Sunday, March 31, 2013

Puma concolor coryi: Definition of loving bliss, "Loving Bliss and friends" letter, Love as connecting, NtF-wise, the Harbin warm pool, Best love?


Friends,


{Here's a definition of loving bliss from my "Loving Bliss and friends" letter:

"While the following definition doesn't fully explain what loving bliss is for me, it does involve experiences that are deeply, gratefully harmonizing, and reciprocally appreciative and affectionate, both with a friend or friends, and alone, as well as profoundly and naturally high at the same time, and which are ongoing, biological, 'flow' experiences. What is loving bliss for you? For me, it may be, metaphorically, '... the valley of love and delight.'"

What is loving bliss for friends on this NtF list, especially in the context of this conversation about love? How do you elicit loving bliss neurophysiology, NtF-wise?

I may ask these questions in the text chat of the online Quaker Meeting I attend occasionally, as well.

... The unprogrammed, Quaker Meeting in the 3D virtual world of Second Life - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sea%20Turtle%20Island/197/17/27 - meets on Saturday mornings from 10-11 am Pacific Time, and I'll see what discernment I can bring to your conclusions' question, Ananda, about my "conclusions or insights about love, attraction, sexuality and nakedness," vis-a-and perhaps NtF-wise.

You'll find this online Quaker Meeting URL / web site address here, too - http://scottmacleod.com/LovingBlissFriends.htm - in my "Loving bliss as friends" letter online, which has further thoughts and conclusions about loving bliss}.


So, as kinds of conclusions or insights about love, attraction, sexuality and nakedness, (and perhaps NtF-wise), to the above, ...

love as connecting {positively} - through acceptance and through nurturing one another, or of ourselves by soaking and releasing naked, in the Harbin warm pool (and potentially online virtually while in your bathtub, as well, with parallels to the Harbin warm pool, as a kind of metaphorical, musical score, or gathered, friendly, improvisational opera, bodymind-wise) - seems to have emerged at Harbin, chosen by its visitors, thanks to its milieu, or subculture. Nontheist Friends seem to be creating another kind of  email-mediated subculture, where the explicit exploration of questions of NtF ideas about, and experiences of, love are possible, in new ways, and as conversation, just as NtFs are unfoldingly generating new ideas, perhaps partly in conversation with the RSoF. How to generate ongoingly best aspects of love, per these ideas about love - http://scottmacleod.com/daltonletter.htm#BestLove - or what you think of as love, seems ripe here, as a kind of querying conclusion. In what ways might we learn and teach love, NtF-wise?

I'm very glad we NtFs are having this unfolding conversation about love. Thank you.

Do any of you know the 4-part, beautiful round, "Take the time to sit in silence" which really chimes when sung together?

With F/friendly greetings,
Scott





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_panther

*

I've added these two, concluding paragraphs above about love - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2013/03/blue-heron-chicks-love-harbin-hot.html - with a few more ideas within. 




...

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Gila Trout: MIT Media Lab faculty position application, But didn't use the words, Uniqueness, Impact and Magic in my application, and perhaps would use the word open-disciplinary (in all languages) for WUaS, WUaS would like to hire a lot of MIT graduate students, and in many languages, eventually, and needs funding, as well



Hi, Joi (in Quora), 

I applied for a MIT Media Lab faculty position in January 2013, vis-a-vis World University and School, teaching "Society and Information Technology," and my actual / virtual Harbin Hot Springs' books and virtual Harbin research, but didn't use the words, Uniqueness, Impact and Magic in my application, and perhaps would use the word open-disciplinary (in all languages) for WUaS ... WUaS would like to hire a lot of MIT graduate students, and in many languages, eventually, and needs funding, as well. Here's my 500 word application ... 





I’m writing to apply for the MIT Media Lab faculty position focusing on learning and technologies. I concentrate on three main areas in my work:

a) Developing World University and School, which is like Wikipedia with MIT OCW, - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects - with free, online degrees planned, and as wiki-school in all 7,413+ languages and 205+ countries;

b) Writing an actual / virtual Harbin Hot Springs’ ethnography, with 3-4, further, Harbin books planned. I’m writing the eighth of nine chapters presently, and plan to create a virtual Harbin, for ethnographic fieldwork, and for comparison with on-the-ground Harbin, for subsequent books. I’ve written a number of papers about the World Wide Web in other contexts, particularly in terms of actual and online ‘place.’

c) Teaching about the sociology and anthropology of the Internet, particularly a course entitled “Society and Information Technology,” which I’ve taught on Harvard’s virtual island for 7 semesters, and vis-à-vis Manuel Castells’ Network Society research, in a variety of ways.


I’ll focus here now on World University. Wiki World University and School plans to be the MIT / Harvard of the internet in all 7,413+ languages and the 205+ countries, building on MIT OpenCourseWare, and offers not only remarkable, creative, Media Lab opportunities in its making, but also potentially extends MIT into all languages and countries online.

WUaS is also planning MIT OCW-centric, Creative Commons’ licensed, bachelor, Ph.D., International Baccalaureate, law and M.D. degrees, including online Medical (as well as an hospital) and Law Schools, accrediting on MIT OCW where possible, in many languages and countries, especially in the poorest parts of the world.

WUaS is planning an online Media Lab in each language and country, and seeks to grow these with overachieving, creative, MIT Media Lab-like students.

WUaS is also planning a Universal Translator, building on Google Translate, etc., in part, but for voice, and thus creating unique and far-reaching A.I. and programming opportunities over the years ahead.

