IdeaCity Day 3 - The End

These three days were my first three at IdeaCity. I was a new attendee, or a new "Idealist", as they called it. I have ALWAYS wanted to go, having seen bits and pieces of the conferences on TV, so when I was asked to be the correspondent for Panasonic I jumped at the opportunity.

Today, on the last day, I sat close to the back of the room so I could observe my fellow Idealists as we took in the presentations.

Overall, I was impressed with the eloquence and passion of the speakers, and overcome with the level of energy generated in the audience. The theater was brimming with inspiration, an electric hum of activity getting ready to launch change into the world.

Educational. Fascinating. Intelligent. Motivational.

I will take all of this away with me and let it sit for a while. As I wrote on my Facebook wall: "~ if you think I was ambitious and motivated before, well, you ain't seen nothin' yet!! ~"... I already feel the calm before the storm, and it feels nice. I just hope that one day I can be up there on that stage encouraging thought and sharing my experiences, a catalyst of change... I hope that one day I too will be able to inspire people like myself, standing on the shores of their futures, looking out at the horizon, ready to go...

I express my most enthusiastic THANKS for everyone involved in this conference, and everyone allowing for this to happen for me. I hope I have done it justice in this little blogging-report... IdeaCity; a platform for creativity, passion, inspiration, innovation, and of course, IDEAS...

MY list of "10 things I want to do before I die":

1. Live in the south of France for a while, no car, just a bicycle.
2. Drift in a little boat on the pond in Central Park on a golden afternoon
3. Visit Japan during the cherry-blossom festival
4. Publish everything I've written
5. Stop being so critical of myself
6. Use and perfect all the languages I know
7. Finish reading every book on my list
8. Volunteer abroad for months at a time
9. Ride the Orient Express across Asia
10. Have a lot of kids, a lot of land, and no television... (there must also be a pond, a garden, some chickens, a beehive, a tree fort, a giant kitchen, and a studio for me!)

IdeaCity Day 3 - highlights and afterparty pics!

Day three started off with a croissant from Starbucks. They were catering the whole event, and I don't think I've ever drank so much coffee! Ok, maybe during exams, but along with this coffee came a selection of treats. Treats that I should not eat. Treats with 600 calories each... WHY are there no healthy things to tempt me?



After my croissant I walked up to the theater doors, brisk, energetic, and ready for a new day of knowledge-y fun...

I caught a seat near the back and got my notebooks ready. I like the back rows because there are TVs set up, and when someone makes a presentation with slides you can see them better with the help of plasma screen TVs close by... :)

Siwan Anderson spoke about "missing women" around the world. She has found population imbalances between males and females. In places like China, India, and Sub-Saharan Africa, males are preferred to females and females are disposed of. Sons inherit property, live with their parents, and preform various funeral rights, while the birth of a girl is a burden. Girls become part of the husband's family and in places like India the dowries are crushing.

Technology has assisted in this phenomenon by providing sneak peeks into the uterus through ultrasound. When the fetus is found to be a female, it is aborted. In India the deaths are not only during infancy but during marrying and child-bearing years of life, and in Sub-Saharan Africa young girls die while children due to diseases where the medicine or food has been given to the boys.

John Peterson Myers is actively researching the effects of industrial chemicals on our bodies. We are in close contact with so many different types of chemicals every day: chemicals in our clothes, in our environment, in food packaging, and even in the food itself affect our well-being. We carry these around in our systems which lead to all kinds of different health problems.

And even though the levels may be low, we do not know how they act in the long-term or how they affect our children. These chemicals, alone or in combination with one another, can turn on and turn off certain genes which affect health later in life. For example, a pregnant woman in contact with the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) exposes her child in utero. This chemical is found in the lining of cans and in plastic items. BPAs can cause problems such as autism and obstructed bladder syndrome later in life.

SCARY VID FROM YOUTUBE - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTXPESL_riY

Learn more on this website - www.ourstolenfuture.org

And Albert Nerenberg made everyone laugh, and even laughed at Moses Znaimer. Laughter decreases stress and has beneficial long term effects, like longevity!

One of my FAVORITE talks was from Candace Savage. She is an author and a bee naturalist. She loves insects, like me! I wear a little golden bee around my neck and I wanted to get a picture of her pointing to it... But alas, I could not find her afterwards.



Bees are the sexual go-betweens for flowering plants, and bees are just flower-fixated wasps, if you really want to simplify things... But I am not a fan of wasps, and I adore bees. Especially fuzzy ones. Ones that you can touch. And now, in addition to ALL of the other projects I have, I would like to start a little bee hive in the backyard...

"Oh, for the bees' experience of clovers and noon" - Emily Dickinson

It reminded me of the orangey coloured bee that I helped out in Switzerland. He was wandering around on the walk-way and I picked him up and put him by a tree. Maybe he was sick or dying, but it's better to be under a tree than under someone's foot.





