Posts by — Katie

Not a How-to. More a Why-to

Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America

The grid is everywhere, sending power to the light switch on the wall and water to the faucet in the kitchen. But is it essential? Should we depend on it and the giant corporate structure behind it? With energy prices soaring, the housing market in shambles, financial institutions collapsing, and unemployment hovering at devastating highs, up to a million Americans have already freed themselves from dependence on the Utility companies. More are joining the movement every day.

In Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America, award-winning documentary filmmaker and part-time off-gridder, Nick Rosen, takes readers on a fascinating and complex journey through a seemingly simple lifestyle. Nick, who is Editor of this web site, traverses the US, encountering both luxury hideaways and harsh environs, to investigate the growing trend for off-the-grid living. His adventures take him from one overlooked part of the country to another, in rented cars that often double as hotels and on public transit when his subjects demand it. He spends time with all sorts of individuals and families striving to live the lives they want— bathing in hot springs, forgoing municipal power and amenities—in the ultimate search for freedom from government and its far-reaching grasp. (more…)

The Australian Men’s Shed Association (AMSA), has been beavering away for some years now, trying to help depressed, lonely males. They call themselves Shed Men and they aim to provide men with sheds, so they can become Shedders. I know, I know.

This year AMSA will benefit to the tune of $3million from Austraia (And the world’s) first ever National Male Health Policy.

Its success is based on the observation that “men find it much easier to talk to one another when they are shoulder to shoulder rather than face to face”, said a spokesman.

The stereotypical Australian male is a swaggeringly macho XXXX-drinker, which is fine until Bruce grows old or retires or is bereaved or otherwise vulnerable. The stereotype fails and they become isolated. So the Shed Men provide community sheds, where there are bits and bobs of tools and machinery lying about. There’s the wherewithal to make yourself a cuppa. (more…)

Juliet Schor - mapping a new kind of lifestyle

Many, including writer Juliet Schor,question the underlying assumptions of the consumerist mentality. She has just written a new book about it – Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth.
Once most Americans could meet basic biological needs, spending took on a heightened social meaning. Spending has become a social phenomenon, consumerism now builds on our fear of failure. That fear has costs. Schor’s question: Is the high cost of all the stuff we’re accumulating worth the escalating costs to our families, communities and the planet? (more…)

Close your eyes Gordon

British prime minister Gordon Brown made an eco-promise when he first got the job – he would create 5 eco-towns.  Then it was ten eco-towns. Now it looks like we will be lucky to get two eco-towns – whatever they are.

So his claim in today’s speech to Labour Party conference that he would create a quarter million green jobs is likely to be just as much of a pathetic fallacy. (more…)

Social Slave # It is possible to use publicly available data on state and date of birth to predict someone’s Social Security number, particularly if they were born after 1988 and in smaller states, according to an article published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The ability to use statistic inference to predict the sensitive data exposes the Social Security numbers to identity fraud risks on “mass scales,” the article said. (more…)

Megaprofits for energy corps UK energy suppliers are ripping their customers off via the grid says the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

UK utility bills rose 16.7 per cent in the year ended November, compared with an average of just 3.8 per cent in the EU. In the euro currency area, the figure was 0.7 per cent.

German consumers saw a rises of just 1.5 per cent, while prices in France actually went down by 0.6 per cent in the period ended November. And in the U.S., energy prices tumbled 13.3 per cent. (more…)

Ed Miliband, climate change ministerThe UK government has backed down in the face of utility company opposition and introduced an Energy Bill which stops short of guaranteeing householders can sell their renewable energy back to the Grid.

Although the British administration tabled an amendment to its own bill that would allow people to generate enough power to serve a community of more than 1,000 people, it does not yet require the energy companies to take a feed from their customers. (more…)

Nice enough to live in Scores of small companies from chimney sweeps to solar panel installers are seeing a boom in business as people faced with soaring fuel bills look for cheaper energy deals. Solar panels, typically lining the roofs of buildings, can now be found across America in more eccentric forms — shingles, windows, awnings and free-standing carports.

With the average household’s annual energy bill now more than $2,000 (£1,300), comparatively cheaper sources of household energy such as solar power and solid fuel are tempting, (more…)

Cash-strapped teacher Kath Kelly claims she has been living on just £1 ($1.70) a day for the past year. And she has written a book about it.

Miss Kelly, 47, ate at free buffets, shopped at jumble sales and scavenged food discarded by grocery stores and restaurants. (more…)