Biophys Ltd

Biophys gets to the top of Kilimanjaro

2011-10-18T21:25:00.003-07:00

http://kiliascent2011.blogspot.com/

A thought from Lisa de Speville on why people strive to do the impossible:

2010-09-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

From Lisa de Speville's blog (posted 27 September) ....

In a final comment from the Richard Burton book that Lisa has been reading ...

The guide is discussing the difficulty of the journeys (he went on four in total with Burton, Speke and other explorers including Stanley). He speaks of suffering and wonders how they all endured it. He also questions how the Englishmen endured the conditions when they came from a place where the heat, animals and sicknesses were so different (both Burton and Speke suffered terribly from malaria and other tropical fevers which nearly killed them).

"It was only at the end of that first journey that I realised what I should have known from the beginning: without this suffering the wazungu do not feel alive. Just before we reached the coast [returning after finding the lakes], I understood that they depend on suffering the way others depend on alcohol or khat or ganja. So it was no surprise when I saw the wazungu again, less than two monsoons later."

He goes on to say:

"Even the others, Bwana Stanley and Bwana Cameron, kept coming back, drawn to their own suffering: all of them did, except the ones who did not survive. They only had to get back on their feet and they were already planning their next journey. It did not have to be easier or more comfortable, the next one. Eh, far from it. They sought out more pain next time, they sailed even closer to death, like a fisherman who is not satisfied with surviving the reef but is compelled to try ever more impossible channels, channels where is boat can only be dashed to pieces."

It's not so different where modern adventurers, mountaineers, climbers, kayakers and, indeed, adventure racers are concerned...

3 Types of Failure to Avoid

2010-09-27T02:45:00.000-07:00

From the HBR Blog

Innovation experts have long argued that companies should be more tolerant of failure. But not all failure is created equally. Here are three types of failures that rarely contribute to learning and should be avoided whenever possible:

Knowingly doing the wrong thing. When a project falls apart because someone hid information or misled others, any learning is moot. Failure is only acceptable when the project was done with good intentions.
Failing to gather the right data. Often failure can be avoided by doing some simple research: asking target customers for input or testing an idea before launching it.
Prioritizing research over experience. Some things are unknowable without real-life experiments. Don't waste resources on researching a theory when you can create a prototype or conduct an experiment that will give you a more realistic answer.

Today's Management Tip was adapted from "When Failure Is Intolerable" by Scott Anthony.

IUFoST 2010

2010-08-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

In the latter stages of August we are attending the IUFoST conference in Cape Town, South Africa to present two papers. One on Kingklip freshness and the other on Carbon Footprints in the fishing industry.

Biophys Adds Biosafety and Biosecurity Consulting Service

2010-08-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

The Biophys team supports organisations in identifying critical areas involving biological material and work together with clients to develop and implement biosafety and biosecurity (management) systems to meet their statutory obligations, ensure personnel safety and deliver product integrity and quality.

Biosafety and biosecurity are of ever-increasing importance in commerce, industry and academia in light of tightening regulatory control and the threat of bioterrorism.

Biophys offers the following services to organisations:

Develop and implement a biorisk management system according to CWA 15793:2008;
Competent advice on statutory notification requirements in handling biological material;
Advise on the management, design and operation of microbiological containment laboratories;
Training in Containment Level (BSL) 1-3 operations;
Assistance in setting up an institutional Genetic Modification & Biosafety Committee as required by the UK Contained Use Rgeulations 2010;
Retainer-based services of a Biological Safety Officer as required by the UK Contained Use Regulations 2010.

Biophys sponsors FEAT

2010-07-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

FEAT, Fascinating Expedition & Adventure Talks, is an evening of time-limited presentations. Each presenter (12-14 of them) speaks for seven minutes; no more, no less. With images. Although the speakers are invited because of their achievements, presentation themes focus on an aspect of their expedition – not the entire extended expedition. With stories of adventures on land, water and in the air, you will be enthralled.

Created by adventure racer and writer Lisa de Speville, FEAT brings South Africa’s adventurers together. “Most people would love to embark on an expedition; but most are tied to ‘real life’ so they settle for feeding this desire with organised sporting events,” she says. “It takes a different, special kind of courage and drive to abandon socially accepted norms (day job, family, home) to set off – often solo – on self-motivated and self-organised expeditions. Whether the adventure involves oceans, countries, continents, rivers or mountains, these achievements are extraordinary. I’ve yet to meet a person who is not captivated by tales of adventure.”

Through these Talks, FEAT aims to publicise the achievements of South African adventurers. Be inspired by their feats.

The first FEAT will be held in Jo’burg on 7 October 2010, at Wits Theatre in Braamfontein. A FEAT evening is planned for Cape Town in early 2011.

Information can be found at:

www.ar.co.za	http://www.ar.co.za/2010/07/south-african-adventurers-celebrated-at-feat/
FEAT	http://www.featsa.co.za/2010/07/sa-adventurers-celebrated-at-feat/
FEAT Facebook	www.facebook.com/featsa
Go Multi	http://www.gomulti.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=380:south-african-adventurers-celebrated-in-live-presentations&catid=86:news-ar&Itemid=126
Publicity / Media Update	http://www.publicityupdate.co.za/?IDStory=27903
Sports Guide	http://www.sportsguide.co.za/?p=1526
The Adventure Blog	http://theadventureblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/south-african-adventurers-to-be.html
Gadling	http://www.gadling.com/2010/07/18/new-adventure-festival-celebrates-south-african-explorers/
www.climb.co.za	http://www.climb.co.za/2010/07/south-african-adventurers-are-accomplished-many-of-their-achievements-are-documented-as-world-firsts-and-records-our-adventurers-have-traversed-and-circumnavigated-countries-and-continents-they/
RunnersTalk	http://runnerstalk.myfreeforum.org/sutra60466.php#60466

Things we can do to reduce climate change

2009-12-05T21:52:00.001-08:00

As adapted from Time (7 April 2007):

Turn waste food into fuel.
Build a greener house if new construction is necessary.
Change your lightbulbs.
Use LEDs for lights in municipal areas.
Reduce the size of your house (or “Ditch the McMansion”)
Use a clothesline and not a tumble dryer.
Recycle your old clothes
Convert your old fleece into new fleece.
Where possible use geothermal heat.
Capture carbon.
Consider letting your employees work from home.
Use a bus/train.
Pay bills online - create a paperless environment.
Open your window instead of using an aircon.
Have your company, office or home audited for energy usage/carbon footprints.
Use green power.
Buy energy compliant appliances.
Wrap your water heater in a thermal blanket.
Reduce your meat intake.
Say “NO” to plastic bags.
Use live bamboo as a fence.
Unless you can use a fireplace to travel, fly direct.
Shut down your computer when not in use.
Turn off all of the appliances you are not using.
Reduce the use of packaging.
Don’t drive one person - one car.
SHARE.

