Moonshine

...preferably from a source that will lend itself to a pretty picture on the label — bottle it, and you’re in the vodka business.” As it turns out there is an art to good homemade moonshine — a far cry from the soulless mouthwash Archer-Daniels-Midlands turns out. Here’s some excerpts from an interview of ex-moonshiner John Bowman conducted by the Coal River Folklife Project from “Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia...

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Weekend Linkages: Spiders and Fast Food Ghosts

...Michael Grave’s original plans for Portland City Hall had a little town on top via @jmfowl. Two Men Had To Be Extinguished After Catching Fire At Goop Store A beautiful art book about spiders LA Restaurants Are Breathing Life Into the Architectural Ghosts of Fast-Food Past China Miéville: “If you don’t feel despair, you’re not opening your eyes” Energy use from US cryptomining firms is contributing to rising utility bills...

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The Agony and the Ecstasy of iPhone6s Repair

...keep track of the dozen or so different sized, microscopic screws. I used labelled bowls, but some people use an ice cube tray. The iFixit guides will step you through the repair process as well as help you keep track of all those infernal screws. As you do this you will gain appreciation for the workers who spend long days doing nothing but turning a screwdriver–a hell that I can’t imagine. Another thing I’d suggest is patience. If things go sou...

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Saturday Tweets: Don’t Fear the Green Reaper

Don’t fear the Green Reaper: The story of the Department of Energy’s dubious mascot https://t.co/IpN5JwiwLU via @muckrock — Root Simple (@rootsimple) February 1, 2019 £300,000 Margaret Thatcher statue needs plinth ‘to keep out vandals’ https://t.co/kTiV8Mkw4J — Root Simple (@rootsimple) February 1, 2019 1) LED streetlights are one of my pet peeves, ever since they installed some just outside my bedroom window a few years ago and the light relentl...

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Who Needs Windows?

...ded me of this issue. If ever there was an example of the over-reliance on energy intensive HVAC systems it’s the idea that buildings don’t need windows. I can’t possibly, in a short blog post, round up all the windowless buildings such as phone company switching facilities (like the famous brutalist AT&T switching center in New York above), all those Amazon warehouses, or Los Angeles’ hidden and still functioning urban oil wells. Our window free...

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