coquelicot

I am not sure exactly what I am supposed to be comparing here. In the interest of time, I think that the most obvious comparison I could make here is the one between Kahn’s discussion of indefinable needs creating building programs, etc., and Gershenfeld’s of the idea of Fab Labs. Kahn says, when discussing what makes a University, that, “you have nothing to refer to, just the sense of a place of learning, an undeniable need: an undeniable desire on the part of all of us that a place be for learning� (pg 239). Therefore, Universities don’t exist because someone said, “we should build a university.� They exist because people decided that there should be a place where one may go to learn. A similar discussion is found in Gershenfeld’s excerpt, when he is talking about how the structures that his students built were not based on a market need, but rather on their own personal desire that these products should exist.
I found another similarity between Kahn’s discussion of how “the light, the giver of all presences, is the maker of a material, and the material was made to cast a shadow, and the shadow belongs to the light,� and Gershenfeld’s discussion of how he would like to see a Personal Fabricator that can make anything by assembling atoms. Kahn says that light makes everything, including structure, and then these things in turn create light by creating shadows. Gershenfeld says that a PF can make anything, including reproductions of itself. So in a way light is like a PF- it creates everything, and in the end it also creates itself.

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A technopoly is one of Neil Postman’s three classifications of cultures. The other two are tool-using cultures and technocracies. Tool-using cultures are those in which tools do not attack the culture, technocracies are those in which tools do attack the culture, and technopolies are those in which the culture is dependent on tools in such a way that new technologies change the culture completely, because the old tools are rendered completely obsolete by the new ones (Postman).
Although the two (that is, nature and technology) may initially seem to be mutually exclusive, technology is an order of nature because many “technological advancements� used to combat problems caused by nature in fact previously existed, you guessed it, in nature. Man, in his constant fight with nature for survival, is in general is always trying to make life easier, longer, and more enjoyable. In his attempts, many tools are created, because when facing nature alone, man is rather helpless. Therefore, technology is an order of nature because the workings of nature necessitate technology (Lavine).
Technopoly occurs when the tools, rather than nature, are the ruling factor in the lives of the people that make up a culture. A perfect example of a technopoly is the computer-controlled society we live in today. This very assignment is evidence that the computer has invaded every aspect of our lives in such a way that we now depend on it to exist (a.k.a. complete class assignments). It was invented to make the storage and retrieval of information easier (an order of nature- trying to make life easier), among other things, and has now replaced many things in our lives, such as the postal system (largely), and even simple person-to-person communication (think instant messenger). The computer, in fact, has become so important it is starting to replace other, previously-monopolizing technologies, such as television, the telephone, and the printing press (now any jackass with a computer can spread his ideas across the globe, he doesn’t even need to get published). However, I think it may be possible that this technology will be very difficult to replace in the future, because it is conceivable that it could be applied to many different functions and therefore last forever. But I strongly suspect that that is only what “they� want me to think.

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http://www.faculty.sbc.edu/wassell/ArchMath/Unit4/pantheon.htm

For this prompt we were supposed to find images that somehow connect design to mathematics. I am not sure exactly what this means, but I hope that discussing a building that was designed with a great reliance on mathematics works.
I think that probably one of the most engineered buildings in the world is the Pantheon, in Rome. It's architect is unknown, but it was definitely built during the reign of the emperor Hadrian. It is generally dated as having been built between 118 and 128 CE. It was NOT built, as the inscription on the porch entablature claims, by Agrippa, who was a minister of the emperor Augustus, who ruled some 150 years before Hadrian. For whatever reason, Hadrian had this inscription, which had been on the building previously standing where the Pantheon now stands, placed on his building, but the bricks used in the building are all dated, and all the dates are from the 120's. Anyway, the building, which I have had to write 2 papers on for my Arch. History to 1750 class, if you were wondering, is a feat of engineering for the simple fact that it has been able to remain standing for almost 2000 years. Its 142’ poured concrete dome would have collapsed long ago were it not for the extensive knowledge of geometry employed in its construction. In addition to the construction of the building itself, geometry was also used to embellish it. An example of this is the floor’s alternating circle-and-square pattern. In conclusion, mathematics is very important in design, particularly the design of buildings, which would collapse without at least basic knowledge of math. My ponder is, if the architects of the Pantheon, and of the Hagia Sophia, and of numerous other great buildings in history, were able to design these buildings using fairly simple geometry, why on earth do people think calculus is so important?
P.S. For whatever reason, the Uthink program thinks that it would be far too much to allow me to have both a picture and a link within the same entry. I know its ghetto, but if you copy-paste the URL it should take you to the "series of images that connect design [of the Pantheon] to mathematics.

