Where do our clothes come from?
I’m always interested in following the product trail back to it’s
beginnings. In this case, where do our clothes come from? As a step in
that chain, here’s an interesting list of
Fabric Manufacturers. The entries themselves have links to the
websites of the manufacturers, so you can check out what they have to say
for themselves.
posted at: 13:46 |
path: /living |
link
The Hunt for Local Hemp
I’m not having much luck in my hunt for local cloth materials. There are
hemp farmers in Ontario, but most of them look to be large scale
operations that sell to large scale national or multi-national companies.
In other words, they aren’t selling their hemp to local weavers and
spinners, as far as I can tell.
Looking for some smaller scale hemp growing operations, I thought I would see if I could find some small organic hemp farms. So far I haven’t found any, specifically, but I know they exist because the Cool Hemp Company makes use of local organic hemp produced by Ontario farmers.
I think my next step will be to e-mail the Cool Hemp Company and maybe the
Ontario Spinners and Weavers.
posted at: 13:34 |
path: /living |
link
Ontario Flax Growers- Kind of a Bust
I seem to have found some
Ontario Flax Growers
but unfortunately their entire crop was contracted out to the company
Gilflax (which itself was ownned by Gilbert Holdings, a multinational).
Not even a month after the contract was made, Gilflax went bust and the
farmers had no one to sell their succesful crop to. Since they were still
technically under contract with Gilflax they weren’t allowed to sell it to
someone else, and all of the harvesting machinery, owned by Gilflax was
under lock and key (see
Farm & Country,
Septembger 21 1998 for more details).
I wonder what happened to these farmers?
posted at: 12:50 |
path: /living |
link
Ontario Handweavers and Spinners- Tank Top Search Continues
I keep running into
The Ontario Hnadweavers and Spinners
when I’m looking up various things on the web. They look like a dedicated
and well organized group. Right now, I’m hoping they’ll give me some
information on whether or not I can buy cloth made in Ontario from locally
grown materials.
Yes- it’s true- I’m still looking for a source for those tank-tops. I
decided that from an environmental perspective, buying locally is probably
even more important than buying organic. If I can get locally made cloth
from locally made materials I will make my own tank tops, among other
things.
posted at: 12:29 |
path: /living |
link
History of Science Book List
A list of good books to start reading if you are interested in the history
of science:
History of Science Society, Teaching and Resources
posted at: 16:48 |
path: /work |
link
Pinpointing Start of Science
I’m not sure about this person’s book, but I think it is interesting that
he puts the start of science at about three hundred years ago, rather than
with the Ancient Greeks. This makes more sense to me.
Origin of Science
posted at: 16:39 |
path: /work |
link
Origins of Science
Popper on the
origins of science
posted at: 16:24 |
path: /work |
link
Another Self Person
Stuart A.
Kauffman
posted at: 14:37 |
path: /school |
link
Semantic Universals
A ‘semantic universal’ is the term used by linguists to denote a concept
present in all human languages. I have been trying to determine what
sense/perception terms are universal so I can discuss this with my
philosophy of science class.
According to this conference blurb, not much has been done in this area:
Talking about Thinking
However, this book reference looks interesting:
Author Wierzbicka, Anna.
Title Semantics, culture, and cognition : universal human concepts in
culture-specific configurations / Anna Wierzbicka.
Publisher New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.
LOCATION CALL # STATUS
B Floor 3 B P204.W54B B IN LIBRARY
posted at: 14:18 |
path: /work |
link
Brown’s Human Universals
I think that this list of human universals
is amazing and fascinating. I want to use it as a starting point for my
philosophy of science class because I want to establish what people were
already doing that might now be considered ‘scientific behaviour’, before
there was science, per se.
Philosophy of science aside, it’s just plain fascinating…
posted at: 13:39 |
path: /work |
link
Fun Fun Fun
Deep Fun. Deep indeed.
Fun!
posted at: 21:02 |
path: /living |
link
Beans of the World
Beans
posted at: 16:53 |
path: /living |
link
Making Tofu
Tofu Recipe
1
Tofu Recipe
2
Tofu Recipe 3
Of course the next inevitable questions are 1. Can you make tofu out of
beans other than soybeans? 2. What beans are native to North America?
posted at: 16:39 |
path: /living |
link
Fried Tofu
Fried Tofu Recipe
Man, I love this stuff.
posted at: 16:38 |
path: /living |
link
Seb’s Open Research
I quite Like this person’s weblog:
Seb’s Open
Research
I found it because it has a link to some self-organziation reserach on it:
Self
Organziation
posted at: 16:37 |
path: /school |
link
Honey Bee Lab
Scott Camazine directs the
Honey Bee Lab
posted at: 15:31 |
path: /school |
link
Self-Organizaiton in Biological Systems
Score! It’s in the library.
Title Self-organization in biological systems / Scott Camazine … [et
al.].
Publisher Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 2001.
