SuperForest

Good Evening SuperForest

We love TED talks here on SuperForest – eye-opening, entertaining, illuminating talks from a wide variety of experts in a plethora of fields.  My top tip for Tuesday would definitely be: if you haven’t yet signed up to the TED e-newsletter, do! A weekly email drop of featured TED videos, it never fails to throw up something fascinating. You can sign up here.

We also love a good infographic – and a favourite is David McCandless’ Information Is Beautiful site – a few picks we’ve featured include Every Country is Good at Something, the Evidence for the Efficacy of Health Supplements and the Surface Area Required to Solar Power the World.

Now, to combine the two, David has given his own TED talk – explaining the value of infographics in parsing the vast amount of information we are bathed in every day, and the use of design in aiding comprehension. Check it:

Isn’t it amazing how, by assigning a visual meaning or map to numbers, they can suddenly ‘click’ into focus, into meaning?

McCandless builds on the phrase “data is the new oil”, reflecting on the importance of data as a modern resource, to instead suggest that “data is the new soil“:

Data is a kind of ubiquitous reserve that we can shape to provide new innovation and new insights … it feels like a fertile medium and over the years online we’ve laid down a huge amount of information and data and we’ve irrigated it with networks and connectivity … and it feels like visualisations, infographics, data visualisation, they feel like flowers blooming.

McCandless also makes an interesting point about our design-sense. A lot has been written recently about the negative effects of our pervasive internet and media culture on our abilities to concentrate or to interact. However, McCandless draws out a benefit that our unprecedented access to data, and unprecedented connectivity in interpreting it, has given us: a growing sense of how such data is best comprehensible.  As McCandless – who only recently ventured into design – says:

It’s almost like being exposed to all this media over the years had installed a sort of dormant design literacy in me. And I don’t feel like I’m unique, I feel like every day all of us now are being blasted with information and design. It’s being poured into our eyes through the web and we’re all vizualisers now, and we’re all demanding a visual aspect to our information.

… and It feels like design is about solving problems and providing elegant solutions and information design is about solving information problems

It all reminds me of a conversation I had a while back with SuperForester Pierangelo, who works in news graphics, where he stressed a value: that of communicating in a way that the most people could understand.  I think there’s a lot of value to this – it’s not a question of (nor should it be conflated with) ‘dumbing down’ – rather as consciously trying to maximise the ways in which we all can understand – and so are able to engage – with our world.

As a smile-making aside: I laughed aloud when I searched SF for “information is beautiful” – a whole host of posts (the vast majority unrelated to McCandless) came up. Turns out, here on SuperForest, provision of Information and appreciation of Beauty coincide a lot!

As Hans Rosling says:

Let the data-set change your mindset

Love

P

There is no denying the zen-like qualities of this man. Perhaps I see it in the softness of his voice, or the delicacy and precision in his craft. The only surprising thing, it seems, is that this sense of tranquility and “at oneness with all things” comes from a machine many consider to be dangerous or even reckless.

Shinya Kimur is an artist. And his works of art are the motorcycles he builds.

I was immediately struck by the beauty of this short (in both the editing and the content). The love and devotion this man shows towards his motorcycles is something any artist would envy, but the spiritual nature with which his passion creates is something we all could learn from.

(via the mighty kitsune noir!)

Dearest SuperForest,

The photograph above shows SuperForester Keith Pezzoli and his bike next to the incredible SolTrekker! Yup. The Global ARC Journey started (back on July 15th). And yup, I’ve failed to write consistent update posts about it, despite a steady influx of exciting happenings.

When I last left you, the Global ARC team and myself had just returned from Occidental College in Los Angeles after a successful meeting with one of the brightest minds in sustainability planning in urban settings and after we had just secured our transportation vehicle, The SolTrekker. Since then, Dr. Pezzoli and the Global ARC team travelled all the way up to Vancouver, made their way down Washington, and ended up in Portland where Janice met up with them. They then picked up the SolTrekker, and continued their journey south. During this time, they’ve toured the Spanish Bank Creek Restoration Project in British Columbia, learned about fish farming in Bellingham, Washington, visited farms in Portland, and have met and interviewed a wide range of activists and leaders across the northern west coast. Not to mention, the actual biking that has been going on throughout the entire trip, a portion of which, you can experience in this next video!

