dora
permaculture: a designers’ manual
bill mollison 1988 8601406183025
steps to an ecology of mind
gregory bateson 1972
“the Balinese extend to human relationships attitudes based upon bodily balance, and that they generalize the idea that motion is essential to balance. This last point gives us, I believe, a partial answer to the question of why the society not only continues to function but functions rapidly and busily, continually undertaking ceremonial and artistic tasks which are not economically or competitively determined. This steady state is maintained by continual nonprogressive change.”
“in general the contexts which recur in Balinese social life preclude cumulative interaction and that childhood experience trains the child away from seeking climax in personal interaction; it was shown that certain positive values—related to balance—recur in the culture and are incorporated into the character structure during child-hood, and, further, that these values may be specifically related to the steady state”
The economics of the system, in fact, pushes organisms toward sinking into the unconscious those generalities of relationship which remain permanently true and toward keeping within the conscious the pragmatics of particular instances.
The premises may, economically, be sunk, but particular conclusions must be conscious. But the “sinking,” though economical, is still done at a price—the price of inaccessibility. Since the level to which things are sunk is characterized by iconic algorithms and metaphor, it becomes difficult for the organism to examine the matrix out or which his conscious conclusions spring.
all organisms must be content with rather little consciousness, and that if consciousness has any useful functions whatever (which has never been demonstrated but is probably true), then economy in consciousness will be of the first importance. No organism can afford to be conscious of matters with which it could deal at unconscious levels.
This is the economy achieved by habit formation.
if art, as suggested above, has a positive function in maintaining what I called “wisdom,” i.e., in correcting a too purposive view of life and making the view more systemic, then the question to be asked of the given work of art becomes: What sorts of correction in the direction of wisdom would be achieved by creating or viewing this work of art?
Turf was the evolving response of the vegetation to the evolution of the horse. It is the context which evolves.
the comparative study of culture and the purposive cultivation of democratic values
margaret mead 1942
Chapter IV of Science, Philosophy and Religion, Second Symposium
Are we to reserve the techniques and the right to manipulate people as the privilege of a few planning, goal-oriented, and power-hungry individuals, to whom the instrumentality of science makes a natural appeal? Now that we have the techniques, are we, in cold blood, going to treat people as things? Or what are we going to do with these techniques?
the child grows up unskilled in his ability to communicate about communication and, as a result, unskilled in determining what people really mean and unskilled in expressing what he really means, which is essential for normal relationships.
What is a person? What do I mean when I say “I? ” Perhaps what each of us means by the “self” is in fact an aggregate of habits of perception and adaptive action plus, from moment to moment, our “immanent states of action.” If somebody attacks the habits and immanent states which characterize me at the given moment of dealing with that somebody—that is, if they attack the very habits and immanent states which have been called into being as part of my relationship to them at that moment—they are negating me. If I care deeply about that other person, the negation of me will be still more painful.
genetic components might determine skill in learning to be transcontextual or (more abstractly) the potentialities for acquiring this skill. Or, conversely, the genome might determine skills in resisting transcontextual pathways, or the potentiality for acquiring this latter skill. (Geneticists have paid very little attention to the necessity of defining the logical typing of messages carried by DNA.)
Psychologists commonly speak as if the abstractions of relationship (“dependency,” “hostility,” “love,” etc.) were real things which are to be described or “expressed” by messages. This is epistemology backwards: in truth, the messages constitute the relationship, and words like “dependency” are verbally coded descriptions of patterns immanent in the combination of exchanged messages.
In contrast, an organism is capable of being wrong in a number of ways of which the “player” is incapable. These wrong choices are appropriately called “error” when they are of such a kind that they would provide information to the organism which might contribute to his future skill. These will all be cases in which some of the available information was either ignored or incorrectly used. Various species of such profitable error can be classified.
Suppose that the external event system contains details which might tell the organism: (a) from what set of alternatives he should choose his next move; and (b) which member of that set he should choose. Such a situation permits two orders of error:
The organism may use correctly the information which tells him from what set of alternatives he should choose, but choose the wrong alternative within this set; or
He may choose from the wrong set of alternatives. (There is also an interesting class of cases in which the sets of alternatives contain common members. It is then possible for the organism to be “right” but for the wrong reasons. This form of error is inevitably self-reinforcing.)
If now we accept the overall notion that all learning (other than zero learning) is in some degree stochastic (i.e., contains components of “trial and error”), it follows that an ordering of the processes of learning can be built upon an hierarchic classification of the types of error which are to be corrected in the various learning processes. Zero learning will then be the label for the immediate base of all those acts (simple and complex) which are not subject to correction by trial and error. Learning I will be an appropriate label for the revision of choice within an unchanged set of alternatives; Learning II will be the label for the revision of the set from which the choice is to be made; and so on.
suggest that what is learned in Learning II is a way of punctuating events. But a way of punctuating is not true or false. There is nothing contained in the propositions of this learning that can be tested against reality. It is like a picture seen in an inkblot; it has neither correctness nor incorrectness. It is only a way of seeing the inkblot.
Consider the instrumental view of life. An organism with this view of life in a new situation will engage in trial-and-error behavior in order to make the situation provide a positive reinforcement. If he fails to get this reinforcement, his purposive philosophy is not thereby negated. His trial-and-error behavior will simply continue. The premises of “purpose” are simply not of the same logical type as the material facts of life, and therefore cannot easily be contradicted by them.
The practitioner of magic does not unlearn his magical view of events when the magic does not work. In fact, the propositions which govern punctuation have the general characteristic of being self-validating. What we term “context” includes the subject’s behavior as well as the external events. But this behavior is controlled by former Learning II and therefore it will be of such a kind as to mold the total context to fit the expected punctuation. In sum, this self-validating characteristic of the content of Learning II has the effect that such learning is almost ineradicable. It follows that Learning II acquired in infancy is likely to persist through life.
any freedom from the bondage of habit must also denote a profound redefinition of the self. If I stop at the level of Learning II, “I” am the aggregate of those characteristics which I call my “character. ” “I” am my habits of acting in context and shaping and perceiving the contexts in which I act. Selfhood is a product or aggregate of Learning II. To the degree that a man achieves Learning III, and learns to perceive and act in terms of the contexts of contexts, his “self” will take on a sort of irrelevance. The concept of “self” will no longer function as a nodal argument in the punctuation of experience.
