BTR 04.14.16

Wow .. it has been a while since I've published on this blog.  That comes to a sudden halt with the closing end of April 2016. 

Beyond the Ripples (BTR) is set to make a regular appearance here and on three other blog platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and more. 

In light of the mission of BTR - 'to seek the path of where Ripples lead us' ... an activity wholly immersed in the 'life is an adventure' mantra -- this piece will address a condition that has taken on dire consequences in the United States and will be found affecting -and is already heavily affected- throughout the world:  Education - or more -sadly- appropriate - the Lack of It.

In this mornings postings on one of my Facebook channels, a friend posted an interesting link to an article from the British news source, The Guardian. The article is entitled, "We need fewer exams and more wilderness in education.". The author, Ben Fogle, deals with the problems found in Britain with kids being kept too confined in their socially-engineered worlds of the current education system.  Anecdotal and now research and statistical data show that today's graduates are under educated, numbed to learning, illiterate, unimaginative and morosely out-of-touch with the natural world. And in turn, themselves and other humans. 

The article:  http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/dec/17/we-need-fewer-exams-and-more-wilderness-in-education

A change needs to occur and soon, if we hope to survive the onslaught of the SEES.

Here is the reply I made.

Yes... ANGRY is what the current state of "diseducation" has me feeling. Outright indignation, offended and angry!!!

The 'system' is run by social engineers - NOT educators. The purpose, much like that of the Commercial system today - all about profits!

Profits - to the 'education world', are seen in the forms of ... funding, grants, advancement and eventually...power. It certainly is not about the true course of an education path:

'Passing on to the next generation both knowledge and the developing understanding, that comes from, inspiring a lifelong love for learning.'

How many kids today .. yearn to learn? That is a truly endangered species...!

The source of the problem lies at the feet of Administrative Management and Government. The two entities that have hijacked education and turned it into a Dystopian engineered monstrosity of waste, corruption and destruction.

This is where the cancer begins. It is also where it should end.

There are many good, qualified and dedicated educators, who are made to suffer this social-engineering of the education process. But there are, as well, many among the ranks of the teaching establishment, who are drunk with the Kool-Aid of 'Administrative Education's' elixir of, "Statisticology". These have become the educator-zombies, doing the bidding of the leaders of today's --

Socially Engineered Education System (SEES).

When Politics entered Education, the end of real, worthwhile education -anchored in passing on knowledge and a life-long love for learning- was re-anchored into a channel for extinction.

Kids coming out of these 'SEES' indoctrinated systems, are in dire need of a "diseducation" overhaul. Every employer, in nearly every market, has witnessed - painfully - the results on a workforce littered with illiterate entrants.

Ask any employer about the hiring and firing process their HR personnel endure every 90 days. Those willing to be truthful, will enlighten (read: frighten!) you with the stories of hiring people who are overall incapable- beyond a narrow slit of 'training'. Making it near an impossible task to hire good, qualified, knowledgeable employees.

They have to 'make do' with an inferior employee ... OR ... do what many have done ... activate the Green Card Option and import foreign students who are far better educated.

This is a case of the dog biting its own tail in-spite of the pain.

From **Within** is the most damning and damaging source of social destruction. For it is not caused by external influence or trauma, but internal neglect ... even outright conscious sabotage.

A very sad state-of-affairs greets us today. Even sadder the ongoing 'Emperor's New Clothes' charade is continually bantered and paraded by well-meaning, but richly ignorant supporters.

"We grope along the wall like blind men, We grope like those who have no eyes; We stumble at midday as in the twilight, Among those who are vigorous we are like dead men." - Isaiah 59:10

One who SEES but is truly blind.

And this, is but the beginning.... 

