Saturday Linkages: Meditation Pods and Zombie Lawn Gnomes

Doesn’t everyone need a vintage 1970s meditation pod?

DIY
How To Build Your Own Trippy Meditation Pod http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2012-09/how-make-your-own-trippy-meditation-pod-1970 
 
Robin Wood Makes Wooden Bowls With Hand Tools in UK http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2012/09/robin-wood-makes-wooden-bowls-with-hand.html#.UGX1GKP6FNw.twitter 

Skate Villa: Skateboard-Friendly Hunting Lodge Conversion | Designs & Ideas on Dornob http://dornob.com/skate-villa-skateboard-friendly-hunting-lodge-conversion/  

Open source brick machine: the evolution: http://boingboing.net/2012/09/21/open-source-brick-machine-the.html 

Nature
A classic work of entomology, available online in French and English: http://boingboing.net/2012/09/28/a-classic-work-of-entomology.html  

Health
Mark Bittman: Is Alzheimer’s Type 3 Diabetes? http://nyti.ms/TykL5o

Bikes
Cyclists are safe and courteous, and your disdain for them is grounded in cognitive bias: http://boingboing.net/2012/09/26/cyclists-are-safe-and-courteou.html  
 
Is It Time for Interbike to Dump Las Vegas? http://streetsblog.net/2012/09/24/is-it-time-for-interbike-to-dump-las-vegas/#.UGO40NlOI-0.twitter  

???
Zombie lawn-gnomes feast on a pink flamingo: http://boingboing.net/2012/09/26/zombie-lawn-gnomes-feast-on-a.html  

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Radical Beekeeper Michael Thiele Ventures Into New Territory

Thiele with an unorthodox hive–picture from his website Gaia Bees.

One of the lectures I went to at the National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa earlier this month has really stuck with me. It was a talk by radical biodynamic beekeeper Michael Thiele that, frankly, I walked into biased against. But by the conclusion I could tell that the whole audience, including myself, left deeply moved by what Thiele had to say.

The reason for my bias was that I was not too impressed with the two other biodynamic lectures I attended. One was just too pseudo-scientific even for my intuitively biased brain. The other lecturer, when asked why biodynamicists follow certain unusual practices such as burying dandelion flowers stuffed into the mesentery of a cow responded, “because Rudolf Steiner said so.”

Thiele was different. He is influenced by, what I believe to be, the true spirit of Steiner’s ideas rather than the dogma of his followers. Steiner, I think, would want us all to continue to use our sense of intuition rather than rely on what he said to do. Thiele balances what we know from science about bees with an intuitive relationship with bees as a whole, and complex, organism.

Continue reading…

Poultry Houses of the Ultra-Wealthy

Root Simple reader Christopher Calderhead tipped us off to a story in the Guardian on the plans by British hedge fund manager Crispin Odey to build a neo-classical chicken coop. Odey will, apparently, be spending at least £100,000 just for the stone. The Telegraph also covered the story and has more details on the construction,

The temple’s roof – adorned with an Anthemia statuette – will be fashioned in grey zinc; the pediments, cornice, architrave and frieze are in English oak; and the columns, pilasters and rusticated stone plinth are being hewn from finest grey Forest of Dean sandstone.

Sir Peter’s duck house.

This isn’t the first poultry house to cause a scandal in Britain. In 2010 Sir Peter Viggers claimed a £1,645 duck house as part of his expenses as an member of parliament.

Now if your taste runs more towards Dwell Magazine than the neo-classical, a British company sells a £1,950, “Nogg” chicken coop. Modern design, apparently, comes with an even higher price tag than Sir Peter’s duck house!. And, like most modern design, the Nogg is more conceptual than practical. Looks like a tight squeeze for a couple of hens. The Nogg could get Prince Charles started on on one of his anti-modernist architecture rants.

Continue reading…

Modesto Milling’s Organic Layer Pellets

I could blog for weeks about all the lectures I attended at the National Heirloom Expo, but I thought I’d take a break to highlight a product I came across in the vendor hall: Modesto Milling chicken feed. I’ve been using it for a few months now on the recommendation of Craig and Gary from Winnetka Farms (where our chickens came from). 

In my opinion, if I’m going to go through the trouble of keeping my own chickens they should get good feed in addition to kitchen scraps and yard trimmings. Since I don’t have a pasture to let my hens forage on, this feed is the next best thing. So that’s why I’ve decided to use Modesto Milling’s organic layer pellets, even though it’s more expensive than the feed I used to use.

Modesto Milling feed is carried at stores in California, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Hawaii and online (though I imagine the shipping charges might be prohibitive). I pick mine up at a local pet store. A list of retailers is on the Modesto Milling website. You can also arrange a bulk order and split it up. And if you’re trying to avoid soy in your diet they have a soy free chicken feed.