The Spazz Talks About...

(Please click on the link bellow to read the article(s)in full. Thank you. tkm)

Hi Folks,
As the mass media is preoccupied with the past ten years I would like to take you back to a time of high craftsmanship and art.
Both a lesson and a model for our younger generation to emulate.
To bad governments can not create "Arts and Crafts" zones* to attract
talent, ideas and a fertile environment. Izmir, Bursa, Antalya, etc..etc.. and then have smaller zones in many smaller cities.
Enjoy,
tkm
*trade, science, technology....



Oskar Schlemmer. Bauhaus Stairway. 1932. Oil on canvas

Bauhaus movement:
http://www.arthistoryguide.com/Bauhaus.aspx

The Bauhaus movement is a school of art, architecture and design characterized by geometric design, respect for practical material, and its severely economic sensibilities. The Bauhaus movement was founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 in Germany and ended in the 1930’s. Gropius coined the term Bauhaus as an inversion of the word meaning ‘house construction’ or ‘Hausbau’. Gropius taught at a school which focused on functional craftsmanship, and his students were guided to focus on designs that could be mass produced. The Bauhaus school had some famous teachers which included Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Marcel Breuer. The Bauhaus movement continues to influence us today, where any modern environment often incorporates elements of the period. The ideas of the Bauhaus creators have influenced architecture, furniture, typography, and weaving. Famous artists of the Bauhaus movement include Lyonel Feininger, Johannes Itten, Franz Marc, Georg Muche, and Oskar Schlemmer.
(I advice you to read the full artical(s), Link is above. - tkm)

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http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-Bauhaus-restored-4332

The Bauhaus restored

by Michael J. Lewis

On “Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

The Bauhaus lasted exactly as long as Germany’s Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and is its principal cultural achievement. But the revolutionary school of art and design is also an achievement of modernism itself, for it answered a most vexing question: Was it possible to make a viable institution out of a movement that had arisen out of conflict with institutional authority, and which drew its focus, vitality, and sense of purpose from that conflict? Merely to demolish one bastion of academic authority, such as the imperious École des Beaux Arts, and to replace it with another would hardly have been worth the struggle.

One forgets that modernism before the Bauhaus was a volatile, many-sided, centrifugal affair and that there was little reason to believe that its various factions and groupings—whether Cubist, Futurist, or Constructivist—could ever make common cause. At times, their insistence on stylistic orthodoxy could rival that of the École (one thinks of El Lissitzky and Malevich purging Chagall from the Vitebsk School of Art). Yet the Bauhaus, by enforcing no aesthetic conformity and by promulgating no official style, proved to all that a modernist institution need not repeat the failings of its academic predecessors. Such an omnivorous and receptive stance was perhaps only possible in Germany, which, historically, had been accustomed to draw on the lessons of France, Italy, and elsewhere and to mix the results freely.

Whatever the reasons, the Bauhaus demonstrated that modernism could function as a collective enterprise in an institutional setting, and still give the student the widest scope for individual expression. It is this extraordinary achievement that has created the mythic Bauhaus of the imagination, a shrine where artists toiled away in happy accord, savoring the idyllic fellowship of the guild—much as the eighteenth century had imagined Periclean Athens, or the nineteenth the great cathedral-building lodges of the Middles Ages.


Peter Keler -Bauhaus Cradle

Of course it was nothing of the sort. During its brief existence, the Bauhaus was in a state of ceaseless, tumultuous change. It had three homes—Weimar, Dessau, and Berlin—and three directors, each of whom experimented restlessly with the curriculum as faculty came and went. Over time, its ethos shifted dramatically from a singular blend of Expressionist sentiment and Arts and Crafts practice to an emphasis on machine production and standardization. As the school matured, it quickly grew in self-confidence and sense of institutional mission, especially among the faculty, which took on a double-distilled intensity when former students such as Marcel Breuer, Joseph Albers, and Herbert Bayer were added to the roster. Now came the most sweeping and radical proposals, as the Bauhaus raised its sights from the transformation of the young art student to the comprehensive transformation of the world itself, from its cities and houses to the typography of books and advertisements. For the historian, then, the Bauhaus is a moving target, and there is no point in its fourteen-year life when it existed in anything like a definitive form.

