Day: January 15, 2020

Show Only ...
Maps - Photos - Videos

Stupid Things People Say on Off Grid Forumns.

|

I follow several off-grid and homesteading groups on Facebook, and ever so often there are posts like:

1) How can you be off-grid if your on Facebook?

I guess in the strictest sense, if you are not “off-grid” if you not an anti-social hermit. But many people who live off-grid or are thinking of buying an off-grid property aren’t thinking of becoming anti-social hermits. We just want to live on our own land, on a backroad, a ways back from the power lines and provide our own power via solar, micro-hydro, small scale wind or a generator. I know personally I would forgo having a high-speed internet connection in favor of my low-cost smartphone that meets 90% of my internet needs, but many do run wires back or use cellphone networks to get internet.

2) Why would you bother to spend tens of thousands to go off-grid and build an electrical system that is able to power a large-suburban house without any reduction in use of energy?

Off-grid power systems can be expensive, especially the larger scale ones. But usually over time, they do pay themselves back by not having a utility bill. And many people who live off-grid, priorize conservation and using as little electric power as possible, often replacing the most energy intensive loads like heating, stoves/ovens, hot water production with propane or other fuel. Many also cook on woodstoves. Others will go to the laundromat to do their clothes. People usually go off-grid because they seek to use less energy, they want to be closer to nature.

Hans Sloane, the British Museum, and an Asbestos Purse – Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture – Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture

|

The Curious World of Benjamin Franklin: Hans Sloane, the British Museum, and an Asbestos Purse – Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture – Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture

There is an object in the British Museum that was bought from Benjamin Franklin. A small asbestos “purse.” With only these details, the modern mind imagines the elder statesman ambling up to Montague House, the museum’s home in Bloomsbury from 1759, on the same site as the modern museum. Perhaps the most well known American in the world, the Franklin in our imagination gains entry to the museum and marvels at the collections before offering up a curiosity of his own. In reality, it was a much younger Franklin who was invited to the home of Sir Hans Sloane in 1725 – almost thirty years before George II gave his Royal Assent to establish a public museum founded in large part on Sloane’s collections.

What “Dark Waters” gets right about the DuPont/PFAS water pollution case

|

What “Dark Waters” gets right about the DuPont/PFAS water pollution case

Today, we know the scope of contamination extends well beyond Parkersburg, West Virginia. PFOA and other PFAS remain in the blood of U.S. citizens and people around the globe, with no clear regulatory or remediation path in sight. PFAS remain unregulated at a federal level in the U.S. Chemical companies continue to churn out analogues of PFOA and other PFAS for use in consumer and industrial applications.