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November 2015

The trailer home of alleged killer Robert Dear who regularly had disputes with neighbors and women
Community

The Off-Grid Killer

At first sight, Robert L Dear might seem like many thousands of other reclusive cabin-dwellers in deserted parts of America. In his late 50s, divorced, the man who shot three dead and injured 9 more in and around a Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Colorado Springs, was an entrepreneur who lived by commissioning and selling limited edition prints.

Dear also had a history of fracas and minor scrapes with the law. He had guns for hunting and self-protection and he was apparently a cannabis smoker who was so lonely that he advertised online for people to get high with.

Where a tighter gun control law might have picked up Dear as a potential risk is his online personals ad seeking women in North Carolina interested in bondage and sadomasochistic sex – the ads showed a picture that appeared to be Mr. Dear and used an online pseudonym associated with him.

Dear had been married but his divorce came after his wife called police at least once over domestic violence. That alone could have been evidence the man could not be trusted with a gun.

After his divorce, Mr. Dear lived in a succession of trailer homes and cabins, where he appeared to stir resentments among neighbors and lash out at people around him, according to police reports. Some former neighbors said they were not surprised by the violence in Colorado Springs.

In Swannanoa, N.C., where Mr. Dear had lived for a time in a single-wide trailer, a novelist, Leland Davis, said he had repeatedly been followed by Mr. Dear in a late-model Toyota Tacoma. Mr. Davis believed that Mr. Dear had followed him because he suspected that Mr. Davis had complained to the authorities about how Mr. Dear treated a dog. The men never spoke, Mr. Davis said in an interview in his home Saturday night, but Mr. Dear had mounted something of a scare campaign.

“He followed me all the way into downtown Asheville,” Mr. Davis said. “He followed me three or four times.”

In Black Mountain, N.C.,. Dear had a shooting lodge (a crude hut actually) miles along mountain roads. Scott Rupp, who sold it to him, worried about whether Mr. Dear would fit in the community, which was populated by “environmental types,” he said.

“He was like a mountain culture person,” Mr. Rupp told journalists, “and he was really excited to get a place where he could hunt.”

In 2002, in Walterboro, S.C., Mr. Dear was arrested on charges of breaking the state’s “Peeping Tom” law after a neighbor told the police that he had hidden in the bushes in an attempt to peer into her house. For months, the neighbor, Lynn Roberts, said, Mr. Dear was “making unwanted advancements” and “leering” at her on a regular basis, putting her “in fear of her safety,” according to an incident report.

The charge was later dismissed, but a …

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German battery company launches scheme to sell your surplus solar energy to your neighbour
Community

Sharing solar power in Germany

BERLIN, Nov 25 (Reuters) – German battery maker Sonnenbatterie has launched a scheme to connect households with solar panels together with their neighbours, and other consumers. the aim is to better distribute surpluses of renewable energy and help members to become more independent of conventional suppliers.

The start-up company hopes the scheme, called “sonnenCommunity”, will boost demand for its batteries which store solar power, allowing owners to use the clean energy even when weather conditions are not favourable.

“SonnenCommunity allows all households that want to determine their energy futures themselves the access to affordable and clean electricity,” said chief executive Christoph Ostermann at the project’s launch on Wednesday.

The initiative comes at a time when battery technology, long seen as expensive, is approaching a point where ordinary householders can afford it.

By storing solar power and releasing it on demand, households can avoid having to buy more expensive power off the grid to supplement their production. The batteries could also help solar power households cope with a phasing out of subsidies currently paid when surplus power is sold to public grids.

Sonnenbatterie has sold 8,500 lithium battery units, saying this makes it the European market leader.

Germany has around 25,000 batteries in operation that can store solar power – still a small number given there are around 1.5 million solar production units, mostly located on roofs of family homes – but year-on-year sales are growing rapidly.

U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla is also looking to enter the market. It plans to start delivering wall-mounted batteries that can store solar power to Germany in early 2016.

SonnenCommunity takes the storage idea a step further, allowing solar power to be shared among its members.

Sonnenbatterie said the scheme would initially target the 1.5 million solar power producers who, if they sign up to the community, will receive a battery storage system with a starting price of 3,599 euros ($3,812). But eventually, the offer will also be open to non-producers, it added.

If the idea of battery-powered buildings takes off, it could pose a challenge to traditional utilities such as RWE and E.ON, which still derive the bulk of their power from big centralised power stations running on fossil fuels.

($1 = 0.9442 euros)

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5 Cool things for your Bug-out Bag (or off-grid stocking)

What do YOU think should be in the best bug-out bags this year? Please let us know by commenting on this article. Send us videos unboxing YOUR bug out bag to news@off-grid.net.