This is one of the insights of “Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity,” the spellbinding exhibition now at the Museum of Modern Art.[1] Although it topples a good many cherished myths, and does so with patent glee, it cannot properly be called revisionist for there has never been a lucid and comprehensive presentation of the Bauhaus to revise. Every previous exhibition, including with MOMA’s own path-breaking 1938 show, has been able to present only a selected aspect, the inevitable consequence of the dispersal of the Bauhaus collections following Hitler’s rise to power, world war, and the subsequent division between East and West Germany.

Last summer, these collections were reunited in an important installation at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, marking the ninetieth anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus (and the twentieth of the fall of the Berlin Wall, which made the exhibition possible). But even this mammoth show, with over one thousand choice objects, offered a skewed picture, for it lacked the all-important paintings that, for the most part, had made their way out of Germany just ahead of Hitler’s grasp. The lion’s share is at MOMA, which did not permit them to travel. As a result, the current show, though smaller than that in Berlin (about 420 objects), enjoys the odd distinction of being both a boldly revisionist look at the Bauhaus as well as its first truly comprehensive presentation.


Breuer House: 1938-1939, architects Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer,
Lincoln, Massachusetts.

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(Very good online exhibit, braodband and Adobe Flash needed. - tkm)

Museum of Modern Art, New York, N.Y. USA
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/303

From Libriz(www.libriz.com)

Ayşe Baran Berberoğlu



Karmaşa

115.00 x 105.00 cm.
Tual üzerine yağlıboya(oil on cavas)

(The site crashed while viewing. I will try to get back and
do a follow up - tkm)

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http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/60/videos-adult-programs

Museum of Modern Art(New York,N.Y., USA)

Video
The True, the Beautiful, and the Good: Reconsiderations in a Postmodern, Digital Era

In this unprecedented lecture series, world-renowned psychologist Howard Gardner offers an extended reflection on the concepts of Truth, Beauty, and the Good in a postmodern, digital age. Drawing from philosophy, history, natural sciences, and cultural theory, Gardner analyzes how a sophisticated understanding of the power and limitations of these concepts can come about; and how best to understand what is essential, expendable, or deceptive about truth, beauty, goodness, and their opposites.

Howard Gardner is widely considered one of the foremost psychologists working today. He is the author of over twenty books translated into twenty-seven languages, and several hundred articles. Gardner is best known in educational circles for his theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the notion that there exists but a single human intelligence that can be assessed by standard psychometric instruments. Building on his studies of intelligence, Gardner is also the author of Leading Minds, Changing Minds, and Extraordinary Minds. He is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Among numerous honors, Gardner received a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 1981. In 1990, he was the first American to receive the University of Louisville's Grawemeyer Award in Education and in 2000 he received a Fellowship from the John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He has received honorary degrees from twenty-two colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad.

Permalink:
http://www.moma.org/explore/multimedia/videos/60/421

(Adobe Flash and broadband needed)
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http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A5293&page_number=22&template_id=1&sort_order=1

Mz. 252. Colored Squares
Kurt Schwitters (German, 1887-1948)



1921. Cut-and-pasted colored and printed papers with pencil on paper with cardstock border, 10 7/8 x 8 1/4" (27.4 x 21 cm). The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection. © 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

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Music Recommendations:
(Full albums)

Hossam Ramzy and Rafa Tachuela - Flamenco Arabe Vol.1

Hossam Ramzy and Jose Luis Monton - Flamenco Arabe Vol.2

J.S. Bach - The Toccatas - Angela Hewitt

Chick Corea - Expressions (1993)

Gretchen Parlato - In A Dream (Jazz vocal)

Kaori Muraji - Plays Bach (2008)

Dusko Goykovich - In My Dreams (2000)(Jazz)

Alirio Diaz - Guitar Masterpieces (1965)


Enjoy,
tkm

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/leaked-acta-internet-provisions-three-strikes-and-



Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

Leaked ACTA Internet Provisions: Three Strikes and a Global DMCA - Commentary by Gwen Hinze

Negotiations on the highly controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement start in a few hours in Seoul, South Korea. This week's closed negotiations will focus on "enforcement in the digital environment." Negotiators will be discussing the Internet provisions drafted by the US government. No text has been officially released but as Professor Michael Geist and IDG are reporting, leaks have surfaced. The leaks confirm everything that we feared about the secret ACTA negotiations. The Internet provisions have nothing to do with addressing counterfeit products, but are all about imposing a set of copyright industry demands on the global Internet, including obligations on ISPs to adopt Three Strikes Internet disconnection policies, and a global expansion of DMCA-style TPM laws.

