Michael Holloway's FilterBlogs: 2013

Monday, December 30, 2013

Fields, Fields, Fields - everything is fields

New Tumbl | 2014/01/14 - Dynamic Fields

I been thinking about an experiment that MIT did a few years back (1908) - in an attempt to once and for all prove or dis-prove the "Coriolis Force" - the issue of whether or not water tends to rotate down through a drain out of a basin in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere, as opposed to the Northern Hemisphere.

I always thought this was a done deal. I thought it was a scientific fact that water rotates counter-clock-wise in the Northern Hemisphere - and clock-wise in the Southern. Apparently it is not all that simple¹.

I just did an experiment with my kitchen sink. I filled it up and then tore off little threads off the edge of a rag and dropped them into the filled sink. I was surprised to find the they immediately took off around in a counter-clock-wise direction. I surmise that the energy of the water being forced out of the feed line + the drop of 20-30 cm over the fill time - had imparted some energy to the mass of water. By happen-stance probably, the water arrived at a rotation based on a roll of the dice - the dice being the chance way in which the water filled the sink (did I change the position of the spout? I can't remember).

I'd have to repeat the experiment a number of times, positioning the spout at several different stations of it's arch to see what if any difference that made in the rotation.

So at any rate - I waited about 10 minutes for the mass of water to stop showing signs of a rotation (there was still movement but it appeared random (likely turbulence caused by heat exchange between the water and the sink; the water and the air).

I dipped my hand slowly in, and gently pulled out the drain plug.

The water went straight down!

No vortex ever developed at the centre of the drain hole - where one would expect that to happen.

Apparently a vortex only forms (in such a small tank) from the general rotation of the mass of the water after doing dishes of whatever, before one pulls the plug!

So now to my thought experiment - the reason for this post:

What would be the result of an experiment where one did the opposite of this 'still tank' experiment?

In the Northern Hemisphere, midway between the equator and the pole - set a mass of water n rotation in a precise way (using for example, a paddle rotated by a motor), and remove the paddle motor assembly in a repeatable mechanical manner. Then open the drain plug in a similarly repeatable mechanical way. Now measure the rate at which the mass rotates until all the water has drained.

Repeat at different rotations direction, different rotation rates, change height of column of water.

Then repeat the whole thing in the Tropic of Capricorn.

I predict that the dynamics of the two fields (that of the mass of water rotating, and the magnetic field of the planet - or is it the dydnamic field created by the mass of the planet rotating, orbiting?) will magnify the Coriolis Force.

The speeding or slowing of the mass of previously rotating liquid (a mass with a dynamic field) will reveal a force, the result of the interaction of the two fields. The properties of the resultiing field dynamics should be a function of the math of Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis².

Perhaps there will be a gradual slowing of the rotation as the vortex forms. Nothing would surprise me, after my little sink experiment just now.

[1] Wikipedia | Coriolis effect | Draining in bathtubs and toilets | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect#Draining_in_bathtubs_and_toilets

Also - physics.ohio-state.edu | Dave Van Domelen | The Coriolis Effect | http://stratus.ssec.wisc.edu/courses/gg101/coriolis/coriolis.html (reprint by ssec.wisc.edu)

[2] University of Wyoming, Atmospheric Science, Dept. | E. Linacre and B. Geerts | Gustave Coriolis, and the Coriolis effect | http://www-das.uwyo.edu/~geerts/cwx/notes/chap11/gustave.html (links, vernacular)

Also - link.springer.com | Prof. Dr. R. E. Roberson | A form of the translational dynamical equations for relative motion in systems of many non-rigid bodies | http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF01387376#page-1

mh

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New Tumbl | 2013/12/30 - More Fields stuff

High voltage "Air threads"
via Bill Beaty

High voltage "Air threads"

Youtube: Playlists | http://www.youtube.com/user/wbeaty/videos?view=1&flow=grid
Web | SCIENCE HOBBYIST | http://amasci.com/ --> Tesla Experiments | http://amasci.com/tesla/tesla.html

Found Bill's Youtube several years ago, via his Traffic Waves video.

mh

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Start Tumbl | 2013/12/03: Fields, Fields, Fields - everything is fields

Two fields creating an interference pattern

Been thinking a lot about fields in the last year. Fields are key to understanding how water moves - and water is the thing that is at the core of my attempt to understand the relationships between macro and quantum properties of the universe - towards a grand unified theory.

Fields are very hard things for our brains to understand. I think it's because we evolved in a gravity well. Gravity wells distort fields, flatten them. We see the world lineally - a function of this flattening. When we begin to observe outside this gravity well in the relatively entropic places, we can't understand what we're seeing. This is what is causing the stall in our trip towards a grand unified theory of everything (that will get us hover cars).

:)

Fields want to be spheres, but other fields (like the mass of the earth) distorts them and creat sympathetc, tonal fields with virtual poles. So the idea is to study what we know - and what we know best is water. We are 99% water, this biosphere we live in, evolved in, is a series of layers of water in different densities. The living earth that sustains us is dead earth, sand ground down from rocks, without water. All life on this planet (which can be understood to be the furthest point from entropy that there is) depends on water.

Thus the fields that these various densities of water have - and how they interact - is is the best way to understand how fields are related as the fundamental structure of the universe.

Watching TVO's "Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity: The Age of Invention" the show talks about one of the fundamental discoveries that has lead us into the industrial age - Faraday's law of induction - but more important for me in my fields thought-arch, was the beginning of an understanding of quantum fields.

