David Ing @daviding@qoto.org

The Funtowicz and Ravetz article on Post Normal Science from 1993 is important and well cited. I notice this republishing of the article with a new foreword is on The Knowledge Futures Commonplace, with the PubPub technology from MIT underneath it.
https://commonplace.knowledgefutures.org/pub/6qqfgms5/release/1

Appreciating that science moves, can we get to fast science?
> Another practical difficulty for philosophy of science to engage with fast science is to have venues in which such engagement can occur. Our pre-print platforms are meant for future articles that exemplify slow, careful scholarship, and anyway, unlike in medicine, what happens in a philosophy pre-print archive stays in a philosophy pre-print archive. A prominent and senior member of our discipline wrote to me saying that a short article he had written, relevant to understanding the pandemic, had been rejected by a number of visible sites devoted to popular science essays. In any case, most of us do not have established publishing relationships with, say, The Atlantic, or Aeon, though Fuller noted that venues such as Nautilus and The Conversation have been open to some slightly deeper analysis than is afforded by many venues.
https://dailynous.com/2020/05/13/fast-science-philosophy-science-guest-post-jacob-stegenga/

With the distinction made between #PatternLanguage and form language by #NikosSalingaros, a broader vision of the "life" sought by #ChristopherAlexander has led me through #GeneralSystemsTheory and #RobertRosen into the R-theory of #JohnJKineman.

http://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/pattern-language-form-language-general-systems-theory-r-theory/

Ecological economics (with some key systems thinking CANSEE members) meets P2P on May 13 YouTube Live session https://twitter.com/Revkin/status/1259454476198596609

While media as corporate giants funded by advertising is in crisis, the demand for information is increasing. Investigative journalism takes resources, but maybe we should think about how individuals and small groups could be filling in with critically evaluated content (as opposed to misinformation and hearsay. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-why-you-should-care-coronavirus-is-obliterating-the-media-115629327.html

The #GlobalBusinessNetwork has been temporarily reformed including #PeterSchwartz and
#StewartBrand in a report released by #PunitRenjen at #Deloitte and #Salesforce. https://discuss.openlearning.cc/t/a-world-remade-by-covid-19-scenarios-as-the-passing-storm-good-company-sunrise-in-the-east-lone-wolves/107
.

A young man stares out a window and the caption reads “Bus windows: the ultimate philosophy school.” writes #MarkKingwell

All the canonical philosophers of boredom have believed that boredom was eventually edifying – a painful experience that, like mortality itself, educates and enhances the mind. Because we’re all addicts of our own desires for stimulation, the therapy here may be hard. There may be withdrawal, and the DSM and medical models of clinical addiction won’t help. This is philosophical work.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-in-coronavirus-quarantine-use-boredom-as-a-window-to-wisdom/

Provocative statement by Canadian automobile reviewer.

> There isn’t now and likely never will be enough electricity available worldwide to replace all the petroleum for the vehicles we currently drive.

> And given that at least in Canada, only 11 per cent of fossil fuel emissions come from passenger vehicles (that’s not from some climate-change-denying website but from Environment Canada, the official tree-huggers of the federal government), and that this percentage is dropping as newer, cleaner cars replace older, dirtier ones, the belief that battery-powered cars are the answer to our pollution issues is not only far-fetched, it’s downright dangerous because it takes focus away from the real pollution bad guys, like agriculture and cement manufacture.

Jim Kenzie | Feb. 1, 2020 | Toronto Star at
https://www.thestar.com/autos/opinion/2020/01/31/with-the-mini-electric-youll-have-fun-driving-it.html

Lecture on "Are Systems Changes Different from System + Change?" at #OCADU_SFI #SystemicDesign master's, web video and digital audio now at http://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/are-systems-changes-different-from-system-change/ .

Lecture of 1h18m covered 37 of 55 slides, all online for #SystemsChange #SystemsThinking #theoryofchange

The 2019-2020 fires in Australia are associated with a slow history of human activity.

> Three hours north, in Sydney, the air quality was worse than in Jakarta. [....]
> There is no doubt that the fires are growing more ferocious. Even without the changing climate, it would be inevitable; 250 years of land mismanagement have changed the way in which Australia’s bushland reacts to a spark.

"Mourning a disappearing world as Australia burns" | Jessica Friedmann | Jan. 2, 2020 | Globe & Mail at https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-mourning-a-disappearing-world-as-australia-burns/

> ... a fascinating study by Javier Miranda, principal economist at the U.S. Census Bureau; Benjamin Jones, professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University; and Pierre Azoulay, professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. They took a detailed look at the demographics of successful entrepreneurship. The results were so conclusive as to debunk the myth of the young startup founder. They paint a portrait that is much more consistent with your own intuition from experience.

> They conclude: “The mean age at founding for the 1-in-1,000 fastest growing new ventures is 45.0. The findings are similar when considering high-technology sectors, entrepreneurial hubs, and successful firm exits. Prior experience in the specific industry predicts much greater rates of entrepreneurial success.”

