Science
SUSTAINable ACTIVITIES for Individuals and Groups
The commonplace Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse paradigm needs help. Limiting harm is not very motivating.
- There are POSITIVE sustainable ACTIVITIES.
- Humans can actually help the 'Growth' of Diversity, Productivity and Stability! (as understood in Ecology)
- We will compile a list of individual ACTIONS and larger COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES. Please brainstorm for the list even now.
- Meeting Details: Beginning as soon as Feb. 10th, but now more likely the week of the 15th.
- We will meet in the evening, 6pm or later for about 2 hours, once per week for 4 weeks, or more if people want.
- Location: TBD, Centrally located to participants in Mpls or St. Paul; please email the location you will be coming from.
- Day of Week: not Tu, because I am taking an exco class: Voices of Rondo - Saint Paul's Historic Black Community
- Please email or call me with: days of the week that work for you, your location and if you would like to start at 6, 7, or 8pm
Organic Chemistry, Survival in the Twenty-first Century, and Rock 'n' Roll
This course will explore the diversity of natural and anthropogenic organic compounds as well as their molecular structure, physical properties, and biogeochemical dynamics. In lieu of standard textbooks on the subject of organic chemistry, all technical material will be contained in a series of detailed notes written by the facilitator which are to be published electronically. Each class meeting will consist of either a workshop or a field trip, and will be prefaced by facilitator-led discussions on topics such as industrialization, the environment, deciphering media jargon, and activism. The workshops will primarily consist of DIY projects which transform foraged and/or free materials into substances which meet important human needs. These projects will be designed to encourage human creativity, emphasize the importance of the scientific method, and will be necessarily tailored to the interests of the class. The field trips will be to businesses which exploit similar chemical phenomenon on a commercial scale for profit and/or the vested interests of the State. The course is not designed with the needs of aspiring professional scientists in mind, but rather with those of ordinary people who wish to better understand and respond to the world around them.
