Clontarf 1014 at Havre de Grace

Clontarf 1014 was the Battle of Hastings for the Irish. Clontarf 1014 was decisive for both the Irish and the Vikings. Eric E. Hass did a better job than I of taking photos of the reenactment on Flickr. Reenactors bring history to life, and my son Eamon and I had a blast.


The Clontarf 1014 reenactment took place in Havre de Grace. Captain Smith sailed there before Jamestown. The British burned it to the ground in 1812 but one Irishman, John O'Neill, held off the mighty British armada with a single cannon. A canal lock house from the early 1800's used to regulate coal and goods from Central Pennsylvania in Havre de Grace where the Susquehanna meets the Chesapeake Bay. Here are a few photos of Havre de Grace.

Starfish and the Spider

Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom published The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations recently.
Rod is the Director of National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) at the Department of Homeland Security Center. I sleep better at night knowing that he has the insights in Starfish and is in a position of leadership in national security.
Here is how Ori Brafman describes in The Starfish and the Spider explores what happens when starfish take on spiders (such as the music industry vs. Napster, Kazaa, and the P2P services that followed). It reveals how established companies and institutions, from IBM to Intuit to the US government [AQ is a starfish organization they explore], are also learning how to incorporate starfish principles to achieve success. And it will teach you:

• How the Apaches evaded the powerful Spanish army for 200 years
• The power of a simple circle
• The importance of catalysts, who have an uncanny ability to bring people together
• How the Internet has become a breeding ground for leaderless organizations
• How Alcoholics Anonymous has reached TK million members with only a shared ideology and without a leader

As a poet, I've always liked the starfish organizational model and been uncomfortable with the spider organizational model, so I naturally agree with their points in the book.

Aberdeen Ordnance Museum

I tried to visit the Aberdeen Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, MD, after 9/11, but it was closed. It has since reopened and I just had the chance to visit with my son. It was a blast. It has a collection of ordnance, delivery systems, and weapons from WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm that has to be seen to be believed. Here a few things to be found there.

Crunchies

TechCruch presents the winners of the 2007 and 2008 Crunchies.

Sarah Meyers has good links to the Crunchie winners here.

Scoble BlogHaus Podtech Meyers CES 2008

All you need to know about the Consumer Electronic Show 2008:
Podtech and Mogulus videos
Sarah Meyers
qik phone videos
Scoblizer
BlogHaus
International CES on Flickr
Best of Show
GearLive
blip.tv

Merry Christmas American Servicemen and Women

From my family to you and yours...our deepest gratitude for standing on the line for us back home. Hope this brief view of life back home brings you peace and joy!
Bruce, Robin, Eamon and Josh Curley





Membership in USAA is one big benefit of your service. Look into it. www.usaa.com

Smart Green Energy Links

I've been green for decades.
Being half Irish, green is in my very genes. When I traveled through Ireland in 1975 for 3 weeks on $70 back when a dollar was worth something, the Irish told me there are 57 shades of green there. I believe it.
And I believe in solar.
It is practical, useful, and fun.
I started to believe in it in 1979 when I worked at the Solar Energy Research Institute in Golden, CO. I still believe in it now.
Solar is as much the American destiny in the 2100's as the West was in the 1800's.
I also believe there are 57 ways to create a green world anew and I won't allow Gore and the political lefty greenies to be so doctrinaire as to narrow it to one way: theirs.

What Can be Done
With so much false science and political stridency going around, I wanted to list some of the amazing people and companies that are actually DOING something out there, not pontificating and lecturing while they hypocritically lead the life of luxury while whining about what everyone else should do...or selling themselves carbon credits from their own company.

First...INSULATE: Reflectix, Inc
Make it green...plant native American trees and plants from Pennsylvania: Musser Forests, Inc.
The best industrial wind turbine in the world (Made in Ohio): Get Smart Energy
A highly profitable solar company with a good product that knows how to market: First Solar
Thin Film for roofs, powering laptops, cell phones, and more: Iowa Thin Film
Solar design and products from a veteran solar guy: Renewables
Making all the window space on a building a solar collector is: Heliovolt
Solar Manufacturing: Green Manufacturing Expo
Green Web 2.0

World's End

World's End and Eagle's Mere Pennsylvania is where I met with my 4 brothers one Fall to catch up.