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Ongoing fascination with how physical objects relate us to our world, artificial boundaries we create that separate us from nature, and how our senses are shaped by the way we live as our cultures evolve.
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Category Archives: thoughts
In praise of walking
Walking is man’s own, unique in the animal kingdom. Michel Serres, the charming thinker, rambles on in a gorgeous short podcast episode (in French) about how the walking pace, like the rhythm of the beating heart, is one of the most effective stimulants for thought.
This reminded me of my recent reading of Beyond Culture [...]
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The generalist’s dilemma
A few weeks ago, I was in a work-related meeting where we were discussing skill sets required in a small team. At one point, someone said, “But we can’t be good at everything.” Since then, I found myself repeating that once or twice in some similar circumstance, but each time I say these words or [...]
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Soap nuts as silver polish
When I began to learn the art of silver-smithing from Mara Grimm a few years ago, she was possibly the only active teacher of traditional enamel techniques in Melbourne, if not in the state of Victoria, Australia. Mara is somewhat of a hippie (she had the Kombi-van and everything), and amongst the many things she [...]
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Safe for cats
Our beloved cat isn’t allowed out. Apart from the fact he has allergies and that the vet didn’t want to give him more shots than necessary, it’s just too dangerous around here where our home is surrounded by high-traffic main streets.
A friend/colleague of mine said he’s planning on building a cat pen, something similar to [...]
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Ruskin and Slow Travel
As a quick followup to my previous entry on The Myth of Travel, a quote from John Ruskin which I picked from the last chapter of Alain de Botton’s excellent The Art of Travel:
No changing of place at a hundred miles an hour will make us one whit stronger, happier, or wiser. There was [...]
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Hypatia and the Renaissance Women
On the occasion of the first “Ada Lovelace Day”, which aims to highlight remarkable women in technology as potential role models for present and future generations of women, I started looking for the epitome of the “Renaissance Woman”.
The “Renaissance Man” is an archetype personified by the likes of Leonardo Da Vinci: artists, craftsmen, engineers; [...]
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The Myth of Travel
Before the 20th century, travel was slow: months on a boat or on roads. Travel was the hardships of migration for most, formative fun for the well off, and adventure for novel heroes. Then came a century of wars and population displacement. But between those wars, a few strange things happened. The 1930s saw the [...]
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Faking it real