DAEDALUS

The Myths of Innovation - Scott Berkun

2010-05-04T15:39:00.002+01:00

Scott Berkun, author of "The Myths of Innovation" speaking at the The Economists’ Ideas Economy event at UC Berkeley on March 24, 2010. He asks the important question; What do we mean by 'Innovation'?

Rory's Story Cubes on Irish National TV

2010-04-28T11:55:00.002+01:00

A 7 minute segment that appeared on RTE Nationwide, a National Irish TV magazine programme. We meet Rory O'Connor & Anita Murphy, the people behind Rory's Story Cubes®. They share their reason for developing Rory's Story Cubes®, business ethos and how they balance a young family while growing their business.

Now THIS is creativity in action!!

2010-04-22T11:03:00.001+01:00

When Ronald McDonald Goes Bad! A very clever animated movie about Brands.

2010-04-01T13:12:00.002+01:00

Logorama from Marc Altshuler - Human Music on Vimeo.

Highly Recommended: Writers' Seminar with Paddy Kelly

2010-03-24T21:11:00.005Z

American-Irish author and screenwriter, Paddy Kelly, is offering a 5-hour Intensive Writers' Seminar at the much acclaimed New Theatre, in Dublin's Temple Bar, on 10th April 2010. The cost is only €60, which includes a 3-course lunch! Contact Paddy at paddy.icanto@gmail.com

Buddha Bag 'Minds Of Our Times' Interview

2010-03-23T12:19:00.003Z

Recently, I was interviewed by Tino Curione about nonlocal awareness, creativity, and techniques we can use to access it, such as remote viewing, for the Buddha Bag Group in Dublin, as part of their Minds Of Our Times series.

Amit Goswami - The Quantum Activist

2010-03-23T12:16:00.005Z

This is Amit Goswami. He is a world-renowned theoretical nuclear physicist interested in the relationship between science, consciousness, creativity and religion. He became best known as one of the interviewed scientists featured in the 2004 film "What the Bleep Do We Know!?", and stars in the newly released documentary "The Quantum Activist".

A small class of us had the great, mind-expanding, pleasure of spending an entire day with Amit and hearing him speak in his workshop on Quantum Activism.

For St. Patrick's Day: The Truth About The Little People

2010-03-15T11:23:00.005Z

In celebration of an Alternative St. Patrick's Day. This was a genuine book cover!

Creativity & Coaching Tools: Rory's Story Cubes: Actions

2010-03-12T15:47:00.003Z

Rory’s Story Cubes®: Actions is the first expansion set for the Rory’s Story Cubes® range. This time we have created 54 unique icons (or picto-verbs™) that depict the most important verbs (action words) to be learned in second language development.

Rory’s Story Cubes®: Actions does not require Rory’s Story Cubes® in order to use them. They can be played on their own straight out of the box, or mixed with other sets of Rory’s Story Cubes®.

Creativity & Coaching Tools: iPhone App for Rory's Story Cubes

2010-03-12T15:31:00.007Z

The new iPhone App for Rory's Story Cubes combines high quality animation, the sound of rattling dice and the concept of the original 9 die, 6 faces, 54 images, and 10 million combinations, to spark your imagination and help you to access your subconscious supermind through the power of stories.

Creativity & Coaching Tools: Rory's Story Cubes

2010-03-12T15:28:00.003Z

Rory's Story Cubes are a great, award-winning, creativity and coaching tool.

Roll the Cubes. Begin with 'Once upon a time' and tell a story that links together all 9 face-up images and spark your imagination. There are 10 million possible combinations of images that can be rolled, each sparking a unique story...

Remember when you were a kid and anything was possible?

2010-03-12T14:49:00.001Z

Restorative Justice: Updating Jirga in NWFP Pakistan.

2010-02-27T10:40:00.007Z

I and my partner, Sarah Bird, met Ali Gohar when we travelled to Pakistan to teach Energy Psychology techniques for treating PTSD after the earthquake of October 2005. This article from Peacebuilder magazine tells about the amazing work Ali is doing with the traditional restorative justice circle, called 'jirga'...

"Ali Gohar, MA ’02, is working to update the traditional system of jirga in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. He believes passionately in the core function of jirga, whereby certain elders are recognized in their communities for their wisdom and ethics; these elders gather to make community-wide decisions, resolve problems, and dispense justice.

Gohar has been encouraging jirga’s elders to incorporate current principles of human rights, conflict resolution, reconciliation, and restorative justice into their deliberations.

