technē and poiēsis

 Today, the 14th of june, is the 30th anniversary of the first women's strike in Switzerland. Earlier this year as well, there was an upsurge of news and debates surrounding the 50th anniversary of women's right to vote (7 February 1971). Yes, that's very late compared to most countries. (in Canada, just to remind you, it was in 1918 - although I just read that excluded women of Asian descent, who weren't granted their rights until 1948). For a long time I hadn’t thought at all about ‘being a feminist’. It didn’t seem like a label that fit me. Of course I believe in equal rights for everyone regardless of race, gender, orientation, etc. But to me, singling out women as a ‘minority’ (not in terms of numbers but in terms of society) was a sign of weakness. Women are in every respect the equals of men, and if everyone is equal, groups and labels become irrelevant. I was raised as an individualist. I was taught to search out my own values without wondering about how those ...

  I am lucky enough to have a dad who is an electrical engineer. He planned and installed all the electrical systems in the Carabane. He's the one who really should be writing this post- but I am going to try to explain everything in layperson's terms! Production, consumption and storage I want to come as close as possible to self-sufficiency. In terms of electricity, self-sufficiency is a function of 1) how much power I consume 2) how much power I can produce 3) how much power I can store. So to reduce the power consumption to the maximum, I decided to heat via gas (and not electricity). I do not have a kettle, a vacuum cleaner, television, or microwave. The electrical load is therefore reduced to : the fridge, LED lighting, charging my phone, laptop and other portable devices, 3 ventilation fans (stove, heater, and toilet), and a hand blender in the kitchen.  We calculated the power use to be about 1 kwH per day. The fridge takes about half of that- it's by far the larges...