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April 2014

Inequality is why so many want out of the system

The war on drugs sends thousands of poor kids to prison for using the same illegal substances that rich whites can often get away with; meanwhile, Wall Street bankers responsible for the financial crisis get off with zero punishment and huge bonuses.

These disparities in how rich and poor are treated by police and courts are the subject of The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap, a book by Matt Taibbi, the former Rolling Stone journalist who has made a career of attacking the upper class (and just started a website about political corruption).

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Water

100 things to do on British Waterways

1x1placeholderThe Canal & River Trust (formerly British Waterways) is publishing details of 100 readymade waterway days out (canalrivertrust.org.uk/places-to-visit) to give individuals, couples and families a simple and affordable chance to spend quality time.

Half the UK population lives within five miles of one of the Canal & River Trust’s waterways and canals. And there are now 34,000 licensed boats and thousands more unlicensed ones where off-gridders can leave cheap or free lives.

British Waterways were unable to say how fast the numbers are growing, but they do say there are now more boats on the waterways “than at the height of the Industrial Revolution” in the C19th.

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Community

Dark Market – the Internet you need to know

images (5)Uninformed media reports of the ‘DarkMarket’, tout it as a new system – a Silk Road the FBI could never seize. In fact its not new, and has been around for ages. But it is a useful tool for off-gridders.

DarkMarket works in a fundamentally different way to Silk Road or any other online marketplace. Instead of being hosted like a normal website, it runs in a decentralized peer-to-peer network: Users download a piece of software, which allows them to access the DarkMarket site. The really clever part is how the system incorporates data with the blockchain, the part of Bitcoin that everybody can see. Rather than just carrying the currency from buyer to seller, data such as usernames are added to the blockchain by including them in very small transactions, meaning it’s impossible to impersonate someone else because their pseudonymous identity is preserved in the ledger.

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Community

Forest Service use Eminent Domain to seize off-grid home

barries1Andy and Ceil Barrie chose a retreat property far off the beaten path. They spent time and money developing the early C19th cabin in the White River national forest. Making it their own.

Then the Forest service comes along and says, “Nope, we want this land – you’re out.”

Can they just take it, evicting you like they are the landlord and you are merely a tenant, despite your name on the deed?

Yes they can.

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US Army huge solar farm

Normally we do not like solar farms – they are usually built to feedinto the Grid – but not this one.

The army just kicked off a solar farm in Arizona that will be the Department of Defense’s largest solar installation. And the entire energy output will be used at the base.

The 155-acre project announced at Fort Huachuca, leverages private financing and is expected to exceed 18-megawatts of clean power and provide 25 percent of the military base’s power. Officials kicked off the project with a groundbreaking ceremony at the base where construction is set to begin in the next few days.

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community politics, how to live off-grid, living off-grid, off-grid living
Community

A tale of two smallholdings

The contrasting fortunes of two British smallholdings are a useful guide on how to succeed, and what NOT to do, if you are planning to grow your own food.

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Forage food, free food, cheap eats, vegan forager
Food

Top 10 wild foods to forage in spring

Roger Phillips, author of a new book on foraging, shares his top 10 springtime finds and throws in four recipes that combine them to best effect for your springtime dinner parties.

1. Sea beet (Beta vulgaris)

The parent of Swiss chard and beetroot, this is common on pebbly beaches just above the tide line. Perfect in soups or as a vegetable in place of spinach.

2. Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

Sprinkle on salads and eat raw

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onshore wqind farms, offshore wind farms add to corporate profits
Energy

Why we oppose Wind Farms

For some politicians it is a badge of honor to come out in favor of wind farms. It allows them to suck up to green voters, while at the same time keeping in with big energy producers.

At www.off-grid.net we like wind turbines and solar panels, but we oppose large arrays of them. We believe in distributed power – consumed at the place of production.

Big wind farms attract big government subsidies, paid for out of taxes. Spending large amounts of public money adds to politicians sense of self-importance but in the case of solar or wind farms this money goes straight into the coffers of large companies,

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Community

New golf cart batteries

gcb1

Today was the first full day on the new batteries, we had everything hooked up to them, including the new chest freezer to refrigerator conversion, about a month (or so) ago our old one smoked on us, fortunately it happened during the day and I was there to catch it, it might not have gone any further, but as far as I’m concerned, when you see smoke, fire usually comes next. I’ll do another writeup on the new fridge very soon, until then you can read about how I DIY’d the conversion here and here.

Our previous batteries were marine type deep cycle batteries, I’ve been told on more than one occasion that those types of batteries aren’t true deep cycle batteries, in fact the newer ones being sold have cold cranking ratings on them instead of amp hours, and that has little (or nothing) to do with being deep cycle, that has to do with starting motors and such. Those are a hybrid of regular and deep cycle batteries, more robust than a standard car or truck battery but not as heavy duty as a true deep cycle battery.

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Direct Energy sister company gouges consumers

The owners of Direct Energy – one of North America’s largest energy and energy-related services providers with more than 5 million residential and commercial customers, has been accused of paying staff bonuses to inflate customers’ bills by up to 60 per cent.

British company Centrica is already known for playing hardball. Its boss Sam Laidlaw has long been one of the highest paid energy bosses in the UK, and unashamedly gouges the British consumer.

When the British Government regulator announced an enquiry into the running of the energy market last month, Laidlaw responded by threatening to cut investment in the UK.

Now a whistleblower has claimed that his British Gas subsidiary is paying staff bonuses to inflate customers’ bills by up to 60 per cent.

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Charge your phone with this foldaway windmill

Forget plugs – you can now charge your mobile with a portable WIND TURBINE:the Trinity propeller harnesses breezes to power up a phone and other USB devices.
Created by American electricians Einar Agustsson and Agust Agustsson, the power station folds into a 12-inch cylinder when not in use.

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