Kiln Building on Hawaii

Volcano Kiln Workshop

Monday, March 24, 2008 - Friday, March 28, 2008

Kowalke Residence
53-4177 Akoni Pule Highway
Kapaau, Hawaii 96755
Peter Kowalke
Phone: 808-937-7556
Email: peterantrim@gmail.com

http://www.regonline.com/volcano_kiln

Yesterday my friend John Southworth, invited a group of us to meet and participate if we can in his 'holiday' at the Volcano Kiln Workshop held on the northern point of the big island called Hawaii. This is the island where there is an active volcano. I 'google earth' to find out where they were and did a 'print screen' on my computer, so that I could insert it into a slide show.

John introduced me to Hugh Jenkins and Peter Kowalai, who are running the workshop.

"Hugh works with Ohio Valley Creative Energy www.ohiovalleycreativeenergy.org on sustainable equipment design and is a founding member of the BioGlass Group www.bioglass.org . For more information on Hugh, please visit: www.bigislandglass.com " from Hugh's bio.

Peter Kowalke, a local artist originally from Oahu, now resides on the Big Island and is a painter, sculptor and ceramicist. Young students and community members work together learning about local ecology, history, culture, science and much more as they create public works of art. Each project and resulting artwork emphasizes the island ecosystems and a holistic psychology based in the belief of "interconnectedness." For more information about Peter's fine art and community works go to www.artinsight.us and www.artinsight.us/hiddenjewels (community work).

A young university student from Hawaii, who is an artist, who hopes to learn how to blow glass more sustainably. This is because of the new way of re-capturing the heat from the kilm. Each participant will be helping in building the kiln. I wonder if they will also create a pot with the volcanic earth, and then fire them in the kiln?

John is hoping to be able to document the process in nicenet, using digital photos and individual stories. Maybe I can write a few ideas for schools on sustainability.

What an unexpected invitation to participate via the webcam. I am so thankful.

Update: John and I did a powerpoint presentation with is uploaded into
http://www.scribd.com/doc/2374440/HawaiBigIsland

Julia

World Water Day March 22, 2008

Dear friends

Yesterday was World Water Day, but we know that 'water day is everyday'. In this picture you can see the results of the drought, on the River Murray at its Mouth in South Australia. All this part of the river is usually covered with water. The situation is very serious. I have created a slideshow using Helen and Scott Irvine's photos. Thank you to David Morton for flying in his new helicopter around the Lower Lakes and the Murray River's Mouth. Also thank you to Frank Refchange for your important photos.

First open the Port Elliot Flyers song "Let the Murray Flow" written by Shane Howard and Anne Todd in 2004. It was sent to me by Carol VanDalen and goes well with the slide show of the River Murray situation below.

http://ihtec.podbean.com/

Here is the slide show

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2518860/MurrayDarlingBasinAust

Do hope you can see and understand the differences from Granny's photos taken in 1987and Scott and Helen's photos in 2008.

Here is another slide show about water in South Australia.

http://www.savethemurray.com/facts_coorong_lower_lakes_and_murray_mouth.php

We all need to listen to the Ngarrindjeri Sea Country Plan. It is found here

http://www.environment.gov.au/indigenous/publications/pubs/ngarrindjeri-scp-2006-1.pdf

I am planning an online Water Round Table for young people during the year. Also IHTEC will participate in the 'Global Issues Water Round Table' in November 2008.

Do hope you will study the water situation where you are and join us.

Cheers
Julia

More WEB 2.0 Tools

Dear friends

I have spent more time finding more useful tools for you to try.

For Schools

edu20 - http://www.edu20.org/
they will be adding virtual worlds soon.

Schoopy- a new platform for schools to communicate with each other.
http://www.schoopy.com/

Uploading ppt's and pdf

Scribd www.scribd.com upto 1 GB of free room

http://yousendit.com

http://www.slideshare.net


Mind Maps

Mind42 - http://mind42.com/
a collaboratry mind mapping tool for two people - this is a Beta mode and is new but looks interesting it let me sign in, but didn't send me confirmation.


Bubbl.us http://www.bubbl.us/
online collabortory min mappin tool for more than two people


NEWS - Press Releases

http://www.instablogs.com/

http://opencalais.com/

pipes.yahoo.com


Virtual Avatar Creation Fun

http://www.fix8.com/


Invitations to Events Create an event

Pingg http://www.pingg.com

EventWax http://www.eventwax.com

Eventsbot http://eventsbot.com/

Love Julia

Spring Time - Bees & Honey

Hallo Sam

Hurray. It is Spring Time again. The snow is beginning to melt here and soon the birds will migrate back for the summer. The winter silence causes me to be sad. Triple glazed windows protect us from the environment outside. So I welcome the sounds of life as spring approaches.

In Spring the bees start their outside work again, when the flowers bloom. Bees don't hibernate in the winter, they snuggle together in a ball, constantly moving their bodies to keep the temperature at 90o F or 32.2o C. A beehive has between 20,000 and 30,000 bees.

Did you have honey for breakfast? Well this morning I ate the lifetime work of several dozen worker bees. What I eat in 1 year takes bees 55,000 miles or 8,8513 kms. They visit about 2 million flowers a year. One worker bee produces 1/12 teaspoon in its lifetime.

The queen bee lays 1,500 eggs a day and is the only bee to lay eggs.

How many times does a bee flap its wings in a minute? 11,000 times.

How fast does a bee fly? Ans: 15 miles per hour while it visits between 50 - 100 blossoms per trip.

How much honey can a hive create in a day? 2 lbs of honey.

So please look after the bees. They work hard for all of us.

Love
Julia

Didgeridoo

What fun we had yesterday, learning how to play a Didgeridoo. Do you know how to do circular breathing?

Here are some lessons for you to try.... have fun.

http://www.aboriginalarts.co.uk/howtoplaydidgeridoo.html

Here are some YouTube videos for you to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC9w4KWEgJE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF_Hw8l01LI&NR=1


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g592I-p-dc&NR=1

Have fun
Julia

Professor Helmut Burkhardt 75th Birthday 2008

My dear children

In our lives there are people who help us to be better than we are at present. I have had some important people help me. Professor Helmut Burkhardt is one of these people. It is Helmut's 75th Birthday this week and so to celebrate, Granny Julia has created a slide show of some of the events that we have shared. Helmut is a Physics and System Scientist. He especially is interested in Solar Energy, and works for Peace and Sustainability. The slide show is on


http://www.scribd.com/doc/2330718/Helmut75Birthday

Love
Julia

United Nations Information

My dear children

You will study the United Nations at school. This organization leads the world and try's to keep peace on earth. If your country is a member of the United Nations (we use UN for short) then YOU are a member of the UN. This will help you to do your best and keep the peace where you are.

I found a new UN link that lots of infomation for writing about global issues.

http://data.un.org/

Granny Julia has been to the UN in New York, for a couple of meetings. The best meeting was to the UN Special Session on Children. The photo is of the concert where they had 5 Nobel Peace Prize winners, and children performing from all over the world.

I have also spoken at the Students Human Rights Conference for 1 hour in one of the Conference Rooms. There were children from Canada and Mexico. It was a great honour, as I had the Canadian Ambassador on one side, and a senior advisor to UNICEF, Newton Bowles, on the other.

Julia was at the UN again in September 2005 for a meeting with the other US and Canadian Women as part of the 1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005.

Cheers
Julia