Brian and I want to make a grand project for next year and one of the ideas we had was to have a problem solving competition. The competition would be like a hybrid of Odyssey of the Mind and Science Olympiad-- teams of students would work together to solve problems. Teams would consist of students from different areas of study and knowledge bases. The problems they would solve would be crafted by university faculty or other students and would require knowledge of a variety of subjects to solve. Teams might be given a month to solve the problems and would come together to show off their solutions to a panel of judges who would determine a winner or something.

This is a break-up letter I found the other day. I've been thinking about it a lot, and had I been around for the writing, I would have signed my name at the bottom in approval. I lifted it from this page in its entirety.

The Generation M Manifesto

8:01 AM Wednesday July 8, 2009

Tags:Economy, Generational issues, Global business

Dear Old People Who Run the World,

My generation would like to break up with you.

Everyday, I see a widening gap in how you and we understand the world — and what we want from it. I think we have irreconcilable differences.

You wanted big, fat, lazy "business." We want small, responsive, micro-scale commerce.

You turned politics into a dirty word. We want authentic, deep democracy — everywhere.

You wanted financial fundamentalism. We want an economics that makes sense for people — not just banks.

You wanted shareholder value — built by tough-guy CEOs. We want real value, built by people with character, dignity, and courage.

You wanted an invisible hand — it became a digital hand. Today's markets are those where the majority of trades are done literally robotically. We want a visible handshake: to trust and to be trusted.

You wanted growth — faster. We want to slow down — so we can become better.

You didn't care which communities were capsized, or which lives were sunk. We want a rising tide that lifts all boats.

You wanted to biggie size life: McMansions, Hummers, and McFood. We want to humanize life.

You wanted exurbs, sprawl, and gated anti-communities. We want a society built on authentic community.

You wanted more money, credit and leverage — to consume ravenously. We want to be great at doing stuff thatmatters.

You sacrificed the meaningful for the material: you sold out the very things that made us great for trivial gewgaws, trinkets, and gadgets. We're not for sale: we're learning to once again do what is meaningful.

There's a tectonic shift rocking the social, political, and economic landscape. The last two points above are what express it most concisely. I hate labels, but I'm going to employ a flawed, imperfect one: Generation "M."

What do the "M"s in Generation M stand for? The first is for a movement. It's a little bit about age — but mostly about a growing number of people who are acting very differently. They are doing meaningful stuff that matters the most. Those are the second, third, and fourth "M"s.

Gen M is about passion, responsibility, authenticity, and challenging yesterday's way of everything. Everywhere I look, I see an explosion of Gen M businesses, NGOs, open-source communities, local initiatives, government. Who's Gen M?Obama, kind of. Larry and Sergey. The Threadless, Etsy, and Flickr guys. Ev, Biz and the Twitter crew. Tehran 2.0. The folks at Kiva, Talking Points Memo, and FindtheFarmer. Shigeru Miyamoto, Steve Jobs, Muhammad Yunus, and Jeff Sachs are like the grandpas of Gen M. There are tons where these innovators came from.

Gen M isn't just kind of awesome — it's vitally necessary. If you think the "M"s sound idealistic, think again.

The great crisis isn't going away, changing, or "morphing." It's the same old crisis — and it's growing.

You've failed to recognize it for what it really is. It is, as I've repeatedly pointed out, in our institutions: the rules by which our economy is organized.

But they're your institutions, not ours. You made them — and they're broken. Here's what I mean:

"... For example, the auto industry has cut back production so far that inventories have begun to shrink — even in the face of historically weak demand for motor vehicles. As the economy stabilizes, just slowing the pace of this inventory shrinkage will boost gross domestic product, or GDP, which is the nation's total output of goods and services."

Clearing the backlog of SUVs built on 30-year-old technology is going to pump up GDP? So what? There couldn't be a clearer example of why GDP is a totally flawed concept, an obsolete institution. We don't need more land yachts clogging our roads: we need a 21st Century auto industry.

I was (kind of) kidding about seceding before. Here's what it looks like to me: every generation has a challenge, and this, I think, is ours: to foot the bill for yesterday's profligacy — and to create, instead, an authentically, sustainably shared prosperity.

Anyone — young or old — can answer it. Generation M is more about what you do and who you are than when you were born. So the question is this: do you still belong to the 20th century - or the 21st?

Love,

Umair and the Edge Economy Community"

This is the email I wrote to my mother when she asked about the National Equality March this weekend.