WUaS is also planning a Music School in all languages, and with all instruments, each a wiki, subject page to begin, with online teaching, learning and jamming possibilities.

WUaS plans to use the Conference Method of teaching and learning (like Reed College uses), but online, and engaging MIT OCW’s 2,142+ courses - e.g. http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_Method_of_Teaching_and_Learning.

WUaS presently has 539 wiki pages, the section headings of which we plan to copy, paste and translate into other languages, as we move from the current, Wikia wiki to the new, Creative Commons’ licensed Wikidata / Wikibase database.

As a concluding statement of my work, WUaS plans to create academic, information technology jobs for students at the Media Lab, for all of MIT, in many, many languages and countries, and also for students at other great universities, especially, where the Media Lab could become the organizational hub for extensive, knowledge-oriented, job generation, worldwide.

MIT OCW-centric degrees for overachievers in many languages and countries, with the MIT Media Lab at the center of all of this, will generate a remarkable, flourishing, STEM-centric, academic conversation.







...


Friday, March 29, 2013

Blue heron chicks: LOVE, Harbin Hot Springs' book, nontheist f/Friends, Transcendent love (including intimacy, nudity and sexuality), Anthropology, Emerging, virtual Harbin, "Oneness in Living," Neural cascades of pleasure



Nontheist Friends,

I'm very glad this NtF thread on 'love' emerged - thanks, Glenn - and as my little, Friends' Dalton letter contribution (http://scottmacleod.com/daltonletter.htm#BestLove) above suggests, I'm interested in the heightened - even wildly so - experiences of love in our bodyminds, and in its most positive senses. This email isn't about trying to change, from a NtF perspective, the Religious Society of Friends to become more loving in a variety of ways, for example, but rather to continue the conversation which Glenn began, exploring aspects of the idea of love, NtF-wise.

And while the experience of love, as acceptance, and as the experience of attraction, seem to be partly what you've/we've been nontheistically F/friendly writing about in these last few emails in this thread on 'love,' I'd like first to explore here more about love, attraction, sexuality and nakedness, themselves, contributing insights from my ethnographic research to this conversation. 

So, thanks for this thread ... I'm eager to explore transcendent and far-reaching love vis--a-vis NtFs in this email group, and over the years, ... so that we might feel, and grow, love, in its positive senses, in the ways we might like, and bodymind-expandingly so. As they say at the Rainbow Gathering "We Love You," and "Love you sister," "Loving you brother."

In my research as an anthropologist, and I'm writing the last 15, draft paragraphs (here are the first 3 1/2, draft chapters - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/search/label/Harbin%20Book%20Section) of the last chapter 9, of my actual / virtual Harbin Hot Springs' ethnographic book, both questions of attraction and nakededness, vis-a-vis love, are explicit and implicit. 

(I'd like to publish my book in an academic press, with graduate students, faculty and people with nostalgia for the 1960s, as my target audiences, and have heard 'no' to a book proposal I sent out nearly a year ago from the Presses at Princeton, MIT, Harvard and Cambridge UK, and will probably try the University of California Press next. And the comparative ethnography in and of building of a virtual Harbin in OpenSim or Second Life, or in a more realistic, build-able, 3D, virtual world, as a comparative, ethnographic field site will be the subject of my next, virtual Harbin book. See this Machinima on 'The Making of Harbin Hot Springs as Virtual Fieldsite in OpenSim or Second Life' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nhvcHw54GE). 

Harbin Hot Springs is very much about 'hippy to the hot springs,' with naked soaking and cuddling in the warm pool occurring at least since 1972 when Ishvara, its founder who still lives on property, bought the land, ... and Harbin emerges from the 1960s as a kind of alternative place. Harbin is also two churches, - Heart Consciousness Church (HCC - since 1975), and New Age Church of Being (NACOB since 1996), both New Agey and low key as churches (and unaffiliated with any other churches), - and with relevance for the Religious Society of Friends, including, perhaps NtFs.

Harbin is an alternative place, is countercultural in my interpretation, and is viable financially as a hot springs' retreat center (with rooms, and canvas domes, for rent, and where you can camp out), in a pretty little valley at the end of the road in Lake County, northern California. A lot of Harbin residents - a kind of tribe - have kind of 'turned on, tuned in and dropped out' into a pretty easy-going lifestyle and interesting community. How the '60s and '70s, how hippies, and how alternative culture wind their ways into the 2010s is one of my (central) questions in the book, and will continue to be with the making of virtual Harbin. When the Harbin cobb and bale Temple was built in 2005, some Quaker Friends from the little Lake County WG (who moved to Lake County from Berkeley decades ago) and I held a silent, Quaker meeting in the partially built, amazingly beautiful, Harbin Temple. 

The questions, again, of acceptance, attraction and nakededness, vis-a-vis love, are explicit and implicit, in both my book (and my thinking), but I'm also interested in the idea of love as care. As a Darwinian, and an anthropologist, and a child of the '60s (in which 1960 year I was born) and of freedom-seeking movements,  questions of evolutionary biology, questions of socioculture, as well as thinking differently inform my thinking, in general. Love (vis-a-vis my Friends' Dalton letter), in this context, and physical, bodymind attraction, in their positive senses, including in terms of nakedness and sexuality - and differentially in terms of gender - relate. And I see love and attraction connect at Harbin (which has its funkinesses) in a fascinating, unfolding way, thanks particularly to the '60s and the clothing-optional, Harbin warm pool, the other geothermally heated and cold pools, and the Harbin pool area, in particular. (Yes, the media, religion and the modern world, throw so many questions of love, nakedness and attraction out of whack, and these never were normalized, anyway, - in my broad readings of these questions). While not air-brushed pictures of naked women perfection (or men, etc., for that matter), you can see pictures of the pools here at Harbin's web site - http://www.harbin.org/. How to accept an interpretation of the naked cuddling and attraction in the hippy-to-the-hot springs' Harbin experience, as well as a kind of as people-chosen love and care for being together communally and touchingly and tenderly and intimately and nurturingly (as natural and freeing) is an interesting question. Thanks to the warm waters people can act very lovingly to one another in its warm pool.

