API Blog

I have always been interested in how things work. When I started to study business management, I learned that this is called, amongst other things, the value proposition. As a result, I have never been bored. Whether in a donut shop or doing a training session in Sri Lanka, I always ask the same question: What is the value proposition, what makes this work/ or not work?

John:

Sadly, this poem about the Battle of Balaclava, from the Crimean War of 1853-56, seems all too current once again. Plus ca change …

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

This post, and the one above, seem to show that ‘everything that is old is new again’. For Constantinople (Istanbul) substitute the contemporary Ukranian city of your choice. (Only the men, ships, and money seem to be absent).

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‘Vous n’avez pas de pain. Vous pouver manger de la brioche’
(Hat-tip to Marie Antoinette, up-dated for 2022. Note that the words ‘des gateaux’ do not
actually appear anywhere)

Recently I addressed a meeting for ‘Charter for Compassion’ in Richmond Hill (https://charterforcompassion.org)

Compassion

Yes, you heard my introduction

Hello,

My name is John Smithin and I am the Executive Co-Director of the Aurora Philosophy Institute, here in Aurora, Ontario, Canada.

Ho! Everything - appearance and existence, samsara and nirvana, has a single ground, yet two paths and two fruitions, and magically displays as awareness or unawareness.

John:

Hello. My name is John Smithin and I am the Executive Co-Director and a Fellow of the Aurora Philosophy Institute, here in Aurora, Ontario, Canada. I am here today with Will Fletcher who, I think, has a few philosophical suggestions for us. Welcome, Will.

This was a very interesting presentation and is highly recommended viewing on the API YouTube channel. The purpose of this note is to comment on a particular slide in the section about the  ‘moral aspects’ of new media  (slide #36 to be precise). McLuhan is trying to provide some sort of antidote to the overwhelming effects of one particular medium rather than another. For example, if you are watching too much television, switch it off and read a book.