September 6, 2012 by suzannesmom
I went to vote before work. I’d heard on the radio it would be a low turnout because it was a primary and on a Thursday, which is unusual. But one hotly contested election brought out the troops.
As I left the polls, I was thinking how some folks complain their vote won’t matter or nothing will change. But I think voting is important even if it isn’t perfect.
At this very moment, people around the world are literally dying for the right to vote. And if they do get the franchise, they line up for hours time and time again even if they know it’s not perfect — too many candidates, fraud attempts, threats of violence, the wrong person winning.
A few years ago I was reading stats about Dubai, just a list of facts like population, natural resources, weather, religion. I came to the column “franchise,” and it said “none.”
None? I never really thought about it although I knew the country was a monarchy.
Franchise: none. Wow.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged dubai, election, franchise, primary, vote, voting | 9 Comments »
September 5, 2012 by suzannesmom
Here’s a guy who loves music, who loves nature, and who is taking his own quirky path to bring the two together.
On the radio show The World, Gerry Hadden interviews the impresario on location.
“We are talking about a solar power recording session in the southern Sierra Nevada mountain range, outside Granada, Spain.
“It is part of an open air recording project called Wapapura, the brain child of musician Rafa Kotcherha.
“And as Kotcherha explains, ‘for a Wapapura recording to take place, you need three elements: Music, Space and Earth.’
“ ‘The music is of course the musicians we’re going to record,’ he says.
“ ‘The space is the environment in which it is going to take place’ and ‘the earth element is the environmental non-profit, linked to the recording, which benefits from part of the purchase of the CD online when it is released.’ ”
Learn about a recording session with the European ensemble Merope high on a mountain in Spain.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bonnafous, earthtrain, gerry hadden, junglewood, merope, music, radio, rafa kotcherha, sierra nevada, the world, wapapura | Leave a Comment »
September 4, 2012 by suzannesmom
In last week’s Boston Globe, Bella English had a sad-happy story about a nonprofit that reaches out to families impoverished by their children’s cancer, Family Reach Foundation.
English writes that Carla Tardif once promised a friend who died of cancer that she would help families who were struggling with a child’s treatment. In searching for the best way to do that, she ended up at Family Reach, which helps families get back on their feet. The stories she hears are heartbreaking.
“ ‘On top of watching your child suffer, people get threatening eviction notices, calls from collection agencies, or they can’t make a car payment so they lose the car and can’t get their child to treatment,’ says Tardif.
“Medical hardship is one of the leading causes of personal bankruptcy in the nation,” writes the Globe‘s English. “According to a Harvard University study, more than 62 percent of bankruptcies are caused by overwhelming medical expenses — and cancer is the most costly. ‘It’s because a parent needs to stop working to take care of the child,’ says Tardif. ‘The average cancer treatment without complications is two years.’ …
“ ‘What I’ve learned is that it’s about so much more than money,’ Tardif says [of her work]. ‘That someone cares and gets it, has a really profound effect on families.’
“Just ask Raquel Rohlfing, who at fund-raisers tells her story. Homeless, with a son [Mikalo] who had undergone a bone marrow transplant, she got a call from Tardif, who arranged payment for a year’s rent on a Winchester apartment, not far from her own house.”
In Rohlfing’s case, Tardif really went the extra mile.
English writes, “Tardif’s husband, a builder, put in a new kitchen and floors, and fixed the bathroom in the apartment. But Tardif wasn’t finished. She is also executive director of Music Drives Us, the nonprofit founded by car magnate Ernie Boch Jr. Rohlfing needed a job, and Tardif needed help, so she hired her at Boch’s foundation.”
Read more.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bankruptcy, cancer, child, family reach foundation, health, health care, insurance, medical expense, treatment | Leave a Comment »
September 3, 2012 by suzannesmom
Saying adios to a few things I don’t expect to see anytime soon — including the romantic potato that Pat gave Sandra, which will likely get eaten before I see my friends again — or made into a Christmas ornament.
