Cob or “adobe” houses are cheap, energy efficient, termite-proof, fire-proof, earthquake-resistant, non-toxic, beautiful and can last thousands of years.
Images of a cob house built for under $250 in England two years ago have been re-circulating the internet lately, inspiring tiny-house-enthusiasts and back-to-the-landers with hope that living off the grid on a low budget might not be too far out of reach.
“What’s your goal with this new website?” an old friend asked yesterday. “I have no idea,” I laughed nervously.
An ambitious and determined young man (whom I used to work with at a conservative “think tank”), he was not impressed. He is the kind of guy who is serious about “success,” about setting goals and achieving them, about moving the benchmark to new heights, about planning for a happy future.
“What do you mean ‘you have no idea!?'” he asked, laughing, but almost offended by my idiocy.
Agriculture is wiping out the world’s oldest hunter-gatherers
The Hadza have been living peacefully, happily and sustainably in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa for at least 100,000 years. Their home, around Lake Eyasi, in Tanzania, has been called “the cradle of mankind.” A Harvard anthropologist calls them “the strongest link” we have to 2 million years of human evolution. Thanks to the spread of agriculture to nearly every corner of the earth, that link is about to disappear.
With the help of teachers like Alan Watts, Osho
After a lifetime of religious indoctrination, this was a difficult concept to grasp. I’d always been taught to live for the moment was a sin. I was supposed to suffer now and live later, serve my time for the “Lord” and get my reward in heaven.
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