Germans help preserve beauty of Ha Long Bay

Deutsche Welle, 13 February 2013

Vietnam's Ha Long Bay is known for its breathtaking beauty. Environmental awareness campaigns and a German project are helping to preserve that beauty from the pollution of tourism and mining.

The unique landscape of northern Vietnam's Ha Long Bay was formed 500 million years ago. In 1994, the area was dubbed a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But the environmental conditions along the Vietnamese coast, east of Hanoi, have changed dramatically in the past 20 years: "The area is suffering from increasing pollution due to industrial and urban development, coal mining, and tourism," according to the Vancouver-based environmental consultancy company ESSA Technologies.

Together with the World Bank, ESSA conducted an investigation for the government of the province Quang Ninh, which led them to Ha Long Bay.

The world heritage site is under a number of threats. For one, the region is a tourist magnet. Hundreds of thousands of people travel there each year and leave behind their garbage which ends up in the bay even years later. To add to that, an increasing number of Vietnamese people are moving to the region, attracted by money-making opportunities in tourism or mining.

Uninhibited industrial growth creates
great challenges for the environment

Vietnam's and China's growing hunger for energy mean that the region's mining industry is booming. The provincial city Cam Pha has been covered in coal dust ever since the boom started. The dust is so thick that it blankets streets and houses and ends up in food.

High price for coal

Contaminated water from the mines is a major problem for Ha Long Bay and the region's rivers. Unfiltered water is dumped into the rivers and ends up in the bay. It contains high amounts of iron, coal, manganese and other particles, which are all deposited in the soil and acidify the water.

"Life cannot develop in acidic water. Now only reeds with deep roots can grow on the banks. The soil can no longer support any other plant or animal life," Norbert Illing of the German mining management company LMBV told DW.

But with help from Germany, the first steps have now been taken to counter the destruction of the environment. With financial support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Vietnamese mining company Vinacomin commissioned the LMBV to construct a water treatment plant along the Vang Dang River. In December, 2012, the plant went into operation.

Awareness

The project has shown that people in Vietnam are no longer willing to pay any price for economic growth.

"The people and representatives of the municipalities are now becoming active and having a large influence on the environment. They demand the companies act in an environmentally-friendly manner," according to Illing, who was in Vietnam for a number of months for the project. He said China was a good example of how far uninhibited industrialization and neglect of nature could go.

Quyen Vu, founder of Vietnam's first independent environmental organization "Education for Nature Vietnam" (ENV), is of the same opinion. In the 1990s, Ms. Vu started campaigning for environmental and animal protection. ENV sponsored radio ads, delivered lectures in schools and universities and distributed brochures.

 Fish cannot live in acidic water

"In the past 10 years, I have witnessed great progress in the way Vietnamese people think about the environment," Vu told DW. "Young people are much more aware of environmental problems. A positive trend can even be seen in the government. But there is still a lot to do."

Despite the new environmental awareness, "one has to be very patient to realize such projects," according to Illing. He said that while there were laws pertaining to the protection of the environment, they were only rarely followed. In newly industrializing countries such as Vietnam, environmental protection often clashes with economic interests.

Helping people help themselves

All of Vu's efforts revolve around creating awareness among the people so that they can become active. "The most important thing is teaching people to help themselves. That way, people in Vietnam can protect their environment themselves."

From the very beginning of the project, Illinig and the LMBV have placed emphasis on integrating Vietnamese people into the project. "The planning was done in part in cooperation with Vietnamese engineers." And he is optimistic that the benefits from the project will continue to be felt for a while yet: "The new generation already has a new set of standards when it comes to the environment. That will surely have a positive impact on the improvement of environmental and also living standards."

Wind power capacity grew 20% globally in 2012, figures show

A relative slowdown in new wind turbine construction in China was offset by increases in the US, Germany, India and the UK

guardian.co.uk, Damian Carrington, Monday 11 February 2013

'Exceptionally strong' US growth ... wind turbines in Rio Vista, California.
Photograph: Ken James/Getty

Wind power expanded by almost 20% in 2012 around the world to reach a new peak of 282 gigawatts (GW) of total installed capacity, while solar power reached more than 100GW, having more than doubled in two years.

More than 45GW of new wind turbines arrived in 2012, with China and the US leading the way with 13GW each, while Germany, India and the UK were next with about 2GW apiece.

"While China paused for breath, both the US and European markets had exceptionally strong years," said Steve Sawyer, secretary general of the Global WindEnergy Council (GWEC), which produced the statistics. "Asia still led global markets, but with North America a close second, and Europe not far behind."