Interim Management Project Examples

2009-12-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

The following list of projects is paraphrased from Executives Online and includes projects handled by Biophys Ltd over the past 18 months.

Providing an objective view from outside the industry.
Acting “aggressively” to fix an acquisition.
Offering the CEO a sounding board which is willing to question and oppose.
Managing the relocation of a business between continents.
Developing and implementing a company’s digital strategy.
Building a sales organization with clear, repeatable procedures.
Reducing energy usage within a company.
Redesigning factory layouts to improve product flow.
Redeveloping a company’s quality management system.
Implementing an MRP system

Biophys Sponsored Athlete Shines

2009-11-08T08:27:00.000-08:00

Hilana Marais the Biophys sponsored member of Team Mad Scientist has been performing brilliantly in her chosen discipline of Mountain Biking around Cape Town over the past few weeks.

Last week saw her win the Ladies section of the Paarl Mountain Bike Race and this week she placed second in Franshoek.

She now has a bit of rest ahead of her before tackling the Double Century (200km) team race with a ladies team from Cape Town.

Decisions

2009-11-03T09:41:00.003-08:00

Seth Godin’s blog really has me humming at the moment.

Decision making or rather the apparent lack thereof, really bugs me.

The decision doesn't have to be a wise decision or a perfect one. It just has to be made. As Seth puts it: In fact, make several. Make more decisions could be your three word mantra.

No decision is a decision as well, the decision not to decide. But not deciding is usually the wrong decision!

If you are a decision maker, you become the go-to person. It doesn't matter so much that you're right, it matters that you decided.

Of course it's risky and painful. That's why it's a rare and valuable skill.

Risk - Apparent vs. Real

2009-11-03T09:41:00.001-08:00

A recent action by a good friend and colleague made me revisit Seth Godin’s blog on Risk. Below find it a bit paraphrased:

But it got me thinking about the difference between apparent and actual risk, and how that choice affects just about everything we do.

Apparent risk is what keeps someone working at a big company, even if it's doing layoffs. It feels safer to stay there than to do the (apparently) insanely risky thing and start a new venture.

Apparent risk is what gets someone who is afraid of plane crashes to drive, even though driving is more dangerous.

Apparent risk is avoiding the chance that people will laugh at you and instead backing yourself into the very real possibility that you're going to become obsolete or irrelevant.

When things get interesting is when the apparently risky is demonstrably safer than the actually risky. That's when we sometimes become uncomfortable enough with our reliance on the apparent to focus on the actual.

I wonder if my good colleague considered the difference before acting. A pity, as a bit of thought could have halted a rash action (based on apparent risk) leading to significant changes in her, her families and her colleagues lives.

The positive of the situation is that it did however get me to question my actions and why I respond the way I do to situations. A great reality check!

Hurdle Technology - Expanding to the Pharmaceutical Industry

2009-10-21T23:51:00.000-07:00

Hurdle Technology is used to describe the intelligent combination of different preservation factors or hurdles to deteriorate the growth of microorganisms.

The technology has been used for the control of product safety in the food industry since 1970s, and is now being applied to the production of self-preserving cosmetics. Adherence to current good manufacturing practice, appropriate packaging, careful choice of the form of the emulsion, low water activity and low or high pH values are significant variables for the control of microbial growth in cosmetic formulations.

A paper to this effect has recently been published by a Greek group. This paper describes the application of the basic principles of Hurdle Technology in the production of self-preserving cosmetics. Multi-functional antimicrobial

ingredients and plant-derived essential oils and extracts that are used as alternative or natural preservatives are also described.

Varvaresou A, Papageorgiou S, Tsirivas E, Protopapa E, Kintziou H, Kefala V, Demetzos C. 2009. Self-preserving cosmetics. Int J Cosmet Sci. 2009 Jun;31(3):163-75.

World-first Sustainable Racing Car Runs On Chocolate

2009-10-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

As taken from ScienceDaily on the 8th of October 2009.

Dr Kerry Kirwan at the University of Warwick, led the research team which designed and built the worldfirst fully sustainable Formula 3 racing car.

The car is made from woven flax, recycled carbon fibre, recycled resin and carrot pulp for the steering wheel. It runs on biofuel made from chocolate and animal fats and is lubricated with plant oils. But it's not just an environmentally friendly car, it is also fast. The car has a top speed of 135 mph, can achieve 0-60 in 2.5 seconds and is turbo charged to give it more torque.

Having got the seal of approval from drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Adam Carroll as well as F1 team boss Ross Brawn, the car will make its first competitive debut in the Formula 3 Championship final at Brands Hatch on 17th October. The team hope to prove that high performance, competitive cars can be built from sustainable materials.

According to Dr Kirwan the idea behind the project is to show that: "being sustainable and green can be incredibly sexy, fun and fast." He goes on to say that even though people's perception of motorsport is that it's wasteful, this project is "aiming to show ways for the future, for people to race and be green."

A video of the car in action can be found at IMPACT! World http://www.impactworld.org.uk. The website also features a variety of other films and case studies highlighting the impact of science and research technology in the UK.

This is your solution ... so what's the Problem?

2009-10-02T02:02:00.000-07:00

I was once described as not being able to see problems (or challenges as I prefer to call them) but only solutions. My mentor at the time warned me about this, indicating that I may actually miss the issue altogether. Wise words indeed.

In August, Seth Godin made a similar comment on his blog. He intimated that if we spend more time focusing on a problem rather than being fixated on the solution, issues may be resolved much quicker and with more relevant results. In his words, "The disconnect is caused because people focus on the solution instead of the problem you were given to solve. It's a lot easier to talk about features and hours spent and someone's resume and a lot more difficult to dig into the problem itself."

