How tools become valuable.

July 2008

Tools gain value when kept organized and ready to go. You have to be able to efficiently put your hands on a tool for it to convey a real capacity, a capability that it alone enables.

It follows that grouping tools into functional collections or kits is one way to take these concepts, and add a few choice pieces of hardware or a component, put this in a tool box, label it, and store it where it can be found amongst the other toolboxes.

Once you've used a tool, clean it, put it back in the toolbox. Track when a drill bit needs replacement, when the Teflon tape runs low, and keep these crucial elements stocked.

The meta view then is to have toolsets that are complete for a set of actions. An example is a pop rivet toolbox. Has the pop rivet tool, a selection of pop rivets, drill bits for each size of pop rivet, reamer. Simple, but with correct drill bits, more likely to be ready to go to work immediately. The correct assortment of tools, hardware and container means that 80% of the jobs can be done without a trip to the hardware store.

Fortunately some older guys told me to organize my tools, and helped instill good habits. My father worked that way. As I've gained experience, I'm so glad that I've lived by these values and understandings. It's nice to be able to go to my shop and just do a task. Simple, but when I was very young, the acquisition of the tool was my priority, it took a while for me to appreciate how the organization multiplies the value.

The shop is quite small, and yet it functions well. Has lots of power, a data connection, phone, natural light, and privacy. I don't like to be bothered when working in the shop, though I do enjoy visitors and collaborators.

Good security for the tools and the shop is vital, best to have an alarm system. This minimizes the times that you have to start over on the workshop….a non trivial consideration as the collection grows and becomes more useful.

Anyway, as the shop develops, it adds to the value of the tools, the kits, and we have a system capability, a capacity to do things that results from the synergism. At this level we might see for example a fume hood/dust-exhaust system adding value, as the tools can now be employed in a wider variety of ways, and health is maximized. At this level we might see a jib crane or a bridge crane, forge, etc.

At the shop level, attention to the sources of energy and utilities adds value. Lots of electrical outlets is basic, with compressed air a common upgrade, data ports, and sometimes various forms of water ( cooling water, de-ionized water, distilled water, potable water), gasses ( natural gas, nitrogen, etc.), sometimes its cryogens such as liquid nitrogen. Various forms of sewer add value, including ability to handle silt, acid waste, or the ability to contain, these add value.

The national laboratories take this concept two levels higher.

Laboratories combine the specialized work spaces/work shops into ensembles that convey a sophisticated capability such as that needed to do materials research. The national system of laboratories delivers a capability to manage the technical capabilities and research fields in a coordinated manner.

Culture is ultimately what gives value to tools, and this includes individual behavior, clan or tribal values, dynamics and practices, social organization, and how education works. The culture of the craftsman, the culture of the laboratory worker, these are important meta level assets that must be passed through time via organizations.

The simple transmission from master to apprentice has a modern analogue in the way that a PhD is earned, how folks get a doctorate in experimental science. It's not much changed as a cultural practice, a way of maintaining our cultural intellectual capital since long before Jesus was the son of a carpenter.

At the basic level, it's a decision to adopt the craftsman's practice that was important to me. The cultivation of the beginners mind is also important, but informed by cultivated habits of care that express an understanding of how this all fits together.

Thanks

Small Services

Living with a very old cat gave me some lessons and is a privileged time of communication with another being. I’ve had a couple of cats that made it to 17 or 18 years old, but Kiwi making 20 is a surprise, beyond expectation.

We work out the nurse thing ( she depends on daily care) a bit at a time.

Kiwi has a particular bray-meow that signals that she wants me to come to her cat-bed for some important service. This is repeated in an urgent loop sequence. Once I answer with my Laguna whistle, she'll calm down a bit, perhaps emit a short meow now and then. If I fail to appear in a REASONABLE TIME, she'll resume the braying meow. Once I'm there in front of her, I give a very short meow in response to once of her calls.

This signals a change, and she sometimes pantomimes what is needed. Example, moving her head to toward the empty food dish, the soiled bedding, etc. Sometimes she meows a greeting. If I'm sleeping, she has patterns that are sure to wake me up, with intervals between sounds precisely phase locked with my cycles of deeper sleep, less deep sleep...... When I'm smart, I get up, take care of changing the bedding, give fluids, give meds, feed her, and then go back to bed myself..... Once she’s sure that I understand her and am doing what she asked me for, she’ll become almost chatty. Completely different demeanor.

When she's had a difficult time, she communicates it in a different set of meows. I'm sensitive to this, but it usually passes and she is very interested in life, snuggles with Carol ( our New Jersey Mat’s rescue cat), so I consult with the vet, and we go on, one day at a time.

