Happy Labor Day

http://www.codeforamerica.org/

Let’s start with context about why this is interesting, the video game industry is $10 billion in size.  The US Government software industry is $172 billion.  That’s big! Many of those systems are perceived to be slow to market, unappealing, vast, hard to navigate, and does not meet the needs of citizens.  

Code For America is an ongoing 1 year fellowship program containing 20 talented people who come together each year to not only come up with good ideas that help city and federal governments but also within that year to fulfill these ideas with technology solutions.

The concept is 'Government as a Platform'.  Open platform to enable citizens to do more. (Gethub)

Some of the ideas these teams have uses software not just to support existing processes but also to reinvent services.  Here are some examples of things they have done:

• Town hall meetings are under-attended and out of date.  Posters throughout the city to text an answer to a question using SMS technology
• Blight in cities, an app that provides building information, what the city is doing about a particular location.
• Bus route transit apps with wait times.
• See More

The group believes that: Government is what we do together, it's not a vending machine where something goes in (taxes) and it spits out services.

Check Out: Honlolulu Answers, a creation from this group.  Video about it.

People go to their local government site typically to figure out an answer to a question.  How to renew a license, business tax information, fishing permits.  They made this site question driven, with the predominant object being the search bar. They made it a community effort to identify the types of questions the citizens would seek to answer on the site. Oakland Answers

I found this to be an inspiring story about how software works for us, and wanted to share it!  Information is based on a speech given by Abhi Nemani, Co-Executive Director for Code For America at Agile Alliance 2013.  

5 Senses Game

It is utmost important in my mind that I teach my kids about differences of perspective and that variety is the spice of life.  This is grounded in virtues of equanimity and compassion.  As the Dalai Lama once said, "a super market with just one product is not super.  [Variety is] food for the mind.  Food for the emotions, growth."

I play a game with my kids that they really enjoy.  It has endless possibilities for keeping it interesting.

Sense of Touch:  In the dark at bed time, I collect a few items, toys, tools, materials, ect and one by one hand the item to my child.  I ask them to describe what they feel.  They can't taste, or see, smell, or hear it.  When they're really little, I can coach them with comments like "is it soft or hard, light or heavy, warm or cold, smooth or scratchy".  My older child now is good at describing qualities.  This is a great skill all by itself, but then I ask "what color is it." They usually have an answer, which prompts the discussion of what is truly knowable.

• Can you really tell from the sense of touch what color it is?  We have a set of plastic critters, a brown bear and a panda bear are included in the mix, both from the same toy mold but painted differently.  
• We talk about the 6th sense of mental formations, imagination.  It is the picture in their mind that's helping them determine the color.  
• Is it plausible that the color of the bear is not what you believe it to be?
• What other senses might you need to find out the answer?

Feeling the shape of a CD, is the music on the CD knowable without using their sense of sight or hearing?
Other senses: find items around the house that have a scent to them.  If you have instruments, use them to make noise.  Forage for some tasty items in the fridge, and turn the lights out.  Point out that eating is both taste and the sense of touch (texture).

The older they get, you can use life examples:
1. The boy was mean to you and doesn't want to be your friend.  How do you know that he doesn't want to be your friend?  Facial expressions, body language, he said so.  Is it plausible that the boy was angry, but that the friendship is not in danger?  What can you do to find out?
2. (For big kids:) Your spouse doesn't like what you cooked, and thinks you are a mediocre chef.  How do you know this to be true?  Is it plausible that your mental formation is incorrect?  What can you do to find out the answer?  And how might you feel or behave differently if you were to find out?

Define Entertainment

Have you ever noticed after watching a comedian, say John Steward or Seinfeld, that you have their canter of joke telling in your mind next time you say something witty.  The pauses and the head motion or eyes.

Or the last time you watched a love movie with your partner, how you may have sat a little closer, or hugged them longer before falling asleep that night.

Or maybe you modified your garden after reading a french novel that detailed out beautiful landscaping within a scene of the book.  

Wrote a note to yourself about a holiday tradition after watching or reading about a lovely idea you think your family would enjoy.

Watch a professional game, and try some of the strategies we saw next time we're on the field.

This list could go on, but also what about books of fables, prayers, jakatas, proverbs, Berenstain bears, and other books with virtuous plots that help teach your child life's examples through story.  And if we're reading a book that isn't directly for this purpose, do we pull out notable events of human interactions: "gee, that boy was mean, how do you think the other person felt."  "That girl used a bad word, in our family, we choose not to use that word."

