How not to get clutter in the first place...

From Zen Habits... via Suzy Greaves....via John Williams' scanners' site Avoiding The Accumulation of Stuff. Zen Habit's ideas:
  • Rediscover a passion for life. Get outside and feel nature, appreciate the beauty of the world around you. Get active, do some gardening or yardwork, play a sport, go for a walk, take a hike, go for a swim, ride a bike. Feel the life coursing through you. Breathe it in.
  • Give experiences as gifts, not stuff. Instead of shopping for someone come birthdays or Christmas, think of an experience you can give them instead. A date with you, doing something fun, hanging out, cooking, playing, talking, exploring. A fun time at a park or beach. Something other than everyday. An experience is much more meaningful than an object.
  • Connect with others. In real life. If you haven’t hung out with a friend recently, give him a call and go hang out. Get your kid away from the TV or video game player and take her outside to do something. Go on a date with your partner. Visit your mom or grandparents. And be present while you’re with them — really listen, really be there.
  • Deal with your emotions. If you have a need to buy things, to shop when you are having emotional issues, be more aware of this. Then deal with the underlying emotions, rather than using shopping as a way to forget about them. If you’re depressed, or anxious, or lonely, deal with those. Find solutions, figure out what’s causing them. Good news: experiencing life, getting active, and connecting with others all help you deal with those emotional issues.
  • Disconnect your attachment to stuff. Sometimes I find myself reluctant to give something up, even if I don’t really use it. And that’s when I ask myself, “Why?” What is holding me back from getting rid of this possession? Sometimes, the item has an emotional connection, but then I realize that it’s just an object, it’s not the emotion or the actual source of the emotion. Then I’ll take a picture of the item, upload it to my computer, and get rid of the object. I feel liberated, because I’ve broken an attachment to a physical object (but saved the memory). If you are attached to an object, figure out why — it’s not healthy in the long run.
  • Realize that life, not stuff, is what matters. Objects are just objects — if you lose them, if they get stolen or destroyed … it’s not a big deal. They’re just objects — not your life. Your life is the series of moments that is steaming through your consciousness right now, and how you use those moments and what you fill them with is what truly matters, not what you fill your home with. At the end of this short journey, you’ll look back and remember your experiences, the people you loved and who loved you back, the things you did and didn’t do. Not the stuff you had.
Yep yep yep. I know all that.
Tagged Healthy Personal

Transforming Rio's Slums to ...stripey rainbows?!

Media_httpwwwspringwi_eaimz
A splash of colour and design can go a long way toward beautifying a grey, ugly space, as Carspaze and Style-your-garage have already shown. Now aiming to do something similar for the slums of Rio de Janeiro through large, community-driven murals, the Favela Painting project also goes several steps further by incorporating training and employment for local residents. The brainchild of Dutch artist duo Haas&Hahn, Favela Painting has already completed two community painting projects in Vila Cruzeiro—Rio's most notorious slum—along with the first portion of O Morro, its current effort to paint an entire hillside slum. Some 34 houses and 7,000 square meters of Praça Cantão in Santa Marta have already been transformed through paint, and the project hopes to return later this year to paint even more of the hillside. In each of its projects, Favela has focused on recruiting local residents to do much of the painting, including training and paying them. In this latest one, local inhabitants were trained through a partnership with Brazilian paint company TintasCoral on everything from different types of paint to safety measures while working on scaffolding. Dre Urhahn, one of the Favela Painting artists, explains: “This work of art can make a colorful difference in the lives of local individuals, the community and the city of Rio. It has the potential of working as a catalyst in the processes of social renewal and change.” Favela Painting is supported by Firmeza Foundation, and recently the decorative paint division of Dutch AkzoNobel—which is also conducting a community campaign of its own—signed on as a partner as well. There are all too many grim, unadorned spaces throughout the urban world. Paint brands around the globe: time to sponsor some community action near you! Website: www.favelapainting.com Contact: info@favelapainting.com

John Newbery - Great great great x10 grandfather?