To paraphrase Heraclitus, no one ever steps in the same river twice.
And while we are on the subject of ancient philosophy, you of course remember the Klingon adage, “Everything moves on, like gorillas at the beach.”
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged beach, end, photograph, sand sculpture, summer | 2 Comments »
September 2, 2012 by suzannesmom
Last week when I posted about my visit to start-up incubator Mass Challenge, I said I wanted to learn more about 2012 finalist Bootstrap Compost, a Boston-area composting business.
Jessica Ilyse Kurn, of PRI radio show Living on Earth, recently interviewed Bootstrap Compost founder Andy Brooks.
“KURN: The idea of helping the community was his inspiration, and he had another motivation. A college grad, Brooks was getting frustrated after searching endlessly for jobs.
“BROOKS: After like relying on this cruel economy of applying and cover letters and resumes and interviews, and nothing was going anywhere for like two years, and I was, like, forget it, I gotta do something for myself, and the whole notion of, like, picking myself up.
“KURN: And so Bootstrap Compost was born. Brooks says there are many reasons why he loves helping urbanites compost.
“BROOKS: When people ask me that question, it’s like someone saying, ‘Why do you like Star Wars? Or why are the Beatles good?’ I get dizzy. Like, there’s so many reasons. The way that interests me is like — what are the challenges that we face being a disposable society?
“KURN: Brooks puts on his helmet, and jumps on his souped-up bicycle – complete with a custom-made trailer that tags behind. Such a setup couldn’t have been designed for anything other than a nomadic compost business. …
“BROOKS: When you throw out your banana peels into the trash, that to me is insulting to all the resources that went into growing those things initially. The end product is just treated like refuse, but it shouldn’t be – it still harbors this immense energy to be used for good, and to go back into the cycle of growing.”
More.
Photograph of Andy Brooks: Living on Earth
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged andy brooks, bootstrap compost, composting, farm, Jessica Ilyse Kurn, living on earth, maas challenge | Leave a Comment »
September 1, 2012 by suzannesmom
I am not ordinarily into sports, but I love Bill Littlefield’s Saturday sports wrap-up on WBUR because he is a great storyteller, and he looks for offbeat sports stories.
Today he had one on the over-65 U.S. softball players who have games with an over-65 team from Cuba.
“The Eastern Massachusetts Senior Softball Association has been sending teams to Cuba for annual exhibitions called ‘The Friendship Games.’ The first four EMASS Softball teams visited Havana in 2009 and the meeting reminded [organizer Mike] Eizenberg of kids playing pickup.
“ ‘When we went onto the field, it felt exactly the same way to all of us,’ Eizenberg recalled. ‘Most of the players didn’t speak the others’ language, but we all just loved to play ball.’
“Before that game, Cuban authorities allowed local musicians to play the U.S. and Cuban national anthems. That hadn’t happened in Cuba in 50 years. After three years of exhibitions, Eizenberg decided bringing the Cubans to the States was worth a try. He’s still amazed his Cuban friends made it.
“ ‘No one ever believed that it would be possible for them to come here. All of a sudden, magically, we received permission both from the U.S. government and the Cuban government for the players to come here,’ Eizenberg said. ‘[The Cuban players] say that this proves that nothing is impossible. If this can happen, anything can happen.’ …
“EMASS Softball player Les Gore says the Cubans and the Americans share a love of baseball and softball, but their sports resumes are a bit mismatched.
“ ‘The people playing here representing the U.S. and we’re talking about doctors, lawyers, plumbers. We’re just average guys who love to play softball,’ Gore said. ‘But the Cubans, many of the people who play for the Cuban softball leagues were in their time probably some of the most prominent baseball players that the island has ever produced, so we’re playing against those people.’ ” More.
Photograph: WBUR at Flickr
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged bill littlefield, cuba, eizenberg, softball, wbur | Leave a Comment »
August 31, 2012 by suzannesmom
I was talking to my neighbor on the train this week, and she told me that one of her daughters — the one who goes to Brandeis and was in a production of Eddie Coyle that I saw at Oberon — is spending a chunk of this school year in Morocco.
