Avi Solomon

LEGO CUUSOO Star Wars Chess Set

2012-01-23T14:54:00.000-08:00

Please support my LEGO CUUSOO Star Wars Chess Set project.
If the project garners 10,000 supporters it stands a great chance of becoming an official LEGO set!

Al Worden Apollo 15 CMP Interview

2011-11-15T17:10:00.000-08:00

My BoingBoing Interview Series

2011-11-14T07:20:00.000-08:00

Ted Chiang
Robert Sapolsky
Al Worden
David Eagleman
Daniel Kottke
Rick Strassman
Dennis McKenna
Erik Knutzen
Tim Ferriss
Richard Koch
Ran Prieur
Tom Hulme
Seth Godin
Laird Scranton
Jack Zylkin
Brian Liloia
William Powers
Michael Greer
William Stephens
Eyal Ophir
Jaideep Varma
Avinoam Danin

OpenIDEO: My Solutions to the IDEO Design Challenges

2011-11-14T07:19:00.000-08:00

Bootstrapped Urban Neighborhood SIP Veggie Farm
Lego Rapid Prototyping Tool for Participatory Urban Neighborhood Design
Portable Maternal Health Video Library for Community Health Workers
OpenIDEO Design Challenge Card
Help Children Grow Tomatoes using EarthBoxes
Grow Edible Snails to supplement Caldas Nutrition
Free Midwife Hotline
"Yo-Mama" Iron and Folic Acid Fortified Yogurt for Pregnant Moms
QR code amulet triggers timed maternal health calls to mom's phone
Ecological Toilets + Compost or Biogas + Networked Entrepreneurs = Everybody Wins
UAV to Deliver Medical Supplies
How can we initiate compassionate conversations with the elderly?
How can we help spread adoption of efficient methods of growing food locally?
Make Earth Tangible
Mass Production and Dispersal of Seedballs
Make Bottles to be Bricks
An Innovation Academy for Kid Entrepreneurs
Equip Kids with Plant Identification 'Tricorders'

Abraham Abulafia: Meditations on the Divine Name

2011-11-06T10:04:00.000-08:00

Abraham Abulafia: Meditations on the Divine Name, Kindle edition
Abraham Abulafia: Meditations on the Divine Name, Print edition

Samuel Johnson: Best Memento Mori Quote

2011-10-28T11:07:00.000-07:00

"A frequent and attentive prospect of that moment, which must put a period to all our schemes, and deprive us of all our acquisitions, is indeed of the utmost efficacy to the just and rational regulation of our lives; nor would ever any thing wicked, or often any thing absurd, be undertaken or prosecuted by him who should begin every day with a serious reflection that he is born to die."
-Samuel Johnson, The Rambler No. 17. Tuesday, May 15, 1750

Joe Versus the Volcano and the Metamorphoses of Apuleius

2011-10-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

"Not long afterwards I awoke in sudden terror. A dazzling full moon was rising from the sea. It is at secret hour that the Moon-goddess, sole sovereign of mankind, is possessed of her greatest power and majesty. She is the shining deity by whose divine influence not only all beasts, wild and tame, but all inanimate things as well, are invigorated; whose ebbs and flows control the rhythm of all bodies whatsoever, whether in the air, on earth, or below the sea. Of this I was well aware, and therefore resolved to address the visible image of the goddess, imploring her help; for Fortune seemed at last to have made up her mind that I had suffered enough and to be offering me a hope of release.

Jumping up and shaking off my drowsiness, I went down to the sea to purify myself by bathing in it. Seven times I dipped my head under the waves—seven, according to the divine philosopher Pythagoras, is a number that suits all religious occasions—and with joyful eagerness, though tears were running down my hairy face, I offered this soundless prayer to the supreme Goddess:

"Blessed Queen of Heaven, whether you are pleased to be known as Ceres, the original harvest mother who in joy at the finding of your lost daughter Proserpine abolished the rude acorn diet of our forefathers and gave them bread raised from the fertile soil of Eleusis; or whether as celestial Venus, now adored at sea-girt Paphos, who at the time of the first Creation coupled the sexes in mutual love and so contrived that man should continue to propagate his kind for ever; or whether as Artemis, the physician sister of Phoebus Apollo, reliever of the birth pangs of women, and now adored in the ancient shrine at Ephesus; or whether as dread Proserpine to whom the owl cries at night, whose triple face is potent against the malice of ghosts, keeping them imprisoned below earth; you who wander through many sacred groves and are propitiated with many different rites—you whose womanly light illumines the walls of every city, whose misty radiance nurses the happy seeds under the soil, you who control the wandering course of the sun and the very power of his rays—I beseech you, by whatever name, in whatever aspect, with whatever ceremonies you deign to be invoked, have mercy on me in my extreme distress, restore my shattered fortune, grant me repose and peace after this long sequence of miseries. End my sufferings and perils, rid me of this hateful four-footed disguise, return me to my family, make me Lucius once more. But if I have offended some god of unappeasable cruelty who is bent on making life impossible for me, at least grant me one sure gift, the gift of death."

