Australian Sunset Photo (© 2011, Meghan Halverson)

Before there was air conditioning, my dad would hang wet burlap bags over the windows and crank up the attic fan (great invention, sucks all the hot air out of the house using almost no electricity). The wet bags would cool the air coming in and it was very pleasant, even on 100 degree days. I bet there's tons of old-tech solutions that not only work great, but are eco friendly like that, someone should research and publish them - much like the original Whole Earth Catalog. I remember when that came out, it was page to page great discoveries of simpler solutions for everyday problems. -From Marc