Video: Tim O'Reilly Talks at Publishing Point

O'reilly Media founder Tim O'Reilly gives a talk, on Publishing Point, about publishing, technology and innovation. Watch the first of 7 parts here; the other parts are easily accessed from the right-hand menu.

http://publishingpoint.ning.com/video/in-conversation-with-tim


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If Rube Goldberg Had Made Musical Instruments (YouTube video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiyzj80bPEY
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A Very Happy Baby Laughing ( You Tube video )

Start your day with a good laugh ... and
another good laugh ... and another ..

You Tube Video of Laughing Baby

.

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TED Talk: Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation

Watch the video of this inspiring talk, here:  Dan Pink TED Talk

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Louis Armstrong Plays - When The Saints Go Marching In

Watch the video on YouTube here.

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George Leonard (1923-2010)

George Leonard — author, speaker, lecturer, musician, akido master and teacher — died on January 6, 2010.

Leonard's dozen-plus books, which shaped and were shaped by the human potential movement, included The Transformation; Education and Ecstasy; The Silent Pulse; and Mastery.

One of Leonard's important themes is finding joy and actualization via movement, balance, and the body. Here is a lecture by Leonard, about his book "The Silent Pulse", delivered in 2005, at the age of 82.




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Michael Tobias Presents His Film: Ahimsa-Nonviolence

Michael Tobias, the renowned ecologist, author and film-maker, will moderate a discussion about non-violence, after a viewing of his memorable film, Ahimsa-Nonviolence, at the RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART in New York City, on Saturday afternoon, November 7. The presentation begins at 4:00 p.m.; the cost is $12 for non-members, and $10.80 for members of the Rubin Museum.

Another viewing of the film can be seen on Sunday, November 8, at 10:45 a.m., at Siddachalam, the Jain 120-acre animal sanctuary in New Jersey, two hours from New York City. There is no admission fee, but noone will be admitted after the film begins.

Michael Tobias' PBS film Ahimsa-Nonviolence premiered nationwide in the United States on Christmas Day in 1987 and was described by Southeast Asian Religions Professor Chris Chapple as a film “which elegantly portrays several Jain leaders and extols the religion as the great champion of animal rights and nonviolent living.”

Ahimsa in Jainism is a fundamental principle forming the cornerstone of its ethics and doctrine. The term means "nonviolence," "non-injury," or absence of desire to harm any life forms. Vegetarianism and other nonviolent practices and rituals of Jains flow from the principle of Ahimsa. According to Adian Rankin the concept of Ahimsa is so much intertwined with Jainism that it conjures up images of ascetics who cover their mouths and sweep the ground before them with small brushes to avoid injuring the most minuscule forms of life and Jain-owned animal sanctuaries where even the sickest, most deformed birds and beasts are protected and cherished. These overt manifestations of an ancient faith challenge the comfortable and near-universal assumption of human precedence over other creatures.


The Jain concept of Ahimsa is quite different from the concept of nonviolence found in other philosophies. In other religious traditions, violence is usually associated with causing harm to others. In Jainism violence refers primarily to injuring one's own self — behavior which inhibits the soul's own ability to attain liberation.

The film, which took three years of preparations and was filmed in nearly 100 locations across India, was one of the first to explore in depth the Jain religion, as well as portraying the life of Digambara, Shvetambara, and Sthanakavasi mendicants. In an essay on Jain conscience in 1997, Tobias described "the goal of absolute nonviolence" as an ideal that activists worldwide must take seriously at "every waking moment." Elsewhere he has argued that evolution does not condemn us; only our choices can do that, adding, "We have the capacity throughout our lives to give unstinting, unconditional love."

For more information, contact:

RUBIN MUSEUM OF ART
150 WEST 17 STREET, NEW YORK CITY
phone: 212.620.5000 x344
Web site: http://www.rmanyc.org

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Health Care Reform: A Commentary by Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann delivers an intelligent, impassioned comment about health care reform.

Watch it here:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Art for Our Sake: From Harry Chapin to Susan Boyle

Mr.Tanner is a song written and performed by Harry Chapin (1942-1981), and can be heard on You Tube performed by Chapin himself, or interpreted by young singers. [See Story Links, below.] The song tells the story of a Mr. Tanner, who owned a cleaning business in the Midwest. Tanner loved to sing, and he sang beautifully. Encouraged by his friends, he travels to New York City for his first performance — spending his entire life savings, but happy to do it for this one big chance.

But after the performance, the critics were not satisfied, and their devastatingly harsh review destroyed Tanner's chance for a professional career. Tanner returned home, and “never sang again.”

But he did sing again &mdash and again. Tanner is a genuine artist, albeit an artist unrecognized. At the end of his working days, while sorting through the clothes, he sings.

Chapin tells us:

"Music was his life, it was not his livelihood,
and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good.
And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul.
He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole."

Although Tanner failed in his career bid, his music transformed his life.

Chapin’s song is a fairy tale; but in real life, there are some working-class people who are getting their chance for more than the alloted 15 megabytes of fame.

Paul Potts was a cell-phone repair man, who sang opera on a British talent show, and then went on to a recording contract that sold millions of songs.

Susan Boyle recently sang on that same British TV show. In spite of her frumpy old-maid-like appearance, she electrified the judges and the audience with a moving rendition of a song from Les Miserables, “I Dreamed a Dream”. One YouTube video of her performance has been viewed more than 25 million times.

Susan will sing again on this show on May 23. The world will be watching.