When I had finished my prayer and poured out the full bitterness of my oppressed heart, I returned to my sandy hollow, where once more sleep overcame me. I had scarcely closed my eyes before the apparition of a woman began to rise from the middle of the sea with so lovely a face that the gods themselves would have fallen down in adoration of it. First the head, then the whole shining body gradually emerged and stood before me poised on the surface of the waves. Yes, I will try to describe this transcendent vision, for though human speech is poor and limited, the Goddess herself will perhaps inspire me with poetic imagery sufficient to convey some slight inkling of what I saw.

Her long thick hair fell in tapering ringlets on her lovely neck, and was crowned with an intricate chaplet in which was woven every kind of flower. Just above her brow shone a round disc, like a mirror, or like the bright face of the moon, which told me who she was. Vipers rising from the left-hand and right-hand partings of her hair supported this disc, with cars of corn bristling beside them. Her many-colored robe was of finest linen; part was glistening white, part crocus-yellow, part glowing red and along the entire hem a woven bordure of flowers and fruit clung swaying in the breeze. But what aught and held my eye more than anything else was the deep black luster of her mantle. She wore it slung across her body from the right hip to the left shoulder, where it was caught in a knot resembling the boss of a shield; but part of it hung in innumerable folds, the tasseled fringe quivering. It was embroidered with glittering stars on the hem and everywhere else, and in the middle beamed a full and fiery moon.

In her right hand she held a bronze rattle, of the sort used to frighten away the God of the Sirocco; its narrow rim was curved like a sword-kit and three little rods, which sang shrilly when she shook the handle, passed horizontally through it. A boat-shaped gold dish hung from her left hand, and along the upper surface of the handle writhed an asp witch pulled throat and head raised ready to strike. On her divine feet were slippers of palm leaves, the emblem of victory.

All the perfumes of Arabia floated into my nostrils as the Goddess deigned to address me: "You see me here, Lucius, in answer to your prayer. I am Nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are.

My nod governs the shining heights of Heaven, the wholesome sea-breezes the lamentable silences of the world below. Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names, and propitiated with all manner of different rites, yet the whole round earth venerates me.

The primeval Phrygians call me Pessinuntica, Mother of the gods; the Athenians, sprung from their own soil, call me Cecropian Artemis; for the islanders of Cyprus I am Paphian Aphrodite; for the archers of Crete I am Dictynna; for the trilingual Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine; and for the Eleusinians their ancient Mother of the Corn.

"Some know me as Juno, some as Bellona of the Battles; others as Hecate, others again as Rhamnubia, but both races of Ethiopians, whose lands the morning sun first shines upon, and the Egyptians who excel in ancient learning and worship me with ceremonies proper to my godhead, call me by my true name, namely, Queen Isis."
-Metamorphoses of Apuleius, XI, 1-5

Aristotle's version of the Allegory of the Cave

2011-10-26T15:03:00.000-07:00

Suppose there were men who had lived always underground, in good and well-lighted dwellings, adorned with statues and pictures, and furnished with everything in which those who are thought happy abound. Suppose, however, that they had never gone above ground, but had learned by report and hearsay that there is a divine authority and power. Suppose that then, at some time, the jaws of the earth opened, and they were able to escape and make their way from those hidden dwellings into these regions which we inhabit.

When they suddenly saw earth and seas and sky, when they learned the grandeur of clouds and the power of winds, when they saw the sun and learned its grandeur and beauty and the power shown in its filling the sky with light and making day; when, again, night darkened the lands and they saw the whole sky picked out and adorned with stars, and the varying lights of the moon as it waxes and wanes, and the risings and settings of all these bodies, and their courses settled and immutable to all eternity; when they saw those things, most certainly they would have judged both that there are gods and that these great works are the works of gods.
-from Aristotle's "On Philosophy", quoted in Cicero, De Natura Deorum, II 37

This Too Shall Pass: Tracing an Ancient Jewish Folktale

2011-10-04T20:37:00.000-07:00

My essay This Too Shall Pass: Tracing an Ancient Jewish Folktale traces the global perambulations of the ancient Jewish folktale of King Solomon's ring, engraved with the consolatory yet revitalizing phrase "This, Too, Shall Pass" or "Gam Zeh Yaavor" in Hebrew.

Dennis Mckenna's first person account of Photosynthesis

2011-10-03T11:45:00.001-07:00

Storyboard your Life!

2011-10-03T10:51:00.002-07:00

A storyboard is a sequence of images and words drawn together on a page to form a plausible narrative. Storyboards are routinely used in the movie making business to 'preview' a movie before a single shot is taken. A storyboard is an apt metaphor for how we make sense of our own life history. Storyboarding can be used to sense emergent patterns in our own life story and to envision the life experiences that we wish to welcome into our future.
Storyboard your Life! Kindle Edition

PKD and Abraham Abulafia

2011-09-22T16:10:00.001-07:00

p. 225, The Selected Letters of Philip K. Dick: 1977-1979, ed. Don Herron, Underwood Books, 1993.

The Ekalavya Effect: A Parable for Internet Learning

2011-08-24T20:17:00.000-07:00

"If you are one in a million, then there are 2000 of you on the internet" -Anonymous

The Ekalavya episode in the Mahabharata is laced with jealous pupils (Arjuna) and harsh taskmasters (Drona). But for our purpose Ekalavya's autodidactic strivings are central - unable to secure direct tutelage under Drona, Ekalavya creates a clay image of his chosen teacher which inspires his daily practice and enables him to achieve inspiring feats of marksmanship.

