NGUPLUS

Friday is a Holiday!

Ok, not really a holiday, but I have the day off - so it is a holiday to ME! Im going to a NEW YARN STORE! And Im taking the boys - because they have a KIDS AREA!!! Woo HOOO!

Blue Bell Ice Cream - Im also going here on Friday. They really do honor the "eat all you can and sell the rest" motto! If they let us take pictures, Ill share them.

Next - On Fathers Day, June 19 so you dont forget, Im getting a new dad! My mom has found the most amazing guy to finish her life with and theyll get married on Fathers Day. In her words - he might be the 3rd, but hes definately the last!

Available link for download

Genius Hour! What is Your Passion

A new push in education the last few years has revolved around students recognizing their passions and deciding their own learning.  This is part of what we call "Genius Hour".  One of my favorite consultants in education, Angela Meiers,  goes around the US presenting to teachers and students encouraging them to share their passions.  She tells them, "You are a genius and the world expects your contribution".  Very powerful message if you think about it.

Genius Hour was a favorite of the students last year as well as the year before.  It is a time where students can decide what they would like to learn about, do research and hands on activities, and create something to share their learning with the class.  Their learning will revolve around key questions.

I kicked off genius hour by sharing two videos.  One is by my favorite, Kid President, in which he encourages students to go out and be awesome!  I hope you enjoy it as much as we do in 3B.  It is titled "A Pep Talk from Kid President to You!".



The other video that I shared was about a boy who took his passions for arcades and created something wonderful.  This video is called "Canes Arcade".



After reading some books about presenting the idea of Genius Hour, the students started their own "Wonder Wall" in their Genius Hour notebook.  We have a "Wonder Wall" in the class that we started writing questions an things that come up during the day that we wonder about.  The students also have done this in their notebooks.

The next step was to think about what we are passionate about.  Students created a page that they will continue to add on to, listing their passions and what they would love to learn more about.   Next week we will talk about asking questions to set the stage for learning as well as internet safety.  The students will then be ready to decide their passion and learning.

This is a powerful time that I am always amazed at what the students can do. We will have Genius Hour every Friday morning from 10:00-10:45.   Last year I had students build wind turbines, lava lamps, video movies, and so much more through Genius Hour.  It is a powerful time of learning!

Below is a picture of students writing their passions in their writing notebooks.

Available link for download

Fun is Serious in Social Business

When I went to Ranthambore this year, I was pretty awestruck by the glory of the mens moustaches there. As some of you know, I was inspired enough to grow my own moustache. A week down the line, when I was back at work I thought of the Movember tradition and wondered if people would be willing to donate to a charity if I kept growing my moustache. My colleague Nikhils been growing one of his own -- we could potentially double up. Without a second thought, I posted a poll on our social business platform - myThoughtWorks. Now wait a minute - was that related to work in anyway? Was there an ROI to allowing a posting of that nature? Errrm... no! I personally think theres value in such a thing though. That value is fun.

In a way, I consider myself fortunate to work for a company that lists Fun as a value. Its quite easy to get very uptight in social business. Its quite easy to forget that the water cooler has gossip, the team rooms have jokes, colleagues have fun with each other and that we often strike strong personal relationships at work. A true social business platform needs to mirror these real aspects of human behaviour. In todays blogpost, I want to outline a few patterns that you may actively want to foster in your community to encourage the value of fun.

Help people find others with similar interests

If youve read the book First Break all the Rules, it links to a Gallup study that claims to reveal the formula for innovation in the enterprise.


There obviously is a certain importance of emotional connection to the enterprise. Youre less likely to leave if you have friends in the company. Friendship stems from common ground. Common ground emerges from common interests. Simple implementations such as profile tags and people search can help people find other people with similar interests. Whats the ROI? Is retaining your employees valuable for you? Is 96% employee satisfaction valuable for you? Does employee engagement mean much to you? If the answer to either of these is yes, then you perhaps should care.

