www.turn-us-to-the-light.org

email: more-light@turn-us-to-the-light.org

visible light, natural light, physical light

Plants have sense enought to turn to the light, why don't people?

For starters, here's a nice easy introduction to The Science of Light

For articles and opinions and links about ecology and the environment , scroll down past the 3 columns of this web page. Meanwhile, here are some pretty good links about fuel economy and automotive environmental issues.

OK, I can already see I'm going to get into trouble here. I want to write about physics and transportation - where's the light connection?

How about this?

Sunlight to photosynthesis long ago to petrochemicals stored deep in the earth, presto gasoline to pump in your car and diesel for the locomotives and jet fuel so we can fly through the air... it's a stretch... but, while I ponder whether to go looking for an additional domain name -- check out this nicely presented Energy Kid's Page. The data's OK, but a couple of statements are pretty misleading:

"Hybrid vehicles use much less gasoline than normal vehicles because they run on electricity part of the time."

and

"The people in the United States have always had a love affair with the automobile."

Propaganda, I tell ya! Propaganda! Common knowledge, but is it true?

Well don't get me started on hybrids. I should really be more responsible and gather some credible links and factoids - and good manners - but for now let me just point out that the energy from electricity in hybrids came from the gasoline. Regenerative braking grabs up the energy wasted as heat when you "hit the brakes" - I fantasize about eco-folks teaching Drivers Ed classes where people are taught to anticipate the need to stop, quit tailgating, and thereby save much of the same energy without the hybrid cost and complexity. In other words, make the idea of "hitting the brakes" obsolete! And then there's the issue of stoplight timing. And conventional cars could be made to turn off when idling, just like hybrids. Ah well. Hybrids. Another website someday maybe, except I keep trying to be more POSITIVE!

As for the American "love affair with the automobile" - don't get me wrong, individual autonomous transport is a marvelous gift - but so much of this "love affair" has been carefully orchestrated. Had America's love affair with the passenger train be comparably nurtured by the powers that be, Amtrak wouldn't always be angsting about budget cuts!

By the way, here's a link to my favorite automotive engineering expert:

Automotive Engineering Consultants, Inc.

biblical light

Genesis 1:3-5 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Ecclesiastes 2:13 Then I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.

Isaiah 42:16 I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them.

Jeremiah 13:16 Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, and before your feet stumble on the mountains at twilight; while you look for light, he turns it into gloom and makes it deep darkness.

John 1:1-9In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

Acts 26:18 [Paul said he was sent] To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

metaphorical light, poetic light, light broadly construed

"Shed some light" - as in:

Candle Night: Shed Some Light on Conservation - appropriately enough, brought to you by treehugger.com!

I guess I'm hoping somehow this website might shed a little light on what the heck I'm supposed to be doing with my life. I have this persistent sense of having a message, but it comes out all garbled. Several friends have told me I should be writing, but mostly I just do emails...

Light, Darkness and Nostalgia. This article from The Victorian Web explores the way images of light and darkness were used by Lewis Carroll and Charles Dickens to evoke nostalgia in literature.

This website is an example of what social science researchers call a "convenience sample" and religious persons (perhaps wishfully) call "walking in the light you have."

So bear with me here - I'm thinking of language as a vehicle or medium for light metaphorically shining in our human darkness - the biblical images of the tower of Babel, where God confounded human communication (Genesis 11:1-9) and the Christian Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13) where mutual linguistic intelligibility was, at least momentarily, restored.

At least that's my excuse or rationalization for including a link to the well-known translation tool Babel Fish.

More links for which I hope to provide rationalization or a new web-home:

"History, liminality, the 3Rs and the learning society"
I just love that word "liminality"! Surely liminality and light are synergistic?

Ecology and Environment

Portland, Oregon, recently in the news for the amazing feat of having reduced per capita carbon dioxide emissions below 1990 levels.

