Monday, December 30, 2013

Vinduslamper uten blending

(Se også artikkelen Lysvett i vintermørket)

I mange tilfeller vil det være nok å velge en mørkere, noe større skjerm, slik at kontrastene minsker. Rødt er en mildere kontrastfarge mot en mørk bakgrunn.

Eksempler på blendingsfrie vinduslampetter:

Vinduslampe helt uten blending.
Tradition Flower Pot VP3
Fås i mange farger, trolig er rødt den mest behagelige fargen i vintermørket.

"Flowerpot bordlampe VP3 fra &Tradition, design Verner Panton. Lampeserien Flower pot hører til Verner Pantons mest velkjente kreasjoner og har oppnådd kultstatus for lenge siden. Serien ble utviklet allerede på sluttet av 1960-tallet og med sine elegante linjer og organiske geometri har Flowerpot gjort ett inntrykk i designverden. Flowerpot bordlampe VP3 er produsert i lakkert stål med transparent ledning i PVC og gir et behagelig blendingsfritt lys. Flowerpot finnes også som taklampe."

GIBIGIANA 1
Tom Dixon Pipe

Eclisse Bordlampe Hvit - Artemide

Romantisk DIY Led Night Lamp

Moseskogbunn


7 Things Everyone Knows about Energy that Just ain't So (2013 Edition)

Mark Twain once said, "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." And, there are many, many things that the public and policymakers know for sure about energy that just ain't so.

That list is very long indeed and getting longer as the fossil fuel industry (which has little interest in intellectual honesty) continues its skillful manipulation of a gullible and sometimes careless media.

Pinocchio in a parade http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1916MomusPinocchio.jpg

Below I've listed seven whoppers that it would be charitable to call misleading. Longtime readers will recognize that I've addressed them before in various pieces. But I thought that it would be useful to review the worst of the worst of 2013 as the year ends.

Here are seven things everyone knows about energy that just ain't so:

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Shoe City: Cheap People, Cheap Nature


The Chinese firm Huajian, which makes shoes for Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, Naturalizer, Clarkes and other western brands, is building a ‘shoe city’ in Ethiopia.

This global hub for the shoe and accessory industry – ‘a one-stop shop for manufacturers similar to us’ – will house up to 200,000 guest workers on wages that, at US$35 a month, are ten times lower than those in China. Seven-year tax breaks, regulatory exemptions, cheap land, and ‘cost-sharing schemes for foreign experts’ are among additional attractions to global firms. Continue reading...

PatternDynamics: Following The Way Nature Organizes Itself to Deal with Complexity

by David MacLeod, originally published by Integral Permaculture

The natural world is staggeringly complex, and yet amazingly elegant in how it manages the multitude of interconnected parts into organized, unified wholes that thrive. What is the secret for harnessing this elegance for use in human systems? Tim Winton found that observation of the most common patterns found in the natural world led to the development of high level principles which can then be used to address the most complex challenges that human systems face.

After learning some of the common patterns found in all natural systems, we can then begin to recognize these patterns in human systems, and learn how to balance the ones that are skewed, and to integrate in the ones might add a greater level of enduring health. We can “make a deeper difference by changing the system!”
change the system
PatternDynamics is a systems thinking tool for creating systems level change that Winton has been developing over 20 years as he’s worked in diverse fields, including: environmental services contractor, organic farmer, sustainability educator, designer, project manager, consultant, executive leadership, and corporate governance.

What is unique about PatternDynamics is that it combines the patterns of nature with the power of language, to produce a sustainability pattern language.

In a recent paper by Barrett Brown, referring to a study he had done in 2012 of top performing organizational leaders, he observed that these top leaders “use three powerful thinking tools to design their initiatives and guide execution. They are (a) Integral theory, (b) Complexity theory, and (c) Systems theory. These models help them to step back from the project, get up on to the balcony, and take a broad view of the whole situation. They use these tools to make sense of complex, rapidly changing situations and navigate through them securely.”

