Inspired by our various activities and a range of tangents… –FoAM

put authenticity on your agenda

make it personal

maximize human contact

split up your organisation

be yourself

beware of contradictions

provide your customers with a choice

create real places

provide people with space to be themselves

encourage social innovation

tell stories

experiment with new kinds of money

don't dispense with people's dreams

respect people's need for continuity

don't look back

commit to culture

sweat the small stuff

the more our lives are steeped in technology, the more people want to be with other people

(based on authenticity by david boyle)


genes play a significant, but limited role (brian goodwin)

We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting (Kahlil Gibran)

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. (Albert Einstein)

if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong. (Buckminster Fuller)


grow your own worlds (FoAM)

bring about a 'movement' not to bring anything about (Masanobu Fukuoka)

humanity knows nothing at all. (Masanobu Fukuoka)

i don't particulary like the word 'work' (Masanobu Fukuoka)

there is no other way than through the destruction of the ego (Masanobu Fukuoka)

every action is a futile, meaningless effort (Masanobu Fukuoka)

understanding of nature lies beyond the reach of human intelligence (Masanobu Fukuoka)

an object seen in isolation from the whole is not a real thing (Masanobu Fukuoka)

it is best to shatter the seeds here and there (Masanobu Fukuoka)

deny the empty image of nature as created by the human intellect (Masanobu Fukuoka)


the whole secret of good frying comes from the surprise

if all you have to eat is an egg, you had better known how to cook it properly

art produces goods, not knowledge

boredom is not born of uniformity, but of a certain offhandedness…

dare to conduct chemistry experiments in your own kitchen

the key to success lies in not allowing the yolk to stand still

never place or cook red fruits in unclean tin-plated copper pans

a teaspoon is not an efficient radiator, even when it is made out of silver

blowing is much more efficient than stirring

not all taste molecules act in the same fashion

add salt to a sweet pie dough, not to make it salty, but to add flavour

a pinch of salt in the filter: removes the bitterness of caffeine.

it will no longer do to speak of bitterness as if it were a single thing

spice lovers kill their sensory fibres

small pieces of food are broken up less thoroughly than big pieces.

the same food smells different to different people

children resemble fruit eating monkeys

if you have to drink vinegar, add a large amount of sugar to it.

life is short, the art is long, opportunity fleeting, experience misleading, judgement difficult (Hippocrates)

everything is a question of speed

low temperature cooking is perilous, but the results are wonderful

biologists are busy trying to find out

the puff is achieved at the expense of flavour

if your sabayon doesn't foam, increase the quantity of liquid!

when the fruit ceases to float, let the winter come!

thus many foods are kinds of glass

(according to Herve This in Molecular Gastronomy)


Your hairstyle looks great, I wish you plain sailing home.

Kids if you really want to piss-off your parents, show an interest in the arts.

Resent research has shown the average person to be worth $7,33 in raw materials.

Large amounts of alcohol can be found at the center of the milky way

If the monkey's back is white, you will be alright, if the monkey's back is brown a wave will bring you down.

you will not date until you're 35.

just shut up and save the world!

Your eyes will melt, you're teeth will fry, your brain will run out-off you're ears.

Your shoe size will increase, buy new flat.

That the saints may enjoy their beatitude and Grace of God more abundantly they are permitted to see the punishment of the damned in hell. (Thomas Aquinas)

If a flying cat passes by, one day you will also be flying high.

Astrology and Babylonian science give you a wink in a bubble.

Don't let yourself be blown away by a giant bubble-gum. In the face.

There's something stuck underneath your shoe.

Dial 0031-20-6909129 and make an appointment with your lucky fortune teller. No luck money back.

8 eggs, milk, sugar, flower, butter 200grams, 2 leaky Greeks.

If a cat is in a bubble, then you're mother is in trouble.

If you cross the street today, look to the right and the left and the right again before crossing, or wife will sweep the Hoover.

If the muscle-tension is getting high, think of butterflies and dwarfs passing by.

If you see an inflated duck, your day cannot be stuck.

“A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.”

“Don't worry about your heart, it will last you as long as you live.”

“Bloom, damn you! Bloom!”

“Don't be a luddy duddy. Don't be a moon calf. Don't be a jabbernowl. You're not those, are you?”

“Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.”

“The practical success of an idea, irrespective of its inherent merit, is dependent on the attitude of the contemporaries.”

“The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.”

“It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.”

“There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.”

“All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusions is called a philosopher.”

“The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them up.”


It doesn't matter where you come from, but how vulnerable you are

Improve humanitarian responses

Engage in socially active, home grown sustainability

Build your own…

Take advantage of your neighbourhood's 'compact city' benefits.

Think further than acute, visible threats.

Humans are visual, short term thinkers.

Understand complexity of ecologies and systems supporting you.

Design on an eco-scale.

Stop being a passive consumer

Participate in designing your own future

Try this and try that

It is not about saying 'here's the right way'.

Good designs try to solve one problem, but solve a whole bunch of others.

Don't aim for maximization, but for optimization across multiple benefits

Media are structured to talk to stupid people who don't understand

Here is a clear way to understand a complex idea

'Things should be as simple as possible, but no simpler' Einstein

Our media demand that things be simpler than possible

Move people emotionally

Don't make the idea less than what it really is.

bruce mau

The first thing to change is your mindset

Solutions are not enough

Rethink how to alter the way you think about what you do on a very everyday level.

Learn how things fit together emotionally, deeply, instinctively

Move from objects to relationships

Produce less objective and more contextual knowledge

It is more about quality than about quantity

The process of making decisions is as important as the decisions themselves

Don't study what a system is made of, but what patterns it has

Finally everyone is listening

Beware of carbon blindness

Beware of greenwashing

A problem can not be solved with the same kind of thinking that created it

(worldchanging)


To prevent the catastrophies of climate change, you require a complete transformation

Make politics the art of the possible

Communicate better (not more)

Frame your arguments in terms that resonate with others.

Get real about the political discourse

[Green alliance]

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  • Last modified: 2007-06-10 11:20
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