Author: Aaron

On becoming a webmaster

Che Guevara monument in Brasilia

The very idea that I can record my own video and publish my own pictures and information on webpages, to share with the world over the Internet, compels me to constantly try to improve my communication skills and learn more about editing, producing and publishing.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to website development, sadly however most people think that everything is about money. Yes, money is important but becoming proficient in a skill that can make you money is more important. Everyone must put-in their 10,000 hours if they want to become an expert at something/anything, that’s just the law of the jungle.

I wanted to become an expert webmaster from the first day I heard that word, and ever since I kept finding more software like Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Camtasia, plus a dozen other programs that needed to be mastered, in order to broaden my scope as a webmaster. The process can continue for ever, to me it’s totally enthralling.

Content is King; you soon learn. Curating, editing and publishing is where it’s at when you’re on-top of your game in a competitive niche online. It’s then all about becoming the authority in a topic, through the power of words and ideas. It’s anybody’s domain to conqueror.

Aaron in Brasilia

Converting eyeballs (web traffic) into dollars, or monetizing the content, as they say in the Digital Marketing Experts courses, the best of which, in the “How to make money online genre”, is the Internet Business Manifesto by my former coach Rich Scheffren. (Note: coaching can accelerate your 10,000 hours learning cycle to become expert). This knowledge delves into product development, shopping carts, merchant accounts and everything related to revenue, including sales and marketing, in my opinion the most important aspect of online business development, however these are topics for another time and we’ll get to that because I just want to focus on this on becoming a good webmaster.

Becoming a good webmaster is the first step in learning how to make money online and at least one proven path towards achieving that objective. If you can learn to be proficient with WordPress, you can make money online. Once you become an expert, you could build a dream business to support a dream lifestyle.

The WordPress personal publishing platform is the most ubiquitous content management system on the Internet. The WordPress Open Source community is the largest group of programmers on the planet, in every country, in every language, involved in every published word online, there is a wordpress blog somewhere involved. Master WordPress to take the best first step towards becoming a webmaster.

July 2, 2014
Wild Orchid Brazil
Orchid Pornography

Happy Birthday Canada! We stand on guard for thee…. here in Brazil (that is). I will always love Canada but prefer living in Brazil.

Silicon Palms is now working on something unique that I’d like to share with you.

Over a year ago, I was presented with an opportunity to design a resilient community project for a magnificent mountaintop property, on an organic farm in Aguas Mornas, Santa Catarina. That’s in the rain forest (Floresta Atlantica) of Southern Brazil (with a view of Florianopolis and the Sea).

The property owner and I devised a strategy to focus on “Sustainable Forestry” for the revenue, to develop the project, simply because it’s the best use of the land but we stumbled upon an idea for disruptive innovation in the marketing.

The idea is to take the best thing about the rainforest, use digital media methods to monetize it into online content, and social activism to bring it to life as an organization.

The Plan is called Wild Orchid Brazil – Here’s the Orchid Idea Pitch

A Canadian Expat connected with a USA Expat, both were living in Brazil for over a dozen years each and never previously met. Together they devised a plan so truly compelling that anyone that heard the pitch would immediately endorse the orchid idea and at the very least give a recommendation to every single friend and family, without thinking twice about it.

Wild Orchid Brazil

The 2 Expats spent a year brainstorming and test pitching the orchid idea with big thinkers. It had to be sustainable revenue generated from the 10 acre property and embrace Social Activism for Environmental Protection and research into sustainable forestry projects. Amongst which is the conservation of Wild Orchid, which inhabit the property in healthy numbers. The orchid ides started flowing, which gave rise to the concept of “Orchid Porn” for Social Media (Facebook friendly) to fight the natural enemy of all flowers – Geo-Engineering and/or Chemtrail spraying (aka Solar Radiation Management).

We are now building our launch team for crowd source funding, the proceeds of which will be used for Grant Writing.
- Sustainable forestry in Brazil is our Plan
- The Wild Orchid is our Meme
- Social Activism is our Method
- Save the Rainforest is our Message
- Champion the Wild Orchid is our Mission.
Promote the wild orchid as a Super Hero of air quality and the canary in the coal mine for planet earth.

