Saturday Linkages: From Bananas to Laird’s Laws

...-smith-college-conservatory#.UrzZKcw8rbU.twitter … Goleta considers groovy permaculture ordinance: http://www.independent.com/news/2013/dec/23/goleta-considers-groovy-green-ordinance/ … Spanish sperm whale death linked to UK supermarket supplier’s plastic http://gu.com/p/3eb3b/tw Solicitor George Cooper’s diaries give insight into Victorian life with his watercolour paintings http://bit.ly/yFANsU Recreation of ancient beer suggests it was really,...

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Village Homes: A Model for Sustainable Suburbs

...to get a feel for it is to watch the 10 minute video above. It’s hosted by Permaculture guru Bill Mollison, who’s a big fan of the development. It’s well worth the time to watch it all the way through. Also, here’s a short paper on the development, which gives all the pertinent facts, friendly for quick skimming: Village Homes: A model solar community proves its worth. And finally, here is a video someone took during a site tour given by Michael C...

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Beads and Roman Sandals Won’t Be Seen

...ever-present consumer culture demands of us somehow you automatically get labeled a hippie. While sadly the original hippie movement went astray, we “dig” the new and more pragmatic kind of hippie stuff happening over at Arthur Magazine. Besides, in the end, we’re all untied against the “Man”. Somehow this long winded rant leads us back to the creation of the herb spiral which replaced an overgrown patch of lavender. Built with concrete salvaged...

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Induced Demand

...ou could probably find induced demand between the lines of David Homgren’s permaculture principles. But perhaps we should insert a thirteenth principle: acknowledge induced demand and work to prevent it. Simply being aware of the phenomenon is a good first step in avoiding its pitfalls. My original greywater system consisted of a tank and a hose to drag around to a bunch of trees. I’ve since simplified the system. It’s now just a pipe leading from...

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What’s the Best Solar Food Dryer?

...Brace Research Institute and the Poisson indirect dryer. In an article in Permaculture Activist, “Evaluating Solar Food Dryers: Stocking Up with Solar Power,” Scanlin says, The Appalachian indirect dryer produced higher temperatures than the other two dryers and also removed more moisture from the tomatoes drying inside each day. In one test, the Appalachian dryer removed 32 oz. (0.95 L) of water during ta day, while the Brace direct dryer remove...

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