No Tech Magazine

Workers of the World Relax !

We work too hard. Thanks to Leah Temper.

Sewage, Toilets, and Nutrient Cycles for Dummies

Mathew Lippincott writes: "I read with great relish your new article on human manure. I've been working on a project along the same wavelength. There is a small group of people (including ourselves) here in Portland, Oregon who have really gone for humanure, and we're organizing. Through ReCode Oregon we're proposing code changes to allow for user-built composting toilet systems. My partner Molly and I just completed six posters on the the topic of sewage, toilets, and nutrient cycles. I hope you like them. We're working to design composting portable toilets right now, and the lack of knowledge amongst most people on soil processes and nutrient cycles was making us crazy."

Tom Wilson's Monster Bikes

Monster Bikes. Via Treehugger. Previously: Macho Pedal Power.

Flint Knapping

"Flint knapping is the process of making stone tools (arrowheads, projectile points, hand axes, etc.). The ancient art of flint knapping has been around for about 4 millions years. Flint knapping has evolved as man has evolved. And it was not until recently that man quit knapping for survival purposes. Only a few small groups of people in remote parts of the world still knap as part of their daily lives."

• Source + picture gallery
• Via Make Magazine
• More flint knapping: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4
• All posts on primitive technology

Small wind turbines put to the test (2)

The Oil Drum runs an extended and rewritten version of our 2009 article on small wind turbines - including additional tests results from the UK.

"Two real-world tests performed in the Netherlands and in the UK confirm our earlier analysis that small wind turbines are a fundamentally flawed technology. Their financial payback time is much longer than their life expectancy, and in urban areas, some poorly placed wind turbines will not even deliver as much energy as needed to operate them (let alone energy needed to produce them). Given their long payback period relative to their life expectancy, most small wind turbines are net energy consumers rather than net energy producers."

The Oil Drum runs an extended and rewritten version of our 2009 article on small wind turbines - including additional tests results from the UK.

"Two real-world tests performed in the Netherlands and in the UK confirm our earlier analysis that small wind turbines are a fundamentally flawed technology. Their financial payback time is much longer than their life expectancy, and in urban areas, some poorly placed wind turbines will not even deliver as much energy as needed to operate them (let alone energy needed to produce them). Given their long payback period relative to their life expectancy, most small wind turbines are net energy consumers rather than net energy producers."

Compendium of Useful Information

"Access to 2 gigabytes of information about sustainable and resilient living that meets the challenges of peak energy, climate instability, economic irrationality, toxic politics, war and violence."

Compendium of useful information - version 1.0, september 3, 2010. The page reminds a lot of the 13 gigabyte database set up by Alex Weir (previously: How to make everything yourself - online low-tech resources), and from a quick overview I learn that many of the same sources are listed. However, the list is better organised and also seems to contain quite a few DIY-resources which I did not see before. Related: the recent launches of the Green Wizard Forums and the UNESCO Traditional Knowledge Base. Picture: totally solar heated house.

Waste to Meat Recycling

"If pigs are fed on residues and waste, and cattle on straw, stovers and grass from fallows and rangelands – food for which humans don't compete – meat becomes a very efficient means of food production". Read. Via Energy Bulletin.

Parts of 1909 Automobiles

• Rambler Model "Z" Runabout (1909)
• Ford Models N, R, S and S Roadster (1909)
• Thomas Flyers (1909)

Green Wizards

"One of the things the soon-to-be-deindustrializing world most needs just now is green wizards. By this I mean individuals who are willing to take on the responsibility to learn, practice, and thoroughly master a set of unpopular but valuable skills – the skills of the old appropriate tech movement – and share them with their neighbors when the day comes that their neighbors are willing to learn". Green Wizard Forums. (+ criticism & response).

Tricycle with Foldable Fairing

The Hase Klimax has won the Eurobike 2010 award. The Klimax is a recumbent trike with a foldable fairing and electric assist. Beats any electric city car in terms of efficiency.

Hase Bikes

Guerilla Farming

"We've long gardened in two raised beds in the parkway in front our house (the parkway being the space between the sidewalk and the street). This is officially city property, though we are responsible for maintaining it. It gets great morning light, so it's a valuable growing space. It's also fun to garden out in public, so we can talk to our neighbors and get all the fresh gossip, and show little kids what food looks when its growing. The drawback to a public garden, of course, is that it is defenseless." Read. Via Dinosaurs & Robots.

Wooden Stave Pipes

"This book is intended to furnish general information regarding the construction, the advantages and the use of our wooden stave pipe". "Wooden stave pipes", Redwood Manufacturers Company, 1911. Via Arquitectura y Madera. Wooden pipes were (and occasionally still are) used for domestic water supply, irrigation, sewer systems and hydraulic power stations. Summary below the fold.

Where no one would believe someone could live

"Der ingen skulle tru at nokon kunne bu" is a documentary about Jenny Endresen, an American woman who started a new, extremely low-tech life in an inhospitable part of Norway. It's not my idea of a low-tech life (I would dress differently, for one thing) but there are some interesting things to see and to hear. Voiceover and questions are in Norwegian, but the woman answers in English. Hat tip to Cristiano Sandels Navarro.