The UK now ranks sixth in the world for installed wind power, with 8.5GW. In Europe, only Germany (31GW) and Spain (23GW) have more. China leads the world with 77GW installed and the US is second with 60GW.

The UK is by far the world leader in offshore wind deployment, installing 0.85MW in 2012 to bring the total so far to 3GW. Denmark has a total of 0.9GW installed; Belgium is ranked third with 0.4GW.

"We are pleased to be part of this success story," said a spokeswoman for the UK department of energy and climate change. "Wind is an important part of our low-carbon energy future. We're also driving the technology forward with innovative 6MW offshore turbines currently being installed in the North Sea."

The GWEC said market consolidation led to the relative slowdown in China, while "a lapse in policy" caused a similar slowdown in India, but expected Asian dominance of global wind markets to continue.

The record year for installation in the US was driven by a rush to beat an anticipated end to tax credits: 8GW of the total 13GW were installed in the last quarter of 2012. However, the tax credit has since been extended, meaning a dramatic slowdown in the US in 2013 is less likely.

GWEC said the outlook for 2013 in Europe was uncertain due to the eurozone debt crisis, but that the EU's legal committments and 2020 targets for renewable energy ensured "a degree of stability".

There is very little wind power installed in Africa, but sub-Saharan Africa's first large commercial wind farm came on line in 2012, a 52MW project in Ethiopia. "This is just the beginning of the African market," said Sawyer. "With construction started on over 0.5GW in South Africa, we expect Africa to be a substantial new market, where clean, competitive energy generated with indigenous sources is a priority for economic development."

Solar power reached 100GW installed capacity in 2012 for the first time, according to data from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), up from 71GW in 2011 and just 40GW in 2010. The largest market by far is Europe, with Germany (32GW total) and Italy (16GW) the leaders. But while solar panel connections in Europe fell by 5GW in 2012 compared to the previous year, installations rose by 5GW in the rest of the world, notable China, the US, Japan and India.

"Even in tough economic times and despite growing regulatory uncertainty, we have nearly managed to repeat the record year of 2011," said EPIA president Winfried Hoffmann. But the EPIA noted that a continued oversupply of solar panels would most likely make 2013 a "difficult year" for photovoltaic companies.

In January, Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported that global investment in all renewable energy had fallen by 11% in 2012, due largely to drops in government support in the US, Spain and Italy. Investment continued to rise in Asia.

In November, the International Energy Agency noted that low-carbon energy was growing quickly, driven largely by state subsidies. But the IEA highlighted that fossil fuels received six times more subsidy – $523bn in 2011, up 30% from 2010 – than low-carbon energy.

Bhutan set to plough lone furrow as world's first wholly organic country

By shunning all but organic farming techniques, the Himalayan state will cement its status as a paradigm of sustainability

The Guardian, John Vidal and Annie Kelly, 11 February 2013

Stooping to conquer … Already an overwhelmingly agrarian state, Bhutan is aiming
to become the world's first completely organic country. Photograph: Alamy

Bhutan plans to become the first country in the world to turn its agriculture completely organic, banning the sales of pesticides and herbicides and relying on its own animals and farm waste for fertilisers.

But rather than accept that this will mean farmers of the small Himalayan kingdom of 1.2 million people will be able to grow less food, the government expects them to be able to grow more – and to export increasing amounts of high quality niche foods to neighbouring India, China and other countries.

The decision to go organic was both practical and philosophical, said Pema Gyamtsho, Bhutan's minister of agriculture and forests, in Delhi for the annual sustainable development conference last week.

"Ours is a mountainous terrain. When we use chemicals they don't stay where we use them, they impact the water and plants. We say that we need to consider all the environment. Most of our farm practices are traditional farming, so we are largely organic anyway.

"But we are Buddhists, too, and we believe in living in harmony with nature. Animals have the right to live, we like to to see plants happy and insects happy," he said.

Gyamtsho, like most members of the cabinet, is a farmer himself, coming from Bumthang in central Bhutan but studying western farming methods in New Zealand and Switzerland.

"Going organic will take time," he said. "We have set no deadline. We cannot do it tomorrow. Instead we will achieve it region by region and crop by crop."

The overwhelmingly agrarian nation, which really only opened its doors to world influences 30 years ago, is now facing many of the development pangs being felt everywhere in rapidly emerging countries. Young people reluctant to live just by farming are migrating to India and elsewhere, there is a population explosion, and there is inevitable pressure for consumerism and cultural change.

But, says Gyamtsho, Bhutan's future depends largely on how it responds to interlinked development challenges like climate change, and food and energy security. "We would already be self-sufficient in food if we only ate what we produced. But we import rice. Rice eating is now very common, but traditionally it was very hard to get. Only the rich and the elite had it. Rice conferred status. Now the trend is reversing. People are becoming more health-conscious and are eating grains like buckwheat and wheat."