We need your help! Please join our campaign. Your name amongst our members makes a big difference. Since our goal is to reach 1 million members within 1 year but we need your help to tell other people. We want you to love the Wild Orchid Project, so you’ll gladly tell all your friends. Our hope is that you’ll add your energy into helping us grow the most unique resilient community on the Internet.

You could own your own wild orchid in Brazil, with 24/7 web cam and dedicated web page (Facebook friendly), containing the Google Earth link co-ordinates, or visit the research facility as a special guest. Wild Orchid Brazil is a place and project like none other and membership has privilege.

Open Source systems enable collaboration, management and reporting to the community.

The orchid idea is pure innovation in the world of environmental protection projects.

Please subscribe to this Channel and join or Community at Wild Orchid Info.
July 1, 2014
The beginning is near

This morning I discovered this graphic art that captured my mind, so I followed it to it’s source, low-and-behold to find the Imaginary Foundation. Whom created this powerful image and have used it not only for cheese, in a trap to catch curious intellects but also a digital product, for sale in different formats. This illustration, for me, perfectly expresses where I feel, we (the human race) are on this planet. In awe and ready. Click on it to look more closely….

The Beginning is Near

[box type=”info”]The Imaginary Foundation is a think tank from Switzerland that does experimental research on new ways of thinking and the power of the imagination. They hold dear a belief in human potential and seek progress in all directions. The small clandestine team is headed up by the mysterious “Director,” a 70-something über-intellectual whose father founded the Dadaist movement. Avoiding direct publicity, the team has sought clothing as an unlikely vehicle for bringing their ideas beyond the academic realm and into popular culture.[/box]

In his vision for the Imaginary Foundation, the Director knew that the human mind has more than one mode, that indeed it has an “ecology” of being. He knew that imagination, intuition, inspiration are basic to psyche… A philosophy of research began to form: imagination as fundamental to all learning; artistic making as a model of integrating vision, materials, structure, and imagery.

[quote]What makes true vision is the poetry of life and the richness of nature[/quote]

The Foundation’s basis has been a strong sense of community, free inquiry, creativity, and the experimental spirit. Over the years the Foundation has generated a critical mass of creative people in many different fields, for whom it’s been a catalyst for experimentation and innovation.

I highly recommend you see the Imaginary Foundation.

February 2, 2014
John of God

João de Deus (“John of God”)

João Teixeira de Faria (born June 24, 1942), known also as João de Deus (“John of God”), is a self-described medium and “psychic surgeon” from Signal river. I’m on my way to this small town in the state of Goiás, southwest of Brasília (a 5 hour drive from my home in Sao Paulo) to visit his farm.

For as long as I can remember hearing about John of God, I’ve wanted to meet him. Years ago I met a man from the Philippines, whom I witnessed perform some extraordinary treatments and help people (including myself) to heal. My suspicion is that John of God is far more evolved, than the Philippine “psychic surgeon”, which means that I’m in for a truly enlightening experience.

UPDATE:

May 12, 2019

Now that I’ve had a chance to review the accusations and hear the testimony of one of the Whistleblowers, I need to report my understanding and add my own thoughts and observations.

In my case, John of God helped me and I believe that the Casa was and is a very energetic place. My treatment was entirely metaphysical and the perception I had of Joao, was that he was a gifted healer and that he had helped to heal me. Whatever happened when I was in the treatment, worked and my broken ankle did in fact excrete some type of fluid, which had never happened before or since. I walked better after the treatment.

I may have experienced psychosomatic healing but something improved with my injury as a result of the John of God treatment. Also, the people who volunteered were so nice, committed to well-being and absolutely convinced that John of God was holly, or at least very gifted.

To this day I use a crystal from Abadiânia and since I brought my mountain bike to the Casa and spent allot of time riding all around the area, I observed many crystals in the ground. This is something I’ve not seen anywhere, some times I would stop my bike, look down and see pieces of crystal in the dirt. Plus the amount of crystals, some the largest I’d ever seen and all the energy from people in mediation, probably helps people heal themselves.

Some people I met were watching UFO’s and most locals just accepted the fact that UFO’s are seen over the area so constantly that it’s just normal. I have never seen a UFO but never tried to summon them. However, that’s the place I’d go if I wanted to prove they exist.

My heart goes out to the victims and I admit that I was completely conned as well, so it’s easy to understand how a sexual predator was dressed as Lamb and tricked so many people. We all want to believe that God could channel his energy through living people, when in fact he does but none more so than an other. We all have healing power but don’t know it.