In the situation I currently find myself in, possibly asking,"If we create an extraction process that continuously produces high yielding enzyme, will you be satisfied?" is better than "I have this extraction technology that will solve your problems"!

Time to make sure that the solutions actually fit the problem as seen by the user and not by the provider of the solution.

Biophys Ltd's Carbon Footprint

2009-10-01T04:36:00.000-07:00

As an organization that develops Greenhouse Gas Inventories, it was necessary for us to consider our own Carbon Footprint. As a service organization, our GHG emissions are mainly indirect and fall into Scope 3 as described in the GHG Protocol - Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard which provides a step-by-step guide for companies to use in quantifying and reporting their GHG emissions.

Using data as recorded in the contracts handled by Biophys Ltd, the total GHG output for Biophys Ltd for the year 1 June 2008 to 31 May 2009 was determined as:

23.51 tonne CO2,
0 kg N2O, and
0 tonne CH4.

This equates to 23.51 tonne CO2e.

The figure is composed of air, rail and passenger car travel. Electricity consumption and waste (mainly paper) could not be estimated.

Web 2.0 and the USDA

2009-09-30T23:55:00.000-07:00

USDA Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Kathleen Merrigan will hold a Live Facebook Chat about local food systems on the 1st of October. Comments can be submitted via the USDA Facebook page.

The discussion is a part of the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative launched in early September.

According to the website:

USDA-wide effort to create new economic opportunities by better connecting consumers with local producers. It is also the start of a national conversation about the importance of understanding where your food comes from and how it gets to your plate. Today, there is too much distance between the average American and their farmer and we are marshalling resources from across USDA to help create the link between local production and local consumption.

As blogged by Ashley Colpaart

North American Leaders' Declaration on Climate Change

2009-09-30T00:39:00.000-07:00

Read the full declaration on PEN-e's blog.

A list of food blogs.

2009-09-30T00:34:00.000-07:00

Parke Wilde, who hosts the US Food Policy Blog, has just posted a list of food blogs. These are mainly US oriented, but give a good insight into the current state of food-related issues.

The only blog I'm missing on the list is the barfblog which is a compilation of Doug Powell and his collaborators' views and insights into current food poisoning issues.

The Economic Effects of Legislation to Reduce Greenhouse-Gas Emissions

2009-09-29T00:56:00.000-07:00

The Pace Environmental Notes that highlights new documents and events in the areas of Environmental Law, Energy Law, and Land Use Law has recently published concise and thought provoking comments on the the USA Congressional Budget Office report (Pub No 4001) which highlights the economic effects of reducing green house gas emissions.

The comments can be found here.

Losing sight of the forest!

2009-09-28T23:06:00.000-07:00

The old adage reads that "One cannot see the forest for the trees!"

However, I was fortunate enough to work with a new operations manager at BBI Enzymes SA for the past two weeks whose insights and ideas clearly showed that sometimes "One cannot see the trees for the forest!"

Being involved in the re-engineering* of a business which has required financial, operational, construction, technical, quality assurance and process development input, notwithstanding the CRM and marketing issues required, there are so many issues that require attention that one loses sight of the detail. This is a serious challenge when the management of detail is necessary.

It was pointed out that it should not be the CEO's responsibility to focus on the detail. This becomes very difficult when the organization is small and the management structure flat allowing everyone the opportunity to interact with the CEO.

What it did highlight to me though, is that at times I am too trusting. I expect people to complete their alloted tasks without requiring constant attention and micro-management. A lesson which was difficult to learn as it focuses attention on the self, which is always uncomfortable. But a lesson well worth remembering when working with management (or other) teams.

* Whilst I am generally not in favour of using the the term "re-engineering" in this case it was quite literal focussing on new processes and equipment as well as including the redirection of the organization.

Meetings

2009-09-23T02:32:00.001-07:00

I had a very interesting experience today. I was participating in a meeting that had a very clear agenda, sent out with sufficient time to allow for proper and adequate preparation for same meeting.

As we started the discussion, a new member to the team asked an extremely pertinent question:

What is the objective of the meeting?

This changed the flow of the meeting significantly. Rather than blindly follow an agenda and tick all the right boxes, each agenda point was now focussed to answering that question.

Literature on management theory will tell you that this is how meetings should function. But it was a refreshing reminder seeing and experiencing the theory in action.

Nutritional quality of organic vs conventional products

2009-08-17T09:26:00.001-07:00

Are organic products really better than conventional foods? Are they better for the environment and more nutritious or purely products made 'better' through higher pricing and media hype?

In a posting last month on Barfblog - Musings about food safety and things that make you barf, Doug Powell says, "Organic food is not safer than conventional food. Organic food is not more sustainable than regular food. Organic food is not more nutritious than other food."

Doug's posting contains a link to the results published by the UK Food Standards Authority which found, in summary, "no important differences in the nutrition content, or any additional health benefits, of organic food when compared with conventionally produced food."

The topic of organic products and their merits is here to stay. Organic products will continue to have a home in glossy foodie magazines and on our supermarket shelves. Where a market with spending power exists, there will be products to satisfy.

Image: From a Time Magazine cover (12 March 2007). The article questions the relative benefits of food labeled organic vs. food grown locally. Read the article Eating better than organic by John Cloud.

Hype Cycles (continued)

2009-08-16T03:46:00.000-07:00

For 2009, the new technologies that are considered by Gartner include,

Enterprise Information Management (EIM). EIM is an integrative discipline for structuring, describing and governing information assets across organizational and technological boundaries to improve efficiency, promote transparency and enable business insight. The Hype Cycle covers the broad range of technologies and capabilities used to effectively manage information as an asset and deliver information as part of a business service inside or outside the enterprise.

Mobile Device Technologies. Advances in key mobile technologies — such as manufacturing processes, wireless, chip fabrication, processors, memory, displays and user interfaces — will dramatically change the size, shape and capability of mobile devices during the next 10 years.

Photovoltaic Solar Energy. Solar energy is an area of great interest and opportunity for enterprises. Growing worldwide demand for clean energy is coming at a time when solar panel prices are declining due to improved manufacturing technologies and less expensive raw materials. The complete photovoltaic solar value chain is represented in this Hype Cycle.

As taken from the Gartner's Hype Cycle Special Report for 2009(31 July 2009).