It is wonderful to see talented people get the recognition they deserve.



At the same time we should keep in mind the lesson of Harry Chapin’s song. We should be creative — sing, dance, play music, draw, write poems, stories, novels and songs — not for the money and the fame. We should be artists for the pure joy it gives to us and to others; for the empathy and self-discipline it teaches us; and for the healing powers of these creative arts.

The British author Herbert Read has written extensively about the connection between art and non-violence. Creativity is not a luxury, it is a deep need in the human spirit. When human energies are not used for creativity and love &mdash or, as Thoreau tells us, when we "lead lives of quiet desperation" &mdash then the frustrated person may erupt by performing acts of of violence against himself or others. Shootings in schools and workplaces could be vastly reduced, and perhaps even eliminated, if creative lives were not the exception, but the norm.

Harry Chapin’s tombstone is inscribed with these words:

Oh if a man tried
To take his time on Earth
And prove before he died
What one’s man’s life could be worth
I wonder what would happen
To this world.


Michael Pastore

Story Links

Harry Chapin sings Mr. Tanner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea6cgfU8bC4

Mashup of Mr. Taylor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnhs7zAlZSE

Paul Potts, Opera Singer, on Britains Got Talent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

Susan Boyle, Singer, on Britains Got Talent
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY


Susan Boyle, article in the New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/arts/television/18boyle.html



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The Great Slydini Makes Magic for Dick Cavett

The Great Slydini — Tony Slydini — is featured here on two videos from the Dick Cavett Show, along with commentary by Cavett on his New York Times blog.

Cavett explains that there are no mirrors, and no tricks with the cameras.

The first video is intact; the second video has some outages, but just stay with it and they clear up and continue (you'll hear the sound but not see the images for short times.)

If Cavett could post these to YouTube, then these could become "viral videos" like nothing else in the history of the Net.

Slydini says: "You can do anything, if you know how."

Watch and be amazed.

The Great Slydini on the Dick Cavett Show, 1977
http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/conjuring-slydini/

The Great Slydini on the Dick Cavett Show, 1978
http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/conjuring-slydini-part-2/



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Ethical Markets by Hazel Henderson

Green is the color of the new economy. To understand what all this greening is about, you can read Hazel Henderson's book, Ethical Markets.

Henderson's websites have more excellent resources:

Ethical Markets
http://www.ethicalmarkets.com/

and

Ethical Markets TV
http://www.ethicalmarkets.tv/

— Michael Pastore


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Barack Obama is Sworn in as Our New President

This is the day!

Today, January 20, 2009, Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th president of the United States. Hundreds of thousands of people will attend the ceremony in Washington, D.C., and millions more persons around the world will be watching via television or the Internet.

You can watch the ceremony live, right here:



If this fails, go to the CBS news site:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/08/national/inauguration09/main4707733.shtml

Joy to the world!
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Then I'd Be Satisfied With Life

Euphoria at the Obama victory! It's everywhere: the whole little town of Ithaca is radiant, giddy, renewed, inspired -- we are singing in the shower and we are dancing in the streets.

So this week's post is a diversion from our usual insightful commentary and deep ideas: it is simply silly.

The photo is a picture of George M. Cohan, who wrote the song's original words in 1902 (see below for the contemporary words).
Click on the video to hear the song (performed by Tiny Tim), and see a shopping cart debacle.

Chock Full Of Shopping Carts @ Yahoo! Video

Then I'd Be Satisfied with Life
(original words by George Michael Cohan)

All I want is 50 million dollars
And seal skins to protect me from the cold.
If I only knew how stocks would go in Wall Street
And were living in the mansions built of gold.
If I only owned the Pennsylvania Railroad
And if Tuesday Weld would only be my wife
Oh, Tiny!
If I could only stay sixteen forever
Then I'd know that I'd be satisfied with life.

All I want is wheatgerm for my breakfast
A Champagne fountain sizzling at my feet
While Rockefeller waited on the table
And a barrel's band playin' while I eat.
If I only owned Western Union cable
And if Tuesday Weld would only be my wife
Tiny, I love you!
if I could only stay sixteen forever and ever and ever
Then I'd know that I'd be satisfied with life.


Hello, my dear friend,
Don't run away from all this world,
It's a great big beautiful world
With fabulous happy faces around
Well, I can see this one over here, you lovely thing,
Why, it's beautiful, it's clean, and it's calm and it's modern,
If I can have them all, why, I'll tell you, I'll tell you
Then I'd know that I'd be satisfied with life.
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Does McCain Understand Modern Economics ?

Before slinging any more mud at Barack Obama, the McCain campaign might want to explain McCain's ties with a convicted felon, and McCain's history of bad judgment about the American economy. McCain has been a strong supporter of de-regulation and non-regulation: letting the big corporations do almost anything they want to do. That bad judgment caused the famous S&L scandal (discussed in this video), and it caused the current meltdown: the worst economic crisis since America's Great Depression.

Here is a video that every undecided voter should watch, then verify:





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Dance Around the World with Matt

There are two ways to view this video.

With tragic eyes, you might say that a man who travels to 42 countries might have learned the dances in each country, instead of infecting these worlds with trite pop-culture America.

With comic eyes, you can just watch this goofy pneumatic "dance" and laugh, and rejoice in the human family, and remember that we are one people and one world.

I was thinking about trying this downtown, but wondering if the white-coat men would carry me away.

Here is Matt gyrating around our wacky world: enjoy it!




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