K Eilander

Like others said, outgassing is a big concern in such an enclosed space. (Probably should be regardless of the size,.  I mean, how much poison is too much?  But I digress...)

Anyway, I saw a van build project where the dude insulated with batts of lamb's wool.  Cool looking stuff.  Here's the build video about that:

We've also found that what you wear makes a big difference.

100% cotton = 100% no problem, but if I put a polyester shirt next to my skin for a couple of hours I can't even stand my smell!

Tyler Ludens wrote:n my experience, "pests" are indicators of unhealthy plants and not a problem on healthy ones.  Many other creatures depend on bugs for food, so we probably don't want to be vacuuming them up on a large scale (or poisoning them, or destroying their habitats, etc).

Totally agree that the complexity of design in nature is not something that one can tamper with willy-nilly and not suffer an unknowable ripple effect.
Of course I'd argue that the system in question is already an imbalanced/unnatural one.  The need for further intervention is due to a system already disturbed by aggressive monoculture.

And for reference, here's a pic from the article of what they're working on:
(Note: the bottom is something else - mobile workstations for pickers)

That reminds me.  A little over a year ago, Costco Connection, that neigh useless spam magazine that their stores like to foist on people, did have one interesting article.

Certainly, it's focused on industrio-ag, because that's the "only way", right? :(  
Anyway, if you choke that down without gagging, there was some cool stuff.  
For instance, how 'bout giant vacuum cleaners that suck the bugs off plants!??

There are a lot more similar ideas.  Certainly worth a skim:
http://www.costcoconnection.com/connection/201804?pg=1#pg1

IMHO:
I don't believe there is a difference between microwaved vs non-microwaved and microwaved water.  Nor is there any problem with residual radiation.

However, the immediate direct radiation is a problem for me, which is why it makes me feel funny to see kitchens with the box on a shelf at head-level.  I realize it's in a cheap faraday cage, but the leakage is substantial. It's like "here's a thousand watts of meat-cooking radiation. now aim directly at your brain, please."  (Then again, I did grow up in the era of CRT screens, so, can't say that was any better.)

Also, like somebody said, what chemical alterations are made to complex organic molecules like those in food -- impossible to even predict what's going on!  A microzapped hotdog is mystery meat in more ways than one!

On a lighter side, here is one of my favorite comedy youtubes of all time, exposing the dangers of microwaves! :D


"Ze rat is DEAD!"

Nice design!  I really like the ability to see the water level.

I think if was me I'd still do an overflow hole because:
1) for safety's sake, in case anybody else over waters it
2) to provide air flow to the roots

Also, if you don't mind my saying so, this would work great with my no-electricity automatic waterer design:
https://permies.com/t/100773/electricity-automatic-waterer

I do a little woodworking on the side and I've found I PREFER plane/draw knife over sanding.

I'd also add a card scraper (aka cabinet scraper) to that list.

The reason I say so is because sanding dust goes all over the shop, gets tracked into the house on clothing, and floats all around getting sucked into your poor lungs.  Shavings, on the other hand, just lie there waiting to be swept up.

Burl Smith wrote:A fellow sailor fished a PennyFarthing bicycle out of a French harbor and used garden hose to make tires

Okay, this is totally off-topic but for the sake of curiosity, how did he join the ends and not have a bump at the connection?

Chris Kott wrote:Why is a full-grown human adult of average intelligence doing work that a souped-up zoomba can do?

First off, I wanted to point out that roomba is the floor sweeper robot and zoomba is the fad aerobics program.  I don't know whether this statement was intentional or an autocorrect mistake, but either way, too funny!

Chris Kott wrote:One iteration I see is the following. Imagine a field dotted with regularly-spaced centre-pivot irrigation systems, with the edges of the circles separated by access paths. Now instead of sprayers, imagine the gantry of the centre-pivot system outfitted much like a CNC machine or 3D printer, but with heads with interchangeable tools well-suited to minimal, or ideally no-till, systems, such as seed drills, and perhaps a weeding tool.

This centre-pivot stationary cultivator could be programmed with an intensely complicated polyculture pattern that takes in every variable we can think of and accomodates for it, and could plant it's whole surface area according to square-foot gardening spacing and companion planting, could remember what seed is planted where, to reseed in the event of non-germination, or to transplant seedlings to empty spaces instead of thinning, to regularly eliminate "weeds" (I don't normally use the term, but in the case of something so intricately balanced, that's exactly what they'd be, or they'd be sewn intentionally), and to harvest faster-maturing crops from in-between slower-maturing ones and reseed with something else.

Interesting concept.  And as somebody said, "is it permaculture?"  Well, what if instead of doing a full 360, that thing is pivoting back and forth about the center point of a textbook "sun trap"?

On to a completely different question, I think another way of looking at "is it permaculture?" could be "is it sustainable without outside inputs?" if that were the case, then robots would always lose because they wear out.  Then again, we can/do argue the same things about solar panels, so...

Well, I don't know where we go from there
except to say: natural processes will always trump innovation / nature wins no matter how great the manmade tool gets.

Okay, so my wheelbarrow tires went flat.  (What genius ever decided to inflate something with air that was designed to be used with sticks and thorns?)

I decided I needed solid rubber tires,  looked at the price, and decided I didn't need solid rubber tires.

Well, the internet to the rescue!  I "learned" you could fill your old tires with expanding foam insulation!  Hurray!

Then I drove it for awhile and learned that expanding foam insulation will just crush.  Okay, not hurray.

Which brings us back to doe.  I could go out and dump some change on a real tire, or...

What do you guys think aabout filling the tires with aircrete!?  I think it would handle the weight fine, but do you think it would survive bumping over a few rocks now and then?