Polynerd

Personal notes.

I've just finished the Introduction to Permaculture book that that I recieved when I did my intro class with Rob Avis and Verge Permaculture. He's having his Permaculture Design Certificate course this weekend, if you're interested in this line of thinking I recommend you start. It's simply an amazing way of looking at the world.

Starting to read Ishmael.

I'm eating a lot of kale chips these days. They're super easy to make and apparently nutritious. Simply tear kale off the stalk, rub in olive oil, stack a 2-5 on top of each other, salt and pepper and about 8 minutes in the oven at 400 celsius. Here's a very enthusiastic lady telling you how to make them in more detail.

This weekend I was lucky enough to get out to my friend's straw bale house for another day (half-day) of work plastering. It's awesome, fun, dirty work. If you're interested in helping build an awesome house with a bunch of awesome people contact me.

This weekend I also visited the downtown farmer's market. Simply tremendous. I really enjoy the outdoor setting and it's nice not to be shoulder to shoulder like you are at Strathcona. I picked up some very delicious heirloom carrots from Greens, Eggs and Ham, a great little outfit near Leduc. Next time I'm thinking of getting some duck eggs and maybe some guinea fowl.

This week we have a large variety of awesome links; hunt, peck, read and enjoy.

+ A well done primer/explanation/feature/profile on urban beekeeping in Edmonton. Check it out - http://ht.ly/2kEAV

+ Bicycle Highways. Specialized roadways for bicycles are the best solution for motorists, cyclists + cities - http://ht.ly

+ Joe Bageant: Waltzing at the Doomsday Ball - http://ht.ly/2kmsA  - A little more negative than I usually post and the guy's understanding of the derivatives market isn't great, but he's quite the polemicist. 

+ Finding a sense of surplus - http://ht.ly/2kw8G - Exploring the third permaculture ethic in a thoughtful manner. Loses me a bit in the secularization bit but some great points nonetheless. 

+ Why a retail chain with a $14 billion market cap that has to answer to shareholders jumped on the clean energy train - http://ht.ly/2k35p

+ A permaculture primer - http://ht.ly/2jWa0

+ What kind of non-existent horseshit problem are we solving? The future of cities and transportation http://ht.ly/2jU3L 

+ A call for an end to the primpy lawn - http://ht.ly/2j2FL 

+ Slow money, local business and social capital. A must read for savvy residents of #yeg and #yyc - http://ht.ly/2jk2S

+ Bloomberg New Energy Finance reports that subsidies for fossil energies far outweigh those for renewables - http://ht.ly/2j1zh #ableg

+ An example from DC that applies almost anywhere. You can't consider the cost of housing without considering the cost of transportation - http://bit.ly/aV1FOB 

+ The Business Case for Solar Power Manufacturing from @TheAUMA - http://ping.fm/WeTZX 

+ The Growing Problem With Food. The trends and challenges of feeding 9 billion people by 2050. An interesting study from Nature that makes some troubling assumptions I don't agree with - http://ht.ly/2itXo

+ In the scare the crap out of you section: Global phytoplankton in decline - http://ht.ly/2ipZM

+ You can't have your car and the planet too - http://ht.ly/2i0vG 

+ Level the playing field: Fossil fuel subsidies undermine renewables - http://ht.ly/2hphR - A great editorial on the subject from the Saskatoon Star Phoenix of all places. 

+ Solar is cheaper than nuclear according to Duke University researchers - http://tinyurl.com/2co3kz3 - They've got solar down to about $0.14 a kilowatt-hour, which is still more than we pay here but an encouraging sign.

+ How bike lanes in Berlin compare to Calgary. Yeah, it's no contest - http://post.ly/osMy 

+ Genius. Harvesting energy from falling waste water - http://ht.ly/2fFed - These little distributed generation ideas are going to sweep through various industries.

+ This article on human powered cranes has just blasted my feeble little mind - http://ht.ly/2fpbo - An extremely detailed look at just how people moved several hundred tons of stuff at one time before there were diesel powered cranes. It wasn't just slave labour, it was some pretty crazy engineering as well.