Show Notes - Week of April 8, 2019

People I know. In a commercial:
ATB has a series of 90 second commercials that highlight how they helped a family, an individual, or a business in Alberta. They are a decent enough series that I didn't give much thought to until I saw this one featuring a family I know from the taekwondo and jiujitsu crowd at Elite, and featured the ATB Arts & Culture Branch located in the CKUA building. That was enough for me take the whole series more seriously. 

Late-Stage Capitalism:
Two more interesting pieces this week on the ails of capitalism. The first was from a 60 Minutes interview with hedge-fund billionaire Ray Dalio. The first quote is more optimistic or at least more favourable for capitalism than many others of late.

​Capitalism needs to be reformed. It doesn't need to be abandoned.  (12' 23")

The second quote specifically regarding American capitalism is much less optimistic, and more in line with other sentiments.

"I don't think it is sustainable."

That's pretty heady stuff coming from a hedge-fund manager worth $18 billion. 

The other source of negative sentiment towards capitalism was from the preface to the latest edition of Lapham's Quarterly. This issue is focused on Trade. The quarterly magazine is usually riddled with great articles, but typically my favorite part is Lewis Lapham's preface, and that was the case again in this issue. 

Lapham is clearly concerned about how we have moved to value money as the goal instead of money for the value of the product, and the impact that shift has on individuals and society. 

"The dehumanization of the world's trade is a refinement relatively new under the sun …" And "The devaluation of human labor becomes the trademark of the nineteenth-century industrial revolution."

Probably the most poetic line in the preface is Lapham's summary of the January / February 2019 issue of Foreign Affairs. 

"The bewildered policy-speak in the winter issue of Foreign Affairs is the voice of merchants who would be kings reduced in function to engine-room sweat labor heaving steel mills and shopping malls, movie studios and migrants, into a remorseless furnace."

Creativity as a Goal, not just as a way to make money:
There is more value to creativity and talent than just padding ones wallet. Or at least that is one of the central theses from the Freakonomics series on Creativity. The second part of the series featured some wonderful quotes from Wynton Marsalis. The best were two pieces of solid advice he received from his father (22' 50" and 25' 55"):

"All of everybody never does anything.”

"Don't adopt my prejudices, develop your own."

In other words, challenge those you make generalized statements, and experience the world for yourself before you decide what you like and don't like. 

Black Hole in the galaxy Messier 87

Stellar writing about a Black Hole:
Lots was said and tweeted about the composite photographic image released this week of the black hole. The best summary I read of the significance of the event was in The Atlantic by Marina Koren. The article, titled "An Extraordinary Image of the Black Hole at a Galaxy’s Heart" was filled with lots of facts - like the fact that this particular black hole at its center has a mass 6.5 billion times that of the sun - but it was extremely readable and it was easy to follow. Plus, checking out her Twitter profile revealed a great quote:

"Views expressed here are like black holes: they don't reflect anything."

Science humor for the win!

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New words:
syn·dic
[ˈsindik]
NOUN

1. a government official in various countries.
2. (in the UK) a business agent of certain universities and corporations.

bark·en·tine
[ˈbärkənˌtēn]
NOUN

1. a sailing ship similar to a bark but square-rigged only on the foremast.

(from Wikipedia: A barquentine or schooner barque (alternatively "barkentine" or "schooner bark") is a sailing vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts.)

venerable (a word I had thought just meant "old")
ven·er·a·ble
ADJECTIVE

1. accorded a great deal of respect, especially because of age, wisdom, or character.
   "a venerable statesman"
   synonyms:
   respected · venerated · revered · reverenced · worshipped · honored · esteemed · hallowed · august · distinguished · acclaimed · celebrated · lionized · renowned ·
   [more]

cf. (as in the notation used in literary publications)
[ˌsēˈef]
ABBREVIATION

1. compare with (used to refer a reader to another written work or another part of the same written work).

ORIGIN
from Latin confer ‘compare’.

Kickstarters and fundraising for NFPs:
I have been gung-ho into role-playing games lately, and I backed four successful Kickstarter campaigns in the last month - Witch+Craft, Snowhaven, Welcome to Tikor, and Humblewood. Humblewood was by far the most successful, raising just over $1,000,000 USD. Being immersed in Kickstarter project updates for the last several weeks, I am intrigued by the direct-to-supporter model and level of engagement in a Kickstarter. If I have a few bucks to spare but cannot decide between a traditional fundraising campaign for a foundation or not-for-profit ("Call in now and have your credit card handy!") and a cool project where I will help unlock new content and will be able to engage with the creators, I can't see any reason to send my limited money to a traditional campaign. 

Not-for-profits need to figure this out if they want to engage with potential supporters. A small company selling an add-on for an RPG can raise a million bucks, and that pile o' cash is cash and every other similar pile o' cash is money that the NFPs will never have access to if they maintain a dial-for-dollars mindset. 

New beers this week:
The current tally is now up to 542 unique beers with the two additions this week. First, another new beer at Biera. The BRO is a brown ale, and I liked it more than most browns. Maybe a bit too much burnt nib taste, but it had a nice aroma and a great foamy head. (3.75 / 5)  The only other new beer was the Hard Day IPA from Red Truck Beer. It had a lot of citrus, but I was distracted and didn't pay much attention, so it might have been better than I rated it. (3.25 / 5)

NATO Phonetic Alphabet:
​For some reason, our family is often spelling things out with the "airplane alphabet", and we usually can't remember what U is (spoiler alert: Uniform). So here for reference and posterity, is the full NATO Phonetic Alphabet, courtesy of Wikipedia. 

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Ron's Hockey Night in AHS:
Ron Faryna is a neighbor and a co-worker who has sat about 50 paces from me since May of last year. He came up with the idea of playing ball hockey as part of the AHS 10 year anniversary celebration, which in itself is a great idea. Then he was diagnosed with cancer, and the great people at AHS pulled together a super fun event. Here are a couple tweets from the event.

I'm not crying, you're crying.