Mill Meadows maze idea dubbed ‘lunacy’
A MAZE could be created in Mill Meadows in Henley. It would have waist-high hedges and notice boards with information about the meadows, which are popular with visitors, and other places of interest in town.
On Tuesday, members of the town council’s recreation and amenities committee agreed to investigate the proposal and consider reinstating the putting green. Councillor Elizabeth Hodgkin called the maze a “lovely idea”.
“This could be one thought for celebrating the Queen’s jubilee,” she said.
But Councillor Barry Wood said the maze would just be a case of “filling spaces” and claimed that the council had previously used Mill Meadows for “dumping things”.
He said: “A maze is lunacy — it would be blocking an open space. I would like to see more open space and keep the ambience of Mill Meadows.”
Cllr Hodgkin responded: “The maze would not be built on the meadow but on a more feasible area.
“This particular space has been very difficult for us. We have tried a number of things such as a putting green there but it didn’t go well. Then we tried a picnic area but that didn’t go well either.
“I propose carrying out further investigation because it is worthy of it.”
Her proposal was seconded by Mayor Jeni Wood and passed by three votes to one with one abstention.
An earlier proposal to put a maze in Marsh Meadows was rejected by town councillors following an objection from Paul Mainds, chief executive of the River and Rowing Museum, and because it was an inappropriate location.
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Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Friday, March 6, 2009
Ink Blot Mazes and todays Maze News
Lost and Found in the Classroom
February 27, 2009
In 1990 I began to mediate cases for the Harvard Mediation Program; that same year I was hired to teach law and conflict resolution to undergraduates at Mount Ida College. It took me several years to realize how my experience as a mediator could enrich and improve my teaching methods in the classroom. It all came together when I began to use labyrinths and mazes as tools for teaching the mediation process.
The terms labyrinth and maze are often treated as synonyms, but there is one key difference between them: A labyrinth has only one way in and one way out; you cannot get lost or choose a wrong path. A maze has choices, various ways in and out, numerous dead ends and deceptive paths. In the Greek myth, Daedalus was commissioned to build a structure to house the deadly Minotaur (half man, half bull). The so-called “labyrinth” he constructed was actually an intricate maze, which prevented the Minotaur from finding its way out. This is why (later in the myth) Ariadne gave Theseus a long thread to help him find his way back out of the maze after slaying the Minotaur.
Labyrinths were popular in the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages; the famous pavement labyrinth in the Cathedral at Chartres was designed to help people on their spiritual journeys. Pilgrims walked the winding path until they arrived at the heart of the labyrinth, a symbol of the quest for enlightenment.
I used to view teaching as a labyrinth, one way in, one way out: You came to class well prepared, gave interesting lectures, allocated time for group exercises and role-plays, assigned relevant readings and papers, and posed provocative questions for discussion. Students completed their assignments on time, came prepared to discuss the reading in class, studied diligently for exams, participated enthusiastically in group exercises, and mastered the major concepts of the course. What could be simpler?
You can stop laughing now. After a couple of semesters I realized that I couldn’t approach my courses the same way my professors had approached theirs. Students’ expectations often did not align with my own; they had different priorities, challenges and attitudes toward their work. Teaching was not, in fact, a labyrinth; it was a loopy and perplexing maze full of unexpected turns and dead ends, and I desperately needed a thread.
The thread emerged from my mediation training and practice, which, when I finally made the connection, helped me find a solution to the conflict between my students’ and my own expectations.
Mediation clients are not unlike our students: anxious, somewhat leery of the process, fearful of the unknown, hesitant to take risks. Disputing parties often expect the mediator to suggest solutions to their problems. But the first principle of mediation -- self-determination of the parties -- requires that the mediator not suggest but elicit solutions from the parties.