Hype Cycles

2009-08-16T03:27:00.000-07:00

Gartner Inc.'s annual Hype Cycle Special Report provides a detailed look at technology maturity across the IT industry.

Each Hype Cycle provides a snapshot of key technologies and trends in a specific technology, topic, geographic region or industry domain.

Gartner introduced the idea of the Hype Cycle in 1995 as a commentary on the common pattern of human response to technology. Gartner's Hype Cycle characterizes the typical progression of an emerging technology, from overenthusiasm through a period of disillusionment to an eventual understanding of the technology's relevance and role in a market or domain. Each phase is characterized by distinct indicators of market, investment and adoption activities.

The Priority Matrix is a tool for prioritizing emerging technologies by forcing technology planners to look beyond the hype and assess technology opportunities in terms of their relative impact on the enterprise and the timing of that impact. In the Priority Matrix, the vertical axis focuses on the potential benefit of the technology (rather than on the expectation levels presented in the Hype Cycle).

The horizontal axis groups the technologies according to the same years-to-mainstream-adoption rating used on the Hype Cycle. The years-to-mainstream-adoption rating is a simple measure of risk based on the projected rate of maturation for a technology. High-priority investments appear in the top-left portion of the Priority Matrix, where technologies potentially have a high impact and have reached a reasonable level of maturity.

As taken from the Gartner's Hype Cycle Special Report for 2009 (31 July 2009).

Global Warming on YouTube

2009-08-04T06:40:00.001-07:00

YouTube has some interesting views on global warming:

I suppose the video of a polar bear shaving was supposed to be humorous, but instead it is quite sad. It portrays the stark reality of the effect that climate change has.

In contrast to this rather stark reality, the video espousing the virtues of low-energy light bulbs looks like a bit like Wallace and Gromit, but it portrays a very different yet just as powerful message.

PM: Rugged cell phones put to the test

2009-07-23T13:01:00.000-07:00

A different kind of cell phone test and review by Popular Mechanics (US, August 2009).

An Interesting Twist on Using Vehicles Powered by Electricity

2009-06-10T06:50:00.001-07:00

My thanks goes to the Pace Environmental Notes for highlighting the US Governments latest report on the potential Federal use of vehicles powered by electricity. And I quote:

The Government Accountability Office Report dated June 2009 (GAO-09-493) finds that Plug-ins will be expensive relative to other vehicles until battery costs come down and challenges such as achieving economies of scale are met. These high upfront costs will prevent agencies from including plug-ins in large numbers in their fleets without additional funding. Furthermore, agencies will also be hindered from incorporating plug-ins because of uncertainties regarding their performance, the maintenance and reliability associated with the vehicles’ batteries, and the resale value of the vehicles.

The satisfying issue to note is that the US Government is investing time, funds and effort in reviewing options to reducing their Carbon Footprint by using non Carbon-based fuelled vehicles. A significant change from the past where the US Government was not as ready to address climate change.

Where is business headed - some further thoughts!

2009-04-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

In 2006, CEOs agreed that the world topography of business was going to be fundamentally altered. Of the three most cited reasons, unexpected market shifts was one. The other two were intensified competition and customer expectations.

Unfortunately this understanding of the changing business topography, a year before the current economic situation started becoming evident, did not mitigate against the situation.

This would suggest that scenario planning, whilst being applied to a point (allowing for the correct prediction of the unexpected market shift), is not being applied in totality such that alternate actions for the scenarios are not developed sufficiently.

Innovation in Business.

2009-04-20T08:33:00.000-07:00

In December 2008 I was at a presentation arranged by IMS of the IQUAD Group. This presentation focussed around innovation of business models. It gave concrete steps on how the process could be achieved. Whilst I do not believe in recipe-type solutions for business problems, the sentiment was correct. Innovation in business is paramount. Not only innovation in terms of product development, but innovation in terms of the business and the business process.

Most importantly, this process must be driven and orchestrated from the top. The CEO must hold the prime responsibility for the process, rather than a Director of Innovation or an R&D Manager. This does however require management teams to function in an interdisciplinary manner in an environment where business and technology are integrated.

The importance of this process must however not create an environment where focus on products, services and markets is lost and the drive for operational excellence and innovation must continue to be fostered throughout.

Notwithstanding the previous paragraph, an outside look into the decisions made should be a part of the decision making process and should define decision making where operational alignments and innovation iniatives are concerned. By requiring outside collaboration or looking at the business the a way a client would, forces decisions to be made to the benefit of the organization and not according the whims of the management team.

Where is business going?

2009-04-18T08:42:00.000-07:00

The 2004 IBM CEO Study (the first of its kind) indicated that business was emerging from a period of cost-cutting. The general trend of the report's findings was that new innovation was the future of organic growth and brand value.

The 2006 version of the study found that business would have to undergo fundamental change. The focus remains on new products and services to create value. But the fundamental change required is emphasis on challenging the status quo of business models and innovating the the basics of same business models. Finally, the need to collaborate was emphasized. Especially collaboration across business ecosystems to yield a multitude of innovative ideas.

In 2009, business is going back to pre-2004 days. Business is again in a period of cost-cutting and retrenchment. And at this point, more than ever, collaboration is of the essence and innovating business models will be the means of survival post 2010 for many businesses.

Does this mean that business cycles are getting shorter and shorter?

Are nutritional guidelines sustainable?

2009-04-18T04:58:00.000-07:00

Recommendations to increase fish consumption in order to gain the benefits of omega-3 and omega-6 abound. People in developed countries have been urged to increase their consumption of fatty fish two to three fold.

However, the environmental sustainability of these recommendations needs to be questioned.

At current consumption levels global fisheries are in a severe crisis as demand outstrips supply and fish is being diverted from local markets (especially in the developing world) to affluent markets. This affects both the food security of those countries as well as the livelihood of the coastal communities that used to fish these resources.

If the recommendations to increase fish consumption two or three-fold is followed then all trends would suggest that commerical fish stocks will collapse by 2050.

Carbon Budgets

2009-04-18T03:48:00.000-07:00

In 2007 a paper by Dr Houghton in the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science described what was at the time known about the Carbon cycle.

The key issue is understanding the processes where carbon fuel is being burnt (sources) adding Carbon Dioxide to the atmosphere and where the CO2 is being removed (sinks). This understanding will allow formore accurate prediction of future GHG concentrations and the effects of these on climate change.