And famed Permaculture teacher Toby Hemenway (author of Gaia’s Garden) recently posted on his blog the following recommendation: “To enrich our ability to use recipes and put them into context, without engaging in a full-blown design analysis from scratch, we can use pattern languages. The term was coined by architect Christopher Alexander to mean a structured grammar of good design examples and practices in a given field—architecture, software design, urban planning, and so forth— that allow people with only modest training to solve complex problems in design. … Like recipes, pattern languages are plug-and-play rather than original designs, but they allow plenty of improvisation and flexibility in implementation, and can result in rich, detailed solutions that fit. A handbook of pattern languages for the basic human needs and societal functions, structured along permaculture principles, would be a worthy project for a generation of designers.”[my emphasis]

Snow Crystals (Snøkrystaller)

Foto: Alexey Kljatov @ChaoticMind75/Flickr

Thursday, December 26, 2013

How Communitarian Culture Changes the World: the example of Co-Housing

In Norway we have the largest immigration numbers of Europe, so industry and the state tell we need to build thousands of new dwellings. At the same time we have the largest per person square metres of dwelling space in the world. The answer is therefore not more houses, but co-housing.

Excerpted from Allen Butcher:

“Developing a process for creating intentional community, whether from no pre-existing organization or by transforming an existing religious or any social organization, is the process called in this writing, “intentioneering.” People simply come up with ideas on how they would like to live, often based upon existing successful communitarian movements, then make agreements on processes that support and perpetuate their desired lifestyle.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

7 Environmental Problems That Are Worse Than We Thought

With as much attention as the environment has been getting lately, you’d think that we’d be further along in our fight to preserve the world’s species, resources and the beautiful diversity of nature. Unfortunately, things aren’t nearly that rosy. In fact, many of the environmental problems that have received the most public attention are even worse than we thought – from destruction in the rain forest to melting glaciers in the Arctic. We’ve got a lot of work to do.
7 Environmental Problems That Are Worse Than We Thought – The Environmental eZine

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Hva du som hageeier kan gjøre for å gynne sommerfugler

Vanlige hageeiere kan også bidra, gjennom å dyrke sommerfuglvennlige planter som timian, bergmynte og kardeborrearter.
- Sommerfuglene trenger flere enger

Foto: Michael H. Lemmer

Friday, December 20, 2013

Rules First

In principle, it is best to make the rules before taking the field, before startingthe meeting. When we decide how we are going to make decisions before we find ourselvesin the tension of making them, it lowers our chances of conflict. It is much easierto establish proposal-development steps and decision criteria in the hypotheticalrather then when actually confronted with a real proposal and with real personalities.

"We'll figure out the rules as we go," rarely turns out fair and often leads to conflict and resentment.

Establishing rules of engagement beforehand lets everyone know what to expect, giveseveryone equal opportunity to participate, and increases chances of creative, peacefuldecisions.

Practical Tip: Before you get to the hard decisions, first establish who gets tovote and who does not, how proposals get developed and discussed, and norms of behavior for meetings. For many groups, such rules are embodied in bylaws and meetingground rules. Imagine the tough situations before they arrive and decide in advancehow they will be handled.

Establishing and enforcing rules does not limit creativity, but rather encouragesit. Knowing what to expect gives us courage to fully participate. Craig Freshley

Thursday, December 19, 2013

Can Bytes Save the Future? The Money Value Delusion

King Midas got his highest wish granted: All he touched turned to gold. Here seen with his golden daughter . He starved to death shortly after.

On behalf of us all, investors make the same mistake as King Midas did. Human behavioural ecology knows why this paradox exists. Would it help if everybody knew?

Mate choice and sexual selection is the ultimate evolutionary force that has shaped the human mind. Cognitive mechanisms like consciousness, language ability and emotions are ultimate evolved strategies in the battle over mates. Status, showing off, beauty and the quest for value symbols are universal mate preferences. They are expressed in some form or another in all cultures, through all times.
Fortunately, attractive mate strategies also include the urge to display generosity and cooperation. Game theory reveals these human universals, and under which circumstances they appear and thrive. Human evolutionary past consisted of 'ingroups' in which all members knew each other. These ingroups favoured sexual selection through a well-known behavioral mechanism called the Handicap Principle. The peacock’s tail is only the tip of an iceberg compared to the human results of this attractivity selection: "Look at me, I can be generous and share my wealth, I can show-off and bear burdens of all kinds, and still be top among peers". In cities, extreme examples are observed.



"I’ll die before I’m 25, and when I die I will have lived the way  I wanted to. " Sid Vicious (1957–1979), Sex Pistols

The universal locations of cognitive mechanisms are now read with brain scanning techniques. Emotions are evolved as positive or negative drivers - rewards or punishments - to seek or respectively avoid, certain situations and actions. The environment we live in merely push the buttons. No button – no reaction: How did you learn the taste of sugar? The feeling of pain? The rewarding sensation of money, the locations seen in this picture? What about the urge to be visible? The need to be right in discussions…? The buttons are inherited from our ancestors, because those who had them, won. The others didn’t.



