Good to know the ancestors still know how to make an impact...
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1346411.ece
:-)
Friday, June 09, 2006
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Mind-Body: Sleep Spice
A few months back a roomie of mine guinea-pigged me out on a fasting/cleansing program called The Master Cleanser. Curious about the toxemia-disease connection it claimed, I gave it a shot for a few days. One of the stranger ingredients of this lemon-like concoction is a fairly strong dose of cayenne pepper. That's right cayenne, baby. At the time, I recall thinking this a bit odd. Nevertheless, while on the Cleanser I not only slept less, but had little of my usual difficulty getting out of bed in the morning. Odd, right?
Perhaps not. A recent Tasmanian study on the effects of chilli may suggest something else...
Study shows chilli could be the key to good sleep
Perhaps not. A recent Tasmanian study on the effects of chilli may suggest something else...
Study shows chilli could be the key to good sleep
Mind-Body: Starving Artists
Ever notice how you get the most done right before lunch/dinner? I've long long to bat with doubters about the clarity and energy achieved through controlled fasting. Once one's impulse hunger passes, clarity of thoughts can be downright amazing. An article over at New Scientist posits a great theory for how and why staying hungry may just be the best brain food you can get...
Why we need a siesta after dinner
Why we need a siesta after dinner
Monday, May 22, 2006
Fusion Baby, Fusion
I hope I'm not the only one who thinks this sounds way too much like Spider Man 2...
http://www.physorg.com/news67442282.html
http://www.physorg.com/news67442282.html
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Treo Trifecta
It's been a while since I mused geek on any one particularly gadget, but the new Treo 700p has got me psyched. Not because of any one particular geekfeat it has, but rather the cultimation of a treo of key capabilities we've been promised in a mobile device for some time:
- broadband wireless speeds (w/tethering)
- decent video/audio recording (pics/vids/audio)
- software expandability
At present I get 2/3 of those with my hacked Moto e815. And for the past year having broadband speeds near everywhere, never worrying about where I might pick up WiFi has been nice. But the lack of software expandability has kept my old Treo 600 close by as a fallback.
Now, with Motorola's Q set to launch next week, the real excitement is the possibility that 06' will be the start of that new generation of mobile devices that live up to the standard manufacturers were promising us 3 years ago... true media, broadband-connected, in your pocket.
The generation of true mobile wireless media has begun.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
EBS DOA?
So I just heard an emergency broadcast warning come over the air... tornado watch now in effect. Yikes. Scary stuff, right?
But this was Internet radio. Broadcasting out of North Carolina... and here I am looking out the window for a twister in Connecticut?
This brings up an interesting paradigm... what exactly is the purpose of our trusty emergency broadcast system in a world of satelite and streaming audio? What's the definition of "local" in a world abstracted from geography, where location is becoming less and less relevant?
Seriously people, what's a person listening to this station in Oregon supposed to think... "Oh man... board up the windows, we've got a class 3 tornado headed our way!"
A better use of the EBS in our digital age? "Code yellow... class 5 packet storm coming across your local subnet."
But this was Internet radio. Broadcasting out of North Carolina... and here I am looking out the window for a twister in Connecticut?
This brings up an interesting paradigm... what exactly is the purpose of our trusty emergency broadcast system in a world of satelite and streaming audio? What's the definition of "local" in a world abstracted from geography, where location is becoming less and less relevant?
Seriously people, what's a person listening to this station in Oregon supposed to think... "Oh man... board up the windows, we've got a class 3 tornado headed our way!"
A better use of the EBS in our digital age? "Code yellow... class 5 packet storm coming across your local subnet."
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Nations. Corporations. People.
Weekend excursion to the NYC for the 06' Romanian Festival with The Bogdan Bunch. Plenty of adventures there, but on the way home we get debating about where our society is headed in an era where governments are growing increasingly incapable of providing for their people, as new challenges from corporations and technology slowly blur the line between public and private, citizens and stakeholders.
