Archive for the 'Self Reliance' Category
Monday, November 2nd, 2009
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 […]
Freedom, Fry-day, Peace, Self Reliance | No Comments »
Saturday, October 24th, 2009
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. […]
Forest Garden, Mound-day, Organic Gardening, Seedball, Self Reliance | No Comments »
Saturday, October 10th, 2009
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 […]
Freedom, Mound-day, Organic Gardening, Self Reliance | No Comments »
Monday, September 28th, 2009
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 […]
Mound-day, Organic Gardening, Permaculture, Self Reliance | No Comments »
Friday, September 25th, 2009
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 […]
Energy, Recycling, Self Reliance, Thirst-day | No Comments »
Friday, September 18th, 2009
“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 […]
Freedom, Self Reliance, Winds-day | 2 Comments »
Saturday, September 12th, 2009
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 […]
Freedom, Peace, Sat-urday, Self Reliance | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
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 […]
Carbon Dioxide, Energy, Self Reliance, Thirst-day | No Comments »
Sunday, September 6th, 2009
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 […]
Mound-day, Organic Gardening, Permaculture, Self Reliance | No Comments »
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009
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 […]
Freedom, Health, Self Reliance, Two's-day | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009
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 […]
Energy, Self Reliance, Winds-day | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
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 […]
Energy, Self Reliance, Sun-day | No Comments »
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009
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 […]
Carbon Dioxide, Energy, Freedom, Peace, Permaculture, Self Reliance, Two's-day | No Comments »
Friday, July 10th, 2009
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 […]
Energy, Pollution, Self Reliance, Thirst-day | No Comments »
Monday, July 6th, 2009
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 […]
Energy, Forest Garden, Mound-day, Organic Gardening, Permaculture, Self Reliance | No Comments »
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009
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 […]
Freedom, Organic Gardening, Permaculture, Self Reliance, Two's-day | 8 Comments »
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
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.
Thanks to a Twitter post, […]
Carbon Dioxide, Energy, Freedom, Self Reliance, Winds-day | No Comments »
Monday, June 15th, 2009
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 […]
Freedom, Peace, Self Reliance, Two's-day | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
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 […]
Carbon Dioxide, Energy, Self Reliance, Winds-day | 1 Comment »
Sunday, May 31st, 2009
As a fan of Paolo Bacigalupi’s 2006 Hugo Nominated novelette, “The Calorie Man” (read it free in PDF), I found it irresistable to watch this TED Talk on the TEDTalksDirector channel at YouTube about the Millennium Seed Bank.
“The Calorie Man” is a 1984 type of story about a future run by corporations owning all food […]
Forest Garden, Mound-day, Organic Gardening, Self Reliance | No Comments »
Thursday, May 28th, 2009
Yahoo News reports a nationwide trend, Crisis spurs spike in ’suburban survivalists’:
“From teachers to real estate agents, these budding emergency gurus say the dismal economy has made them prepare for financial collapse as if it were an oncoming Category 5 hurricane. They worry about rampant inflation, runs on banks, bare grocery shelves and widespread power […]
Energy, Freedom, Self Reliance, Winds-day | No Comments »
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Kurzweil AI links to a NY Times story about Scribd giving authors 80% royalties for works uploaded to the web for eventual distribution to Kindle and iPhone apps.
After working at Pulpless.com, I believe moving media bits electronically is greener than transporting physical plastic drink coasters and dead tree editions.
I’ve blogged about Google’s energy use […]
Energy, Self Reliance | No Comments »
Friday, May 15th, 2009
After catching up on an old Eco-Tech episode on my DVR, I was inspired to link to new media clips about the “Garbage Into Gold” company TerraCycle.
Products include Worm Poop fertilizer and eco friendly Fire Logs from a biodiesel process byproduct, some garbage, with each log wrapped in used newspapers as part of the […]
Freedom, Fry-day, Pollution, Recycling, Self Reliance | No Comments »
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
Credit: Paul Spooner.Who lives in a platform on top of the sea? Maybe you, if the Seasteading Institute has its way.
In an email message to Seastead Institute supporters, Director of Operations James Hogan announced “a forum thread describing many of the options we’re looking at for an accelerated strategy.”
Our current timeline & strategy describe modest […]
Freedom, Self Reliance, Thirst-day | No Comments »
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
Nothing combines the concepts of water and power like Hoover Dam.
The electricity generating turbines at Hoover (a.k.a. Boulder) Dam spin due to the pressure exerted by the water in man made Lake Mead.
According to Boing Boing’s Mark Frauenfelder, in an article published by GOOD magazine, the water level has fallen 100 feet in Lake Mead […]
Energy, Self Reliance, Thirst-day | No Comments »
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
Alongside Night author J. Neil Schulman was interviewed by paranormal researcher William H. Kennedy on the Sphinx Radio internet show.
Neil spoke about writing the novel during the mid 1970s, getting the endorsement for his prophetic work of a collapsed America by Nobel winning economist Milton Friedman, and the radical agorist philosophy behind the novel.
Unlike other […]
Freedom, Peace, Self Reliance, Two's-day | No Comments »
Monday, May 4th, 2009
LifeHacker has a story about Kamal Meattle’s TED talk video on three common houseplants that clean indoor air.
Some wit remarked at the YouTube video page that a simpler way is to open the window. But seriously, if you’re in the bowels of a high rise cube farm, there ain’t no stinkin’ window.
And at a place […]
Carbon Dioxide, Health, Mound-day, Pollution, Self Reliance | 2 Comments »
Sunday, April 12th, 2009
Antonio & Alexia Cardenas
“The Realtors In Motion”
With all due respect to certain realtors who may be able to squeeze buyers into properties they can afford (while said buyers still have business or job income), in general, real estate is down while gardening and old fashioned maritime piracy are up.
From a Mises Daily article by Doug […]
Freedom, Mound-day, Organic Gardening, Self Reliance | No Comments »
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
Democracy Now! reports that Pittsboro, North Carolina and other towns are printing their own currency.
“We take a look at how one North Carolina town is trying to become more self-sufficient by moving toward being able to feed, fuel and finance itself.”
Remembering my job to defend the Kaiser against defamation for the German War Guilt office, […]
Freedom, Self Reliance, Two's-day | No Comments »
Monday, April 6th, 2009
Controversial left libertarian author Kevin Carson takes on the cheerleaders for the “Green Revolution” in a magazine length article at C4SS, “The Green Revolution Saved Lives? A Killer Meme That Just Won’t Die.”
“Recently, in honor of Norman Borlaug’s 95th birthday, Ron Bailey of Reason Magazine posted a quote from his 2000 interview with Borlaug. For […]
Freedom, Mound-day, Organic Gardening, Self Reliance | No Comments »