List of Quotes from TED Singapore

I read through these while checking out the TED Singapore site and wanted to repost them all here:

An idea that is 

developed and put into action is more important 

than an idea that exists only as an idea. 

Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, 

founder of Buddhism, c500 B.C.

The value of an idea 

lies in the using of it. 

Thomas Edison

If you can dream it,

you can do it. 

Walt Disney.

Dream different dreams 

while on the same bed. 

Chinese proverb

Live out your imagination, 

not your history

George S. Patton

Think left and think right 

and think low and think high. 

Oh, the things you can think up if only you try.

Dr. Seuss

We must become the change 

we wish to see in the world.

Mahatma Ghandi

A journey of a thousand miles 

must begin with a single step.

Chinese proverb

You must act as if

it is impossible to fail.

Ashanti proverb

The person who says it cannot be done 

should not interrupt the person doing it. 

Chinese proverb

I like nonsense, 

it wakes up the brain cells.

Dr. Suess

New ideas pass through three periods: 

1. It can't be done. 

2. It probably can be done, but it's not worth doing. 

3. I knew it was a good idea all along! 

Arthur C. Clarke

First they ignore you,

then they laugh at you,

then they fight you, 

then you win.

Mahatma Ghandi

I can't understand 

why people are frightened of new ideas. 

I'm frightened of the old ones. 

John Cage

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. 

Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Vision without action is a daydream. 

Action without vision is a nightmare.

Japanese proverb

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. 

Art is knowing which ones to keep. 

Scott Adams

If at first, the idea is not absurd, 

there is no hope for it. 

Albert Einstein

The best way to have a good idea 

is to have lots of ideas.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Every child is an artist. 

The problem is how to remain an artist 

once he grows up.

Pablo Picasso

Observe Everything.

Communicate Well.

Draw, Draw, Draw.

Frank Thomas, Disney Animator

Add legs to the snake 

when you have finished drawing it.

Chinese proverb

All difficult things 

have their origin in that which is easy, 

and great things in that which is small.

Lao Tzu

Great souls have will, 

feeble ones have wishes. 

Chinese proverb

You see things, you say 'Why?' 

But I dream things that never are, and say 'Why not? 

George Bernard Shaw

Discovery consists of looking at the same thing 

as everyone else and thinking something different. 

Albert Szent Gyorgi

Every truth in this world 

has an opposite somewhere. 

U Nu

The reverse side 

also has a reverse side.

Japanese proverb

If you're not failing every now and again, 

it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative. 

Woody Allen

Everyone is a genius at least once a year. 

The real geniuses simply have their bright ideas closer together. 

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Do something. 

If it doesn't work, do something else.

No idea is too crazy.

Jim Hightower

Ideas are like rabbits. 

You get a couple and learn how to handle them, 

and pretty soon you have a dozen. 

John Steinbeck

Lack of money is no obstacle. 

Lack of an idea is an obstacle.

Ken Hakuta

A person with a new idea is a crank 

until the idea succeeds. 

Mark Twain

Life is so short, 

we must move very slowly.

Thai saying

There is more to life 

than increasing its speed.

Mahatma Ghandi

There is a better way, 

find it.

Thomas Edison

Dig a well 

before you are thirsty.

Chinese proverb

It is the mark of an educated mind 

to be able to entertain a thought 

without accepting it. 

Aristotle

An inventor is simply a fellow 

who doesn't take his education too seriously.

Charles Kettering

The best way to predict the future 

is to invent it. 

Alan Kay

Imagination is more important 

than knowledge.

Albert Einstein

Imagination is the beginning of creation: 

You imagine what you desire,

you will what you imagine

and at last, you create what you will.

George Bernard Shaw

You cannot depend on your eyes 

when your imagination is out of focus. 

Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Don't confuse the art of the possible

with the art of the profitable.

David Tansley

If you don't risk anything, 

you risk even more. 

Erica Jong

The more you know,

the less you understand.

Lao-Tzu

You may be disappointed if you fail,

but doomed if you do not try.

Beverly Stills

The most successful people are those 

who are good at Plan B.

James Yorke

Great ideas often receive 

violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Albert Einstein

A bamboo that bends is stronger 

than the oak that resists.

