Others dream things that never were and ask why not.
George Bernard Shaw
This video was submitted by a 20-year old in a contest sponsored by the American Asso-ciation of Retired Persons (AARP) titled ‘U @ 50′. It won second place.
The subjectmatter presented is cleverly cons-tructed as a palindrome. It is only 1 minute and 44 seconds.
A palindrome reads the same way whet-her backwards or forward.
This piece of creative writing, which springs forth from a young but extremely percept-ive mind, starts out on an extremely negative tone. It makes us older people wonder whether we’ve lost the next generation by way of their acquired values.
But then, towards the end, as one listens to the video carefully read backward, the meaning becomes clearly the exact opposite.
It is simple and yet brilliant. Invest a minute or so to watch it.
Every man ought to be a macho macho man / to live a life of freedom, machos make a stand.
The Village People
We men fancy ourselves into believing that our homes are our castles and in that space we are nothing less than lords of the jungle. Kings, so to speak. Yup, the high and mighty macho macho man!
Of course, in the cycle of life, getting there always comes in several stages:
THE SINGLE MACHO MAN
THE MARRIED MACHO MAN
THE DIVORCED MACHO MAN
Oh well, we can’t all be winners! Enjoy the song below:
A-weema-weh A-weema-weh A-weema-weh
In the jungle, the mighty jungle
The lion sleeps tonight
In the jungle, the quiet jungle The lion sleeps tonight.
Imagine yourself some 300 years from now on a spaceship with a drive engine capable of generating speeds faster than the speed of light. To warm up your engines, your first itinerary would be to visit the inner planets of Mercury, Venus and Mars and on to the area of Pluto.
Stacked together, this is how those four other planetary bodies would compare in size relative to Earth. You, on the other hand, would be approximately 1/300th of a pixel on the image below which contains a few thousand pixels itself.
Nevertheless, you take note of the relative sizes of each with the others – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune that you’ve just visited in our planetary system. The difference suddenly becomes quite obvious to you and remark to yourself how much smaller the Earth really is and even how much smaller you’ve become as one of its inhabitants.
So you begin to wonder just how big that orb is in space called our sun in the distance. You trace back towards its direction to take note of a few measure-ments before setting your course inside galactic space towards your first real destination, the brightest star on Earth’s night sky called Sirius whose travel distance is only 2.6 parsecs (8.6 light years) away.
Sirius B is much more massive as our own sun is but nothing compared to the next two stars in your next itinerary – Pollux and Arcturus.
Pollux (or Beta Geminorum) is a giant orange star approximately 34 light-years from Earth towards the constellation of Gemini (the Twins). Pollux is the brightest star in that constellation. Back in 2006, Pollux was confirmed to have an extrasolar planet orbiting it. Now, there are milions all over the galaxy.
Arcturus (or Alpha Boötis), another orange giant star of several orders of magnitude, is the brightest star in the constellation Boötes. It is also the third brightest star in the night sky, after Sirius and Canopus. Arcturus is slightly farther being only 36.7 light years (11.3 parsecs) from Earth. It is at least 110 times visually more luminous than the Sun. As you arrive near its vicinity it’s much larger size and brightness becomes far more evident to you. But that’s again nothing compared to the next two stars in your itinerary – Betelgeuse and Antares.
Betelgeuse (Alpha Orionis) is a semi-regular variable red super-giant star located approximately 640 light-years from the Earth and the 9th brightest star in the night sky. It is one of the largest and most luminous stars known.
Antares (Alpha Scorpii), approximately 600 light-years (180 parsecs) from our solar system, is another red super-giant star (Class M) in the Milky Way galaxy. It has a radius of approximately 800 times and a visual luminosity of about 10,000 times that of our own Sun. It is the 16th brightest star in the night time sky. If it were placed in the center of our solar system, its outer surface would lie between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
Now, can you figure out what infinitesimal fraction of a pixel you’d be compared to the image of Betelgeuse above? I suppose that would be an irrelevant question to answer at this point considering the next image seen below.
These are galaxies in just a small fraction of the sky at night and our own Milky Way is just one of the several billions of them out there in the vast universe. That’s how insignificant and meaningless we all are in the entire scheme of things.
On reflection, there is a Teacher whom the sages of old attribute to him the authorship of Ecclesiastes and whose legendary wisdom and musings include the question: ‘What is the meaning of life?’.
This is what he has to say about the matter:
1 Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, “I find no pleasure in them”
2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain;
3 when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim;
4 when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when men rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint;
5 when men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets.
6 Remember him – before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well,
7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
8 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Everything is meaningless!”
13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
Creativity uses imagination rather than imitating something else. It is essen-tially a generation of new ideas, images and/or solutions.
This animation created by Alan Becker manages to achieve a principle of art that is concerned with the sense of stability of the visual elements in a consistent yet chaotic way.
The visual elements Becker deploys consist of two-dimensions: height and width. It is a space with a defined or implied boundary containing only two basic groups: geometric and organic. The visual element, the basic ingredients he uses to create works of art on the Web that includes line, shape, form, color, texture and space (in this case, the ‘stick man’), has been ingeniously transformed in space – an area between, around, above, below and within objects.
