Imagine every parked car is a tree
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Book of Ritual Knowledge - Sumatra, Indonesia (1895)
The book contains magical formulas, divinations, recipes, and laws. The pustaha is written and compiled by a Batak magician-priest known as the datu (or sometimes the guru). A datu wrote the pustaha in Batak script using an ancient language style.
The book contains magical formulas, divinations, recipes, and laws. The pustaha is written and compiled by a Batak magician-priest known as the datu. A datu wrote the pustaha in Batak script using an ancient language style. The pustaha is used by the datu as a reference for him and for his students for all kind of information related to magic, rituals, prescriptions, and divination.
The magic knowledge contained in a pustaha is known as the hadatuon ("knowledge of the datu"). Johannes Winkler, a Dutch doctor was sent to Toba in 1901 and learned the pustaha from a datu priest. The result of his study divided the content of the pustaha into three types of main knowledge: the art to sustain life (white magic), the art to destroy life (black magic), and the art of divination.
What happened to all the historic books in Sumatra? Something similar to this:
Of the thousands of books written by the ancient Maya, only three - possibly four-survive today. On one night in July 1562 Bishop Diego de Landa destroyed thousands of Maya books, but throwing them on a bonfire. Overnight, the literature, science, and myths of the Maya was lost
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U.S. Intelligence Claims China* Wants to Steal Your DNA (* and many other global entities)
"Indeed, warnings about China’s alleged desire to gobble up the world’s genetic data and use it for nefarious purposes have been ongoing for some time. It’s true that China has an extensive domestic DNA collection program, having launched an initiative to create a national genetics database in 2017. Concerns exist that this data will be used to control trends in medicine and pharmaceuticals, or to engineer bioweapons."
"The genomics firm at the center of the most recent drama, BGI, is one of the biggest in the world. The company, which specializes in genome sequencing, substantially increased its operations when covid-19 struck last year. As the virus got underway in the U.S., an affiliate of the company began “approaching city, county and state officials with offers to sell supplies and help set up entire labs, proposing to export a rapid testing model that they said had helped contain China’s outbreak,” the Washington Post reports. BGI has denied that it wants to collect American DNA via covid tests."
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India proposes law to ban cryptocurrencies, create official digital currency (Reuters)
India plans to introduce a law to ban private cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and put in place a framework for an official digital currency to be issued by the central bank, according to a legislative agenda listed by the government.
The law will “create a facilitative framework for creation of the official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI),” said the agenda, published on the lower house website on Friday. The legislation, listed for debate in the current parliamentary session, seeks “to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses,” the agenda said.
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Solari Report 2020 Annual Wrap Up: News Trends & Stories, Part I with Dr. Joseph P. Farrell
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Lives of Chinese Martial Artists: Tang Hao – The First Historian of the Chinese Martial Arts
Tang Hao Tang Hao (1887–1959) is not a household name, even among avid practitioners of the traditional Chinese martial arts. While little known outside of certain specialized circles, few people have had a more profound impact on the way that we write and think about these hand combat systems. A lawyer by training and profession, Tang Hao was the first individual to undertake a serious, sustained, investigation of the history of the Chinese martial arts using modern documentary and field research methods. Tang Hao was very aware of the transformative social power of well written historical research. He was counting on it. In an era when so many other martial artists were (sometimes literally) taking up the sword for the defense of the nation, he instead picked up his pen.
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Linus Pauling (1901 - 1994) was an interesting person.
Linus Carl Pauling was an American chemist, biochemist, chemical engineer, peace activist, author, and educator. He published more than 1,200 papers and books, of which about 850 dealt with scientific topics. Pauling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954. For his peace activism, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962.
"Pauling supported a limited form of eugenics by suggesting that human carriers of defective genes be given a compulsory visible mark – such as a forehead tattoo – to discourage potential mates with the same defect, in order to reduce the number of babies with diseases such as sickle cell anemia."
"Pauling was raised as a member of the Lutheran Church, but later joined the Unitarian Universalist Church. Two years before his death, in a published dialogue with Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda, Pauling publicly declared his atheism."