Back at the base, SuperForesters Maureen and I have been focusing our attention on arranging the stops here at the southern west coast and putting together a celebratory event that will be held at the end of the journey. To say the least, things have been a bit hectic, but in ways that seem almost celestial in nature, it seems like everything is coming together wonderfully. The Global ARC team is currently in the bay area of California where they will meet up with SuperForester Jon to attend a Cafe Gratitude Workshop and tour the Blend Apparel workshop! Stay tuned, more videos and exciting adventures to come! And yes, probably more last minute changes that’ll probably make it really difficult for me to continuously update you guys on what’s going on, but luckily, there are plenty of ways you can keep yourself informed.

To keep yourself updated on what’s going on with the Global ARC, you can visit their website, follow their Journey on their Google Map, or subscribe to their YouTube Channel!

Love,
Carla

So much about this picture makes me smile, I don’t even know where to begin…so I tried to look up more info on this terrific VW parade, but alas, no luck. Perhaps one of you intelligent readers could clue me in as to what’s going on here. Or perhaps it’d be better if we let the image stand as is. Either way, it’s the best.

A very special thank you goes out to Janice for the tip!

(via flickr user pjalau)

Hello SuperForest!  I just returned to Korea from a week in Japan, and every day was astounding and significant. I’ll be sharing the whole trip with you over the next few days. Last May I had a weekend in Tokyo, and I knew I had to come back. This time around, I visited Kansai, the region that includes Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and other powerful places.

I flew into Osaka, called the nation’s kitchen. We’ll get to the food later, which was, of course spectacular. But what makes Osaka for me is the earnestness of the people, a total lack of pretension, kindness all around.

After checking into my hostel, I did what I must always do, wander the neighborhood: Momodani, where the people live.

Shrines tucked in between buildings speaks to the combination of centuries in which the Japanese live. They have created some of the most advanced technology, but retain groundedness. I think this is due to the cultures continued reverence to the past. Ancestors’ spirits are a part of everyday life.

The temperature was a blistering 93F, but I had to see more of the city. After a short train ride, I set out to raid the castle.

Osaka-jo has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. First constructed in 1583, the castle fell, figuratively and literally, to a successive number of shogunates. It was burned to the ground in 1868 by Imperial forces. The current structure, while beautiful to look at, is a concrete reproduction of the original. I didn’t feel called to go inside, so I strolled toward downtown.

The landscape of the city struck me. Osaka is not nearly as crowded as Tokyo, its spacing reminds me of American cities, like my beloved Chicago. The city is so powerful —  it produces the 7th largest GDP of any metropolitan area — but I felt a striking sense of peace and cheerfulness. I ambled on to the National Museum of Art, Osaka. It was, of course,  closed for the day.

Nonetheless, César Pelli’s building is a work of art in itself. The architect says it portrays reeds waving in the wind. Still, I felt a bit stuck. A friendly young lady was nearby, and I asked her what I should do. Being an Osakan, she had one answer: Eat!

Megumi took me to this little place, where we feasted. She told me of the city and the region. Never before had I felt such warmth from a stranger. So, so good. Arigato, Osaka!

Up next: Nara! Sacred deer will be involved. For more pictures, check out the flickr.

Hey SuperForest

SuperForester Jaell recently posted about the excellent Minneapolis Nice Bike programme – and now I’m excited to be able to tell you that my very own London town has finally jumped on the bike hire bandwagon:  the long-awaited Barclays Cycle Hire scheme has arrived!

(scenic bike!)

Launched last Friday, thanks to famously cycling Mayor Boris (yep, that’s him below) we now have 600 bikes at 400 docking stations across London, available to pick up and drop off as you please. And the best thing? After you sign up (and pay for a 24hr, week or annual access membership – with annual access at £45) you get as many half-hours as you want for free.

(the attendant I spoke to told me that Boris had just been by, on his bike natch, to check how things were going)

At the moment the bikes are available if you sign up online, but from the end of August they’ll be available to borrow on the spot – so if you’re planning a visit to London, do bear this in mind.  The bikes are pretty heavy, but they’re comfortable, feel very sturdy and, if you get a flat tyre, you just need to park it up at the nearest docking station and press the service button.  Another tasty touch is the integrated, dynamo, LED front and rear lights.  Although, as Jaell mentioned with the Minneapolis scheme, do bring your own helmet as they’re not provided.  You can check out the location and real-time availability of bikes here and the cycle conduct guide here.  And if, like me, you’re a London resident but a little nervous of the hectic traffic, then it’s absolutely worth checking with your council whether they provide free cycling-in-London classes (Camden council is a nice example) to learn in practice tips for safe city cycling - free or subsidised cycle training is available in all London boroughs.