As expected, the Internet provisions will go beyond existing international treaty obligations and follow the language of Article 18.10.30 of the recent U.S. – South Korea Free Trade Agreement. We see three points of concern.

First, according to the leaks, ACTA member countries will be required to provide for third-party (Internet Intermediary) liability. This is not required by any of the major international IP treaties – not by the 1994 Trade Related Aspects of IP agreement, nor the WIPO Copyright and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. However, US copyright owners have long sought this. (For instance, see page 19 of the Industry Functional Advisory Committee report on the 2003 US- Singapore Free Trade Agreement noting the need for introducing a system of ISP liability). (Previously available at http://www.ustr.gov/new/fta/Singapore/advisor_reports.htm.)

Second and more importantly, ACTA will include some limitations on Internet Intermediary liability. Many ACTA negotiating countries already have these regimes in place: the US, EU, Australia, Japan, South Korea. To get the benefit of the ACTA safe harbors, Internet intermediaries will need to follow notice and takedown regimes, and put in place policies to deter unauthorized storage and transmission of allegedly copyright infringing content.

However, contrary to current US law and practice, the US text apparently conditions the safe harbors on Internet intermediaries adopting a Graduated Response or Three Strikes policy. IDG reports that:

"The U.S. wants ACTA to force ISPs to "put in place policies to deter unauthorized storage and transmission of IP infringing content (for example clauses in customers' contracts allowing a graduated response)," according to the [leaked European] Commission memo."

Let's reflect on what this means: First, the US government appears to be pushing for Three Strikes to be part of the new global IP enforcement regime which ACTA is intended to create – despite the fact that it has been categorically rejected by the European Parliament and by national policymakers in several ACTA negotiating countries, and has never been proposed by US legislators.

Second, US negotiators are seeking policies that will harm the US technology industry and citizens across the globe. Three Strikes/ Graduated Response is the top priority of the entertainment industry. The content industry has sought this since the European office of the Motion Picture Association began touting Three Strikes as ISP "best practice" in 2005. Indeed, the MPAA and the RIAA expressly asked for ACTA to include obligations on ISPs to adopt Three Strikes policies in their 2008 submissions to the USTR. The USTR apparently listened and agreed, disregarding the concerns raised by both the US's major technology and telecom companies and industry associations (who dwarf the US entertainment industry), and public interest groups and libraries.

How does this fit with the oft-repeated statement of the USTR that ACTA will not change US law, which justified the decision to negotiate ACTA as an Executive Agreement outside of regular US Congressional oversight measures? That remains to be seen.

The safe harbors in the US Copyright law require ISPs to adopt and reasonably implement a policy for termination of "repeat infringers" "in appropriate circumstances". US law currently gives ISPs considerable flexibility to determine what are "appropriate circumstances" justifying the termination of a customer's Internet account. If the leak reports are correct, this would no longer be true. Instead, ISPs would be required to automatically terminate a customer upon a rightsholders' repeat allegation of copyright infringement at a particular IP address. Could the USTR be relying on the somewhat specious distinction between a Three Strikes law, and its implementation by a policy adopted by ISPs as part of a gun-to-the-head self regulation regime?

According to IDG, the leaked European Commission memo also states that the US Internet chapter is "sensitive due to the different points of view regarding the internet chapter both within the Administration, with Congress and among stakeholders (content providers on one side, supporters of internet freedom on the other)."

That's hardly surprising, given that the ACTA text appears to leave the door open for major changes to the existing national Internet intermediary liability regimes that have been the global status quo since the mid 1990s, and which have underpinned both tremendous Internet innovation, and citizens' online freedom of expression and the rich world of user generated content that we take for granted today.

