Keep an eye on your Gatekeepers…

Virtually every organisation claims it is "innovative," however, this depends upon whether new ideas can get through the door... and this  relies upon your organisational 'Gatekeepers'.   The Gatekeepers are those who are appointed into roles where they get to choose  'who' sits at the table, who is invited onto the project team, to the …

Reflections on fighting from a novice -1

I have been reflecting on the rise of women’s fighting spirit over the last few years...We see it in our popular culture with increasing female lead heroines; in the discovering of Ancient fighting women in book's like Adrienne Mayor's Amazons; and in our social world, such as through the amazing real-life Hollywood heroines emerging through the …

Two women: one message: Stay human

With an edge of the flu on the way, yesterday I decided to take it easy and watch a DVD about the philosopher Hannah Arendt. When it finished, I switched back to 'TV mode' and immediately my screen was flooded with images of the late-Lady Diana, and her voice. It was the documentary Princess Diana: In …

Book Review: “Elon Musk How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping Our Future” by Ashlee Vance

Elon Musk has a Samurai Sword hanging in his office and although it represents his advances in Space, it is hard not see him as the leader of a most formidable, new sort of technological Army. For those hankering for rapid uptake of clean technologies to defeat global warming, this book shines a torch on …

Superman vs Batman: A mirror of our times?

[SPOILER ALERT] Like any decent art, (or Pop Art), the movie Superman vs Batman: Dawn of Justice (2016) speaks to the audience of its times. In subtle ways, parts of our reality are reflected to us, helping us to understand and navigate our unique era. It differs from other genre superhero films in that this time there …

Is it a Pink Swan or a Pink Spring?

As the sun gradually woke citizen's across the Earth, on 21st January 2017, the global #WomensMarch got underway. There were 673 marches from the cities of Washington, Rome and Sydney to continents and countries as diverse as Antarctica, Saudi Arabia, Japan,  Tanzania, Portugal, Mexico and Ecuador. Madonna announced that the Revolution of Love had begun, while Alicia …

Leadership & selecting the right Centre of Gravity to end the Liberian Wars

In a time of wide-spread and potential growing global conflict, it may be instructive to reflect upon how the Liberian Civil Wars were brought to an end.  Leymah Gbowee's memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers: How sisterhood, prayer, and sex changed a nation at war, and the related documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell describe a …

Book Review: ‘The Amazons’ by Adrienne Mayor

'The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women Across the Ancient World' by Adrienne Mayor, (2014) Princeton University Press, New Jersey, USA 2016 - Winner Sarasvati Award for Best Nonfiction Book in Women and Mythology, Association for the Study of Women & Mythology 2015 - Silver Medal Winner in the Independent Publisher Book Awards, World …

1°C not 2°C is the ‘danger threshold’ – Jim Hansen

James Hansen's latest paper, Assessing “Dangerous Climate Change”: Required Reduction of Carbon Emissions to Protect Young People, Future Generations and Nature, argues that the generally agreed aspirational target to limit global warming to 2°C is too high and that it would lead to ‘disastrous consequences.’ Rather he proposes that a 1°C target is the safe limit. Given that …

Vietnamese artist: Trung Nghia

Tiger emerging from ashes... See more of his art here: Saatchi Art