How fields interact is what fascinated the self-taught Faraday - and although I don't have the tutelage of a scientist as he did I have Wikipedia and 200 more years of learning that he didn't.

So Faraday experiments where he first began to reveal the properties of interacting fields in this series segment was particularly interesting to me. The key idea he discovers is the Induction. Induction results in current and in essence, is caused by the intersection of two fields and motion! This creates an electrical charge - the foundation of the modern world.

Induction is somehow the result of interference pattern created though the intersection of fields - and the other element - again we don't really understand this motion of a third field through those interference patterns and how exactly that creates a current.

The temporal quality is especially interesting to me. I will dwell upon it - while the vast majority of thinkers in the past period have left it aside - the laws that Faraday revealed are good - they work in the real world - lets forget the somehow magical properties of the thing and move on - build this here that we have built.

All very well - until Dark Matter raised it ugly head.

That's it for now. This blog will 'Tumbler'.(update at this address).

This outline of the direction of my thinking is the clearest I've laid it out to dat e- lots of thoughts coming out of this. For example, the induction created (the poles created, the current created) when two fields pass each other can be seen as: the core magnet, Earth, and the field in motion, the weather systems - the current is of coarse - lightning.

Thus: Can one simply lay one side of a 'Faraday Cage' on the surface of the Earth (the one field) and then take electricity off the cage as the weather (the mobile field) passes over it? How big to light a city? Is our existing electrical grid (one side of a Faraday Cage) producing electricity right now? How much? How can we maximize this induction?

A different way of looking at things than what we taught in Grade 11 Science - where differential charges are the explanation. It is not accurate.

References:

Image via Wikipedia | Interference (wave propagation) | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interference_%28wave_propagation%29

TVO | "Shock and Awe: The Story of Electricity: The Age of Invention" (goes away soon) | http://ww3.tvo.org/video/176971/age-invention

Sunday, December 15, 2013

A People's Compromise to get Income Stability - AND - Investment in a Massive Public Transportation Expansion

The Plan: Reduce Car Insurance premiums through a one insurer, Government of Ontario Car Insurance Program - and at the same time - Raise Tax on Gasoline by 10¢ to pay for a Massive Public Transportation Expansion.

Here's my Tweet on this to the NDP, and the Liberals' Twitter Accounts (+ Anne Golden) on this last night:

Can @OntarioNDP win Public Owned Car Insurance for support of @annegolden18 ¢10 Transit Gas Tax? Would @OntLiberal agree? #WinWin #biketo
— Michael Holloway (@m_holloway) December 15, 2013

(https://twitter.com/m_holloway/status/412169995720736768)

What do you think of this compromise to get the NDP to support a Mass Transit Gas Tax?

I know the NDP doesn't support an Ontario Government Car Insurance plan - but they should - and this sounds like a do-able deal for voters!

What party (other than the extreme right-wing Ontario Tory party and the Haper-ites in Ottawa) - wouldn't support this?

In exchange for much lower premiums that a one-system, public owned insurance program would provide - drivers would not push-back so hard on a 10¢ Gas Tax for Mass Transit expansion.

Key to this is that the new gas tax money will go into a Mass Transit Fund - separate from all other expenditures (as the Golden Report proposes).

In this scheme - who Pays for Mass Transit expansion? ... Big Insurance Company Profits!

Companies who are gouging drivers with seemingly Cartel-high premiums and vicious tactics in claim disputes that are designed to reduce their settlement liabilities.

At the same time as not hurting working families who are tied to the car for one reason or another, it out-flanks the extreme-right-wing Ontario Tory Party by demonstrating in a real world way - how the efficiencies of a large government project can fund other necessary large government investments!

With this metric we can forgo the Corporate Tax Rate increase - because it's a drop in the bucket anyway - and just extend the program out for as long as it takes. The net cost of living increase is zero!

I like it a lot ... but then I should; it's my idea! :)

What do you think? Questions? Any part of this not clear?

mh

Saturday, December 7, 2013

I invented hashtag #BTRto - Bicycle Traffic Reports(Toronto)

I had to go across Toronto; at night; to a bar; in the "Entertainment" District. :\

I rarely leave my East End Leslieville. I rarely drink. I find the idea of cycling into the core of Toronto on Thursday night absolutely insane! But the CycleTorontoVolunteers Appreciation Night was at King and Spadina, so OK. What the hell - you only live once!

I asked in Facebook if anyone thought my proposed route along the Waterfront was particularly insane. Someone told me Queen's Quay was a mess. So I just winged it. I ended up taking Queen Street all the way to Spadina and then alleyways down to King.

The next day I was adding Follows to @Ward30Bikes, and I came across David P Leonard's #DLWS (David Leonard Weather Service).

See: Toronto Wiki / #DLWS | http://torontowiki.org/%23DLWS

I already had a Bicycle Traffic Route Reporting Service on my mind; and all the construction detours in town that don't serve cyclists well; and I was thinking about News Talk Radio's car-centric Traffic Reporting ... and David P Leonard's #DLWS hashtag crystallized it!

A Crowd Sourced Cyclist Route Traffic Reporting Hashtag!!!

Here's what I'm about to Tweet in my @m_holloway Twitter account:

Toronto needs crowd-sourced Bicycle Traffic Reports: #BTRto
Tweet your route - help others commute. #biketo (Props: @davidpleonard #DLWS)

That's the idea - might need some tweaking - we'll see if it resonates. Tweeting it now, and then I'll embed the Tweet below...

