Author Archive

Ending the Corporation as a Legal Person

29/11/2011

The Corporation as Person

If We End Corporate Personhood We Can Define the Terms of a New Economy
by: Thom Hartmann, Berrett-Koehler Publishers | Book Excerpt

The prevalence of the corporation in America has led men of this generation to act, at times, as if the privilege of doing business in corporate form were inherent in the citizen; and has led them to accept the evils attendant upon the free and unrestricted use of the corporate mechanism as if these evils were the inescapable price of civilized life, and, hence, to be borne with resignation.

Throughout the greater part of our history a different view prevailed. (more…)

How do You Move?

29/11/2011

Andrew Lees - Moves!

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage… all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ….into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films….. = a trip of a lifetime.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

Staying the Course

28/11/2011

Why are you here?

This post refers more to for-profit ventures, but it applies to anyone wanting to make a difference.  I started Mountain Spirit Institute over 12 years ago, and still keep the fire burning.
Ed.
Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining
“I slept at work again last night; two and a half hours curled up in a quilt underneath my desk, from 11am to 1:30pm or so. That was when I woke up with a start, realizing that I was late for a meeting…But it was no big deal, we just had the meeting later. It’s hard for someone to hold it against you when you miss a meeting because you’ve been at work so long that you’ve passed out from exhaustion.”

Suddenly everyone’s complaining about how unfair things are in Silicon Valley. How hard everyone has to work so darn hard, and how some people don’t get venture capital or a nice sale to Facebook or Google even though lots of other people are getting those things.

Silicon Valley is an unfair place, say all the headlines. The CNN racism documentary was just one piece of this. Another are the cries from the press that Zynga would actually consider renegotiating contracts with highly compensated employees no longer pulling their weight. Expect more articles soon about the woes of being asked to work hard at a startup. People are working so hard, they’re crying themselves to sleep!

As if all of this was new. The quote above isn’t from some overworked Zynga engineer. It was written in 1994 by Jamie Zawinski, an early engineer at Netscape. Here’s more: Read the rest of this story..

Scientists: DNA Reprogrammed by Words, Frequencies

28/11/2011

Scientists Prove DNA Can Be Reprogrammed by Words and Frequencies
By Grazyna Fosar and Franz Bludorf at Wakeup-world.com

DNA

THE HUMAN DNA IS A BIOLOGICAL INTERNET and superior in many aspects to the artificial one. Russian scientific research directly or indirectly explains phenomena such as clairvoyance, intuition, spontaneous and remote acts of healing, self healing, affirmation techniques, unusual light/auras around people (namely spiritual masters), mind’s influence on weather patterns and much more. In addition, there is evidence for a whole new type of medicine in which DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and frequencies WITHOUT cutting out and replacing single genes.

Only 10% of our DNA is being used for building proteins. It is this subset of DNA that is of interest to western researchers and is being examined and categorized. The other 90% are considered “junk DNA.” The Russian researchers, however, convinced that nature was not dumb, joined linguists and geneticists read the rest of this story..

Help People Meditate & Be Mindful

21/11/2011

An Interesting Website, Pass it on..

The Mindful Revolution

The Other Revolution

Machu Picchu’s Capacity to Withstand Tourism

21/11/2011

Peruviians on a Balcony - In the '90's

I took my first clients to Peru, on our first program ever for Mountain Spirit Institute in 1998. Who would have thought there would be the numbers at Machu Picchu that there are now. Who would have imagined the wholesale tour companies, that have transformed sleepy little islands such as Amantani, could change things so much. Being there in ’98 was sure different that it is today. It was right after the Shining Path and been put down. Back then, one didn’t need guides to do the Inca Trail, and the prices were affordable. So what to do? Hmmm. I love Peru, but I think we’ll have to go more into the bush, back beyond the hordes, shy away from the beaten path, or “Gringo Hiway” as they call it. There is much to see in Peru and like any popular place, go an hour or two off the beaten path, and you’re in “no-man’s land”. Also, see my post on Amantani in this blog.
R. Richards, Editor

One Million Tourists Visit Machu Picchu in 2011
by Andean Air Mail & PERUVIAN TIMES
The ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, uncovered from overgrowth and obscurity 100 years ago by U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham, will have received at least one million tourists by the end of this year, according to Percy Canales, president of the National Chamber of Tourism, Canatur.

The number of visitors represents a 30 percent hike over last year — when 660,000 people visited the site— and is undoubtedly due in part to the mass promotional campaign surrounding the centennial.  Of the total, 70 percent will have been foreign travelers and the remainder Peruvians, particularly school groups.  The larger number of foreigners were visitors from the United States, Spain and Japan.

Canales said that the number of tourists was expected to increase read the rest of this story..

Uncertainty & Fear

16/11/2011

Uncertainty, Innovation, and the Alchemy of Fear
From: the99percent.com  It’s not about ideas, it’a about making ideas happen
by Jonathan Fields

Uncertainty..Now What?

The ability to live in the question long enough for genius to emerge is a touchstone of creative success. In fact, a 2008 study published in the Journal of Creative Behavior revealed tolerance for ambiguity to be “significantly and positively related” to creativity.

Explaining the results, lead researcher, Franck Zenasni, argued tolerance for ambiguity “enables individuals to not be satisfied by partial or non-optimal solutions to complex problems. People who tolerate ambiguity may be able to work effectively on a larger set of stimuli or situations, including ambiguous ones, whereas intolerant individuals will avoid or quickly stop treating such information.”

Problem is, with rare exception, when faced with the need to live in the question, most people, creators included, experience anything from unease to abject fear and paralyzing anxiety. And there’s a (more…)

11/11 in New Zealand

11/11/2011

We had 11/11 a bit earlier than most of the planet (if you’re going by clock-time). We decided to kick ours off with a picnic, a short sage ceremony, and finished it off with an evening rainbow. Welcome – The Age of Aquarius.

11 min after 11AM on 11/11

The Author, another tailgate picnic in Roberts Canyon, NZ

Evening Rainbow with Mtn Shadow Cutting In

Double Rainbow on 11/11 New Zealand

 

Along the Road to Milford Sound, NZ

01/11/2011

Nothing to see here, keep moving..

Milford Sound is renowned for its world class beauty, its fjords, hikes, and waterfalls, wildlife and dramatic alpine terrain. It’s something to put on your “must do” list, despite its popularity with so many that come to New Zealand. However, the drive through (and under) the mountains,  on NZ Highway 97 and its  the 1270 meter Homer Tunnel also got my attention. I’m looking forward to getting out into the Darran Mountains soon, where there’s granite and lots alpine adventure to be had.

A sense of perspective and vertical relief from our sunroof

A sense of perspective and vertical relief from our sunroof

We took a day off, and drove over to Milford last month, and thought we’d share a few images.

Heading back to Kingston, we caught a glimpse of the wind farm, which is somewhat controversial in this area, and stopped to take an image of the huge blades above the fields of sheep.

Yep, we did get out of the car, these are just some images taken along the road. More on the backcountry and Milford Sound in another post.

Windmills in New Zealand

Paragliding/Speed Riding Aiguille du Midi

01/11/2011

The Late Antoine Montant Speed Riding down the North Face of the Aiguille du Midi, Chamonix. Not something you see every day, and.. not quite what we’re into on a regular basis here at Mountain Spirit, nevertheless, thought it was worth the post..

Sharpen your edges for a quiet backcountry tour down a north face...