LATEST BLOG POSTS

Here’s just the segment with me: and the whole episode (I appear about 11:10). I liked it more than the New Yorker piece on me, though that’s not saying much. I laughed out loud several times, partly since I remember the recording. For example, after she put the Skittles in the kombucha, we saw their dye run off and they turned an unnatural ghostly white. I wanted to share about[…] Keep reading →

The Daily Show aired their segment on my disconnecting from the electric grid in Manhattan! I just learned, so haven’t seen it myself yet so can’t comment on it. I hope it was funny, informative, and inspiring. EDIT: I posted the video and some comments on it: See the Daily Show’s segment on me: “Is it Possible to Live “Off the Grid” in Manhattan?”. The point isn’t my personal impact.[…] Keep reading →

On the roof today charging my solar kit, I saw my first flurries of the season. I’m in month 18 disconnected from the electric grid, as I reported in TIME and Ars Technica. Wow, I just noticed the TIME piece appeared over a year ago. The temperature dropped to the mid-30s F (3 C) and it was windy. I’d prefer to keep indoors, but the battery was low and this[…] Keep reading →

Last month I read Hamas-Israel story from an angle few will touch, but is critical: overpopulation, which I wrote about in my post Overpopulation in Israel and Gaza. The population in Israel and Palestine have both more than quintupled since 1950. There are plenty of sources of problems there, but not many places can handle that kind of growth, especially when mostly desert. The article led me to read Alon’s[…] Keep reading →

I contend that my floor is as clean as any you’ll find. One of my sidchas (maybe standard operating procedure) is that I clean it every six days as part of my six-day exercise cycle. I used to clean it before lifting, but realized I get on the floor more for my Turkish Get-ups so clean before it. I’ve gotten complements on my floor’s cleanliness, which comes despite how much[…] Keep reading →

This week I finished: The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, by Eric Foner: Another great book by another great writer about Lincoln. This one focuses on his views and actions on slavery, which evolved over his life, especially during the Civil War. Wikipedia wrote “The Fiery Trial won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for History, the Bancroft Prize, and the Lincoln Prize. The New York Times Book Review listed[…] Keep reading →

Jacquie emailed me that this podcast is inspiring her. She wrote that she’d “always had a spark of interest in sustainability, but I mostly followed the herd mentality and went about my life not really making a conscious effort & just thinking about ways I could reduce my impacts. In the last couple of years, it’s like jet fuel has been added to that spark and it’s changed the trajectory[…] Keep reading →