Simulate the Gossip Lounge

Whether you like it or not, your people are saying things. Some of these are useful pieces of information, some are musings, some are questions, some are pieces of feedback for you to react on. Think of the way you react to your network on Facebook. Simulating the gossip room on your social business platform allows you to have a constantly updating view of what people are saying to each other. Its fun for people to broadcast their views - its valuable for you to listen to them. What do people care about? In my case it seems to be the speed of myThoughtWorks in Australia. In your case it could be a fascination with moustaches!

The Gamification Phenomenon

Still a topic of debate, but we cant deny that were brushing shoulders in the workplace with a gamer generation. Heck, this may not even be a new phenomenon. As Byron Reeves says though, the current gamer generation has a few strong beliefs:

• competition is fun
• failure doesnt hurt
• risk is part of the game
• feedback is best when its immediate
• trial and error is the best plan
• bosses and rules are less important
• group action is common

In his talk at DevLearn, Byron argued that play is not the opposite of work. Play on the other hand can facilitate interest in work. In that talk, Byron showed us how doctors are playing games at $15 an hour to only improve their diagnosis skills. This cant be opposite of work. Theres some obvious benefit that gamification has towards individual motivation. Theres perhaps a reason why youre so addicted to Angry Birds on your iPhone or Harbour Master on your iPad. Dont get me wrong, Im not saying that you can make a dull job interesting by gamifying it. Thats just putting lipstick on a pig. What is interesting is how badges, points, reputation systems can help add a fresh level of interest and motivation to knowledge sharing, feedback, personal learning and challenging work. How can people get immediate feedback for desirable behaviour on your platform? How can you recognise the most active contributors? How can you reward achievements without promoting a class culture? Check how Foursquare gives badges - can you try something similar?

Learning at work, but not just about work

People are people and have more dimensions to them than just work. People want to learn about photography, origami, art. They may want to practice a sport. Going back to the thought about helping people find others with similar interests, its also crucial to help people pursue their non-work passions through the company. For example, Ive discovered a passion for photography; I work in a company of geeks and many geeks like photography. The fact that ThoughtWorks allows us to have a special interest group on photography on the social business platform means a great deal to some of us. Its an opportunity to share our work amongst people we know and learn from each other about lenses, photography tips and what not. This has no direct impact on the companys bottomline but again it tells me that the company is willing to share their investment in my personal growth and also it allows me to make connections with others in the enterprise. If you believe Granovetter, then its the weak acquaintances that have solutions to your toughest problems. The guy who runs the photography interest group could be the business analyst who can help you with that tough problem on your project. Who knows what solutions some of these weak ties can lead to?

---

While I think were starting to cross the chasm with adoption of social business platforms in the enterprise, theres still a great amount of thought we need to put in so these platforms mirror common human behaviour. To overuse a cliche, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and perhaps an even duller knowledge worker. The ideas Ive put out on this blogpost dont even cover the tip of the iceberg for this crucial aspect of social business. At ThoughtWorks, we take fun seriously but even we have miles to go with the way were integrating fun into our collaboration platforms. Id love to hear of ideas that you may have in this space - fun means heaps to this company. Comment unabashedly so I can learn from you!

On a sidenote, Im hosting RubyConf India this week and while its quite unrelated to the stuff I blog about Im quite excited to be master of ceremonies for a second time. If you happen to be there by any chance, do say hello. Im sure itll be great to catch up.

Available link for download

Funko is giving their POP! Vinyl line a classic HORROR twist!

 Cannibal Reviews is a big supporter of Funko!  Theyve taken on zombies, masked psychopaths, and Ghostbusters.  This September the company will be tackling the Universal Monsters!

Its a perfect night for mystery and horror!

The air itself is filled with...monsters! Funko is bringing the legendary Universal Monsters to life in a new Pop! series! Dracula, Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, Creature From the Black Lagoon, and Metaluna Mutant are all creepy cute!

My favorite?  The Wolf Man, hands down.  That is a definite must own.  Everyone has a favorite Universal Monster, and now they can own their very own Pop! version of that character.  September cant come soon enough!

