Calum James Wright's Blog – March 2010 Archive (7)

It's the 17th of March 2020, St.Patrick's Day! The pubs are full and people are getting extremely festive as more and more beer is consumed. However, in previous years two problems have arisen, the first was the issue of how much excess energy is needed for such a festive event to be held and the other has been the lack in toiletry facilities needed for the many beer consumers. This year however, both problems have been addressed with a single solution. Using an adaptation of hydro-power, water… Continue

With this weeks ACT in mind I set out to design a power source for lamps around the house by connecting them to a dynamo powered by a standing bicycle. This was an attempt which approached rather dauntingly as I am aware of my lack of practical electrical expertise. Unfortunatley the most I managed to do was break afew light bulbs, but i still maintain that it is a good alternative energy resource which would work particularly well in rural areas and one room houses. 20 to 30 minutes on a… Continue

It’s 2020 and I am in Cape Town, South Africa, sitting down to dinner with my family. We prepared the meal together and it consists of our own organic produce which we grow in both a veggie garden and

our green house in combination with beef from an energy efficient cattle farm.

With innovations in technology South Africa has managed to minimise its carbon

footprint created by cattle farms as the methane which was once damaging the

ozone layer is…

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When reading up on the ACT mission for this week I wondered for a while as to how I would go about it only to realise that someone in need of a little quidance was right in front of me. My house mates and I employ a domestic worker (Sylvia) who gets by quite well but seeing as she has to support 6 children a little extra food will never go wasted. I spoke to my house mates and to Sylvi who all thought it would be a great idea if we had an afternoon to which we dedicated the planting of a veggie… Continue

In sub Saharan Africa the main challenges facing food security must be; population growth, poverty and a lack of knowledge resulting in undedeveloped agricultural production capabilities. While poverty is a challenge facing South African agriculture it seems that the sharing of agricultural knowledge could help ease such problems. A brilliant initiative which aims to tackle these issues, has been set up in association with "World Vision Africa" who have set in motion the running of school… Continue

The main hero I have chosen to shadow is Hugo van Vuuren from Lebone but this is simply because he has South African origins and I have to pick an individual but in truth my interest is with the Lebone group as a wh***. Hugo is one of the six founders of Lebone who are forerunners in fighting the huge energy problems that Africa faces. The members of Lebone are young innovators and prime examples of people who are willing to put in the hard work needed, to produce a simple solution to a major… Continue

The secret for social innovation which most spoke to me was Paul Polak's tip to "think like a child – children have no limit to their thinking". The words of advice reminded me of Picasso and the quote, “It

took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a

child”. It is quite widely known that through his exploration within the cubist

art movement Picasso aimed to recreate the approaches and mentality which a

child naturally…

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