Part of updating jirga, says Gohar, is building a relationship between its members and government officials, so that they work in a complementary way rather than being at odds.

These photos, taken in Mardan, 45 kilometers from the provincial capital of Peshawar, show such relationship building. Malik Naveed (pictured speaking at podium),is the top police official for the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), one of the border areas gripped by the “war on terror.”

Naveed not only appeared at this Gohar-organized public gathering on February 2, 2010, he announced that “reconciliation committees” would be meeting regularly with community elders at each of the 17 police stations in Mardan. Naveed expressed hope that “fear and terror about police officials in the hearts of the people would be eradicated and trust and brotherhood restored in society,” according to a report in a Pakistani newspaper.

This large public meeting – notably attended by women – reflects Gohar’s efforts to see that all parties have a common understanding of the principles of conflict transformation, jirga and restorative justice. Each reconciliation committee is mandated to include three women, an unprecedented step.

Gohar, co-founder and director of JustPeace International (www.justpeaceint.org), is on familiar ground working in the border areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. His ethnic-linguistic group is Pashtun, whose members are distributed widely on both sides of the border. In Pakistan, he has worked mainly in NWFP, Punjab, and Baluchistan. In Afghanistan, he has worked in Kabul and Jalalabad.

Gohar has organized trainings for more than 1,000 community elders, 500 police officers, 350 civil society members, 300 women activists, and 100 non-governmental organization workers. He also works through TV, radio and print. He has developed: more than 20 TV and radio shows dealing with conflict issues; a dozen booklets on aspects of restorative justice, conflict transformation, and peacebuilding, which are distributed widely at the grassroots; and three books, including one on jirga and another on restorative justice, co-authored with EMU professor Howard Zehr. He has played key roles in 40 national and international seminars, including organizing Pakistan’s first international symposium on restorative justice seven years ago."

Celebrating Irish Creativity and an Oscar Nomination!

2010-02-22T21:32:00.001Z

ORDNANCE: WAR, ARCHITECTURE AND SPACE

2010-02-16T10:33:00.006Z

[I have made three submissions to present at this very interesting event. The links to the abstracts are below.]

ORDNANCE: WAR, ARCHITECTURE AND SPACE
16th to 18th September 2010

An interdisciplinary conference organized by the Cork Centre for Architectural Education (CCAE) and School of the Human Environment,(University College Cork).

This international interdisciplinary conference seeks to explore the often hidden relationship between militarism and the design and construction of architecture and space in the modern period. Historically, military imperatives have been embedded in the way society is organized and, from the Renaissance onwards, the needs of offence and defense played an increasingly influential role not only in the physical shaping of the city and landscape, but also on the means by which they were represented. Recent events, notably the ‘War on Terror’ have reinforced these impulses within the city, extending and deepening systems and architectures of surveillance.

“Third Wave War”: The physical and non‐physical tactics of asymmetrical warfare and how they are changing our perceptions of our built environment.

‘Inverse Geometry’, ‘Swarming’, ‘Walking Through Walls’ and ‘Smoothing Out Space’; The New Pattern Language of Third Wave Urban Warfare.

'How To Stage A Military Coup'; The significance of time, space, and control of the built environment in a successful coup d’état, and how they can reframe our environment.

2010-02-11T12:27:00.003Z

With thanks to Max Leone at Conscious Living

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be."
Patanjali

Blessed Unrest

2010-01-22T22:55:00.008Z

How the Largest Movement in the World came into Being and Why No-one Saw It Coming:

A leading environmentalist and social activist's examination of the worldwide movement for social and environmental change, Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice.

From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot. causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media.

Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up, in every city, town, and culture and is emerging to be an extraordinary and creative expression of people's needs worldwide.

Fundamentally, it is a description of humanity's collective genius, and the unstoppable movement to re-imagine our relationship to the environment and one another.

The Event: Thinking Hand: embodied and existential wisdom?

2010-01-22T20:59:00.002Z

Topic: The Thinking Hand: embodied and existential wisdom?
Guest Speaker: Juhani Pallasmaa
Day/Date: Thursday, 11th February 2010, 18.30hrs
Location: Room No. 259, DIT, Bolton Street, Dublin 1

The 10 Top Things Every Business Leader Should Know About Strategic Sustainability

2010-01-22T19:56:00.002Z

From Will Marre's blog at Development Crossing:

1. Sustainable Abundance is good for business.
Every product and every service needs to be re-invented to create a sustainable future. This is the greatest economic opportunity in history. (Consider automobiles, light bulbs, airplanes, energy…. everything.)

