Live streaming – like free wi-fi - is a must at tourism and conservation events. You could say it’s becoming a swift-flowing torrent! That said, many professionals are not web literate. So to lessen the digital illiteracy, let’s paint a picture of what’s old school and what’s new school:

Old School

New School

Bjarke Ingels came to speak to our school Friday night.

The venue was the Museum of Natural History in scenic Balboa Park.

I am still blown away by the lecture and, more importantly, the message.

It was truly (r)evolutionary.  The fact that BIG’s insanely brilliant concepts not only get built but a) give back to the community in terms of urban interaction b) are socially and ecologically responsible and c) are giving him fame and making him a household name is galvanizing.

Expanding the collective idea of what is possible through architecture: this is the optimism we need after years of gloom, in face of all the naysayers and ‘pie-in-the-sky’ disablers.  Something is blooming in the state of Denmark.

What an event. My friend Alan Rosenblum told me it would be as if  ‘Lady Gaga came to San Diego’.

And. It. Was.  The students loved it. Three days later, and we are all still giddy.

I could not agree more.  Thank you Mr. Ingels.
You intensified the dialogue between students and educators, and showed us how the ‘crazy’ ideas that are developed in studio and propose new typologies for the city are not only possible but timely and welcome. This creates a better learning environment, where pragmatism actually means being part of the solution, not propagating the problem.

I had the same dilemma when working in traditional, corporate offices and found refuge in academia. BIG showed us that there is a third way, the ‘Bigamy’ way. You can have it all. You can be good and successful. You can be extremely famous
and not be arrogant. He spoke of pragmatic idealism, and hedonistic sustainability. He demonstrated how to create building that are fun to experience as inhabitants and city neighbors and yet are sustainable. He showed us the intellectual approach and use of hybridization of traditional typologies to achieve new functions and forms. To wit: the Garbage to Energy plant in the middle of Copenhagen, which will be the city’s tallest structure and will house a ski slope (!) and blow smoke rings each time one ton of CO2 is burned. These are usually ‘crazy’ projects that we see coming from the upper studio division, when we ask the students to ‘dream big’ (pun intended) and question the drab, anti-interactive reality of center cities such as San Diego. The students, deep inside, try to dream but are conditioned to think that projects such as the one we saw in the lecture could never be built due to various factors such as financial interests or politics of control, or even lack of relevance of our role as architects.

We have been liberated from all of this because we can now point to BIG’s projects. Here it was demonstrated that the only limits we have as architects and human beings are those self-imposed, or those we feel ‘reality’ has burdened us with. I know that as faculty we felt validated by BIG’s successes ( does it make sense?). The music and videos, the whole presentation and BIG’s  infectious enthusiasm, warmth and positive energy were, in the words of a student ‘AWESOME’. Another student told me he learned a lot about diagrams from the lecture.
The lecture also was a model for engaging presentations. I have been toying with the idea, but now I am committed to use music and pop references in my History of Architecture classes; I ran the idea with few students and they were all for it. I will quote Ingels when he says that we need to ‘cease to consider the building as objects but focus on what they do for the city’ : this informs and generates a new approach to ‘sacred architectural monsters’ and teaching history of architecture (or as I like to think, architectural stories).

A big thank you to Allen Ghaida, the AIAS and all my colleagues at the NewSchool Arts Foundation for making this dream of an event a reality.

I sketched feverishly- and took down all the provocative quotes. Here are my hybrid/computer-augmented notes.

I will add all of the proper building names and location as soon as possible.

click to enlarge

…..and this was my present

Rotating gab jumps. 5×2 with 5kg/ 5×2 with 10kg / 3×2 with 20kg. Basicly jump squats down from 0,6 meter stairs (2 feet) landing flat on yur feed sideways. Really tough excentric training. Great for giving you more pop and learn to absorve the energy from really hard landings.
Lean back sideways jump squats with elastic. 12 repd / 10 reps / 8 reps. Great kiteboarding simulator exercise that gives you pop, balance in the air and controlled landings.
Jump squats to BOSU. 20seconds work, 10 second break x4. Great for prehab, landings, balance, coordination, stabilazation.
Advanced Roll out on gliders. 20 second work and 10 second break x4.
Reverse Roll out on gliders. Same as above
Chin up. 50 reps as fast as possible. I did 15/11/9/6/6/3 with about 20-40 second break in between.

Today a did a semi hard workout for improving uh power and passes. Basicly what I’ve been doing the last 6 months. I can really feel my power increasing in the gym and on the water. I really have energy and stamina to rip harder on the water. Even after 10-15 days of the water (crappy wind and work). And I have more power to do unhooked trix. Esoecially holding on to the bar, when doing some serious uh kiteloops )

I did get a small injury inthe psoas muscle thoug. But just because my workouts have been really tough this week. So it’s just a little more soreness than usual. Nothing that will keep me of the water tomorrow.