Think about me. Think about the kinds of things I like and the things I am interested in. Now imagine a restaurant perfectly tailored to me and those things. That is where I am right now. The restaurant is called Busboys and Poets, and it is basically the most hippie restaurant I have been to. Check out their website here.

We have been in DC for about three hours and we have done plenty of walking, visited two Starbucks, and found the fairtrade/wage/everything restaurant.

The plan for the day is to eat, hit up the Smithsonian, and then try to go to one of the many National Equality March events that are happening before the actual march tomorrow. NEM events can be found here.

Last night, I headed up to the third floor of the Union for the M-PAW meeting, and I left feeling charged. M-PAW is the central planning team for the 2012 MBLGTACC at U of M. We covered the things you expect to cover at the first meeting for a conference that we have never hosted, until Mitch suggested that we share our visions. He said that we should just say what we think about when we think of the conference. Mitch's vision was of himself standing with a clipboard, directing people. My vision was of 2000 people who physically come together, although they have been digitally connected since the end of the 2011 conference.

This is another of my favorites from This American Life. It also happens to come from the same episode as "Up Where the Air is Clear".
Note from the editor: As you can read in the comments, this work is called "Title" and was written by Greg Allen in 1989 and is part of the show  "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind Blind." As is any work that is penned anywhere (in the US at least), this is copyrighted material, so don't go thinking I am the creative genius behind it.

The following script was transcribed by myself from the audio of the short as performed by the Neofuturists on This American Life Episode 241.

"Title"

This is one of my favorite stories. I heard it this past December on This American Life's repeat episode of "20 Acts in 60 Minutes" from 2003. I love it so much, I transcribed it for your viewing pleasure. You can listen to the episode online for free; the story starts around 17:50.

I just read the article Harry Potter and the Pint of Liquid Courage by Tara Parker-Pope of the New York Times and, while I was quite amused at the title, I was unimpressed by the article itself. Actually, I think it is a decent article that isn't very biased...a good piece of journalism; however, I think one sided arguments are more fun, so here is my take on the issue:

Not having seen the most recent of the magical cash-crop movies, I am not in a position to confirm or deny the amounts of drinking that occur in the film. It is to my benefit that all of the people the Parker-Pope interviewed seemed to acknowledge that alcohol had a noticeable role in the movie.

It has long been known that advertising (which I am going to extend to the use of certain products in popular media) does not have a direct, immediate, and powerful effect. This idea, known among media officials and undergraduates who take a communications 101 class (me), is called the hypodermic needle model. I do think that popular media, especially when directed at teens, has a powerful effect on some, but not necessarily direct or immediate. For me, it is an emotional connection. Of course I know that HP isn't real. I also know that those teen's troublesome situations are quite different from mine, and that the solutions to those situations and stresses should also be different. But stress is stress, and it seems like a little booze worked well for them, so why not give it a try?

I don't want to say that this is how it is for everyone, or that it is that bad of a thing. The acceptability of drinking alcohol and the definitions of alcoholism are socially relative*. So, in a way, this movie is simply helping acquaint the young with acceptable social standards. In this light, I think the role of alcohol makes much more sense. In many European nations, England especially, alcohol is a strong part of the culture, and there is little taboo about drinking if you are younger than legal buying age.

This idea reinforces my belief that popular media has a responsibility to promote social norms. I wrote an article about it in 2007, and I would like to warn about a few things you before you read it: 1) It involves a strong dose of Battlestar Galactica. I am a nerd. 2) It is political and annoyingly leftist. Don't judge. 3) It is written in a silly format. Again, don't judge.

Assuming you have at least skimmed that article, I will continue. For all I know, everything I see in the media is the result of extensive debate, a lot of thought has gone into it to ensure brainwashing, and great care has been taken to make sure that the viewers know that the black character dies first, the gay man has a lisp, the lesbian woman wears flannel, biracial and transgendered people don't exist, anyone from a country in, near or around the Middle East is a terrorist; and immigrants are all terrible people who steal jobs only because they can. If this is the case, I would be pretty sad. More likely, these stereotypical representations are what the majority of media watchers expect to see, so they are used to bolster viewership. Mass media is catered to the masses. In the case of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 16 year olds grabbing a pint to wind down after their run-ins with evil wizards is a typical response in Europe, but is surely not something that any of the pure youth of the USA would do.

*What I mean by this is that the limits for drinking are social standards, until it is life threatening, and even then, I think that if that was the norm in a culture it would be socially acceptable. Our society is adverse to drinking "too much" and drinking if one is "too young".