OK so I'm a public transport nut - ground transport, that is. In my youth I got around by hitchhiking - the ultimate in unencumbered, go-where-you-will adventure. Next best thing is the Greydog and Amtrak and city buses and subways.

Reasons to Go Greyhound or use other ground transport rather than operating my own car:

(1) I meet a lot more interesting people, and have a chance to get acquainted, or not.
(2) If the vehicle breaks down it's not my problem.
(3) I only pay for what I use - no ongoing expense like insurance, license plates, maintenance.
(4) I feel like I'm doing my bit for the environment.
(5) I feel like I'm doing my bit for human community: countering the tide of individualism and isolation.
(6) It's excellent for making speedy escapes from one city to another (a.k.a. "running away from my problems"). This was actually a lot more relevant in my youth, when I learned the slogan "Thank God for Greyhound" from my boss at the diner in Columbus (Ernie Edwards, Mr. Big's - anybody know whatever happened to him?).

Riding the Dog - a popular title evidently - try Googling it - typical comments:
(from a delightful feature article in the Portland Mercury):
"Much to the amusement of my editors and peers, I choose to ride the dog." Quaint.

Here's an original "Riding the Dog" article by Susan Carlyle - thanks, Susan!

I should start a new website or at least a new section on this website for the subject of "how people (think they) know what they (think they) know."

Some subjects that would fit under this topic include:
(1) the "social constructivist" theory that underlies the onlne learning platform Moodle.

(2) the "pool of shared meaning" idea that's integral to the "Crucial Conversations" methodology.

(3) Julian Jaynes' Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.

(4) this philosopher Alfred Schutz, whose work I just discovered. Here are a couple of excerpts from " Alfred Schutz, phenomenology and research methodology for information behaviour research" by T. D. Wilson:

"Schutz, on the other hand, demonstrates that knowledge is derived from people's practical experience of the world. He does this by constructing the ideal types of 'the man on the street', 'the citizen who aims at being well-informed', and 'the expert'. Knowledge is socially distributed according to these types and by what is taken for granted by each, and according to what system of relevances. Thus, the 'man on the street' operates according to his (or her) set of naive relevances, for which 'recipe knowledge' is adequate. I, as baker, need only a recipe for bread making in order to accomplish an eatable loaf of bread - I do not need to know the chemistry of yeast or any other scientific aspect of bread-making. Those aspects are not relevant to my immediate purpose."

Wilson quoting Schutz: "…the knowledge of the man who acts and thinks within the world of his daily life is not homogeneous; it is (1) incoherent, (2) only partially clear, and (3) not at all free from contradictions."

Some of Wilson's proposed research questions intrigue me:

"* How does the 'man on the street' discover his recipe knowledge? What channels of communication does he use?
"* Today, how does the existence of information resources on the Internet affect the way the man in the street thinks of finding recipe knowledge?
"* What typical uses does the man in the street find for recipe knowledge?
"* What are the boundaries, in terms of information-seeking behaviour, between representatives of the three ideal types? "

And I would add another of my own: when the man on the street decides to become an informed citizen on some particular issue (say, global warming or electric cars), how might he be manipulated by those providing him information?

Wilson: "Methodology, however, is prior to method and more fundamental; it provides the philosophical groundwork for methods. To state one's methodological position is to describe one's view of the nature of reality."

Wilson: "Phenomenology demands that we seek to discover the world as it is experienced by those involved in it. It is about the nature of human experience and the meaning that people attach to their experiences.... one is urged to get as close as possible to what the participants in the behaviour of interest are experiencing."

Hah! I knew it! Wilson: "... the social constructionism of Berger and Luckman - students of Schutz."

Book I just finished reading: West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story, by Tamim Ansary, 2002.
Book I want to read soon: Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes, by the same author, 2009.

Overheard at an aviation convention, September 2009, on why it's so hard to find craftsmanlike mechanic work:

"Everybody wants to make $85 an hour, so they have to do it the quick way" rather than taking the time to refurbish and restore older aircraft.