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Kyle
11 years ago

Jack, the way things sync up in your call-in shows happens in reverse too, brother. Just last night I was talking to my wife about these buildings, and telling her it is something I want to look into some more for the land we’re purchasing within the year. As if by magic, I wake up this morning and see your note.

Thanks for always looking out for us and providing us with the fairest assessment you can muster on the matters we discuss.

Justin Pearson
Justin Pearson
11 years ago

Good follow up Jack. “Trust, but verify”

Mike
Mike
11 years ago

Thanks, Jack. Mark was a fascinating guest. It’s too bad. I hope he takes the steps needed to remedy whatever issues are going on so he can come back to the show with a finished product. Sheesh, you’d think he’d at least create a Youtube video of the Iron Butterfly. How hard would that be for him?

I’m still waiting to see one of Paul Wheaton’s Wofati buildings he carried on about so many years ago. Theories are great, but it’s sure nice to see a finished product be put to the test… eg. Mike Reynolds Earthships.

bolomark
bolomark
11 years ago
Hraz
Hraz
11 years ago

I’m hoping Mark will come through. I thought he was a good guest and it seemed like his heart was in the right place.

Jarrod
Jarrod
11 years ago

“If you insist on attacking them, insulting them, calling them names, etc. in a comment section, DO NOT expect to be taken seriously.”

Good point. I 100% agree.

When this happens, it is because they don’t have something of substance to say. So, they resort to bluster and ad hominem attacks instead.

TimE
TimE
11 years ago
Reply to  Jarrod

I agree. Insulting and calling names is not very respectable. They said things like:

“What a wonderful person you must be to live around.”
“…you are being an asshole!”
“Now stop being a fricken dick!”
“…I am calling you a dick…”
“Well your wrong and you are just being an asshole.”
“Listen asshole!”
“Angus the Ass”

Oh wait a second. That was Jack… Sorry, Jack. I gotta call you out on this one.

TimE
TimE
11 years ago

So the rules of the comment section are that we can call each other names as long as it is accurate?

Jason
Jason
11 years ago

Thanks for the follow up Jack, very much appreciated.

Brian
Brian
11 years ago

Excellente well thought update Jack. Open, honest and reasoned. thanks

Dan Raymor
11 years ago

Truely, I was getting uneasy vibes from this organization. Not showing their earth butterflycompactor was a bit strange, (unless their patent is pending) and the fact they only have pics of barely started projects was disappointing.
Also, I tried to contact them through their site and got zero response.
I hope they get their act together though, as I believe in the dream of OtGL, ( Off the Grid Living).
We love your show Jack, Thanks, and keep up the good fight 🙂

NotoriousAPP
NotoriousAPP
11 years ago

There are TSP listeners that live in the Paige/Bastrop areas, myself included. Perhaps Mark could invite some of us out to see their accomplishments once they’re a reality.

JuliB1955
11 years ago

Thank you for your due diligence! It gave me pause when Mark didn’t even print my comment telling him about my NEST nonprofit, which is relevant to what he’s doing. Good heavens, NEST’s mission resonates with people who are hundred times more removed from both NEST’s mission and the people it would serve and benefit. It just didn’t feel like anything related to the naked honesty of TSP (not that I’ve listened to more than 5 podcasts due to time constraints). What also continues to give me pause is that when interning for architect Mike Reynolds, creator and refiner of the Earthship model over 40 years, the volunteer-intern pays less than $500 for a private bedroom in an Earthship (one of many that have been completed)–that’s room for a month in the very model of what you’re learning about and helping to manifest. I didn’t see any such opportunity at Mark’s place.

Sean
Sean
11 years ago

Speaking as a new listener who enjoys listening to many of the older podcasts in non sequential order, you could go one up in covering your ass and just pull those two podcasts from the server to perhaps prevent a random listener from being sucked into a bad deal. I’d appreciate you not having to dedicate any more time to it and move on. Do you ever think that you could ever be exploited by criminals by accepting that this deep level of privacy is normal for some preppers? It gives me the willies.

Dustin
Dustin
11 years ago

I attended the BioTecture Training on February 23-24. This is my experience: I did not see a rammed tire home in person, it was not claimed that I would and so I did not expect to. I saw a partially setup aquaponics system that I think is going to be awesome, along with the frame of a geodesic dome around it, with a rocket mass heater inside. I saw the iron butterfly in action, it works. I believe it will have a huge impact on rammed earth tire construction. It’s not my job to defend BioTecture Training, and I don’t know why videos or pictures haven’t been posted of their ongoing progress, including the iron butterfly, but I sincerely don’t believe it is because they are; snake oil salesmen, frauds, criminals, trying to give anyone the willies, or send off bad vibes or whatever unjustified accusations have been mentioned since the original podcast.

I think some fair questions have been posed, and should be addressed if BioTecture would like further support from this community. So do your due diligence, make some calls, ask the questions but those attacks have no place in a community that is supposed to be helping each other. You don’t get to call people names or make big-jump accusations without proof, then say, ‘what I say sticks until they can prove me wrong.’ No one else lives to protect you from your fears of being ripped off again(stop projecting) and once you disrespect someone like some of what has been said- they don’t owe you diddly after that. — My personal take on BioTecture’s setup is that Mark is an action man and super smart.

He learns a lot on the fly and is not afraid to make mistakes. He’s confident and doesn’t think he has to have all the answers before giving something a shot. At the training he acknowledged that he had a lot on his plate and was doing so many projects that he was getting spread thin. I absolutely do not feel this is because he’s some dishonest business man or is trying to rip anyone off, it’s because he is trying to earn a wage so that he can get his ‘examples’ built, and so that he can help people. More than the great info, and great discussion that I was part of with Mark and the other class members, the best lesson I had over the weekend was about community. BioTecture founders Mark and Morgan live on a homestead that was only founded 3 months ago, but they have a better community started than I have with my neighbors in the city after 3 years.

There were 7 others living on the property and they all made me feel at home. I saw them cooperating and sharing and working together. Mark and Morgan organized group-buys so that neighbors as well as them selves could get things like solar panels on the cheap. They were sharing tools and tractors. I was welcomed to any food they had in the home, a place to stay for free, and offered cooked meals. These were all good people working side-by-side with their neighbors so that they could build a community and they were starting with themselves. Most importantly they were STARTING- they were DOING- they weren’t glued to their computers or watching another how-to video, they were getting their hands dirty and their feet wet, all while inviting others to share in the knowledge they were gaining by being the doers, instead of the criticizers or the complainers. Jack says BioTecture misrepresented some things, I’m sorry to hear this, and I think I will ask them some questions. But from what I saw in person over 3days, everything was on the up and up and I would STILL want to be a part of what Mark and Morgan have going on in Bastrop.