It’s a Disservice to Urge Young People To Become Entrepreneurs | Jeffrey A. Tucker | November 15, 2019 at https://www.aier.org/article/its-a-disservice-to-urge-young-people-to-become-entrepreneurs/

A week of deepening *democratic recession* says @FareedZakaria https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/25/us/fareed-democracy-decaying-worldwide/index.html . Citing term by #LarryDiamond "Facing Up to the Democratic Recession" | Jan. 2015 | J Democracy at https://www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/facing-up-to-the-democratic-recession/

The scientific publication is:
"Sleep fragmentation, microglial aging, and cognitive impairment in adults with and without Alzheimer’s dementia" | Science Advances | Dec. 2019 at https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/12/eaax7331 doi:10.1126/sciadv.aax7331

As a mature adult, is a bad cycle of sleeping poorly impacting your cognitive function?

> Dr. Lim, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Toronto ... suggest[s] microglia play a role in the link between poor sleep and cognitive impairment and dementia. Microglia normally help fight infections and clear debris from the brain. But dysfunction of microglia appears to be involved in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, Dr. Lim said. [....[

> Dr. Liu-Ambrose, the Canada research chair in physical activity, mobility and cognitive neuroscience at UBC, said good-quality sleep is believed to allow the brain to clear itself of toxic beta-amyloid protein, the buildup of which is one of the characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease. And, she said, there is also good evidence to suggest an accumulation of beta-amyloid can further contribute to disrupted sleep.

> “It’s a vicious cycle,” she said.

"Study finds link between dementia and lack of sleep" | Wendy Leung | Dec. 11, 2019 | Globe and Mail at https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-study-finds-link-between-dementia-and-lack-of-sleep/

Does "the best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago and the second best time is now" date back further than 1988? #GaryMoll
@AmericanForests .
Christmas tree 2019 prices, says
@ChrisAReynolds , trace to financial crisis of 2008
https://ingbrief.wordpress.com/2019/12/12/the-best-time-to-plant-a-tree-was-twenty-years-ago/

Declarations of sapiosexuality may describe individuals seeking partners for intellectual intercourse.

> A self-described “sapiosexual," someone who is primarily attracted to intelligence over physical appearance, Van Dusen says she now screens her dates for post-secondary education. [.....]

> Many sapiosexuals acknowledge the term can come off elitist, but in the often superficial world of online dating, they say, identifying as such helps them foreground their interests to potential partners. Sex researchers point out there is a difference between a sexual preference and a sexual orientation.

> There is almost no academic research on sapiosexuality, says Dr. Lucia O’Sullivan, a psychology professor and sexuality researcher at the University of New Brunswick. But, she says, there are plenty of studies that show most people value intelligence in romantic partners.

"Have you ever dated a sapiosexual?" | Dave McGinn | Oct. 9, 2019 | Globe & Mail at https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/article-the-rise-of-the-sapiosexual-identity-in-dating/

In the Canadian press, this is attributed to inverted yield curve, resulting from the trade war.

> Anyone buying that bond is willingly buying an investment that's guaranteed to lose money, but investors are more than happy to buy it up - because the fear is that alternative investments will fare even worse. [....]
> Those negative yields are filtering down into the economy in some truly jaw-dropping ways. A Danish bank this week started offering a negative yielding mortgage ...
"Free mortgages and bond yields turned upside down: trade war impacts veer toward the wacky" Aug. 17, 2019 https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/trump-trade-war-impacts-1.5247996

There's something seriously wrong in the global financial markets, when banks are offering mortgages at zero or negative rates.

> Jyske Bank, Denmark's third largest, has begun offering borrowers a 10-year deal at -0.5%, while another Danish bank, Nordea, says it will begin offering 20-year fixed-rate deals at 0% and a 30-year mortgage at 0.5%.
> Under its negative mortgage, Jyske said borrowers will make a monthly repayment as usual – but the amount still outstanding will be reduced each month by more than the borrower has paid.

"Danish bank launches world's first negative interest rate mortgage" Aug. 13, 2019 at https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/aug/13/danish-bank-launches-worlds-first-negative-interest-rate-mortgage

Web video of Systems Changes: Learning from the Christopher Alexander Legacy, extending #patternlanguage especially Eishin School and Multi-Service Centers methods-in-practice. For #SystemsThinking Ontario, up the learning curve on ongoing research. http://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/systems-changes-learning-from-the-christopher-alexander-legacy-st-on-2019-02-11/

Web video of presentation of Evolving Pattern language towards an Affordance Language, 2018, on week visiting#RaphaelArar and #JimSpohrer at Almaden. Insider's history of science and prospects http://coevolving.com/blogs/index.php/archive/evolving-pattern-language-towards-an-affordance-language-almaden-2018-05-09/
#systemsthinking #patternlanguage