I was curious about how her daughter got interested in joining a program there.
Apparently she likes languages. First she learned Yiddish. Last year she decided to learn Arabic. Her mother says Arabic is much harder.
The daughter will live with a host family, take five classes, and … well, she has her own blog. There she writes that she will be in Morocco for four months as part of a program “called AMIDEAST, which, like most study abroad programs in Morocco, is stationed in Rabat. … I’ll get to intern/volunteer six hours a week for a local business/organization!”
I like her enthusiasm.
A word to the wise for readers from other countries. There’s a lot of joking in her blog, not to be taken seriously the way a Chinese news outlet once took seriously a story at The Onion that was of course a complete fiction.
Map from http://jojomorocco.blogspot.com
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged africa, american repertory theater, amideast, arabic, eddie foyle, geography, mideast, oberon, rabat, semester abroad, travel, yiddish | Leave a Comment »
August 30, 2012 by suzannesmom
Photos from my wanderings in Boston and Cambridge are piling up.
Can you identify the flower from the Greenway’s demonstration garden? It seems to be blotting out the mural in Dewey Square.
How about the approach to the Longfellow Bridge on the Kendall Square side of the Charles? Early in the morning, it looks like an ancient tomb.
I took the photo of City Hall for my only friend who thinks modernism is beautiful.
The Oyster House is a landmark.
And the Manichean clock is at Northeastern University. (You do, of course, remember the Manichean Heresy, which posited good and evil as equal forces?) Comments welcome.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged boston, cambridge, city hall, dewey square, greenway, kendall square, longfellow bridge, os gemeos, photo sharing, photography, street art | 2 Comments »
August 29, 2012 by suzannesmom
Fun time at Mass Challenge!
Mass Challenge is an incubator “accelerator” for entrepreneurial companies, perhaps the biggest worldwide. I’ve blogged about it before.
Of the 125 finalists in this year’s challenge, 48 gave one-minute pitches last night to an audience of about 200 friends, family, and investors at 1 Marina Park on the Boston waterfront.
Besides being entertaining, it was inspiring. So many people working hard on so many great ideas!
A couple noteworthy presentations were from MIT people. Helmet_Hub tapped the skills of MIT materials science students to create a helmet-vending machine. They have already partnered with the City of Boston’s Hubway, which lends bikes point to point. Another MIT-based organization, Global Research Innovation & Technology (GRIT), uses bicycle parts to make inexpensive wheelchairs for Third World patients. Very impressive. (More on GRIT here.)
I also wrote down that soundfest has a better kind of hearing aid. Prime Student Loan screens students so banks can make a safe loan even if graduates have no FICO score.
Wanderu was one of the few female-run companies. It does for ground travel what kayak and others do for air. Zoomtilt creates ads that are said to be so funny and entertaining, people actually want to watch them. Guided Surgery Solutions helps oral surgeons drill into the right place.
Roameo helps you find out what’s going on near where you are right now. Newartlove helps artists sell their work. Social Made Simple helps small businesses with social networking. (Check it out, Luna & Stella.) CellanyxDiagnostics has a more precise test for prostate cancer than the PSA.
I will likely follow up on a worthy-cause business called Bootstrap Compost. They teach you to compost, give you the bucket, pick it up, deliver it to farms, and give leftover compost to schools. You can have some, too. Bootstrap is very low-tech, doing most travel on bikes. It is proud of keeping tons of food scraps out of landfills.
I was also impressed at the Mass Challenge diversity — men, women (OK, not many women), old, young, scientists, artists, business types, different races, different nationalities, humorous, solemn.
