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Paul Wheaton

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Paul Wheaton
Wheaton atSeattle, WAin 2015
Born
Moscow, Idaho,U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationStudied underSepp Holzer[1]
Occupations
  • Permaculture author
  • producer
  • software engineer
Years active1995-present
Known forPermaculture,Online video
Websiterichsoil

Paul Wheatonis an Americanpermacultureauthor,[2][3][4]master gardener,[4]software engineer,[3][4][5]and disciple of the natural agriculturistSepp Holzer.[4]He is known for writing his book,"Building a Better World in Your Backyard",founding Permies, the largest website devoted to permaculture,[3]as well as for creating and publishing articles, videos, andpodcastson the subject of permaculture.

Wheaton is also the founder of Coderanch, formerly calledJavaranch,[6]an online community forJavaprogrammers.[7]He received three Jolt Awards fromDr. Dobb's Journalfor his work related to Javaranch.[8]As a software engineer, he has worked on the ground system for thesatellitethat took pictures forGoogle EarthandDigitalGlobe.[7][9]

Wheaton has participated in several documentaries,[10][11][12]TED Talkshows,[13]and conferences, on topics related to permaculture, energy, andsoftware engineering.[14][15]

Early life

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Paul Wheaton was born inMoscow, Idaho,and raised inEastern OregonandMissoula, Montana.[3]

He began his career as asoftware engineerand continued to work for several private companies with software andprogramming.In the early 1990s, Wheaton developed Bananacom, aterminal emulator,which was used bybulletin board systemoperators in the United States. At one time, Wheaton had hired 14 programmers fromMissoula, Montanato work on the Bananacom project.[9][16]The product gained popularity among its users due to its usability.[17][18][19][20]

Later in 2000, Wheaton worked on the ground system software for the spacecraft that took pictures for Google Earth and DigitalGlobe.[7][9]

Projects

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Permies

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In 2000, Wheaton shared his views onlawncare on his website richsoil.[21]Later that year, he launched the website Permies, a place for people to discuss lawn care and permaculture. By 2012, Permies had become the largest online community dedicated to permaculture and homesteading.[4]Wheaton first documented on Permies his design of natural homes.[22][23][24]Called the Wofati, it is a type of natural earth-sheltered building developed byMike Oehlerand expanded upon by Wheaton. Wheaton coined the acronym, which meansWoodlandOehlerFreaky-cheapAnnualizedThermalInertia. "Woodland" because it is the optimal location for such a building; "Oehler" after the pioneer, "Freaky-cheap," due to the Fairly-cost effective or frugal materials; and Annualized Thermal Inertia from a book by John Hait called "Passive Annual Heat Storage" which inspired much of the reasoning behind the Wofati design. The site has attracted notable personalities such asGeoff LawtonandToby Hemenway,rocket mass heaterdevelopersErnie and Erica Wisner,medicalherbalistMichael Pilarski, and others who explore a range of eclectic permaculture topics.

Coderanch

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In 1997,Kathy Sierracreated javaranch, which she transferred to Wheaton In January 2000. In 2009, Javaranch was extended to a newdomaincoderanch with aforum.[25]As of May 2020, Coderanch had more than 3 million posts created by over 332,000 registered members.[26]

Publications

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Books and articles

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Paul Wheaton authored the book"Building a Better World in Your Backyard, instead of being angry at the bad guys.",which was an iteration of his philosophy of choosing to"build good things rather than be angry at bad guys."[27]According to Wheaton, the book describes a collection of things people can do individually to make a significant positive global impact.[28][29]He is also the author of manyarticles,published both on his own website and other major publications.[3]

A Wheaton's article onHügelkulturappeared inLifeHackerin 2011, which suggested the use ofwoodto form the backbone of Hügelkultur bed.[30]His article onAphidsandantswas published onCountryside.[31]

Podcasts

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In 2011, Wheaton launched a monthlypodcasttitled"Paul Wheaton Permaculture Podcast".[32]The podcasts mainly consisted of interviews with notable figures in permaculture and educational discussions on various topics of permaculture. In 2019, his Permaculture Podcast ranked number 2 in Feedspot's“Top 15 Permaculture Audio Podcasts & Radio You Must Subscribe and Listen to in 2019."[33]

