I was here today!! Loved it ^__^ Had seen a small exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario a while ago which made me realize I actually LIKED Native American sculptures and art which got me interested and landed me here! Some of my favourite pieces are below:
Extensive experience with major developers, top architectural offices, and has an open, co-operative philosophy
Successfully completed many projects of large scope, complexity, and have justified our designs through costs comparisons and peer reviews.
State-of-the-art structural design software, hardware capacity to run the total design of a major structure, and the latest computer drafting technology and hardware.
And is...
Extremely budget and time conscious, and considerate of the cost effects of structure on other disciplines. Creative and sensitive, with an alive, vital and energetic practice
They have one of the best portfolios ~ how come I never knew about them? Most of their projects were with WZMH Architects.
Job skills aren’t everything when it comes to the right hire - Mark Murphy
Special to Globe and Mail; Published Friday, Jan. 06, 2012 7:00AM EST
The following book excerpt is from Hiring For Attitude by Mark Murphy.
If your organization is going to excel, it needs the right people. But virtually every one of the standard approaches to selecting those right people is dead wrong. And here’s why: whenever managers talk about hiring the right people, they usually mean “highly skilled people.” For lots of executives, the war for talent is a war for the most technically competent people. But that’s really the wrong war to be fighting.
Most new hires do not fail on the job due to a lack of skill. My company, Leadership IQ, tracked 20,000 new hires over a three-year period. Within their first 18 months, 46 per cent of them failed (got fired, received poor performance reviews, or were written up). And as bad as that sounds, it’s pretty consistent with other studies over the years and thus not too shocking.
What is shocking, though, is why those people failed. We categorized and distilled the top five reasons why new hires failed and found these results:
1. Coachability (26%): The ability to accept and implement feedback from bosses, colleagues, customers, and others.
2. Emotional Intelligence (23%): The ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions and accurately assess others’ emotions.
3. Motivation (17%): Sufficient drive to achieve one’s full potential and excel in the job.
4. Temperament (15%): Attitude and personality suited to the particular job and work environment.
5. Technical Competence (11%): Functional or technical skills required to do the job.
You’ll notice that a lack of skills or technical competence only accounted for 11 per cent of new-hire failures. When a new hire was wrong for a company it was due to attitude, not a lack of skills.
ATTITUDE IS A BIGGER ISSUE THAN SKILLS
Our study showed that somebody was a bad hire for attitudinal reasons 89 per cent of the time. In some cases, these new hires just weren’t coachable, or they didn’t have sufficient emotional intelligence or motivation, or they just didn’t sync with the organization. But whatever the particulars, having the wrong attitude is what defined the wrong person in the majority of cases.
If you want more proof, do this little exercise. Make a quick list of the characteristics that define the low performers who work for you. These are the people that you regret hiring, the ones who cost you time, energy, and emotional pain—the kind of people who make you happy to hit some morning rush hour traffic because it’s a welcome respite from them. Don’t think about it too hard; you’re going to be doing plenty of that in later chapters. Just jot down the first four, five, or six things that come into your mind when you think about what makes these folks low performers.
I happen to have just conducted this exercise with a client who was happy to have me share his results. Here’s the list of the low performer characteristics this CEO came up with:
Top Characteristics of Low Performers
Are negative
Blame others
Feel entitled
Don’t take initiative
Procrastinate
Resist change
Create drama for attention
I’ve done this exercise with countless clients, and while the low performer characteristics I hear tend to vary widely, one factor remains consistent: I rarely hear anything skill related. Overwhelmingly, the characteristics that define mishires (low performers) are attitudinal. In fact, whenever I’ve probed for more feedback, I’ve generally been told that a good number of those negative, entitled, blaming, change-resistant low performers have really good skills. That, of course, only makes the whole low performer situation even more painful. (Parenthetically, most companies are currently paying people they regret hiring because it’s usually harder to fire someone than it was to hire them, especially if they have decent skills but a lousy attitude. This is all the more reason to learn how to Hire for Attitude.)
The same exercise can be done with your high performers. And again, you’ll likely find that what makes these folks so great is all about their attitudes and not their skills. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that skills don’t matter—they do. But I’m also saying that the biggest challenge in hiring is not determining skill but rather determining whether or not someone has the right attitude to be a good fit in your organization. Besides, figuring out if someone has the right skills, or enough raw IQ points, is actually pretty easy. Virtually every profession has some kind of a test to assess skill. If you want to be a board certified neurosurgeon, you have to pass a test. If you want to be a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (considered perhaps the toughest networking certification), you have to pass a written and a lab test. If you want to be a nurse, pharmacist, engineer, nuclear physicist, car mechanic, or whatever, there’s a test to assess if you have the skills and horsepower to do so.
And even though I personally lack the skills to pass the tests for any of those jobs, I could easily proctor the exam. And if I buy the scoring key, guess what? I could grade those tests as well. And so could you. If you’re looking for a Java programmer, give her a page of code with bugs and have her debug and rewrite the code. Google holds a Code Jam that they describe as “a programming competition in which professional and student programmers are asked to solve increasingly complex algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time.” Some hospitals hold competency fairs to test clinical knowledge. (“You say you know about infection control, chest tubes, and insulin protocols, so show me.”) There’s really no excuse for hiring somebody who lacks the skills to do the job, which no doubt is a contributing factor to why only 11 per cent of new hires fail because of skill.
So when you see your colleagues get fixated on hiring people who can “do the job” and who have the “right skills” and enough “talent,” you’ll want to explain to them that attitude, not skill, is the top predictor of a new hire’s success or failure. Because even the best skills don’t really matter if an employee isn’t open to improving or consistently alienates co-workers, lacks drive, or simply lacks the right personality to succeed in that culture. Skills still count, but the data overwhelmingly tell us that attitude is the hiring issue that should demand the most focus.
Reprinted with permission from The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
CNBC-TV18 is a business news channel broadcast in India based in Mumbai. The channel was launched on December 7, 1999. It was the first business news channel launched in India and still leads that genre. The channel has been an integral part of the Indian economic story, spearheading and mirroring India's enterprising times.
The channel's benchmark coverage extends from corporate news, financial markets coverage, and expert perspective on investing and management to industry verticals and beyond. CNBC-TV18 has been constantly innovating with new genres of programming that helps make business more relevant to different constituencies across India. India’s most able business audience consumes CNBC-TV18 for their information and investing needs. This audience is highly diversified, at one level comprising key groups such as business leaders, professionals, retail investors, brokers and traders, intermediaries, self-employed professionals, high-net-worth individuals, students and even homemakers but shares a distinct commonality in terms of their spirit of enterprise. CNBC-TV18 is available in over 35 million households in India.
CNBC-TV18's Key Milestones
CNBC-TV18 was the First 24 hr business news channel in the country – Launched in 1999 as CNBC India and was later re-christened CNBC-TV18
CNBC-TV18 has maintained a dominant position in market share, despite the emergence of competition in recent years. The channel has consistently delivered more than 50% market share
The channel has won Best Business News Channel awards at all major recognized industry events, apart from numerous other accolades across national & international platforms. These include the acclaimed Indian Telly Awards, Indian Television Academy & News Television Awards
The Indian marketing & media decision makers have rated CNBC-TV18 India’s No.1 TV Brand in a market that has over 400 TV brands competing for eyeballs (Pitch Brandometer Survey 2009)
CNBC-TV18 runs India's largest platform for recognizing & rewarding accomplishments of Indian SME's - The Emerging India Awards. The Awards are listed in the Limca book of records as they received the highest number of entries for any business awards in the country till date.
CNBC-TV18 runs India’s most respected and sought after awards for recognizing business & entrepreneurial achievement, the CNBC-TV18 India Business Leader Awards (IBLA). The IBLA re-inforces the prestige of CNBC Asia’s “Asia Business Leader Awards” (ABLA) in the country.
CNBC-TV18 was the first channel to deliver beam live INTERNATIONAL business news programming into the country and show live opening of global exchanges, across the world
CNBC-TV18’s Storyboard is the longest-running show focused on Advertising and Marketing
CNBC-TV18 was the 1st channel to have a dedicated show on corporate law in India, The Firm
CNBC-TV18’s Young Turks is one of India’s first dedicated & longest-running shows focusing on young entrepreneurs
I was just watching this epsiode of Young Turks- very good speakers who were inspiring. A lot of new leaders coming out of India with original ideas ~ always good to see them get recognition.
Just finished watching Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff (on TCM Classics). It is a 2010 documentary film that explores the work of deceased cinematographer Jack Cardiff. It reviews his work and, with the input of many of his contemporaries, examines his legacy as one the most influential film makers of his generation and details how he became master of the Technicolor process.
DO CHECK THE NEXT POST for more on his work on 'Black Narcissus'.
I woke up at midnight and was flipping through this book 'Ten Steps Ahead by Erik Calonius' when I came across the story of Mr. Douglas Prasher; pg. 132-134. Below is a little bite taken out of the book:
"In the late 1980s, a biochemist named Douglas Prasher received a three-year, $200,000 grant from the American Cancer Society to try to clone the gene for green fluorescent protein from Aequorea victoria, a species of Pacific Ocean jellyfish that glows bright green under ultraviolet light. The fluorescent material, it was believed, could be injected into other cells so that one might watch events that hitherto had been invisible-like the development of nerve cells in the brain or the spread of cancer cells.
