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![]() Newsletter of Project Renaissance and Win Wenger March 2008 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WELCOME to all new members who have joined us recently. We hope to hear from you and to give you much food for thought. Back issues available upon request - just add the month to the subject line: mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=BackIssues Or see the online archives: http://www.winwenger.com/strmlist.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IN THIS ISSUE: * Quotes of the Month * Project Renaissance Consulting & Tutoring * Project Renaissance Corebooks * Events, Workshops, Classes * Announcements, News Items, Help Wanted Trained fish; napping makes you smarter; global cooling; world hunger; music and strokes; and more * FEATURE ARTICLE: Global Cooling? - by Win Wenger * Comments, Feedback Rick Hansen on global cooling and methane Win Wenger on incentivism Rob McBride on Dynamic Format * Organizational Notes * Links ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ QUOTES OF THE MONTH "When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge." - Albert Einstein “Things are only impossible until they're not.” - Jean-Luc Picard ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CONSULTING AND TUTORING Project Renaissance is pleased to offer consulting and workshops customized for your organization's needs. Contact Rick Hansen at mailto:rick.hansen@apsglobal.com to discuss how you can benefit from Win Wenger's consulting services. ~~~ Project Renaissance is interested in providing Socratic Learning classes for secondary school students in the greater Washington DC area. You need to be enrolled in a summer school course, so you'll have immediate applicability and application for what you soak up from our classes. Contact Rick Hansen at mailto:rick.hansen@apsglobal.com for more information. ~~~ Arasu Chellaiah is using Win Wenger's Socratic Learning method to teach college courses for Biology majors and DDS (Doctors of Dental Surgery). Contact The Stream at mailto:thestream@winwenger.com or Arasu Chellaiah at mailto:arasu_chellaiah@hotmail.com for more information. ~~~ Win Wenger, Rick Hansen and Arasu Chellaiah are using Win Wenger's Socratic Learning Method for tutoring college students pursuing degrees in Electrical Engineering. Contact Rick Hansen for more information at mailto:rick.hansen@apsglobal.com. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PROJECT RENAISSANCE'S NEW COREBOOKS Please see descriptions at www.winwenger.com/corebook.htm A series of compact handbooks of Win Wenger's key techniques. The first four volumes are now in print and easy to order from the publisher: * SUPER SKILLS FOR STUDENTS by Isa McKechnie * WIN WENGER'S IMAGE-STREAMING by Charles Roman * END WRITER'S BLOCK FOREVER! by Mark Bossert, Win Wenger * DYNAMIC TEACHING by Harman Benda and Win Wenger Order directly from the CoreBook storefront: www.lulu.com/ProjRen ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EVENTS, WORKSHOPS, CLASSES ~~~ INTEGRATING CREATIVITY, PURPOSE AND YOUR BUSINESS BOTTOM LINE – April 25 - June 6, 2008 Use the Creative Resources within you to inform new Work Directions, Strategies, Innovations, Projects, Products and/or Service Offerings. This wonderful Professional and Personal Development Program will be led by Michelle James, CEO of The Center for Creative Emergence and founder of the Capitol Creativity Network. Go to http://creativeemergence.com/page10.html for the complete program description and registration information. Or contact Michelle James at mailto:michelle@creativeemergence.com ~~~ CREATING THE FUTURE Future Possibilities Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 7:00-9:30PM Cleveland Park Club House 3433 33rd Place, NW Washington, DC 20008 $20 at the door "Using an Organized, Innovative Framework for Recognizing - and Creating - the Business Opportunities of Tomorrow" Presented by Eric Garland, author and business intelligence expert President of Competitive Futures, Inc. - www.competitivefutures.com RSVP requested to mailto:Michelle@CreativeEmergence.com Details and directions: www.capitolcreativitynetwork.com/ ~~~ PHOTOREADING SEMINARS - 2008 Paul Scheele is teaching public PhotoReading seminars in U.S. cities this year. PhotoReading is an excellent method of getting through information up to 18 times faster than conventional studying. This course comes with a money-back guarantee. To enroll in any, call 888-800-2688 or go to www.learningstrategies.com/PhotoReading/Seminar1.asp for more information. Tuition is $750. Discounts available for PhotoReading self-study course buyers and earlly-bird registrations. Payment plan also available. Class locations and