I define the Ekalavya Effect as the global phenomena in which students of any persuasion set themselves up to become experts on a specific topic via an iterative process of remote learning.

YouTube is the new Google search and "how to" is trending skyhigh. People search for and find teachers for any imaginable topic on the internet, self-organizing into learning communities.

Here are just a few how-to videos about an arcane topic of interest to me - growing tomatoes using sub-irrigated planters:

So the periphery has become the center, learning is distributed and the experts might just be closer to you than you think. We are all Ekalavyas now. And the Dronas of the world are fiddling their thumbs.

Tim Ferriss Interview

2011-08-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

Avi: Do you have a generic method for hacking some advanced skill set. You seem to have hacked so many advanced topics that you must have a method to your madness!

Tim: Well, I do have a method and it's really a series of questions more than anything else. It's almost a Socratic process but I would say that, first and foremost, I have to have a very clear, measurable objective, whether that's in language acquisition or in power lifting.

The common element is measurement, so you need to know when you have succeeded and how to measure progress to that success point, whether that's a 500 pound dead lift or a 50 kilometer ultra marathon or getting to the point where you can do, let's say, a single lap in an Olympic pool with 15 or fewer strokes. These are all real examples. The number of footfalls, meaning stride rate, per minute in endurance training and how long I can sustain that for say with a goal of 20 minutes at a time. Or a 95 percent fluency in conversational German as measured through different metrics. These are all real examples.

So the first is measurement. I have a clear idea of what success looks like and how to measure it.

Secondly, I will look at the most common approaches, which are, oftentimes, the lowest common denominator but have some thread of efficacy. I will ask, "What if I did the opposite?" I'll look at the established common practices, the established dogma, and ask myself what if I did the opposite.

If it's endurance training, let's look at Iron Man training, and the average is 20-30 hours of training per week for people in the upper profile. What if I limited that to five or fewer hours per week? What would I have to do? How could I make this type of training work or perhaps be more effective if I had to focus on low volume instead of high volume? The same could be said of weight training. The same could be said of language learning.

If someone says it takes a lifetime to learn a language or it should take 10 years, what if I had to compress that into 10 weeks? And if they say that vocabulary comes first because we should learn as we did when we were a child, which I completely disagree with - it's entirely unfounded - what if you were to start with a radical structure?

So, flipping things on their heads and looking at opposites can provide some very surprising discoveries and shortcuts.

Thirdly, I look for anomalies. For any given skill, there's going to be an archetype of someone should be successful at that skill. If it's swimming, for example, it would be someone with the build of Michael Phelps. They would have a long wingspan, relatively tall, big hands, big feet and large lung capacity. So, if I can find someone who defies those anatomical proportions; someone who's 5' 5", extremely heavily muscled, like 250, who is still an effective swimmer, I want to study what the anomalies practice because attributes can compensate for poor training. I want to find someone who lacks the attributes that can allow them to compensate for poor training.

Typically, you find much more refined approaches when you look at the anomalies. That's true for any skill I have looked at, whether that's programming or otherwise. So, let's just take computer programming as an example. If the common belief is that someone should start with language A, then progress to framework B and then progress to language C, if I can find someone who skipped those first two steps and is regarded as one of the best programmers in language C, I'm going to look closely at how they developed that skill set.

Then I would say, lastly, is a set of questions related to rate of progress. So I don't just look at the best people in the world; I look at people who have improved upon their base condition in the shortest period of time possible.

Let's say I'm looking at muscular gain. I would certainly interview the person who's, let's say, 300 pounds and 7% body fat but there's a very good chance that I'll learn more from the person who's put on 50 pounds for the first time in their life in the last 12 months. So, I always try to establish the rate of progress and, when that person has plateaued at different points, for what duration. I find that exceptionally helpful also for finding non-obvious solutions to problems.

Avi: Thanks, I would call that a meta-hack! It might take a while to digest but it could drive a lot of things in many different domains.

Tim: Oh, yeah. That's the framework that I overlay on any skill I'm looking to analyze and hack.

DIY Steam Copper Coil Engine Boat

2011-08-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Pop-Pop or Phat-Phat boats have been a intriguing steam toy for ages. Make your own simple steam pulse engine boat using a refrigeration copper coil, tealight candle, aluminium baking pan and binder clip.

How to make and sell your first ebook in 10 easy steps

2011-07-26T13:33:00.000-07:00

How to make and sell your first ebook in 10 easy steps
by Avi Solomon

Preface

Ereading devices like the Kindle, Nook, Kobo and iPad have reached the tipping point of mass adoption. EPUB is emerging as the universal ebook standard allowing content to be rendered on multiple devices (the Kindle mobi format is a variant of EPUB). Ebooks let you keep a bigger share of the royalties (70% on the Kindle) while providing your work directly to readers around the world at an affordable price. You avoid losing sales by drastically cutting down time to market. There is no "backlist" as ebooks are on sale forever!