There are several reasons for this strategy, the most important of which is that if the solution does not come from the parties themselves, they feel less invested in their agreement and are less likely to uphold it. If a way out of their maze can be found, the parties must find it themselves, with the mediator’s guidance. In this respect, mediation is an exercise in critical and creative thinking, a form of teaching and learning.
At some point I realized that self-determination and ownership of outcomes was as important for my students as for my mediation clients. So I decided to apply this basic principle to one persistent problem I was encountering in the classroom.
I was frustrated in my Leadership Studies Seminar because students would not do the assigned reading before class. Instead of participating in a discussion of materials they had previously read, they came to class apparently expecting me to go through chapter and verse, highlighting everything they needed to know for the exam (and nothing else, thank you). Sound familiar?
I tried the usual strategies to encourage them to read the assigned pages before they came to class: in-class minute papers, group presentations, pop quizzes, study questions, penalties for lack of class participation. (I know that these tools can be helpful and even essential. They just didn’t solve this particular problem.) My students didn’t budge. I was giving myself a lot of extra grading and they still weren’t reading before they came to class. Yes, students who didn’t read the text got low grades on exams, but that didn’t improve class discussions or make me feel any better.
Clearly, as I often urged my mediation clients, I needed to approach the problem from a fresh perspective. I wanted my students to read the materials in advance so they were familiar with the issues raised in our class discussions, and not rely on me to do the reading and thinking for them. I didn’t want to spend valuable class time on pop quizzes or questions that received blank stares in return. I wanted the class to be fun and thoughtful and to get students to engage more actively. I had reached a dead end and needed to find a way out.
I settled on a plan that allowed for more choice and autonomy in how students prepared for class. In each class we would explore in depth only one or two major issues, based on short articles or passages (students chose them from a selection) we would read together at the beginning of class. However, students were responsible for all assigned readings on the syllabus, whether or not we discussed them in class. If they had questions or comments about the reading, they could bring them to class. If they had no questions, I would trust that they understood the material.
For exams, students could bring in any notes they had prepared themselves or in a study group. (No photocopies or handouts were allowed.) This policy obviated the need for memorization of the text and encouraged students to use their time to read all of the assigned materials, organize their thoughts, and approach the reading with a critical eye to determine how the information might appear on an exam.
No exam question could be answered straight out of the text; all questions called for application of leadership theories and concepts to scenarios drawn from our films. Students were required to support their arguments with concrete examples from the text and films, and in most cases, analyze and draw conclusions about the choices made by the leaders we were studying.
In the last class, armed with their notes, students gathered in small groups and drafted a list of five essay questions they thought would be appropriate for the final exam. Each group chose two questions to share with the class, and group recorders wrote them on the board. We then discussed possible answers and supporting evidence. The final exam had one required essay and a choice of four of six remaining essay questions.
The experiment succeeded on several levels. We all enjoyed the short communal readings and in-depth discussions; the material was fresh in our minds and everyone was on an equal footing in terms of preparation. For my students, the pressure was off to complete all of the required readings before each class, and I didn’t feel as though I had to lecture and review the reading in order to fill an information vacuum.
Most students (I wish I could say all) did the assigned reading at their own pace, brought well organized notes to exams, and in some cases formed study groups. Since students didn’t have to spend time memorizing the text or fake their answers on exams if they drew a blank, their essays were much more thoughtful and well-reasoned, in some cases a delight to read. And because they were given a choice of essays on the midterm and final, they could present their best work.
One unexpected bonus was that, since I no longer reviewed all of the textual material in each unit (students now owned that task), we had time to surf the Web to find supplemental information on the leaders we had viewed on film. My students took charge of that and enjoyed teaching me shortcuts through cyberspace.
Ink Blot Mazes
| Welcome to InkBlotMazes.com! You've probably seen our mazes in a newspaper, magazine, or games book and wanted more. Well, you've come to the right place, we have lots more Inkblot Mazes right here. |
Click on any maze image to view it in a higher resolution.
