SolSource Review Part I: Assembly

When we wrote our second book, Making It, I wanted to include a parabolic solar cooker project. I found a castoff satellite TV dish and covered it with aluminum foil. The problem was how to position a cooking surface in front of it while simultaneously tracking the sun. If you knew how to weld this might be possible– if still a challenging project. I just couldn’t figure out a way to do it without custom welding and gave up on my dream of solar g...

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Restoring the Original Black Box: Our Western Electric 534A Subset

...posted a video of the interior of our ringer box in action. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what it sounded like when the phone rang in 1920s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VHhmKTFsQ And, yes, I will be making this available as a ringtone in about a week. Though, I’ll note, you probably won’t be able to fix your iPhone 96 years in the future. Does your old house still have a ringer box?...

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086 The Connection Between Cats and Grain

...tory, famous cats and take a detour into the world of distillery cats and ship’s cats. Special thanks to Paul Koudounaris, whose lecture inspired this podcast, and the website Purr-n-Fur for information on ship’s and distillery cats. Many thanks to our Patreon subscribers for making this podcast and blog possible. If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You...

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085 Rishi Kumar: Abundance in Suburbia

...mini) Sheet mulching Growing fruit trees close togther Raccoons! Quail and chickens Water harvesting vs. rain barrels How the Growing Home became the Growing Club, Sarvodaya Farms and the Growing Commons. May 28th greywater workshop. Many thanks to our Patreon subscribers for making this podcast and blog possible. If you’d like to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to [email protected]. You...

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The Primitive Technology Guy

...of Queensland, Australia uses a “show me don’t tell me” philosophy of film making that I greatly admire. No long, babbling intros! Kelly was especially impressed with his pump drill fire starting technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEl-Y1NvBVI He has a blog that describes the content of his videos in more detail. People like John Townsend and the Primitive Technology guy are the good side of the internet, producing quality work that’s a lot...

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