Posts by Category

Life

Daily Rituals

Great infographic post at infowetrust via the Huffington Post and macademic that shows the daily ritual of interesting historical figures. Smoking, coffee an...

Permaculture and online learning

After years of exposure to Permaculture and having spent several years a decade ago implementing a disparate set of its common patterns at our previous prope...

Overcoming Obstacles

This inspirational talk by Nick White at the Wellington Ignite Conference gives an insight into what its like for an avid public speaker to overcome head and...

Getting to the root of the problem

Excellent writing as usual from Monbiot, pointing to the underlying causes of the unfolding Eco crisis http://www.monbiot.com/2012/12/03/forbidden-planet

The failure of international politics

Stirring writing “After Rio, we know. Governments have given up on the planet” by George Monbiot in reaction to the collapse of the Rio Summit. He still find...

Off the map

I noticed this post recommending the movie “Off The Map” recently. We watched it last night and really enjoyed it. We have been talking about it on and of...

Sopa what can make a difference

Macdrifter is a straight shooter, in this post “Man Up” he calls for direct action against SOPA. I like the style and support the cause

Crisis of faith in the financial system

Thought provoking post by Adam Richardson at Harvard Business Review on the levels of abstraction implicit in the financial system and the trust that is requ...

Facebook and ads

This is right on the money - so to speak. Facebook and Ads ReadWriteWeb

Inspiring blogger - Matt Gemmell

Matt Gemmell is such a good writer, his post Dear TextMate is a beauty and must reflect the thoughts of many former Textmate fans. His recent Simplicity pos...

US police under the spotlight

A video of a US policeman calmly capsicum spraying unarmed sitting protestors has created an international storm. James Fallows has exhaustive coverage and M...

VW and the darkside

Sophisticated campaign orchestrated by Greenpeace using the same Star Wars theme that feature in the latest VW adds. The aim is to raise pressure on Volkswag...

The innovators secret weapon

Great post over at MyMicroISV from Jarie Bolander. Very timely for me as I in the process to creating a day off a week to allow time to grow a new venture.

CNN occupy wall street

I had missed the interesting social experiments Ruskofff describes, the local media is adopting its usual superficial view. CNN: Occupy Wall Street is not a...

Save our inboxes

Chris Andersons’ email charter is well worth checking out and following. I especially like rule 2 - Short and Slow is not Rude. emailcharter

Frightened by voluntary simplicity

An article in the New York Times here tells of a couple who are shedding their possessions prior to starting a new life as organic farmers. What I found inte...

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Mind

Overcoming Obstacles

This inspirational talk by Nick White at the Wellington Ignite Conference gives an insight into what its like for an avid public speaker to overcome head and...

Living with introverts

Insightful guide to living with an introvert, rings true and definitely worth a look.

Depression and getting help

This article was linked by Macdrifter overnight and, as is often the case, Gabe has come up with gem. It’s by Rob Delaney a US comedian, reflecting on his de...

Dividing camels

The traditional teaching stories of the Sufi’s are often intriguing. One of my favourites is known as Dividing Camels. I originally came across it in Idries ...

Diversify your dreams

Great post from HBR that calls out the danger of simplifying your dreams down to a narrow outcome that can setup a black and white success or failure scenari...

Looking for meaning by paying attention

This stimulating post from Art Markman at HBR.org has a focus on Innovation. It turns out that if you practice finding the meanings of proverbs, you can get...

Trading as video game

An interesting article from the Atlantic which compares the modern derivates trading environment with playing a sophisticated computer game. Trading as a hi...

Things that matter

Seth Godin has published a free ebook, “Things that matter”. It contains over 70 short essays from todays leading thinkers. Definitely worth a read. I found ...

Pursuing a simpler life

Zen Habits a frequent and popular contributor of articles that cover many aspects of moving towards a simpler life have published a summary of their articles...

Healing power of chooks

This post has been in my mind since I saw a wonderful program ABC TV. The program “Rare Chicken Rescue” has two themes, one is depression and the other is ab...

Managing information overload

Saw this great cartoon over at Devon-Technologies which I have been visiting lately as I start to tackle my own information overload.

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Craft

Ceramic Destinations in Tokyo

The most popular post on Slowlane has been Ceramics Destinations in Kyoto, this post seeks to provide the same information for a Tokyo visitor.

Making and Work

I describe myself as a Maker, for me the term is a indicator of where my inspiration and satisfaction are found. This has generally been realised in the work...

Making a Flamenco Guitar

I have linked to this video showing the making of a beautiful guitar before, but its so good its worth another run. The Art of Making, Alma Flamenca from D...

Jean Nicholas Gerard, a potters potter

Goldmark have produced another fascinating “day in the life” video, this time featuring French potter Jean-Nicholas Gerard who makes beautiful slipware pots....

