How to Organize a Small Workshop

...to go a lot more smoothly. In the past few months I’ve decided to focus on making my tiny workshop both useful and pleasant. The challenge has been that our 1920s garage is tiny–sized for two Model-Ts–and must also accommodate our Honda Fit. At the risk of seeming like I’ve come down from the mountaintop with stone tablets, permit me to share a few things I’ve learned about tiny workshop design: Put everything on wheels. Get some locking wheels at...

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Moonshine

...preferably from a source that will lend itself to a pretty picture on the label — bottle it, and you’re in the vodka business.” As it turns out there is an art to good homemade moonshine — a far cry from the soulless mouthwash Archer-Daniels-Midlands turns out. Here’s some excerpts from an interview of ex-moonshiner John Bowman conducted by the Coal River Folklife Project from “Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia...

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On Living in Los Angeles Without a Car: A Debate

...setting up that system, finding partners, finding a car, committing to the time it would take to maintain such a project and really making it happen, or are we just going to talk about it? This is getting pressing. I can get by for basic things without a car, but not having access to one has clipped my wings, especially when it comes to outdoor activities, which are important to me. I’ve already rented a car for a weekend outdoor skills course but...

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We Went to Japan

...the Tokyo area and our visit coincided with the March 11 anniversary of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster. Near our hotel was the headquarters of the Japanese Communist Party which is more of a progressive party not a Stalinist type org. These two posters say Yes to higher wages and No to military expansion. On the other end of the political spectrum we also got to watch a bizarre and loud caravan of Japanese Qanon enthu...

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Your Open Floor Plan is a Death Trap

...shorter time to flashover, rapid changes in fire dynamics, shorter escape times, shorter time to collapse.” It turns out that nobody was considering fire safety as trends in materials and living arrangements have changed in recent years. While the number of structure fires has stayed the same since the 2000s the death rate has increased (U.S. Fire Service Fatalities in Structure Fires 1977-2009 Rita F. Fahy, Ph.D. June 2010). Let’s take a closer...

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