I didn’t do any plyometric training today to pratice pop and hard landings, because I’ve also got a small injury in my left leg. Nothing big really, I just need to wait at least 1-2 weeks before doing rough plyometric training again. Still, not a big enough injury to keep me of the water.

My injuries are caused by too hard workouts and too little restitution (rest)…

Basicly what I did today was:

Renegade rows with pushups 3x8reps with 20kg dumbells.
Adv roll out with dumbells (different directions) 3×12 with 15kg
Half pass (hip2bar) 3×6 (I was really tired here)
Standing sideways cable row 3×6 (Each side) with 45kg
One arm chest presse, back on ball 3×7-8 with 28-30kg (my record is 32kg)
A good workout, but bar far the toughest in a long time.The chest press exercise I haven’t been doing for a while, so I wouldn’t go for the 32kg as I did some time ago. But I had more in me. I’ll put that exercise in the beginning next time and then I’ll go for 34kg. That’s the goal. And depending on my kite session tomorrow, I’ll also do some plyometric training. But it depends on my small muscle injury in my leg…
Catch you on th flip side… Aloha…

To see if your child is ready to begin their formal education, ask yourself if:

My child…

• Will share and take turns.
• Enjoys learning.
• Likes to explore and discover.
• Will ask questions.
• Will continue to try, even when the task is difficult.
• Can problem-solve.
• Will tell someone if she needs something.
• Can express her feelings.
• Can follow simple directions.
• Can listen to a story without interrupting.
• Can handle separation from parents.
• Is beginning to take responsibility for his personal belongings.
• Can use the bathroom by his or herself.
• Can hold a pencil.
• Can cut with scissors.
• Knows his name.
• Can sing.
• Can recite the alphabet.
• Recognizes some letters.
• Can count to 10.
• Recognizes numbers 1 – 5.

Ideally, your child will be comfortable with all of these readiness indicators.  However, every child is different.

Some children who are close to the cut-off date for kindergarten will be more successful if they wait a year to enroll or enroll in a pre-k program.  Sometimes children are ready for the academics, but have not yet developed the social skills they need for kindergarten.

You are the best judge of what is best for your child.

How can you help ready your child for their next stage of education?

• Consider a preschool or pre k program if your child has not participated in any group education.
• Provide your child opportunities to play with other children his age.  If possible, give your child the opportunity to play with some of the children who will be in her class.
• Take a tour of the new school with your child.  Show him his classroom, the bathrooms, library and playground.  If possible, introduce her to her teacher.
• Help your child become accustomed to following directions.
• Talk with your child about the new school routine.
• Give your child appropriate chores at home and hold her accountable for doing them.  Some possible chores include picking up toys, hanging up clothes, making the bed (if simple), set the table, dust, help carry the groceries.

By actively readying your child for school, they will have a more seamless transition which means a less stressful beginning to their path in education.

Nonlinear dynamics are concerned with messy systems. Examples for these systems are the human brain, the evolution of life itself and the weather. There is not a single science of non-linearity, but there are different streams of research such as chaos theory or the theory of complex adaptive systems. The latter strand takes up an agent- and rules of interaction-based approach to modeling complexity. The first explains the behavior of systems that can be modeled by complex equations where the output of one calculation is taken as the input for the next. These equations are repetitive and iterative.

Chaos theory explains how the parameters in the equations cause patterns in time. These patterns are called attractors. A parameter might be the flow of information or the amount of energy in the system. At low rates the system moves forward displaying a repetitive, stuck behavior. This pattern is called a point attractor. At higher rates the pattern changes. At very high rates of, for example information flow, the system displays a totally random behavior. The pattern is highly unstable. However, there is a level between repetition/stability and randomness/instability. This level is called the edge of chaos. The pattern in time is called a strange attractor.

Never the same but always recognizable

The strange thing with a strange attractor is that the ongoing movement is never the same but always recognizable. The pattern is paradoxically stable and unstable, predictable and unpredictable at the same time. These patterns are spatially called fractals. Chaos describes a dynamic that is not a synthesis of order and disorder. It is about orderly disorder or disorderly order. The very meaning of these words is new.

The weather is normally used as an example of a system that displays this pattern. The overall weather patterns can be (almost) predicted over short periods of time. Over long periods, the behavior cannot be predicted. The long-term behavior of a system like this is determined as much by the smallest changes in the smallest of parts of the system, as it is determined by the laws governing it. The conclusion is very clear. Predictability is always short-term. Long-term predictions would only be possible if absolutely all the variables in the system could be measured with absolutely infinite accuracy. But it is impossible to know all the variables and it is totally impossible to measure all the variables with the accuracy needed.

The smallest overlooked variable or the most minute change can escalate up by non-linear iterations into a major transformative change in the later life of the system. Another conclusion is that from a chaos theory perspective, movement towards equilibrium is always movement towards death. If a system is healthy, successful and alive, it is “at the edge of chaos” where the long-term cannot be seen.