Now I don't consider myself political, but Bo's thesis on the rise of international corporations and coming collapse of the nation-state is something I've heard more than once. Graduate business classes are flush with talk on the exponential rise in power of international corporations.
This is not our parents' planet plan. E-commerce has grown up. Global markets are in full-effect. And the Internet is rapidly evolving into the global human connector it always promised it would be from day one.
The power of governments weilding the mantle of large-scale standing armies, geographic borders, and nationalist trade alliances are already in rapid decline. A decent 12 year old hacker with a T1 and an agenda wields more power to bring down a nation than an army of green suits and M16s.
I believe the MBA classes are wrong. The transition from nation-state to international corporations is just the beginning. IC's represent merely the most logical bridge from the nation-state to the virtual-state. In the true virtual-state, we'll understand that a global network of ubiquitiously-connected, geographically-impartial, and highly-informed global citizens are more powerful than even the most nimble, armed, or wealthy government or corporate entity. It is the power of true democracy incarnate. When everyone has a voice, the precepts of power change. When everyone's connected, the rules of profit and exploitation fall apart.
Doubt not. The writing's on the wall. The intersection of nations and corporations is old news. The struggle for power between corporations and individuals has now begun. Examples...
Connect now.
Profit later.
People first.
Now I don't consider myself political, but Bo's thesis on the rise of international corporations and coming collapse of the nation-state is something I've heard more than once. Graduate business classes are flush with talk on the exponential rise in power of international corporations.
This is not our parents' planet plan. E-commerce has grown up. Global markets are in full-effect. And the Internet is rapidly evolving into the global human connector it always promised it would be from day one.
The power of governments weilding the mantle of large-scale standing armies, geographic borders, and nationalist trade alliances are already in rapid decline. A decent 12 year old hacker with a T1 and an agenda wields more power to bring down a nation than an army of green suits and M16s.
I believe the MBA classes are wrong. The transition from nation-state to international corporations is just the beginning. IC's represent merely the most logical bridge from the nation-state to the virtual-state. In the true virtual-state, we'll understand that a global network of ubiquitiously-connected, geographically-impartial, and highly-informed global citizens are more powerful than even the most nimble, armed, or wealthy government or corporate entity. It is the power of true democracy incarnate. When everyone has a voice, the precepts of power change. When everyone's connected, the rules of profit and exploitation fall apart.
Doubt not. The writing's on the wall. The intersection of nations and corporations is old news. The struggle for power between corporations and individuals has now begun. Examples...
- Wars on individuals over copyright infringement.
- Wars on time through expectations of longer hours at the office.
- Outsourcing of employer-directed defined-benefit to employee-directed defined-contribution retirement plans.
- Liberation of citizens from corporations as their only source of income/wealth.
- Immiment collapse of the social security system as a fall-back or lifestyle.
- Unplugging of workers from corporate office infrastructures in favor of Starbucks, Kinkos, and high-speed, ubiquitious mobile networks.
- Retirement of the physical for the virtual space as one's community one-stop (ie: the MySpace/Facebook phenomenon).
Connect now.
Profit later.
People first.
Friday, May 05, 2006
Ubiquitize Perfection
Driving range. 6pm. Temps in the swank 70s. Golf clubs still dirty from over a year ago and yet suddenly things click. The perfect swing, contact, lift-off. It may not happen much, but when it does I know this...
There is a perfection in all things.
Most of us only get to see it for a second. We call it "luck" because if we didn't we could not explain it. We'd get confused and the perfection of our imperfectionist perspective wouldn't really make sense anymore. The concept of inherent imperfection would break. Thus, in the magic of the moment, we look away. "Just a fluke" we say.. and hack quickly at the next ball to justify the illusion of our shoddy paradigm.
So I'm listening to the The Magic of Thinking Big audiobook this weekend. Nothing too revolutionary here, but it occurs to me how virtually every one of these self-dev books focus on one thing above all else: breaking free of our own mental limitations. Stripping away these imperfection layers that have been so ingrained in our heads, like peeling back the layers of the onion. I have my own thoughts about where this comes from that I'll cover later, but for now the core question is this:
What could we do if our minds knew no limits?
