obsolete skills.
Absolutely brilliant wiki of obsolete skills. Can you write in shorthand? Dial a rotary phone? Put a needle on a vinyl record?
In Tunisia, people actually live in the abandoned set of The Phantom Menace
Cyriaque Lamar, io9.comIn The Phantom Menace, the Tatooine settlement of Mos Espa was where Anakin Skywalker — the immaculate antichrist of the Star Wars universe — built C-3PO and practiced his force lightning on stray womp rats. But in real li…
The Roving Garden Project by Cindy Short. from her site:
“The Roving Garden Project represents the failures and possibilities of a project I began this year. Initially, it was a small community raised garden box to benefit the Labor Exchange in Malibu, California, which is a non-profit serving the local homeless and day laborers. Shortly after its completion, the garden box had to be taken apart due to a complaint by someone opposed to the project, and my failure to acquire use permits for the site. What resulted was the transplanted potted garden photographed here.
The Roving Garden Project challenges the habitual perception of a fixed location and community by prioritizing a symbol for something that is mutable and dynamic. The traveling form the garden has taken can act as a site for meaning to be continually reworked. Place can be created on the move.”
(via ediblestreets)
Source: fuckyeahpublicspace
DJ Cavem drops some serious knowledge on this track, called “Wheatgrass.” When he’s not producing beats for hip-hop legends like KRS-One and Bun B, DJ Cavem is an educator and sustainability advocate.
In this awesome behind the scenes video, Cavem talks about food justice and the East Side Grower’s Collective in his home of Denver, Colorado. He calls himself an “O.G.”—organic gardener.
(via ediblestreets)
Source: revolutionhunger
Outdoor garden, indoor garden. Inside-your-furniture garden…
On show at Designersblock during London Design Week 2011 is “Plantable,” a table which aims to reintroduce nature back into the experience of gathering, preparing, cooking and eating a meal. Designed by London-based studio Jailmake
(Liam Healy and Jamie Elliott), the table offers places for plants to grow within the base of each of the four legs, which are designed to allow vegitation to intertwine between its structure.
Source: utnereader
In keeping with the theme of recycled holiday trim, and for the festively ambitious, give your folding skills a try with this origami star garland made from holiday mailers.
(via 1800recycling.com)
How-to DIY details/tutorial here.
(via mothernaturenetwork)
Source: unconsumption
From Annie Leonard, co-director of “The Story of Stuff” project (mentioned previously here), comes a companion initiative, “The Story of Broke.”
“The Story of Broke,” told in an eight-minute-long film (watch it here) released today via the Web, calls for a shift in government spending — and our tax dollars — away from an ailing “dinosaur economy” in which some of “last century’s” businesses, including large oil companies and agribusinesses, receive subsidies. The story proposes we invest in the future, allocating more funding to green solutions, such as zero-waste, renewable energy, and energy-efficiency projects.
Leonard says: “It’s time to rebuild the American Dream; but this time, let’s build it better.”
Various environmental groups and economic justice organizations, including the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Good Jobs First, National Priorities Project, and Physicians for Social Responsibility, among others, helped contribute to the story’s script.
The video and the project’s Web site aim to serve as resources and as springboards for discussion and activism. Check them out.
Resting on piles of plastic bottles at a recycling center in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, China, on November 6, 2011. (Reuters/Stringer) more
Haiti Doesn’t Need Your Yoga Mat
great article, I wanted to point this out
Every year, the NFL stockpiles tens of thousands of shirts from losing teams in warehouses. The merchandise is not allowed to be sold in the United States, so as part of a long-standing agreement with the evangelical Christian charity World Vision, the NFL donates these t-shirts for a tax exemption. Garth Frazer, an economics professor at the University of Toronto, has written in detail how donated clothing imports tend to cannibalize local production of goods.
This is a really interesting article that is worth attention.
(via stfueverything)
Source: foreignpolicy.com
(via flowersofgaia)
What If The U.S. Paid Off Its Debt?
NPR’s Planet Money got its hands on a government report entitled “Life After Debt“, which concluded the action would actually harm the global economy.
If the U.S. paid off its debt there would be no more U.S. Treasury bonds in the world. “It was a huge issue … for not just the U.S. economy, but the global economy,” says Diane Lim Rogers, an economist in the Clinton administration.
The U.S. borrows money by selling bonds. So the end of debt would mean the end of Treasury bonds.
But the U.S. has been issuing bonds for so long, and the bonds are seen as so safe, that much of the world has come to depend on them. The U.S. Treasury bond is a pillar of the global economy.
Banks buy hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth, because they’re a safe place to park money. Mortgage rates are tied to the interest rate on U.S. treasury bonds. The Federal Reserve — our central bank — buys and sells Treasury bonds all the time, in an effort to keep the economy on track.
Puts new light on the GOP obsession under Obama with debt reduction.
Source: liberalsarecool
