Primitive Grain Storage Technique

When thinking about technology, I like to play with the idea of what is the absolute minimum you need to get the job done. This may be because I’m not very handy at building things, but yet have survivalist tendencies. So while I’m pretty sure I’ll never actually have any need for these skills, it’s fun to think about how I’d get by in a DIY world. So I was delighted when I ran across this minimalist grain storage technique on the BBC documentary...

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We Went to Japan

...es were blooming early and the stores were full of Sakura themed goods and foods. There’s even a Sakura themed Domino’s pizza meal. Tokyo was immensely fun to wander at night and I kept thinking of the class I took on Frederic Jameson’s book Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. In that book Jameson links the particular stage of global capitalism we live in with the confusing “hyperspacial” non-hierarchical architectural spaces...

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Every Day Carry Revisited

...since I reviewed the Everyday Carry (EDC) discourse (Kelly reviewed hers in 2011). A mostly male bastion of the “prepper” subculture, EDC’s highest expression is the “pocket dump,” a picture, posted to the internet, of all the things you carry with you. Pocket dumps range from mundane photos of leather wallets and keys to more provocative displays of handguns, mace and knives. Pocket dump from reddit user ChromeOcelot. They almost always consist o...

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On the documentary, Fed Up, and giving up sugar

...for someone already trying to disconnect from the evils of the industrial food system? Well, the message about sugar was news to me. Not that I ever thought that sugar was a health food, but this film lays out how very hard it is on our systems, how sugar, not fat, not lack of exercise, is behind rising obesity rates as well as the rise in type 2 diabetes and a host of related diseases–and most worrisome–how sugar is hidden in almost every prepar...

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004 Egg Ethics, Solar Food Dryers and a Question about Earth Ovens

...Erik discuss the tricky ethics of eggs and mayonnaise, what kind of solar food dryer is the best and we answer a question from Ed about earth ovens. Plans for the Appalachian Solar Food Dryer can be found in an article on Mother Earth News. We have a detailed post on how we built our adobe oven here. If you want to leave a question you can call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to rootsimple@gmail.com. The theme music is by Dr. Frankenstein. Additi...

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