Minimalist Shoes, 1915

...and that thick soles impaired foot dynamics. The principle message of this book is that if you want your soldiers to able to march long distances, and arrive at their destination in any shape to fight, you have to give them flexible boots which do not squash the toes or impede the natural movement of the foot. Simple as that. So why, exactly 100 years later, are we still debating whether the foot needs lots of external support and cushioning? Why...

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My Favorite Podcasts

...ole and Victorian children’s author Favell Lee Mortimer’s offensive travel book. In Our Time Host Melvyn Bragg corrals a posse of academics to discuss topics in history, religion and philosophy. When guests drop big words like “hermeneutics” and “teleology,” Bragg always brings them down to earth and makes them explain things in plain English. This show has filled in many gaps in my education and functions as a reminder that not all of the media i...

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Saturday Linkages: Pallets, Ladybugs and Portlandia

...chicks wearing muffin wrappers as tutus! http://www.recyclart.org/2014/08/little-chicks-wearing-muffin-wrappers-tutus/ … The Flight of the Ladybugs http://www.theawl.com/2014/08/the-flight-of-the-ladybugs … The Portlandia Activity Book http://boingboing.net/2014/08/25/the-portlandia-activity-book.html … World made by bigots http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-08-27/world-made-by-bigots … For these links and more, follow Root Simple on Twitter:...

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Trading our Home for a Dome

...in the US) and leak like crazy. Lloyd Kahn, who wrote a bestselling how-to book on building domes in the 1960s, became so disenchanted with them that he pulled his own bestselling book from print. That said, they have an otherworldly and transcendent vibe that, in the case of the pictures that accompany the real estate listing, seem to have inspired the seller to paint some trippy outsider art. The kitchen, on the other hand, looks like a ten minu...

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Print and Internet Resources for Natural, No-Treatment Beekeeping

...aia Bees is the website of Michael Thiele, who we blogged about last year. Books The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Beekeeping – not to be confused with the conventional approach in the Dummies book. The Practical Beekeeper: Beekeeping Naturally – Michael Bush’s voluminous guide to natural beekeeping. You’ll find a range of ideas in these books and websites particularly when it comes to hive types–everything from Langstroth boxes to top bar hives to ho...

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