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Sorry this one is so late- I did it, I just forgot to blog it. In my defense there is not much to blog about with this particular prompt- it is basically like, "i made a new friend, this is what we did." I acquired a new acquaintance in my Intro to Scandinavia class (SCAN 1201- I suggest it to anyone looking for a 3-credit class that is fun and easy). Her name is Elle. We went to Caribou together to study for our test. Therefore, we shared energy by sharing each others' ideas on what we thought the test would cover, and I shared my energy, in the form of my employee discount, by helping her to get coffee for cheaper than she would have otherwise paid. Which is always fun. So yeah, not sure what else I could say here. Woot for new acquaintances/contacts/friends. They rock.

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Me v. the blog prompt
I think that each and every blog prompt we are given is something that is relevant for us to think about and consider. However, my problem is this: the prompt is always such that I feel the need to think about it, chew on it, mull over it, etc. So I don’t do it right away, but rather decide to think about it for a few days, especially when it is a difficult prompt like this one. It will happen that I am just outside walking around and then I find myself thinking, “what are some oppositions and solutions that surround me?� And I will spend some moments in this thought. But then I will go home, get distracted, and forget all about it. Then I remember it again just as I am about to go to sleep on Sunday night, which is bad. However, I can remember some of the thinking I did about this prompt this week. For example, I was downtown this weekend. It was kind of cold and windy, which is pretty much the usual state of downtown. However, looking around me, I saw many solutions to this problem. The bus shelters on Nicollet Mall, for example, are all enclosed and have heaters inside. They are ugly as sin, but they serve their purpose quite well. Also, I spent some time enjoying the famed skyway system. Overall I would say that the opposition of the cold was dealt pretty well.
Another opposition I thought about was that of me v. the stupid people that invaded my home this weekend. One of my roommates had some friends come to visit from Wisconsin, and although 2 of them were okay, the third was ghastly enough that the entire experience was soured. He was a very loud person, all the time, for some reason. So I found that in the short space of 2 days, my body, not wishing to be awakened by that jackass, had adapted itself in such a way that I was sleeping on my side, with one ear into the pillow, and then with my arm over my head, covering my other ear. I was personally rather impressed with the fact that my unconscious self came up with this solution to the problem. I say this because the best solution my conscious self could come up with was to throw him out the window. At any rate, they are gone, and I am enjoying the peace and quiet of having only four people in this apartment as opposed to seven.

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The difference between iron and steel? Really? I wasn't aware that anyone remained unaware that they were different materials after 8th grade science class at the latest.
This is what i knew when this blog was assigned in class:
-iron is an elemental metal. True iron is made up entirely of Fe atoms.
-steel, however, is generally an alloy which contains iron and other elements as well, such as nickel. it is generally also much stronger than iron.
However, since i have not regurgitated this information in about 6 years, my memory of what exactly the difference is beyond that was a little rusty (pun intended) so i decided to look it up on Encarta (the standard edition on the CD-ROM, not the online one that can be edited)
This is what i learned:
1) steel has a carbon content which is much higher than that of iron.
2) steel was "invented" sometime after the 14th century when iron smelting processes were getting more and more sophisticated, and wrought iron would be heated with charcoal to create these early steels.
3) many food packages are created using thin sheets of steel and then coating it with even thinner sheets of tin. this is not really relevant, i just found it slightly more interesting than the rest of the article.
4)there are 5 classifications of steel: carbon, alloy, high-strength low-alloy, stainless, and tool
5) steel is often used instead of iron because it is generally stronger, more resistant to corrosion, and, perhaps most importantly, prettier and shinier.
6) steel is generally hardened by using heat treatment. before this process it is a mixture of three things: ferrite, cementite, and pearlite, none of which i found interesting enough to bother detailing here.
So what did I learn today?
-the one unifying characteristic of steel as compared to iron is that steel has a carbon content which is considerably higher. So that is the difference.

Continue reading "Steel, Iron, and Volunteering" »

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Trying to be original on this prompt was difficult. Trying to be patient when the website thinks it is funny to delete your entry every time you try to upload a picture is even more so.
I was thinking to myself, what is a phenomena? We are all familiar with "natural phenomena." What, however, is an "unnatural phenomena"? Is there such a thing? Or does nature have a hand in all of them? If something "phenomenal" is created without the help of nature, is it even considered special anymore? Is that even possible?
At any rate, i was having great difficulty even thinking of a phenomenon to talk about, so i decided to look for "phenomena" on Wikipedia. It said that "a phenomenon is any observable event." Since this does not even match up with what we talked about in class, I quickly discarded that. I then got a little morbid and started to think about sociopathic disorder as a phenomenon. It actually matched up quite well- the things included the chemicals in the brain, the framework the sociopath's personal framework, and the clockwork the process that leads to their behavior, which is the phenomena itself. However, this is a little dark and sad to use for a blog prompt that can be used to write about something as beautiful as the aurora borealis, or as destructive as a hurricane. So this idea too was discarded.
In the end i gave up and decided to just write about my favorite phenomenon, the tides. I have never spent much time by the ocean myself, but i think it is amazing to think of such massive amounts of water being moved as a result of the moon, thousands of miles away. It obviously involves things and clockworks (water and the moon of course operates on a schedule). The frameworks are of course there as well. The relationship between the water and the moon is invariant. Therefore, the tide is a phenomenon. However, it is now after 4 am, so I am going to try to go to bed soon.

