Welcome to the new Root Simple!

...r the “Video” tab as well as on our YouTube Channel. We’re also working on making the videos “video podcasts”, so you can sign up to download them automatically. On the subject of podcasts, we have long promised podcasts but have decided to focus on video production for now. Keep an eye on the “Upcoming Events” in the right-side menu bar. More info will be found under the Events tab at the top. A hint for searching: The search box at the top of ou...

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How To Make a Sourdough Starter

...sts–if there’s a topic for a video you’d like to see just leave a comment. Making a sourdough starter is as simple as mixing flour and water. There’s no need for all the crazy things I’ve heard suggested: adding potatoes, grapes, yogurt and certainly not commercial yeast. And the yeast that makes sourdough happen is on the flour itself in far greater quantities than in the air. After following the simple steps I demonstrate in this video you’ll en...

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Picture Sundays: US Postal Service Creates World’s Ugliest Stamp

...mminent collapse of the US empire or just evidence that the email thing is making the post office go broke? Either way, you’d think the Postal Service would be embarrassed by this graphic design nightmare. How do we get them to reissue this one? I may not be a big fan of the American Poultry Industry, but that sure is a fine looking stamp. Thankfully the post office lets you make your own stamps. So how about one with that beekeeping donkey from y...

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Do Something Day

...this animist notion of consumer objects to the next level, simultaneously making fun of our obsession with consumerism and, in a kind of post-modern mental judo, using that perceived obsession to sell cars (a healthy dose of sex doesn’t hurt). It’s this type of hyper-consumerism that provokes a backlash from organizations such as Adbusters, the folks behind Buy Nothing Day. Yet, I wish that Buy Nothing Day was, instead, Do Something Day or, perha...

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Alternatives to the Funeral Industrial Complex

...ntirely by funeral directors, tried to shut down a group of monks who were making and selling simple wooden caskets. And let’s not even get into the horrific tales of abuse, theft of dental fillings, reusing graves, etc. The good news is that there seems to be a growing alternative funeral movement. The monks won their court case. And I have a feeling that as the baby boomer generation begins to grasp its own mortality, we’ll begin to see more cha...

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