Of course when she's happy eating, she purrs even while wolfing down some Fancy Feast "Tender Beef", chomping loudly. She purrs when I rub her head, when she rubs/marks my hand after I scratch behind her ears.

Kiwi also has taken action when I was not paying sufficient attention, and I appreciate that. I've had a hard time with the responsibility for this being, I do my best, and give thanks for the lessons. When I place her in a carrier cage to go to the vet, she’ll emit a distressed call. I hear it until we’re in the Vet’s back room. I reassure her that we’re doing our best, never knowing if it’s the last time. She’s really fragile, and I’m thankful when we both wake up in the morning.

It's also a communication that I have learned to read the pantomime a bit better, I'm able to observe when the eating pattern changes, and respond. Eating changes may signal a need for fluids, or it may be a sign that she's getting stopped up, or doesn't like the food offered. I'll do what the vet suggested first, heat the food for 8-10 sec in the microwave, then present it. Many times this works. Next step is usually to give fluids usually 120cc ringers lactate, wait an hour and present new food. Most of the time this works. Consult vet.

Good communications with a vet is essential, and I buy periodic blood tests to check kidney function. Her numbers aren't great, but are ok and pretty stable, better than a year ago.
There is always a question in my mind when I provide care for a being other than a human, should I be giving all to the greatest human need?

In this case, I felt a spiritual calling to give Kiwi the hospice care that I'd given to Alex, Alicia Star and Sharon’s cats. I was not expecting that these simple supportive measures would be so effective, would extend her time with me for this long. I'm thankful for the time and the amazing experiences, lessons I'd never imagined. I don’t know how I would do in such a situation myself, of if I was doing extended care for a loved one.

Very much like farming, you can’t go away without planning and covering the time away. Has been challenging with my job, and required travel. Having Grace Bruening’s Cat Care Service able to provide competent respite care has been a key capability covered. It's such a privilege to have enjoyed the past couple years when she passed a threshold of need for daily care that often leads to folks getting rid of a pet. For me, it's involved learning how to skillfully administer fluids with sterile technique, learning to be observant of her body rhythms, her need for "production", her meds being out of balance. By taking her to the vet before things get too far out of balance ( and her surviving my mistakes and learning process) she’s been helped through some rough spots, some difficult issues.

It's also been quite amazing to see her relationship with Carol- our rescue cat. Carol and Kiwi sleep together on Kiwi's heating pad, and Carol lets Kiwi put her forehead against her flank, they share food, and water. Carol and Kiwi are together for a while just about every day.

Snowy ( big white Turkish Van) now eats with the other cats at Kiwi's station, most mornings. They have never had hissing, he respects her, eats in his own space.Kiwi's set up includes a 23x32" heating pad with thermostat, insulation under, towels and fleece (usually 3x day). Also fresh water bowl, side towel, ramp towel + fresh water bowl for Snowy, cat scratching post ( Kiwi doesn't use it anymore, it's for Carol). There is an incandescent lamp over her bed provides light and heat.

Kiwi doesn’t stray far from her nest, but does come over to sit by me if I’m watching tv, for example. Her continued interest in life, in the other cats, her interactions with Sharon and me, all point to a being who likes to be here.

I've had cats who were sick that clearly wanted to curl up and pass ( Grey Kitty ), others who were with me to the end, and others we've euthanized. So while Kiwi isn't having serious pain, while she wants to be here, I'm here to, with her, doing my little bit.

For a moment, let us suppose that the Conservative push to eject Latino immigrants is wildly "successful" and the NeoCon push to fortify the borders to Iron Curtain levels turns away waves of illegal immigrants. What would be the consequences to the U. S. at this time?

I believe that it would push our economy deeper into the recession that already threatens to amplify into a depression as the liquidity crises spreads and reaches new sectors of the service economy that represents 80% of our modern economy.

The Latino "aliens" come to this country to work, to raise their families, and as a group is a determined bunch, a productive and hard working people largely driven to come here by lack of opportunity at home. So the movement of people to this country is both a relief valve from the pressures of poverty in their home country, as well as an important source of foreign exchange flowing to Latin America.

In this country, Latino Immigrants rent homes, providing an important sector of the rental market, buying food to feed their families, and many times paying taxes "informally" without being able to access the services that the taxes pay for. No doubt the lack of universal medical care means that many use expensive emergency rooms instead of clinics, but this is a marginal effect, as is the number in jail. Mixed into the stream of hard working folks are the usual number of criminals praying on both the immigrants and our locals.

