Why Your Garden Should Be Dark at Night

...eave this earth. The distances are just too great. His point is that if we understood the impossibility of space travel, and gave up fantasizing about space colonies, we’d take better care of our home. Highline Park at night. Photo: highline.org. Keeping Gardens Dark Thankfully light pollution is an easy fix and saves money and energy too. We can keep our outdoor spaces dark at night to benefit our well being and as well as the survival of nocturn...

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Ten Uses for Palm Fronds

...ht I’d round up as many uses as I can find: 1. Make a mask. When Halloween comes around palm fronds can be made into creepy masks. Get good at this craft and open an Etsy store. 2. Make a roof. Weave them together and you’ve got the perfect roof for your tiki hut. Warning: you’ll need a lot. 3. Make a low quality mulch. Using palm fronds as mulch is somewhat controversial. The stuff takes forever to break down. Our arborist told me that some conve...

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When It Rains in LA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m4hryJ4Nag I post this for the benefit of those of you who don’t live in Los Angeles. It reminds me of a junior high memory. I went to one of those schools built in the 1950s with a broad bank of windows on the side of each classroom. During an English class it started to rain. The entire class spontaneously got up and ran to the window. The teacher, a transplant from New England was, at first, confused and then s...

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Free Introduction to Permaculture

...nergy descent society of the future. Become the solution! Learn how LA can be a model for sustainable cities. This Free Introduction to Permaculture Class is an outline of the science and art of Permaculture. It will define the term, its history, its founders and the curriculum of the design course certificate, its ethics and foundations. It will describe the benefits and show some of the most important work undertaken by permaculture designers. R...

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How to Shave With a Safety Razor

...promised jet packs, flying cars and the perfect shave. Of these three fantasies the most absurd was driven by the ever changing technology of men’s shaving products. Along with the myth of shaving progress came ever greater prices for blade cartridges. A few years ago I had enough of the price gouging and bought an old fashioned safety razor. Unfortunately, I didn’t really know how to use it and thought that the haphazard stubble I’ve put up with...

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