The Future is Biomorphic

...inds me of the wisdom of what Nassim Taleb calls, “non-predictive decision making.” Why? Futurists and prognosticators are as accurate as a dead clock. Twice a day they get it right and the rest of the time they end up looking foolish. We can be especially thankful that the washing machine for people on page 179 of The Futurist never caught on. That said, the point is not always to predict the future. Architects, artists and designers push the env...

Read…

A Year after The Age of Limits: 5 Responses to the End Times

...is is it. The Crappening is not a time for valiant last stands. It’s about making due, being sensible and lending a hand to those in need. If the Crappening has a spirit animal, it would be a little burro with a heavy load on its back. The burro doesn’t think the world is ending because it has to carry a heavy load. It just keeps walking, because that is what you do. 5) There are no answers, only action. Clear thinking people can see trouble all a...

Read…

033 A GMO-Free Los Angeles with Joanne Poyourow

...GMOs Info for Grassroots campaign organizers Where to find Safe Seeds How to assure your garden is GMO-Free YES Magazine’s summary of the United Nations’ evolving policy toward agriculture L.A. Times article on the power of lobbyists Joanne’s blog can be found at www.Change-Making.com. If you want to leave a question for the Root Simple Podcast please call (213) 537-2591 or send an email to rootsimple@gmail.com. You can subscribe to our podcast in...

Read…

Ikea Karlstad Couch Hack

...pf noted, I would have been better off just getting a sheet of plywood and making the arms from scratch, which is what I ended up doing. To make the new plywood arms I put the project in Sketchup to figure out the dimensions. I’m a big believer in Sketchup. It has helped plan a lot of projects and prevented waste. It took just a few minutes to figure out the arm dimensions. I don’t have a table saw, so I used my circular saw and some guides to cut...

Read…

A ceramic oil lamp

...much, I made a little seashell oil lamp the very first project in our book Making It. As a child of the electric age it continuously amazes me that I can make light so easily with cooking oil. Also, in reproducing these lights, I feel a connection to history. I’ve no doubt that my ancestors gathered around fish oil lamps in the north and olive oil lamps in the south. To add to their charms, they aren’t based on petroleum–as paraffin tea candles ar...

Read…