A Brief History of Cat Art

...this short list of cat artists. He liked to fill the margins of his sketchbooks with cats and, as you can see from the examples above, his work shows the hand of a masterful artist. J. J. Grandville (1803-1847) a French caricaturist, wins the award for wacky. His anthropomorphic cat series makes him the best candidate for the title of 19th century cat meme lord. I couldn’t find much info on the English painter “Burbank” mentioned in the article o...

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124 Adam Brock on Forming Nurtured Networks

...aining groups I got an email from Adam Brock, author of Change Here Now, a book which uses architect Christopher Alexander idea of a “pattern language” to find solutions to the many challenges in front of us. A large section of the book develops a pattern language for what Adam calls, “nurtured networks.” From his bio: Adam Brock is a Denver-based facilitator, entrepreneur and designer. His work lies at the intersection of urban agriculture, susta...

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I picked a peck of pickled peaches

...n’s recipe with you but he’s a fellow author and you really should own his book, Saving the Season. It’s the classiest food preservation book out there. Plus Kevin could have me killed and pickled (just kidding). What I can tell you is that this is a quick, vinegar powered refrigerator pickle. Any similar vinegar pickle recipe will work. West’s recipe calls for white wine vinegar. I ran out and substituted the vinegar you clean floors with. Nevert...

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RIP Toby Hemenway

...Mollison’s concepts for those of us with small spaces to tend. In his last book he merged permaculture with the City Repair movement and looked at ways we can improve our communities. We desperately need voices like Hemenway’s in this moment of crisis. He will be missed. Someone I greatly admire, Toby Hemenway needs our help. Hemenway is a permaculturalist and a gifted author of books such as Gaia’s Garden and The Permaculture City. In 2015 he was...

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Alektyomancy: Divination by Rooster

...sed, and the letters were read in the order in which the rooster pecked the seeds. The interpretation of the oracle is unknown.(1) Thankfully you don’t need to own a chicken to practice alektyomancy. There’s an online version. 1) From I.P. Couliano’s book Out of this World: Otherworldly Journeys from Gilgamesh to Albert Einstein. Couliano was, incidentally, a gifted scholar whose life was tragically cut short by an assassin’s bullet. His book Eros...

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