Japanese proverb

If you have an apple and I have an apple 

and we exchange these apples 

then you and I will still each have one apple. 

But if you have an idea and I have an idea 

and we exchange these ideas, 

then each of us will have two ideas.

George Bernard Shaw

When eating fruit, 

think of the person who planted the tree

Vietnamese proverb

Nothing is more dangerous than an idea,

when it is the only idea we have. 

Henri Fourier

Ask youself constantly.

'What is the right thing to do?' 

Confucius

A great person is one 

who has not lost the heart of a child.

Lao Tzu

There is nothing more powerful 

than an idea whose time has come.

Victor Hugo

Change your thoughts

and you change your world.

Norman Pool

All that we are 

is the result of what we have thought.

Buddha

The beginning of wisdom 

is to call things by their right names.

Chinese proverb

I dreamt of a thousand new paths. 

I woke and walked my old one.

Chinese proverb

There are many paths to enlightenment. 

Be sure to take the one with a heart. 

Lao Tzu

They always say time changes things, 

But you actually have to change them yourself. 

Andy Warhol

No wind, no waves.

Chinese proverb

Do not wait for leaders. 

Do it alone, person to person. 

Mother Teresa

IFOAM Organic World Congress History

Here at the KOC office we were saddened to see that the full history of the IFOAM OWC was not available anywhere online. Therefore we have done the footwork and here present the IFOAM Organic World Congress History:

 
It was Known as the IFOAM International Scientific Conference from it's conception in 1977 until 2000:

1st: Sissach, Switzerland (1977)
2nd: Montreal, Canada (1978)
3rd: Brussels, Belgium (1980)
4th: Boston, USA (1982)
5th: Kassel-Witzenhausen, Germany (1984)
6th: Santa Cruz, USA (1986)
7th: Quagadougou, Burkina Faso (1989)
8th: Budapest, Hungary (1990)
9th: Sao Paulo, Brazil (1992)
10th: Christchurch, New Zealand (1994)
11th: Copenhagen, Denmark (1996)
12th: Mar del Plata, Argentina (1998)
13th: Basel, Switzerland (2000)

It then became known as the IFOAM Organic World Congress:

  
14th: Victoria, Canada (2002)
15th: Adelaide, south Australia (2005)
16th: Modena, Italy (2008)
17th: Palddang, Korea (2011)

18th Istanbul (2014)

19th New Delhi (2017) 

20th France (2021) 

21st Digital but also France (2022)

The Joys and Lessons of Failed Work

Listening to a talk from the San Francicso Zen Center last night on failure I contemplated all my own failures and how much space and opportunity was in them.

I could not be more thankful for the failing and the realization they provide: that I can relax into comfortable happy Lucky Idiot-hood and smile.

Failure in good company:


The Joys and Lessons of Failed Work by Wendell Berry

I go by a field where once
I cultivated a few poor crops.
It is now covered with young trees,
for the forest that belongs here
has come back and reclaimed its own.
And I think of all the effort
I have wasted and all the time,
and of how much joy I took
in that failed work and how much
it taught me. For in so failing
I learned something of my place,
something of myself, and now
I welcome back the trees.

waterhemp/marestail

A conversation with a Montana farmer:

Bean Farmer:

"Having a really hard time knocking these pest of weeds down. Sprayed once and knocked them pretty good but there right back again. Anybody have that "special recipe"?


Me: 


"You could try to find a market for it. It is edible. 

I found the following in a quick search of edible plant databases for all amaranthus species like waterhemp/marestail: 

Young leaves - raw or cooked as a spinach. A mild flavour, it is often mixed with stronger flavoured leaves. Very rich in iron, it is also a good source of vitamins A and C.

Seed - raw or cooked. Ground into a powder and used as a cereal substitute, it can also be sprouted and added to salads. The seed is very small, about 1mm in diameter, but easy to harvest and very nutritious. The flavour is greatly improved by roasting the seed before grinding it. It is often added to cornmeal. 

That is my recipe. 

What do you say? "

of course you might need to reconsider some of your pest management strategies if you want to access the wild foods market.

Might be worth it though. 

Can also be used as a dye.

