AlwaysSababa

Download the episode in ogg format or mp3 format.

This episode of the BrainMeats! podcast is about education. What should it look like? How do we get ourselves there? Where do we find teachers for the future?

A friend of mine, Gorm Nykreim, has coined a word to describe the emotion of wanting to share memes with friends and others. The word is "Memious". He based the word on another word in English, "Envious". When you feel envy, you want what other people have. When you feel memy, you want to share the ideas that you have come across. The more that I think about this, though, the more I think that memiousness is far more than just sharing ideas.

On Saturday night, my friend Heidi Johnson asked me if I would be willing to go with her over to her friend's house to see if we could help get her labor started. She was two weeks over due and if she hadn't given birth by Tuesday morning, the doctors were either going to induce her or go straight for a C-section. Sunday day I was busy most of the day at the Moon Lodge Spa in Issaquah where I've been doing some consulting work. I told Heidi that I'd come by and get her when I got off work, and we could go over to her friend's house together.

For a long time now, I've had a category on my website for "Spirit" that I've barely used at all. It's just sitting there, waiting to be called up. The problem is, every time I think of writing something in this category, I think to myself, "Is that appropriate for a professional website?" Thing is, this is the place I send people who are considering hiring me as a writer, a programmer, an educational consultant or an instructor.

Veterans Day in the USA. It's a bit strange to me after living in Israel for a few years. There's just not the level of seriousness and respect for the sacrifices of the military here as there is there. Maybe it's because most of us don't have to face those sacrifices in the US, because the threats to our security seems so far away, or because many of us feel that our military has been involved with a great many less-than-honorable battles.

When I saw this image on Facebook today, two feelings hit me at the exact same time. One feeling was triumph of the people over abusive authority. The other feeling was fear for the abuse of "The People" over police officers who are really just trying to do their job.

Download the episode in ogg format or mp3 format.

The inaugural episode of the BrainMeats podcast is devoted to the Occupy movement and what hackers and makers can do to support the protesters on the ground.

There are many critics who claim that the one thing the Occupy movement is really lacking is any coherence. What they need, these critics tell us, is a consistent statement of demands. Occupy Berkeley decided that they should give the critics what they want. They aren't the first to try to do this, and I'll bet that they won't be the last. As far as I'm concerned, though, even attempting to create a single list of demands is completely missing what the Occupy movement could accomplish

There is a video that went viral in the early days of Occupy Seattle. It shows Seattle protesters on the march waiting at a corner when the light turns red for them. There is a protester crossing-guard who is making sure that people in the march aren't breaking the rules.

There has been a lot of talk in the press about the demographics of the Occupy Wall Street protests and their Occupy Everywhere analogs around the US and around the world. I am baffled at how wrong some of the press seems to be getting some of the information.