A model of the ultimate representative democracy, adjusted for Norway. Larger nations will need one more level of ingroups.

Cultures are in this way manifestations of the roots of sexual selection. This pattern is overwhelmingly clear, once seen. Unfortunately, the global community is now among 'outgroups', and the cooperation and generosity found among friends and small groups meet with the evolved human strategies of competition with "the unknown, the outsiders"; potentially uncertain competitors, out to seek the same resources, habitats and mates as ourselves. The global capitalism is a result of such outgroup strategies. From this, several important insights and suggestions to solutions emerge. Here are two examples to show the range of implications:

1. The Norwegian petroleum policy is following the logic of profit: Empty the reservoirs and convert it into value symbols as fast as possible: "Norway’s petroleum fund is now so big that we can subsist on it forever" (Torgeir Micaelsen, Chairman of the finance committee of the Norwegian parliament, speaking on national TV). Will it be a choice between the last meal on earth, and a data server containing 350 billion Euro…

2. Fish farming is using more resources than it produces. Because of the profit, this unsustainable industry is looked upon as successful. "The money feeling" is short-sighted, and evolved during a time of plenty where there was no need for planning for centuries.
Is it possible to design a democratic, solidary and sustainable society, stabilised by human ingroup drivers?
In our book The biological human being – individuals and societies in the light of evolution (preliminary only in Norwegian) we suggest a model for a national and global ultimate democratic economy, which can handle and execute ownership on five levels (see figure above). It is both about curbing the bad sides and letting the good sides thrive. There are several prerequisites in order to stabilise such an organisation, of which three are most important:

1. A political solution to sustainability must include democratic control over production and economy.

2. Production must be for the purpose of sustainability, not profit.

3. Civil salaries must include all and be decided democratically.

This can be achieved through ingroup control over the unwanted, selfish strategies of our human mind: When we are observed, among our closest, we hide egoism and are cooperative and generous. No-one is openly selfish when being watched. This democracy, once established, will be extremely stable. Justice and fairness will be decided through open democratic decisions, by elected peers, on each level. Freeriders are controlled within the groups. Surely, we CAN decide to keep on overexploitating, and send our children into an uncertain future, but we will at least decide it ourselves. For example, in the US, only a few extremely rich persons may win elections.

A safer future can be planned. Profit and economic growth can be replaced by sustainable production: Reusable, repairable and recyclable products. Research and efforts can be focused to meet these goals, without the need for capital growth and profit. Solidarity will be forced upon decision making, through the evolved ingroup strategies. We suggest an interdisciplinary research group on concrete solutions like this. Please contact us if you find this interesting.

Terje Bongard, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research Terje.bongard@nina.no phone +47 986 44 786
Editorial Notes: All of the materials on the original website are in Norwegian. -KS

Recommended at Syndax Vuzz.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

High Speed Trains are Killing the European Railway Network

by Kris De Decker, originally published by Low-tech Magazine
High speed rail is marketed as a sustainable alternative to air traffic. According to the International Union of Railways, the high speed train "plays a key role in a stage of sustainable development and combating climate change". As a regular long-distance train traveler in Europe, I have to say that the opposite is true. High speed rail is destroying the most valuable alternative to the airplane; the "low speed" rail network that has been in service for decades.

The introduction of a high speed train connection invariably accompanies the elimination of a slightly slower, but much more affordable, alternative route, forcing passengers to use the new and more expensive product, or abandon the train altogether. As a result, business people switch from full-service planes to high speed trains, while the majority of Europeans are pushed into cars, coaches and low-cost airplanes. Continue reading...

Monday, December 16, 2013

Wat Arun Temple, Bangkok, Thailand (Scaling Hierarchy)

Wat Arun Temple, Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Diego Delso

Husqvarna kjøleskap en fiasko (Krav for nytt kjøleskap)

Husqvarna kjøleskap har en stylet finish, men er under fasaden like falskt og mislykket som Pamela Anderson

Min bror har alltid hevdet at for å være miljøbevisst må man kjøpe det dyreste og beste, da dette gir varige produkter slik at man skåner miljøet. Mitt Husqvarna kjøleskap var et såkalt dyrt skap med helautomatisk avising og det hele. I dag forstår jeg at avisingssystemet aldri har fungert, det er derfor det har duret og gått uavbrutt dag og natt siden det var nytt. Der vi bodde før var ikke dette noe problem, da kjøkkenet var for seg selv. I dag har vi en såkalt åpen kjøkkenløsning, en uting, noe jeg vil komme tilbake til i en seinere post.

