Website: http://isanglitrongliwanag.org/
YouTube video: http://youtu.be/a9fpolCvM-8
Video and more: http://youtu.be/a9fpolCvM-8
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Bringing light to the poor, one liter at a time
See more at: Myshelter “Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light)” project in Manilla, Phillipines
Website: http://isanglitrongliwanag.org/
YouTube video: http://youtu.be/a9fpolCvM-8
Video and more: http://youtu.be/a9fpolCvM-8
Website: http://isanglitrongliwanag.org/
YouTube video: http://youtu.be/a9fpolCvM-8
Video and more: http://youtu.be/a9fpolCvM-8
Constructing a Drill Bit for Water Well Drilling Using the Baptist Method
In Guatemala, 2 people dig wells in two or three days, depending on depth. I've seen it done. What is the daily wage in Zanzibar? If it's like Guatemala, people make $50.00 to $100.00 per month (50 cents to $1.00 per hour). I don't do anything to upset the "going rate." I do help with educational and medical expenses, but paid directly to the offices or with a receipt.
Take a look at this video: A basic step by step guide to constructing the drill bit used by agua:yaku's well drilling project. http://aguayaku.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orvSL8_e5ls&feature=autoplay&list=PL787849ED3803F67A&index=63&playnext=1
~~~~~~~~
For 2011:
"The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need do is set our sails."
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ~ Gospel of Ramakrishna
All sorrows can be borne if you tell a story about them.
~ Karen Blixen
Peace and justice are goals for man.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
Take a look at this video: A basic step by step guide to constructing the drill bit used by agua:yaku's well drilling project. http://aguayaku.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orvSL8_e5ls&feature=autoplay&list=PL787849ED3803F67A&index=63&playnext=1
~~~~~~~~
For 2011:
"The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need do is set our sails."
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ~ Gospel of Ramakrishna
All sorrows can be borne if you tell a story about them.
~ Karen Blixen
Peace and justice are goals for man.
~ Mahatma Gandhi
MIT Entrepreneurship Review Archives
"Where Einstein meets Edison"
http://miter.mit.edu/archives
Search for: solar water bottle light
Bringing Electricity to Rural China
the technology that Reja and her lab are developing through the company’s SolSource project, which builds the solar cookers that will bring light into villages ...
Written by chmiller on February 7, 2011. Published under From The Labs.
Entrepreneurs, Look East
. In India, the Solar Electric Light Company (SELCO) has spent the last 15 years bending the conventional wisdom that cleantech entrepreneurs cannot profitably ...
Written by rbose on November 22, 2010. Published under Analysis.
An MIT in the Middle East?
created during the housing boom. The emirate of Dubai exemplified this wealth, with its opulent man-made islands jutting into the serene turquoise waters ...
Written by Ardavan Oskooi on April 11, 2010. Published under Analysis.
Crisis In Haiti: Lost Limbs Today, Lost Souls Tomorrow
water filters, portable solar cookers and pedal-powered washing machines for use in countries like Ghana and Tibet. D-Lab also has a Developing World ...
Written by Roozbeh Ghaffari on March 1, 2010. Published under From The Classroom.
From the Lab to the Land: Social Entrepreneurs Explore AppropriateTechnology Dissemination by dmjue
Social Entrepreneurs Explore Appropriate Technology Dissemination
http://miter.mit.edu/article/lab-land-social-entrepreneurs-explore-appropriate-technology-dissemination
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
From the Lab to the Land: Social Entrepreneurs Explore Appropriate Technology Dissemination
November 26, 2010 at 2:05pm, by Diana Jue
The MIT Entrepreneurship Review is pleased to introduce our new team of topic experts to our readers. Over the next four weeks, we will be publishing the articles that each topic expert submitted in their application to join the MITER team. Today's article is from Diana Jue, a topic expert in the Energy/Cleantech group.
more: http://miter.mit.edu/article/lab-land-social-entrepreneurs-explore-appropriate-technology-dissemination
---
miter.mit.edu/user/543
The MIT Entrepreneurship Review is an online publication focused on ...
MIT International Development Network
web.mit.edu/idn/groups06.html
Description: The AIDG incubates appropriate technology manufacturing ...
---
From the Lab to the Land: Social Entrepreneurs Explore Appropriate ...
miter.mit.edu/.../lab-land-social-entrepreneurs-explore-appropriate-...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
Appropriate Technologies Have Potential, but Can Their Users Access Them? MIT students looking to attack global poverty often focus on inventing low-cost ... For example, failures may prevent a social mission from being accomplished or ...
---
http://miter.mit.edu/article/lab-land-social-entrepreneurs-explore-appropriate-technology-dissemination
From the Lab to the Land: Social Entrepreneurs Explore Appropriate Technology Dissemination by dmjue
The MIT Entrepreneurship Review is pleased to introduce our new team of topic experts to our readers. Over the
next four weeks, we will be publishing the articles that each topic expert submitted in their application to join the
MITER team. Today's article is from Diana Jue, a topic expert in the Energy/Cleantech group.
Appropriate Technologies Have Potential, but Can Their Users Access Them?
MIT students looking to attack global poverty often focus on inventing low-cost sustainable technologies. These
livelihood-improving and environment-sustaining technologies include drip irrigation systems, bicycle-powered
machines, and solar cookers. Their goals are to be low-cost, sustainable, and usually small-scale and
decentralized. However, far fewer students fixate on the very real and pressing challenge of getting these
technologies to the customers in need.
On campus, appropriate technologies are all the rage. Their popularity is evident through the demand for
hands-on, design-based D-Lab classes that innovate technological solutions for developing regions and student
groups that strut their stuff at biannual International Development Fairs. Outside of MIT, these technologies are
becoming in vogue as well. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced a national commitment of
$50 million to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which plans to distribute 100 million clean-burning stoves
by 2020. D-Lab founder and instructor, Amy Smith, was featured as one of Time magazine’s “World’s Most
Influential People” in 2010.
When I applied to attend MIT as an undergraduate, I wanted to engineer solar-powered water purifiers and other
technologies for rural Africa. However, after spending some time at MIT, I noticed that many students were
inventing these technologies, but few were successfully disseminating them. The big picture of how to move these
technologies from the lab to the land was not quite painted yet. Globally, philanthropic and government-funded
initiatives were failing; limited funds, changes in management, and shifts in momentum did not lead to
sustainability, scalability, or replicability. Appropriate technologies have been invented, but innovative ways to get
them to their users are still lacking.
From the Lab to the Land through the Market
Today, the school of thought that businesses should help lead the effort to address health, economic, and social
issues in developing countries is growing increasingly popular. Quoting Vinod Khosla, billionaire venture capitalist
and co-founder of Sun Microsystems: “There needs to be more experiments in building sustainable businesses
going after the market for the poor. It has to be done in a sustainable way. There is not enough money to be given
away in the world to make the poor well off.” Also supporting this idea is the late C. K. Prahalad, business
management professor.
The tasks of producing, marketing, selling, and distributing appropriate technologies have been taken up by
“social enterprises”, which apply market-based strategies to achieve a social purpose. Social enterprises include
nonprofits that implement business models to achieve their goals and for-profits whose primary goals are social.
MIT, always in step with the times (or perhaps leading them) has turned toward social entrepreneurship. For
example, in 2006, the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition added its Development Track (now the Emerging
Markets Track).
The challenges facing social enterprises are unique. Their target customers are usually invisible to traditional
businesses, which fail to see them as significant market opportunities. Because they are viewed as producing
insufficient tax revenues, governments often fail to provide these people with basic services. The social
enterprises that emerge to fill this gap must be innovative – they must be able to provide their products and
services at an affordable price while facing dispersed and fragmented markets, high transaction costs, high costs
of customer acquisition, poor or nonexistent distribution systems, and limited financing options for the consumers
and the enterprises themselves.
http://miter.mit.edu/article/lab-land-social-entrepreneurs-explore-appropriate-technology-dissemination
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
From the Lab to the Land: Social Entrepreneurs Explore Appropriate Technology Dissemination
November 26, 2010 at 2:05pm, by Diana Jue
The MIT Entrepreneurship Review is pleased to introduce our new team of topic experts to our readers. Over the next four weeks, we will be publishing the articles that each topic expert submitted in their application to join the MITER team. Today's article is from Diana Jue, a topic expert in the Energy/Cleantech group.
more: http://miter.mit.edu/article/lab-land-social-entrepreneurs-explore-appropriate-technology-dissemination
---
miter.mit.edu/user/543
The MIT Entrepreneurship Review is an online publication focused on ...
MIT International Development Network
web.mit.edu/idn/groups06.html
Description: The AIDG incubates appropriate technology manufacturing ...
---
From the Lab to the Land: Social Entrepreneurs Explore Appropriate ...
miter.mit.edu/.../lab-land-social-entrepreneurs-explore-appropriate-...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
Appropriate Technologies Have Potential, but Can Their Users Access Them? MIT students looking to attack global poverty often focus on inventing low-cost ... For example, failures may prevent a social mission from being accomplished or ...
---
http://miter.mit.edu/article/lab-land-social-entrepreneurs-explore-appropriate-technology-dissemination
From the Lab to the Land: Social Entrepreneurs Explore Appropriate Technology Dissemination by dmjue
The MIT Entrepreneurship Review is pleased to introduce our new team of topic experts to our readers. Over the
next four weeks, we will be publishing the articles that each topic expert submitted in their application to join the
MITER team. Today's article is from Diana Jue, a topic expert in the Energy/Cleantech group.
Appropriate Technologies Have Potential, but Can Their Users Access Them?
MIT students looking to attack global poverty often focus on inventing low-cost sustainable technologies. These
livelihood-improving and environment-sustaining technologies include drip irrigation systems, bicycle-powered
machines, and solar cookers. Their goals are to be low-cost, sustainable, and usually small-scale and
decentralized. However, far fewer students fixate on the very real and pressing challenge of getting these
technologies to the customers in need.
