May 2009
5 posts
Examining and Optimizing Interfaces
These things keep me up late at night and get me up early in the morning:
[Loved ones] + Ideas! as follows:
Ecological Engineering: “the design of sustainable ecosystems that integrate human society with its natural environment for the benefit of both” (Mitsch, 1996, 1998).
Green Roof Research / Centre for Architectural Ecology: Goal - to examine and optimize the interface between...
Linkages
Linkages
Biomimicry
Epigenetics
Cybernetics
PsychoCybernetics
Epigenome NoE
Physio Info-blog
Psycholinguistics
Edible Garden Project
PNI
TED Ideas
Light House Sustainable Building Centre (Vancouver)
Mason Bees
Personal
SonyaMeals
Biology Downloads
Watch/listen to lectures: “Cellular biologists now recognize that the environment, the external universe and our internal physiology, and more importantly, our perception of the environment, directly controls the activity of our genes.”
The New Biology: Where Mind and Matter Meet (Part 1 of 2)
The New Biology: Where Mind and Matter Meet (Part 2 of 2)
The Physics of Emotion [Candace...
““The founder of cybernetics was American mathematician Norbert Wiener, who...”
– Guided Missile Technology Applied to Humans
“Self-design and the related concept of self-organization must be understood as...”
– Self-Design, From Ecological Engineering and Ecosystem Restoration (By William J. Mitsch, Sven Erik Jørgensen)
March 2009
7 posts
“If at first you don’t suck seed, keep on suckin’ till you do suck...”
– Curly Howard
2 tags
Watch“I give the geese what they want.”
The key to successful permaculture systems: “Giving each species what it wants.”
1 tag
Watch“Dean Ornish talks about simple, low-tech and low-cost ways to take advantage of the body’s natural desire to heal itself.”
2 tags
Watch“Speaking at LIFT 2007, Sugata Mitra talks about his Hole in the Wall project. Young kids in this project figured out how to use a PC on their own — and then taught other kids. He asks, what else can children teach themselves? “Sugata Mitra’s ‘Hole in the Wall’ experiments have shown that, in the absence of supervision or formal teaching, children can teach...
1 tag
Watch“Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister takes the audience on a whimsical journey through moments of his life that made him happy — and notes how many of these moments have to do with good design. TED talk, 2004”
And here: Things I have Learned In My Life So Far
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WatchDon Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy.
Some notes:
Levels of processing: Visceral, Behavioural, Reflective
Cognition = noticing; Emotion = interpreting.
Useful: In a happy brain state = you come up with lots of weird ideas, but you don’t get any work done.
In a stressed brain state = you focus better. Set deadlines and put pressure on yourself to get any work done, haha.
...
1 tag
Core Principles: How science can help form a... →
“Several groups, ranging from economists and bioengineers to Christian creationists, have claimed the word ‘design’ as their own. They might have an etymological right to do so, but they also contribute to the ambiguity surrounding one of the most important and least studied fields of human applied creativity, the process of making things for other people. From chairs to...
February 2009
29 posts
from "The Science of Influence" by Kevin Hogan
Key: If you want to change your own or someone else’s behavior, the first thing you can often do is change the environment. If you can control the environment, you can typically predict or create a specific behavior.
It is known how people will behave in church, at the dinner table, at the office, and in the hotel. Deviations can occur but behavior is remarkably predictable.
People learn how to...
1 tag
1:33pm: Realize that I don’t like telling people what to do. Must be the libertarian in me. So, how to reconcile this with my life’s aspirations which are mainly to tell people what’s best for them… ha. Going for a walk now to get out of my head and into the world.
Quality of Life Research Centre →
Successful life-partnerships are the single richest source of happiness.
“The happiest people all appear to have strong social relationships…. However, people want not just to be happy, they want to be happy for the right reasons – for things they value. Happiness is thus a moral imperative, not simply a hedonistic one. Happiness results from people’s values.” Ed Diener
150 THINGS YOU CAN DO TO BUILD SOCIAL CAPITAL →
“Social capital is built through hundreds of little and big actions we take every day. We’ve gotten you started with a list of nearly 150 ideas, drawn from suggestions made by many people and groups.”
Robert Putnam and declining social capital trends over the last 25 years
Sunlight the Great Healer [from The Raw Foods...
The USA’s Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) advice to avoid sunlight is believed by many to be based on junk science. The Townsend Letter (the examiner of medical alternatives), January 2004, in an article entitled, The Healing Power of Full Spectrum Lighting, explains why:
“The phobia arose after investigators anaesthetized animals, propped their eyes open and shined intense UV...