John Newbery is properly considered the father of children's literature. Born in 1713 in Waltham St. Lawrence, Berkshire, England, he moved to Reading at age 16 to apprentice himself to a printer named William Carnan. When Carnan died in 1737, Newbery inherited part of the business and in 1745, at age 32, he moved it and his family to London. There in the shadow of St Paul's Cathedral, he opened his bookshop, The Bible and the Sun, where he spent the following 22 years publishing religious periodicals, newspapers, books, and children's books, some of which he wrote himself. His first children's book, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book ("for little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly") appeared in 1744, the first of a series of well-made little books --"pretty gilt toys for girls and boys"--that followed the notion stressed in his era that literature should both please and instruct. In 1751, Newbery began the first periodical designed for children, The Lilliputian Magazine. As "Abraham Aesop" he wrote Fables in Verse in 1758 and as "Tom Telescope" he wrote The Newtonian System of Philosophy in 1761. In addition to launching a newspaper in 1760 (The Public Ledger), Newbery published the first English version of Charles Perrault's Tales from the Past with Morals, subtitled Contes de ma mère l'oye, or "Tales from Mother Goose." Finally, in 1765, shortly before his death, Newbery wrote and published his classic children's book,The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, in which success is keyed to education, very much in the tradition of the time and the use of the term "morals" in the title of Perrault's original collection. Postscript: In 1922, in recognition of Newbery's pioneering work as an author and publisher of children's literature, The American Library Association instituted the Newbery Medal to be awarded annually to the most distinguished work of children's literature.
Tagged Family

Clutter quotes

Clutter is a physical manifestation of fear that cripples our ability to grow. H.G. Chissell The more you have, the more you are occupied. The less you have, the more free you are. Mother Teresa Clutter to get rid of.. my clothing and shoes I never wear broken things which need mending (but which I have an attachment to) computer leads etc I dont need old cameras I dont use? friendships that don't serve me activities and obligations that don't serve me.. imagined fears and worries negative self-judgments tasks and odd jobs around the house superfluous noise and stimulation surrounding yourself with lots of stuff, activities, people, and so on can also be a nice, convenient way to keep yourself distracted from noticing the bigger issues you may have been ignoring, or going after what you really want (because that might really be scary)!
Tagged Personal

Paypal: easy to be paid over the web

Paypal is really good if you are selling anything.  When you signup for PayPal, you can start accepting credit card payments instantly. As the world's number one online payment service, PayPal is the fastest way to open your doors to over 150 million member accounts worldwide. Best of all, it's completely free to sign up. To sign up or learn more, click here: https://www.paypal.com/uk/mrb/pal=GPTRGFD8DYZZ2

BBC series on maps

I'm really loving the BBC series on maps... (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s5m7w_ ) I've always been overly-interested in maps, poring over medieval maps which document the Christian known world and the strange, beast-ridden lands further afield, to Google Earth which in one click allows me to see my front door, or search the jungle ruins of Angkor Wat just before I visit them, from my iphone! Maps have helped us make sense of the world, and communicate the world view of the humans who made them; they've been tools for propaganda, showing the way to Heaven, exerting control; navigation, understanding how to deal with poverty,  disease, populations... and so fascinating to see what the maps of different societies, over thousands of years, reveal about the political and cultural forces that created them. Here are some important maps everyone should know about. Here's Tupaia's navigation map from the British Library. He's always been thought of as a mere interpreter on Captain Cook's expedition, but in fact his role was crucial and they would have probably been killed and eaten without him - Polynesians saw him as the expedition leader.

The luckiest nut in the world...

I don't know why I suddenly thought of her now but I've always thought Emily James was a genius after I saw this film. She worked at Fulcrum TV when I was there. Watching this film was the first time I understood what the IMF did... [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtlYyuJjACw&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Here's her blurb:
The film follows an animated American peanut, who sings about the difficulties faced by nuts from developing countries. Supported by a mixture of animation, music, our American peanut takes the viewer through the stories of the cashew, brazil and ground nuts - all of whom suffer as world trade is liberalized. But it is a different story in America - where the peanut is protected by tariffs and heavily subsidized, and worth over four billion dollars a year to the American economy. Certainly the luckiest nut in the world. The film helps people to understand how the pressure to embrace ‘free market' economics, with it's promise of a wealthy, abundant market place has actually driven many countries further into poverty. The response to the film has been amazing. After screening to over 1 million people on Channel 4, the film has been in numerous festivals, including, the One World Human Rights Film Festival in Prague, and taking Best Short Documentary at Full Frame. Christian Aid in the UK used the film and it's characters in their “Trade Rules are Nuts, Let's Crack'm!” campaign
http://www.emily-james.com/Site/THE_LUCKIEST_NUT_IN_THE_WORLD.html

