Julian the Apostate’s Sleeping Advice: Sleep on the Ground and Your Mattress is Freeeeeeeeeee

November 2, 2016

Design

...pains later in life. It’s possible that the softness of our mattresses are making our muscles and bones weak, just like the terrible running shoes and orthotics that ruin our feet and collapse our arches. It turns out that the last pagan Roman emperor has ideas about how we should sleep. Ammianus Marcellinus’ Roman History Book I, contains a description of emperor Julian the Apostate’s austere sleeping habits: And when the night was half over, he...

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Lehigh Valley Workshop’s Infinite Subversion

Mr. Homegrown

March 29, 2023

Thoughtstylings

6 Comments

...e past few months I’ve been attempting to lift the hood a bid on the whole urban homesteading thing. As Frederic Jameson says, “We have to name the system.” This mapping and naming process is the first step towards constructive work. LVW is attempting to do just that and the fact that your right wing relatives and your hipster artist types all follow him in Instagram says something about the value of his strategy. You can find LVW on YouTube and I...

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I Made a Bee Vacuum

Mr. Homegrown

June 2, 2023

Animals, Bees

2 Comments

...tially dangerous if the bees are in a cranky mood. For years I’ve resisted making a bee vacuum with the idea that it’s a crutch, somehow an excuse for bad technique. You can use a smoker to herd bees off the comb and, if you’re careful, once the queen is in the bee box the workers will follow. But if a tool makes things go more smoothly, why not give it a try? There are a lot of different bee vacs that you can make or buy. I built mine using instr...

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Lost from the cradle of connection: the high price of driving

Mrs. Homegrown

September 11, 2015

Nature Awareness, Thoughtstylings, Transportation

20 Comments

...ate change, air pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, habitat loss, urban sprawl, songbird harassment–all of the rest of indicators of the unspeakably high cost of the personal automobile. So, okay, this is all depressing. What’s my point? The point is: What are we thinking? I mean, seriously, what are we thinking? Can we step back from this? I doubt it. We can’t talk about giving up the personal automobile. We can’t even think about altern...

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Saturday Linkages: We Are All Liars

Mr. Homegrown

October 26, 2019

Saturday Linkages

2 Comments

...which the machine knows nothing. This production is not for the purpose of making meaning. It is for the purpose of producing effects on users that keep us hooked. It is for the purpose of making users the conduits of the machine’s power, keeping its effects in circulation. Faked celebrity deaths, trolling, porn clickbait, advertisements, flurries of food and animal pictures, thirst traps, the endless ticker tape of messages mean less than they pe...

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