Charles van der Haegen's List: Surpising news, images, videos

"ALEC is an organization made up of state legislators and private-sector members who come together to promote corporate friendly legislation. While the group purports to exist for “educational” purposes and claims to do no lobbying, ALEC has come under scrutiny for its “model legislation” — bills crafted to reflect the special interests of ALEC’s corporate members, that then frequently find their way into the statehouses of ALEC’s legislative members. So-called “Stand Your Ground” laws, discriminatory voter ID requirements and anti-union “right to work” laws are just a few of the policies cultivated by ALEC."

"Streamed live on Jul 4, 2013

Full webcast from the RSA event on Thursday 4 July at 1pm BST. An edited video of the event will be available in HD in the near future.

Dr Brené Brown has spent the past twelve years carrying out ground-breaking research into vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame.

A best-selling author and award-winning educator, Dr Brown's books and talks have been hugely influential in tackling the myth that vulnerability is a weakness.

She argues that it is only by embracing vulnerability and imperfection that we can live life with courage and authenticity. Recognising and acting on this insight has the power to transform the way we engage in our families, organisations, schools and communities.

Speaker: Dr Brené Brown, best-selling author, speaker and research professor, University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work
Chair: Tim Lott is a renowned and award-winning journalist and writer."

"Rupert Sheldrake is a well-known renegade scientist who does rigorous studies showing life forms evolve from invisible fields of universal consciousness. His talk at the TEDxWhitechapel conference outlined how his research challenges the reigning scientific paradigm of “materialism.” Numerous studies suggest that people can feel the gaze of another person. That animals and people learn faster after others have mastered a skill. That dogs sense when their masters return home at unusual times.

The usual skeptics objected that this was not science and should be dropped from the TED program, and a lively controversy ensued. But – unlike most such arguments – the audience supported Sheldrake. Here’s what Craig Weiler had to say: "

"What exactly is this podcast about?

Philosophy, philosophers and philosophical texts. The format is an informal roundtable discussion, with each episode loosely focused on a short reading that introduces at least one “big” philosophical question, concern or idea.

What are you guys trying to do here?

This podcast is our attempt to recreate the good old days when we’d meet up after a seminar to drink beer and talk shop or get some teaching yas out where students couldn’t talk back. We’re recording it to share the our joy in “doing” philosophy with all who care to listen while ranting bitterly about the profession that we so long ago escaped.

What makes you guys more qualified to talk about this stuff than all those University professors?

Absolutely nothing.

Who is this aimed at? Do I have to know anything about philosophy? Will I feel insulted by this if I already know a lot about philosophy?

Whoa, there Mr. or Ms. Insecure and/or Touchy, don’t worry yer little and/or enormous head about that. We aim to to assume no knowledge (of anything, even, like, basic facts of arithmetic or… like… hygiene), and we believe that even the most withered old Socrates-clone will find the proceedings very entertaining and thought-provoking, if not actually, well, informative."

"Après l'indignation viennent la réflexion et l'action. Il est temps pour le citoyen de prendre conscience qu'il détient le pouvoir de changer son monde. Ce court-métrage vous invite à découvrir des "clés" qui vous ouvriront les portes de la vie alternative. A vous de jouer ! Pour un avenir serein, merci."

"Once known as the Motor City, where the middle class was born, Detroit’s auto industry and manufacturing sector have collapsed. Today the city is on the verge of bankruptcy, facing a thinning population and massive cuts to basic services. The new film "Detropia" takes an intimate look at at some of the city’s former members of the middle class as they struggle to make ends meet and refuse to abandon hope. We’re joined by the film’s co-director, Rachel Grady, a private investigator turned filmmaker who, along with her co-director Heidi Ewing, has made several films, including the Academy Award-nominated "Jesus Camp." [includes rush transcript]"

"Certains s'en frottent les mains, d'autres en souffrent en silence. Le gaz de schiste fait débat jusqu'en France où son extraction est pour le moment interdite. Pas plus tard qu'hier 12 septembre, la ministre de l'Écologie, Delphine Batho, a été contrainte de monter au crénau. La veille, le quotidien "Le Figaro" la soupçonnait de vouloir "ouvrir la porte" à l'exploitation du gaz de schiste. Démenti formel de l'intéressée.
Aux États-Unis, l'extraction du gaz de schiste a des conséquences parfois désastreuses pour l'environnement et le voisinage des champs d'exploitation. La conséquence la plus visible, c'est une pollution des nappes phréatiques due aux quantités de produits dangereux injectés sous terre pour extraire les précieux hydrocarbures. Une pollution qui arrive jusqu'au robinet de certains riverains. Exemple en Pennsylvanie dans l'un des plus grands bassins de gaz naturel au monde où l'extraction de cette manne énergétique divise. Un reportage signé Renaud Dumesnil."

