Seriously? All I could do is laugh when presented with a headline more or less the one above. I chuckled even more when the nice man here explains how a sail works by comparing it to an airplanes wing. Okay, I guess it’s a very real possibility that most people alive today have never sailed a leaf down a stream, let alone built a little sailboat with a piece of bark, a stick, and a leaf to sail down the same creek.
Don’t get me wrong. I totally applaud every and any effort to lower our fuel usage, to get on renewable sources, and so on and so forth. But, really, I saw this headline and thought…
Is this a headline from the 1800s? How did it wind up in my email?
And how can anyone with a straight face laud this as a totally amazing new discovery?
(sarcasm) OMG! Ships with sails!! Imagine! What will they think of next? Maybe they will invent a round thing you can put on flat things that makes them easier to move than dragging them?
And for the really advanced and super enviornmental friendly model:
Here you have the (drum roll) goat cart! With TWO goats – one male, one female. This means that on occassion you will have to give the female goat maternity leave. She will make more goats without much human intervention. She will also give milk at that time, which you can use for milk in your coffee, cheese, or fancy yogurt. (I suggest you name her Greek so you can then honestly call it Greek yogurt and charge twice as much). You may also be astounded to know that these goats will also mow your lawn for you, and fertilize it as well. Astounding – this is basically all the maintenence they will require.
And goats are pretty cute and entertaining companions on top of all of that – just look up goat videos if you’ve got a couple hours for a funny rabbit hole. (That didn’t sound quite right but I’ll let it stand)
I think I’ll wait for the luxury model to come out though
All the same benefits and prettier. I am a bit of a horse afficianado as you may know. I’ve long been waiting to see this.
Attribution: Spaarnestad Photo, via Nationaal Archief., Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons
This photo, BTW, is from a time of war, when gas was rationed and in short supply.
And I can hardly wait to get my new RV
I really have had in my mind a rather different picture of the “after the great apocalypse” than the usual Mad Max wow it’ll be all fun and muscle cars. In my after the EMP world my skills as a horse trainer will once again be valuable. I am hoping a few American Mustangs survive the BLMs ongoing purge so I will have a reliable pool of hardy, easy keeper, climate adapted horses to choose from.
All of the images above came from Wikimedia Commons which I support with a little donation now and then, and you ought to, too.
Leaving amusement and sarcasm behind, we just might want to start looking to the past for brilliant ideas for the future (assuming anyone remembers the past). From there I could go on for another few thousand words, but I’m going to leave you now. I have goldfish to feed.
Blessedbe
Foovay's Cauldron 
I saw the picture of 2 GP cart (Goat Power) and did a doubletake. I expected a horse or an ox. But goats? I had no idea anyone could convince a goat to do anything.
My hat’s off to them.
What I’d love to see is a serious re-examination of the technologies we’ve supplanted. Sails on a diesel-powered ship are not only a way to save fuel, they’re a great backup in case the engines fail — and vice versa. Middle Eastern architecture had a way to cool air without mechanical intervention. I’d love to see that combined with AC to provide comfort for a reduced footprint.
We just need to find a way to provide incentives for the right behaviors.
Heck, I’m wondering if we’ve already discovered FTL, but we just don’t realize it because we’re so compartmentalized. But that’s way off topic (though I’d suggested it’s related!).
We are very much way too compartmentalized. However – I have some hope on that particular subject due to the fact that I am now seeing more and more people openly embracing the concept that they have more than one tightly focused purpose to offer the world. You see it more in various creative endeavors now – artists who say they are writers/artists/and musicians for instance. Hopefully scientists and engineers will soon learn to embrace diversity instead of ridiculing those who use more than one talent as “flakey and unfocused”.
As far as the Middle East architecture – not only is it still in use in the Middle East, I have seen new houses (for very rich people) that are designed with that same technology so I am very much hoping that it spreads. I’d also like to see someone look into the Cherokee longhouses made with native clay. I’ve been inside one on a very hot day, and it was very cool and pleasant so it’s been in my mind ever since – why is that and how can we replicate it? And, obviously, all natural building materials.
I would make an argument that the behaviors themselves, if only we spread that knowledge, would be their own incentives as in many cases they would save an individual or family a considerable amount of money. And speaking of which, we also need to make it affordable for the 98% of us who could really use to save some money. In most cases the cost of conversion, the initial cost, is so high that most people cannot afford to switch. If they could switch, they’d very quickly find the technology pays for itself. But most of us live right at the edges of our income just to survive. There is no way, for instance, for me to save the $1000 or so converting my RV to solar would cost while I am paying over $100 a month in electric bill. If someone would loan me that $1000 or whatever it would cost to put the solar on the roof – BAM – I could make a $100 a month payment to them – with hope that it would be paid off someday and I’d have all the electric I need. And I would be overjoyed at being on a renewable resource, too. But it’s just a dream…
I love the 2GP cart name. Fantastic. You know, people also used to use the larger dog breeds to pull carts – as popular as many of the big mastiff breeds are now, and actually, pit bulls *cough* I mean, Staffordshire terriers are quite likely strong enough to pull a cart as well and infinately more trainable than your average goat. We also have many lovely, hardy burros being slaughtered on federal land who would be lovely pulling a cart or even to ride and use to carry burdens. Well, forgive me for getting up on that soap box. I’m sure everyone has heard me rant and rave about the horses and burros and BLM “management to extinction”. Have you heard my rant yet about how one group of researchers has concluded that a sufficent population of wild horses on the range would also prevent forest fires?
Ah, so many changes could be made… but until they satisfy the Almighty God Profit in the U.S. they’ll never happen.