An Agricultural Testament

Howard Indore
1,672 views - May 10, 2017

An Agricultural Testament is Sir Albert Howard's best-known publication, and remains one of the seminal works in the history of organic farming agricultural movement.[1][2][3] Dedicated to his first wife and co-worker Gabrielle, herself a plant phsyiologist, it focuses on the nature and management of soil fertility, and notably explores composting.[3] At a time when modern, chemical-based industrialized agriculture was just beginning to radically alter food production, it advocated natural processes rather than man-made inputs as the superior approach to farming. It was first published in England in 1940, with the first American edition in 1943.[a]

Anarchism and Anarcho-Syndicalism

Rudolf Rocker
2,177 views - Feb 13, 2015

Political rights do not originate in parliaments; they are, rather, forced upon parliaments from without. And even their enactment into law has for a long time been no guarantee of their security. Just as the employers always try to nullify every concession they had made to labor as soon as opportunity offered, as soon as any signs of weakness were observable in the workers' organizations, so governments also are always inclined to restrict or to abrogate completely rights and freedoms that have been achieved if they imagine that the people will put up no resistance. Even in those countries where such things as freedom of the press, right of assembly, right of combination, and the like have long existed, governments are constantly trying to restrict those rights or to reinterpret them by juridical hair-splitting. Political rights do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace. Where this is not the case, there is no help in any parliamentary Opposition or any Platonic appeals to the constitution.

Farmer of Forty Centuries

F. H. KING, D. Sc.
3,892 views - Dec 9, 2012

Fifty Essays

George Orwell
30,706 views - Aug 1, 2013

The position of the writer in an age of State control is a subject that has already been fairly largely discussed, although most of the evidence that might be relevant is not yet available. In this place I do not want to express an opinion either for or against State patronage of the arts, but merely to point out that WHAT KIND of State rules over us must depend partly on the prevailing intellectual atmosphere: meaning, in this context, partly on the attitude of writers and artists themselves, and on their willingness or otherwise to keep the spirit of liberalism alive. If we find ourselves in ten years' time cringing before somebody like Zhdanov, it will probably be because that is what we have deserved. Obviously there are strong tendencies towards totalitarianism at work within the English literary intelligentsia already. But here I am not concerned with any organised and conscious movement such as Communism, but merely with the effect, on people of goodwill, of political thinking and the need to take sides politically.

Green Roof

John Wilson
13,904 views - Jul 16, 2012

The green roof system reduces heating inside the home or building by up to 30-40% making it a natural air conditioner. Green roofs are found in 20% of the homes in Germany. Recently, the home made green roof system developed by John Wilson has been upgraded to include swales for water collection where we are starting to grow some herbs.

Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto

Aaron Swartz
9,164 views - Jan 15, 2013

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Martin Luther King, Jr.
3,206 views - Apr 2, 2013

While confined here in the Birmingham city jail, I came across your recent statement calling my present activities "unwise and untimely." Seldom do I pause to answer criticism of my work and ideas. If I sought to answer all the criticisms that cross my desk, my secretaries would have little time for anything other than such correspondence in the course of the day, and I would have no time for constructive work. But since I feel that you are men of genuine good will and that your criticisms are sincerely set forth, I want to try to answer your statement in what I hope will be patient and reasonable terms.

Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects

Giorgio Vasari
7,754 views - Dec 23, 2012

Open Access Overview

Peter Suber
4,588 views - Jan 16, 2013

Personal Power in a Solar Village

John Wilson
4,635 views - Apr 1, 2014

I am going to walk you through the involvement I've had in all of this over the years and this is really a personal thing. This is about you and me, and what we can actually do to create what I see 's and I call the solar village. So that's what I am going to talk about, all of the real, tangible things that you and I can all do starting right away.

