complex adaptive systems, entrepreneurship, meaning, politics, technology

Jeremy Heimans :: movement entrepreneur

From: Aim higher than president

Movement entrepreneurs are digitally savvy outsiders who create new sources of power by aggregating and mobilizing the voices of many.

Tips:

  • Use institutional power but don’t become institutionalised – small groups of passionate people are lean and nimble and have autonomy are more powerful than those in power.
  • Build a movement, not a cult of personality – less susceptible to cock ups.
  • A movement is not an internet meme – build for the long term.
healthy habits, nutrition, recipe

Kale Chips. Amazing.

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Drewstar introduced me to Kale Chips. Made my first batch last night after noticing kale stocked in the supermarket for the first time. Very simple. Very quick. Very tasty. Very healthy. Where have they been my whole life?

Ingredients:

  • Kale (1 bunch)
  • Olive/Macadamia Oil (1 tablespoon)
  • Salt (1 teaspoon)

Directions:

  1. Preheat an oven to 175 degrees C. Line a non insulated cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  2. With a knife or kitchen shears carefully remove the kale leaves from the thick stems and tear into bite size pieces.
  3. Wash and thoroughly dry kale with a salad spinner.
  4. Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with seasoning salt.
  5. Bake until the edges brown but are not burnt, 10 to 15 minutes.

 

meaning, musings, storytelling

Purpose :: Tim Dixon – the power of narrative and story telling

Tim Dixon from Purpose gave a terrific presentation at the Progressive Australia conference.

Among the highlights, he referenced this part of Obama’s 2008 Victory Speech.

I spoke with him briefly afterwards and he indicated that Purpose hadn’t explored any movements around public health issues before. I can’t help thinking there’s a huge opportunity to do so, particularly around the global threat of non-communicable disease.

This taps into this article on story telling by Marshall Ganz shared with my by JMC.

Here are some of the slides he presented:

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cool, healthy habits, musings

Satiety and food… is it about structure, not composition?

While preparing for my Progressive Australia speech on healthy food yesterday, two factoids caught my attention:

1. The amazing Credit Suisse trashing of the sugar industry notes that calories derived from drinks (i.e. liquids) are not recognised by the body as contributing to our satiety. Hence, the body continues to seek and consume food as if calories from soft drinks, fruit juices etc. had not been consumed:

“Liquid and solid sugar calories are handled differently by the body. The energy that is obtained through beverages is interpreted and processed differently by our body from energy that is obtained through solid foods, even if the overall quantity of calories consumed is the same. Sugar by itself is a poor source of calories as it provides little nutritional value. Not surprisingly, the public debate has centered on soft drinks and the role they have played in this issue.”

2. Michael Moss’ NYT article on addictive junk food refers to Vanishing Caloric Density in Cheetos:

“To get a better feel for their work, I called on Steven Witherly, a food scientist who wrote a fascinating guide for industry insiders titled, “Why Humans Like Junk Food.” I brought him two shopping bags filled with a variety of chips to taste. He zeroed right in on the Cheetos. “This,” Witherly said, “is one of the most marvelously constructed foods on the planet, in terms of pure pleasure.” He ticked off a dozen attributes of the Cheetos that make the brain say more. But the one he focused on most was the puff’s uncanny ability to melt in the mouth. “It’s called vanishing caloric density,” Witherly said. “If something melts down quickly, your brain thinks that there’s no calories in it . . . you can just keep eating it forever.”

Put together with the phenomenal success of lap banding*, this suggests that satiety is mediated by mechanical receptors at the top of the stomach. I’m sure this isn’t rocket science and could be found in any physiology text book, but its unusual that it hasn’t made it into the public discourse.

It explains why fruit, but not fruit juice, is good for you – it is to do with fibre, but only when it persists in a structure, and nothing to do with its ability to magically slow absorption of sugars into the body etc.

It explains why most junk foods are melt in your mouth – so that by the time it hits the stomach, it’s in too much of a liquid form to stimulate the stomach’s mechanical receptors.