What's parallelly fascinating about the Harbin warm pool, and Friends' Meeting, in my interpretation, is the gatheredness (another term for this is the 'relaxation response,' in my interpretation, which isn't a Harbin phrase) that occurs, and which facilitates a kind of connectedness, and in which love might and does arise. (How intensely might love emerge in various qualities in our bodyminds, and agency-wise/choice-wise neurophysiologically, are other questions I'm exploring). Harbin's founder, Ishvara's not-easy-to-read book, entitled, "Oneness in Living" (2002), might be another phrase for this experience. But nakedness, attraction and love all do a fascinating dance at Harbin, often in nontheistically friendly and alternative ways, from which I learn, and am grateful for, especially the centering-soaking and harmonizing in the clothing-optional, Harbin warm pool. A very alive, serene, unique, easing meditation occurs in and around the clothing-optional pool area, especially, at Harbin, ~ thanks to the warm waters from the earth.

So nakedness, and cuddling in warm waters, and sexuality occur at Harbin, in a somewhat normalized way. Many of the workshops over the decades have focused on teaching intimacy. For example, HAI workshops ('Human Awareness Institute - Love, Intimacy and Sexuality' workshops), have been central at Harbin (and now take place around the world) since the early 1970s, (and which I've never taken, because I've been a little shy, even as an anthropologist with Harbin as my long-term field site, and because they cost something like $525 for a weekend these days) and while I think these workshops and teachings (e.g. Tantra workshops, and annual, Polyamory gatherings, etc.) are best understood in this context as emerging from the 1960s, and the sexual revolution, I'm very appreciative that Harbin, and HAI, for example, have contributed to creating a culture / milieu where people can explore these openly and freely. (But Harbin actually isn't very 'Bonobo'). And Harold Dull, a Brit and a hippie, started Watsu (Water Shiatsu) as a healing, water dance form at clothing-optional Harbin, (and to float women, which many women welcome), as well. Perhaps paralleling Friends/Quakers' protests / vigils / witnesses on the grounds of conscience against societal wrong doing, and, for example, by bearing witness to the Peace Testimony, I'm glad Harbin has been able to create a space for such normalized living / explorations of nakedness and sexuality, and love, to occur, singularly so in this valley (but which may also emerge in a 3D virtual world), for more than 4 decades now, - and as an expression of oneness. 

But transcendent love (including intimacy, nudity and sexuality) continues to be an ongoing focus of mine, especially in terms of neurophysiology / the biological experiences of these qualities. And while one (some people / I) can turn on Mozart's arias, Ravi Shankar's ragas or the Grateful Dead, repeatedly, and get to such neural cascades of pleasure (a quality of love I'm interested in specifically, as biology) again and again - which I would call love - and in most positive senses, I continue to explore a variety of qualities of love and how to elicit such neurophysiologies, and with caring for others as well as social justice and nontheistic Friendly sensibilities, in mind.



(Here's a definition of loving bliss from my "Loving Bliss and friends" letter:

"While the following definition doesn't fully explain what loving bliss is for me, it does involve experiences that are deeply, gratefully harmonizing, and reciprocally appreciative and affectionate, both with a friend or friends, and alone, as well as profoundly and naturally high at the same time, and which are ongoing, biological, 'flow' experiences. What is loving bliss for you? For me, it may be, metaphorically, '... the valley of love and delight.'"

What is loving bliss for friends on this NtF list, especially in the context of this conversation about love? How do you elicit loving bliss neurophysiology, NtF-wise? 

I may ask these questions in the text chat of the online Quaker Meeting I attend occasionally, as well. 

... The unprogrammed, Quaker Meeting in the 3D virtual world of Second Life - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sea%20Turtle%20Island/197/17/27 - meets on Saturday mornings from 10-11 am Pacific Time, and I'll see what discernment I can bring to your conclusions' question, Ananda, about my "conclusions or insights about love, attraction, sexuality and nakedness," vis-a-vis perhaps NtF-wise. 

You'll find this online Quaker Meeting URL / web site address here, too - http://scottmacleod.com/LovingBlissFriends.htm - in my "Loving bliss as friends" letter online, which has further thoughts and conclusions about loving bliss).



So, as kinds of conclusions or insights about love, attraction, sexuality and nakedness, (and perhaps NtF-wise), to the above, ... 

love as connecting - through acceptance and through nurturing one another, or of ourselves by soaking and releasing naked, in the Harbin warm pool (and potentially online virtually while in your bathtub, as well, with parallels to the Harbin warm pool, as a kind of metaphorical, musical score, or gathered, friendly, improvisational opera, bodymind-wise) - seems to have emerged at Harbin, chosen by its visitors, thanks to its milieu, or subculture. Nontheist Friends seem to be creating another kind of  email-mediated subculture, where the explicit exploration of questions of NtF ideas about, and experiences of, love are possible, in new ways, and as conversation, just as NtFs are unfoldingly generating new ideas, perhaps partly in conversation with the RSoF. How to generate ongoingly best aspects of love, per these ideas about love - http://scottmacleod.com/daltonletter.htm#BestLove - or what you think of as love, seems ripe here, as a kind of querying conclusion. In what ways might we learn and teach love, NtF-wise? 