Toronto needs crowd-sourced Bicycle Traffic Reports: #BTRto Tweet your route - help others commute. #biketo (Props: @davidpleonard #DLWS)
— Michael Holloway (@m_holloway) December 7, 2013

Well the feedback is in. Apparently a local Talk Radio show CBCToroto's "Metro Morning" has already accomplished my objective with their #mmbike hashtag. Wondering how popular that can get amoungst people who don't listen to CBC Radio? Anyways, here's an embed of the feedback I got from my Facebook Friend and Twitter Cycling expert, Kevin Montgomery @kemosite

Thanks Kevin!

.@m_holloway @davidpleonard Isn't that what #mmbike is about? @metromorning #biketo
— Kevin Montgomery (@kemosite) December 7, 2013

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Testing a Twitter embed #WalMart

Fair Wages not Food Stamps for All Workers #WalmartStrikers @ForRespect #BlackFriday #Walmart http://t.co/AgSEeeWoA8 #Solidarity #uniteblue
— Heather Wood (@XenuLOL) November 30, 2013

This is part of a test of Twitter embed in various social tools. This blog auto-re-posts in my Google+ Stream - see the result of the test here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/106539188672607672565/posts/FJgzDQZUgNr

mh

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Forum Research, TO Mayor Poll: Ford Approval Rating lowest of likely Mayoral Candidates

Image: Edit of page 5/55, Forum Research Inc. TO Mayoral Approval and Issues News Release (2013.11.20): http://www.forumresearch.com/forms/News%20Archives/News%20Releases/28439_TO_Mayoral_Approval_and_Issues_News_Release_%282013.11.20%29_Forum_Research.pdf

Inspired by Now Magazine 2013/11/23 | "Is Rob Ford untouchable?" | by Enzo Di Matteo | http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=195464

mh

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Toronto's Teeny-Tiny Mayor Rob Ford

Imagine, your dream has arrived. You are Mayor of an important city in North America. You've achieved everything you could have imagined possible.

And today, now into the second year of your first term as Mayor, happens to be the day where you've realized that you have come of age in your role as 'King of Kensington'. You're in your element, you're feeling confidant, you can roll with anybody; any place, any time.

Hell, you can slosh through half a forty pound-er of Vodka in 5 minutes - no problem! You can do this sh*t in your sleep. You can do this, do that, and do the other thing - and still pull off this show that is being Mayor of Toronto.

Easy as Pie. Bring it on!

The sun is shining on The Esplanade, and it's a sleek world down here on the waterfront; with the Grand Boulevard, the glass and steel towers, the Expressway's Art Deco-ish lines. Real World Class down here; feels like Atlantic City, the Trump Plaza Casino or something; some swank, elite European holiday club where only the fashionable, well heeled, super-rich are allowed.

'It's sexy baby! Yeah!! This is like that movie man! And it's St Patrick's Day 2012! Par-tee dude!'

(You're no longer that second brother; the one that's always underestimated; the one who's always left out of the important decisions; the who should never be trusted with the business...)

At the urinal in the washroom at the back of the Brier's Market Bar ... 'Who's the teeny-tiny man now?!' - 'I'm going to show those amateurs how it's done!" ..as he expertly draws out a line on the porcelain lid at the back of the toilet.

Mayor Ford got really, really drunk that afternoon and evening - and the morning of the next day.

During that time he did beer, vodka, brandy, weed, Oxycontin, cocaine, booze, cocaine, and finally - a rock to finish off the night (morning).

During those hours he made racist Pakistani derisive comments towards an Asian-looking taxi driver (actually calling hm a "Paki"); he called a Staffer a "liberal bitch"; he told three different women at various events, parties, cab rides and stumbling drunken pub crawls - that he was going to preform oral sex on them - and in one case, that he was going to "bang" her vagina.

In one case he used the fact that he had (apparently) slept with one particular Mayors' Office Staffer (and that meant he could therefore dismiss her, because of the fact they had sex means he now owned her? She was his bitch?) ... in order to embarrass her ... in order to negate her attempts to try to talk him into going home (so he wouldn't destroy his term as Mayor).

And in the taxi on the way home in the wee hours of that night's morning, he tells a staffer to get out of the taxi for a minute so he can set up a meeting on his phone that the staffer cannot hear ... And as soon as the taxi pulls up at Mayor Ford's home, he jumps out of the cab (drunk as the high-heavens mind you), gets in his car and drives off - almost hitting the cab as he backs out of his drive.

In the end it's just a passed out, disheveled dumpy man who's mother-in-law finds him passed out in front of the rec-room couch the next morning. No 'pussy banging', no oral sex. Just one last high before it all goes dark; before it all has to get real again.

It's a year later (March 2013) - but it's the same thing. Only this time there are leaks about this behaviour - rather than the wall of silence constructed by loyal Mayors Office Staff doing their job protecting the image of the Office of the Mayor of the City of Toronto.

At this morning's news conference it's about the Sarah Thompson allegation that he was "on something" at the Garrison Ball Fundraiser event the previous day. Allegations that he had done something very inappropriate (grabbed her on the bottom at the public event).

And so the King of Kensington once again strains his blurry eyes through a thumping headache in order to see the questioner through the glare of TV reporters' lights --- to dismiss the charges out of hand.

'That's absolutely not what happened', is what his handlers have told him to say. Deny, deny, deny.

At the urinal in the bathroom off the spacious offices of the Mayor of the City of Toronto he whispers to himself, "Toronto's Teeny-Tiny Mayor is back motherf***ers; I told you didn't I?"

"In my sleep a**holes - In my f***ing sleep!"

