How many Mennonites does it take to change a light bulb?

From a whimsical article "A funny thing happened on the way to the thrift store" from the 2015-Apr-10 MWR, on the lack of humor in the Mennonite Church, the last variation resonates with me on how we approach things in my congregation:

Q: How many Mennonites does it take to change a light bulb?
A: 27. One to change the light bulb and 25 for the potluck for afterwards (c. 1975).
A: 31. Ten for the committee to nominate the changer; 10 for the committee to arrange for disposal of the old lightbulb; 10 for the committee to purchase the new light bulb; one to change it upon being discerned for the task by the congregation (c. 1985).
A: It takes the consensus of the congregation, or, failing that, a two-third majority vote (c. 1995).
A: Change? (c. 2005)
A: That depends. Our congregation is not currently of one mind on the need to change the light bulb. Although the majority wishes it changed, a sizable minority is in loving disagreement. We are, therefore, entering into a yearlong season of discernment during which we will prayerfully study the scriptures to seek guidance in our decision-making process. We will also be in dialogue with our area conference at this time to assure that any light bulb switching does not threaten the unity of our denomination. If we discern that the congregation’s will is, indeed, to switch the light bulb, we will then establish a task force to implement the bulb-changing directive. So, yeah, we’ll get back you. (c. 2015)

An Extra Special Challenge for War of Words 2

Check out my post on a War of Words 2 strategy site: Extra Special Challenge

An ongoing challenge: Finish a two-player game on the Extra Special board, exhausting the supply without letting your opponent have a single turn.  I call this the “Extra Special Challenge” .... 

What to do when facebook only shows a few posts in your news feed

I have been having the problem for a while that facebook will sometimes only show a few posts in my newsfeed, and hardly show much of the rest of its interface.  I use Chrome, but tried it using Internet Explorer and have encountered the same problem.  The facebook forums are full of posts by users complaining about this.  Take this one for example:

My news feed isn’t scrolling anymore. It only shows 3 to 4 posts and won’t scroll any further down. I’ve logged into Google Chrome, IE9, Firefox and Safari and all 4 do the same thing. I’ve tested this on my other computers using Windows 7 and the...

At first I was thinking it was an intentional disabling feature to discourage the use of ad blocking software, but disabling that didn't help.  After performing various random tests including closing the browser, clearing the cache, reloading the browser, I finally found a reliable workaround for what seems to be a bug in facebook's browser-side code.

The issue manifests itself when loading fb in a window for the first time after having started the web browser (or in the case of Chrome, a new tab). Not only is it a problem that only just the first few posts load, but also when the browser window is maximized: the right activity/favorites bar also does not load.  Here are the steps I use to get it working:

1. MAXIMIZE the window.  This is helpful because in order to tell that all the fb code is working properly, the right activity/favorites bar must have an *opportunity* to load
2. Click on your name to view your timeline. (alternatively you can click on Messages or Browse)
3. Wait for the right activity/favorites bar to be completely displayed. (If you don't have the window maximized, seeing the years list completely shown is a good indication fb is now working)
4. Once the right bar is done loading, click on the [ f] icon or Home to show your news feed.

And voila! Facebook should be working now.  Hope this helps you if you've been frustrated by the same problem.

alt-J

Some of my favorite things right now:

• alt-J (∆) - With vocals reminiscent of Smashing Pumpkins, my head is swimming with this alt-rock bands' songs constantly.  I'm addicted to their layered sounds, harmonies, and melodious hooks.  Not to mention, a cappella interlude tracks!
• Good Job Brain - my favorite podcast that really solidified my desire to listen to podcasts at all.  It's such a great way to learn trivia because they bring you anecdotal details in an educational way: diving deep enough into several different topics around a theme, talking about details in a succinct story format that gives you what you'd want to know, with lots of short quizzes thrown in. And they're all usually very fascinating, but that shows how much of a nerd I am. It also really helps that the four hosts have such a great report with each other.
• War of Words 2 - it's really unfortunate this is only available on iOS devices.  Such an immersive word game!  Check out the trailer:

Conference on Peace, day 2

Notes on the 2nd day of the peace conference (see previous post)

Jeffrey Sommers

• Laid out the factors that led to Latvia having a mass migration exodus following attempted austerity measures to address the recent financial crisis.
• An example of how economic policy makers, money holders, and banking institutions can disrupt a peaceful society.

Winson Chu

• Showed a situation with Poland being both victimized by Nazi Germany, but also having significant groups of people that were antisemitic (which many Pols don't want to admit) and those that cooperated with implementing Russian agendas.
• This has caused relations between Germany and Poland to become complicated.