I'm very glad we NtFs are having this unfolding conversation about love. Thank you. 

Do any of you know the 4-part, beautiful round, "Take the time to sit in silence" which really chimes when sung together? 

With F/friendly greetings, 
Scott 


*

Hi NtFs, 

Here's a slightly more developed email of mine (in my blog) about love from this morning - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2013/03/blue-heron-chicks-love-harbin-hot.html - with a few more ideas within. 

And here's my previous email in this NtF thread on love (from March 24, 2013) - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2013/03/kenyan-cheetahs-love-here-is-love-in.html - and which is also slightly further developed. 

And here's the Machinima about "The Making of Virtual Harbin Hot Springs as Ethnographic Fieldsite in OpenSim and Second Life" - http://blip.tv/scott-macleod/the-making-of-virtual-harbin-hot-springs-as-ethnographic-field-site-in-second-life-open-simulator-2063427 - to give you an idea of how interactive, build-able, virtual worlds work. 

I continue to be interested in generating cultures / milieus of love, and virtual worlds may offer new and other possibilities for this, beyond the RSoF, NtFs, music and even writing and emails as conversation, - all symbolic processes - as well as musical conversations. 

Good news ... 

With F/friendly greetings, 
Scott







-- 



...

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Caretta-caretta sea turtle: Harvard Alums asked to 'teach' in Harvard 'Greek Heroes' class, as a MOOC at edX ... EXCITING ... WUaS plans to require online a first year Humanities' class ... like Reed College's - which also teaches critical thinking, reading and writing - and focuses on similar texts and importantly Reed Humanities' course teaches the Conference Method


Harvard Alums asked to 'teach' in Harvard 'Greek Heroes' class ... 



"Harvard Asks Graduates to Donate Time to Free Online Humanities Class"
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: March 26, 2013

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/education/harvard-asks-alumni-to-donate-time-to-free-online-course.xml ... 


as a MOOC at edX - 

https://www.edx.org/courses/HarvardX/CB22x/2013_Spring/about

EXCITING ... 


WUaS plans to require online a first year Humanities' class ... 

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wikI/Humanities ... 

like Reed College's - 

which also teaches critical thinking, reading and writing - 

and focuses on similar texts and, importantly, Reed's first year, Humanities' course teaches the Conference Method ... 

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_Method_of_Teaching_and_Learning ... 






...

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Whooping Crane: Janis ... travelling far here ... and with the Dead, added to WUaS's Grateful Dead and Rock and Roll subjects ...


Janis ... travelling far here ... and with the Dead ... Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin. 1970. 



[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmPkgSIkUeM Grateful Dead & Janis Joplin - Lovelight 1970-07-16]. 

Euphoria Ballroom. ... 


... added here ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Grateful_Dead ... 


and here ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Rock_and_Roll ... :)







...

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Bangladesh grasshopper: Muhammad Yunus, Education scholarships for Bangladeshi youth, Here's the 'India,' wiki, subject page at WUaS, Bengali language wiki page, WUaS also facilitates wiki-aggregation of educational software (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software) and resources for kids, as well as big people, Thank you for your great work!



Muhammad Yunus, 

Concerning the education scholarships for Bangladeshi youth from Taylor University I saw you post yesterday about in G+  - https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MuhammadYunus/posts

Here's the 'India,' wiki, subject page - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/India - at World University and School, which is like Wikipedia with MIT OpenCourseWare, all three of which are Creative Commons' licensed (C.C.), and thus free and sharable. See the MIT OCW courses here, on this India page, which are WUaS's focus. 

WUaS plans to offer C.C., online, university degrees, first in English, and then in many countries and languages, while remaining an open, people-to-people, teaching and learning wiki, in all 7,413 + languages and 204+ countries; Wikipedia is in 285 languages by way of comparison, and we all wrote it. 

Here, for example, is the beginning, Bengali, wiki page - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Bengali_/_Bangla

World University and School also facilitates wiki-aggregation of educational software (http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Educational_Software) and resources for kids, as well as big people, and eventually in all languages, with an invitation to edit a WUaS wiki page. 

Thank you for your great work. 

Best wishes, Scott





...

Monday, March 25, 2013

NZ Orcas: A Quaker Friend, and mom, writes about her son in high school, Skype and Google + group video Hangouts for small groups of students, Press Release about WUaS ... and here's a presentation I gave in the second hour at San Francisco Friends' Meeting on 17 March 2013, WUaS is planning for online, MIT OCW High School-centric, International Baccalaureate diplomas (homeschooling), in English first



A Quaker Friend (from the first half of the 1980s and Multnomah Monthly Meeting in Portland, Oregon, now living on a San Juan island in the state of Washington), and mom, writes about her son in high school ...


Scott,
I'm sorry it's taken me this long to write. Things are busy with helping my son with school and there were extra events with the percussion ensemble. Now our Japanese exchange student just arrived for 8 days. And I still have to finish my taxes!
I'm especially interested in how people can get an education online but still have a social group; my son actually likes going to school because he's very outgoing but the homework is hard to get through. I want the school to allow them to do self-paced learning but this seems pretty radical for some folks.
There is a high school off island that sounds much better in this regard but it would mean a total change in social group and the transportation takes a couple of hours all told what with the ferry. http://www.bigpicture.org/2008/09/highline-bp-high-school/
Tell me more about what you are doing.
Yours in the Light,
L



L,

Skype and Google + group video Hangouts for small groups ...