Making and selling your first ebook need not be a daunting process restricted to a digital elite. There can be many elaborate ways of making an omlette but sometimes you just need to crack the egg and fry it in the pan! This introductory guide aims to equip you with one possible working path through the confusing and esoteric forests of ebook publishing. It provides you with the (relatively) simple steps you need to take to convert your source text (and images) to a valid epub file that is ready to be published for people to buy and read on their ebook devices.

We will be using Sigil, an open-source, multi-platform WYSIWYG ebook editor to make your first ebook. Let's get started!

Prerequisites

You will be using Sigil to make an ebook. Sigil is an open-source, multi-platform WYSIWYG ebook editor. You can download and install the latest version of Sigil here:
http://code.google.com/p/sigil/

You will also need the Kindle Previewer to test and convert your ebook file to Kindle's mobi format.

Step 1: Prepare your Text

-You need to have content for your ebook!

-Do not skimp on editing your text. It's best to have a fresh pair of eyes peruse your text carefully to find typos and provide feedback.

-Use a basic text editor to edit and save your text as a .txt file.

-Make sure that your text file has UTF-16 encoding.

Step 2: Prepare your Images

-Having a good cover image for your ebook is very important. Keep it bold and simple.

-For universal ereader compatibility size your images under 500(breadth) X 600(height) pixels in .jpg format (the .gif format works better on the Kindle though).

-Your images can be in RGB color but preview them in grayscale mode to ensure that they are legible on ereaders that do not support color.

Step 3: Paste your text into the Sigil EPUB editor

-Open Sigil and Save your file as an .epub (Give your EPUB file a recognizable name).

-Use Insert < Chapter Break to create the chapter sections you need.

-Paste the text for each of your chapters into the Sigil chapter sections.

Step 4: Insert Images

-Use Insert < Image... to place the right image at its correct location in the text.

-Again, to maintain universal ereader compatibility size your images under 500(breadth) X 600(height) pixels in .jpg format.

Tip: Complex tables and non-latin scripts can be inserted as images to prevent errors in rendering.

Step 5: Insert the Cover Image

-Insert a new chapter break using Insert < Chapter Break.

-Right-click on the new section in Sigil's Book Browser and Select Add Semantics < Cover.

-Insert your cover image into the cover section.

-Again, to maintain universal ereader compatibility size your images under 500(breadth) X 600(height) pixels in .jpg format.

Tip: Once you have inserted your cover image and added semantics you can safely delete the cover page from Sigil's Text folder (Before deleting the cover page, save the epub with a kindle specific file name). This prevents cover page doubling on the Kindle, which now renders the cover image from the Images folder. For non-Kindle devices keep the cover page in the epub.

Step 6: Create the Table of Contents

-Go to each chapter and select the text you want to be the heading for that chapter.

-In Sigil's Style with Heading box select the appropriate heading level for that chapter (H1 for Titles, H2 for Authors, H3 for Chapters, H4-H6 for Subsections).

-Go to the Table of Contents box and click Generate TOC from Headings. Sigil will automatically create a table of contents from the heading styles you have applied to your sections.

Note: In order to make your ebook complaint with the Kindle you will need to insert an Inline Table of Contents after your title page.

-Right-click in the Text folder and Add New Item

-Move the new section up and place it after the title section.

-Right-click on the new section in Sigil's Book Browser and Select Add Semantics < Table of Contents.
-Go to View < Split View and paste in this sample code to replace the body tags

-Type in the correct chapter headings and section links. To add more chapter links simply copy and paste a line of code as needed.

-You will need to save and test the Inline Table of Contents page in Book View to see that the section links and chapter tiles match correctly and the links work!

-You can also insert a title for the Table of Contents page between the title tags.

Step 7: Fill out Metadata

-Go to Tools < Meta Editor

-Fill out the Title, Author and Language fields.

-Add additional metadata fields if needed and click OK.

Step 8: Validate your EPUB

-Go to Tools < Validate Epub.

-Sigil will check your EPUB file for errors.

-If the validation message says "No problems found!" then you're good to go. Save your EPUB file and close Sigil.

Tip: If you have an error, copy and Google the exact error message in quotes for guidance on how to fix it!

Step 9: Test your EPUB file on an ereader

-This is an essential step - do not skip it!

-Drag and drop your EPUB file onto your ereader. Open the file in your ereader to see if the table of contents works and the text and images are legible.

-If you don't have a Kindle or ereader use Kindle Previewer or Adobe Digital Editions to preview the EPUB on your computer.

Tip: You can drag and drop the EPUB file directly onto Kindle Previewer to automatically convert it to Kindle's mobi format. Make sure that the Cover, Table of Contents and NCX View buttons work. Browse the ebook to see if everything displays and works correctly. Fix any mistakes and repeat until you are satisfied with the output.

Step 10: Publish your EPUB file for sale on the Amazon.com Kindle store

-Register and upload your ebook at kdp.amazon.com (you will need your Social Security number and a US bank account for this).

-You can upload either your final EPUB file or the mobi file generated by Kindle Previewer.

-Allow for one week or less of processing time.

-Pricing: $2.99 sells the best, sales diminish with every dollar added to the price.

