-employment’ until quite recently,
Lived on my own boat, based in Larnaca, Cyprus, for 5 years,
A keen glider pilot for many years at Rattlesden Gliding Club in Suffolk, later a private pilot,
Always wanted to write,
And, finally, happier than I have ever been being married to Jean, having met in Mexico in 2007, moving out there with Pharaoh, my GSD, in 2008 and subsequently arriving in Payson, Arizona in 2010 with 11 dogs and 6 cats!
So here are the 16 Blogs (I use that description loosely) that I wish to pass this award to:
Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism. How Yves finds the time to produce the huge volume of articles and website links every day is beyond me.
James Kwak and Simon Johnson of Baseline Scenario. James and Simon were, for me, an early source of openness about the key issues affecting the global economy that slammed into our collective faces in 2008.
Patrice Ayme of the Blog of his own name. Patrice’s sub-heading on his Blog reads, “Intelligence at the core of humanism.” Again, a prolific writer with a huge intellect that he puts to wonderful use. Just pick anything that he has written to see that proved in spades.
Bill McKibben of 350.org. The headline on the website says, “We’re building a global movement to solve the climate crisis.” Say no more!
Michelle of Dog Kisses’s blog. Wonderful blog – just go there and enjoy it.
Sue of Sue Dreamwalker. Again, just a wonderful Blog – do please visit.
Vlatko, the owner of Top Documentary Films. We do not subscribe to any television channels at home so Vlatko’s resource is so valuable for us. Huge selection of free documentary films to watch.
Deanna Raeke and Andrea Rosebrock of the Blog For The Love of a Dog. Very active in fighting all corners on behalf of man’s oldest companion.
Rob Hopkins and his team at Transition Network. Rob is one of the leading voices for changing to a sustainable relationship with this planet. He is based in Totnes, Devon, my local town for many years when I lived in the village of Harberton. His books on Transition are masterpieces.
Victoria Brown, Daniel Honan and team at Big Think. As their headline says, “A forum where top experts explore the big ideas and core skills defining the 21st century.” Fabulous resource.
All the Directors and team at Sustainable Arizona. As is described on their site, Sustainable Arizona is about, “Our nonprofit organization is made up of volunteers and professionals committed to making sustainable development possible. We accomplish this by encouraging businesses that add true value to our communities while preserving the environment.“
Anthony Watts of Watt’s Up With That. With over 9,000 followers and over 98 million viewers this very reasonably can be regarded as the world’s most viewed climate website. Anthony’s 3 million monthly visitors puts my 40,000 into perspective!
The whole team at the US-based National Wildlife Federation. Their Mission: As America’s largest conservation organization, National Wildlife Federation works with more than 4 million members, partners and supporters in communities across the country to inspire Americans to protect wildlife for our children’s future!
Peter Russell of Spirit of Now. Peter writes on his Blogsite, “There are many observations I make in daily life—some profound, some mundane—mostly concerning the natural world around, or the nature of the inner world of mind. Some incline us to wonder and awe. Others make us think, and question our assumptions.” Never before have we needed so much to think about the way we think!
Nakibul Hoq, blogging from Bangladesh in the city of Dhaka under the Blog name of Freedom to Survive.
I shall be passing on the ‘award’ to all bloggers today.
Let me close again by saying such a big thank you to Kathryn of 4amWriter and, from that, how quickly I came across Limebird Writers who, I know, will be a great source of support as I face 2012 and ‘the novel’!
A fascinating talk by Luis von Ahn about new and powerful ways of collaborating.
Before moving on to this Post, just a quick word about the next seven days. I’m going to take a small break over Christmas, not by ceasing to publish Posts but by offering you a number of light-hearted items that have come my way. Hope you enjoy them and a very big thanks for the support of Learning from Dogs that you have shown over the year; it means a great deal. Have a wonderful Christmas vacation.
This particular Post focusses on a talk given (as below) by Luis von Ahn that is on TED Talks. The TED website is a fabulous resource. The interview was brought to my attention by Lee Crampton of Softdev. Lee and I go back a number of years, to the time when he and I were part of a small group that started up a company that offered online flight briefing services to the airline industry; still running today as it happens. So very happy to recommend Lee, more details of the services he can offer are here.
After re-purposing CAPTCHA so each human-typed response helps digitize books, Luis von Ahn wondered how else to use small contributions by many on the Internet for greater good. At TEDxCMU, he shares how his ambitious new project, Duolingo, will help millions learn a new language while translating the Web quickly and accurately — all for free.
Watching this video made me muse about the potential for this level of transformation in other areas. Fascinating!