Rob Stewart, a director and documentarian, loves sharks like me. I remember being obsessed with sharks in Grade 3 and visiting all the surrounding libraries reading every book about sharks I could find. I even did a workshop on sharks for the kids at the summer camp I worked at...

Anyways, while trying to film a beautiful movie about the magnificence of sharks, he ended up with a documentary "filled with corruption, espionage, attempted murder charges, and mafia rings." He named it "Sharkwater" and went on to become the most award-winning documentary of 2007. It would have been nice to talk with him more, but the conference was so busy. He also shares this incredible and maddening passion for conservation of our earth, and his speech was truly touching.


The SHARKWATER trailer!! - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggtxA4wuXzY



Scott Cassell talked all about another sea creature, the Humboldt squid who has three hearts and has blue blood (the blood is copper based, not iron based like ours!!)

The we made paper airplanes with Louis-Rene Lafond, and it was time for another break which meant MORE coffee, and one more croissant... Just one... I promise it will be my last one...



Ray Zahab and Colin Angus told us of their exploring adventures, and Edna Levitt lead us in some afternoon fitness exercises!

- photo by Gene Driskell

"Ben Gulak, a native of Milton, Ontario, is the 19-year-old creator of the Uno, a "one-wheeled" zero emissions motorcycle".



The bike uses gyroscopic technology, kind of like the Segway. It would be great for scooting around, especially in densely populated cities.

-photo by Gene Driskell

Terry Mosher took us on a visual trip through politics, and Ali Velshi reminisced about his experiences as chief business correspondent for CNN.

As the conference wound to a close I started thinking about that lovely pink blouse in my bag, hiding somewhere in the theater! Time for the after party!


The AMAZING venue!!


My outfit, straight from Florence, rescued from the clutches of the secret bakery!

Making plans for poutine with Laura Archer

Discussions about life, the universe, and everything with Ali Velshi

Making constellations with Astrophysicist Jaymie Matthews


A perfect day, a perfect conference... Celebrating with a glass of red...

IdeaCity Day 2 - robots

I must admit, I really dig robots. And not just the cute little cartoon ones that clean your house or deliver cakes (are those only in my dreams?)... And not just robots like Wall-E (who is my boyfriend, by the way)... I love the concept of making the inanimate animate.



Today we heard from Ryan Adams who is building computers that can see. We learned a lot about how our eyes work, and did you know that when your eyes are moving you are actually blind? Yes, this means that when you look from one point to the next the movement between is unseen, unrecognised... It's like your brain internalizes for that instant and Mr. Adams can prove it to you:
Get a mirror. And find a friend.
Look into your friend's eyes. You can see them moving back and forth, yes?
Now look into the mirror and notice that you cannot see your own eyes shift back and forth... You are blind in the interim...

David Hanson creates bio-inspired robots. Some you can have conversations with, and are life-like in bodily movement and facial expression... This one is called Zeno. Watch how the artificial skin moves. It's called "frubber" for flesh and rubber:

Zeno... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q88FK37Q8jU

But the one that REALLY flipped me out was the robo-dog. Just WATCH how it can move across different terrains and how it reacts when pushed, or when sliding across ice... AMAZING


Go Robo-Dog!! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJJQ0zNNOM



Stephen Paulter spoke about surgical robotics. He has applied the use of a tiny robotic hand during minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery. This kind of stuff was what made me want to be a surgeon when I was 12. I went to the U of T open house and cut the peel off a banana using laparoscopic tools, but they were simple scissors and a grasper. I think I would have made a great surgeon...



And when you make the inanimate animate, we must remember puppetry. Ronnie Burkett also spoke, and I remember seeing one of his puppet shows in high school called "Streets of Blood"... Do you guys remember that?

IdeaCity Day 2 - Architecture!

"I used to hate Toronto, but as you become more involved in a place it becomes fabulous, it reveals it's secrets"
- Will Alsop, locally he is best known for designing "The Tabletop" at OCAD... or, as I like to call it "The Giant Stapler"...



Les Klein’s idea for transforming the Gardiner Expressway was striking, and sensible! Everyone has talked about tearing it down, or building an underground road, or some other idea that seems like a lot of work and a lot of money. But Les proposes that we build a garden over the Gardiner.



It would cost a fraction of the price of tearing the whole highway down, it would allow people to walk or bike to work, and it would be constructed without interrupting normal traffic flow. The idea of riding my bike along that route seems pretty cool, and personally, it’s an idea that I’d like to see materialize. You could also have picnic lunches there, and we all know how much I love picnics!

Here we are infront of the Panasonic plasma screen TVs... Full of the starry night sky...