Available link for download

Fossil Fuel Use is Limited by Climate if Not by Resources

We appear to be living in rather peculiar and unsettling times. A year ago, discussions and fears were over the high oil price, which until September 2014, had been above $100 a barrel http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/09/09/markets-oil-idUKL3N0RA1L220140909. The price rose to $115 in June 2014, but has subsequently plummeted, with West Texas Intermediate falling to $43 and North Sea Brent Crude to $47 earlier in the week. Today, both have rallied marginally to around $48, with an untypical mere 21 cents between them. Since Brent typically trades at several dollars above WTI, any apparent synchrony between the two tends to reflect price-volatility, as indeed is the case now.

It is fair to say that the crash in oil price was not anticipated by most people who keep an eye on the oil supply situation, and accordingly, its cause is a matter of intense speculation, and the likely prognosis even more so. Among the various factors that have been brought culpable for it http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/12/economist-explains-4, we may list: a slowing of the Chinese economy, and little recovery in Europe, so that demand has fallen, and that moreover, supply of crude oil has soared ahead of expectation. The latter is accounted for by supplies of oil returning from Iraq and Libya, and overwhelmingly, the ramping-up of oil-production in the U.S., principally released from impermeable shale-formations by hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"). While the U.S.is not a major exporter of oil, the increase in its own domestic production has reduced the amount of oil it needs to import, so leaving a bigger surplus on the global market. Saudi Arabia produces around 10 million barrels a day, or one third of the output from OPEC, which has refused to cut back on production primarily to avoid losing its market share http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/08/us-opec-oil-idUSKBN0KH1HA20150108. Thus the result is overproduction against demand, leading to a glut of oil, and this has pushed the price down markedly.

Although, from the perspective of "price at the pump", a low oil price is widely being seen as positive, i.e. sales of Hummers have increased http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-11-11/gas-guzzling-hummer-makes-comeback-fuel-prices-plunge, and the British Prime Minister has promised that cheap oil and gas will lead to reduced energy bills http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/energy/fuel/11345216/Fuel-prices-will-fall-further-and-faster-says-David-Cameron.html there are various reasons to infer that the situation is but metastable and temporary. The main factor is that the worlds currently producing oil fields are showing a production decline of 4.1% per annum, meaning that year on year we need to find another 3.5 mbd http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/dec/23/british-petroleum-geologist-peak-oil-break-economy-recession, or the equivalent of the production from Saudi Arabia about every 3 years.

This surely will eat into the glut, and in addition, we are already seeing oil companies pull back on investment in new production to the tune of $150 billion in 2015 http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/100639-150b-plus-of-upstream-projects-face-wipeout-on-low-oil-prices-says-analyst, because the price they can sell oil for is less than the breakeven price (how much it costs to produce it). Any failure to inaugurate new production now must reduce the supply of oil a year or more down the line, and it is unlikely that U.S. shale oil output, impressive though it has been (now providing 30% of U.S. domestic  production http://www.energyglobal.com/downstream/the-environment/11122014/CBO-oil-gas-budget-and-economy/), can grow in perpetual step, to offset the decline from existing fields. Indeed, along with deepwater production, it is the relatively expensive shale oil projects that are vulnerable to a curtailing of new investment in them. It is speculated too, that the resurfacing of troubles in Libya will reduce its exports of oil http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-29/oil-climbs-as-libyan-output-threatened-by-fire-at-storage-tanks.html, further attenuating overall global oil supply. Once the supply surplus is reduced against demand by these combined forces, the price will go back up: it has to, in line with true and rising production investment costs, and the real speculation is only over "when".

This may well sound like the bones of a "peak oil" argument, which will be laid bare once more, as the oil surplus which has veiled them drains away, but the technical and economic viability of oil production may not be its limiting element. Rather, the determinant of how much oil (and other fossil fuels) we can produce may be the amount of carbon dioxide that we are allowed to release into the atmosphere if we are to keep the mean global temperature from exceeding another 2 deg. C warmer than it is now, which is predicted to drive catastrophic climate change. In a paper published in the prestigious journal Nature http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7533/full/nature14016.html, Christophe McGlade and Paul Ekins, researchers at University College London, conclude that it will be necessary to leave some two thirds of the fossil fuels available to us unburned, to achieve just a 50% chance of keeping global warming within the 2 degree C limit. From their analysis, they deduce more specifically that it is necessary to leave one third of the oil, half of the gas and more than 80% of the worlds coal in the ground, up to 2050.