At what point in our child or adult life do we stop learning from the content we ingest and consume something purely for the purpose of entertainment.  I'm bringing to awareness the justification adults make for themselves or for their children about watching/reading something that is violent, aggressive, mean, discriminating, or any other adjective to describe behavior we ought not mimic.  "It's just entertainment, [it doesn't effect me]".  

Is that possible?

Snot-Nosed Children and their Microbiomes

Michael Pollan - Microbiomes (Click here for article)

This "article" is a small novella, but I enjoy Pollan's writing and perspective on health, food, and the world around us.  I enjoyed this one too.

Short-notes: the science of Microbiomes is brand new, and they make no claims out of certainty, but are confident to recommend diets inclusive of fermented foods (probiotics): kimchi, kombucha, yogurt, saurkraut, lacto-fermented pickles, craft beer (unpasteurized, for real!), ect.   As well, food preparation makes a difference, al dante noodles, crunchy steamed veggies, steal cut oats vs rolled oats.  Fermentation is our friend.

When pathogens and toxic chemicals are involved, wash.  When they are not, consider not washing...your hands, your food, ect.  Munch out of your organic garden with the sun on your back, but wash the grocery store produce.

Additives, antimicrobials and processing of westernized foods adds to the sterility of food, of good and bad bacteria, cutting down on the variety of bacteria present.  Diversity, at least, is a cornerstone belief in microbiology as a good thing.

Fascinating comments on the study of breast milk and early colonization of infants!  Fascinating comments on remote communities of the world!  And lots of implications surrounding better understanding of how healthy gut, mouth, and skin flora may impact our common chronic ailments.  All good reasons to stay tuned as discoveries evolve in this area of study!

Want more (or smaller bites of information)?  American Gut Project

Compassionate City

Click here for video, TED talk.

"Scripture teaches nothing but charity.  We must not leave an interpretation of scripture until we have found a compassionate interpretation. And this struggle to find compassion in some of these rather rebarbative text, is a good dress rehearsal for doing the same in ordinary life."

"You cannot and must not confine compassion to your own group"

"Any Ideology that is failing to promote a sense of global understanding and global appreciation of each other is failing the test of time"

Compassionate Action Network

Interconnectivity - “We’re at the light bulb stage of the internet”

http://youtu.be/R7cuatm_bqw  20 minute video about inter-connectivity and internet’s role in commerce

There is the obvious counter argument that it’s at the cost of a loss of privacy, and the dangers involved in that. 

There are some statements I don’t agree with, like some statements about our generation being the last “dumb” generation. 

“By 2014 mobile connectivity will have taken over desktop connectivity.” - I'm seeing this trend, though thinking 2015.

What if we can take agriculture from a dependency on poisonous fertilizers to providing exactly what the plants need at the right time to increase yield through sensors.  Is technology the means by which we can return to sustainable cultures?

"What if there is a better model of government than what we've seen in centuries past.  Moving beyond the capacity to “call your congressman”, what if our individual political responsibilities expanded beyond elections to expect informed decisions and more frequent feedback from anyone who volunteers their time, by way of internet.   A bill passes based on a million votes, not the votes of the few in congress.  People would empower themselves to get informed, we have the capacity and the information can be made available.

"There’s the discussion of human connections, that is, real physical presence.  I've spent 10 years mastering productivity and personal fulfillment in my career without direct human interaction.  I believe that it can be achieved 75% with the technology we currently have.  6 years ago it could be achieved about 40%.  And the solution has been to embrace tools that reduce the barriers of standing in front of someone physically, email, skype, video.  Productivity is enhanced over physical presence, in some circumstances, where my entire hard drive is at my fingertips.  Those connections I've drawn together from emails, IMs, observation of a system, knowledge, ect is all right there.  Would 3D skype on a mobile device take that 75% to 80%? 

What do you guys think about the comments around 12:30 in the movie about virtual currencies, Facebook, the bank?
It’s important to teach them the values and necessity of human interaction.  We have not mastered electronic communication.  Tweets, instant messages, even emails still allow each of us to live in our own bubble of perception, and does result in mis-communication.

“We’re at the light bulb stage of the internet”

I feel responsible to understand the actual and potential technological changes so that as a parent (and a self-directed individual) I can teach my kids spiritual, physical, and values of the mind so that they may be applied to this technology and electronic interaction effectively. 

A GREAT couch conversation no less!!  You’re all invited. J

Love and Marriage

If we place trust in our companion to always render happiness, as we wish to do for them, then each time we are hurt, which will happen, is an offense of trust, and suffering is deep.  But if we trust our companion to be a catalyst for awakening, enlightenment, and liberation, suffering caused by the relationship instead empowers us to look deeper in search of the truth, and the bond between us is strengthened. This is love.