Becker’s technique, method and approach to working with materials when creating his works of art, is superb. It combines information, communication and technology in a neat visual package. It also manages to highlight another principle of art that is concerned with the sense of wholeness or completeness. In this case, it adheres to basic principles of design by organising the visual elements of art that include balance, emphasis, contrast, unity, movement, rhythm, proportion, scale, repetition, pattern, and variety while managing to entertain us as it delivers its message.
The message is simple as it is direct. It manages to transfer visual information from him to you in a two-way process characterised by an exchange and progression of thoughts, perceptions and ideas. That, in essence, is what communication is all about.
Click Image To Activate
Learn more about what the author of this blog does in the field of social media, information, communications and technology through Digital Summit.
“The greatest wisdom is to recognize one’s own ignorance”– Nicoleus Cusanus
THE PACE OF CHANGE
I have been involved in most aspects of ICT for a number of years and in a number of projects large and small. During that time, I’ve been fortunate enough to have met and inter-acted with a number of leading edge technology-related firms and groups of people who have made significant contributions to progress and knowledge we all often take for granted these days.
The pace of change over the last 100 hundred years is something mind-boggling, especially if you measure it against a specific point of time in the past.
The year is 1909. Here are just a few statistics I picked up randomly from an American Almanac for that year:
Sugar cost four cents a pound
Coffee was fifteen cents a pound
Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen
The average life expectancy was 47 years
There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day
Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub
Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone
Two out of every 10 adults couldn’t read or write
The average wage in 1909 was 22 cents per hour
The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph
More than 95 percent of all births took place at home
Ninety percent of all doctors had no college education
The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower
The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year
A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year
There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads
Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn’t been invented yet
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were available in over-the-counter drugstores
Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo
Nothing much progressed in the world during the first half of the 20th Century, not at least with the kind of pace we see it running today. Relatively few jobs had much to do with computers and computer-related technology.
AGE OF INFORMATION
But by the mid-1950s, researchers noticed that the number of people holding “white collar” jobs had just exceeded the number of people holding “blue collar” jobs. These researchers realised that this was an important shift. It was clear that the Industrial Age was coming to an end and as it ended, the newer times adopted the title of the “Information Age” Why that term, you ask?
Well, it’s largely because large frame computers, computerised machinery, fiber optics, communication satellites, the Internet, and other ICT tools became a significant part of the growing world economy.
Then, microcomputers were developed and many business and industries were greatly changed by ICT in essentially a form that transformed products made of atoms to products made of bits which can be produced very cheaply, make a copy of it quickly and ship it across the world instantly at very low cost.
Then of course, with the invention of the World Wide Web in 1989, is when the Internet truly became a global network. Today the Internet has become the ultimate platform for accelerating the flow of information and is, today, the fastest-growing form of media.
But with all this now available at the touch of our fingertips I sometimes wonder if any information acquired is actually being transformed into knowledge leading the more enlightened of us to gain some institutional wisdom that can perhaps be applied to improve humanity and the world it lives in.
Since ICT covers any product or service that leads to storing, retrieving, manipulating, transmitting or receiving information electronically in digital form, I decided to ask a more well-versed associate of mine who runs an ICT-based company called Digital Summit. It is a company that specialises in providing professional service that helps healthcare and educational institutions in New Zealand transform themselves into knowledge-based organisations.
DEFINING KNOWLEDGE
After a long and fruitful discussion, I learned something more about what knowledge is and how it can be organised intelligently using ICT approaches so that users of the information systems this company builds can actually get more bang for their buck, as the saying goes. He calls both the approach and methodology behind the flow of work they do the Trident Solution™.
First of all, I learned that there are actually two forms of knowledge:
1) tacit knowledge, which is possessed by people and not generally recorded; and,
2) explicit knowledge, which is recorded information and usually stored in form of databases.
Then, there are also three kinds of knowledge:
1) subject matter knowledge, which identifies the location of knowledge but requires a broad level ontology to evolve as knowledge is developed;
2) collaborative knowledge, which defines the best way to carry out activities within an organisation. It supports tasks in getting any related information, finds the best ways to get consensus and reach agreement; and,
3) organisational knowledge, which defines objectives of workspaces and tasks needed to achieve them. It also contains information of the location of any tacit knowledge.
By becoming a knowledge-based organisation using Digital Summit’s Trident Solutions™ approach, my associate explained, it then becomes possible to provide organisation members access to both tacit and explicit knowledge using client databases and computers in a Web environment.
I think Digital Summit is on sound ground and even on a more solid one if their incorporate social media using Web 2.0 into their service models. To that, my associate already hinted that it’s in the works and just to wait for their new website to be completed and published in due time.
POWER OF COMMUNICATIONS
In the meantime, I also invite you to view a fascinating video clip below of U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown as he delivers a talk on web-based technologies and about how we all can use today’s interconnectedness to develop a shared global ethic and work together to confront the challenges of poverty, security, climate change and the economy.
In this video, Brown suggests what modern technology is capable of – harnessing the power of our moral sense allied to the power of communications and our ability to organise as a community to fundamentally change the world.