In the west, organic food growing is widely thought to reduce the size of crops because they become more susceptible to pests. But this is being challenged in Bhutan and some regions of Asia, where smallholders are developing new techniques to grow more and are not losing soil quality.

Systems like "sustainable root intensification" (SRI), which carefully regulate the amount of water that crops need and the age at which seedlings are planted out, have shown that organic crop yields can be doubled with no synthetic chemicals.

"We are experimenting with different methods of growing crops like SRI but we are also going to increase the amount of irrigated land and use traditional varieties of crops which do not require inputs and have pest resistance," says Gyamtsho.

However, a run of exceptionally warm years and erratic weather has left many farmers doubtful they can do without chemicals.

In Paro, a largely farming district in south-west Bhutan, farmers are already struggling to grow enough to feed their families and local government officials say they are having to distribute fertiliser and pesticides in larger quantities to help people grow more.

"I have heard of the plan to turn everything organic. But we are facing serious problems just getting people to grow enough", said Rinzen Wangchuk, district farm officer.

"Most people here are smallholder farmers. The last few years we have had problems with the crops. The weather has been very erratic. It's been warmer than normal and all the chilli crops are full of pests. We are having to rely on fertilisers more than we have ever had to in the past and even these are not working as well as they initially did."

Dawa Tshering, who depends on his two acres of rice paddy and a vegetable garden, says that for decades his farming was chemical free.

"But its harder now because all our children are either in the capital or studying. Nobody wants to stay, which means we have to work harder. It's just my wife an myself here. We cannot grow enough to feed ourselves and take crops to the market, so we have to use chemicals for the first time. We would like to go back to farming how we used to, where we just used what nature provided."

But in a world looking for new ideas, Bhutan is already called the poster child of sustainable development. More than 95% of the population has clean water and electricity, 80% of the country is forested and, to the envy of many countries, it is carbon neutral and food secure.

In addition, it is now basing its economic development on the pursuit of collective happiness.

"We have no fossil fuels or nuclear. But we are blessed with rivers which give us the potential of over 30,000megawatts of electricity. So far we only exploit 2,000 megawatts. We exploit enough now to export to India and in the pipeline we have 10,000 megawatts more. The biggest threat we face is cars. The number is increasing every day. Everyone wants to buy cars and that means we must import fuel. That is why we must develop our energy."

Agriculture minister Gyamtsho remains optimistic. "Hopefully we can provide solutions. What is at stake is the future. We need governments who can make bold decisions now rather than later."

Related Articles:

In pictures: Bhutan goes organic

Gross national happiness in Bhutan: the big idea from a tiny state that could change the world

Earthquakes hit northern Groningen

DutchNews.nl, Friday 08 February 2013

Northern parts of Groningen province were hit by two earthquakes on Thursday night, causing minor damage to some properties.

The first quake hit around 23.30 and measured 2.7 on the Richter scale. The second took place some 50 minutes later and measured around 3.2. It was felt in Groningen city itself.

'Everything began to wobble and shake,' Dick Stoppels, a resident of the village of Uithuizen, told Nos television. 'It was as if a train was passing very close to the house,' said another.

Compensation

The quakes come at a time of mounting unease in the province about the effect of natural gas extraction from massive underground reservoirs.

Last month, a report for the economic affairs ministry warned earthquakes in the province could become more severe than originally thought.

Gas extraction company Nam has set aside €100m to pay for reinforcements to vulnerable buildings, but locals say this is far from enough. They have also so far submitted some 2,700 claims for damage.

Problems caused Thursday night's quakes were limited to cracks in walls and damage to plaster.

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version) 

“…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much….”

"2013 - What Now ?" – Jan 6, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version) - New

“… New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.

It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.

So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.

Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to self-correct? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”

Study suggests Neanderthals died out earlier

Google - AP, Frank Jordans, Associated Press, 5 February 2013 

FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2003 file photo, a reconstructed

 Neanderthal skeleton, right, and a modern human

 version of a skeleton are on display at the Museum

 of Natural History in New York. (AP Photo/Frank

Franklin II, File)

BERLIN (AP) — Theories about when the last Neanderthals walked the Earth may have to be revised, according to a study that suggests they became extinct in their last refuge in Spain much earlier than previously thought.

Previous dating of bone fossils found at Neanderthal sites in the region put the youngest at about 35,000 years.

But researchers from Australia and Europe re-examined the bones using an improved method to filter out contamination and concluded that the remains are about 50,000 years old.

If true, the study, casts doubt on the idea that modern humans and Neanderthals co-existed — and possibly even interbred — for millennia, because humans aren't believed to have settled in the region until 42,000 years ago.

