Remember to play today and have some fun. :)
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
The Venus Project
What is the Venus Project?
The Venus Project is an educational think tank operating out of a 25-acre Research Center located in Venus, Florida.
When one considers the enormity of the challenges facing society today, we can safely conclude that the time is long overdue for us to re-examine our values, and to reflect upon and evaluate some of the underlying issues and assumptions we have as a society. This self-analysis calls into question the very nature of what it means to be human, what it means to be a member of a "civilization," and what choices we can make today to ensure a prosperous future for all the world's people.
At present we are left with very few alternatives. The answers of yesterday are no longer relevant. Either we continue as we have been with our outmoded social customs and habits of thought, in which case our future will be threatened, or we can apply a more appropriate set of values that are relevant to an emergent society.
Experience tells us that human behavior can be modified, either toward constructive or destructive activity. This is what The Venus Project is all about - directing our technology and resources toward the positive, for the maximum benefit of people and planet and seeking out new ways of thinking and living that emphasize and celebrate the vast potential of the human spirit. We have the tools at hand to design - and build - a future that is worthy of the human potential. The Venus Project presents a bold, new direction for humanity that entails nothing less than the total redesign of our culture. What follows is not an attempt to predict what will be done - only what could be done. The responsibility for our future is in our hands, and depends on the decisions that we make today. The greatest resource that is available today is our own ingenuity.
While social reformers and think tanks formulate strategies that treat only superficial symptoms, without touching the basic social operation, The Venus Project approaches these problems somewhat differently. We feel we cannot eliminate these problems within the framework of the present political and monetary establishment. It would take too many years to accomplish any significant change. Most likely they would be watered down and thinned out to such an extent that the changes would be indistinguishable
The Venus Project advocates an alternative vision for a sustainable new world civilization unlike any social system that has gone before. Although this description is highly condensed, it is based upon years of study and experimental research by many, many people from many scientific disciplines.
The Venus Project proposes a fresh approach--one that is dedicated to human and environmental concerns. It is an attainable vision of a bright and better future, one that is appropriate to the times in which we live, and both practical and feasible for a positive future for all the world's people.
The Venus Project calls for a straightforward approach to the redesign of a culture, in which the age-old inadequacies of war, poverty, hunger, debt, environmental degradation and unnecessary human suffering are viewed not only as avoidable, but totally unacceptable.
One of the basic premises of The Venus Project is that we work towards having all of the Earth's resources as the common heritage of all the world's people. Anything less will simply result in a continuation of the same catalog of problems inherent in the present system.
Read more here........The Venus Project
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Synchronicity
Synchronicity is one of my favorite words...it is what occurs when you focus on something and the universe seems to respond with related messages and surprises.
I think those messages are always there but go un-noticed until you have the focus or intent. This is especially so if the intent is a positive one.
Wow! This wonderful painting was found abandoned on a street by a friend of mine. Of course, she took it home and gave it the love it deserves.
It fit so well with what she is all about that it is hard to believe anything other than this painting was meant to be with her.
It is as though God or the universe saw this beautiful creation abandoned and sought
to find the perfect home for it.
This is not unlike the story of my now beloved cat. I found him in my shed one day in a very emaciated state after he had wondered the neighborhood for weeks.
Synchronicity?
I think it so.
Hear the story from Oza herself by clicking here. Good Vibrations
Friday, November 16, 2007
Children Of Bipolar Parents Score Higher On Creativity Test
Children Of Bipolar Parents Score Higher On Creativity Test, Stanford Study Finds
ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2005) — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown for the first time that a sample of children who either have or are at high risk for bipolar disorder score higher on a creativity index than healthy children. The findings add to existing evidence that a link exists between mood disorders and creativity.
See also:
Health & Medicine
* Attention Deficit Disorder
* Children's Health
* Mental Health Research
Mind & Brain
* Psychiatry
* Bipolar Disorder
* Depression
Reference
* Psychosis
* Adult attention-deficit disorder
* Bipolar disorder
* Pyromania
The small study, published in the November issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research, compared creativity test scores of children of healthy parents with the scores of children of bipolar parents. Children with the bipolar parents - even those who were not bipolar themselves - scored higher than the healthy children.
"I think it's fascinating," said Kiki Chang, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and co-author of the paper. "There is a reason that many people who have bipolar disorder become very successful, and these findings address the positive aspects of having this illness."
