Journeys through space and time

Talk about juxtaposition - I was listening to Bob Dylan a couple of nights ago - not that there’s anything particularly strange about that, it happens pretty regularly.  Dylan, Springsteen, Mr Cash, Pink Floyd amongst others are very often part of my sonic landscape - it just so happened that during the day I had the misfortune of being subject to talking head politicians on the radio of various ilks - a couple of U.S ones, an English one and a couple of New Zealand ones - they’re all pretty much interchangeable - takes a certain breed to be a career bureaucrat - but the thing that struck me is - if Dylan can be relevant after almost 50 years, if Johnny Cash’s voice still resonates etc - how did it happen that we ended up with people who’s voices are not only unmemorable for the most part, but often times un-listenable - I’m not suggesting artists should be in politics, far from it - I am suggesting however that politics seems often to be so far from the mark in terms of it’s voice - Obama aside for now - if a politician could be relevant for the period of time these artists have been now that would really be something.  Being able to echo the whispers of the Zeitgeist - to be able to change direction, to grasp the fundamentals, to not get caught in the spin cycle of hypocrisy, the list goes on. It must be possible, other humans do it.

Where are there long serving leaders? Who lasts 50 years? Well I guess Castro has or did - Kim Jong in North Korea either through father or son has - the Singaporean leader has been there for ever - I know not great examples - but from a pragmatic standpoint - they are effective - even if you disagree with their methods - I’m not advocating dictatorial process - I am saying that without lobbyists and the silly game of “if your party says this, then my party is going to disagree with it” regardless of whether or not it makes sense - this serves to further the advance of the politicians, it doesn’t as far as I can tell have much to do with the people they supposedly represent. Seems to me that politics is about gaining traction irrespective of logic, need or want or much thought. If you have the misfortune of watching or listening to debates in the Senate, or in parliament I’m surprised anything ever gets done - talk about a dysfunctional affair - a group of people who appear to be from some other place yelling at each other regardless of the topic - “if you say it’s green, then I’ll say it’s yellow, even though it’s obviously pink. Meanwhile you got silent texts coming in to remind them that if they don’t say it’s green the funding from the gay christians for road signs will be pulled and there goes that - what ever that funding gets spent on. I know naieve again, but I was under the impression that we pay for things - that’s why we get taxed - and if that’s not the case how bout passing them dollars back. Off topic but anyway.

I know it’s naive, but the idea that the party is supposed to represent the people - that I thought was the underlying structure of democracy. Artists are relevant always because they’re able to convey, sing, paint, write whatever without being pushed and pulled by external forces. Sure I can hear people say “democracy allows them this right”, it does, but that’s not the point.

Your picture of the day: food for thought. china

Grier Uncategorized

Systemic failure - that’s a phrase that got a lot of use in the closing months of 2008 - “trying to avoid systemic failure” - I guess it’s a reasonable thing to do or attempt to do - however it might not be of much use if the system that is being propped up is fundamentally flawed - I watched Bill Maher last week interview Simon Johnson a very important economist who is currently a professor of economics at MIT and Muhammad Yunus the Nobel prize winning economist that was  responsible for starting the micro-lending practice in developing nations.  Interestingly enough both men were pretty much in agreement that the current system is in a state of total disrepair - what struck me was, Mr Yunus looked at the economy with a more sociological view -”I’m not against profit; this is good. But, at the same time, there should be a business on the basis of the selflessness, so that I do business to make the world change, to impact on people’s lives”– Muhammad Yunus
It’s strikes me that the mindset that drives a lot of what goes on that needs to change - it needs an upgrade a  reboot - it really ultimately comes down to a series of ethical questions - if ethical behaviour is missing in the first instance then how can it possibly be installed farther down the track?

So systemic failure speaks about the system of money - not the system that runs behind the systems that run the money.

GM is being propped up to avoid “systemic failure” it’s called bankruptcy. Bankruptcy in the case of GM would seem to be an indication that lots of things were not working properly - to big to fail? Perhaps “to big to work properly” is a better phrase. I wonder why - AIG who were also enormous to the point of surely breaching anti-monopoly laws somewhere, Lehman Brothers, Citi-group (zombie bank) were all soooo big  -”to big to function” ? dunno but worth considering perhaps

Grier Uncategorized

It seems that most times I start talking to people about where our evolutionary path is possibly leading us - well at least where I suspect it’s leading us, I wind up in one argument or another - usually something to do with

• The perception of who we are - but based entirely on sentiment
• One form of Religion or another
• How we will revert to a nicer older version of ourselves ( which I can’t find any evidence to support)

when I read things like this in the NY times - it supports my theory to some extent - I wrote about it a month or so ago.

I never want to get into the ethical discussion of is it “good” or “bad” - I don’t think it’s a case of ethics - it’s a case of evolution - moving from one state to another to another to another - and as nothing can happen without cause and effect it seems to me entirely logical - it’s not a good or bad argument that flies have the eyes that they do, or that fish have gills or that humans are intrinsically linked to technology. It would appear that we have as little control over our evolutionary destiny as anything else - if not we would consciously STOP everything right now - which is unlikely - I would imagine impossible - we can’t unlearn all that we know anymore than a bird can forget how to flap it’s wings.

Your picture of the day: Old Shanghai

Grier Uncategorized evolution, progress, religion, technology

1 in 7 return to militant ways - that’s what I’m told in the New York Times - a study shows that reactivity back into nasty ways happens this often. I wonder how they figured that one out - a terrorist census? Did they do a door to door somewhere and poll it?

Get out of Guantanamo and run back to Pakistan re-enlist - I suppose if there was any real validity in a nonesensical stat like that it would hardly be surprising would it?

