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cats rule
nogutsnoglory blog-
If, during the long course of ages and under varying conditions of life, organic beings vary at all in the several parts of their organization, and I think this cannot be disputed; if there be, owing to the high geometric powers of increase of each species, at some age, season or year, a severe struggle for life, and this certainly cannot be disputed; then, considering the infinite complexity of the relations of all organic beings to each other and to their conditions of existence, causing an infinite variety in structure, constitution, and habits, to be advantageous to them, I think it would be a most extraordinary fact if no variation ever had occurred useful to each being’s own welfare, in the same way as so many variations have occurred useful to man. But if variations useful to any organic being do occur, assuredly individuals thus characterized will have the best chance of being preserved in the struggle for life; and from the strong principle of inheritance they will tend to produce offspring similarly characterized. This principle of preservation, I have called, for the sake of brevity, Natural Selection. [Charles Darwin (1859) On the Origin of Species]
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“It is essential to such a government, that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion, or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans, and claim for their government the honorable title of republic.” James Madison -
All the property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it. -Benjamin Franklin - IO9
- Totally Astonishing Images from the 2013 Art of Science Contest May 21, 2013This isn't an alien world — it's a representation of the winds traveling from East to West (in blue) and West to East (in red) here on Earth. And this is just one of the fantastic images that won the 2013 Science As Art contest at Princeton University. See a few more below.Read more... […]
- Damon Lindelof admits the Star Trek underwear scene was "gratuitous" May 20, 2013Still scratching your head over the random underwear scene with Alice Eve in Star Trek Into Darkness? Head producer and writer Damon Lindelof has finally "copped" to the fact that the nudity was completely gratuitous.Read more... […]
- Teen Wolf trailer unleashes the Alpha Werewolf Pack May 20, 2013Here it is — the very first Teen Wolf trailer with footage from the new season, and it's stuffed with hairy man-candy. Read more... […]
- Read This Week’s DVDs or this catbus will eat these children May 20, 2013He’ll do it, too! This catbus is a monster! A giant, furry, adorable monster who stars in the greatest kids’ movie of all time! Plus sexy vampires, underage werewolves, badass bike messengers and more, all in this week’s DVD and Blu-ray releases!Read more... […]
- If Earth Had a Ring Like Saturn May 20, 2013Our planet is lucky enough to have a large moon orbiting not too far away, which makes for very pretty moonlit nights. But for spectacular skies it might almost be worth trading in our moon for a ring like Saturn's. Read more... […]
- Totally Astonishing Images from the 2013 Art of Science Contest May 21, 2013
- Make Blog
- LA Times: Maker Faire may be Silicon Valley’s Most Important Export May 21, 2013
- Pirate Pancake Follows Captain Crepe May 21, 2013
- Sensing Color With a LED and Op Amp May 20, 2013
- Instant Giant Tetrahedron May 20, 2013
- Making Maker Scholarships May 20, 2013
- Weird Universe
Category Archives: play
Free Play Means Free Plus Play
Free Play Softball league – tag – all historical posts
Findings – The case study suggests that play in a ludic learning space can promote deep learning in the intellectual, physical, spiritual, and moral realms.
The capacity for such integrated judgment seems to be borne out of transcendence, wherein the conflicts that those of us at lowe levels of insight perceive as win-lose are recast into a higher form that can make everyone a winner, or can make winning and losing irrelevant. And finally, with centering comes commitment in the integration of abstract ideals in the concrete here-and-now of one’s life. When we act from our center, the place of truth within us, action is based on the fusion of value and fact, meaning and relevance, and hence is totally committed. Only by personal commitment to the here-and-now of one’s life situation, fully accepting one’s past and taking choiceful responsbility for one’s future, is the dialectic conflict necessary for learning experienced. The dawn of integrity comes with the acceptance of responsibility for the course of own’s own life. For in taking responsibility for the world, we are given back the power to change it. (D.A.Kolb)
Above was originally quoted in the first blog post about the Free Play Softball League, eight years ago.