Many scientists believe that a relationship exists between creativity and bipolar disorder, which was formerly called manic-depressive illness and is marked by dramatic shifts in a person's mood, energy and ability to function. Numerous studies have examined this link; several have shown that artists and writers may have two to three times more incidences of psychosis, mood disorders or suicide when compared with people in less creative professions.
Terence Ketter, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a study co-author, said he became interested in the link between mental illness and creativity after noticing that patients who came through the bipolar clinic, despite having problems, were extraordinarily bright, motivated people who "tended to lead interesting lives." He began a scholarly pursuit of this link and in 2002 published a study that showed healthy artists were more similar in personality to individuals with bipolar disorder (the majority of whom were on medication) than to healthy people in the general population.
Some researchers believe that bipolar disorder or mania, a defining symptom of the disease, causes creative activity. Ketter said he believes that bipolar patients' creativity stems from their mobilizing energy that results from negative emotion to initiate some sort of solution to their problems. "In this case, discontent is the mother of invention," he said.
The researchers point out that creativity and bipolar may have important genetic components that are transmitted together inter-generationally. There have only been limited studies investigating this; the Stanford study is the first to specifically examine creativity in the offspring of bipolar parents.
During the study, the researchers looked at creative characteristics in 40 bipolar patients and 40 offspring, comparing them with 18 healthy adults and 18 healthy offspring. The children in the study ranged in age from 10 to 18. Half of the children of bipolar patients also had bipolar disorder; the other half had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, which appears to be an early sign of bipolar disorder in offspring of parents with the condition. The majority of participants with bipolar or ADHD were on medication.
The researchers included children with ADHD so they could study creativity before the onset of full bipolar disorder. "We wanted to see whether having a manic episode is necessary for this sort of creativity," said Chang, who also directs the Pediatric Bipolar Disorders Program at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
Study participants were given psychiatric evaluations and then completed the Barron-Welsh Art Scale, or BWAS, a test that seeks to provide an objective measure of creativity. The scoring is based on "like" and "dislike" responses to figures of varying complexity and symmetry; past studies suggest that creative people tend to dislike the simple and symmetric symbols.
The researchers found that the bipolar parents had 120 percent higher BWAS "dislike" scores than the healthy parents. The children with bipolar and the children with ADHD had, respectively, 107 and 91 percent higher BWAS dislike scores than the healthy children.
"The results of this study support an association between bipolar disease and creativity and contribute to a better understanding of possible mechanisms of transmission of creativity in families with genetic susceptibility for bipolar disease," the researchers wrote in their paper.
The researchers had hypothesized that the scores of children with ADHD would differ significantly from the scores of bipolar children so they were surprised when the scores did not. Chang said this indicates that mania is not what is fueling the creativity. "The kids with ADHD who hadn't been manic yet still had very high levels of creativity," he said.
The researchers also found a link between the length of a bipolar child's illness and creativity: the longer a child was sick or manic, the lower the BWAS dislike score. It makes sense, Chang said, that this illness could, over time, erode one's creativity. "After awhile you aren't able to function and you can't access your creativity," he explained.
BWAS dislike scores tend to decrease with age even in healthy individuals, so more research is needed, Ketter said. Further studies are also needed to assess the role of genetic and environmental factors in creativity and bipolar, he added. The team plans to next examine whether the degree of creativity in parents correlates with the degree of creativity in their children.
###
This study was funded by the Heinz C. Prechter Fund for Manic Depression, a NAR-SAD Young Investigators Award, a Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation Fellowship and the National Institutes of Health.
Adapted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center.
ScienceDaily (Nov. 9, 2005) — Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have shown for the first time that a sample of children who either have or are at high risk for bipolar disorder score higher on a creativity index than healthy children. The findings add to existing evidence that a link exists between mood disorders and creativity.
See also:
Health & Medicine
* Attention Deficit Disorder
* Children's Health
* Mental Health Research
Mind & Brain
* Psychiatry
* Bipolar Disorder
* Depression
Reference
* Psychosis
* Adult attention-deficit disorder
* Bipolar disorder
* Pyromania
The small study, published in the November issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research, compared creativity test scores of children of healthy parents with the scores of children of bipolar parents. Children with the bipolar parents - even those who were not bipolar themselves - scored higher than the healthy children.
"I think it's fascinating," said Kiki Chang, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and co-author of the paper. "There is a reason that many people who have bipolar disorder become very successful, and these findings address the positive aspects of having this illness."