Disappointing news about the Keystone XL pipeline project.
I have previously written about the madness of this proposed project, in fact have written six or seven times before. You may like to dip back into this Post. This one, too, shows starkly how our relationship with oil is changing the world we live in.
So it is with some sadness that I reproduce in full a recent circulation from Duncan Meisel from 350.org.
Dear friends,
I’m writing to share some disappointing news: yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of rushing approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
This doesn’t mean the pipeline is getting built — not by a long shot. The bill would still have to pass the Senate and be signed by the President, neither of which are likely to happen. It does show that we need to be vigilant after our temporary victory to stop Keystone XL — the corporate polluters pushing this climate disaster never sleep.
Since we blocked the front door, Big Oil is now trying to bring Keystone in through the back — their representatives in Congress are attaching the pipeline as an amendment to a crucial bill about taxes and the economy. If we want to make sure the pipeline never gets built, once again we need to get loud and bring this fight back into the public.
Here’s the truth: much of our Congress is bought and sold by corporations. The 234 members of the House who supported this bill took $42,374,100 from corporate polluters in the last decade. If we want Congress to start working for us, and for the planet, we need to call them out on this corruption whenever it happens.
Can you share this image (with a quote from Bill McKibben) on Facebook or Twitter to show just how much this corrupt attempt to revive the pipeline stinks?
We’ll never have the money and the lobbyists of Big Oil, so we’ve got to use our voices and our bodies to make our point.
Over the past six months, we’ve signed petitions, led actions in communities coast-to-coast, and organized large-scale civil disobedience against this pipeline. All that work added up. President Obama’s announcement about the pipeline delay was HUGE, and gave us the chance to shut Keystone XL down for good.
Ultimately, we’re in a long term fight to save the planet from the polluters who would buy their way to total catastrophe. It’s up to us to use this moment to show just how dangerous they have become, and begin making the case that corporate control over government must end. Let’s make sure all of our friends know how much their latest Keystone XL stunt stinks.
P.S. In case you were wondering, we’re not only spreading the word online — folks in certain states are calling their senators and we’re continuing to ratchet up our actions across the country. As I type this, activists in Ohio are staging a “human oil spill” to House Speaker Boehner’s front door. We’ll need all sorts of creative tactics on the road ahead — more on that in a future email!
Please do everything to spread this message. Thank you.
Finally, go and put your arms around your dog, give him or her a very big hug, and pray that mankind might learn something about truth and integrity from the humble dog!
A reflection on the huge changes facing our global society.
I am reading James Howard Kunstler’s book The Long Emergency. On the front cover there is a quote from a review in The Independent newspaper, “If you give a damn, you should read this book.” On the back cover, the quote, “Stark and frightening. Read it soon.” – Daily Camera. The quotes are spot on!
Rather than give my own opinion at this stage (I should finish the book first!), let me quote from the opening of Chapter Five, Nature Bites Back.
I was a at a four-day conference called Pop Tech in the seaside village of Camden, Maine, at the peak of the fall foliage season in October 2003, having a pretty good time at the talks, and enjoyiong a series of extravagant dinners – one featuring a free oyster raw bar and gratis Grey Goose vodka – not to mention all the lobsters, steaks, and other products of our bountiful cheap-oil economy. Then, on Saturday afternoon, a scientist from the University of Washington, Peter D. Ward, got up in the old-time opera house where the conference was held and did a presentation about the life and death of the planet Earth, Using a series of vivid artist’s renderings delivered on PowerPoint, Ward showed us how, hundreds of millions of years hence, all land animals would become extinct, the green forests and grasslands would broil away, the oceans would evaporate, and eventually our beloved planet would be reduced to a pathetic ball of inert lifeless lint – prefatory to being subsumed in the expanded red giant heat cloud of our baking sun. Few members of the audience had any appetite for the spread of cookies and munchables laid out for the break that followed. Personally, I was so depressed that I felt like gargling with razor blades.
The human spirit is remarkably resilient, though. A few hours later, the horror of it all was forgotten and the conference-goers reported to the next supper buffet with the appetites recharged, happy to scarf more lobster and beef medallions and guzzle more liquor, while chatting up new friends about their various hopes and dreams for the continuing story of civilized life here on good old planet Earth, which, it was assumed, had quite a ways to go before any of us needed to worry about its fate, if ever.
