Open Source Ecology

GeoPathfinder GeoPathfinder.com has moved to new addresses! The information on this page is no longer being updated or maintained. It has been divided into new categories, and it is built and edited using new software. The new categories and pages, formerly known as our Food Preservation Page are:Solar Food Drying , Energy-Wise Cooking & Canning , The Four-Season Pantry , and Live Food Storage . The following information is still posted for historical purposes only. Top 8 Tips for Growing Organic Vegetables A lot of people, especially beginners, make quite a lot of mistakes in growing vegetables. Not even trying to be offensive here, they just do, and there are some rules you simply HAVE to follow in order to grow your veggies well. But fear not for I am here to spread knowledge and love! Being omniscient is a rather okay occupation.

Open Source Hardware: A Design For Life On a farm in deepest rural Missouri, the heartland of the American midwest, a village is emerging from the soil. It’s the base camp for the Open Source Ecology (OSE) movement, founded in 2007 to search for innovative answers to the world’s mounting sustainability problems. Here a Princeton educated Polish physicist and a growing band of DIY devotees have embarked on an ambitious project – to redesign the basic elements of civilization, making them cheaper, greener and smarter. Marcin Jubowski believes he has identified the 50 machines necessary to create a sustainable village – “a civilization starter kit”. He calls it the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS), and it’s new technology, the Internet and the power of crowdsourcing that’s making this ambitious project possible. The machines include a tractor, a press that turns soil into bricks for building and a hydraulic power unit.

Natural Pools or Swimming Ponds Natural Pools or Natural Swimming Ponds (NSPs) Let nature clean the water... Chemical-free water garden and swimming pool. The plant portion, or regeneration zone, is separated from the swimming area by the wall seen a few inches below the water’s surface. www.naturalswimmingpools.com The pools have skimmers and pumps that circulate the water through the regeneration zone and back into the swimming area.

Earth - Six bizarre things about fungi Fungi gave us alcohol It’s impossible to write an article praising fungi without first thanking Kingdom Fungi for getting early humans drunk. One group of fungi, the yeasts, generates their energy through a process called fermentation. Yeasts take sugar from plants, and break it down into a compound they can use for energy, along with the byproducts carbon dioxide and alcohol. Unconsumption – Blog Autonomous robots to be used in keeping dust off solar panels in Israel’s biggest solar field, reports timesofisrael: Most solar energy farms are located in deserts, where there is plenty of sunlight — which solar panels, of course, need a lot of. But the desert also has a lot of dust, which clogs up the photovoltaic components of the panels, making them less effective in collecting sunlight for conversion into energy. Panels have to be cleaned on a regular basis, but water in the desert tends to be expensive, if available at all — and the use of water to clean the panels raises the costs of production, making solar power too expensive to be considered anything more than a novelty…. Instead of using water to clean panels, Ecoppia’s robot cleaners are equipped with microfibers, with each robot assigned to a row of PV panels.

Terra Preta Toilets Urine diversion terra preta toilets are dry terra preta sanitation (TPS) systems based on urine diversion, lacto-fermentation, the addition of charcoal and vermicomposting to produce lasting and highly fertile soils with properties similar to the terra preta soils (GENSCH 2010 b). Pre-Columbian native populations generated terra preta soils, literally “black earth”, by incorporating large amounts of charred residues (charcoal) either produced intentionally or as a by-product from human activity into the soil together with nutrient-rich material (GLASER 2006). Nutrient-rich material was used to be human and animal manure (rich in P and N), waste including mammal and fish bones (rich in P and Ca), ash residues of incomplete combustions (rich in Ca, Mg, K, P and charcoal) or plant biomass (e.g. kitchen wastes, compost, algae etc.) (GLASER 2006). A typical soil from the Amazonian region (left).

Millions of GMO insects could be released in Florida Keys © Derric Nimmo/Oxitec/AP Photo Undated handout image of a genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquito in an Oxitec lab in Great Britain. KEY WEST, Fla. — Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in the Florida Keys if British researchers win approval to use the bugs against two extremely painful viral diseases. Never before have insects with modified DNA come so close to being set loose in a residential U.S. neighborhood. Natural pools are beautiful and environmentally friendly A natural swimming pool is a magical addition to a home where you can observe nature throughout the seasons and be closer to the wildlife you share your land with. Some of the creatures you will attract are insects like water beetles and dragonflies; birds will visit the pond to bathe, feed and collect nesting material and amphibians like the frog and newt will take up residence. Your pond will become a stepping stone for the wilderness where local native flora and fauna will find your pool and flourish.

Seed Balls Take The Hard Work Out Of Planting Gardening is a pleasure for many people, but others find it something of a chore. If you fall into the latter camp, try creating seed balls for easy growing with minimal ground preparation. By coating seeds in clay, soil and fertiliser, seeds can easily establish in areas that are considered difficult or impossible to prepare. Natural Pools or Swimming Ponds Natural Pools or Natural Swimming Ponds (NSPs) Let nature clean the water... Chemical-free water garden and swimming pool. The plant portion, or regeneration zone, is separated from the swimming area by the wall seen a few inches below the water’s surface. naturalswimmingpools.com The pools have skimmers and pumps that circulate the water through the regeneration zone and back into the swimming area. The aquatic plants filter out contaminants and use nutrients from the water as food which helps prevent algae. Then rocks, such as granite river rock or haydite, to which friendly bacteria attach, act as biological filters.

This Glass Sphere Might Revolutionize Solar Power on Earth German architect André Broessel, of Rawlemon, has looked into his crystal ball and seen the future of renewable energy. In this case it’s a spherical sun-tracking solar energy-generating globe — essentially a giant glass marble on a robotic steel frame. But this marble is no toy. It concentrates both sunlight and moonlight up to 10,000 times — making its solar harvesting capabilities 35 percent more efficient than conventional dual-axis photovoltaic designs. André Broessel was a finalist in the World Technology Network Award 2013 with the globe’s design and afterward produced this latest version, called Betaray, which can concentrate diffuse light such as that from a cloudy day.

Natural Swimming Ponds Natural swimming ponds, also called natural pools, are a wonderful way to recreate nature in your backyard. They offer a much lower maintenance alternative to conventional pools and allow you to swim in clean, chemical free water. Consider this comment from member, Emma O’Connor (left on our Natural Ponds blog): “I would love one of these. As a swimming teacher by trade I spend much time in chlorinated water…. not fun for skin, hair or eyes.” Another pool converted to a swimming pond