... Like any good scientist, he shared his findings, passed his results and some of the cloned material to Martin Chalfie, a geneticist at Columbia University.
Prasher was set to do more when he was informed that he had failed to attain tenure at Woods Hole and would have to leave...While Prasher was bouncing from job to job, leaving him no time for Aequorea victoria, Chalfie at Columbia was making steady progress: He had been able to splice the material into E.coli and then into the roundworm C. elegans. Sure enough, the protein inside glowed green, proving that it could be used as a tag in a variety of ways.
... Things got progressively worse for Prasher. Funding was cut short at the Beltsville, Maryland, lab. Bravely, Prasher bounced from there to AZ Technology in Huntsville, Alabama. Then he lost that job in another round of cuts.
...
The climax came in October 2008, when Chalfie, along with Osamu Shimomura of the Marine Biology Laboratory and Boston Medical School, and Roger Y. Tsien of the University of California at San Diego, won the Nobel Prize "for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP".
But there as no mention of Douglas Prasher... When interviewed by National Public Radio's Inside Edition, Prasher said that he had been unable to find a job in science, his life savings had run out, and he was now working as a courtesy shuttle-bus driver for Bill Penney Toyota in Huntsville, Alabama.
In their Nobel speeches in Stockholm that winter, all three men thanked Prasher profusely.
"I'm really happy for them," replied Prasher, adding that in the face of his tough circumstances withholding the glowing material from Chalfie would not have been the right thing to do.
An honest and talented man, Douglas Prasher. He could have been a contender. He just ran out of luck.
A Film I wanted to watch! May be later. I am interested in the Gestalt Therapy & some of his other theories as well.
Paul Goodman (September 9, 1911 – August 2, 1972) was an American sociologist, poet, writer, anarchist, and public intellectual. Goodman is now mainly remembered as the author of Growing Up Absurd (1960) and an activist on the pacifist Left in the 1960s and an inspiration to that era's student movement. He is less remembered as a co-founder of Gestalt Therapy in the 1940s and '50s.
"It is by losing ourselves in inquiry, creation & craft that we become something. Civilization is a continual gift of spirit: inventions, discoveries, insight, art. We are citizens, as Socrates would have said, & we have it available as our own. " - Paul Goodman
"The issue is not whether people are 'good enough' for a particular type of society; rather it is a matter of developing the kind of social institutions that are most conducive to expanding the potentialities we have for intelligence, grace, sociability and freedom." - Paul Goodman (1964)
Was at the Art Gallery of Ontario on Thursday and this one was one of my favourite!
The Tiff by Florence Carlyle
Florence Carlyle born Galt, Canada West (now Ontario), 1864; died Crowborough, England, 1923 The Tiff around 1902 oil on canvas 183.8 x 134.6 cm Gift of the Government of Province of Ontario, 1972
In his book Starbucked, Taylor Clark says there's a woman who goes to a Seattle Starbucks every morning and orders a "decaf single grande extra vanilla two-percent extra caramel 185-degrees with whipped cream caramel macchiato."
Maybe her request seems overly fussy and demanding, but it could be a good act for you to mimic. Try this: For a given time, say 12 days, be equally as exacting in asking for what you want. Assume that you have a poetic license to be extremely specific as you go about your quest for fulfillment. http://www.freewillastrology.com/horoscopes/horo-archive.html (Dec 15,2011)
Olympia & York (also spelled as Olympia and York, abbreviated as O&Y) was once a major international property development firm based in Canada. The firm built major financial office complexes like Canary Wharf in London, the World Financial Center in New York City and First Canadian Place in Toronto. It went bankrupt in the early 1990s and was recreated to eventually become Olympia & York Properties.
Portfolio
A list of notable O&Y current and previous ownership properties:
Flemingdon Park Condominiums, Toronto (5 Vicora Linkway, 15 Vicora Linkway, 60 Pavane Linkway.)
Glen Valley, Toronto (including 715 Don Mills Road, 725 Don Mills Road, 735 Don Mills Road)
Place de Ville, Ottawa (including Phase III Place de Ville Tower E, Place de Ville Tower D)
55 Water Street, NYC
Olympia & York Properties Corporation owns 18 properties in 6 Canadian cities.
Pg. 268
"What was most striking about the Reichmanns' dealings in Olympia & York's embryonic stage was not that they invariably lived up to their end of a bargain but that they did not always hold their clients to the same standard. Often, *their word was not only their bond but an all-purpose warranty. Once Sirlin (Morley Sirlin - O&Y's early architect) was reviewing a plan for Delta Electronics, a local retail chain, with its president who insisted that he had been quoted a price that included a fieldstone lobby. Sirlinm who had designed a conventional lobby, telephoned Paul Reichmann. "I don't remmeber it that way," Reichmann replied, "but if he says I said he could have stone, then give him stone." Similarly, Wos (Frank Wos- O&Y's first construction supervisor) once was dispatched to make repairs to a long-completed building that had been flooded through no fault of Olympia & York's. "I didn't like it because I knew it was caused by the tenant's bad maintenance," Wos recalled. "I told Albert it was not our responsibility. He said, 'No, it's not, but it is my money. So go back and fix it.'"
*"Their edge was their integrity," he said. "They put themselves on the line and they lived on the line." "The Reichmanns very early on developed a lot of business just on that basis. If they shook on a deal, that was it. Their word was their bond."
Starting October 13, visitors to Toronto’s Gardiner Museum will be transported to another time and place through the evocative exhibition, The Tsars’ Cabinet.
The Tsars’ Cabinet presents more than 200 examples of decorative arts, including objects with Fabergé mounts, gilded dinner services, imperial porcelain eggs, and historic court photographs that document the extravagance and sumptuousness of life in palaces and yachts during the Romanov era.
The exhibition follows the history of the tsars and their family, including Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia. The Tsars’ Cabinet also features intimate Romanov family photographs from the Toronto-based Di Rocco Wieler Private Collection and personal artifacts once owned by Grand Duchess Olga, the younger sister of Tsar Nicholas II, who spent her final years living in Toronto.
Most of the objects in the exhibition were specifically designed for and used by the tsars and members of the Russian imperial family. The pieces include magnificent examples of works from the Imperial Porcelain Factory, the Imperial Glassworks, and the private firms of Fabergé and Ovichinnikov. Many of the objects are extremely rare and offer one of the best opportunities to see outstanding imperial Russian art outside of Russia.
The Tsars’ Cabinet was developed from the exceptional private collection of Kathleen Durdin, and organized by the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, in collaboration with International Arts + Artists, Washington D.C.
The Gardiner Museum is the first stop of an international tour.
Guinevere van Seenus, Glenham Hall, Suffolk, England, 2006, British Vogue
Tim Walker was not the first Vogue photographer to gain inspiration from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale The Princess and the Pea. In the 1950s, while staying with the Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton in her Moroccan palace, John Deakin came across a room piled with mattresses, which gave him an idea for a picture. He ran into a lunch party in full swing: 'All those mattresses – the princess and the pea! The princess and the pea!' he exclaimed. There was a gasp from the hostess, who had loathed Deakin on sight but was too polite to banish him. The guests made their excuses and left. It was explained to Deakin that had not Miss Hutton once been the Princess Mdivani? And that 'pea' to American ears meant something altogether different… Deakin was asked to leave Tangiers.
Reading 'The Reichmanns' today piqued my interest in city of Tangier/ Tangiers! About 1/3 of the book is about their life in this city in the 1940s. So interesting.
A painting by Louis Comfort Tiffany depicting a market outside of the walls of Tangier. 1873
This news is so old but just wanted to congratulate WestJet Airlines & CEO Gregg Staretsky on winning the New York slots! Also included is an interview with WestJet CEO Gregg Staretsky on WestJet's Global Strategy. WestJet's previous CEO Sean Durfy was also a very likeable person, who did much for the company :) Thought I'd end this post with a picture of them together. Great team.
WestJet wins slots at New York's LaGuardia airport
[Thu Nov 24, 2011 6:29am EST]
(Reuters) - WestJet Airlines Ltd (WJA.TO) said on Wednesday it had won eight takeoff and landing slots at New York's LaGuardia Airport, a shot in arm for the carrier's plans to expand its service in the East.
WestJet, Canada's second biggest airline, is locked in a battle for passengers in Eastern Canada and into the United States with No. 1 carrier Air Canada (ACb.TO) and smaller privately-owned rival Porter Airlines.
Westjet is particularly keen to attract more business travelers, and a hub such as LaGuardia should broaden its appeal.
"Our growth plans, in which increased business travel in the East figures prominently, include New York City, Canada's largest international business market," WestJet Chief Executive Gregg Saretsky said in a statement.
Westjet won the slots in an auction held by the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority. Two slot packages were available at LaGuardia and one at Washington's Ronald Reagan National airport.
WestJet did not say what it paid for the slots, nor did it reveal from which cities it will fly from to LaGuardia.
WestJet's Global Strategy
with CEO Gregg Staretsky
Special to Globe and Mail Update
Published Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2011 6:00AM EST
Karl Moore: This is Karl Moore of the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, Talking Management for The Globe and Mail. Today I am delighted to be in Calgary at WestJet’s gleaming new head office to talk to their new CEO, Gregg Saretsky.