On campus, appropriate technologies are all the rage. Their popularity is evident through the demand for
hands-on, design-based D-Lab classes that innovate technological solutions for developing regions and student
groups that strut their stuff at biannual International Development Fairs. Outside of MIT, these technologies are
becoming in vogue as well. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently announced a national commitment of
$50 million to the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which plans to distribute 100 million clean-burning stoves
by 2020. D-Lab founder and instructor, Amy Smith, was featured as one of Time magazine’s “World’s Most
Influential People” in 2010.
When I applied to attend MIT as an undergraduate, I wanted to engineer solar-powered water purifiers and other
technologies for rural Africa. However, after spending some time at MIT, I noticed that many students were
inventing these technologies, but few were successfully disseminating them. The big picture of how to move these
technologies from the lab to the land was not quite painted yet. Globally, philanthropic and government-funded
initiatives were failing; limited funds, changes in management, and shifts in momentum did not lead to
sustainability, scalability, or replicability. Appropriate technologies have been invented, but innovative ways to get
them to their users are still lacking.
From the Lab to the Land through the Market
Today, the school of thought that businesses should help lead the effort to address health, economic, and social
issues in developing countries is growing increasingly popular. Quoting Vinod Khosla, billionaire venture capitalist
and co-founder of Sun Microsystems: “There needs to be more experiments in building sustainable businesses
going after the market for the poor. It has to be done in a sustainable way. There is not enough money to be given
away in the world to make the poor well off.” Also supporting this idea is the late C. K. Prahalad, business
management professor.
The tasks of producing, marketing, selling, and distributing appropriate technologies have been taken up by
“social enterprises”, which apply market-based strategies to achieve a social purpose. Social enterprises include
nonprofits that implement business models to achieve their goals and for-profits whose primary goals are social.
MIT, always in step with the times (or perhaps leading them) has turned toward social entrepreneurship. For
example, in 2006, the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition added its Development Track (now the Emerging
Markets Track).
The challenges facing social enterprises are unique. Their target customers are usually invisible to traditional
businesses, which fail to see them as significant market opportunities. Because they are viewed as producing
insufficient tax revenues, governments often fail to provide these people with basic services. The social
enterprises that emerge to fill this gap must be innovative – they must be able to provide their products and
services at an affordable price while facing dispersed and fragmented markets, high transaction costs, high costs
of customer acquisition, poor or nonexistent distribution systems, and limited financing options for the consumers
and the enterprises themselves.
Monday, August 15, 2011
Video: World’s cheapest light bulb shines in developing regions
From SmartPlanet.com
Home / Technology / Thinking Tech
Video: World’s cheapest light bulb shines in developing regions
By Tuan C. Nguyen | July 29, 2011, 7:35 AM PDT
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/thinking-tech/video-worlds-cheapest-light-bulb-shines-in-developing-regions/8004
A plastic bottle is filled with water and bleach. That’s it. That water refracts light from the sun in all directions and disperses the sun’s rays that would otherwise go in one direction inside the home. The bleach prevents algae and particle build-up, keeping the water clear. Once the “light bulbs” are assembled, they are put through holes in the roof. The process can be done in an hour.
So far, workers have installed 10,000 of them in homes in Manilla in the Philippines. The obvious drawback is that the light bulbs are only functional during the daytime, but even then, installing them translates to tremendous costs savings for families who can ill-afford what they consider a luxury.
more: http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/thinking-tech/video-worlds-cheapest-light-bulb-shines-in-developing-regions/8004
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cSsIqMcROA&feature=player_embedded#at=20
Sunday, August 14, 2011
MIT: Bringing Light To The Poor, One Liter At A Time
Uploaded by TrendGuardian on Aug 2, 2011
Follow us at: http://www.trendguardian.com/
Who thought that this simple idea could light a thousand houses? In places where there is no grid, houses can be dark. But a simple solution: a plastic bottle stuck in the roof--can light up a room.
The lightbulbs are made of three simple elements: a plastic bottle, water, and bleach; an unlimited supply. The simple technology can be installed in less than an hour, lasts for five years, and is equivalent to a 60-watt bulb.
This is how simple it works: the water defracts the light, letting it spread throughout the house instead of focusing on one point. The bleach keeps the water clear and microbe-free. Although this technology has been around for years, it was not until students at MIT focused on "appropriate technologies" put it as a social entrepreneurship mission. The solar bottle bulb is illuminating poor settlements across the Philippines, where the organization Isang Litrong Liwanag ("A Liter of Light") has already installed 10,000 of them. "With the Solar Bottle Bulb project, a brighter Philippines is going to become a reality," Illac Diaz, a social entrepreneur installing the bulbs, told a Filipino publication.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Search: Solar Water Bottle Bulbs water tubing reflector
A search for Solar Water Bottle Bulbs water tubing reflector brings up lots of info. Can't wait to try this out and take it on as a project at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala!
From Kevin Warnock's blog
http://kevinwarnock.com/category/home/
On the right, Alfredo Lim, the mayor of Manilla, Philippines, holding a litre of light 'bulb'
The beauty of the Solar Bottle Bulb is that it works and it’s really affordable, at about P150 to P200 (USD $4.66 at today’s exchange rate) per home, installed, according to Alfredo Lim, the mayor of Manilla in the Philippines, pictured above on the right. That 150 to 200 peso cost is per home, not per bulb.
I am going to install these in any eco home I build down the road. I have a big collection of glass bottles to choose from. I’m not sure if glass is as suitable as plastic, but I would prefer to use glass if it can be made to work reliably.
While UV lamp disinfection systems have been widely used to disinfect .... Low cost solar reflectors or cookers can be made from materials as simple and ... The WAPI is placed in the water to be heated with the wax at the top of the tube. ... Bottles made of polyethylene terephthlate (PET) are preferred to those made of ... (more)
Home at Kevin Warnock
kevinwarnock.com/category/home/
Written by Kevin Warnock, July 17th, 2011 at 5:00 am, Posted in Home,Ideas
Tagged with A litre of light, Alfredo Lim, Isang Litrong Liwanag, Solar Light Bulb
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alibaba.com http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/solar-water-bottle.html
Solar Water Bottle-Solar Water Bottle Manufacturers, Suppliers and ...
www.alibaba.com › Showroom - Cached
Solar Water Bottle Manufacturers & Solar Water Bottle Suppliers Directory - Find a Solar ... 10led garden lamp, with beer bottle,energy saving, safe, water proof, .... This solar thermal bottle is mainly made by vacuum tube,reflector can focus the ...
►
Light tube - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_tube - Cached
2.1 Solar and hybrid lighting systems; 2.2 Security Applications ... The first commercial reflector systems were patented and marketed in the 1850s by Paul .... Compared to artificial lights, light tubes have the advantage of providing natural light ...
Megahelp - Let there be light—from a soda bottle!
www.megahelp.com/?a=17272 - Cached
Who would have thought that an insignificant empty water bottle would serve as a key ... Installed on roofs, the Solar Bottle Bulb acts as a reflector of sunlight and ...
WHO | Managing water in the home: accelerated health gains from ...
www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/wsh0207/.../index4.html - Cached
A Solar Bottle Bulb is a clear water or soda bottle filled with tap water and a .... of its LED bulb so I can replace my existing ceiling installed reflector CFL bulbs. ...
More Solar Power - 2 liter soda bottle = 50 watt light bulb
www.warriorforum.com › The Chat Room › The Off Topic Forum - Cached
May 29, 2011 – In a sense they are sky lights, but the water in the bottles will diffuse and ... Light Tunnel & Pipe | Sun Tubes | Solar Tube | Solatube® ..... Plus, you can use mylar as a reflector to add even more potential to your solar panels. ...
New and experimental solar projects and concepts for do it yourselfers
www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/experimental.htm - Cached
This is a cut at a solar water heating collector that uses PEX tubing instead of ..... a tracking inflatable reflector to concentrate energy on a line of PV cells ---> ..... It uses two identical collectors each with a bottle of water inside to collect heat. ...
Solar Water Bottle Heater
www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Water-Bottle-Heater/ - Cached
Feb 18, 2009 – After reading a great Instructable on building a solar water bottle heater by ... F. If I used a 2 bottle system with a cut out half of a car window shade reflector, I could go as high ... A whiskey bottle isn't fragile: a light bulb is fragile. .... I have read putting a length of black plastic tubing in a clear bottle works also. ...
HIGHTIMES.COM > The $1000 Growroom
hightimes.com/grow/nico/6216 - Cached
Feb 16, 2010 – Water and light are self-explanatory, but the other two require brief explanations. ... one for use during the vegetative phase (labeled “Grow” on most bottles) and ... Some people choose to air-cool the bulb and reflector hood with inline fans ... The reservoir is usually filled from a tube that begins above the ...
From Kevin Warnock's blog
http://kevinwarnock.com/category/home/
On the right, Alfredo Lim, the mayor of Manilla, Philippines, holding a litre of light 'bulb'
The beauty of the Solar Bottle Bulb is that it works and it’s really affordable, at about P150 to P200 (USD $4.66 at today’s exchange rate) per home, installed, according to Alfredo Lim, the mayor of Manilla in the Philippines, pictured above on the right. That 150 to 200 peso cost is per home, not per bulb.
I am going to install these in any eco home I build down the road. I have a big collection of glass bottles to choose from. I’m not sure if glass is as suitable as plastic, but I would prefer to use glass if it can be made to work reliably.
