Looks like the glass spray I described in “Get Ready To Eat and Wear Glass” is being joined by “hairy surfaces” in the war against consumable toxic cleaning products.
The first description of the invention I read was a Slashdot post, “New “Hairy” Material Is Almost Perfectly Hydrophobic.”
According to the Science Daily article being quoted, “Water […]
DVD at Amazon
From Kurzweil AI comes a summary of a Physorg report that must be read completely about Turkish scientists creating a revolutionary glass spray that promises to “make cleaning obsolete” and even serve as a non-toxic barrier to pests for food crops.
“The liquid glass coating is breathable, which means it can be used on […]
I’ve heard the Lifesaver bottle advertised on The Survival Podcast, but was not excited about it until I saw this TED Talk video from 2009 of Lifesaver’s inventor and CEO Michael Pritchard’s presentation at Oxford, England.
The Lifesaver system filters out contaminants larger than 15 nanometers. It’s 100% effective against the 25 nanometer sized polio virus […]
This ABC 7 online article, “Urban Farming Gains Popularity in Bay Area,” features video of a small farm in Oakland, California and a store in Berkeley catering to increasing numbers of urban farmers in cities surrounding San Francisco.
In San Francisco itself, from the YouTube description posted July 30, 2009, a doctor at UCSF deals with […]
ARS Technica describes a recent National Academies of Science report in an article, “New report offers grim assessment of plug-in hybrids.” Several commenters to the article naturally rejected the report’s fuel price assumptions as oil company fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD).
Which reminded me about the promising EEstor breakthrough that’s supposed to be demonstrated this year, […]
Conservation
Refugees
In a recent podcast of the San Francisco radio show An Organic Conversation, with host Helge Hellberg, Guernica magazine and former Mother Jones journalist and now “investigative historian,” Mark Dowie, talked about his career and plans for his own radio show.
I enjoyed the German, Hellberg’s personal account of his experience twenty years ago when the […]
Coca Cola was one of the companies listed on an often played TV ad in the U.S. that shows the word “Copenhagen” morphing into “Hopenhagen.”
Maybe Coke’s marketing department was thinking of their polar bear mascots.
The solution to stopping global warming proposed by scientist Saul Griffith, in his SALT talk in January of this year, […]
Newsweek has a reputation for bias toward the Democrat party in the U.S. Browsing their website tends to support that notion, because of the anti-Fox News and pro-Federal Reserve articles. That Fed support is a bit much even for most Democrats. Job numbers are “growing” (still at 10% unemployment) and anything else the administration does […]
Harvard Gazette photo
If you’re confused why something tagged “Winds-day” is being posted on a day other than Wednesday, let me remind you that the universe isn’t tied to your homeworld’s orbital position. Not by a strong force anyway. Moving on. . .
Although the great Saul Griffith talks about global warming a lot, his Instructables site, […]
The BBC online story “Hydro-electricity in Wales: Turning streams into cash” describes micro-hydro turbines gaining popularity among farmers. The small systems are generating the amount of power used in surrounding communities.
For those who have streams, but without a steep waterfall drop that makes existing turbines worthwhile, Boing Boing’s Mark Frauenfelder reports something new, “Technology to […]
Josiah Warren began publishing his The Peaceful Revolutionist paper in 1833, and is most famous for promoting his version of “The Sovereignty of the Individual.” He ran a successful “time store” in Cincinnati based on his theories and later founded entire utopian communities.
Warren was the first of the American individualist anarchists. Wendy McElroy explains who […]
This is a response to my friend Brad Linaweaver’s article “Repent, Roman!” and several comments in the Mondo Cult forum. Follow the links at Mondo Cult online.
It’s appropriate to review the real life horror story, Polanski 2: The Extradition, on Halloween weekend.
An L.A. Times editorial published Oct. 31, 2009 defends the Jew hunters in Switzerland […]
I was surprised not to find Ruth Stout already here in a search of this blog.
Ruth lived from 1884 until 1980 and is famous for her planting method of essentially pressing seeds into the ground, which she prepared by covering with soft hay to protect from the sun, suppress weeds and keep the ground moist. […]
In the October, 2009 issue of Los Angeles Magazine, amongst the full page luxury car ads, guides to trendy clothing stores, restaurants, shopping in general, and Hollywood industry discussion, I was surprised to see “Homegrown” and “How to have a bumper crop right in your own backyard” on the cover.
The print edition has a section […]
From Australia comes a story, “Trend blossoms,” by Meg Sobey in the Moonee Valley Community News about neighbors doing an extreme makeover of a family’s backyard. (Thanks, Google Alerts).
“IT is difficult to imagine that Melanie Henkel’s kitchen once looked out over a grey courtyard. Her backyard now resembles a miniature farm, offering vegetables, fruit and […]
ArsTechnica reported a perfect Thirst-Day item about a proposed wireless internet standard that uses the white space frequencies between broadcast channels for the interactive data.