Good afternoon, Gregg.
Gregg Saretsky: Hi, Karl.
KM: So Gregg, you have recently signed an agreement with KLM, certainly you’ve been, for a couple years now, with Cathay Pacific – where do you see the international partnerships of WestJet going forward? What does the future hold?
GS: It’s a really big part of our strategy; obviously we are continuing to grow. We have 39 new planes on order and the Canadian market isn’t growing as fast as the number of planes arriving in our fleet are, so we are connecting our network, which is strictly within North America, to international networks owned by these large global carriers. We have 15 code-shared and inter-line partners currently.
KM: So, is it that you are providing the North American network for them? Is that the part WestJet is going to play?
GS: Well, that is exactly right. What happens these days is that these carriers have limited access to Canada; they are flying only to the West Coast, for example from Asia Pacific, or only to Toronto. In many cases the Canadian bilaterals don’t commit more access than that, so they are blocked at the gateway, if you will, and our job is to distribute and give them access to the rest of Canada.
KM: How much of a problem is it that you don’t have business class? A lot of these mainline carriers would have that, is that a relatively small or an obstacle you have had to wrestle with?
GS: Not particularly. I like to say that our whole plane is business class – leather seats, seat-back televisions, 32-inch seat pitch, great friendly service, and we ask carriers like Cathay Pacific, “How does that work if somebody flies on a $10,000 fare from Hong Kong to Calgary?” and they say, “Well they get the lie-flat experience from Hong Kong to Vancouver and for the last leg they get the WestJet experience” and it hasn’t been a barrier to sell.
KM: One World, Star Team, and Air Canada Star Alliance; why don’t you join one of the other big alliances?
GS: It’s a great question, Karl, and the way I look at it is we like to pick and choose the best carriers from each of these respective geographies – some happen to be with one global alliance, some happen to be with the others. As a lot of things that WestJet does, we like to deal with the best, so we have been able to pick and choose and have chosen not to join a global alliance at this point.
KM: Some people see the world as being really three big alliances will be the dominant, in fact we might even see, as we have seen with BA and Iberia, Lufthansa and Swiss and Austrian, increasing mega-carriers – do you see a new world of three mega-mega-carriers than everyone else?
GS: It seems to be evolving a bit that way but I think there is an opportunity still for an alliance of low-cost carriers. I was at an international conference recently in New York and sat with the CEO of Gol, a Brazilian low-cost carrier, and he said, “Yeah, we have been studying WestJet and we think that there is an opportunity to connect the Brazilian low-cost carrier with the Canadian low-cost carrier and maybe together we can hook up with some other low-cost carriers and create this great low-cost network.” So I think the space in international alliances is still evolving.
Almost anyone would have hankered to have a personal portrait shot by Cecil Beaton. He made his subjects, many of them distinguished or celebrated to begin with, seem impeccably elegant and disarmingly good-looking, seldom employing any of the irony or social commentary that other photographers often used.
Now comes a coffee-table book, accompanying an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York, that contains some of the finest photographs Beaton took during his many sojourns in New York, as well as sketches, designs and caricatures that this aesthetically versatile artist drew for the movies, theater, opera and fashion. It is a pleasure to leaf through the thick pages of CECIL BEATON: The New York Years (Museum of the City of New York/Skira/Rizzoli, $65) and see Greta Garbo at her mysterious peak and Marilyn Monroe at her most luscious. Brando, Astaire, Warhol, Capote, Callas, Coco, Liz — people recognizable by a single name — flocked to Beaton or were lobbied by him.
Like Capote, Beaton was not well-born but became a high-society favorite, and he paid his patrons back with opulent portraits — the ones of Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt and Lee Radziwill and her daughter, Anna Christina, are dazzling. The book also reminds us that it was Beaton who designed the lavish Edwardian gowns for both the play and the film “My Fair Lady,” the belle époque excess of “Gigi” and the lushly feathered tutus for Balanchine’s “Swan Lake.”
As the concise text by Donald Albrecht, the museum’s curator of architecture and design, points out, Beaton, educated at Harrow and Cambridge, turned himself into a dandy like Oscar Wilde, with a highly cultivated Old World style and manner and an exaggerated accent. In 1928, at age 24, he sailed into New York Harbor, and a playful, acrobatic self-portrait taken on the Brooklyn Bridge a year or so later suggests why he charmed everyone he met. Everyone, of course, meant the wealthy and famous, since Beaton, as Albrecht says, had “a snobbish obsession with class and status.”
“I only photograph those I know and admire,” he said, in an unguarded statement.
Ambitious and a canny networker, but possessed of a penetrating eye for stylishness, he impressed tastemakers. His photographs were soon gracing Vogue and Vanity Fair — in time helping to generate the glamour that Depression-era New York needed, just as it needed the lift of a flamboyant Busby Berkeley movie. An anti-Semitic joke that he included in the margins of an illustration a year before World War II lost him the Vogue account, but he regained his stature with a famous photograph of a young girl with a bandaged head clutching a doll and sitting up in a hospital bed in the days of the London blitz. Today it seems highly romanticized, possibly even staged, in the manner of a Norman Rockwell painting, but it landed on the cover of Life and became a powerful symbol of what Britain was enduring.
Struggling Cities from Japanese Urban Projects in the 1960s
by Naohiko Hino, Architect and Supervisor of the exhibition
What is a city? There can be no single answer to this question. For over 5,000 years cities have developed all over the world. In each, a unique material culture and lifestyle has formed to reflect local conditions and history. For example, there was a fortress of a city surrounded with walls in preparation for foreign invasion, a market of a city where various people met on trade routes, a city developed by industry, and a city where all the power of the government was concentrated. Thus, cities have been built in various ways.
In the 20th Century, influenced by modernization, cities changed themselves by rather stylized methods. A mesh of modern urban planning covered cities. As if to replace their local culture, cities were rationalized to fit the modern social system, planned according to an ideal based on an archetypal European city.
In the mid-20th Century, only 25 percent of the world's population lived in cities, in 50 years this figure rose to 50 percent. In light of the fact that it took 5,000 years for the urban population grew in the latter-20th century.
This rapid urbanization caused drastic change to cities and forced governments and cities to adapt to new conditions. Modern urban planning is less effective in larger-scale cities because of the difficulty of maintaining organic consistency while overcoming urban problems caused by modernization. Megacities are at the forefront of this problem.
In the 1960s Tokyo became a megacity. The population reached 20 million and continued growing rapidly. Newspapers were filled with articles about the problems caused by modernization: traffic congestion, pollution, housing shortages and sinking ground. In order to find a way out of these critical situations and to renovate the city, Japan mobilized industrial productivity during a high-growth period of its economy. In response to this increase in momentum, architects announced quite ambitious urban projects through mass media such as TV programs, newspapers and magazines. The project aroused the interests of a public caught in the waning mood of the times, a people that still believed modernization's promise of a brilliant future.
Representative examples are Kenzo Tange's "A Plan for Tokyo - 1960", projects proposed by the Metabolists, a group that included the four architects Kiyonori Kikutake, Masato Ohtaka, Fumihiko Maki and Kisho Kurokawa, and Arata Isozaki's "Cities in the Air". Although they were announced in tandem, in their details these projects have different meanings. Tange made a rational and systematic response to the problems. The Metabolists used fear of crisis as a springboard for proposing progressive images of future cities. Isozaki thought that an essential problem existed in the fact that cities came to refuse urban planning itself. The differences between these projects emphasize the changing consensus from the modern to the contemporary age. The times steadily moved toward skepticism about modernism.
While none of these projects were realized in Japan, globally many urban plans by architects were implemented and modern cities emerged such as Brasilia by Locio Costa, the capital cities of Nigeria and Macedonia by Kenzo Tange, and Chandigarh by Le Corbusier. In most cases the architect's intentions were not fully realized. Part of a given city would be built to plan only to be surrounded by chaotic areas. As such it's ambitious city planning was unstable and failed to keep its consistency. This reality reveals the essential difficulty in modern urban planning, which Isozaki pointed out; it's extremely difficult to set visions for idealized cities and share the visions with people, and then realized them consistently.
Rather than difficult, urban planning may simply be unnecessary. Tokyo serves as a good example. Thinking back to the critical atmosphere of the 1960s, it's significant that today few of its citizens are aware of Tokyo as the largest megacity in the world. They merely feel inconvenience with that huge Tokyo. There is no vision of an ideal shape or consistency for Tokyo, it looks like an impromptu patchwork. The reality of Tokyo shows that expanded megacities can be functional.
So far as these megacities are concerned, why does ideal vision or consistency matter?
In some sense, cities resemble living things. Figuratively speaking, Tokyo is a self-indulgent creature tending towards schizophrenia. Why did this happen? It's hard to tell where Tokyo's unique characteristics end and where general characteristics of megacities begin. As stated above, other megacities continue to grow according to their own characteristic identities. We can at least recognize that like Tokyo, many megacities have a patchy structure in which old cities overlap new ones, and planned areas are adjacent to unplanned.These patchy structures exhibit a flexibility suggesting that development aimed at meeting practical needs is more efficient thatn building cities to strictly rational plans. It may sound strange, but it seems to be a natural fact that megacities themselves are irrational.
