Flagstaff News: weekly "Good News" broadcasts from Flagstaff, Arizona.
Next New Show: FRI: 5:30 PM July 3

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We are currently broadcasting
A Gift From Talking God The Story of the Navajo-Churro Sheep, under special arrangement with producers PETER BLYSTONE, MARGARET CHANLER of Blystone Films over local Flagstaff cable. Since the documentary is still in commercial talks and festival schedules we are not archiving this presentation.
For all you daydreamers and outside thinkers...on July 3rd we will present our 2nd Summer Special: The Art of Science ~ an interview with Flagstaff's newest celebrity resident; English computer scientist Steve Grand, author of Creation: Life and how to make it and Growing up with Lucy: How to Build an Android in Twenty Easy StepsSteve is perhaps best known as the creater of Creatures, a pioneering work in A.I. He is recently relocated here to Flagstaff, where he intends further A.I. work ~

FRIENDS of FLAGNEWS! - Visit our support page to see how you can be a part of our production, help keep our show alive. We are now offering several opportunities for you to help us sustain and improve our show, your show.

Peter Blystone, Producer of A Gift From Talking God, gave us a couple documentaries for last year's hiatus as well: A Game With The Gods: Ancient Ballcourts of the Southwest and Like the Moosni Turtle ~ The Comcaac can Endure.

Some quotes about Steve Grand gathered for a Machines Like Us interview in 2007; "Very occasionally somebody from outside academia comes along and shows us academics how to do something we've been working on for years. Steve Grand showed us how to build a universe of evolving creatures, without the prevailing academic biases." ~ Rodney Brooks, Director, Artificial Intelligent Laboratory, MIT.

"Steve Grand is the creator of what I think is the nearest approach to artificial life so far.... He illuminates more than just the properties of life; his originality extends to matter itself and the very nature of reality."~ Richard Dawkins, author, evolutionary biologist, Oxford University.

"When Steve Grand set out to create norns and the world they lived in, he made some inspired guesses that went against a lot of received wisdom. My favorite was his decision to model about two levels deeper than most AIniks would have recommended -- for reasons of economy. (Hey, if you’re modeling a grazing cow, you’re not going to model every blade of grass -- you’re going to just have this renewable resource of undifferentiated stuff, right? Wrong.) If you do it right, as Steve did, your “uneconomical” modeling efforts pay for themselves many times over in providing foundations for realistic side-effects and multiple functions. And there’s a deeper point: hyper-idealized, oversimplified models often yield results that are just plain wrong. So my maxim, thanks to Steve, is: Always model more than you think you need."~ Daniel Dennett, philosopher, co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tuffs University.

"Steve and I have appeared together in TV documentaries over the years and have met at conferences. If someone asked me to describe him in a few adjectives, I would say: ideosyncratic, visionary, courageous."~ Hugo de Garis, Head, Artificial Intelligence Group, International School of Software, WUHAN University, China.

AND for you hard core FLAGNEWS fans we are leaving last week's show up here on our homepage so you will have something to watch until next week's fresh offering of Steve Grand ~ July 3rd.

News - This week is our last show before our summer break. For the next two weeks, our shows for the 26th of June and the 3rd of July, we will be offering special broadcasts in order that our keen cast and crew might find afford the time to do nothing ...read a blog or watch some YouTube, or take a nap in the woods, or hike the Tetons or swim the Pacific ~ as they choose. One Here we discover how Joni Cakes came to be known as the Bird Woman of Mt. Elden. It seems there is a near tragic story about the little sparrow she has come to care for ~named Noodles. Two Tyrus and Joni talk about Noodles, the history of wearing feathers in one's hat, live birds in one's wig, a bat in a friend's hair and other such stories. Three Joni is texting during the segment and finds out that Noodles can fly. Tyrus seems bent on discussing a new report issued by the Global Change which doesn't seem to discount the idea of global warming ...at all. In fact the numbers are cold water on the face (so to speak). We think we'll leave the science to the scientists ~ especially on ideas like carbon in the atmosphere and greenhouse conditions and carbon 14 dating for teenagers science classes. While we'd rather step aside of this dialogue it comes down to this ~ you are either willing to accept science or you are not. Four Tyrus continues on the subject. It all started with this online publication someone sent in called Our Changing Planet The U.S. Climate Change Science Program for Fiscal Year 2009 Five Joni tells us that Federal Government has awarded NEARLY $3.5 MILLION IN GRANTS TO IMPROVE EDUCATION FOR NATIVE AMERICAN CHILDREN; ARIZONA: Page Unified School District, Page -- $284,690, Painted Desert STAR School, Flagstaff -- $249,155 and PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS IN SEVEN STATES AWARDED NEARLY $3.8 MILLION; ARIZONA: NAU -- $345,958, ASU West, Glendale -- $383,566, ASU, Tempe -- $399,351. Hmmm things may be looking up. Tyrus wants to finish his global warning tangent by making mention of a beautiful new film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand called HOME. If you haven't seen it yet, you may want to make the tim ~ it's free on YouTube. Six Tyrus discusses the 2 week hiatus planned for the weeks of normal broadcasts scheduled to begin the 26th of June and the 3rd of July ~ that next week's offering,A Gift From Talking God will ONLY be available on TV Seven Tyrus and Joni ...again...adieu ~
Brian Grube - Takes us along for a ride on the Zamboni out at the Jay Lively Activity Center, where he talks to Mike Abeyta about all the fun indoor icy things we can do up here in the only Ice Rink north of the rim.
Stephanie Smith - Stands in for Kimberly Ott this week with the news from City Hall. She tells us about an important Town Hall Meeting scheduled for Tuesday the 23rd at Sinaqua High School over on 3950 E Butler Ave. Flagstaff City Council wants public input on the proposed Sales Tax and BBB Tax renewal questions on the May 2010 City Election Ballot AND a possible November 2010 Bond Election. Potential bond projects will be available for public review at Tuesday’s Town Hall.
AZDailySun - Editor Randy Wilson hosts our AZ Daily Sun segment this week: Reporter Betsy Bruner tells us about local efforts to give "Louie" the lumberjack a bit of a facelift. Reporter Larry Hendricks has some good news about a new Police substation opening on 4th St. and Randy brings us up to speed on the Easton Collection opening over at the Museum of Northern Arizona.
James Frazier - "Historic Flagstaff Arizona" These are done for FLAGNEWS by a really first tier commercial artist and compositor ~ James Frazier. So ... if anyone out there is looking to support local artists... TV commercials, anyone?... .you may want to consider James. He provides these vignettes as a gesture of community service. We encourage you to check out his portfolio!
Brett Ramey - and some of the artists working on the new mural on Mikes Pike talked with us this week. "What Flows Beneath Our Feet" - a community mural that speaks to some of the underlying stories and reemerging visions that exist within the Flagstaff community. It is beautiful and just glows with intelligent inspiration.
Tony Norris - This week Tony offers something a cappella, a little guitar and a little campfire near the horses this week. We think you'll like this. Visit Tony's website for info on his schedule.
Mitzy Bellini - Just got back from New York where she was able to end up with an original Frank Sinatra short brimmed fedora. Mitzy as, usual, has all the tips on the haps in and around our little town by the big mountain. You can always e-mail activities you would like mentioned at mitzybellini@gmail.com

How you can help: our online shows are encoded so as to be available at the very smallest bandwidth available so everyone can enjoy this work. But, FLAGNEWS is now available on DVD. If you don't have DISH network, TEVO or a video recorder for capturing our weekly show when it originally airs, we have, beginning with broadcasts after January 1, 2008, made all of our shows available on DVD.
For info e-mail us DVD INQUIRY