IdeaFestival

The Creative Generalist interviews, giftwrapped

Steve Hardy at Creative Generalist has listed all of his "eclectic curiosity" interviews in this post. Since I've enjoyed the variety of perspectives from the accomplished and creative people he's engaged, I'm glad to read that Steve will continue the series.

Wayne

My jump shot really is hopeless

Will practice perfect my jump shot? Stanford researcher Mark Churchland thinks maybe not. 

New Scientist:

Contrary to conventional wisdom that movement variability is caused by muscle activity, Churchland’s team found that neural activity accounts for about half the variations [in experiments conducted with Macaque Monkeys]. In other words, training muscles to perform a certain way through practice, such as countless hours teeing off or shooting a basketball, will not produce the same shot every time because the brain's behaviour is inconsistent.

Wayne

Wanted: a few good anthropologists

Putting People First describes emerging trends identified by a foresight study commissioned in the UK. Some of the results look familiar - a "content revolution" enabled by personal media, the "digitisation" of knowledge, embedded technology - while others are more surprising. Will virtually all physical assets, ranging from property to appliances, be leased rather than owned by businesses and consumers?

The UK Office of Science and Innovation also commissioned a more specific study of science and technology trends. Again, some findings were not unexpected - the further development of ambient and wearable technology, and the end of "cyberspace" as a distinct place. But "the rise of applied anthropology" was a bit of a surprise at first. On the other hand, ubiquitous technology will give a social science dedicated to the exploration of society and its artifacts much to examine.

Go to Putting People First for more results and plenty of links.

Wayne

Wikipedia: Applied Anthropology, Philosophy of Technology

Foundational Questions Institute: funding high risk, high reward physics research

The Templeton Foundation is featuring the Foundational Questions Institute (FQXi) and the Foundational Questions Consortium on its front page. FQXi is focused

on [the] questions at the foundations of physics and cosmology, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a deep understanding of reality but unlikely to be supported by conventional funding sources.

The questions are certainly big: "Whence the constants of nature?" - "Is information at the heart of physics?" - "Can we understand consciousness better?" - "How should we interpret quantum mechanics?"

A list of grantees and their intellectual pursuits is located online. Among the listed subject matter: Observation and Nonlocality in Quantum Gravitational Physics and Deferential Geometry (my italics).

The about page provides much more interesting detail about the mission, scope and goals of the institute.

Wayne

Wikipedia: Foundationalism

Where in the world is Geoff Oliver Bugbee?

Photojournalist Geoff Oliver Bugbee, who I met at the last ideaFestival, and who supplied the terrific pictures used for the IF06 blog posts (scroll down, the John Gaeta and Robert Sapolsky images are personal favorites), was as of December 9 on photo assignment in southeast Asia. He's filing updates, and of course, making images.

Here's hoping he's in Louisville next September to photograph the ideaFestival.

Wayne

Napoleon and His Watch

Napoleon figures frequently in New Yorker ads, but, in the December 18th issue, he regained the big time that was once regularly his.  There, on the back cover, the famous conqueror is shown in youthful (and romantic) profile, as he campaigns in Italy in 1796.

The ad, however, proudly reads “Napoleon Bonaparte, from 1798, a client of  Breguet’s.” To make its point Breguet, a renowned French watch company, engages in anachronism: the ad shows  a multitask chronometer (four faces), far moved forward in time from Napoleon’s era. 

The only portrait in which Napoleon cozens up to a time piece is an 1812 portrait of the then emperor in his study, where a wall clock, just hanging off his left shoulder, reads 4:00 a.m., certainly suggestive that he was conscious of the importance of the passing hours.

With or without a Brequet time piece immediately accessible to him, Napoleon, as military strategist, knew that success in battle depended on both space and time. “Space we can recover, but time never,” he remarked in an oft quoted epigram.

Of course, as we moderns miss an airplane connection, we need no reminders from over the grave or from the rear cover of  the New Yorker that time can only be grasped once.

Ray Betts

"Geeks bad at history?" Not so, Ethan

Opening a session earlier this year at Beyond Broadcast on social networks, Ethan Zuckerman sketches a brief history of Internet communities. Slides supporting his presentation are located here.

This is my first go at inserting YouTube video on IFblog. Click the play button in the center of the image and see what happens.

Wayne

What can mathematical fools tell us?

In a fascinating American Scientist piece, Foolproof, author Brian Hayes says "in recent years [mathematical] proof has become a surprisingly contentious topic." Placing himself somewhere in the middle of the mathematics is/is not in a crises, he is nonetheless right - and offers the evidence - when he suggests that "proof is a tool that can also prove you a fool."

Perhaps when it comes to some mathematical proofs, apophasis would make more sense.

Wayne

New book describes the many sources of Gershwin's art

Having had the privilege of a front row seat to hear concert pianist and psychiatrist Richard Kogan play and discuss George Gershwin last October, my eye was drawn to a newly published biography of the musician, George Gershwin: His Life and Works, which appeared in my feed for Arts & Letters Daily.

Weighing in at 884 pages, the "encyclopedic" book (a mild criticism from the reviewer) offers according the Boston Globe, a thoroughly annotated description of the influence of classical music on the composer.

Gershwin's ability to comprehend popular and classical musical forms is described here:

Alone among his popular songwriting peers, Gershwin had the ability and ambition to cross the great divide and compose classical music. Yet among classical composers he was equally unique in embracing uncondescendingly what he characterized as the 'nervous, hurried, syncopated, ever accelerando, and slightly vulgar' nature of American life. 'Rhapsody in Blue,' he wrote, was 'full of vulgarisms. That's what gives it weight.'

As with the book Will in the Word - were the evidence trail equally as fresh for scholars of Shakespeare - I am continually fascinated by what makes artists great. What vision, what faculty do they possess that others do not?

Wayne

Making design work in business

Check out Luke Wroblewski's "So you want to be a Design Strategist," parts one, two and three. Experience designer Bryan Zmijewski describes for readers of Functioning Form, Luke's blog, eleven practical skills for design success. The skills are crucial for design thinkers who are also building business careers.

And while at Functioning Form, check out "theoverlap," a category with more to say about the intersection of business and design, or Luke's table, which compares design and business processes.

Wayne