Pilgrimage to Nonviolence

Martin Luther King Jr.
3,116 views - Jun 11, 2015

In this essay, King stresses the academic influences that have led him to embrace nonviolence as “a way of life.”1 He also relates that his “involvement in a difficult struggle” had changed his conception of God from a “metaphysical category” to “a living reality that has been validated in the experiences of everyday life.” God had become ‘‘profoundly real” to him: “In the midst of outer dangers I have felt an inner calm and known resources of strength that only God could give.”

Renewable Energy

John Wilson
0 views - May 14, 2012

Solar Power Investing

John Wilson
5,909 views - Jun 21, 2012

Sun Rise: Section 1 - Where are we going?

John Wilson
5,234 views - Aug 20, 2012

This down-to-earth book explains in simple terms, how we all can start using solar energy, wind power, breathing walls, straw bale home construction techniques, passive solar design, smart windows, green roofs, and composting – today! You’ll learn how John Wilson and his family made their dreams come true as they explain how to make Natural Living work for you. You’ll learn about the process John discovered to make it all come together. You’ll get the details on how much it cost and what it took to get a wind turbine, solar panels, the hydro meter running backwards, grass on the roof, and a furnace the size of a bread box that doesn’t burn fossil fuels. Here is the book that breaks down many of the barriers to a sustainable lifestyle, and shows what is attainable today. I truly believe that, as in my own case, once people see what others have achieved, they will be inspired and emboldened to make the changes suggested in this book.

Sun Rise: Section 2 - Natural Living

John Wilson
4,328 views - Aug 20, 2012

This down-to-earth book explains in simple terms, how we all can start using solar energy, wind power, breathing walls, straw bale home construction techniques, passive solar design, smart windows, green roofs, and composting – today! You’ll learn how John Wilson and his family made their dreams come true as they explain how to make Natural Living work for you. You’ll learn about the process John discovered to make it all come together. You’ll get the details on how much it cost and what it took to get a wind turbine, solar panels, the hydro meter running backwards, grass on the roof, and a furnace the size of a bread box that doesn’t burn fossil fuels. Here is the book that breaks down many of the barriers to a sustainable lifestyle, and shows what is attainable today. I truly believe that, as in my own case, once people see what others have achieved, they will be inspired and emboldened to make the changes suggested in this book.

Sun Rise: Section 3 - Finding the Path

John Wilson
10,149 views - Aug 20, 2012

This down-to-earth book explains in simple terms, how we all can start using solar energy, wind power, breathing walls, straw bale home construction techniques, passive solar design, smart windows, green roofs, and composting – today! You’ll learn how John Wilson and his family made their dreams come true as they explain how to make Natural Living work for you. You’ll learn about the process John discovered to make it all come together. You’ll get the details on how much it cost and what it took to get a wind turbine, solar panels, the hydro meter running backwards, grass on the roof, and a furnace the size of a bread box that doesn’t burn fossil fuels. Here is the book that breaks down many of the barriers to a sustainable lifestyle, and shows what is attainable today. I truly believe that, as in my own case, once people see what others have achieved, they will be inspired and emboldened to make the changes suggested in this book.

Sun Rise: Your Complete Guide to Sustainable Living

John Wilson
6,684 views - Jul 31, 2012

This down-to-earth book explains in simple terms, how we all can start using solar energy, wind power, breathing walls, straw bale home construction techniques, passive solar design, smart windows, green roofs, and composting – today! You’ll learn how John Wilson and his family made their dreams come true as they explain how to make Natural Living work for you. You’ll learn about the process John discovered to make it all come together. You’ll get the details on how much it cost and what it took to get a wind turbine, solar panels, the hydro meter running backwards, grass on the roof, and a furnace the size of a bread box that doesn’t burn fossil fuels. Here is the book that breaks down many of the barriers to a sustainable lifestyle, and shows what is attainable today. I truly believe that, as in my own case, once people see what others have achieved, they will be inspired and emboldened to make the changes suggested in this book.