2. High Sustainability Standards and Maximizing Human Benefits can generate “leapfrog” designs to invent new products and new business models.
(Toyota was creating the Prius while other car companies slept.)

3. Sustainability Thinking saves money.
The relentless challenge to improve durability, re-use parts and eliminate packaging brings bottom line innovation. (91% of old Xerox copier parts are reused in “new” Xerox machines.)

4. Removing the Bad attracts new customers.
Consumers and business customers are stampeding to choose the benefits of non-toxic, no-waste products (Clorox’s non-toxic Green Works Cleaners is their fastest growing product portfolio.)

5. Create a Cause Bigger Than Your Brand.
Over 80% of consumers say they choose brands that support good causes because it makes them feel like they are “voting with their wallet.” (ClifBar’s brand in the manufactured nutrition bar business repeatedly earns the highest loyalty rating. They famously support the organic sourcing and the buy local food movement as well as women and fitness initiatives.)

6. Sustainability Obliterates Costs.
When smart people consider how to satisfy a need or want without waste or even cost, new business models spring to life. (When Apple designed the ipod, eliminating the cost/waste of CD manufacturing, shipping and distribution was the natural outcome. The ipod led to the iphone, greener product design and tens of thousands of digital apps which create user loyalty without more cost.)

7. Sustainability Drives Game-Changing Business Models.
When leaders consider solving huge problems in sustainable ways, new thinking creates breakthrough businesses. Before the radio, who would have thought of music with a band? Before the light bulb, who would have thought of light without a flame? (Today micro-entrepreneurs are installing solar panels on huts in the world’s poorest areas because solar generated OLED light is cheaper than kerosene. Power without the grid. Is everything possible?)

8. Sustainability Creates Smart Marketing.
Engaging your customers in the benefits and breakthroughs of your green and sustainable products requires a new level and a new type of communication. It’s called smarketing. Marketing that makes your customer smart. (GE recently asked design students to come up with creative ways to use GE’s new organic LED lights. Tens of thousands have seen their video on YouTube and the product launch is still months away.)

9. Sustainability Attracts Top Talent.
The best science, engineering and business schools report that top graduates only want to work for companies that are serious about making a difference in creating a sustainable future. (Ask any college recruiter.)

10. If You Don’t Fully Embrace Sustainability, You Are Toast.
The debate over green is over and green won. Consider the failures of GM and the transformation of Wal-Mart. It’s better to ride the wave than drown in the rip tide of change.

For information on the speech or seminar, “Leading for Sustainability,” email candie@willmarre.com.

Opposing Views: The Great Climate Swindle

2010-01-15T19:57:00.003Z

It's been a while since I last posted, so it's time to get blogging!
I believe in listening to both sides of every story. Here's a great film providing an alternative to the mainstream view on Global Climate Change.

Geologists Say New Ocean Likely Forming Under Ethiopian Desert

2009-11-03T18:43:00.000Z

Geologists Say New Ocean Likely Forming Under Ethiopian Desert

SETI: Maybe we've been looking in the wrong place...

2009-09-23T19:19:00.001+01:00

From xkcd.com

At Last... US Air Force Explain UFO Mystery....

2009-09-18T13:18:00.001+01:00

A Few Moments of Serenity...

2009-07-24T13:11:00.002+01:00

This was shot by Jon Rawlinson at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium in Japan. kaiyouhaku.com/en/

The main tank called the "Kuroshio Sea" holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world's second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

Kuroshio Sea - 2nd largest aquarium tank in the world - (song is Please don't go by Barcelona) from Jon Rawlinson on Vimeo.

The Future Of Moon Colonisation...

2009-07-22T22:58:00.002+01:00

Artwork by Waldemar Kazak

How The Irish Finally Got A Man On The Moon...

2009-07-22T22:53:00.002+01:00

Great artwork by Kevin McSherry

40 Years On...Why They Didn't Go Back!

2009-07-22T22:50:00.001+01:00

Holistic Car Repair for the 21st Century!

2009-07-21T10:00:00.001+01:00

Brian's Story: [Energy Psychology for PTSD]

2009-05-07T08:57:00.002+01:00

Energy Psychology techniques like EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and TAT (Tapas Acupressure Technique) offer fast, safe, effective tools for dealing with fears, phobias, beliefs and trauma. Trauma can take many forms. One of the most extreme is a form of PTSD known as Combat Stress.

