My latest Hero

Last night I watched the movie "Temple Grandin" starring Clair Danes of My so Called Life fame. It was one of the most inspiring movies I have seen in a long time.

I have been learning about Temple Grandin for years, in Psychology classes, and from friends who work with Animals and can attest to her wisdom. I have listened to her books and today watched her speak for the first time on Ted. I think she is one of the greatest and most important thinkers of our time. In her talk she emphasizes the need for hands on learning. I couldn't agree more that this is one of the best ways of addressing the many different kinds of minds that exist in our schools today. There is also a BBC documentary about her that is broken into 5 parts on youtube and is really interesting. Here is a link to part 1.

Gardeners Growing Community

I am visiting Vancouver for a week and this city is proving to me that they can be green, lush and full of the possibility of community, especially when it comes to gardening. I was told about an article on the cover of today's Vancouver Sun discussing the work of a block's worth of gardeners who have banded their back yards together in Vancouver east side to create a kind of co-operative mini farm including bees, group compost, chickens and lots and lots of food. Read it here. They have also created a 2 page manual for others who wish to start gardening in their back yards, or with their neighbours. It is linked to in the article.

There is also an article about the Dunbar Harvest festival!

All this really reminds me of something that I started learning about while working with SPEC, that is, the idea of the Transition Town Innitiative, as promoted by Village Vancouver and known more broadly though the transition network. To learn more check out this Ted talk with Rob Hopkins

What can I say, I'm hometown proud. But I'm still going back up North.

Jaime Oliver on Ted

This Ted Talk with Jaime Oliver is more than worth watching. A friend sent me this link. I love it when people do that, makes my day to think that something like this made someone think of me that's an amazing compliment.

Ted Talk on the importance of play

Just watched this and would encourage everyone else to do the same, it's amazing. Discusses the importance of play to human development and happiness...

more Ted Talks

chchch check it.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/john_francis_walks_the_earth.html