Makezine points to this printable poster that displays all the different bolts and nuts and connectors along with their official names (and instructions on how and when to use them). All bolts – except for the Pentalobe screw (more).
UK Lawmakers Call for Energy Rationing with Personal Fuel Quotas
January 24, 2011 by Filed Under: Energy
“TEQs (Tradable Energy Quotas) is an electronic system which guarantees reductions in a nation’s use of fossil fuels, and involves energy users and communities in the task of working out how to achieve this in the light of local conditions and opportunities.” Media coverage / UK report / Book / Website.
Cameroon Blacksmiths
January 13, 2011 by Filed Under: Africa, Hand tools, Metal working, Random
“On the outskirts of Maroua, the capital of the Extreme North of Cameroon, is a place quite unlike any other in the country. Here a community of blacksmiths practice their craft in the relative cool of a tree grove. Several dozen men with specialized skills are gathered here for a single purpose: to transform piles of scrap iron into finely finished tools, stoves, replacement parts and other useful implements for sale to the local population. Young apprentices learn the craft while operating bellows or shaping wood for tool handles. The production here is performed entirely by hand and on a scale which must be seen to be fully appreciated.”
The Extraordinary Makers of Maroua, via Afrigadget. Related: Innovation in Kenya’s informal economy.
Low-Tech Whale Hunting in Japan, pre-1900s
January 11, 2011 by Filed Under: Fishing gear, Random
“Pêcherie de baleines (départ des canots) à Ikézouki, Nagasaki”. Source: Histoire de l’industrie de la pêche maritime et fluviale au Japon, 1900. Original at CNUM.
Solar Box Cookers Only Work When the Sun is Shining – So What?
January 11, 2011 by Filed Under: Solar
“By now, I suspect, some of my more skeptical readers will doubtless be jumping up and down, eager to point out that solar cookers aren’t viable everywhere, and only work when the sun’s shining. This is of course true, but it’s also beside the point. Nothing in the appropriate technology toolkit is suited to every context – that’s one of the implications of that word “appropriate,” after all – and nothing ever again in human history will provide our species with the kind of instant, context-free torrent of energy we now get from fossil fuels. Once those are gone, the entire approach to technology that’s built on the assumption of abundant, highly concentrated, highly portable energy supplies goes whistling down the wind, and the approaches – in the plural – that will replace it are going to be less convenient, less portable, and less capable of ignoring the rest of the cosmos than what we’re used to”. Read at the Archdruid Report + solar cooker plans.
How to Rig a Windmill Sail
January 10, 2011 by Filed Under: Random, Wind Power, Windmills
Source: “Travailler au moulin / Werken met molens”, Jean Bruggeman, 1996.
