From: Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>
To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [permaculture] International Permaculture Conference PDC, September 3-15, 2011 - Amman, Jordan
Date: Thu, 19 May 2011 06:21:41 -0700
International Permaculture Conference PDC, September 3-15, 2011 - Amman,
Jordan
Warren Brush, Brad Lancaster, Geoff Lawton, Nadia Lawton, Bill
Mollison, Rosemary Morrow:
September 3, 2011
to
September 15, 2011 http://www.ipcon.org/index.php/pre-ipc-pdc-course
The Permaculture Design Certificate course is an
internationally-recognized, seventy-two hour course resulting in a
Permaculture Design Certificate. It provides an introduction to
permaculture design as set forth by movement founder Bill Mollison.
The PDC serves as foundation for further permaculture work and study
and is a prerequisite for the Diploma in Permaculture Design, offered
through The Permaculture Institute. Credit for this course is now
accepted by a growing number of universities around the world.
To date, thousands of permaculture designers worldwide have been
certified through this course, and now comprise a global network of
educators, ecological activists who influence major corporations,
individuals creating new business alternatives and groups of
committed people working together to change the way we view and
design into our landscapes.
The course covers sustainable living systems for a wide variety of
landscapes and climates. It includes the application of permaculture
principles to food production, home design, construction, energy
conservation and generation, and explores alternative economic
structures and legal strategies supporting permaculture solutions.
Dates: September 3-15, 2011
Location: Amman, Jordan
Teachers (see bios at bottom):
* Rosemary Morrow
* Brad Lancaster
* Warren Brush
* Geoff Lawton
* Nadia Lawton
* with special guest talks by Bill Mollison
Costs:
International Students: US$2,000
Jordanian residents: US$1,000
Accommodation/Meal Information: TBA soon! (check this website for updates)
Booking Info: TBA soon! (check this website for updates)
Teacher Bios
Rosemary Morrow (Rowe) trained in development work in France where
she also lived in Trosly-Breuil l'Arche community, and in England at
Jordans. Most of the 1970s were spent in Lesotho. Back in Australia
in the 1980s permaculture provided the powerful basis for her concern
for Earth restoration. She considers permaculture 'sacred' knowledge
to be carried and shared with others. Since then she has travelled to
teach people anxious and concerned to restore their environments. As
a teacher of permaculture Rowe has been inspired for many years by
Parker Palmer, the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) and
non-violent resistance. She works in di?cult places responding to
people who have been disempowered and who would not otherwise have
access to permaculture.
Brad Lancaster is the author of the best-selling, and award-winning
books Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volumes 1 and 2.
Living on an eighth of an acre (0.05 ha) in downtown Tucson, Arizona,
where rainfall is less than 12 inches (305 mm) annually, Brad
practices what he preaches by harvesting over 100,000 gallons
(379,000 liters) of rainwater a year., creating an oasis in the
desert by directing this harvested rainwater not off their property
and into storm drains, but instead incorporating it into living air
conditioners of food-bearing shade trees, abundant gardens, and a
thriving landscape that includes habitat for wildlife. This living
example, dynamic public talks, and countless hands-on workshops have
inspired thousands of citizens and numerous businesses in Tucson and
around the country to harvest water and sustainably grow their local
resources.
Warren Brush is a certified Permaculture designer and teacher as well
as a mentor and storyteller. He has worked for over 25 years in
inspiring people of all ages to discover, nurture and express their
inherent gifts while living in a sustainable manner. He is
co-founder of Quail Springs Learning Oasis & Permaculture Farm,
Sustainable Vocations, Wilderness Youth Project, Trees for Children
and his Permaculture design company, True Nature Design. He works
extensively in Permaculture education and sustainable systems design
in North America and in Africa as well as in other countries
worldwide. He has devoted many years to mentoring youth to inspire
and equip them to live in a sustainable manner with integrity and a
hopeful outlook. His mentoring includes working with those who are
former child soldiers, orphans, from troubled families and situations
as well as those youth from other varied and privileged backgrounds.
Geoff Lawton is an internationally-renowned permaculture educator,
consultant and practitioner. He emigrated from England to Australia
and later studied permaculture with Bill Mollison in Tasmania. He
established the Permaculture Research Institute at Tagari Farm in New
South Wales, Australia, a 147-acre farmstead previously developed by
Mollison. PRI was eventually moved to Zaytuna Farm, in The Channon,
where it continues today. Since 1985, Geoff has designed and
implemented permaculture projects in 30 countries for private
individuals and groups, communities, governments, aid organizations,
and multinational corporations. He has taught the Permaculture Design
Certificate course in 30 countries.
Nadia Lawton, co-teacher and translator on this course, was born and
raised in the Jordan (Dead Sea) Valley, in the lowest and one of the
driest places on earth. She completed her PDC with Sindhu Webber in
Jordan and went on to complete a Permaculture Diploma in Education
and Site Design. She regularly travels with her husband for aid
project and permaculture consulting work, and assists in teaching
permaculture design courses. Nadia established PRI Jordan and the
Jawasari Permaculture Society.