-Follow similar procedures to upload your EPUB file to other ebook vendors like iTunes, Nook and Kobo. Remember that your Amazon ebook can be viewed on the iPad using the Kindle app!

Congratulations! You're now a published author with global reach and a passive income stream!

Moshe Idel The Renascence of Abraham Abulafia in the Last Generation

2011-06-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

Prof. Elliot Wolfson on Abraham Abulafia

2011-03-23T15:41:00.001-07:00

How to Make and Sell your first ebook

2011-02-27T19:11:00.000-08:00

Leo Strauss: On Genesis

2011-02-27T18:47:00.000-08:00

Jacob Klein on Wonder

2011-02-21T05:45:00.000-08:00

"I have said before that within the confines of our horizon there is the expected as well as the unexpected, the old and the new, the known and the unknown, the familiar and the unfamiliar. We do, however, experience a kind of question which, as it were, tends to smash the bounds that limit us. We do occasionally stop altogether and face the familiar as if for the first time — anything: a person, a street, the sky, a fly. The overwhelming impression on such occasions is the strangeness of the thing we contemplate. This state of mind requires detachment, and I am not at all certain to what extent we can contrive its presence. We suddenly do not feel at home in this world of ours. We take a deep look at things, at people, at words, with eyes blind to the familiar. We re-flect.

Plato has a word for it: metastrophe or periagoge, a turnabout, a conversion. We detach ourselves from all that is familiar to us; we change the direction of our inquiry; we do not explore the unknown any more; on the contrary, we convert the known into an unknown. We wonder. And we burst out with that inexorable question: Why is that so?

To be sure, we have raised the question "why" before. I can certainly ask: Why did it snow yesterday and does not snow today? Why did Mr. X say this or that to Mr. Y? But this "why" I am talking about now is of a different kind. It does not lead to any discovery or recovery. It calls myself in question with all my questioning. It compels me to detach myself from myself, to transcend the limits of my horizon; that is, it educates me. It gives me the freedom to go to the roots of all my questioning.

I can begin to understand that even our gossiping may ultimately rest on the transcendent power of this "why"; that even the children's "why", repeated endlessly to the disgust of their mothers and fathers, may ultimately derive from the human possibility of a total conversion."
-Jacob Klein "The Idea of Liberal Education"

Earthrise!

2010-08-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

Dr. Edgar Mitchell Apollo 14 Astronaut's 'Earth from Space' guided meditation:
"Yes,it is not difficult.Having the image of Earth displayed, just relax into a meditative state. Then I guide the audience through a step by step procedure of feeling themselves detached from Earth, and experiencing it from the distant vantage point. Practiced meditators will sometimes go into a samadhi state during the process."

Agantuk: Satyajit Ray's Stranger

2010-08-17T07:12:00.000-07:00

Prof. Robert Sapolsky on Coping with Stress

2010-07-21T15:20:00.001-07:00

Using Screencasts for Effective User Assistance

2010-06-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

Join my Screencasters group on LinkedIn

Prof. Moshe Idel: Abraham Abulafia and the Prophetic Kabbalah

2010-05-31T07:10:00.000-07:00

How To Write a User Manual: An Introduction to Technical Writing

2009-12-22T09:28:00.000-08:00

I am honored and excited to be teaching an introductory course on Technical Writing at Temple University in Center City, Philadelphia

How To Write a User Manual: An Introduction to Technical Writing
We have all been stumped when confronted by unclear procedures in a sloppily written user manual. Rectify this by learning to write clear instructions to produce a usable user manual for any product or process you care about. Avi Solomon, an experienced writer in the high tech industry, will lead you through a reliable, systematic method of technical writing to help you learn to design, write, edit and produce a practical user manual on a topic of your choice.

Session 1: What is Technical Writing?
Introducing Technical Writing, bad vs. good instructions, helping users kick ass!
Exhibit: Haynes Car Manual, Apollo Rocket Manual.

Session 2: How to Write a User Manual: A Systematic Method of Technical Writing
The nuts and bolts of a simple, effective method to write and produce effective user manuals for almost anything. The method consists of the following stages: Research, Task Analysis, Outline, Storyboard, Draft, Edit, Produce.
Exercise: Bring a Product or choose a Process you wish to write a User Manual for.

Session 3: Researching the User Manual
Enlist anthropological fieldwork to your aid, how to work with experts and users, recording data.
Exercise: Conducting Fieldwork.

Session 4: Task Analysis: Mapping the User:Task Matrix
How to organize and analyze the research data into a User:Task Matrix.
Exercise: Creating a User:Task Matrix Table.

Session 5: Outlining the User Manual
How to make an outline of your user manual.
Exercise: Outline your User Manual.

Session 6: Storyboard the User Manual
Storyboarding as a powerful writing tool, storyboard review and feedback.
Exercise: Storyboard your User Manual and conduct a Storyboard Review.

Session 7: Draft the Topics
How to write a procedure, integrating text and visuals.
Exercise: Draft your Topics

Session 8: Editing the User Manual
How to edit your user manual with fresh eyes.
Exercise: Edit your User Manual.

Session 9: Producing the User Manual
Using single sourcing to produce your manual in different output formats.
Exercise: Produce your User Manual.

