Make, Tinker, Learn, Geek, Nerd Channels

~ Ryan Boren ~ Leave a comment

What we watch on the regular. Suggestions?

  • Applied Science Science and technology, applied. How an electron microscope was built in a home shop, how an X-ray backscatter system works, how to make aerogel, electromechanical systems, chemistry, and electronics. Support
  • Aquarium Co-op Building and running a fish room, fish room tours.
  • AvE Arduino vs. Evil. Err and err and err again but less and less and less. Machine shop geekery, tear downs. Support
  • AWE Me Blacksmithing and prop making. Forging fantasy weapons, fan builds.
  • The Ben Heck Show Electronics projects, 3D printing, microcontrollers, circuitry, modeling, design.
  • Big Think Muse on big ideas with experts, thought leaders. Bill Nye. #tuesdayswithbill
  • The Brain Scoop Behind the scenes of the Field Museum in Chicago. Dissection, taxidermy, clearing and staining, natural history. Science in the field and in the museum. “There’s still brains on it.”
  • Bulk Reef Supply A retailer that gets it. Reef geekery, instructional and educational videos, data informed product comparisons.
  • Clickspring Home machine shop project videos with a focus on clock making. Support
  • CrashCourse 10 – 15 minute crash courses on World History, Biology, Literature, Ecology, Chemistry, Psychology, US History, Physiology, Anatomy, Economics,… lots. Support
  • CrashCourse Kids Grade school science. Earth Science, Physical Science, Biology, Geography, Engineering, and Astronomy. Support
  • Crazy Russian Hacker Cool science experiments.
  • Dustin’s Fish Tanks Fishkeeping, aquascaping, and planted tanks. Support
  • Flitetest Build and fly RC planes and helicopters.
  • Geek & Sundry Indie geek culture. Retro-gaming, Space Janitors, table top gaming, live action role play, Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton.
  • iFixit Teardowns and repairs.
  • It’s Okay to be Smart “We live in the future, and everyone should know that it’s okay to be smart!”
  • jimmydiresta Hypnotic time lapse making.
  • King of DIY Making aquariums and aquarium equipment.
  • King of Random Experiments, life-hacks, random weekend projects.
  • Make: Celebrating your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.
  • Minute Physics Physics in a couple minutes presented in whiteboard animation. Support
  • Mr. Saltwater Tank Setting up and owning a saltwater tank.
  • Nerdist Nerd culture.
  • NurdRage Science experiments for all levels, from kitchen chemistry to advanced synthesis.
  • The Post Apocalyptic Inventor Projects, repairs, electrical and mechanical engineering. Support
  • Scishow Stoking curiosity with expectation defying scientific subjects. Science news, talk shows, quiz shows. Support
  • Scishow Kids Asking how and why and running with it. Support
  • Scishow Space Exploring the universe a few minutes at a time. Support
  • The Slo Mo Guys Slowing time with high-speed cinema cameras.
  • Smithsonian Channel History of our planet, life and culture.
  • Smarter Every Day Exploring the world using science.
  • TED-Ed Educators and animators create lessons.
  • Tested Test, make. Prop making, one day builds, deep product reviews, geek culture. Adam Savage’s cave.
  • Vihart Beautiful, wonderful math.
  • What’s Inside? Random things laid open.
  • Wired Science, making, gaming, geek culture.
  • Woodworking for Mere Mortals Accessible woodworking.

On cannabis and neurodiversity

~ Ryan Boren ~ Leave a comment

How does cannabis fit with neurodiversity, in your opinion, if at all?

Cannabis is the least harmful way for we humans to cope with the burdens of sentience, senescence, and mortality. Cannabis is popular in STEM cultures, at least the ones I’ve inhabited. It is part of the process of living, creating, and coping. I think the neurodivergent have long used it to regulate and cope in a world that does not accommodate. If your neurodivergence is accompanied by tics, seizures, paresthesia, fasciculations, panic, anxiety, or self-harming stimming, as but a few examples, then cannabis is a tool and ally. There are as many human operating systems as there are humans. The endocannabinoid system is a useful interface to our operating systems for which we have a natural, easy-to-grow key. All humans and their mammalian kin share this interface and this plant. We plucky prometheans figured out how to decarboxylate with fire.

Because, the drug war. The drug war preys on and abuses the different and the powerless. It puts neurodivergent kids in pipelines to prisons and foster systems where the incentives are to drug minds into compliance so that bodies can be more conveniently warehoused and souls more conveniently iced. The great many of us using cannabis to medicate and regulate are under constant threat of violence, humiliation, and confinement  in inhumane jails and prisons. The drug war’s perverse notions of addiction, addicts, and coping limit our vocabulary, stifle our empathy, and harm us all. The drug war, zero tolerance, and obedience culture are enemies of neurodiversity. Cannabis is a friend and a lever for change.

Software and the Middle-Class Life Script

~ Ryan Boren

Software-driven transformations directly disrupt the middle-class life script, upon which the entire industrial social order is based. In its typical aspirational form, the traditional script is based on 12 years of regimented industrial schooling, an additional 4 years devoted to economic specialization, lifetime employment with predictable seniority-based promotions, and middle-class lifestyles. Though this script began to unravel as early as the 1970s, even for the minority (white, male, straight, abled, native-born) who actually enjoyed it, the social order of our world is still based on it.

Source: Getting Reoriented