Bill Mollison is a researcher, author, scientist, teacher and
naturalist. He is the developer of the curriculum for the world class
Permaculture Design Course, and authors many other books dealing with
Permaculture. He established and continues to direct the first and
longest running Permaculture Institute in existence. He is the first
teacher of anything Permaculture both domestically and on a global
scale and continues teaching Permaculture Design Courses today, most
recently in Istanbul in Nov 2010. Students will be privileged to hear
Bill speak at the PDC!
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Subject: [permaculture] BBC News - Protein flaws responsible for complex
life, study says
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Protein flaws responsible for complex life, study says
By Jason Palmer Science and technology reporter, BBC News
SEM of Pyrococcus furiosus archaea Some proteins have remained largely
unchanged since they first appeared
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
'Grape' is key to fossil puzzle
Ancient ancestor's legacy of life
Tiny structural errors in proteins may have been responsible for changes
that sparked complex life, researchers say.
A comparison of proteins across 36 modern species suggests that protein
flaws called "dehydrons" may have made proteins less stable in water.
This would have made them more adhesive and more likely to end up
working together, building up complex function.
The Nature study adds weight to the idea that natural selection is not
the only means by which complexity rises.
Natural selection is a theory with no equal in terms of its power to
explain how organisms and populations survive through the ages; random
mutations that are helpful to an organism are maintained while harmful
ones are bred out.
But the study provides evidence that the "adaptive" nature of the
changes it wreaks may not be the only way that complexity grew.
Single-celled life gave rise to more complex organisms, and with them
came ever-more complicated networks of gene and protein interactions.
Michael Lynch, an evolutionary theorist at Indiana University, teamed up
with Ariel Fernandez of the University of Chicago, both in the US, to
look specifically at protein structure.
They considered 106 proteins shared among 36 modern-day organisms of
widely varying complexity, from single-celled protozoa up to humans.
The pair were studying "dehydrons" - regions of proteins that make them
more unstable in watery environments.
These dehydrons - first discovered by Dr Fernandez - make the proteins
more sticky in water, thereby raising the probability that they will
adhere to other such proteins.
Continue reading the main story
Start Quote
We've opened up the idea that the roots of complexity don't have to
reside in purely adaptational arguments
Michael Lynch Indiana University
The analysis showed that organisms with smaller populations - such as
humans - had accumulated more of these defects than simpler organisms
with vastly higher population numbers.
The suggestion is that it is the acquisition of these defects, with
sticky proteins more likely to work together in ever-more complex
protein-protein interactions, that nudged cellular complexity upward.
"We've tried to bridge the gap between protein structure and evolution
and believe we've uncovered evidence that proteins develop mild defects
in organisms with smaller population sizes, over the great divide from
bacteria to unicellular eukaryotes to invertebrates up to us
vertebrates," said Professor Lynch.
These slight defects may decrease protein function even as they increase
protein cooperation.
The authors suggest then that other adaptations occur that "undo" the
deleterious effects of the sticky proteins.
For example, the protein haemoglobin that carries oxygen in our blood,
is made of four identical subunits, each with a range of dehydron flaws;
simpler organisms have globin molecules that accomplish the same job
with just one subunit.
But the overlap of the four subunits actually masks the flaws in each one.
The authors stress that they are not arguing against natural selection
as a process; they say rather that it can be aided by "non-adaptive"
mechanisms.
"There's been this general feeling that complexity is a good thing and
evolves for complexity's sake - that it's adaptive," Professor Lynch
told BBC News.
"We've opened up the idea that the roots of complexity don't have to
reside in purely adaptational arguments.
"It's opening up a new evolutionary pathway that didn't exist before."
'A mess'
Ford Doolittle of Dalhousie University agrees that this mechanism,
separate from Darwin's vision of natural selection, is an important
consideration.
Artist's rendering of haemoglobin molecule The haemoglobin protein in
our blood contains four identical subunits co-operating
"Darwinists are a little bit like the pre-Darwinists before them, who
would have marveled at the perfection of God's creation," he told BBC News.
"We tend to marvel at the Darwinian perfection of organisms now, saying
'this must have been highly selected for, it's a tuned and sophisticated
machine'.
"In fact, it's a mess - there's so much unnecessary complexity."
While he called the Nature study "important and interesting", he
disagrees with the mechanism that allows organisms to recover from the
protein flaws.
He has long argued for a "presuppression" mechanism, in which some
organisms may have a way to overcome the limited functionality of the
slightly damaged proteins, and those that do survive best.
"He's putting the cart before the horse," Professor Doolittle said of
Professor Lynch's idea that subsequent mutations solve the problems
raised by the protein changes.
"But we both agree that much of complexity does not have an adaptive
explanation."
[permaculture] International Permaculture Conference PDC, September 3-15, 2011 - Amman, Jordan,
Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network, 05/19/2011