Early release party and book signing for the newly expanded "DOGTOWN - The Legend of The Z-Boys" This Tuesday May 1st at PIZZANISTA in Los Angeles

We'll all be there signing books as long as they last!
The official release date is July 1st, but to celebrate the 10th annual SKATEBOARDING HALL OF FAME ceremony we are having this event. See you there!

SUNDAY SERMON:To stop global catastrophe, we must believe in humans again

from The Guardian:by Bill McKibben

We have the technology to prevent climate crisis. But now we need to unleash mass resistance too – because collective action does work

Because I am concerned about inequality and about the environment, I am usually classed as a progressive, a liberal. But it seems to me that what I care most about is preserving a world that bears some resemblance to the past: a world with some ice at the top and bottom and the odd coral reef in between; a world where people are connected to the past and future (and to one another) instead of turned into obsolete software.

And those seem to me profoundly conservative positions. Meanwhile, oil companies and tech barons strike me as deeply radical, willing to alter the chemical composition of the atmosphere, eager to confer immortality.

There is a native conservatism in human beings that resists such efforts, a visceral sense of what’s right or dangerous, rash or proper. You needn’t understand every nuance of germline engineering or the carbon cycle to understand why monkeying around on this scale might be a bad idea. And indeed, polling suggests that most people instinctively oppose, say, living forever or designing babies, just as they want government action to stabilise the climate.

Luckily, we have two relatively new inventions that could prove decisive to solving global warming before it destroys the planet. One is the solar panel, and the other is the nonviolent movement. Obviously, they are not the same sort of inventions: the solar panel (and its cousins, the wind turbine and the lithium-ion battery) is hardware, while the ability to organise en masse for change is more akin to software. Indeed, even to call nonviolent campaigning a “technology” will strike some as odd. Each is still in its infancy; we deploy them, but fairly blindly, finding out by trial and error their best uses. Both come with inherent limits: neither is as decisive or as immediately powerful as, say, a nuclear weapon or a coal-fired power plant. But both are transformative nonetheless – and, crucially, the power they wield is human in scale.

Before we can best employ these technologies, we need to address the two most insidious ideas deployed in defence of the status quo. The first is that there is no need for mass resistance because each of us should choose for ourselves the future we want. The second is that there is no possibility of resistance because the die is already cast.

Choice is the mantra that unites people of many political persuasions. Conservatives say, “you’re not the boss of me”, when it comes to paying taxes; liberals say it when the topic is marijuana. The easiest, laziest way to dispense with a controversy is to say: “Do what you want; don’t tell me what to do.”

If “let anyone do what they want” is a flawed argument, then “no one can stop them anyway” is an infuriating one. Insisting that some horror is inevitable no matter what you do is the response of those who don’t want to be bothered trying to stop it, and I’ve heard it too often to take it entirely seriously.

I remember, for instance, when investigative reporters proved that Exxon had known all about global warming and had covered up that knowledge. Plenty of people on the professionally jaded left told me, in one form or another, “of course they did”, or “all corporations lie”, or “nothing will ever happen to them anyway”. This kind of knowing cynicism is a gift to the Exxons of the world. Happily, far more people reacted with usefully naive outrage: before too long, people were comparing the oil giants with the tobacco companies, and some of the biggest cities in the US were suing them for damages. We don’t know yet precisely how it will end, only that giving them a pass because of their power makes no sense.

Innovation doesn’t scare me. I think that if we back off the most crazed frontiers of technology, we can still figure out how to keep humans healthy, safe, productive – and human. Not everyone agrees. Some harbour a deep pessimism about human nature which I confess, as an American in the age of Donald Trump, occasionally seems sound.

Of all the arguments for unhindered technological growth, the single saddest (in the sense that it just gives up on human beings) comes from the Oxford don Julian Savulescu. In essence he contends that, left to themselves, democracies can’t solve climate change, “for in order to do so a majority of their voters must support the adoption of substantial restrictions on their excessively consumerist lifestyle, and there is no indication they would be willing to make such sacrifices”. Also, our ingrained suspicion of outsiders keeps us from working together globally. And so, faced with the need to move quickly, we should “morally bio-enhance” our children or, more likely, use genetic engineering, so they will cooperate.