If anything the pace of change has wrought over the last 100 years that we can now use for the good of our species, then perhaps it is what companies like Digital Summit and others like it around the world may be doing, in small part, to make that happen maybe a little sooner. May the force be with them.
Learn more about what the author of this blog does in the field of Social Media on Web 2.0
Symbols represent a concept and were first used by cavemen for recording events and some-times, their thoughts.
Cave paintings are the oldest known form of symbols and were originally very simple and easily understood. They slowly developed into depicting much more complex information and progressed from the walls of cave into carvings in rock and stone.
Pictographs were the next form of symbols to develop and they represented concepts, objects and activities by illustration. More advanced forms known as “hieroglyphs” refer to the characters made by graphical figures, be it animals or objects.
Sumerians invented picture-hieroglyphs that developed later into cuneiform, the earliest known pictographic writing system in the world adopted by other cultures.
Being able to decipher and read hieroglyphs provides fascinating insights into the land, lore and minds of an ancient people. Understanding their hiero-glyphs illuminates meaning and removes some of the mystery behind their ancient languages and inner thoughts.
In one such example, written across the wall of the cave somewhere along the steep banks of the Dead Sea, were the following symbols:
It was considered a unique find at the time. The writings were said to be at least 3,000 years old by some estimates.
The piece of stone where it was engraved on the cave wall was carved out and carefully removed, brought to the museum, and eminent archaeologists from all over the world came to study the ancient symbols months on end. They then held a huge meeting after several conferences had taken place to discuss the possible meaning of the markings.
An Esteemed Estimation?
In this meeting the President of the society pointed to the first drawing and said,
“Evidently, this is a woman. We can see these people held women in high esteem. You can also tell they were intelligent, as the next symbol is a donkey, so they were smart enough to have animals help them till the soil. The next drawing is a shovel, which means they had tools to help them.”
“Even further proof of their high intelligence is the fish which means that if a famine hit the Earth and food didn’t grow, they seek food from the sea. The last symbol clearly appears to be the Star of David which means they were evidently Hebrews.”
The audience applauded enthusiastically.
Bringing The House Down
As the applause died down, an old Jewish scholar in his 90’s stood up slowly in the back of the room and said,
“Idiots, Hebrew is read from right to left…… It says: ‘Holy Mackerel Dig the Ass on that Chick.’ “
Writing has come along way from its early scribbles on the wall of a cave. The purpose for writing though, probably remains the same as it was then – to record, pass and share information. But some things apparently, never change!
Since posting my blog entry ‘Typhoon Ketsana – Bigger Than Katrina’ yesterday morning I received nearly 300 emails, mostly for more information about and images detailing the human aspects of the natural disaster that struck the Philippines over the weekend.
The images you are about to view below are but just a small but graphic examples of what this very recent calamity has done to the lives of hundreds upon thousands of displaced people in the Philippines. But the worst is probably yet to come. After the massive flooding that hit this country health officials expect a rise in cholera, dengue and other water-borne diseases related to exposure from scattered debris, lack of protective dwelling places, and possible instances of starvation in the poorer areas of Luzon Island which suffered the brunt force of this catastrophic typhoon. Roads and bridges have been destroyed.
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Expressions of Hope
One of the many proactive comments that emerged from some of these emails is that disaster relief efforts are more effective if your giving (in cash or kind) is channeled directly through more established nonprofit organisations that have experience in these matters. This ensures that the goods and funds received from you go directly and quickly to affected victims and their families who need it most, rather than official government channels that are far less efficient in handling such matters of relief because of bureaucratic crawl and the consequent dissipation of valuable resources that result.
People in the Philippines are now exposed, hungry and homeless, dislocated and frightened not knowing what the next hour of their lives will bring. As a result, many lives are wrenched and disrupted. If you were in their place, what thoughts of despair would cross your mind? Give them hope.
In Their Hour Of Need
The last image you find above contains a link. If you hover and click it your action will transport you to the website of the Philippine National Red Cross (PNRC). This site has a section containing some very helpful information about How You Can Donate regardless of where you are in this world. Donations in cash or credit card are accepted by the PNRC in US Dollars, Euro, Yen and Philippine Pesos. SWIFT codes are also included. SWIFT Codes are also included. PNRC’s National Headquarters’ Hotline Number is: +632 5270000 if you’re calling from overseas, or 143 if calling through a local line.
If your own circumstances do not allow you to donate, however, then at least pass this information to people you know who can. The SHARE button found below allows you to distribute the message to almost all the better known social networking websites around the world where you or your network of friends might have an account. Put it to good use.
In this day and age of the Internet on Web 2.0 and the inherent power it brings to your fingertips to communicate with blinding speed across vast distances, your acts and those of others you may know will surely mean something to many who are now in dire need of your valuable help.
In their hour of need, this is one case where haste does not waste.
This video was submitted by a 20-year old in a contest sponsored by the American Asso-ciation of Retired Persons (AARP) titled ‘U @ 50′. It won second place. 
Symbols represent a concept and were first used by cavemen for recording events and some-times, their thoughts. 