While UV lamp disinfection systems have been widely used to disinfect .... Low cost solar reflectors or cookers can be made from materials as simple and ... The WAPI is placed in the water to be heated with the wax at the top of the tube. ... Bottles made of polyethylene terephthlate (PET) are preferred to those made of ... (more)
Home at Kevin Warnock
kevinwarnock.com/category/home/
Written by Kevin Warnock, July 17th, 2011 at 5:00 am, Posted in Home,Ideas
Tagged with A litre of light, Alfredo Lim, Isang Litrong Liwanag, Solar Light Bulb
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alibaba.com http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/solar-water-bottle.html
Solar Water Bottle-Solar Water Bottle Manufacturers, Suppliers and ...
www.alibaba.com › Showroom - Cached
Solar Water Bottle Manufacturers & Solar Water Bottle Suppliers Directory - Find a Solar ... 10led garden lamp, with beer bottle,energy saving, safe, water proof, .... This solar thermal bottle is mainly made by vacuum tube,reflector can focus the ...
►
Light tube - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_tube - Cached
2.1 Solar and hybrid lighting systems; 2.2 Security Applications ... The first commercial reflector systems were patented and marketed in the 1850s by Paul .... Compared to artificial lights, light tubes have the advantage of providing natural light ...
Megahelp - Let there be light—from a soda bottle!
www.megahelp.com/?a=17272 - Cached
Who would have thought that an insignificant empty water bottle would serve as a key ... Installed on roofs, the Solar Bottle Bulb acts as a reflector of sunlight and ...
WHO | Managing water in the home: accelerated health gains from ...
www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/wsh0207/.../index4.html - Cached
A Solar Bottle Bulb is a clear water or soda bottle filled with tap water and a .... of its LED bulb so I can replace my existing ceiling installed reflector CFL bulbs. ...
More Solar Power - 2 liter soda bottle = 50 watt light bulb
www.warriorforum.com › The Chat Room › The Off Topic Forum - Cached
May 29, 2011 – In a sense they are sky lights, but the water in the bottles will diffuse and ... Light Tunnel & Pipe | Sun Tubes | Solar Tube | Solatube® ..... Plus, you can use mylar as a reflector to add even more potential to your solar panels. ...
New and experimental solar projects and concepts for do it yourselfers
www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/experimental.htm - Cached
This is a cut at a solar water heating collector that uses PEX tubing instead of ..... a tracking inflatable reflector to concentrate energy on a line of PV cells ---> ..... It uses two identical collectors each with a bottle of water inside to collect heat. ...
Solar Water Bottle Heater
www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Water-Bottle-Heater/ - Cached
Feb 18, 2009 – After reading a great Instructable on building a solar water bottle heater by ... F. If I used a 2 bottle system with a cut out half of a car window shade reflector, I could go as high ... A whiskey bottle isn't fragile: a light bulb is fragile. .... I have read putting a length of black plastic tubing in a clear bottle works also. ...
HIGHTIMES.COM > The $1000 Growroom
hightimes.com/grow/nico/6216 - Cached
Feb 16, 2010 – Water and light are self-explanatory, but the other two require brief explanations. ... one for use during the vegetative phase (labeled “Grow” on most bottles) and ... Some people choose to air-cool the bulb and reflector hood with inline fans ... The reservoir is usually filled from a tube that begins above the ...
Bottle Water Light with Tubing and Reflector down the Wall
Received from Roger Stringham, FirstGate in Hawaii:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Roger Stringham
Date: Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 12:13 PM
Subject: Re: Bottled Water & Bleach Creates Free Light (Video)
To: Catherine Todd
Katie,
I think you should experiment, The bigger the bottle and hole the more light you gather. Funnel it down and attach some transparent plastic tubing so it will reach down to the floor. If you are not using the tubing for close work, hang it on the wall with a reflector.
---
My response:
Roger, what a GREAT IDEA to use tubing and a reflector! How did you think of this?
I take it that you are running the same water & bleach solution in the tube? How do you cap off the tube?
I'm going to try this right away when I get back to Guatemala. Know just the spot to test it.
Keep those ideas coming! Katie (Catherine Todd)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Roger Stringham
Date: Sat, Aug 13, 2011 at 12:13 PM
Subject: Re: Bottled Water & Bleach Creates Free Light (Video)
To: Catherine Todd
Katie,
I think you should experiment, The bigger the bottle and hole the more light you gather. Funnel it down and attach some transparent plastic tubing so it will reach down to the floor. If you are not using the tubing for close work, hang it on the wall with a reflector.
---
My response:
Roger, what a GREAT IDEA to use tubing and a reflector! How did you think of this?
I take it that you are running the same water & bleach solution in the tube? How do you cap off the tube?
I'm going to try this right away when I get back to Guatemala. Know just the spot to test it.
Keep those ideas coming! Katie (Catherine Todd)
Friday, August 12, 2011
Eco-Ideas.net - Solar Hot Water Heater from Plastic Bottles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehDgXrpRlTU&feature=related
Solar Water Heater from Brazil "Soda bottle solar water heater"
javascript:void(0)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecoideasnet
http://twitter.com/ecoideasnet/
http://www.youtube.com/ecoideasnet
ecoideasnet Spotters
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_175870425759868&ap=1
"Want to become ecoideas researcher from your area? ecoideasnet is looking for ecoideas spotters from around the world. This group page is place where our Spotters gathers.."
Solar Water Heater from Brazil "Soda bottle solar water heater"
javascript:void(0)
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ecoideasnet
http://twitter.com/ecoideasnet/
http://www.youtube.com/ecoideasnet
ecoideasnet Spotters
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_175870425759868&ap=1
"Want to become ecoideas researcher from your area? ecoideasnet is looking for ecoideas spotters from around the world. This group page is place where our Spotters gathers.."
A Liter of Light: Solar Bottle Bulbs - INSTRUCTIONS
http://www.crazyengineers.com/solar-bottle-bulbs-provision-for-lighting-in-summer-206/
Solar Bottle Bulbs – Provision For Lighting In Summer
Posted by Shubhankar Deshkar on May 2, 2011
The Scorching heat of the summer is rising now and so is the demand for electricity. As we all know that many rural as well as the urban areas suffer Load-shedding or Power cuts to comply with the available limited generation of electrical energy. Thus the situations worsen especially in the rural areas which suffer a load shedding of more than 10 hours a day. One of the main utilization of the electrical energy is for the purpose of lighting. Without light, no work can be done.
Thus to put an end to the lighting problem, an expert team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has invented the Solar Bottle bulbs. This bulb also facilitates the poor people who cannot afford to buy a legal electricity connection and need light for the mundane household chores. “Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light)” is the name of the project and it will help improving the conditions in developing communities like Philippines. It is basically a plastic soda bottle containing a mixture of purified water and chlorine. Chlorine is mixed in the water to increase the life span of the water making it last for 5 years approximately. Distilled water is used in the process to avoid the refraction phenomenon.
Some readily available chemicals are also mixed in the solution and kept in the sunlight to harness the solar energy and then use it at nights when required.
Following materials are used to make a solar bottle bulb:
1.5 liter soda bottle, purified water, chlorine and a rubber sealant, roof sheet material, camera film dispenser*
This is how you can make a solar bottle bulb:
Fill the 1.5 liter bottle with distilled water and add 3 tablespoons of liquid bleach. After this seal the cap tightly.
Make a hole in the 1’X 1’ roof sheet material equal to the circumference of the bottle. Now, insert the bottom part of the bottle and keep it exposed to the sun.
Make a hole in the roof of the house (equal to bottle diameter) to fix this bulb.
Seal the roof with the sealant to avoid water from entering the house via the gaps. The water inside the bottle will refract and scatter the light inside the house causing illumination.
This bulb is capable of producing energy equivalent to a 55 Watt electric bulb. If this source of light is used on a 24 hour basis there will be a 40% saving in the monthly electricity expenses. With the efforts of the Manila city Government, 120 houses were lit up using the “Solar bottle bulbs” in Tondo in the month of April.
It is really a revolutionary effort from the experts of MIT to reach out and benefit even the lowest Strata of the society.
Source: CoolBuster
* Note: I think the camera film dispenser is to keep the bottle cap from degrading in the sun. Where do we get those film dispensers or another item like it now that everyone uses digital cameras? I also saw a video where they simply coated the cap with the same gray caulk they were using around the cut piece of tin roofing material. Purified water and chlorine is to keep moss and algae from growing in the bottle from the water. The bottle lights are estimated to last about five years, and give off up to 55 watts of free energy.
---
More info and to donate: http://isanglitrongliwanag.org/
----------
Also note in this article, salt is added to the solution:
'Bottle bulbs' to provide light to poor
By LEONARD D. POSTRADO
April 14, 2011, 6:34pm
http://www.mb.com.ph/node/314093/bottle-bulb
http://www.mb.com.ph/node/314093/bottle-bulb
"Under the system, each home will be installed with a solar bulb made from a two-liter plastic bottle filled with a solution of water, salt and chlorine that gather and amplify sunlight.
The bottle will act as lens and provide a tremendous amount of interior light equivalent to 55 watts during daytime, so that there is no more need to use electricity."
---
Facebook Page: A Liter of Light (Isang Litrong Liwanag)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Liter-of-Light-Isang-Litrong-Liwanag/181127878593329?sk=info
info@aliteroflight.org
Website
http://www.aliteroflight.org
Lighting up a million homes through solar power
From:
Instructions read on one of the comments on their Facebook page:
A Liter of Light (Isang Litrong Liwanag)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Liter-of-Light-Isang-Litrong-Liwanag/181127878593329?sk=info
“fill a 1.5 liter clear soft drink bottle with purified water as tap water will eventually produce moss, then add 3 tablespoons of liquid bleach and tightly seal the cap.”
http://tanggera.com/?p=572
Video: http://www.boreme.com/posting.php?id=28861
Tanggera
Lighting up a million homes through solar power
In: Technology
15 Feb 2011
Dear readers,
Let’s talk about something light and constructive, shall we? It is the love month after all and we are reminded to share it unconditionally. I already actually published this post a couple of days ago but I still needed more info on the project.