It's not easy to plan new city blocks to have true organic relationships which existing urban context. If new blocks are only planned to be in harmony which the rest of the city, cities as a whole would fall into things of the past. To keep cities active, it's necessary to have projects that can continually revitalize the context of a city. In this regard, Tokyo has few good examples to show. Even if we recognize Tokyo as a self-networking system with multiple variables, we are still searching for a way to lead and support the system. Facing the reality that many megacities are shifting to patchwork-like structures, it's clearly nonsense to consider cities as extensions of tree structures. A new vision for cities is needed, one which can connect unrelated things and create a new organism. This is a big and challenging problem for us.
Our understanding of architecture and cities has been depressed by Globalism and Neo-Liberalism. We need a vision that can release us from this depression and allow us to take the next step. We need to build momentum in order to develop cities with identify out from under of these banners of universalism.
When you're weary, feeling small, When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all; I'm on your side. when times get rough And friends just cant be found, Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down. Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down.
When you're down and out, When you're on the street, When evening falls so hard I will comfort you. Ill take your part. When darkness comes And pains is all around, Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down. Like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down.
Sail on silver girl, Sail on by. Your time has come to shine. All your dreams are on their way. See how they shine. If you need a friend Im sailing right behind. Like a bridge over troubled water I will ease your mind. Like a bridge over troubled water I will ease your mind.
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" is the title song of Simon & Garfunkel's album of the same name. The single was released on January 26, 1970, though it also appears on the live album Live 1969. The song was first heard in public on November 30, 1969, when it was included in the soundtrack of a one-hour TV special by the duo aired by CBS; the music appeared in the background of a clip withJohn F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
[Rest in peace John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr ~ you truly are an inspiration]
The most heartwarming moment (starting 3:24 to finish)>> Thousands of mourners who lined the tracks and stations along the route, paying their respects to Robert Kennedy as the train, carrying his body after his assassination on June 5, 1968, passed']
My most memorable photograph from yesterday's book >
Suit by Digby Morton. Vogue (British Edition), September 1941. This picture pretty much summarizes why I've loved the Second World War fashion. Actually it instantly brought to mind what my mum said when we were watching a documentary of the WWII a long time ago - that women in those days even when there was disaster and rubble all around they still wore their high heels and were always perfectly dressed. I truly admire them.
Departures (also promoted as departures.) is an adventure travel television series. An original Canadian production, the show aired on OLN from March 17, 2008 to June 19, 2010. The show is hosted by Scott Wilson and Justin Lukach, produced by Jessie Wallace and Steven N. Bray, and directed/shot by Andre Dupuis.
The first two seasons of the show have thirteen episodes each, while the third has sixteen episodes. Lukach has stated that a fourth season will not be made, as Wilson and Dupuis are working on a new show, "Descending", due to air in January 2012.
Episodes
Below is an chronological list of places visited in each season:
"You must be willing to get rid of the life you've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." - Joseph Campbell
The scholar, writer and teacher Joseph Campbell gained international fame by deconstructing the great mythologies of mankind and revealing the simple truths and profound themes behind history's great tales and legends. He drew parallels between classical mythology, modern pop culture and everyday lives. In his view, each life is a hero's journey through which we all are seeking some distant reward, only to discover in the end that we had it in our hands all along. From Odysseus to the Wizard of Oz, it always ends up the same way.
Despite the breath and scope of his life's work, he is perhaps best known for one simple phrase: "Follow your bliss." The premise is a tantalizingly simple one. If you allow yourself to gravitate toward and pursue that which brings you the greatest pleasure, you will be on the road to achieving personal satisfaction , true happiness and your ultimate calling in life. The idea is to trust your instincts and be aware of when you are happiest and most fully engaged. In doing so, your natural talents will emerge and slowly you will become the person you were ended to be.
In the book The Power of Myth, Campbell point s out tat "If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living ... I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open for you where you didn't know they were going to be."
WANT >> Too Big to Fail: Olympia & York: The Story Behind the Headlines!!!! but I've tracked the second best The Reichmanns: Family, Faith, Fortune, and the Empire of Olympia & York ~ going to pick up my book later today ^__^
Resource-rich regions often fall behind in developing significant industrial and cultural capabilities. Japan does well despite having very few resources at all.
Well-rounded and popular people rarely change the world. The one voted most likely to succeed probably won't.
Genuine success is scarce, and the scarcity comes from the barriers that keep everyone from having it. If it weren't for the scarcity, it wouldn't be valuable, after all.
It's difficult to change an industry, set a world record, land big clients, or do art that influences others. When faced with this difficulty,those with other, seemingly better options see the barrier and walk away.
Why bother? The thinking is that we can just pump some more oil or smile and gladhand our way to an acceptably happy outcome.
On the other hand, people who believe they have fewer options take a look at the barrier and realize that even though it will be difficult to cross, it's the single best option they've got.
This is one of the dangers of overfunded/undertested startup companies. Without an astute CEO in charge, they begin to worry more about not losing what they've already got than the real reason they started the project in the first place.
The first thought that came to mind when I arrived at INabstracto for the launch of John Martins-Mantiega's latest book, Métro: Design in Motion, was why hasn't anybody given the TTC such a lovely and thorough treatment? Spread over 450 pages, Mantiega's new book is more that just a love letter to the Montreal subway and the remarkable people who made it possible — it's a tribute to modern design and the pragmatic spaces we often take for granted. I'd love to read — or perhaps even write — something similar about the Toronto subway, even if the story isn't as compelling or Canadian in its design history.
Needless to say, this isn't an easy task. It took over three years for Martins-Mantiega to write Metro. Part of this has to do with the amount of research and documentation that went into the book, but it also has to with funding. It's a challenge to publish books of this nature, and the journey wasn't always a smooth one — but here's the book, and it's fantastic.
So too are the photographs on display. As much as I enjoy viewing (and posting) archival photographs, there's something about seeing larger versions in person that really get me enthusiastic. But perhaps even more cool than the photographs is the model subway train and orange seat in the window of INabstraco. Seeing them displayed this way really drives home the degree to which they're design objects, something that's all too easy to forget.
"That little train is probably the most important piece of industrial design that Canada ever produced," Martins-Manteiga declared at last night's launch. That might be overstating it, but it was still a remarkable accomplishment, particularly given the timelines the designers had to work with. 20 of the original stations were completed in just four years to coincide with Expo 67.
At the media preview for the new TTC streetcars I attended earlier today, it was revealed that full incorporation of the vehicles isn't expected until 2018. And that's just vehicles — no stations. That gives a bit of perspective into just how quickly the Montreal system came together. It's also interesting to note that Toronto's new streetcars will be built by Bombardier, which blossomed into the large-scale company it is today on account of their construction of Montreal's subway cars.
It may not be the Toronto subway book I'm hoping for, but Metro: Design in Motion is well worth the read for design buffs and transit history fans. And even if you don't fall into either of these categories, having a look at the exhibit is still highly recommended.
Metro: Design in Motion will be up at INabstracto until November 27th. The book can be purchased there or at Swipe Books.
As valued Room to Read supporters, we want to make you aware and share our excitement about two columns that featured Room to Read in The New York Times this past week by acclaimed journalist Nicholas Kristof. We were honored to have Mr. Kristof visit our projects in Vietnam two weeks ago and are thrilled that he was inspired to share his experience with his readers.
If you have not already seen Mr. Kristof’s columns, please have a look at “His Libraries, 12,000 So Far, Change Lives” which celebrates Room to Read’s immense achievements—including our 10 millionth book milestone, unique history and astronomical rise in growth since our founding—and “Girls Just Want to Go to School,” where Mr. Kristof introduces us to Phung, an incredible girl enrolled in our Girls’ Education program in Vietnam who, with the support of her father, goes to great lengths in pursuit of her education.
You can find additional information related to the column on a special page we created on our website. Also included on the site is information on a matching gift fund that we were able to establish thanks to the generosity of several anonymous donors. The fund will be used to help the children in Vietnam that Mr. Kristof met along with the countless others we reach across Asia and Africa who want to discover a better future for themselves and their families.
We hope you enjoy the columns and we thank you for the amazing role you have played in helping us get to where we are today – we couldn’t have done it without you!
Sunnyside Amusement Park was a popular amusement park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that ran from 1922 to 1955, demolished in 1955 to facilitate the building of the Metro Toronto Gardiner Expressway project. It was located on the Lake Ontario waterfront at the foot of Roncesvalles Avenue, west of downtown Toronto.
The name 'Sunnyside' was the name of a local farm owned by John George Howard, which was situated just to the north, on the location of the current St. Joseph's Medical Centre. Sunnyside Avenue runs north-south from that location north to Howard Park Avenue today. John Howard is also famous as the original landowner of the nearby High Park.
Prior to the construction of the park, the shoreline was a narrow stretch immediately to the south of the 1850s era rail lines. There was enough area for a restaurant and a small fenced off area was provided for changing into swimwear. To the east, the club-house of the Parkdale Canoe Club jutted out into the lake.
A plan was developed in 1913 by the new Toronto Harbour Commission to improve the shore lands from the foot of Bathurst Street to the Humber River. The plan, which included four miles (6 km) of breakwater, infilling of land, and the construction of the Lake Shore Boulevard, cost $13 million, and was paid for by the federal government.