European citizens should also be concerned and indignant. As reported, the ACTA Internet provisions would also appear to be inconsistent with the EU eCommerce Directive and existing national law, as Joe McNamee, the European Affairs Coordinator of EDRi notes:

"The Commission appears to be opening up ISPs to third party liability, even though the European Parliament has expressly said this mustn't happen," McNamee said, adding that ACTA looks likely to erode European citizens' civil liberties."

Last, but by no means least. ACTA signatories will be required to adopt both civil and criminal legal sanctions for copyright owners' technological protection measures, in line with the US-Korea (and previous) FTA obligations. They will also be required to include a ban on the act of circumvention of technological protection measures, and a ban on the manufacture, import and distribution of circumvention tools. This will reduce the flexibility otherwise available to countries drafting these sort of laws under the WIPO Copyright Treaty and WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The majority of WIPO's Member States rejected the circumvention device ban sought by the US delegation in the draft Basic Proposal for the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty. Because ACTA is intended to create new global international IP enforcement standards, including these provisions will allow US negotiators to achieve what they have not been able to do to date – ensuring that the US's overbroad implementation of the WIPO Internet Treaty TPM obligations becomes the global standard.

This should give all citizens - and the ACTA countries negotiating in their names - pause for thought.

Also great coverage of what this means for other countries: Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing; Michael Geist (Canada); Kim Weatherall at LawFont here and here and Electronic Frontiers Australia (Australia); and InternetNZ (New Zealand).

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We the consumers of music, movies, art and literate have paid
very heavily over the past decades with re-purchaseing every time a new format comes out, vinyl , tape, disk and now digital of the same works(this amounts to thousands of dolors over fortyfive years...). we can do well just going to our own collections.

The internet users of the developing and third world nations
DO NOT HAVE A CHANCE in going against these powers.

Solutions: We make our own music, entertainment, art and find our own user-friendly economic models.

Stop buying.

If the ISPs adopt these laws, users should engage in lawful, nonviolent civil disobedience. Packet sniffing* is a violation of privacy.

The younger generation understand much better then us, they are producing and consuming to there own groups. People used to do this until sixty years ago.
tkm

*Packet sniffing

http://netsecurity.about.com/cs/hackertools/a/aa121403.htm

Introduction to Packet Sniffing

From Tony Bradley, CISSP-ISSAP, for About.com

..."Its a cruel irony in information security that many of the features that make using computers easier or more efficient and the tools used to protect and secure the network can also be used to exploit and compromise the same computers and networks. This is the case with packet sniffing.

A packet sniffer, sometimes referred to as a network monitor or network analyzer, can be used legitimately by a network or system administrator to monitor and troubleshoot network traffic. Using the information captured by the packet sniffer an administrator can identify erroneous packets and use the data to pinpoint bottlenecks and help maintain efficient network data transmission.

In its simple form a packet sniffer simply captures all of the packets of data that pass through a given network interface. Typically, the packet sniffer would only capture packets that were intended for the machine in question. However, if placed into promiscuous mode, the packet sniffer is also capable of capturing ALL packets traversing the network regardless of destination.

By placing a packet sniffer on a network in promiscuous mode, a malicious intruder can capture and analyze all of the network traffic. Within a given network, username and password information is generally transmitted in clear text which means that the information would be viewable by analyzing the packets being transmitted.

A packet sniffer can only capture packet information within a given subnet. So, its not possible for a malicious attacker to place a packet sniffer on their home ISP network and capture network traffic from inside your corporate network (although there are ways that exist to more or less "hijack" services running on your internal network to effectively perform packet sniffing from a remote location). In order to do so, the packet sniffer needs to be running on a computer that is inside the corporate network as well. However, if one machine on the internal network becomes compromised through a Trojan or other security breach, the intruder could run a packet sniffer from that machine and use the captured username and password information to compromise other machines on the network."...

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http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and "to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories."

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

PREAMBLE:

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.


Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.


Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.


Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/charter/default_en.htm

Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union

CHAPTER II

Article 6
Right to liberty and security

Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person.

Article 7
Respect for private and family life
Everyone has the right to respect for his or her private and family life, home and communications.