dates: Los Angeles - May 9-11, 2008 Washington - May 16-18, 2008 New York, NY - June 20-22, 2008 Dallas, TX - August 1-3, 2008 Philadelphia - August 8-10, 2008 Chicago, IL - September 12-14, 2008 Atlanta, GA - September 19-21, 2008 Boston, MA - October 17-19, 2008 Los Angeles - November 7-9, 2008 Denver, CO - November 14-16, 2008 Editor's note: Some of our own people have benefitted greatly from PhotoReading, including our own Win Wenger (see, for example, Winsights No. 100 - www.winwenger.com/part100.htm ). We strongly recommend this experience to you. For further information, please contact www.learningstrategies.com/PhotoReading/Seminar1.asp ~~~ YOGA FROM WITHIN Relaxation and other Yoga workshops provide an enjoyable combination of exercise and fun, healing and the arts. Beethoven once said, "Silence is the key - the silence between the notes. When that silence envelops you – you are at one. You are at peace. Then your soul can sing." Classes are taught in the Washington DC metro area. See their schedule: www.spiralflightyoga.com ~~~ SINGYO YOGA SingYo Yoga builds a mind-body connection that generates joy and improves mood. Find out more about the benefits at www.singyojoy.com! ~~~ PROJECT RENAISSANCE 16th ANNUAL DOUBLE FESTIVAL and Spring Workshops May 19-20 ... May 22-23 ... May 23-25 ... May 26-29, 2008 Register now! Full descriptions and registration forms are here: www.winwenger.com/df16.htm The theme of this year’s Annual Conference on Creative Problem-Solving and Enhanced/Accelerated Learning is "Finding New Ways to Better the Human Condition" – Improving your tools for helping others, and for helping yourself. Four separate major programs: . . . LEARN-TO-LEARN WORKSHOP – www.winwenger.com/learn08.htm with Tijl Koenderink Monday-Tuesday, May 19-20, 2008 — 8:30 am-4:30 pm Highlights: - In this training you will learn an integrated model of learning, its steps and the surrounding conditions to make it succeed. Learn to use some of the most powerful Accelerated Learning techniques, and understand how and why they work, with an introduction into how to apply this knowledge in your own teachings. . . . BEYOND-EINSTEIN/SOCRATIC TRAINING – www.winwenger.com/df16beyd.htm with Win Wenger Thursday-Friday, May 22-23, 2008 — 8:30 am-4:30 pm Highlights: - These two intensive days will be an adventure in using various problem-solving techniques on a variety of problems worth solving. YOU will find their solutions, more readily than you might have imagined! Astonish yourself! Learn how to draw easily on far more than you knew you have — and resolve some of the issues in your work, your life, and all around you. Use them also for enhanced/accelerated learning, self-discovery, innovation, invention, and building your performance and general capabilities in the arts, in sports, interpersonally, in your work, intellectually, and generally. . . . DOUBLE FESTIVAL 2008 – www.winwenger.com/df16.htm#Double Friday, May 23, 2008 — 7:30 pm through Sunday, May 25, 2008 — 4 pm Highlights: - Many lively and thoughtful leaders, colleagues and members and participants, in Project Renaissance and in related technologies and programs, gather for this series of extraordinary events — events which Project Renaissance hosts each year in the Washington DC area. Really high-calibre people come together from all over the country and from countries overseas, human beings with whom it's a delight to share space and ideas and perceptions. . . . TRAINER TRAINING – www.winwenger.com/df16train.htm Monday, May 26, 2008 — 9-5 Tuesday, May 27, 2008 — 9-5 Wednesday, May 28, 2008 — 9-5 Thursday, May 29, 2008 — 9-4 Highlights: - We seek to train professional Socrateurs to train people in locations around the world, including your community, in various of the Project Renaissance methods and resources. The Beyond-Einstein Training experience is an important part of the necessary preparation, as is some good experience in other programs and/or disciplines involving human potential. This special four-day Trainer Training (Monday-Wednesday 9-5, Thursday 9-4) is the other main ingredient. . . . Some tuition discounts may apply to the various events and combinations. Click here to register for any and all of the events of your choice: www.winwenger.com/df16.htm#Register ~~~ RECLAIM YOUR GENIUS – The Ultimate Weekend Retreat, May 16-18, 2008 With Paul Scheele, www.ReclaimYourGenius.com Imagine knowing how to use the advanced principles of both hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming to almost magically get beyond the problems you have been trying to solve for far too long. Attend Paul Scheele's Ultimate U Retreat! More info at www.on2url.com/app/adtrack.asp?MerchantID=117089&AdID=370137 ~~~ THE EDWARD DE BONO SEMINAR - June 9-11, 2008 - The University of Malta Conducted entirely by Professor Edward de Bono, the inventor of Lateral Thinking - http://home.um.edu.mt/create Full details and e-registration form: http://home.um.edu.mt/create/confersding.html Tuition: Euro300 (200 for staff, students, groups, early-bird) For further details, email Dr. Sandra Dingli, Director, The Edward de Bono Institute mailto:instituteofthinking@um.edu.mt ~~~ WIN WENGER'S TEACHING AND RECORDING SCHEDULE - Spring 2008 * May 2-4 weekend - Mensa Regional Gathering, DC/Maryland chapters. * May 15-18 - Atlanta, GA, teaching at a major creativity conference. * May 23-29 – Project Renaissance Double Festival, Beyond-Einstein Socratic Training and Trainer Training workshops in Pasadena, MD. (please see www.winwenger.com/upcoming.htm ) * July 2-6 - Mensa Annual Gathering, Colorado ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ANNOUNCEMENTS, NEWS ITEMS, HELP WANTED ~~~ HOW HUNGER COULD TOPPLE REGIMES http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080414/wl_time/howhungercouldtoppleregimes Starving masses are taking to the streets across the globe. Without food, people feel they have nothing to lose. Violence erupts, and an already strained infrastructure comes closer to collapse. ________ Rick Hansen ( mailto:rick.hansen@apsglobal.com ) comments: Without food, your immune system grows weaker. Children don’t have the nutrition they need to develop normally. The article calls for more government intervention. In this editor’s opinion, the crisis is the horrific result of UN and government policies gone wrong. Look at Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa and now racked by poverty and starvation. In the US, government intervention has pushed farmers to grow corn for ethanol, increasing food prices 30%. Worse, the US government prohibits oil companies from building new refineries or exploiting over 100 years of oil reserves that could be reached easily. Burning corn when it could be used to save starving millions is a sin. COMING IN THE APRIL ISSUE OF THE STREAM: A major article by Win Wenger on this subject.
~~~ "PAVLOV'S" FISH TO COME TO SOUND OF A BELL http://news.aol.com/story/_a/pavlovs-fish-may-catch-themselves/20080326150909990001 Intended now only for bringing up stocks of depleted varieties of fish, this proposed training of fish to come feed at the sound of a bell has obvious implications for reducing the costs of netting and catching fish, generally in the context of oceanic fish farming. However, the air bubble curtains proposed in our article, "A 'Blue' Revolution in World Food Production" ( www.winwenger.com/bluerev.htm ), with reference to "Feeding the World" ( www.winwenger.com/part59.htm ), already in play to bring up nutrients and aerate the waters, may suffice to contain or herd in the fish at low or no additional cost - and maybe without the same sense of betrayal! ______ COMING NEXT MONTH IN THE STREAM: A major article by Win Wenger, expanding on the vital subjects of world hunger, fish farming and dealing with climate change. ~~~ NAPPING MAKES YOU SMARTER! www.drmirkin.com/morehealth/1256.html This article describes an easy, no-cost method of being able increase your learning potential. Two studies from Harvard show that napping makes you smarter. In one study, people typed a long list of words on a computer. Those trained at night and tested after a long night’s sleep did far better than those trained in the morning and tested 12 hours later without sleeping. In a second study, people’s ability to learn was tested after no sleep, a 30-minute nap, and a 60-minute nap. The longer the nap, the better the performance. The article also points out that pilots benefit from a short nap, and older people are better able to maintain alertness when they nap for 90 minutes in the afternoon. ______ Rick Hansen ( mailto:rick.hansen@apsglobal.com ) comments: Learning is important, and it’s difficult to assess conditions and learn from them when you’re sleep-deprived. Many workplaces place a value on “working till you drop.” 80-hour weeks are common. How many bad decisions are made and not remembered because of sleep deprivation? How much smarter could we be if we napped regularly? ~~~ TEMPERATURE MONITORS REPORT WIDESCALE GLOBAL COOLING www.dailytech.com/Temperature+Monitors+Report+Worldwide+Global+Cooling/article10866.htm World temperatures, according to the Hadley Center for Climate Prediction, show a steep drop over the last year. Anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on. No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously. ___________ Editor's Note: See this month's feature article by Win Wenger addressing this subject. ~~~ Interview: THE ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND'S FRED