Posts from — October 2011

The way to avoid them is go off the grid

As long ago as 1999, Scott McNealy, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, told reporters: “You have zero privacy anyway. Get over it.” Others, including the top executives of Google, LinkedIn and Facebook, have since said much the same thing.

They are right.

Privacy in 2011 is a matter of nostalgia. In the past two months, Facebook introduced “frictionless sharing,” Verizon told customers it could share their location and search strings with advertisers, and two members of Congress have called for the FTC to investigate “supercookies,” which track your activity across multiple websites and are difficult to detect and remove. These developments signal an accelerating rush to compile, index and disseminate personal data in the digital age.

There are several reasons for this, but the most important is corporate profit. Many people freely surrender personal details on social media sites or in exchange for a discount. Government agencies monitor and catalog a dizzying array of personal information, from biometrics to travel history. (more…)

Rainy day woman

As a crippling drought grips much of the Southern and Southwestern United States, the population continues to grow and water resources become scarcer. In Tucson residents will soon hand  cash rebates to residents who install home rainwater-harvesting systems — a technique well-known to off-grid homeowners, which is now entering the mainstream.

The City Council approved $100,000 pilot program Tuesday that will be the precursor for a rebate system intended to go into effect next year. (more…)

...heading to the mainstream (Mila Kunis)

Based on a story by Gordon Fiedler

The Off-Grid movement has parallels with the Preppers. While the latter is more apocalyptic, many preppers want to live off grid and many off-gridders are preppers – meaning they are preparing for a general social or economic collapse.

A recent gathering of preppers at Ottawa County State Fishing Lake, north of Bennington, drew folks from all over the state. They were alerted to the “meet-up” because they are members of the Kansas Preppers Network, which is part of the American Preppers Network.

They go by such online names as Lionheart, Trekker, Kanman, MoEngineer, Guntech and High Hopes. They didn’t want their real identities known for fear of home invasions by the unprepared and also, in some cases, to hide their efforts from suspicious employers.

As forum members, they can post questions and comment on queries from others, rant about current events and share an occasional joke among their prepper peers in every state and in all of Canada’s provinces and territories. There are even groups in Britain, Italy and New Zealand.

APN’s co-founder and current director is Tom Martin, who maintains the site from his Idaho home. (more…)

Opting out is the best choice for many

As the Euro bail-out moves closer,  chances of a global economic collapse are receding.  American growth has today been rerated at 2.5% – nothing compared to China’s 9% but quite respectable considering the state of the economy.
The Euro rescue package being put in place is an enormous victory for the top 1%, and will allow the richest to continue to accumulate wealth on a grand scale.  Do not expect fighting in the streets,  because most people who currently have jobs and own houses will keep both.  Yes there will be mass protests at public spending cuts and there will be a VERY large minority who will be foreclosed, fired or both.
Almost every ordinary working American and European will feel the threat of redundancy, of not being able to meet mortgage or health insurance payments. In America there will be little in the way of a welfare net for these unlucky ones, especially the middle aged,  once they have had their two years of benefits.
So the need to have an off-grid plan is increasingly obvious to growing numbers of people who see they are moving backwards. (more…)

In the right location, street light can be cost effective

Looking for ways to lower your utility bills or maybe just reduce your electricity consumption if your power is from sun or wind?

Lowering the amount of power you use to light your home is one place to start.

About 20 per cent of your monthly energy usage goes toward illuminating your home. Slashing that bill takes a little more effort than simply turning off the lights.

Here are seven tips to help you cut your lighting costs and make instant savings.

1 Pick the best bulb: There are more energy efficient light bulbs to choose from than ever. Start by migrating to more efficient bulbs as your old ones burn out. Newer bulbs can outlast traditional ones by up to 10 times and can save you up to 75 per cent in lighting costs. (more…)

Hello All!

So, I have always liked the idea of living off the grid. I guess most of us on this site have a similar feeling; the western world really hasn`t lived up to all its promises.

I want to buy a large piece of property in Costa Rica, and turn it into a sanctuary of sorts for people who are tired of their daily hum-drum lives. I would officially call it an adventure tourism destination, connecting tourists with locals who offer services such as skydiving, surfing, rock climbing, horse back riding, but I would work to introduce people to alternate living also. I would want to offer yoga classes, organic farming, healthy cooking classes, reiki, and various types of energy work. I am a certified life coach and energy worker. I am living in Halifax, Canada right now, but I am looking for like-minded people to help make my dream a reality. Getting the funding for the land and the start-up is my primary goal right now. Feel free to contact me at matteosoule@gmail.com

I ve been looking into offgrid life for a while now, and I am thinking about making the move soon. I am looking to make the move with other people, and im very open to the location and variables. I would like to move to an off grid community and have other around. I love many different genres of music, including dubstep, rap(mostly underground, trance, techno, metal……I enjoy playing guitar, drums, drawing,tattooing, and doing “research with” hallucinogens.I guess you could call me an atheist as I dont believe in any orginized religions , or god, as 1 being. I do enjoy stuying buddhism tho. contact: facebook.com/kardo.korindt, odrak024@yahoo.com

I ve been looking into offgrid life for a while now, and I am thinking about making the move soon. I am looking to make the move with other people, and im very open to the location and variables. I would like to move to an off grid community and have other around. I love many different genres of music, including dubstep, rap(mostly underground, trance, techno, metal……I enjoy playing guitar, drums, drawing,tattooing, and doing “research with” hallucinogens.I guess you could call me an atheist as I dont believe in any orginized religions , or god, as 1 being. I do enjoy stuying buddhism tho. contacts: facebook.com/kardo.korindt, odrak024@yahoo.com

I just got a 27′ motorhome, i’m looking to relocate to the warm USA or B.C, a roomate or 2 would be nice, preferably a mature female. I have 2 dogs