I have been in many places on this globe, but this is one of my most breath-taking experiences.
Girl in the old town of Haikou
Old man drinking tea
The flower hat; you find it on many heads ;-)
Dogs on the road; I love dogs and they don't eat dogs here!
I love short talks, not because I am too lazy to listen to long ones, but because it impresses me if people are able to find images or metaphors respectively that keep what they have to say short and precise. Derek Sivers is a wonderful example of this very rare species. It is not only the shortness which I adore, but I also his view on the world. There is not more to say, listen if you find 2:50 minutes …
Derek Sivers is best known as the founder of CD Baby. A professional musician since 1987, he started CD Baby by accident in 1998 when he was selling his own CD on his website, and friends asked if he could sell theirs, too. CD Baby was the largest seller of independent music on the web, with over $100M in sales for over 150,000 musician clients.
Recently, I had a comment on my facebook site where I cited a study by David Nieman that regular sessions of endurance training increasing 90 minutes may hamper your immune capacity. This was doubted, therefore I looked for more scientific evidence. Here I quote famous Michael Gleeson who plublished a whole book on “immune function in sport and exercise”.
Anxiety worsens a frail immunity, by Regina Hofer
In summary he says, that acute bouts of exercise cause a temporary depression of various aspects of immune function. Disturbances of immunity last until 3 to 24 after exercise depending on the intensity and duration of the exercise bout. Postexercise immune function depression is most pronounced when the exercise is continuous, prolonged (>1.5 h), of moderate to high intensity (55–75% maximum O2 uptake), and performed without food intake. (more…)
I loved to listen to Marc Pachter with his authentic way of being. His words are wise (he got this age where one can dare to talk about wisdom). His liveliness and his openness are amazing. I myself am forced into interview situations once and again. As an absolute beginner I really could learn from Pachter what it takes to get a quality interview that is of interest and thrill for others. As a good interviewer you have to be gutsy even for the sake of compromising yourself and you have to have the empathy to pierce the shell of your interview partner, and the interviewee on the other side has to have this urge to tell his/her story and should not be modest.
Marc Pachter is a cutural historian, and has spent his career curating and creating intimate portraits of the lives of others.
Recently, I have been training with my personal coach as I do twice every week, and it came that we were discussing the topic of symmetry. I enjoy this luxury of having a coach since I am suffering from pains in my foot that I cannot not control anymore. The pain keeps me away from running which really influences my mood negatively ;-)… sorry, I am zoning out!
Analyzing my body we found out that over decades I have developed a kind of a patchwork of asymmetry that disturbs economic and efficient movements. Compensatory actions and postures added up. The result is a mess that is extremely difficult to tackle. Symmetry, so my hypothesis, is an ideal state of a biological organism that facilitates optimal functionality, and is rarely achieved or never, as it would mean complete perfection.
Today I found a talk by Marcus du Sautoy about symmetry that just fits into my current deliberations.
Marcus Peter Francis du Sautoy (born in London, 26 August 1965) is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. His academic work concerns mainly group theory and number theory. (more…)
Sorry, but I have to pick up TED again. I think this talk by Erin McKean is worthwhile to listen to for all of you who are working with language. I myself spend a lot of my time writing. Words are the tools I use daily, and in this moment while I just used the word tool, I am aware of the fact that this is not the right term. Because a tool for me is rigid, words are living creatures within a context, they express a way of thinking, they are embedded into real life.
Dictionaries don’t take this into consideration, they isolate words, and they overrule us with their authority. Dictionaries, so Erin McKean are outdated, they are inapt to fullfil their task. With wordnik Erin McKean launches a dictionary that is not a dictionary 
! To me it seems like an organism alive and multifaceted. I love it, and the presentation Erin gave on TED I love it too. It is intelligent and it has got the sense of humour I adore.
Rural villages worldwide are being deserted, as billions of people flock to cities to live in teeming squatter camps and slums. Stewart Brand says this is a good thing. Why? It’ll take you 3 minutes to find out.
Listening to the news, and the whispered rumors, to the huge current of hear and say flooding our minds every day makes us believe to be connected to the real world out there. But are these not preconceptions surrounding us like a lullaby? This short presentations by Stewart Brand shows us completely different perspective on a situation. This does not necessarily mean that it is the real world out there either, but it underlines once and again that we should not take anything for granted.
