Travel Photo of the Week



Fairmont Hotel on Lake Louise, Canada

Liveaboard life: Minimalism In A Tiny Home At Sea

This young woman is living the dream. out on the water on her saleboat as a tiny home. This nine minute short film shows you how she does it.

Time Lapse Sand Mandala

I've watched as Buddhist monks created one of these and then after completing it, they prayed and then swept it up and in a ceremony, disposed of it. The idea is to contemplate impermanence.

Mars Rover Curiousity

This video shows the Mars rover, Curiousity, landing on Mars. Quite a machine.

Fun Time

Clown-Shaped High Voltage Electrical Towers in Hungary

Meghalaya's Living Bridges

If we are really looking for solutions to our cultural and environmental problems, perhaps we should look to people like this for their wisdom and vision. Thinking generations in advance, they weave living bridges throughout their communities.

To Give Thanks

It is important to be grateful for what you are given: life, love, laughter.

I wish a happy and abundant Thanksgiving to all my family and friends. To all homeless, I wish shelter and a good meal. To all our poor, I wish wealth. To all our children, I wish kind and loving parents. To all protesting everywhere, I wish redress for your grievances. To all our Presidents, past, present and future I wish wisdom and forgiveness for how you are treated by a nation that should honor and respect you and your office. To all in Congress, I wish you'd get a clue.

I have so much to be grateful for, my wife, daughter and family, my wonderful work. I just hope I don't forget this in the tumultuous year to come.

Travel Photo of the Week

Broken down bus transporting two cars from Kabul to Ghazni.

Tiny House In California Gold Country

Here's an article about a beautiful owner-built tiny home from the Tiny House Blog. Lovely interior. I like the deck. It looks like it doubles the square footage of the house (technically).

It's off the grid, with a 400 watt voltaic power source and a 12 volt pump connected to a 275 water tank to provide water for the sink. There's a shower, but the owner has an outhouse. Ah, for the good old days!

A Gettysburg Address Moment For Higher Education

I like to take the pulse of many a thing and as mentioned in yesterday's blog, I'm taking the pulse of the economic protest movement right now.

One of the issuses concerning our young people is access to higher education.  It seems that there are jobs out there, just not to many people qualified to take them and that's an education issue.

Cathy Davidson is a writer interested in the ways that digital information change our brains. She too, is concerned that this moment is being misinterpreted by our leaders.

Here is an article she wrote on how university leaders are misunderstanding what's happening on their campuses regarding the Occupy movement.

She says, "We’re at a turning point, a Gettysburg Address moment, where moral authority and moral force needs to be eloquently articulated before this historical moment devolves into violence and polarization. Our students are not wrong in the content of their protests. Calling the police does not address their issues; as we have seen too often, it can foster violence –with an ever-more imminent potential for tragedy."

For those of us who were involved and remember the student movement of the 60s and 70s, doesn't this sound familiar?

Whither Goest Our World?

On this Sunday I'm giving a great deal of thought to the various Occupy movements going on around our world. Although I personally have some issue with the rational and purpose of these protests, I must be honest when I say that there is change in the wind.

Police (apparently) pepper spraying people just for the fun(?) of it. No recognition from the elites that there are those who are really hurting economically are out there with no options. Large numbers of people seeing jobs as an entitlement.

And behind it all, no seeming recognition that these are the kinds of times and events that bring enormous change to a world. There doesn't seem to any idea that the protests in Tahrir Square and the protests on Wall Street are related things.

Here's a New York Times article about an entirely new group of Americans about to slip into poverty. They are called the "Near Poor" and are 51 million strong (or perhaps weak would be a better descriptor).

We need to remember that when people have nothing left to lose, they do things like the French Revolution.

Cake anyone?

Fun Time

Bert and Ernie on your GPS.

A Treehouse Grows in Brooklyn

In the words of Alexandra Meyn, “I think everyone has this special place in their brain — a primal nostalgia — for a treehouse.”

So she did something about it. She built a one in the backyard of her apartment building in Bedford-Stuyvesant NY. It cost her all of $400 and with the help of friends (“It’s hard for people to say no when you say, I’m building a treehouse, man.”) she made the childhood dream of so many come true.

Here'a link the NY Times article about her and her treehouse and here's a link to a fine photo essay about it. 

Travel Photo of the Week



Rooftop Cafes in Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal

Tiny Origami Apartment In Manhattan Unfolds Into 4 Rooms

In 2005, third-grade-teacher Eric Schneider bought a 450 square foot studio apartment in Manhattan with a tiny kitchen. He then hired architects Michael Chen and Kari Anderson of Normal Projects to design a way to pack more density into his small space.

Here is a tour of the finished apartment and an interview with Eric and Michael describing to process. Quite elegant and beautiful. I wonder what the view is like.

Another Owner Built Tiny Home

Here's another tiny home. Designed and built by Daniel Aragon, it is only 110 square feet. Located just outside Telluride in Placerville, Colorado. Daniel takes you on a tour of his home in this video. Nice music, too.

Best Eggs Ever

I've become very picky about the food I eat. It's not just the taste: it's the nutrition, the carbon footprint, supporting local economies. I want to be able to walk my talk and eat well, too.

