A BIG issue in everyone’s lives today is increasing fuel costs. (Don’t be fooled by [temporary] low prices. They’ll be going back up shortly due to limitations in oil production.) High oil prices are connected to peak oil and gas production, wars to secure limited resources and climate change. These problems are all a consequence … Read more
Five winning earthbag designs have been officially announced in the $300 House design competition. At least five of the top designs will be prototyped as part of a long process to refine the designs and eventually build them in poverty stricken areas. This is just an early announcement, a first call for volunteers, to let … Read more
This photo shows the near impossible to make perfect fit between stones that indicates they may have been cast in place with geopolymer. One source said iron tools were not available at that time, only copper. Ever tried chiseling and cutting hard stone? I have and I can tell you it’s ridiculously slow even with … Read more
Maggie Doyne, a 23-year-old woman who took a year off before entering university, has had great success in housing and schooling about two hundred orphans in Nepal, and in the process discovered who she is and her purpose in life. It’s quite a touching story. She thoroughly understands the importance of believing in one’s self … Read more
Previous posts have introduced Bill McNulty’s cast stone method. This post is about his second patent — a second process that explains how to make other types of cast stone with sodium carbonate. Abstract: Inorganic cementitious material A method of producing a new type of cement, hereafter called Conch-krete. Conch-krete is created by adding sodium … Read more
About two months ago a friend sent me a link to an unusual website by Klaus Dona about ancient stone objects. No one has ever been able to explain how these tools or objects were carved. Basanite stone (lydite) is impossibly hard to carve with the copper or iron tools available at the time, and … Read more