In 2007, understanding where the Carbon emitted from burning fossil fuels goes was (and still is) surprisingly difficult as it only has three place to go: the atmosphere, the oceans and land (plant and soil).

At the March 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference findings were published which indicate that the Carbon sinks (ocean and land) are slowly losing the battle in absorbing the Carbon released from rising emissions.

The overriding conclusion was that the exchange of heat and CO2 between the atmosphere and the carbon sinks suggest that climate change in inevitable in the next 1000 years.

And let us not forget that there are 1000's of tons of methane, which is a significantly more "potent" GHG, sequestrated in forzen soils and ice. If released the methane will have a more immediate and devastating effect that the burning of Carbon fuels.

Possibly, the term "global warming" that everyone now shies away from to the more politically correct "climate change" should be reconsidered, as warming will be the trigger to release these gases.

A New US-based Toxicology Resource

2009-03-17T21:47:00.000-07:00

The Aggregated Computational Toxicology Resource (ACToR) is a collection of databases collated (or developed) by the US EPA National Center for Computational Toxicology.

Sources of publicly available data on environmental chemicals have been brought together and made searchable by chemical name and chemical structure. The data available includes chemical structure, physico-chemical values, in vitro assay data and in vivo toxicology data.

Chemicals include industrial chemicals, pesticides and potential ground and drinking water contaminants.

Managment Review of Environmental Governance Within the UN - A Summary from PEN-e

2009-02-25T23:11:00.000-08:00

From the PEN-e Blog: (Pace Environmental Notes - electronic edition highlights new documents and events in the areas of Environmental Law, Energy Law, and Land Use Law)

The UN Report JIU/REP/2008/3 finds that:

The current framework of international environmental governance is weakened by institutional fragmentation.
United Nations system organizations have not defined clearly their responsibilities under the governance framework.
At present, there is no single strategic-planning framework embracing the entire United Nations system.
Most UNEP/United Nations-administered MEAs have separate secretariats.
Despite its mandate to review the effectiveness of MEAs, UNEP has not developed concrete modalities or capacity to fulfil its mandate.

Of Penguins, Marathons, Obesity and Lunch

2009-02-18T21:28:00.000-08:00

The Times reports that Penguins from the largest colony on mainland South America are being forced to swim the equivalent of two marathons farther to find food because of the effects of climate change. The survival of the Magellanic penguin colony at Punta Tombo, on the Atlantic coast of Argentina, is being threatened by the increasing distances the birds must travel to feed themselves and their chicks, research has shown.

Dee Boersma, of the University of Washington in Seattle, said that Punta Tombo penguins were now routinely swimming 25 miles farther on their foraging expeditions than they did a decade ago. “That distance might not sound like much, but they also have to swim another 25 miles back, and they are swimming that extra 50 miles while their mates are back at the breeding grounds, sitting on a nest and starving,” she said.

Now contrast this to the increasing obesity rates in the world. The WHO predicts that there will be 2.3 Billion overweight adults (not counting children) in 2015 and more than 700 Million of them will be obese (BMI > 30). The 2009 figures are > 1 Billion overweight adults of which 300 Million are obese. And just to put it into a medical context, obesity has been linked to :

Coronary heart disease
Type 2 diabetes
Cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon)
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Dyslipidemia (for example, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides)
Stroke
Liver and Gallbladder disease
Sleep apnea and respiratory problems
Osteoarthritis (a degeneration of cartilage and its underlying bone within a joint)
Gynecological problems (abnormal menses, infertility)

My point?

Let's try and put this into context. I run marathons as a past-time. Definitely not for food. (There is this Ultramarathon that I run which finishes outside a pub and where the pay-off line is "It's a long way for a drink!", but I digress). The bulk of the field in a marathon runs to stay fit and to keep their cardiovascular system healthy and their weight in check. And no, I couldn''t regularly run two marathons to take food back to my family.

Then there is this part of the population that has a BMI a tad higher than that of the average marathon runner (BMI>30 vs BMI<22).

And finally there is a part of the animal kingdom that due to the climate change at least in part affected by man (the over fishing of the oceans is definitely caused by man and not natural cyclical changes) now has to complete a double marathon just to get food?

So call me a cynic, but here I am running marathons for fun, there are people who consume too many calories and then there is the poor penguin who has to do the double marathon to eat (no gorging mind you - the family still has to be fed when he returns home). Strange justice in this ecosystem we call earth.

Honest Food and The Informed Patient

2009-02-18T01:34:00.000-08:00

Wathing an interview on BBC a few nights ago, I was rivetted to my chair as shadow environment secretary, Nick Herbert, outlined the Conservative Party's "Honest Food" campaign, a strategy they say, that will ensure that British consumers can be confident of where their meat actually comes from. Holding small containers emblazoned with images of Thomas the Train Engine or the Union Flag, Mr Herbert went on to deplore the fact that, unless one was extremely studious, one would never realize that the meat content of these packages actually derived from Brazil or other foreign nations. When confronted with the question whether this was not just another campaign for protectionism, Mr Herbert denied that the Conservative Party were against allowing the sale of meat from other nations but that these foods should be properly labeled to allow the consumer the choice.

What we have here is yet further proof of the "Information Age" in which we live.

In a study undertaken by the Judge Business School at Cambridge University which has become known as The Informed Patient, researchers sought to expound on the contentious issue of the direct provision of (medical) information to the public by industry. The outcome of this study?

The major conclusion from The Informed Patient study is the conviction that the future of healthcare in Europe demands far greater health-related information for patients and citizens. The information and knowledge support must be available at the level of the EU/member states and also at regional/local levels to assure sufficient education and support.

In scanning the internet however, and seeing how many "self diagnostic" websites exist, I must wonder just how advantageous it is effectively to remove the role of the physician and potentially create a niche for untrained, self-proclaimed experts?

And where is the balance between taking responsibility for ones own well being through exercising self control and common sense, and complete Orwellian living?

Terms and Conditions (and Definitions)

2009-02-11T05:21:00.000-08:00

Last week, we started to look at the idea of Collaborative Outsourcing and 2.0 and how these two concepts may be beneficial to the biotechnology industry. But for today, I would like to go back to basics and define exactly what I mean by these and some other pieces of terminology we will be using over the next few weeks.

