Have you ever wondered what kind of equipment you might need to start rebuilding civilization after an apocalyptic event? The Open Source Ecology is a project that is working on creating just that. The folks at Open Source Ecology are going about designing 50 fundamental machines to sustain a small civilization, and open sourcing the design. This is really great, not only for when these plans are needed, but it allows other people to look over the plans, build and test the machines, and then improve the design.
Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters that for the last two years has been creating the Global Village Construction Set, an open source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for the easy, DIY fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a sustainable civilization with modern comforts. The GVCS lowers the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing and can be seen as a life-size lego-like set of modular tools that can create entire economies, whether in rural Missouri, where the project was founded, in urban redevelopment, or in the developing world.
[vimeo 30171620 w=400 h=300]
Bear Grylls, of Man Vs Wild fame, has opened his own survival school! It is currently a 6 day course held in the wilds of Scotland. Classes are limited size and teach you survival techniques like making a fire in the pouring rain, building lifesaving emergency shelters, training in knife skills, foraging for grubs and rodents, remote medical trauma, rappelling, extreme weather survival and white-water river crossings. Since it was launched in September this year, classes are limited but expanding. Next year the Academy will start holding classes in Africe and the US as well as offering 3 day courses in addition to the 6 day course.