Grab someone - terrorist or not, fly them away, stuff em in a prison, treat them like sub-humans, take away all rights and then release them  - I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out what the possible reactions to that might be.

If they were known terrorists then why  were they released? Isn’t that point of this Gulag - keep the bad guys contained?  It doesn’t stack up - they got no rights basically so it’s not like they got let out on a technicality - so how’d they get out?

Weird

Your picuture of the day: Birds , Brooklyn, NY

Grier Uncategorized lies, rights, stats

So it isn’t just me that reacts to airports and the way people are treated as they enter a country - I’d written about it just a week or so ago - I then went and listened to Hendrik Hertzberg speaking (contributing editor at the New Yorker) coincidentally he also wrote about the subject in his blog.

The topic of how a country brands itself is an interesting one - I sort of touched on that yesterday - the U.S has done a fantastic job of branding but lately has done a shitty job of living up to it’s promises.  Can’t deliver.  It starts and usually ends at the airport.

Your picture of the day: Unknown airport.

Grier Uncategorized airport, branding, travel

Ok this might be 2nd grade humor but I can’t resist it.

Woody Allen gets 5 million bucks in settlement from American Apparel.

Check out the lawyers name for American Apparel

Stuart Slotnick

Swap the l and the n - ha ha ha ha - could there possibly be a better name for a lawyer?

Grier Uncategorized

I’m not sure that all things are related, but then I’m not sure that they’re not either - I suspect that the 8 years of hellish Bush time affected far more deeply than was first imagined - I don’t think a shrug of the shoulders can make it better, brushing it under the carpet is just not an option. If you consider all the outwardly, known crappy shit they pulled added with the ever increasing pile of unknown crap they pulled it permeates an entire country in an insidious way - without people being aware of it I think, or not knowingly aware of it.

Wars waged, Lies and religion intertwined, laws broken, torture and secret prisons, collapse of the housing market, collapse of the banking system, undermining of the real thread of American life, oil Co’s running amok with cash, non green policies, stupid draconian laws written in, civil liberties eroded, the list goes and on and on - if you were to read all this stuff out of context you’d be sure you were reading about some kind of dictatorial banana republic in south America somewhere, but you’d be wrong - you’d be talking about the U.S.

You’d forget somewhere along the line that this is the country that has touted itself as the greatest country on the planet - which I personally always thought was a stupid thing to do, that sort of delusional self confidence can only lead to disaster because it suggests you never have to self review, you never have to be introspective, you never question your own arrogance, which leaves room for exactly what just happened to happen. I’m not saying America ain’t great, I love it, but I love lots of places and I don’t rate them on a scale of 1 - 10 because all things are different and I’d feel uncomfortable about putting a label like that on.

I particularly enjoyed reading this article today - “Rumsfeld the evil”- touting passages from the bible in his reports to Bush - I mean what fucking century are we living in? Or were we living in - or were they living in - pass me the gun Eva I’m headed to the bunker.

Your picture of the day: Machine gun festival, KT

Grier Uncategorized bush, politics, religion

I guess by now most people that read here know that I’ve spent the last year or so developing Somnus-Neu® - alot of work.

Seth Godin talks about tribes, in fact has a book called tribes - this concept is something I’ve taken to heart, to me it makes sense, it’s organic, it’s based around friends to some extent, it’s scale-able and it leaves the power somewhat in the hands of the people.

My feeling with Somnus-Neu® was always factored around to some extent the premise that to create anything truly new is going to be an uphill battle when it comes to dealing with the establishment - they like to move slow, they like to retain control and they like to keep it all in their court.

With this design I hope that it’s going to be somewhat pivotal in changing certain things - like bringing hotels into the 21st century, and possibly people sitting in private hospital outpatient clinics - it’s not just a bed - a great deal of though has gone into the back end - how much access via the net is possibly out there - being able to draw a lot of this together and place it in a concise portal.

So I’d always figured that if people like you, like me start talking sending it out, letting other  people know  - there’s a better chance with the power of numbers to influence decisions in the future  - hence the power of the people:)

Your picture of the day: Hotel porter runs into the future, Shanghai, China

Grier Uncategorized

I’ve been working on this concept for the last year or so - it’s about experience, integration, design etc - I mentioned it here yesterday. I wanted to post the working video up - to learn more please take a look at the Yoo-Pod site there you’ll gain a better understanding of the overall possibilties. How the hotel room experience  should change, how airline lounges could be connected to hotels,making our travel better, smoother and ulimately more fun.  W hotels for instance talking to Virgin Airlines making that connection from lounge to hotel  - integrating a travelers preferences into an over all system.

Anyway please take a look - have a read and pass it on.

Grier Uncategorized

Innovation - design - technology  - environment - experience - that’s what I’ve been working on for the last year or so - a union of these elements, where five pieces intersect.  I’m sure that’s the zeitgeist talking - smarter buildings, more function in a cell phone, faster Internet speeds, streaming media, design ethos, greener standards, better quality, more experience, multi functionality, social media, inter-connectivity, more access the list goes on and on.

In 3 weeks I am on a govt sponsored trade mission to Singapore, giving presentations and talking to Co’s that I hope are looking towards the future - for as much as innovation seems to be a motivating force and a direction towards the future, the stalwart establishment holds most of the purse strings and they’ve tended to stick with traditional models. Which as most of us can see have been sorely tested over the past 9 months or so.  So even though we hear pundits from all sides talking about the need to move forward I wonder how much of it’s talk and where the talk stops and the walk starts.

Singapore may have currently some of the larger more funded tech incubators in the world I hope they’re being driven by adventurers and not bankers - probably a slim chance.

Your Picture of the day:  Somnus-Neu® - Somnus=the roman god of sleep - Neu=New

Grier Uncategorized