Cordwood Sheds and Cabins Cordwood Sheds and Cabins also known as Stackwall, Stovewood, Firewood or Cordwood Masonry. cordwood shed Short lengths of debarked trees (cordwood) are laid with a mixture of mortar and insulating materials - such as sawdust or spray foam - in between the mortar. The longer the length of the logs, the better the insulation qualities. 12 inches to 18 inches is most common and wood species will also determine insulating value. cordwood shed Hobbit House with living roof by Rena Upitas, Ontario. renaupitis.com Cordwood Shed with a thatched roof. roofthatch.com cordwood shed Gail and Mark Dupar’s cordwood shed on Decatur Island in Washington’s San Juans. cordwood shed John Meilahn's cabin, Copper Harbor, Michigan. facebook.com cordwood shed Sojourn Cabin sojourningboston.blogspot.com cordwood shed Piet Hein Eek for Hans Liberg, pietheineek.nl Cordwood Pole Shed at Treehaven. daycreek.com Irish Cottage Shed in a garden show, 2002. daycreek.com Backside of above cabin. Cordwood masonary sauna.
Diamond light, brighter than the sun Imagine that the only thing limiting you is your imagination – that the physical means of achieving what you see in your mind’s eye is right in front of you. That, according to Professor Mark Hodson, is how it is for scientists at the Diamond synchrotron in Oxfordshire. With its curving walls, lined with walkways, pipes and colourful, clunky-looking machines and gadgets, it’s a sight that wouldn’t seem out of place in an early episode of ‘Doctor Who’. Diamond light, brighter than the sun From a birds-eye view, Diamond looks like a massive ring doughnut or a spaceship half a kilometre in circumference (roughly the size of five football pitches). As the name suggests, Diamond is a source of intensely bright light, which can be up to 10 billion times brighter than the sun. Researchers go to the synchrotron to use that brilliantly intense light in much the same way as they use visible light in a microscope or X-rays: to reveal things we can’t see.
Comfort In Any Climate Warmth If you want heat, you admit the sun. The sun heats the mass, the mass stores the heat and the insulation won't let it escape. The more mass, the more storage capacity. When there is no sun, the heat stored in the mass radiates into the space, for heat travels to the cooler direction. Coolness If you want coolness, you admit the cooler earth temperature and block the sun. Insulation & Thermal Mass In recent years humans have recognized the fact that insulation can help keep temperature in a shelter. Good insulation has millions of tiny air spaces. Dense mass both collects and stores temperature like a jar holds marbles. The people made shelter by assembling pieces one at a time. We are simply adapting our needs to the already existing activities of the planet. Why pipe water long distances from a centralized community water system, or from an expensive well that needs significant electrical power, depletes aquifers and lowers the water table, when water fall from the sky?
At This Vending Machine, Swapping is the New Buying - Environment We're used to putting money in a vending machine and instantly receiving consumable goods—a bag of chips, a soda, or even a new pair of headphones—in return. But what if vending machines became a fresh way to reuse, recycle, and trade with people in your community? That's the vision of the Swap-O-Matic, a New York City-based vending machine project that wants to "shift culture away from an emphasis on unconscious consumption" by encouraging people to donate and receive used items for free. To use the Swap-O-Matic, you register with an email address using the machine's touchscreen interface. New traders start out with three swapping "credits." Donating an item earns additional credits, which can be redeemed for anything else in the machine. Lina Fenequito, the primary creator and designer of the Swap-O-Matic, has long been an advocate of sustainable living and responsible consumption of resources. Via Springwise Photo courtesy of Swap-O-Matic
Building A Roundhouse With Woodhenge And Cobwood Please Share This Page: Google + stumbleupon tumblr reddit 3 Building A Roundhouse With Woodhenge And CobwoodPhoto – Here you’ll find a three minute time-lapse video by ToneWrench of the whole process of building a small roundhouse. The windows have been reclaimed and the structure of the roundhouse is built almost entirely from sustainable materials, namely timber and cob (which is a traditional wall plaster/ render made of three parts sand, one clay, one chopped straw or hay). The walls of the house are made using cordwood (also known as Stackwall, Stovewood, Firewood or Cordwood Masonry) – this means horizontal log slices of tree trunks and branches that are used “in the round” – this produces a good surface for the cob to stick to, giving a thick wall for good insulation and an attractive look to the house. The roof is turfed, which helps to insulate the house as well as giving nature a place to grow. Okay, here is the video:
Why Piracy Is Indispensable For The Survival Of Our Culture Last Year Techdirt wrote about the case of the huge collection of historic jazz recordings that had been acquired by the US National Jazz Museum. The central problem is that even if the recordings can be digitized before they deteriorate, very few people will hear them because of their complicated copyright status. But as this eye-opening article from Benj Edwards explains, bad as that situation is, it's even worse for the entire category of software creations. For example, consider the earlier generation of floppy-based programs: Floppy disks, which were once used as the medium du jour for personal computers, have a decidedly finite lifespan: estimates for the data retention abilities of a floppy range anywhere from one year to 30 years under optimal conditions. That's great, apart from one slight problem: under today's copyright laws, all these wonderful backups that will probably ensure the programs' survival while civilization itself is still around, are illegal.
