Brain Pickings is the brain child of Maria Popova, a cultural curator and curious mind at large, who also writes for Wired UK, The Atlantic and Design Observer, among others… Start with 7 Ways to Have More by Owning Less…

I am a 91-year-old bodybuilder

At 85 I had a crisis. I looked at myself in the mirror, and saw an old man. I was overweight, my posture was terrible and there was skin hanging off me. I looked like a wreck. (…) I turn 92 this year. It is a frightening prospect – the law of averages is against me, and, yes, one day something will happen and that will be it. But until that day comes, I’m going to carry on working on my abs.

(via)

Why the Arduino Won and Why It’s Here to Stay by Phillip Torrone. There will be no Arduino killer. « The barrier to entry isn’t a monetary one, it’s a philosophical one. »

Update: On 10 May, Google announced their open accessory kit based on Arduino. More here: Hands-On with the Android Open Accessory Development Kit.

And remember, before you begin a project, please read this important information.

via Kottke

Was wondering why the GVCS did not cover Stirling engines. Their explaination is probably the easiest answer (and a concise summary of the state of the art)

Elsewhere, Stirling engine enthusiasts are working on this [project]. The Stirling engine is an efficient energy generating technology that has been replicated innumerable times and ways over the past two centuries, but nothing has penetrated the market in any significant way yet. The thrust, therefore, of an open sourcing project should be to identify and develop a variation that will result in a marketable design of widespread applicability.

Update: Stirling Engine Generates 1 Watt

Stirling Engine driving high-power LED

Solarfire is a northern India nonprofit who designed & prototyped a solar concentrator for small industries and agricultural processes.

Open Source Ecology (a.k.a. Factor e farm or Global Village Construction Set) plan to use it for their Solar Turbine.

I found out, while reading the list of Make‘s 2010 Green project contest (won by Global Village Construction Set) that Mikey Sklar (the off-the-grid DIYer of Thruth or Consequences) not only has stages ideas about messing with his body or LEDs, but also wanted to rationalize the biggest energy-wasting appliance that resides in every US home: the fridge. he replaced it with a much small chest cooler, regulating the temperature with a DIY controller, packing it with boxes and putting the unecessary stuff wher it belongs… on the shelves.

Check also his other projects (desuflators, useful if you manufacture your own electricity and use car batteries to store it, & Veg oil car conversion stuff)

From the TED talks page posted 18 Apr 2011 (includes the whole transcript – see also the conversations).

A single burned DVD is effectively a civilization starter kit. I planted a hundred trees in a day. I pressed 5.000 bricks in a day from the dirt beneath my feet and… built a tractor in six days.
(…) a greater distribution of the means of production, environmently sound supply chains andan a duely relevant DIY Maker culture that can hope to transcient artificial scarcity (…).

The speaker is Marcin Jakubowski (Factor E Farm Blog) who launched Open Source Ecology whose goal is creating a Global Village Construction Set, an « advanced, industrial economy-in-a-box that can be replicated inexpensively anywhere in the world ». (UPDATE: Won Make‘s 2010 Green project contest)

[via Make:]
UPDATE : An earlier Grist article Dirty hippies with power tools.

Une citation de Ken Follet (dans « Les piliers de la terre« )

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