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David Graeber lays bare one of the key myths of economists, i.e. that money followed and simplified barter, while the historical and anthropological evidence shows the opposite: How Barter Followed and Did Not Precede the Creation of Money David Graeber: On the Invention of Money – Notes on Sex, Adventure, Monomaniacal Sociopathy and the True Function of Economics A newspaper illustration depicting a man engaging in barter, paying his yearly newspaper subscription to the "Podunk Weekly Bugle" with various farm produce

Kanskje kan ledelse vise seg å være en illusjon på linje med synet av regnbuen eller vårt inntrykk av at jorda er flat, utfordrer han. -  Jan Ketil Arnulf Dette var meget godt sagt! Jeg kan anbefale boka The Leaderless Revolution av Carne Ross:  http://theleaderlessrevolution.com/ All denne ledelsen har ført samfunnet helt galt av sted. Ikke minst gjelder dette innen organiseringen av våre omgivelser, hvor en rekke "ledere", jeg vil heller kalle dem villedere, nitidig planlegger våre gater og byer. Naturen er ikke slik, naturen skaper seg selv ut fra selvorganisering:  http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20111101/frontiers-of-design-science

Related reading: Differentiating The Anarchy Economy From The Sharing Economy

A very odd article in Science Daily that seems at odd with the "handicap principle": Parks and Stone found that unselfish colleagues come to be resented because they "raise the bar" for what is expected of everyone. As a result, workers feel the new standard will make everyone else look bad.  It doesn't matter that the overall welfare of the group or the task at hand is better served by someone's unselfish behavior, Parks said.  "What is objectively good, you see as subjectively bad," he said. Strange, people really prefer selfish people, to feel better themselves. Now I understand better why the Polish men at work wanted me gone. -  Do-Gooders Get Voted Off Island First: People Don't Really Like Unselfish Colleagues, Psychologists Find

Oslo's New York Greenwich Village? - Det er blitt minst like skrekkelig som vi forestilte oss  (article in Aftenposten) Paul Lødøen, Managing Director of Oslo S Utvikling (development) (OSU), compares the new Barcode Wall of Bjørvika, Oslo, with New York's Greenwich Village and the Latin Quarter of Paris!?! How can an assumed intelligent and well educated person in an important official position, with power to decide the future of Oslo, be that stupid? With this man as managing director of the new Oslo Central Station Area , I don't see any hope for Oslo anymore. How I wish we could kick out this stupid idiot and replace him with someone like Nikos Salingaros. But if he was kicked out he would probably been replaced with an even worse idiot, as we have too many of them in important positions of this country. In the top picture of the article in Aftenposten  you can press on the different buildings to see the architect firm behind them. One of them is des...

-  The case for soft money As the economists are telling us, the economy must grow. That means, the economy’s mortgage with the banks also must grow. That mortgage is our constant companion. There is no way to pay it back – ever – unless we want to shut down the economy, which clearly we don’t want to. So with every per cent of economic growth, we are digging a larger hole. We must now pay more for the privilege of using money, or face disaster. We must cut more trees, extract more oil, grow more food, produce more consumer goods, all in the name of keeping going. It is the end stage of growth, brought about by our continued ignorance of some important facts about economic affairs.  -  Sepp Hasslberger

A Sami family in Norway around 1900

Googeling I came upon this article :  A Pattern Language and the New Urbanists Always nice to find other sharing your interests! Go to the homepage of House Design Caffee .