A boardwalk along the south side of Lake Shore Boulevard was built, from the Humber River east to Wilson Park Avenue, 24 feet (7.3 m) in width using white pine planks. This corresponded to the length of shoreline that was extended out into the lake. This boardwalk became the site of annual Easter Parades until 1953. It was rebuilt in 1934 as a make-work project and was paved using asphalt in the 1960s.
The Amusement Park lands themselves were completely created from sand dredged from the bottom of the bay and top soil from a farm in Pickering, Ontario. The original shoreline was extended into the lake by approximately 100 metres, from the foot of Wilson Park Avenue west to the Humber River, a distance of about 1 kilometre. Only a small length of the original shoreline and beach exists today, located between the Boulevard Club and the Canadian Legion building at the intersection of Dowling Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard.
One of the first new buildings was the Sunnyside Pavilion, a curved structure providing a restaurant with views of the lake. It was located just to the east of Parkside Drive at the shoreline. Following this, the Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion and Dean's Sunnyside Pleasure Boats buildings were constructed. Soon after, concessions were requested and granted to operate amusements on the lands.
Sunnyside Amusement Park opened in 1922. At the time, there was an existing amusement park on Toronto Island at Hanlan's Point. It only operated a few more years until 1927 when a baseball stadium at the foot of Bathurst Street was built, replacing the stadium on the Island. Another amusement park, the Scarborough Beach Amusement Park was built in Scarborough, Ontario, to the east of Toronto.
Sunnyside Pavilion and Tea Gardens, August 3, 1921
Sunnyside Pavilion
Sunnyside Pavilion provided two restaurants and a tea garden facing the lakeshore. It was curved into a crescent with the tea garden positioned within the semicircle. It was designed by the same architects and was in the same style as the Bathing Pavilion, immediately to the west.
It was built in 1917 on the south side of Lakeshore Road. When built, its south side was on the lakeshore. As infill proceeded it ended up about 50 metres from shore, on the north side of the new Lake Shore Boulevard. In 1920, the building was enlarged and a new south entrance was built facing the lake. The restaurant had the Blue Room for 400 diners/175 dancing couples, and the Rose Room for a further 300 diners/150 couples. Dancing followed supper, with music provided by the Joe DeCourcy live orchestra.
In 1936, the Pavilion was renovated and became known as the Club Esquire supper club, with stage shows and dancing.
In 1941, the building was converted into the Top Hat night club. It was demolished in 1956 to make way for the new westbound lanes of Lake Shore Boulevard.
The boardwalk was removed and replaced with a boardwalk made of recycled plastic planks. A children's playground was built just east of the Ryder Pool. A recreation trail, part of the Martin Goodman Trail, was built south of Lake Shore Boulevard through the area for cyclists and in-line skaters.
The Grid’s resident Brit discovers Toronto, one lunch hour at a time.
BY: David Paterson
Take a European lunch hour (i.e., a long one) and ride the Bloor-Danforth line all the way to Kennedy Station. Then jump on the 116 bus for 20 minutes and you’ll come to Guildwood Park, where Toronto’s beautiful buildings go to die.
Seventy fragments from demolished buildings have been assembled into a sculpture park here, within the formal gardens surrounding the now-closed Guild Inn atop the Scarborough Bluffs. You can find everything from the remains of the Temple Building, once the tallest in the British Empire, to the fireplace salvaged from the Annex home of Sir Frederick Banting, co-discoverer of insulin. Many of the building bits come from fancy old banks, and a casual observer could easily conclude that Toronto once looked like ancient Rome: It’s all Greco-Roman pillars and frescos.
The Cell theory, first developed in 1839 by Matthias Jakob Schleiden and Theodor Schwann, states that all organisms are composed of one or more cells, that all cells come from preexisting cells, that vital functions of an organism occur within cells, and that all cells contain the hereditary information necessary for regulating cell functions and for transmitting information to the next generation of cells.
The generally accepted parts of modern cell theory include:
All known living things are made up of one or more cells.
All cells arise from pre-existing cells by division.
The cell is the fundamental unit of structure and function in all living organisms.
The activity of an organism depends on the total activity of independent cells.
Energy flow (metabolism and biochemistry) occurs within cells.
Cells contain hereditary information (DNA) which is passed from cell to cell during cell division.
All cells are basically the same in chemical composition in organisms of similar species.
The cell is the functional basic unit of life. It was discovered by Robert Hooke and is the functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of life that is classified as a living thing, and is often called the building block of life.
The following is a glossary of animal cell terms:
cell membrane - the thin layer of protein and fat that surrounds the cell. The cell membrane is semipermeable, allowing some substances to pass into the cell and blocking others. centrosome - (also called the "microtubule organizing center") a small body located near the nucleus - it has a dense center and radiating tubules. The centrosomes is where microtubules are made. During cell division (mitosis), the centrosome divides and the two parts move to opposite sides of the dividing cell. The centriole is the dense center of the centrosome. cytoplasm - the jellylike material outside the cell nucleus in which the organelles are located. Golgi body - (also called the Golgi apparatus or golgi complex) a flattened, layered, sac-like organelle that looks like a stack of pancakes and is located near the nucleus. It produces the membranes that surround the lysosomes. The Golgi body packages proteins and carbohydrates into membrane-bound vesicles for "export" from the cell. lysosome - (also called cell vesicles) round organelles surrounded by a membrane and containing digestive enzymes. This is where the digestion of cell nutrients takes place. mitochondrion - spherical to rod-shaped organelles with a double membrane. The inner membrane is infolded many times, forming a series of projections (called cristae). The mitochondrion converts the energy stored in glucose into ATP (adenosine triphosphate) for the cell. nuclear membrane - the membrane that surrounds the nucleus. nucleolus - an organelle within the nucleus - it is where ribosomal RNA is produced. Some cells have more than one nucleolus. nucleus - spherical body containing many organelles, including the nucleolus. The nucleus controls many of the functions of the cell (by controlling protein synthesis) and contains DNA (in chromosomes). The nucleus is surrounded by the nuclear membrane. ribosome - small organelles composed of RNA-rich cytoplasmic granules that are sites of protein synthesis. rough endoplasmic reticulum - (rough ER) a vast system of interconnected, membranous, infolded and convoluted sacks that are located in the cell's cytoplasm (the ER is continuous with the outer nuclear membrane). Rough ER is covered with ribosomes that give it a rough appearance. Rough ER transports materials through the cell and produces proteins in sacks called cisternae (which are sent to the Golgi body, or inserted into the cell membrane). smooth endoplasmic reticulum - (smooth ER) a vast system of interconnected, membranous, infolded and convoluted tubes that are located in the cell's cytoplasm (the ER is continuous with the outer nuclear membrane). The space within the ER is called the ER lumen. Smooth ER transports materials through the cell. It contains enzymes and produces and digests lipids (fats) and membrane proteins; smooth ER buds off from rough ER, moving the newly-made proteins and lipids to the Golgi body, lysosomes, and membranes. vacuole - fluid-filled, membrane-surrounded cavities inside a cell. The vacuole fills with food being digested and waste material that is on its way out of the cell.
"My aim in writing [this book] is to offer a richer vision of human ability and creativity and of the benefits to us all of connecting properly with our indivisual talents and passions. This book is about issues that are of fundamental importancein our lives and in the lives of our children, our students, and the people we work with. I use the term the Element to describe the place where the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together. I believe it is essential that each of us find his or her Element, not simply because it will make us more fulfilled but because, as the world evolves, the very future of our communities and institutions will depend on it.
The world is changing faster than ever in our history. Our best hope for the future is to develop a new paradigm of human capacity to meet a new era of human existance. We need to evolve a new appreciation of the importance of nurturing human talent along with an understanding of how talent expresses itself differently in every individual. We need to create environments- in our schools, in our workplace, and in our public offices- every person is inspired to grow creatively" (above taken from the INTRODUCTION chapter; pg. xiii)
The Element has two main features, and there are two conditions for being in it. The features are aptitude and passion. The conditions are attitude and opportunity. The sequence goes something like this: I get it; I love it; I want it; Where is it? (Robinson, pg.22) These ephiphanies utterly [change] lives, giving them direction and purpose and sweeping them up in a way that nothing else had; they tend to involve some level of revelation, a way of dividing the world into before and after (Robinson, pg. 8)
Arrow, The Ultimate Weapon (Movie - 2011) Also known as "War of The Arrows" Synopsis 13 years after the King Injo Revolt, the Chosun Dynasty is attacked by the Chung Dynasty of China. A young man named Na-mi leaves his demolished village to find his young sister, Ja-in, and her finance Su-koon, who were to wed on the very day of the attack. While on his mission to rescue her, he is being traced by Jushinta, a fierce Chung Warrior, and his band of malicious men who are out to stop him. Na-mi has but a day to rescue his sister before she is taken away to be a slave. When Na-mi finally finds his sister, Jushinta comes between them and a fierce battle between two of the finest warriors unfolds.
*The word koi comes from Japanese, simply meaning "carp"
The koi fish meaning takes on a enormous significance in Oriental society. The koi fish are believed to be Chinese in origin but is very well known in Japan. As legend has it, as koi fish swim boldly upstream against the adverse currents on the Yellow River, if it is successful in its attempt to swim up the falls at a certain point known as Dragon Gate, there within the mist of the waters of the falls it is magically transformed into a water dragon. Based upon this, the koi became a status symbol representing strong character, courage, and perseverance in achieving hard to reach goals. Also included within these traits is the drive to attain worldly success and advancement, even under trying conditions and against all odds. In Japan, these traits are considered masculin qualities and attributes, as a result, the status of the koi fish has become related with male masculinity. The symbol was said to represent the annual Boys’ Day Festival in Japan where multi-color koi flags were flown as a symbol of honor for each son in a family.
