By a majority verdict, a British jury found five protestors who shut down the Kingsnorth coal-fired power plant had a “lawful excuse” to close the plant to prevent greater damage from global warming. Greenpeace activists, protesting the contribution of coal-electric power plants to climate change, scaled a chimney and painted the word “Gordon” on the chimney before they were forced down (“Gordon” is a reference to British prime minister Gordon Brown). The protest shut down the power plant temporarily and the graffiti cost about $62,000 to remove. The jury verdict in favor of the protestors illustrates how a U.S. jury might respond to similar protests.

The jury verdict in favor of the protestors illustrates how a U.S. jury might respond t.............

http://www.globalclimatelaw.com/2008/09/articles/climate-change-litigation/british-jury-in-kingsnorth-case-finds-in-favor-of-climate-change-protestors/

great location. internet connectivity equaled the speed of a tortoise. unbearably slow in the room. wireless ripped in the lobby. told that it was due to an in-room TV upgrade coming in February. other than that, the room was great. great desk. comfortable bed. bathroom just the right size. staff super friendly and service orientated. i would definitely go back.

interesting line which i have been hearing recently. and painfully true.

it is hard to imagine how long the trip was. i simply can't remember. really. departure from Portland, Maine on Saturday early afternoon and then two days later i arrive in Melbourne, Australia. the Portland airport is quite simply - quaint. it has a few gate. mine had rocking chairs to while away the hours as you waited. my plane was cancelled. so i thankfully, after an incredibly stressful ten minutes, was rebooked onto another flight on another airline. United thru Chicago. that sounded just fine. however, i landed at 'F' and needed to be at 'B' in order to meet my next plane. so, the rubber band propelled jet wound up and left Portland heading west. i couldn't stand up in it. the 90 minutes seemed an eternity on paper. i had 10 minutes to spare by the time i actually got to my 'B' gate.

flying in America is simply not nice. no matter how you slice it, economy class sucks. i was in a seat which had no padding, so after 30 minutes my back end was sore. there is so little room between each seat that it is simply IMPOSSIBLE to open a laptop and work. the flight from ORD to LAX was essentially wasted. i did get to watch between the heads a tiny screen which was playing a movie featuring Kevin Costner which essentially was produced to encourage Americans to vote. it made the time pass. but what a waste of four hours of my life.

arriving in LAX was similar. why is it that big airports in the west are held together by duct tape? i had to get from terminal somethingorother to terminal 2. that was easy enough once someone could tell me which bus to get on. but again, the 120 minute interval between flights evaporated. made it to the gate with 15 minutes to spare. i really hate travel stress. this was my first Air New Zealand flight. the lounge was okay. better by far than united or american airlines. just long enough to have a beer and then go to the gate. the 777 is configured so that the business class is up front and economy the rest of the plane. every seat in business has access to the aisle. they are also flat beds which flip. they are all new, so i perhaps expected more. it as just fine. why can't an airline really come up with a good seat/bed? the flight to Auckland was essentially a night flight. i ate and went to sleep. sort of. i find that sleepig at 38000 feet is simply not restful. our bodies need more oxygen to recoup than they can suck out of the air. sunrise over New Zealand was spectacular.

landed in Auckland. found my new gate. flew the final four hours on a 747-400 in the nose seat. it is fun to be able to see out. finally able to get a few hours of work. arrived Melbourne. i love the immigration system here. EVERYONE gets their bag x-rayed. no 'profiling' or anything like that. we all get our bags zapped. fair an square.

22 hours of flights. yuck.

great voice. he sang keep it loose/keep it tight.
brought all of the interlopers from the other rooms back in to stand around the outside. they were right to come in.......definatly to get. GET HIS MUSIC! wow.

http://www.amoslee.com/

http://www.asweforgivemovie.com/
here is an article in a Christian magazine on the film. http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14162

good theme. bad presentation. she rambled and really should not have droned on after time

can we understand urban violence as a virus? it is something that is medically driven? or should it be considered it an infectious disease? fascinating idea that seems so correct.

violence behaves like an infectious disease in almost every way. so the question is...how are epidemics reversed?
interrupt transmission. this can be immunization, or render the most infectious person and render them neutral, for violence it is looking
change social norms. the central behaviour that is driving the epidemic. this is very much the copying and osmosis that

these are the only two things that work.

