MuseClouds

Well, this post may be inspirational or non-inspirational. It depends on your point of view. From my point of view … I’m still undecided, but there’s definitely an inspirational part in the end. This is the kind of stuff where big claims about big guns are made, i.e. the perfect place for conspiracy theories to develop. I’m still overly skeptic, mainly because I don’t have enough information about this subject so, I’ve not taken any position yet. I truly believe economics take the leading role in every decision, as we notice it happening more and more. We can now access immense information enabling us to explore deeper the inner workings of mankind as a whole, so nothing is impossible, everything is possible, but let us not rush to the conclusions. Anyway, I’m blogging about this because I want you to look at the 11 (yes, 11!) videos on this post and tell me what you think of them, if you have the time to see them all. It takes just a few to get into the theme.

Rima E. Laibow is the Medical Director of the Natural Solutions Foundation and she has been a drugs-free, natural medicine practitioner for 35 years. I’m all about natural treatments too because I’ve witnessed that my organism responds much better to some of them when compared to their drug-based counterparts. Anyway, back to what I was saying, Dr. Rima Laibow seems to be a pretty trustable and knowledgeable source and you’ll hear her making some really bold statements in the videos. All about Codex Alimentarius, a programme created in 1963 by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and the WHO (World Health Organization) to develop standards and guidelines, in order to protect consumer health and ensure fair trade policies in food trade, as well as coordinating food standards work by international organizations. I won’t go into further detail, because the videos are long and full of it so, just watch.

Last month, Dr. Rima Laibow has been present as a public observer in the Codex Alimentarius Commission Meeting in Geneve. These are her reports from there and you can see how concerned this woman is about the developing countries. Best of all, she’s not just talking about it. She’s ready and in action! Another life servicing other’s needs. Beautiful!

Oddee, the oddities blog, has an excellent aptly named “10 Homes that Defy Gravity“. If you’re an architect and you’re running out of ideas, this may be a refreshment. Every single entry on the post is far from what we are used to, but my favorite one is the second: the floating castle in Ukraine. The blogger comment on the entry is also spot on.

American gymnast Kerri Strug took major decision at the early age of 13 in order to follow her life’s dream. She left home and family to be coached by Bela Karolyi (who also coached Nadia Comăneci some years before). With only an age of 18, at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, the first team gold medal for USA was finally within reach, but in the end it all fell down on the shoulders of young Kerri, as she was the last to compete on the vault and she needed to score high for her team to win. On her first attempt landing, she fell short injuring her ankle. Despite this, she knew it was vital to go there and jump again, so she courageously did a second attempt, this time flawless, but landing with just one leg. She eventually collapsed in pain, but her decision and persistence got her and her team the gold medal. A truly inspiring moment.

In 1992, former British athlete Derek Redmond gave us one of the most beautiful and moving moments in the history of modern times Olympics. Back in 1988, during the Games at Seoul, he had to withdraw just a few moments before the 400 meters competition start, due to an injury. He set all hopes for Barcelona in 1992, where everything was running smooth for Redmond, as he made the best time for the first round and won his quarter-final. However, in the semi-final, about 150 meters into the race, an injury on his right hamstring halted his dream of winning, as he fell on the track in tears. But it didn’t halt him from finishing. He got up and started to hobble on the track, with his face clearly showing his agonizing pain. Jim Redmond, his father, jumped out from the stands diverting security, and joined his son on the field, helping him out until the finish line, only to be greeted by 65,000 impressed people in a standing ovation. He may have not won a medal, but his feat together with his father will always be remembered.

During the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics diving preliminaries, the American diver Greg Louganis, considered by many the greatest of all time, suffered a head concussion when doing a reverse 2 1/2 spike, as the back of his head hit the spring board. However, even with the injury he suffered, and pressured by the fact that he was HIV-positive at the time, he went on to finish the preliminaries and qualified. During the finals and to everyone’s amazement, he repeated the same dive, earning him the gold medal.

Here’s a video remembering those 1988 Olympic moments at Seoul.

In 1976, at the Montreal Summer Olympics, history was made. Nadia Comăneci, a Romanian gymnast with only an age of 14, scored a perfect 10 on the uneven parallel bars during the team part of the competition. This was the first time the score of 10 had been awarded. However, she would get another 6 perfect tens until the end of the Games, taking the gold medals for individual all-around, balance beams and uneven bars.

She holds the record for the youngest Olympic gymnastics all-around champion, a record poised to stay forever as the minimum age for gymnastics was later changed to 16.

Here is a video of her first perfect 10, followed by another perfect uneven bars performance at the same 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Well, it still is! At least when I want to fill the gas tank on my car. This is an interesting graph comparing the relative price of some well-known liquids. I found it on this blog. It’s probably a bit old, but still funny to look at anyway.

Arno Rafael Minkkinen is a photographer born in Finland, who moved to the USA with his family, where he grew and studied. I’m posting about him because I found some of his work by chance, and found it to be both unusual and, at the same time, beautiful. His photos combine bodies (usually his own) with landscapes or urban settings. But this small explanation goes a long way to define the almost unreal pictures he gets without any post manipulation. I got the photos for this post from his exhibition page at Galerie Anhava, but you can also check his own website to see a more complete portfolio.

One of the interesting things about looking at new ideas others have is the way they can influence and inspire us for the creation of our own new ideas. This happens because every mind is a different mind, and the way we interpret and process information may be different from person to person. That’s why so many ideas were left in the dark for so long until they were caught by the right guy who made them a breakthrough.

Out of many ways to gather for new ideas, innovation awards are one of my favorites. Why? Besides the innovation factor every entry is supposed to have, as it’s open to everyone to vote, they’ll be voting on what they use and find helpful in their everyday lives. So, it somehow represents the public perception of innovation and how they are using and interacting with it.

The Industry Standard Innovation 100 Awards 2008 are divided into 10 categories and you can check every entry on their website. I parsed them all and found a lot of new products and services I never heard of before. Check it out! You’re sure to find some great new ideas.

Parsing science news from the past days, I came across one that made me think once again how often we can mix concepts from different fields of research and sparkle innovation. This time, it’s a new algorithm for spam detection, to be presented on the first European conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE XI), inspired on how the vertebrate adaptive immune system makes a distinction between harmless and harmful substances. Let’s see where this Artificial Life field can take us.

You can read more on this news report.