Again, unless you’re putting lap bands into people, the only way to profit for this is by recommending people eat solid foods which fill them up.

* Lap Bands must make it easier for any food (including liquids) to trigger the mechanical receptors in the stomach.

Credit Suisse Investment Report on Sugar: Credit Suisse – document-1022457401

Michael Moss’s NYT Article: The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food – NYTimes

cool, research methodology

Lehrer on shaky science… HAH! :: The Decline Effect

Who would have thought that the most esteemed form of scientific research methodology could be so boldly dubious. This is a classic Lehrer New Yorker article, prior to his spectacular fall from grace… such a pity!

Source: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/12/13/101213fa_fact_lehrer (Local PDF)

Source: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/01/jonah-lehrer-more-thoughts-on-the-decline-effect.html (Local PDF)

cool, data saving lives, healthcare, healthy habits, nutrition, quantified self, technology

AIRO tracks bloods, steps, sleep, stress automatically – I’m getting one

A likely game changer. AIRO uses a special embedded spectrometer to track not just your heart rate, but also your sleep patterns, workout intensity and calories consumed. It’s even able to break down the nutritional intake of your food.

Site: http://www.getairo.com/
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/28/airo-wristband/

cool

App controlled power circuits

digitalstrom

Each digitalSTROM module features an integrated chip and sensors that can be connected to the power source that controls each individual appliance — whether it’s a lamp, television or electric blind. The modules can collectively perform around 60 different functions and are color-coded according to their capabilities. The blocks are installed by an engineer but require no new cables, and communicate with meters fitted to each home’s fuse box. The system is then completely controlled by the homeowner through the digitalSTROM app, which allows them to configure each appliance and keep track of energy use in their property. Since the devices also use one integrated system and control center, users can make their devices talk to each other.

Website: www.digitalstrom.com

Source: http://www.springwise.com/lego-like-blocks-enable-plug-and-play-smart-homes/

musings, research methodology

The Economist on science

The Economist goes in hard on science, with plenty of compelling insights:

  • VC’s believe half of published scientific research cannot be replicated, though the figures cited from Amgen and Bayer are even more dismal
  • between 2000 and 2010, 80,000 patients took part in clinical trials based on research later retracted
  • 1 in 3 researchers know of a colleague who has fudged results
  • Negative results now account for 14% of papers, down from 30% in 1990

The false trails laid down by shoddy research are an unforgivable barrier to understanding.

Source: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21588069-scientific-research-has-changed-world-now-it-needs-change-itself-how-science-goes-wrong

PDF: Problems with scientific research

quotes & aphorisms

Inspiring quotes from Forbes

Terrific list from Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2013/05/28/inspirational-quotes/