Article 8
Protection of personal data
1. Everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning him or her.
2. Such data must be processed fairly for specified purposes and on the basis of the consent of the
person concerned or some other legitimate basis laid down by law. Everyone has the right of access to
data which has been collected concerning him or her, and the right to have it rectified.
3. Compliance with these rules shall be subject to control by an independent authority.

Article 11
Freedom of expression and information
1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless
of frontiers.
2. The freedom and pluralism of the media shall be respected.

Article 13
Freedom of the arts and sciences
The arts and scientific research shall be free of constraint. Academic freedom shall be respected

CHAPTER VI

Article 47
Right to an effective remedy and to a fair trial
Everyone whose rights and freedoms guaranteed by the law of the Union are violated has the right to an effective remedy before a tribunal in compliance with the conditions laid down in this Article.
Everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law. Everyone shall have the possibility of being advised, defended and represented.
Legal aid shall be made available to those who lack sufficient resources in so far as such aid is necessary to ensure effective access to justice.

Article 48
Presumption of innocence and right of defence
1. Everyone who has been charged shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.
2. Respect for the rights of the defence of anyone who has been charged shall be guaranteed.

Article 49
Principles of legality and proportionality of criminal offences and penalties
1. No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a criminal offence under national law or international law at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than that which was applicable at the time the criminal offence was committed. If, subsequent to the commission of a criminal offence, the law provides for a lighter penalty, that penalty shall be applicable.
2. This Article shall not prejudice the trial and punishment of any person for any act or omission which, at the time when it was committed, was criminal according to the general principles recognised by the community of nations.
3. The severity of penalties must not be disproportionate to the criminal offence.

Dear Readers,
Hope you are enjoying the summer.
Here is a painting made for one and all.
Enjoy,
tkm


Title: slice of melon, apples and pears(digital media)
Date: 10 - 08 - 2009
By: K. Talat Muskara

Dear Readers,
I highly recommend you read this in full and think about the subject.
As a producer(I as a painter)of original content and a consumer of other
peoples content, I try to balance both sides needs. I have to pay bills also!
I create original works for two reasons:

1. new generations HAS to be exposed to ART in all its forms.
2. ART NEEDS to be shared...

on this blogg there are over 200 works all free, the only stipulation is
not to use it for commercial purposes and if you do put full attribution
(PUT MY NAME ON IT!)that is all I ask.

Enjoy,

K. Talat Muskara

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From the book "For or Against the Citizenry: Power sharing", published May 25, 2009

http://www.nisus.se/archive/090525e.html


..."What has copyright to do with democracy?


Abstract: The debates on whether or not copyright and democracy are compatible concepts are not new. It has been discussed since the 1700s and concerns a form of separation of powers. Copyright is a monopoly, but at the same time, when copyright came, it was a strike at another form of monopoly, the printers' rights, with their roots in the guild system. Copyright could not occur until censorship was abolished, and it can actually be seen as a complement to the freedom of expression. Copyright was early associated with privacy issues. However, if proportionality is not followed in the maintenance of law, both integrity and freedom of expression could be threatened.

Many debaters today claim that copyright and democracy are incompatible concepts, that copyright infringes the privacy of readers and other cultural consumers or that copyright is a kind of censorship.

Others believe that copyright per se constitutes a kind of protection of the integrity of both author and work, and that the requirement for the whole concept of copyright to occur was that censorship was abolished.

Both these views may have some merit, depending on how these interests are balanced against each other in practice. Almost any legislation can tip over in some unwanted direction, unless the various interest areas concerned have been identified and defined well enough, and if the law is not maintained with reasonable means."...

http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/smarts/200905/smarts-four-things-worth-learning-about-learning

Psychology Today

Four things worth learning about learning
By Tad Waddington, Ph.D. on May 22, 2009 - 8:38am in Smarts

Read. Recall. Write.
Experiments show that the way most of us try to learn new material is inefficient. We read and reread a passage until we think we understand it. Then we are done. In fact, we learn much more effectively if we read, try to recall what we just read, and then write it down or say it in our own words.