This is in line with previous studies, but the real significance of the work is the particular geographical regions that will be most affected, if these findings are turned into global policy. In particular, the Middle East would have to leave half of its oil and gas unburned, while Russia and the U.S. could only burn less than 10% of their coal reserves. 85% of Canadian oil sands (bitumen) reserves and 95% of Venezuelan extra-heavy oil reserves are described as "unburnable". The study is based on a model which limits the total amount of carbon discharged to the atmosphere at 1,100 Gt in the form of cumulative carbon emissions between 2011 and 2050.

The study concludes that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology would have little influence on the overall quantities of fossil fuels that can be produced, due to its high cost, relatively late date of introduction (2025) and likely rate at which it can be installed on the scale required.

While such a static reckoning of the distribution of the oil, gas and coal reserves across the world is extremely informative and undoubtedly salutary, it is of interest to examine the production rates of the three fuels that the model implies. To make an estimate of this, I have simply "blown up" the various charts (Figure 3 in the paper) on the computer-screen and measured them with a ruler, with the following results. EJ = Exajoule = 1.0 x 10^18 J:

            2010 (EJ)                   2050 (EJ)               Change


Oil       164                             156                            -5%


Gas      109                             172                           +58%


Coal     142                              46                            -68%



Total     415                             374                           -10%


Thus, we see that it is predicted that the oil-supply will remain robust (falling by only -5% over the 40 year period), fuelled mostly by fields already in production and those scheduled (from which production will have halved by 2050), with "reserve growth", "undiscovered", light tight oil (shale oil), and natural gas liquids filling-out the supply.

The major change is the replacement of coal by natural gas, the production of which is required to grow by 68% in 2025, and to be maintained through to 2050. (It is predicted that shale gas, tight gas and coal bed methane will form a substantial proportion of the gas supply, along with reserve growth and new discoveries). Since the carbon emissions per unit of energy are only half that of coal http://www.biomassenergycentre.org.uk/portal/page?_pageid=75,163182&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL, the production of which is curbed by two thirds in the model, the impact is large. It is predicted that the strategy would decrease the annual carbon emissions from 48 Gt CO2-eq (2010) to 21 Gt CO2-eq (2050), a reduction of 56% from start-to-finish year. The overall use of fossil-fuel energy is predicted to be reduced by 10%. This may be contrasted with the view taken from the B.P. Statistical Review of World Energy (2014) http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/about-bp/energy-economics/statistical-review-of-world-energy.html that by 2035, although there will be some replacement of coal use by gas, global carbon emissions will increase by 29%, in accord with our increasing consumption of fossil fuel.

The authors further conclude that: "developments of resources in the Arctic and any increase in unconventional oil production are incommensurate with efforts to limit average global warming to 2 degrees C."

They also warn that to maintain large expenditure on fossil fuel exploration is pointless, because it will not be possible to increase the amount of them available to burn (since the limits are already exceeded by the amounts that we already have!).

It is salient that at a time when policy-makers are intent on exploiting their fossil fuel reserves to the limit of availability and production, they should in fact be setting limits to production. Thus, the difference between the decrease of 56% in CO2-eq emissions from 2010 to 2050, predicted by the model, and the increase of 29% by 2035 (B.P. Statistical Review) - probably +50% or so by 2050! - emphasises the disparity between what must actually be done and propping-up business as usual.

In the U.K. we await the outcome of the Infrastructure Bill, which forces governments (both the present and future incumbents) to produce strategies for “maximising the economic recovery of UK petroleum”. This means producing as much oil as possible, albeit how difficult that will be do, once the price escalates, once more, and the supplies (increasingly furnished by expensive, unconventional oil) become less and less affordable to buy. Yet such efforts appear as paradoxical denials of the urgency to ameliorate climate change.

Available link for download

Genius Hour is Here! Students Have Begun Finding their Inner Genius!

In a previous post I mentioned that students were gearing up and learning about what Genius Hour was.  I found a wonderful video for those that are not familiar with Genius Hour as it does a great job explaining the basis for this change in education.  