Having clear definitions is an important lesson I learned during my Ph.D. studies whilst working with the interesting physiological group of microbes termed Viable But Non Culturable (VBNC), bacteria (Gram Negative pathogens in particular) which lose the ability to be cultured on artificial media but still retain the ability to replicate and cause disease. This is one of those polarized fields where one does not have the luxury of fence-sitting while the "war" between the VBNC and Sublethally Injured groups rages on. It amused me how simply applying a definition to a concept can so easily avoid the needless vehemence of opinion … and if you’re interested, I would be only too pleased to share with you why I am now more in favour of the term (metabolically) Active But Non Culturable (ABNC)! But I digress ...

So, in the immortal words of Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music … “Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.”

Web 2.0 was first introduced in 1995 as a term at a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly Media and MediaLive International in an effort to analyze the Dot Com market collapse. The outcome observation of this meeting was that rather than having dire consequences, the collapse seemed to have created an entirely new niche market for the individual to access technology and personalize it. O’Reilly Media Founder and CEO, Tim O’Reilly, has subsequently made an effort to define the concept of Web 2.0 because, in his own words, “A lot of what I'm trying to do with my thinking on Web 2.0 is to make the rules apparent to everyone, so that the industry isn't blindsided. Perhaps a hopeless effort, but I've gotten some traction...”.

“Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them.”

Essentially, this boils down to effectively using the available technology (namely, the internet) such that it works FOR the user rather than AGAINST the user.

Outsourcing 2.0 is the combination of two recent developments in business modelling. We have already defined the concept of Web 2.0 above, but just how does one arrive at the term Outsourcing 2.0? Frank J. Casale, Founder and CEO of The Outsourcing Institute, has published an extensive report on Outsourcing 2.0 and I could not hope to improve on his authoring. However, allow me to extract some nuggets that will hopefully allow us to bring clarity to this concept. The initial driving force behind outsourcing was purely financial: Can a business save money by relinquishing a particular process or product to an external service provider? In this, terms were usually negotiated around a table at board level, the negotiations were tedious, and they inevitably resulted in discontentment at some level in the client company. Enter the tipping point. Mr. Casale gives the following conceptual definition: “Outsourcing 2.0 is not a buzz word. It is not a product or a strategy. It is not owned or shaped by any segment of the market. It is a confluence of this new and evolving outsourcing demographic and the power and capabilities of Web 2.0.”

“Outsourcing 2.0 is about core competencies,” said Gurpreet Dhillon, a professor of information systems at Virginia Commonwealth University. “In Outsourcing 1.0, it was all about saving money. Now, companies want to concentrate on what they do well and outsource what is not central to the business. ”

Collaborative Outsourcing 2.0: real or redundant? I must ask this question, because perhaps many of you are thinking that inherent to Outsourcing 2.0 is the fundamental requirement of collaboration. But I would argue that an inherent understanding of collaboration is not enough, that we must pursue an explicit course of action when dealing with collaboration. It is not enough that we admire the notion of collaboration, we must forge an intimate relationship with it ... and relationships require work! Thus, I offer the definition of Collaborative Outsourcing 2.0 as: “Providing high-end innovation through process interactions of mutual benefit using all means of available technology.”

A Tale of Two Cities

2009-02-03T06:29:00.000-08:00

It would seem the votes are in, the polling stations closed and the peanut butter has hit the fan. Newspapers and government websites are now reporting in that indeed peanut butter was the culprit for the recent spate of Salmonella incursions into the US general public and that the source of the outbreak appears to be entirely limited to the Peanut Corporation of America plant in Blakely, GA. The outbreak, now apparently contained, has claimed at least 6 lives and caused distress in at least 486 others across 40 states. Included in the list of the 125 recalled products are some pet foods and health bars!

This outbreak is yet another in a spate of incidences over the past 12 months or more that have ravaged large sectors of the US food industry, resulting in intensive epidemiologic studies costing the federal and state authorities (and subsequently, the private tax-paying citizen) millions of dollars. Bill Marler, in his blog “Peanut Butter Salmonella - The Seven Year Old and the President”, quotes newly elected President Obama as having said “Far too often, tainted food is not recalled until too late,” Mr. Obama said last year. “When I am president, it will not be business as usual when it comes to food safety. I will provide additional resources to hire more federal food inspectors.” It will be interesting to see how federal funds are now shuffled to confront this inexcusable lack of food safety in a country which should know better.

And this, hot on the trail of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, where it was the US teams who were most vocal in their concerns over food safety in China’s capital (example headlines include “Wary U.S. Olympians Will Bring Food to China” in The New York Times, 09 February 2008).

Memories of gold medalists and tragic defeats wane into the past. But what remains of the incredible undertaking that goes in to the preparations of and by the host nation? Specifically, China’s almost regimental grit to make this event as safe as possible, attempting to remove all doubt that health and sanitation in one of the world’s most populated regions, is on par with that of Western nations. By August 22 2008, no single safety incident occurred related to food for the Beijing Olympics, as reported by official spokesperson for Food Safety Coordination at the Beijing Food Safety Administration Office, Tang Yunhua. The Olympic food safety guarantee team monitored a total of 1 616 830 sets of meals, including breakfasts, lunches, dinners and late night snacks for athletes, officials and accredited media members.

Personally, I am impressed with the efforts of China’s attempts to ensure health and safety for what could become a powerfully driven tourism venture. I am curious however to see whether these efforts will be sustained for its own people now that we’ve had the last curtain call … proverbially speaking, of course.

Collaborative Outsourcing 2.0

2009-02-03T06:16:00.000-08:00

Reading through Michael’s previous blogs over the last few weeks has started me wandering along the topic of Web 2.0 and what the implications of this new era are for the biotechnology industry. Currently, the 2.0 concept has been largely focused on outsourcing in the IT industry with only minor forays into anything biological, and then only in the bioinformatics realm of molecular biology. In an article appearing on a mostly IT-related website, Arpit Kaushik, Founder & Director of Crystals Design Limited, pens the following words, “… some analysts … say we are already in the third wave of outsourcing, where 1.0 was about IT outsourcing, 2.0 was about business process outsourcing and 3.0 is about knowledge process outsourcing”. This might hold true for the IT industry, but where does it leave biotechnology. After all, the only difference between the two is the small point of biology!