Session 10: Student Presentations & Conclusion
Each student will present their user manual for critique, next steps in technical writing.

Join the Technical Writing course group on Facebook

How to Grow your own Food with Sub-Irrigating Planters

2009-10-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

During these recessionary times it's a good idea to try and grow some of your own food to cultivate your sense of independence.

President Truman urges Americans to grow food

Many are daunted by this 'complicated' prospect and give up on the idea prematurely. But there is a simple, 'slam dunk' way to grow your own food: using Sub-Irrigating Planters or SIPs.

A SIP Patent from 1917

You can make your own SIPs from open-source instructions using 5 gallon buckets and Earthtainers or buy commercial models like the EarthBox or Grow Box.

Sub-Irrigating Planters have a water compartment on the bottom with a "wick" of wet soil that lets the plants water themselves as needed using the power of capillary action. A water overflow hole indicates that the SIP is full and prevents you from drowning the plants:)

Self-Irrigating Planters can be easily setup even in high-rise apartments, eliminate weeds and pests, give high yields of organic "local" fruits and vegetables and save you money. All you have to do is to water them every few days and pick the harvest!

I setup four EarthBoxes early this spring on my South Street apartment's deck and reaped great results.

South Street Brandywine Tomatoes

We have not bought any tomatoes at the supermarket since May!
We have also enjoyed many intangible blessings like witnessing the miraculous visits of butterflies and bees to pollinate the tomatoes and the delectable satisfaction of watching and eating food we have grown. Bon appetit!

Birthing a Mother: The Surrogate Body and the Pregnant Self

2009-08-05T17:40:00.000-07:00

My wife Dr. Elly Teman's superb ethnography of Surrogate Motherhood is now available on Amazon:)

Birthing a Mother is the first ethnography to probe the intimate experience of gestational surrogate motherhood.

In this beautifully written and insightful book, Dr. Elly Teman shows how surrogates and intended mothers carefully negotiate their cooperative endeavor.

Drawing on anthropological fieldwork among Jewish-Israeli women, interspersed with cross-cultural perspectives of surrogacy in the global context, Teman traces the processes by which surrogates relinquish any maternal claim to the baby even as intended mothers accomplish a complicated transition to motherhood.

Teman's groundbreaking analysis reveals that as surrogates psychologically and emotionally disengage from the fetus they carry, they develop a profound and lasting bond with the intended mother.

Teman shows how a potentially alienating experience for the surrogate becomes empowering and how the experience is transformed into a "hero's journey" through which they overcome very real personal obstacles with commitment and determination.

The result is a book that demolishes the myth of the "womb for rent" and powerfully affirms a joint project in which one woman assists another, through sacrifice and instruction, to become-also-a mother.

Birthing a Mother: The Surrogate Body and the Pregnant Self
by Dr. Elly Teman
University of California Press, 2010

Natural Building with Cob

2009-05-28T11:42:00.000-07:00

Leo Strauss Speaks

2009-04-16T18:28:00.000-07:00

Esther: A Spy Story?

2009-02-26T06:55:00.000-08:00

Some things in the Scroll of Esther make sense only on the assumption that Mordechai was running a spy ring in the royal palace that included the enuchs and that Esther was a newly minted spy on her first, crucial assignment:

- How exactly was Ahasuerus' order to Vashti worded by the enuchs who delivered the message to her?(1.10-12)

-Memucam suggests and the King accepts(1.21 )

-The servants suggest and the King accepts, Hegai is nominated(2.4)

-Mordechai has daily channels of communication with Esther(2.11)

-Esther follows Hegai's advice(2.15)

-Esther obeys Mordechai( 2.20)

-How did Mordechai know all about Haman's plot, including access to secret royal documents(4.7-8)

-Mordechai prods a reluctant Esther to act(4.13-14)

-Esther might have given an anti-sleep potion to Ahasuerus at the first wine feast( 6.1)

-How did the King's servants know to open the annals exactly on Mordechai's page?(6.2)

-Esther compromises Haman(7.8)

Purim Sameach!

Avi @ boingboing

2009-02-21T14:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a list of entries I submitted that got published at BoingBoing:

Comet Lovejoy + Total Recall = awesome

Quest, a Saul Bass short fim based on Bradbury's "Frost and Fire"

Podcast of "The Machine Stops"

1923 animated film about Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

Digi-Comp 1 emulator toy for learning the foundations of computers

Voynich Manuscript online

ICanStalkU twitterbot nags Twitter users about disclosing their location

Kid builds working farm equipment out of Lego

HOWTO get a DIY education and credentials online

HOWTO get a free Stanford Comp Sci education

India's Phat Phats: ingenious steam-powered toy boats

HealCam: a ChatRoulette for health

Deploying the British Granny Cloud to tutor Indian classrooms over Skype

HOWTO make a spherical multitouch interactive globe

Highly recommended: New Ted Chiang novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects"

Learn like a kindergartner all your life: play, design and share

Linda Stone on email apnea and continuous partial attention

HOWTO teach kids to be makers

Bollywood music video set in Walt Disney World, 1977

Animals at Play: ethology for kids shows that play is universal

Ideo's Human Centered Design Toolkit, free download

Sympathetic ethnography of surrogate mothers

Sapolsky's outstanding Stanford lecture on "The Uniqueness of Humans"