No need to worry about the economy long term. Not with the joy of invention alive and well.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accelerator, bike helmet, bootstrap compost, business, cellanyx, entrepreneur, global research innovation, grit, guided surgery solutions, helmet hub, incubator, mass challenge, newartlove, nonprofit, nordic technology group, prime student loan, prostate cancer, roameo, social media made simple, soundfest, startup, technology, vending machine, wanderu, wheelchair, zoomtilt | Leave a Comment »
August 28, 2012 by suzannesmom
I was driving home from Rhode Island Sunday, when I paused the radio at WGBH. A terrific audio essay was on, hosted by Nina Simone’s daughter.
Nina Simone was among the most important voices of the sixties for me, right up there with MLK Jr., JFK, and Joan Baez. Her blend of jazz, blues, and folk was underpinned by powerful emotion. I think I had all her albums back then. A classically trained pianist, Simone had a distinctive voice that was full of caring and pain, even though her personality was often described as abrasive. (And as far as that goes, she had her reasons.)
The best thing about the WGBH broadcast was the selection of the songs. Brought back memories. I was also interested to learn about her connections to Langston Hughes, Odetta, and Lorraine Hansberry.
Hear some of her music at NPR.
Photograph of Nina Simone and her daughter, indiewire.com
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged cabaret, indie wire, jazz, langston hughes, lorraine hansberry, music, nina simone, npr, odetta, wgbh | 7 Comments »
August 27, 2012 by suzannesmom
Indiana University’s Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) reports that artists generally seem to be happy with a life in the arts.
From the blog ArtsJournal.com: “According to SNAAP’s survey of 36 000 creative arts grads, their unemployment rate is half that of the national average and 71% of bachelor’s degree holders in the arts and 86% of those with an MA are working or have worked as professional artists.” More at the Snaapshot site.
Having seen La Bohème and read George Gissing’s 1891 novel New Grub Street (and having accepted every word as Gospel), I believe that a life in the arts can be difficult. But I do think if you can work in a field that lets you use your creativity — or one that provides time to do art part time — you will be happier. Everyone, in fact, should have a creative outlet, I’d say.
Would love your comments.
Photograph of Timothy Callaghan by Mary Ann Hall, Quarry Books editor
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged artist, arts degree, happiness, mary ann hall, new grub street, quarry, the arts, Timothy Callaghan | 4 Comments »
August 26, 2012 by suzannesmom
These two murals are from Somerville and Gloucester. Do you get the feeling that the towns themselves have different personalities? One seems to record the history of the city in a formalized way. The other is more about people’s lives today.
If you know more about the genesis of these murals, I’d love to hear it. In both cases, the murals seem to have been created with permission. I wonder if you think that permission subverts the subversiveness of street art?
Makes me think of the kids in eighth grade who were asked to create nice Halloween paintings on shop windows so the windows wouldn’t get soaped as a Halloween prank.
The goody-two-shoes kids painted windows with pumpkins and witches. The rough kids still soaped windows.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged art, gloucester, mural, painting, somerville, street art | 6 Comments »
August 25, 2012 by suzannesmom
Meet Matthew Slipper, “just 18, a founding member of the Paly Entrepreneurs Club, an extracurricular group at [a Palo Alto] high school that sprang into existence last September — the brainchild of about a dozen students committed to inventing the future. …
“While budding moguls in high school clubs like the Future Business Leaders of America invest make-believe money in the stock market or study the principles of accounting, the Entrepreneurs Club members have a distinctly Silicon Valley flavor: they want to create start-ups,” writes Quentin Hardy in the NY Times.
“They have met weekly during the school year to discuss their ventures and ideas, explore matters like money-raising strategies and new markets, and host guest speakers. Once, they held a Skype chat with a software engineer in Sweden who described the intricacies of running an online music business.” More here.
The kids sound incredibly intense, glad to have more time for business when they get their gym requirement out of the way.
I envision this generation’s counterculture emerging — probably in California, probably soon. With three entrepreneurs in my family, I know starting a business takes a lot of time and energy. Can’t help wondering if high school is too early. Focus is not bad, but by definition it means shutting other things out.