Do it forward and backward
I usually hike through a forest preserve in a clockwise direction. I was surprised the other day how many times I had to stop to make sure I knew where I was when I tried to hike the same route in a counter-clockwise direction. Then it occurred to me that many things fit this pattern. I know my ABCs far better than I know my ZYXs. The fact that I know my 987s as well as I know my 123s tells me that I know my numbers better than I know my letters. The more general point is that to see if you really know something, test yourself not simply doing it forward, but backward as well.

Test, Retest
People often study as subject until they can get 100% right on a test of their understanding of the subject. While this is a sensible approach, it turns out that about 10% of the correct answers is composed of guesswork, short-term memory, and information not fully learned. The best approach is to study until you get 100%. Then wait a day or two and test again. The second test is a much better measure of your grasp of the material. Testing is important in another important way, in the sense of getting feedback. This can be as simple as pulling on the door you just locked to make sure it is truly locked to far larger issues. For example, Peter Drucker says that quality isn't what you put into a thing. Quality is what somebody else gets out of it. Therefore, you can't answer the question of whether your service is any good. Only your customers can. You don't get to say whether you are a good parent. Your children answer that.
Even more generally, good intentions alone are not enough. Get feedback to determine whether you are getting the right results.

Get to the theory behind the fact
Many people have a self-imposed learning disability: They focus on "just the facts." They would improve their ability to learn and to solve problems if they sought to uncover the rules behind the solutions. There is no doubt that experience is a great teacher, but it is a much better teacher when you grasp a general principle that can be reused in the future. For example, you may believe that saving money is better than borrowing money. This belief is enriched when you understand the magic of compounding - that when you borrow money you quickly begin to pay interest on the interest on the interest and that when you save money you (not as quickly) begin to receive interest on the interest on the interest.
Understanding the principle of compounding allows you to see that a very small change in the interest rate makes a huge difference over time and that when paying off a debt or saving money, a small change in the amount you add or subtract each month makes an enormous difference - pennies - in how quickly you reach your goal. Always ask yourself: What principle is at work here?
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http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=phosphorus-a-looming-crisis

Scientific American

Phosphorus Famine: The Threat to Our Food Supply

By David A. Vaccari

As complex as the chemistry of life may be, the conditions for the vigorous growth of plants often boil down to three numbers, say, 19-12-5. Those are the percentages of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, prominently displayed on every package of fertilizer. In the 20th century the three nutrients enabled agriculture to increase its productivity and the world’s population to grow more than sixfold. But what is their source? We obtain nitrogen from the air, but we must mine phosphorus and potassium. The world has enough potassium to last several centuries. But phosphorus is a different story. Readily available global supplies may start running out by the end of this century. By then our population may have reached a peak that some say is beyond what the planet can sustainably feed.

Moreover, trouble may surface much sooner. As last year’s oil price swings have shown, markets can tighten long before a given resource is anywhere near its end. And reserves of phosphorus are even less evenly distributed than oil’s, raising additional supply concerns. The U.S. is the world’s second-largest producer of phosphorus (after China), at 19 percent of the total, but 65 percent of that amount comes from a single source: pit mines near Tampa, Fla., which may not last more than a few decades. Meanwhile nearly 40 percent of global reserves are controlled by a single country, Morocco, sometimes referred to as the “Saudi Arabia of phosphorus.” Although Morocco is a stable, friendly nation, the imbalance makes phosphorus a geostrategic ticking time bomb.

(Please click on the above link to read the full article, thank you, tkm)
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Art:


Sol ardiente de junio. Frederic, Lord Leighton. Óleo sobre lienzo, 119 x 119 cm. San Juan de Puerto Rico, Museo de Arte de Ponce

Enjoy,
tkm

Please use the link(s) to read the article(s) in full.
TIP: Right click on the link and open it as a new window or tab.
THANK YOU! - tkm
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http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/story/mass-intelligence


Intelligent Life

THE AGE OF COMMODIFIED INTELLIGENCE by George Balgobin


...Of course higher education has always meant a chance for greater economic success, and more careers now require such certification. But degrees are also more readily pursued as status symbols. We are not growing more intelligent, only more obsessed with its outward markers.