------------

Events in this time line were derived from the Toronto Star's Kevin Donovan, Jesse McLean, David Bruser, and Robyn Doolittle's distillation of the evidence that describes Mayor Rob Ford's St Patrick's Day (Saturday, March 17, 2012) - culled from the Stars' investigative reporting - and earlier reports; and a narrative produced by Toronto Police from surveillance and interview notes; written-up by detectives as part of their quest to get a search warrant as part of their "Project Traveller" investigation; and released to the Public by Ontario Superior Court Judge, Justice Ian Nordheimer, on November 13, 2013.

All "thought bubbles" (in italics) - that purport to describe what the subject may have been saying to himself, or thinking to himself - are constructions of the author - an attempt to understand the motivations of the individual in question.

Image via Biking Toronto, Cyclops Blog - http://bikingtoronto.com/cyclops/2010/10/say-what-you-will-about-rob-ford/

Toronto Star - Wed Nov 13 2013 - "Rob Ford staff told police about Ford’s Bier Markt, Garrison Ball outings" - http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/11/13/rob_ford_staff_told_police_about_fords_bier_markt_garrison_ball_outings.html

Toronto Star - Wed Nov 13 2013 - "Rob Ford did drugs, partied with escort on St. Patrick’s Day, police document alleges" - http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/11/13/rob_ford_did_drugs_partied_with_escort_police_document_alleges.html

mh

(This blog post has coding that works to display the content well on web-phones, tablets or desktop better that I have yet seen out there. (Accomplished by coding for the smallest screen first - using two width percentage columns aligned right, and left.) Feedback on this is appreciated: how does this display for you on your device of choice? If you re-use the coding in something you publish, please credit the display coding to "Michael Holloway' s FilterBlogs".)

Friday, November 1, 2013

Dundas/Carlaw Corridor Planning Study: Documents - and a little reflection on what it all meant...

A follow up is required on my last post on the Dundas/Carlaw Corridor Study - which I posted at "Ward 30 Bikes" blog: http://ward30bikes.blogspot.com/2013/10/bike-infrastructure-big-talking-point.html

That planners at the Dundas/Carlaw Corridor Study Workshop meeting didn't accent transportation in the lead-in address was distressing.

Transportation is a key element in urban development and redevelopment - especially in the old City of Toronto (Toronto/East York). In any planning study, transportation should be one of perhaps four cornerstone elements that should be addressed in combination. Other cornerstones might be: Building Height; Density; and Pubic Benefits. Transportation cannot be ignored when discussing the other three cornerstones - transportation is central to our lives in countless ways, and effect all the other cornerstones uniquely.

The Province has a 25 year plan to double population density in Ontario's urban places. But there is no more room to build new streets - especially in our older the inner cities. This means that transportation infrastructure is going to come under even greater pressure than it already is.

So progressive thinking planners ("New Urbanism") have come up with a way forward - they call their vision, 'Complete Streets'. This means narrowing or removing car lanes; increasing the amount of public transit infrastructure; widening sidewalks; and adding bicycle infrastructure to the roadway. The City of Toronto has recognized that Complete Streets is a good idea and has instituted a plan to make all city roadways Complete Streets in the coarse of scheduled maintenance or reconstruction.

In practice (in my recent experience, re: Leslie Street Reconstruction) this has meant that no new room is being made available for other modes - unless there is a cyclist/pedestrian lobby that lobbies for it - and further - only if that lobby does not receive a lot of push-back from the car driving, and car parking lobby. So far, all progress on this has been left in the hands of the local City Councillor - as a way of minimizing push-back from the entrenched, ubiquitous and powerful car lobby.

The road forward out of city wide gridlock and congestion is a tough one - even though our transportation grid is critically broken, many honest drivers don't understand how lower speed limits, and making more road space available for other modes of transport will reduce their commute times and grid-lock stress. In fact, when they see these kinds of plans they often react badly - incensed that some stupid politician with a bureaucratic plan is responding to a tiny lobby (bikes) that if instituted, would undoubtedly further destroy their ability to use the car effectively in their lives.

While the Complete Streets idea can appear to be a bad idea at first glance - once they are instituted the counter-intuitive recommendations within the Complete Streets protocols actually turn out to be good for all road users.

In the Dundas/Carlaw Corridor Study - transportation needs to be a central theme in the discussion. This article is an attempt to begin to make that so.

I said (in the article linked at the top) that bikes were not mentioned by anyone except the public participants at the first Dundas/Carlaw Corridor Study Workshop - and this is true --- but I did find a reference to cycling in the documents presented at the meeting posted the day after at PaulaFletcher.ca: http://paulafletcher.ca/discover-ward-30/community-planning/#carlaw.

Below is an image I made from the City of Toronto Planning documents where cycling is mentioned - in the section titled "Neighbourhood Improvement Plan", Point #4 - "Transportation: improve TTC, bicycle and pedestrian systems and coordinate parking."

Neighbourhood Improvement Plan
(via "Carlaw + Dundas Community Workshop" - page 13 - City of Toronto Planning)

For reference - here's the City of Toronto Planning, "Dundas/Carlaw Corridor Study" map:

Dundas/Carlaw Corridor Study Map
(via "Carlaw + Dundas Community Workshop" - page 5 - City of Toronto Planning)

Public Benefits

Planners and Councilor Fletcher came up with some "public benefits" proposals - gleaned I expect from feedback the Councillor was/is getting from the neighbourhood. They included: Repave Carlaw; Add better street lighting; Add street furniture; Add public art; Green everything that we can green; Add 'neck-downs' Colgate; Put in the triangular park on the north west corner of Carlaw & Dundas; Add a Theatre space and 'Community Hub', as part of the tower development on the north-east corner of Dundas and Carlaw, (the Theatre will house the long established, award winning "Crow's Theatre" acting company - www.crowstheatre.com)

During these meetings the deluge of information is absolutely unfathomable to most people I think. Looking through the documents one day later though, I think I see some of the sense of it.

