Events
Curing Brain Cancers - Blackwood 8 fundraiser on the 23rd of October
Friday 16 October 2009
The Blackwood 8 fundraising event is coming up in a week and will be held at the Croydon Golf Club. In just two years and with a small handful of volunteers, the Blackwood 8 group has raised over $80,000 which has been donated to organisations looking to treat cancer. This year, the focus in on Brain Cancer's and world reknowned neurosurgeon, Dr Charlie Teo is a guest speaker. Tickets for the event can be obtained by accessing the Blackwood 8 website
With major auction prizes, silent auctions, raffles and a great night of entertainment with a live band, finger foods and drinks, Blackwood 8 are hoping to raise over $50,000 from this year's event, with all proceeds being donated to the Cure for Life Foundation.
To book tickets, go to the Blackwood 8 website
This year's event will also mark the official launch of Sally White's book 'Three Quotes from a Plumber' which details Sally's battle with a Brain tumour and how her sister urged her to get a second opinion with the words 'Sally you get three quotes from a plumber, why wouldn't you do the same when your life is on the line?' Having already had one operation to remove her brain tumour, 'serindipity' worked in Sally's favour when Dr Charlie Teo was called in at late notice to speak at another event. With her sister's words ringing in her ears, and with her husband's advice to 'do whatever it takes to speak to Charlie', Sally asked Dr Teo if he would be willing to take a look at her case.
He did, and the book highlights Sally's journey and earlier history
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Events
Friday 16 July 2010
A series of recent activities has me writing on the idea of 'future strategy' and how different organisations are approaching their future development. What is interesting is the strong sense that preparing for your potential future requires multiple paths forward, not a single 'home run'. To that end I've recently considered sporting bodies and local community driven programs which has triggered these 'thought bubbles'
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Monday 5 July 2010
Stephen Downes is one the handful of bloggers I follow consistently. I do so because Downes (unlike many others unfortunately) like to write about his thinking AS WELL AS promoting the thinking of others, whether or not he agrees with them. In that way you get a solid collection of alternative views within his field of endeavour (learning & teaching et al). The link below will take you to a presentation by David Harvey that walks you through an interesting interpretation of the Capitalist model and where we are at in the world affairs. Whether or not you agree with the content, it is highly recommended
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Monday 28 June 2010
Coming off what has been undoubtedly my busiest period (3 months) in the past decade, I'm in the throws of catching up on some light reading. I usually have at least two books on the go and my preference is for the books to be about diverse topics because it allows the mind to seek out random connections. I once 'solved' the nuclear fusion problem whilst reading books by Umberto Eco and John D Barrow. A physicist friend of mine suggested my idea was radical and yet theoretically possible. But I digress. Right now I have a wide combination - 'From Poverty to Peace' by Duncan Green looks at ways in which we can empower people to help themselves more effectively, whilst looking at the myriad of mistakes so commonly made in the area of 'aid'. 'New knowledge in Human Values' is an older book edited by Ambraham Maslow with a wide contribution of thoughts from the likes of Pitirim Sorokin, Dorothy Lee and Paul Tillich (among others) and is a walk through some of the thinking about Human Values emerging in the late 1950's. The chapters are appropriately dense undertakings and I'm finding it hard to stick with, especially as I'm more inclined to lean towards the model of Clare W Graves and his Value Systems Thoery; 'Coercion as Cure' by Thomas Szasz is a ripper of a book thus far, though I'm only a few chapters in, I can tell the quality of a book by how much 'tagging' I do within a text
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