After many weeks of preparing and gaining a better understanding of what Genius Hour is, students launched their own Genius Hour time last Friday.  It was amazing to see how engaged and eager they each were to learning about something they were interested in.  As with all Genius Hour projects, the students began with a question of something they wanted to learn more about.  After reviewing internet safety, they were off to explore their own topics and learning.  You could have heard a pin drop as they were so into their new learning.  Many comments were, "This is awesome!", "I dont want to stop!", "Can we do this every day?".  Music to my ears!!!  It was wonderful.


We still have some work to do on research skills and when do I have "enough" information?  They are 3rd graders after all and need guidance.  But I can tell this is going to be a powerful time in our day every Friday as it has been in the past.


I cant wait to hear what they are learning about and share it with you!  Some of their topics are wind turbine, race cars, lava lamps, video making, speed boats, light bulbs....just to name a few.

Available link for download

Fold Over Elastic What The Hell is it Exactly

What on earth is Fold Over Elastic then?. This is a question that The Village Haberdashery were being frequently asked after they posted images of their awesome new range of FOE on social media recently. As a lover of the stuff, they turned to me to provide some explanation, which was originally posted here on the Daily Stitch blog last month. Here goes…

What is FOE?

Fold over elastic (as its mum would call it, FOE is its street name) is thin, flat elastic that has a line running along the centre of its length that makes it easy to fold in half. Sold by the metre, it can be bought in a variety of widths and textures, but commonly it is about 20mm when flat and has one matt and one shiny side. Its purpose is similar to bias binding in that it finishes raw edges, but has the added benefit of stretchiness and recovery.


How does it work?

The FOE is positioned so the centre line is aligned with the raw edge of the fabric. The left hand side of the elastic width will be underneath the fabric at this point. The right hand side of the elastic width now gets folded over on top of the fabric, so that the raw edge is entirely enclosed between the two halves of elastic. You will then zigzag stitch through this three-layered sandwich to keep it all together.


What is it used for?

Most typically FOE is used for making undies, both in mass manufacture and in home sewing. The likelihood is that there’s some FOE present in your undies-drawer as we speak. If you’re interested in giving it a try, there are two PDF sewing patterns available for free download on my blog here. One is for making pants/undies/knickers and one is for making a vest/camisole/singlet, both are designed for knit fabric. 

You could try using FOE as an alternative for finishing necklines and/or cuffs on knit tops on both women’s wear and children’s wear. Little girl’s gathered skirts can be made super quickly with FOE with either knit or light-to-medium weight woven fabric. This is a great video on Youtube by Angry Chicken on how to do that. Nappy/diaper covers can be made with FOE, but usually a specific wide variety that has a fuzzy/terrycloth-type texture is used for this.




Why should I use it?

There is a lot to love about FOE once you’ve got the hang of using it, but perhaps my favourite feature is that you apply the elastic whilst neatening a raw edge AT THE SAME TIME. A bit of fiddling and one row of stitching and both these tasks are complete, which makes for some speedy garment making. Available in a rainbow of colours and with two textures in each length (matt and shiny), there are so many possibilities for creating cool contrast finishes on suitable projects.


Any tips?

Through analyzing some shop-bought pants and a bit of experimentation, I figured out that a 3 step zigzag stitch works best when stitching through the sandwich of elastic and fabric. I like to use a stitch width of 5mm and stitch length of 1mm on my Janome sewing machine, but have a play about to see what you prefer.

Once you’ve mastered the basic ‘elastic/fabric sandwich and stitch’ application, you can amp things up by giving the elastic a slight tug as it passes through your machine. This creates a pleasing gathered effect. Experiment with tugging the elastic at various tensions to see how much or little gathering you are able to produce. A little gathering looks great on knickers, for example, and helps them to be snug when worn. A lot of gathering is great when creating gathered skirts or the cuffs for wide sleeves. See here (http://sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/how-to-construct-undies-with-serger-and.html) for my tips on using FOE to create pants/knickers/undies, and there are many more blog posts, tutorials and videos out there to help.

Available link for download