"The results of our study suggest that there are major problems with the dating of the last Neanderthals in modern-day Spain," said Thomas Higham, deputy director of the Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at Oxford University in England. "It is unlikely that Neanderthals survived any later in this area than they did elsewhere in mainland Europe."

The study, which was published Monday by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, doesn't completely exclude the possibility that Neanderthals survived until 35,000 years ago. The problem is that the warm climate on the Iberian peninsula quickly degrades a key protein used in so-called radiocarbon dating.

The researchers were only able to test bones from two of the 11 known Neanderthal sites in Spain. They were subjected to a new method called "ultrafiltration." This removes more recent carbon molecules that have contaminated the bones and made them appear younger than they actually are.

Such techniques often lead to older radiocarbon dates, said, Chris Stringer, a senior research fellow at Britain's Natural History Museum. "Science moves on and technology moves on," he said.

Stringer, who was not involved in the study, said the new techniques should now be applied to other sites in Spain. "Until this is done, there must be a significant question mark over the possible late survival of Neanderthals in the region."

If the remains from the other sites, too, turn out to be older, any encounter between Neanderthals and humans would have to have taken place earlier than previously thought, he said.

"Evidence from Britain, Belgium, France, Germany and Italy is increasingly pointing to a modern human presence before 40,000 years ago," said Stringer. "The new chronology suggests that any interaction between the last Neanderthals and the earliest moderns in Europe will similarly move before, rather than after, 40,000 years."

There is also the chance that Neanderthals survived longer in other corners of Europe, said Rachel E. Wood of the Australian National University in Canberra, a co-author of the study.

"There are some other possible areas that may have also acted as a refuge for the species, such as the Caucasus, but the 'young' radiocarbon dates in these areas have also found to be problematic," she said.

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"The Timing of Creation"– Aug  12, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“…. The First Look

About 200,000 years ago is when it literally began. The concept of the "divine seeding" of planet Earth happened at that point, and the fields metaphorically started to be ploughed. There is an issue and we're going to call it the way species work with Gaia. This is something that happened simultaneously with the grid creation of Gaia. For now we give you something that no one has thought about. When we speak of the grids of the planet, you make an assumption that these grids always existed on the planet. For the planet is old and you might say, "Well the grids have always been there." But I'm here to tell you that only one was always there, and that's the magnetic grid. But it was spiritually void. That is to say, it only had that which was created from the Earth's core movement. Today, when we talk about the grids of the planet, our conversation involves the consciousness of humanity, which is imbued upon the magnetic grid. We also tell you about the Crystalline Grid and about the Grid of Gaia consciousness. Both of these react to Human compassion.

Now, here is the puzzle: If you don't have divine Human consciousness, then what about the grids? Do they exist without the Human Being? The answer is that they needed to be created simultaneously with the seeding of divine DNA. So what the Pleiadians did was not only to start the seeds of humanity's change into divine DNA, but they created the conscious grids of Gaia as well. They had to, for the conscious grids of Gaia are a confluence of humanity's decisions brought to Gaia's energy. The consciousness that we are talking about is the spiritually sanctioned Human Being that exists with a piece of God inside him, and with DNA that has 23 chromosomes instead of the common 24 that all the others have through biological evolution.

Let us back up and say it again and make it simpler, my partner [admonition to Lee to speak more plainly]. The triad of grids on this planet that we have spoken of over and over are the consciousness grids of Gaia, and were created at the same time as the seeding of humanity with Pleiadian DNA. For all the teachings we've been giving, especially about the Crystalline Grid, these grids have been reacting to Human consciousness and compassion. Therefore, the very essence of the current Gaia energy is also related to the creation of humanity.

These are the attributes of the Pleiadians work 200,000 years ago, and it was done quantumly in ways that you have no conscious awareness of at the moment. For these things are beyond your ability to understand right now, since you are still in a single-digit dimensionality. But the result back then was "a conscious Gaia." So you might say Gaia itself was actually created quantumly from the Seven Sisters energy, just like you.

The Gaia that existed before then was still Gaia, but not as it is now. It was a Gaia that was creating the dirt on the earth and the energy of biological life of the earth. It was the mother of all life on the planet, but not a Gaia that responded to Human consciousness. That's very different. So Gaia greatly expanded when the Pleiadians came, and that was by design.

It took 110,000 years for this to settle itself, and for the ground to be ready for more than 16 species of Human Beings to leave so that only one was left. When that occurred at approximately 90,000 years ago is when you can start calibrating who Humans were and who they became.