Blivet Maze - 2009, By Yonatan Frimer
“They that mistake life's accessories for life itself are like them that go too fast in a maze: their very haste confuses them”
|
Maze of Monkey Illusion - 2009
Optical illusion maze caused by conflicting horizontal and vertical lines.
Maze of Monkey Illusion - 2008 - By Yonatan Frimer
| “Boris Podolsky: James! How's the rat business? James Moreland: Well, actually it's mostly students I'm experimenting on now. Kurt Godel: My God, the mazes must be enormous.”  IQ quotes (Movie) |
Maze of the Statue of Liberty - 2009
Maze of Liberty - 2009 - Yonatan Frimer
| “The man of character, sensitive to the meaning of what he is doing, will know how to discover the ethical paths in the maze of possible behavior.” Earl Warren quotes (American Republican Politician and Judge, 1891-1974) |
Barak Obama Maze - 2009
Maze of Barak Obama - By Yonatan Frimer
| Real obstacles don't take you in circles. They can be overcome. Invented ones are like a maze. Barbara Sher |
Maze of 3D Impossible Object - 2009 - By Yonatan Frimer
Maze Zen Impossible - Yonatan Frimer 2009
| It is easier to penetrate your audience with one sharp, clean point or idea, thand with a maze of half-baked unremarkable, uninspiring ideas that will never motivate or be remembered. |
Maze Museum 2006
Mazeum, by Yonatan Frimer
| “Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route.”
|
Maze of Barak Obama, profile view - 2009
Side Portrait Maze of Barak Obama, President
| When I was in New York it was like a maze, a rat maze, going from one little box to another little box and passing through passageways to get from one safe haven to another. Bruce Conner |
Maze - Kong 2006
Maze Kong - By Yonatan Frimer
| “Life is a maze in which we take the wrong turn before we have learnt to walk”
|
Maze King, of Rock N Roll, Elvis
Elvis Maze - By Yonatan Frimer
| "They that mistake life's accessories for life itself are like them that go too fast in a maze: their very haste confuses them." |
Matrix Maze - Keanu Reeves, Neo
Matrix Maze By Yonatan Frimer
| The maze ... was such a mind-altering and life-changing experience. ... My gosh, I mean for something that's pretend it changes your viewpoint on life, |
French Maid Maze - 2007
Maze Maid in France By Yonatan Frimer
Poem I found on the web about mazes...
Maze Poem
Maze I entered the maze not knowing what I’d find
A world so different within my own
The path was set
But never clear
As I walked along my eyes grew wide
I found so many things I thought I knew
But how different they now appeared
I continued looking for the end
Hopeful that I was getting near
Eventually I reached the end
But by then I realised it was only the beginning.
Magentia
ImagiPlay recalls bead mazes
By Staff -- Playthings,11/20/2008
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the trees on the toys can detach, exposing a metal screw and posing a laceration hazard to young children. No incidents or injuries have been reported involving the toys.
The recalled products are three styles of the Boulder, Colo.-based compay’s wooden Bead Mazes: Apple Tree, Cactus Tree and Palm Tree (pictured). They were sold at toy retailers nationwide from August 2008 through October 2008 for about $13.
The toys were made in the United States.
Consumers are asked to return the recalled toys to the store where purchased for a full refund. For more information, contact ImagiPlay at (800) 882-0217 or online at www.ImagiPLAY.com.
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| Submitted by: | Brian Peterson (brian_d_peterson@iotatoys.com) 2/24/2009 9:33:48 PM PT |
A business coach once explained to me that one measure of integrity was one's ability to follow-through on their promises. And by exhibiting such integrity, trust will follow. Yet, can you imagine a business whose tagline commits themselves to integrity? That is what ImagiPLAY has done with their tagline "Toys with Integrity". The ImagiPLAY home page contains a product recall link at the top center of their page. The recall was self imposed by ImagiPLAY based on one incident which did not lead to an injury. They apparently do not turn a blind eye to product safety concerns, but rather follow through on their commitment to quality and safety of toys. Having visited the ImagiPLAY home page and paying attention to its product recall link, I could not help but to be inspired and intrigued by a company who's mantra focuses on integrity and whose actions support that mantra. If Barbera Aimes were to offer a business integrity workshop, there are many businesses who could truly benefit from her example.