Many scientists believe that a relationship exists between creativity and bipolar disorder, which was formerly called manic-depressive illness and is marked by dramatic shifts in a person's mood, energy and ability to function. Numerous studies have examined this link; several have shown that artists and writers may have two to three times more incidences of psychosis, mood disorders or suicide when compared with people in less creative professions.
Terence Ketter, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and a study co-author, said he became interested in the link between mental illness and creativity after noticing that patients who came through the bipolar clinic, despite having problems, were extraordinarily bright, motivated people who "tended to lead interesting lives." He began a scholarly pursuit of this link and in 2002 published a study that showed healthy artists were more similar in personality to individuals with bipolar disorder (the majority of whom were on medication) than to healthy people in the general population.
Some researchers believe that bipolar disorder or mania, a defining symptom of the disease, causes creative activity. Ketter said he believes that bipolar patients' creativity stems from their mobilizing energy that results from negative emotion to initiate some sort of solution to their problems. "In this case, discontent is the mother of invention," he said.
The researchers point out that creativity and bipolar may have important genetic components that are transmitted together inter-generationally. There have only been limited studies investigating this; the Stanford study is the first to specifically examine creativity in the offspring of bipolar parents.
During the study, the researchers looked at creative characteristics in 40 bipolar patients and 40 offspring, comparing them with 18 healthy adults and 18 healthy offspring. The children in the study ranged in age from 10 to 18. Half of the children of bipolar patients also had bipolar disorder; the other half had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, which appears to be an early sign of bipolar disorder in offspring of parents with the condition. The majority of participants with bipolar or ADHD were on medication.
The researchers included children with ADHD so they could study creativity before the onset of full bipolar disorder. "We wanted to see whether having a manic episode is necessary for this sort of creativity," said Chang, who also directs the Pediatric Bipolar Disorders Program at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.
Study participants were given psychiatric evaluations and then completed the Barron-Welsh Art Scale, or BWAS, a test that seeks to provide an objective measure of creativity. The scoring is based on "like" and "dislike" responses to figures of varying complexity and symmetry; past studies suggest that creative people tend to dislike the simple and symmetric symbols.
The researchers found that the bipolar parents had 120 percent higher BWAS "dislike" scores than the healthy parents. The children with bipolar and the children with ADHD had, respectively, 107 and 91 percent higher BWAS dislike scores than the healthy children.
"The results of this study support an association between bipolar disease and creativity and contribute to a better understanding of possible mechanisms of transmission of creativity in families with genetic susceptibility for bipolar disease," the researchers wrote in their paper.
The researchers had hypothesized that the scores of children with ADHD would differ significantly from the scores of bipolar children so they were surprised when the scores did not. Chang said this indicates that mania is not what is fueling the creativity. "The kids with ADHD who hadn't been manic yet still had very high levels of creativity," he said.
The researchers also found a link between the length of a bipolar child's illness and creativity: the longer a child was sick or manic, the lower the BWAS dislike score. It makes sense, Chang said, that this illness could, over time, erode one's creativity. "After awhile you aren't able to function and you can't access your creativity," he explained.
BWAS dislike scores tend to decrease with age even in healthy individuals, so more research is needed, Ketter said. Further studies are also needed to assess the role of genetic and environmental factors in creativity and bipolar, he added. The team plans to next examine whether the degree of creativity in parents correlates with the degree of creativity in their children.
###
This study was funded by the Heinz C. Prechter Fund for Manic Depression, a NAR-SAD Young Investigators Award, a Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation Fellowship and the National Institutes of Health.
Adapted from materials provided by Stanford University Medical Center.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
A Child of Enthusiasm
Bindi Irwin is the daughter of Steve Irwin
Steve Irwin lived a life of passion and the enthusiasm for what he did was genuine and fueled by his love of wildlife.
He was a man that had found what really moved him.
Bindi has inherited this enthusiasm for life and animals and will no doubt carry on with the great work that her father began.
It is important to note that Bindi wrote every word herself and in large print as she did not want to make a mistake.
You can see her little finger following the lines of print as she reads...
To date there is about 40 million dollars into the zoo from the proceeds of the filming of "The Crocadile Hunter"
The Irwins vowed to put 100% of the proceeds back into the zoo and wildlife conservation and for the first 4 years of filming that was easy as there was no profit.
Steve Irwin lived a life of passion and the enthusiasm for what he did was genuine and fueled by his love of wildlife.
He was a man that had found what really moved him.
