2017-07-31|Sunatori's Tower of Bowls

Potential Discovery or Invention

• Jen, Neil, RJ, Josie, Dana, Kelly, Steve, Samantha, Nick, Greg (in order of acquaintance), and the Perimeter Institute team:

• It was so nice to meet you in person and to experience the great SNOLAB tour together in a rather intimate way. I could not believe that I touched and held the genuine Nobel Prize medal! Dr. Arthur B. McDonald was generous enough to meet us at the lobby of Science North at 17:30 Wednesday and to answer my numerous questions on neutrinos and to listen to my own idea ("Corn-Starch Galaxy Theory" backed up by the movement of Jupiter's Great Red Spot) for almost 1 hour. It was absolutely one of the greatest moments in my life! Out of the scale between 1 and 10, our experience with Sudbury Science Safari rates 11! Thank you again so much for giving me such an opportunity!!

• Thursday morning at Travelway Inn in Sudbury, I spontaneously built a tower out of breakfast plates, bowls, cups and utensils, inspired by the Inco Superstack. My professional artist daughter Véronique suggested that I send a photo to the Perimeter Institute, as it relates to the conversation I had with Nick (sorry, I did not get his e-mail address) during Wednesday evening's reception at Laurentien University about how to inspire kids for innovation.

  

• I was always telling my kids to "think", "build", and "do new things". I deprived them of answers to homework problems so that they could think. I deprived them of elaborate and expensive toys so that they could build toys and design games themselves out of scrap. I often took them to construction garbage dump to hunt for raw materials. Although Véronique did not pursue science after high school, she now creates artwork with lights, motors, switches and optical components as a professional artist.

• I had my kids watch educational TV programmes. They protested at first, but got used to them over time. They still remember some scientific contents.
  • Bill Nye: The Science Guy (PBS)
  • C'est mathématique (Canal Z)
  • Débrouillards (SRC)
  • Inquiring Minds (TVO)
  • Integrated Science (TVQ)
  • Jimmy Neutron (YTV) "Think, think, think!"
  • Magic School Bus (TVO) "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"
  • Popular Mechanics for Kids (TVO)

• Here are some quotes for innovation.
  • Bewitched: "patience, persistence, and perseverance."
  • Neil Turok: "curiosity, creativity, courage, and collaboration."
  • E. M. Forster: "Spoon-feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon."
  • Thomas Edison: "Necessity is the mother of invention."
  • Simon Sunatori: "Failure, laziness and poverty are the father of invention."
  • Albert Einstein: "I have no special gift. I am only passionately curious."

• As Canada's sesquicentennial year comes to an end, I would like to sincerely thank you for providing me with a once-in-a-lifetime experience in Sudbury, ON. It was truly one of the most memorable events in my life! I am still planning to visit the mining and processing capital of Canada again with my other daughter who could not make the trip this year. Since she is studying geological engineering at l'Université Laval and also took a course on neutrinos at l'Université de Strasbourg in France, Sudbury would be a very interesting place for her.

• Thanks to the encouragement from @innovation150_canada "The contest officially closed June 9, but keep sending us hacks!", I have continued to create and document my hacks in #CanadianLifeHacks on Instagram (186 so far). They are mostly junk after junk, but I would feel good if 1/2 of 1/2 of 1/2 of 1/2 of them inspired some Canadians to see the merits of life hacks, according to the former Governor General's definition of innovation as "the desire to make things better". I appreciate your making me realize that life hacks are an epitome of continuous improvement, the mentality that should apply to any fields of human endeavour.

• Also, I am grateful for your inviting me to the Innovation150 Appreciation Reception at Canada Science and Technology Museum on 2017-12-18. It was so nice to see the people who made Innovation150 happen.

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"Sunatori, Go Simon" <GS.Sunatori@HyperInfo.CA>

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• 2024-12-17T20:43:26.000Z