Meanwhile, here are some ideas in the $10-25 price bracket:

Equip yourself: with a Survivor HK-106320 Series Fixed Blade Outdoor Knife/strong

The Survivor HK-106320 is an ergonomic and durable blade designed for the outdoors. The cord-wrapped handles provides firm grip as well as a handy bit of cord if you’re every in a bind. Crucially, it comes with a magnesium fire starter so you don’t need to worry about carrying matches or a lighter, which can be unreliable in poor weather conditions. The knife has a safe nylon sheath so you can take it with you around your land or further afield safe in the knowledge that with the right technique it will cut through pretty much anything.

Keep the kids occupied and educated with Gadgets and Gizmos

LittleBits Gadgets & Gizmos Building Kit – buy it on Amazon US
For children 8 and up — or even adults—who’ve dreamed of building their own machines, magnetic building bricks from LittleBits help make it happen. You don’t have to understand electronic engineering, you just have to appreciate cause and effect. Press this button, that fan turns on; when light hits a sensor, the motor spins—the more light, the faster. The latest LittleBits kit comes with extras to provide these imaginative constructions with shape and style. For a hefty $200, at least the Gizmos & Gadgets kit doesn’t skimp on electronic building blocks. You get two motors, two dimmers, two power sources, a wireless transmitter and receiver and much more. littlebits.com

Ultra-bright LED Lantern – buy it on Amazon.com

You won’t have to hold a torch in your mouth any longer! This ultra-bright LED lantern is built with military grade, water resistant plastic and is easily collapsible to take around your land. It will illuminate a wide surrounding areas cleanly. The light is made up of 30 individual LEDs making it one of the brightest lights on the market – especially for less than $15.

Task Tools T77250 Weekend Warrior Apron with Polyweb Belt – Buy it on Amazon

This split leather tool belt is perfect for carrying all your tools around when you’re fixing your generator, roof, or most likely, your toilet. It has a quick release buckle if you want to put it down in a hurry, but sits on all sizes perfectly like an apron. Very reasonably priced considering you’ll never have to buy a tool belt again — 5 different pocket sizes and 2 hammer holders.

https://www.amazon.com/Task-Tools-T77250-Weekend-5-Pocket – buy it on Amazon/dp/B00A479C76/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1448302203&sr=8-2&keywords=Tool+belt

And another one for the kids……

LA SIESTA – Hanging Nest – Buy it on Amazon US

This hanging crow’s nest is a pod/hammock made from 100% tear-proof double cotton, with …

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Huge Building in London Occupied

A 150,000 square foot building in one of London’s most exclusive areas was squatted two weeks ago by activists. Local residents had been complaining for three years that the publicly owned building (formerly a housing office) was being left empty at a cost to taxpayers of £250,000 per year.

Now renamed the Camden Mothership, the new occupants saved the local council from security fees that proved totally ineffective. The group have transformed the building into a community hub. You can help Camden Mothership continue working for their community by turning up at the 156 West End Lane, London NW6, and writing to Camden Council.

The wealthy locals who tried to get community access to the building were constantly batted away by the council.

Now 12 squatters are living there and have announced a series of public meetings and arts events.

Local councillor Sian Berry, from the Green Party has already come out in favour of letting them stay there.

Piers Corbyn, brother of Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has joined the team negotiating for the occupation to be given a license by Camden Council.

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People

Earthship project on CNN

Earthship

The divisive figure of Mike Reynolds of Earthship Biotecture, has been in the press again, this time on CNN. His company built 15 off-grid cliff-top homes in Taos, New Mexico. Going by CNN’s coverage you would have thought he built them all by himself – and perhaps he did.

“An Earthship is the name we have given a building or vessel that we use to live on this planet that is absolutely independent of all public and municipal utilities” says Reynolds. The homes are made from natural and other recycled materials that would otherwise go to waste. The main ingredient is old tyres from cars, which are rammed full of earth or (more costly) filled with concrete –  to create solar homes. Earthships in Taos range in price, from a relatively reasonable $250,000 to a staggering $1.5 million.

Reynolds used the publicity to talk about how government infrastructure could benefit from less of a bureaucratic approach when it comes to planning permission and urban development: “If some government or corporation was getting ready to do a city for ten thousand people, they’d spend ten years putting in infrastructure to support that city’s power and sewage….we don’t need that: if I had a thousand acres somewhere, and funding, I could start building a city tomorrow.”

Earthship Biotecture have plans to build an Earthship city, which would be far more sustainable than a modern city. An Earthship community reuses sewage for food production and landscaping and relies on solar power. One problem facing Reynolds and Earthship Biotecture is criticism from experts who say that Earthships are too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.

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