Rain: A Journal of Appropriate Technology

...I spent a rainy Sunday afternoon reading the delightful Rain: A Journal of Appropriate Technology, which was published between 1974 and 1996. Here’s the description on the Portland State Library website: RAIN began in October 1974 as a publication of ECO-NET, an environmental education network funded by the Hill Foundation and an Environmental Education grant. Its office was based in the Environmental Education Center at Portland State University....

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Appropriate Technology

...for a brief roundup of similar “appropriatetechnology concepts. The term appropriate technology evolved out of political economist E. F. Schumacher’s book Small is Beautiful and is easier to show rather than describe. While not always low-tech, appropriate tech concepts feature elegantly simple (but not simplistic) design, efficient use of energy and are usually aimed at poor countries. What Homegrown Evolution would like to prove is that these...

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The Amazing Online Building Technology Heritage Library

...with Internet Archive to digitize 9,500 pre-1965 construction and building technology documents for your perusal via the Building Technology Heritage Library. Enjoy strange Murphy bed contraptions? They’ve got you covered: Tiny Hawaiian kit homes: Vintage seed catalogs: Fans: Fuddy-duddy 1920s home furnishings: 1960s lamps: And a few bad ideas: In case you’re wondering, Jim Brown’s boyhood dream was to build giant factories to manufacture livestoc...

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Looking for the Union Label

...d a highly catchy ad jingle from the roller disco era, “Look for the Union Label” (youngsters can watch it on youtube here). We looked for the union label and we were surprised to find it via a company called Union House which carries a functional, if unexciting line of apparel. Unless hipsters take to golf shirts in an ironic fashion judo move, these offerings will never be cool like the domestically made clothes made by the union busting folks o...

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Journal of the New Alchemists

...ire people to work on the more prosaic stuff. But another criticism of the appropriate technology movement of the 70s is that it focused on technology rather than social and political problems (see economist Richard S. Eckaus article “Appropriate Technology: The Movement Has Only A Few Clothes On“). We may be in the midst of repeating that mistake. Aquaponic system. Image: Journal of the New Alchemy. One does not need to wander the closed stacks o...

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