And here's a Press Release about World University and School ... http://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2012/10/press-release-for-world-university-and.html ... and here's a presentation I gave in the second hour at San Francisco Friends' Meeting last week 17 March 2013) ... http://worlduniversityandschool.blogspot.com/2013/03/upcoming-presentation-at-san-francisco.html ... with a longer outline and an audio transcript accessible here ... http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2013/03/bar-headed-goose-highest-flying-birds.html.

WUaS is planning for online, MIT OCW High School-centric, International Baccalaureate diplomas (homeschooling), in English first, matriculating our first class perhaps in 2015.

With Friendly greetings,
Scott





...


Sunday, March 24, 2013

Kenyan cheetahs: LOVE ... here is love in its best senses, as I've thought of it, in my Dalton Friends' letter, which is quite Friendly, as well as Nontheistically F/friendly, ' ... empathy; delight; sympathy; centered caring; tenderness; sensitivity; ineffable ecstasy ... '



Hi Friends,

Thanks for this thread about love.

Here is love in its best senses, as I've thought of it, in my Dalton Friends' letter, which is quite Friendly, as well as Nontheistically F/friendly -

http://scottmacleod.com/daltonletter.htm#BestLove -


'... empathy; delight; sympathy; centered caring; tenderness; sensitivity; ineffable ecstasy; incredibly positive - potentially lifelong - feelings of connectedness; sublimity; kindness; “love in the air;” gentleness; an understanding of developing, mutual otherness; friendship; mirthful, playful freedom in bodymind, words and gestures; thoughtfulness; dating; cuddling/physical intimacy/sensuality (1-2 hours per day); making love (intimate and warm)~coitus; a delightful, “glowing” party; ongoing smile / sincere and charming affection / “flow” experiences (for “flow,” see Csikszentmihalyi’s “Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience” - 1993) with a community / network across generations; openness; generosity; coming closely in tune with good friends; fulsome trust; anticipatory, beneficial surprises; sweetness; nurture; receptivity {to love}; sharing; hail gladdening love; non-harming, altruistic engagement; acts of kindness ~ voluntarism; considerateness; cordiality; congeniality; collegiality; flourishing (viz. eudaimonia); warm, radiant fun; sociable, flirtatious, and gleeful, inner and outer movement, which some people experience while dancing (e.g. unconditional~free-form dancing, New England contra-dancing, Scottish Country Dancing, Dances of Universal Peace~Sufi dancing, contact improvisational dance jams, etc.); having a ball with you; euphoric merriment; cherishing as well as feeling / being cherished; (love-related) passion; the numinous; a loving bliss economy~loving bliss indices {a way of measuring groups' affective neurophysiology, as a whole, linked with socially conscious, index, mutual funds}; old friends; an unburdened feeling of lightness of being; falling in love; the fun of raising / being with kids; cheeriness; positive psychology (viz. Seligman's “Authentic Happiness”); following your bliss; well-received, intense, salutary interest; the deep, inward release that comes in remarkable / easing moments and which is cultivatable; deeply exuberant, beneficent pleasure with another ~ a partner ~ a love; best friends; understanding; reverie; friendliness; what gives you joy?; imagination to love profoundly, and then to love; wholesomeness; well-being; peace, peace of mind, and at peace-ness; being in love; ahimsa {non-harming}; a good connection; virtue, esp. of transcendent, jubilant love; helpfulness; doing good; loving touch (e.g. a gentle hand, hugs, massage, Watsu*Waterdance {Wassertanz} & more); singing "I love you;" the inspiration for the creation of great, loving art; rich, bountiful inventiveness / imagination in amity; Harbin Hot Springs ~ harbin.org; heart consciousness; harmony; the neurochemistry of romantic love~heightened levels of four neurotrophins, - i.e. NGF, BDNF, NT-3, and NT-4 (Emanuele et al., 2005); loving bliss ~*MMmmm ~ loving bliss and practices for this*~ (naturally, and with many qualities, but ecstasy is a reference experience ~> oxytocins~dopamine); practicing loving bliss vis-à-vis a musical instrument; balance; wonderful, oceanic wholeness; free love; happiness; contentment; the joy / rapport / 'reading' of minds that goes on between two (or more) skillful musicians / listeners, who are improvising; love letters; harmony, love fests; love is the answer; loving bliss as friends; the thought, experience, and generation of love; quiet wisdom ~ love of wisdom; and sophisticated, intuitive caritas - (e.g., see Tolstoy’s “The Three Questions”) - (what are other positive characteristics / expressions of love that you can add, besides the American Friends' Service Committee, the Friends' Committee on National Legislation, and others like them? And how can we develop them together? How can we move toward world peace & love?) ...' (http://scottmacleod.com/daltonletter.htm) -


One question I focus on is how to elicit these aspects or qualities of positive love when and as one would like ... and this 'loving bliss,' wiki, subject page is one place to explore this further: http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Loving_Bliss_(eliciting_this_neurophysiology).


Here are two queries I have for us here on this NtF email list : How to cultivate positive love in wonderfully f/Friendly ways, for example, especially in Quaker Meetings and in flourishing ways (think Grateful Dead concerts, or similar, for whatever else moves you greatly, musically or otherwise) as a corporate leading? How to get to the experience and feeling of far-reaching Love, caring and communitas within social gatherings / gatheredness (think Grateful Dead, Mozart arias, Raga from India or similar) in Friendly ways?


Warm regards,
Scott





...