Mickey Mouse comics drawn by concentration camp prisoner

Scans of Google Books with fingers in them

Hi-rez lunar astronaut portrait scans

Evolution, religion, schizophrenia and the schizotypal personality

Papercraft Wing Commander spaceships

Art from Basil Wolverton's Bible

Brain Rules: Oliver Sacks meets GETTING THINGS DONE, paperback ships, DVD goes free

Studio portraits of Mumbai's itinerant nomads

Stanford's Sapolsky on primate sexuality: funny, fascinating, educational

Sapolsky on primate sexuality part two: required viewing for the horny

Ted Chiang's story Exhalation -- free podcast

IDEO's deck of "Method Cards" for doing humane design

Stanford's Sapolsky and National Geo produce a documentary on stress

Black Swan author's rules for living

Heat maps of the world, colored by news-agencies' reporting on each country

Explaining food vs. nutrition: Michael Pollan talks at Google

Ex-IDEO lectures on creativity and management

Rare MLK speech on civil disobedience

Podcast of Ted Chiang's THE MERCHANT AND THE ALCHEMIST'S GATE

XO laptop -- a green miracle of energy efficiency: Video

Douglas Adams lecture: "Is there an artificial god?"

HOWTO build a yurt

Globalization of snacks: Vada Pav (TM) to kick McDonalds' ass in India

Indian epic Ramayana as comic

Corridor: a graphic novel of India

India's first professional DJ academy

Amul Indian Butter Ad Archive

Charles Darwin on Tsunamis (1835)

Yale Photonegatives Collection

Radio Free Mars

Psychology of bad probability estimation: why lottos and terrorists matter

Ghost dance video from "India's filmic Shakespeare"

Bollywood-star mudflaps

Indian infocomic: Yoga At Home

Help track down versions of King Solomon's Ring

Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell's Message Board

Slides from wonderful "engineering climate change" talk

Get your fresh, raw Mars image data right here, folks

Dogs that know when their owners are coming home experiment

Disney's 10 rules of theme-park design

Peter Ward dives to meet a wild Nautilus

Merlin Mann's productivity talk at IDEO

In memoriam: Parveen Babi, Bollywood Diva

The Nmap Revisited

6th man on moon says space aliens are real (and have visited us)

American Legion WWII posters

Letter to Uriel

2009-01-31T06:53:00.000-08:00

'Regimen of Health' by Maimonides

2009-01-30T05:04:00.000-08:00

". . . It is known to our sovereign, may God prolong his days, that the passions of the soul greatly alter the body in ways obvious to any observer. Consider a man with a powerful build, booming voice, and radiant face. If he were suddenly to receive news which greatly saddened him, in that instant you would see his complexion become pale, the radiance of his face fade, his bearing slacken, and his voice drop. Even if he were to struggle to raise his voice, he would not be able to. His strength would wane, he might tremble because of weakness, his pulse would diminish, his eyes would become hollow, his lids would become too heavy to move, his skin would turn cold, and his appetite would subside. The cause of all of these effects would be the natural heat and the blood withdrawing deeper into the body.

Conversely, consider an individual with a weak body, pale complexion, and feeble voice. If he were notified about something which greatly delighted him, you would see his body become strong, his voice rise, his face brighten, his movements quicken, his pulse increase, his skin warm up, and joy and delight become so apparent that he would not be able to conceal them. The cause of all of these effects would be the movement of the natural heat and the blood toward the surface of the body.

The characteristics of the fearful, anxious person and of the confident, relaxed person are known; similarly, the characteristics of the vanquished and of the victorious are obvious. Whoever is vanquished can hardly see anythings because his visual spirit is diminished and dissipated. However, the vision of the victorious person increases in such a massive way that the light of the atmosphere appears to have increased and grown. This is so obvious that it is not necessary to dwell on it.

For this reason physicians have recommended constant concern for, and awareness about, the soul's movements, as well as concern for putting them into equilibrium at the time of health and sickness-giving no other treatment precedence in any way. The physician should desire that every sick person and every healthy person be constantly cheerful and relieved of the passions of the soul causing depression. In this way the health of the healthy will endure. This is foremost in curing every sick person, especially those whose sickness pertains to the soul-like those with hypochondria and morbid melancholia. Indeed, concern about the soul's movements ought to be strongest for these people, as well as for anyone overwhelmed by worry, obsessive thoughts, apprehension about things not such as to produce apprehension, or anyone who is only slightly cheerful about cheerful things. For all of these people, the skillful physician should place nothing ahead of improving the condition of their souls by removing these passions.

However, insofar as he is a physician, the physician ought not to expect his art to provide knowledge of how to remove these passions. Indeed, this understanding is acquired from practical philosophy and from the admonitions and disciplines of the Law. For just as the philosophers have composed books about the various sciences, so too have they composed many books about improving moral habits and disciplining the soul to acquire the moral virtues so that only good actions stem from it.

They warn against the moral imperfections and teach every man who finds one of these moral habits in his soul the way to eradicate it so that the state of character leading to all evil actions disappears. Similarly, the disciplines of the Law, admonitions, maxims taken from the prophets (may peace be upon them) or from their followers, and knowledge of their virtuous lives improve the moral habits of the soul so that it obtains virtuous dispositions and only good actions stem from it.