(criticises equating “self” with consciousness)
“feelings”
This misnomer arises naturally from the Anglo-Saxon epistemological tendency to reify or attribute to the body all mental phenomena which are peripheral to consciousness
When the underlying epistemology is full of error, derivations from it are inevitably either self-contradictory or extremely restricted in scope. A consistent corpus of theorems cannot be derived from an inconsistent body of axioms. In such cases, the attempt to be consistent leads either to the great proliferation of complexity characteristic of psychoanalytic theory and Christian theology or to the extremely narrow view characteristic of contemporary behaviorism.
speak of an action or utterance as occurring “in” a context, and this conventional way of talking suggests that the particular action is a “dependent” variable, while the context is the “independent” or determining variable. But this view of how an action is related to its context is likely to distract the reader—as it has distracted me — from perceiving the ecology of the ideas which together constitute the small subsystem which I call “ context. ”
This heuristic error—copied like so many others from the ways of thought of the physicist and chemist—requires correction.
It is important to see the particular utterance or action as part of the ecological subsystem called context and not as the product or effect of what remains of the context after the piece which we want to explain has been cut out from it.
The mistake in question is the same formal error as that mentioned in the comment on Part II where I discuss the evolution of the horse. We should not think of this process just as a set of changes in the animal’s adaptation to life on the grassy plains but as a constancy in the relationship between animals and environment. It is the ecology which survives and slowly evolves. In this evolution, the relata—the animals and the grass—undergo changes which are indeed adaptive from moment to moment. But if the process of adaptation were the whole story, there could be no systemic pathology. Trouble arises precisely because the “logic” of adaptation is a different “logic” from that of the survival and evolution of the ecological system.
the ecology of ideas in systems or “minds” whose boundaries no longer coincide with the skins of the participant individuals.
mutation will have survival value not because it enables the pregiraffe to supply its elevated head with sufficient blood, since this was already achieved by somatic change but because it increases the overall flexibility of the organism, enabling it to survive other demands which may be placed upon it either by environmental or genotypic change.
It appears, then, that the process of biological evolution could be continuous if there were a class of mutations or other genotypic changes which would simulate Lamarckian inheritance. The function of these changes would be to achieve by genotypic flat those characteristics which the organism at the given time is already achieving by the uneconomical method of somatic change.
Russel Wallace sent a famous essay to Darwin from Indonesia. In it he announced his discovery of natural selection, which coincided with Darwin’s. Part of his description of the struggle for existence is interesting:
The action of this principle [the struggle for existence] is exactly like that of the steam engine, which checks and corrects any irregularities almost before they become evident; and in like manner no unbalanced deficiency in the animal kingdom can ever reach any conspicuous magnitude, because it would make itself felt at the very first step, by rendering existence difficult and extinction almost sure to follow.
the obvious can be very difficult for people to see. That is because people are self-corrective systems. They are self-corrective against disturbance, and if the obvious is not of a kind that they can easily assimilate without internal disturbance, their self-corrective mechanisms work to sidetrack it, to hide it, even to the extent of shutting the eyes if necessary, or shutting off various parts of the process of perception. Disturbing information can be framed like a pearl so that it doesn’t make a nuisance of itself; and this will be done, according to the understanding of the system itself of what would be a nuisance. This too—the premise regarding what would cause disturbance—is something which is learned and then becomes perpetuated or conserved.
creatures and plants live together in a combination of competition and mutual dependency, and it is that combination that is the important thing to consider. Every species has a primary Malthusian capacity. Any species that does not, potentially, produce more young than the number of the population of the parental generation is out. They’re doomed. It is absolutely necessary for every species and for every such system that its components have a potential positive gain in the population curve. But, if every species has potential gain, it is then quite a trick to achieve equilibrium. All sorts of interactive balances and dependencies come into play, and it is these processes that have the sort of circuit structure that I have mentioned.
The Malthusian curve is exponential. It is the curve of population growth and it is not inappropriate to call this the population explosion.
You may regret that organisms have this explosive characteristic, but you may as well settle for it. The creatures that don’t are out.
whether the information processed through consciousness is adequate and appropriate for the task of human adaptation. It may well be that consciousness contains systematic distortions of view which, when implemented by modern technology, become destructive of the balances between man, his society and his ecosystem.
Wynne-Edwards has pointed out—what every farmer knows—that a population of healthy individuals cannot be directly limited by the available food supply. If starvation is the method of getting rid of the excess population, then the survivors will suffer if not death at least severe dietary deficiency, while the food supply itself will be reduced, perhaps irreversibly, by overgrazing. In principle, the homeostatic controls of biological systems must be activated by variables which are not in themselves harmful. The reflexes of respiration are activated not by oxygen deficiency but by relatively harmless CO2 excess. The diver who learns to ignore the signals of CO2 excess and continues his dive to approach oxygen deficiency runs serious risks.
the specific nature of this distortion is such that the cybernetic nature of self and the world tends to be imperceptible to consciousness, insofar as the contents of the “screen” of consciousness are determined by considerations of purpose
the attempt to achieve a change in a given variable, located either in self or environment, is likely to be undertaken without comprehension of the homeostatic network surrounding that variable … It may be essential for wisdom that the narrow purposive view be somehow corrected.
Darwinian evolutionary theory contained a very great error in its identification of the unit of survival under natural selection. The unit which was believed to be crucial and around which the theory was set up was either the breeding individual or the family line or the sub-species or some similar homogeneous set of conspecifics. Now I suggest that the last hundred years have demonstrated empirically that if an organism or aggregate of organisms sets to work with a focus on its own survival and thinks that that is the way to select its adaptive moves, its “progress” ends up with a destroyed environment. If the organism ends up destroying its environment, it has in fact destroyed itself. And we may very easily see this process carried to its ultimate reductio ad absurdum in the next twenty years. The unit of survival is not the breeding organism, or the family line, or the society.
The old unit has already been partly corrected by the population geneticists. They have insisted that the evolutionary unit is, in fact, not homogeneous. A wild population of any species consists always of individuals whose genetic constitution varies widely. In other words, potentiality and readiness for change is already built into the survival unit. The heterogeneity of the wild population is already one-half of that trial-and-error system which is necessary for dealing with environment.
The artificially homogenized populations of man’s domestic animals and plants are scarcely fit for survival.
And today a further correction of the unit is necessary. The flexible environment must also be included along with the flexible organism because, as I have already said, the organism which destroys its environment destroys itself. The unit of survival is a flexible organism-in-its-environment.