Ex-situ and In-situ Conservation

In-situ conservation is the preferred mechanism for maintaining biodiversity (Tuxtil & Nabhan 2003) because through in-situ conservation target species are preserved, along with all associated species. In-situ conservation can be a bi-product of wild collection when a proper evaluation of the ecosystem (Kacalek et al. 2009) and cultural functions (Melloni et al. 2008; Mitchell et al. 2007) is considered.

Ex-situ conservation as an approach for the conservation of habitats is questionable. Taking a species out of its natural habitat and away from the commensurate species who depend on it may preserve that species but will take attention and resources away from preservation of the diversity of life which depend on that species. Native species of plants, algae and fungi have evolved to create habitat and symbiosis with a host of associated species. Introduced and non-native farmed species are disassociated from native ranges and do not offer the same level of environmental benefits. As lands are converted from wild to human oriented use the loss of biodiversity is high, even in agricultural systems with higher biodiversity, e.g. agroforestry and organic (Steffan-Dewenter et al. 2007). 

Use of Zostera marina for conservation

Seagrass has a number of important eco system functions including habitat for fish spawning, nutrient cycling, erosion protection and buffering of pollutants (Han et al. 2008). The eelgrass, Zostera marina L., has traditionally been used for a myriad of purposes in these North Atlantic coastal communities (Alm 2003). Unfortunately, During the 1930s, a widespread infection of the slime mold, Labryinthula spp., stopped the harvest of this plant species (Cottam 1934; Muhlstein 1989). The plant community rebounded shortly thereafter and was briefly used for the collection of a product called sea-felt. Fiberglass soon filled that cultural and economic niche and ended the wild harvest once again (Wyllie-Echeverria et al. 2000). Thereafter, the areas where the species had previously been protected for the harvest began to be developed and mismanaged.

The hopeful news is that there may be more uses, which will lead to conservation, for the troubled seagrass habitat areas the circumpolar North Atlantic. Ethnobotany plays a role in these cultural conservation mechanisms (Norton & Hannan 1997). Ethnobotany and paleo-ethnobotany of the species was explored through the archives and structured interviews throughout the North Atlantic. Based on these interviews, awareness raising about the cultural and ecological diversity of Z. marina and its habitat have already lead to preservation of historical work sites and habitat conservation in Nova Scotia (Wyllie-Echeverria et al. 2000).

Alm T. 2003. On the Uses of Zostera marina, Mainly in Norway Economic Botany. 57(4):640-45

Cottam, C., 1934. Eelgrass disappearance has serious effects on waterfowl and industry. pp 191-93 in US Department of Agriculture Yearbook of Agriculture ed by M.S. Eisenhower.

Han, Qiu-Ying; Shi, Ping. 2008. Progress in the study of seagrass ecology, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research for Sustainable Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences. 28(11):5561-5570.

Muhlstein, L. K., 1989. Perspectives on the wasting disease of eelgrass, Zostera marina. Diseases of Aquat. Organ. 7: 211-21

Norton B.G., Hannon B. 1997, Environmental Values: A place-based theory. Environ. Ethics 19: 227-45.

Wyllie-Echeverria, S., Arzel, P., Cox, P. A. 2000. Pacific Conservation Biology. 5:329-35

Maine Woods

I just got a response from Senator Olympia Snowe about this issue. I wrote to her with concern about the changes that are planned for the maine Woods.. 

Looks like it could be bad. Big changes are planned for the Maine woods. 

Maine Governor LePage, among others, is planning to open up the woods to development. 

Snowe assured me that funding is being channeled to help establish better forest management. 

I don't feel that investment of capitol means anything about the effectiveness of programs for conservation.. I worked for the USNPS and I know that more money means more meetings, it means more fat veterans in office chairs waiting for retirement.. It means more starts and less finishes.. more paperwork.. More fancy equipment.. more plaques and statues... 

also.. i am dubious of recreation as a mechanism for conservation.. The farmers where I live have been watching the trails turn to streams and paved walkways.. the roadside stands along the trail turn to restaurants.. the farms in the valley turn to condos.. 

More on this issues from 'Environment Maine' http://www.environmentmaine.org/