Early life of John of God

João Teixeira de Faria was born in Cachoeira da Fumaça, Goiás (now Cachoeira de Goiás). There are no records of his early life and De Faria himself has not provided precise details. His best known biography is The Miracle Man, written by Robert Pellegrino-Estrich, who runs tours to Abadiânia.

De Faria has no medical training and describes himself as a ‘simple farmer.’ He completed only two years of education and spent a number of years travelling from village to village in the states of Goias and Minas Gerais.

Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola, Abadiânia Brazil

João Teixeira de Faria

De Faria says he was told by his spirit guides that he must expand his work to reach more people and spiritist medium Chico Xavier told him he should go to the small Goiás town of Abadiânia to fulfill his healing mission. Around 1978, when João first performed ‘healings’ there, he just sat outdoors in a chair near the main road where people began to arrive seeking cures for their various illnesses and conditions. Gradually the numbers increased to thousands per day and he developed his centre, Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola. The Casa de Dom Inácio de Loyola has since been visited by millions of people seeking healing. He also owns a nearby cattle ranch, which covers about 1,000 acres.

February 1, 2014
Flouride and the Pineal Gland Mystery
Water fluoridation Indictment

Fluoride in the water, is charged with attempted murder of the pineal gland, by calcification. Fluoride is very harmful to the pineal gland, because it disrupts the pineal gland’s natural functions by hardening its interior walls. Fluoride is also very toxic to the brain and other organs of the body, as NootropicsInfo says.

Reproduction of a lithograph plate from Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body, originally published in 1918 and therefore lapsed into the public domain.

The fluoride used for treating drinking water is not the natural calcium fluoride found in nature; rather, it is the synthetic industrial version, which is known as sodium fluoride. The natural version of fluoride (calcium fluoride) is not that harmful to us. It is usually found in the soil and spring water in very small quantities. The synthetic version of fluoride (sodium fluoride) is a hazardous waste containing very toxic chemicals.

Pituitary and Pineal Glands

The pineal gland, also known as the pineal body, conarium or epiphysis cerebri, is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain. It produces the serotonin derivative melatonin, a hormone that affects the modulation of sleep patterns in the circadian rhythms and seasonal functions. Its shape resembles a tiny pine cone (hence its name), and it is located in the epithalamus, near the centre of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two rounded thalamic bodies join.

The gland has been compared to the photoreceptive parietal eye present in the epithalamus of some animal species, which is also called the pineal eye or the third eye. The secretory activity of the pineal gland is only partially understood. Its location deep in the brain suggested to philosophers throughout history that it possesses particular importance. This combination led to its being regarded as a “mystery” gland with mystical, metaphysical, and occult theories surrounding its perceived functions.

[box type=”info” style=”rounded”]”Keep the pineal gland operating and you won’t grow old — you will always be young”. — Edgar Cayce[/box]

Water fluoridation Crime Scene

Water fluoridation is used in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, and Australia, and a handful of other countries. The following nations previously fluoridated their water, but stopped the practice, with the years when water fluoridation started and stopped in parentheses:
- Federal Republic of Germany (1952–1971)
- Sweden (1952–1971)
- Netherlands (1953–1976)
- Czechoslovakia (1955–1990)
- German Democratic Republic (1959–1990)
- Soviet Union (1960–1990)
- Finland (1959–1993)
- Japan (1952–1972)
In the United Kingdom a Strategic Health Authority can direct a water company to fluoridate the water supply in an area if it is technically possible. The strategic health authority must consult with the local community and businesses in the affected area. The water company will act as a contractor in any new schemes and cannot refuse to fluoridate the supply.

Water fluoridation Witness

So why have they gone to all this trouble to put a toxic chemical in our water?

[box type=”note” style=”rounded”]Arvid Carlsson, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Medicine, opposes water fluoridation. He took part in the debate in Sweden, where he helped to convince Parliament that it should be illegal due to ethics. He believes that it violates modern pharmacological principles, which indicate that medications should be tailored to individuals.[/box]

Water fluoridation was characterized in at least one journal publication as a violation of the Nuremberg Code and the Council of Europe’s Biomedical Convention of 1999. A dentistry professor and a philosopher argued in a dentistry journal that the moral status for advocating water fluoridation is “at best indeterminate” and could even be considered immoral. They asserted that it infringes upon autonomy based on uncertain evidence, with possible negative effects.