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Hippo opens mouth: Updated the Social Networking links in the Navigation section of the Subject Template at WUaS, Teach and Learn using free Social Networking software to share what courses are great, what you find edifying, what you enjoy learning, etc., It's when WUaS learning and teaching communities come alive, and even generate communitas, in digital milieus, that a flourishing will occur, I think the 'You at World University,' wiki, subject page, as it develops into a social networking site, with a real-time Music School, and in each of 7, 413+ languages and 204+ countries, partly based on MediaWiki, but secure and with a secure registrar, will be a robust, large and potentially flourishing digital community



... just updated the Social Networking links in the Navigation section of the Subject Template at WUaS …

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE#Learning_Networking ...



===Learning Networking===

Teach and Learn using free Social Networking software to share what courses are great, what you find edifying, what you enjoy learning, etc., ...


Academia.edu's World University and School -
http://worlduniversityandschool.academia.edu/


Delicious.com's World University and School -
http://www.delicious.com/WorldUniversityandSchool


Facebook.com's World University and School -
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48753608141 (This group may be archived).


Good Reads -
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/99021-worlduniversityandschool


Google + Profiles - worlduniversityandschool@gmail.com - Scott MacLeod  -
https://plus.google.com/115890623333932577910/


Google + Profiles Company page - worlduniversityandschool@gmail.com - World University and School -
https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/108179352492243955816/108179352492243955816/posts


Google Groups' World University and School -
http://groups.google.com/group/World-University-and-School


Like


LinkedIn's World University and School -
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/World-University-School-4024337


Quora -
http://www.quora.com/


Research Gate -
http://www.researchgate.net/


Redditt.com's World University and School -
http://www.reddit.com/user/WorldUnivandSch/


Tribe.net's World University and School -
http://tribes.tribe.net/worlduniversityandschool


Twitter.com's World University and School -
http://twitter.com/WorldUnivandSch


World University & School 'subject page' group


World University & School Share This


Yahoo Groups' World University and School: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worlduniversityandschool/



*

Here's a Wikipedia 'List of social networking websites' -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites.




It will be fascinating to see vibrant social networking sites in other 


Languages - 


Countries - 



Weibo, in China, for example? 



It's when WUaS's learning and teaching communities come alive, and even generate communitas, in digital milieus, that a flourishing and great enjoyment of learning will occur. 


I think the 'You at World University,' wiki, subject page - 


as it develops into a social networking site, with a real-time Music School {http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Music_School}, and in each of 7, 413+ languages and 204+ countries, partly based on MediaWiki's Users, but secure and with a secure registrar, will be a robust, large and potentially flourishing digital community. 







...



Friday, March 22, 2013

Sierra Nevada flowers: Ravi Shankar - Raga Bhimpalasi, added this to World University and School's wiki, Raga, subject page, beginning, online, WUaS Music School - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Music_School - eventually for all instruments in all 7, 413 + languages; Wikipedia is in 285 languages, by way of comparison


Ravi Shankar - Raga Bhimpalasi (live at Monterey) ...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMRxDY43YtQ ...

just added this to World University and School's wiki, Raga, subject page ...

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Raga ...

In addition to being an afternoon rage, it's a very nice morning raga, too ...


Here's the beginning, online, WUaS Music School -

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Music_School -


eventually for all instruments (each a wiki subject page)

in all 7, 413 + languages; Wikipedia is in 285 languages, by way of comparison.






...

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Gardens: Updated the Virtual Worlds' wiki, subject page at WUaS, Curious to see which MIT OCW courses will be taught in virtual worlds, and especially as WUaS and MIT OCW move into other languages, And curious to see which emerge as the best, perhaps Creative Commons' licensed, for INTERACTIVE MOVIE REALISM - for WUaS ... and for building a virtual Harbin in, as well as for ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy ... The above, free virtual worlds are for YOU, or anyone, to explore online teaching and learning in


... just updated this Virtual Worlds' wiki, subject page at WUaS,

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Virtual_Worlds -


with a great Wiki about virtual worlds and education ...

jokaydia Virtual Worlds Wiki!: Exploring Virtual Worlds and Games in Education and Training ...

http://wiki.jokaydia.com/ -


as well as the list of virtual worlds on the main, WUaS, wiki, subject template page -

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/SUBJECT_TEMPLATE#In_Virtual_World -


with these virtual worlds -



In Virtual World

3D Learn. 2013. http://www.learningin3d.info/

Active Worlds Educational Universe (AWEDU). 2012. http://www.activeworlds.com/edu/

Alice. 2012. http://www.alice.org/

Minecraft. 2012. http://www.minecraft.net

Edusim. 2013. http://edusim3d.com/

Gifted Kids.ie. 2013. http://www.giftedkids.ie/daynuv.html

ISTE – SIGMS. 2013. http://sigms.iste.wikispaces.net/secondlifeplayground2010

Open Cobalt. 2013. http://www.opencobalt.org/

OpenSim. 2012. http://opensimulator.org/wiki/Main_Page
(http://www.scribd.com/doc/57959626/OpenSimulator-School-Quick-Start-Guide)

Open Croquet. 2012. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?OpenCroquet and http://www.opencroquet.org/

Open Wonderland. 2012. http://openwonderland.org/

Primary Games. 2013. http://www.primarygames.com/arcade/virtualworlds.php

Quest Atlantis. 2012. http://atlantisremixed.org/ (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZoT3pilNPI)

SimScience. 2012. http://simscience.org/

Second Life - Harvard's virtual island. 2012. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Berkman/115/53/25 - and teach, learn and share ideas - in group voice chat, or in group type chat, and via building.