I suggest to you, now, that the word “idea,” in its most elementary sense, is synonymous with “difference.” Kant, in the Critique of Judgment—if I understand him correctly—asserts that the most elementary aesthetic act is the selection of a fact. He argues that in a piece of chalk there are an infinite number of potential facts. The Ding an sich, the piece of chalk, can never enter into communication or mental process because of this infinitude. The sensory receptors cannot accept it; they filter it out. What they do is to select certain facts out of the piece of chalk, which then become, in modern terminology, information.
I suggest that Kant’s statement can be modified to say that there is an infinite number of differences around and within the piece of chalk. There are differences between the chalk and the rest of the universe, between the chalk and the sun or the moon. And within the piece of chalk, there is for every molecule an infinite number of differences between its location and the locations in which it might have been. Of this infinitude, we select a very limited number, which become information. In fact, what we mean by information—the elementary unit of information—is a difference which makes a difference, and it is able to make a difference because the neural pathways along which it travels and is continually transformed are themselves provided with energy. The pathways are ready to be triggered. We may even say that the question is already implicit in them.
We say the map is different from the territory. But what is the territory? Operationally, somebody went out with a retina or a measuring stick and made representations which were then put upon paper. What is on the paper map is a representation of what was in the retinal representation of the man who made the map; and as you push the question back, what you find is an infinite regress, an infinite series of maps. The territory never gets in at all. The territory is Ding an sich and you can’t do anything with it. Always the process of representation will filter it out so that the mental world is only maps of maps of maps, ad infinitum. All “phenomena” are literally appearances.
The cybernetic epistemology which I have offered you would suggest a new approach. The individual mind is immanent but not only in the body. It is immanent also in pathways and messages outside the body; and there is a larger Mind of which the individual mind is only a sub-system. This larger Mind is comparable to God and is perhaps what some people mean by “God,” but it is still immanent in the total interconnected social system and planetary ecology.
Freudian psychology expanded the concept of mind in-wards to include the whole communication system within the body—the autonomic, the habitual, and the vast range of unconscious process. What I am saying expands mind out-wards. And both of these changes reduce the scope of the conscious self. A certain humility becomes appropriate, tempered by the dignity or joy of being part of something much bigger. A part—if you will—of God.
If you put God outside and set him vis-à-vis his creation and if you have the idea that you are created in his image, you will logically and naturally see yourself as outside and against the things around you. And as you arrogate all mind to yourself, you will see the world around you as mindless and therefore not entitled to moral or ethical consideration. The environment will seem to be yours to exploit. Your survival unit will be you and your folks or conspecifics against the environment of other social units, other races and the brutes and vegetables.
If this is your estimate of your relation to nature and you have an advanced technology, your likelihood of survival will be that of a snowball in hell. You will die either of the toxic by-products of your own hate, or, simply, of over-population and overgrazing. The raw materials of the world are finite.
If I am right, the whole of our thinking about what we are and what other people are has got to be restructured. This is not funny, and I do not know how long we have to do it in. If we continue to operate on the premises that were fashionable in the precybernetic era, and which were especially underlined and strengthened during the Industrial Revolution, which seemed to validate the Darwinian unit of survival, we may have twenty or thirty years before the logical reductio ad absurdum of our old positions destroys us. Nobody knows how long we have, under the present system, before some disaster strikes us, more serious than the destruction of any group of nations. The most important task today is, perhaps, to learn to think in the new way. Let me say that I don’t know how to think that way. Intellectually, I can stand here and I can give you a reasoned exposition of this matter; but if I am cutting down a tree, I still think “Gregory Bateson” is cutting down the tree. I am cutting down the tree. “Myself” is to me still an excessively concrete object, different from the rest of what I have been calling “mind.”
The step to realizing — to making habitual—the other way of thinking—so that one naturally thinks that way when one reaches out for a glass of water or cuts down a tree—that step is not an easy one.
And, quite seriously, I suggest to you that we should trust no policy decisions which emanate from persons who do not yet have that habit.
It is the attempt to separate intellect from emotion that is monstrous, and I suggest that it is equally monstrous—and dangerous—to attempt to separate the external mind from the internal. Or to separate mind from body.
It is understandable that, in a civilization which separates mind from body, we should either try to forget death or to make mythologies about the survival of transcendent mind. But if mind is immanent not only in those pathways of information which are located in-side the body but also in external pathways, then death takes on a different aspect. The individual nexus of pathways which I call “me” is no longer so precious because that nexus is only part of a larger mind.
so much of occidental thinking is shaped on the premise of transcendent deity that it is difficult for many people to rethink their theories in terms of immanence. Even Darwin from time to time wrote about Natural Selection in phrases which almost ascribed to this process the characteristics of transcendence and purpose.
It may be worthwhile, therefore, to give an extreme sketch of the difference between the belief in transcendence and that in immanence.
Transcendent mind or deity is imagined to be personal and omniscient, and as receiving information by channels separate from the earthly. He sees a species acting in ways which must disrupt its ecology and, either in sorrow or in anger, He sends the wars, the plagues, the pollution, and the fallout.
Immanent mind would achieve the same final result but without either sorrow or anger. Immanent mind has no separate and unearthly channels by which to know or act and, therefore, can have no separate emotion or evaluative comment. The immanent will differ from the transcendent in greater determinism.
First, I would like you to join me in a little experiment. Let me ask you for a show of hands. How many of you will agree that you see me? I see a number of hands—so I guess insanity loves company. Of course, you don’t “really” see me. What you “see” is a bunch of pieces of information about me, which you synthesize into a picture image of me. You make that image. It’s that simple.
The proposition “I see you” or “You see me” is a proposition which contains within it what I am calling “epistemology.” It contains within it assumptions about how we get in-formation, what sort of stuff information is, and so forth. When you say you “see” me and put up your hand in an innocent way, you are, in fact, agreeing to certain propositions about the nature of knowing and the nature of the universe in which we live and how we know about it.
I shall argue that many of these propositions happen to be false, even though we all share them. In the case of such epistemological propositions, error is not easily detected and is not very quickly punished. You and I are able to get along in the world and fly to Hawaii and read papers on psychiatry and find our places around these tables and in general function reasonably like human beings in spite of very deep error. The erroneous premises, in fact, work.
