Getting my Ham Radio License

...of Limits conference he held court on some of my favorite forgotten ideas: appropriate technology, fraternal societies and Ham radio. A Ham himself, Greer recommended I read an amazingly odd book, Instruments of Amplification, which actually has directions for building your own transistors from junk. I’ll probably never get around to any of those projects, but I of A may be the ultimate DIY text. But I’m not just being contrarian. I’m looking forw...

Read…

The Elysium Delusion

...rk with what we have. In my cranky opinion, the future is in down-to-earth appropriate technology, not space stations.We need to plant gardens here on earth not in the vacuum of space. I’ll note that the farms in these space colonies look an awful lot like the dystopian factory farms we have down on earth. And we should recognize the space station fantasy for what it is: a materialistic version of a heavenly afterlife, with scientists such as Hawk...

Read…

A Year After the Age of Limits: Mr. Homegrown’s Take

...nt and discussed many of my favorite topics: organic gardening, Ham radio, appropriate technology, fraternal societies and even letterpress printing. When a talk or activity annoyed me, I’d walk out and find Greer. What I would have liked to have seen at the Age of Limits was a wider range of voices. A few mainstream climate scientists would have been a good start. Instead, we were only hearing the most extreme points of view. One of the organizer...

Read…

Farm Hack

...the posts will be of interest to backyard gardeners. Recent subjects include a project to develop an infrared camera to monitor plant health, smartphone tools for farmers and open source appropriate technology resources. It’s exactly this kind of innovation that gives me great hope for the future. Thanks to Tommy Berbas for the tip....

Read…

Everything Must Go Part II: Books

...eb, the books on philosophy and theology stayed in addition to most of the appropriate technology and gardening manuals. We have no math books (not our subject to put it mildly) and popular science and non-fiction books I get at the library. Everything else “died” and went to our local library’s book sale. What can make it difficult to let go of books, even ones we never really intend to read, is that our personal libraries are an external manifes...

Read…