LOCATION CALL # STATUS
B Floor 1 B QH313 .S477 2001B B IN LIBRARY
posted at: 15:26 |
path: /school |
link
Self-organization researcher
Scott Camazine
He is one of the authors of
Self-Organziation in Biological Systems
posted at: 15:23 |
path: /school |
link
Academic Baseball Cards
I personally think that academic researchers need the equivalent of
tradeable baseball cards. The cards could have could have stats, major
publications and reserach interests on them. In addition to general packs,
you could have special packs for special topics. Collect all 80 000.
Start today!
posted at: 15:11 |
path: /school |
link
Self Organziation Researcher and Tutorial
A self-organization researcher in biology:
Ethan Decker
and his online self-organization tutorial: SOS Tutorial
posted at: 14:45 |
path: /school |
link
Self Organizing Systems FAQ for Usenet Newsgroup
SOS FAQ
posted at: 14:33 |
path: /school |
link
Beautiful small houses
This person is building incredibly beautiful small
houses in the Anglo-North American Style:
Tumbleweed Houses
posted at: 13:38 |
path: /living |
link
My Cold Climate Permaculture Website
Okay- I’ve been meaning to start a Cold Clilmate Permaculture website,
because there really is a dearth of information out there on this topic.
Here it is: Cold Climate
Permaculture
posted at: 13:18 |
path: /living |
link
Sustainable living in cold climates
Sustainable living in cold climates is a real challenge. A lot of these
sustainability sites are very inspiring but their plans and ideas must be
greatly adapted before they would work in a cold climate.
Basically, we know that it is possible to live sustainbly in cold climates if we live in relatively small numbers and live semi-nomadically (i.e. no long term premanent structures). We know this because people lived comfortable, sophisticated lives here, in this manner, for a good thousands of years.
What isn’t clear is- is it possible to live sustainably in a cold climate when you have a fairly large population and/or that population want to have an agriculture/urban life style. This is the question we must answer today because the majority of people living in cold climates today would not consider other kinds of lifestyles.
What I believe this means is that we need cold climate permaculture. Which
means that we need take permaculture concepts pertaining to housing,
planting and animal rearing and make them work for a cold climate. And by
that I mean- a climate that does not permit traditional agriculture for 9
out of the 12 months of the year. Now that’s a challenge.
posted at: 12:22 |
path: /living |
link
Sustainable Urban Lving
That last linking came from a nice small Sustainable Urban Living Site:
Experiments in Sustainable Urban Living
I came to it because I wanted to check otu the sustainable small cottage:
A cottage micro house
posted at: 12:07 |
path: /living |
link
Cool Compost Water Heating System
This is so cool! They used their compost to heat their water:
Composting Greenhouse with Straw Bale Foundation
posted at: 12:03 |
path: /living |
link
Small Houses
I am continuing to explore the Hermits on the website. This site on small
houses is appealing to me. I would like a small house.
Small House Society
posted at: 11:47 |
path: /living |
link
Another Book at Carleton
Title Self-organizing systems : the emergence of order / edited by F.
Eugene Yates ; associate editors, Alan Garfinkel, Donald O. Walter, and
Gregory B. Yates.
Publisher New York : Plenum Press, c1987.
LOCATION CALL # STATUS
B Floor 1 B Q325.S48B B IN LIBRARY
posted at: 17:08 |
path: /school |
link
Emergence book in Carleton Library
Author Holland, John H. (John Henry), 1929-
Title Emergence : from chaos to order / John H. Holland.
Publisher Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, c1998.
LOCATION CALL # STATUS
B Floor 1
posted at: 16:50 |
path: /school |
link
I need to get this article…
Title: Collective Intelligence of the Artificial Life Community on Its Own
Successes, Failures, and Future
Author(s): Steen Rasmussen ; Michael J. Raven ; Gordon N. Keating ; Mark
A. Bedau
Source: Artificial Life B B B B Volume: 9 Number: 2 Page: 207 — 235
posted at: 16:25 |
path: /school |
link
Some Books on Self-Organization
A Sociological Theory of Communication:
The Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society
Loet Leydesdorff
Self-Organized Criticality : Emergent Complex Behavior in Physical
by Henrik Jeldtoft Jensen (Author)
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
by Steven Johnson (Author)
Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order
by Steven Strogatz (Author)
Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: With Applications to Physics, Biology,
Chemistry and Engineering
by Steven H. Strogatz
The Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complex
by Harold J. Morowitz
posted at: 16:00 |
path: /school |
link
Artificial Life- Narrowing the Focus
Note to self- Focus in on emergence and self-organization
posted at: 15:19 |
path: /school |
link
Hermitage Site
Hermits … around the web
posted at: 14:11 |
path: /living |
link
Recollections of a hermit
Dunstan Morrissey
posted at: 12:48 |
path: /living |
link
Autarkeia
“The Greek word for contentment is autarkeia. Auto means self and
arkeia means sufficiency, so autarkeia means self-sufficiency” ( P. G.
