Simon Spencer's Blog – April 2010 Archive (8)

The year is 2082. If we’ve done our job we will have not poached the oceans, rainforests and arctic wastes for the raw materials we need; building self-sustained arcologies, vessels and space stations throughout the Solar System that have thrived into vast communities, not divided by faiths, cultures or ideologies and instead unified. However, this will not be possible without hardship, collective effort and, above all else, hindsight...



I think the most important secret is to not… Continue

I think the best idea for an event would be to demonstrate how much water is available to the developing countries compared to the Third World.



This would be in the form of a 15ft-high ice sculpture of a drop of water emerging from a hand pump – the purpose of the experiment would show how quickly the amount of water that the sculpture was made of was consumed by people at the exhibition. At the start of the day this sculpture would form part of a photo shoot, before it… Continue

It was a few months ago I became aware of the Waterkeepers Alliance during a convention with Amanda Tapping. Basically they are a global initiative that supports the prevention of natural and man-made water pollution. Their goal is to protect existing water supplies, and reach out to global organisations to support access to clean water and purify polluted sources.



I don’t currently donate to them because of my own lack of paid employment,… Continue

Sierra Leone has suffered badly in the last few years. With the war that lasted over a decade from 1991 to 2002, it caused a dramatic shift in resource management in the area. There are huge bodies of water, but the majority of it is either inaccessible because of the terrain, or deeply contaminated. Large numbers of hand pumps are also broken, and “wells” are usually just pits of ground where the water breaks open to the surface.…

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I’m not a religious person anymore (much to the disappointment of my parents), but I still do partake in Birthdays, Christmas and Anniversaries –hey, presents and special events!



Assuming that my earlier story comes true with me having a daughter, Molly, I will be celebrating her fifth birthday as well as the midpoint of her final year at primary school. Getting older is always fun as you are interested to new friends (and rivals), as well as learning lots of new things… Continue

I

was thinking about how Pull Cord Generators (PCGs) provide power generation to recharge a mobile phone. At the same time, however, I came to realise a system was needed that didn’t just make more

power. In developing countries and for those who’ve suffered a natural disaster, sometimes the benefit of “all in one” solution can be better over the medium to long-term than a device that just makes power.…

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In Nottingham the Hockerton Housing Project has been in use for many years to create a self-sustaining,renewable community – presently with five houses of residents and their families working at the facilities. The HHP is not just a living space, but also a renewable community where everyone works together to help develop building plans for technologies and sustainable living in other parts of the country.



The project was completed… Continue

I've was reminded of something really interesting I found a couple of years ago after doing an inland tour of Alaska. Salmon is the most common food in the area and, depending on which part of it you're visiting, the flavour of the fish will change due to the environmental conditions it has lived in...…

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