Learning to play, playing to learn
A case study of a ludic learning space (pdf)
Alice Y. Kolb
Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
David A. Kolb
Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University,
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Abstract
Purpose- In this paper we propose an experiential learning framework for understanding how play can potentially create a unique ludic learning space conducive to deep learning. Design/methodology/approach- The framework is developed by integrating two perspectives. First, we draw from multidisciplinary theories of play to uncover the underlying play principles that contribute to the emergence of the ludic learning space. Then, we examine the formation of a ludic learning space through a case study of a pickup softball league where for fifteen years, a group of individuals diverse in age group, gender, level of education, and ethnic background have come together to play. Findings – The case study suggests that play in a ludic learning space can promote deep learning in the intellectual, physical, spiritual, and moral realms. Originality/value- This paper uses the play literature to inform the experiential learning concept of the learning space.
Citations
755 RK: Case study research: design and methods. 2 edition – Yin – 1994
601 Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development – Kolb – 1984
526 Thought and Language – Vygotsky – 1962
468 Mind in society – Vygotsky – 1978
268 The Tree of Knowledge: The Biological Roots of Human Understanding, transl – Maturana, Varela – 1988
219 1872) The Expression of Emotions in Man and the Animals – Darwin
163 R: Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior – Deci, Ryan – 1985
153 How we think – Dewey – 1910
152 1871) The descent of man and selection in relation to sex – Darwin
114 Truth and method – Gadamer – 1960
111 Qualitative Case Studies – Stake
86 Childhood and Society – Erikson – 1950
83 Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being – Ryan, Deci – 2000
73 Play, dreams and imitation in childhood – Piaget – 1999
61 The ambiguity of play – Sutton-Smith – 2001
60 Conflict, arousal, and curiosity – Berlyne – 1960
47 Homo Ludens – Huizinga – 1938
46 The interpretation of dreams – Freud – 1976
34 Playing and Reality – Winnicott – 1971
16 Punished by rewards – Kohn – 1993
15 Animal play behavior – Fagen – 1981
14 Play and its role in the mental development of the child – Vygotsky – 1967
6 Qualitative inquiry and research design – Creswell – 2007
6 The hurried child – Elkind – 1981
6 1898): The play of animals – GROOS
5 Intentional icons: Towards an evolutionary cognitive ethology – Bekoff, Allen – 1992
4 play and games – Callois, Man
4 Man meets dog – Lorenz – 1994
4 S.: Ideas are born in fields of play: Towards a theory of play and creativity in organizational settings – Mainemelis, Ronson
4 Does play matter? Functional and evolutionary aspects of animal and human play – Smith – 1982
3 Liminal to Liminoid, in Play, Flow, and Ritual: An Essay in Comparative Symbology, Rice University Studies, 60(3):53-92. [reprinted, in a slightly changed form – TURNER – 1974
2 The school and society and the child and the curriculum, The University of Chicago – Dewey – 1990
2 Play: An interdisciplinary integration of research. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation – Kolb – 2000
2 The Playful, the Crazy and the Nature of Pretense – Miller, S – 1974
2 Relationship play therapy – Moustakas – 1997
2 Social play in the domestic cat – West – 1974
1 A critical reanalysis of the ontogeny and phylogeny of mammalian social and locomotor play: An ethological hornest’s nest – Bekoff, Byers – 1981
1 Animal play – Bekoff, Byers – 1998
1 Evolution and play – Brown – 1995
1 An ethnographic study about a casual sport context”, Unpublished manuscript – Calhoun – 2007
1 Drawing on the right side of the brain, Tarcher – Edwards – 1989
1 The power of play, Da Capo Lifelong Books – Elkind – 2007
1 Why people play – J – 1973
1 Play and behavioral flexibility – Fagen – 1984
1 Applause for aurora: Sociobiological considerations on exploration and play – Fagen – 1994
1 A team with no name: Winning is not about keeping score”. Unpublished manuscript – Goldman – 2002
1 Chimpanzee and others at play – Goodall – 1995
1 Smart moves, Great Ocean – Hannaford – 1995
1 The endangered minds, Simon and – Healey – 1990
1 A comparative approach to play: Cross-species and cross-cultural perspectives of play in development – Height, Black – 2000
Screening Needs
Ummm, cats.
