Archive - Dec 2010
December 16th
Are Heroes Born or Made?
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 12/16/2010 - 20:38This is a question posed in a recent article in the Wall Street Journal about the Heroic Imagination Project. It is a new project founded by Dr. Philip Zimbardo. Dr. Zimbardo is perhaps best know for his work leading the famous Stanford Prison Study.
The Heroic Imagination Project website says,
What leaves so many people silent and paralyzed in the face of injustice or physical peril? Is heroic behavior a rare exception to the norms of human nature?
We at the Heroic Imagination Project believe the answer is absolutely not. We believe heroism can be learned by example and reinforced with practice.
Yet an article in The Telegraph in February of last year has a different story. It is about a presentation given by Professor Deane Aikins, a psychiatrist at Yale University, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting. He asserted that “Heroes are born not made” based on a study which found “some people just naturally have more grace under fire”.
All of this is very interesting to me. After all, what is “a hero”? Joseph Campbell, in his book, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” presents the idea of the monomyth, the basic pattern found in many stories about heroes. Perhaps ‘hero’ is a literary and social construct.
As I discussed this with friends, one person noted there are women are less frequently presented as heroic exemplars, and that perhaps the concept of a ‘hero’ is not only a literary and social construct, but it is a construct of a patriarchal society. My friend pointed to Miriam Polster’s book, Eve’s Daughters: The Forbidden Heroism of Women. In a subsequent email, she cited the definition of hero from Wikipedia, “A hero is a person who performs extraordinary deeds for the benefit of others.”
This returns us nicely to the idea of “hero” as a social construct. What is extraordinary? What people from one group might consider extraordinary, people from another group might find ordinary, and perhaps many people go through their daily lives doing what seems ordinary to themselves while people around them find what they are doing extraordinary.
Another friend responded that perhaps heroes are realized. I like this idea. Therapy can be a means of helping people recognize their own heroism. Helping people to write, to find their voices can be a means of helping people recognize their own heroism. Such recognition can inspire others to move beyond the ordinary as well.
This friend also raised for me the question of how Zimbardo’s latest effort is really that different than encouraging people to practice random acts of kindness.
Whether it is ordinary or extraordinary, recognized or not, or labeled heroic, encouraging people to be a little kinder and show a little more compassion is something we all ought to be doing.
December 15th
Wordless Wednesday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 06:45
December 14th
Contest Updates
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 08:29Back in November, I ran my first blog contest, The Buckyballs Contest. Since starting my new job, I’ve been slow about getting the results up. Finally, here are the winners:
Cheryl at Cheryl Budge
Chris at Christopher Adams Connecticut Business & Marketing Coach & Consultant and
Tina at There is more to me
Each of them should be getting a set of Buckyballs in the mail and hopefully a visit from you after you finish reading this blog post. As a final note, through December 15th, you can still get a 15% discount if you go to their site and use “orientlodge” as a promotion code,
What goes round comes round.
I also received a notice that I’ve won a flexible tripod from Photography Exposure. This is another interesting blog worth exploring. I’m very interested in HDR photography, which really benefits from a good tripod, and I’ve been interested in reading Evan’s HDR posts.
Finally, I should get a little work done. The Community Health Center, Inc. where I now work runs a program called Recess Rocks. It is aimed at addressing issues of childhood obesity. They have just run a video contest and the results should be coming up in January. I hope you check it out.
December 13th
Music Monday - The Rogues
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 12/13/2010 - 07:24The Rogues are not the type of band that I normally review here. I like to talk about the 22 year old hitching down Route 101 with a guitar on his back, looking for another open mic and at unknown coffee shop. That’s not The Rogues.
There website proclaims:
VOTED #1 OUT OF BANDS FROM AROUND THE WORLD THE ROGUES HAVE PERFORMED GLOBALLY FOR OVER 1 MILLION PEOPLE. 9 ALBUMS; 7 COMBINED WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS; 2 ASCAP AWARDS; APPEARANCES IN LAS VEGAS, CHICAGO, MIAMI, A HOLLYWOOD FILM, AND WITH THE U.S. AIR FORCE ORCHESTRA... THE NUMBERS SHOW THE ROGUES ARE READY TO TAKE ON THE WORLDS OF CELTIC, ROCK, FOLK, AND CLASSICAL MUSIC.