Det siste året har jeg virkelig fått merke denne duringen, da jeg har sovet på rommet under kjøleskapet, noe som nærmest kan sammenlignes med å ha et pressluftsbor i hodet. Naturligvis, i profittens navn har Block Watne droppet å legge inn lydabsorbenter i etasjeskillene, slik at vibreringen fra kjøleskapet har avstedkommet adskillig verre støynivå i underetasjen enn i rommet der det er plassert.

Block Watne har heller ikke avsatt tilstrekkelig plass mellom vindu/kjøkkenbenk og vegg, slik at jeg må dra fram kjøleskapet for å få fram skuffer og hyller for rengjøring etc. Dette gjør det også vanskelig å bygge inn kjøleskapet.

Uansett, i går prøvde jeg å åpne inn mot vifta i frysedelen, da denne igjen hadde sluttet å gå. Det viste seg at nesten hele fryseelementet, vifta, rør etc. var innkapslet av tykk is, dette skal liksom være et selvavisende kjøleskap! Isen var så massiv at jeg måtte legge hårføneren over fryseelementet.

Hvor klønete kjøleskapet er laget viste seg i all sin gru når jeg skulle sette delene på plass igjen, dette gikk knapt og hovedskuff og frontdeksel i frysedelen ble det ikke plass til hvis man skal lukke døra, noe som jo er en fordel. Under arbeidet røk også føleren for døra sund, da denne var av simpel plastikk. Husqvarna kjøleskap er definitivt ikke laget for å repareres og vedlikeholdes, kun for å kasseres. Men dette er jo hemmeligheten med hele det kapitalistiske systemet.

Så nå er det ut igjen på kjøleskapjakt. Jeg hater å kjøpe ting, så dette var det siste jeg ønsket i julestria. Det viktigste er å sette opp ei skikkelig kravliste, håper denne også kan være til hjelp for lesere av bloggen. (I går hadde jeg 326 sidevisninger, forrige måned 5 315 sidevisninger).

Krav for nytt kjøleskap:

  1. Man må kunne få ut hyller og skuffer for rengjøring og tilpasning uten å måtte dra fram kjøleskapet, dette med en lysåpning på 66 cm. (Egentlig 68 cm, men ønsker å "kle inn" kjøleskapet med heltreplater på sidene. Døra må gå ordentlig opp.
  2. Det bør ha et støynivå på maksimalt 34 dB, helst lavere. Må ikke gå hele tida, kun i korte perioder avbrutt av lange perioder med stillhet. Gjelder også vifta.
  3. Det må ikke avgi noen form for vibrasjoner til gulvet, som kan spre seg til soverom i underetasjen. F.eks. at kompressor er montert på støtabsorbenter, gjerne noe opp fra gulvet, gjerne også at kjøleskapet har støtabsorbenter mot gulv.
  4. Det må være selvavisende.
  5. Det må finnes et skikkelig serviceverksted i nærområdet.
  6. Det bør være et håndtak under kjøleskapet slik at det blir enkelt å dra fram.
  7. Slagretning på døra må kunne endres. (Slår mot venstre i mitt kjøkken).
  8. Må ha frysedel.
  9. Evt. hevet fra gulv for rengjøring, evt. innebygd front.
  10. Skal det ikke bygges inn bør det ha svarte sider og metall front.
  11. Gjerne en "brekkløsning" på døra slik at det blir lettere å åpne når døra suger seg inntil.
  12. Ikke Husqvarna.
  13. Enkelt innstillingspanel for temperatur etc.
  14. Enkelt å reparere.
  15. Ikke for tungt. (Tungt å transportere, flytte, og tyngden overfører trolig i sterkere grad evt. vibrasjoner til gulvet).