On the other hand, the premises work only up to a certain limit, and, at some stage or under certain circumstances, if you are carrying serious epistemological errors, you will find that they do not work any more. At this point you discover to your horror that it is exceedingly difficult to get rid of the error, that it’s sticky. It is as if you had touched honey. As with honey, the falsification gets around; and each thing you try to wipe it off on gets sticky, and your hands still remain sticky.
zero differs from one, and zero therefore can be a cause, which is not admissible in hard science. The letter which you did not write can precipitate an angry reply, because zero can be one-half of the necessary bit of information. Even sameness can be a cause, because sameness differs from difference.
In accordance with the general climate of thinking in mid-nineteenthcentury England, Darwin proposed a theory of natural selection and evolution in which the unit of survival was either the family line or the species or subspecies or something of the sort. But today it is quite obvious that this is not the unit of survival in the real biological world. The unit of survival is organism plus environment. We are learning by bitter experience that the organism which destroys its environment destroys itself.
If, now, we correct the Darwinian unit of survival to include the environment and the interaction between organism and environment, a very strange and surprising identity emerges: the unit of evolutionary survival turns out to be identical with the unit of mind.
Formerly we thought of a hierarchy of taxa—individual, family line, subspecies, species, etc.—as units of survival. We now see a different hierarchy of units—genein-organism, organism-in-environment, ecosystem, etc. Ecology, in the widest sense, turns out to be the study of the interaction and survival of ideas and programs (i.e., differences, complexes of differences, etc.) in circuits.
Let us now consider what happens when you make the epistemological error of choosing the wrong unit: you end up with the species versus the other species around it or versus the environment in which it operates. Man against nature. You end up, in fact, with Kaneohe Bay polluted, Lake Erie a slimy green mess, and “Let’s build bigger atom bombs to kill off the next-door neighbors.” There is an ecology of bad ideas, just as there is an ecology of weeds, and it is characteristic of the system that basic error propagates itself. It branches out like a rooted parasite through the tissues of life, and everything gets into a rather peculiar mess. When you narrow down your epistemology and act on the premise “What interests me is me, or my organization, or my species,” you chop off consideration of other loops of the loop structure. You decide that you want to get rid of the by-products of human life and that Lake Erie will be a good place to put them. You forget that the eco-mental system called Lake Erie is a part of your wider eco-mental system—and that if Lake Erie is driven insane, its insanity is incorporated in the larger system of your thought and experience.
You and I are so deeply acculturated to the idea of “self” and organization and species that it is hard to believe that man might view his relations with the environment in any other way
when you separate mind from the structure in which it is immanent, such as human relationship, the human society, or the ecosystem, you thereby embark, I believe, on fundamental error, which in the end will surely hurt you.
When you have an effective enough technology so that you can really act upon your epistemological errors and can create havoc in the world in which you live, then the error is lethal. Epistemological error is all right, it’s fine, up to the point at which you create around yourself a universe in which that error becomes immanent in monstrous changes of the universe that you have created and now try to live in.
I don’t know how many people today really believe that there is an overall mind separate from the body, separate from the society, and separate from nature. But for those of you who would say that that is all “superstition,” I am prepared to wager that I can demonstrate with them in a few minutes that the habits and ways of thinking that went with those supersitions are still in their heads and still determine a large part of their thoughts. The idea that you can see me still governs your thought and action in spite of the fact that you may know intellectually that it is not so. In the same way we are most of us governed by epistemologies that we know to be wrong.
leads, of course, to theories of control and to theories of power. In that universe, if you do not get what you want, you will blame somebody and establish either a jail or a mental hospital, according to taste, and you will pop them in it if you can identify them. If you cannot identify them, you will say, “It’s the system.” This is roughly where our kids are nowadays, blaming the establishment, but you know the establishments aren’t to blame. They are part of the same error, too.
Then, of course, there is the question of weapons. If you believe in that unilateral world and you think that the other people believe in that world (and you’re probably right; they do), then, of course, the thing is to get weapons, hit them hard, and “control” them.
They say that power corrupts; but this, I suspect, is non-sense. What is true is that the idea of power corrupts. Power corrupts most rapidly those who believe in it, and it is they who will want it most. Obviously our democratic system tends to give power to those who hunger for it and gives every opportunity to those who don’t want power to avoid getting it. Not a very satisfactory arrangement if power corrupts those who believe in it and want it.
Perhaps there is no such thing as unilateral power. After all, the man “in power” depends on receiving information all the time from outside. He responds to that information just as much as he “causes” things to happen. It is not possible for Goebbels to control the public opinion of Germany be-cause in order to do so he must have spies or legmen or public opinion polls to tell him what the Germans are thinking. He must then trim what he says to this information; and then again find out how they are responding. It is an inter-action, and not a lineal situation.
But the myth of power is, of course, a very powerful myth and probably most people in this world more or less believe in it. It is a myth which, if everybody believes in it, becomes to that extent self-validating. But it is still epistemological lunacy and leads inevitably to various sorts of disaster.
The ecological analyst faces a dilemma: on the one hand, if any of his recommendations are to be followed, he must first recommend whatever will give the system a positive budget of flexibility; and on the other hand, the people and institutions with which he must deal have a natural propensity to eat up all available flexibility. He must create flexibility and prevent the civilization from immediately expanding into it.
Essential biological functions are not controlled by lethal variables, and planners will do well to note this fact.
Against this complex background, it is not easy to construct a theory of flexibility of ideas and to conceive of a budget of flexibility. There are, however, two clues to the major theoretical problem. Both of these are derived from the stochastic process of evolution or learning whereby such interlocked systems of ideas come into being. First we consider the “natural selection” which governs which ideas shall survive longest; and second we shall consider how this process sometimes works to create evolutionary culs-de-sac.
(More broadly, I regard the grooves of destiny into which our civilization has entered as a special case of evolutionary cul-de-sac. Courses which offered short-term advantage have been adopted, have become rigidly programmed, and have begun to prove disastrous over longer time. This is the paradigm for extinction by way of loss of flexibility. And this paradigm is more surely lethal when the courses of action are chosen in order to maximize single variables.)
in mental evolution, there is also an economy of flexibility. Ideas which survive repeated use are actually handled in a special way which is different from the way in which the mind handles new ideas. The phenomenon of habit formation sorts out the ideas’ which survive repeated use and puts them in a more or less separate category. These trusted ideas then become available for immediate use with-out thoughtful inspection, while the more flexible parts of the mind can be saved for use on newer matters.