  1. Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. –Napoleon Hill
  2. Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. –Steve Jobs
  3. Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. –Albert Einstein
  4. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.  –Robert Frost
  5. The common question that gets asked in business is, ‘why?’ That’s a good question, but an equally valid question is, ‘why not?’ -Jeffrey Bezos
  6. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. –Wayne Gretzky
  7. I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. –Michael Jordan
  8. Every strike brings me closer to the next home run. –Babe Ruth
  9. Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement. –W. Clement Stone
  10. Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. –John Lennon
  11. We become what we think about. –Earl Nightingale
  12. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do, so throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore, Dream, Discover. –Mark Twain
  13. Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. –John Maxwell
  14. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten. –Tony Robbins
  15. The mind is everything. What you think you become.  –Buddha
  16. The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. –Chinese Proverb
  17. An unexamined life is not worth living. –Socrates
  18. Eighty percent of success is showing up. –Woody Allen
  19. Don’t wait. The time will never be just right. –Napoleon Hill
  20. Winning isn’t everything, but wanting to win is. –Vince Lombardi
  21. I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions. –Stephen Covey
  22. Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. –Pablo Picasso
  23. You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. –Christopher Columbus
  24. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. –Maya Angelou
  25. Either you run the day, or the day runs you. –Jim Rohn
  26. Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. –Henry Ford
  27. The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why. –Mark Twain
  28. Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  29. The best revenge is massive success. –Frank Sinatra
  30. People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing.  That’s why we recommend it daily. –Zig Ziglar
  31. Inspiration exists, but it must find you working. –Pablo Picasso
  32. If you hear a voice within you say “you cannot paint,” then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced. –Vincent Van Gogh
  33. There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. –Aristotle
  34. Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal. –Henry Ford
  35. The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. –Ralph Waldo Emerson
  36. Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you have imagined. –Henry David Thoreau
  37. When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left and could say, I used everything you gave me. –Erma Bombeck
  38. Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others.  Unsuccessful people are always asking, “What’s in it for me?” – Brian Tracy
  39. Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that capture the heart. – Ancient Indian Proverb
  40. Believe you can and you’re halfway there. –Theodore Roosevelt
  41. Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of fear. –George Addair
  42. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. –Plato
  43. Once you choose hope, anything’s possible. –Christopher Reeve
  44. Start where you are. Use what you have.  Do what you can. –Arthur Ashe
  45. When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.  When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I wrote down ‘happy’.  They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. –John Lennon
  46. Fall seven times and stand up eight. –Japanese Proverb
  47. When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us. –Helen Keller
  48. Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see. –Confucious
  49. How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. –Anne Frank
  50. When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. –Lao Tzu
  51. The difference between a successful person and others is not lack of strength not a lack of knowledge but rather a lack of will. –Vince Lombardi
  52. Happiness is not something readymade.  It comes from your own actions. –Dalai Lama
  53. The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. –Arthur C. Clarke
  54. First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end. –Aristotle
  55. If the wind will not serve, take to the oars. –Latin Proverb
  56. You can’t fall if you don’t climb.  But there’s no joy in living your whole life on the ground. –Unknown
  57. Whoever loves much, performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well. –Vincent Van Gogh
  58. Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. –Les Brown
  59. Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. –Joshua J. Marine
  60. The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. –Walt Disney
  61. I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do. –Leonardo da Vinci
  62. Limitations live only in our minds.  But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. –Jamie Paolinetti
  63. Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes.  You are free. –Jim Morrison
  64. What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do. –Bob Dylan
  65. I didn’t fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong. –Benjamin Franklin
  66. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure. –Bill Cosby
  67. A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new. – Albert Einstein
  68. The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person who is doing it. –Chinese Proverb
  69. There are no traffic jams along the extra mile. –Roger Staubach
  70. It is never too late to be what you might have been. –George Eliot
  71. You become what you believe. –Oprah Winfrey
  72. I would rather die of passion than of boredom. –Vincent van Gogh
  73. A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. –Unknown
  74. It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings.  –Ann Landers
  75. If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money. –Abigail Van Buren
  76. Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs. –Farrah Gray
  77. Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible. –Frank Zappa
  78. Education costs money.  But then so does ignorance. –Sir Claus Moser
  79. Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more. –H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
  80. It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop. –Confucius
  81. Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others. –H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
  82. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. –Dalai Lama
  83. You can’t use up creativity.  The more you use, the more you have. –Maya Angelou
  84. Dream big and dare to fail. –Norman Vaughan
  85. Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. –Martin Luther King Jr.
  86. Do what you can, where you are, with what you have. –Teddy Roosevelt
  87. The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. –Alice Walker
  88. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning. –Gloria Steinem
  89. It’s your place in the world; it’s your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. –Mae Jemison
  90. You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try. –Beverly Sills
  91. Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent. –Eleanor Roosevelt
  92. Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be. –Grandma Moses
  93. The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me. –Ayn Rand
  94. When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. –Henry Ford
  95. It’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. –Abraham Lincoln
  96. Change your thoughts and you change your world. –Norman Vincent Peale
  97. Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. –Benjamin Franklin
  98. Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, “I’m possible!” –Audrey Hepburn
  99. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. –Steve Jobs
  100. If you can dream it, you can achieve it. –Zig Ziglar