Category: inspirational

Golden Gate Endeavour

Chris Martin and Mick Dawson set off in a 23ft long and 6ft wide boat from Choshi, Japan on Friday 8th May 2009 and arrived in the San Francisco Bay under the Golden Gate Bridge last Friday 13th November 2009 becoming the first crew to row unsupported across the North Pacific Ocean.

Goldent Gate Endeavour

Chris and Mick photograph their historic entrance into the San Francisco Bay.

Within seconds I looked up and saw the underside of the bridge. A shotgun sounded off to our left indicating that we had made it. We had rowed across the North Pacific Ocean. After over half a year of giving everything we had to the ocean and this breathtaking, life changing an historic moment was our most welcome reward. I looked round at Mick who held out his hand which I gladly shook. The rest of the trip into land was a bit surreal.

Check out the video that Mick produced in preparation for his attempt:

[Golden Gate Endeavour | YouTube]

They kept a blog of their daily progress at http://www.goldengateendeavour.com/.

Tags rowing

inspirational

40 Inspirational Speeches

Post author By Jeff Milner
Post date December 12, 2008
No Comments on 40 Inspirational Speeches

Need some inspiration? Here you go:

Hit play or watch 40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes at YouTube.

(via)

Tags inspirational, video

inspirational

Lost Generation

Not exactly “backmasking” or even reverse speech, but I loved the feeling this creative prose evoked when it started to go backwards.

[Lost Generation – YouTube]

Tags poetry, video

inspirational Science

Moon 2.0

From http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/:

“The Google Lunar X PRIZE is a $30 million competition for the first privately funded team to send a robot to the moon, travel 500 meters and transmit video, images and data back to the Earth.”

[Moon 2.0 – YouTube]

Cheesy video? Yes. Feeling inspired anyway? How could you not?

Tags google, moon, video, X-prize

inspirational

Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture

Post author By Jeff Milner
Post date January 21, 2008
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Randy Pausch, gives a wonderful and exuberant “last lecture”. He’s currently struggling with pancreatic cancer but hasn’t let it get him down at all.

Almost all of us have childhood dreams: for example, being an astronaut, or making movies or video games for a living. Sadly, most people don’t achieve theirs, and I think that’s a shame. I had several specific childhood dreams, and I’ve actually achieved most of them. More importantly, I have found ways, in particular the creation (with Don Marinelli), of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center (etc.cmu.edu), of helping many young people actually *achieve* their childhood dreams. This talk will discuss how I achieved my childhood dreams (being in zero gravity, designing theme park rides for Disney, and a few others), and will contain realistic advice on how *you* can live your life so that you can make your childhood dreams come true, too.

By the way, producer/director J.J. Abrams of Lost,and Mission Impossible III fame (among others) asked Randy if he’d like to be in the new Star Trek movie that he’s directing, sort of fulfilling another of Randy’s dreams to be Captain Kirk (he’s not going to be captain, but it’s still pretty cool).

Tags pancreatic cancer, Randy Pausch

inspirational

Derek Powazek on Sharing Stories Via the Net

Post author By Jeff Milner
Post date November 26, 2007
No Comments on Derek Powazek on Sharing Stories Via the Net

My very good friend, Louise, wrote Derek Powazek (founder of JPG Mag, husband to Heather Champ of Flickr fame and Leta’s Internet Godfather) to ask him if he’s ever regretted his transparency on the web.

Derek’s response: Never tell a story like it’s not about you. In answering her question, he reminds us why it is we keep sites like this. It gives me encouragement to write more about myself, rather than just link-posting which is what I’ve found myself doing a lot lately.

Tags Derek Powazek, transparency

inspirational

Information R/evolution

Last January Mike Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, brought us Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us.

Last month he released this follow-up video focusing on the information, technology, taxonomy theme. It’s called Information R/evolution (runtime 5:28).

[Information R/evolution – YouTube]

Tags Mike Wesch

inspirational

Ze Frank’s A Social Network for Two

Post author By Jeff Milner
Post date October 12, 2007
No Comments on Ze Frank’s A Social Network for Two

Ze Frank’s extremely popular show, “The Show” is over, but Ze’s still blogging and creating music. Check out: A Social Network for Two, a classy love song for our time.

Tags ze frank

Art inspirational

Imagine Peace Tower

Yoko Ono is about to unveil the Imagine Peace Tower in Videy Island, Reykjavik, Iceland on October 9th 2007, John Lennon’s birthday. The tower will exist in the form of light shooting into the sky and symbolizes love, peace, and harmony.

Despite what some may criticize as a new age, hippie, pipe dream—I think it’s pretty nice.

The IMAGINE PEACE TOWER is an artwork conceived by Yoko Ono in memory of John Lennon.

It is dedicated to peace and bears the inscription IMAGINE PEACE in 24 languages.

Its construction and installation is a collaboration between Yoko Ono, the City of Reykjavik, Reykjavik Art Museum and Reykjavik Energy.

The work is in the form of a wishing well from which a very strong and tall tower of light emerges. The strength, intensity and brilliance of the light tower continually changes as the particles in the air fluctuate with the prevailing weather and atmospheric conditions unique to Iceland.

Every year it will light up between October 9th (Lennon’s birthday) and December 8th (the day of his death).

In addition the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER will be lit on New Year’s Eve, during the first week of spring and on some rare special occasions agreed between the City and Yoko Ono.