PermaKent Permaculture Ideas of J. Kent Hastings

Digg links to an Environmental Graffiti humor piece about toxic plants titled “Five Household Plants That Can Kill You.” Some commenters said the title was inaccurate, but since it says “CAN kill you” (if eaten or leaves/petals/seeds brewed as a tea) the title stands. It’s not saying the plants ARE killing you.

Anne over at My Urban Garden Deco Guide is another voice in the Food, Not Lawns movement.
Having a lawn and flower beds may soon be a major faux-pas, sign of selfish vulgarity.
Yep. So make sure your garden designer is an early adopter of the tidal wave about to arrive in every magazine, in every […]

A recent Google Alert for “permaculture” included a Palestinian news site’s article titled “American activist and feminist Starhawk denied entry and deported from Israel“.
Dr. Joanne Taylor, a British psychologist commented on the deportation “clearly the Israeli authorities are paranoid even about letting people grow crops and conserve rainwater on their own land.”
The article describes […]

One of these days, after I get the transportation challenge figured out, it will be me explaining my first year off the grid. Until then, you’ll just have to get Doug Fine’s book, Farewell, My Subaru. Thanks, Boing Boing TV!

Eco Chick’s Starre Vartan was on what looks like a local Fox News affiliate in New York, talking about eco friendly consumer choices such as eliminating water bottles, junk mail, overly packaged wipes, shoes, and my favorite: switching to a laptop computer instead of a desktop. Done that!

Dafydd over at Big Lizards, a blog with mostly pro-war commentary, allowed the co-author of my first novel, Anarquia, Brad Linaweaver, to speak his er, “peace” against the war. Brad’s statement was first published in the March 2008 cover feature, “The Great Hollywood Peace Parade” by Ron Garmon in L.A. City Beat:
Lest anyone complain […]

Adelaide over at the Wild Charlock blog covers green-related weirdness in Portland, Oregon. Her latest post is a link to an Awareness Test from the U.K. that has some relevance for transportation alternatives.

Google Alerts sent me an email about the term “seedball” for the first time in months. In contrast, I get “permaculture” and “forest garden” alerts every day. For some reason, Google sent an archived message from Heavy Petal about “seedball progress” from a personal project by Heavy Petal’s Andrea Bellamy.
Searching through her site for the […]

As a defender of chickens in the backyard and not being a vegan, I took the villainous position against the little animals in an animal rights debate held at Dinah’s on March 17, 2008.
MP3 (Just shy of 70 minutes so as to fit on audio CD)
The political range was from libertarian to conservative, which […]

BBC reports “Cuba lifts farmers’ supplies ban” as a small change by Raul Castro to improve agricultural productivity.
Small-scale farmers in some parts of the country will be allowed to buy such items as seeds, fertiliser and clothing equipment from state stores.
This seems to be further encouragement of family subsistence by the central government through permaculture […]

Toxic Trailers is a great resource about the health effects of formaldehyde and other chemicals found in RVs used as emergency housing for hurricane Katrina victims. The trailer toxicity issue continues to get national TV coverage.
To the site’s credit, they also link to skeptical articles from the RV industry, quoting:
Air samples were taken daily on […]

The Latest Fresh News blog has a story about “A New Way To Make Ethanol”. Looks like good news compared to the er, “growing” idea that biofuels are worse than petroleum.
Quoting from Zeachem’s Technology Overview:
The ZeaChem technology will produce fifty percent more ethanol per ton of feed than the current best-in-class technology. Our higher yield […]

Kurzweil AI links to a New Scientist article about cheap but durable paste for making solar cells.
Quoting Kurzweil’s summary:
A consortium led by Swansea University, UK, is developing solar-power paint could allow roofs and walls of buildings to generate electricity.

AP Probe Finds Drugs in Drinking Water from PhysOrg.com
(AP) A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones - have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.
[…]

Popular Science [Update: I meant Popular Mechanics, sorry] reports startup company Konarka’s demonstration of a cheap film solar cell inkjet printing process.
Konarka Technologies, the Massachusetts-based company we first recognized with a 2005 Breakthrough Award for its affordable Power Plastic solar film, said this week that it has successfully manufactured those thin solar cells using an […]

Peak Oil paranoids party on about petroleum’s price pinnacle in this Digg link to a MarketWatch story reporting Goldman Sachs projection of $200 a barrel oil soon.

Wall Street Journal article on widely reported study shows that Daylight Savings Time actually wastes energy in addition to the Satanic having to get up an hour earlier in the dark. “Spring forward” my ankle.
Having the entire state switch to daylight-saving time each year, rather than stay on standard time, costs Indiana households an additional […]

An inspiring documentary on the Cradle to Cradle design concept.

Click image of the view of Earth from Apollo 8 over Rama’s interior to see a list of O’Neill cylinders and other space habitats.
The Story of Stuff, an entertaining video presentation, illustrates among many other concepts, the limitations of recycling. For every barrel you recycle, 70 barrels of waste were required in manufacturing the item. […]

Digg reports that a story in ecogeek describes success with nanocrystal LEDs, further explained at New Scientist.

My WordPress setup doesn’t like to edit these embedded objects, so I’m reposting fresh to fix the weird layout problems. Sigh.
The above episode (number 106) of The Boaters TV discusses international ship pollution regulations and follows with a story about the upcoming Independence 60 solar luxury yacht.
Occasional green boating stories appear, but especially noteworthy in […]

Looks like Strongbad has gone green with his new dynamo powered Lappy 486. Green-painted The Cheat may literally give the OLPC XO computer a run for its money. As seen at Homestar Runner.

BBC reports Hugo Chavez, in response to the killing of a top Farc leader by Colombian forces invading Ecuador, is closing the Venezualan embassy, escalating border hostilities and engaging in name-calling.
Mr Chavez said Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was a “criminal”.
He said the killing of Raul Reyes, a top commander of the left-wing Farc rebels, just […]

Clarence Eckerson, Jr. of Steetfilms writes of Bogotá, Colombia’s Ciclovia, “a weekly event in which over 70 miles of city streets are closed to traffic where residents come out to walk, bike, run, skate, recreate, picnic, and talk with family, neighbors & strangers…it is simply one of the most moving experiences I have had in […]