Self-Righteousness Fail: We Bought a Car

November 11, 2013

...d that will happen when it feels safer to do so. Induced demand During the time we had no car we figured out our transportation needs almost effortlessly. Having had only one car for a long time we already knew how to use the public transportation system. When we needed a car to go to a far flung suburb or out of town we rented one. We also perfected the fine art of bumming rides. But when an almost new and well-cared for car dropped into our hand...

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In Praise of Backward Compatibility

Mr. Homegrown

May 24, 2016

Appropriate Technology

9 Comments

...n’t work in our neighborhood (thanks for not letting me know that ahead of time!). In the end I was forced to switch to Time Warner for slightly better and equally expensive service. Our overseas readers should know this is common in the U.S., that we pay a lot of money for poor telecommunications services. But the electromechanical geek in me had a delightful surprise. Either Time Warner or the folks who designed the modem Time Warner provides ha...

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Book Review: What the Robin Knows

Mrs. Homegrown

September 9, 2013

Animals, Reviews

14 Comments

...ets of bird sounds and bird motion you see and hear in that place, at that time or day, at that time of year. To facilitate this recognition, he teaches you the five basic types of calls birds make (alarm calls, companion calls, etc.), using online audio files to help with the most common birds. He goes on to teach about behavior, predators, etc. Once you understand the baseline you will be able to tell when the baseline is disturbed, and eventual...

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Time for some comments . . .

Mr. Homegrown

June 3, 2013

Age of Limits

43 Comments

Photo by Andreas Gursky. We had thought that we’d just have a few posts about the Age of Limits conference and get back to the appropriate technology and home economics posts that are the norm at Root Simple. But, judging from the comments and emails we’ve been getting, it seems we’ve brought up a topic that needs deeper exploration, so we’re going to do a few more posts related to the Triple Headed Hydra of Despair: Climate Change, Economic Coll...

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Age of Apocalypse

Mr. Homegrown

May 31, 2013

Age of Limits, Thoughtstylings

41 Comments

...c of an apocalypse meme should be noted: the insistence that this point in time, this convergence of signs, portents and factors is unique in all of human history. That while sure, other apocalypses haven’t worked out, this time it’s different. One of the apocalypse memes at the conference varied from the classic “chosen survivors” variant, and it is reflect in the writings of Guy McPherson, the speaker who caused the most buzz. In his worldview,...

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