Living in Portland for the summer has given me a wonderful opportunity to relax, rejuvenate, and reflect; and with one week to go, I have a few thoughts.

One is that I have yet to find an area of study that reaches out and grabs me. But instead of waiting for it to appear, I should choose to pursue something I am mildly interested in, at least. While out running the other day, I realized that I have at least a mild interest in food science. I have really enjoyed human physiology, health, and the books I have read on food, food systems, the food industry, and global issues around food. Add to this the increasing importance that food science is going to have as the human race expands, as people realize that we have yet to solve world hunger, and as we potentially lose arable land to climate change. I am going to stick with the Bio major and Peace and Social Justice minor, while I start looking at my options for post graduation.

Another thought I have had is that I have done a pretty good job of developing diligence over the summer. I am glad to have the time to develop this much needed quality, the lack of which cost me in GPA last year. In order to start the semester right, I will be fasting for Ramadan. I made the decision when I received an email from my hall director asking who was fasting for Ramadan so we could be accommodated for during training. The thought of fasting had crossed my mind a few months back, but this time, it was serious. After some thought and a chat with one of my housemates--She has celebrated Ramadan for a few years, but does not identify as Muslim-- I replied to the message. I decided that fasting for Ramadan would be a good way to do several things including being an ally for the Muslim community, improving my self control, and carrying the things I have learned and developed this summer back to Ann Arbor. Apart from those personal reasons, I also agree with what Ramadan is about: recognition of, solidarity with, and aid to the less fortunate; purification, which I interpret as breaking bad habits and minimizing bad thoughts; and forgiveness. All in all, I see these good reasons to fast. To clarify, I am not spiritual or religious in the least. But I can respect the good things that are done in the name and spirit of religions, and I think I can learn some powerful personal lessons through this experience.

That is all of the big news I have for now. I'll be back in AA soon, and I can't wait to see everyone again.

I was reading The World is Flat today I took interest in a particular passage. According to Friedman, fewer and fewer Americans are entering the scientific workforce.

Dirty little secret number one is that the generation of scientists and engineers who were motivated to go into science by the threat of Sputnik in 1957 and the inspiration of JFK are reaching their retirement years and are not being replaced in the numbers that they must be if an advanced economy like that of the United States is to remain at the head of the pack.

I thought, perhaps it is not that America's production of communist fearing scientists is slowing, but that the global interests in science have changed and the American education system is lagging behind. ₁

The Space Race and the First Cold War were immediate incentives to steer young students toward the sciences. This generation of young scientists interested in space technology and nuclear physics had profound effects on the United States and its workforce. As Friedman points out, however, something has changed over the years. Let's first compare what students are being taught and why.

To start, we take a look at what public schools are required to teach by the federal government. Wait a minute. . . there aren't any national requirements. It turns out that the curricula of the US education system is largely determined by school boards in each state and district, so instead of looking at the curriculum of each district, let's think about what schools across the nation are preparing students for. I would think that the majority of public schools are trying to prepare students to continue education at a college or university, and most public colleges and universities require some kind of standardized test score to be considered. It follows that schools must prepare students for these standardized tests that are required if students are to continue their educations. Two widely used standardized exams are the SAT and ACT. The SAT assesses reading and mathematics, as well as the recent addition of writing². The ACT assesses English, Math, Reading, and Science (in order of the number of questions on the exam), as well as an optional section in writing³.

At this time, I would like to point out that having gone to a public school in a wealthy neighborhood, I am have a bias about the kinds of things taught in public schools across the nation. Without the will to research this aspect of education in our country, I merely point out the fact that I am covering issues in the US educational system that I have experienced and heard about at length.

About 50 years ago, the US education system was transformed by the 1958 National Defense Education Act. At east, that was the plan. The act "provided support" for the development of foreign language, mathematics, and science programs in primary and secondary education⁴. Presently, the necessity of a degree from a higher education institution encourages primary and secondary schools to teach certain information, mainly reading, math, science, and writing. Evidently, it is not the subject matter being taught in schools that has changed since the 1950s.

What has changed is the reason these subjects are being taught, and I think it is about time for another change.

---

1.Friedman, T. L. (2007). The World is Flat (3rd ed., p. 343). New York: Picador.
2.http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/about/SATI.html
3.http://www.act.org/news/aapfacts.html
4.http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html

This post is not a round up of sad news, as you might expect. Rather, it is a summary of various articles that lead me to believe there is no hope for the future (similar to Slap Upside the Head's occasional Pile O' Slaps). The topic for this round-up is food and agriculture from Wired! (Note: While these articles date back a few months, they were all on the first page of Wired articles tagged with agriculture.