Er det håp for innehavere av gipsvegger? Jeg kjøpte mitt nye hus fordi det kun hadde gipsplater på soverommene, ellers var det ekte granpanel. Som sagt er det umulig å henge opp noe på en gipsvegg uten store skader. Bare på soverommene har jeg hatt mye jobb med å reparere skader på gipsplatene, et håpløst konstruksjonsmateriale av en rekke grunner. Typisk hull etter oppheng i gipsvegg. Merk at plastsperra er perforert. Denne innfestingen er utført av byggentreprenøren, uten tanke på fuktinntrenging gjennom ei ødelagt fuktsperre. Jeg har benyttet adskillig silikon og fugelim for å tette hull og perforerte plastsperrer i mitt relativt nye hus. Med det nye gekkolimet kan denne deprimerende praksisen komme til en slutt, også for de ulykkelige eiere av gipsplatevegger. Ikke bare at det nye limet er supersterkt, det kan også lett fjernes uten spor! For godt til å være sant? Ikke i følge denne artikkelen i dagens utgave av  Science Daily : -  Gecko Feet Inspire Amazing ...

Takk for mail med viktig spørsmål om retten til røykfri leilighet Dette er en viktig sak. Vi har redegjort for bolig-saken flere steder på våre nettsider - hovedsiden og sidene Tiltak, Aktuelt, Magasinet og Nyheter. Vi har det siste året tatt opp saken generelt og flere konkrete saker med Kommuner, Helsedirektoratet og Helse- og omsorgsdep (HOD). Dette har foreløpig ikke ført fram. Rettsvern mangler. Det synes heller ikke som Helsedirektoratet eller Helse- og omsorgsdep (HOD) "våger" å bedre rettsvernet - slik det framgår av deres nylig framlagte Høringsnotat - se nedenfor. De synes å påvirkes sterkt av at de fleste norske media synes å være negative til vernetiltak. De fleste norske media velger å framstille saken som forfølgelse av røykere. Vi kjemper for å få flere til å kreve røykfritt bomiljø. Vi vil gjerne samarbeide med deg. Med vennlig hilsen for Åslaug Kåsin Røykfritt Miljø Norge roykfritt@roykfritt.no www.roykfritt.no Relatert: Leilighetsbarn er tvangsrøyker...

En venn anbefalte nylig boka  Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien . En omtale av boka er å finne her  (pdf).

I don't know how to embed this lecture of Christopher Alexander, but here it is: http://ia600607.us.archive.org/12/items/ChristopherAlexanderAtcLecture/ChristopherAlexander.mp4

Ezio Manzini-Keynote: In a small, densely populated, highly connected planet, people’s intelligence, sensitivity and creativity are the most abundant resources. These social resources are catalyzing, becoming powerful drivers for sustainable changes. This talk will focus on how design can effectively help the process.

Review: The KunstlerCast by Duncan Crary,  by Frank Kaminski

Min kommentar til Roy Vegas megetsigende essay i dagens utgave av Verdidebatt.no: Drammen blir "verdinøytral" - kirker bygges om Plutselig kommer et sett av utspill fra høyere hold, i jordisk forstand - utenpå folkevalgte organer - om det å være inkluderende, viktigheten av "dialog", "interreligiøs dialog" og "toleranse". Hvem kan i utgangspunktet være mot slikt? - Roy Vega Drammen, kan du leve med skammen? Foto: Kjetil Lenes Vel, jeg tror man kan si at den kjente konservative amerikanske tenkeren James Kalb, er imot "slikt". Han arbeider for tida med ei bok om "inkludering" eller "inclusiveness", som under den liberale modernismens ideologi i sannhet har blitt et perversitert begrep. Foreløpige utkast til boka kan du lese her: Inclusiveness: A Book to Be . Du finner også mange andre nyttige artikler om temaet på James Kalbs hjemmeside Turnabout . Det du opplever i Drammen er den modernistiske liberalism...

I just received this email from my astonishing PDC-teacher Aranya, trained as a physicist, but devoted his life to become a low income PDC-teacher rather than a highly paid scientist. A man that truly lives by his words! Hello my European friends!   Whe-hey! At last.... After nearly two years, my  Permaculture Design  Step-by-Step Guide  is almost here...  Due for publication at the beginning of March at the retail price of  £14.95 Pre-order it before 14th February for a lovely  £10.95  (plus £5.00 P+P)* * £2.00 to UK, £5.00 to Europe, £8.00 Rest of World. I'm including the option to add a CD with accompanying digital resources , such as flowcharts from the book, worksheets, high resolution versions of maps etc. These will be available as free downloads from a special page on my website following publication. I'm also offering these resources, plus a few extras, on a CD that can be ordered as part of a package with th...

