Yes we know! It sounds like a bizarre headline from a tabloid newspaper, but’s its true – Dawn Gibbins was a secret millionaire and she did Feng Shui a whole town. What’s more she’s coming to The School of Curiosity ‘End of Summer School’ as part of our amazing faculty. You can download the prospectus here

Here’s a bit about her…

Dawn Gibbins gave away £250,000 on TV’s Secret Millionaire and then decided that after a successful business career, she needed a higher purpose in life. So she did what anyone would do and set out to try to apply the principles of Feng Shui to a whole town. The effects have been remarkable and Dawn believes that you don’t have to be out there with the ‘Woo-Woo’ people to use the principles of this ancient oriental philosophy to make things better for yourself, your home, your business and even your town. She now describes herself as a philanthropreneur and has many more curious ideas on the go.

Have a curious day!

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Here’s a great use for a tank, It’s been turned into a travelling library or ‘Weapon of Mass Instruction’. Don’t you just love books?

Have a curious day.

Forget school for a moment. Factory visits should be part of our own personal curriculum. There’s something magical about the alchemy of materials entering one room to be mangled, chopped, inspected, polished and transformed. It’s a reminder of human achievements and changes the way we appreciate everyday objects.

Visit a factory. Though do try to make it one in Switzerland rather than China.

Have a curious day.

For 49 other things to improve your life have a look at Monocle

Kyle Macdonald had a red paper clip, but what he really wanted was a house. He decided to adapt an idea he had seen in a game called ‘bigger and better’ where people swapped things.

Using the website Craigslist he advertised his one red paperclip to see if anyone wanted to swap it. He was able to swap it for a doorknob. He swapped the doorknob for a camping stove and the stove for a keg of beer. He was well on his way.

Just fourteen swaps later Kyle’s one red paperclip had transformed into a house in Saskatoon.

All big things start small. The power is not in what you have. It is in what you do with it.

Have a curious day

Jaques Carelman was a French painter, sculptor, illustrator, set designer and fundamentally self-taught man. Before his death in April 2012 he created his Catal0gue d’Objects Introuvables (Catalogue of Impossible Objects). He said “Human activities are countless and varied. Some make airplanes, others turn into public funds or into a conversation. Personally, I prefer to strip common objects of their normal use. It’s less dangerous, more honest and infinitely  more fun!  My objects, as opposed to objects worshipped by our consumer  society, are perfectly useless.”

Have a look at the whole catalogue here. It’s as thought provoking as it is hilarious.

Have a curious day.

We all have ups and downs in life , but faced with the choice I expect we would all quite rather like to linger a little longer rather than face the alternative. Dan Buettner has visited what he calls the ‘blue zones’ – places where people live much longer than the norm. Places like Sardinia, Okinawa in Japan, Loma Linda in California and Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica. As you would expect  a big factor in living longer is maintaining good habits. What’s great though is that Buettner found that just having an expectation of living longer is a big part of it. Many of us have a fear of doing this in case it brings on some kind of a jinx.

Expect to have a long and healthy life. The chances are you will do things to make it happen. Let’s all try to linger longer.

Last year’s Turnip Prize had a 102-year-old winner and his artistic work of muddy water and jam.
Jim Drew, of Cocklake, called his work Jamming with Muddy Waters.
The Turnip Prize is a spoof award that pokes fun at the Tate Gallery’s Turner Prize by rewarding deliberately bad modern art.
Jim said: “I am amazed to win this most coveted art award on my first attempt and I truly feel the lack of effort has really paid off. I aimed low and luckily reached far lower than I could have dreamed. I am amazed at what my mediocrity and indifference has achieved.”
http://www.turnipprize.com/

Something for when things seem impossible….

“If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible.

Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!” 
Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55), Danish philosopher.

Here are 21 pictures that will restore your faith in human nature @ buzzfeed.com

I’ve been telling people for years that when they see me in the coffee shop staring into space over a skinny flat white, that I’m actually working. Now researchers have shown that there is some truth in this, and that the moderate levels of ambient noise found in coffee shops actually enhance your ability to think creatively.

This is good because I’ve been trying to crack a problem I’m having with Starbucks. They’ve started asking my name and writing it on a cup. The idea is that when your drink is ready somebody shouts your name. Each time I’ve had my name written on a cup, they’ve made my drink and then shouted “Flat white” which makes the whole thing seem a little pointless. Next time they ask my name I’m going to tell them its Flatwhite then I won’t be disappointed when my drink is ready.

If you’ve got a problem to crack today, maybe steer clear of the library and head for a creative coffee.

Is noise always bad? Exploring the effects of ambient noise on creative cognition Journal of Consumer Research