York Maze owner Tom Pearcy seeks flexible opening hours
8:20am Thursday 26th February 2009
Comments (2)ONE of York’s newest tourist attractions is looking to shake up the times it is allowed to open – to secure its future in the face of North Yorkshire’s soggy summers.
The owners of the York Maze, near Elvington, have applied for permission to welcome visitors and stage events at different periods throughout the year, rather than being restricted to throwing open its fields from July to September.
Currently, the site – which moved to its present home after being forced to move from its original location next to the Grimston Bar park & ride to make way for the University of York’s Heslington East expansion – can only open for 13 weeks a year, with extra events requiring special dispensation.
And although Maze owner Tom Pearcy does not want to extend those opening limits, he is asking City of York Council to give the go-ahead to his suggestion that the attraction, which employs three full-time staff and around 30 seasonal workers and drew 50,000 visitors last year, should operate more flexibly.
He believes it would allow more room for manoeuvre following the huge debut fireworks display last November, which attracted 2,500 people and filled the void left by the lack of a civic Bonfire Night event in York. In a statement to the council, Mr Pearcy said: “York Maze is the country’s leading maze attraction – it is the largest and most visited maize maze in the UK and a vibrant and important part of the city’s tourist economy.
“The new site we are operating from has a much higher level of fixed costs than the old site. The two recent wet summers have given me concerns over the future viability of the business while depending on an eight-week opening window.
“Allowing the maze more flexibility would spread the fixed costs of the current operation and hopefully ensure the financial future of the business.
“Many of the other leading maize mazes across the world are having a great deal of success by opening for short periods during other seasons.
“Following the success of the York Maze Fireworks Spectacular, I would like the flexibility to open the site for such seasonal events which fall outside my current permission, as well as allowing the site to be used for private hire on occasions.”
Mr Pearcy said he was not asking to extend the 13-week opening limit, but would consider opening the Maze for eight weeks during summer and two or three weeks over Hallowe’en, leaving the remainder for “other possible uses, such as a Christmas event”.
He said: “I am not seeking to open the year round and it is not anticipated that daily visitor numbers would exceed those already experienced during the summer maze.”
The maze application is expected to go before the council’s planning committee in mid-April.
York Maze owner Tom Pearcy, who wants to stage events at different times during the year
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Team Of Monkeys Changes Name To Ink Blot Mazes
For Immediate Release:
March 1st 2009
The maze production house Team Of Monkeys has changed its name to Ink Blot Mazes. "This name change will streamline our brand recognition while at the same time helping us by defining our product within the name" said Yonatan Frimer, one of the artist at Ink Blot Mazes.
After being published since 2006 in various newspapers and magazines, Ink Blot Mazes has now begun licensing their mazes to activity work-booklets as well as increasing the number of publications and syndicates involved in publishing the mazes.
"The choice to pursue newspapers more aggressively comes at a good time." said Keith Nanwood, Marketing assistant at Ink Blot Mazes, "Print publication are suffering from their subscribers going more and more to the internet for their news. With the recent popularity of Sudoku, word finds, and now mazes, readers have a good reason to get a paper delivered everyday."
According to Marla Singer, Marketing Director at Inkblot Mazes, "Mazes, Sudoku, word finds and other puzzles are really the only interactive aspects of print media. With articles and comics, the reader just passively accepts the information. But with Sudoku or mazes, they take out their pen and 'interact with the paper.'"