Ah yes, biology. The study of nature and all her infinite twists and turns. A miracle that we’ve made it past 0.0. But surely in order to remain competitive and relevant in an ever changing world, biotechnology must embrace the technology aspect of its existence?

Enter 2.0 … the marriage of business efficiency and, dare I say it, biological function, bringing the biotechnology industry into the 21st century. And why not? It is, after all, about the improvement of process design. And biology is synonymous with process. Combine that with advances in current technology, the importance of outsourcing and … presto! Biotechnology 2.0.

But I digress. That is a topic for a later discussion.

In my pursuit to begin understanding the implications of 2.0 in the biotechnology industry, I undertook to wade through the mountain of literature available on the subject. As I read, whether overtly or (mostly) subliminally, I began to hear the mantra “Collaborative Outsourcing 2.0”. Then it struck me … biology is all about collaboration – one system working with (or within) another. We know, subject to philosophical debate, that nothing exists as a closed system in nature. So why should a business operate entirely independently? For that matter, why should the biotechnology industry? It would seem that the time for independence in the style of "How The West Was Won" is a thing of the past and we must begin to embrace Ubuntu.

The Outsourcing Institute has compiled the results of several interesting surveys conducted on the topic of outsourcing. These include “Top 10 Reasons Companies Outsource”, “Top 10 Factors in Vendor Selection” and “Top 10 Factors for Successful Outsourcing”. An interesting trend which emerged from the last survey is that over half of the factors were immediately dependant on collaboration.

Thus, begins the quest to understand “Collaborative Outsourcing 2.0”. Over the next few weeks, we will delve deeper into this subject and (hopefully) come to a well-balanced and profitable understanding of this new wave of business.

To react or respond!

2009-01-07T09:27:00.000-08:00

Many years ago when I was making my first forays into the corporate world I discovered the difference between reaction and response in dealing with situations.

Reaction is the automatic, emotional performing of a function of whatever nature which springs from one’s subconscious mind and is converted into immediate action. It’s the cause of many an email having been sent before the emotion has been removed from a situation. Or the potentially uncharacteristic or over-the-top emotional action taken in a seemingly innocent situation.

Response is the rational, thought-through action taken in the same situations as could set off a reaction. The final outcome MAY be (but most times isn’t) the same, but it will be the outcome with emotion taken out of the equation.

So before sending that next email or picking up the phone for that next call, ask yourself, is this action a reaction or a response?

The Power of Expertise – or Not?

2009-01-07T09:24:00.000-08:00

An undergraduate student of mine once suggested that I sounded like an encyclopaedia when I spoke! For the young academic, that was high praise indeed. In retrospect after reading Liz’s blog on expertise I am no longer sure that I should have been flattered by the comment. I was always under the impression that I was close the student body and that I connected with them. Was this an illusion? At the same time I started consulting for what was at the time Brent Chemicals. The person who started me on the road of consulting and who developed into a great friend of mine, Albert Loubser the South African Dairy Standards Agency guru, said that I was able to make science simple. And by the way, having connected with my first lot of students many years later, I can confirm that it wasn’t.

But I digress, am I hiding behind my expertise? I suppose that as a consultant to a point I have to. I do need to know more about a subject than my client base and have a network that allows me to access relevant information much simpler and faster. But to baffle people with science? With the current access to the internet (and my own leanings towards Web 2.0) that would be a self-limiting approach. To quote Liz, “Puffed-up biggified experts who speak only in authoritative lists of seven ways to do this and eight ways to screw up that ... they're a dime a dozen. They're interchangeable. They're expendable. We're not coming for your expertise, really. There are all sorts of places to get that. Sure, the information is nice. But we're really coming for you.”

The conclusion, stay relevant to my client audience with impeccable integrity and I won’t have to hide behind my expertise.

Web 2.0 Continued – Uses and Misuses:

2009-01-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

Stewart points out that a system referred to as Reverse 911® has been in place in the USA for the past few years. To quote their website:

... REVERSE 911® is playing a key role in ensuring effective communication, not only for general information, but also in times of crisis. ...

REVERSE 911 is used effectively in thousands of communities, counties, commercial businesses, schools and non-profit organizations to dramatically improve the lines of communication to the general population and targeted groups. The system has played a key role in solving and preventing crimes, and it has a wide variety of potential uses in many organizations, such as:

Law Enforcement Agencies
Emergency Management Agencies
State and Local Governments
Utility Companies
Chemical Manufacturing Companies
Transportation Companies
Health Care Facilities
Public Safety Agencies
Universities

Stewart suggests that it could be plausible to expand the scope of this method of communication to be adopted by agencies such as the FDA, USDA, CDC or EPA in disseminating information on outbreaks, food borne disease or pollution hotspots.

It would be amiss of me not to highlight the ”viral” (using air quotes) video campaign used by the UK FSA to expand on the need to handle poultry safely over the Christmas period. The video is unfortunately lacking in specifics with the required cooking temperature being piping hot! I live in the UK and if it hadn’t been for Doug Powell’s Barfblog I would still be none the wiser on how to treat my Christmas turkey. So much for the viral aspect of the campaign.

Just to put viral marketing into perspective, Seth Godin (Dec 2008) defines it as: Viral marketing is an idea that spreads -- and an idea that while it is spreading actually helps market your business or cause.

I raise this point for possibly the same reason that Seth did in December 2008: viral marketing is getting a bad name; mainly from clueless marketing agencies and marketers (Seth) and now from governmental agencies (me). Seth’s comments can be found here.

Web 2.0 and Food Safety

2008-12-16T08:22:00.001-08:00

With thanks to Doug Powell, I am able to report that Web 2.0 has finally extended into Food Safety.

With the recent Norovirus outbreak in the US, Hope College officials informed the Health Department they had a database that contained all of the students email and text messaging addresses. Over three thousand five hundred students were contacted electronically and were asked via text message to reply to an email address to describe their symptoms and how long they were ill. The Health Department says in the end about 540 students responded. Officials say the information was crucial for determining a plan of action and slowing the spread of the virus.

What a way to use student communication to get out a Food Safety Message! The question is: How can this method of communication be expanded to prevent or contain future outbreaks?