IdeaCity Day 1 - summary

The day is segmented and every segment has a theme. Spirituality was the theme of the second segment, and my favorite speakers had to be the two last.

We heard from Richard MacDonald who is a Dignified Death Advocate at the Final Exit Network. He feels that a humane society should not deny one's personal choice to end their own life if they are terminally ill. This network is informative only and does not provide the means of ending one's life, but people who contact them want control over the location, manner, and time of their exit.

Rick Miller performed his one-man hit show titled "Bigger Than Jesus"... What can I say about this? It was great. You'll just have to check it out on your own:

http://www.biggerthanj.com/

The next segment was about Human Rights, and at one point I had to sneak out of the theater to write. After all of this information, all of this inspiration, I felt punch-drunk and had to get some of my thoughts down...

Preston Manning spoke about creating a more democratic society, John Ralston Saul spoke about the political roots of Canada, and Irwin Cotter each touched on human rights and the horrors of genocide.



But it was Laura Archer who really got me. And how do I sum her up? She is a nurse and an artist. She has traveled to war-torn lands assisting people, treating diseases, delivering babies... She's been kidnapped and been witness to the extremes of human suffering and human injustice... And at the end of it all I just wanted to extend my hands and ask "How can I help?".

Her words were full of power and urgency. Her stories were sad and horrific, but also hopeful. She reminded me of myself a long time ago, when I was so politically active and so socially aware. I had felt so empowered and so powerless at the same time. Like her, my passion for change was driving those around me away, and it made me realize just how much people close their eyes.

So it begs the questions: How can I help? What can I do? And how do you battle two powerful enemies? The injustice and the denial? How do you stand up against oppression and against a mind's closed doors? How do you make a difference?



The IdeaCity bio of Laura Archer

I also had a chance to meet and speak with Marilyn Lightstone, actress and artist. She is so lovely and engaging, AND she played Ms. Stacey on Anne of Green Gables. That movie has been so instrumental in my development and it was really interesting (and a little surreal) to talk with a character who I had admired growing up!



My favorite speakers of the next segment were Maude Barlow, Wade Davis, And Robert F. Kennedy Junior. All environmental talks, all so inspiring...

The only comment I can provide is one of hope. There are ways that we can help to make a difference, but the changes must come from within us. And we must believe so fiercely that change is possible. We cannot look to our neighbors. We must find it within ourselves to act with the earth and it's living things, and act quietly. Start doing, and those around you may also do.

I really wish I had it in video so I could post it and show you. I have are some pics that I took from the conference... My Lumix camera is amazing! I'm loving the big screen at the back and the way the lens opens and closes. My friend told me that it has a Leica lens, which is a good lens, good for zooming...

Time for sleep, looking forwards to another incredible day tomorrow...



1. Richard MacDonald
2. Moses Znaimer
3. John F. Kennedy Jr
4. Wade Davis

Idea City Day 1 - noontime

So far, I've traveled into and out of the cosmos, and into and out of cells... I've seen the glow of the universe. I've been inspired and stunned, and it's only 11:00 am... !!

Jacob Abrahamse, a child soprano, opened the conference with his angelic voice, and was followed by Marcel Danesi who spoke about symbols and meanings. Marcel Danesi is a pop culture semiotician.

This is the 10th anniversary of IdeaCity, and the symbol "X" is everywhere, X being the roman numeral for ten:

"X is crossed swords, combat - who will be the victor? we do not know, so the mystics adopted X as the sign of destiny, and algebraists chose it to represent the unknown..." - Victor Hugo

"In cartoons, X is a symbol of death. Draw X's over the eyes and that little critter is toast".

Would you like to see something totally neat? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2cmlhfdxuY&feature=fvw

Next, I learned about the rings of Saturn in a funny and astounding speech by Mark Showalter, a planetary systems expert who had worked on the Cassini mission. The back-lit image (forward-scattered image) of Saturn was astounding. Usually we see an image of Saturn face on, in full sunlight, but the Cassini image it is back-lit, an eclipse, and all of the dusty filaments of rings are visible. An outer ring was discovered, and in it, a little satellite... And on this little satellite, geysers, liquid water, and green stripes indictiave of life...



COOL!

Barth Netterfield was next. We learned about balloon borne telescopes... The balloons can float for weeks, but they need to be warm so the gas inside won't condense and cause the balloon to fall. The solution when the sun rises and sets? Fly them at the north or south pole! They have constant sunlight there, depending on the season... The particular telescope that was launched could "see" into the dark matter in galaxies where new stars are born...

"Space is really empty, even when it is full".

David Ben was the last speaker before the break. He is a magician and showed us how professional cheaters cheat at poker using sophisticated shuffling techniques... I made notes: Never play poker with David Ben.

http://www.ideacityonline.com/

More pictures to come, I had to get used to playing with my camera.