Wheaton has also participated in other podcasts such as thesurvivalpodcast, in which he discussed various topics including Sepp Holzer,wofati,permacultureprofitability,rocket mass heaters, light bulbs, and irrigation, and onThe Pagan Homesteaderpodcast where they discussed Hügelkultur and Wofati.[34]Wheaton has also expressed his positions on energy saving methods in a podcast hosted byAbundant Edge.[35]Wheaton has been featured on The Joe Gardener podcast on the basics of hugelkultur.[36]

Other media

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A rocket mass heater inside atipiat Paul Wheaton'spermaculturehomestead inMontana

In 2008, Wheaton created his YouTube channel calledpaulwheaton12which had over 86,000 subscribers and 24 million views as of June, 2020.[37]In his videos, Wheaton discusses various topics related to permaculture, which includesorganic horticulture,rocket mass heaters,natural building, alternative energy,homesteading,frugality,raising chickens,wildcrafting,aquaculture,paddock shift systems, andcolony collapse disorder.His videos also include interviews withSepp Holzerand other notable people in the field of permaculture. He further presented his findings during his TEDTalk, "REALLY Saving Energy: Paul Wheaton at TEDxWhitefish".[38]

Interviews

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In 2019, Wheaton was interviewed by Peak Prosperity about his book,"Building a Better World in Your Backyard (Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys.[39]

In 2020, Wheaton was also interviewed by Mike Nowak and Peggy Malecki about the"Building a Better World in Your Backyard (Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys"book as well as his general thoughts and beliefs on permaculture.[40]

Other projects

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A prototype of an outdoor rocket oven designed by Paul Wheaton being test loaded with pizzas

In 2013, Wheaton produced adocumentaryofwood-burning stoves,highlighting sustainable ways to heat, which consisted of four segments called"Fire Science","Sneaky Heat","Boom Squish",and"Hot Rocket".The documentary was distributed inDVDs,in addition toonline streamingand downloadable videos. According to Wheaton, his design of wood burning stoves uses 1/10 of the wood compared to conventional wood burning stoves. He also claimed that his stoves only produce 1/1000 of smoke compared to other stoves.[10]

In 2014, Paul Wheaton crowd-funded and produced a deck of PermaculturePlaying Cards,where each card contained information about a different permaculture technique or notable people of permaculture.[41]

Later in the same year, Wheaton produced another documentary titled"World Domination Gardening",which featured a 3 days workshop of Hügelkultur,earthworks,ponds,andswales.[42]The documentary was distributed in sets of three DVDs, called"Sealing a Pond Without a Liner","Ditches and Swales",and"Hugelkultur and Terracing".[12]

In 2015, Wheaton launched aKickstarterproject to make a documentary of rocket mass heaters. The documentary has been distributed in DVDs, streaming media, downloadable video files, andPDFplans.[43]

In 2017, Wheaton hosted aPermaculture Design Courseand an"Appropriate Technology Course"which consisted of a 14 days workshop. The project was able to raise the pledged funds within 22 hours after its Kickstarter project was launched.[44][45][46][47]

Later in 2018, Wheaton produced a documentary called"Rocket Ovens",which he described as an efficient way to cook and bake food making less than 1% of the carbon footprint of that of an electricoven.Distributed in DVDs and streaming videos, the documentary featured environmental friendly ways of cooking, baking, and dehydrating food with lesser amount of wood compared to other formswood-fired ovens.[48][49][50]

Experiments, demonstrations, and opinions

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Wheaton set up an experiment to demonstrate howcompact fluorescent lamps(CFL bulbs) are not better thanincandescent light bulbs.[51]He used a combination of warm clothing, incandescent lights that produce heat as well as light, and various heating devices to keep warm while his 700 square foot house in Montana is set for 40 degrees Fahrenheit all winter. With this demonstration, Wheaton concluded that by heating the person instead of the air, a person can remain comfortable and save hundreds of dollars in energy savings.[52][53][54]

Wheaton introduced a lifestyle model calledWheaton Eco Scalein 2010 where he categorized different lifestyles into 10 levels, where level-0 makes the highestcarbon footprintand level-10 makes the lowest.[55]