Makers at work

There is an extensive collection of videos of showcasing makers and their work, at Those Who Make.

Craftsmanship, one mans inspiration

Moving essay from David Sparks meditating about the influence of his father on his own pursuit of craftsmanship. I am sure that many modern craftsman were in...

Made by hand in brooklyn

Made by Hand is a project creating beautiful videos that celebrate the resurgent maker scene in Brooklyn

John Dermer

In November we travelled down to Kirby’s Flat for John Dermer’s annual major exhibition.

A cabinet makers notebook

In interviews with contemporary woodworkers James Krenov’s first book ‘A Cabinetmaker Notebook’ is often cited as the book that changed the course of that pe...

Guerrilla bagging

Horrified to discover the damage that plastic bags were causing to our marine environment, Claire Morsman devised a plan for action - ‘sociable guerrilla bag...

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Food

A Lucky Find

Reading John Connell’s “The Running Book” with its evocative portrayal of the Irish landscape prompted me to dig out this catalogue of black & white phot...

Permaculture Online Course Update

In a previous post I wrote about the positive experience we were having taking part in Geoff Lawton’s Online Permaculture course. Having completed all the on...

Permaculture and online learning

After years of exposure to Permaculture and having spent several years a decade ago implementing a disparate set of its common patterns at our previous prope...

Seasonal Eating

The way to keep the food miles down is to eat in sync with whats in season for your region. Its a simple idea that would once have been the only option for m...

Traditional chicken ark

Here is a design for a traditional chicken ark. This is from Charles Hayward’s 1940 book “Carpentry for Beginners” which has still a useful reference as it s...

Urban chickens

Eating Locally: Backyard Chickens at Treehugger.com. Keeping chickens in the urban backyards was commonplace in Australia during the depression and war years...

More on chicken tractors

Since my post about chickens which mentioned the Linda Woodrow inspired chook dome. I have noticed that people are searching in google for information about ...

Biodynamic wine in the news

Michelle Gadd of organicwine.com.au has a good summary of recent coverage of biodynamic wine in the Australia media.

Organic vs local

These days we have a reasonable range of organic food available to us locally whether through the supermarket, our local shops and/or box deliveries. However...

Krinklewood biodynamic wine

The Krinklewood vineyard was recently given a positive review in the local media so I thought I would give it a try. We would have gotten around to it anyway...

Slow food university

When Slowlane joined Slow Food recently they sent a booklet outlining their various initiatives, The Slow Food Companion. Two ventures that sounded particula...

Organic wine

Here in Australia we have a vibrant wine industry including an increasing number of vineyards producing organic and/or biodynamic wine. We are especially kee...

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Tech

Daily Rituals

Great infographic post at infowetrust via the Huffington Post and macademic that shows the daily ritual of interesting historical figures. Smoking, coffee an...

Why have Enterprise Architecture

Mastering Archimate has worked with T36 in the creation of an excellent video that shows why Enterprise Architecture is important. [![EA Video](http://img.y...

Leaving Octopress

After some months of not posting due in part to the limitations of Octopress, I have changed buses again. The site is now being built with Rapidweaver and us...

Remote posting

This is my first post from my iPad using Diet Coda to edit the Octopress post.

How to clean your apps permissions

I found quite a few applications that had permission to my gmail and linkedIn accounts that I couldn’t remember why I granted. Definitely worth the small eff...

Uncloud local wireless networking

This looks interesting - another useful step towards Internet independence. unCloud — It’s not that kind. (Via creativeapplications) Check out Douglas Rushk...

Solar sinter

I am amazed by this, its an incredible project that uses sunlight, 3D printing components and sand to produce glass sculptures. Watch the video right through...

Dark Sky - how it works

This post is a fascinating description of the design of Dark Sky. I enjoyed the way the development team used a combination of open source tools, publicly av...

The future of aviation

Some fascinating images in the Atlantic article linked below - the long distance air travel proposal may well turn out to be the low carbon future of air tra...

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Books

A Lucky Find

Reading John Connell’s “The Running Book” with its evocative portrayal of the Irish landscape prompted me to dig out this catalogue of black & white phot...

A cabinet makers notebook

In interviews with contemporary woodworkers James Krenov’s first book ‘A Cabinetmaker Notebook’ is often cited as the book that changed the course of that pe...

Guitar zero

I am reading a new book by Gary Marcus a scientist who in his professional life studies languages and cognitive science. In this book he explores the researc...

Read one book per week

I will have to adopt an approach like Joshua Beck at Becoming Minimalist) if I am to reduce my reading backlog. Not to mention keeping up to date with exciti...

A book apart

Just bought a bundle from A Book Apart, excellent value - especially as eBooks.

Great bookshops of the world

Fascinating photos of bookshops from around in the world in the this article in Salon via Twitter from Mark Bertstein who has been to 3 of them. I’m pretty s...