Bindi has inherited this enthusiasm for life and animals and will no doubt carry on with the great work that her father began.
It is important to note that Bindi wrote every word herself and in large print as she did not want to make a mistake.
You can see her little finger following the lines of print as she reads...
To date there is about 40 million dollars into the zoo from the proceeds of the filming of "The Crocadile Hunter"
The Irwins vowed to put 100% of the proceeds back into the zoo and wildlife conservation and for the first 4 years of filming that was easy as there was no profit.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Childlike Enthusiasm
I hope I won't get in trouble here but the following is a copy and paste of a web page that I found by doing a "Google Search" for "childlike enthusiasm"
I did not seek permission to copy it here but suspect that the author will not mind me sharing with the world, her very inspirational poem.
Upon reading her poem, I felt as though I knew her and connected with what it is she feels. I am now inspired to learn more about this woman and will share more in future posts.
This search was inspired by my Friend Oza (aka Mudd)....she is my happiness mentor and the person who helps me remember to enjoy life and never lose that "childlike enthusiasm" (More about her in another post)
This post is about the Number one result from Google for "childlike enthusiasm"
Don'tcha just love this stuff? (Web 2.0)
The following is a beautiful poem that requires no explantion but led me to want to learn much more about the creative soul that wrote it.
Her name is Nora Naranjo-Morse
Childlike Enthusiasm
Nora Naranjo-Morse
It is not sophisticated technique or exact skill
but childlike enthusiasm,
timeless concentration
and pure devotion that feed this clay to life for me.
Knowing this as my hands work slower than my desire to create,
feeling this on frigid winter mornings when clay spirits are
cold and so am I.
Laughing in J. C. Penney's when I notice there is still clay
stubbornly stuck under my fingernails,
as I pass a free manicure display.
Dreaming up new shapes and stories for brown
earth and me, as I secretly call myself
Mud Woman.
Indulging in limitless, creative possibilities.
How lucky I am to know this clay.
I did not seek permission to copy it here but suspect that the author will not mind me sharing with the world, her very inspirational poem.
Upon reading her poem, I felt as though I knew her and connected with what it is she feels. I am now inspired to learn more about this woman and will share more in future posts.
This search was inspired by my Friend Oza (aka Mudd)....she is my happiness mentor and the person who helps me remember to enjoy life and never lose that "childlike enthusiasm" (More about her in another post)
This post is about the Number one result from Google for "childlike enthusiasm"
Don'tcha just love this stuff? (Web 2.0)
The following is a beautiful poem that requires no explantion but led me to want to learn much more about the creative soul that wrote it.
Her name is Nora Naranjo-Morse
Childlike Enthusiasm
Nora Naranjo-Morse
It is not sophisticated technique or exact skill
but childlike enthusiasm,
timeless concentration
and pure devotion that feed this clay to life for me.
Knowing this as my hands work slower than my desire to create,
feeling this on frigid winter mornings when clay spirits are
cold and so am I.
Laughing in J. C. Penney's when I notice there is still clay
stubbornly stuck under my fingernails,
as I pass a free manicure display.
Dreaming up new shapes and stories for brown
earth and me, as I secretly call myself
Mud Woman.
Indulging in limitless, creative possibilities.
How lucky I am to know this clay.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Put Creative Enthusiasm In What You Do
“We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about.”
~~Albert Einstein
Don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. ~~ Harold Whitman
Now here is a fellow (a soccer referee) who is very enthusiastic about his work and has found what makes him come alive.
~~Albert Einstein
Don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. ~~ Harold Whitman
Now here is a fellow (a soccer referee) who is very enthusiastic about his work and has found what makes him come alive.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Creative People Do It "All Night Long"
Once you get started, you can't sit down.
Come join the fun it's a merry-go-round.
Everyone dancing their troubles away.
Come join our party and see how we play...
These are some lines from one of my all time favorite songs. People scoff when I tell them I love this Lionel Ritchie song but I was somewhat gratified when they chose this song for the opening ceremonies at the Olympic Games in L.A.
Peace, love and fun folks.
Betcha can't keep your toes from tappin' at least.
Come join the fun it's a merry-go-round.
Everyone dancing their troubles away.
Come join our party and see how we play...
These are some lines from one of my all time favorite songs. People scoff when I tell them I love this Lionel Ritchie song but I was somewhat gratified when they chose this song for the opening ceremonies at the Olympic Games in L.A.
Peace, love and fun folks.
Betcha can't keep your toes from tappin' at least.
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