Run, don’t walk, or better yet take your flying machine to see LEONARDO: 500 Years into the Future. This 30,000 square foot exhibit is at the Tech Museum for a limited time and ends on January 4th. ValleyZen was so impressed with our first visit that we returned and took some friends with us again yesterday. Why you should make it a must on your todo list of mind-expanding activities for 2008:
# 10 Rack up Renaissance Frequent Flyer Miles…
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The Tech Awards show that “Big changes come from simple solutions” said Tech President Peter Friess —opening an elegant black tie gala for the premier annual humanitarian awards programs in the world. Over 1500 Tech Museum friends & donors gathered to honor 25 global innovators (Laureates) who were carefully selected from hundreds of applications received from 68 countries. $250,000 in cash awards were distributed on one evening.
“We are gathering all the intellectual capital of all these prestigious laureates…
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ValleyZen was invited to the third Singularity Summit 2008 – a conference discussing “The Singularity” a point at which machines will be able to surpass human intelligence. Ray Kurzweil, CEO of Kurzweil Technologies and author of The Singularity is Near headlined the conference along with technological and academic heavyweights like Intel CTO Justin Rattner, X PRIZE Foundation Founder, Chair & CEO Peter Diamandis, Investor/Entrepreneur Esther Dyson, MIT Center for Bits and Atoms Director Neil Gershenfeld, CEO of Novamente, director of research at SIAI, Ben Goertzel, and over a dozen others.
At a private reception hosted the night before the conference at the Tech Museum, we spoke with Ben Goertzel. Drue asked Ben if a machine could reach enlightenment. Please check out his response. It’s sure to provoke you…
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ValleyZen was invited to attend the National Women’s Leadership Initiative National Issues Conference. Billed as “the pinnacle event of the general election to highlight the importance of women’s leadership,” it drew women from all 50 states. Mega donors as well as high-level policy makers and senior campaign advisors converged on the Chicago Sheraton Towers to focus on “issues…
On Sunday, famed video game developer Richard Garriott launched into space aboard a Soyuz TMA spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. For more than $30 million, he has become the sixth private citizen to travel into orbit.
The Russian rocket lifted off on schedule at 1:01 p.m. (3:01 a.m. EDT), carrying precious cargo including a revolutionary experiment in art —the first in-space art exhibition. Highlighting the importance of private space travel to future generations, Garriott is hosting this zero-gravity art exhibition. Included is an original brush painting by Drue Kataoka, created for this historic
mission…
The world premiere of the largest, most comprehensive exhibit of the art, science & engineering works of Leonardo da Vinci is at The Tech Museum for just 100 days.
Wait — make that 99 days!
Last night the red carpet rolled for a lavish celebration hosted by Frank and Denise Quattrone, Tech President Peter Friess and The Tech Board. Friess told ValleyZen, “There are so many engineers in Silicon Valley, and inside the soul of every engineer is a little bit of Leonardo. He’s not a person — He’s a phenomenon.”
Donors and Valley celebs walked the red carpet —-flanked by a 24 foot tall model of the Sforza Horse with its mighty hooves crushing hundreds of fresh rose petals. This bronze sculpture was originally designed as a gift for Ludovico il Moro, the Duke of Milan as a monument to Francesco Sforza, his predecessor. Shipping it from Florence, Italy to San Jose, required two ocean containers…
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“We’d like this to be the Sundance Film Festival” for the tech industry – said Jason Calacanis—to over 1700 attendees, partners and press that rocked the San Francisco Design Concourse Center. Sterling sponsors including Fenwick & West, Google, The Founders Fund, MSN Money and Yahoo! made it possible. 52 top startups were selected from 1038 hopefuls and earned coveted 8 minute spots to present before the A-list audience. Short pitching sessions were judged by Valley icons like Google VP of Search and User Experience Marissa Mayer, MySpace Founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe, Angel Rockstar Ron Conway and Youtube Co-founder Chad Hurley. Check out ValleyZen’s exclusive interview with Chad Hurley…
On Tuesday April 22nd ValleyZen was invited to observe “The First Amendment in the Digital Age,” a Stanford seminar by Beth Noveck. She is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Institute for Information Law & Policy at New York Law School. Noveck teaches in the areas of intellectual property and innovation law and policy, constitutional law, e-democracy and e-government. The topic for this week concerned the development and use of impenetrable anonymizing software which makes it impossible to identify the source of a posting on the Internet. The class discussed the effects on the constitutional rights of freedom of press and individuals’ right of privacy. The guest presenter was Michael Fertik, CEO of Reputation Defender…
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For Barack Obama’s campaign, the Zen surprise came out of the negative space. In the art of Sumi-e, the negative space (the white space between the brush strokes) is as important as the brush strokes themselves. This is what holds the painting together and makes it take shape and meaning. For the Obama campaign, the ebony-inked brush strokes are Obama himself. The negative space is the countless campaign contributors, supporters and activists who have found meaning and identity in his campaign. They are the ones that have created the surprise…
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NBC 11’s TechNow! Host Scott Budman knows the value of eliminating clutter on & off the air. Want to get on TV? Be Zen! “I’ve gotten to know some of the CEOS, analysts and individuals who are really going to give the good soundbites. I seek those people out who…”
Scott Budman on:
Drue Kataoka
is a Master Sumi-e Artist sharing a Zen perspective on modern life, Silicon Valley and the world. Drue's paintings
Bill Fenwick
is a founder of Fenwick & West, a leading Silicon
Valley law firm focused on technology and life sciences.