As a transportation advocate, specifically focused on Complete Streets and sustainable development - I didn't understand that transportation infrastructure was on the table in this study (this is my first 'live' (as opposed to the virtual - I participated online, in Round One of the Gardiner East Study).

Perhaps because it's like a 'forest for the trees' thing - transportation networks are so ubiquitous that we become used to it, such that we don't even see it anymore - at least as something we could change, make better perhaps. So perhaps that' how transportation seems to not be a part of this study. But the kinds of changes I'm advocating for here are Provincial and City Policy - but they are not terribly popular or well understood - so they remain side bars, so to speak - when they should be headlines across the top of the front page.

Provincial Biking Policy - #CycleON released Spring 2013 (sees Complete Streets as the urban formula they wish to proceed with) - http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/pubs/cycling-guide/pdfs/MTO-CycleON-EN.pdf
City of Toronto Complete Streets Policy - TMMIS - Complete Streets - http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2013.PW22.10

At the next public consultation, I'll be sure to be prepared with some talking points around redefining Transportation Infrastructure - so as to get more, and more focused, cycling infrastructure feedback for Planners.

If we are serious about a complete streets redevelopment protocols - and we should be VERY serious about them - then we need to make transportation alternatives to the car model transportation development of the past half century central to our redevelopment process - at every turn (so to speak :).

Colgate avenue was the one road treatment suggested in the presentation. It is a great idea. Colgate Ave., is a short street that comes off the west side of Carlaw about 300 metres north of Queen; and leads two blocks west over to Jimmy Simpson Park. People who live in the area can then walk, or bike, or roller blade, or push baby strollers - along that route to the park - in a relatively peaceful and serine environ compared to the busy Carlaw Ave.. Its part of an off-arterial route from the Dundas Bike Lanes that I regularly use to avoid Queen; in order to use the Queen street railway under-pass 'gateway' to get to Riverdale and Riverside on Queen. I expect other cyclists use this off-arterial route as well.

If what I thought I saw at the meeting (concerning the long discussion of bicycle issues) is what I think it is - a change in life style away from a car-centred one - then the Dundas Bike Lanes need to be a serious part of this discussion. With a little leadership, this should become obvious - if it is true - at the next meeting.

How do we get to them? Where do we park our bikes? Should the Dundas Bike Lanes be separated bike lanes? Should we make Carlaw (or Logan?) into a north-south cycling route?

Increasing Density

Using the "Approved Redevelopment Sites" map (see below), I counted 700 new units that have come on the residential market by now, over the last 8 to 10 years - and in the next year or so, 300 more will come onto the market.

Approved Redevelopment Sites
(via "Carlaw + Dundas Community Workshop" - page 9 - City of Toronto Planning)

Happy hundreds of new ward voters is extremely important.

The street right now - looks like hell - what with all the construction that seems to be never-ending... . Plus at night, I think Carlaw along this stretch might be one of the most dangerous streets in Toronto. It's dark, and there are all kinds of nooks and crannies where who knows what's going on. Better lighting is required, and not just street lights - but artistic lighting on building faces that highlight beautiful architecture - and at the same time open up the shadows... .

If I lived in those buildings at this time, I wouldn't want to come home after dark via anything other than a safe car. But we know that everyone driving a car, is not sustainable - or desirable. To achieve the move away from the car mode centred development, we need a design process with a lot more thought put into it - and with a lot more feed back from the neighbourhood.

Now that we've seen the planning documents the discussion can only now begin to become very deep.

In my opinion, these public redevelopment process discussions need to have a longer time period arch - that allow at least three public consultations, rather than this hurried two - with it's projected study completion date set for Spring 2014.

Lets be honest - there is a lot of fear around these kinds of things - people are worried that big money is pulling strings everywhere; and that the politicians are worried about the economy more than they're worried about the community; and that the City's thinking about the tax base increases inherent in high rise development; and the developers are eagerly looking forward to super-profits that they can realize with high rise development.

But from what I see at these public consultations - people just what a neighborhood that feels like a neighbourhood - rather than super-high densities at arterial intersections populated with these wall-of-glass money-making-machines that add local volume congestion to the already congested 'highways' that run through these neighbourhoods.

The alternative to this arterial-intersection high-rise development that the big money developers are pushing - is a more spread out development vision. A plan where 4 story walk-ups apartment buildings spring up across the Ward; where home owners are allowed to add top-story additions onto their homes - or reconstruct garages into apartments; or build apartments above their garages; or build new buildings on their properties to rent out to tenants. This kind of development will help families struggling with mortgages, and will create tight-knit communities - rather than isolating, vertically stacked boxes that can over time, easily degrade the value of an area due to social disease - resulting in 'vertical slums' and dangerous surrounds.

Complete Streets - Sustainable Transportation Redevelopment

Complete Streets understands that the street grid is full - it cannot move any more cars than it is right now, and the geographic reality is that we cannot just build more roads - there is no more room. Thus, with a view to moving people - rather than the vehicles they chose to use - we come upon the idea of counting 'trips' rather than cars.