INTELLIGENCE-BASED DESIGN: A SUSTAINABLE FOUNDATION FOR WORLDWIDE ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION (Free e-book)

by Nikos A. Salingaros & Kenneth G. Masden II


Download pdf directly here

Description:
Architectural theory as currently taught in modern universities throughout the world no longer provides a plausible basis for the discipline and practice of architecture. Students studying within this model are left to their own inventions if they hope to gain an architectural degree. Forced to formulate a body of work constrained by the paradigm of contemporary design, students learn to copy fashionable images without understanding their geometry; or simply invent forms that look as if they possess a contemporary sense of architecture. By their very nature, such forms are irrelevant to human needs and sensibilities. Contrary to what students are led to believe, this practice does not provide a broader base for creativity, but instead effectively restricts choices to a very narrow design vocabulary. Most architectural institutions continue to propagate a curricular model that has sustained their particular ideals and ideologies for decades. While many innovative didactic materials and ideas for revising the architectural curriculum are available today, they are often overlooked or ignored. If implemented, these new ideas could drastically improve the educational model, allowing students the world over to participate in a learning experience specific to their immediate and local context. By re-situating the education of an architect in more practical and contextual terms, we emphasize components of building design that relate directly to human existence, human perception, and the human values and beliefs that have for millennia served to establish culture and identity. A new model of learning is developed here for students wanting to make real architecture, and for educators and practitioners that seek the same. The following proposal is predicated on the knowledge of human interaction with the physical world and the necessity of corporeal engagement with the built environment. Furthermore, our model re-institutes values in the practice and education of architects, values that once sprang forth naturally from local cultures and traditions throughout the world, but which have in recent decades been usurped by the influence of global capital.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Koseligheten tar hevn

Kjetil Rolness vrir øra rundt på hvem det måtte være. Sist ut er arkitekter som ikke tar folks ønske om kos og komfort på alvor. Les mer...


Koselig hus på Maihaugen

Hvorfor tregrening?

I et samfunn der det er religionen som bestemmer alt, blir åndslivet kneblet, og det økonomiske livet blir strengt underlagt statlige reguleringsmekanismer. I et samfunn hvor rettslivet bestemmer alt, utvikles stater som det sovjetkommunistiske, hvor staten får all makt, og det enkelte mennesket ikke har noen personlige rettigheter. I slike stater blir tenkningen også svært ensrettet, ikke bare det økonomiske livet. I samfunn der næringslivet bestemmer alt, bestemmer næringslivet også over åndslivet og samfunnets rettslige prinsipper. - Henning Næss

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Apenes planet

Skal me bry oss om gårsdagens klimarapport må me først kvele vår indre Fred Flintstone, skriver Agnes Ravatn.


RÅDGIVERE?: Kor fornuftig er det eigentleg å bruke ein tre millionar år gammal apekatt som rådgivar? spør laurdagskommentator Agnes Ravatn.

Publisert den 27. sep 2013, kl. 22:21 av
Gåte: kva er det som er stort og trugande, ikkje har påført oss synleg liding enno, skrir så langsamt fram at ingen legg merke til henne, rammar andre folk enn oss først, og ligg så langt inn i framtida at me har slutta å bry oss?

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Fotodokumentar over skjendingen av innlandets dronning en mørk og trist desemberdag 2013

Denne fotodokumentaren av ødeleggelsene på østsida av Mjøsa ved utbyggingen av ny E6 Kolomoen-Minnesund ble foretatt mandag 9. desember. Alle bildene ble tatt i fart mens jeg kjørte, utsnittene er derfor tilfeldige. Dette gir både uskarpe bilder og underlige motiv, men samtidig synes jeg det gir en ekstra realistisk dimensjon over dokumentasjonen av denne pågående dystopien.

I en kommentar nylig hos Pål Steigan skrev jeg følgende:
I disse dager skjer det også en nådeløs skjending av innlandets dronning, med utbyggingen av nye E6 nede i mjøsstranda, jernbanen legges delvis på fyllinger ute i Mjøsa: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vegarbeider_p%C3%A5_ny_E6_mellom_Kolomoen_og_Minnesund_ved_Mj%C3%B8sa-5.JPG

Selv gleder jeg meg til dette landskapet en dag igjen vil bli oppfylt av beitedyr, men sårene trengs det en ny istid for å utbedre. Frykter også for all isolasjonen som benyttes her til lands, vil anta de fremdeles benytter polystyren.

Motorveien og skyskraperen er begge symboler for moderniteten, en arv fra Le Corbusier. Men de er også energisluk, derfor er deres tid snart forbi.

