Wednesday, February 29, 2012

How Barter Followed and Did Not Precede the Creation of Money

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:
A newspaper illustration depicting a man engaging in barter, paying his yearly newspaper subscription to the "Podunk Weekly Bugle" with various farm produce

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Ledelse kontra selvorganisering

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

Friday, February 24, 2012

PERMACULTURE & PEAK OIL: Beyond 'Sustainability'

Permaculture Ethics and Design Principles with David Holmgren

Do-Gooders Get Voted Off Island First: People Don't Really Like Unselfish Colleagues, Psychologists Find

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

TEDxManhattan - Fred Kirschenmann - Soil: From Dirt to Lifeline

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Oslo's New York Greenwich Village?

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 designed by MAD-Arkitekter. With this they probably mean they are cool, something which of course is completely mad.

Related reading:

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Case for Soft Money

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

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Friday, February 17, 2012

Nytt supersterkt gekkolim med unike kvaliteter

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:

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Retten til røykfri leilighet

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:

Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J.R.R. Tolkien

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).

Monday, February 13, 2012

Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability

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.

How I Wish We Had a Kunstler in Norway!

Review: The KunstlerCast by Duncan Crary, by Frank Kaminski

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Framtidas bakstreverske Oslo?

Fikk morgenkaffen i vrangstrupen når jeg i dag så forslagene til framtidas Oslo, som du kan lese om her. Min kommentar til nettdebatten:
Tydelig at vi her har å gjøre med oslomodernistene, alle disse forslagene er basert Le Corbusier's ide om "the tower in the park", en ekstremt inhuman ide. I tillegg kommer at ingen av disse forslagene har iboende biofiliske egenskaper. Jeg arbeider for tida med å få republisert arbeider av den kjente urbanisten Nikos A. Salingaros hos bloggen til the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, her kan dere finne ideer til menneskevennlige løsninger. 
Ikke store bidraget i kampen mot arven etter verdenshistoriens mest destruktive menneske, Le Corbusier, men man får gjøre hva man kan. Forresten, stjernearkitekten Winy Maas er en av nøkkelpersonene i arbeidet, en av Le corbusier's mange disipler.

Ikke nok med at modernistene har ødelagt Bjørvika, de akter å underlegge seg hele hovedstaden. Framtidsutsiktene er i sannhet dystre.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Liberalismens tyranner har ankommet Drammen

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 liberalismens sanne ansikt, TYRANNIET!!!! Jeg har nylig mottatt James Kalbs bok The Tyranny of Liberalism, du kan bestille denne her.

Liberalismen har i dag tatt diaboliske former, dens budskap er ren nihilisme, hedonisme og konsumerisme, derfor er det naturlig nok intet den frykter mer enn tradisjonelle religiøse mennesker. Dette er et paradoks, da det viser seg at den moderne liberalismen er en dogmatisk, rendyrket ideologi.

Liberalisme i sin opprinnelige form derimot, den klassiske liberalismen, er et helt annet kapittel, som har sine røtter i protestantismen. Dette kan du lese mer om i Charles Siegels siste bok, Classical Liberalism (også som gratis e-bok!).

Jeg vil ønske deg lykke til i kampen mot disse den modernistiske liberalismens servile lakeier!

Aranya's Permaculture Design "Step-by-Step" - Guide is Soon Out!

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 the book for just £2.00 extra.

If you're interested in getting a copy, then visit the special page on my website: Permaculture Design Guide - Special Pre-publication Offer page

Hope your life is feeling nicely permacultured...
Many blessings,
Aranya
P.S. Apologies if you've already heard about this... word is spreading fast it seems!
--
Aranya
Aranya Gardens ~ Permaculture Solutions for a Sustainable Future
email: aranya@aranyagardens.co.uk 
website: www.aranyagardens.co.uk
Office: 00 44 (0)1297 20908
"There are plenty of things to worry about, but permaculture helps you to focus on the things that you can do to make a difference." ~ Andy Goldring

Gaiacraft Workbook: Global Release

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 on editions in Spanish, Portuguese and Hebrew. We would love to have translations into other languages as well.

Given freely, we encourage copying of these worksheets for your students and their copying them for their students. We recommend high quality color reproduction so that they can be successfully passed through many printings. In this way we see the worksheets travelling the world freely to support and inspire the evolution of the permaculture paradigm. The workbook is also available as a professionally bound edition direct from our print-on-demand printer. Purchasing a copy is a way to support Gaiacraft and the development of many more permaculture learning and teaching tools.

It’s an honour to share this tool with you as a companion to your journey with permaculture.

Free Download Link: www.lightscience.ca/gaiacraft/flatty-wholeSystemSequence.pdf(Warning: very large file! 227mb.)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Orthodox Church

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

Hjørnesteins-butikken

 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?

Entropy Pawsed uses "A Pattern Language"

Monday, February 6, 2012

Urbanism as Computation

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 intelligence. An interactive computational method generates adaptive organic urban fabric, as seen in both traditional cities and squatter settlements. Adaptive computational systems necessarily rely upon interaction with their situational environment. In this interactive approach, the result of each step in the sequence of computations is fed back into the algorithm so as to influence the subsequent step. The algorithm itself changes by interacting with whatever it is computing. Interactive or intelligent computing, therefore, is not equivalent to computations that rely exclusively upon a fixed algorithm. These two diverse computational methods design two morphologically distinct types of urban fabric. Also included in this discussion are urban morphologies that have no computational basis, as well as those that are deliberately random.

Read the essay by Nikos A. Salingaros: URBANISM AS COMPUTATION

The Urban Food Revolution

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 agriculture
  • Reducing obesity through local fresh food initiatives in schools, colleges and universities
  • Ending inner-city food deserts
Producing food locally makes people healthier, alleviates poverty, creates jobs, and makes cities safer and more beautiful. The Urban Food Revolution is an essential resource for anyone who has lost confidence in the global industrial food system and wants practical advice on how to join the local food revolution.” (www.newsociety.com/Books/U/The-Urban-Food-Revolution)

Related:

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Min nye, skjønne, underbare kaffekopp

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

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.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

How to Get What You Want Through Community Self-Government

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: 

Ethical Capitalism?

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


U.S. Counties With Thriving Small Businesses Have Healthier Residents

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 social benefits to small communities," said Troy C. Blanchard, Ph.D., lead author and associate professor of sociology at LSU. "This study highlights not only the economic benefits of small business, but its contributions to health and well-being."

Sudan: Market Vendors

Lag din egen frokostblanding

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!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

How to join Anonymous - A Beginner's Guide

Med Odin for Europa

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 hele artikkelen her.

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