Posts by — Nick Rosen

We are all bored of it at the same time

Just at its moment of triumph, with a $100 billion valuation looming for its share flotation, Facebook appears to be in deep trouble.

Facebook is the world’s second most popular word that starts with “F” and ends with “K”,  but there was always something highly suspect about its business model – tens of millions around the world fill it up with content each day, but share not a penny of its massive revenues, mainly culled from advertising sales.

This month a much hyped revamp of its page structure has left its 300 million regular users (845 million registered users) in chaos, unable to understand, still less navigate the new design.  It may prove to be the most expensive design mistake in corporate history, leading either to the biggest Internet bust so far, or at the very least a massive downsizing of the share price. (more…)

Work for me

Boasting an outer shell made of stacked car tyres packed with earth, an Earthship claims to be a cutting-edge, sustainable green home made from recycled materials. In fact there are serious design flaws: from off-gas from the tyres to overheating in ultra-hot places like Australia. All in all, having an Earthship in your life is like having a particularly sensitive pet – which needs constant feeding and excercise.
But that has not stopped shameless American architect Michael Reynolds touring Australia’s North Coast, preaching his particular brand of Earthship.
In Melbourne, he is in league with the Ceres community in Brunswick East which has a small project where you can pay to experience Earthship construction techniques. The Group, which always relied on volunteers to build its empire, has now found a marvellous new idea – get people to pay $160 ozzie dollars for a weekend ramming earth into old tyres.

Reynolds, who did not invent the Earthship concept, says its “a vessel sailing on towards tomorrow.” (more…)

Red star marks No Name - the battle continues

After two decades, a tiny Florida island where 43 households live off the grid may be forced to accept Utility power.

The lure of enhanced property prices has persuaded some residents of No Name Key to switch their allegiance.  Recent arrivals on the island have provided the main impetus, but strong support still exists for those wanting to remain off the grid.

“Why isn’t the (local) power utility supporting solar use?” asks Deb Curlee in a letter to her local paper, The Key West Citizen. (more…)

Former refrigerated truck trailer, now a tower

There are plenty of shipping containers being used as homes, some stacked one on top of the other, some just laid out lengthways on a piece of soil.
But architects Alejandro D’Acosta and Claudia Turrent had the novel idea of putting a container on its end, to create a three story tower containing a bathroom on the ground floor and two bedrooms reachable by ladder.

It certainly reduces the amount of land needed to build upon. (more…)

Melissa Corkhill is Editor of The Green Parent magazine.  She lives Doctor-Free with her family in East Sussex, UK. This is how she keeps the doctor away (clue:  its a lot more than an apple a day).

Gatti - world-class social innovation

This amazing new development on Municipal land near Niagara Falls will create an off-grid community inside an existing township.

Not only will newly built homes, aimed at those who cannot afford conventional prices, be sold for as little as $80,000 or less, but they will also be completely self-sufficient said Reverend Bob Bond, chairman of the development committee for Cordage Green in Welland, near the Canadian border with the US.

“There’s a lot of effort in places around the globe, trying to respond to poverty by giving people housing that will work for them. There’s a lot of effort, separate from that, to build green. This is a new thing to put the two together.” (more…)

Dawn - searching for fulfillment

About 18 months ago, my partner (Dawn) and I had a good rethink about the way our lives were going in a comfortable part of Southern England. After a redundancy at the age of 57, I’d trained to be a physics teacher and found it to be one of the most soul-destroying events of my life. We both started to question why we should continue to live by working for a salary. We’d noticed that a lifetime of doing so had resulted in redundancies and our employers getting more rewards that us.

But the main thing that we wanted out of life was greater personal autonomy. Between us, we had a range of interests; from horticulture to physics and we wanted the time to pursue them. (more…)

By Dustin Talley

As a heating and air installer by trade, I go to a lot of condos/apartments/rental houses. With the ever increasing price of electricity and heating fuel, I inevitably have “The Energy Talk” a lot. It can get tricky talking to others about energy usage and savings, because some people just want to save a few dollars on their heating and cooling bills while others are adamantly against the energy companies and what they stand for.

One thing that all of these people have in common is the fact that they are simply renting so when it comes to putting in a new heat pump or the desire to add solar panels or wind generators, they feel that they have no flexibility and are essentially stuck in their current situation.

My family and I are also stuck in the same situation, but have made some changes that add up to a large difference and perhaps if you are a renter that yearns to get off of the grid (or at least a little less dependent on it) then maybe some of what we have done can help: (more…)

A video from USAID shows the details of how to design a cheap efficient stove to cook your food and heat your home.

you have to sit through a little lesson on life in today’s Afghanistan, but you get to see how to put together their traditional cookstove, which can also be used as a space heater.