Photograph of Paly Entrepreneurs Club: Peter DaSilva for the NY Times
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged business, entrepreneur, innovate, inventor, matthew slipper, Paly Entrepreneurs Club, quentin hardy, startup | 2 Comments »
August 24, 2012 by suzannesmom
Ashoka, which defines itself as “a global organization that identifies and invests in leading social entrepreneurs,” has a blog called Changemakers that might interest readers. The March 26 post is on teaching and empathy.
Nora Cobo at the Center for Inspired Teaching writes, “While test-based assessments are essential, they reflect only one type of data and one kind of skill that students need. Schools must also focus on students’ social-emotional growth in order to create sound learning environments. Such settings help students develop interpersonal competence and improve short- and long-term academic and personal outcomes.
“Center for Inspired Teaching partners with teachers to change the school experience for students to include these critical skills. … Instead of looking at students’ behavior as something to be corrected, we train teachers to look at students’ behavior in terms of unmet needs. In particular, we ask teachers to consider students’ needs for Autonomy, Belonging, Competence, Developmental appropriateness, and Engagement — the ABCDE of learners’ needs.
“For example, a teacher may encounter a student who repeatedly gets frustrated and leaves his seat to chat with classmates when he encounters a complicated geometry problem. Rather than assuming the student has a bad attitude, the teacher strives to figure out which of the student’s needs is not being met. The teacher may discover that the student learns best when physically engaged – and offer him the option to tackle the equation by measuring distances by walking.
“Similarly, a teacher may find a student who refuses to work in a group setting, saying she just prefers to work alone. In examining the student’s unmet needs, that teacher may discover that the student longs for more autonomy with her work – and empower that student to create on her own.
“The teacher may discover, upon further engaging her skills of empathy, that other members of the group aren’t treating the student kindly, and therefore the student’s need for belonging is not being met when classroom groups are self-selected. …
“Placing empathy at the core of teachers’ practice ensures that students learn how to think, not just what to think – and go beyond covering the curriculum to learn the skills they need in order to thrive.”
More here.
Photograph: Kate Samp, Strategies for Children
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged ashoka, assessment, center for inspired teaching, children, education, empathy, innovation, learning, nora cobo, pupil, school, social entrepreneurs, student, teacher, teaching, test scores | Leave a Comment »
August 23, 2012 by suzannesmom
John pointed me to an article on the kinds of work environments that encourage innovation.
Aimee Groth at Business Insider writes, “In his article, Groupthink, the New Yorker‘s Jonah Lehrer says there are two types of brainstorming — a free-for-all exchange of ideas in a structured environment, and a random, unplanned debate. Only the second type really works.
“He says M.I.T.’s famous Building 20 … became one of the most innovative spaces in the country because it fostered the best kind of brainstorming.
“The building was created to provide extra room for scientists during WW II, reports Lehrer, and ‘violated the Cambridge fire code, but it was granted an exemption because of its temporary status. … The walls were thin, the roof leaked, and the building was broiling in the summer and freezing in the winter. Nevertheless Building 20 quickly became a center of groundbreaking research, the Los Alamos of the East Coast.’
“It wasn’t demolished after the war because there were too many students and too little space on campus. So the building became a hodgepodge of offices, with professors and students from all different departments squeezed in small spaces and long corridors. …
” ‘Walls were torn down without permission; equipment was stored in the courtyards and bolted to the roof. … The space also forced solitary scientists to mix and mingle.’ ”
More.
Makes me think of the layout at Mass Challenge, the accelerator incubator for entrepreneurs that I blogged about here. (Did I mention that a family member read that post, sent in an application under the wire, powered through layers of screening, and is now working away as part of the class of 2012?)
The Mass Challenge space is not dangerous like Building 20, but the founders probably heard about the benefits of Building 20’s layout through their connection to MIT. The Mass Challenge work space is an unfinished floor in an upscale office building on the waterfront, 1 Marina Park. Everything is open and interactive.
The harbor views are a bonus unknown at Building 20.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged accelerator, aimee groth, business insider, creativity, entrepreneur, incubator, innovate, innovation, lehrer, mass challenge, startup | Leave a Comment »
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