I signed up online on Friday and received my bike key in the mail on Monday morning – just in time to take a bike for a lunchtime spin round the office – I realised quite quickly that a pencil skirt is not the most elegant of impromptu cycling gear, but sadly have no photographic evidence of my maiden voyage.

Word to the wise from my chat with the introductory attendant: if you’re cycling for longer than half an hour, do scope yourself a docking station halfway, park up the bike, wait five minutes (hey – it’s not that long – why not use it well: pay compliments to passers-by! do some jumping jacks! call your Mum!) then you can whip out a bike for another free half hour. Win!

I’m sure there’ll be some teething problems – for example, this evening, there were no bikes left near my office (which is really a fabulous thing – encouraging suited, deskbound workers to hop on a bike after work? I can’t think of anything better) so I guess they’ll need to do some redistributions overnight until they work out the kinks, but overall I’m really excited that London – a city not known for its cycle-friendliness – is really giving this a go.

Maybe one day we’ll look like Utrecht:

Join in! Make it work!

Love to you all

P

About a year ago, I posted about the Minneapolis bike share program that Bike Walk Twin Cities was encouraging with its $1.75 million grant.

Since that post, Minneapolis/Saint Paul has gone from simply boasting a high percentage of bicyclists to being declared this year’s most bike-friendly city by Bicycling Magazine.  I’d say that is pretty incredible considering how the weather can go from 90 degrees with 70% humidity to 30 below with snow mountains and glistening ice sheets.

The fact of the matter is that the city itself is promoting bikes as a mode of transportation fast and hard.  You can see by Google Maps (now featuring bike lanes/pathways) just how easy it is to get from A to B in the entire metro area.

Furthermore, the bike share program I posted about last year, lovingly dubbed “Nice Ride Minnesota,” has been launched.  These attractive bikes are equipped with a basket, a fender, and adjustable seats.  Don’t forget your helmet, though, because these don’t come with it.  You must to protect your head!

Check out all the locations you can pick them up and drop them off as well:

Currently the bike share program is only in Minneapolis but the plan is to expand it further and further into Saint Paul and surrounding cities.  I’m pretty stoked, even though chances are I won’t use it.  I have my own bike and its a Panasonic.  No joke.

Still, for everyone that just wants a ride once in awhile, doesn’t want to store a bike, can’t afford a bike (even though you can get used ones for cheap from Craigslist and many used bike shops), or needs transportation from bus-stop to bus-stop, Nice Ride Minnesota is for you!

Get goin’!

Best,

Jaell

Hello, SuperForest!

I write to you after several long days filled with hope, excitement, and anticipation. The Global ARC Journey is only a few days away, and as I began to dip my toes into this brand new experience of helping to plan such a wonderful event, panic was beginning to settle in.

We didn’t have a support vehicle.

Understandably, this was a major issue of concern. The participants would be traveling 2,000 miles. Camera equipment and other basic necessities (food, water, etc.) needed to be hauled (and kept from overheating), and as time was winding down, it seemed as if our options were becoming more and more limited. That is, until yesterday. SuperForesters Keith, Janice, Maureen, and myself visited Los Angeles to meet with Professor Bob Gottlieb at Occidental College to learn of his suggestions on who to connect with and particularly, how he’d be able to get involved. On the drive back toward San Diego, we received a phone call that would solve our support vehicle dilemma.

SuperForest, I’d like you to meet what will be the home/vehicle for the 2010 Global ARC journey.

It’s called the SolTrekker, and it’s 100% fossil-fuel free motorhome complete with a biodiesel engine, solar panels, a waterless toilet, a rainwater catchment system, and sustainable materials on the inside. It’s almost too much to take in all at once, and honestly, when I was first introduced to this vehicle, I almost immediately disregarded it thinking it was something in the “too good to be true” category of transportation options. Alas, in a series of opportunities that seemed almost celestial (thanks to SuperForester Janice and the rest of the Global ARC team), it looks like we’ve got this little beauty rented! Ty, the man you saw in the video, was incredibly in tune with our mission and as all of the correspondences were occurring, it was incredible to feel like everything was falling into place. And upon reflection, it seems the first few weeks of planning this Global ARC journey have demonstrated to me one thing, and that is the power of community.

From the very beginning, Maureen and I have been busy phoning and emailing contacts in order to make this Global ARC journey the success we know it will be. We had a meeting with Mel and Vallie and we are crossing our fingers that they’ll be able to give us a hand with the final stop in San Diego (and maybe even a concert as part of a spectacular Global ARC/SuperForest grand finale event), SuperForester Jon will be getting involved up in the bay area, SuperForester Anyes and Heather have already offered (and have begun) to help out in Vancouver, and Patricia has even offered contacts in Seattle.