In a development with potentially profound implications for agriculture, just three genetic mutations could change the way most crop plants reproduce....In a study published Monday in Public Library of Science Biology, French biologists found that this form of reproduction is linked to a gene mutation that stops sex cell division after the first parent cell split. When they added this and two other meiosis-regulating mutations to A. thaliana, the plant produced genetically matched pollen and ova through mitosis rather than meiosis. [Brandon Keim. June 09, 2009. Link]

Once again, the farming and agribusiness community is interested in monocropping. Not only monocropping, but should this work, cloning. If this breakthrough makes it, we will be able to take our relationship with seed corporations to the next level! "Yes, Mansanto, we are ready to upgrade from seasonal subscriptions with terminator seeds to a lifetime membership! Dear people of the world: science is good and can help us understand food better, but it is becoming increasingly evident that human economy and food do not play well with each other. Agricultural science is drafting the essence of our survival into the irrational and uncontrollable world of business. Stop it. Please.

Public health experts worry that another potentially lethal pig-borne disease could establish itself among farmworkers in the United States. Unlike the new swine flu virus, Streptococcus suis doesn't pass from person to person. But it's also more virulent, killing about one in 10 people in whom infection progresses to full-blown disease. [Brandon Keim. May 06, 2009. Link.]

Thank you, Brandon, for reporting that science has discovered that more evidence against industrial farming. This is rather bittersweet, as I am not very fond of the large scale farms that make wonderful incubators for these kinds of viruses, but I have heard just about all I can stand when it comes to "swine flus" See this post for a rant. Moving on...

Nature is gone. It was gone before you were born, before your parents were born, before the pilgrims arrived, before the pyramids were built. You are living on a used planet...So what now? First of all, we've got to stop trying to save the planet. For better or for worse, nature has long been what we have made it, and what we will make it.And it’s time for a “postnatural” environmentalism. Postnaturalism is not about recycling your garbage, it is about making something good out of grandpa’s garbage and leaving the very best garbage for your grandchildren. Postnaturalism means loving and embracing our human nature, the nature we have created to feed ourselves, the nature we live in. What good is environmentalism if it makes you depressed about the future? [Op-ed by Erle Ellis. May 06, 2009 . Link.]

Oh, please! You are arguing that we should stop trying to prevent human interaction with the planet because our ancestors have already made irreconcilable changes. Hey, the planet is already trashed so let's party! Perhaps I am just an drugged up hippie when I think that humans are not the only ones around and that the least we can do is not mess things up, try to discover how everything works, and screw up the aesthetics of our super complex biosphere. Also, assuming the ice age is coming pretty soon, I would rather be planning how to survive than doing arts and crafts with my trash.

Farmers in America grow two things, mostly: animal feed and corn for ethanol.In fact, Michigan State University agriculture researcher Bryan Bals noted the feed requirements for animals are an order of magnitude larger than Americans’ food requirements. That insight has led an MSU team to propose getting more out of the same amount of American farmland by increasing the amount of animal feed that farmers can harvest from an acre, thereby creating more land for biofuel crops. [Alexis Madrigal. May 06, 2009. Link.]

I have more problems with these topics than I can fit in a short rant commentary. I am not one for University grudges, but I have to say something. Bryan Bals, I am not sure what your insight was, but I am frightened that it didn't somehow include the dangers and inefficiencies of monocropping (soil nutrient depletion and chemical reliance to name two), the realization that biofuels are not the answer(little pdf with info), or that feedcrops are bad news bears (Watch King Corn or read In Defense of Food).

Now I know Wired is not a terribly great news source, but I had previously thought it more reliable and accurate than the sensationalists. I am sure there are things they do well, but my bitterness doesn't care about those right now. Instead, I am going to turn my attention to SEED, a magazine I had formerly cast off as hyper-progressive and unreadable. The turning point came when I stumbled upon an article about using and IBM supercomputer to recreate an underdeveloped neocortical column. (I have just taken about 10 minutes to look for this news on Wired and it was nowhere to be found...) Essentially, they are programming neurons that interact with each other using digital electrochemical signals. (...Look, Wired...no, it isn't just that SEED has superior design and layout, including the fact that they use 2 fonts intelligently compared to the five on your homepage. No, that's not what I meant...) Assuming my fruitless 15 minute search reflects the low impact of this story, I wonder why this did not make bigger news. Is it because it is a small project with little immediate impact? Is it because it is hard to categorize involving an incredible combination of research technology, programming, neuroscience, and general biology? Wait a minute, isn't that the kind of thing the world is heading toward? It seems like everything I am reading recently is advocating small groups, big ideas, and synergistic knowledge. (...I am at a different place in my life and I think it would be best if we both moved on. Wired, we are breaking up.) Whatever the case, it is evident to me that the world is heading in a different direction, and I want to be aware of what is happening.