Ink Blot Maze differ from normal mazes in that images are conformed from the shapes of the lines creating the path of the mazes. Their popularity is mainly due to their depiction of various celebrities as well as teams of monkeys achieving unusual tasks by working in a team.
Media Contact
Yonatan Frimer
Maze Artist
646-335-0761
yfrimer@yahoo.com
http://www.inkblotmazes.com
Yonatan Frimer began drawing mazes in the 3rd grade out of boredom. Anytime his mind would wonder off he'd simply whisk away the boredom with a few mazing pencil strokes - they didn't let him write with pens, yet, at that age.
Fast forward about 20 years later to when Yonatan broke his leg in a motorcycle accident and was hospitalized and bed bound for nearly 3 years. Too keep his mind as busy as possible during the recovery period, he focused on drawing mazes. As much as 15 hours a day, pretty much everyday, for nearly 3 years. He also practiced drawing not just mazes, but also portraits and caricatures as well as anime and plain old comics, which he often incorporates into better maze making.
After making several hundred mazes and posting them to the internet, Yonatan began getting many request for printing his mazes from various newspapers and magazine publications, which has grown over time to include millions of copies in 5 countries!
Until 2009, most of the mazes where posted to Team Of Monkeys . com . In Feb 2009, the mazes where renamed under the brand Ink Blot Mazes along with a higher production rate to meet the demands of publications and syndicates.
Some Maze Videos:
How naming the maze can make the maze:
I usually try to work the word MAZE in a funny way into some normal saying or catch phrase
Mazerotti is intended to sound like Maserati, the exotic Italian sports car manufacturer.
Somewhere in storage, near a Mediterranean coast, I have a booklet of mazes I titles Maze Anatomy
I guess you could call it a spin off the famous Anatomy Illustration Book, Grey's Anatomy.
Drawing Anatomically correct biology illustrations is much harder than, and not nearly as much fun, as it looks.
Here is one of the mazes from that collection: An Eukaryotic Cell. Can't imagine why these never really took off.
I have recently begun publishing my mazes and am very interested in speaking with any publishers.
Contact Info
Home Contact About the Artist Portfolio
Ink Blot Mazes
Friday, February 27, 2009
How Wind Turbines Work...
| How wind turbines work | |
| | |
| This percentage will no doubt increase in the years ahead and the sight of wind turbines scattered across landscapes will become an increasingly common occurrence. It's all a part of the battle to reduce global warming induced climate change and to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. While we're likely most familiar with the huge turbines that crank out electricity for hundreds or thousands of residences, there are now many smaller options available for residential use. Wind and solar energy connection It's important to understand that wind is actually a form of solar energy - so by saying that a wind turbine harnesses solar power isn't totally incorrect. Wind is a phenomenon that occurs caused by the uneven heating of the Earth's surface in combination with the spinning of the planet on its axis. Turbine design A wind turbine, instead of operating like a fan in your home that uses electricity to create wind, uses wind to create electricity. The blades of the turbine are shaped in such a way that wind causes them to rotate, which spins a low speed shaft with a gear at the end which is connected to another smaller gear on a high speed shaft that runs through a generator housing. The generator creates electricity using much the same principle as the alternator on your car (depending on the turbine type). A magnetic rotor on the high speed shaft inside the generator housing spins inside loops of copper wire that are wound around an iron core. As the rotor spins around the inside of the core it creates "electromagnetic induction" through the coils that generates an electrical current. That current is then regulated and fed into the grid (or a residential grid connect system) after some modification so that it can be used in our homes or routed into a battery bank for storage. Where a battery bank is used, a regulator prevents overcharging. The most common wind turbine is the horizontal-axis, which looks somewhat like a traditional windmill, but there are also vertical-axis designs that look similar to an egg-beater or paddle wheel laid on its side.
