We recycle used bicycles to build pedal-powered machines, bicimáquinas, which support and help facilitate the work of small-scale, self-sustainable projects. Through this work we hope to contribute to the conservation of the environment, the health or the Guatemalan people, and the productivity of the local economy. MAYAPEDAL. Via @Al_Humphreys
Plastic bottles leech chemicals which cause cancer and / or mimic oestrogen. WTF?! WHY DAMMIT?! WHY WOULD YOU MAKE SOMETHING LIKE THIS?!?!! And if you knew you were, wouldn’t you stop? Reusing Plastic Bottles Can Pose Serious Health Hazards Refilling and reusing plastic bottles can release toxic cancer-causing chemicals http://environment.about.com/od/healthenvironment/a/plastic_bottles.htm > Popular plastic baby bottles [...]
The founder of Ecotricity is building a wind powered (well, electricity powered) car. Read about it as his blog, Zerocarbonista.
Belgian city plans ‘veggie’ days Just Add Spice – Spice is a social enterprise that develops credit systems for engaging people in communities and public services. Spice’s community credit systems have been tried and tested and are uniquely successful in dramatically increasing participation of community members in public services and in achieving community transformation. Spice [...]
Rethinking the food system – aka Food Security, with Tim Lang About 95% of people do not want ID cards Bolivia’s Chacaltaya glacier is completely melted What can we learn from the 1918 flu pandemic? Prince Charles’ Rainforest Charity – RainforestSOS.org Delivering medicines and information via Coke crates in Africa
There are a lot of curious inefficiencies in modern life. We end up owning an awful lot of things which we don’t use very much, but we have them because when we want when we really want them. Lawnmowers, tools for small jobs around the house, washing machines, and cars are just a few things [...]
Where you consume water in your daily life http://www.good.is/post/transparency-how-much-water-do-you-use/ Training the young to fix our problems http://www.yesworld.org/ and http://www.csl.org.au/ The gift economy in Mali http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ELNsQdSMOc Twitter users skew towards the older crowd http://www.inquisitr.com/21484/twitter-userbase-skews-toward-older-crowd-data-suggests/ (I’m beginning to think I might have to add yet another Twitter post qualifying previous posts.) Facebook unlikely to release currency http://www.insidesocialgames.com/2009/04/07/facebook-unlikely-to-launch-universal-virtual-currency-anytime-soon/ [...]
I’ve written about the quality of journalism before (and I thought I’d had a specific post about free newspapers, too, but I can’t seem to find it*), but much of it is summed up in this article by Clay Shirky (via Richard Livsey): Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. Too right. He [...]
I watched a great documentary last night about hunting for El Dorado. (Actually more like ‘El Dorado II’, because the main El Dorado story comes from a place called Muiscas in modern day Colombia, courtesy of conquistador ‘Jimmy the Cheese’, aka Jiménez de Quesada, in 1537). But this story is about another chap, Francisco Orellana, [...]