It’s amazing to see the insane amount of power and potency that lies within this very community we have created. Because this community of people like Ty and Anyes is exactly what’s making this journey possible. And now that I think of it, is exactly the type of community we’re celebrating. All of my gratitude goes out to those who have stepped up and offered to help us (and to those that will do so in the future).

We’ve accomplished great things in the past, dear friends, and I’m sure this is one we’ll all be able to celebrate together.

With love,

Carla

SuperForest,

I’d like to introduce you to a super-shrub.

The creator, Justin Shull, calls this the Terrestrial Shrub Rover. He explains that it is a means to explore the terrestrial and social environments here on earth and that it was created to celebrate NASA’s efforts to revisit the moon.

Quite honestly, I’m not sure any sort of explanation is even necessary.

(via.)

Good Morning, SuperForest!

We’ve mentioned several times how so much of what goes on behind the scenes here at SuperForest fails to be mentioned up on the blog, we’ve also mentioned several times that we would work to improve this nasty habit of ours and time and time again have failed to do that. But upon further reflection, perhaps it’s not a failure. Perhaps the incredible stories of what goes on behind the scenes just need some time to ferment and process before reaching your eyes. Perhaps, they themselves know the best time to present themselves to you. In the case of our behind the scenes workings with The Global ARC, that time has come.

Very frequently, SuperForest comes across groups and organizations that are very much in tune with the message and themes of our website, but every once in a while that connection is so strong, that in a process that seems almost cosmic and magnetic, partnerships are formed. It happened with SuperForester Jon of Blend Apparel, it happened with SuperForester Vallie and Mel of the Feeding the Soul Foundation, and it most definitely happened with the Pezzoli Family and The Global ARC. We’ve mentioned the Pezzolis a few times here on the site, but a formal introduction has been about six months overdue.

I had the pleasure of having Dr. Keith Pezzoli as my professor in several Urban Studies and Planning classes that I took at UCSD. Now, I’ve had several jaw-droppingly amazing professors during my time there but few compare to this one for his enthusiasm and dedication to the environment, to regional planning, and to his students was something that made attending his classes not only engaging, but fun (yes, fun). Another thing Dr. Pezzoli showed a lot of enthusiasm towards was what he called the Global ARC (or the Global Action Research Center) which is an organization he and his wife Janice were starting to “share, grow and scale up sustainability solutions” in order to eradicate some of the biggest problems we face on both a local and global scale. As such, this organization is building a sustainability database, an Open Access digital library, and what they are calling the “Journeys of the Global ARC” (bike tours meant to showcase some of these sustainable solutions). I was sitting in class as he was explaining his vision of bridging grassroots organizations to academic research performed at universities and I kept thinking to myself, “This is so SuperForest.”

A few months later, SuperForester Jackson and I met with Janice and Keith as a means of introducing ourselves to each other and a few weeks after that, we were meeting their son Chris, their dog Morgan, and were having dinner at their house discussing both SuperForest and Global ARC plans and how we could help each other out.

Since then, this friendship and partnership has only grown, and most recently, SuperForest has been working the the Global ARC to help plan their first Global ARC Journey. Starting on July 15th, The Global ARC organization is going to embark on a 2000 mile long bicycle journey from Vancouver, Canada down the west coast of the United States to San Diego, California. Along the way, they’ll be stopping at several key locations to learn first hand from organizations and institutions about the actions they’re taking to better this planet (community gardens, universities, etc.). It’s going to be epic and SuperForest has been helping organize it all. Specifically, SuperForester Maureen and I are going to be in charge of organizing both the stops in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Goodness, it’s even more intimidating to read that back in writing.
You see, SuperForesters Maureen and I have never planned anything like this before.
Nothing even close to this.

And as I write this, I’m filled with an incredible sense of anticipation, nervousness, and excitement. These are all signs that SuperForest is expanding its horizons and is stepping out into an opportunity full of growth and learning. I have little doubt this is going to be amazing. SuperForesters Maureen and I will be sharing much more about the Global ARC, this west coast journey, our Southern California stops, and we’ll most definitely be reaching out to you guys for help because if there’s anything I’ve learned from here on SuperForest, it’s the incredible power of community and how together, we SuperForesters can accomplish the most daunting of tasks…like planning major bike tours.

Journey starts on July 15th. Let’s do this thing.

Yours in adventure,
Carla