Nick Heyming's Blog (57)

I was just forwarded this article from the New York Times by an alternative energy list I'm on.



Its called the PeePoo, and its a biodegradable plastic bag with urea crystals in it to sterilize human waste and make it bioavailable. It will cost as much as a plastic bag, which some slum dwellers are currently using.…

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I've been absolutely floored by all the people posting about Jason Arambaru, the founder of re:char. I've been studying Terra Preta and bio-char since my experiences in the rainforest of Peru, it was almost like the Holy Grail of sustainable… Continue

Well, the first two of my heroes that I've attempted to contact haven't returned emails or calls. I know they're busy though, so I'm not taking it personally. I'm sure I'll get a chance to collaborate with Helen Samuels and Tekio, I feel really called to do some work in Mexico in the near future. As for Farouk Jiwa and his honey project, I'll keep trying to get ahold of them, but I can start my own beehives without input from Africa (no offense, Africa).



So I got to… Continue

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By 2020, I'll still be the chair of Growcology, but we will be a worldwide organization sharing the knowledge to adapt sustainable food practices to any climate.



When Alchemy calls, we'll already have a global network of youth and adults who've participated as youth or empowered their children that we connected with through Urgent Evoke, and will be using this and other 21st century technologies to spread… Continue

Its been alot of work getting Growcology up and running, and we're still a ways off from having it provide a living. We founded it a little over a year ago, and after having to purge and reform our board of directors, we've finally achieved some semblance of stability.

At first, we were just trying to grow as… Continue

Some people have stated they don't like the idea of "Heroes", because its placing others in a superior position when we are all equal. While I don't personally completely agree with that sentiment, while pondering it I came up with a new term, and a new game for Evoke:



PEEROES: An Album of People You Admire



The Goal of this game is to post pictures, descriptions, and links for associates of yours… Continue

Here is a photo that makes me think:

The border of Haiti and Dominican Republic. PRE-EARTHQUAKE.

One of the agents here posted something on Ecovative Design and their new biodegradable, organic foam. To take something as noxious and needlessly longlasting as styrofoam and replacing it with mushroom mycelium is really awesome!



One of the things that really saddened me… Continue

I've noticed some people are starting guilds, which "awakens" many different feelings in me. On the one hand,

its "evokes" thoughts of cheating and collusion, "gaming" the system and

taking advantage of flaws in the programming. Some people seem to have

done just that, with hundreds of power points and almost no blog posts,

photos, or videos.



At the same time, that doesn't mean thats what these new guilds will be about

at all. In many ways, it is exactly what… Continue

The tips that are given in the Innovation in Africa article are all great, and I've already commented on one, but when I think about it, the two that most resonate with me are Paul Polak's exhortation to "Go where the action is", which is mirrored by the author Dave Tait's quote "Understand by observing the environment, infrastructure, culture and lives of people by being there."



Both of these touch on an absolutely critical aspect of development work: you can't help… Continue

I've posted alot of my heroes that I've worked with and try to maintain contact with, but I looked back at the mission and saw that I need to contact a new person I've never interacted with before.



So I did some searching and found a gentleman in Africa doing some really cool work. His name is Farouk Jiwa, with Honey Care Africa. My friend Maryam Henein made a doc**entary about the plight… Continue

Recently I've been trying to get to know a local restaurateur here in my hometown of Riverside. He's a hero of mine, he takes all the trash from his taco shack and turns it into beautiful art. Check out some pictures of it: …

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I think many people take Freedom for granted. They have no idea how fortunate they are to be alive now.

I understand that many people around the world are not free. They're bound by shackles of poverty, or repressive governments, or lack or resources. However, many people are solely confined by mental and social restraints.

The average American, European, or upper middle class resident of any other country has…

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There are alot of posts on here talking about electricity and how to get it to remote areas.

I think that those projects are important, and we'll never fully kick our oil, coal, gas, and electrical habit. However, when you think about it, why do we need electricity? Its to power things, things that we need or want.

My favorite solutions are ones that use cheap, locally available resources to address problems people have. I really like the…

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Last night I spent hours poring over references on companion planting and beneficial insects as well as seed catalogs. I've been trying to figure out what plants to put into a demonstration garden at Growcology to show the positive effects of beneficial insects, as well as controlling pests… Continue

I met a guy who built a huge solar array in Peru once. He thought it was what the people needed, got a huge grant from the Department of Energy to pay for the energy storage, found local partners, trained dozens of people on maintaining the technology, then had them build a network to distribute the energy and maintain the knowledge.



Its still working today. When I asked him how it worked, he said it had nothing to do with his ingenuity. It had everything to do with the ingenuity of… Continue

Dangerous places are the subject of countless debates and jokes. Guides are written about them, movies are filmed to describe them. The most dangerous become the stuff of legends.



I've been fortunate to escape from some… Continue