Combat Stress (and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)) affects many men and women in armed and civilian forces around the world today. Last summer Sarah Bird was asked to participate in a unique event in Colombia, Georgia, USA, when Tapas Fleming and a selected team of TAT Professionals facilitated a two-week workshop for serving and veteran members of the armed forces. Here is just one story about that experience; the story of Staff Sergeant Brian Davis (Rtd)...

Today is Earth Day...and time for a new perspective.

2009-04-22T18:42:00.001+01:00

Debunking Myths About The World - by Hans Rosling

2009-04-20T22:11:00.000+01:00

What Does a Trillion Dollars Look Like?

2009-04-08T11:13:00.004+01:00

Recently the Federal reserve decided to inject ANOTHER trillion to buy bonds and securities. In another words they simply decided to print another trillion dollars. So I thought you would really enjoy this graphic illustration to help you put that number into perspective.

$100

Start with a simple $100 bill.

$10,000

A packet of $100 bills worth $10,000 is less than 1/2 inch thick.

$1,000,000

This little pile of cash can easily fit into any backpack and weighs just about 22 lbs.

$100,000,000

$100 million fits neatly on any standard pallet, weighing in at a little over one ton.

$1,000,000,000

$1 billion is ten pallets worth of cold, hard cash.

$1,000,000,000,000

Finally, here’s one trillion dollars:

Sources:

Deliveries Galore March 18, 2009

2009-04-07T21:37:00.004+01:00

"Most of us consider ourselves savvy enough to resist the draw of dangerous cults ... In fact, we're amazed that anyone might fall prey to such anti-heroes --obvious wolves parading as gurus, who clearly exploit the lambs who come their way. If you consider yourself the kind of person who would never fall victim to such exploitation, the following brief exercise may help you to recognize and nurture the personal qualities behind your independence."

World Builder - a short by Bruce Branit

2009-03-12T18:24:00.001Z

This award winning short, created by filmmaker Bruce Branit, tells the story of a man who builds a world using holographic tools for the woman he loves...

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

"On a Clear Day We Can See Forever" - Remote Viewing Project

2009-03-05T18:26:00.001Z

Last year Andrew Usher, of UK-RV, and I were asked by Karen Russo, an international artist based in London, to participate in an art project that would explore the potential use of Remote Viewing to 'view' an artist’s work. A successful viewing of an artwork would open questions for Karen around the original source of the inspiration for the artwork, questions around artist’s copyright and other conceptual thoughts around the nature of consciousness.

You can see the results of the CRV session here on her website (click on the ‘video’ icon).

[For Andrew and I, the really interesting piece of work was carried out BEFORE we met Karen, when we each did a session describing the NEXT piece of two-dimensional artwork that she would create. We thought that would be a LOT more interesting! That formed the second part to her project, but has not been posted onto her site just yet…]

'"Worst economic collapse ever" claims U.S. trend forecaster.

2009-03-03T17:03:00.001Z

Gerald Celente, U.S. trend forecaster, believes that in 2009 we're going to see the worst economic collapse ever -- the Greatest Depression. He believes it could get very violent in the U.S., including a possible tax revolt.

What separates Ireland from Iceland? About 6 months!

2009-02-28T19:46:00.000Z

"The stunning fall of Iceland late last year and the spreading contagion of the financial crisis have ignited fears — fanned by bloggers, analysts and a small group of outspoken economists like Morgan Kelly — that Ireland, another small, open economy plagued by deficits and an outsize banking industry with incalculable losses, may suffer a similar fate."

Read more here at the NY Times...

British Government moves in to strip juries of its power in climate protest cases.

2009-02-28T19:08:00.000Z

In 2007 the 'Kingsnorth Six' Greenpeace volunteers entered Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent before scaling the chimney, closing the station and painting Gordon Brown's name down the smokestack. Last September they faced a charge of criminal damage at Maidstone crown court.

In court they argued their actions were lawful because they were acting to protect property around the world from climate change, and could therefore rely on section 36 of the Criminal Damage Act, which provides for a ‘lawful excuse' to damage property in narrowly defined circumstances. The jury decided their actions were justified in the light of the huge and imminent threat posed by climate change and the enormous CO2 emissions from Kingsnorth power station.

The British Government is now seeking to significantly weaken the power of juries in cases involving climate change protesters. Read more here on the Greenpeace website.