Unity3D. 2012. http://unity3d.com/

WiloStar3D. 2013. https://www.wilostar3d.com/ ...


See, for example, this Quest Atlantis video ...




There are so many virtual worlds, and these worlds and lists are growing ...

OpenSim and Second Life are still the most group-buildable, and with OpenSim, you can host your own island on your own computers' hard drive.


*

... curious to see which MIT OCW courses may eventually be taught in virtual worlds, and especially as WUaS and MIT OCW move into other languages ...


*

I'm also curious to see which emerge as the best, perhaps Creative Commons' licensed,

for  INTERACTIVE MOVIE REALISM, and

scalable to brainwave headsets,

digital glasses,

as well as 4 large screen panels (60"?) by 4 large screen panels

- for WUaS ...


*

... and especially for building a virtual Harbin in,

as well as for ethno-wiki-virtual-world-graphy ...

where we call can build virtual worlds, create wikis about this, and

generate ethnography / ethnographic representation ...



*


- (Again, for planning purposes, this is WUaS’s first year curriculum with MIT professors

http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-courses/ -

and with graduate student instructors facilitating the conference method -

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Conference_Method_of_Teaching_and_Learning -

in Google + group video Hangouts -

https://plus.google.com/hangouts/).


*

The above, free, virtual worlds are for YOU, or anyone, at wiki WUaS to explore online teaching and learning in.








...

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Patagonia: Chi, and other MIT Media Lab Graduate Students, Injecting the WUaS's 'Electrical Engineering,' wiki, Subject pages ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Electrical_Engineering ... with more Art-Making and Imaginative Possibilities, as well as into the 'Electrical Engineering,' MIT OCW-centric, academic discipline itself ... as WUaS moves to Wikidata, Will students be making things with electronics, paper and legos in their home, for example, in related, MIT-centric, WUaS Science classes?


Chi, Jie, and other MIT Media Lab graduate students,


It would be great to inject into the World University and School's 'Electrical Engineering,' wiki, Subject pages ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Electrical_Engineering ... more art-making and imaginative possibilities, as well as into the  'Electrical Engineering,' MIT OCW-centric, academic discipline itself  ... as WUaS moves to Wikidata, our upcoming, new, database repository ... Let's chat further about this. Do you have a MIT-centric course in mind you'd like to teach? What do you have in mind?


*

Great, and thanks for your email and tutorial. I'll look to add it to one or two WUaS, wiki subjects - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects - but I'm not sure where yet; I invite you to try adding it, if you'd like to get an immediate, hands-on experience of editing, or teaching, at WUaS.


If WUaS matriculates, as we're planning, our first, MIT OCW-centric (accrediting on this - http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-courses/), online, tuition-free, undergraduate class in 2014 (applying this autumn), I'm very curious to plan for hands-on aspects. Will students be making things with electronics, paper and legos in their home, for example, in related classes?

It would be great to communicate about a number of items beyond these.

Best,
Scott


*


*



Hi Scott,

Here's one tutorial for paper electronics: http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=2505

It's not particularly detailed but gives you a flavor for the kind of
workshops I've taught.  I'm currently in the process of developing
more thorough documentation with a few students.  I will keep you
posted as my web tutorial works develop!

As for after MIT, I've actually just begun my PhD so I have another
3.5 years to figure out my dissertation and plan from there!  But I'm
very much interested in activism through education, especially
empowering people to understand and create through technology so I
feel it may be relevant to your work.  There is an interesting
challenge in not only getting people information through the web, but
getting hands-on as well!

cheers,
Jie




Hi Jie,

I added your tutorial - http://hlt.media.mit.edu/?p=2505 - here - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Media_Arts_and_Sciences ...

and your - http://technolojie.com/category/featured-projects/ - to the Media Lab at WUaS ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Media_Lab_at_World_University_and_School.

Thanks,
Scott










...




Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Callicebus genus: MIT OCW-centric World University and School plans to reach out to poor and disabled, overachieving students, in their homes, for free, university degrees (bach., Ph.D., law, M.D. and I.B. diplomas), NY Times' article "Better Colleges Failing to Lure Talented Poor," Admissions at WUaS (like MIT's), 'Assistive Technologies,' 'Hardware Resource Possibilities,' 'One Laptop per Child,' all at WUaS


MIT OCW-centric World University and School plans to reach out to poor and disabled, (and, of course, remote), overachieving students, in their homes, for free, university degrees (bachelor, Ph.D., law, M.D. as well as I.B., high school diplomas) ...

"Better Colleges Failing to Lure Talented Poor" ...
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/education/scholarly-poor-often-overlook-better-colleges.xml


... here ...

Admissions at WUaS (like applying to MIT) ...
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Admissions_at_World_University_and_School ...


See, for example,

Assistive Technologies at WUaS ...
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Assistive_Technologies ...

Hardware Resource Possibilities at WUaS...
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Hardware_Resource_Possibilities ...

One Laptop per Child at WUaS ...
http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/One_Laptop_per_Child_-_XO_Laptop_-_$100_Laptop_-_MIT ...

(and more here ... http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Subjects ... and here http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/ ... )

and around the world.







...

Monday, March 18, 2013

Bar-headed goose, highest-flying birds: Two, good, current overviews of MIT OCW-centric World University and School with conversation in the recording


Here are two, good, current overviews of MIT OCW-centric World University and School with conversation in the recording. 


Here's an outline for my talk (17 March 2013) today vis-a-vis Quakers and World University and School at San Francisco Friends' Meeting - 


(see, too, the WUaS blog, for a simpler version: 



and the somewhat-different AUDIO-only recording of my presentation and the conversation that followed ... 


accessible from World University and School's YouTube channel: 


Best regards, 
Scott










...

