Melissa Macey's Blog (8)

So here's an innovation: An umbrella that takes the kinetic energy from raindrops hitting a conductive membrane

called PDVF and transforms that energy into electrical energy powering embedded LEDs.

1. Rain

2. PDVF membrane

gives 3. electrical energy.



Sang-Kyun Park has created a pretty awesome way to navigate a rainy night, but I can see a wider… Continue

A few of you have seen my posts regarding hunger within a relatively well off society.

I thought you might like this link and graph:

There are a number of us interested in why healthy eating winds up being a more expensive option for some people. This is simply…

Continue

Give my garden 10 years and I will hopefully have it down pat. Rotating seasonal crops, a rich soil from a well established compost system and established fruit trees. Much like my father's. Dinner will look very much like what we had growing up - hearty stews and home made pies. Having the wh*** family around, and anyone who imght be extended family because they need a feed. The door will always be welcome and there will be plenty to go around because… Continue

So I've decided to take the free food thing across the road.



My goal is to plant some fruit trees on the fence-line so that kids (and adults too!) can help themselves to a nutritious snack any time they want.

The question becomes: Which fruit?



It is a matter of what will grow in the position chosen and what will be an attractive food for kids.

To this end, I've bid on a couple of trees that I haven't seen in my local nurseries, but which should grow well and be very… Continue

Man, this takes me back.

A little background first: I am living in the same street that I grew up in 20-odd years ago. I moved away and came back to raise my son close to my parents. So I have a really good knowledge of this area, and about projects that have been tried in this area going back quite a ways.

So, in the 80's there was this push to ensure that school kids got the right start to the day by having a decent breakfast. In under-privileged areas breakfast just wasn't happening… Continue

Come 2020 my son will be 13. I hope that will mean we are more mobile.

I want to be travelling the world with him, taking him to different countries to teach him languages and cultures outside our own. Even if that isn't possible I will tell you what I can almost certainly say I will be doing.



Australia is a big place. Our remote regions have some of the most disadvantaged communities - there is poverty, a lack of education, a lack of opportunity, racism and staggeringly short… Continue

http://twitter.com/gladwell



This guy keeps turning up. Every time I follow a thought/link/essay down a rabbit h***, there he is, crazy hair, frenetic energy and just BAM big ideas. He gets me excited about thinking critically, about questioning what we do and why. I see this as part of that secret from ym first blog post - the wh*** using the existing platforms thing - because you must ask if there isn't… Continue

I'm thinking here in terms of what I have, right here in Toronto West, that I can use.

Yeah, a net connection.

Also: I am right across the street from a school. A primary school.

I have a background in theatre studies that included political and community theatre and have methodologies relating to collaborations, oral histories and self-expression that might be useful.

I have a 2 year old son (a point of inspiration, a ticket into the school community, a handy child's point of… Continue