In other words, the frequency of use of a given idea be-comes a determinant of its survival in that ecology of ideas which we call Mind; and beyond that the survival of a frequently used idea is further promoted by the fact that habit formation tends to remove the idea from the field of critical inspection.
But the survival of an idea is also certainly determined by its relations with other ideas. Ideas may support or contradict each other; they may combine more or less readily. They may influence- each other in complex unknown ways in polarized systems.
It is commonly the more generalized and abstract ideas that survive repeated use. The more generalized ideas thus tend to become premises upon which other ideas depend. These premises become relatively inflexible.
In other words, in the ecology of ideas there is an evolutionary process, related to the economics of flexibility, and this process determines which ideas shall become hard programmed.
The same process determines that these hard-programmed ideas become nuclear or nodal within constellations of other ideas, because the survival of these other ideas depends on how they fit with the hard-programmed ideas. It follows that any change in the hard-programmed ideas may involve change in the whole related constellation.
the premises which are deeply ingrained in our way of life are simply untrue and become pathogenic when implemented with modern technology.
the life–changing magic of tidying up: the japanese art of decluttering and organising
marie kondo 2014
spark joy: an illustrated master class on the art of organizing and tidying up
marie kondo 2016
junk: digging through america’s love affair with stuff
alison stewart 2016
the role of intrusive imagery in hoarding disorder
nick a.j. stewart et al. 2019
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2019.04.005
It was already known that hoarding behaviour is driven by a strong emotional connection with objects. But the new experimental findings, published online in the journal Behavior Therapy, show that for people who hoard this connection may be in part attributable to the vivid, positive memories associated with those objects.
In essence, for those with hoarding problems, individual items become an extension of a given memory, becoming a barrier to decluttering and hence exacerbating an individual's problems. Drawing on the new findings, the team behind the study hope that cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for hoarding might be enhanced by training individuals to respond differently to those memories.
Hoarding describes a problem where individuals have considerable difficulty letting go of possessions. Consequently, rooms can become so cluttered over time that living spaces becomes no longer usable for their intended purpose.
According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists, hoarding can be a mental health problem in its own right (known as 'hoarding disorder'). The clutter associated with hoarding can have profound negative effects on the lives of people living with the problem and those around them, particularly with respect to emotional and physical well-being, health and safety, and finances. The fire risks associated with clutter are also be of particular concern.
Lead researcher Dr Nick Stewart, who now works as a Clinical Psychologist at Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, explains: "People who hoard are often offered CBT to help them understand the thoughts and feelings associated with their saving and acquiring behaviours. This approach is very beneficial for some people, but not all. Our aim is to understand better the psychological factors that drive hoarding behaviour, to give us clues for how therapy for hoarding might be improved."
The researchers conducted structured interviews with 27 people with clinically-significant hoarding problems, and 28 without such difficulties (the 'control' group).
Participants were asked to recall the memories that came to mind the last time they discarded, or tried to discard, items at home.
Both groups reported positive memories while discarding possessions that they valued (which may describe most possessions in the case of people who hoard). These memories included recollections of acquiring the object, or memories of an event or person associated with the object. Crucially, the control participants (those without a hoarding problem) reported attempts to avoid this positive imagery, while the hoarding participants did not.
Dr Stewart explains: "We can all relate to the experience of being flooded with positive memories when we hold valued possessions in our hands. However, our findings suggest that it's the way in which we respond to these object-related memories that dictates whether we hold onto an object or let it go. The typical population appears to be able to set aside these memories, presumably to ease the task of discarding the objects, and so manage to avoid the accumulation of clutter. The hoarding participants enjoyed the positive memories but reported that they got in the way of their attempts to discard objects."
In the paper, the researchers have suggested ways in which this new insight could be used to enhance CBT for hoarding.
Dr James Gregory, Clinical Research Tutor and Clinical Psychologist at the University of Bath, who supervised the research, said: "Where positive memories, and the mental images associated with them, are getting in the way of discarding objects, therapists could work with people to develop an alternative image to 'compete' with the one that's causing difficulty. This competing image could capture the positive consequences of discarding items, for example, eating a meal with loved ones at a dinner table once it is clear of possessions."
The next step is a follow-on experimental study to see if helping people to 'rescript' memories in this way is helpful for enabling people to let go of objects more easily.
abstract •This is the first study to investigate intrusive imagery in Hoarding Disorder.
•Hoarding individuals report intrusive imagery that impedes discarding.
•Imagery-based interventions may prove useful for treating Hoarding Disorder.
Despite the incidence of trauma in the histories of people with Hoarding Disorder (HD), reexperiencing symptoms, namely intrusive images, have not been investigated in the condition. To address this, 27 individuals who met DSM-5 criteria for HD and 28 community controls (CCs) were interviewed about (a) their everyday experiences of intrusive imagery, and (b) the unexpected images they experience when discarding high- and low-value possessions. Compared to CCs, everyday images described by the HD group were more frequent, had a greater negative valence, and were associated with greater interference in everyday life and attempts to avoid the imagery. With regard to discard-related imagery, a MANOVA followed up with mixed ANOVAs showed that HD participants reported more negative experiences of intrusive imagery in comparison with CCs during recent episodes of discarding objects of low subjective value. However, HD and CC participants both experienced positive imagery when discarding high-value objects. CC participants reported greater avoidance of imagery in the high-value object condition, but imagery-avoidance did not change between conditions for HD participants. The findings are discussed, particularly in relation to the potential of imagery-based interventions for HD.
how to read water: clues and patterns from puddles to the sea
tristan gooley 2016 9781615193592
not yet read
how to read nature: awaken your senses to the outdoors you’ve never noticed
tristan gooley 2017
the lost art of reading nature’s signs: use outdoor clues to find your way, predict the weather, locate water, track animals―and other forgotten skills
tristan gooley 2015
the natural navigator: the rediscovered art of letting nature be your guide
tristan gooley 2012
how to connect with nature
2015
wild signs and star paths: the keys to our lost sixth sense
2018
the nature instinct: relearning our lost intuition for the inner workings of the natural world
tristan gooley 2018
ashley’s book of knots
clifford ashley
the field guide to knots
bob holtzman 2015 to read next
no–knot string tension
m.youtube.com/watch
double slip knot
fieggen.com/shoelace/secureknot.htm
automatic tension truckers’ hitch
https://youtu.be/Gkepmm-5pNQ
slipped constrictor tied in the hand
asiteaboutnothing.net/cr_most-useful-knots.html#sofia-constrictor
international guild of knot tyers forum
http://igkt.net/sm/index.php?board=6.0
are there knots in chromosomes?
jonathan siebert et al. 2017
dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym9080317
what knot to do (ios)
Link: itunes.apple.com/us/app/what-knot-to-do/id345618285
when untying tightly–tied knots in filmy plastic bags, use sharp–ended chopsticks as fids to tease apart the knot
synergy of topoisomerase and structural-maintenance-of-chromosomes proteins creates a universal pathway to simplify genome topology
enzo orlandini et al. 2019
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1815394116
The findings help explain how about 2 metres of DNA can be neatly packaged in each of our cells, in a space that is about the width of a hair.