1 tag
“If you can’t find an environment you can thrive in, you should set about...”
– Creating a Way of Life
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Humanics Ergonomics :: Environmental Design →
Resource links
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Can Human Factors Methods Help Design Sustainable... →
“Human Factors methods offer a complementary approach, using knowledge of human physiology and psychology to guide technical design choices. One example is designing for affordances. Just as a door handle’s shape can intuitively indicate whether it is to be pushed or pulled, building elements can be designed to subconsciously influence people to ‘do...
1 tag
Ergotecture @ Cornell →
“Information from research studies and class work by students and faculty in the Cornell Human Factors and Ergonomics Research Group (CHFERG), directed by Professor Alan Hedge, in the Department of Design and Environmental Analysis at Cornell University. CHFERG focuses on ways to enhance usability by improving the ergonomic design of hardware, software, and workplaces, to enhance...
1 tag
Ecotecture @ Cornell →
“This website is a consolidated information source for designers, architects, and other individuals interested in the design of ecologically responsible facilities. On this site you will find the information organized by design phases for a facility into 4 main topic areas: External Considerations, Core and Envelope, Indoor Ecology, and Materials and Products. Within each topic area there...
1 tag
Green Design / Sustainable Architecture: Resources →
“Sustainably designed buildings aim to lessen their impact on our environment through energy and resource efficiency. This guide will lead you to information on this topic and give you strategies for locating newer materials. Unless otherwise noted, all materials are in the Environmental Design Library, UC Berkeley.”
Self-Efficacy is Happiness →
“‘What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome.’ So wrote Friedrich Nietzsche in 1895.”
“Over the last decade the happiness quest has spawned bestselling books, college courses, retreats, and even a “happiness conference.” Most seem to offer similar advice: Once our basic physical needs are covered, more stuff does little to boost...
ChangeThis →
“ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread.”
Sensing the future →
“Professor Charles Spence is the head of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University. His research focuses on how a better understanding of the human mind will lead to the better design of multisensory foods, products, interfaces, and environments in the future.”
Crossmodal Research Lab (University of Oxford,... →
“We are studying the integration of information across the sense modalities using a variety of paradigms and techniques. This exciting area of research is changing the way we view our senses, and contributing important new insights to the understanding of the brain.”
On Habits
So, yes; engaging in an activity or thought DAILY is the best way to make a habit or goal or ideal part of your nature. Aristotle: “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” “Moral excellence...
“The miracle of the raw diet is not in the foods you are consuming, it’s in...”
– Tim VanOrden
“‘I don’t do it because I like it,’ he said, again grinning...”
– BiteBack
How to Grow Your Own Fresh Air - TED 2009 →
WatchAbout this talk In this TED archive video from 1998, paralympic sprinter Aimee Mullins talks about her record-setting career as a runner, and about the amazing carbon-fiber prosthetic legs (then a prototype) that helped her cross the finish line.
About Aimee Mullins A record-breaker at the Paralympic Games in 1996, Aimee Mullins has built a career as a model, actor and activist for women, sports...
TED blog (Technology, Entertainment, Design) →
Learning From Wonderful Lives by Dr. Nick Baylis ...
”.. all the best evidence suggests that to increase our net yield of happiness and accomplishment, we should be setting aside what we’re bad at, and investing the bulk of our energies in what we do best. We should get back in touch with what really brings us joy.
“There’s been this presumption by parents, educators and managers alike, that strengths will automatically...
Aesthetics →
“It is particularly important to the study of the individual’s moral core, which is formed by epigenetics and example through his or her lifetime, but has a common human foundation explored in cognitive science, anthropology and primatology.”
1 tag
Building a Natural Home (Sudbury Star Article) →
My friend, Pierre Harrison, and his straw bale home….
The Architecture of Happiness (By Alain De Botton) →
“One of the great, but often unmentioned, causes of both happiness and misery is the quality of our environment: the kind of walls, chairs, buildings and streets we’re surrounded by. “And yet a concern for architecture and design is too often described as frivolous, even self-indulgent. The Architecture of Happiness starts from the idea that where we are heavily influences who we can...
Biodynamics →
Electricity and Magnetism →
Sanskrit Documents List: Learning Tools →
A Gift for My Daughter →
David Allen (GTD) Excerpt.
Argument Mapping →
Pattern Language →
How to Write More Clearly, Think More Clearly, and... →
A Practical Sanskrit Introductory →