KRUPP ON THE BEST CAPITALIST CLIMATE SOLUTIONS www.wired.com/science/planetearth/magazine/16-03/st_krupp Chided by radicals for wooing corporate partners, the president of the Environmental Defense Fund is revered in Silicon Valley for championing a capitalist approach to clean energy. His new book, Earth: The Sequel (with Miriam Horn), spotlights the most promising climate solutions, from nanotech to flying windmills. Wired asked Krupp how these technologies can compete. Read this fascinating interview. ~~~ POSTURE IS ABLE TO COMMUNICATE FEAR www.livescience.com/health/fear_contagious_041115.html A fight breaks out, and even though people at the far side of the crowd can't see what's going on, they are immediately on edge. Now, a Harvard researcher has an explanation for this fear contagion, the quick spread of emotion through a crowd. In her study, she showed images of happy, neutral, and fearful postures with the faces blurred out. Happy and neutral images activated the visual centers of the brain. Fearful postures activated the visual, emotional, and motor action areas, showing that emotions are communicated non-verbally. ___________ Editor’s Note – This study was done in 2004, after The Einstein Factor was written. The Einstein Factor notes that the part of the brain that processes words is much slower than the rest of the brain. This study shows how fast the non-verbal parts of our brain are, and how very sophisticated they are at discerning threats to our survival. They can process information and subconsciously make a decision related to survival. The more quickly you react, the more likely you are to react. ~~~ LISTENING TO MUSIC IMPROVES STROKE PATIENTS' RECOVERY, STUDY SHOWS www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080219203554.htm Researchers from Finland found that if stroke patients listened to music for a couple of hours a day, their verbal memory and focused attention recovered better and they had a more positive mood than patients who did not listen to anything or who listened to audio books. This is the first time such an effect has been shown in humans, and the researchers believe it has important implications for clinical practice. ______ Win Wenger ( mailto:wwenger101@aol.com ) comments: Evidence keeps on piling up. Add this to the long list of studies demonstrating the preponderant effects of music on the intellectual functions of our brain. ~~~ PRIVATE RACE TO THE MOON TAKES OFF www.space.com/aol/080221-lunar-xprize-florida.html Google and X PRIZE officials unveiled nine new privately funded teams today that will compete for $30 million in the Google Lunar X PRIZE challenge, a race to the moon. The new teams join the Isle of Man-based Odyssey Moon team that was the first group to take up the challenge. "It's not just a new mission," said Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, during the announcement at Google's headquarters. "It's a new way of doing business." See the video: http://www.space.com/php/video/player.php?video_id=240907_Moon2_Google The Google Lunar X PRIZE Cup organizers also announced their partnership with Space Florida, a group vested in drawing the Sunshine State onto the commercial spaceflight map. Voted into creation in 2006, the local organization is offering launch site services and $2 million in extra prize money to the winning team if they blast off from Florida. ~~~ ARTICLE FROM THE FUTURE: NEW YORK USES GIFT CURRENCY, "LET'S" http://porena.blogspot.com/2008/02/article-from-future-new-york-uses-gift.html from Steve Hinton's blog, "Inventing for the sustainable planet" - http://porena.blogspot.com/ - Monday, February 25, 2008 Steve uses inventing techniques to show the way to the sustainable society, with a technique called "Image Streaming" visiting "visualised places". Read the whole story. Explore the rest of his excellent blog. ~~~ THE HOLOGRAPHIC PRINCIPLE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_principle Discussions in ImageStream@yahoogroups.com led to here. Neat, eh? Interesting, I think much of Hawking's discussion was in the context of information swallowed by a black hole being lost to the universe. The last part of the holographic discussion here would appear to contradict that. I don't have the math to sort that out, but it's intriguing. - Win ~~~ BRAIN-BUILDING GAMES Gamepuzzles ( www.gamepuzzles.com ) is a long-time supporter of Win Wenger's Project Renaissance and production of The Stream. Please visit their website to learn more about their products that develop the mind. Fun, challenging, intelligence-expanding, and more! ~~~ GIFTED EDUCATION PRESS QUARTERLY www.giftededpress.com/ Gifted Education Press is offering a complimentary copy of their 20th Anniversary Spring 2008 Online Quarterly issue. To read and print the current and previous issues of Gifted Education Press Quarterly, please email your request directly to: Maurice Fisher, Ph.D., Publisher mailto:gifted@giftededpress.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TRANSLATORS WANTED - in any language, to translate selected contents of the Project Renaissance website, the new CoreBooks series, and certain books by Win Wenger. Please contact Win at mailto:wwenger101@aol.com if you are interested in collaborating on these projects. ~~~ SOCRATIC METHOD INSTRUCTORS WANTED - To test the Corebooks curriculum in their classes. Contact Win Wenger at mailto:wwenger101@aol.com for more information. ~~~ CAMERA PERSON NEEDED - To record the presentations at Double Festival, May 23-25, 2008, in Pasadena, MD, and to edit the videos into website- ready files. Tuition credits available. Contact Win Wenger to discuss your interest and qualifications - mailto:wwenger101@aol.com ~~~ MODERATORS WANTED - for Project Renaissance's new and growing Forum at www.projectrenaissance.com - please contact the administrator, Tijl Koenderink, mailto:tijl@dare2b.nl ~~~ ........................................................................ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Feature Article: GLOBAL COOLING? by Win Wenger News item: Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling - Twelve-month long drop in world temperatures wipes out a century of warming. www.dailytech.com/Temperature+Monitors+Report+Worldwide+Global+Cooling/article10866.htm This should be of considerable interest, if this pans out. I don't know that it will pan out, I really haven't delved into the science yet nor into who paid for these various reports - but I'm not too entirely surprised. Nor does this dip, if it's for real, necessarily mean an end to global warming. One of the features of rapid global climate change - can you say the word "destabilization"? - is that in whichever direction that overall change is going, we also see drastic fluctuations year to year in any direction. History has been pretty grim on that point. Next year might see just as drastic, or an even more drastic, spike running in the other direction - we'll need to watch for several years to see if a new trendline has indeed been established. A few of us have been following these developments. Some have even suggested that the delayed onset of the current sunspot cycle is signifying the beginnings of another Maunder Minimum like the one which, with reduced solar output, produced Europe's experience of the recent Little Ice Age. If so, this appears to be happening barely in time to forestall the apparently gathering methane blow I was writing about at www.winwenger.com/methane.htm, which, if like its predecessors, would have spiked temperatures abruptly upward by ten or twelve degrees Fahrenheit. Also, if this cooling is going to be significant, that direction of climate change also represents a disruption of land-based agriculture and therefore of world food supplies. Historically, the Maunder Minimum - if that period of weakened solar output is what's coming - brought devastating famines and disease and social disorder. My proposed system for oceanic fish farming seems fully as apropos for a cooling climate as for a warming one, the operative factor being CHANGE. As the climate jerks around, no one on the soil will know from year to year what to plant when and where. We can, and I think should and even MUST, seek to move forward something like our oceanic fish farming, at least as a contingency, and as a safeguard against the fact that world food stores are already running short. If global climate is indeed turning abruptly cooler, this revives the first fish-farming proposal we published in the website in May of '02 - "Feeding the World" (Winsights No. 59) - www.winwenger.com/part59.htm. There we suggested using the Beachbuilder invention described in www.winwenger.com/beachbld.htm to build a succession of farmable and forested barrier islands across the shallow northern third of the Bay of Bengal, alternating with lagoons to be used for fish farming. More recently I restated that proposal in www.winwenger.com/typhoon.htm. I had stopped pushing that proposal when the rising seas, a consequence of global warming, looked to overwhelm anything we might build there. If, indeed, the direction of global climate change has reversed, the oceans will no longer be rising; then this Bay of Bengal proposal, which would also protect Bangladesh and key parts of India from the typhoons which sometimes kill hundreds of thousands of people there, will be worth reviving. So there may be not one but two major ways economically and very greatly to increase world production of protein, while protecting the entire