12 Year Old Designs a Homeless Shelter Made Out of Trash

2009-02-27T17:53:00.000Z

Max Wallack has designed an ingenious shelter for the homeless and disaster victims. The 12 year old was the winner of Design Squad’s Trash to Treasure contest, which asked kids to re-purpose trash into practical inventions. Max’s dome is constructed out of plastic, wire and packing peanuts. Check out the video of its construction below.

"Water, water, everywhere..." - I don't think so!

2009-02-26T13:37:00.000Z

THIRST

View more presentations from Jeff Brenman. (tags: design crisis)

"What's the worst that could happen?" - watch and find out!

2009-02-24T10:37:00.000Z

"Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip"

2009-02-23T23:30:00.000Z

This animated film by Leo Murray does a great job of explaining, in lay terms, exactly how close we are to a tipping point, beyond which it may be impossible to prevent the most catastrophic consequences of global warming.

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.

"Science and the taboo of psi" with Dean Radin

2009-02-23T17:42:00.000Z

A little over a year ago Dean Radin gave this presentation at Google. Since then, it has become the most discussed talk out of the 1,031 talks given there so far. This talk was partially about the taboo of psi, which refers to the strong public interest in psi (as reflected by the rating of his talk), as compared to the resounding silence about psi within the academic world.

Validation - A Fable about Car Parking!

2009-02-17T09:59:00.000Z

This short film, written and directed by Kurt Kuenne and starring T.J. Thyne and Vicki Davis, has won a variety of awards including Best Narrative Short at the Cleveland International Film Festival and the Audience Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival. It’s guaranteed to give you a smile.

The Recession

2009-02-06T10:28:00.000Z

A video reflection on the Recession by Dave Young. ;-)

Consciousness - an animation of Spirit

2009-02-03T22:20:00.000Z

This is a very cool original animation by Louis Lefebvre which chronicles the evolution of Consciousness from its inanimate state into human form and then back through spiritual seeking to Oneness.... (www.advaita.org)

Why China, India, Russia and the US are in a Moon Race.

2009-01-23T23:08:00.000Z

"Nuclear fusion reactors using helium-3 could provide a highly efficient form of nuclear power with virtually no waste and no radiation.

One of many problems associated with using helium-3 to create energy via nuclear fusion is that, at least on the Earth, helium-3 is very, very rare indeed. Helium-3 is produced as a by-product of the maintenance of nuclear weapons, which could net a supply of around 15Kg a year. Helium-3 is, however, emitted by the Sun within its solar winds. Our atmosphere prevents any of this helium-3 arriving on the Earth. However, as it does not have an atmosphere, there is nothing to stop helium-3 arriving on the surface of the Moon and being absorbed by the lunar soil. As a result, it has been estimated that there are around 1,100,000 metric tonnes of helium-3 on the surface of the Moon down to a depth of a few metres. This helium-3 could potentially be extracted by heating the lunar dust to around 600 degrees C, before bringing it back to the Earth to fuel a new generation of nuclear fusion power plants.

About 25 tonnes of Helium-3 (or a fully-loaded Space Shuttle cargo bay's worth) could power the United States for a year. This means that Helium-3 has a potential economic value in the order of $3bn a tonne (yes, 3 billion dollars a tonne!) -- making it the only thing remotely economically viable to consider mining from the Moon given current and likely-near-future space travel technologies and capabilities."
From: ExplainingTheFuture

Energy Psychology in post-earthquake Pakistan, 2006

2009-01-23T22:55:00.000Z

This is a short video of the work that Sarah Bird and I did in the earthquake region of northern Pakistan and Kashmir in 2006, when we introduced Energy Psychology techniques to medical professionals, community workers and children, to heal the emotional and physical effects of earthquake trauma and PTSD.

Data spike from the Global Consciousness Project

2009-01-23T17:01:00.000Z

Dean Radin has reported a data spike from the Global Consciousness Project Collective consciousness at the time of the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Have a look!

Why Black?

2009-01-23T15:52:00.000Z

In January 2007 a blog post titled Black Google Would Save 750 Megawatt-hours a Year proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. The choice of 'black' for the blog page was inspired by Blackle.

Blackle is a Search Page created by Heap Media to remind us all of the need to take small steps in our everyday lives to save energy. Blackle searches are powered by Google Custom Search.

Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. "Image displayed is primarily a function of the user's color settings and desktop graphics, as well as the color and size of open application windows; a given monitor requires more power to display a white (or light) screen than a black (or dark) screen." Roberson et al, 2002

I encourage you to set Blackle as your home page. This way every time you load your Internet browser you will save a little bit of energy. Remember every bit counts!