- In this article I am going to describe how to build a photo voltaic solar panel for a fraction of the price you would pay a manufacturer. I’ll show you how inexpensive materials and common tools can be used to make panels that rival commercial products in power production, but blow them away on price.
Solar Cooking to save the planet.
- For centuries, many peoples around the world have had to gather bundles of firewood for cooking … a process that not only produces carbon emissions but has a significant effect on health.
- Smoke and fumes cause respiratory diseases killing an estimated 1.6 million people a year worldwide.
- But as the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference approaches, one Norwegian inventor believes he has refined a simple technology that could have a major benefits for health, the immediate environment and the world. It’s called the Kyoto Box.
- It took me about 8/10 years to reach this point. I’ve been frugal, disciplined, and focused on this exact goal: dropping out from the rat race, and live in peace and quiet for the rest of my life. Hopefully, of course. It was gradual, planned, and full of trial and error.
- My yearly expenses rarely reach the $2,000 mark. That’s in a very bad year. Thanks to my savings, and the fact that I own my home, I can afford to work only when strictly “necessary”. (which is never, but I like to keep my stash intact.)
- I basically just have to buy stuff I cannot produce or procure by myself: soap, oil, some tools, sometimes soil.
- There’s no ideological reason behind what I am doing. I am not an anarchist, survivalist, hippie, or whatever label is usually associated with people aiming for self-sufficiency. If you met me, you would never suspect I was living like this. I keep a middle class facade. I am just a very, very low maintenance guy who grew up tired by the rat race. I find much easier and satisfying to live this way.
- I do have, of course, my views on the current state of society and world in general - like everyone else - and they of course influenced my decisions, but there’s no political-philosophical framework I would strictly identify with.
- It’s Hakuna Matata (almost) all the way!
- I produce my own food and even my own meat. I have chickens giving me eggs, and rabbits giving me meat. I cultivate my own vegetables. I dry both vegetables and meat. I would say that I am 90% self sufficient food-wise. Anyone could live like this, if s/he wanted. It’s mostly about state of mind first, and skills second.
- Ask me anything. I will answer any question that won’t reveal my exact location and background.
- EDIT: Lots of comments to reply to. If I don’t reply to yours, it’s either because it is low priority (ie. I already answered the question somewhere else) or because I am still replying to earlier comments. I am sure I missed some too. Don’t take it personally. :)
(some pretty interesting replies on this Reddit)
- John Stuart Reid proposes that sound is not actually a wave, as has been thought for centuries, but a “bubble” and that this is what creates the amazing patterns we see captured with cymatics.
- In his article, The Physics of Sound, Reid says that sound has previously been thought to travel as a wave because of the graphical, wave-based representation we have used to capture sound visibly in the past…
- “The graphical representation of sound ‘waves’ in the past is why the term ’sound waves’ is used, causing the false impression that sound travels as a wave.”
- …but that cymatics allows us to realize that the true form of sound is actually spherical, or bubble-like, in nature:
- “Sound in air is the transfer of periodic movements between adjacent colliding atoms or molecules. This sonic energy typically expands away from the site of the collisions as a spherical or bubble-shaped emanation.”
- In this fascinating article he also discusses the nature of light, and why his studies in cymatics have led him to believe that in certain cases, sound could actually “create visible light.”
- To read more about John Stuart Reid’s studies in cymatics, sound bubbles and the connection between sound and light, go here.
- To start conducting your own cymatics experiments using 3 common household items, download your free video instructions here.
- You’re sitting back with your eyes covered, blocking out the red light that illuminates the room. The white noise hissing in your ears further dulls your already deprived senses. Now your mind is open and ready to receive the telepathic message your friend is sending you from the next room.
- Nicola Holt isn’t an ordinary scientist. She specialises in parapsychology, anomalous experiences and the role of altered states of consciousness in creativity. The above experiment was part of a post-doc research project, the results of which showed that people could pick out the message their friend was trying to send, out of four options available, significantly more often than would occur by chance.
- “This result wasn’t enough to convince me that telepathy is a real phenomenon, but it was enough for me to think that this warranted more research.”
- So just what is an anomalous experience? “This can include meditative states, mystical experiences, paranormal experiences where someone might feel a telepathic connection with someone else, or lucid dreams and out-of-body experiences - anything out of the ordinary,” Nicola explains. “My job is to design experiments to explore the mechanisms behind such experiences and their implications for how our brain works.”
- Standing outside the flourishing guerrilla garden at the base of his council estate block in Elephant and Castle, Richard Reynolds points to some shrubs that were once regularly flattened by a local homeless man who used them as a bed. Fortunately, he adds, “He’s moved on, to be replaced by more natural wildlife.”
- Guerrilla gardening, too, has moved on. Having once been an underground movement, it is now, not mainstream, but engaged in a (sometimes heated) conversation with that mainstream. Its adherents carry out a series of delicate negotiations with councils and transport authorities, trying to win recognition for their work without losing the rebellious spirit that animates them. They are, like their plants, growing up.
- He [Reynolds] admits he makes use of authority when it serves a purpose: the certificate he got for entering the garden in the council’s ‘Southwark in Bloom’ competition made it harder for officials, having (probably inadvertently) recognised his work, to then attack him. Authorities can change their tune, too. A session on the Elephant and Castle roundabout was once halted by the threat of police arrest, but a few months later the cops were waving and tooting their horns as they drove past. “They did ring me up a few months ago on suspicion of seeding some hanging baskets,” he adds, standing by one of the beds, “but I was able to reassure them on that point.”
- …
- Anonymity is the first instinct of the guerrilla gardener. It’s later on that matters get complicated. Official recognition can mean protection; it can also mean interference and a loss of identity. Knowing which path to take and when is one of the challenges now facing the gardeners.
- Not that Reynolds would try to dictate that, despite being the movement’s chief inspiration and standard bearer. “I wouldn’t want to be in control,” he says. To maintain the guerrilla independence, he regularly turns down offers of money and partnership from outside groups. He has also chosen not to turn the movement into a business or a formally recognised charity. And so it retains its anarchic feel, its sense that people are helping out in their own way, because, as he puts it, “Authorities shouldn’t feel they have to do everything.”
- DataMasher [datamasher.org] helps citizens creating mashups of data pulled from data.gov to visualize them in different ways, and to analyze how states compare on important issues. Users can combine different data sets in several ways and create their own custom rankings and color-coded maps of the US states.
- Already available maps include comparisons of obesity rates in children and how much is spent on their education (per capita), the most unhealthy states (cancer rate times infant mortality rate), or right brain versus left brain (or, in other words SAT Scores - Mathematics divided by SAT Scores - Reading).
Chinese Bike Mod Floats on Water
- A Chinese man has created an amphibious bike that travels as well on land as it does on water.
- A few large empty water bottles and a touch of madness is all it takes to do this mod. The bike uses eight gallon water bottles attached to a metal frame to keep it afloat. Paddles on the wheels allow it to be maneuvered on water. On road, the water gallons are pulled up and it becomes just another bike zipping along.