Wasn’t it John Maynard Keynes who famously remarked to a group of fellow economists dithering about the long-term this and the long-term that: “Gentlemen, in the long term we’re all dead.” Our brains are really not equipped to process events on a geological scale – at least in reference to how we choose to live, or what we choose to do in the here-and-now. Five hundred millions years is a long time, but how about the mad rush of events in just the past 2,000 years starring the human race? Rather action-packed, wouldn’t you say? Everything from the Roman Empire to the Twin Towers, with a cast of billions – emperors, slaves, saviors, popes, kings, queens, navies, rabbles, conquest , murder, famine, art, science, revolution, comedy, tragedy, genocide, and Michael Jackson. Enough going on in a mere 2,000 years to divert anyone’s attention from the ultimate fate of the earth, you would think. Just reflecting on the events of the twentieth century alone could take your breath away, so why get bent out of shape about the ultimate fate of the earth? Yet, I was not soothed by these thoughts, nor by the free eats, and even the liquor failed to lift me up because I couldn’t shake the recognition that in the short term we are in pretty serious trouble, too.
OK, that’s enough for today – I’ll continue this important extract on Monday. Let me close by inviting you to watch James Kunstler in interview.
The concluding part of what we might care to leave for the next generation
Mankind over the next few years is facing the start of an interval of economic chaos and social stress between the end of the fossil fuel age and whatever follows. That interval could well last a lifetime or more. Some might argue that the economic challenges that have been the mark of 2011 are, indeed, the first signs of this economic chaos.
How well we cope, adapt and survive is not going to be down to those of my age (born 1944) but to the bright youngsters who have been born in the 21st century.
That was the motivation behind publishing, on December 1st, the speech given by Steve Jobs, the 2005 Stanford Commencement Speech, and on December 6th, the famous and fabulous speech given by Sir Ken Robinson at the 2005 TED Talks conference.
The third and concluding message is a subsequent speech given by Sir Ken, this time in May 2010. It isn’t as stirring as his speech in 2005 but still a wonderful focus on what is our, as in homo sapiens, only chance of surviving – the innovation and creativity of the next generations.
In this poignant, funny follow-up to his fabled 2006 talk, Sir Ken Robinson makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning — creating conditions where kids’ natural talents can flourish.
A reminder that other people in other places may not be so fortunate as you.
In that sub-heading is an assumption that everyone who calls by Learning from Dogs enjoys a life where they are, relatively speaking, free to make their own life decisions. My apologies if that is a false assumption.
Amnesty International have a December campaign Write for Rights. It is so worth supporting. Here are some details from that website,
YOUR WORDS CAN CHANGE LIVES.
Your words can be a SPOTLIGHT that exposes the dark corners of the torture chamber. They can bring POWER to a human rights defender whose life is in jeopardy. They can IGNITE hope in a forgotten prisoner.
Your words can SAVE LIVES.
Join hundreds of thousands of people around the world in marking International Human Rights Day this December by taking part in Amnesty International’s Write for Rights Global Write-a-thon – the world’s largest human rights event. Through letters, cards and more, we take action to demand that the human rights of individuals are respected, protected and fulfilled. We show solidarity with those suffering human rights abuses, and work to bring about positive change in people’s lives.
Will you write a letter to save a life?
Sign up now to Write for Rights!
Jenni Williams
“I am alive today, after 34 arrests, because members of Amnesty International spoke out for me.”
– Jenni Williams, human rights defender in Zimbabwe
It really doesn’t make any difference which Amnesty case you support – just pick one and do it before the end of the month.
Amnesty also offer a full suite of resources, obtainable from here, to assist you with producing your letter.
Jean and I have decided to write in support of Jabbar Savalan, as described here and below,
AZERBAIJAN – Jabbar Savalan / Youth activist detained after using facebook
Jabbar Savalan
Hours after he posted a note on Facebook calling for protests against the government, Jabbar Savalan told his family that he was being followed. The next evening, February 5, 2011, police arrested him without explanation and took him to the Sumgayit police station, where they “discovered” marijuana in his outer coat pocket. Police questioned him without a lawyer for two days, reportedly hitting and intimidating him to make him sign a confession.
Authorities in Azerbaijan have a history of using trumped-up drug charges to jail perceived critics. Jabbar maintains that he does not use drugs and that the marijuana was planted on him. In May 2011, he was was convicted of possessing illegal drugs and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. Amnesty International believes that authorities fabricated the drug charges against Jabbar to silence him. Amnesty considers him to be a prisoner of conscience.
A history student in college, Jabbar was an active member of an opposition political party. In January 2011, he posted on Facebook a newspaper article that described Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev as corrupt.
On February 4, Jabbar was inspired by the protests in the Middle East and North Africa to use Facebook to call for a “Day of Rage” to protest the government in Azerbaijan. The next day, police arrested him. He was 19 years old at the time.
Learning from Dogs 