096 Photographer Babs Perkins: The Land, People and Cheese of the Balkans

...who documents disappearing foods in the Balkans with a emphasis on cheese making. In the conversation Babs and Eric discuss the politics of cheese in the EU, the challenges of doing a documentary project in the Balkans and the cross cultural values of sharing food. As you listen to the podcast I’d suggest you take a look at Perkins’ stunning photos on her website: Cheese Stories: Bosnia Cheese Stories: Serbia The incredible natural beauty of Bosn...

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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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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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Is Stickley is the New Ikea?

...nk of the lifestyle adjustments that would justify a weekend in the garage making a copy of the L. & J.G. Stickley dinner gong. How exactly would a dinner gong work out in our 1,000 square foot house occupied by just two people? Would its existence prompt more inspired daily meal prep? Would reheating a frozen Trader Joe’s meal (what a friend calls the Ikea of food) in the microwave justify a bang on the gong? Would it cause the cats and dog to sc...

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Saturday Tweets: It’s 2017!

...itter.com/KE9NWqLqWN — Thomas Rainer (@ThomasRainerDC) January 5, 2017 Tea making tips movie from (1941) https://t.co/MqZaPLK9Lv — Root Simple (@rootsimple) January 5, 2017 What's your hoarding/clutter level? https://t.co/VhNWzNQBLa — Root Simple (@rootsimple) January 4, 2017 A Month Without Sugar, via @nytimes https://t.co/fmtuObKbyu — Michael Pollan (@michaelpollan) January 2, 2017 Someone changed famed Hollywood Sign to read 'Hollyweed&...

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