Monthly Archives: July 2012

Time For Some Book Learnin!

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I had an incredible list of free online learning resources shared with me earlier today and had to pass it along.

Learn thee well!

General Sites:

Schools and Universities:

Other General Sites:

Specialized Sites:

Computer Related:

Music:

Language:

Cooking/Food:

eBooks/Online Books/Academic Journals:

Other Subjects:

The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.

I will continue and add/edit/refine this list as my time permits. Please send me a message if you spot a broken link, have general grievance with some sort of error, or have a good link we can add.

Thank you Everyone!

Edit: It looks like this thread has been archived, so if anyone has any more suggestions please PM me. I plan to work on this list and add annotations for each link and maybe do some better organizing. When that is done I will post it again to try to get all the new links that have sprung up over the last year and to allow comments to be made again.

Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/cktxy/reddit_lets_compile_a_list_of_the_best_online/

That’s Obviously a 10-lined June Beetle, You Dolt! (My 5 Rules for Co-creation)

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I posted a pic via Instagram of an interesting insect I found on my porch earlier today.

The 10-lined June Beetle

Scott Olson (@NJHighlands) passed the post along about an hour later.

https://twitter.com/NJHighlands/status/229608680985858048

Debbie Hadley (@aboutinsects) quickly replied.

So, in about an hour, I had the answer to a question I might have spent hours researching with no guarantee of finding the answer.  Pretty awesome.  So what, you ask?  Well, I think this is a great example of the collaborative power available through our increasingly connected world.  That said, I think we need a few rules for co-creating.

My 5 Rules for Co-Creation

  1. No free lunches – Come to the table prepared to give more than you take.  Share your knowledge freely and you’ll build respect within your communities.  Those who consistently take more than they give will soon find themselves run out-of-town.
  2. Deep appreciation is not optional – If someone helps you, thank them and try to find ways to return the favor.  You’ll feel good about doing the right thing, which will reinforce that positive behavior.  I find this helps me get my thoughts, words and actions in integrity. (a key to building trust.)
  3. Share credit lavishly – Praise those who helped you build something.  They’ll likely do the same, but if they don’t, it will come back to haunt them…
  4. Create for a better world – Society needs a helping hand on innumerable fronts these days.  Find the issue(s) that rev your engine and get to work.
  5. Seek to expand your influence – As your knowledge set and networks expand, find ways to leverage small successes to go after larger ones.

It always seems impossible until its done.

Nelson Mandela

Final Note

The title was a bit of my usual silliness which was intended to highlight the ease with which a seemingly difficult question can be quickly answered if it’s posed to the right person or group of people.  In no way was I suggesting that the person who answered the question was anything but gracious, nor was I suggesting that I was not appreciative of the help. (Refer back to rule #2.)

How are you going to use the power of the internet to help co-create a better world?

What is the Telos of the Species?

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I’m reading “Nature as Measure: The Selected Essays of Wes Jackson.”  The essays that I’ve read so far have been thought provoking, elegant pieces which center around our agricultural systems and the necessary changes we face.  The following passage was a response to a section from Aldo Leopold’s “A Sand County Almanac.” (Another on my ever growing “short list” of future reads.)

“A natural inclination is to suggest that we must be patient, that these things take time. Certainly patience is a virtue, but after eighty to a hundred centuries of a decline in our terrestrial dowry, and at a moment when the decline is at an all-time high, it almost appears as though nature has invented humans for two purposes: to return nutrients to the sea to become sedimentary rock again, and to return carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by burning the fossil fuel. It is ironic that our actions in the name of progress are accelerating the return of this planet to conditions similar to a few billion years ago.”

-Wes Jackson

Image by PerennialsProject

 This poignant passage has me questioning if we’re the reset button.  It’s sad  and troubling to consider, but I think it’s still a choice and not a fate.  We can choose to change our perspectives and do things differently, but I think we need to do so in a hurry.
Plastic?
The Jackson passage reminded me of another possible purpose for our species.  If this is it, we’ve far since outlived our calling. 🙂
A telos (from the Greek τέλοϛ for “end”, “purpose”, or “goal”) is an end or purpose, in a fairly constrained sense used by philosophers such as Aristotle. It is the root of the term “teleology,” roughly the study of purposiveness, or the study of objects with a view to their aims, purposes, or intentions. (Source: Wikipedia)