We engage in an elaborate credentials kabuki. Our graduate schools are filled with students forcing out narrow, irrelevant dissertations. They labour to be professors, not to spend lives devoted to their fields. Writers and librarians now seek graduate degrees to prepare for jobs that have existed for thousands of years without such hurdles. Even dogwalkers take classes for certification. We’ve become so reliant on checklists of accomplishment that we’ve lost our ability to make independent judgments. We no longer pursue passions or interests without quantifiable reward."...

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http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:DE:I:2|G:HI:E:1&page_number=18&template_id=1&sort_order=1


Composition - Willi Baumeister- 1889-1955

Lithograph, composition: 53 x 43 cm.

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Abstract - color lithograph - Willi Baumeister - 1889-1955


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Standing Figure with Blue Plane - Oil and sand on canvas 1933

Willi Baumeister - 1889-1955

Please use the links to read the articles in full.
A TIP: Right click on the link and open it as a new window or tab.
THANK YOU! - tkm

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http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127001.200-why-money-messes-with-your-mind.html?full=true&print=true


New Scientist

Why money messes with your mind
18 March 2009 by Mark Buchanan

Dough, wonga, greenbacks, cash. Just words, you might say, but they carry an eerie psychological force. Chew them over for a few moments, and you will become a different person. Simply thinking about words associated with money seems to makes us more self-reliant and less inclined to help others. And it gets weirder: just handling cash can take the sting out of social rejection and even diminish physical pain.

This is all the stranger when you consider what money is supposed to be. For economists, it is nothing more than a tool of exchange that makes economic life more efficient. Just as an axe allows us to chop down trees, money allows us to have markets that, traditional economists tell us, dispassionately set the price of anything from a loaf of bread to a painting by Picasso. Yet money stirs up more passion, stress and envy than any axe or hammer ever could. We just can't seem to deal with it rationally... but why?
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Note:
Shuttle Mission STS-119 MISSION(until MARCH,28,2009)

You can watch N.A.S.A. TV online:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

and look at the astronauts work on the International Space Station in real time on your PC over the internets(this will never get old for me).
but you will need broadband(at least 256kbs.).
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and Wired has a very interesting article:

New Musical Instruments Battle for $10K in Prizes
By Eliot Van Buskirk

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/mods/multimedia/2009/03/gallery_instruments


with pictures, audio and video.

Enjoy
tkm

Hi Folks,
Here are five Turkish painters, for information on the
painters and to view more of there work, please go to :

http://www.lebriz.com/Default.aspx?lang=ENG

thanks.
tkm


Sibel Kurt



Mustafa Pilevneli - Watercolor on paper



Gültekin Serbest



Zeki Faik Izer - Oil on cardboard



Hikmet Çetinkaya

Notice:
UNDER THE LAW NUMBER 5651
I will NOT include links with the articles, news items, etc...etc... because I will be held responsible(as all Turkish internet users)for all the content and links to and out of the site(s).
tkm
p.s. Please click the link bellow to read in full for the legal resons.
http://my.opera.com/talatkm/blog/2007/05/24/intent-of-the-censors-mind
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Dear Readers,
Yesterday(Sunday-29)I did not go to any news
sites, because my fellow humans follies are getting
exceedingly toxic to the mind......
Instead I put on some music, got a glass of Russian style tea
and started surfing. I went to the major art museums online
The art world is very slow to adapt to the new medium(the net)
Then I wanted to show some art from Turks for this post.
The criteria was:
1. must be born and have lived mostly in Turkiye.
2. must be living
3. must have some Turkish visual flavor.

All the painters, art work and info was taken from a very good
site(I was searching for something to fault but the site for
the end user is very good), lebriz.com
Enjoy
tkm
p.s. I may do this on a quarterly basis.


Hüseyin Zeray

The artist was born in Sivas in 1953. He graduated from the Medical Faculty of Izmir Dokuz Eylul University. He started being interested in art when he was in primary school. Getting "Honour Award" in Turgut Pura Painting Competition was the breakpoint in his art career. This success motivated him to study painting more attentively. The artist usually prefers using oil painting and pastel crayon. Anatolian landscapes and Anatolian working women are mostly the main subjects of his paintings.