Tell me more

Dr. Mark Holder
2,091 views - Jan 19, 2016

Dr. Holder earned his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley. He then completed his postdoctoral training at the Brain Research Institute at UCLA where he conducted brain transplants to reverse impairments caused by brain injuries. As a professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, he studied how natural chemicals, 200 times the strength of heroin, were released when people ate chocolate chip cookies. During this time he worked as a Biological Consultant with the NutraSweet Company to determine whether aspartame is safe for pregnant mothers and their offspring. He also spent a research sabbatical at the University of Hawaii swimming with dolphins in studies of their language and creativity.

The Power of the Powerless

Václav Havel
6,562 views - Jun 10, 2015

Václav Havel: The Power of the Powerless To the memory of Jan Patocka "The Power of the Powerless" (October 1978) was originally written ("quickly," Havel said later) as a discussion piece for a projected joint Polish Czechoslovak volume of essays on the subject of freedom and power. All the participants were to receive Havel's essay, and then respond to it in writing. Twenty participants were chosen on both sides, but only the Czechoslovak side was completed. Meanwhile, in May 1979, some of the Czechoslovak contributors who were also members of VONS (the Committee to Defend the Unjustly Prosecuted), including Havel, were arrested, and it was decided to go ahead and "publish" the Czechoslovak contributions separately. Havel's essay has had a profound impact on Eastern Europe. Here is what Zbygniew Bujak, a Solidarity activist, told me: "This essay reached us in the Ursus factory in 1979 at a point when we felt we were at the end of the road. Inspired by KOR [the Polish Workers' Defense Committee], we had been speaking on the shop floor, talking to people, participating in public meetings, trying to speak the truth about the factory, the country, and politics. There came a moment when people thought we were crazy. Why were we doing this? Why were we taking such risks? Not seeing any immediate and tangible results, we began to doubt the purposefulness of what we were doing. Shouldn’t we be coming up with other methods, other ways? "Then came the essay by Havel. Reading it gave us the theoretical underpinnings for our activity. It maintained our spirits; we did not give up, and a year later-in August ig8o-it became clear that the party apparatus and the factory management were afraid of us. We mattered. And the rank and file saw us as leaders of the movement. When I look at the victories of Solidarity, and of Charter 77, I see in them an astonishing fulfillment of the prophecies and knowledge contained in Havel's essay." Translated by Paul Wilson, "The Power of the Powerless" has appeared several times in English, foremost in The Power of the Powerless: Citizens Against the State in Central-Eastern Europe, edited by John Keane, with an Introduction by Steven Lukes (London: Hutchinson, 1985). That volume includes a selection of nine other essays from the original Czech and Slovak collection.

Three Acres and Liberty

Bolton Hall
5,324 views - Dec 9, 2012

"A sower went out to sow and he sowed that which was in his heart—for what can a man sow else!" From "THE GAME OF LIFE." "And think of the cleansing influence of all this. Light and air and labor—these are the medicines not of the body only, but of the soul. It is not ponderable things alone that are found in gardens, but the great wonder of life, the peace of nature, the influences of sunsets and seasons and of all the intangible things to which we can give no name, not because they are small, but because they are outside the compass of our speech. The God that dwells in gardens is sufficient for all our needs—let the theologians say what they will." - Bolton Hall

Tree Crops

J. Russell Smith
6,165 views - Mar 12, 2014

I stood on the Great Wall of China near the borders of Mongolia. Below me in the valley, standing up square and high, was a wall that had once surrounded a city. Of the city only a few mud houses remained, scarcely enough to lead one's mind back to the time when people and household industry teemed within the protecting wall. The slope below the Great Wall was cut with gullies, some of which were fifty feet deep. As far as the eye could see were gullies, gullies, gullies—a gashed and gutted countryside. The little stream that once ran past the city was now a wide waste of coarse sand and gravel which the hillside gullies were bring- ing down faster than the little stream had been able to carry them away. Hence, the whole valley, once good farm land, had become a desert of sand and gravel, alternately wet and dry, always fruitless. It was even more worthless than the hills. Beside me was a tree, one lone tree. That tree was locally famous because it was the only tree anywhere in that vicinity; yet its presence proved that once there had been a forest over most of that land—now treeless and waste.