Scientists have identified two sets of proteins in cells that work together to keep the strands unknotted, avoiding tangles that would hamper vital biological processes.
These proteins are found in many organisms, and scientists believe that their role in managing DNA may be common throughout nature.
One family of proteins -- known as SMC -- acts like a belay device used by rock climbers, which passes ropes through a series of loops.
These proteins have been found to work alongside another set, known as TopoII, which was previously thought to help solve tangles, but in a way that was not well understood.
Researchers at the Universities of Edinburgh and Padova in Italy studied the process by creating computer models of DNA with knots and links.
They found that SMC acts like a belay, sliding back and forth to enlarge or reduce loops in linked segments of DNA. Knots are first squeezed and compressed by SMC, and subsequently they are easily detected and resolved by TopoII.
Their study is the first to explain how the two families of proteins keep DNA tangle-free under the confined, crowded conditions of the cell. The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, was supported by the European Research Council.
Dr Davide Michieletto, of the University of Edinburgh's School of Physics and Astronomy, who led the study, said: "DNA's long strands might be expected to become horribly tangled -- a bit like pulling knotted headphones out of your pocket. But instead, nature has created these amazing machines to address this problem in a remarkable way, seemingly across many species."
abstract Topological entanglements severely interfere with important biological processes. For this reason, genomes must be kept unknotted and unlinked during most of a cell cycle. Type II topoisomerase (TopoII) enzymes play an important role in this process but the precise mechanisms yielding systematic disentanglement of DNA in vivo are not clear. Here we report computational evidence that structural-maintenance-of-chromosomes (SMC) proteins—such as cohesins and condensins—can cooperate with TopoII to establish a synergistic mechanism to resolve topological entanglements. SMC-driven loop extrusion (or diffusion) induces the spatial localization of essential crossings, in turn catalyzing the simplification of knots and links by TopoII enzymes even in crowded and confined conditions. The mechanism we uncover is universal in that it does not qualitatively depend on the specific substrate, whether DNA or chromatin, or on SMC processivity; we thus argue that this synergy may be at work across organisms and throughout the cell cycle.
impact of route choice and period of the day on cyclists’ exposure to black carbon in london, rotterdam and são paulo
veronika sassen brand et al. 2019
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2019.03.007
black carbon levels cyclists are likely to be exposed to on heavily trafficked main routes in three major cities -- London (travelling to Liverpool Street), Rotterdam (travelling to Rotterdam Station) and São Paulo (travelling to Paulista Avenue). The scientists then compared this information with black carbon exposure on alternative routes between the same origin and destination that feature parks, waterways and other green infrastructure.
Overall, the results showed that the main routes in London and São Paulo exposed cyclists to higher concentrations of black carbon compared with alternative routes. In Rotterdam, concentration levels on main and alternative routes were similar.
The results also found that cyclists were exposed to twice as much black carbon levels on main routes in São Paulo compared to London and Rotterdam. Interestingly, Londoners cycling home on the main route during the evening commute were exposed to more pollutants than those who took the same route in the morning, and twice as much black carbon than those who took the alternative route.
Professor Prashant Kumar, Director of GCARE at the University of Surrey, said: "While it is common sense to conclude that cyclists are at risk of potentially harmful exposure levels of black carbon, our study provides further evidence that cyclists should plan alternative routes during specific times. A slower, cleaner route home could make a dramatic impact on your exposure to harmful black carbon.
"These findings should be considered when urban planners establish new cycle networks by increasing, as much as possible, the distance between the road and the cycle ways. This evidence also direct decision makers to seriously invest in green infrastructure throughout our major cities, as there is mounting evidence that these could provide the best line of defence against road pollution in near-road environments."
•Cyclists exposure assessment to BC in the cities of London, Rotterdam and São Paulo.
•BC concentrations were higher in the morning-peak hours in São Paulo and Rotterdam.
•In London, mean BC concentrations were higher during the evening peak hours.
•Cyclists using the alternative routes were mostly less exposed to BC.
•Important findings to consider in planning new cycle networks with lower exposure levels.
Cyclists are exposed to direct traffic emissions due to their proximity to on-road vehicles. Several studies associate black carbon (BC) exposure with both mortality and morbidity caused by cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. We did a comparative assessment of cyclists' exposure to BC in three cities: London, Rotterdam and São Paulo. We measured personal exposure to BC during the peak and off-peak hours in all three cities using the same instrument. Three origin-destination (O-D) pairs, each with two routes, for a total of six routes, were chosen in each city. The first route of each O-D pair was along busy major roads and the other perceived to be clean passing close to green/blue/quiet areas. This work brings together results from three different Latin American and European cities, with an aim to understand the BC exposure variabilities while cycling during peak and off-peak hours, identify main pollution hotspots resulting in enhanced exposure and associate the measured concentrations with proximity to green areas and waterways. BC concentrations were higher during the morning-peak hours compared with evening-peak hours in Rotterdam and São Paulo. London showed an opposite trend, with higher concentrations during evening hours. In most cases, the cyclists using the alternative route were found to be less exposed to BC in London and São Paulo. In Rotterdam, the differences in absolute concentrations between main and alternate routes were modest. Each city is different but the common features among all were that the exposure is related to route choice, a period of the day and proximity with the mobile sources. These findings have implications in terms of considering the pollutants exposure when establishing new cycle routes.
sheldon brown
sheldonbrown.com/
cork grips £14.99
planetx.co.uk/i/q/BTMIETCG/mieshas-portuguese-tree-cork-grips-(pair)—normal
bike lights
knog
knog.com
silverfish-uk.com/manufacturer/Knog
amazon.co.uk/Knog-Blinder-Unisex-Twinpack-Square/dp/B084WBSF6B/ref=sr_1_16
Charge light
Turn on - select flash mode.