The Others

Now, what about all of those other types of Humans, and how did they leave? I'm  going to give you an attribute of something that exists even today. This is difficult for my partner, for he has not heard this before. This information has not been brought in this fashion before. Go slowly, my partner.

The variety of species on this planet comes and goes accordingly as they are needed for the energy they create. So one of the tasks of Gaia is to create and eliminate species. When they are no longer needed for the purpose of Gaia's development, they cease to exist and they die out. If new life is necessary, if new concepts of life are needed, Gaia is cooperative and they are then created. The actual creation of species is something that environmentalists have not clearly seen. That is to say the mechanics of how it works is not fully recognized as something that is strongly coordinated with your weather. But you have already seen the mechanics of some of this in your long-term studies, for you have already noted the coming and going of many species through the ages. It's ongoing.

The Appropriateness of the Elimination of Species

Now, along come Humans and they see all this coming and going of living things, but they want to save them all - all the species that exist. For in their linear mind, all species should remain and exist, since they are here. The attribute of Gaia, however, is to eliminate them, cull them out, to bring in new ones. I just gave you the mechanics of the reasons species come and go. It's appropriate and is a natural building process for new species.

When the Pleiadians started to create the grids of the planet, Gaia cooperated in what was to come, knew the purpose, and what was needed for survival of this new spiritual Human. Gaia knew this since the energy of Gaia had seen it before [reason given below]. So the old attribute, which needed many kinds of Human Beings, slowly died out. It was natural. There was not a war. There were no horrible plagues. There were no volcanoes or tsunamis that consumed them. Through attrition, appropriateness, and 110,000 years, they disappeared.

So approximately 110,000 years ago, there was only one kind left, and this is science, for everything that you study will bear this out, and anthropologists have already seen it and have asked, "What happened back then at this time that would have eliminated these other kinds of Human variety?" It's a puzzle in science that I have just answered, for science looks only for physical events as triggers. But instead, it's the marriage of Gaia consciousness that you call "Mother Nature," which facilitated this. It's the same today when you see a variety of species diminish as Humans take over a greater portion of the earth. I'll call this "the appropriate elimination of unique life forms, which allow for the growth of global awareness and quantum evolution." Some species only exist to allow others to climb the ladder of nature, then they disappear. Gaia knows what the ladder looks like. You don't. ... ”

"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

Viewpoint: The 'invention illusion' means new rarely is new

BBC News, Paul Martin, Chief technology officer, Plextek, 1 February 2013

Inventions need predecessors to build on

Today, with very few exceptions, there is no such thing as a truly new invention.

Despite what marketers would have us believe, recycling inventions and the cross-pollination of technologies for new applications are at the heart of all developments in the 21st Century.

Rather than waiting for light-bulb moments, true innovators today are looking at other sectors and applying existing technologies in unexpected ways.

Here's an example. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell is famously credited with inventing the telephone.

Many years later, in 2007, Steve Jobs introduced us to the iPhone. Despite all the hype though, the iPhone was not a new invention - it was just a much better telephone than any we'd seen before.

By the time the iPhone hit our shops, we'd already seen plenty of mobile versions of the humble telephone, and smartphones had been around since the 1990s.

The iPhone caused such a stir because it included a few perceived "firsts" - it was commonly regarded as the first touch-screen phone, for example. However, touch-screen technology itself wasn't new - it first appeared in the 1960s, and had actually appeared in other mobile handsets before.

Similarly, when Apple introduced the accelerometer to its mobile handsets, it was widely believed that this was a new technology.

Before the iPhone, accelerometers were already found in vehicles, medical devices, navigation systems and more - but, by applying this technology to their smartphones and aggressively promoting its benefits, Apple changed consumer perceptions of what was possible with a smart phone.

The reaction was overwhelmingly positive - just look at the abundance of popular iPhone apps that have been developed and sold that take advantage of the accelerometer's capabilities.

What Apple achieved with the first iPhone was truly groundbreaking, but it was the result of very clever innovation, with existing technologies applied in new ways. It was not a new invention.

More than semantics

In case there is any doubt, this type of innovation is absolutely a good thing.

It is the reason that the speed of technological progress continues to snowball.

Most industry sectors no longer work in isolation. Instead they learn from each other's successes and mistakes.

Using existing technology and applying it differently can also be a cheaper and easier way to get to market than "re-inventing the wheel".

Not so good, however, is the lack of recognition and awareness of these processes.

Consumers are presented with an "invention illusion", which is really little more than a marketing tool to give the impression of "breakthrough" products. This is a difficult cycle to break, particularly with the media's appetite for sensational stories, and it is hampering opportunities for credible companies without sexy stories.

It also means that many entrepreneurs are looking for innovation in the wrong places and pursuing new product design ineffectively.