Classical physics took individual entities and their movement (trajectories) as the unit of analysis. Chaos theorists such as Ilya Prigogine, claimed that these trajectories cannot be calculated because of the impossibility of measuring with the precision needed. But there was something even far more exciting going on. Henri Poincaré was the first scientist to identify two distinct kinds of energy. The first was the (kinetic) energy in the movement of the particle itself. The second was the energy arising from the interaction between particles. When this second energy is not there, the system is in a state of non-dynamism. When there is interactive energy, the system is dynamic and capable of novelty and renewal. Interaction creates resonance between the particles. Resonance is the result of coupling the frequencies of particles leading to an increase in the amplitude of motion. Resonance makes it impossible to identify individual movement in interactive environments because the individual’s trajectory depends more on the resonance with others than on the kinetic energy contained by the individual itself.

Every interaction of any particles is thus potentially meaningful and can lead to amplification of the slightest variation. Interactive systems with even the smallest variations take on a life of their own that is under continuous construction. The future form and direction of the system is not visible in the system at any given time. The future is not in the system and it cannot be chosen or planned by anyone.

The scientists at the Santa Fe Institute developed the other strand of research: the complex adaptive systems approach. A CAS consists of a large number of agents. Each agent behaves according to its own intentions and rules for local interaction. Local here means that no agent can interact with the whole population of agents at the same time. No individual agent can determine the pattern of behavior that the system as a whole displays. These adaptive systems display the same dynamics as the chaos theorists found: stable equilibrium at one end of the spectrum, random chaos at the other, and in-between the newly found complex dynamic of stability and instability, predictability and unpredictability, paradoxically at the same time: the edge of chaos.

From complex adaptive systems to complex responsive processes

The conclusions are important for us. Firstly, novelty always emerges in a radically unpredictable way. Secondly, the patterns of healthy behavior are not caused by competitive selection or independent choices made by independent agents. Instead, what is happening, happens in interaction, not by chance or by choice, but as a result of the interaction itself.

The Internet changes the patterns of connectivity, transforms our understanding what “local” is, and makes possible new enriching variety in interaction. The changed dynamics we experience every day through social media have the very characteristics of the edge of chaos.

The sciences of complexity change our perspective and thinking. Perhaps, as a result we should, especially in management, focus more attention on what we are doing than what we should be doing. Following the thinking presented by Ralph Stacey, the important question to answer is not what should happen in the future, but what is happening now?

Our focus should be on the communicative interaction creating the continuously developing pattern that is our life.

Thank you Stu Kauffman and W Brian Arthur. Based on Ralph Stacey and Doug Griffin.

Complexity and management.

Tu aimes skier dans des espaces vierges, sauter, aller au snowpark ou au halfpipe, tu as envie d’apprendre de nouvelles figures, d’améliorer ton style, le tout avec un accent particulier sur la sécurité, alors ce stage est fait pour toi.
Niveau Fléchette, à partir de 12 ans.

Contenu :
Initiation free style, free ride, découverte du milieu montagnard, toutes neiges tous terrains, évolution en flat, rails, apprentissage des sauts avec coussin d’air géant, Backcountry, fondamentaux de l’acrobatie sur trampoline, passage des tests skiercross, vidéo, photoshooting et attestation de niveau freestyle.

pour rejoindre la fan page FACEBOOK des freestylers

Plus d’infos : http://skifreestyle.over-blog.com

Finding Faith

melodischer hardcore mit der “play their asses off” garantie.

http://www.myspace.com/findingfaithhc

This Routine Is Hell

hardcore trash punk – absolut schnell angepisst und dazunoch aus holland.

http://www.myspace.com/thisroutineishell

Never Come Back

das ultimative hardcorebrett von drüben – äh leibzig meine ich.

http://www.myspace.com/nevercomebackhc

30.oktober – 19:30 einlass – wer früher kommt bekommt noch was vom bandessen ab

und zum überzeugen noch ein video von this routine is hell auf youtube

LastFM Link

Dougal Wilson directs, with a nice daft musical turn from Calvin Harris. pure cheesy fun.

Disfrútenlo.

Capitulo 1 – Parte 1

Capitulo 1 – Parte 2

Après les flips, les 540, les varials, le “kerrupt flip”. Demandez donc à notre rider “Mangia”, il a déjà du en plaquer quelques-uns.

On peut voir ici la grande similitude entre le “Kerrupt flip” et une des plus belles figures de snowboard, le Backside Rodéo.

Vidéo Kerrupt flip parfait by Eric Geiselman, skateur et surfeur et frère ainé de Evan qui lui aussi risque bien de très vite faire parler de lui.

Vidéo du très aérien Ryan Carlson qui maitrise ce trick à merveille:

Enorme Rodéo back: