Monday, January 24, 2011

The Poetry of Sleep

The Poetry of Sleep – by a master! | WeeksMD


The Night House
by Billy Collins (poet laureate)


Every day
the body works in the fields of the world
mending a stone wall
or swinging a sickle through the tall grass –
the grass of civics, the grass of money–
and every night
the body curls around itself
and listens for the soft bells of sleep.
But the heart is restless and rises
from the body in the middle of the night,
leaves the trapezoidal bedroom
with its thick, pictureless walls
to sit by herself at the kitchen table
and heat some milk in a pan.
And the mind gets up too, puts on a robe
and goes downstairs, lights a cigarette,
and opens a book on engineering.
Even the conscience awakens
and roams from room to room in the dark,
darting away from every mirror like a strange fish.
And the soul is up on the roof
in her nightdress, straddling the ridge,
singing a song about the wildness of the sea
until the first rip of pink appears in the sky.
Then, they all will return to the sleeping body
the way a flock of birds settles back into a tree,
resuming their daily colloquy,
talking to each other or themselves
even through the heat of the long afternoons.
Which is why the body – that house of voices –
sometimes puts down its metal tongs, its needle, or its pen
to stare into the distance,
to listen to all its names being called
before bending again to its labor.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Seth Godin on the tribes we lead


TEDtalksDirector | May 11, 2009 | likes, 33 dislikes

http://www.ted.com Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, athttp://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10





Click on the TedtalksDirector for another 824 videos of this kind and quality.



Seth Godin: Sliced bread and other marketing delights



TEDtalksDirector | May 17, 2007 | likes, 31 dislikes

http://www.ted.com In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to just ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes to getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers are invited to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes -- including speakers such as Jill Bolte Taylor, Sir Ken Robinson, Hans Rosling, Al Gore and Arthur Benjamin. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, politics and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10






Saturday, January 15, 2011

Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy? | Video on TED.com

Dan Gilbert asks, Why are we happy? | Video on TED.com



S: (n) homeostasis ((physiology) metabolic equilibrium actively maintained by several complex biological mechanisms that operate via the autonomic nervous system to offset disrupting changes)

Moods fluctate but for reasons of survival we need to stay on an even keel.  Thi thought popped into my head listening to Dan Gilbert on T.E.D.  Listen now:

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow | Video on TED.com

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on flow | Video on TED.com

Moods Fluctuate

S: (n) homeostasis ((physiology) metabolic equilibrium actively maintained by several complex biological mechanisms that operate via the autonomic nervous system to offset disrupting changes)

Moods fluctate but for reasons of survival we need to stay on an even keel.  Thi thought popped into my head listening to Dan Gilbert on T.E.D.