Traditional psychology often makes this merely an issue of personal development, but clearly it affects much more than that. Ingenuitity. Progress. Ideas. Evolution. How many great things lost in the depths of our minds merely because the voice in the back of our heads politely reminds, "Nah, that'll never work." A favorite quote of mine says this,
You see things as they are and ask why.
But I, I see things that never were and ask why not?
Here's to a lot more "why nots?" in our world.
There is a perfection in all things.
Most of us only get to see it for a second. We call it "luck" because if we didn't we could not explain it. We'd get confused and the perfection of our imperfectionist perspective wouldn't really make sense anymore. The concept of inherent imperfection would break. Thus, in the magic of the moment, we look away. "Just a fluke" we say.. and hack quickly at the next ball to justify the illusion of our shoddy paradigm.
So I'm listening to the The Magic of Thinking Big audiobook this weekend. Nothing too revolutionary here, but it occurs to me how virtually every one of these self-dev books focus on one thing above all else: breaking free of our own mental limitations. Stripping away these imperfection layers that have been so ingrained in our heads, like peeling back the layers of the onion. I have my own thoughts about where this comes from that I'll cover later, but for now the core question is this:
What could we do if our minds knew no limits?
Traditional psychology often makes this merely an issue of personal development, but clearly it affects much more than that. Ingenuitity. Progress. Ideas. Evolution. How many great things lost in the depths of our minds merely because the voice in the back of our heads politely reminds, "Nah, that'll never work." A favorite quote of mine says this,
You see things as they are and ask why.
But I, I see things that never were and ask why not?
Here's to a lot more "why nots?" in our world.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
The Speed of Thought
Over the past several months I've been obsessed with the idea of time travel. The concept generally comes up when I'm operating on the mental redline, integrating lots of ideas at once or operating across multiple objectives in a short amount of time. Here is what I believe...
When the mind grows heated, time tends to distort.
I don't know exactly how to explain it, but I'm quite certain it's occuring. Often I don't even think about it until after speaking with someone else or passing some point of reference (ie: "has it been only 2 days?"). Einstein proposed a similar idea in his theory of special relatively, namely that as an object approaches the speed of light, a person traveling at that speed and an observer will see the same event, but at different times and distances.
Everyone's had these moments. When you're moving really fast. Working on something very hard. Frequently we brush this off quickly quipping, time flies when you're having fun! Yet what if there's some actual truth to this? What if thought-time exceeds the speed of light and alters what is possible in the same timespan? Tap when I start sounding looney.
What I refer to here is the idea of differentiating thought-time from real-time.
Central to this distinction are dreams. Consider what happens when you sleep. You're real tired, crash on the couch, and wake up feeling as if you've been asleep for weeks. Perhaps you had a dream with some extravagant journey to some elaborate location, for some absurd purpose.
Then you look at your clock. 20 minutes have passed.
In the course of time it took your mind to process weeks worth of experience and adventures, your physical body has experienced only 1/3 of an hour. How is this possible? An article over at Indiana U suggests that there is no difference between dream-time and real-time. I disagree. Actually, the only thing the study seems to suggest is that what we can recall and what our conscious mind can communicate is roughly equivalent to the time that has actually passed. This is not surprising. In fact, even if the study did suggest that our mind only concocted up an amount of experience equivalent to what I could imagine in real-time, the fact is that it still processed through that a longer amount of time in shorter span of space.
conscious... subconscious.
thought-time... real-time.
perception... reality.
I want to explore this vein further, for now it's back to my time machine (sleep). Thoughts?
When the mind grows heated, time tends to distort.
I don't know exactly how to explain it, but I'm quite certain it's occuring. Often I don't even think about it until after speaking with someone else or passing some point of reference (ie: "has it been only 2 days?"). Einstein proposed a similar idea in his theory of special relatively, namely that as an object approaches the speed of light, a person traveling at that speed and an observer will see the same event, but at different times and distances.