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Gülseren Sönmez

She is a graduate Gazi Training Institue of Paining. After 26 years of teaching experience she got retired thougt she still teaches at various art galeries. She mainly uses; watercolors, oil paint, pastel crayon, different engraving techniques and marbling. Watercolors are her main study branch. She sees herself as a nature interpreter and a result, in addition to many subject she also studies women's fantastic inner world with a surrealist way with watercolors, oil paint, crayon and marbling. In her marbling work portraits, nudes, animal descriptions and existence are easily identified. Recently she works on portraits using different techniques, especiallyAtaturk portraits an Independence War composition. She is a member of United Artists and Sculptors Association, Ankara Women Artists Association, Watercolors Artists Association, Batikent Artists Association and GESAM as well as the first Turkish member of the National Museum of Women in the arts in Washington D.C. in the U.S. She has joined 357 national and international mixed exhibitions and held 57 individual exhibitions where one of them took place in Geneva, Switzerland, Gulseren Sonmez's works are displayed in differend cities, museums, legal and individual collections all around the world and in Turkey her works can be seen at Ankara, Konya and Kayseri museums. She taken a part in both "Who's Who in Turkey 1989" and Turkish Plastic Artist 1999 encyclopedic dictionaries. Besides her marbling have been displayed at the governmental Turkish embellishment arts exhibition.

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Ali Demir
(from: Doku Sanat Galerisi
- dokusanat.com)
1931 yilinda Kayseri’nin Darsiyak köyünde dogan Ali Demir, 1947’den beri profesyonel anlamda resimle ugrasiyor. Ali Demir’ in 1968’den bu yana yaptigi resimler Anadolu’dan izlenimlerle olmustur. Bu resimlerde kahverengi ve tonlari çok kullanilmis ve Ali Demir’ in biçeminin olusmasinda bu rengin özel bir islevi olmustur. Kahverengi, adeta Anadolu topraginin rengi olarak tuvaldeki yerini sürekli olarak almistir. Yurtiçi ve yurtdisi 100’ü askin kisisel sergi düzenlemis, katildigi yarismali sergilerden dört ödülle ödüllendirilmis olan sanatçi; insanimiz ve dogamizdaki özgün ulusal kimlikli dokuyu çalisip, sonuçta ‘bizim resmimizi olusturmak istedim’ demektedir.

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Erol Deran

He was born in Polatli in 1937. He took his first music lessons from his father Burhanettin Deran who was a composer. He completed his primary education in various regions of Anatolia and Istanbul. He graduated from Sabih Gözen Textile Patterns Workshop in the State Fine Arts Academy in 1960. During his studies at the Academy, he also continued his study in Prof. Sabri Berkel and Prof. Gevher Bozkurt workshops. The artist worked as a "kanun" (zither-like instrument) player at the Istanbul Radio from 1975 to 1961. He had his military obligation as a reserve officer in Ankara during the years 1961-1963. He continued his life as a musician in Ankara between 1963 and 1968. In 1968, he settled down in Istanbul and went back to his previous job at the Istanbul Radio. Afterwards, he became a lecturer at the "Turkish Music State Conservatory" (founded in 1975 and became a part of the Istanbul Technical University in 1983). He worked as a member of the Board of Directors, head of the Musical Instruments Education Department and the director of the Plectrum Instruments Department. He retired in 2004. His paintings exhibited in Budapest Szechenyi State Library in 1999 via slide show. One of his works was elected amongst 22.000 works to be exhibited in a painting competition established by Winsor & Newton Company. He is currently working in Haliç University as an instructor.

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Süleyman Çete

I was born in Trabzon in 1941. I graduated from the Erzurum Yavuz Selim Teacher`s School in 1961. Afterwards, I graduated from the Ankara Gazi Training Insititution, Department of Painting in 1965.

I worked as a painting and art history instructor in various schools for 26 years. I retired in 1992.

I tried to create my own style of painting. I am still continuing my work in Bursa. My works can be found in different collections both in Turkey and abroad.

I organised various solo exhibitions in different cities. I also attented the competitive exhibitions of the Turkish Ministry of Culture.