FASCINATING. it has to be the direction that this goes. stopping the cycle. REALLY GREAT WORK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKIDukYgSJ0
[http://www.ceasefirechicago.org/]
[http://www.volvoforlifeawards.com/cgi-bin/iowa/english/heros/hero2004/9116.html]
[http://www.rwjf.org/newsroom/feature.jsp?id=20772]

Executive Creative Director
Robert Fabricant is the Executive Creative Director of frog design in New York, where he leads multidisciplinary design teams for clients such as BBC, Comcast, GE, MTV, Nextel, and Nissan. He has developed user experiences for numerous digital platforms, including handheld devices, in-car information systems, medical devices, retail environments, networked applications, and desktop software.

Prior to frog, Robert led the research and development team at Organic, where he worked on wireless applications for key clients such as Federated, Lucent Technologies, and the Museum of the Moving Image. Other work experience includes @radical.media, Microsoft Research, and Edwin Schlossberg Inc. Robert is an adjunct professor at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, where he teaches a foundation course in Interaction Design. He has worked in user experience design for interactive media since 1994, including exhibition and kiosk design, CD-ROM, web, broadband and wireless applications. His interactive work has been included in I.D. Magazine, Wired Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal and has been presented at SIGGRAPH and DUX.http://www.frogdesign.com/

presented the work that they have been doing with Zinny Thabethe with the Aids clinics in South Africa. they have created a self-diagnosis kit. it was quite impressive and a really good piece of design.

Praekelt Foundation [http://www.praekeltfoundation.org/] is using mobile technology in south africa to help with the AIDs epidemic. great uptake on this. is is SMS based and focused on helping those who are in most need.

http://mobileactive.org/please-call-me-messages-hiv-info-mobile-social-marketing-south-africa
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7688268.stm

Matt Mason is the bestselling author of The Pirate’s Dilemma, the first book in the history of the world to hit the number one spot on Amazon’s economics/free enterprise bestseller list, and the rap bestseller list, at the same time. It has since been published in seven countries and counting.

Mason began his career as a pirate radio and club DJ in London, going on to become founding Editor-in-Chief of the seminal magazine RWD. In 2004, he was selected as one of the faces of Gordon Brown’s Start Talking Ideas campaign, and was presented the Prince’s Trust London Business of the Year Award by HRH Prince Charles.

He has written and produced TV series, comic strips, viral videos and records. His journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer Music Monthly, Dazed & Confused, Adweek, VICE, Complex, Libération, and other publications in more than 20 countries. He has spoken on the subjects covered in the book all over the world. He recently founded the non-profit media company Wedia with his wife Emily. He lives in New York City.

Piracy is not always a bad thing. see his book [http://thepiratesdilemma.com/about-the-book] this is a book to GET!

7 abundantly clear things about abundance
1. in order to beat piracy, emulate do not eliminate.
2. "good business is the best best art." Andy Warhol
3. the art of storytelling is changing because of abundance. it is now becoming network and becoming part of the conversation. it is about giving other people space to create
4. never let legal ruin a project until the marketing team
5. abundance is better than advertising
- he states that the pharmaceutical companies spend more on advertising than on research. Novatis is
6. some good experiences will always be scarce.
7. in an economy based abundance your business model needs to be a virtuous circle.

Great talk!

http://www.shirky.com/bio.html

talked about the story of the Josh Groban [http://www.joshgroban.com/] and then the Grobanites for Charity. http://www.grobanitesforcharity.org/.

he then talked about he issue of designing for generosity.

howard forums. started by Howard Chui [http://www.howardforums.com/] the phone users have access to 'reality' in a way that the engineers do not have. it is access to the customers who are experiencing their reality of cell phones. one billion page views. overflow of positive access. wow.

motivation types - intrinsic and extrinsic.

we have forgotten about intrinsic motivation. we have forgotten that is is better to feel good than look good.

