Bucket Crapping

...the fine folks at the World Toilet Organization have come up with a clever design for an improvised flush toilet using just a five gallon bucket, a coat-hanger, and a plastic bag. Now, not to be too graphic, but thanks to the Sierra Club we’ve had the opportunity to #2 in a five gallon bucket before and surplus stores even sell toilet seats for buckets. But the World Toilet Organization design has some distinct advantages, mainly keeping odors to...

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The Technological Disobedience of Ernesto Oroza

...nion, artist Ernesto Oroza was just graduating with a degree in industrial design in a country with no industry or use for his skills. Almost all the engineers had abandoned Cuba forty years earlier during the revolution, so even before the “Special Period” of the early 1990s people had to improvise their own technology with cast-off parts. Oroza and a fellow artist Diango Hernandez collected these improvised objects: things like TV antennas made...

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Monday Linkages: The Blob, Urine Soaked Acorns

...ongoing.blogspot.com/2013/09/real-adventures-alastair-humphreys.html … Sailboats Made of Corrugated Metal in Australia http://lloydkahn-ongoing.blogspot.com/2013/09/sailboats-made-of-corrugated-metal-in.html … Bikes New issue of Urban Velo: http://www.urbanvelo.org/issue39/urbanvelo39.pdf … What To Do After an Accident When the Police Fail to Respond? http://la.streetsblog.org/2013/09/04/what-to-do-after-an-accident-when-the-police-fail-to-respond...

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A Bicyclist’s Bill of Rights Part II

...ns in all roadway projects and improvements. 6) Cyclists have the right to urban and roadway planning, development and design that enable and support safe cycling. 7) Cyclists have the right to traffic signals, signage and maintenance standards that enable and support safe cycling. 8) Cyclists have the right to be actively engaged as a constituent group in the organization and administration of our communities. 9) Cyclists have the right to full a...

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For the Locals . . .

...that foot sign Alissa Walker, one of my favorite journalists, covers urban design here in Los Angeles. She wrote a great piece on our nieghborhood’s iconic podiatrist sign. Walker agrees with me that we need much more than kitschy signs to mark our neighborhoods. She concludes, We need more reminders of what history predates our presence. We need more streets that are designed to connect us instead of being fast-forwarded through in cars. We need...

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