Last May, when Sonny, our male cat, was five months old and a lithe leaper, I constructed a video and posted it to youtube. Since then 62 people have viewed the video. Thank you. I did my part. The video did not go viral.
Sonny, grown-up, apparently.
Yeah, now he’s a big lad; 15lbs. He cannot really elevate like he used to be able to do, but when he gets up a head of steam he can get himself up five feet. As always, he doesn’t stick the landing as much as try to wrestle his ‘touch-down’ momentum back down to zero.
Kofa In, Kolb in Hawaii
Set-up for autumn play with home plate where 2nd base is; looking north.
Kolb leaves for Hawaii and Kofa shows up for the second time this season. Go figure but once a Freeplayer, always a Freeplayer.
Free Play Action Shot
My best moment of timing? You can pick it out in this photograph. Worst moment. Waiting a tad too long in my spot in left field and then being unable to shuffle backward through three inches of mud to pluck a rocket hit by Rick out of the air. Result? Grand slam home run.
Free Play Subjectivity
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The Free Play softball aesthetic, or ethos, or model, makes room for negotiation about what really just happened. Such a negotiation often–but not always–arises after whatever did happened is perceived as having happened differently.
Other times potential differences in perception never come to be negotiated. Last season, passing an opposing fielder on my way out to the outfield, he confirmed that the half inning just completed had actually incurred but two outs, rather than the usual three. And so it goes. Francis, in the video refers to the previous inning during which the catcher called a ball fair that some felt differently about. But, in our necessarily minimal system, it’s the catcher’s call to make.
This includes a game several seasons back in which I discovered the numerous disputed calls were due to the catcher believing a fair ball was determined by how long it spent traversing fair territory in the air. Still, so it went and it is at least my article of faith that it all evens out in the free play cosmos.
Free Play Totem
Here are Tom, Stacy behind Diallo, Rick, Bill, and, Dave.
As the handicapper, the guy who attempts to forge even teams by making out the line-ups for both teams, my good intentions are normally undermined by not being able to predict which players will under-perform and which will over-perform. My assemblies are supposed to regress to the mean, thus even out, yet, during a summer with lots of lopsided games, I’m reminded ‘suppose’ is related to ‘supposition.’
Inexperienced players are especially hard to evaluate because, every now and then, one will breakout and in one respect, over-perform, and, in another respect, showcase the poverty of my own sense. Such was the case with Diallo, who may be gesturing in this photo to indicate his game changing stature on this particular Sunday. He poked three hits in a row and then tattooed his performance by catching two sizzling line drives at second base to end the game, including a missile I sent his way. Earlier, he did a perfect Robbie Alomar impression, gobbling up a grounder and soft tossing an underhand throw behind his back to the short stop at second, missing the out only because the tie goes to the runner. Some perceived the outcome differently too.
If I correctly understand Diallo’s pedigree, this was the fifth or sixth time he’s played softball.
For me, it’s a pleasure of the game to observe players improve, or to observe new players with skills stick with our sometimes ramshackle game. Keep in mind, with a few exceptions, we don’t know each other much at all. So, it generally is not known whether somebody is picking up the game again after a long hiatus–measured at times in decades–or is literally a so-called newbie.
My own middling skills are rapidly diminishing after forty years. I’m having to freshen up my evaluations, (being the handicapper,) as I note, with delight, improving players passing me on the skills totem.
Routed!
How about this? All summer long the unpredictable weather has conspired to make weekly turnout for our Sunday morning pick-up league–now in its 25th year–as unpredictable as the weather. This last Sunday, overcast, humid, with t-storms in the forecast, eighteen of the free play brethren showed up. This was, something like, the fourth time this season we had enough at game time to populate all the positions.
On the other hand, well, on my writing-the-line-up out hand, I unintentionally configured an awesome and grim rout, in which the score reached 20-0 by the end of the fiftth inning. Really, if not truly, the teams seemed even on the scoresheet, but I didn’t realize my weekly goal of a close game–unless you count the tally over the last three inning, 6-5.