I hope Savulescu seriously underestimates the power of both technology and democracy – of the solar panel and of nonviolence. I believe we have the means at hand to solve our problems short of turning our children into saintly robots – which, in any event, wouldn’t do a thing to solve climate change, given that by the time these morally improved youths had grown into positions of power, the damage would long since have been done. And I’m convinced Savulescu is wrong about people’s selfishness presenting the main obstacle to solving climate change: around the world, polling shows that people are not just highly concerned about global warming, but also willing to pay a price to solve it. Americans, for instance, said in 2017 that they were willing to see their energy bills rise 15% and have the money spent on clean energy programmes – that’s about in line with the size of the carbon taxes that national groups have been campaigning for.

The reason we don’t have a solution to climate change has less to do with the greed of the great, unengineered unwashed than with the greed of the almost unbelievably small percentage of people at the top of the energy heap. That is to say, the Koch brothers and the Exxon execs have never been willing to take a 15% slice off their profits, not when they could spend a much smaller share of their winnings corrupting the political debate with rolls of cash. If you wanted to “morally enhance” anyone, that’s where you’d start – if there are Grinches in need of hearts, it’s pretty obvious who should be at the front of the line.

But let’s not win that way. Let’s operate on the assumption that human beings are not grossly defective. That we’re capable of acting together to do remarkable things.

• Bill McKibben is an envorinmentalist, author and journalist

This is an edited extract from Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? by Bill McKibben

Watch ‘The Slog Movie’ in its punk entirety below:

CONTACT HIGH - A Visual Proof Sheet History of Hip-Hop

This exhibition opens at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles tonight.

I have my PUBLIC ENEMY "It Takes A Nation Of Millions" proof sheet and the proof sheet from Beastie Boys "CHECK YOUR HEAD" LP cover session, blown up on display in this cool show.

IT WILL RUN FROM APR 26, 2019 - AUG 18, 2019

View special hours for Contact High alongside Photoville LA, April 26-28 and May 2-5

Celebrating the photographers who have played a critical role in bringing hip-hop’s visual culture to the global stage, CONTACT HIGH: A Visual History of Hip-Hop is an inside look at the work of hip-hop photographers, as told through their most intimate diaries: their unedited contact sheets.

Curated by Vikki Tobak, based on the bestselling book of the same name, and with creative direction by Fab 5 Freddy, the photographic exhibition includes nearly 140 works from 60 photographers. Guests will also see over 75 original and unedited contact sheets—from Barron Claiborne’s iconic Notorious B.I.G. portraits and early images of Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, and Kanye West as they first took to the scene, to Janette Beckman’s defining photos of Salt-N-Pepa, and Jamel Shabazz and Gordon Parks documenting hip-hop culture—CONTACT HIGH allows visitors to look directly through the photographer’s lens and observe all of the pictures taken during these legendary photo shoots.

The exhibit also includes an exclusive new, documentary short film – produced by the Annenberg Foundation and Radical Media – featuring a selection of CONTACT HIGH’s photographers at work and in conversation, including Barron Claiborne, Brian “B+” Cross, Eric Coleman, Estevan Oriol, Jorge Peniche, Jamel Shabazz, Janette Beckman, Joe Conzo, Jack McKain, Dana Scruggs, and Danny Clinch.

Rare videos, memorabilia, and music are included to complement the photographs, demonstrating how the documentation of a cultural phenomenon impacts politics, culture, and social movements around the world.

more information HERE.

O.G. Pinball

from Boing Boing:

Michael Schiess is the founder of the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda, California where he cares for nearly 2,000 pinball machines from across time. Schiess's mission in life? "To inspire an interest in science, art and history through pinball, and to preserve and promote this important part of American culture."

School of Life Monday: Why Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs Matters

Maslow's Hierarchy, (or Pyramid), of Needs is one of the central ideas in modern economics and sociology. The work of a once little-known American psychologist, it has grown into an indispensable guide to understanding the modern world. This film explains who Maslow was, what his pyramid is, and why it matters so much.

A Message From the Future With Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

from The Intercept:

School of Life Monday: The Point of Travel

We travel more than ever but rarely pause to ask ourselves why we’re going – or what we should be trying to change about ourselves by taking off.

Historical antecedents - Dunning–Kruger effect

Although the Dunning–Kruger effect was formulated in 1999, the cognitive bias of illusory superiority has been known throughout history and identified by intellectuals. A sampling of their comments includes:

Confucius (551–479 BC), who said, "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance".[6]
The philosopher Socrates (470–399 BC), who interpreted a prophecy from the Delphic oracle, said that he was wise despite feeling that he did not fully understand anything, as the wisdom of being aware that he knew nothing.

Playwright William Shakespeare (1564–1616), who said, "The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool" (As You Like It, V. i.)