In 2011, Wheaton demonstrated how hand washing a standard sized load of dishes can only use around a gallon of water. He compared that a standard dishwasher uses 15 gallons of water per load while an energy-efficientdishwasheruses around 9 gallons per load.[56]

In 2014, Wheaton produced a documentary onmason beeswhich was featured inTreeHugger.In the documentary, Wheaton compared mason bees withHoney beesand what humans can do to help, which included keeping bees inrefrigerators.[57][58]

Wheaton has performed testing for heating a person rather than a whole house to save 90% on a heating bill while staying warm.[59][60][15][61]

See also

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References

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  1. ^Wheaton, Paul."My son is doing a report on Paul..."permies.Retrieved9 June2020.
  2. ^Wheaton, Paul (October 2019).Building a better world in your backyard, instead of being angry at bad guys(First ed.).ISBN978-1999171407.
  3. ^abcdeStollar, R.L.“Paul Wheaton and Permaculture”Eugene Daily News. Retrieved January 4th 2013.
  4. ^abcdeFredrickson, Erika."Grow Wild" Missoula Independent. Retrieved May 26th, 2020.
  5. ^Bushman, Margie."Integrating Animals in Permaculture Systems with Paul Wheaton"Santa Maria Times. Retrieved January 4th, 2013.
  6. ^"Code Ranch Domain (Wiki forum at Coderanch)".coderanch.Coderanch.Retrieved29 June2020.
  7. ^abcWheaton, Paul."Paul Wheaton - Grand Poobah of JavaRanch | JavaRanch".javaranch.Coderanch.Retrieved7 June2020.
  8. ^Hildebr, J. D.; Blake, Deirdre."The Complete Jolt Product Excellence & Productivity Awards".Dr. Dobb's.Dr. Dobb's Journal.Retrieved29 June2020.
  9. ^abcBauer, Tom (12 November 2011)."Missoula man says compact fluorescent light bulbs not a bright idea".Missoulian.Retrieved29 June2020.
  10. ^abWheaton, Paul (20 February 2013)."Wood Burning Stoves 2.0 – the DVDs (Kickstarter Campaign)".The Permaculture Research Institute.Permaculture Research Institute.Retrieved6 June2020.
  11. ^Wheaton, Paul."World Domination Gardening 3-DVD set - Kickstarter (tinkering forum at permies)".permies.Retrieved6 June2020.
  12. ^ab"Resources".Permaculture Apprentice.16 January 2016.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  13. ^Freibergs, Bonnie (2 January 2015)."REALLY saving energy: Paul Wheaton at TEDxWhitefish".The Permaculture Research Institute.Permaculture Research Institute.Retrieved6 June2020.
  14. ^"JavaRanch Joins Forces with TheServerSide at TSSJS 2011".theserverside.
  15. ^ab"Paul Wheaton: Building a Better World One Permaculture Brick At A Time (PVP005)".Diego Footer's Permaculture Voices.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  16. ^Paul, Wheaton."BananaCom - DOS terminal software (Meaningless Drivel forum at Coderanch)".coderanch.Retrieved29 June2020.
  17. ^Matthews, Noah. "Bananacom Gets Modem Up, Running".The Billings Gazette.November 19, 1996.
  18. ^"Tallying the Banana". BBS Magazine. February 1996.
  19. ^Online Access Magazine, March 1995.
  20. ^Bechtold, Alan. "Go Bananas". Band Street.
  21. ^"Organic Lawn Care For the Cheap and Lazy".2000-08-15. Archived fromthe originalon 2000-08-15.Retrieved2020-06-06.
  22. ^"the first wofati - allerton abbey- version 0.7 (wofati and earth berm forum at permies)".permies.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  23. ^"Paul's Wofati: the 2nd winter".The Tiny Life.2014-12-04.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  24. ^"Wofati eco building - Appropedia: The sustainability wiki".appropedia.org.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  25. ^"A History of JavaRanch".javaranch.Retrieved6 June2020.
  26. ^"Advertise on Coderanch".coderanch.Retrieved6 June2020.
  27. ^Wheaton, Paul; Klassen-Koop, Shawn (October 2019).Building a Better World in Your Backyard: Instead of Being Angry at Bad Guys.ISBN978-1999171407.