Everyone's had these moments. When you're moving really fast. Working on something very hard. Frequently we brush this off quickly quipping, time flies when you're having fun! Yet what if there's some actual truth to this? What if thought-time exceeds the speed of light and alters what is possible in the same timespan? Tap when I start sounding looney.
What I refer to here is the idea of differentiating thought-time from real-time.
Central to this distinction are dreams. Consider what happens when you sleep. You're real tired, crash on the couch, and wake up feeling as if you've been asleep for weeks. Perhaps you had a dream with some extravagant journey to some elaborate location, for some absurd purpose.
Then you look at your clock. 20 minutes have passed.
In the course of time it took your mind to process weeks worth of experience and adventures, your physical body has experienced only 1/3 of an hour. How is this possible? An article over at Indiana U suggests that there is no difference between dream-time and real-time. I disagree. Actually, the only thing the study seems to suggest is that what we can recall and what our conscious mind can communicate is roughly equivalent to the time that has actually passed. This is not surprising. In fact, even if the study did suggest that our mind only concocted up an amount of experience equivalent to what I could imagine in real-time, the fact is that it still processed through that a longer amount of time in shorter span of space.
conscious... subconscious.
thought-time... real-time.
perception... reality.
I want to explore this vein further, for now it's back to my time machine (sleep). Thoughts?
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
V2
Great art is often a matter of multiple interpretations.
Round 2 with V for Vendetta this weekend. This time around with my deep thinking, great friend Bo. Bo grew up under Communist Europe, he's also one of those super intelligent, open your eyes types so I was real curious to know what his take would be. Did he like it? Yes. Would he see it again? Yes. Just one problem...
My initial reaction, disagreement. Yet chat some more, dig a bit deeper and it's clear. Bo saw the V as a person. I saw V as an idea. Bo sees Communist Europe. I see a future America. Each perspective follows its natural course to radically different results. A person in Communist Europe changing society? Not likely says Bo. But an idea in a future America? Who knows, says Clif...
Same film. Multiple interpretations. Great stuff.
Round 2 with V for Vendetta this weekend. This time around with my deep thinking, great friend Bo. Bo grew up under Communist Europe, he's also one of those super intelligent, open your eyes types so I was real curious to know what his take would be. Did he like it? Yes. Would he see it again? Yes. Just one problem...
What does it prove? What can one person really do to change a society?
My initial reaction, disagreement. Yet chat some more, dig a bit deeper and it's clear. Bo saw the V as a person. I saw V as an idea. Bo sees Communist Europe. I see a future America. Each perspective follows its natural course to radically different results. A person in Communist Europe changing society? Not likely says Bo. But an idea in a future America? Who knows, says Clif...
Same film. Multiple interpretations. Great stuff.
We are told to remember the idea, not the man. Because a man can fail. He can be killed. But four hundred years later an idea can still change the world. I've witnessed firsthand the power of ideas. I've seen people kill in the name of them; and die defending them. But you cannot touch an idea, cannot hold it or kiss it. An idea does not feel pain, it cannot bleed, and it does not love.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Freedom of Information
V for Vendetta is a great film. Particularly with good friends in the best IMAX theater on the planet. What makes this film great? One line...
The security of information is paramount.
In context of this film the analogy is downright terrifying. It is the question of whether or not we are, at this very moment, seeing the first phase of the new world war. A war not fought with tank or a gun, but rather in our minds, in our fears, a war fought on ability to access information itself?
We talk a lot in IT about the information age/economy. Google gobbles rows of libraries every second. Open source movements go head to head over the access to DNA of our modern tools every day. Cluetrain throws a shot straight across the bow of the traditional corporate concept. And governments dare us to challenge them in ongoing efforts to protect from our own fears.
What if it were all connected somehow?
