I'm lucky enough to have a brilliant friend who shares some of the questions and thoughts he garners from his education at Harvard Law, questions about human rights or economic policies. One question he raised recently was "How do you encourage people to take risk?" In hard economic times, we suffer potentially more from a lack of risk and entrepreneurship than from falling stock prices. Just when we need creative solutions the most, we are least willing to take a risk on new ideas.

This question has had me looking for examples of successful entrepreneurship. Ode has featured several in the past couple of issues. Another great source of entrepreneurial insight is the Pop!Tech/American Express OPEN Series.   Read more...

It's something to meditate over the weekend, before you re-enter the rat race: what is the difference between winning and success? It's the topic of a TED video with basketball coach John Wooden. Wooden's casual, grandfatherly style is a great way to relax and revisit what matters most. He speaks from a long perspective; he's almost 100 years old.   Read more...

Video games have long been the bane of parents who wish their kids would study more or go out and exercise. The attraction to video or computer games is the lure of two things that children frequently lack in their own lives: instant, predictable rewards and control. Teachers, with finite attention to give to their students, frequently focus on trouble makers, and many good deeds go unrewarded. But in video games, objectives and rewards are clear. Get X amount of points and you get Y reward. Also, whereas many of kids' choices are at least guided - frequently controlled - by adults, games offer them tremendous freedom to customize a character, sans adult intervention.

The Humana Foundation capitalized on these two key issues to create a video game that encourages kids to exercise - outside. It's called The Horsepower Challenge.   Read more...

Onze selectie van recent verschenen boeken die Ode graag onder uw speciale aandacht brengt, met onder andere een herziene bloemlezing uit het werk van Gangaji, spiritueel leraar en de nieuwe roman van Paulo Coelho, waarin hij zich begeeft in de wereld van de glitter en glamour. Bekijk hier alvast een filmpje over zijn nieuwe roman:
The Winner Stands Alone - The Red Carpet Experience - video powered by Metacafe

In honor of Ode's travel issue, I thought it might be nice to highlight AirBnB. AirBnB connects people who want to let out a room (or couch) and those who are traveling. Not only is it a potentially inexpensive way to travel (you can find rooms as cheap as $20/night in New York), you have the chance to make a new friend from another city.   Read more...

Jaren geleden klopte Lisa Landymore-Lim, een jonge biomedisch chemica, aan bij Lynne McTaggart, hoofdredacteur van het Britse blad What Doctors Don't Tell You (WDDTY) met de ongehoorde theorie dat diabetes type 1 veroorzaakt werd door blootstelling aan bepaalde chemische stoffen en geneesmiddelen zoals antibiotica en vaccins.   Read more...

A dear friend of mine is offering a wonderful course this Spring which I would like to share with the Ode community.

We all experience challenging periods of loss, disappointment and anxiety. Buddhist teachings offer us concrete ways of addressing these challenges. On April 10-12 Gabriel Cohen and Mary Myers will be co-presenting a workshop that explores this topic at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. The workshop will be based on Gabriel's book, Storms Can’t Hurt the Sky: A Buddhist Path Through Divorce.   Read more...

Er bestaat nog steeds een aversie tegen het matriarchaat, omdat het gezien wordt als een vorm van samenleven waarin Kenaus de scepter zwaaien. Niets is minder waar, betoogt godsdiensthistoricus Annine van der Meer op de bijeenkomst van Academie PanSophia op 18 april a.s. Met haar betoog sluit ze aan bij het wetenschappelijk fundament dat de Duitse filosofe en oprichtster van vrouwenstudies in Duitsland, Dr. Heide Göttner-Abendracht, formuleerde voor de studie naar matriarchaten.   Read more...

During my first year in Japan, I hitchhiked for two weeks, visiting rural fishing villages on the west coast and relying on the kindness of the people I met. I visited tiny villages that had no hotels and very few tourists. Upon entering a village, I would find a kind-looking soul and pantomime that I needed a place to sleep. Sometimes my acting skills were not enough to get the message across, and sometimes I wound up in the house of a family willing to take in visitors for a small fee. I ate with my hosts and was then led to a simple room to sleep in.

In one village I had the privilege of staying with a remarkable man and his family. One night the man and I sat on a small wooden dock by the ocean. Using lots of gestures to help me understand, the man told me about his life.   Read more...

Two years ago while flying home from a meeting in Chicago I was overwhelmed with a heavy feeling. I wrote these words in my journal: "I can sense a darkness building. It's not the darkness of some evil force coming toward us, but of the light disappearing within us. What can we do, my brothers, to rekindle the fires of creativity and inspiration?" With all the war and poverty and hatred... it began to feel overwhelming. Like mankind was running out of creative fuel - and fresh ideas that would take us to the next level.   Read more...