Jawdropping Science & Invention

ANGELA BELCHER--On growing batteries..the car of the future will run on viruses

http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_belcher_using_nature_to_grow_batteries.html

WAVE ENERGY FOR ELCTRICITY & FRESH WATER

 An Australian company has engineered andis marketing a very simple sysytem for converting wave action ro electrical energy while at the same time using natural pressure differenetations to deliver deliver high power flow of sea water for s desalination by osmosis. http://www.carnegiecorp.com.au/



STRUCTURE OF PURE WATER
Theodor Schwenk, author of Sensitive Chaos, and founder of The Institute for Flow Sciences, developed the Drop Picture Method at the Institut für Strömungswissenschaften. Schwenk was inspired by the realization that water, to serve the needs of human nutrition, must really be like a “food” and must have on its own the qualities of vitality and nourishment to maintain human health. The Drop Picture Method was developed to reveal this aspect of water’s “quality” in a holistic way. The photo below is of "damaged" water

Leading Edge of Design

Young Israeli Neri Oxman is at the very cutting edge of design technology  http://web.media.mit.edu/~neri/site/index.html .  In her early work she was printing out "skins"..for buildings, chairs tables etc. with properties based on natural structures having the desired properties.  The beginning of a technology that could revolutionize how we build and manufacture in the future. Many videos of Neri and and hearing and seeing her is a great pleasure ..a spirit soaring experience.

The Cellophane House, erected at MOMA in a matter of hours  with modular components manufactured off site has a skin of cellophane imprinted with solar cellas that provide all the energy needed to heat, cool and light this 3- story 1,800 sq foot townhouse with roof terrace and car port.

 http://kierantimberlake.com/pl_sustainability/cellophane_house_1.html

Politics Beyond Polemics

Vermont Setting Foundation Stone for 28th Constitutional Ammendment: Corporations are not Persons With protections and Rights under the US Constitution

A year ago, the Supreme Court finally stated in Citizens United what has been implicit in many decisions over the past decade. That corprations are persons with rights and protections under the US Contsitition. Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the dissent and expressing a view held by the majority of Americans , said

"Corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires…Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their 'personhood' often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of 'We the People' by whom and for whom our Constitution was established."

On the One year anniversary of this eye opening Supreme Court decision, Virginia Lyons, a Vermont State Senator has raised the torch, held up the light with a legislative initiative that would amend the US Constitution to clarify that corporations are not persons.  The legislation, expected to pass the very progressive Vermont Legislature, is  seen as a foundation stone for a 28th constitutional amendment.. contains compelling  language that speaks a truth. "The profits and institutional survival of large corporations are often in direct conflict with the essential needs and rights of human beings,"{ Corporations} "have used their so-called rights to successfully seek the judicial reversal of democratically enacted laws.” {rendering} “democratically elected governments…ineffective in protecting their citizens against corporate harm to the environment, health, workers, independent business, and local and regional economies."

 There is a groundswell of support: 76 percent of Americans, according to a recent ABC News poll, said they opposed the Citizens United decision.

http://www.alternet.org/news/149620/vermont_is_gearing_up_to_strike_a_major_blow_to_corporate_personhood

Unity Through Diveristy

Tom Atlee's Co-Intelligence Institute is about an entirely different way of acting collectively to acheive social and economic goals.  His recent essay on diversity as a strategy and a powerful creative potential is a wonderful example of the think and action that is Co-Intelligence.  http://co-intelligence.org/DiversityUniverse.html

Abundance of the Moment

Perfect Dumplings

For lunch today I had home made duck soup with dumplings..a miracle..dumplings.  For years..decades.actually.I have tried to make dumplings so many times with so many different techniques and so many different recipes and always the same result..a gooey mess that sucks up all the broth.  My mother let me try so many times, directly in her broth, and always the same.. 

Today as I considered risking the broth in this amazing soup to try one more time, the cosmos..or maybe my mother from the Great Beyond.... suddenly whispered in my ear.."What about that nice bamboo steamer dear..you know..on top of the soup..above .it"   And there it was ..two tiers of unbelieavbly fluffy and perfect dumplings nesting in the bamboo steamer.


A moment of perfect abundance.  January 24, 2011


LEMON WONDER...Cleaning Green

It is very hard to go green and be a good steward for the world when you hit the cleaning products aisle in our remote corner of America.  So I am thrilled to now have the most effective, universal, economical, and wonderfully fresh smelling cleaner I have ever ever used....lemons..just lemons and tap water.  And now that I have it refined enough to spray on, it is even more of a joy that housekeepers have taken to it as well.  I just save all my lemon rinds in the freezer til I have enough to work with ( the rinds of 8 lemons will fill a large spray bottle)..harvest the zest only with a  kitchen rasp..blend with about 2.5 cups of water, strain through a a cloth funnel or fine strainer.  Lemon is one of the most effective grease cutters there is and also one of the best disinfectants.  Applied with a chamois or faux chamois the finish sparkle puts even magic eraser to shame. You can even spray it on your skin as a naturally fresh anti-bacterial toner!   As you can see my kitchen has lots of stainless, including stainless small appliances and many super shiny ceramics and assorted silver pitchers.  My lemon spray makes it so quick and easy to keep every surface, even wood and painted surfaces shiny and sanitary.

See Clean: The  Zen Art of Cleansing by Micahel DeJong , and my review of it on Amazon   http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Humble-Zen-Cleansing-Michael-DeJong/dp/1402747667/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1296051466&sr=1-1 

 for lots of recipes and ideas for using only baking soda, salt, white veinegar, lemon, and good old fashioned borax for all your cleaning needs.

Cove Meadow January 26, 2011

Poems That Speak To Me

The Reaches of a Life

(for Lisette on her 80^th birthday)

I believe in the continuum of a life and the infinity of a

   life

                In life waves rippling-ringing outward onto

  the future

                in the immeasurable motions of our

  moments, lives times lives

                in immemorial dreamseed in undreamt

  futures growing

as the lost past lives in us as we shall be in the last

  reaches of our kind

as my  words bloom from your life, which is a strong

 life and growing,

                one with the beginning & endlessness of all.

Harry Smith

Two Friends II

Birch Book Press 1988

Art That Speaks To The Ground of My Being

Anna Schuleit  Visual Artist

Anna, youngest Macarthur recipient ever, is as much a healer as an artist.  Drawn to mental instiutions or other closed sites that have held pain and violence, her installations are full of compassion a kind of blessing to re hallow the ground.  She is without ego, vanity or cleverness.   www.anna-schuleit.com

Recently I was introduced to the work of four New England artsists doing work that speaks to me..energizes me..inspires me..

Joan Lederman..The Soft Earth

                      Glazing with ocean sediments

“Sediments tell about time and place, they bring me to a sense of peace with natural laws, in the flow of vast time. Through this work with sediments, I come to feel Gaia – Earth as a living breathing organism, like my self” Joan combines science, intuition, aleatory processes, a potters skill, and a huge spirit to make beautiful pottery that balances control and serendipity in a peaceful, pleasing palette.. http://www.thesoftearth.com/homepage.htm

Sarah Sutro http://www.sarahsutro.com/



Diane Ayott http://www.dianeayott.com/




Meg Brown Payson http://www.megbrownpayson.com/




Terrell James http://www.terrelljames.com/

Terrell is a Texan and I first saw her work in Sana Fe this year....a large work called Colibri.above.To see this palette on a canvas this big is unforgettable and completely engaging.  Terrel explains that colibiri is spanish for hummingbird.