OK, OK, I don’t really subscribe to anything being “the most” of something… the headline was just a bit of sensationalism to capture your attention. ;)

*gently slaps self on wrist*

However, now that you’re here, I want to make a case for a new field of design.

I read a paper over the weekend called Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System, which lists the most effective strategies for making large-scale shifts in complex systems. #1 on the list was “the power to transcend paradigms.”

"Ancient Buddhists had a word for a concept of "adaptive strategy" that is just as relevant now. Instead of ignoring all but one way forward, we should pragmatically pick from the best of all strategies, whether in politics, economics, or social innovation."

"This blog is about anything that interests me. Most of the recent posts are summaries of Yudkowsky’s LessWrong-Sequences, but I also write about stuff like evolutionary psychology, rationality, the singularity, transhumanism, the future, philosophy in general, psychedelics, nootropics and “good” drugs (= not alcohol or heroin), quantified self and self-improvement (a la Gwern).

Folks that inspire me: Nick Bostrom, Robin Hanson, Eliezer Yudkowsky, Richard Dawkins, Bertrand Russell, Richard Feynman, Susan Blackmore, George Orwell…. And many of the top contributors to Lesswrong, but listing them by name would look a bit cultish.

Some of my favorite non-fiction: The Sequences, The Blank Slate, The Open Society and its Enemies, The Moral Animal, Why everyone (else) is a Hypocrite, Global Catastrophic Risks, The Righteous Mind, Spent, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell….

Some cool fiction books: On the Road, 1984, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, Nausea, Siddhartha…

Just write me: wallowinmaya|at|gmx|dot|de"

"Oceans' rising acid levels have emerged as one of the biggest threats to coral reefs, acting as the "osteoporosis of the sea" and threatening everything from food security to tourism to livelihoods, the head of a U.S. scientific agency said Monday.

The speed by which the oceans' acid levels has risen caught scientists off-guard, with the problem now considered to be climate change's "equally evil twin," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief Jane Lubchenco told The Associated Press."

"Rising star in the field of neuroscience Sebastian Seung argues that our identity lies not in our genes but in the connections between our brain cells -- and he describes the monumental task of mapping these "connectomes", neuron by neuron, synapse by synapse.

Listen to the podcast of the full event including audience Q&A: http://www.thersa.org/events/audio-and-past-events/2012/connectome-how-the-br...

Find out more about the Eyewire Game: http://wiki.eyewire.org/en/Instructions
Our events are made possible with the support of our Fellowship. Support us by donating or applying to become a Fellow.

Donate: http://www.thersa.org/support-the-rsa
Become a Fellow: http://www.thersa.org/fellowship/apply"

"Lovelock: 'We can't save the planet'

Professor James Lovelock, the scientist who developed Gaia theory, has said it is too late to try and save the planet.

The man who achieved global fame for his theory that the whole earth is a single organism now believes that we can only hope that the earth will take care of itself in the face of completely unpredictable climate change.

Interviewed by Today presenter John Humphrys, videos of which you can see below, he said that while the earth's future was utterly uncertain, mankind was not aware it had "pulled the trigger" on global warming as it built its civilizations."

"How to Become a Culture Hacker (in 5 min.)
I gave a talk at Ignite Montreal last week. The slides in Ignite talks are set to auto-advance every 15 seconds, no more, no less, and every talk must last exactly five minutes.

For the occasion, I challenged myself to pack a high-level view of everything I've learned so far about how our actions make culture evolve into that constrained 5-minute format.

Let's just say there was a lot of meat to remove, but I think I've kept the essence intact, and I'm pretty sure the culture hackers in the room recognized themselves. At any rate, the talk landed me a memorable lunch with avant-garde composer (and programmer) Andrew Culver, a fascinating man who now lives in Montreal and was also speaking that night."