Turn off
Hold button for 5 sec until
main LED in on steady.
Wait for light to turn off
automatically when battery is at correct level of storage. Main LED will flash slowly
3 times when storage mode
folding locks
not tried
abus 6500/85 bordo granit x-plus folding lock £81
https://www.amazon.co.uk/abus-bordo-granit-x-plus-folding/dp/b005x4lu48
foldylock compact bike lock £69
https://www.amazon.co.uk/foldylock-compact-security-carrying-included/dp/b07d44hbfb
small clamp of three pieces of wood and three screws
m.youtube.com/watch
use corner of room to hold large pieces steady
m.youtube.com/watch
pvc pipe split rings as clamps
m.youtube.com/watch
tuck masking tape between carpet and baseboard
m.youtube.com/watch
stop paint bleed using masking tape with wood corner and caulk
m.youtube.com/watch
from the junkyard to the power grid: ambient processing of scrap metals into nanostructured electrodes for ultrafast rechargeable batteries
nitin muralidharan et al. 2016
acsenergylett.6b00295
moringa oleifera seed protein adsorption to silica: effects of water hardness, fractionation, and fatty acid extraction
brittany a. nordmark et al. 2018
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.8b00191
Non-Toxic, Natural Bubbles
1/4 cup natural, biodegradable dish detergent (Like Seventh Generation Free and Clear)
1 cup water
1 teaspoon glycerin
How to make bubbles: Mix up all ingredients in a resealable container. Let stand overnight for best results.
giant bubbles
not yet tried
nortembio 5kg citric acid, bicarbonate of soda
amazon.co.uk/stores/NortemBio/NortemBio/page/71147AC6-ACA9-4DC9-87E3-6484A6E18DCA
thin crampon hexagonal net made from bicycle inner tubes
https://www.instructables.com/id/better-no-cost-crampons/
hexagonal weaving technique originally from
https://www.instructables.com/id/backpack-cargo-net-from-inner-tubes/
push to open
amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07MR4DC5L/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1
batteries
revive rechargeable batteries
hackerfarm.jp/2018/08/18650-lithium-ion-battery-revival/
batteries in a portable world a handbook on rechargeable batteries for non-engineers
isidor buchmann 2017
http://batteryuniversity.com/
zero waste: simple life hacks to drastically reduce your trash
shia su 2016 9781510730823
hydroflask
water bottles
lunchbots
food containers, bottles
klean kanteen
water bottles
company
Link: kleankanteen.com/
buy separate steel cap for kids bottle
kleankanteen.com/products/stainless-loop-cap
matthias wandel
Link: m.youtube.com/watch
woodworking
鉋 寸
kanna
planes
senkichi 70mm
6780yen 49uk
寸8
87uk 114us
ebay
Link: ebay.co.uk/itm/262581552376
78uk 104us
ebay discount
bought from
http://m.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?isRefine=true&_pgn=1&_nkw=seller%3Asaitoh320622&_sasl=saitoh320622&_sacat=631&cnm=DIY+Tools++(38)
Link: m.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html
seller of interesting diy items
cheaper than I paid but not bought from yet
Link: m.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html
67uk 8829jp
buyee small
74uk 99us
tenso
Link: amazon.co.jp/gp/aw/d/B003EIEG8C/ref=mp_s_a_1_11
84uk 11139jp
buyee ems
senkichi 65mm
4126yen 30uk
46uk 60us
amazon us
Link: amazon.com/gp/product/B0026FBGT6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2
44uk 5716jp
buyee small
dieter schmid
Link: fine-tools.com/hobel.html
amazon 18
Link: amazon.co.uk/Senkichi-Japanese-planer-Carpenters-Double/dp/B00P39PP7Q/ref=pd_sim_sbs_60_3
amazon
Link: amazon.co.uk/Japanese-Block-Carenters-Double-Senkichi/dp/B0026FBGR8/ref=pd_sim_sbs_60_3
getting the most from your kanna
desmond king
Link: amazon.com/Getting-Most-Your-Kanna-Desmond-ebook/dp/B00BVGGIAS
kanna setup
toolsfromjapan
Link: toolsfromjapan.com/store/index.php
ebay
single bladed
40x195
New SENKICHI KANNA Wood Block Hand Single Plane Tool 40 x 195 mm Japan
US $16.89
Approx. £11.51
US $3.90
(£2.66)
Postage
12-Jul to 26-Jul
Est. Delivery
Link: m.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-SENKICHI-KANNA-Wood-Block-Hand-Single-Plane-Tool-40-x-195-mm-Japan-/151794979243
SENKICHI Kanna 40 x 195 mm Japanese Wood Block Hand Single JAPAN
US $20.88
Approx. £14.23
Link: m.ebay.co.uk/itm/SENKICHI-Kanna-40-x-195-mm-Japanese-Wood-Block-Hand-Single-JAPAN-/141734178713
NEW SENKICHI Kanna 40 x 195 mmese Wood Block Hand Single from JAPAN F/S
US $22.29
Approx. £15.19
Link: m.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SENKICHI-Kanna-40-x-195-mmese-Wood-Block-Hand-Single-from-JAPAN-F-S-/111910498469
SENKICHI Kanna 40 x 195 mm Japanese Wood Block Hand Single Japan
US $24.40
Approx. £16.63
Link: m.ebay.co.uk/itm/SENKICHI-Kanna-40-x-195-mm-Japanese-Wood-Block-Hand-Single-Japan-/161576223584
yahoo auctions
planes sold
Link: closedsearch.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/closedsearch/（鉋）/24642/
planes
Link: category.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/list/かんな-ハンドツール-大工道具-工具-DIY用品-住まい-インテリア/2084211480/
常三郎
tsunesaburo planes
hearty express
Link: sellinglist.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/user/hearty_satellite
saws
Link: category.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/list/のこぎり-ハンドツール-大工道具-工具-DIY用品-住まい-インテリア/2084211478/
japanese woodworking blogs
jason
Link: mypeculiarnature.blogspot.com/
@TheJoinery_jp
https://twitter.com/TheJoinery_jp
Link: twitter.com/TheJoinery_jp
saw blade sharpening tools
diamond coated
dieter schmid
€9.9 delivery
Link: fine-tools.com/euroscha.html
sharpening
Link: giantcypress.net/post/9035789241/rip-this-joint-japanese-saw-sharpening-ii
sharpening vintage western saws
http://www.vintagesaws.com/library/primer/sharp.html
Link: vintagesaws.com/library/primer/sharp.html
UK shops
zsaw UK dealer
Link: woodworkprojects.co.uk/index.htm
niwaki
Link: niwaki.com/
tyzack london