Motorveiene ble først og fremst bygget for å øke kapitalakkumulasjonen, ved å transportere varer raskere til utvidede markeder. Utvidelsen av E6 til Hafjell skyldes derimot hovedsaklig at elitene i Oslo skal kunne kjøre i 100 km/t til alpinanleggene og hytteparadisene sine. Hadde de brydd seg om industrien ville de satset på å utbedre infrastrukturen på vestsida av Mjøsa, hvor de tunge industrimiljøene ligger. Aksen Moelv-Gjøvik-Raufoss er et av de sterkeste industrielle tyngdepunktene i Norge.
The Thought of Ivan Illich Today:
Illich’s theories on the effectiveness of cars, air travel, and energy showed that industrial progress actually hampers the speed and effectiveness we have as people who were born capable of walking to our desired destinations. Roads, airports, stations, traffic jams, all take away the benefits of using complicated engineered methods of travel, and make our actual travel times longer. - David Bollier
Lysbildeserien forsvant, da dette var fra en tid hvor jeg lenket bildene til fb, en stor tabbe. Men alle fotografiene kan ses hos Wikimedia Commons her!

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Mattilsynet oppfordrer til mindre bruk av kanel

Mattilsynet følger nå opp regelverket fra EU og anbefaler folk å begrense inntaket av kanel.

Foto: photo8

NTB.

EU har fastsatt en grenseverdi på 15 milligram kumarin per kilo bakst. Kumarin er et stoff som finnes i kanel og som kan påføre skader på leveren ved høyt inntak.

Det er anslått at kroppen kan takle et daglig inntak av kanel på 1,4 gram, noe som tilsvarer en halv teskje, ifølge Mattilsynet.

- Det er ingen grunn til bekymring for folk med et variert kosthold. Det er i første rekke bakerne som må tenke litt ekstra på hvor mye kanel de strør på baksten, sier seksjonssjef Atle Wold i Mattilsynet.

Det er bakeren som i utgangspunktet må vurdere kanelinnholdet.

Her i landet brukes kanel blant annet i de bergenske skillingsbollene, og den norske risgrøten er fast innslag på mange familiers bord. Mattilsynet ber foreldre passe på kanelinntaket hos små barn.

- De spiser gjerne mer grøt enn andre, og siden kroppen er liten, tåler de også mindre enn voksne, sier Wold.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

A Home in Harmony with Nature? Why, that's illegal!

This sounds like the kind of book I would have loved to have written if I had skills.: "The Diary of Amy, the 14-Year-Old Girl Who Saved the Earth" by Scott Erickson..."A home in Harmony With Nature? What, that's illegal!" Continue reading...
 

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Sovebyen Skoglundfeltet ved Gjøvik

Det er nesten så man sovner bare ved synet. Klikk i bildet for en forstørrelse.
The practical result of government promotion of monoculture development is that for most of us there are two communities: a community in which we work and shop, and a bedroom community in which we are stored. – Kevin Carson
Når man ikke sover i sovebyen er man gjerne på CC og shopper
Here we can see the radical nature of Berry’s vision. Our entire economy, our very culture of work, leisure, and home is constructed around the idea of easy mobility and the disintegration of various aspects of our lives. We live in one place, work in another, shop in another, worship in another, and take our leisure somewhere else. According to Berry, an integrated life, a life of integrity, is one characterized by membership in a community in which one lives, works, worships, and conducts the vast majority of other human activities. The choice is stark: “If we do not live where we work, and when we work, we are wasting our lives, and our work too.” – Wendell Berry and the New Urbanism: Agrarian Remedies, Urban Prospects

Monday, December 2, 2013

Pat Conaty on the History and the Rediscovery of the Cooperative Commonwealth

Watch this interesting video presentation here:


Content details:

“Solidarity Co-operatives have been developed as a unique multi-stakeholder Co-operative system since the 1980s. They are unique because co-production members include paid workers, volunteers, service users and social investors. In Italy they provide social care, health services and educational services for local communities. There are now over 14,000 of these Co-ops across Italy providing services to 5 million. The Solidarity Co-op movement has spread in Europe to France, Spain, Portugal, Hungary and Poland. They have been developed in Quebec and in the UK there is early work underway to develop them in England and Wales.

This talk, given on November 25th 2013 at Schumacher College, was the tenth of 11 talks during the autumn of 2013 on Adventures in New Economics – a wide-ranging speaker series covering the key topics in new economic thinking today, presented by Transition Town Totnes, Totnes REconomy Project, and Schumacher College.”

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Featured Post

Hovdetoppen - Mjøslandets største øyensår

Da vi forlot Gjøvik i 2018, var planen å flytte tilbake så raskt råd var, men så oppdaget jeg plutselig store skogsmaskiner oppe på det unik...