Poop by the Bucket: A Sewer Catastrophe Companion

January 21, 2013 by kris de decker Filed Under: Humanure

“This illustrated guide presents a series of graduated responses you can do to keep yourself and your community safe from disease during the short term and long term disruption of sewer services. It’s a solution for managing excreta that’s not excreting problems later. This flexible system is built around ubiquitous and freely available 5-gallon buckets and based on World Health Organization guidelines for excreta reuse. On two occasions it has been successfully deployed from available resources with little pre-planning.”

Poop by the bucket

Previously:

Think Outside the Bowl

January 21, 2013 by kris de decker Filed Under: Water management

Think outside the bowl

Caribou Skin Clothing Beats High-Tech Expedition Clothing

January 20, 2013 by kris de decker Filed Under: Clothes, Random

caribou skin clothing“Inuit elders continually stress the importance of wearing caribou skin clothing whenever travelling out on the land in the fall, winter, or spring. They believe caribou skin clothing provides protection from extremely cold weather that is superior to fabric ensembles recommended for the Arctic by some manufacturers. Inuit have used caribou skin clothing since pre-historic times. The purpose of this research was to collect laboratory and ethnographic data on the thermal comfort of Inuit-made caribou skin clothing, and expedition clothing produced for arctic travellers.”

“There were no significant differences in changes over time between the military and expedition clothing ensembles with either the perception of comfort data or the skin temperature data; therefore, these data are grouped together. Findings indicate that the overall skin temperature, as well as the cheek, thigh, toe, and torso temperatures, remained significantly higher when wearing the caribou skin ensemble compared to changes observed when wearing the military or expedition clothing ensembles.”

Comparison of traditional and manufactured cold weather ensembles (PDF), Jill Oakes, in Climate Research, February 23, 1995. The paper might be a bit outdated, but it is interesting to read. Picture: Inuit woman’s winter suit, pre-1927 at Liverpool Museums. More about caribou skin clothing at Gates of the Arctic. Thanks to Jon Freise.

Related: Insulation: first the body, then the home.

Directory of Open Access Journals

January 18, 2013 by kris de decker Filed Under: Access to information, Books & Reference

Open access journals“The aim of the Directory of Open Access Journals is to increase the
visibility and ease of use of open access scientific and scholarly
journals thereby promoting their increased usage and impact. The
Directory aims to be comprehensive and cover all open access scientific
and scholarly journals that use a quality control system to guarantee
the content. In short a one stop shop for users to Open Access Journals.”

Especially interesting for Low-tech and No Tech Magazine readers are the journals in the categories History, Archaeology, Technology & Engineering, and Earth and Environmental Sciences.

Dedicated to Aaron Swartz. Also: #PDF Tribute to Aaron Swarz (via TechCrunch), a mass protest uploading of copyright-protected research articles. Previously: Censors of Knowledge.

Earthen Solar Cooker

January 17, 2013 by kris de decker Filed Under: DIY, Random, Solar

earthen solar cooker

“The Earthern Solar Cooker is a large parabolicly shaped hole in the ground lined with reflective materials such as salvaged pieces of broken mirrors or reflective can lids. The mirrors reflect and concentrate sunlight to the base of the hole where ten one gallon black containers of water can be boiled per hour and used for drinking or food preparation. Cooking/water boiling containers are accessed via steps carved into the side of the Earthen Solar Cooker.”

“A 2.5m diameter hole, 1.5m deep cooks 10 gal of rice/hr from 11am to 3pm on an 85f summer day in south central Oregon. Since the power of a parabolic concentrator is proportional to the surface area of it’s aperature (A = 3.14 x r^2), doubling the radius of the hole increases the power of the Earthen Solar Cooker by a factor of four.”

“An Earthen Solar Concentrator the size of a small amphitheater might be capable of casting bronze or boiling the water near the surface of a shallow well located at the vertex, thus making possible the creation of a solar bubble pump that could lift pasteurized water to a tank above ground level.” Read more about the project at Appropedia.

Previously:

“Gravity Powered” Lights (and How to Make Them More Powerful)

January 17, 2013 by kris de decker Filed Under: Energy storage, Gravity Powered Machines, Lighting, Random

gravity powered lights

The GravityLight uses a sack of sand or stones to gradually pull a piece of rope through a dynamo mechanism which generates electricity to power an LED. It is a cheaper and more sustainable option than a solar powered light, which requires not only a solar panel but also a battery. The product is aimed at the developing world and its makers raised 400,000 dollars at indiegogo.

The technology could be further improved by including pulley mechanisms that were used to operate human powered cranes and lifting devices in pre-industrial times. This would allow a person to lift heavier weights and thus power more powerful lights.

To be precise, the light is not powered by gravity. It is muscle-powered, while gravity stores the energy and fulfills the role of a battery. Hat tip to Bernd Vleugels.