The Solar Bottle Bulb Project has an ambitious goal – to light up 1 million homes by 2012. According to statistics from the National Electrification Commission in 2009, 3 million households still remain powerless outside Metro Manila. The team started installing the solar bulbs in a couple of homes in Pasay City with a liter-sized soda bottle. I was trying to work out in my mind how a solar bulb would work without using some complicated technology. Here’s a demo video:
My Shelter Foundation, spearheaded by Illac Diaz, is in the process of unfolding another groundbreaking campaign to bring at least 55watts of light to thousands of households in the shanty areas across the country. Imagine – just using a 1.5 soda bottle, some chlorine and a rubber sealant.
Okay, this is how it works. The solar bottle bulb was designed and developed by students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); a device based on the principles of Appropriate Technologies – a concept that provides simple and easily replicable technologies that address basic needs in developing communities. The water and other chemicals allows full spectrum of light to come into the house. We’re not the first one to try this. Brazil and Mexico are using the same technology as well.
Instructions I read on one of the comments on their Facebook page:
“fill a 1.5 liter clear soft drink bottle with purified water as tap water will eventually produce moss, then add 3 tablespoons of liquid bleach and tightly seal the cap.”
We went to homes in Pasay last week during lunch time where the solar bottle bulbs were first installed. Instead of using electricity during the day, the residents now have an option to use the solar bulbs and lessen their electric bills. It’s amazing how this simple of a technology can harness the power of the sun in the most efficient way to light up hundreds of homes.
This doesn’t just save electricity, it also prevents fire as well, especially in shanties that use candles even in the daytime. The scenario – families desperately try to source electricity through illegal or unsafe means – usually resulting into disaster. According to the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), accidents which result into fires often involve faulty electrical connections. Not just that, it also lessens garbage as well!
I cannot begin to imagine how the residents would live in their houses without the solar bulbs they’re using now. The absence of light, really, is daunting.
Right now, My Shelter Foundation just has one prototype. They’re continually experimenting with different materials to spread the technology. I think the not-so-poor households can benefit from another prototype, but, of course, installing these solar bulbs in communities that need it is the first order of business. Seriously, this can change the face of urban living.
The foundation is exploring partnerships with both private and public entities to implement this project nationwide. As an individual, you can start helping by donating your PET bottles. PET Bottle bins can be deposited at the back of the Insular Life buildings in both Makati and Alabang.
“Light is an important part of our daily life, and access to light is a right of everyone here in the country,” says Diaz. “Through this project, we aim to provide the whole country with sustainable light energy – and bridge the gap between social classes. With the Solar Bottle Bulb project, a brighter Philippines is going to become a reality,” ends Diaz.
Illac Diaz is also working on Design Against the Elements (DATE) and the Bottle School Run.
Read more about the project at http://www.aliteroflight.org/ or add them on twitter: aliteroflight. Please support this cause by either reposting this article and spreading the word. I’ll post another update once I get word from the organizers.
Let’s make a brighter Philippines!
TTFN,
Faith
---
Lim leads turnover of solar bottle bulb project » Nation » News ...
www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=689375...200 - Cached
May 24, 2011 – Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim led the turnover ceremonies of the “Solar Liwanag Iyong Mahalin” (SLIM) - a solar bottle bulb project for the residents ...
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The sun, a simple bottle bring light to San Pedro - Home » Best of ...
www.philstar.com › Best of the Philippines › The Good News - Cached
Feb 27, 2011 – The idea of establishing the Solar Bottle Bulb project came ...
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Isang Litrong Liwanag (A Liter of Light) » Solar bottle bulbs light up ...
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Apr 27, 2011 – The idea is actively being promoted by MyShelter Foundation Inc. in the country under its “Isang Litrong Liwanag–The Solar Bottle Bulb Project” ...
Alternative Lighting Technology for Baseco | The Manila Bulletin ...
mb.com.ph/node/320447/alternative-lighting-technology-ba - Cached
May 30, 2011 – ... Compound through the “Isang Litrong Liwanag—The Solar Bottle Bulb Project. ... Meralco donated over 2000 solar bottle bulbs to the Baseco ...
The sun, a simple bottle bring light to San Pedro | mylaguna
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Feb 27, 2011 – The idea of establishing the Solar Bottle Bulb project came in the midst of ... Kapihan sa Liwanag Feb 3rd 2011 · Go ForWARD Blood Donation ...
Bringing light to the poor, one liter at a time
I don't think we have to be poor or even off-grid to use this idea. From students at MIT and being implemented in the Phillipines. I'm going to try this in Guatemala, and this could be one of our projects for the artisans we work with around Lake Atitlan. Many of them work by candlelight or with very little light at all. Maybe we can even try this here in NC in some of the outdoor sheds and garage! The bottles should emit light for about two to five years. Because the light spreads out through the water it acts like a light bulb, instead of just a shaft of light straight down from a hole in the ceiling. Sounds terrific!
Reuters News: http://www.reuters.com/video/2011/07/11/bringing-light-to-the-poor-one-liter-at?videoId=216968892
Bringing light to the poor, one liter at a time (2:56)
July 11 - A bottled liter of water with a few teaspoons of bleach is proving to be a successful recipe for dwellers in the light-deprived slums of the Philippines. The simple technology is spreading sunlight in places where it has never been, and saving residents money at the same time. Gemma Haines reports. ( Reuters News
Video Transcript:
In the slums of Manila, an innovative project is shedding light on the city's dim and dreary shanties. Plastic bottles jut from the roofs, bringing light to the dark dwellings below. The technology is as simple as it could be. Each bottle contains water and bleach. When placed snugly into a purpose-built hole in the roof, the home-made bulb refracts and spreads sunlight, illuminating the room beneath. Eco-entrepreneur Illac Diaz is behind the project. SOUNDBITE: ILAC DIAZ, ISANG LITRONG LIWANAG (A LITER OF LIGHT) PROJECT, SAYING (ENGLISH) "What happens is, the light goes through the bottle, basically a window on the roof, and then goes inside the water. Unlike a hole which the light will travel in a straight line, the water will refract it to go vertical, horizontal, 360 degrees of 55 watts to 60 watts of clear light, almost 10 months of the year." The initiative, known as "A liter of light", aims to bring sustainable energy practices to poor communities, an idea originally developed by students at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The bottles are designed to emit clear light for about five years, as the bleach prevents algae from building up in the water. For Erlinda Densing, a mother of eight, the technology has made a big difference to her small home. SOUNDBITE: ERLINDA DENSING, RESIDENT OF PAYATAS COMMUNITY, SAYING (FILIPINO) "'That's only water?!' my neighbours were asking. 'That's only water!' I said to them. Basically, the sun's rays are really bright. A lot of neighbours came and got curious. They were like, 'can we see? can we see?'. Maybe they also wanted to have lights installed. 'It's really bright,' I said." The device can be built and installed in less than an hour. A sheet of corrugated iron serves as a support structure to hold the bottle in place, and prevent any leakage. SOUNDBITE: ILAC DIAZ, ISANG LITRONG LIWANAG (A LITER OF LIGHT) PROJECT, SAYING (ENGLISH) "Liter of Light, lights up the house, saves a lot, but at the same time improves the standard of living across the board, of the bottom 90 per cent of this country." Working with low-income communities, local governments and private partners, the project has installed more than 10,000 bottle lights across Manila and the nearby province of Laguna. Rey del Mundo is a volunteer. SOUNDBITE: REY DEL MUNDO, PROJECT VOLUNTEER AND ENERGY UNIT HEAD AT SCHNEIDER ELECTRONICS, SAYING (FILIPINO) "This is very important. Because at present, we're too dependent on fuel that we don't produce. Although we have some local production, it's not sufficient for our needs. So if we strive to develop alternative sources of energy, which are the energy sources, this will help our country a lot." For residents, it means less money spent on electricity to power lights during the daytime, and more money on food. While for Diaz and his volunteers it's quite simply a bright idea. Gemma Haines, Reuters.
Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
---
Also on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9fpolCvM-8
Via Reuters UK
Reposted from this blog: http://www.renjie.ca/2011/07/13/bringing-light-to-the-poor-one-liter-at-a-time-in-the-philippines/
In the slums of Manila, an innovative project is shedding light on the city’s dim and dreary shanties. Plastic bottles jut from the roofs, bringing light to the dark dwellings below. The technology is as simple as it could be. Each bottle contains water and bleach. When placed snugly into a purpose-built hole in the roof, the home-made bulb refracts and spreads sunlight, illuminating the room beneath. Eco-entrepreneur Illac Diaz is behind the project.
An interesting idea that not only provides a better quality of life for people in the slums of the Philippines, but also puts to good use the plastic bottles that are consumed en masse every single day.
We should be seeing more of these simple, yet effective ideas that help to improve the standard of living for the estimated 4 billion people that live on less than $2/day around the world.
[PDF]
Ilac Diaz
www.chij-sisters.org/writeups/Illac%20Diaz.pdf
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
An eco-entrepreneur, Illac Diaz, has been able to help the bottom. 90 percent of his fellowmen in the Philippines with the project. “Isang Litrong Liwanag,” which ...
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The idea was developed by students at MIT.
MIT: Bringing Light To The Poor, One Liter At A Time - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLY1_ELaSbs3 min - Aug 2, 2011 - Uploaded by TrendGuardian
Follow us at: http://www.trendguardian.com/ Who thought that this simple idea could light a thousand houses? In places where there is no grid, ...
More videos for "Bringing light to the poor" MIT »
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A simple, brilliant invention from MIT: Bringing light to the poor ...
www.christianforums.com › ... › One Bread, One Body - Catholic
In the slums of Manila, an innovative project is shedding light on the city's dim and dreary shanties. Plastic bottles jut from the roofs, bringing.
Video: MIT: Bringing Light To The Poor, One Liter At A Time
ipolitics360.com/.../MITBringingLightToThePoorOneLiterAtATime...
