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Doing it for Ourselves 1.3: Passive solar


Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in

Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in

Let the sunshine, let the sunshine in, the sunshine in


Oh, let it shine, c’mon

Now everybody just sing along

Let the sun shine in

Open up your heart and let it shine on in

When you are lonely, let it shine on

Got to open up your heart and let it shine on in

And when you feel like you’ve been mistreated

And your friends turn away

Just open your heart, and shine it on in


~The 5th Dimension

(Words by James Rado and Gerome Ragni: Music by Galt MacDermot)


What is Passive solar? How does it differ from active solar technology? What are the benefits of passive solar technologies? Read on to find out.


By the way, this weekend marks the National Solar Tour by the American Solar Energy Society. You can check to see if there are any tour events in your area here

Doing it for Ourselves, 1.2: Water Conservation

When the well is dry, we know the worth of water. 
~Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1746

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There is a sufficiency in the world for man’s need but not for man’s greed. 
~Mohandas K. Gandhi

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We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children. 
~Native American Proverb

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Opie, you haven’t finished your milk.  We can’t put it back in the cow, you know. 
~Aunt Bee Taylor, The Andy Griffith Show

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Water is the best of all things.  ~Pindar (C. 522-C. 438 B.C.), Olympian Odes

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Water has no taste, no color, no odor; it cannot be defined, art relished while ever mysterious. Not necessary to life, but rather life itself. It fills us with a gratification that exceeds the delight of the senses.  ~Antoine De Saint-Exupery, Wind, Sand, and Stars, 1939

Doing it for Ourselves 1.1

Last week I posted the first of this fledgling series here. This series is about the broad theme of self reliance and sustainable living. Each week’s post will have a different topic or focus, though I hope people will use the comments to talk about whatever their related interests and specialties might be or ask questions that others can answer. Today’s installment will focus on preservation, or how to make the things you have at home last.

Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.  ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson from Self Reliance

But lo! men have become the tools of their tools. ~Henry David Thoreau from Walden

The fascist tendencies of DHS

I saw a diary over at Dkos that highlights the ordeals of Nalini Ghuman, a Welsh musician and musicologist whose nigthmare experience with the Department of Homeland Security has been detailed in the New York Times this morning in this article

Ms. Ghuman, a Welsh citizen, had done her PhD studies at UC Berkely and was working at Mills College in the Bay on a visa, but was detained last August at the airport in San Francisco upon returning from a brief visit from Britain. I’ll provide some snips below.

This story reeks of fascism and we cannot allow this shit to stand. We must fight the government and the DHS for this behavior.

Doing it for Ourselves

This is the first in what I hope will be a continuous series here in Dharmaland. This series will be about the broad theme of self reliance. Each week’s post will have a different topic or focus, though I hope people will use the comments to talk about whatever their self-reliant interests and specialties might be or ask questions that others can answer. I also hope people who have a special topic they’d like to cover in more depth will pipe up and run the show now and then. Today’s installment will focus on how to find out about hazardous materials found in our own homes.

Do more with less: A tribute to a genius

America Dreaming

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