This is a movie for the ages. Ours. Watch it. Then give a listen to a different kind speech from another kind of "V". It doesn't take much to connect the dots.
The security of information is paramount.
In context of this film the analogy is downright terrifying. It is the question of whether or not we are, at this very moment, seeing the first phase of the new world war. A war not fought with tank or a gun, but rather in our minds, in our fears, a war fought on ability to access information itself?
We talk a lot in IT about the information age/economy. Google gobbles rows of libraries every second. Open source movements go head to head over the access to DNA of our modern tools every day. Cluetrain throws a shot straight across the bow of the traditional corporate concept. And governments dare us to challenge them in ongoing efforts to protect from our own fears.
What if it were all connected somehow?
This is a movie for the ages. Ours. Watch it. Then give a listen to a different kind speech from another kind of "V". It doesn't take much to connect the dots.
Thought Rock
Beantown underground clubs with Dave & crew. Comment of the year from Dave, I never cease to turn your routine upside down do I? Truth bro. See Dave's one of these friends that gets me thinking. Throws out simple questions that get complicated. Last year he sparks thoughts about traveling more. This year he seems almost serious asking if he could ever convince a Norwegian skiier since age 9 to move out West. Very funny Dave.
Look up and round. 20 Campus Reps around dinner. Talking future. Talking innovation. Talking possibilities. Good times get great and then it hits me. Why I keep coming back here time and time again.
Rewind to 99' at Umass. I write my nine-thousandth paper for my Constitutional law class and a professor talks tough about why I should apply to law school. I rebuff claiming, I like the critique of law, I hate the study in it. Her response haunts me ever since...
It's not about the field you study, but the great minds you meet. You need to meet those minds.
I never went to law school. But I've kept looking for what I'd find there ever since. Work hasn't even come close, and yet here it is around a dinner table. Just a bunch of college kids talk'n geek and it's great. Not even a job. Just great minds and the firestorm of ideas that results.
Last year I considered to myself the possibility of unleashing Hill's Mastermind Principle within the context of social networks. This weekend I felt the MMP outside of IPs and screennames, in action. Great minds. Big ideas. No box.
Amazing.
Look up and round. 20 Campus Reps around dinner. Talking future. Talking innovation. Talking possibilities. Good times get great and then it hits me. Why I keep coming back here time and time again.
Rewind to 99' at Umass. I write my nine-thousandth paper for my Constitutional law class and a professor talks tough about why I should apply to law school. I rebuff claiming, I like the critique of law, I hate the study in it. Her response haunts me ever since...
It's not about the field you study, but the great minds you meet. You need to meet those minds.
I never went to law school. But I've kept looking for what I'd find there ever since. Work hasn't even come close, and yet here it is around a dinner table. Just a bunch of college kids talk'n geek and it's great. Not even a job. Just great minds and the firestorm of ideas that results.
Last year I considered to myself the possibility of unleashing Hill's Mastermind Principle within the context of social networks. This weekend I felt the MMP outside of IPs and screennames, in action. Great minds. Big ideas. No box.
Amazing.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Chicago Reflections
Back home again and it's immediately evident how the diversity of a big city like Chicago is abundantly absent out here in Connecticut. I've lamented on this to friends in Boston at times, how strikingly white Beantown is. Of course, Boston's like NYC - you don't bash the Beans. So I get two reactions to my statement: (1) What the hell are you talking about? (2) Compared to what?
Well 2006 is the year of travel and the more places you visit the more you start to make distinctions. I like distinctions. I like differences. They show us how much more there is to understand about the world. I believe familiarity leads to stagnation. We all prefer the familiar at times, but in the face of how much more to see and know in the world? If not now, when? Others said it better...
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility." Albert Einstein
Well 2006 is the year of travel and the more places you visit the more you start to make distinctions. I like distinctions. I like differences. They show us how much more there is to understand about the world. I believe familiarity leads to stagnation. We all prefer the familiar at times, but in the face of how much more to see and know in the world? If not now, when? Others said it better...