1. design for intrinsic motivation. design an environment so that people feel that they are doing the right thing and people will flock to you. love and fame are not on the same dial. being appreciated by a small group of people who know you well is far different that lots of folks who know you a little.
2. autonomy is essential. generosity without autonomy is like an NPR fund drive.
3. limits

great talk. computer did not work and he just went into it without. really great.,

Digital Freedoms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Anderson_(writer)
non-monetary economics have been around for a very long time. they are essentially markets of sharing. is it possible to rationalize and understand this?

what does the aundance of information create? a scarsity of attention.
very abundance creates a new scarcity.

scarsities? time. money. happiness. attention. reputation

so what about economy? what does economics mean? essentially it is about the dealing with the household accounts, according to the greek root. after |Adam Smith, the science of choice uner scarcity. In order to
an economy must be
1.measurable
2. finite
3. convertivle to otehr economic systems [including money]

this is the Google economy. the hyperlink is the first step to formalizing this. the http:// link is the way in which you GIVE your reputatioal value to others. fascinating cocept. this is a gift that yo give. your reputational asset being given to others. now at Wired, 40% of the traffic on the web is due to Google

Attention - traffic - ads
reputation - links - traffic
__________ - PageRank - Ads

The central banker of the Google economy is Larry Page. PAgerank is what he controls. who comes up first is fundamental to this economy. there are other internet economies, which Larry Page cannot control.

the link economy.......the reputational economy. Video games are the best place to see this know. Rosedale [Second Life] has to ensure that the land has value and retains value. Maple Story is another great example of attention/reputation economy. [http://maplestory.nexon.net/WZ.ASPX?PART=/Main]

THIS IS ONE TO WATCH AGAIN

http://www.benjaminzander.com/

he is so wonderful! i have seen him again. at TED. it was fabulous.

there are three things that you can do in life.
1. accept the situation - resignation
2. get angry with the situaion - anger
3. get up and conduct - possibility

radiate possibility. this is what we need to do in life.

conversation reflecting attitude. he asks his students to write him a letter to tell him why they received the grade of A. they describe the people who they want to become. you can give an A to anyone. if there is a breakdown in a relationship you are not giving someone the grade of an A. we need to use the theory of education that is about letting those achieve like Michelangelo who said that we have to reveal the statue in the rock.

the reason we practice is so taht we care what happens to the notes.

the conversational differentiation between Wealth, Fame, Power and Vision is phenomenal. we have to move people to the realm of possiblities.

Chandler Burr is The New York Times' perfume critic. His new book, "The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris & New York" (published January 22 2008 by Henry Holt, Inc.) tells two parallel stories, the first about a year Burr spent for The New Yorker magazine in Paris behind the scenes at Hermès watching legendary perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena create the Hermès scent "Un Jardin sur le Nil"; and the second about a year (beginning with an article for The New York Times) inside Coty with Sarah Jessica Parker as she directed the making of her perfume "Lovely."

Purfume is a great art. this guy was really interesting. he described the aroma of petchouli [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patchouli] this is now a scarce crop.

mysore sandalwood. is now gone. there are new ones coming.

this was simply a really fun session. we smelled a whole bunch of scents. some listed above.
[http://www.esteelauder.com/product/mpp.tmpl?CATEGORY_ID=CAT574]

Channel and Hermes are the only two houses which make their entire product.

every bottle of perfume contains the world.

HE IS GREAT! he did a great show AND he uses words like few one can.