Sunday, March 17, 2013

The Gazebo Light Show at Harbin


The Gazebo Light Show at Harbin 

I looked up
from down one flight of steps,
from in front of the restaurant doors,
and saw the shimmery, white
under-roof of the Harbin Gazebo
Dance-reflecting its fountain's movements
on that rainy night.

Went to bed,
with rain on my head …

As I walked in in the morn,
the long way around,
from across the creek,
near the Res Center,
on up the road
to the village path,
and then through the woods
to the pools,
for to see things and to hike,
it was three turkeys,
on the bubbling, creek side of the road,
one male,
with white head and red underface,
and a little blue in there too -
so colorful, vivid, clear and bright,
thanks to nature on this moist morning -
that inspired me to write this,
catalyzed by the
Magnificent, shimmery light
of the Gazebo under-roof
on a rainy night,
which I had never seen before,
at light-filled Harbin.

As I walked on,
I stepped into
one of Harbin's nice, new
bathrooms for campers,
and for the people of
the (somewhat new) canvas-covered Domes,
popping up on the Harbin hillsides, -
like little, puffball mushrooms, in the rain, -
near the Harbin, bubble Domes' junction,
to write,
since smartphone use
at Harbin isn't allowed,
except in parking lots,
to which this bathroom is near.

These new restrooms are beauts:
3, orange-globe, light fixtures,
suggestive of apples in shape,
and a decorative, ceramic, sink basin, -
blue, green and flowery,
with a little orange here in there, too, -
and shimmery, silver, upper walls, in tile,
with one sun - a rise or set - in orange tiles,
at the horizon, at midriff's height, 
with blue tiles below
~~~ and spacious ~~~
with only a toilet, and no shower,
and six, blue, ceramic nobbies,
on the double-decker, 3-prong, coat rack,
an earthen-orange floor below,
and one rectangular skylight, 
high above.

Walked on to the pools …

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

Disconnect and soak, and
tune into the lands and the waters.
Waters flow upward here,
and earth’s energies too …
while things bubble around …
reconnecting with
what comes up,
in the oneness which is Harbin.

On into the waters
from O:) that night’s Gazebo show …

O:), the light, the watery light.













Scott MacLeod
March 6, and March 13, 2013



Saturday, March 16, 2013

Zephyr across the plains' grasses: The ecology of breathing, of steadiness or calmness, of the bodymind, via bagpiping and Yoga, Breathing is a fascinating approach to learning, Music and the neurophysiology of bliss vis-a-vis breathing


In bagpiping, I've recently become newly aware of the ecology of breathing, of steadiness or calmness, of the bodymind, of knowing the tunes ...

(For example, if your breathing, reflecting your bodymind, isn't steady because you haven't learned how to breathe by building stamina or 'control,' because the instrument's reeds are a little challenging, the tunes don't flow; similarly, if the tunes are challenging, this becomes reflected in the breathing and bodymind expressions, such as fingering. All of this are expressions of the ecology of breathing when bagpiping, involving learning a code or symbols - the notes - as well).


These are all things yoga offers ways to learn, too, in a different way ...

as well as the neurophysiology of bliss.


{I get to bliss more fulsomely and readily with musical tones, than I do with yoga}.


Breathing is a fascinating approach to learning ...

and its 'ecology' is particularly fascinating ...


... in some ways, this is a reflection of getting the 'flow' experiences (absorbed mind, challenge at the right level, per Csikszentmihalyi) right with bliss as a goal ...


with an invitation to wiki teach and learn about the ecology of breathing here at the Yoga page {and breathing pages to come} at WUaS ...

http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Yoga ...









...


Friday, March 15, 2013

California Grizzly Cub, Alaska: UC Regents' ONLINE Meetings Agendas and Schedule, Example for WUaS planning purposes



Dear Universitians,

Here's the direction, organizationally, that I think MIT-centric WUaS is heading as we begin to grow, for scaled-large, online meetings (in the manner of f/Friends), for planning purposes. (I would guess that most of the participants in the meetings on the page below are earning $50,000-$100,000 annually, and working 40+ hours per week). I've added the following URL to the WUaS Master Plan - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Master_Plan -

The Regents of the University of California
Meetings Agendas and Schedule
Notice of Regents Meeting, March 13-14, 2013 - revised agenda -

http://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/mar13.html.

Sincerely,
Scott



Notice of Regents Meeting, March 13-14, 2013 - revised agenda

Meetings of The Regents of the University of California and its committees are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, March 13-14, 2013, at the Conference Center, UCSF Mission Bay as follows. Please note that all times indicated and the order of business are approximate and subject to change.

Live audio Internet broadcasts of the open sessions are available during the open session meetings at this link: http://california.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2

A live video broadcast of the open sessions are available through this link: http://lecture.ucsf.edu/ETS/Catalog/Full/333992fe14054d6bae39512a30188f3421

The Microsoft Silverlight plugin is required on desktop computers. Mediasite presentations can also be viewed on Apple, Android and Blackberry mobile devices (iPhones and iPod Touch devices require the free Mediasite app).


Wednesday,March 13
8:30 am
9:30 am
11:00 am
11:15 am
12:00
Lunch
1:00 pm
1:15 pm
1:40 pm
1:45 pm
2:10 pm
2:15 pm
3:00 pm
3:00 pm
3:15 pm

Thursday, March 14
8:30 am
8:50 am
9:00 am
9:40 am
10:00 am
10:30am
concurrent with regularly scheduled meeting








...