Aug 3, 2011 – Follow us at: www.trendguardian.com Who thought that this simple idea could light a thousand houses? In places where there is no grid, ...
MIT: Bringing Light To The Poor, One Liter At A Time «
www.deoplay.com/videos/HLY1_ELaSbs/Aliteroflight/
MIT Bringing Light To The Poor One Liter At A Time | >> Follow us at wwwtrendguardiancom Who thought that this simple idea could light a thousand houses In ...
The Global Rooftop Energy Initiative: Bringing light to the poor, one ...
globalrooftop.blogspot.com/.../bringing-light-to-poor-one-liter-at.ht... -
Jul 13, 2011 – Water purification unit generates its own energy · MIT researchers are printing solar cells on sheets... Bringing light to the poor, one liter at a ...
solar swimming pool heating system
06-04-2009, 11:29 AM
GregW
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Londonderry, NH
I "designed" a solar swimming pool heating system for a Florida located friend of the family a couple of decades ago. It consisted of 300 ft of 1 1/2 in black plastic pipe draped over a south facing roof with a small circulating pump on a timer. The pump circulated pool water starting at 10 am and stopping at 6 pm. They started using this system in early April and shut it off mid June lest the pool become a hot tub.
When it comes to solar simple is better and a lot cheaper.
---
06-04-2009, 11:54 AM
thecoalman
100% Pure Carbon
Join Date: Jan 2008
Reputation: 2366
I guess you can add me to the solar designer list, actually made it many years ago. We have place on the river to get away for the weekends, holidays etc. It is only used in the summer. It has electric hot water heater for the regular shower but we set up shower outside that was "powered" by a bunch of black PVC pipes mounted on the roof of the one shed. The water was only luke warm and it didn't last for long but it was just enough to take the chill off the well water.
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/green-living/443259-does-earth-4-energy-really-work.html#ixzz1UxyijbFh
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/green-living/443259-does-earth-4-energy-really-work.html#ixzz1UxyMEndp
GregW
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Londonderry, NH
I "designed" a solar swimming pool heating system for a Florida located friend of the family a couple of decades ago. It consisted of 300 ft of 1 1/2 in black plastic pipe draped over a south facing roof with a small circulating pump on a timer. The pump circulated pool water starting at 10 am and stopping at 6 pm. They started using this system in early April and shut it off mid June lest the pool become a hot tub.
When it comes to solar simple is better and a lot cheaper.
---
06-04-2009, 11:54 AM
thecoalman
100% Pure Carbon
Join Date: Jan 2008
Reputation: 2366
I guess you can add me to the solar designer list, actually made it many years ago. We have place on the river to get away for the weekends, holidays etc. It is only used in the summer. It has electric hot water heater for the regular shower but we set up shower outside that was "powered" by a bunch of black PVC pipes mounted on the roof of the one shed. The water was only luke warm and it didn't last for long but it was just enough to take the chill off the well water.
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/green-living/443259-does-earth-4-energy-really-work.html#ixzz1UxyijbFh
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/green-living/443259-does-earth-4-energy-really-work.html#ixzz1UxyMEndp
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Old Tires Playground & renovate a public space
Old tires for playgrounds and swings. Nicer than I've ever seen them! But those kids must be tough not to fall on those hard bricks. I've seen ground up tires recycled into playground flooring and cushioning.
eco-ideas.net
by Denis Oudendijk, Jan Korbes on July 1st, 2011 | South Africa
http://eco-ideas.net/story/id/799/
Monday, August 1, 2011
Toward a New Architectural Aesthetic, by Buckminster Fuller
Reposted from http://nsfweratu.tumblr.com/post/3071069045/invisible-as-possible-environment-controlling
How much for the goat?
Invisible as possible environment controlling instruments for all humanity
TOWARD A NEW ARCHITECTURAL AESTHETIC
— r. buckminster fuller —
I think that concepts of architecture have gone through and are as yet to go through great transformation. What humans a century hence will identify retrospectively as what they consider to be the architecture of the late twentieth century may not as yet have been so recognized in 1972.
Architecture in the past has often been spoken of as ‘frozen music’. Now the architectural music is being unfrozen and is ultimately to be freed from its embodiment exclusively within the physical structure. The music of the emerging architecture is to be entirely weightless, abstract. It will be the sense of gratification and inspiration of living freedom and potential initiatives of the human occupants disembarrassed of their slavery to the production and maintenance of the buildings and emancipated from exploitation of land, buildings and occupants as ‘money makers’ etc. The architectural music will be the metaphysical regeneration of the spirit to be experienced by the buildings’ users.
Commissioned by a powerfully dominant armed land baron, an architect of yesterday designed the master’s palace primarily as a fortress. He then designed integral psychological additions to the surface of the fortress in order, for instance, to dismay any potential enemies traveling near the castle. The architect designed emblazements which indicated the master of the castle to be so ferocious a fighter as to be best represented by a red and gold tiger, or a dragon on a black foreboding field. This psychology worked two ways for it also bolstered the master’s courage and confidence to act, indeed, as a tiger. This architect accomplished these psychological effects by skillful coordination of mass, height, line, and integral symbology. In a like manner architects designed temples, cathedrals, and other buildings as permanent symbolic communication devices. With the advent of the music box, and later the automatic piano playing ‘pianola’, the record and tape players, music was produced which like symbolic architecture could not be altered by the audience. In effect the form and the rendering of the music was as frozen as or ‘canned’ as architecture has been.
In contradistinction to ‘frozen’ we have ‘live’ music produced by the singing or playing of individual artists, where the instrument and the music are separate phenomena and many individuals can play separately or together and thus communicate directly through the instruments. Even though they play the same notes written by others they have the freedom and controls to reveal their individual depth, and sensitivity of conceptioning as well as ability to articulate competently and to do so in infinitely unique ways. When the individual composes his own music and plays it with instruments, great individual artistry may be manifest and it is non-frozen music, it is utterly ephemeral, fleeting, live.
When the artist invents both his own music and his own instruments and plays the music himself he is a complete artist, but this same complete artist can produce instruments or compositions for others to play. A great artist can also, play the instruments or compositions invented entirely by others. Here the music is completely unfrozen and it is the freedom of live conceptioning of the individual who uses the instruments which resonates and regenerates the sensitivity and innate compositional competence of the listener. And the artist whose music is recorded can communicate through the electronic circuitry to inspire audiences remote in time and space. Here the art is that of the live artist. The radio set is not the music. Musical instrument and electronic circuitry making are arts themselves but they are not music. Neither the lions feet on the piano legs of yesterday nor the angel’s head on the harp have naught to do with music. Any overall sculptural shaping of buildings by self-professed and legally established modern ‘architects’ is ‘frozen styling’ but it is not architecture.
I feel that the new architectural era is one in which world society is to be furnished with dwellings, working and other environment controlling instruments invented by other artists, produced by tools and processes invented and composed by other anonymous artists and that the ‘aesthetics’ will no longer be commodities to be purchased, vicariously commanded or lured forth from captive artists. Ancient Pharoes, kings or nobles as patrons of the frozen musics’ architectural era were often ruthless, gross, selfish individuals who with lethal authority could command the artist to design buildings which deceived the public by suggesting that the overlord was what he was not. What inspired the emerging architect of today is the task of producing invisible as possible environment controlling instruments for all humanity, conceived and realized with such integrity and competence as to make possible the unself-conscious enjoyment not only of the environment controlled by all its people in an economically and happily sustainable manner. But just as music is not the musical instrument, the architecture of tomorrow (which can and is now only invisibly emerging) also will not be the architectural instruments or gadgets, but will be the abstract harmony of living which its individual users may articulate.
When you bite your tongue or cut your finger or get a cinder in your eye you become acutely aware of these otherwise only subconsciously operating organic parts. When people say ‘I feel great’, it is because they don’t feel anything at all. Life is fully potential and the entirely sublimated human organism coordinates omni-subconsciously. The new era architecture will operate in the same way making itself ever less obtrusive. Architecture will not only be life itself but that the life will be strictly LIVE-IT-YOURSELF. It cannot be lived vicariously through others.
When a fleet of one-of-a-kind racing sail boats is performing they usually are beautiful to watch unless one is being incompetently sailed. The winner often appears the most beautiful because it is most inspiringly and capably sailed. The winning boat of yesterday’s race may be sailed today by an incompetent careless helmsman and appear ugly though it is the same boat that yesterday appeared to be so beautiful. So too will the architecture of the new era be the inadvertent qualities and attitudes manifest directly or indirectly by its occupants. While one of two identically designed dwellings may appear beautiful because of its dwellers competence and consideration for others the identical dwelling may appear ugly because selfishly and incompetently occupied. Architecture, like music will be a verb and not a noun. The new Architecture will not be for sale. The aesthetic of architecture henceforth will be
integrity.
How much for the goat?
Invisible as possible environment controlling instruments for all humanity
TOWARD A NEW ARCHITECTURAL AESTHETIC
— r. buckminster fuller —
I think that concepts of architecture have gone through and are as yet to go through great transformation. What humans a century hence will identify retrospectively as what they consider to be the architecture of the late twentieth century may not as yet have been so recognized in 1972.
Architecture in the past has often been spoken of as ‘frozen music’. Now the architectural music is being unfrozen and is ultimately to be freed from its embodiment exclusively within the physical structure. The music of the emerging architecture is to be entirely weightless, abstract. It will be the sense of gratification and inspiration of living freedom and potential initiatives of the human occupants disembarrassed of their slavery to the production and maintenance of the buildings and emancipated from exploitation of land, buildings and occupants as ‘money makers’ etc. The architectural music will be the metaphysical regeneration of the spirit to be experienced by the buildings’ users.
