SOT says Bravo to the Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre–now known also as ‘The M’–on their new logo and complete corporate makeover.

Check out their new website here …

SOT and The M have co-operated on many projects and initiatives over the past ten years–Food For Thought Luncheons, The Australian Thinker of the Year Awards and the World Thinking Congress to be held at The M in 2010.

We also like the innovative and colourful take on the ‘Necker Cube’ incorporated into the new logo. Very clever!

Click through here for more on the Necker Cube …

In 1982, Edward de Bono and I co-authored The Learn-To-Think Coursebook and Instructors Manual (1982 Capra New).

This book became the first textbook of the School of Thinking. It was designed for Thinking Instructors to teach seven lessons: PMI, CAF, C+S, AGO, FIP, APC and OPV.

One day, at The Players Club in Gramercy Park, New York, the distinguished American science writer, Morton Hunt, interviewed me about our coursebook for Readers Digest which he wrote up in an article called Seven Steps To Better Thinking.

This interview was arranged by Alex Noble of Santa Barbara who was also one of the founding directors of SOT.

In April 1983, Morton Hunt’s article was the cover story on all international editions of the Readers Digest. Today’s equivalent would be like being on OPRAH!

—–—–

(L. US Edition. M. Close-up. R. US, French, Arabic Editions.)

As a result, these SOT lessons reached over 68 million readers worldwide. This was the widest ever broadcast of these SOT thinking skills.

Click through to read the rest of this article …

The Funny Feeling Inside Your Head …

According to Wikipedia: Cognitive dissonance is a psychological state that describes the uncomfortable feeling between what one holds to be true and what one knows to be true.

Similar to ambivalence, the term cognitive dissonance describes conflicting thoughts or beliefs (cognitions) that occur:

- at the same time, or
- when engaged in behaviors that conflict with one’s beliefs.

In academic literature, the term refers to attempts to reduce the discomfort of conflicting thoughts, by performing actions that are opposite to one’s beliefs.

More from Wikipedia …

See also: How and Why We Lie to Ourselves: Cognitive Dissonance

PRINCETON, NJ — Gender and education are both strong predictors of Democrats’ preferences for their party’s presidential nominee.

  Generally speaking, the more education a Democrat has, the less likely he or she is to support Hillary Clinton, and the more likely to support Barack Obama.

Additionally, women are more likely than men to support Clinton, while men are more likely than women to support Obama.

An aggregate of Gallup Poll Daily election tracking interviews with Democrats, conducted from Feb. 1 through Feb. 7, shows that these two variables combine to become a powerful predictor of a Democrat’s vote.

Among the most highly educated Democrats — those with postgraduate educations — both men and women are more likely to support Obama than Clinton.

Among the least educated — those with no college experience — both men and women are more likely to support Clinton than Obama.

More on this article …

… sees what it expects to see, not what is actually there. Treat with the greatest suspicion the proof of your own eyes”, writes author and neuroscientist, Cordelia Fine, in her excellent and amusingly written book A Mind of It’s Own.

I couldn’t put it down and finished it on a recent flight to New Zealand.

HOUSTON – Astronauts are opening the International Space Station’s (ISS) newest laboratory for business as they christen the European-built Columbus laboratory delivered by the shuttle Atlantis.
Spacewalkers helped attach the 10-ton research laboratory for the European Space Agency (ESA) Monday, adding a shiny new room that astronauts began converting for orbital flight early this morning.

Click through for more on this article … 

Of the six living Australian Prime Ministers, today, five of them said “Sorry” to the stolen generation. Reconciliation is a classic example of Grey Hat thinking.

Kevin Rudd

Paul Keating Bob Hawke

Malcolm Fraser Gough Whitlam

These five parliamentary elders were joined by the Parliament of Australia and by milllions of Australians in the capital and across every state and territory in the Commonwealth. Offices came to a standstill. Classrooms stopped. People gathered in the streets around broadcast outlets. It was the apology that stopped a nation.

Noticably absent, in silent dissent, were John Howard and George Pell.

Australians refer to the stolen generation as those young indigenous Australians who had been forcibly torn from their families, officially by the Commonwealth of Australia, and based on racial considerations.

In history, the only other generations of young Australians that were ever forcibly torn from their families, officially by the Commonwealth of Australia, were conscripted, voteless boys who were sent to fight in wars like Vietnam, and based on political considerations.

Today, the strategy of Reconciliation was invoked in the Parliament of Australia.

It requires wisdom, experience, and even nobility to offer reconciliation, not normally the qualities most on display in a parliament of any kind. By definition, a parliament is partisan. It is multi-vocal and competitive. Rarely is it co-operative and bi-partisan.

But, today, in Canberra, Australia, the world saw a modern example par excellance of noblesse oblige in a Westminster-style house of parliament. Bravo! Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

It’s now cool to say, “Sorry” in Australia. This generation may well become known as The Sorry Generation. Reconciliation is not always easy and is a nice example of Grey Hat Thinking.

Have a Go! Why not have a go yourself and say ‘Sorry’?

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT: If you were to employ the Reconciliation BVS, to whom would you like to say sorry and why? Post your act of reconciliation below:

Recently Michael addressed 2000 student leaders and teachers on Leadership …

Oxford Professor Richard Dawkins makes the point that because you have “the privilege of living after Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Watson, Crick and their colleagues that you could give Aristotle a tutorial and you could thrill him to the core of his being“.

So, here’s a thought experiment and post your reply below: in less than 100 words, if you could go back in time and give the great Aristotle a tutorial from your current perspective of 2008, what would you reveal to him that would be a real knockout for old Ari?