The Koi Fish Meaning is also symbolically used today. For Children’s Day, the koi is symbolic of the family structure and flags are flown in a multiple of colors for different members of the family: Black Koi symbolizes the father; orange stands for the mother; the blue or white color is chosen for a boy; and lastly the red or pink shades symbolizes a girl.
In some cases, the amount of fish, color and even the direction in which the fish are swimming in the water represents a Koi Fish Meaning. For instance, some people believe that 5 golden koi stands for perpetual wealth and prosperity. Other people believe that the colors of the tatoo on your body must represent you as an individual and where you live. All of these traditions only add to the thought and beauty surrounding the koi fish meaning and their legendary status. One other meaning for the symbol which is more common is that of standing for good luck or fortune.
Queen's Quay Terminal was a cold storage warehouse facility, the Toronto Terminal Warehouse, built in 1926 by Moores & Dunford (NYC) and converted to a condo/mall complex in 1983 (The southwest section was demolished and forms the south end of the parking lot between Queen's Quay Terminal and the EnWave PowerPlant). The renovations by Zeidler Roberts added 4 floors to the original 10 floor structure, for a total of 750,000 square feet (70,000 m2) of space. The New York Times mentioned it as an example of successful revitalization efforts in Toronto during the 1980s.
The Art Deco facility houses a shopping mall that includes a Sobeys grocery store. It is also home to the Premiere Dance Theatre and the Museum of Inuit Art.
Yahoo! Canada and Anheuser-Busch InBev's Canadian unit Labatt both maintain offices in the building.
An abandoned cold storage facility (Central Warehouse Cold Storage at Montgomery Street and Colonie Street) identical to its original appearance exists in Albany, NY.
Data is not useful until it becomes information, and that's because data is hard for human beings to digest.
This is even more true if it's news that contradicts what we've already decided to believe. Can you imagine the incredible mindshift that Mercator's map of the world caused in the people who saw it? One day you believed something, and then a few minutes later, something else.
We repeatedly underestimate how important a story is to help us make sense of the world.
Jess Bachman wants to help you turn the data about the US budget (the largest measured expenditure in the history of mankind, I'm betting) into information that actually changes the way you think.
Hence Death and Taxes, which we're publishing today. The new version belongs on the wall of every classroom, every public official's office, and perhaps in the home of every person who pays taxes.
It is not possible to spend less than ten minutes looking at this, and more probably, you'll be engaged for much longer. And it's definitely not possible to walk away from it unchanged. That's a lot to ask for a single sheet of paper, but that's the power of visualizing data and turning it into information.
Mosaic Mural Celebrating Business at Brookfield Place launched by the Business Archives of Canada (Click here for full article)
The Mosaic Mural encompasses an entire wall in the south lobby of the Bay-Wellington Tower at Brookfield Place. It was designed by renowned graphic artist Louis Fishauf, and includes the use of 3D graphic panels called Lenticular.
Development of the National Business Archives has been generously supported by visionary member organizations including Brookfield Asset Management, CN, Deloitte and TD Bank Financial Group.
The Archives "have a very important role to play in documenting a history of what has gone on before, so that all people will have something to look at and realize what a great contribution business has made to the Canadian economy," said David McLean, Chairman, Canadian National Railway - Archives Founding Member and sponsor of the Mosaic Mural art installation.
The National Business Archives of Canada is a destination for the business community and public to experience the role of Canadian business in the development and prosperity of our country. With a footprint in Brookfield Place, the Archives will initially exist as a virtual centre and digital knowledgebase of artifacts and historical resources, with a business centre, library and exhibit gallery planned for the near future. (the pictures below are from the existing virtual centre; that I visited this weekend - Sir Joseph Flavelle happens to be one of my favourite Torontonians/Son of Peterborough)
The first building, now known as Commerce Court North, was built in 1930 as the headquarters of the Canadian Bank of Commerce, a precursor bank to the current main tenant. Designed by the Canadian firm Pearson and Darling with the American bank specialists York and Sawyer as consulting architects, the 34-storey limestone clad tower was the tallest building in the British Empire/Commonwealth for roughly three decades, until 1962. At the time of its construction, the building was one of the most opulent corporate headquarters in Canada, and featured a public observation deck (since closed to the public due to safety and liability concerns).
Commerce Court North held the title of tallest building in Toronto between 1931–1967
Brascan Corporation can be traced back to the dawn of the 20th century and South America, where Canadians played a role in the early development of hydroelectric power generation, street car lines, and gas and telephone systems. The power business came first, beginning in 1899. The Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Company Limited, formed in 1912, amalgamated infrastructure operations in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Brazilian Traction, Light and Power Company, meanwhile, sold off its telephone operations to the Brazilian government. The company was renamed Brascan. A decade later, in 1979, the power business, too, was sold to the government, and Edper acquired controlling interest in Brascan. North America became the central focus for investment in the power industry. In 1973, Brascan had acquired Great Lakes Power Company and its hydroelectric facilities. The independent company had been incorporated in the early 1920s to provide power in northern Ontario.
1976: Edper Investments becomes the major shareholder of Trizec.
1979: Edper acquires a controlling interest in Brascan.
1989: Edper Investments Ltd. is renamed Edper Enterprises and makes its public offering.
1997: The Edper Group and Brascan Limited combine to form EdperBrascan Corporation.
2000: The company is renamed Brascan Corporation.
2005: changes its name to Brookfield Asset Management (BAM).
Bruce Flatt, president and CEO of Brookfield Properties Corp., took over the post of president and CEO of Brascan Corporation in 2002
In an effort to beef up its already impressive real estate business, in 2003, Brascan got involved in a bidding war for the control of the United Kingdom's Canary Wharf Group. It also entered into one of the largest financing deals ever constructed in the commercial real estate market.
Although losing the bid for control of London's Canary Wharf in 2004, Brascan gained 72 New York State hydroelectric generating plants. The two deals represented the wave of the future. "For Canada's Brascan Corp., it's goodbye, rocks and trees, and hello, buildings and dams," wrote Elena Cherney for the Wall Street Journal. By focusing on power generation and real estate, Brascan felt it would draw in more institutional investors growing portfolios for the wave of retirees on the horizon.
Founded in 1914, the Peterborough Utilities Commission (PUC) operated in Peterborough for more than 85 years as a not-for-profit organization providing safe and reliable supplies of electricity and water to the city.
Restructured in 2000, the PUC became part of the Peterborough Utilities Group and continues to operate as a not-for-profit organization providing safe and reliable water to the city. At the same time, a number of new companies were established within Peterborough Utilities Group:
Peterborough Distribution Inc. to provide safe and reliable electricity to the city;
Peterborough Utilities Services Inc. to provide services to support the operations of all of the entities under the Peterborough Utilities Group; and
Peterborough Utilies Inc. to manage electrical generation and retail services.
Peterborough was one of the first places in the country to begin generating hydroelectric power. Companies like Edison General Electric Company (later Canadian General Electric) and America Cereal Company (later to become Quaker Oats), developed hydroelectric generating stations to take advantage of this inexpensive, efficient and reliable energy resource to provide power to their manufacturing facilities in Peterborough.
Today, Peterborough Utilities Inc. (PUI) owns and operates three hydroelectric generation stations:
(1) London Street Generating Station Originally built in 1884 and located on the Otonabee River within the City of Peterborough. This facility was acquired from Quaker Oats in 1975. The station produces 4 MW of power that is distributed within the City of Peterborough.
(2) Campbellford-Seymour Electricity Generating Station Built in 1910, this 6 MW station is situated at Lock 14 on the Trent River a few kilometers north of Campbellford. The facility was acquired from the Campbellford-Seymour PUC in 2000.
(3)Robert G. Lake Generating Station PUI is a partner in Trent Rapids Power Corporation and will operate the Robert G. Lake GS under contract with TRPC. The station has been named for “Bob” Lake who was General Manager/President of the Peterborough Utilities Group (and it’s predecessor the Peterborough Utilities Commission) for almost 20 years.
All three hydroelectric generating stations operate as run-of-the-river facilities in order to minimize their environmental footprint while producing a reliable source of "green" energy.
PUI sees electricity generation as a key area of growth in the future and is pursuing a number of additional project opportunities. PUI’s focus will be on the development of renewable and clean energy resources including solar hydropower and landfill gas.
PUI recently commenced construction of the 10 MW Lily Lake Solar PV project located northwest of the City of Peterborough adjacent to Hydro One's Dobbin Transformer Station.
In addition, PUI recently executed a Feed-In-Tariff (FIT) contract for a 2 MW landfill gas (LFG) generation project to be located at the County/City of Peterborough Waste Management Facility on Bensfort Road.
Back at the turn of the twentieth century electricity was only starting to make its way into affluent homes. Electric trolley cars appeared on main streets to replace horse-drawn transit. Cities completed to be the first to have those streets lit with clean, bright light. In the small Ontario city of Peterborough, the town fathers came up with the idea of "the Electric City," claiming that theirs was the first in the Dominion to boast electric street lighting. During a period when Montreal and Toronto were still using a toxic mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen called coal gas to light their streets with smoky yellow flames, Peterborough's downtown George Street was illuminated by seventeen electric arc lights.