So it looks like this post evolved from "bad news and my discontents" to my break up with Wired. Isn't it funny how these things hit you when you least expect it?

Links
Seed [Home]
Slap Upside the Head [Home]
Wired [Home]
LOL [XKCD]

A little extra: While writing this, I noticed a few things. I really wish I could have written this with LaTeX and imported it. Also, Blogger randomly inserted needless code into my post. I am not sure what it means, but I will be wary in the future. SEED also has superior vertical line spacing than Wired.

I knew something was wrong when I passed the 1.5 mile marker at 6 minutes 55 seconds. Uh oh, I thought, this either means I am much more fit than I thought I was, or more likely this path did not start at 0. With only an idea about which one was most likely, I decided to keep running and estimate how far I had run. At the beginning of the Spring Water Corridor, there is a small sign that gives distances to various landmarks along this 3 mile stretch of path. I knew that it was 1.8 miles to a wildlife reserve, so I decided that I would just run until the entrance was in view for a bit, then turn around and run back.

I passed the 2 mile marker and rounded the bend, revealing the entrance to the reserve. I thought I had a good pace even though I felt a bit heavy. I turned around and started the return journey. I did not catch my time at this point, so I don't have a halfway split. I started feeling it after I passed the 1.5 mile marker on the return trip. All I new for sure at this point was that I had run at least one mile, and at most two. Around then was when the trees stopped revealing the river and the setting sun (the rays of which took my mind of running pains by stealing my sight and my ability to keep cool).

After another two minutes I could see the bridge that was close to the entrance. I've noticed that knowing where my finish line gives me confidence that I can finish, but it also messes up my body. Knowing how far I have to go almost always results in feeling tired and wanting to stop. Maybe it is just because I try a push a little harder without knowing it. Maybe it is just because I take my mind off of my pace and technique. Maybe it is a subconscious thing. Whatever it is, I felt it...that is, of course, until I saw the 1 mile marker hiding in a bush.

I now knew that I had run at least 2 miles and that I was pretty tired. The bridge was getting closer and closer, so I kept running. I eventually saw the gateway that marked the beginning of the path and started my sprint. I knew I was close to vomiting, but I thought that I should try a little extra hard because I was timing it. Lo and behold, I did not vomit! I passed the finish line, stopped my timer, and heaved a few times; but none of my pre-TT meal was to be seen. My time? 25.51.96

I am not terribly happy with this time, but given how I felt during the run, I will not be surprised if I shave off at least a minute or two on my next attempt simply by learning a few lessons from this run.

Things to keep in mind before my next time trial:

1. Eat much earlier. This time I gave myself about three hours after eating some whole grain pasta. Next time, I am going to eat light before my run.
2. Run earlier. I started the run around 6:15pm. The heat wasn't too bad, but I think I will have a better time if I give it a shot earlier in the day.
3. Know the course. I will probably run the same course, but next time, I will be aware that the path starts counting at .5 miles. Obvious.

Are you a better runner than me? Give me advice!

With a preliminary idea of what I am writing about, I did a quick search on U of M's database search tools and found quite a few promising and recent articles. I am going to try to read through some of them tonight, switching to Russian when I get bored. I'm excited because this essay gives me extra motivation to finish In Defense of Food and start (and hopefully finish) The Omnivore's Dilemma; both by Michael Pollan.

What an adventure! This month has had all sorts of ups and downs, and I am happy to say that it is ending on a wonderful note. Tomorrow I will move into a new house that is further away from nature (sad) but closer to fiends (happy!). I have been keeping myself quite busy thinking, writing a little, learning Russian through RS, and tutoring when I can. In my efforts to improve my reserach writing, I have discovered the questioning that just comes from within (my last post is proof of this). To help inspire these questions, I reacctivated my netflix account and I have two films to suggest.

English Mania 

R & D

Topic: Veganism

Please, remember me...

Success!