The embrace of a low-tech approach by Taliban-trained bombmakers – they are building improvised explosive devices out of fertilizer and diesel fuel – has stymied a $17 billion U.S. counteroffensive against the devices in Iraq and Afghanistan, military officials say. Electronic scanners or jammers, which were commonly deployed in Iraq, can detect only bombs with metal parts or circuitry. Read.
Contemporary Russian Folk Artifacts
Vladimir Arkhipov’s “Home-Made” (Amazon link) presents objects made by ordinary Russians inspired by a lack of immediate access to manufactured goods during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Each of the more than 220 artifacts is accompanied by a photograph of the creator, their story of how the object came about, its function and the materials used to create it.
The book is expensive, but you can find some pictures and stories here, here, here, here and here. Related (but the Soviets obviously had better materials): Jailhouse Technology.
Forum
Arkhipov continues the reach of his project through his multilingual Folk Forum website where anyone is free to post examples of hand-made objects. The website is not very user-friendly (tip: start by manipulating the layers), but it hosts some great ideas and pictures (some of them below).
Thanks, Caroline!
Obsolete Occupations: the Jobs of Yesteryear
March 18, 2010 by Filed Under: Professions, Random, Work
Overview of endangered professions at the National Public Radio (via Obsoletos): “As computers and automated systems increasingly take the jobs humans once held, entire professions are now extinct”.
I would like to add to this: As fossil fuels run out, some of these professions might return. And then I want to become a River Driver. Previously: the panorama of professions and trades.
Engines of Our Ingenuity
March 17, 2010 by Filed Under: Blogs
Engines of our ingenuity is an American radio program “about the machines that make our civilization
run, and the people whose ingenuity created them”. The program is written and hosted by John Lienhard and it has been running since 1988. Illustrated transcripts of the more than 2,500 episodes are available online, recent episodes are also available as a podcast.
High-Tech Knotting: the Diamond Hitch
March 14, 2010 by Filed Under: Knots, Pack animals, Pack horses, Random
The “Diamond Hitch” is one of the most high-tech knots ever created. It was used to tie loads to pack animals. Many versions existed, not only for different types of loads but also for different types of terrain.
In rough country, where there was a frequent trouble with pack animals falling with their load, packers tied the Diamond Hitch so that the final knot was on top of the animal’s back where it could be easily reached and loosened with the animal down.
There was also a distinction between the one man and the two man Diamond Hitch. The one man version was employed by only one packer and required that he made two trips around the animal in tying it.
Detailed and illustrated instructions for tying the high-tech knot can be found in the 1916 “Manual of pack transportation“.
The State of Humanity
March 14, 2010 by Filed Under: Hand tool overkill, Hand tools, Technofix, Trash