Link: tyzacktools.com/default.aspx
quality woodworking tools
Link: quality-woodworking-tools.com/tools/Tools-from-Japan.html
workshop heaven
Link: workshopheaven.com/tools/Japanese_Saws.html
rutlands
Link: rutlands.co.uk/pp+woodworking-hand-tools-saws+b15000
brimarc
silky uk
Link: silkyfox.co.uk/index.php
green shopping
Link: green-shopping.co.uk/catalogsearch/result/
dick
free shipping over £115
Link: dictum.com/en/tools/woodworking-metalworking/saws/japanese-saws
tools from japan
Link: toolsfromjapan.com/store/index.php
dieter schmid
ryoba set
Link: fine-tools.com/G312030.html
3 piece starter 72
Link: fine-tools.com/set.html
saws
zsaw
dieter schmid
Link: fine-tools.com/ryoba.html
ryoba 36
zsaw uk
free delivery
Link: woodworkprojects.co.uk/shop.htm#!/S-250-double-edged/p/2017636/category=556702
ryoba 30
amazon
Link: amazon.co.uk/Z-Saw-S-250-double-edged-saw/dp/B00AXHABSG/ref=pd_sim_86_3
tyzack
Link: tyzacktools.com/category/54-ice-bear-japanese-saws.aspx
amazon
augusta ryoba 17
Link: amazon.co.uk/Augusta-44021-240-AMA-Japanese/dp/B00GN5KLI2/ref=sr_1_1
ice bear
drills
scissors
brushes
make shopdog sawhorse
Link: artofmanliness.com/2012/08/16/strong-durable-collapsible-and-versatile-how-to-build-a-better-sawhorse/
stationary axe kindling
Link: core77.com/posts/55548/13-Year-Old-Kiwi-Girl-Invents-Device-That-Safely-Turns-Firewood-Into-Kindling
make taiko
large taiko
Link: m.youtube.com/watch
small taiko
Link: m.youtube.com/watch
ancient japanese method of joining structural wood without glue or nails
Link: youtube.com/watch
successful
long–term
unsuccessful
to try
15m yellow cable with v. bright blue usb ports
amazon.co.uk/TU1513-2-Socket-Tri-Pro-Professional-Thermal/dp/B00APV4UOQ
50m black cable super solid
amazon.co.uk/Brennenstuhl-Super-Solid-socket-length-shock-absorbing/dp/B00HW0AM3Q
20m yellow cable “easy wind”
amazon.co.uk/TP2010-4-Socket-Tri-Pro-Professional-Thermal/dp/B003B2QGT8
50m yellow cable
amazon.co.uk/Masterplug-OLU50134SL-PX-Pro-XT-Gang-Open/dp/B014L2OOYK
lasagna gardening: an introduction to no-dig vegetable gardening using sheet composting
james paris 2015
adventures in edible plant foraging: finding, identifying, harvesting, and preparing native and invasive wild plants
karen monger 2016
backyard foraging: 65 familiar plants you didn’t know you could eat
ellen zachos 2013
composting for a new generation: latest techniques for the bin and beyond
michelle balz 2017
backyard farming: fruit trees, berries & nuts
kim pezza 2015
backyard farming: growing vegetables & herbs from planting to harvesting and more
kim pezza 2013
the man who made things out of trees
robert penn 2015
sustainable food systems: the role of the city
dr robert biel 2016
the mushroom at the end of the world: on the possibility of life in capitalist ruins
anna lowenhaupt tsing 2015
the ultimate guide to natural farming and sustainable living
nicole faires 2015
free to make: how the maker movement is changing our schools, our jobs, and our minds
dale dougherty & ariane conrad 2016
permaculture for the rest of us: abundant living on less than an acre
jenni blackmore 2015
a new garden ethic: cultivating defiant compassion for an uncertain future
benjamin vogt 2017
my tiny home farm: simple ideas for small spaces
francine raymond 2016
the ever curious gardener: using a little natural science for a much better garden
lee reich 2018
the art of fire: discover the joy of tinder, spark and ember
daniel hume 2017
the basics of permaculture design
ross mars 2005
the vegetable gardener’s guide to permaculture: creating an edible ecosystem
christopher shein & christopher shein 2013
growing a farmer: how i learned to live off the land
kurt timmermeister 2012
mushroom cultivation: an illustrated guide to growing your own mushrooms at home
tavis lynch 2018
the illustrated book of edible plants
jack staub, ellen buchert 2017
back to basics: a complete guide to traditional skills
abigail r. gehring 2007
zero waste home: the ultimate guide to simplifying your life by reducing your waste
bea johnson 2013
make: like the pioneers: a day in the life with sustainable, low-tech/no-tech solutions
editors 2015
when technology fails: a manual for self-reliance & planetary survival
matthew stein 2000
the complete book of self sufficiency
john seymour 1997
how to invent everything: a survival guide for the stranded time traveller
ryan north 2018
a safe and sustainable world: the promise of ecological design
nancy jack todd 2005
toilet limescale
toilet vinegar
clean toilet bowl without use of commercial cleaning products
hanging towels and sheets from slanted stair handrails by tucking corner around bannister and friction–knotting it to itself (single hitch), hanging majority of sheet over the edge of handrail away from steps. this makes use of warm air rising up the stairwell
washing a mix of different–sized items in each wash means you can make good use of diverse drying–locations
damp towels fresh from being washed in the washing machine make effective and relatively safe screen– and keyboard–cleaners as they are less likely to have abrasive dust in them
cleaning by surfactant gradients: particulate removal from porous materials and the significance of rinsing in laundry detergency
sangwoo shin et al. 2018
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevapplied.9.034012
when hanging washing on lines or racks to dry, manually move them a little as you walk past, to encourage airflow; if you have time then flip each piece halfway through drying or even relocate while flipping to different area of rack
Bosch Serie 6 SPS59T02GB
quiet, slimline, cutlery tray
use short–cycle function with half–tablet or less–than–normal amount of dishwasher powder when washing relatively clean, pre–rinsed dishes
occasional full cycle on hot (hygeine) function after cleaning filter