DIY

I read this post and it floored me.

Gin, Television, and Social Surplus

I think this is the best way to think about the cultural shifts that are occurring in pop culture today. It's amazing to me that we've reached a point where young folks will talk about and use a large encyclopedia for fun, sometimes at parties. There's something much more profound to this though as this article discusses. We've got a surplus of leisure time, more or less. And we're seeing the beginnings of a cultural shift towards using that time for constructive communitarian projects, rather than pissing it away on television and self-destruction.

Build it.

Replicating Rapid-prototyper

"What is RepRap?

RepRap version 1.0

Look at your computer setup and imagine that you hooked up a 3D printer. Instead of printing on bits of paper this 3D printer makes real, robust, mechanical parts. To give you an idea of how robust, think Lego bricks and you're in the right area. You could make lots of useful stuff, but interestingly you could also make most of the parts to make another 3D printer. That would be a machine that could copy itself.

"In this DVD Craig introduces you to each part of his bio-fuel conversion so that you can convert your own vehicle to run on used cooking oil. If you want to stop paying outrageous gas prices and cut your emissions, then this DVD is for you."

This is a very short, approachable guide to using used vegetable oil (i.e., cooking oil) to power a diesel engine car. Very practical instructions from local author Craig Sommers. If you've been itching to get out of the petroleum economy affordably, this book is for you.

Table of Contents:
Foreword
Dedication

Chapter 1
History of the Diesel Engine
Biodiesel or Strait Vegetable oil
How the Conversion Works

Chapter 2
My Conversion Story
Los Angeles to New York, How We Gathered the Fuel

Chapter 3
What You Need To Know About Filtering Veggie Oil Before It Goes In The Tank
Collecting Veggie Oil

Chapter 4
The Components You’ll Need
Conclusion

Chapter 5
Resources
Which Vehicles Have Been Successfully Converted

From the publisher: Want to use your bike more?

Urban Bikers’ Tricks & Tips will help—because its tips come from bicycle riders, both beginner and hard-core, from all over North America.

Secrets you'll learn:

* How to keep your helmet from messing up your hair.
* How to lock to keep your bike from getting stolen—ever.
* What to do about a sore butt.
* How to bike faster and with more comfort—anywhere, any time.

Do you want to sit and read for hours? Then get another book—because Urban Bikers’ Tricks & Tips is the only book on bicycling that shows every tip with pictures, not just words.

If you hardly use a bicycle, this book will help you bike more. And if you ride every day, this book will surprise you—and even make you a stealth cyclist.

From the publisher: Micro eco-farms are part of the new renaissance to restore beauty and nature to the world. They thrive in cities, backyards, and they make rural living profitable again. They are "design-your-own" rather than generic formula farms, and their design depends on your local culture, bio-region, and your own passions. There is not one copycat formula to follow, but this title gives an overview of the micro eco-farming movement, including universal traits that assure each farm's success, such as: Beyond organic growing methods, awareness of the big picture, community connection, adaptability, diversification, selling the farm's "story," … along with real life examples of successful micro eco-farms that make these concepts quickly graspable and adaptable to your very own one-of-a-kind micro eco-farm.

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Notes:

This is an awesome collection of DIY guides, often hand drawn or hand written, to a bunch of different things. Topics include composting, making wheatpaste, staying healthy, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I really recommend it to anyone who likes to do things themselves or who likes to learn a bunch of random stuff.

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I enjoyed reading it as it gives you a pretty good survey of lots of different DIY practices and groups. It talks about the ideas around zines, punk music, self publishing, and other DIY topics.

Instructables is a gigantic website full of user submitted guides to lots and lot of random things. It's a pretty cool website with lots of community involvement (groups, commenting, etcetera).