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The power of stories in Knowledge Management
So why are stories so powerful as a means of sharing knowledge?
- They remind us that knowledge comes from the real experience of real people. People "just like you". Knowledge is not an abstract thing; it's grounded in reality. In the case of this video concerning danger trees, it's grounded in the reality of risk, injury and death. It's "hard-won" knowledge.
- They convey emotion, in the way that the written word cannot. In the video above, the emotion is a very healthy respect for the dangers that trees present. In fact, the video identifies "normalisation of risk" as an issue, and the stories certainly would discourage anyone to become blasé about the risk from trees. The emotion in the first story also acts as a sobering introduction which compels you to treat the rest of the video very seriously. You think "this could happen to me if I'm not careful".
- The great thing about stories is that everyone has a story to tell. If you see someone else share their story, it legitimises you to share your own. This is the concept of social proof; if you want to promote a behaviour in your organisation, show real stories of people exhibiting that behaviour. If you want people to share knowledge from failure, then show stories of people talking about failure (as an example of this, see the NASA "my best mistake" compilation). This legitimises others to share their failure stories, and the knowledge they have gained as a result, and starts to bring about culture change.
- You can use the stories to convince senior managers of the value of KM. Senior managers will support Knowledge Management if they believe it can be done, and can add value. Like most people, they "believe it when they see it". My colleague Ian Corbett speaks below about using video testimony from a young engineer as social proof to convince senior managers of the value Knowledge Management can bring.
So think about the value of stories when it comes to transferring knowledge. There may be more benefits than you think.
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One of the largest known of the giant crocodilians, perhaps even surpassing Sarcosuchus in size. It reigned supreme in central South America in the Miocene period, 8 million years ago.
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This is a placeholder blog-post for the tsunami of horribly shocking and strangely interesting stories, currently screaming for our attention. Are they truly worth consuming and sharing? What is the effect and benefit of giving them attention (besides being permanently stressed)?
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10 guiding principles for Tai Chi by T. T. Liang (1900 – 2002)
T. T. Liang (1900 – 2002) gives a talk on his 10 guiding principles for Tai Chi from his book “T’ai Chi Ch’uan for Health and Self-Defense”. This was filmed at the annual Zhang San Feng festival when he was 96 years old. T. T. Liang was a popular Tai Ch teacher in the United States. He was a senior disciple of the famous Cheng Man Ching, as well he studied with various teachers. After moving to the United States from Taiwan in 1964, he had taught Tai Chi for many years in Boston. When T.T. Liang retired from teaching at his school in Boston, he moved to St. Cloud, Minnesota in 1981 where he continued to teach.
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Pingshuai Gong
There are many Qi Gong exercises in the world. They are all good for people's health. Many of them have too many steps and difficult to learn. They need to take time to do it right. Some of them are easy to learn. But we wonder those simple exercises can help our body that much. As a result, most people will give up the exercise because of difficulty or faithless.
Ping Shuai Gong is one of the simple exercises. It comes from Master Feng-Shan Li, the founder of Mei-Men Qi-Gong Center, in Taiwan. Some cancer patients heal their bodies simply by exercising the Ping Shuai Gong. Because of getting more witnesses, Ping Shuai Gong populates very quickly in Taiwan and then have extended to more than 44 countries today.
We just need to exercise 10 minutes at a time and 3 times a day, if we want to keep healthy. For people who want to recover from severe illness, then they need to increase to 30 minutes at a time. Ping Shuai Gong is very easy to learn. It doesn't need too much time a day. It's not difficult for people to persist in exercising the Ping Shuai Gong every day.
When exercising Ping Shuai Gong, we need to pay attention to the body's balance with a smiling face. The upper body should maintain straight. After swinging arms 4 times, then bend the knees and then spring up the knees. If you don't have healthy knees, then just bend a little bit or sit on a bench or a chair. We need to swing arms softly and slowly to relax our body and mind. After exercising, close eyes, take a deep breathe and adjust it.
Ping Shuai Gong is very simple in actions. But to train our mind to focus is a challenge.