planet from the famines which accompany the periods of rapid climate change. As to our comet notion (please see www.winwenger.com/newbasis.htm and www.winwenger.com/comet.htm ), some of the urgency for that disappears except for whatever urgency pertains to the parking of all that water represented by a comet moved into trailing LeGrangean orbit, as a filling station in service of much more complete and rapid development of the solar system. Perhaps as the climate picture shifts around on us and old certainties dissolve, old dogmatisms can also dissolve, old politics likewise, and we can begin to bring both common sense and methods of effective creative problem-solving to bear on our situation. The road is getting bumpy again, but we don't have to lose our grip on the steering this time or get thrown. A good start is: * Our proposal for specially designed colloquia (please note Winsights No. 90, "A Rising Tide Lifts All Ships - Proposal for a Unique Colloquium for the World-Wide Creativity Movement" www.winwenger.com/part90.htm * Winsights No. 99, "Consensus and Higher Syntheses" as methods for finding consensus at such meetings www.winwenger.com/part99.htm * The Art and Science of Hosting Conferences www.winwenger.com/formats.htm - to plan contingencies for some of the likeliest emergencies we are about to face, and to turn changing conditions and technologies into positive opportunities. (Footnote: the above-cited article on global cooling was first brought to my attention by Mr. James W. Merritt, mailto:JWMeritt@aol.com ) ------------------------------------ To send your comments about this article to Win Wenger, write to: mailto:wwenger101@aol.com?subject=GlobalCooling To send your comments about this article to The Stream, write to: mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=GlobalCooling ........................................................................ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| COMMENTS and FEEDBACK ~~~ Rick Hansen ( mailto:rick.hansen@apsglobal.com ) writes, in reference to Win Wenger’s feature article above: ARE WE EXPERIENCING GLOBAL COOLING, AND AN OVERLOOKED GREENHOUSE GAS THREAT? Project Argo monitors sea temperatures and salinity worldwide using 3,000 probes. Data collected over the past 5 years suggests that ocean temperatures have remained constant, and may even have cooled slightly. This was reported in the Washington Times newspaper, but this author has found this fact curiously absent elsewhere. Also, NASA’s claim that 1998 was the warmest year on record in the US has been found to be false and the result of a calculation error. The warmest year on record was actually 1934, followed by 1998, which in turn was followed by the year 1921. Five of the top ten warmest years were from the 1920s and 1930s. Students of US history will remember the great “dust bowl” ecological disasters that struck the US in the 1930s. More information about the corrected temperatures and some unfortunate sources of false warming trends in US temperature measurements can be seen here: www.norcalblogs.com/watts/2007/08/1998_no_longer_the_hottest_yea.html William Gray, the world's leading hurricane researcher, stated in the September 2005 issue of Discover Magazine that human activity has a minimal effect on global warming. He claims that the changes in global weather are a result in a shift in ocean currents. He also stated that he lost all government funding when the Clinton-Gore administration came into office, and since then research that challenged human-induced global warming could no longer get government funding. Governments are focusing their efforts on reducing carbon dioxide emissions when a more dangerous threat exists. The shift of ocean currents may be bringing warm water into areas containing large amounts of methane trapped under the ocean floor – ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methane_clathrate ) Warm water may cause the ice to "melt", releasing large quantities of methane, with disastrous results. Methane is a long-lived, more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Large quantities are stored in seabeds around the world and perhaps in deep freshwater lakes as well. If the water temperature rises above a critical amount, the methane will be released, having a toxic effect on already stressed aquatic life and potentially causing global warming. If some of the funds spent on global warming were diverted to research into harvesting this methane, it may provide a valuable source of fuel and help reduce the prices and use of other fossil fuels. When burned, methane turns into much less potent greenhouse gases - water and carbon dioxide. Methane can be harvested from areas at risk due to the change in ocean currents, reducing