Trips can happen by walking, rollerblading, bicycling, e-biking, public transit, or by driving. But - so the thinking goes - all our transportation infrastructure is built solely to move cars and trucks safely. Thus - to accommodate more 'trips' - we need to redesign our street grid to accommodate other forms safely. So far, here in this city, this has meant bike lanes. But the vision is more than bike lanes - it envisions changes to roadways from property line to property line.

The image below is an architects' drawing of a Complete Street - from a Dylan Reid article at Spacing Toronto "Re-engineering road standards for cities" (image via Urban Street Design Guide: http://nacto.org/usdg/about-the-guide/).

The idea is to make the street feel like it is safe to walk, safe to bike on. It can include sloping curbs - that indicate pedestrians and small wheels may move here, textured and coloured surfaces - that indicate which mode of transport belongs where; it can include narrower driving lanes - which cause drivers to slow down; it can include separated bicycle lanes with concrete planters separating car and bike lanes - that make riders feel like bicycling is an accepted mode of transport; sidewalks can be made wider and more green and art can be added there - so pedestrians aren't over-whelmed by the other, faster modes. Complete Streets holds Public Transit as extremely important within the model - for it's demonstrated ability to move masses of people efficiently.

It is a brilliant new way to look at transportation, and its' got legs - it's not going away.

This is the 'War on the Car' that reactionaries talk about. But it's not a war on the car. Drivers can understand that more trips being accomplished by means other than the car - means there will be more room on our roadways for cars!

Complete Streets is a fact, it's coming. And there's no getting away from it - if our cities are to remain powerful economic engines into the future.

How do we apply 'Complete Streets' to Carlaw?

So on Carlaw and Dundas, lets think about:

Where do we park our bikes safely? How do we get to the bike infrastructure already in place via a dangerous car-clogged Carlaw? Will the Dundas Lanes be separated Bike Lanes soon? How does one get down to the Lower Don Recreational Trail along the north side of Lake Shore Boulevard (a huge bicycle commute route)?

Let's talk about:

Broadening the sidewalks on Carlaw; plant lots more trees. Narrow the roadways in order to slow traffic, take out one side of the on-street parking; instal a two way cycle track as part of a north-south bike corridor that connects the Carlaw/Dundas Neighbourhood to the Portlands and via a fly-over bridge acorss the Turning Basin -to the Lake Front - and north also, up to the Danforth ... so that cyclists will feel like they can commute to work safely and efficiently by means other than the car mode. So Transit users can walk a pleasant walk down to the Queen Car in the morning. So school children can ride their bikes to school, (which no sane parent would allow in this city now), instead of being driven every morning.

All this instead of this hellish noise, smell and stress bursting by like a raging river torrent for six hours every work day - morning, noon and night.

There we go. Now a Complete Streets discussion about Carlaw has begun. :)

References:

Toronto.ca TIMMIS | Agenda Item History | Dundas/Carlaw Corridor Study | http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2013.TE22.84

Councillor Paula Fletcher web | Community Planning in Ward 30 - Carlaw Dundas Study | http://paulafletcher.ca/discover-ward-30/community-planning/#carlaw

LINKS: (via Councillor Paula Fletcher, web) - Dundas/Carlaw Corridor Study, October 24, Community Workshop #1: Agenda, Presentation, Workshop Questions,

Spacing Toronto "REID: Re-engineering road standards for cities" September 24, 2013 - by Dylan Reid - http://spacing.ca/toronto/2013/09/24/reid-re-engineering-road-standards-cities/

National Association of City Transportation Officials (New York) - "Urban Street Design Guide" - http://nacto.org/usdg/about-the-guide/

mh

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Grand Design Outline by British Economist Paul Collier Illuminates Bankruptcy of G8 Austerity Strategy

Tax, trade and transparency: the G8 agenda

Summary:

Tax
Innovation in tax avoidance has outgrown regulation.
Some Co.'s behaviour is not social socially legitimate, but legal.
Crack open the secrecy havens: Who actually owns companies? Private remuneration is "the get-away car" that 'disappears' unconscionable profits. Tax these 'rouge' corporations:

Trade
Take down trade barriers between NA & EU.
Open up trade with Africa via massive infrastructure development of power and transport grid.(end run China, India - to natural resource base + local resulting development of domestic secondary industry --- which will primarily trade West (because they're our roads :) ).

Transparency
Who actually owns companies. Close 'private remuneration' loophole that acts as the 'get-away-car' for fraudulent earnings hidden away in secrete numbered bank accounts.
Extractive industry transparency agreement: Co.'s must report remuneration from extraction operations, publicly.

Youtube Channel

Tax, trade and transparency: the G8 agenda

Published on Aug 28, 2013

A distinguished panel, including economist Paul Collier, Andrew Mitchell MP and Andrew Sentance CBE share key insights and analysis on the G8 agenda, focusing on the Prime Minister's 'Three T's' of tax, trade and transparency.

To find out more about this talk, visit the event page on the RSA website: http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-an...

Listen to the podcast of the full event including audience Q&A: http://www.thersa.org/__data/assets/f...

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Our events are made possible with the support of our Fellowship. Support us by donating or applying to become a Fellow.

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(Talk by economist Paul Collier is in the first 8 minutes - the rest is the UK's top policy mavens setting Collier up for a fall - an escape hatch for when the coming crisis collapses the global economy despite this grand imperial solution.)

The way I see it, this model sees African Development (Imperial hegemony) as central to a Grand Design towards global hegemony. Africa is the pivot point of this particular cartel's global reach. One could replace Africa with Canada as a global natural resource base - but not as a pivot point for power is Asia. China is this plans 'touch-down' I believe - and Collier says as much in his narrative.

