Little gifts from around the web, deposited into my nest:
- Dervala, whom I have read and loved for years, is writing beautiful things about chickens.
- And as for what came first, if only the original had left a note that would last as long as the markers on the Hoover Dam, we would know
- Amazing presentation of processes of complex problem solving, and some very cool harvesting stuff from Idiagram.
- In support of this, Jack Martin Leith has a nice set of decision making tools.
- And here is a nice story about a highly practical tool: perl, the prime programming language of the web, is perfectly suited to prototyping.
- This is why I enjoy working with graphic recorders
- My friend Eric Lillius sends me great audio links. Here is a large concert archive from Folk Alley, including David Francey, Arlo Guthrie and Tim O’ Brien among others.
And I’m taking a break for a couple of weeks. Happy new year to all.
Photo by Vik Nanda
Some things popping up and absorbing my attention this week.
- Mushrooms + human hair = oil spill cleanup
- Customizing big flying spaces. What will the future archeologists say? The economics and ecologics of such endeavours stagger me.
- Wow. Ashley dreams of flying,by putting all that space on the OUTSIDE.
- An old friend from Peterborough, Andy Quan, comes back on my radar with a new book of poems edited by another old friend, John Barton, with whom I was a associate editor of ARC magazine in the early 1990s. I love the web.
- Good media (page 1, page 2) from a recent Open Space event at WOSU in Columbus Ohio run by my friend Tuesday Ryan-Hart.
- Garret Lisi’s theory of everything and some useful discussion.
- “At the root of the music industry’s transformation is a rediscovery, or a renewed appreciation, of the communal origins of music-making and listening. As MP3 players and online video have grown in popularity, so has an appreciation that music isn’t just something that goes on between your ears.” Yes. And. The answer is to write songs about your place.
- The story of stuff and Regenerosity. Two from Pollard.
- Viv’s looking at facilitation too.
- My favourite web radio station at the moment: Groove Salad. Try it with mushrooms!
PS…somehow my annual December 6 post got saved to a drafts folder. I’ve republished it below.
A summery Friday here at the Lot. Here’s what tickled my eyes this week:
- El Cameron, my favourite flamenco singer. Full of duende this night.
- A brilliantly rendered story of the four quadrants of integral theory. This map is just so helpful in looking at so many sitautions. This particular presentation is a lovely use of web technology as well.
- So you want to speak Danish? Who wouldn’t… The first place to start is by mastering this phrase: rødgrød med fløde. If you can’t get it on the first or second (or 27th) try, have a look at this detailed pronunciation guide which tells how to make the porridge AND the phrase. When you’re done there, watch this incredible documentary about the demise of Danish. This note is required reading for anyone in the Art of Hosting community by the way!
- Boeing launches its new plane, the 787, this weekend: 07/08/07. Check it out now or watch it live on Sunday.
Starting a new regular type of posting. These are a series of short notes and thoughts, too small to warrant a post, but looking for a home nonetheless, and possibly becoming more. I invite your curiosity on any of this…queries may set me to growing these little guys into something more substantial.
- Conversations that matter is the home for the world cafe Europe blog. Good reading there.
- Dave Pollard on the distinctions between dialogue and debate. Dave wrestles with his conscience on this one and comes up with a finer grain analysis as a result. Interesting as usual, and deeply in tune with some stuff I’ve been thinking about lately regarding politics and conversation.
- Sitting outside by the fire last night, I realized why the human eye can preserve its night vision when it is exposed to red light. The dying embers of the fire that were keeping me warm did not in the least affect my ability to peer into the forest at the passing deer, or to scan the heavens for globular clusters. That seems like a useful survival tactic. I wonder what the 21st century eye is able to see that will preserve our species?
- You have to read this to believe it. The Sock-A-Month knitting club gets shut down by a bank after the gnomes suspect a scam. You see? If I didn’t have a little notes category, where would I have blogged this?
- Music at the moment: One-named Canadian singers Feist and Issa (formerly Jane Sibbery, new album forthcoming). My ten year old daughter is listening to Avril on her iPod. My goodness, they grow up quickly. (Psst, Alex, I snuck some Zero 7 on there as well. She loves The Pageant of the Bizarre!)
I don’t care what your talent is, just do something like this whenever you can and the world becomes that much more livable.