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The place that I will be describing is Orange. Orange is a breakfast restaurant in Chicago that my good friend Kari and I discovered this July when we were visiting the city together. It is located on West Harrison Street, about 2 blocks away from the Hotel Blake, where we were staying and which is located on South Dearborn Street. Both are located in Chicago's Loop, more specifically, in the area of downtown which was once the city's red light district. The outside of Orange does not look like much, with a small sign and an enormous orange awning. Upon stepping inside, you are overwhelmed by this feeling of light. Under the orange awning, there is a wall of glass blocks. When paired with the large windows underneath, the result is an entire wall of light. Along one wall is a long counter, confirming the building's former incarnation as a bar (it was, after all, in the heart of the red light district). A table right inside the door was covered with juicing paraphenalia and fruits, and there was more of the same on the bar and also behind it. The seating was simple, with a long bench on the wall opposite the bar and tables and chairs from IKEA. On each table there was a small metal bucket with paper juice menus and golf pencils inside (the procedure for these, we discovered, was that you pick a base juice and then add other juices to it to make your own custom mixture). Colorful art was all over the walls, including a clear flat mannequin (the kind that is always hanging on the walls in stores) that was painted with a rainbow, red on the top, down to purple on the bottom. The wait staff all had political stickers all over their little folder thingys (you know, the thing that gets dropped off at the table with the check inside). The atmosphere of Orange is very interesting. It is artistic, political, relaxed, welcoming, and comfortable, all at the same time. On the walls in the hallway leading to the bathroom, there are drawings and notes from the patrons of the restaurant. It makes you want to be a member of the club. Kari and I left our own on the table, and I hope it was included in their collection. Everyone inside seemed so comfortable, and the food was amazing. At the top of the menu it said, "no substitutions, no build-your-own. Trust us. We know what we are doing." At the time that I went there was a special that had four different Chicago neighborhoods interpreted in breakfast, including one for Boys' Town (the gay neighborhood) that included pancakes "with large nuts and edible glitter," no joke. I got an omelette the first time, and the Chai Tea French Toast the second. I think the amazing food contributed to the calm atmosphere because everyone must have been stuffed to the point of total complacency. Kari has gone home to Norway since our trip, and i miss her terribly. But I can now say that I think of her every time I taste good breakfast food. And that we have already decided to go back to Chicago as soon as we can.

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I think that what I am about to say is probably the most obvious thing I possibly could say. I think that a huge issue that our world is now facing and that needs to be solved through design is the current situation in the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It has been over a year since the storm, and if the lease on a FEMA trailer is only 18 months, that area is about to be hit with another huge housing problem. I think that a lot of the focus has been taken away from the problems still plaguing this area of the deep south, and people need to think more about how this problem could be solved, or at least come closer to it being solved. Of course, a lot of the problem here has to do with the incredible amount of information that is sent into our minds and our homes every single day, which causes us to very quickly become tired of hearing of the same thing. But that is a whole different rant, and one that I do not choose to go into today. Back to what I was saying, we as a society need to come up with a solution to this problem, so that more people can move back into their homes and their lives can begin to once again resemble some sense of normalcy.

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Even though I have only been once, and went at a time of day that was probably not the busiest for the place (2 PM on a Wednesday), I could tell that this is a high energy location. Walking in to the smells of the cooking, the bright neon lights, and the din of people, made me significantly more excited about this homework assignment. Adding to this excitement was the fact that I FINALLY found this rice seasoning stuff that I love, but that I can never find, and also jasmine rice for $1 a pound. Yum! In this way I suppose I was adding to the energy of the market, so there is the tie-in for that. The prompt is asking me to "list the ways I might create, use, and exchange energy" in this place. The answer is that I basically don't know. As a consumer, I suppose that all I can do to do this is to go, shop, get excited when I find something I love, and interact with others. I suppose I could bring others with me, so that they can do the same, and together we could significantly alter the environment while we are there. As long as someone isn't just sitting at one of the tables, by themselves, not talking, not doing anything, without having purchased anything before sitting down, and with no plans to do so after they get up, they are probably contributing to the energy of the market. Beyond that, I have no idea how to answer this prompt.

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