Marian Bantjes MGDC was born in 1963 and is a Canadian designer, artist, illustrator, typographer and writer. Bantjes started working in the field of visual communication in 1983 and worked as a book typesetter from 1984–1994. She became well known as a talented graphic designer from 1994–2003, when she was a partner and senior designer at Digitopolis in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she created identity and communication designs for a wide range of corporate, education and arts organizations.

it is really depressing spending your life making landfill as a graphic designer for a marketing/PR firm. she now only works on projects that she 'loves'. expressive instinct thru typography. she sent out 150 personalized valentines. had a great response due to the personal connection of the work. the theme of love interests her very much.

she considers ornamentation and detail as a form of honour.

wonder. a feeling we get when we understand, but don't completely comprehend.

beautiful work.

"always write your love letters by hand"

http://www.bantjes.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_Bantjes

innovation fellow. looking at creating a gap year, similar to the UK, after high school and before university. the idea is a Global Citizen Year.

good idea. hope it works. it is so needed. i remember the impact that my summer abroad had on my when i was 11. then again at 15 and 16. you mind is stretched. goal is for one year from now to make the first.

she was great. have to get her album.

http://www.imogenheap.co.uk/

this one sent chills down my spine. beautiful.

http://www.rufusmusic.com/

John Priscu. Montana State University
John Priscu is a leading expert on cold climate biology. He has spent many field seasons in Antarctica as part of the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, a collaborative effort involving more than 1800 scientists and students worldwide, investigating ecological processes over long temporal and broad spatial scales. Antarctica has more than 70 lakes buried thousands of meters below ice. Priscu and his colleagues believe the lakes have liquid water which make them unique habitats for the creatures that likely thrive in them. They believe the lakes should be explored through a cooperative, international effort. Priscu is a Professor of Ecology at Montana State University.
http://www.homepage.montana.edu/~lkbonney/
http://passporttoknowledge.com/polar-palooza/pps27.php

A viiew of the bottom of the planet. Antarctica is 150% the size of the USA. if all the ice would melt, it would cover the entire continent with water. the average thickness is 2 miles !!!!! deep. it is a huge continent with subglacial lakes and rivers. the largest lake so far is Lake Vostok. 70% of our planets freshwater exists in the antarctic ice sheet. there are over 7 million cubic miles of ice. the bacteria in the ice contain 100x more carbon than the entire human population. there are bacteria living in the ice sheet. this is incredible. IF THE ice sheet melts the water level will rise 60 feet.

he then went on to take us thru satellite telemetry to 'look' at the base of the ice sheets. there are isostatic systems under the ice. we then went to Lake Vostok. backteria have been living there for 20 million years. amazing. really amazing. there is enough saturated methane and pressurized water to blow a geyser 3000 feet into the air if the russians complete the drill hole. it is currently stopped but has 65 tonnes of kerosine in the hole which is what they use for lubricant.

what an amazig presentation. there is LIFE under the ice.

[http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/V/VostokLake.html]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok] REALLY COOL!!!!!

Tomorrow's Table. organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food.
Pamela Ronald is Professor of Plant Pathology and Chair of the Plant Genomics Program at the University of California, Davis, where she studies the role that genes play in a plant’s response to its environment. She also serves as Director of Grass Genetics at the Joint Bioenergy Research Institute in Emeryville. Much of her work has focused on rice, a staple for 50% of the world’s people. Her laboratory has genetically engineered rice for resistance to diseases and flooding, both of which are serious problems of rice crops in Asia and Africa. Her work has been published in Science, Nature and other scientific periodicals and has also been featured in The New York Times, The Wall street Journal, Le Monde and on National Public Radio.

Ronald has recently written a book with her husband, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer, entitled “Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetic and the Future of Food” published by Oxford University Press.
http://indica.ucdavis.edu/ronald_bio
http://pamelaronald.blogspot.com/

she presented about the current and future states of agriculture.
she and her husband are trying to provide abundant, safe and nutritious food which reduces harmful environmental inputs. 97% of all agriculture is not organic. her presentation was very academic, but considering that is where she comes from it is not surprising. it was hard to understand what her message really was.....beyond genetic engineering is good and insecticides are bad. finally in the final minute she got to her work on rice. 25% of the world's rice is produced in areas that are most prone to flooding and sea change level changes. the challenge has been to improve the capability of rice to survive under water. she cloned a gene which allowed plants to survive and now produces a strain that is more resilient. interesting in the last 30 seconds. she should have started with this rather than the lecture on genetic engineering.