Commissioned by a powerfully dominant armed land baron, an architect of yesterday designed the master’s palace primarily as a fortress. He then designed integral psychological additions to the surface of the fortress in order, for instance, to dismay any potential enemies traveling near the castle. The architect designed emblazements which indicated the master of the castle to be so ferocious a fighter as to be best represented by a red and gold tiger, or a dragon on a black foreboding field. This psychology worked two ways for it also bolstered the master’s courage and confidence to act, indeed, as a tiger. This architect accomplished these psychological effects by skillful coordination of mass, height, line, and integral symbology. In a like manner architects designed temples, cathedrals, and other buildings as permanent symbolic communication devices. With the advent of the music box, and later the automatic piano playing ‘pianola’, the record and tape players, music was produced which like symbolic architecture could not be altered by the audience. In effect the form and the rendering of the music was as frozen as or ‘canned’ as architecture has been.
In contradistinction to ‘frozen’ we have ‘live’ music produced by the singing or playing of individual artists, where the instrument and the music are separate phenomena and many individuals can play separately or together and thus communicate directly through the instruments. Even though they play the same notes written by others they have the freedom and controls to reveal their individual depth, and sensitivity of conceptioning as well as ability to articulate competently and to do so in infinitely unique ways. When the individual composes his own music and plays it with instruments, great individual artistry may be manifest and it is non-frozen music, it is utterly ephemeral, fleeting, live.
When the artist invents both his own music and his own instruments and plays the music himself he is a complete artist, but this same complete artist can produce instruments or compositions for others to play. A great artist can also, play the instruments or compositions invented entirely by others. Here the music is completely unfrozen and it is the freedom of live conceptioning of the individual who uses the instruments which resonates and regenerates the sensitivity and innate compositional competence of the listener. And the artist whose music is recorded can communicate through the electronic circuitry to inspire audiences remote in time and space. Here the art is that of the live artist. The radio set is not the music. Musical instrument and electronic circuitry making are arts themselves but they are not music. Neither the lions feet on the piano legs of yesterday nor the angel’s head on the harp have naught to do with music. Any overall sculptural shaping of buildings by self-professed and legally established modern ‘architects’ is ‘frozen styling’ but it is not architecture.
I feel that the new architectural era is one in which world society is to be furnished with dwellings, working and other environment controlling instruments invented by other artists, produced by tools and processes invented and composed by other anonymous artists and that the ‘aesthetics’ will no longer be commodities to be purchased, vicariously commanded or lured forth from captive artists. Ancient Pharoes, kings or nobles as patrons of the frozen musics’ architectural era were often ruthless, gross, selfish individuals who with lethal authority could command the artist to design buildings which deceived the public by suggesting that the overlord was what he was not. What inspired the emerging architect of today is the task of producing invisible as possible environment controlling instruments for all humanity, conceived and realized with such integrity and competence as to make possible the unself-conscious enjoyment not only of the environment controlled by all its people in an economically and happily sustainable manner. But just as music is not the musical instrument, the architecture of tomorrow (which can and is now only invisibly emerging) also will not be the architectural instruments or gadgets, but will be the abstract harmony of living which its individual users may articulate.
When you bite your tongue or cut your finger or get a cinder in your eye you become acutely aware of these otherwise only subconsciously operating organic parts. When people say ‘I feel great’, it is because they don’t feel anything at all. Life is fully potential and the entirely sublimated human organism coordinates omni-subconsciously. The new era architecture will operate in the same way making itself ever less obtrusive. Architecture will not only be life itself but that the life will be strictly LIVE-IT-YOURSELF. It cannot be lived vicariously through others.
When a fleet of one-of-a-kind racing sail boats is performing they usually are beautiful to watch unless one is being incompetently sailed. The winner often appears the most beautiful because it is most inspiringly and capably sailed. The winning boat of yesterday’s race may be sailed today by an incompetent careless helmsman and appear ugly though it is the same boat that yesterday appeared to be so beautiful. So too will the architecture of the new era be the inadvertent qualities and attitudes manifest directly or indirectly by its occupants. While one of two identically designed dwellings may appear beautiful because of its dwellers competence and consideration for others the identical dwelling may appear ugly because selfishly and incompetently occupied. Architecture, like music will be a verb and not a noun. The new Architecture will not be for sale. The aesthetic of architecture henceforth will be
integrity.
Harmony, Architecture & Music, by Bob Borson
Reposted from a wonderful blog post on Harmony:
Goethe quote “Architecture is frozen music”. ... It was instilled in me that “Music is the space between notes”
On February 2, 2011, in Career, Do you want to be an Architect?, Life in General, by Bob Borson
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/harmony/
Response from: Slipslider 6 months ago
Here are two important references helpful in further exploration of this connection between music and architecture.
Frank Lloyd Wright once put it nicely:
"Music and architecture blossom on the same stem — sublimated mathematics. . . Instead of the musician's systematic staff and intervals, the architect has a modular system as the framework of design. My father, a preacher and music teacher, taught me to see — to listen — to a symphony as an edifice of sound."
& then there's Buckminster Fuller's take, taken from his Dymaxion Chronofile, a whole piece linking architecture, frozen music, composing, live music, instruments, instrument-making, and living harmony.. as it's some 8 paragraphs long, I'll include an intro paragraph here and then off-link.
"Architecture in the past has often been spoken of as 'frozen music'. Now the
architectural music is being unfrozen and is ultimately to be freed from its
embodiment exclusively within the physical structure. The music of the emerging
architecture is to be entirely weightless, abstract. It will be the sense of
gratification and inspiration of living freedom and potential initiatives of
the human occupants disembarrassed of their slavery to the production and
maintenance of the buildings and emancipated from exploitation of land,
buildings and occupants as 'money makers' etc. The architectural music will be
the metaphysical regeneration of the spirit to be experienced by the
buildings' users."
full article here: http://nsfweratu.tumblr.com/post/3071069045/invisible-as-possible-environment-controlling
Bob Borson [Moderator] 6 months ago in reply to Slipslider
Awesome references and article - Thanks for sharing! I had heard the FLW portion before but not the Buckminster Fuller one.
Thanks again for commenting
Goethe quote “Architecture is frozen music”. ... It was instilled in me that “Music is the space between notes”
On February 2, 2011, in Career, Do you want to be an Architect?, Life in General, by Bob Borson
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/harmony/
Response from: Slipslider 6 months ago
Here are two important references helpful in further exploration of this connection between music and architecture.
Frank Lloyd Wright once put it nicely:
"Music and architecture blossom on the same stem — sublimated mathematics. . . Instead of the musician's systematic staff and intervals, the architect has a modular system as the framework of design. My father, a preacher and music teacher, taught me to see — to listen — to a symphony as an edifice of sound."
& then there's Buckminster Fuller's take, taken from his Dymaxion Chronofile, a whole piece linking architecture, frozen music, composing, live music, instruments, instrument-making, and living harmony.. as it's some 8 paragraphs long, I'll include an intro paragraph here and then off-link.
"Architecture in the past has often been spoken of as 'frozen music'. Now the
architectural music is being unfrozen and is ultimately to be freed from its
embodiment exclusively within the physical structure. The music of the emerging
architecture is to be entirely weightless, abstract. It will be the sense of
gratification and inspiration of living freedom and potential initiatives of
the human occupants disembarrassed of their slavery to the production and
maintenance of the buildings and emancipated from exploitation of land,
buildings and occupants as 'money makers' etc. The architectural music will be
the metaphysical regeneration of the spirit to be experienced by the
buildings' users."
full article here: http://nsfweratu.tumblr.com/post/3071069045/invisible-as-possible-environment-controlling
Bob Borson [Moderator] 6 months ago in reply to Slipslider
Awesome references and article - Thanks for sharing! I had heard the FLW portion before but not the Buckminster Fuller one.
Thanks again for commenting
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Shower & Latrine, Cambodia by IDE Cambodias WATSAN team
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zloOePIhQzc
The Sanitation Marketing Pilot Project carried out by IDE Cambodias WATSAN team is designed with the overall objective of creating rural household demand for sanitation, and linking this demand to local supply chains that have been educated, trained and supported to deliver sustainable, low-cost latrines. The end result will be a continually developing and thriving private marketplace that satisfactorily addresses the need for rural sanitation.
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Cambodia News: Cambodia Technology
One of the most creative IDE inventions — a combination shower, latrine, irrigation device distributed in Cambodia — came in direct response to customer ...
www.cambodia.org/news/?nsear=Cambodia... - Cambodia
---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Ox27fdF4A
4 min - Mar 24, 2011 - Uploaded by benguineamin
The design is for a combined shower and dry latrine which contains a ... of a drip irrigation system which uses water run-off from the ...
The Sanitation Marketing Pilot Project carried out by IDE Cambodias WATSAN team is designed with the overall objective of creating rural household demand for sanitation, and linking this demand to local supply chains that have been educated, trained and supported to deliver sustainable, low-cost latrines. The end result will be a continually developing and thriving private marketplace that satisfactorily addresses the need for rural sanitation.
Category:
People & Blogs
Tags:
IDE Cambodia
sanitation
latrine
toilets
toilet
latrines
market approach
Cambodia
IDE
WSP
US-AID
Water shed
shit
concrete ring
compost
Svay rieng
Kandal
ring producer
water and sanitation
Benjamin Clouet
mike roberts
Cordell jacks
Tamara baker
Ken sawath
prototype
toilet construction
easy latrine
green latrine
Watsan
IDE international
---
Cambodia News: Cambodia Technology
One of the most creative IDE inventions — a combination shower, latrine, irrigation device distributed in Cambodia — came in direct response to customer ...
www.cambodia.org/news/?nsear=Cambodia... - Cambodia
---
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3Ox27fdF4A
4 min - Mar 24, 2011 - Uploaded by benguineamin
The design is for a combined shower and dry latrine which contains a ... of a drip irrigation system which uses water run-off from the ...
