Random Thoughts

It's such an untapped resource. Government data is something we have already spent the money on... and when it is sitting there on a disk in somebody's office it is wasted.

- Tim Berners-Lee
http://data.gov.uk
http://data.gov.uk/apps/planningalerts
http://data.gov.uk/apps/fillthathole
http://data.gov.uk/apps/school-finder-0
http://www.data.gov
http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee

Brilliant!

Benedict Allen

Adventure Travel Live on January 29 - 31, 2010, at the Royal Horticultural Halls, London. Don't miss.

Useful links:
www.benedictallen.com
www.adventuretravellive.com

Jaipur Literature Festival 2010

Asia’s leading literature event. Don't miss. http://jaipurliteraturefestival.org

The Great Game Of Business

Jack Stack's opinion piece in the New York Times about open book management was interesting. In fact I liked the concept. Thanks Jack.

Useful links:
www.greatgame.com
www.srcholdings.com

Jewelry Stories

Interested in JIC's Ultimate Proposal Contest? The details of the contest can be found at www.jic.org

Emerald Market Update

Ron Ringsrud's travel tales/markets in Muzo, Colombia.

Useful link:
www.emeraldmine.com

Random Thoughts

An entertainer might get a big part and say that it was a big break, but there were 25 auditions leading up to it. If he didn't get that big part, he would've been offered one soon. It's more of a story of accretive steps--what people do bit by bit that turns into a big picture, though at the time it looks like a big break.

- Jim Randel
www.jimrandel.com

So true!

MIT International Development Initiative

MIT International Development Initiative = appropriate design solutions/technologies + community needs/partners + people first attitude/approach = change the world. The good news is, small changes/steps can make a big difference and change people's behavior. Amazingly it works.

Useful links:
http://web.mit.edu/idi
http://d-lab.mit.edu
www.aidg.org
www.buildchange.org
www.containers2clinics.org

Global Business BBC

What happens when owners give their businesses away to the workers? A lot, really. Listen to Peter Day talking to the real people in business who did things completely differently to change the world. I loved the program. I really liked the employee ownership idea. Thanks Peter.

Useful links:
www.demos.co.uk
www.employeeownership.co.uk
www.parfetts.co.uk
www.makearchitects.com
www.lindumgroup.com

Diamond Oceans

Eric Bland's report in the Discovery News about the presence of oceans of liquid diamond, filled with solid diamond icebergs on Neptune and Uranus was interesting. I hope it's really there. It's worth exploring.

Useful links:
www.nature.com/nphys
www.sandia.gov

Mexico's Cave Of Crystals

Mexico's cave of crystals is a geological wonder of the world. A happy accident, really. Naica Cave may close when the people who own the mine run out of money. A must visit. Check out Professor Iain Stewart's new BBC series How the Earth Made Us: The epic story of how geology, geography and climate have influenced mankind on 19 January, 2010, on BBC Two.

Useful link:
www.plymouth.ac.uk/PlanetEarth

Mineral Artists Show 2010

Grand Masters of Mineral Art at Tucson on February 7, 2010. Don't miss.

Useful links:
www.finemineral.com
www.westwardminerals.com
www.bluecapproductions.com

Mineralogical Almanac

Mineralogical Almanac: A great source of information on minerals from Russia. Check it out.

Gaming Update

Tom Chatfield's viewpoints in The Independent about the role video games play in raising social and political awareness was interesting. Thanks Tom.

Useful links:
www.darfurisdying.com
www.gamesforchange.org
www.mtvu.com
www.blitzgamesstudios.com
www.blitzgames.com
www.gamebasedlearning2009.com
http://consolarium.blip.tv

Random Thoughts

A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies.

- Martin Luther King
www.thekingcenter.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr

Spot on.

Gold Market Update

The Gold Report interview with Howard Ruff was educational/insightful. Thanks.

Invest in inflation; it's the only thing that's going up.
- Will Rogers

Useful links:
www.theaureport.com
www.rufftimes.com

The Routes Of Man

The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today by Ted Conover is a brilliant travelogue. A must read.

Useful link:
www.tedconover.com

Natural Capital Project

The Natural Capital Project, a group based at Stanford University, California, has developed a suite of computer programs called InVEST, which will analyse and map ecosystem services. Check it out.

Useful links:
www.naturalcapitalproject.org
http://royalsociety.org
www.unep.org

The Seventh Seal

Great story. Great characters. A unique total internal reflection. A Ingmar Bergman classic.

Useful links:
www.ingmarbergman.se
www.ingmarbergmanfoundation.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingmar_Bergman

Cadmium Contamination

Manufacturing Jewelers & Suppliers of America (MJSA) has alerted its members to take precautionary steps to ensure any base metal jewelry imported into the U.S. market is not made with cadmium. The alert came following an Associated Press (AP) investigation of U.S. retail outlets, in which 12 of 103 pieces of mainly Chinese-made children’s costume jewelry were found to contain dangerous amounts of the toxic metal-a finding that has spurred the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and state and federal legislators to vow regulatory action. I wonder if there is any monitoring/testing mechanism to restrict cadmium/lead in retail jewelry outlets in India/China. I guess the point would be, buyer beware. Period.

Useful links:
www.mjsa.org
www.atsdr.cdc.gov
www.cpsc.gov