I think it's quite brilliant that transportation is one cornerstone of the foundation. The Roman Imperium would approve.

Better than the empire du jour maintaining continuous African instability through seeding and sustaining generations of civil war. But this is still Imperialism. Africa may find some Peace from imperial civil war with-in this model - but not likely a whole lot of development.

The interest that the western powers have in Africa is resource extraction. They need road, rail and power infrastructure to do this on a modern scale - and hope that African leaders will buy into the plan, towards national economic development. With profits from resource extraction realized off shore though, national development, democracy and social justice isn't likely to be very strong.

Or --- all this 'transparency', could be a great big pubic relations exercise - because the real issue is falling global demand - which they do not have an answer for.

For more on this impending crisis, The Real News Network just published this interesting piece on that:

October 20, 2013
"Federal Reserve in Uncharted Territory"
- Global Economist, Yilmaz Akyüz, on the Crisis of Financial Crisis Management -
by TRNN Producer, Lynn Fries - in Geneva - http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=10884

TRNN - Federal Reserve in Uncharted Territory

mh

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Some thoughts on 'Containment Fields'

I'm "Tumbling" this blog - meaning it will get longer and longer... . Thinking 'subject posts' that just keep updating.

October 9, 2013 - More on 'Containment Fields'

Recently +Tim O'Reilly on Google+

Google+ Tim O'Reilly (https://plus.google.com/+TimOReilly/posts/3XnviPR9Mbs)

"Fascinating."

Acoustic Levitation....
At the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory scientists have been experimenting with sound waves and pharmaceutical solutions, levitating soluble drops b/w two speakers facing each other. While there research have produced some visually fascinating results. It has also led to the discovery of a far more effective method for creating amorphous drugs, which happen to be more desirable of two forms that pharmaceutical drugs can take.....

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_levitation

(via Tufail M. - Google+ - Oct 6, 2013 -https://plus.google.com/108368588427369921804/posts/LheKUJ4ELKN )

(Lots of skepticism in comments under the Tim O'Reilly post for some reason.)

Here's the my comment under Tim's piece - that I didn't post:

Fields are interesting. The intersection of fields is even more interesting.

Recently I've been watching an NTSB air-crash-report based documentary series by National Geographic.

One plane crash investigation that was particularly interesting with reference to wave interactions showed how wingtip vortices can cause control issues for pilots flying behind other aircraft. As a result of the discovery of this kind of turbulence, the NTSB asked NASA to look into the phenomena.

Source: Wikipedia Wake turbulence - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_turbulence

Particle physics described by quantum calculations seem to live in a separate universe from that which we observe in larger scale transferees of energy - which we observe as waves. The visualization of this, the classic pebble dropped into a pool of water: pebble hits the surface of the water and creates a series of concentric waves which emanate out from the point of first contact. This is a two dimensional representation of a 'field wave bubble' (my term, I think).

The way I try to visualize this is the concentric waves of photons (better is concentric bubbles, or spheres) expanding away from the surface of the sun. Understanding how a bubble can be a part of a wave, and how distinct bubbles are connected to the bubbles just in front - or behind - is a difficult visualization. We tend to see the world in a two dimensional way - three dimensions is often a mental interpretation of what our eyes are perceiving; a map of understanding that our brains construct to exist in the three dimensional space. Add the forth dimension, time, and our ability to perceive what is really going on results in many more cognition errors.

Understanding how fields interact might provide a clue to how particles create field waves. For example: is Light a wave? Or a stream of particles? Is an oscillating stream of particles a wave? How can we visualize a wave as both a stream, and a wave? What qualities of a series of wave particles reflect the essence of what we see as a wave?

Understanding how dynamic fields interact is perhaps a route to understanding the connection between particle physics and wave physics.

I've been interested in dynamic field waves for a number of years, as a way forward in understanding the difference between the characteristics of particles, and the characteristics of waves. For example, is light a particle or a wave? This is a conundrum that we have not worked through in 300 years of trying.

Most physicists agree it is both. This is best illuminated by the double slit experiment. Throw random particles at a barrier wall with two slits in it, and record where the particles hit on the other side of the barrier wall - and you will get an interference pattern that reminds of the field lines of a magnet - a reflection of the interference created by the barriers between the slits (with something else added?).

Turn on the lights and repeat the bombardment, and the interference pattern doesn't present.

Here's an animation from Wikimedia (and see a talk on this in the link list below):

(via - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave%E2%80%93particle_duality)

The field that we exist in might be the best field to observe in order to understand fields better.

Our atmosphere is for the most part, water vapour. At different elevations from the surface of the earth that atmosphere holds varying percentages of water - more near to the surface less and less the higher off the ground you go. These differing characteristics of the air at different elevations creates distinct air masses, which behave differently depending I think on their mass - a function of how much water they are able to sustain. So we can look at the interfaces between those layers to discover the characteristics of field wave interactions.

Another field intersection that we are very familiar with is the vastly different characteristics of the field that is liquid water (the oceans) and the field that is the atmosphere that contacts them at the seas' surface.

Also been thinking about how trees get water all the up to the top from the roots.

(or do they?. New understandings from forest management indicate that much of the water at the top of especially the tallest trees, California Red Woods - may come in part, from rain, which the trees' leaves are specifically designed to collect and store.) (National Geographic - Redwoods http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/redwoods/redwoods)

Our standard explanation of this seems inadequate to me. The idea is that "capillary action" is responsible for this seems doubtful as that means that the process is essentially electromagnetic in nature. The magnetic forces involved are tiny when compared to the force of gravity pulling in the opposite direction. Are there other forces at work? Is the electromagnetic attraction an indicator of another proximate field that the municus is a refection of?

