This is an exerpt from The Best of Making Things - A Handbook for Creative Discovery by Ann Sayre Wiseman. The phenomenon of of learning belongs to the child, not to the teacher. We do not teach a child to walk - one of many skill potentials in all beginners. At best, we stimulate discovery, desire, and curiosity; encourage and whet the appetite; provide space; and anticipate readiness to exercise the inevitable. Learning by experience is profound knowledge, more deeply recorded in the memory than theory or speculation. The most direct, immediate, and satisfying path to knowledge is . . .
Terra Preta and “the Biochar Solution”
The Biochar Solution: Carbon Farming and Climate Change, by Albert Bates A review by Kiko Denzer Living trees lock up carbon, and burning releases it. That’s the conflict-ridden equation of global warming. Albert Bates has been at the front lines of the warming conflict since his 1990 title, Climate in Crisis. In this book, he defines “biochar†as “charred (pyrolized) organic matter intended to be applied to soil in farming or gardening,†and argues that partial burning of waste wood and other carbonaceous matter can effectively “lock up†carbon and store it . . .
Tribal Genealogical Patterns: A Universal Language?
[download this pattern as an envelope design here] ’the folk has thus preserved, without understanding, the remains of old traditions that go back sometimes to the indeterminably distant past, to which we can only refer as “prehistoricâ€â€¦â€™ Had the folk beliefs not indeed once been understood, we could not now speak of them as metaphysically intelligible, or explain the accuracy of their formulation. Ananda Coomaraswamy, “The Nature of ‘Folklore’ & ‘Popular Art,’†Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, 27, Bangalore, . . .