The poet Alexander Pope (1688–1744), who wrote in An Essay on Criticism, 1709: "A little learning is a dangerous thing"

Henry Fielding (1707–1754), who, in the novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, wrote: "For men of true learning, and almost universal knowledge, always compassionate [pity] the ignorance of others; but fellows who excel in some little, low, contemptible art, are always certain to despise those who are unacquainted with that art."

The naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882), who said, "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"

Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), who wrote in Human, All Too Human (aphorism 483), "The Enemies of Truth. — Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."

W. B. Yeats (1865–1939), who, in the poem The Second Coming, said: "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity."

The philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), who said, "One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision."

Dunning–Kruger effect

from Wikipedia:

In the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is. It is related to the cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, people cannot objectively evaluate their competence or incompetence.[1]

As described by social psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger, the cognitive bias of illusory superiority results from an internal illusion in people of low ability and from an external misperception in people of high ability; that is, "the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others.

Definition
In 2011 David Dunning wrote about his observations that people with substantial, measurable deficits in their knowledge or expertise lack the ability to recognize those deficits and therefore, despite potentially making error after error, tend to think they are performing competently when they are not: "In short, those who are incompetent, for lack of a better term, should have little insight into their incompetence—an assertion that has come to be known as the Dunning–Kruger effect".[3] In 2014 Dunning and Helzer described how the Dunning–Kruger effect "suggests that poor performers are not in a position to recognize the shortcomings in their performance"

Original study
The psychological phenomenon of illusory superiority was identified as a form of cognitive bias in Kruger and Dunning's 1999 study, "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments".[2] The identification derived from the cognitive bias evident in the criminal case of McArthur Wheeler, who robbed banks while his face was covered with lemon juice, which he believed would make it invisible to the surveillance cameras. This belief was based on his misunderstanding of the chemical properties of lemon juice as an invisible ink.[5]

Other investigations of the phenomenon, such as "Why People Fail to Recognize Their Own Incompetence" (2003), indicate that much incorrect self-assessment of competence derives from the person's ignorance of a given activity's standards of performance.[6] Dunning and Kruger's research also indicates that training in a task, such as solving a logic puzzle, increases people's ability to accurately evaluate how good they are at it.[7]

In Self-insight: Roadblocks and Detours on the Path to Knowing Thyself (2005), Dunning described the Dunning–Kruger effect as "the anosognosia of everyday life", referring to a neurological condition in which a disabled person either denies or seems unaware of his or her disability. He stated: "If you're incompetent, you can't know you're incompetent ... The skills you need to produce a right answer are exactly the skills you need to recognize what a right answer is."[8][9]

Later studies
Dunning and Kruger tested the hypotheses of the cognitive bias of illusory superiority on undergraduate students of introductory courses in psychology by examining the students' self-assessments of their intellectual skills in logical reasoning (inductive, deductive, abductive), English grammar, and personal sense of humor. After learning their self-assessment scores, the students were asked to estimate their ranks in the psychology class. The competent students underestimated their class rank, and the incompetent students overestimated theirs, but the incompetent students did not estimate their class rank as higher than the ranks estimated by the competent group. Across four studies, the research indicated that the study participants who scored in the bottom quartile on tests of their sense of humor, knowledge of grammar, and logical reasoning, overestimated their test performance and their abilities; despite test scores that placed them in the 12th percentile, the participants estimated they ranked in the 62nd percentile.

Moreover, competent students tended to underestimate their own competence, because they erroneously presumed that tasks easy for them to perform were also easy for other people to perform. Incompetent students improved their ability to estimate their class rank correctly after receiving minimal tutoring in the skills they previously lacked, regardless of any objective improvement gained in said skills of perception.[2] The study Mind-Reading and Metacognition: Narcissism, not Actual Competence, Predicts Self-estimated Ability (2004) extended the cognitive-bias premise of illusory superiority to test subjects' emotional sensitivity toward other people and their perceptions of other people.

The study How Chronic Self-Views Influence (and Potentially Mislead) Estimates of Performance (2003) indicated a shift in the participants' view of themselves when influenced by external cues. The participants' knowledge of geography was tested; some tests were intended to affect the participants' self-view positively and some were intended to affect it negatively. The participants then were asked to rate their performances; the participants given tests with a positive intent reported better performance than did the participants given tests with a negative intent.