...
During a period when the innovation was restricted to the wealthy, it was usually only opera houses and high-tone restaurants that boasted electric light. Indeed, when Thomas Edison, the quintessential American hero of the Gilded Age, inaugurated his first central-station electrical system is 1882, he placed his generator on Wall Street.
Peterborough was a pioneer of Canada's industrial revolution because its fast-flowing Otonabee River offered ample supplies of the novelty that was hydroelectric power at Niagara was just starting to spark a controversy over who would control the stories falls, the Peterborough Light and Power Company had already installed a generator on the Otonabee's Dickson "raceway." The company secured the municipal street lighting franchise and lit up George Street. Peterborough's surplus power meant that by 1907 it was generating more manufactured goods than any city in Ontario on a per worker basis. Cereal from Quaker Oats (founded 1900) and canoes from what would become Peterborough Canoe became national brands.
Peterborough was even further ahead of its time when it came to luring new businesses. At the end of the twentieth century cities and provinces were falling all over themselves with offers of low taxes and cheap land to lure this or that employer to set up shop. Well before the end of the nineteenth century, Peterborough had accomplished just that. In 1890 the city fathers told the Edison General Electric Company that the town was in a position to come across with land valued at $18,372, municipal services worth $12,138, and a ten-year tax holiday. The U.S. company had initially built its works in Sherbrooke, Quebec, but immediately decamped when it got an offer it couldn't refuse. The men of property who constituted Peterborough's ratepayers were similarly enthusiastic. They authorized the deal by a vote of 656 to 11.
Peterborough had more than cheap land. The city sat on the Otonabee River at the foot of a series of fast-moving channels. The millraces on the river had already made the town an ideal location for the water-powered sawmills that processed timber from the dense forests of the Kawartha Lakes district. When Edison arrived, the company received fresh tax incentives to build two new power houses on the river. The company that would become Canadian General Electric emerged as one of the country's leading manufacturers of electrical apparatus. Well over a hundred years later its huge Peterborough plant remains a large industrial employer, though it has downsized in recent decades. It once produced everything from locomotives to refrigerators, from insulated wire and cable to huge hydroelectric generators. It also emerged as a key supplier to the nuclear industry, making refuelling machines and the fuel bundles that form the guts of nuclear power plants. Today its products are more limited (though the nuclear section with its fuel bundles remains a mainstay), but in the spring 2004 the plant was completing the first of six generators - each the size of a railway car- to be use in portable stations in Iraq.
The Lethbridge Viaduct, commonly known as the High Level Bridge, is the longest and highest steel trestle bridge in North America. It was constructed between 1907–1909 at Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada at a cost of $1,334,525.
Specifications
Length: 1,623.86 m (5,327.625 ft)
Height: 95.7 m (314.0 ft) above river bed
Materials: 12,400 tons of steel
Deck spans and lengths:
44 plate girder spans each of 20.4 m (66.93 ft)
22 plate girder spans each of 30.15 m (98.92 ft)
one riveted lattice-truss of 32.6 m (106.96 ft)
Rigid braced steel towers: total of 33
Location of Lethbridge Viaduct in Lethbridge
This massive steel trestle over the Oldman River was designed by the Canadian Pacific Railway's bridge department in Montreal. The field work was directed by CPR's Assistant Chief Engineer John Edward Schwitzer. The steel work was manufactured by the Canadian Bridge Company of Walkerville, Ontario. A 100 man gang worked on the erection of the steel. Although there were some initial problems with settlement, the bridge has proved to be an enduring engineering work and is still in use today.
It was built as part of a major diversion of the Crowsnest Pass route between Lethbridge and Fort Macleod. The river crossing was previously over a wooden trestle measuring 894 m (2,933 ft) long and 20 m (66 ft) high; an impressive structure in its own right.
Above is a picture of the High Level bridge I took the last time I was in Lethbridge! Sorry not the best picture but atleast I have one of my own.
I love transmission poles! I had taken this pic and posted on my facebook page, as it seems, exactly this month, 4 years ago! (I remember this was at Richmond Hill Centre while waiting for the bus.) I was reading the book 'HYDRO', as mentioned in yesterday's post, and found the following Babcock & Wilcox magazine ad quote from the 1950s on pg. 35:
Across rivers and chasms, over mountains, through forests, out into deserts- the slim wires run - bringing lightm, power and life. Into every corner of the country, electricity has sent its probing, creative fingers- developing farms, mines, industry and cities.
Electricity has been ... and will continue to be ... man's indispensable aid in breaking through the physical frontiers of the world. But now, with the full advent of the science of electronics- electricity begins to open the frontiers of the mind
ONTARIO HYDRO WAS, for nearly a century, one of the most successful public utilities in the world. The company always hired talented people to undertake its ambitious ventures.
...
If you make your way to the stacks of a library in Ontario and search out the shelf where they keep the books on Ontario Hydro, you will notice that most of the titles play on a single word. The People's Power (Merrill Denison's book). The Politics of Power. Delusions of Power. Public Power. Power at Cost. Power at What Cost? There is at least one case, too, in which the writer and publisher did not choose a wordplay on the intimate, even incestuous, relationship between electrical energy and political and economic power in the province. That book bears the simple but suggestive title Electric Empire.
Travel breeds curiosity. On the road, we find ourselves waking early, wandering unfamiliar streets, watching foreign cities creak to life as the sun rises. We poke around corners, eat exotic dishes and pour over maps. We are alive to the possibilities of the world around us.
Yet the more I travel, the more I chide myself for not maintaining such curiosity at home, a point made clear by a recent obsession: swimming the rivers and creeks right outside my back door.
-- Was reading this article, A wild chase for bull trout in my own backyard, in the Globe and Mail and it reminded me of something I had read in an earlier mentioned book "TORONTO, no mean city" under 'The Origin of Street Names in TOronto'. Below are the Streets/ intersections I have lived next to during my past 8 years in Toronto -
Augusta Avenue- A female member of the Denison family (see Denison) or Charlotte Augusta, only daughter of George IV (see Charlotte)
Bathurst Street - Henry, third earl Bathurst, secretary for War and the Colonies 1812- 27. The name applied to the present street south of Queen (then Lot) when given in 1837. The northern section was known as Crookshank's Lane, after the Hon George Crookshank, who owned a large estate there.
Bloor Street - Joseph Bloor, 1788- 1862, a brewer who lived at 100 Bloor Street. Bloor and Sheriff Jarvis laid out the village plots for the town of Yorkville, just north of Bloor. For many years Bloor was the northern limit of the city proper. It was formerly known as St Paul's Road, Sydenham Road, and Toll-Gate Road, the latter after the toll-gate that stood at the corner of Yonge Street.
Carr Street - Probably John Carr, city councillor, alderman, clerk and commissioner, 1847-73. Carr Street was originally Elizabeth Street, part of Belleuve Estate owned by Colonel George Denison. The name was changed in 1870. John Carr resided at 21 Denison Ave.
Denison Avenue - The street was one of the roads to the Denison house at Denison Square owned by George Taylor Denison and, after his decease, by his son Lt.-Col. Robert Brittain Denison (1821-1900). See Augusta, Bedford, Bellevue, Borden, Brookfield, Churchill, Dewson, Dovercourt, Esther, Fennings, Lippincott, Major, Ossington, Robert, Rolyat, Rusholme.
Dufferin Street - The marqis of Dufferin and Ava, governor general of Canada 1872-8.
Dundas Street - Sir Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melville, Home Secretary 1791-4. Like Yonge Street, Dundas Street was laid out by Gov Simcoe, who intended that it join the provincial capital at York with the Thames River on the west and the mouth of the River Trent on Lake Ontario on the east. Within Toronto's boundaries, Dundas Street today is formed from a series of earlier streets, including St Patrick, Anderson, and Agnes Streets west of Yonge; Crookshank Street, Wilton Avenue, Wilton Crescent, and Beech Street between Yonge Street and the Don River.
Dupont Avenue - George Dupont Wells (1814- 54), son of Col the Hon J. Wells of Davenport, County York.
Keele Street - William Keele, solicitor, who owned property in Toronto Junction.
Queen Street - Queen Victoria (1819 - 1901). So named about 1843. Queen Street was formerly Lot Street because of the 'park lots' abutting it and extending north to Bloor Street. Lot became the northern limit of the town in 1797, as it grew beyond the original boundary of Duchess.
Salem Avenue - Salem, Massachusetts
Spadina Avenue - Spadina, the country home if Dr W. W. Baldwin, to which it was the approach. The name is derived from Espadinong, an Indian word meaning a little hill.
Wolseley Avenue - Col Garnet Joseph Wolseley (1833-1913), later Viscount Wolseley, who came to Canada in 1861 as assistant quartermaster-general. In 1970 he commanded the force sent west to the Red River to quell the Riel insurrection. Wolseley Street was formerly Monck Street.
A Public Servant Whose Name Is Now on Protesters’ Lips
By SAM ROBERTS
John E. Zuccotti
In the 40 years since John E. Zuccotti joined city government as a part-time, $15,000-a-year member of the City Planning Commission, he has been chairman of the commission, first deputy mayor, chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York and the United States chairman of the global real estate giant Brookfield Properties, which owns, among other buildings, the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan.