Therefore you find these passions have a very great influence only on those individuals having no knowledge of philosophic ethics or the disciplines and admonitions of the Law-such as youths, women, and foolish men. For due to the excessive tenderness of their souls, these people become anxious and despair. If harm touches them and one of the calamities of this world befalls them, anxiety increases and that they cry out, weep, slap their cheeks, and beat their breasts. Sometimes the misfortunes become so great in their eyes that one of them dies, either immediately or after a while, due to the worry and grief which overwhelm him.

Similarly, if these individuals obtain one of the goods of this world, their joy thereby increases. Due to their souls being poorly disciplined, such individuals suppose that they have obtained a very great good, and their wonder and exultation greatly magnify what they have obtained. Because of that, they are greatly moved and their laughter and frivolity increase to the point that some of them die from excessive joy. This is due to exhaustion of the spirit from the intensity of its suddenly tending to be outside of itself, as Galen mentioned. The cause of all this is the soul's excessive tenderness and its ignorance of the truth of things.

Now it is persons trained in philosophic ethics or in the disciplines and admonitions of the Law whose souls acquire courage. These are the truly courageous; their souls are only swayed and affected in the slightest possible way. The more training an individual has, the less he is affected by either of the two conditions-I mean, the condition of prosperity or of adversity. Even if he obtains one of the greater goods of this world, which are the ones the philosophers call presumed goods, he is not moved by that; nor do those goods become great in his eyes. Similarly, if one of the greater evils of this world befalls him, which are the ones the philosophers call presumed evils, he does not become anxious nor despair, but endures it nobly.

A man acquires this disposition in his soul by considering the truth of things and by knowing the nature of existence. Even if a man possessed the greatest good of this world during his whole life, it would be very insignificant, because it is a perishable thing and because man, like all the other kinds of animals, must die. Similarly, if the greatest evil of this world is contrasted with death, which is inevitable, that evil is undoubtedly inferior to death. Therefore one should be less affected by that evil, since it is inferior to what is inevitable.

It is fitting that the philosophers called the goods and evils of this world, presumed goods and presumed evils. Indeed, how many of those goods are presumed to be good while being in truth evil, and how many of those evils are presumed to be evil while being in truth good? Again, how vast an amount of money and how many vain possessions has a man acquired which caused the corruption of his body, the degeneration of his soul through moral imperfections, the shortening of his life, his drawing away from God (may He be exalted), and separation between him and his Creator? Does that not give him everlasting misery? Moreover, how much money has been stolen from a man or how many possessions wrested away which caused the improvement of his body, the ennobling of his soul with moral virtues, the lengthening of his life, and his coming closer to his Creator by devoting himself to His worship? Does that not give him everlasting happiness?

Now the servant could speak about the length or shortness of life only by relying upon the opinion of the physicians, the philosophers, and some of the adherents of the religious laws prior to Islam. In sum, most of what the multitude presumes to be happiness is in truth misery, while most of what it presumes to be misery is in truth happiness.

It is not the purpose of this treatise to explain the truth of these matters, to comment on them, and to teach the ways to them. Much has already been composed concerning this in every age and by every wise nation which has studied the sciences. The servant only offered this advice as an indication of how to accustom the soul to diminish the passions by studying books on ethics, the disciplines of the Law, the admonitions, and the maxims spoken by intelligent men. In that way the soul will be strengthened and will see the true as true and the false as false. Thus the passions will diminish, (obsessive)thoughts will disappear, apprehension will be removed, and the soul will be cheerful in whatever condition a man happens to be.

Here is a very good thing to reflect upon. By it, bad thoughts, worries, and griefs are diminished. Sometimes they can even be completely destroyed, if a man holds this reflection foremost in his mind: Namely, whenever a man thinks about something that distresses him, and worry, grief, or sadness crop up in him, it can be due only to one of two things: either he is thinking about a matter that has already taken place, like someone who thinks about something that happened to him, such as the loss of his money, or about the death of someone dear to him; or else he is thinking about matters he expects and whose advent he dreads, like someone who thinks and talks about the advent of any disaster he expects. Now intellectual reflection teaches that thinking about what has taken place and has happened is of no benefit at all, and that sadness and grief about matters that have passed and gone are due to faulty understanding. There is no difference between a man's being grieved because of the loss of his money or similar things and his being grieved because he is a man and not an angel or a planet, or similar thinking about impossible things.

On the basis of this reflection, acts of thinking leading to depression about something that is expected to come to pass in the future ought also to be abandoned. That is because everything that a man expects is within the realm of possibility: it may take place or it may not take place. Hence, just as he becomes distressed and grieves lest what he expects occur, so too he ought to delight his soul with anticipation and hope that perhaps the opposite of what he expects will take place. After all, the expected matter and its opposite are both possible."

-Maimonides, On the Management of Health, Chapter 3

Abraham Abulafia: A Starter Kit

2009-01-03T06:11:00.000-08:00

Abraham Abulafia: A Starter Kit
Amnon Gross, the editor of Abulafia's complete works in Hebrew