Mathew, 1997)
posted at: 12:35 |
path: /living |
link
Old Cloth
Looks like we’ve been making cloth for a long, long time. Forget those
damn spears, baby. Fire and cloth all the way…
Furs for Evening, but Cloth Was the Stone Age Standby
posted at: 12:07 |
path: /living |
link
Fox Fibers
I had run into Fox Fibers last year while searching for organic cotton
products. I found this remarkable bio on the
creator/inventor/nurturer of Fox Fiber linked to a paper making site:
Sally Fox
posted at: 11:06 |
path: /living |
link
On to Paper
Milkweed is also good for papermaking. I recently talked to someone doing
art papermaking and was re-inspired. Clothmaking and paper making and,
come to think of it, food making, are connected by common ingredients and
tools.
Hand Papermaking
with Milkweed and other materials.
To expound further on this theme, clothmaking is also connected to animal
raising, via wools and animal hairs (which lead to both knitted fabric and
felted fabric) and also via animal skins (which lead to leather).
posted at: 10:52 |
path: /living |
link
It gets better..
Of course, it would be nice if you could make the cloth out of something
indigenous to North America- and lo and behold- nettle cloth:
Nettle cloth
And of course, I should have known I could count on Plants For a Future:
Fiber Plants
Milkweed strikes again!
posted at: 01:05 |
path: /living |
link
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food
As it turns out, OMAF seems to have a pretty good handle on what you can
grow successfully in Ontario. Go figure.
OMAF
posted at: 00:57 |
path: /living |
link
Flax in Ontario
Looks like you can grow flax in Ontario:
COG Organic Field Crop Handbook
That’s good news because you make linen out of flax plants. I also know
that it is now legal to grow hemp crops in Canada and that it can be grown
in Ontario. That means that we could produce cloth in Ontario. Cool.
posted at: 00:50 |
path: /living |
link
Frozen roast beef and other tasty vitelss
I’m not sure about refrigerators in terms of their environmental
implications- I’ll have to think about alternative refrigerating
technologies sometime- but since I have one I might as well get as much
‘convenience’ as I can from it…
Home Freezing of Cooked and Prepared Foods
Frozen sliced cooked roast beef (sandwiches) here I come.
posted at: 13:10 |
path: /living |
link
Pseudo Mandala
I’m investigating mandalas. This one is not really a traditional mandala
but I like the geometery a whole lot:
http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/mandala.html
posted at: 21:02 |
path: /living |
link
One More Philosophy of Science test
History and Philosophy of Science
Not really a lot of sample tests out there.
posted at: 14:47 |
path: /work |
link
Switching topics
Okay- I need to do some work work. The linen will have to wait. I need to
find out about tests to give philosophy of science students so I can write
some tests for my philosophy of science students. This site has really
whacked tests. I’m not going to ask my students to do anything this hard.
Douglas Kuatch’s Home
Page
Still, they could be inspiring…
posted at: 14:25 |
path: /work |
link
Getting Closer to Home…
Wildrose
Farm Organics
Okay- these guys look pretty cool- what with their
home industry in Minnesota and their managed woodlot farm. Not so sure
about the fashions but some of it looks okay and they have a tank turtle
neck that has potential.
Of course there’s always the
Natural Clothing Directory
But now I’ve got to find out about locally grown hemp, linen or flax…
posted at: 14:20 |
path: /living |
link
And some in Canada
Three tree apparel
I just wish I could find more Canadian organic clothing stores- these
folks have a fairly limited selection and they are half way across the
country. Then again, we aren’t exactly growing our own cotton here in
Ottawa- but I’ve been down that road before. Right now I just need some
socially acceptable tank tops… and by that I mean tank tops that aren’t
made of deer skin or wool, which are pretty much the only truly local
clothing materials we have in Ottawa. Unless we can grow hemp here…
hmmm…
posted at: 14:20 |
path: /living |
link
Yummy organic tanks tops
Rawganique
posted at: 11:16 |
path: /living |
link
I did it- I have blogged
Well shiver me timbers and boil me in oil. I am a succesful blogger! Looks
like I still have pirate mode on too. Arrrr matey.
posted at: 18:56 |
path: /foo |
link
I’ve been working on the railroad
Actually, that’s the blog road. All the live long day. Trying to blog.
But, no blogging. To pass the time of day. Snarg.
posted at: 18:46 |
path: /foo |
link
Still trying to blog
Still trying…
posted at: 18:44 |
path: /living |
link
Bad Hair Day
Oh man! What a day I had today. First, I woke up
with really bad hair. I didn’t think that really
mattered- I mean, how bad can a bad hair be? So
I just let it stick up a lot and went into work.
But then, the fan above my desk went into hyperdrive
and because my hair was already sticking up, it was
sucked right into the fan and ripped off my head.
What a bad day.
posted at: 23:51 |
path: /foo/silly |
link
All material copyrighted by Jen Schellinck. All rights reserved.