Okay, then. My little review won’t have the same sort of impact as it would for the kid on the highway. But they submitted their electronic press kit (EPK) on Orient Lodge Music Review’s Sonicbids page, and I just couldn’t skip them because they’re already pretty big. After all, there is a reason they are so successful, even though I suspect that a lot of my readers probably haven’t listened to them before.
The first song in their EPK is “The Gael”. Here is the second reason I normally wouldn’t review them. I’m focused on words. This piece is an instrumental. I can’t quote a line of lyrics that I found inspirational and pontificate on it. Yet the whole piece is inspirational. As I prepared to write this review on Sunday afternoon, I listened to “The Gael” as I looked out of my office window. It was a cold rainy blustery day. A gale was blowing outside and I could imagine the gael standing in the breeze, cold, soaking wet and reeking of the tune coming out of my speakers. The one thing that was missing was a really good sound system. Sure, they sounded good coming from the small Sony PC speakers that I have next to my computer, but I would really like to hear them cranked all the way up on a good sound system, or even better catch them live.
Looking at there schedule I noted one interesting gig they have. U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay Cuba, March 19. 2011. I don’t think I’ll make it to that show. They also have a show towards the end of next year, Deakstock - Wounded Vets Fundraiser at the American Legion Hall in Crownsville, MD. $10 to get in. Well worth it. They do a lot of fundraising for vets and you’ve got to love them for it.
Their other big circuit is the Renfaire’s and Scottish Festivals. Oklahoma, West Virginia, and yes, Connecticut. They will be playing four weekends at the Robin Hood Springtime Festival in Guilford, CT. So, check out their webpage and get one of their CDs. Find a show where they are playing and check them out.
As I like to do with my Music Monday posts, let me leave you with a video:
December 12th
From CityVille to WikiLeaks
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 12/12/2010 - 15:53I’ve always been interested in the positive aspects of computer games. In previous years, I’ve covered Games for Change on my blog. I’ve spent a bit of time in virtual worlds, from the text based MOOs to Second Life and OpenSim. I’ve kicked around OpenCobalt a little and explored virtual worlds from my cellphone.
Part of what I like about things like MOOs, OpenSim and OpenCobalt is that they are worlds that the users can construct themselves, and I believe that this sort of construction has some great educational potential. It is part of what went into what I’ve always told my kids about being allowed to play any computer game that they could write.
I’ve also been very interested in the potential of virtual worlds for therapeutic purposes. Recently, the New York Times ran an article In Cybertherapy, Avatars Assist With Healing. It captures some of the potential for virtual worlds in therapy. The article mentions the CyberTherapy 2011 conference next June in Canada. It looks like an interesting conference and I’m starting to read through some of the material to see if people I know will be presenting.
On the other hand, I’ve been less interested in social gaming. FarmVille just hasn’t captured my attention. What did capture my attention, however, was a request from a friend of Facebook to join CityVille.
Carlos Miranda Levy sent me the invite. is currently Social Entrepreneur in Residence at National University of Singapore. He has also been Information Society Development Consultant at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean and a 2004-2005 Google Fellow with the Digital Vision Program at Stanford University. His bio at the Digital Vision Program describes him as follows
Carlos Miranda Levy is an Information Technologies Consultant with wide experience on developing ICT strategies for development, education and e-government. A social entrepreneur, developer, and founder of a network of Latin American virtual communities and local, educational, environmental, and cultural websites, Carlos was selected by CNN in 2000 as one of Latin America's Internet 20 most influential people. He has undertaken extensive research and work with educators, education, and human development.
It was enough to make me sit up and take notice. Is Zynga moving its social games in the direction of games for change and social entrepreneurship? Could something similar be done for the health care industry?
If I could find a way to play CityVille without it sucking up all my time and productivity and without it spamming my Facebook wall, I just might check it out.
Yet let me end this off with a very different twist. I’ve been reading a bit of the discussion about WikiLeaks. The best comment I’ve found so far came Josh Wilson. Josh compared the whole story line of Wikileaks with stories coming straight out of Neal Stephenson or William Gibson. Josh talks about cyberwarfare going on. It led me back to thinking about the old movie War Games.
“Shall we play a game?”
“Love to, How about WikiLeaks?”
“Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of CityVille?”
“Later. Let's play WikiLeaks”
