WorldWarped ©mofox

I  am totally, tragically addicted to WordWarp.

It looks harmless enough. Basic anagram game App: 6 scrambled letters, a list of blank word spaces, 2 minutes, go.  If you don’t get the 6 letter word, it’s all over red rover.  If you do, you go onto the next level and your score accumulates.  SO.  On this fateful evening, I’d managed to scrape my way up the escarpment to a grand total of 17,500.  I had no idea whether this placed me amongst the deities or the plebs.  I didn’t care.  It was about 4,000 more than I’d ever achieved before.  Now in an earlier moment of inspiration, I had ferreted out an Unscrambling App.   I wouldn’t use it, I said to myself, because that would be cheating.  It was kind of a ‘just in case’.  (Love the logic.) So I’m at 17,500, and I could not for the life of me unscramble the rather liberally-vowelled mess.  Feeling the pressure, and knowing how much was at stake, I threw conscience to the winds and scurried to the other app.  The answer?  OUTRUN.  Cool, I thought.  There was even a certain synergy to it.

Next word comes up: another unintelligible mass.  I powered through the list but when it came to the big kahuna I was stumped.  And here the insanity began. read more »

New Broom ©mofox

The worm has officially turned.  The downtrodden rise to overthrow their oppressors, an unfair situation is being reversed, and the soil is being aerated in preparation for new growth.  The business world is being forced to shift from a mechanised, information-based model to a creative, conceptual one.  What’s your stake in the revolution?

It may seem a bit of a stretch to liken creative thinkers as earthworms, yet Darwin insisted the earthworm is one of the most important creatures in history.  By doing what it does naturally, the earthworm transforms nutrient-starved dirt into rich, fertile, arable soil.  And it’s major enemies?  Commercial fertilizers, pesticides and extremely dry soil.  Not so dissimilar then.  The mega tsunami of technological developments, available information and globalisation have created a commoditised market where efficiency rules, and Better/Cheaper/Faster is the order of the day.  Dry soil indeed, for in a commoditised market, information is NOT power – it’s just data.

True power now lies in the ability to make information mean something so people can do something worthwhile with it.  Or to say it posh; the ability to extract insight and leverage it to create value.  Or in worm words, chewing the mulch to excrete the castings that fertilise the soil.

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Dump Poppies ©mofox

Kibera is Africa’s largest slum  (with over 1 million inhabitants) and one of the most spectacular testaments to the transforming power of human ingenuity I’ve ever seen. With huge limitations on land, energy, water and food, people’s survival depends on how ingenious and innovative they can be.  My favourite story is of how a local farming company Green Dreams is working with a group of reformed young criminals to convert garbage into organic manure and transform the slum garbage dump into an organic farms.  The google earth shots are amazing.

Three months after clearing the dump, a community of 30 families were harvesting, eating and selling organic produce, and are now selling their expertise to raise funds and help others. read more »