Tag Archive for 'How to'

DIY: Start A Compost Bin

jesse published on June 15, 2010 in food, technology and zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Good Day!

Wanna Start a Compost Bin in your back yard? It can be done. You don’t need much space…

Here’s one way:

Find a Container (maybe it’s made of wood so it will someday decompose as well… in this case, I bought a metal trash can because I’m leaving this house soon and needed something I could take with me to the next place I’ll be living)

Make sure it has holes in it for air flow… oxygen good for decomposition… so put it up on some bricks or stones.

Put a layer of cardboard and dead yard clippings down first so that air can come up from the bottom.

Then it’s just like making a cake… first a layer of “brown” (dead) matter… then a layer of “green” (living) matter…

Add your saved up scraps from the kitchen. (some people say no animal products because it attracts vermin and makes extra bad smell)

For a good list of what you can compost, check this site out: http:planetgreen.discovery.com

Then add another layer of “brown” waste (sawdust, soil, grass clippings… etc…) to cover it all up and let it start really cooking… breaking down the food scraps and other compostable items over the course of the next few months.

And then maybe you want to pee on it a little bit?

Cover with a lid to keep out animals… and every time you fill up your container in the kitchen with scraps, just pull back a section of the top “brown” matter layer and mix in the scraps, and then re-cover. Or if you have enough of those scraps, create a whole new layer of “green” matter and then cover with another layer of “brown”. After a while you can mix it all up and the really useful compost soil will be down at the bottom…

P.S. Here’s a nice container for the kitchen with a carbon filter so it doesn’t smell while its sitting on your counter and slowly getting filled up…

Tupperware works too… you can freeze it as well so it won’t smell until you’ve got enough to make the trip outside.

P.P.S. For more composting tips… check out http://easycomposting.com

Good Luck… The Earth says, “THANKS… I LOVE YOU TOO!!!”

jrc

100 Ways to Make the World a Better Place #85: Love Life Today

april published on January 16, 2010 in zeitgeist. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

If you were told, by a reputable scientist, that the world would end tonight, how would this news change the way you lived? Also, what would you do in this final hour?

proustian_thoughts1

Marcel Proust 1871 – 1922

In 1920s Paris, there was a publication called L’Intransigeant. It featured a section which posed big questions, relating to various topics. In 1922, a rather elaborate question was formulated. The premise being that a scientist has announced the world will end and that death will be the certain fate of hundreds of millions of people. The question read: “If this prediction were confirmed, what do you think would be its effects on people between the time when they acquired the aforementioned certainty and the moment of cataclysm? Finally, as far as you’re concerned, what would you do in this last hour?”

French novelist Marcel Proust (pictured above) sent in the following reply:

I think that life would suddenly seem wonderful to us if we were threatened to die as you say. Just think of how many projects, travels, love affairs, studies it – our life – hides from us, made invisible by our laziness which, certain of a future, delays them incessantly.

But let all this threaten to become impossible forever, how beautiful it would become again! Ah! If only the cataclysm doesn’t happen this time, we won’t miss visiting the new galleries of the Louvre, throwing ourselves at the feet of Miss X, making a trip to India.

The cataclysm doesn’t happen, we don’t do any of it, because we find ourselves back in the heart of normal life, where negligence deadens desire. And yet we shouldn’t have needed the cataclysm to love life today. It would have been enough to think that we are humans, and that death may come this evening.

I fell upon this story while reading How Proust Can Change Your Life by one of my favourite authors, Alain de Botton. I think it’s a wonderful reminder to live for now, appreciate life, and chase your dreams. Proust longed for the Louvre, love and India, and died just four months after submitting this reply. I wonder what you long for.

April

How To Make The Chewbacca Noise

april published on August 16, 2009 in zeitgeist. 3 Comments Tags: , , , .

Hi everyone.

As you all know, the internet is full of how-to tutorials with which you can learn just about anything. For four months now, my workmates Ant, Lizza and I have been breaking our backs (and vocal chords) in our attempts to imitate Chewbacca’s distinct cry. You can imagine our triumph when we came across this:


How To Make the Chewbacca Noise on Howcast

Chewie rules.
PS How hot is the fiery new SF banner? Excellent.