From The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia — by Delvin Solkinson February 3, 2012 As an offering to the planetary permaculture movement we have created a workbook of permaculture worksheets. This educational tool kit will help support your learning and teaching practice. In the spirit of a genuine love for permaculture education and in gratitude to the world community, this new learning tool is intended to help heal and empower our relationship with ourselves, the Earth and each other. The Gaiacraft Permaculture Workbook shares a collection of universal handouts which string together a larger body of teachings from Bill Mollison, Rosemary Morrow, Geoff Lawton, David Holmgren and Toby Hemenway. It’s edited in collaboration by the Gaiacraft team; Delvin Solkinson, Lunaya Shekinah, Jacob Aman, Tamara Griffiths and Ali Ma. This is a unique and practical addition to your understanding and practice of permaculture. The first press is in English and currently we are working ...

A short animated film to introduce Rachel Botsman’s important insights on collaborative consumption: T hroughline with Mindful Maps presents Collaborative Consumption: An RSA/Nominet Film Competition Short Film from Kate Hammer on Vimeo .

Image: Edgar Andrei Olaru We don’t love the modern church designed by a “name” architect because it is not part of us; it is alien. Its geometry and surfaces contradict its claim of being sacred through an unmistakable visceral message that triggers a negative physiological response in our bodies. It has been sold to us by a corrupt media through indoctrination, in a political power game where a servile group is proud to execute the wishes of the dominant elite. - Nikos A. Salingaros

 Photo: Infrogmation Flott post i dagens utgave av Better-Cities&Towns, i forsvar av Alexanders "pattern" 89, CORNER GROCERY: Problem It has lately been assumed that people no longer want to walk to local stores. This assumption is mistaken. Solution Give every neighborhood at least one corner grocery, somewhere near its heart. Place these corner groceries every 200 to 800 yards, according to the density, so that each one serves about 1000 people. Place them on corners, where large numbers of people are going past. And combine them with houses, so that the people who run them can live over them or next to them. Les artikkelen:  New Urbanism for All?

Image of Rome from the 15th century. Images of Vatican City, Rome above and here are all courtesy of Choate Rosemary Hall. Successful urban configurations are the result of a complex sequence of implicit computations that transform unorganized input into organized output. Although that is exactly what they do, few urbanists discuss their work in these terms. I propose a fundamental distinction between the principal methods of urban computation. One algorithmic process for urbanism leads to formal planning, which lacks the complex organizational structures that support essential adaptability. This closed computational method uses a set of fixed, or formal, rules to compute a configuration that does not adapt interactively during execution. Such algorithms perform each computation based upon predetermined rules, and those rules cannot be changed via any interaction. The other method of urban generation is achieved by means of interactive computing, which is the basis of human i...

Book: The Urban Food Revolution. Peter Ladner. New Society Publishers, 2011. Our reliance on industrial agriculture has resulted in a food supply riddled with hidden environmental, economic and health care costs and beset by rising food prices. With only a handful of corporations responsible for the lion’s share of the food on our supermarket shelves, we are incredibly vulnerable to supply chain disruption. The Urban Food Revolution provides a recipe for community food security based on leading innovations across North America. The author draws on his political and business experience to show that we have all the necessary ingredients to ensure that local, fresh sustainable food is affordable and widely available. He describes how cities are bringing food production home by: Growing community through neighborhood gardening, cooking and composting programs Rebuilding local food processing, storage and distribution systems Investing in farmers markets and community supported...

