What I've learned in 2007

Each new year gives us all an opportunity for reflection - as I look to the past I feel a deep sense of gratitude.

My family has grown this year three new family lines have been added with the addition of my daughter's wedding, my niece and my brothers wedding.

This has been a break through year - proving that you should never give up!!

Opportunities to be of service to others continually had great rewards

I spent some time reviewing some of books and presentations that have had a strong positive influence on me personally one of which I would like to share with you.

It was the 2006 TED conference and the speaker was Tony Robbins I hope you take a moment to watch this yourself.

So best wishes for a great new year

A collection of quite images

Florida, Alaska, Georgia, California

Energy of the Solar System

Now that we are starting to see more darkness in the Northern skies it is time to look up in the evening toward the Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights, although if you were able to travel to the far Southern pole you might find a mirror of what we see in the North.

A very cool 24 hour shot of the Aurora can be found on uTube and a good explanation of what the Aurora is - here is a short piece along with audio of the Northern Lights.

Doctors going Solo

Accolades to my brother Donny - who launched in his basement a private practice - with high tech tools and some smart buying he has taken the practice of being a Doctor back to the personal touch we all need and want.

Great job

Meaning of Life

This week Randy Pausch a 46 year old Carnegie Mellon CS professor gave his "Last Lecture" a powerful message about what is truly importaint in life. Randy was diagonsed with terminal cancer and was given only a few months to live.
His lecture can be found at the ABC new site --> Lecture of a Lifetime

This isn't about Self-Pity - Randy a father of three speaks to his family and friends about what is truly important.

Take a moment to listen it may impact your own prospective.

They really have it all Wrong

Verizon appeals the “Google Amendment”

by Mark Hewitt
September 17th, 2007

Verizon claiming the restriction of how to use the new 700 Mhz spectrum is a violation of “Free Speech”.

Well in my opinion – they’ve got it all wrong – the Spectrum belongs to the American Public – the FCC has been entrusted to regulate and manage its use – however Verizon nor any licensee owns the spectrum –

Spectrum like easements for Tower, Fiber, and other Utilities are part of our Infrastructure and should be managed and regulated as such. Requiring a licensee to abide by such rules is fair and prudent use of our resources.

One should also take note of the ruling against Microsoft this past week as they loose their appeal in the EU anti-trust case. Key to this ruling is how Microsoft used the Operating System sales to give preference to either Microsoft applications or those of favored partners, and while it could easily be said that the O/S wars are nearly over still this is a good example of the miss-use of power and marketing.

And you wonder why Google maintains the company motto of “Do no Evil”.

(Un)predictability and the Noah Effect

By Mark Hewitt
August 11th, 2007

The only predictable constant in the Universe is Change, hard to argue this one. The real question is what does it mean and how do we achieve stability and security amid all of this ciaos.

I believe the answer is simple – we don’t. Think about this one – Noah was presented with a vision of a great flood and had three choices.

• First - was to ignore the vision. (Since the universe works a lot like a scatter gun I believe Noah was not the only one of his time to have a vision of a great flood – he simply was the one with the resources and faith to do something about it.)
• Second - spread the word. (It is likely others had the same vision, however trying to spread the world that a great flood is coming would get you branded as a conspiracy theorist)
• Third – build an ARC. (Assuming that you can’t change the world this would be the best way to preserve the future)

We all know the story of Noah and while I believe in the story I also believe Noah represents not one man and that there was not just one ARC which is why today we have so much diversity in the human genome.

Like most of you I read many of the doom and gloom stories of just how bad things are, yet amidst all of this I see a constant glimmer of the future. This past week forecasts of our declining energy reserves and our dependence on oil to maintain our way of life has the press and political leaders in a frenzy. Yet hidden in the back pages of the news are weekly announcements of new discoveries leading to new sources of energy, materials, and medicine.

Life is quite unlike the Hollywood stories we have become familiar with today, the clarity of good and evil, right and wrong are in real life never quite black and white.

Across our culture and the world we are witnessing a modern day “Noah Effect” as we see the migration from our cities and urban environments to a new “Rural” style of living. We see many versions of Noah as both community leaders and developers have begun the task of creating a new and sustainable life style, full of hope and stability.

So I tend to agree with idealists like "Laura Sperling" in here editorial "A vortex of constant change". So I seek others who look forward to the "Noah Effect" and envision a future through change.

The “Noah Effect” was first cloned by Benoid Mandelbrot and simply states that when something changes, it can change abruptly