Reason for Conviction

[quote]Eliminate all other factors, and the one which remains must be the truth. ~ Sherlocke Holmes[/quote]
January 29, 2014
Right Brain/Left Brain Creativity

Recently I saw this amazing visual while surfing the web, then thought to remind myself, the next time I saw it, to stop and curate it. This series of 3 illustrations are so remarkable to me, that it came as no-surprise that they belonged to Mercedes Benz. None-the-less, I captured the wild, exotic beauties for my image collection (I love graphic art). Although in categorizing this art to post, I had to decide; mind or design?

During another session of curating today, on the Elephant Journal (my fave of late), I stumbled on to this perfect quote ( from a German-American no-less), to go with the heisted art;

[quote]“Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” ~ Albert Einstein[/quote]

Left Brain

Right Brain

Mercedes Benz

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”10″ size_format=”px”]Source: adsoftheworld.com[/typography]

[quote]“Creativity takes courage. ” ~ Henri Matisse[/quote]

My tool of choice for Curating, is the insanely creative (and free) – Evernote. The most versatile content creation tool I have ever seen, or could ever have imagined. One of my favorite things to do with Evernote, is to create a new personal journal page each day. I never thought I could enjoy keeping a digital diary, as much as I am enjoying this new habit. Just starting each day with a new clean note, then putting that date to create a new page in life, it’s like imaging that you’re the script writer and the lead role. It’s second nature to find cool stuff in the inbox, or click stuff on my social nets, plus I keep a couple Moleskines beside my keyboard, one of them is smaller and contains my on-the-fly notes and questions (also, to-do lists, names, numbers, questions and ideas). I use a pen and paper every day, to continue moving forward.

My Mozilla Thunderbird inbox handles tens of thousands of messages per day, the software is stable even with 4 GB, from 8 email profiles, each with hundreds of folders, for (amongst other things) dozens of filtered Google Alerts. For example, every morning I get 20 story overviews about Rio de Janeiro, from all over the world. That’s just one of about a dozen News Alerts I personally filter. The creativity is made manifest by Evernote, because as the busy day flies by, I take the time to curate things from the web, add thoughts, ideas and notes, about the real things that I’m doing, what I’m eating, where I’m going, important phone calls, how many KMS I ride on my bike, how much yoga, how many minutes of language study, etc… I created a score card, with a total of 100 points, and at the end of each day I give myself a score on that day.

[box type=”tick” style=”rounded”]I’m really liking this Evernote strategy, it’s called radical time management.[/box]

One more thing about Evernote: The app for mobile device is the coolest thing you’ll ever see, once it’s loaded up with all the cool photos, about half of which are from my own collection (the other half are downloaded, mostly from Wiki Commons). And all the things that were happening in the past 30 days, it’s got the layout and style of a ultra-cool digital magazine. That’s a digital diary, when feb 1 comes I won’t even see those rich pages I created (each day) because they’re tucked neatly away in the folder marked “January”. It’ll be super fun to review this movie script at the end of the year. One things for sure, this is making me much more productive because each day I try to score higher. I’m so tough on myself, that with my grading system, I’ll be happy to get into the 80’s. Living each day, like it might be my last.

January 28, 2014
Back in the saddle…

Ride in style – Brazil beach cruiser

Welcome to the new WordPress site for Silicon Palms. When installed it said: This is my first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging! So I left it as it was and started blogging (again). What motivated me was an opportunity to bring some incredible Internet products and services to Brazil.

For years I was an advocate of Movable Type (MT) content management software but a couple of years ago, after Sixapart the parent company was bought by a Japanese tech company, the open source community dispersed. WordPress advanced in quantum leaps in the time that MT was stagnated, the open source community grew to be larger than any other software community online, with hundreds of excellent and practical plugins. Not to mention the massive design community with theme templates and entire frameworks to ride on top of WordPress and achieve outstanding SEO services to accompany the awesome design choices. More info here http://sydneyseoservices.net/.

