Midnight in the Desert

October 25, 2018

...ton. Among the features of the hole: the power to restore life to deceased animals, birth mysterious seal creatures from within the carcass of lambs and produce impossible objects such as 1943 Roosevelt dimes. During a commercial break on Water’s first appearance on Coast to Coast, listeners started searching the area around Ellensberg on an early internet satellite service called Terraserver. Mysteriously, Water’s property seemed to have been bla...

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The problem with polar fleece: it’s in the ocean, it’s in sea creatures, it’s on our plates

Mrs. Homegrown

August 17, 2016

Domesticus

24 Comments

...w and again–from fleece blankets to underwear to stretchy jeans to stuffed animals. What to do? I think the quick take-away here is that your instincts about the superiority of natural fibers were always right and you should stick with them and phase out synthetics as much as you can, at least until we either figure out how to make a non-shedding synthetic or figure out how to filter waste water more effectively. I find it interesting that none of...

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Radical Apiculturalist Michael Thiele

Mr. Homegrown

October 3, 2013

Animals, Bees

12 Comments

...s of bees in recent years be because we treat them, like so may other farm animals, as cogs in a big industrial ag machine? This is just one of the questions posed by apiculturalist (he rejects the term “beekeeper” – more on that below) Michael Thiele at a workshop Kelly and I attended which was sponsored by Honey Love. The language of bees Thiele began his lecture with a critique of the language we use for bees–first off the term “beekeeper.” “Ke...

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Is Industrial Ag to Blame for the Swine Flu?

Mr. Homegrown

April 27, 2009

Thoughtstylings

12 Comments

...int we’re in the wild speculation phase of the swine flu narrative and I’ll add that the press does a particularly bad job with anything that has to do with science. However, we’ve been trying to make the point that distributed agriculture, more people tending small numbers of animals, is most likely a safer practice than large factory farms. The exotic strains of E-coli and swine flu that have emerged in recent years could be the unintended conse...

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Spaceship Earth

Mr. Homegrown

July 17, 2020

Reviews

6 Comments

...s non-essential types. And what could be more non-essential than hippie avant-garde thespians? For us urban homesteader types, it’s also good to have a reminder that hubris in the face of complexity is an occupational hazard of anyone who attempts to garden, keep animals, cook from scratch or otherwise interact with things other than laptops and iPhones. You can stream Spaceship Earth via the YouTubes for here. If you haven’t seen Adam Curtis’ All...

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