There is a common misconception that great ideas come from a blank sheet of paper, but this is simply not true - good developers will come up with better, smarter product designs if they know what they are trying to achieve and where they can look for existing know-how.

The best ideas require information, not just inspiration, and this information should be drawn from a much wider pool of sector experience.

Damaging our economy

Worse still, some entire industries remain closed-off to this type of cross-sector innovation and this, partnered with constrictive supply chains, is stifling technological progress.

Lack of recognition for real innovators
is a problem, Paul Martin says

An example is the global automotive supply chain, which has historically been difficult to penetrate, as manufacturers have been closed-off from exposure to new ideas from technology providers.

Greater recognition for innovation and more opportunities to encourage cross-sector research and collaboration would be of huge benefit to the global technology industry.

Multi-sector product design and development consultancies are "innovation hubs" where the transfer of sector skills happens under a single roof, but this concept could be rolled-out on a national or even international scale with government or trade organisation-backed events and networks.

In the UK automotive industry, for example, the NMI Automotive Electronic Systems Innovation Network was established and gained real traction in 2012, specifically to tackle these issues and open up the innovation chain.

Ultimately, we should be proud of our ingenuity in applying existing know-how in completely unexpected and exciting ways.

In this hyper-connected world, insular industries will be left behind.

Paul Martin is chief technology officer at technology design and development consultancy Plextek.

Related Articles:

"2013 - What Now ?" – Jan 6, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version) - New

“… New Ideas - You Don't Know What You Don't Know

In recent past channels, we told you some of the new inventions to look forward to in this new era. But now we speak of new ideas and new paradigms of thinking. After these things happen, and when you look at them in retrospect, you're going to say, "Why didn't we think of that before?" The reason is because you weren't ready for it. So that brings up a process that is difficult for us to explain to you, because Humans do not want to hear this.

Human Beings believe that their brains are capable of any thought that is thinkable in the Universe and that the sky is the limit. They believe that at any given time, any intellectual can come up with whatever is needed, which is the next step in evolved thinking. Yet history doesn't show that, does it? In the past messages we pointed this out, and we gave you something to think about. We brought up the fact that it should have been obvious to you how to fly and, of course, now it is. As we speak, thousands of Human Beings are in the air, flying from one place to another with principles that the birds showed you thousands of years ago. Yet it's new to humanity, having only been developed recently. Now, how long have you been looking at birds and longed to fly? How long have certain cultures been flying kites? Yet you never figured it out! How's that for being a Human Being with unlimited thought? You never figured it out!

Finally, about 100 years ago, two bicycle makers finally did it. I ask you, does it look like something happened here that is just a little out of the ordinary? Did you know (and I'll say it again) that those bicycle makers only beat the record of first Human flight by a week or so? Others on the earth were also working on it simultaneously. Did you know that? Here's why - because Spirit implants ideas and inventions when you're ready, and not before. These seemingly obvious ideas are invisible and blind and unattainable to the Human Being because they can't think of it. You're seeing this attribute everywhere with humanity, whether you know it or not.

How many years did you feel you had to build a fortress around your city-states and block out other Human Beings in other cities? Humans built walls and had regular battles so that the other guy wouldn't get your possessions. So how long did it take you to figure out that maybe you could share your resources, or perhaps even trade with the other one so that you'd both have each other's resources, and everybody wins in the process? What a concept! Well, really, you only just did it. Putting things together instead of tearing them apart has only occurred to you in the last 75 years. Why didn't that occur to you 1,000 years ago? Instead, you continued to sequester your borders and build armies to keep you safe. Now, suddenly there is the idea of "country groups" that share common resources, trade without tariffs, and have a common defense in consciousness. Have you noticed this? Well, get ready for more, since there will be entire continents who will do this in the future. But why did it take so long?

Until very, very recently, you were conquerors. That's all you did, since that's all that occurred to you. Armies wiped out other Human Beings so that where they stood, they now owned the land and the resources. That was the thinking of the day. Now you say, "Well, we're beyond that." Not much. Not really, but you will be.

New ideas are things you never thought of. These ideas will be given to you so you will have answers to the most profound questions that your societies have had since you were born. Inventions will bring clean water to every Human on the planet, cheaply and everywhere. Inventions will give you power, cheaply and everywhere. These ideas will wipe out all of the reasons you now have for pollution, and when you look back on it, you'll go, "This solution was always there. Why didn't we think of that? Why didn't we do this sooner?" Because it wasn't time and you were not ready. You hadn't planted the seeds and you were still battling the old energy, deciding whether you were going to terminate yourselves before 2012. Now you didn't…. and now you didn't.