Bear Hermitage Nestled in a glade of scrub oak on the site of a former moon lodge, the Bear Hermitage, a straw bale vault, designed and built by Women Build Houses under the loving guidance of Shay Salomon, offers womb-like seclusion. A tiny hermitage at the Lama Foundation in San Cristobal, New Mexico. MIT creates solar cell from grass clippings A researcher at MIT, Andreas Mershin, has created solar panels from agricultural waste such as cut grass and dead leaves. In a few years, Mershin says it’ll be possible to stir some grass clippings into a bag of cheap chemicals, paint the mixture on your roof, and immediately start producing electricity. If you remember high school biology classes, you will hopefully remember a process called photosynthesis, whereby plants turn sunlight into energy. Mershin has found a process which extracts the photosynthesizing molecules, called photosystem I, from plant matter. Photosystem I contains chlorophyll, the protein that actually converts photons into a flow of electrons. These molecules are then stabilized and spread on a glass substrate that’s covered in a forest of zinc oxide nanowires and titanium dioxide “sponges.” So far so good — now time for the reality check. Read more at MIT
Cordwood Sheds and Cabins - Rustic Fabulous Cordwood Sheds and Cabins also known as Stackwall, Stovewood, Firewood or Cordwood Masonry. On the final page, be sure to watch the great video on how to build a cordwood cabin! cordwood shed Short lengths of debarked trees (cordwood) are laid with a mixture of mortar and insulating materials - such as sawdust or spray foam - in between the mortar. The longer the length of the logs, the better the insulation qualities. 12 inches to 18 inches is most common and wood species will also determine insulating value. cordwood shed Hobbit House with living roof by Rena Upitas, Ontario. renaupitis.com Cordwood Shed with a thatched roof. roofthatch.com cordwood shed Gail and Mark Dupar’s cordwood shed on Decatur Island in Washington’s San Juans.
More than 7,500-year-old fish traps found in Russia Public release date: 25-Jan-2012 [ Print | E-mail Share ] [ Close Window ] Contact: Marta Garcia Gonzalomarta.garcia.gonzalo@orgc.csic.es 34-915-681-476Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) A team of international archeologists, led by the Spanish National Research Council, has documented a series of more than 7,500-year-old fish seines and traps near Moscow. Ignacio Clemente, CSIC researcher (Institució Milà I Fontanals) and manager of the project, explains: "Until now, it was thought that the Mesolithic groups had seasonal as opposed to permanent settlements. According to Clemente and his team, during Neolithic and Mesolithic periods, the inhabitants of this region known as Zamostje 2 preferred to hunt during summer and winter, fish during spring and early summer, and harvest wild berries at the end of summer season and autumn. Advanced Technology Organic remains [ Print | E-mail AAAS and EurekAlert!
Cordwood Log Cabins Wooden cabins are really great, especially for spending your holiday. If you would like to build yourself such a cabin in order to have your own island of relaxation, then you should consider making some small changes in the basic wooden cabin structure. We are thinking about building the walls of the cabin out of stone. You can of course create just one stone wall, but 4 such walls should offer you a much stable structure. Also stone is a more resistant material than wood and your house would stay intact for a longer period. There are many ways in which you can make this dream come true and many beautiful designs for stone walled wooden cabins. Cordwood Construction Best Practices by Richard Flatau (Richard Flatau built his mortgage-free cordwood home over thirty years ago in the woods of northern Wisconsin.) Cordwood Construction Best Practices by Richard Flatau (Book)