The meniscus that we see at the top of a beaker of water indicates that an electromagnetic attraction between the glass and the water molecules results in the concave incline all around the inside of the beaker - that rises above the surface of the water. In trees, the idea goes, the cells transfer water from one cell in the trees cellular structure up to the next cell through an electromagnetic process. - but as the cells themselves, are almost completely water - it must be the cell membrane that facilitate this attractive force between the the membrane matrix of molecules and the body of water molecules... . Or do we need to also look at the combinations of different matrices: the membrane matrix creates a field, the water within them create fields and those collection of fields also create a sympathetic field - and that in turn, interacts with the membrane matrix field. :\

_____________________

Some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingtip_vortices

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifting-line_theory

Some people in a chat room talking about plasma control: "Thread: Can magnetic fields be used to build a protective bubble that keeps out hot plasma?" - http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/39279-Can-magnetic-fields-be-used-to-build-a-protective-bubble-that-keeps-out-hot-plasma

Physics Central, Physics Buzz Blog - 2013-02-05 "Bathtub Physics: Using Bubbles to Battle Gravity" - http://physicsbuzz.physicscentral.com/2013/02/bathtub-physics-using-bubbles-to-battle.html

Double Slit Experiment explained! by Jim Al-Khalili

mh

________________________________________________________

2013-03-17 - Some thoughts on 'Containment Fields' (original post)

A 'containment field' - as in Star Trek the Next Generation episode, 'Realm of Fear' - could be a three dimensional figure eight, the top, middle and bottom of the shape, three nodes and the wave sign of a particular intensity of energy ... where the field, when viewed in two dimensions - is shaped like a figure eight - but each field line of the field traces a line from one pole to another (180 degrees), and at the same time, spirals 360 degrees down to the middle node of our figure '8'. And then the field line spirals around and down to the bottom most node in our thought-model:

Then multiply by millions electromagnetic strands - artificially produced in science fiction by some sort of highly complex set of field generators perhaps, working in conjunction - like a holographic projector. This three dimensional figure eight field is but one of an infinite number of shapes energy morphs into at different frequencies. And these three nodes - in our thought experiment - are but one wave sign of - perhaps one could imagine - an infinity long winding thread of energy spiraling through the solar system; connected less and less with it's cousin wave patterns - some born a nano-seconds before - and nano-seconds after - are now distant particles in the coldness of the outer solar system.
One could use this thought-model to then envision the spherical waves of energy off the surface of a sun. An expanding, evolving series of matrices; field lines morphing from state to state, changing over time; energy intensity; and the distance of their journey away from the star.

From measurement in the nano-second scale of changes happening near the moment of it's birth - to the eaons of time that may pass as energy from the star sends (for example) light energy to the furthest reaches of the universe.

mh

Sunday, June 23, 2013

This blog title is an application of @jonathanstark's Smart Content web design for verbal interface @OReillyMedia

O'Reilly Webcast, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Wearable Computers, Smart Objects, and the Death of the Touchscreen". Jonathan Stark talks about how mobile computers are changing the way web designers design and code, ~~web pages~~ *Stories*.

O'Reilly Webcast slide, 'Smart Content' from The Revolution Will Not Be Televised Jonathan Stark

So instead of packaging for anything (like desktop, or phone - videos or text), developers should think about what the story is - and design to bring alive the story, question, statement..

Think long, medium, short blog titles. Better content description makes for better relevance - and with tailored search and predictive software, content integration into your personal stream will take on a magical quality.

Start design of sites and applications from the smallest screen and expand the content to fill the 'real estate' - on a wall mounted widescreen.

An example of this kind of thinking is the title of this blog. The long title is just the right length for the Tweet that will broadcast the news when I publish it. I speaks to Jonathan Stark's third bullet point in the Smart Content slide image above:

Be structured based on a natural atomic unit (eg. story, post, tweet et al) rather than context specific containers (eg. pages, screens, windows)

So in this case, the blog title works as a Tweet; the Tweet broadcasts the news of the publication of the blog.

In my example the important thing isn't the length of the headline - how it looks - but rather choosing all the groups of words that will best express the content of the article. (That should also apply to the first 25 words of the article. As well. I erased height and set width to 100% in the img style.)

It's something I came across this week while titling baseball articles about the results of baseball games that I had scored in my html baseball scorecard. The headlines tried to describe: who played, who won, how they won, and the score. I found the resulting long titles worked really well in Twitter. So when I listened to Jonathan Stark's O'Reily Webcast, it occured to me that this was the obvious way to publish this article about it.

Webs.

Watch the webcast in its original format - O'Reilly Webcast: "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Wearable Computers, Smart Objects, and the Death of the Touchscreen" - Jonathan Stark - http://oreillynet.com/pub/e/2726?cmp=tw-prog-webcast-wc-the-revolution-will-not-be-televised

mh

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Blogger 'Compose' wreaks HTML name Attribute

Via W3Schools - http://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_a_name.asp

While writing this, if I click on 'Compose' inside the Blogger writing Interface, Blogger will turn the bookmark tag address into a link to Blogger Dashboard. If I go straight to 'Publish' - and never open this page accidentally in 'Compose' mode ... the bookmark will work.

As you click on the bookmark "See also Chapter 14" below, notice how your address bar goes from address, to address + "#C14".

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