BTR

BTR 02.01.2012

Beyond The Ripples (BTR) (beyonddaripples on Twitter and associated accounts) is turning up the press action.  BTR has been - albeit sporadic - published on several different platforms.  Carrying many of the same posts - and some specific to a platform.  That type of 'publication' will continue, but with a far more regular beat than in the past.
BTR has added Pinterest to its stable of Online Presence Tools (OPT) - with a twist.  Instead of BTR: Pinterest, being solely occupied by the single-category Beyond The Ripples; BTR-Pinterest PINS in four categories, corresponding to four OPT's, currently directed, produced, and published, by the parent, NET500.CG:

• Beyond The Ripples
• YOSAKIME
• O'fieldstream
• i65 Design+Media

Beyond The Ripples ... the same eclectic sorties of serendipitous wonder that I've been collecting for over 5 years, will now appear on the beyondtheripples.postersous.com and beyondtheripples.net500.com.
Yes, I know ... I am very derelict in my duty of posting regularly, my uncovered treasures.  But, my dereliction has also provided an interesting perspective and blogging opportunity:

• Older Entries:  normally post-dated - instead - will be added to a specific BTR Blog and BTR-Pinterest.
  • In the archives of BTR captures are several stories - that are time-sensitive - meaning they are more historical in nature and thus now being placed in an interestingly different sub-category.
  • The blog a beyondtheripples.wordpress.com will become the BTR. Archives Revealed blog. High-lighting stories and bits of interest from the 'old days' of the Internet ... and earlier technologies.
• Commercial Entries: will now be presented in a BTR: Commerce, sponsored information format [see NOTE below for details on retained integrity!!]
  • At roughly the same time the beyondtheripples.blogspot.com will become the BTR.Commerce blog. BTR:C will highlight products, services, and other commercially interesting information, I find of interest. For the sake of Full Disclosure, I will say that some of the commercial entries found on BTR: C will be promotions for sponsors.
  • A NOTE about potential sponsors on the BTR: C blog:
  • In no way will BTR: C be a whitewash for inferior commercial products or services. Any sponsor BTR: C acquires will be at our choosing and not the result of 'trolls looking for Internet space'.  Beyond The Ripples is a 'SNEEZER' .. NOT a 'Wheezer'. Our commitment to serendipity finds remains the same.  Even if the finds appearing on BTR: C is less serendipitous and more advantageous, you can be confident BTR is looking after its own legitimacy in order to remain relevant, legitimate, and valuable to you the BTR reader.

YOSAKIME ... is an OPT I write personally about my struggle with MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity); a growing disorder that is the result of a compromised immune system, no longer capable of buffering against the onslaught of the chemical wash humanity is forced to live, eat and breath. Much of humanity is already in its grasp and they don't even know it.

My hope is to help the growing MCS community educate the rest of humanity before it's too late.

BTR.YOSAKIME  will highlight information I glean from my serendipitous Internet finds, as well as from information sent directly to me, by various news, health, and personal sources worldwide.

For more information on the YOSAKIME OPT, read the YOSAKIME.posterous page.

O'fieldstream ... is another OPT I write about the topic of Nature, Outdoors, Environment, Heritage, Activities.  The focus is primarily on the Outdoor Heritage Activities, listed on this page at the O'fieldstream Journals (OFSJ) blog.  This is a site devoted to all elements of the Outdoor Heritage Activities: agreeable and disagreeable with portions of society.  This site is not politically-correct, nor will become such. OFSJ deals with the reality of nature and the proven actions of mankind’s balanced interactions with it. Keyword: Balanced.  This is the purpose of OFSJ, to provide a return platform for 'balanced interaction with nature'.  Both sides of many issues have gotten off-track.  Everyone is paying for this unproductive and unnecessary deviation.

Items PINed on BTR/Ofieldstream will be interesting tidbits of information gleaned from my Internet journeys, from my own writings, and from information sent to me from a variety of sources online.

i65 Design+Media  (i65D+M) … is an OPT that forms the business end of my online presence.  As a graphic designer, site developer, publisher, and marketer - I decided to hang my shingle out in public a few months back. Up until now, I’ve been exclusively dedicated to a few accounts I have nurtured over the years.  With CHANGE comes CHANGE.  As the tag-line for my parent-umbrella entity states:  Know Ripples, Know Change.  No Ripples, No Change.  
On i65D+M/Pinterest you will find an interesting bit on design, photography, technology, illustration, publishing, marketing … all the elements of my interests developed over the years in the design field.