Vi fant denne kaffekoppen blant masse gammelt skrot. Dessverre fant vi ikke flere eller andre deler av settet. Jeg ble umiddelbart forelsket i denne kaffekoppen, og underlig nok smaker også morgenkaffen bedre når jeg drikker den av en slik vakker kopp. Min nye, gamle kaffekopp. Tror den er hånddekorert? Er den ikke vakker! I sannhet gir skjønnhet livet innhold. Min tidligere kaffekopp til venstre, også den fin, men dog et typisk industriprodukt Snart tomt, men det fine med en slik liten kaffekopp er at man kan unne seg to kopper. Smart!

The Leaderless Revolution: How Ordinary People Will Take Power and Change Politics in the 21st Century. Carne Ross. Blue Rider Press. 2012. The Leaderless Revolution explains why our government institutions are inadequate to the task of solving major problems and offers a set of steps we can take to create lasting and workable solutions ourselves. In taking these steps, we can not only reclaim the control we have lost, but also a sense of meaning and community so elusive in the current circumstance. In a day and age when things feel bleak and beyond our control, this powerful and personal book will revive one’s sense of hope that a better, more just and equitable order lies within our reach-if only we are willing to grasp it.

Today, it is our communities and natural systems that are treated as property under the law – just as slaves once were – because people living in communities can’t control their own futures, and what’s in our communities is routinely bought, sold, and traded without a whisker of local control,” says Linzey. “In many ways, this work is about walking in the footsteps of those prior movements to transform ourselves from being property under the law to becoming people who harness the power of government to defend and enforce our rights.  - Truthout Read the book review:  How Can Communities Defend Themselves From Corporate Interests? Related reading:   Classical Liberalism Frontiers of Design Science: Self-Organization

Interesting discussion:  Is there such a thing as ethical capitalism?

This article goes straight to the heart of Classical Liberalism , a new book by Charles Siegel I just started reading. A strong civic society requires strong and independently owned small businesses, NOT shopping malls etc. Read Siegel's book for free on the internet here , and read the original article (posted below) at Science Daily here . --- --- --- --- --- --- ---  --- --- --- --- --- --- ---  --- --- --- --- --- --- ---  --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ScienceDaily (Feb. 2, 2012) — Counties and parishes with a greater concentration of small, locally-owned businesses have healthier populations -- with lower rates of mortality, obesity and diabetes -- than do those that rely on large companies with "absentee" owners, according to a national study by sociologists at LSU and Baylor University. "What stands out about this research is that we often think of the economic benefits and job growth that small business generates, but we don't think of the socia...

Fint stykke av Carly Gillham hos WPN, om hvordan man lager sin egen musli, følg gjerne også de mange interressante lenkene. Ikke minst var lenken til videoen om hvordan matvareindustrien "faker" blåbær megetsigende! Les artikkelen, eller oppskrifta:  How to make muesli, granola, cereal... or whatever you want to call it!

Review of the talk by Amir Taaki is available here .

Et interressant innlegg i dagens utgave av forskning.no: Odin på Sleipner avbildet på en norrøn billedstein fra Gotland Anders Behring Breivik hevder han er odinist. Den ekstreme høyresida bruker førkristen tro til å bygge alternativ makt. Den europeiske kristendommen er blitt feminin, hevder terrorsiktede Anders Behring Breivik i det såkalte manifestet. Europa vender det andre kinnet til, og ender med å bli erobret og voldtatt av fienden. I førkristen nordisk tro – som han kaller odinisme – finner han en annen styrke og maskulin aggresjon, som kan brukes til å forsvare Europas ære. Derfor tar han til orde for en strategisk forening av kristendommen og paganismen, for å mobilisere europeere til kamp. – Terroristen selv er ikke troende, både kristendommen og paganismen handler snarere om identitet for han. Og han understreker at odinismen selvsagt ikke kan brukes av for eksempel kristne meningsfeller av han på Balkan, de oppfordres til å hente fram sin lokale paganisme. Les ...