On balance, removing this population would drive up the cost of many basic services, especially the cost of housing. In construction these days in many border states, Spanish is the language of the workplace. Without Spanish speakers, the workplace hammers would be silent or at least muted. Likewise with many other simple services, child care, food prep, warehouse operations, landscape maintenance, cleaning, and the like. Without this "grey market" the cost of doing business would inevitibly rise and our economy would show the scars.

Without this very economically efficient sector, we would see vacant rentals, higher costs, and an important sector of our economy wither.

Yet the George Bush machine, the conservative talk shows, the populist cheerleaders who build the idea that authoritarian rule is a good thing would have us believe that this sector is "the problem" in the tired old pattern of blaming immigrants for our woes.

Over time it was the Irish, the Italians, the Japanese, the Chinese, and now the Latino. We know from our history that as we assimilated these groups, our country became stronger. This is a time when we need to grasp that there is a better way, and we must embrace the very people who can help us through the recession at this critical time: Latino immigrants.

We must not ignore issues and lessons our immigrant history teaches us are important: filtering out the criminals, the gangs and attending to the public health issues. In the past, the mafia grew when the protection of human rights by the government didn't meet the need, and likewise diseases such as TB developed hot spots among illegal immigrants. Today in LA we see a similar growth of "Latin Gangs" who represent a power beyond control by the government in large sectors of Southern California, Arizona and Texas today.

These observations point to the need to legalize the 12 million people to the extent that we can bring them into our system as legitimate citizens, the need to ensure that our police protect all of us regardless of immigration status, and the need for education and health care for the families that are here for whatever reason. In this way we hold our American values true, we protect our economy and we build a road that ensures that we get the best.

This does not mean that open borders are the answer, indeed for our national security we need to do more to address the corruption that smuggling engenders, we need to selectively encourage the folks we want to come here and we must educate the children who are here to speak English, to gain the basic skills that make a civil society function.

Unregulated immigration also brings risks to our security including disease and a flow of criminals who insinuate themselves into the flood. By respecting human rights, we can more effectively handle the public health issues. Treating babies as humans and giving them proper diet and health care shows our basic values, and gives them the best chance to grow up to be productive members of society. Babies don't get to choose where they grow up, and shouldn't be punished for the criminal acts of their parents.

When we honor our commitment to human rights, we feed the hungry, we ensure shelter for us all, and we provide basic health care services, environmental justice, education and police protection in a universal manner. This doesn't take away from our country; indeed it makes us stronger as a nation and ensures that our "Homeland Security" means more than concentration camps, secret police, and "security theatre" at the airport. We must spend more on our core human security needs as our people are our country. Our care for the environment is an expression of our self respect, and our understanding of our place in the web of life. This environmental movement needs the support and energy of the immigrants, support that won’t be found amongst folks with unmet basic survival needs.

So let’s stop blaming Latino's for our problems, lets stop the "minutemen" authoritarian and racist harangues and get back to the struggle to meet human needs. If government programs must be cut back, I’m suggesting that our war budget must take the hit not basic programs such as food stamps and aid to the homeless. It’s late, and evidence mounts that Latino’s are already returning to their homeland as our economy contracts, as residential construction declines, and as the borders are increasingly tight.

Immigrants continue to come by the thousands per day from Asia, from Europe and most of them are not walking across the border from Mexico, they arrive by boat and plane. WE must open our colleges again, and encourage the best and the brightest to do research here, to earn business degrees, to become teachers and workers in our economy. Instead of an unregulated flow, we can shape the flow to our needs more effectively if we attend to these basics.

Our country will be better and stronger with this approach.

Photography and videography can be for me a way to look deeper into what I have in some sense already seen. At the same time, with a good photograph, I can see what I didn't see the first time.

Recently I took a photograph of the street scene along Grant Avenue in San Francisco at the corner in front of the Triton Hotel and Cafe Presse. It's a bit like a Breugel painting in that you see a couple being tourists gazing at the patrons in the cafe. Then your eyes are drawn to a foursome striding accross Grant street together, eager looks on their mature faces.

Behind them a couple is standing close together on the sidewalk, and she is looking intensely into his taller eyes, and just behind them, in the window of the cafe, sits a woman holding herself as she gazes out at us. Just to the right, a number of passers by look intently up Grant Street through the gate into China Town.

The photo started as a quick shot, and I was attracted by the juxtaposition of the Yellow and Blue from the Hotel Triton Sign along with the deep reds of the Cafe Presse framing the many human characters swarming around the intersection.

Once I put the image into photoshop, I looked to see where to crop, and learned that it was precisely the exploration of the rich image that rewards the viewer. Taking the image into After Effects allowed me to implement this vision in a limited fashion.