Zizzie

Elizabeth Cornelia Johanna (née Reventlow)  Elizabeth was born in the city of Sønderborg in 1912, which was then part of Schleswig-Holstein, but became part of Denmark after 1918. Having been born in Sønderborg Castle, she had previously changed her name to Berndt, to avoid association with pro-Nazi elements of the aristocratic Reventlow family, and spent much of World War II in Palestine and Egypt. Both Ronald and Elizabeth Tylecote maintained pro-Communist sympathies until the Russian invasion of Hungary in 1956. Why was she born in Sonderborg Castle (in 1912)? After the war of 1864, the province and the castle became Prussian property and served as barracks from 1867-1918, until the area was reunified with Denmark in 1920. Are there any Reventlow family trees which would give me the name of her parents? Why did she choose Berndt as her surname? When did she leave her parents for good? Did her parents know Kaiser W and what were they up to at this time? What did her father do? What was her relation to the Danish royal family?
Tagged Family zizzie

Ronnie Grandpa

Someone has written a wikipedia post:

Ronald F. Tylecote

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ronald Frank Tylecote (15 June 1916-17 June 1990) was a British archaeologist and metallurgist, generally recognised as the founder of the sub-discipline of archaeometallurgy.

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Education and profession

The son of doctor Frank Edward Tylecote, he was born in Manchester and educated at Oundle School. He obtained an MA from Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1938, and an MSc from the University of Manchester in 1942, and a PhD on the oxidation of copper from the University of London in 1952. After a period in industry working as a welding research engineer, he became an ICI Research Fellow at University of London. In 1953 he was appointed as a lecturer at Newcastle University, where he became a Reader in Archaeometallurgy, a pst from which he retired in September 1978. In 1976 he began teaching Archaeometallurgy at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, which led to him becoming an honorary Professor there in 1979.

Work

His early publications on metallurgy include The solid phase welding of metals (1968). He participated in his first archaeological excavation in 1939, and became known for combining the two interests. Tylecote investigated early mining and smelting sites around the world, including Timna in Israel and the Roman silver mines of Rio Tinto in Spain. He also excavated sites in Sudan, Nigeria, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan. A notable study was . Other work included Metallurgy in Archaeology: a Prehistory of Metallurgy in the British Isles (1962), which became the standard reference work, and (1987). In 1976 he published A History of Metallurgy, and completed the revised second edition just before his death. In 1962, with G. R. Morton, he founded the Historical Metallurgy Group, initially as a group within the Iron and Steel Institute, and edited its first Bulletin, publihsed in April 1963. He remained its editor for the rest of his life, as the group became the , and the Bulletin became a journal, Historical Metallurgy. He is commemorated in the R. F. Tylecote Library of Archaeometallurgical Literature at University College, London, the R. F. Tylecote Fund at the same institution, and in the grant-giving R. F. Tylecote Memorial Fund of the Historical Metallurgy Society. Following his death the Society published tributes to him from other scholars with whom he had worked, together with a list of his publications.[1]

Personal life

Having originally married Angela (née Lias) whom he divorced in 1950, he married his second wife, Elizabeth Cornelia Johanna (née Reventlow) in 1958. Elizabeth was born in the city of Sønderborg in 1912, which was then part of Schleswig-Holstein, but became part of Denmark after 1918. Having been born in Sønderborg Castle, she had previously changed her name to Berndt, to avoid association with pro-Nazi elements of the aristocratic Reventlow family, and spent much of World War II in Palestine and Egypt. Both Ronald and Elizabeth Tylecote maintained pro-Communist sympathies until the Russian invasion of Hungary in 1956. His son, Andrew Tylecote is an economist.
Tagged Family