the risk of methane being released into the atmosphere. Energy becomes cheaper, less of the world's grain production needs to be diverted to producing fossil fuels, and the risk to fish and other ocean life is reduced. - Rick Hansen ( mailto:rick.hansen@apsglobal.com ) ~~~ Win Wenger ( mailto:wwenger101@aol.com ) writes: "Incentivism" has made it into the Space Age, at last. (See the news item on the Google Lunar X Prize challenge, above.) Economically, the material returns from winning such a race infinitely outstrip the prize itself, in terms of subsequent marketing of one's products and services. In absolute terms, "being first" has always been one of our very strongest motivational drivers - witness how aspiring pianists compete for the first prize in the great competitions in their field, and all that went into their preparation. Other things equal, setting (or allowing) incentives is a far more efficient way to get things done. Where public aims and public policy are involved, this is especially so. Relevant website addresses: * On Incentives as a Preferred Instrument of Corporate and Public Policy - www.winwenger.com/ebooks/incentive.htm * 5 Paths to a Robust Economy - www.winwenger.com/5paths.htm * Mixed Economy - www.winwenger.com/mixedecon.htm * "An Easy Way to Fund the Development of Space" - www.winwenger.com/part94.htm * "A Peace Possibility Hanging Out in the Ether" - www.winwenger.com/part65.htm * "Left or Right? Or Something Else?" - www.winwenger.com/part43.htm * "Frog Warming" - www.winwenger.com/part38.htm * "How to Bring Lasting Peace to the Middle East" - www.winwenger.com/part36.htm * "Bringing Peace: The Balkans, Northern Ireland, and elsewhere" - www.winwenger.com/part34.htm * "How to Wipe Out Most Taxes in New York City and Improve City Services—at the Same Time!" - www.winwenger.com/part31.htm ~~~ Rob McBride ( rob@inspire.com.ve ) writes from Venezuela: A quick note to let you know I implemented a couple of your ideas in terms of the Socratic method and in particular on the Dynamic Format. You can see pictures and videos of the last several programs I have conducted here: www.inspire.com.ve/pics/pics_eng.htm The program with "Tabacalera Nacional" was the first where I directly implemented the method. The results were extremely positive! www.inspire.com.ve/pics/eventos/2008_02_15y16/2008_02_15y16.htm ________ Win Wenger ( mailto:wwenger101@aol.com ) replies: Rob, I'm very glad you're experiencing such positive results with elements of Dynamic Format and related matters. There's a good reason why that video looks like a good many creativity-related activities and games throughout many CPS (Creative Problem-Solving) programs. Dynamic Format is my abstraction from the observed successful group- managing tactics and techniques of a half dozen or more different CPS programs and disciplines. Those got to be effective because most of them were and are dealing with the business community, which tends to be results-oriented, and what has evolved are those tactics and techniques, however arrived at, which worked. Schools have been slower in embracing these techniques. This year I have gotten a group of teachers at a school - half that school's faculty - to start using such methods, and thus far their results also are extremely positive. Hopefully, they are taking measurements and will publish data, thereby creating "permission" for other schools and teachers to start using these things. Thank you very much for letting me know of your experimenting with Dynamic Format. - Win Wenger ( mailto:wwenger101@aol.com ) ~~~ ________________________________________________________________________ To send your comments to The Stream for possible publication here, write to: mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=Comments ........................................................................ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ORGANIZATIONAL NOTES ~~~ IMAGE-STREAMING PARTNERS Project Renaissance is organizing a partners' bureau or real-time chat resource online via Skype, msn or yahoo messenger for people looking for partners with whom to do live Image-Streaming. We have now set up a secure and accessible interface for you. We are still looking for some moderators. If you have any experience in using the phpBB Forum system, have had experience with Project Renaissance methods, and are interested in becoming a forum moderator, please contact Tijl Koenderink at mailto:tijl@dare2b.nl Please go to www.projectrenaissance.com and register, then post your information under the "ImageStreaming partners" topic. Some of you have already provided your Skype names, desired times and languages; please do so again in the forum. Thanks, and welcome to the program going live. Our