In the horizontal-axis type, a yaw mechanism in the turbine shaft is utilized to turn the wind turbine rotor into the wind, increasing efficiency. In most cases with wind farm turbines, this is a powered by a small electric motor and computer monitoring. Turbine size and output Wind turbines for commercial electricity production usual range from 100 kilowatts to 5 megawatts. At the time of writing, the largest wind turbine in the world had a rotor diameter of 126 m (390 feet) and the potential to generate enough electricity for 5000 households. A wind turbine for home use has rotors between 8 and 25 feet in diameter and usually has the potential to generate between a few hundred watts and 6 kilowatts of electricity. Some wind turbines can be used in conjunction with a grid connect system. For every kilowatt hour of electricity produced by wind energy or other green means, approximately 1.5 pounds of carbon is prevented from going into the atmosphere if that electricity had been sourced from coal fired power plants. Carbon dioxide is a major contributor to global warming induced climate change. Wind speeds needed A wind turbine usually needs wind speeds of around 10 miles an hour (16kmh) to start generating electricity and optimum wind speed for large turbines is approximately 30 miles per hour ; so they aren't really an option if you're located in an area where winds are usually light and variable, although some models are now being produced that can generate electricity with as little as 5 mile per hour wind speeds - particularly vertical axis models. Wind speed usually increases with height and where there are no natural or man-made obstructions and this why you'll often see them on hilltops or perhaps in the middle of wheat fields. The wind energy industry has been a boon for many farmers as they can still crop their land with little interference and also generate an income from allowing the turbines on their property. Increasing numbers of wind farms are also being erected offshore. The blades of a wind turbine rotate at a rate of between 10 to 50 revolutions per minute. In a situation where wind speeds are excessive, for example if there's a gale, the turbine automatically shuts down to prevent damage. Turbine lifespan The lifespan of a modern turbine is pegged at around 120 000 hours or 20-25 years, but they aren't totally maintenance free. As they contain moving components, some parts will need to be replaced during their working life. From what I've researched, the cost of maintenance and parts replacement is around the 1 cent USD/ AU per kWh or 1.5 to 2 per cent annually of the original turbine cost. Environmental impact Wind turbines aren't overly noisy - mechanical noise is minimum these days and you'll mostly hear the swoosh of the blades passing the tower. Of course, if you're living close to a large wind farm, it could present some noise issues; but most countries have regulations regarding the placement of wind farms in relation to residential areas. Wind turbines are created from fiberglass, plastics, aluminium, copper, steel and various other metals, so they do have an impact on the environment in that respect and there's also the energy used to to manufacture the turbine. Many turbine parts are recyclable and it's my understanding the amount of energy used in manufacture is balanced out within six to eight months after being commissioned. Wind farms do have an impact on birds - there have been recorded cases of birds being killed by rotor blades when they fly into them; but there's a great deal of research being carried out to try and minimize the problem. It's also an issue taken into consideration in most countries when choosing a location for a wind farm in relation to bird migratory patterns. Costs and regulation for residential turbines Turbines used in residential situations are much quieter than their wind farm counterparts, but you'll need to check with your local authorities as they are still not permitted in some areas - this being the case, your best options for renewable energy is solar power. If you do meet resistance with your local council, talk to them about vertical turbine options as these emit lower noise, have a lower profile and are considered to be generally more aesthetically pleasing than their horizontal axis counterparts. As local government tends to be behind the times with technological developments in renewable energy, it doesn't hurt to raise the possibility of that alternative. Wind turbines for home use vary in price and greatly depend on your electricity needs vs. wind availability, but you can expect to pay around $12,000 to cater for the average home. However, bear in mind that cost can be greatly offset by renewable energy rebates offered by many governments. Many people think that wind turbines are ugly, and I tend to agree; but I feel that way about most things man made that are added to a natural landscape. Aesthetics aside, the other point that people should bear in mind that if we want to maintain the level of comfort we've grown accustomed to in our modern lives, there will always be some sort of price to pay beyond dollars and cents. | |
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Smiler, York says...
2:40pm Thu 26 Feb 09