:: Wanderers Talk, June 29, 2011 ::
Accelerating acceleration is evident, as usual, tip of the hat to Toffler. "The roller coaster is normal" seems a lot like Bucky's "rest speed is top speed". Bob McGown was there today, even gave me a check in appreciation. He appreciates the significance of the polyhedronists, of tensegrity, even of flextegrity (Sam joined us, and spoke at length after my talk).
Yes, this was my time in the sun, to focus on Minneapolis and environs. We had a 27 year veteran of that country, Connie Wynn, raised on the East Coast, who came to reflect on life in this great city, or Twin Cities as it's called, Minneapolis / St. Paul.
My presentation was non-linear, but pretty tight, as I'd hand-drawn two road maps on 8.5 x 11. I will photograph and upload these if they still exist. I wanted to weave a story and a fairly abstruse one, as befitting the topic: my visit to St. John's Abbey and University to visit with Father Magnus Wenninger and to contribute to the pool of shared video in appreciation of this marvelous man (not to mention an interesting busy campus). MVP David Koski was the producer and organizer of this event.
I brought along Barrel Tower, my Kenneth Snelson original. This got discussed and passed around quite a bit. Another name that get coming up: Popko. His book Geodesics had been a subject of discussion yesterday, in my meeting with Trevor and Tim. Tim actually came to this talk at Linus Pauling House, on really short notice. I was impressed, as we'd only just met.
Dondi, good friend of Trisha, also managed to make it, having sampled the retreat (the one I missed while in Minnesota). Don skipped the lunch a few of us attended, eager to move his boat from the usual moorings to the Blues Festival venue.
I pretended this was a road trip even though I was just blocks from my house. I lugged my own sound system and projector, as well as a big chunk of Flextegrity (without pre-arrangement). As a road show, I imagine myself as a part of an "away team" more than as some solo standup (I mostly sat, controlling the laptop).
The video and slides went over well I thought.
I played up the interesting features of campus architecture, including the Foucault Pendulum in the science building. Bob McGown said something about it taking 33 hours to go around at this latitude. David Tver chimed in about vibrational fields in the Sun, independent of its swift period of rotation. The Sun, unlike Jupiter, unlike Earth, is not oblate and there's a reason for that.
Anna of Thunderbird Charter, still influential as a drawing board construct (Alaska), is making her way from Seattle for another meetup, having just attended the Charter Schools Conference in Atlanta. She's another Internet collaborator (in the sense of fellow traveler) who found me through math-teach, a Forum I frequent. We tend to take a more open ended futuristic position vis-a-vis our more conservative posters, though I have to admit that's a gross oversimplification of all that goes on in those sometimes tempestuously snappy threads.
During lunch (Steve Mastin, David DiNucci, Glenn Stockton and myself), I was eyeballing the CNN screen, showing embedded camera action amidst the kinetic warfare in the human terrain systems, showing ongoing riots in Greece (thinking of Nirel's report), in Egypt. David shared the story of his brother, maker of famous DiNucci bike frames, and of his sister, one-time winner of top-level Jeopardy and a significant sum. A talented family.
Afterwards, I joined Glenn for some archaeological studies thanks again to our neighborhood Dollar Scholar. The Etruscan ink well, etched with the Phoenician alphabet, was an especially good find. Glenn regaled me with stories (as Dawn would say) of the relatively high status of Etruscan women, meaning they were allowed to carouse with the guys and weren't expected to only go outside wearing sacks (from whence derives Saks Fifth Avenue, just kidding of course).
Steve Holden was telling me that Ann Sang Su Kyi was giving the BBC Reith Lecture this year. I need to check into that next, after captioning more Photostream. I shot a few from the head of the table, where I was positioned as speaker.
I walked back to Pauling House after hauling my stuff home in the company car (just a few blocks). First though, I got involved in a car chase, nothing over the speed limit. Accelerating acceleration.