thanks especially to Tijl Koenderink, the administrator of the Forum, for making this all possible. ~~~ INTEREST GROUPS * ALBUQUERQUE, NM - Gaylord Galston ( mailto:logarms@yahoo.com ) wonders if there is anyone in the Albuquerque area with whom he can practise Image-Streaming. * BALTIMORE - Gerald Hawkins offers interested parties to contact him at mailto:gerald.hawkins@gmail.com about starting a problem-solving and idea-testing group in the Baltimore, Maryland, area. * CHICAGO - Nick Costello ( mailto:padrerock@rcn.com ) is interested in attending meetings of Project Renaissance members in the Chicago area. * DETROIT - Eric Bottorff ( mailto:pebottorff@gmail.com ) is interested in attending meetings of Project Renaissance members in the Ypsilanti area. * LOS ANGELES - Ray Croney ( mailto:croneyr@hotmail.com ) seeks Image- Streamers in the L.A. area. * NEW JERSEY - Donald Morrison ( mailto:donaldmorrison@gmail.com ) is interested in joining an Image-Streaming group in the Bloomfield, NJ, area. * TEXAS - Harry L. Beam, 6305 Poly Webb Road, Arlington, TX 76016 would like to meet with other members of Project Renaissance in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas. * VIRGINIA/WASH. DC - Siobhan Dunn ( mailto:siobhanmc7e@verizon.net ) is looking to partner with someone experienced in Image-Streaming in the Fairfax-DC area. _____ * TAMILNADU, INDIA - Raj Kumars ( mailto:rajikumars2000@yahoo.co.in ) would like to practice Image-Streaming with a live listener in his area. * VENICE, ITALY - Franco Tiveron ( mailto:franco.tiveron@gmail.com ) is interested in learning and practicing Image-Streaming, in Italian or English. Please contact him if you are already knowledgeable in this technique and in the Venice area. ~~~ TOPICAL INTEREST GROUPS: Our membership is large and diverse, and many of you have expressed an interest in communicating with other members who share your topic of concern or research interest. If you'd like us to share your email address with other interested members, and to supply theirs to you, please email your name, email address and subject/topic to: mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=InterestGroups Your communications will be private. ~~~ ADDRESS CHANGE? If your email address changes or your email box is full or your spam filter blocks us, we can't get The Stream to you. Please, before that happens, make sure you notify us of any change and put winwenger.com on your safe senders list. Write to: mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=AddressChange Please do not use the unsubscribe link in such a case, then entering a new subscribe message. This makes extra work for you and your registrar and may result in deletion of all your personal information from our records. Put any other updated information you'd like us to have about you into the same address-change message. ~~~ SUBSCRIBER OR MEMBER? If you currently only subscribe to The Stream, you can upgrade your participation in Project Renaissance to full membership, free. Membership in Project Renaissance entitles members to additional benefits. If you're not yet a member, please register now, here: www.winwenger.com/regmem.htm or from the link on the homepage, www.winwenger.com . ~~~ DUPLICATE MAILING? If you received two (or more?) copies of this issue of The Stream, please let us know by replying to: mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=duplicate ~~~ HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE... * The long-established, popular Image-Streaming egroup is here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/imagestream - requires Yahoo sign-in. * Submit articles, comments or questions for possible inclusion in The Stream: mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=TotheEditor * Send questions or comments about the website, www.winwenger.com , to the webmaster, mailto:kate@gamepuzzles.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LINKS * Back issues of THE STREAM by email upon request from mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=BackIssues * Index of feature articles in The Stream archives: www.winwenger.com/strmlist.htm Starting in January 2007, the archived copies have a special cover photo masthead courtesy of Elan Sun Star. Do take a look - they're gorgeous and restorative. * Archived copies of Capital Ideasmiths are here: www.winwenger.com/Capitalidea/capidea1.htm * Project Renaissance homepage: www.winwenger.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ UNSUBSCRIBE: If you do not wish to continue receiving this newsletter from Project Renaissance, please send an email to mailto:thestream@winwenger.com?subject=TheStream-unsubscribe ~~~ |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ©2008 Project Renaissance |