This man built a floating solar-powered fortress made out of 150,000 recycled water bottles Off the cost of Isla Mujeres Bay in Cancun, Mexico, environmentalist and architect Richart Sowa lives comfortably on his island made of over 150,000 recycled water bottles. Sowa first built his floating abode in 2005, but harsh weather destroyed the island. On his third attempt of rebuilding his home— this time in calm waters—he succeeded in developing a sturdy home. “Living on my own floating island has been my dream for over two-decades,” said Sowa in Daily Mail, unfazed by his previous attempts. The base of this 25 metre-long island is supported with bags full of water bottles connected to a bamboo frame, which gives the entire land mass enough buoyancy to support his home, pool, and surrounding plants. The three-storey house on Joyxee Island has solar panels, three showers, a kitchen, two bedrooms, a wave-powered washing machine and even Internet. To waste less water, Sowa created a way to collect rain for running water, which is funnelled to flow out from conch shells.
A Man Isolated Himself From Society For Over 25 Years In The Desert. What He Reveals Inside This Cave Is Incredible! In the high desert of Northern New Mexico, you can hear the sounds of a man entranced in his work underground in a cave. You will see a small entry that opens into a cavern, where Ra Paulette has spent the last 25 years carving New Mexico’s sandstone into magnificent art. He’s spent years doing this work with the company of only his dog. When asked if he is a man obsessed with cave digging, he gives the really thoughtful response: “Is a child obsessed with play?” It can be said that he has created magic in the underground caves that he has carved. Interestingly, Ra doesn’t see himself as an artist, but simply as a man expressing his sense of wonder in a passionate way. The video you are about to watch tells the rest of his story, and gives you a tour of his magnificent caves. I can guarantee that you are about to view something you have never seen before. Via: SunGazing
R package A survey analysis package has recently been added to R. It has been written by Thomas Lumley of the University of Washington. He has been very helpful in adapting the package following our suggestions. The survey package seems to be convenient from the point of view of an experienced R user. The new version 3.2 is eaven more improved, easier to use, and includes generalised calibration methods. The software covers a wide range of survey analysis methods. There is also a new set of procedures for non-response weighting, but we have not had time to investigate them yet. These methods are implemented with standard errors from either Taylor linearisation in functions such as svydesign ,svymean and svyreg or replication methods such as balanced repeated replication and the jackknife are available through functions such as svyrepdesign, svrepmean and svrepreg In earlier versions these were seperate functions. (Click here for more info on standard errors when designing surveys.)
The Venus Project The Venus Project is an organization that proposes a feasible plan of action for social change, one that works towards a peaceful and sustainable global civilization. It outlines an alternative to strive toward where human rights are no longer paper proclamations but a way of life. We operate out of a 21.5-acre Research Center located in Venus, Florida. When one considers the enormity of the challenges facing society today, we can safely conclude that the time is long overdue for us to re-examine our values and to reflect upon and evaluate some of the underlying issues and assumptions we have as a society. This self-analysis calls into question the very nature of what it means to be human, what it means to be a member of a "civilization," and what choices we can make today to ensure a prosperous future for all the world's people. At present we are left with very few alternatives. Experience tells us that human behavior can be modified, either toward constructive or destructive activity.
5 Modern Families Living It Up Off The Grid Living off the grid isn’t just some hippie weirdness anymore. More families are being turned on to this lifestyle for a variety of reasons; be it a way of living simply, getting away from fossil fuels, the satisfaction of being independent, or simply because they want to do greater social good in the world. The definition and reasoning for living off the grid has changed from when the movement first started in the 60’s to modern day. The 1960’s – 1970’s off the grid lifestyle centered on people wanting to do for themselves; living simply and synchronized with nature. The back-to-the-land movement of that time period was about families, solitary sorts, and offbeat communes craving to live a life in the wilderness away from the mainstream society. Dona Brown, author of Back to the Land, a history of the movement, said that “Many of those people dreamed of escaping modern society completely. The Kimball Family:Off-grid for food and much of farm’s power. h/t: Rodale’s Organic Life
uk.businessinsider If artificial intelligence researchers, entrepreneurs and economists are to be believed, the robotic onslaught that will annihilate our jobs and transform all of society is nigh. Thankfully, the BBC assembled a handy guide that calculates which jobs are likely to be automated in the next 20 years, based on data from a 2013 Oxford study. The Oxford study identified nine skills people needed and used for each profession — including "social perceptiveness, negotiation, persuasion, assisting and caring for others, originality, fine arts, finger dexterity, manual dexterity, and the need for a cramped work space." Just enter your profession, and click "Find my automation risk" to see where it falls on the scale. As an example, I entered journalist, which has an 8% likelihood of automation. BBC screenshot The report also includes details about the workforce in that job now and how it has been trending over time. Here's the report for a legal secretary. Adam Berry/Getty
How to Exit the Matrix in 6 Simple Steps by Frank M. Wanderer Ph.D. The virtual reality introduced in the Matrix films is generated by a computer, and the people live in this artificially created reality. If you spend some time and pay attention to the reality of your everyday life, you will find a stunning discovery. Because our everyday reality shows a great deal of resemblance to movie’s virtual reality. Our virtual reality may not be generated by a computer, but by our mind, our constantly flowing thoughts and emotions. Step. We chase our desires and unfulfilled dreams. Spurred by our ambitions, we pursue various goals all through our lives. That is how we pursue our goals until death, when we realize how meaningless the whole thing has been. Step. We, however, wish to find the security of permanence in our life. We use the mind as a mean of spiritual search. The mental images are born through the comprehensive process of the mind. Step. 4. Step. The question then arises: have we already got rid of the matrix? Step.
Why Simple Living Is The Forgotten Key To Self Actualization by Gilbert Ross For the past ten years I have been pretty much into personal development. Well, as a teenager I was already a bit interested in not-so-mainstream topics such as the power of the human mind, psychic phenomena and plenty of other metaphysical topics. It comes to no surprise that my peers thought I was a bit weird, you know how it is. So when I got hooked on to personal development topics later on in life, I was already primed for certain ideas and insights. In those ten years of learning and practice, I did come a long way with a wealth of inner growth but also many pitfalls. So in a way, if we only tried to make life simpler and nothing else, it’s already a hundredfold better than trying hard to do other self-improvement stuff – some of which perhaps fail, we give up on or take us a lot of persistence and struggle to achieve. Less Noise & Clutter: Understanding what is Relevant: Another important concept of simple living is understanding what is necessary vs. what isn’t.