Mr Hyde's Other Notebook

Warning - It's addictive. NASA TV

I guess all Creativity & Innovation speakers and writers have an interest in NASA and the Space Program. So many wonderful stories, examples and metaphores that can be applied in all sorts of different fields.

With last weeks success of the Phoenix spacecraft landing near the north pole of Mars for a 90-day digging mission and today's launch of the Shuttle Discovery heading up to the International Space Station to drop off a new module for Japan and some much needed plumbing parts for the malfunctioning toilet,  interest in all things "space" is booming.

Two ways to really get involved.

1/ NASA TV  - Warning it's very addictive. Live feeds from Mission Control, The Shuttle and Space Station.

http://www.nasa.tv/



2/ Send Your Name Into Space

The launch of the Keplar Mission in early 2009 gives you another opportunity to be immortalised in space.
The spacecraft that will go into orbit around the sun and will search for habitable planets like our own, will carry a DVD with thousands of names on it, one of which is mine. You can join in too...(and get a certificate to prove it)

http://kepler.nasa.gov/







 

Arthur C Clarke and me

Sad to hear of the passing of Arthur C Clarke today.

No, I never met him, but I know several people who did. But he has always been around in my world.

His constant exploring of Mysterious things, the great unknown. A true skeptic he never assumed things were black and white and kept all possibilities open, unlike many in the field.

I remember reading the short story The Sentinal when I was first at high school. I loved it at the time, but of course had no idea he was at that very moment working with Kubrick to turn it into the monumental 2001 A Space Odyssey. When I eventually saw the movie, it was a kind of double whammy, as it dawned on me during the screening that I kind of knew it already.

Clarke's world of science and possibility comes together now very much in my work with Creativity, Innovation and my love of magic. Because of this, my company has been called for many years "Achieving the Impossible."

You know Magicians love to quote Clarke's 3rd Law

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

but I'm actually rather fond of the other two...

"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."

"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."

"The best time to plant a tree ..."

The old Chinese proverb states ..

"The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, the second best time is today."

We planted this Blue Gum (Eucalyptus globus, bicostata) about 3 years ago
at our Capertee Valley property. We took this shot yesterday on a quick visit.

It's just rocketing up. In another 27 years it's going to be a giant! (Possibly up to 45 meters)

Innovation Scoreboard 2007

Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany and UK are the most innovative EU countries and ahead of the US

The yearly European Innovation Scoreboard has added Australia to it's benchmarking this year so I thought it may be of interest to many of my readers. Unfortunately it doesn't make great reading!

Based on their innovation performance, the countries included in the EIS 2007 fall into the following country groups:

• The innovation leaders include Denmark, Finland, Germany, Israel, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the US. Sweden is the most innovative country, largely due to strong innovation inputs although it is less efficient than some other countries in transforming these into innovation outputs.
• The innovation followers include Austria,      Belgium, Canada, France,      Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg,      and the Netherlands.
• The moderate innovators include Australia,      Cyprus, Czech Republic,      Estonia, Italy, Norway,      Slovenia and Spain.
• The catching-up countries include Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Slovakia. Turkey currently performs below the other countries.

The full report can be seen here.

Bird Hyde - Australian Birdwatching site

Pleased to announce the launch of my wife Lynda's own Blog - Bird Hyde.

As the by line says, "It's not just about Birdwatching" and I think you'll find it an eclectic mix of - birding, travel and assorted weird collecting pursuits.

There's not much there just yet - but here's a couple of photo's to give you a taste of the bird shots -

A budgerigar taken in the wild in Outback Queensland and a Raptor taken out the back of our place.
The ID of the Raptor is still under discussion.

PlayPumps - Kids Play - Water Pumps

I love this for many reasons! Check out the PlayPumps website here.

Gone in a Flash

I guess the writings been on the wall here for some years, but it sure is a sign that the life cycle of products is getting shorter and shorter.

Polaroid is starting to shut down the plants that manufacture their "instant" film/prints and expect world wide supply to run out sometime next year!

Story

Solar Powered Blogging

I'm sitting here blogging "off the grid."

Well, as much as I can be at this point. We decided our show for Mobil next week is all under control, so we have come out to our "shack in the woods" to check on a few things. The huge rainstorms of the last few weeks have topped up the dams and tanks, and every thing is looking lush and green.

Our trial Hazelnut planting is going well with new buds aplenty. The Wombat and the Kangaroos seem to be keeping clear of the planting, which is a good thing, though there are plenty of both around. We saw both a Red Neck Wallaby and a Swamp Wallaby yesterday.

This morning we are doing a Vegetation Survey for the Regent Honeyeater Recovery Program. A few years back we planted 1500 trees in an effort to save this terrific little bird from extinction. Once numbered in the hundreds of thousands it's now down to a fragile 800 or so. Possibly under the level it needs to survive. The birds breed on our property, so we do all we can to help them.

So, I'm here, drinking tea and waiting for the sun to cut through the mist.
The sun that will both help our trees grow, our birds survive and recharge our battery bank so I can keep on typing.

Spatially Enabled Government

The title confused me too, but this fascinating conference wanted some interesting after dinner entertainment and who better to do the job than me. A quick 30 minute flight down to Canberra and I was setting up the the beautiful Hyatt Hotel.

The conference is all about mapping, planning and data management and had attracted a huge range of scientists and engineers from around Australia and the world. Now scientists are always an interesting bunch to perform magic to! On the one hand they are very clever and always sceptical , but on the other hand they can get a bit focused and turn out to be easily fooled.

The show went great. It was nice to have dinner with Gary Nairn, the Special Minister of State, who I knew from my involvement with the National Speakers Association. Gary holds the Federal seat of Eden-Monaro, which really is the "litmus test" of Australian elections. It has always been held by the sitting government, so Gary understandably is a very busy man at the moment.

E Safe washed out!!!!

Yikes. I flew back from California a day earlier than planned to take up MC duties at the huge E Safe conference to be held at Rose Hill. With the huge storms and subsequent flooding and powerblackouts, the organisers decided to "pull the plug" just hours before the commencement.