New book - cubicle nation

Nice to see Pamela Slim’s book in the shops, I am looking forward to giving it a read after enjoying her blog for some time.

So long Fourth World Review

I am a great fan of subversive media that seeks to tell truths that do not sit easily in the tomes of the major outlets, being dictated as they are by large ...

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Earth

Inhabit Movie

Back in 2013 a couple of filmmakers bravely took on the risk of making a high quality movie about the Permaculture movement in North America. Once they had s...

Permaculture Online Course Update

In a previous post I wrote about the positive experience we were having taking part in Geoff Lawton’s Online Permaculture course. Having completed all the on...

Permaculture and online learning

After years of exposure to Permaculture and having spent several years a decade ago implementing a disparate set of its common patterns at our previous prope...

The way of the megapode

I am with but she’s a girl, being a fan of Douglas Adam’s book Last Chance to See. As I am also in interested in scripting and other geekery, this post hit a...

Attack of the wolf mountain chickens

This chook post has it all - video, pictures, domes and self feeders. Also some great insight into the chicken management practises at Milkwood Permaculture....

Balehaus - an experimental building

The Ecologist is one of the great journals of the green movement and has recently gone through the transformation from print to online. This makes access to ...

Traditional chicken ark

Here is a design for a traditional chicken ark. This is from Charles Hayward’s 1940 book “Carpentry for Beginners” which has still a useful reference as it s...

Urban chickens

Eating Locally: Backyard Chickens at Treehugger.com. Keeping chickens in the urban backyards was commonplace in Australia during the depression and war years...

More on chicken tractors

Since my post about chickens which mentioned the Linda Woodrow inspired chook dome. I have noticed that people are searching in google for information about ...

Healing power of chooks

This post has been in my mind since I saw a wonderful program ABC TV. The program “Rare Chicken Rescue” has two themes, one is depression and the other is ab...

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Culture

Rushkoff, a change agent

I have been reading two books by Douglas Rushkoff. “Program or Be Programmed” and “Life Inc”. These books have well reasoned arguments that encourage a subve...

BEN - bicycle empowerment network

Its Blog Action Day - my plug is for BEN the Bicycle Empowerment Network of Namibia. Established by Australian Michael Linke who had previously edited Austra...

Simplicity amongst the weapons

This week we went to the opening night of a new movie - Son Of A Lion. This is a moving and engaging story set in the tribal region of northern Pakistan, hom...

Notebooks and Manifestos

I have love notebooks, especially interesting quirky ones that help me feel creative. My latest notebook is the Makers Notebook from Make magazine. Its model...

Resurgence slow sundays

The latest issue of Resurgence has arrived and it looks a beauty. At quick skim reveals the usual combination of thoughtful articles and fabulous images. In...

Clear thinking - well informed outspoken

No its not this author, although we can aspire…I’m referring to George Monbiot, who’s new book Bring on the Apocalypse - Six Arguments for Global Justice has...

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Design

Ode to invention, Maira Kalman

Steve Zeoli posted a link to the work of Maira Kalman in the NY Times today, in this case an enlightening graphic celebration of the inventiveness of Benjami...

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Travel

Ceramic Destinations in Tokyo

The most popular post on Slowlane has been Ceramics Destinations in Kyoto, this post seeks to provide the same information for a Tokyo visitor.

Fairfield Horseshoe

We had a long and rewarding day walking the Fairfield Horseshoe in the hills around Ambleside. It was mid September 2011 and the weather blessed us with clea...

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Spirit

Overcoming Obstacles

This inspirational talk by Nick White at the Wellington Ignite Conference gives an insight into what its like for an avid public speaker to overcome head and...

The Apple of zen

Steve Jobs practised Zen! - the dharma talk below from teacher Peg Syverson (Appamada.org) considers Steve’s legacy and how to apply his approach to our live...

This precious life

“Because we don’t know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a ve...

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Music

Shakuhachi festival world masters concert

Just returned from a concert that was the major public event of the 5th World Shakuhachi Festival. This gathering was a rare opportunity to see and hear some...

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Health

Sleep apnea and sonomed

This article from the BBC describes a sleeping pattern involving two sleeps of about 4 hours with a period of wakefulness in between, known as segmented slee...

Whats lurking under the lid

Many of us have been aware of many of the dangers associated with processed foods and the artificial chemicals introduced by the food industry for some time....

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Japan

Ceramic Destinations in Tokyo

The most popular post on Slowlane has been Ceramics Destinations in Kyoto, this post seeks to provide the same information for a Tokyo visitor.

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Permaculture

Inhabit Movie

Back in 2013 a couple of filmmakers bravely took on the risk of making a high quality movie about the Permaculture movement in North America. Once they had s...

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Poems

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