amazing how a professor can fill 30 minutes with 2 minutes of content.
cotton uses approximately 25% of all the worlds insecticides! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

great video produced based on the 2001 A Space Odyssey film when Hal is being 'killed'. he overlays visions of what we are doing to the earth with the demise of Hal. very powerful. [http://www.cumc.columbia.edu/dept/sph/ehs/4.html]

Agriculture for the 21st Century and Beyond: the Vertical Farm. [http://www.verticalfarm.com/]: here is a video of him talking about the project. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uLTOMsF3uU] His focus is on soi lless growing. Hydroponics, Aeroponics, Drip Irrigation. he proposes that we could produce 60% of what we need for food in cities in cities. REALLY INTERESTING!!!!

my daughter asked me 'why are the train tracks so smooth in Switzerland?' she didn't wait for my answer and continued with 'in England they sway back and forth'.

it is a good question.....why is it that we allow the very infrastructure which enables a society to survive to crumble a bit every day without seeming to care?

wow. let me say again. WOW. this is a hotel that i ignore the mould in the corner of the bath tub. a wonderful moorish rectangular edifice parallels the beach. the Westin Excelsior is one i would pay to go back to. there is something magical about arriving at a place by water. a short tunnel under the road brings you to the large entry. first, you need to check in at the desk. then you take a little card across the hall to the concierge to get the digital room 'key'. the hallways are broad. the lifts tucked away from any room. my room faced the beach. it was large, but not too large. green, but not too green. desk of a good size to work. I arrived quite late so had no idea of the view that i had. pity i only had one night.

room 234.

i am sitting at the fabulous Westin hotel in venice at an innovation meeting of a group from Reed-Elsevier. on the stage are three executives who are talking about their internal programs. they also do an intense 'studio' to cook ideas in one division. another talked about supporting MANIACS WITH MISSIONS. i like that label and wonder how many companies can indeed support maniacs with missions within their companies.

be prepared to be scared.

http://www.xdrtb.org/

i can. my wife took the car keys with me this summer. i was here. she was in california. i found that i did not need the car at all. i began to wonder, how many could go to work and live a full life if they could not drive a car? i know that everyone i my village could.

could you?

this was a question that i heard at the summit a few weeks ago. it is a good one.

we need real leaders today to face the overdrawn accounts on many levels. who will step up to the plate?

went to pick up my son at his middle school yesterday. he forgot some papers so we went back into the classroom. it was totally dark with all the blinds drawn. strange as outside was a highly unusual blue sky and sun. i asked the teacher about the blinds. she pointed to the projector mounted on the ceiling and said .'my classroom is like a cave, i have to draw all the blinds so that we can see the projector'. i asked if this was the case all day and she said that it was. imagine this. a classroom with plenty of windows to trees an blue sky that have their blinds drawn all the time so that a piece of 'modern' technology can be used periodically. for me, this is unfathomable. daylight, views and connection to the world outside is now less important than an internet connection and digital projector.

what will the unintended consequences be of this evolution be for these kids? i shudder.

my nine year old son had a school assembly this morning. these are quite cute. they talk about what they have been learning to the rest of the kids in school as well as to those parents who can make it to a 0900 showing on a weekday. one of the things that they have been learning about is health of the human body. the expose started off with a little girl standing up in the navy blue uniform stating 'my body is like a car. it needs fuel to keep it running....' my mind sort of froze after that. our society has moved so far that kids are now taught that their bodies are like cars. wow. that an inanimate object like an automobile has become the moderator that a child relates to is quite amazing. or more correctly put, that it has become the object which is utilized to explain the inner workings of the body......i find the human body to be far more amazing and complex and wonderful than any car in my neighborhood. and i really hope that our children will learn to overcome the current society's car fetish.