"My intention in building this web site is to help people create a kinder, gentler world. The world is faced with a lot of problems – poverty, climate change, war, oppression, and hunger to name a few.

We can’t solve these problems alone. Even the great women and men who have made significant progress solving these problems were not alone. They were organizers. They had teams.

Great teams.

In whatever you do – whether it’s how you are with yourself, your family, friends, work, school, or your community – being great matters. Having a world filled with great happiness starts with filling your own life with happiness, then the lives of those around you. Take this work into your life – the more people there are who believe they can make difference, the sooner we will be living in the world we dream of.

warmly,
adam

Adam Feuer <adam@adamfeuer.com>"

Smarter marketing
Smarter computing
Smarter commerce
Smarter analytics
Smarter Banking
Smarter products and servives
Smarter business
Smarter planet apps
Conversatoions

"Mission statement of WebAssistant.com

The Mission of WebAssistant.com is to boost the global market for online knowledge products with an integrated platform that allows users to produce, process and trade intellectual capital.


Contact info

e-mail info (at) WebAssistant.com
or call + 32 3 3129373 "

"You’ve stumbled across Capitalist Exploits. What is this strange place you ask? We’re a couple of globe-trotting capitalists looking for unique and profitable investment opportunities in exotic and frontier markets, typically in the private equity space. We’ll share them with you, not because we’re philanthropists (God no!), but because, well… Our objective is to create value in the world by enabling opportunity, not by charity.

If you consider yourself intrepid and curious capitalists like us, we encourage you to sign up for our FREE twice-weekly newsletter.

This site is dedicated to, and an exploration of, our collective passion for investing. We have a natural bent towards small-cap companies and non-listed companies in particular. We have provided seed capital to many startups as well as existing business ventures, taken companies public, and actively manage stock portfolios for select friends and family amongst other things. We will be discussing some of the lessons we have learned over the years that have assisted us in becoming successful in what we do, and enabling us to live a life that we ourselves would have been envious of if we were not living it.

We have experienced the euphoria that comes with turning pennies into pounds as well as the shame, anger and despair that comes with losing more money than many people will see in their lives. We will be discussing some of what we are involved in at present where appropriate. This site is a discussion of our collective successes, lessons learned, and a running commentary of our activities in the global investment arena.

We each spend time in several different countries, on several different continents each year. Although we come from different ends of this great ball of dirt hurtling through space, in today’s world this matters little. One of us is a life-long entrepreneur while the other a former investment banker; so, while we have come to being involved in the same business ventures we have crossed different roads to get here.

We invite you to join us and hope that we will both educate as well as be educated. Feel free to send us a comment or question, we’ll read them all and respond appropriately!

Sincerely,

Chris & Mark"

"www.keepturningleft.co.uk for more bird films. The starlings are an astonishing thing to see - Near Oxford - England. This was filmed at an RSPB reserve called Otmoor. It is the most remarkable thing I have ever seen - and as a video camerman I have seen some pretty amazing things.

The music is from a companny called CSS Music. The track is "soaring with the sun" - .

I have just received this

Hi, Dylan. I got your contact information from your beautiful YouTube video published in February 2007.

Audubon Magazine published a wonderful article about starling flock behavior earlier this year: http://www.audubonmagazine.org/features0903/truenature.html
.
My favorite segment from the article:

Like drivers on a freeway, starlings dont appear to mind having neighbors nearby on their sides—or above and below, for that matter—as long as they have open space ahead. That makes sense, since the presence of a clear path in the direction of travel minimizes the likelihood of collisions should the birds need to shift their course abruptly, as is likely when a falcon attacks. But whats really nifty about this spatial asymmetry is that the researchers have been able to use it to calculate the number of neighbors to which each starling pays close attention—a quantified elaboration of Pottss chorus line idea. By looking at correlations between the movements of neighboring starlings, they can show that each bird always pays attention to the same number of neighbors, whether theyre closer or farther away. How many neighbors is that? Six or seven, says Cavagna, who points out that starlings in flocks can almost always see many more nearby birds— but the number may be closely tied to birds cognitive ability.

The direction of the flock can be coordinated by each birds tracking six or seven other birds. Remarkable. This is a very different kind of cognitive skill.

if you want to know more about the science try this"