But none of those titles or positions catapulted him into greater, if unwitting, prominence than the continuing Occupy Wall Street demonstrations staged from the tiny downtown park that Brookfield owns and that bears his name.
Zuccotti Park has become a much-spoken name among protesters camped there and among followers of the protest movement that has been gaining steam in other American cities. The block-long, half-acre park has arguably become one of the city’s better-known patches of greenery. Yet most of the park’s occupants, who are railing against what they deem the inequities of the financial system, probably have no idea who Mr. Zuccotti is.
Certainly, nobody recognized him during several casual sojourns he has made to the park from his office at the World Financial Center to survey the scene, including one on Wednesday. (He said he did not interact with any of the protesters.)
Mr. Zuccotti did remember getting a call from a relative in Italy: “My cousin called and said everyone in Genoa was saying, ‘Is that your relative?’ I’ve become famous.”
The park was created as a public space in return for allowing the original owners to build a larger office tower in 1968. A public plaza typically does not, however, allow overnight camping or serve as a regular staging ground for mass protests.
But Mr. Zuccotti, who cuts a judicious, even owlish, figure at 74, is no stranger to gracious hospitality. One of his first jobs was checking hats at the El Morocco night club where his father was the head waiter and later the incontrovertible guardian of the velvet rope as the maitre d’.
As for Brookfield’s continued welcome, Mr. Zuccotti said, “my guess is that we basically look to the police leadership and mayor to decide what to do.”
The protesters are not your typical El Morocco crowd. They are considerably more democratic and, arguably, more diverse in their political agenda.
“According to what I read, the nature of the protest has been a little vague,” said Mr. Zuccotti, who returned to New York on Tuesday after traveling in Europe.
“If you go there, you can’t tell the protesters from the tourists,” he added. “It has a kind of festive atmosphere.”
After his visit on Wednesday, though, he said the park has gotten “a little messy,” adding: “Sooner or later we’re going to have to get in to clean it. With gas generators and other things there, we don’t want anybody to get hurt.”
The park, which was originally known as 1 Liberty Plaza, was renamed Liberty Park after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
In 2006, after an $8 million renovation to repair damage from the attack on the World Trade Center, the pink granite park was renamed for Mr. Zuccotti. The gesture marked his public service as a savior of the city while deputy mayor under Mayor Abraham D. Beame during the 1970s fiscal crisis, and as a vigorous cheerleader for downtown’s revival after the terrorist attacks. Mr. Zuccotti lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Susan Sessions Zuccotti, a historian and the author of several books about the Holocaust.
The park is adorned with several dozen honey locust trees and a large abstract sculpture called “Joie de Vivre’’ and another of a businessman with a briefcase.
Mr. Zuccotti said he had no idea that the park was to be named for him until he arrived for the rededication ceremony.
“I started to notice there were all these people from various stages in my life, and suddenly it dawned on me they were pulling a fast one,’’ Mr. Zuccotti said. “It was a complete surprise.”
During the ceremony, he recounted what President Lyndon B. Johnson said in dedicating a building in Washington when Mr. Zuccotti was a special assistant at the Department of Housing and Urban Development: “My pappy would have enjoyed it and my mammy would have believed it.”
What about his parents? What would they have thought about the park and the protest?
“They would have been proud of the name,” he replied, “and they probably would have said, ‘I hope they’re keeping the park clean.’”
Steve Jobs the mastermind behind Apple's iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac and iTunes, has died. Please listen to/ read the commencement speech he gave at Stanford University.
Thank you. I'm honored to be with you today for your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I never graduated from college and this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation.
Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the dots.
I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that when I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking, "We've got an unexpected baby boy. Do you want him?" They said, "Of course." My biological mother found out later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would go to college.
This was the start in my life. And seventeen years later, I did go to college, but I naïvely chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no idea of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I was, spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out, I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me and begin dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.
It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example.
Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.
None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them.
If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do.
Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever--because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path, and that will make all the difference.
My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We'd just released our finest creation, the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I'd just turned thirty, and then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I'd been rejected but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer-animated feature film, "Toy Story," and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.
In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family together.
I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life's going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking, and don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don't settle.
My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went something like "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "no" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors' code for "prepare to die." It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and, thankfully, I am fine now.
This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even people who want to go to Heaven don't want to die to get there, and yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It's life's change agent; it clears out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it's quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stuart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late Sixties, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. it was sort of like Google in paperback form thirty-five years before Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and great notions. Stuart and his team put out several issues of the The Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, "Stay hungry, stay foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. "Stay hungry, stay foolish." And I have always wished that for myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay hungry, stay foolish.
Chewang Norphel, Director of the Leh Nutrition Project.
Rain is scarce in these snow-peaked Himalayas of northern India, and summers bring dust storms that whip across craggy brown slopes and sun-chapped faces. Glaciers are the sole source of fresh water for the Buddhist farmers who make up more than 70% of the population in this rugged range between Pakistan and China. But rising temperatures have seen the icy snow retreat by dozens of feet each year — to find evidence of global warming, the farmers simply have to glance up from their fields and see the rising patches of brown where, once, all was white. Knowing no alternative, they pray harder for rain and snow.
But Chewang Norphel has gone beyond prayer. The 73-year-old civil engineer has come up with a solution that won't exactly save the ancient glaciers, but it could stave off a looming irrigation crisis. Norphel has created artificial glaciers, frozen pools of glacier run-off perched above the farmers' fields, which thaw just in time for the start of growing season in April — two months before water from the distant natural glaciers is expected to arrive. The slanted pools melt into irrigation channels over the next six weeks, watering crops for villages of roughly 500 families and, as a bonus, recharging the valley's natural springs.
Norphel is known locally as "Ice Man," and cuts a rebellious figure with slick raven hair and a black leather jacket. His innovation has been hailed as an elegantly simple and cheap solution to a devastating problem. One artificial glacier costs just $7,000, compared to $34,000 for a cement water reservoir. Only local materials are needed, and the villagers themselves can build and maintain them. The seven glaciers he's built as head of a local non-profit managing the watershed program for the state of Jammu and Kashmir have won him widespread attention, as engineers from other mountainous regions in India and Afghanistan have visited to learn his methods.
But funding from the government and cooperation from villagers have proved fleeting, and his plan to put artificial glaciers in over 100 villages of his native highlands now faces Everest-sized obstacles.
One of the villages targeted by Norphel is the Buddhist hamlet of Sakti, tucked in the mountains of the Ladakh Range that stretch above the Indus River. Village head Tsering Kundan recalled the rush of optimism when Norphel's glacier was first built in 2001. People grabbed up more land to cultivate, planting groves of willow and poplar saplings between the fields. But now they're letting their man-made glacier fall into disrepair, says Kundan. Villagers accuse one another of secretly diverting its water, and the local watershed committee is neglecting to spend government funds on maintenance. "They're more interested in spending it on buying cows," said the 54-year-old farmer, his eyes glistening red from sun and wind.
Norphel found his state funds cut in 2006 as part of the fallout from an unrelated political dispute between government officials and Ladakh's notoriously crowded field of NGOs. Still, the quixotic Ice Man remains determined to prove the power of his invention. His biggest and most successful glacier is also the most remote, meaning that few officials are willing to make the seven-mile hike to see it. One nearer to town has been reduced to a series of dirt pits from neglect and a major flood. Unperturbed, Norphel sees this as a chance to rebuild the perfect showpiece.
Shimmying down the slopes toward the dry pools, he described the improvements he would make if he just had the money. The headworks at the natural glacier would direct water with more precision and efficiency. Stone channels would be widened so the water wouldn't freeze on its way down. Pipes leading to the pools would be deep underground, and made of concrete, to withstand floods. Water would cascade onto fields in April, and global warming would lose its grip, for a while.
Then people would see.
"I just need one village," said Norphel. "Then I can show everyone.
The Busan to Geoje fixed link project was an ambitious scheme to reduce journey times between Korea's south coast city of Busan and the island of Geoje - a tourist hot-spot and home to the country's biggest shipbuilding yards.
This world class project provides an 8.2km highway link between the southern city of Busan and the island of Geoje in South Korea. The overall link comprises two major cable stayed bridges, with main spans of 230m and 475m respectively, and a 3.4km long immersed tunnel. The tunnel, which carries traffic at a depth of up to 48m below sea level to avoid large container ships, is one of the deepest in the world.
Halcrow TEC JV were appointed Technical Advisers to Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd, who led the consortium to design, construct and operate this vital US$1100m transport link, completed in 2010.
Halcrow–TEC JV provided advice to Daewoo on many aspects of the design and construction of the link, together with advice on contracts and contract strategy (including design contracts) and project organization.
The link slashes journey times from three and a half hours to just 40 minutes opening up the region to a wealth of previously untapped business and tourism opportunities thus boosting the economy.
CNBC World TV series that celebrates the art of business travel
Description
Going Global is a CNBC World TV series that focuses on business travel and the best of international journeys. It's about first class travel experiences and identifying exciting business opportunities.
Business is a journey: Travel well
Schedule
Saturday 7:30 & 10:30 PM ET, Sunday 7:30 AM ET in the United States
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