The article, titled “WhiteFi” could be worth $15bn a year—and fix climate change, describes its market potential due to bringing about easier rural datafication and the energy savings implied by its […]
“The New Homesteaders: Off-the-Grid and Self-Reliant” is the title of the main feature of the October, 2009 issue of Popular Mechanics. The cover says it’s the “Self Reliance Issue,” but the largest font size goes to the word “SURVIVAL.”
Yet another indication that the recession is over and prosperity is right around the corner. (That was […]
Here’s the YouTube trailer for the latest feature film I edited, Crustacean.
Exploitable elements include Yours Truly as The Bearded Fat Lady, a lobster clawed humanoid mute murdering man beast, nudity, violence, bad language, and funny satire.
The description at the CrustaceanTheMovie channel reads:
“Crustacean is a Comedy Horror Feature Film Written and Directed by L.J. Dopp […]
A description of a biodiesel making breakthrough, called the Mcgyan Process, from Minnesota’s Augsburg College and SarTec Corporation found its way into my inbox thanks to a Google Alert.
The name “Mcgyan” comes from the three inventors’ names–McNeff, Gyberg, and Yan.
Another article in WCCO describes the process and benefits in a concise nutshell:
“Taking an idea from […]
From Milkwood.net mostly
Permaculture Noosa describes a geodesic enhancement to the classic Linda Woodrow chook dome design.
Who thought Bucky Dome Climbers for kids had such a practical use? Too small for a human dome home (thanks PlanetGreenTV), but the perfect sized skeleton for an improved chicken tractor.
Now one person can lift the enclosure intact instead of […]
I’ve been following Bruce Schneier’s career since I reviewed the first edition of his Applied Cryptography book for the Agorist Quarterly in 1995.
Just a few years ago, Schneier was talking about the probability of post-9/11 threats on a computer security podcast. The chance of any particular American facing terrorist violence is nearly zero. But there […]
A secret transcript at The EeStory is making headlines at green news sites. None greener than Hank Green posting this EcoGeek item introducing the long awaited EEstor ultracapacitor concept, with links to a more detailed article by JoulesBurn at The Oil Drum.
Further news about actual EEstor commercial applications is at TreeHugger in an article by […]
Cool Energy
A Kurzweil AI post describes progress in solar technology from Cool Energy, Inc.
“In cool months, the solar heater provides hot water and space heating. In warmer months, excess heat is used to drive the Stirling engine and generate electricity.”
Kurzweil also linked to this Technology Review article about the Colorado based company developing a low […]
OCAW union
FreedomFest in Las Vegas had good attendance for a libertarian event. Read more about it at J. Neil Schulman’s FaceBook page (log in required).
The list of exhibitors leads off with energy and mining companies. They probably get hassled by Atomic unions lead by the likes of Homer Simpson. OCAW is an actual really for […]
www.veggievan.org
According to a Houston Business Journal story, “Rice report weighs biofuels and water resources,” as the title suggests, Rice University released a report, “The Water Footprint of Biofuels: A Drink or Drive Issue?.”
While petroleum and nuclear are shown in the report to use a few hundred liters per defined energy unit, irrigated corn and soybean […]
I was amazed when a grandmaster of Hollywood trivia attending a Libertarian supper club recently claimed not to have heard the term “permaculture” before.
It seems quite the trendy thing these days in political and cultural circles, but then I’m looking for it everywhere. Maybe folks will notice the release of the film “Food, Inc.” in […]
flickr - mtoz/659463004
The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia published the cheerful report, “Monsanto Runs Into Wall. Yes!!” in their “Why Permaculture/GMOs” website section.
Poor little Monsanto must be feeling the heat. They’ve got a Biotech-GMO cheerleading page online that essentially says organic customers and growers face no danger from them.
I’ve been listening to the Audible edition […]
Wind Simplicity’s WindancerTM
One objection to wind power is the ugliness of the turbines.
Even T. Boone Pickens said he wouldn’t have one of the turbines for his own Pickens Plan on his property for that reason.
If small wind systems became decorative and attractive, maybe homeowner associations (HOA) wouldn’t resist them so much, as is discussed in […]
Just read an article by “Permabear” and Crash Proof author at Mises.org, “Why the Meltdown Should Have Surprised No One”. Jon Stewart’s interview with Schiff is also linked on the site (and here too, now).
I’m listening to the Crash Proof audio book now, and the picture it paints of the growing, decades long corporate […]
TriplePundit reports “Small Wind Beginning to Make a Big Difference.” For those of you concerned with U.S. trade balance, there’s good news:
“What’s even more encouraging is that U.S. manufacturers–such as Mariah Wind profiled here on 3P–accounted for about half of total worldwide small wind turbine sales.”
For the cheap DIY folks, while I am skeptical of […]
J. Kent Hastings
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