It's funny, what you ponder about, and what your sociologists consider the "great current problems of mankind", for your new ideas will simply eliminate the very concepts of the questions just as they did in the past. Do you remember? Two hundred years ago, the predictions of sociologists said that you would run out of food, since there wasn't enough land to sustain a greater population. Then you discovered crop rotation and fertilizer. Suddenly, each plot of land could produce many times what it could before. Do you remember the predictions that you would run out of wood to heat your homes? Probably not. That was before electricity. It goes on and on.

So today's puzzles are just as quaint, as you will see. (1)How do you strengthen the power grids of your great nations so that they are not vulnerable to failure or don't require massive infrastructure improvement expenditures? Because cold is coming, and you are going to need more power. (2) What can you do about pollution? (3) What about world overpopulation? Some experts will tell you that a pandemic will be the answer; nature [Gaia] will kill off about one-third of the earth's population. The best minds of the century ponder these puzzles and tell you that you are headed for real problems. You have heard these things all your life.

Let me ask you this. (1) What if you could eliminate the power grid altogether? You can and will. (2) What if pollution-creating sources simply go away, due to new ideas and invention, and the environment starts to self-correct? (3) Overpopulation? You assume that humanity will continue to have children at an exponential rate since they are stupid and can't help themselves. This, dear ones, is a consciousness and education issue, and that is going to change. Imagine a zero growth attribute of many countries - something that will be common. Did you notice that some of your children today are actually starting to ponder if they should have any children at all? What a concept! ….”

"THE NEXT 18 YEARS"–  Dec 2, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) (Subjects: You are looking  at a Quantum event, clearing a filter - Portal pineal , Higher self to step forward and communicate to You, Still remains in 3D but exposure to multi dimensions, Evolution of humanity, Intent, Mayan Calendar, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, 26.000 Years, Milky Way, Nostradamus, 1987, Beginning to a New Time, Channellers/Teachers, Center of Galaxy – Black hole, Bridge of Swords, Pleiadians, Children, Inventions – The discoveries (e.g. : Airplanes - Medicines – Radio ...): These new Discoveries were given all over the planet when Human consciousness was ready for it, New Inventions are coming, the timing depends on how the middle East problems are solved, Biology reaction of quantum energy; new radio of the future, seeing quantum energy, when it is revealed all science books will have to be rewritten, This will be an AHA moment – be possible to communicate with the rest of Galaxy, NASA, Church/religion will be effected the most by these discoveries, The quantum discovery will see the grid, life, gardens and will redefine life, DNA (3 billion pieces) evolving piece DNA are chancing, Gaia/Humanity are linked, new instruments will start to reveal the DNA variance, Evolution revealed: Autistic children have born with the removal of their 3D structure in the brain, Gaia/Spirit are testing these quantum beings  (Evolved DNA), Universe central clock = Rifs,  Globally there will be only 5 currencies, Wars on earth will be declared barbaric, Middle East, Global Unity, .. etc.)

Four US states considering laws that challenge teaching of evolution

Critics charge 'academic freedom' legislation in Colorado, Missouri, Montana and Oklahoma is just creationism in disguise 

guardian.co.uk, Paul Harris in New York, Thursday 31 January 2013

A worker cleans a display at the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky.
Photograph: Jeff Haynes/AFP/Getty Images

Four US states are considering new legislation about teaching science in schools, allowing pupils to to be taught religious versions of how life on earth developed in what critics say would establish a backdoor way of questioning the theory of evolution.

Fresh legislation has been put forward in Colorado, Missouri and Montana. In Oklahoma, there are two bills before the state legislature that include potentially creationist language.

A watchdog group, the National Center for Science Education, said that the proposed laws were framed around the concept of "academic freedom". It argues that religious motives are disguised by the language of encouraging more open debate in school classrooms. However, the areas of the curriculum highlighted in the bills tend to focus on the teaching of evolution or other areas of science that clash with traditionally religious interpretations of the world.

"Taken at face value, they sound innocuous and lovely: critical thinking, debate and analysis. It seems so innocent, so pure. But they chose to question only areas that religious conservatives are uncomfortable with. There is a religious agenda here," said Josh Rosenau, an NCSE program and policy director.

In Oklahoma, one bill has been pre-filed with the state senate and another with the state house. The Senate bill would oblige the state to help teachers "find more effective ways to represent the science curriculum where it addresses scientific controversies". The House bill specifically mentions "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming and human cloning" as areas that "some teachers are unsure" about teaching.

In Montana, a bill put forward by local social conservative state congressman, Clayton Fiscus, also lists things like "random mutation, natural selection, DNA and fossil discoveries" as controversial topics that need more critical teaching. Meanwhile, in Missouri, a bill introduced in mid-January lists "biological and chemical evolution" as topics that teachers should debate over including looking at the "scientific weaknesses" of the long-established theories.

