Kath-Ning's Blog – March 2010 Archive (13)

Is the glass half empty or half full? is a common expression, used rhetorically to indicate that a particular situation could be a cause for optimism (half full) or pessimism (half empty); or as a general litmus test to simply determine if an individual is an optimist or a pessimist. The purpose of the question is to demonstrate that the situation may be seen in different ways depending on one's point of view and that there may be opportunity in the… Continue

I found a website called FreePoverty.com that is modeled after FreeRice.com, but which offers to donate clean drinking water instead of rice/food. The site appears to need sponsors. I think the site is legitimate and would like to try to find some sponsors for this effort! In fact, perhaps I should invite the creator, Chung-Guk Kim, to join Urgent Evoke if he's not already a member.



http://www.freepoverty.com/…



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I found this interesting report/article on water pasteurization via solar cooking.



http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Water_pasteurization



I am especially interested in the fairly simple "Water Pasteurization Indicator (WAPI)" that tells you when the water is safe to drink.…



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Your click generates donations from sponsors. You can click once a day and 100% of the donations raised go directly to
Carbonfund.org:

http://www.care2.com/click-to-donate/global-warming/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Ted-Baer_s-Bicycle-Wheel-Windmill/

I also posted a video with 3 different types of windmills....see it under videos, or here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrp0RC3XTpw

I can imagine waking up in a solar- and wind-powered house and beginning to prepare for the big holiday meal. My refrigerator and oven are energy-efficient and most my ingredients have been locally grown. My friends and family begin to arrive; many have ridden their bikes or have driven in electric cars that have been charged by various renewable sources. Some have taken public transportation. Our meal is delicious. We wash the dishes with a water-saving and efficient machine. The gray water is… Continue

I have an emergency wind up radio with an adapter to charge a cell phone. Instead of keeping the radio in my emergency kit, I can take it out and use it to recharge my phone.

Speaking of wind-up radios, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Baylis

I did some searching and learned about Nuru Lights.

http://nurulight.com/

I would like to have a dinner in 2020 in which I harvested every item from my garden. Depending on the season, this might include greens, beans, squash, potatoes and tomatoes.

In my community, it's time to plant potatoes. Potatoes are especially easy to grow in containers and I've passed along instructions to a couple of my friends. Be sure to get good seed potatoes and try different varieties.



http://potatoes.wsu.edu/links/vars.html…



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Mother Hubbard's Cupboard is a food pantry in my town. They run a community gardening program to "promote self-reliance by teaching people an economical way to grow

healthy food right in their own backyards. In this innovative program,

MHC teaches low-income patrons the life-skill of organic gardening.

Our patrons plant, tend, and harvest produce that goes directly to the

MHC food pantry and to their kitchens."



See… Continue

I selected William Kamkwamba as the hero to follow. Here is his story:

http://movingwindmills.org/

This was my favorite "secret":



What you have matters more than what you lack (If you’ve got a bicycle, consider what you can build based on that, rather than worrying about

not having a car, a truck, a metal shop.)



It seems like a good maxim that can apply to many situations in life. For this particular project, however, I think it's especially important. I can imagine situations where there looks like there is nothing to work with. However, there always has to be… Continue