OK.  There you have it. The explanation for the new Faces of BTR.  I hope this will prove an enjoyable, and hopefully valuable publication of information for you and your readers, clients, colleagues, and friends.  

DO!... let us know what you think of the idea and what we PIN on the BTR.Pinterest site.  

#btrcom

Posted via email from Beyond The Ripples

Terry Gross, NPR - Fresh Air, Interview

Terry Gross, NPR/Fresh Air, interview w/Matt Richtel, NY Times Tech Ed., "Your Brain on Computers": MUST LISTEN. http://ow.ly/2u96h #n5com

BTR 10.23.09 - Leadership

From the perspective of history, comes this article, found in the stacks of Inc. magazine, comes a bit of a timely, useful and much needed shot of information. Dare I say it even contains a healthy dose of wisdom? Yes on both counts; I do and there is.

With the vantage of 2 years of hindsight, might we not learn from our recent history, that the following article has some real merit? It's workting for those who practice; it doesn't for those who don't. Can we not draw a clear conclusion? If not, what - other than ego - stands in the way of clarity..? I submit whatever it is should be removed before permanent damage results.

I _really_ suggest this be a slow and deliberate read. Re-read it - whether you think it's necessary or not. It is!

In Praise of Selflessness
Why the best leaders are servants

By Leigh Buchanan | May 1, 2007 Inc. Magazine

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20070501/managing-leadership.html

#btrcom

Posted via email from Beyond The Ripples

BTR 08.AUG.2009

'What's in a name?' 

A question asked many times by equally many pondering minds. Value. Honor. Family. Origin. Future. Regret. These and many more make up the sum of the names we carry; assigned or assumed. Writers, in many cases, write under 'assumed names' - referred to as PEN NAMES or in the French tongue, Nom de plume. A bit of a travel among the stacks of Wikipedia provided this tidbit on the art of writing under an assumed name.

In today's venue of communication offerings, eMAIL has grown to unimaginable levels in just the past 10 years. How we send these tiny digital bits of yak 'n frak, is as varied as the options offered in a Google on the subject. But another matter entirely arises when we decide the archival and recall of our online correspondence is important. There are a number of offerings; and I personally use more than one. Mostly because I am constantly kicking the .exe files to see what's new. And partly because I just haven't found that 'perfect' email reader/storage/recall tool.  

Maybe we have gotten a bit closer with the offering from a group called POSTBOX-INC.COM. PostBox-Inc.com is not a free tool, but neither is it cost prohibitive. At $30, if it works as well as it is promoted to, then it will be well worth it and well on its way to providing a more 'total solution' package. It's free to download. I have and will be testing it soon. But I still won't give up my Gmail accounts! Nope. I like and enjoy the versatility and access freedom far too much to look elsewhere... yet.

And with that I segue into the next item. As mentioned I use Gmail .. a LOT (> 45 accounts, presently! ... and I use them all day, by-the-minute!). With all those accounts and all that email: I also rarely delete any email deemed worthy of keeping: I obviously don't want to 'loose' my email. So, like all good computer technology practices DATA BACKUP is a 'good thing'. A REAL GOOD THING!!

I began looking for ways to gather groups of email within my various Gmail accounts and send them in .zip compressed files to people wanting such information. I have yet to find such a resolution (hint, hint! please let me know if you KNOW of such a tool or technique!) - but I did find a neat tool for backing up my Gmail email accounts. The took is called Gmail BACKUP - odd eh? - and is a 3rd party product produced by a couple of enterprising Czechs. I can't give a 'thumbs up or down' on this as I've not tried it yet. But it sure looks easy enough to execute. I will test and provide my findings in an 'update' - on this page - when I do.

While I'm on NEW STUFF ... Adobe^® has come out with a cool tool called the BrowserLab. It's essentially a browser testing tool - for your web designs - all under one FLASH roof. Actually this is a very welcome tool. I only took it for a quick turn around the block, but it sure did the trick on finding the kinks and offering solutions in a quick design. Not sure what ALL it will do, but knowing Adobe as well as I do! - they will have it tricked out and downright indispensable within couple of versions; if not sooner.