I used motion graphics to take the incredibly detailed image made with the Nikon D300 and the 18-200mm vr Nikkor lens and explore it with the virtual camera. I made a quicktime movie that is available at this URL:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aKDhzOW5NA
At the same intersection, I also saw a man taking a photo while holding up a drawing in one hand that would appear in his picture as in front of the Chinatown gate. He was doing what an AT&T Cellphone commercial showed a father doing to send reports of his travel back home to his daughter. You can see the original commercial and my photos here at this URL:

http://www.geocities.com/bbamboo/FatherTakingPicturesForAChild.html

This web page combines the use of Google Maps to show what the father saw as he took the picture, and Google Earth where you can see both where he stood and where I stood to take the picture. This amazing technology allows us to learn more about our photos "after the fact". With Google Maps, you can see the street scene in a static sense using their photos of the building fronts. I used it to confirm my location by comparing the background in the photo of the dad taking the picture, and also to confirm my point of view. Amazing.

In another case, I took a landscape photo of what looked like a ring of trees, sent the photo to my mother who asked about the tree ring. I went to Google Earth and "flew" to where I took the photo, stood on the virtual road turnout, and pointed at the scene in my photo.

I discovered that the feature that I'd photographed was in fact a spiral planting of evergreens planted ajacent to a new vinyard near Petaluma. Again, without the ability to "fly" above the landscape and to examine more closely the subject of my photo, I would never have known that what appeared to me as a ring of trees was actually a deliberately planted spiral line of trees!


There are other times when I will use a video editor to look at video in the same manner, exploring the details of an interaction, playing it over with different temporal and/or spatial zoom, sometimes looping it to see the evolution of an encounter.

This is a way of viewing video that is deeper than the vicarious mode we're usually in when television is entertainment.

There is more to video, and it's only available when one can interactively explore a bit of video with your hands on the controls of a powerful non-linear video editing system. Time warping is a great tool for exploriing human interactions.

It's image editing as exploration, analysis and learning.

Lessons from an old cat

Kiwi came to us as a rescue cat, taken from her mother before she was ready to be weened, we saw her at the vet still with her litter-mates. She was the only one who looked her in the eye and meowed, the others hissed. The vet said that she'd be a small cat, and she came home with us that day.

As she grew up, she imprinted on Alicia Star as the mommy cat. She tried to nurse from Alicia Star even as she was bigger than Alicia Star! Alicia was the roshi of the cat brood, indeed the roshi of 7 Myrtle Avenue. Alicia accecpted Kiwi as her pal and companion though her cat son Alex remained her favorite.

During the years at Myrtle Avenue, Kiwi grew to be a 20+lb cat who loved to eat, loved to be in the bamboo garden sleeping in the sun, and who was loyal to me through thick and thin. She wasn't the favorite, and she always wanted approval from the senior cats.

Kiwi would follow me as I walked along the railroad tracks behind the stream at Myrtle Street, lagging a bit behind Alex and Alicia Star, but always wanting to be part of the pack. While the others walked with me on the railroad rail, she'd be content to walk along the railroad ties with us. Sometimes I'd carry her across the stream, sometimes we'd "ditch her" and leave her to figure how to cross on her own. Her great girth limited her atheletic prowess and I never guessed that she'd become the 6 1/2 lb fragile being with a big heart that she is today.

As arthritus fused her lower spine, her ability to get around became more and more limited. Her colon stopped processing properly and she had some incidents where she became impacted and needed vet intervention to continue living. We started her on stool softener, lactulose drops twice a day. This worked for a while.


Then the vet discovered that her kidneys were failing. We started giving her fluids every now and then as supportive therapy. Didn't expect her to live long, but since she was still interested and such a wonderful companion, I gave her a spot on the floor and kept up her daily therapy.

It took me too long to realize that she needed a heating pad, but I bought her a big one ( large enough for Carol and Kiwi to be on it together) and set her up with an incondesent lightbulb over her for radient heat.

The wonderful vet Bill Eshthimer told me that Kiwi needed supplimental fluids via needle under the skin a few times a week. I had given fluids to cats before, and while it's important therapy, in the past it always signaled end of life approaching. I started giving Kiwi fluids, even though my technique was poor.

Unlike most cats, Kiwi allowed me to give her fluids despite my clumsyness with the needle, and patiently waited for the process to complete most times. Her docile nature served her well and I improved with practice. Dr. Bill helped me to learn sterile technique and patiently tutored me in how to insert the needle properly. As I gained in skill, the pain inflicted on the cat diminished, and it got easier to be regular.

