[flv:http://www.fibrelorraine.fr/videos/video_chalet_client.flv 544 382]
[Fibre Lorraine] Je n’aime pas trop le madrier mais le time-lapse est sympa et c’est du bois francais, mossieur!

Entendu sur bfm business: Philippe Pichat, inventeur (« avec mes amis », dit-il) de la fabrication du béton « vert » à partir de la soude.

Ce procédé s’inspirerait des ciments romains (mais connaissaient-ils la soude?), et offre l’avantage d’être très faiblement consommateur d’énergie et d’une grande simplicité de mise en œuvre. Pichat a brevete de nombreux trucs, dont le beton a la soude (« meme en Chine ») [wikipatents, google patents].

Dave deBronkart: Meet e-Patient Dave

« I met my wife on;line so I know about Sub-optimal results »

Steven K. Roberts, « venerable ‘high-tech nomad,’ best known for his net-connected, gadget-laden Winnebiko and BEHEMOTH bike projects from the 1980s » [x], now at the head of Nomadic Research Labs once had his workshop invade by mice. Another example of what can happen if you forget the details when roofing.

Steven K. Roberts has -despite from his geekiness which took him to first ride (on several techno-laden bikes) then sail, always surrounding himself with loads of techno-stuff- a lot of entrepeneurship ideas

Libya rebels make weapons from scraps
via Libyan Rebels DIY Anti-Aircraft and Robots | Revolt Lab

You may be an engineer working on repairing huge pipes uner the city’s surface but still have a heart for LEGO

Brickstainable (via BLDGBLOG) is a design competition seeking integrative design solutions that promote the use of clay brick to achieve sustainability goals. The competition explores the potential of brick construction in the creation of energy efficient building and challenges designers to maximize the physical characteristics of brick. The results from the 2nd Annual BrickStainable International Design Competition have just being released. They are broken into two categories, one called « integrated building design » where entrants were tasked with creating a sustainable building in an urban Baltimore setting (which is very much like any other architecture student competition) but more interesting is the technical design category, where entrants explored specific aspects and assemblies of a brick. I was less enthralled than BLDGBLOG with this years awards, but Kenfield Griffith’s 2009 submission of a sustainable interlocking assembly (.pdf) caught my attention.
Brickstainable is linked to a brick company (Potomac Valley Brick & Supply Company), and its mission is supported by a need to find new markets for bricks. Brickstainable’s Concepts (.pdf) and case studies (pdf) outline 3 main areas where brick has a future: Trombe walls, Thermal Mass and Permeable Pavers. The first two provide some innovative ecobuilding ideas. More brick case studies can be found on the (UK) Brick Development Association site.
A presentation called « evolution of the masonery » by Peter Doo (President of Doo consulting, which is Potomac Valleys Brick’s consultant for Brickstainable) can be found on their site (.pdf). It has some good ideas on using brick in a eco-building, including cool(ing) towers (such as in the Zion National Park Visitor Center).

Some hacktivists argue that their DDoS attacks are comparable to the civil-rights-era sit-ins — after all, a wall of activists blockading the doors to a “whites-only” lunch counter is a kind of denial-of-service attack.
I think they’re wrong. I grew up in the antiwar movement and participated in my first sit-in when I was 12. Sit-ins are a sort of denial of service, but that’s not why they work. What they do is convey the message: “I am willing to put myself in harm’s way for my beliefs. I am willing to risk arrest and jail. This matters.” This may not be convincing for people who strongly disagree with you, but it makes an impression on people who haven’t been paying attention. Discovering that your neighbors are willing to be harmed, arrested, imprisoned, or even killed for their beliefs is a striking thing.
And that’s a crucial difference between a DDoS and a sit-in: participants in a sit-in expect to get arrested. Participants in a DDoS do everything they can to avoid getting caught. If you want to draw a metaphor, DDoSers are like the animal rights activists who fill a lab’s locks with super glue. This is effective at shutting down your opponent for a good while, but it’s a lot less likely to draw sympathy from the public, who can dismiss it as vandalism.

Cory Doctorow

“Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution is pretty simple. It says, ‘Raise an army’. It says absolutely nothing about race, color, creed, sexual orientation. You all joined for a reason: to serve, to protect our nation, right?”

“Yes, sergeant major,” Marines replied.

“How dare we, then, exclude a group of people who want to do the same thing you do right now, something that is honorable and noble? Right? Get over it. We’re magnificent, we’re going to continue to be. … Let’s just move on, treat everybody with firmness, fairness,
dignity, compassion and respect. Let’s be Marines.”

Sgt. Maj. Micheal Barrett, senior enlisted adviser of the Marine Corps (via)

Make a cree une recompense pour les industriels qui ont une relation conforme aux ideaux du DIY (« if you can’t brake it, you don’t own it »), les Makeys. Et les exemples existent: Makey Awards 2011 Nominee 02: PanaVise, “Most Repair-Friendly”.

• Top 10: Rube Goldberg Machines
• “Tips My Dad Says” Downloadable Card