Finally, in Colorado, which rarely sees a push towards teaching creationism, a bill has been introduced in the state house of representatives that would require teachers to "respectfully explore scientific questions and learn about scientific evidence related to biological and chemical evolution". Observers say the move is the first piece of creationist-linked legislation to be put forward in the state since 1972.

The moves in such a wide range of states have angered advocates of secularism in American official life. "This is just another attempt to bring creationism in through the back door. The only academic freedom they really want to encourage is the freedom to be ignorant," said Rob Boston, senior policy analyst at Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Over the past few years, only Tennessee and Louisiana have managed to pass so-called "academic freedom" laws of the kind currently being considered in the four states. Barbara Forrest, a philosophy professor at Southeastern Louisiana University and close observer of the creationism movement, said that the successes in those two states meant that the religious lobby was always looking for more opportunities.

She said that using arguments over academic freedom was a shift in tactic after attempts to specifically get "intelligent design" taught in schools was defeated in a landmark court case in 2005. Intelligent design, which a local school board in Dover, Pennsylvania, had sought to get accepted as legitimate science, asserts that modern life is too complex to have evolved by chance alone. "Creationists never give up. They never do. The language of these bills may be highly sanitized but it is creationist code," she said.

The laws can have a direct impact on a state. In Louisiana, 78 Nobel laureate scientists have endorsed the repeal of the creationist education law there. The Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology has even launched a boycott of Louisiana and cancelled a scheduled convention in New Orleans. Louisiana native and prominent anti-creationist campaigner in the state Zack Kopplin said that those pushing such bills in other states were risking similar economic damage to their local economies. "It will hurt economic development," Kopplin said.

There is also the impact on students, he added, when they are taught controversies in subjects where the overwhelming majority of scientists have long ago reached consensus agreement. "It really hurts students. It can be embarrassing to be from a state which has become a laughing stock in this area," Kopplin said.

Others experts agreed, arguing that it could even hurt future job prospects for students graduating from those states' public high schools. "The jobs of the future are high tech and science-orientated. These lawmakers are making it harder for some of these kids to get those jobs," said Boston.

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"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - (a message from Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

"THE NEXT 18 YEARS"–  Dec 2, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) (Subjects: You are looking  at a Quantum event, clearing a filter - Portal pineal , Higher self to step forward and communicate to You, Still remains in 3D but exposure to multi dimensions, Evolution of humanity, Intent, Mayan Calendar, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, 26.000 Years, Milky Way, Nostradamus, 1987, Beginning to a New Time, Channellers/Teachers, Center of Galaxy – Black hole, Bridge of Swords, Pleiadians, Children, Inventions – The discoveries (e.g. : Airplanes - Medicines – Radio ...): These new Discoveries were given all over the planet when Human consciousness was ready for it, New Inventions are coming, the timing depends on how the middle East problems are solved, Biology reaction of quantum energy; new radio of the future, seeing quantum energy, when it is revealed all science books will have to be rewritten, This will be an AHA moment – be possible to communicate with the rest of Galaxy, NASA, Church/religion will be effected the most by these discoveries, The quantum discovery will see the grid, life, gardens and will redefine life, DNA (3 billion pieces) evolving piece DNA are chancing, Gaia/Humanity are linked, new instruments will start to reveal the DNA variance, Evolution revealed: Autistic children have born with the removal of their 3D structure in the brain, Gaia/Spirit are testing these quantum beings  (Evolved DNA), Universe central clock = Rifs,  Globally there will be only 5 currencies, Wars on earth will be declared barbaric, Middle East, Global Unity, .. etc.)


"Spiritual Logic" - Oct 15, 2011 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) 
(Subjects: Benevolent Design, Channelling, Holy scriptures, Higher self, (Old) Souls, Universes, Big Bang, Galaxy/Solar system build for life, Astronomy, Life on Earth tried to start 5 times/ 5th time life started, Large Animals/No Humans,  Asteroid belt, 7 Sisters / 100.000 year ago Pleiadian Brothers and Sisters seeded Humans on earth, DNA, Humans Ascensiont with Pleiadian DNA, Lemuria (Hawaii),21-12-2012, 26.000 years cycle, 1987 - Harmonic convergence (11:11), Shift of Human Consciousness, Gaia, The Humanization of God, 1991 Russia falls, 1994 started 36 years galactic window (Presession), Mid point on 21-12-2012, Lemuria (Hawaii) center of the Earth time,  Love (Mother & Child),  Religion, Higher self, Global Unity,..... etc.)