To test Dunning and Kruger's hypotheses, "that people, at all performance levels, are equally poor at estimating their relative performance", the study Skilled or Unskilled, but Still Unaware of It: How Perceptions of Difficulty Drive Miscalibration in Relative Comparisons (2006) investigated three studies that manipulated the "perceived difficulty of the tasks, and, hence, [the] participants' beliefs about their relative standing". The investigation indicated that when the experimental subjects were presented with moderately difficult tasks, there was little variation among the best performers and the worst performers in their ability to predict their performance accurately. With more difficult tasks, the best performers were less accurate in predicting their performance than were the worst performers. Therefore, judges at all levels of skill are subject to similar degrees of error in the performance of tasks.

In testing alternative explanations for the cognitive bias of illusory superiority, the study, Why the Unskilled are Unaware: Further Explorations of (Absent) Self-insight Among the Incompetent (2008), reached the same conclusions as previous studies of the Dunning–Kruger effect: that, in contrast to high performers, "poor performers do not learn from feedback suggesting a need to improve".[14]

Cultural differences in self-perception
Studies of the Dunning–Kruger effect usually have been of North Americans, but studies of Japanese people suggest that cultural forces have a role in the occurrence of the effect.[17] The study Divergent Consequences of Success and Failure in Japan and North America: An Investigation of Self-improving Motivations and Malleable Selves (2001) indicated that Japanese people tended to underestimate their abilities, and tended to see underachievement (failure) as an opportunity to improve their abilities at a given task, thereby increasing their value to the social group.

TEN YEARS in the making

I think it's time to put this to bed... or at least give it a rest...

I am mostly still an Idealist but in these times it is tough to believe in inherent goodness of humans because so many are so willfully ignorant and others are so willfully deceitful, and further others willingly go along or remain apathetic. Not to mention those motivated by fear (hate).

And the worst are the self centered who believe they know all the answers and express their opinions based on nothing but rhetoric or conspiracy theories, and claim their opinions to be fact.

It's a tough time indeed, and I will not outright quit this endeavor but it has been EVERY DAY for just over TEN YEARS NON STOP and I think it's time to slow down on this platform or at least not pressure myself every evening before I go to sleep to find one morsel that might be as much of interest to me as it is to others or to inspire or entertain others.

You can comment below to get me to keep on or not, I assume few if any will write. These days it seems only trolls go out on a limb and make public statements in these types of forums. If you sincerely check this out you know where I stand on a lot of issues, and I am happy i have been here to spread some information, positive propaganda, and fun.

We've gone from a bout 10,000 page views a week to maybe 2,000. I'll try to keep off the habit, of this hobby, for my own piece of mind and apologize in advance to those who come here everyday for a break or inspiration or information if i am letting you down. I'll try not to stop altogether, but as of today I am letting you know the daily stream may become less frequent.

Thanks for your support of good ideals - continue to practice kindness.
I'll try my best too.

GEF


total page views to date: 2,392,655

School of Life Monday: What Is the Sunday Evening Feeling?

Sunday evenings have a particular atmosphere, where nostalgia mixes with dread. A lot of the emotion is at heart about a background sense that we haven’t found the meaning of our lives – and that time is running out for us.

Sunday Sermon :Revenge of the Bacteria: Why We're Losing The War

Ice Cube - "Chase Down the Bully" - A Live Spoken Word Performance

Ice Cube - “Chase Down The Bully” (Vevo hip-hop performance)

To hear Ice Cube tell it, 'Everythang's Corrupt.' The the rap god tackles the topic head-on in his 10th solo album (due December 7th), especially in tracks like “Chase Down The Bully.” We grabbed the South Central native for an exclusive solo version of the piece, filmed on a downtown Los Angeles rooftop. Here, in the latest installment of our ongoing hip-hop performance series, Cube rises above the BS to address the chaos inside (and outside) 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. “All you evil forces with Tiki Torches/Shove ‘em up ya ass, freaky intercourses,” he raps with his trademark fierceness. He also roared his way through "Fire Water" from the new album. ‘Everythang's Corrupt’ is the rap god’s first solo disc since 2010’s ‘I Am The West.’ In the interim, the entertainment mogul has released the NWA biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and scored a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Every day is a good day for O’Shea Jackson.

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou from Eric Pritchard on Vimeo.

Modern-day Maya Angelou walks up to the Women’s Day march of 2019 and is reminded of the past. Angelou is reminded of how far we’ve come as a society but how much more needs to be done. With the words from Angelou's poem Still I Rise, it's clear that the one thing that can’t be taken away is the ability to “hope” and dream for a better tomorrow.