Food Safety – A Mixture of Oddities:

2008-12-16T08:15:00.000-08:00

Mercury in Fish

The Codex Alimentarius Commissions CCFAC and CCFFP suggested that Mercury in Fish is a concern, but that there is benefit to eating fish, even for children and pregnant women. These international bodies are at pains to point out the neurological damage that Mercury can cause in Children and Unborn Foetuses and are very strict in their advice to especially pregnant women. They advocate consumption in moderation and with the types of fish such as tuna, swordfish and shark being avoided. Catherine O’Neill, Associate Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law, as a guest blogger for Bill Marler, points out that according to the Washington Post, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is seeking to rescind its warning that women and children should limit their intake of fish.

The FDA is now suggesting that the benefits of consuming fish outweigh the risks of neurological damage caused by Mercury.

Professor O’Neill rightly asks whether the FDA’s reversal is supported by the science. Scientists within other US governmental agencies have questioned the recommendation and have called it “scientifically flawed and inadequate”. According to Professor O’Neill “One does not have to be too much of a cynic to wonder whether the FDA’s change of course is of a piece with the numerous other instances in which the Bush Administration has reinterpreted science that calls for greater – not lesser – protection of human health and the environment.”

Furthermore, one wonders whether the argument of “balancing” the “risks” and “benefits” of fish consumption and Mercury, as presented by the fishing industry have not swayed this opinion?

Campylobacter – Getting infected in Switzerland and by Mountain Biking

According to the Swiss SonntagsZeitung as many as 90% of chickens in Switzerland are infected with Campylobacter, prompting the Swiss Federal Veterinary Office to call a crisis meeting of food safety experts and the poultry producers in December 2008. What is really scary is that according to the report , the Federal Veterinary Office was only expecting about 45% to be infected.

On a different note, don’t go Mountain Biking in British Columbia (Canada) or Wales unless you're seriously into infection control measures. According to Doug Powell (of Barfblog fame) hundreds of mountain bikers competing in separate races in British Columbia and Wales in the past year were stricken by Campylobacter, apparently from contact with sheep faeces-laden mud. The source of the BC infection was not as well characterized.

The National Public Health Service for Wales (NPHS) have published a report which recommends the following (as per Doug Powell):

· Participants should avoid using soiled drink and food containers

· Pre-packaged food should be eaten out of the wrapper

· Where possible, hands and utensils should be washed before consuming food and drinks

· No open food should be served at events.

· Drinks produced in large volumes for consumption by participants should be dispensed using a method which does not require the repeated immersion of utensils.

· Organisers should consider providing facilities to wash hands and water bottles with clean, running water

· Wherever possible, courses should be re-routed to avoid areas which are heavily contaminated with animal faeces

· Mountain bikers, particularly those who are vulnerable to infection, should be alerted to the potential risk of acquiring zoonotic illnesses from participation in events which cross land used by agricultural and other animals.

The Next Phase

2008-12-14T03:50:00.000-08:00

Seth Godin in his blog, on the 4^th of December, pondered the costs of being in touch, to have the latest information at your fingertips. But do you actually use all of that information?

From a business perspective that makes me wonder why I prepare a news section for my website on a weekly basis? Who gains from my work? Am I not duplicating the efforts of others? I may be distilling information, but is it relevant? Are people getting value for money by logging on to my website?

You may be thinking, why is a business blog asking these questions? The answers stem from a Huddlemind workshop in which the Trigger of Need was discussed. The Trigger refers to the cycle you go through when wanting to make a more significant purchase. It’s that process of searching for an item, researching properties of various makes and models, evaluating the properties, narrowing your list of possibilities, making the purchase and finally having a positive experience using the item. And so the message that I should be portraying is: does the information I distil from websites across the globe make people’s lives better? Do I supply enough information, on time and in a way that is easily absorbable? In other words, do people have a useful experience visiting my site?

The answers to this conundrum are evident in this blog – my website had to adapt or die. The resultant change includes the creation of this blog. From now on the information will be presented such that you have a choice to opt in to get RSS or other feeds, the control to opt out at any stage and I hope to entertain with accurate, reliable information.

My next blogs will focus on food safety, environmental issues and innovation in separate, discreet entities to start this process of re-innovating my message.

All Blogs have to start somewhere ...

2008-12-09T05:01:00.000-08:00

I had the great fortune of attending two amazing workshops in Cape Town in late November.

The first was hosted by IQuad (www.iquad.co.za) and focussed on Strategic Innovation. The second was hosted by Huddlemind (look them up on Facebook) and focussed on the future of marketing in our strangely connected Web 2.0 world.

The upshot of the situation is that the message put forward by both was strangely similar: In order to stay relevant in business today, you need to be flexible, adaptable and be willing to re-invent your message as and when the business environment requires it.

The approach between the two workshops was completely different.

Strategic Innovation: The method of setting a strategy around a table and then re-hashing the same thing next year is considered to be old-school. And yet it happens regularly, including the development of marketing plans and planning for new products. Strategic Innovation suggests that your strategy must be approached creatively without losing the focus on the bottom line. It’s the focus on flexibility and the willingness to try new approaches. It’s moving away from spending 80% of your R&D focus on a few products that have to recover the development costs and make a significant profit over the next four to six years. Again this latter thinking is old-school. The idea is that all facts of the business must be open to innovation.

Marketing in the Web 2.0 world: Did you know that a few years ago, three prime time TV adverts would get you 80% coverage. Today the same coverage would require one hundred and twenty adverts across many channels. Why? People today are wired in a different way; they don’t cluster around the TV anymore for entertainment and information. Both can now be obtained via the internet, at home, at the office, in a coffee shop, at the airport or on your phone.

The focus is to get enough information when you need it, packaged in a way that you can access it, accurate and reputable. Information by word-of-mouth or from newspapers is still the most trustworthy. So to get your message across you need to be able to satisfy these needs without sacrificing your core values embedded in that message. And you need to get people talking about it; either in conversation or electronically, in blogs, by text messaging, on social networking sites ....

So what does this have to do with my first business blog? Absolutely everything! I have been extremely fortunate to have Liz de Speville as my mentor in developing my business. Liz helps people develop their personal and business image and message and is a life coach to boost. Liz helped me develop my message both for my business and the business website (www.biophys.ltd.uk). Since the initial phase of developing my message Liz has been continuously pushing me to improve that message and present it in different ways rather than a staid website. It took these two workshops to give me a window to the world that she was seeing (by the way we live 11.000km apart) and to realize that I have to re-invent and re-present my message. And this blog is the first step towards that.