She became incontenent, so I gave her fresh bedding twice or three times a day, washing her towels a few times a week. She had some more crises with blockages, and a stand in vet suggested a diet change that really helped her to be back on regular with her digestion.


Her inability to move around has made keeping her clean tough, but she still relates to Carol and wakes me every morning with a squak and a purrr. Kiwi wakes me every morning with her squalk-meow just before the alarm is to go off at 5am. I change her bedding, feed her and give her fluids every other morning.

The yoga of service work, the zen of practice in this tiny corner of the room has been a blessing for me. In one way, the question is should I be doing for a human instead of an "animal"? The answer that I've found is that for me this is the practice that calls me now, knowing that it won't go on indefinately, knowing that it won't end well, but taking each moment together as a gift.

So while I thought that this was a kitty hospice commitment that would last a few weeks, it's turned out to be a blessing that has continued for a couple years now. I'm so grateful for the time with her, and while it's been difficult for both of us, her good attitude and appreciation for what we do for her is both a reward and a lesson.

I used to think that you should "put down" ( kill) a cat with such limitations but when the standard is "are they in pain?" and do they still want to live?, the answer is quite different. The effort is sometimes taxing, but the reward is subtle and lesson one that only unfolds over time.

The service to this small being brings me joy, and wonder. How is it that our love can be sustained through such trials? This small being has such a big heart, and it's a small thing to be able to repay her for the years that she nourished my spirit, for the times that I was too harsh, for the times that I ignored her simple needs. Yet the mystery of life isn't revealed, but the benefits are unrolling as we breathe. Precious being, thanks for this morning, thanks for this day and the time with Sharon, Kiwi, Carol and Snowy.

Time to go to work to earn the money to support this tribe.

Thanks

Now that the housing bubble has burst, real estate prices are plunging, bank credit is evaporating, and the economic contraction is like a spasm, the void in our economy is acting like a shock wave.

Funding of the war hasn't been from new taxes, rather it has come from a combination of taxes on the increased economic activity revolving around the extraction of equity from the real estate that has occured during the interest rate decline of the last few years, and from shifting government resources from domestic progams into war related expenses. Because new taxes have been minimal, the resources invested in public capital like basic research,;human health; environmental protection; infrastructure renewal; NASA; consumer protection have declined.

The interaction of policy with this extraction of public capital has been particularly stupid with respect to basic research. The restrictions on visas cut the supply of intellectual talent that came to the US for study at the same time as much basic research support was cut by the federal government. This at a time when our international competitors are compeating for the brightest minds on the global stage. One result is that China and India are on the way to becomming research powerhouses. Increasing investment and encouraging research involvement by foreign graduates at US Universities and national labs is an obvious high leverage shift that should be implemented immediately.

Some applied research area's should be funded at a higher level, with my favorites being plasma physics, atmosperic research, agricultural research, species conservation, flywheel battery storage, alternative energy, bio fuels and sustainable production, energy conservation, ecosystem conservation, extending our network capital investment, research infrastructure support.

Unfortunately now that the resources are squandered and the common capital depleated, our options narrow. It's a shame to have wasted the last 17 years in the greenhouse warming cycle, but it would be criminal to squander the next 17.

I strongly support the defense of my country, and believe that the best national security policy must balance the investment in the domestic infrastructure with the funding of overseas power exercises. We must be skillful in how we strike the balance, and our national command authority could do better, must do better.
Overextending to try to right a policy ship that is listing to port and has lost headway drains our precious capital, yet there are basic military realities that we must support over the long term.

There are some simple policy choices that could vastly improve our nation and would improve our security. One of the first things we must change is our care of veterans: it is a national disgrace that veterans health care is in crises, ignores so much battle trauma. Funding childrens medical and health care is another no-brainer. Credible elections would be another, reform of our sentencing laws and practices is another. Now that much of the mechanism has been dismantled, some agencies would take time to reconstitute, so the sooner we start the better.

Such measures will reduce dispair, and improve the cohesiveness of our society. Improving our research institutions and reducing the ideological management of research could improve our economy. Improving our energy efficiency and energy distribution systems could also improve our national security.

The present administration has an ideological agenda that opposes development of public capital, favors only increased corporate capital and control. I hope that extending the war will be rethought, and more creative and realistic planners be given a voice. I hope that the administration will listen a bit more, though there isn't much basis for optimism.

Still, the connectivity and collective intelligence that emerges as the web develops is an agent of change beyond government imagination. New opportunities, and new vulnerabilities. We need to think about how to guard the freedom of the network, universal access, and so on. It needs to be codified into law or the web will loose it's extra edge in synergizing the colletive exercise of intellegence.