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility." Albert Einstein
Chicago: Day 4
Michigan Ave Apple Store... Navy Pier... Field Museum... Museum of Science & Industry. Quick shot over to the airport, bumped to next flight. Words of wisdom for the econo traveler: fly back Saturday so that when the airline offers to give you that free flight anywhere in the US for taking a flight the next day you can take the offer without worrying about work/school on Monday. Summer flight out west? Done.
Museum of Science & Industry: If you ever find yourself in Chicago you need to see this place. One of the top 7th most visited museums in the US and the oldest museum of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. This is not your father's museum, but an interactive extravaganza covering everything from biology to aviation to chemistry to submarines, cars, ships, computers. You name it, they've got it. Pictures don't do it justice. It's downright massive. Plan on a minimum of 3 hours to walk it, 5 to truly appreciate.
Museum of Science & Industry: If you ever find yourself in Chicago you need to see this place. One of the top 7th most visited museums in the US and the oldest museum of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. This is not your father's museum, but an interactive extravaganza covering everything from biology to aviation to chemistry to submarines, cars, ships, computers. You name it, they've got it. Pictures don't do it justice. It's downright massive. Plan on a minimum of 3 hours to walk it, 5 to truly appreciate.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Chicago: Day 3
First day in downtown. Afternoon route: McCormick Center to Atler Planetarium to Shed Aquarium to check-in at the Courtyard Marriot to Hancock Tower to live band at the Blues Chicago. Navy Pier and Apple Store closed, so first up tomorrow.
Hancock Tower. Dine a drink on top of "Big John," you find out why they call Chicago a vertical city. 95 floors up in 40 seconds. A city in itself complete with supermarket, parking, restaurant, and offices. Some people working there never even leave. Imagine that. The highest residences in the world and you don't even have to come down. Plus, how late can you be to work... 30 seconds?
Hancock Tower. Dine a drink on top of "Big John," you find out why they call Chicago a vertical city. 95 floors up in 40 seconds. A city in itself complete with supermarket, parking, restaurant, and offices. Some people working there never even leave. Imagine that. The highest residences in the world and you don't even have to come down. Plus, how late can you be to work... 30 seconds?
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Classical
There's just something about classical music. One of those wonderful things to hear, but not describe. Feel, but not know. Taste, but not touch. The intangent made tangent in heart, but mystery to mind. Beautiful.
They say the beat of baroque music allows the right and left sides of our brains to sync up. I grew up with this stuff and hated it. Decades later and even wine tastes good.
Hallways and worksplaces need to get this. B&N plays it for a reason. Understand: even the best of actors need a stage set right.
They say the beat of baroque music allows the right and left sides of our brains to sync up. I grew up with this stuff and hated it. Decades later and even wine tastes good.
Hallways and worksplaces need to get this. B&N plays it for a reason. Understand: even the best of actors need a stage set right.
Friday, March 17, 2006
Modern Workplaces
90 min phone last night w/a good friend. Two friends, two bad days at the office, just one question: how did the absurdity of modern workplace become so accepted? Complicated bureaucracies, crowded cubicle farms, trivial office politics.
With all that we have.
With all that we know.
Why this?
Insights...
"In Business" podcast, 10/6/05. Beautiful discussion on the growth of social networks, remergence of trade leagues, and increasing popularity of virtual corporations.
Better still. How bout this quickie...
"Distributing the Future" podcast, 12/12/05, 8:40 in (link below). Quote: "The atmosphere of the average workplace is to productivity, what flames painted on the side of a car are to speed."
Enough said.
With all that we have.
With all that we know.
Why this?
Insights...
"In Business" podcast, 10/6/05. Beautiful discussion on the growth of social networks, remergence of trade leagues, and increasing popularity of virtual corporations.
Better still. How bout this quickie...
"Distributing the Future" podcast, 12/12/05, 8:40 in (link below). Quote: "The atmosphere of the average workplace is to productivity, what flames painted on the side of a car are to speed."
Enough said.
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