Romanoff boosts international development mission
http://www.coloradostatesman.com/content/992864-romanoff-boosts-international-development-mission
“You and I want to live in a world where entrepreneurs around the planet can develop new means of sustaining their quality of life, not a world in which rich nations continually treat poor nations as beneficiaries or victims of their generosity or largesse,” he concluded. “This is, I think, a more hopeful way to approach international development, and it is what IDE is all about.”
Romanoff boosts international development mission
6/17/2011
By Ernest Luning
The Colorado Statesman
Members and supporters of the Denver-based Chamber of the Americas were treated to a demonstration of a foot-powered treadle pump and a Bollywood-style musical tribute to the benefits of advanced irrigation technology at the organization’s monthly breakfast.
Those were some of the elements in a presentation delivered on June 3 by former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, a senior advisor with International Development Enterprises, a nonprofit based in Colorado that takes a market-based approach to helping raise the standard of living for the billion poorest people in the world.
Since 1982, IDE has served about 19 million people with a combination of advice and coordination of markets for ingenious, affordable devices that have helped the farmers it’s worked with roughly double their annual income.
“Our goal,” Romanoff said, “is not to be indispensable, it’s eventually to become obsolete. That is a key distinction between IDE and other organizations engaged in this kind of work.”
Chamber of the Americas president Gil Cisneros, Canadian agricultural consul Kim O’Neill and former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff talk international development at a breakfast meeting at a downtown Denver hotel on June 3 that featured a Romanoff presentation on helping the world’s poorest people.
“Our goal,” Romanoff said, “is not to be indispensable, it’s eventually to become obsolete. That is a key distinction between IDE and other organizations engaged in this kind of work.”
Photo by Ernest Luning/The Colorado Statesman
Romanoff, a Denver Democrat, served four terms in the Colorado House and was speaker for four years. He went to work for IDE last fall after challenging U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet in last year’s Democratic primary.
The organization — founded nearly 30 years ago in Colorado by Paul Polak with headquarters in Lakewood — is different from other international aid groups because it mostly works with farmers and the rural poor, a population other groups ignore.
Most of the world’s poor are subsistence farmers, Romanoff told the group, and 75 percent of poorest people — roughly one seventh of the world’s population, who subsist on about $1 a day — don’t live in cities. “But if you add up all the official development aid, the assistance wealthy nations sometimes provide to our poorer neighbors, it turns out only 4 percent of that aid is aimed at agriculture,” he said. “There’s a real gap, in other words, between the way most of the poorest people in the world make their living and the way most of that assistance is channeled.”
That’s where IDE does its work, he said. “We help farming families increase their income and climb out of poverty.”
The organization’s employees, based primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Central America, begin by interviewing local subsistence farmers about what they grow, how they water their crops, and the details of local markets.
“The answers these farmers give drive the advice we provide around crop selection and farming methods, around the irrigation technology we design, and the market access we help to create,” Romanoff said. The group works with local micro-lending institutions to enable farmers to buy devices designed to increase productivity and help farmers start to get ahead.
A steady supply of water is crucial, so that farmers don’t have to rely on rainfall or lugging water in buckets, Romanoff said, introducing the treadle pump, IDE’s most well known device, a contraption that looks something like a low-tech Stairmaster. It’s “easy to use, easy to build and repair, and easy to repair,” Romanoff said, and is “capable of generating a huge return on investment — it can double or triple your growing season as a farmer.” Operating the pump is a vigorous proposition, as a volunteer demonstrated, but when it’s harnessed with drip irrigation and water storage systems, it can increase crop yield dramatically.
In keeping with IDE’s mission to help turn the world’s poor into entrepreneurs, rather than simply handing over money, the organization helps establish local manufacturing and distribution operations for its devices. To spread the word, Romanoff said, some local farmers in India and Bangladesh have even produced advertising campaigns — “frankly,” he said, “much more creative than anything Madison Avenue could come up with” — that “literally to sing the praises of irrigation technology.”
He played a short musical number that is displayed on the back of movie trucks that visit clearings in villages as a means of reaching farmers in remote areas. With plenty of singing and dancing, the brief story unfolds: “Here’s a farmer trying very hard to impress a beautiful woman and win her hand in marriage, and he wasn’t having much luck, until he invested in irrigation technology,” Romanoff said with a smile.
Another video displayed a testimonial from Anita, an IDE customer in Zambia who took her income from a dollar a day to two dollars a day.
“I know that doesn’t sound like much in the U.S., where an extra dollar won’t even buy you a cup of coffee,” Romanoff said. “But in a country like Zambia, an extra dollar of income could mean the difference between bare survival and sending a child to school, or taking her to a doctor or nurse when she gets sick.”
In Anita’s case, that extra dollar allowed her and her family to afford a new house, built out of brick instead of her neighbors’ mud houses. She and her husband are saving up to buy a car, which will allow them to more easily get crops to market, Romanoff said.
Noting he was speaking before a business group — Romanoff delivers his presentation regularly before Rotary and other gatherings, complete with traveling treadle pump — he made a pitch to understand IDE’s work in business terms.
“This customer-driven focus is a hallmark not just of our success but of a growing movement in international development,” he said. One of the most creative IDE inventions — a combination shower, latrine, irrigation device distributed in Cambodia — came in direct response to customer needs, he added.
“You and I want to live in a world where entrepreneurs around the planet can develop new means of sustaining their quality of life, not a world in which rich nations continually treat poor nations as beneficiaries or victims of their generosity or largesse,” he concluded. “This is, I think, a more hopeful way to approach international development, and it is what IDE is all about.”
Chamber of the Americas president Gil Cisneros vowed to help spread the word about IDE during his travels throughout Central and South America. He also announced that former state Rep. Morgan Smith, who also served as Colorado Agriculture commissioner, will headline the Chamber’s next monthly breakfast with a presentation on violence at the Mexican border. That talk will be at 8 a.m. June 28 at the Crowne Plaza hotel, 1450 Glenarm St., in downtown Denver.
IDE is sponsoring an exhibit that opens next month called “Design for the Other 90 Percent,” featuring innovations that tackle challenges in the developing world. The exhibition, from the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, will be on display starting July 8 at RedLine gallery, 2350 Arapahoe St., in Denver.
— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Plastiki boat is also an off-grid vessel
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/plastiki_launch.php
Watching Rothschild's video about the self-contained off-grid plastic boat, why couldn't we make a little house using all the same principles?
"The
, relying primarily on renewable energy systems including from solar panels, wind and trailing propeller turbines, and bicycle generators, and utilizing a urine-to-water recovery and rain water catchment system for fresh water sources. Finally, it comes complete with a hydroponic rotating cylinder garden."
Watching Rothschild's video about the self-contained off-grid plastic boat, why couldn't we make a little house using all the same principles?
"The
, relying primarily on renewable energy systems including from solar panels, wind and trailing propeller turbines, and bicycle generators, and utilizing a urine-to-water recovery and rain water catchment system for fresh water sources. Finally, it comes complete with a hydroponic rotating cylinder garden."
Body Heat for Powering Medical Devices Helps Off-Grid Hospitals
Patients help power their own life-saving equipment
Jaymi Heimbuch
By Jaymi Heimbuch San Francisco, CA
Mon Aug 9, 2010 13:10
Solar- and body heat-powered medical device
Photo credit Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy
READ MORE ABOUT:
Powering medical devices with energy sources other than batteries has been an area of interest for some years now. Researchers have looked at everything from harvesting kinetic energy from a person's breath to their heartbeat. But what about body heat...and what about medical devices beyond pacemakers and other implants? Scientists are experimenting with using body heat to power medical tools for hospitals with unsteady power supplies.
Providing adequate health care means having access to tools like x-ray machines, yet for hospitals in rural areas or disaster zones, access to power also limits access to these important devices. One of the most reliable sources of energy then becomes sunlight... and perhaps also the body heat of the patients being treated.
The Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy reports that Vladimir Leonov, Senior Research Scientist at the Dutch research center Imec, has created a new class of medical device that are miniaturized to be easily transported and, more importantly, can run off of body heat and sunlight, and the devices prototyped already include an electroencephalograph (EEG) for monitoring brain waves and an electrocardiograph (ECG) for measuring heartbeats. Both machines use energy efficient parts, and can function in even the most remote conditions -- as long as there is enough of both energy sources.
The key to making the devices work is advancement in efficient thermopiles -- arrays of thermocouples that create electricity from heat -- and miniature solar panels. Combining the two energy sources was important for Leonov because with just one or the other, there isn't enough power generated. But when harvesting energy from both, there is enough to run the machines.
The cost of producing the equipment is still a barrier to their production, but the hard work is already done. Now it's just a matter of improving the technology price-wise, delivering it, and developing other medical machines that can run off these two reliable off-grid energy sources.
Follow Jaymi on Twitter for more stories like this
More on Medical Advancements
Powering Medical Devices with Your Organs
Eel-Like Electric Cells Could Power Medical and Nanotech Devices
Solar Powered Medical Clinic Will Save Lives in War Torn Iraq
New Smart Bandage Kills Only Bad Bacteria
A Boat Made of Trash ~ Plastiki
http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2011/05/harrowing-ocean-crossing-of-a-boat-made-of-trash-as-chronicled-in-plastiki.php?page=2
From TreeHugger.com:
The Harrowing Ocean Crossing of a Boat Made of Trash, as Chronicled in Plastiki
plastiki boat construction
luca babini photo
The boat—a 60-foot catamaran—was designed and built by British environmentalist David de Rothschild.
Recycled PET bottles offered a strong, buoyant, material for the hull. The mast was constructed from a recycled aluminum irrigation pipe. Even the sail—woven from recycled PET—was an example of repurposed trash.
