Friday, November 30, 2007

Del.icio.us links - a cool eclectic selection - "that's easy for you to say"

  1. Stuff Your Rucksack

    A smart idea to get simple stuff to places that need it while you're on your travels

  2. VoiceThread - Group conversations around images, docs and videos.

  3. Wridea

  4. Schmap - Dynamic Travel Guides

    information gathered from public users and sites like flickr about destinations worldwide

  5. Daily Quotes from Rumi

  6. Montchardon Centre Karma migyur ling

  7. Welcome to Simple Banners. We do what we say on the tin - we make banners, and we make it simple

  8. RescueTime : Web-based Time Management Software for Geeks

    monitor how you spend your time on your computer

  9. FileUrls.com - Get a shareable URL for your file

  10. vozMe

    type or paste text and convert it to mp3 files

  11. lingro: multilingual dictionary and language learning

    click on words on any web-page and get their translation in a pop-up box

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Thursday, November 29, 2007

Del.icio.us

Some more eclectic treats from the web recently

  1. YANN ARTHUS-BERTRAND.ORG

  2. National Geographic - Inspiring People to Care About the Planet

  3. National Biodiversity Network Gateway

  4. Acumen Fund

  5. Francophilia

  6. WiZiQ Online Teaching | Distance Education | E-Learning and

  7. One Laptop Per Child Project

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Friday, November 16, 2007

Natural



There's a fascinating debate running on the VINE Project Forum covering definitions of words like biodiversity, wilderness and, particularly, natural.

My view this morning is that the differences in understanding communicated by words, especially words such as these, can't be resolved by debating and agreeing definitive definitions. The points and research raised about perceptions (understanding) of wilderness are very illuminating. One clear agreed definition does not exist, and in this debate, even within professionals more or less in the same field, the differences can be very significant.

There is a different way of looking at this debate, and that is to treat each communication event as a unique creation dependent on the people involved and their contexts as well as the subject. The debate above focused for a while on the subject and clear definitions of it, and then attracted contributions that show the importance of these other factors.

To my mind, every time we communicate, by whatever means, we are starting with a new (not blank!) canvas, or block of marble, or film or whatever. The 'artist' and the 'viewer' start a new creation together, and words, their definitions, and the background and desired and possible undesired outcomes of the communication are all vital factors that influence and change one another in a unique combination each time.

This sounds like hard work maybe? I'm not suggesting that we have to start everything from scratch, only that the particular combination for each communication event is unique. This doesn't mean I think that 'everything is relative' and is not a call or basis for losing the baby with the bathwater. The factors I mention are active factors, elements like colour in an image, tools like brushes and palette knives, and techniques of application and combination.

What we risk doing by defining and sticking to an agreed definition for a particular word is losing much of its potential to communicate, and having to define it anyway. If we can think of words as colours, we can see a valuable degree of common sense 'truth' that blue is really blue, and natural is really natural; a brush is a brush not a spoon. But we can also see that blue next to yellow really looks different from the same blue next to red or green for example. there are alos different blues, some of which might appear green for example to some people. Where do you draw the line? Using (both expressing and listening to) words in the way we use colours means we have to maintain an awareness of the other factors and how they modify each other and blend to create the unique communication event. We have to be aware of the limits of precision in words in the same way as in colours.

Communication is a very rich and demanding activity; I don't think we can make it easier by trying to find an agreed single definition of 'natural' any more than we can do so for 'blue'. We can enhance our communication by recognising that there are real meanings in the word natural as there are real characteristics of the colour blue, but also raising our awareness of how dynamic communication is, and understanding what happens when we use a particular word at one time in one place, with one group or person. Every time is different. And I think that's a good thing!

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Thursday, November 15, 2007

Del.icio.us

Only two at the moment, but the link to the mind life institute has sparked off a little wander through the ether following Mathieu Ricard. It's been compelling and worth having a look around yourselves if you have the time and inclination. Below the links is his TED talk from 2004 (I think).

  1. Mind & Life Institute

  2. DFGDocs – The British Documentary Website



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Friday, November 09, 2007

Del.icio.us

Another sample of sites I've bookmarked recently ...
  1. Patagonia - The Footprint Chronicles: Tracking the Environmental and Social Impact of Patagonia Clothing and Apparel

  2. The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map:

  3. The Dakini Project - Le Projet Dakini

  4. BBC - OneMusic - Sample Bank

  5. Poster art prints and illustrations by posterlounge.de

  6. evgeny kiselev / digital artist

  7. Online marketing and digital branding for travel and tourism - Dot Tourism

  8. A Low Impact Woodland

  9. A Low Impact Woodland Home

  10. The Virtual Cutter - entering the location of a streaming file


online photo editor of some style

to opensource Photography web2.0 tools ... saved by 1778 other people

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Thursday, November 08, 2007

Rewilding projects


There are some interesting discussions going on about rewilding on the VINE project forum, refering to one or two current projects like this one at Thorenc in the Côte d'Azur. Here's an article about it in the UK Independent.

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Del.icio.us

  1. Main Page - GlobalMotion

  2. 1001 Inventions: 1001 Inventions

  3. MuslimHeritage.com - Discover 1000 Years of Missing History

  4. :: more than us ::

  5. Futurelab - Innovation in education

  6. MigMap - Governing Migration

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Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Del.icio.us

  1. ONLINE BUSINESS TOOLBOX: 230+ Tools for Running a Business Online

  2. Dreamlines

    create a unique dreamy moving picture

  3. Teachers TV | Thousands of education programmes on TV and online

  4. The RSA - Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce - Home

  5. Sur les pas de Gaspard :: Parc naturel regional livradois forez

  6. Wetlands

    A partnership vision for english wetlands

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quotation

Li Po (701-762)


the birds have vanished into the sky and now the last cloud drains away

we sit together the mountain and me until only the mountain remains

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