Poem and Words: Maya Angelou

Director: Eric Pritchard

Actress: Nana Ghana

Producer: Eric Matthies

Cinematographer: Matt Bass

Composer: Brian Watson

Editors: Eric Pritchard & Mainak Dhar

Camera Assistant: Ben Fredman

Makeup Artist: Briana Garcia-Duquette

Colorist: Matt Bass

Graphics: Taku Hazeyama

Additional Footage: Yuset Pozo

Archive.org , Pond 5 & Maya Angelou Estate

Special Thanks: Alex Willson

Jennifer Lash at CMG Worldwide



“Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou

Poem excerpt from the Book - “And Still I Rise”

Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou.

Used with permission of Caged Bird Legacy, LLC

Milo Aukerman of the Descendents circa 1981

View this post on Instagram

MILO AUKERMAN of the DESCENDENTS circa 1981 in San Pedro at Dancing Waters. The Descendents were/are an incredible band, originally from the south bay section of Los Angeles, power pop beach style and songs of teenage angst and frustration that could make you laugh and cry. Milo had to be one of the most interesting lead singers you’d ever find at the time. His glasses were not a prop, his look was not thought out. Milo became a scientist and only takes breaks from his day job to tour with the group every once in a while. . . This photograph originally appeared in the MY RULES photozine i made and self published in 1982, then by 1996 it appeared in the FUCK YOU TOO book, and its bigger and better than ever in the new MY RULES book. Milo also contributed some words on his inspiration for the book, great stuff. Oh, yeah, when Milo first went to College i tried out as his replacement. 👓🎤 #HOPE #MILO #MiloGoesToCollege #BillStevenson #Descendents #punk #punkrock #imnotaloser #velour #integrity #inspiration #MyRules

A post shared by glen E. friedman Ⓥ (@glenefriedman) on Apr 1, 2019 at 10:12am PDT

youtube find: Before 1976: How Punk Became Punk

this is not half bad... and in fact very cool in spots...

Impossible Whopper

from CNN:
Burger King is testing out an Impossible Whopper. This is why

New York (CNN Business)Burger King has a plan to bring in new customers and encourage existing ones to buy more often: Vegetarian Whoppers.

The burger chain announced on Monday that it is testing out Impossible Whoppers, made with plant-based patties from Impossible Foods, in 59 locations in and around St. Louis. If all goes well, Burger King will roll out the Impossible Whopper nationally.

With the Impossible Whopper, Burger King hopes to "give somebody who wants to eat a burger every day, but doesn't necessarily want to eat beef everyday, permission to come into the restaurants more frequently," Chris Finazzo, president of Burger King North America, told CNN Business. It's also a way to encourage vegan and vegetarian eaters to check out Burger King.

The chain has been trying to figure out a way to add a plant-based burger option to its menu for about a year, Finazzo said.

"There's a lot of interest in plant-based burgers," he noted.



Going meatless provides health benefits. The Impossible Whopper has slightly fewer calories than the original, beef-based Whopper, and is very low in cholesterol and has zero trans fats.

"What [customers] don't want to give up on is flavor," Finazzo said.

The Impossible Whopper is supposed to taste just like Burger King's regular Whopper. Unlike veggie burgers, Impossible burger patties are designed to mimic the look and texture of meat when cooked. The plant protein startup recently revealed a new recipe, designed to look and taste even more like meat. That version is being used in Burger King's Impossible Whoppers.

Other fast food and fast casual items are also appealing to eaters with dietary restrictions or preferences. Taco Bell said in January that it's testing out a vegetarian menu board in stores, and Chipotle (CMG) recently expanded its line of diet-based bowls to include vegan and vegetarian options. "Lifestyle bowls" launched earlier this year with Whole30 and double protein meals in addition to the keto and paleo bowls.

Those promotions highlight items already on the menu at Taco Bell and Chipotle. The Impossible Whopper is new, and it costs more to consumers and to the restaurant. Buyers will pay about $1 more for an Impossible Whopper than a regular Whopper, Finazzo said, which will "more than offset the cost" of the Impossible protein.

Impossible products are served at nearly 6,000 US restaurants — including White Castle and Fatburger locations — right now, but the Burger King partnership is a "milestone" for the company, said Impossible Foods COO and CFO David Lee.

"Burger King represents a different scale," he said. Lee noted that as the company matures, it should be able to reduce costs for clients like Burger King.

"The only thing we need to be affordable and at scale versus the incumbent commodity business is time and size," he said.

School of Life Monday: Where Are the Creative Jobs?

Many of us want a job that is 'creative', but the reality of the jobs market can seriously challenge our hopes. Why are there not more creative positions? What do we really want when we use this word 'creative'? Using this film to understand the economy in greater depth can help us see our options and understand our pains.