The good folks over at photo store'n'share giant, Flickr have come up with a very cool tool, currently in (Beta), called Flickroom [note the shared 'r' in the spelling!]. The idea here is to have a Lightroom-like viewing window in which to view all of your Flickr goodies ... and those of your Flickr associations; established or serendipitous! Flickroom is based upon the Adobe^® Air technology. Quite slick, but a bit slow on older machines [read: impossible!! FLASH 10 is NOT usable on OS X below 10.4 or Vista]. And now it's time for a bit of spawned btr editorial comment. Two (2) topics today...

[1] I am a web designer - have been for 15 years - and I really, no longer, design for legacy technology. I did this in my early years. Beat myself to death trying to make my web designs work for every platform. I stopped. It was not worth the effort. If you choose to design with cutting shelf technology, then do so without looking over your shoulder. But, if you must design looking back, then drop the box of goodies you just found in the latest-n-greatest what's-new-in-online-technology-bundle and stick to the basics of HTML and forget about 'cool' looking. Just the facts is all 'Joe Friday HTML' is looking for. This might grate in the craw of those who try to say we 'must' design for legacy data and those who are still 'behind' in their run-toward-technology. My response is still the same. I've not seen the data to support the so-called, lagging-element. What I do see is a lot of people who choose NOT to update - for whatever reason [most of it being 'fear-based' .. ie, primarily: fear of change]. But I don't see people still using WIN 98, NT or 2000 complaining their machines can't do ____ (fill-in-the-blank). The same goes for legacy users of Mac 9.0 or lower. By far, the majority of these users are not interested in updating. Thus they either are unaware of new offerings or just don't care. For them, their computer is an 'IBM selectric upgrade', nothing more. Fine. Let's understand this and move forward, NOT trying to drag the disinterested along and everyone else - including technology advancement - down.

[2] Flickroom DOES ask to have FULL, unfettered access, to your Flickr account; both public and private material. So, if you are not willing to have the items marked PRIVATE in your Flickr account, Go Public! - then I would say, 'steer clear of this tool opportunity'. I have nothing to hide in my data, but I do have a few Flickr sites for certain art and marketing projects that I use for 'private storage' and/or communication between a small group of specific colleagues. Thus the material is NOT for general (aka: Public!) consumption. That's why Flickr has the PRIVATE settings! However, if you activate this 3rd party extension, you will be negating the 'Private' portion of ANY Flickr account you give discovery access to this software. Flickroom is still a very cool tool, but this is something to be aware of.

OK. Peachbox Platform is ...OFF!

I love technology as much as the next nerd, but there is no replacement for running and romping outdoors, no matter what age you are. Kids need to get outside and play. I grew up on a small creek, surrounded by riparian buffers of old growth Hoosierland hardwoods. My playtime was spent amid trees, fish, tadpoles, mud and all the fun and mess that goes along with it. I would not trade that for anything. So the next item is near and dear to me and it was a wonderful serendipitous find. The folks over at GlobalFisher.com have teamed up with a design firm called RED DIRT and a very impressive gathering of outdoor artists (my friend Bob White of WhiteFishStudio.comis one!), to produce a great site for kids called Fishy Kid.

FishyKid is right down my aisle. It's about teaching kids the values of fishing, knowledge of the natural world, respect for environment and the lifelong values each of these areas bring to life. Do check it out and get you kids involved in the FishyKid Coloring Contest.

If you want to see the influence natural beauty has upon the life of the person who participates in such endeavors and for those influenced by such a person, then visit the site of Yoshikazu Fujioka called, Trouts and Seasons of a Mountain Village. Yoshi is an amazing artist and a wonderfully gentle man. I have no doubt anyone visiting this site will do as I did back in 1997 when I first stumbled upon it - just after Yoshi had first released his new web site. And like then, I find myself everynow and then re-entering this Japanese Brigadoon. Once again, being swept up in its magical mystery and then leaving it only to return by serendipitous encounter again a few years later.

This is why I love the act of serendipitous encounter. Why I write the Beyond The Ripples.

Until later ...

BTR

Posted via email from Beyond The Ripples' posterous