  28. ^Wheaton, Paul."Building a Better World in Your Backyard (book)".Kickstarter.Retrieved29 June2020.
  29. ^Taggart, Adam (19 August 2019)."Paul Wheaton: Building A Better World In Your Backyard".Peak Prosperity.Retrieved29 June2020.
  30. ^"Hugelkultur Can Create Irrigation-Free Garden Beds".Lifehacker.29 January 2012.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  31. ^Wheaton, Paul; Bean, Suzy (14 March 2019)."Aphids and Ants on Apple Trees!".Countryside.Retrieved29 June2020.
  32. ^Wheaton, Paul."paul wheaton's permaculture podcasts Forum at permies".permies.Retrieved6 June2020.
  33. ^"Top 15 Permaculture Podcasts You Must Follow in 2020".Feedspot Blog.2019-06-12.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  34. ^"TPH-Episode 48".2012-05-26. Archived fromthe originalon 2012-07-17.Retrieved2020-06-07.
  35. ^"How to save huge on your heating costs and other innovative experiments with Paul Wheaton of" Permies "and" Richsoil: "003 – Abundant Edge".abundantedge.Abundant Edge.Retrieved29 June2020.
  36. ^Understanding the Basics of Hügelkultur, with Paul WheatonRetrieved 26 April 2022
  37. ^"paul wheaton".YouTube.
  38. ^REALLY saving energy: Paul Wheaton at TEDxWhitefish
  39. ^Paul Wheaton: Building A Better World In Your BackyardPeak Prosperity.Retrieved 12 April 2022
  40. ^The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki episode 'Extreme Permaculture Primer'The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy MaleckiRetrieved 26 April 2022
  41. ^"Permaculture playing cards. The design of the self-maintained deck %%sep%% Max Playing Cards".Max Playing Cards.15 August 2013.Retrieved6 June2020.
  42. ^Paul, Wheaton."World Domination Gardening 3-DVD set | permaculture articles by paul wheaton".Richsoil.Retrieved29 June2020.
  43. ^Wheaton, Paul."Rocket Mass Heaters 4-DVD Set".Kickstarter.Retrieved6 June2020.
  44. ^David (11 February 2017)."Paul Wheaton's 2017 Permaculture Design Course".The Survival Gardener.Retrieved9 June2020.
  45. ^"2020 Permaculture Design Course".Wheaton Labs.Retrieved9 June2020.
  46. ^"Live Stream Permaculture Design Course & App. Tech Course".Kickstarter.Paul Wheaton.Retrieved9 June2020.
  47. ^Permaculture Design CoursePermaculture Design Course
  48. ^Wheaton, Paul."rocket ovens (rocket ovens forum at permies)".permies.
  49. ^Wheaton, Paul."Rocket Ovens Feature Length Documentary".Kickstarter.
  50. ^"rocketstoves - ErnieAndErica.info".ernieanderica.info.
  51. ^"farmer laboratory: light bulbs at 30 seconds".Kickstarter.Retrieved2020-04-15.
  52. ^"Heat Yourself instead of the Entire Room to Save on Your Heating Bill".Lifehacker.19 November 2011.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  53. ^Missoulian, JOE NICKELL of the (31 December 2011)."Experiment shows CFLs don't last".missoulian.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  54. ^"CFLs Die Much Faster Than Advertised If Switched Too Frequently".TreeHugger.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  55. ^Wheaton, Paul."The Wheaton Eco Scale".permies.Retrieved9 June2020.
  56. ^"Washing Dishes by Hand Can Use Less Water Than a Dishwasher".Lifehacker.25 July 2011.Retrieved2020-04-15.
  57. ^Sami, Grover."Keeping mason bees in your fridge (and other ideas for helping wild pollinators)".TreeHugger.Retrieved8 June2020.
  58. ^Paulas, Rick (10 February 2014)."The Most Fascinating Facts About Mason Bees".KCET.Retrieved8 June2020.
  59. ^"how to cut 90% off your electric heat bill in 2020 - with microheaters (conservation forum at permies)".permies.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  60. ^"Cut Your Heating Bill in Half: Heat the Person Not the House (Video)".TreeHugger.Retrieved2020-04-26.
  61. ^"Meet Paul Wheaton, Duke of Permaculture".Prepper Shows USA.2018-11-21.Retrieved2020-04-26.
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