Still the point remains the same; how does a small business make money from the Internet, or by using web marketing? This is the most important question and the reason I have rebuilt Silicon Palms website, to turn my attention, once again, back to web development. The business development experts and/or venture capitalists will tell you that the key to success, in any business, is the model to make money – the business model. I’m convinced that I’ve arrived at Mecca when it comes to business models and this site is going to be the vehicle for me to promote the new strategy.

The life-blood of a business is cash flow and the key to cash flow is sales. If a product and/or service can sell itself, than all that needs to happen is marketing and advertising but aside from sex and drugs, most products and services require a concerted, professional sales-team and a strategy, added to an enthusiastic sales campaign. This is what lays in front of Silicon Palms but as they say, before you can work the plan, you need to plan the work – so without further ado – I’m off to launch a new product line.

Please come back soon to learn more about the new improved Silicon Palms. Thanks for taking the time to read this impromptu blog post.

March 27, 2013
Canadian International Society
Canadian flag on building in Vancouver

Recently I met British fellow at the commodity and futures exchange in downtown Sao Paulo, during lunch he mentioned that his wife, originally from New Zealand (aka Kiwi) and several other Kiwi and Canadian women, were members of a charity organization that was formally called “Canadian Women’s International Society” and that they were hosting a party at the house of the Canadian Consul General, to celebrate the re-launch of their charitable society, plus opening the doors to men. My curiosity was piqued and a few days later I found myself enjoying the company of about 50 foreign nationals (Expats), many of whom were from Commonwealth countries, and all of whom were charmed by the gracious hospitality of our hostess, the Consul General of Canada for Sao Paulo, Brazil.

As my good luck would have it, I’m now a member of the newly formed “Canadian International Society”

Who we are

The Canadian International Society (CIS) takes its name from the group of Canadian Women, who founded the group in 1962. Led by the wife of the Canadian Consul General, it was founded as a social organization with a focus on charitable work in Sao Paulo.

These days the CIS is open to women and men of all nationalities, and has a broad range of members. The group has expanded and today has over 60 members from at least 20 different countries, including Brazil.

What We Do

The CIS mission is to offer a social forum for its members while also assisting NGO’s in the Sao Paulo area through fundraising events and opportunities to volunteer in vulnerable communities. These activities include monthly luncheons and happy hours as well as one or two major events throughout the year such as family day BBQs, fashion shows or evening soirees.

The Society is coordinated by a volunteer Board of Governors who are elected yearly. Positions include President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, Charities, Membership and Communications. The Canadian Consul General is the Honorary President look these up.
Related articles
- EXPAT ORGS: Canadian International Society (expatbrazil.wordpress.com)
- São underrated! – Sao Paulo, Brazil (travelpod.com)
May 31, 2011
Lexicon of Sustainability

Introducing … The Lexicon of Sustainability from the lexicon of sustainability on Vimeo.

February 2, 2011
Offshore Banking for Expats

Piraeus Bank HQ

People ask me all the time about moving money from one country to another and when I use the term “offshore banking” they often have a quizzical look on their faces and ask me: “is it legal to have an offshore bank account?” That about sums-up the way most people think about banking offshore, especially because of the way mainstream media has portrayed the topic but also movies often depict the lawyer with the brief case, on a tropical island, meeting-up with the beautiful co-conspirator, after having pulled of some big rip-off back in the states. So it probably surprises my friends in Brazil and Canada even more when I suggest that United States offers some of the best offshore banking services that they’ll be able to find anywhere – now they’re really confused….

Offshore relates to banking in any country outside of where you are domiciled (definition of domicile: a person’s fixed, permanent, and principal home for legal purposes). Therefore, your bank account doesn’t need to be in Cayman or Switzerland to be offshore and in many cases you can get excellent bank services from almost any country in the world. I recommend U.S. banking for anyone not permanently living there because the rates are relatively low but more importantly it’s really easy to get a Paypal account with a U.S. bank account. However, in today’s world privacy and asset protection play a more important part of an overall banking strategy and let’s face it, the U.S. is just not big on privacy, as a matter of fact, when you open a new business account in America you’ll soon-after be barraged with solicitations from local businesses and services, which means that the bank sold your information before the ink was even dry. Now that’s not as much of a problem, more of an annoyance but the fact is that most people just don’t want anyone, including a snooping government, to know how much money they have in the bank – that’s where I come in and the reason people ask me about banking, as I’ve been setting-up offshore accounts since 1994.

(more…)

February 1, 2011