NO TECH MAGAZINE https://www.notechmagazine.com Technology for Luddites Sun, 07 Apr 2024 20:25:59 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 No Tech Reader #45: Housing https://www.notechmagazine.com/2024/04/no-tech-reader-45-housing.html Sun, 07 Apr 2024 20:25:59 +0000 https://www.notechmagazine.com/?p=469467 Structural issues: the cost of material and the value of labour. [The Architectural Review] “In an alternative future, taxes would protect human labour and punish excessive material use to stop wasteful practices.” (Thanks to David Bourgignon.)

How to Build an Iron Age Village. [YouTube] “In Argüeso (Cantabria) a group of young researchers and artisans recreated in 1999 a Cantabrian town from the Iron Age.” (Thanks to Adriana Parra.)

The Masons of Djenne. [YouTube/National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Inst.] “The film captures a unique and very old building technique using handmade masonry, perfected through multiple generations in Djenne, a small town in the West African country of Mali.”

Rammed Earth Construction: A Circular Solution For Sustainable Building. [Latin American Structural Engineering and Construction Conference 2024] “The low level of skill required for rammed earth buildings paves the way for self-built activities.”

]]> No Tech Reader #39 https://www.notechmagazine.com/2023/04/no-tech-reader-39.html Sun, 30 Apr 2023 19:34:00 +0000 https://www.notechmagazine.com/?p=469259
  • I’ve rented DVDs from Netflix for half my life – streaming is a poor substitute. [The Guardian]
  • The Glorious Return of a Humble Car Feature. “Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touch screens. Buttons are back!” [Slate]
  • Agriculture in the Ancient Maya Lowlands (Part 2): Landesque Capital and Long-term Resource Management Strategies. [Journal of Archaeological Research] “We demonstrate long-lasting agricultural investments by Maya people, in social capital including multigenerational land tenure, in cultivated capital including long-lived trees, and in landesque capital including soil amendments and landscape engineering projects, such as terracing and wetland modification.”
  • Archaeologists are unlocking the secrets of Maya lime plasters and mortars. [ars technica]
  • When innovation goes south: The tech that never quite worked out. [ars technica] “We don’t need new gadgets; we need to use antibiotics more sparingly.”
  • “RAIN was planting the seeds”: An Interview with Tom Bender, co-editor of RAIN: Journal of Appropriate Technology. [Open Edition Journals]
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