
Chiara Vigo: The last woman who makes sea silk - callum85
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33691781
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dghughes
Interesting as it is, the silk and the history of the family, it seems odd
that Vigo teaches weaving it to a few people but not how to make it shine. Or
at least it wasn't specifically mentioned about the process of lemon juice and
spices.

This strikes me more as keeping it a secret within the family more than
protecting people from God. Business failed sure but that's no reason to keep
the process of making it shine a secret if she is hit by a bus or drops dead
that's it for the knowledge.

~~~
kleer001
And that's the sad dichotomy between the easy species wide success from
sharing and the ineffable drive to hoard and compete. I see this played out in
the natural world too. Usually you have to twist a species' arm waaay back
around it's back to get it to internally share. Bees, termites, naked mole
rats. You get it.

~~~
jchrisa
Good take. There is some hope from the new information-driven ways of
organizing, that at least they can make cooperation more profitable than
hoarding [http://breakingsmart.com/season-1/the-zemblanity-of-
containe...](http://breakingsmart.com/season-1/the-zemblanity-of-containers/)

~~~
kleer001
Seems like a similar thing in quorums of agents playing lots of rounds of The
Prisoner's Dilemma. Where Tit-for-tat is the optimal strategy in one on one.
But when you have groups of agents that can communicate before rounds and
coordinate defaulting instead of cooperating the groups as a whole can score
better than tit-for-tat.

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jeffreyrogers
I always enjoy stories like these. It reminds me of this one on making a
panama hat from about a month ago.[1]

[1]:
[http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/08/08/34068270...](http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/08/08/340682706/hes-
just-woven-the-worlds-finest-panama-hat-but-who-will-buy-it)

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mc32
This is an interesting history. And perhaps it's nothing more than uniqueness
which makes this interesting; however, ms Vigo seems very well suited as
ambassador for this dying tradition. She has the lineage, the myth, and aura
to make it interesting for a new crop of artisans now that there is more
interest in traditional methods.

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pndmnm
Good collection of links on the topic a few weeks ago at Metafilter:
[http://www.metafilter.com/151993/It-was-necessary-also-to-
fi...](http://www.metafilter.com/151993/It-was-necessary-also-to-fish-for-
ones-dress)

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joshdance
Anyone have a video of the silk shining? Would love to see it.

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trumbitta2
A 15 minutes drive from my birthplace!

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elektromekatron
It seems somehow profane, but I'd love to get some into a materials lab and
see how it behaves.

~~~
logfromblammo
I'd wager that, at minimum, the U.S. Navy, 3M, and MIT have already done so,
pursuant to research on waterproof adhesives.

I know at least that MIT has:

[http://news.mit.edu/2014/new-adhesives-stick-in-
water-0921](http://news.mit.edu/2014/new-adhesives-stick-in-water-0921)

~~~
elektromekatron
Shouldn't surprise me really, given stuff like this -
[http://www.technologyreview.com/view/537301/spiders-
ingest-n...](http://www.technologyreview.com/view/537301/spiders-ingest-
nanotubes-then-weave-silk-reinforced-with-carbon/) \- there's probably already
a group feeding carbon nanotubes to clams on the offchance.

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vladsanchez
It's a beautiful story. Thanks for sharing it.

