Mathew Lippincott writes: “I read with great relish your new article on human manure. I’ve been working on a project along the same wavelength. There is a small group of people (including ourselves) here in Portland, Oregon who have really gone for humanure, and we’re organizing. Through ReCode Oregon we’re proposing code changes to allow for user-built composting toilet systems. My partner Molly and I just completed six posters on the the topic of sewage, toilets, and nutrient cycles. I hope you like them. We’re working to design composting portable toilets right now, and the lack of knowledge amongst most people on soil processes and nutrient cycles was making us crazy.”
Sewage, Toilets, and Nutrient Cycles for Dummies
September 28, 2010 by Filed Under: Composting, Humanure
Tom Wilson’s Monster Bikes
September 20, 2010 by Filed Under: Bicycles, Bikes, Pedal power, Recumbent tricycles, Travel, Tricycles, Trikes
Monster Bikes. Via Treehugger. Previously: Macho Pedal Power.
Flint Knapping
September 20, 2010 by Filed Under: Primitive technology
“Flint knapping is the process of making stone tools (arrowheads,
projectile points, hand axes, etc.). The ancient art of flint knapping has been around for about 4
millions years. Flint knapping has evolved as man has evolved. And it
was not until recently that man quit knapping for survival purposes.
Only a few small groups of people in remote parts of the world still
knap as part of their daily lives.”
- Source + picture gallery
- Via Make Magazine
- More flint knapping: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
- All posts on primitive technology
Small wind turbines put to the test (2)
September 15, 2010 by Filed Under: Wind Power, Wind turbines
The Oil Drum runs an extended and rewritten version of our 2009 article on small wind turbines – including additional tests results from the UK.
“Two real-world tests performed in the Netherlands and in the UK confirm our earlier analysis that small wind turbines are a fundamentally flawed technology. Their financial payback time is much longer than their life expectancy, and in urban areas, some poorly placed wind turbines will not even deliver as much energy as needed to operate them (let alone energy needed to produce them). Given their long payback period relative to their life expectancy, most small wind turbines are net energy consumers rather than net energy producers.”
Compendium of Useful Information
September 14, 2010 by Filed Under: Books & Reference, DIY
“Access to 2 gigabytes of information about sustainable and resilient living that meets the challenges of peak energy, climate instability, economic irrationality, toxic politics, war and violence.”
Compendium of useful information – version 1.0, september 3, 2010. The page reminds a lot of the 13 gigabyte database set up by Alex Weir (previously: How to make everything yourself – online low-tech resources), and from a quick overview I learn that many of the same sources are listed.
However, the list is better organised and also seems to contain quite a few DIY-resources which I did not see before.
Related: the recent launches of the Green Wizard Forums and the UNESCO Traditional Knowledge Base. Picture: totally solar heated house.
Waste to Meat Recycling
“If pigs are fed on residues and waste, and cattle on straw, stovers and grass from fallows and rangelands – food for which humans don’t compete – meat becomes a very efficient means of food production”. Read. Via Energy Bulletin.