Almost every weekend I visit my elderly mother and for the last couple of years or so I've been buying my eggs from a farm market on the way.  Yesterday, when I picked up my eggs, the nice people who work there gave me the card of the person they get these wonderful eggs from so I could continue to get them throughout the Winter when they close.

When I got back home I sent her an email, so she would know that I was definately interested in continuing to get these culinary jewels. This morning she sent me a nice note and the picture here.

Another plus: the profits from the eggs go towards her daughter's college fund. I think I'll try to get her to raise the price. These eggs are worth it.

And don't these look like happy chickens?

Saving Our Heritage One Language At A Time

From my point of view, every time a language is lost, an entire way of life is lost. Ideas, insights, foods, art, culture, all gone.

Here's a video about a group of Wampanoag Indians in South Eastern Massachussetts that are reviving their dead language and the culture it represents. It looks like it's been a lot of work, but it appears to be bearing fruit.

Why is this important? I'll let the people involved tell their story.

Fun Time!

You're listening to music and think, "What would be the perfect beverage to accompany this listening experience?"

Wonder no more. Drinkify allows you to type in an artist and the, viola! The perfect drink is displayed.

Apparently, when you listen to me, it says you should try 6 ounces of Apricot Brandy, served on the rocks. And don't forget to garnish with pickled asparagus.  And here I thought they would have suggested motor oil garnished with ten-penny nails.

Down the Hobbit Hole

Here's a photo essay from Dan Price author of Radical Simplicity: Creating an Authentic Life. He fashioned a little underground home out in the woods that bears more than a passing resemblance to the hobbit holes in Tolkien's books.

It looks rather cozy to me. I wonder what the energy bills are and how well the elements are kept out.

Note: Fun Time! will be switching to Saturdays.

Travel Photo of the Week

Sydney, Australia

Tiny Home

Here's a beautiful backyard house made from recycled barnboard with copper roofing. It was inspired by The Mistake House by Bernard Maybeck.

The owner, Megan Lea, has created what she says is a "beautiful, useful, artful, and comfortable space while minimizing environmental compromise."

The interior is just as lovely as the exterior.

Kimberly Wood Stove

One of the problems folks have in a small house is the dilemna of heating it. The Kimberly wood stove looks to be one of the most efficient and compact models, burns virtually smokeless in less than 10 minutes and can generate up to 30,000 BTUs. Stovetop temperature gets up to 1,100 ° F.

Great for RVs, boats, yurts and small houses, of course.

No price yet, but here's their website. Kimberly Wood Stoves.

Recycled Building Materials in Maryland

Community Forklift is a fine shop in Edmonston, Maryland that offers recycled building materials such as windows, sinks, tubs (cast iron!), doors and the like. As the website notes:

"When producing new building materials, serious environmental damage is caused by harvesting, mining, and transportation across continents. Then, we fill our landfills and incinerators with the old stuff – construction and demolition debris makes up OVER HALF of our nation’s solid waste! Building material reuse is an alternative that just makes sense! Donors can avoid dumping fees, and earn tax deductions."

Sounds good to me.

Lloyd Kahn - Renaissance Builder and Publisher

Here's a lovely video of Lloyd Kahn at his homestead in Marin, California. Lloyd and Shelter Publications have been publishing books on building for over forty years and their Domebook and Shelter are classics in the do-it-yourself and alternative architecture genres.

Lloyd is currently in Hong Kong overseeing printing on his latest book, Tiny Homes.



Here's a link to the Shelter site and to Lloyd's Blog.

Oblique Strategies Online

Ever needed just the right (oblique) strategy for a particularly persistent problem? Nothing has ever been better than Eno and Schmidt's Oblique Strategy cards. Now you can have the extended set of "useful dilemnas" afforded by the cards online.

My useful dilemna for today is, "What to maintain?"

Fun Time!

Hoxton Monster Supplies, is one of the 826 Valencia literacy project's storefront operations. Each of the 826 outlets features a storefront, with various whimsical product lines and a backroom which features literacy tutoring. Dave Eggers, who wrote A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, is the man behind this. Hoxton is having a sale right now. Why don't you go down and pick up one of their fine items such as a can of Escalating Panic or maybe a bar of Impacted Earwax? I'm going to order a complete, four volume set of The Awfully Bad Guide To Monster Housekeeping, myself.

Travel Photo of the Week

The villiage of Shangri La in November

I Want My Flying Car

Back in the 1960s I went to the New York World's Fair. They don't have those anymore, something about the risk of terrorism or perhaps general lack for interest. Well I think maybe it's because of the promises they make, but don't keep. That's how it was with flying cars. They said we'd have them by the 1980s, but I didn't see any flying cars then.

Enter a bunch of young German guys and E-Volo, their company. Seems they've developed a nice little idea for making this dream a reality. It's appears to be a scaled up UAV, except without the U(nmanned) part. Now if they can only bring it to market. And make the battery last longer then 30 minutes.

Here's a little video about their maiden flight.

Design With Intent

Are you a designer? Involved with a group making decisions that affect others? Then this deck of oracle cards could be very useful. We often don't consider all the ramifications of the products and procedures that we create. This little deck of cards can be very helpful for seeing where things go, as I like to put it. Along with Roger Van Oech's "Whack Pack" and Eno's "Oblique Strategies" cards, I think they will be very useful.

Download the Design With Intent cards free, here: Design With Intent.

There's also an iPod, iPad version here: Design With Intent.