Diana Chigas

• CDA reports on peace making processes summarized in two books: (missed the name of the first one), and Time to Listen.
• Many aid programs fail to analyze the conflict, therefore efforts miss the mark and strategies fail due to resistance and ignoring opportunities
• "Aid system" constraints: reductionist, needs vs capacities, templates and lists vs drivers and dynamics
• How to intervene: match international and local priorities , areas of impact and evidence takes a long time but it can be happening slowly over time (is nonlinear), linkages and convergences are critical (very important: attitudinal / skill and socio-political change, vertical linkages, coalitions, convergence of various efforts coalescing)
• Too often there are projects, not progress
• Lasting change happens when local people are seen as colleagues
• Mentioned by Sandra Braman: there us a very humorous book on issues an aid worker faced: Tropical Gangsters

Oriol Mirosa

• A quote: "There can't be peace in the world when a child suffers to get access to water."
• Definitions of violence by various scholars:
  • Galtung: violence "as the cause of the difference between the potential and the actual"
  • Zizek: subjective violence is immediate, visible; objective is in the background
  • Nixon: slow violence ha a temporal dimension with invisibility, Inequality and environmental harm
  • Foucalt: "bio-power": management if populations , life as a political object
• Municipalities in the late 19th centuries take over water provision and provide it to all because fires and disease don't sat in poor areas.
• But recently starting in 1990s new policies reversing to privatization and full cost recoup
• Two examples:
• 1. Cochabamba Bolivia - there was a water war that ended the privatization
• 2. South Africa - after apartheid, efforts take to expand access to water, constitution calls out access to water as a human right. But policies created to allocate a maximum of free water and then it costs money.
• Conclusion: new water policies are perceived as mid-paced violence. For the benefit of the population as a whole, it sacrifices some of its members.
• Documentary to watch: For love of water flow.
• Regarding the concern of scarcity in terms of population growth, it is agriculture and industry that uses the majority of water, so in that context it is unfortunate that poor people have to pay for what they use within reason.

UWM CIE Conference on Peace, Day 1

UWM's Center for International Education hosted an academic Conference on Peace. Here are my notes from the first day, organized by speaker. My favorite presenter was Andrea Bartoli.

Peter Colman

• John Gottman studied couples and developed a model for predicting divorce within 5 years from coding a conflict situation lasting at least 30 minutes.
• Main takeaway: 2-year research concluded Israeli-Palestinian mindsets are two main groups: those that are motivated by positive messages and are turned off by <...>, and those motivated by avoiding pain and are turned off by <...>
• Knowing that, organizations that engage with the population regarding peace and conflict resolution can be asked 4 questions to discern which group they are in and tailor the messaging based on the group.

Andrea Bartoli

• Every interaction between people is an opportunity for constructive or destructive dialogue
• Andrea's presentation was geared towards human spirituality and the potential for peace. So engaging such that I didn't take good notes.
• A video where he presents Catholics and peace building
• A video where he discusses the history of International Prayer for Peace

Fred Turner

• In combat...the destruction of empathy enables violence.
• Soldiers are put through a training of de-empathization
• Discussed the concept of the "democratic personality" (in contrast to the 'authoritarian personality'). Mass media was seen as mostly promoting authoritarianism, and a visual photographic exhibit, "The Family of Man" is a good example of promoting mirroring and empathetic thought.
• Fred Turner was a journalist and expected to see his reporting in truth to case change but I did not.
• My conclusion: change in public thought tends to happen slowly - across generations (although the recent reports on the quick shift of public opinion on gay marriage contrasts)

Lisa Parks

• Drone warfare in Pakistan has happened in remote regions in which no journalists can report.
• Displayed various photos of different categories to convey the imagery which have brought attention to truth about impacts of the drone.
• Sign held : Burning Pakistan: Bush gifted, Obama granted
• "Ethical Governor" - video depicting fully automated weaponized drones
• There is a Drone Caucus of about 60 members in US congress that receives multi-million dollars in funding

Cynthia Cohen

• Performing arts can help with peace building by bringing out stories from people affected by violence. "Through ritual, ceremony and poetry, justice can be performed in ways that are meaningful to the community"

Dora Apel

• Analyzed various photos from the Iraq war in what they depicted. Frames an overall theme about photographers being embedded with troops and the efforts of controlling the pictures being taken failed.

WebOS, Android, and iPhone OS hello worlds

Links to hello world tutorials:

Android apps are in java, so you have a very rigid environment and your compiler should catch a lot of errors up front:
http://developer.android.com/guide/tutorials/hello-world.html

Palm's WebOS is in javascript, so it's not type-safe, and very loose environment:
http://developer.palm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1758

iPhone apps are in Objective C, so like Android, it is type-safe:
http://developer.apple.com/iPhone/library/documentation/Xcode/Conceptual/iphone_development/100-iPhone_Development_Quick_Start/iphone_development_quick_start.html

Some comments:

• I've done programming in JavaScript, Objective C, and Java. Mostly Java, so I'm a bit biased towards it, but on the surface, it does seem to be the friendliest of the 3 frameworks in terms of a nice structure it provides, not having a lot of extra little places you have to put things just to make it run, and the API is easy-to-understand on the surface without the need for a lot of explanation.
  
• All 3 examples appear to have localization in mind, but of the 3, WebOS is the worst in that you have to copy & modify portions of the html files--it's not immediately clear which text strings should be translated without use of a nice UI tool to highlight them.