The concept seemed sound, but as the six-person crew boarded the ship in San Fransisco on March 20, 2010, Plastiki remained relatively untested. ...more
And much, much more, with photos and video: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/plastiki_launch.php
We've been following the progress of the Plastiki for over a year now. In case you've forgotten, it's the pet project of eco-adventurer David de Rothschild and it's a huge boat made from recycled plastic bottles. The vessel has been under construction and late last week, the crew finally unveiled it in the San Francisco Bay. This is the start point for what will be an 11,000 mile trek to Sydney, highlighting the problem of plastic as both a pollutant and design issue.
Made from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles, the recycled srPET is a strong, bouyant material. The mast is made from reclaimed aluminum irrigation pipe and the sail is hand-made from reycled PET as well. To top it off, the secondary bonding is reinforced using a newly developed organic glue made from cashew nuts and sugar cane. It's a very green boat, and its credentials don't stop with the construction.
plastiki boat photo
Image via Plastiki
The Plastiki is also an off-grid vessel, relying primarily on renewable energy systems including from solar panels, wind and trailing propeller turbines, and bicycle generators, and utilizing a urine-to-water recovery and rain water catchment system for fresh water sources. Finally, it comes complete with a hydroponic rotating cylinder garden.
WATCH VIDEO: Blue August: Plastic is Forever
Right now, the crew is working on final preparations for their sail across the Pacific ocean. The trip will highlight not only all the plastic in our oceans, but also that waste - especially plastic waste - is a fundamental design flaw and we have to rethink waste as a resource.
Here's de Rothschild talking to TreeHugger's Graham Hill about how the ship is made.
Plastiki from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.
You can buy a flat-pack kit to build a model of the plastic bottle boat!
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/plastiki-toy-model.php
When I saw this tweet from @Plastiki this afternoon, "We've released the Plastiki toy [so proud!] and @joshspear has put it front page", I thought surely they haven't built a miniature version of the complex boat famously built out of recycled plastic bottles! How the heck have they done that? As we wait for David De Rothschild and his crew to embark on their high seas adventure to the Gyre, otherwise known as the Pacific Garbage Patch, they have created something to keep us from twiddling our thumbs...
Plastiki-toy-kit.jpg
Flat packed Kit
Calling all kids, model making enthusiasts, and those jealous of David's imminent adventure! The Plastiki toy comes in a suitably sustainable form, not lots of tiny little bits of plastic, but rather a flat packed cardboard kit that you can assemble yourselves to put pride of place on your mantle piece, on your bookshelf or anywhere that takes your fancy, but probably not in your bath, as Josh Spear suggested!
FSC Approved
The Plastiki team tell us that their new toy is "manufactured and designed by Jamily in Manchester UK. The model is made from FSC approved card and printed locally using sustainable vegetable inks. Every stage of the manufacturing process was designed to produce minimal waste and efficient use of energy."
50% Profits to Sculpt The Future Foundation
You can buy one from the online Plastiki shop. It's being sold at the rather hefty price of £18.00, but we love the fact that 50% of profits will be donated to the Sculpt The Future Foundation which promotes "positive environmental change towards global sustainability by supporting creative, innovative and sustainable action."
Plastiki
More on Plastiki Expedition
David de Rothschild Sets Sail on Plastic Ship
David de Rothschild Shows Graham Hill Ways to Turn Plastic From ...
Sailing For Cause: Marine 'Odd-Ventures'
David de Rothschild and The Real Cost of Living (Video)
The TH Interview: David de Rothschild - Part 1
The TH Interview: David de Rothschild - Part 2
more: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/plastiki-toy-model.php
---
plastic bottles, ocean crossing, Lake Atitlan, PET bottles, boat, trash, recycle, TreeHugger.com
---
I want to try this at Lake Atitlan!
From TreeHugger.com:
The Harrowing Ocean Crossing of a Boat Made of Trash, as Chronicled in Plastiki
plastiki boat construction
luca babini photo
The boat—a 60-foot catamaran—was designed and built by British environmentalist David de Rothschild.
Recycled PET bottles offered a strong, buoyant, material for the hull. The mast was constructed from a recycled aluminum irrigation pipe. Even the sail—woven from recycled PET—was an example of repurposed trash.
The concept seemed sound, but as the six-person crew boarded the ship in San Fransisco on March 20, 2010, Plastiki remained relatively untested. ...more
And much, much more, with photos and video: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/plastiki_launch.php
Plastiki from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.
We've been following the progress of the Plastiki for over a year now. In case you've forgotten, it's the pet project of eco-adventurer David de Rothschild and it's a huge boat made from recycled plastic bottles. The vessel has been under construction and late last week, the crew finally unveiled it in the San Francisco Bay. This is the start point for what will be an 11,000 mile trek to Sydney, highlighting the problem of plastic as both a pollutant and design issue.
Made from 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles, the recycled srPET is a strong, bouyant material. The mast is made from reclaimed aluminum irrigation pipe and the sail is hand-made from reycled PET as well. To top it off, the secondary bonding is reinforced using a newly developed organic glue made from cashew nuts and sugar cane. It's a very green boat, and its credentials don't stop with the construction.
plastiki boat photo
Image via Plastiki
The Plastiki is also an off-grid vessel, relying primarily on renewable energy systems including from solar panels, wind and trailing propeller turbines, and bicycle generators, and utilizing a urine-to-water recovery and rain water catchment system for fresh water sources. Finally, it comes complete with a hydroponic rotating cylinder garden.
WATCH VIDEO: Blue August: Plastic is Forever
Right now, the crew is working on final preparations for their sail across the Pacific ocean. The trip will highlight not only all the plastic in our oceans, but also that waste - especially plastic waste - is a fundamental design flaw and we have to rethink waste as a resource.
Here's de Rothschild talking to TreeHugger's Graham Hill about how the ship is made.
Plastiki from Glenn McElhose on Vimeo.
You can buy a flat-pack kit to build a model of the plastic bottle boat!
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/plastiki-toy-model.php
When I saw this tweet from @Plastiki this afternoon, "We've released the Plastiki toy [so proud!] and @joshspear has put it front page", I thought surely they haven't built a miniature version of the complex boat famously built out of recycled plastic bottles! How the heck have they done that? As we wait for David De Rothschild and his crew to embark on their high seas adventure to the Gyre, otherwise known as the Pacific Garbage Patch, they have created something to keep us from twiddling our thumbs...
Plastiki-toy-kit.jpg
Flat packed Kit
Calling all kids, model making enthusiasts, and those jealous of David's imminent adventure! The Plastiki toy comes in a suitably sustainable form, not lots of tiny little bits of plastic, but rather a flat packed cardboard kit that you can assemble yourselves to put pride of place on your mantle piece, on your bookshelf or anywhere that takes your fancy, but probably not in your bath, as Josh Spear suggested!
FSC Approved
The Plastiki team tell us that their new toy is "manufactured and designed by Jamily in Manchester UK. The model is made from FSC approved card and printed locally using sustainable vegetable inks. Every stage of the manufacturing process was designed to produce minimal waste and efficient use of energy."
50% Profits to Sculpt The Future Foundation
You can buy one from the online Plastiki shop. It's being sold at the rather hefty price of £18.00, but we love the fact that 50% of profits will be donated to the Sculpt The Future Foundation which promotes "positive environmental change towards global sustainability by supporting creative, innovative and sustainable action."
Plastiki
More on Plastiki Expedition
David de Rothschild Sets Sail on Plastic Ship
David de Rothschild Shows Graham Hill Ways to Turn Plastic From ...
Sailing For Cause: Marine 'Odd-Ventures'
David de Rothschild and The Real Cost of Living (Video)
The TH Interview: David de Rothschild - Part 1
The TH Interview: David de Rothschild - Part 2
more: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/12/plastiki-toy-model.php
---
plastic bottles, ocean crossing, Lake Atitlan, PET bottles, boat, trash, recycle, TreeHugger.com
---
I want to try this at Lake Atitlan!
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Tensile Solar Panels
http://www.good.is/post/making-solar-sexy-smit-s-amazingly-versatile-and-attractive-solar-panels/
Tensile fabric solar panels offer shade in the day and run electricity at night. Can't wait to try this out for myself!
http://www.good.is/post/making-solar-sexy-smit-s-amazingly-versatile-and-attractive-solar-panels/
Contact:
SMIT
63 Flushing Ave
Unit 195, Building 280, Suite 515
Brooklyn, NY 11205
T: 718.855.8424
email: contact [at] s–m–i–t.com
http://www.tensilesolar.com/#applications_target
follow us on Twitter or
visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Solar-Ivy/66200763475?sk=wall
Tensile fabric solar panels offer shade in the day and run electricity at night. Can't wait to try this out for myself!
http://www.good.is/post/making-solar-sexy-smit-s-amazingly-versatile-and-attractive-solar-panels/
Contact:
SMIT
63 Flushing Ave
Unit 195, Building 280, Suite 515
Brooklyn, NY 11205
T: 718.855.8424
email: contact [at] s–m–i–t.com
http://www.tensilesolar.com/#applications_target
follow us on Twitter or
visit our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Solar-Ivy/66200763475?sk=wall
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thomas Heatherwick: Building the Seed Cathedral
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXbhTHaMwTw&feature=relmfu
Uploaded by TEDtalksDirector on May 17, 2011
http://www.ted.com A future more beautiful? Architect Thomas Heatherwick shows five recent projects featuring ingenious bio-inspired designs. Some are remakes of the ordinary: a bus, a bridge, a power station ... And one is an extraordinary pavilion, the Seed Cathedral, a celebration of growth and light.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.
Category:
Science & Technology
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity has been working in post disaster reconstruction since 1999 and has designed and built schools, clinics and community facilities where they are most critically needed. Tapping into a network of more than 40,000 professionals willing to lend time and expertise, they help to rehabilitate communities after the trauma of disaster with professional design and project managed construction. To find out more about their response and action plan in the aftermath of the Japanese quake and Tsunami, visit: www.architectureforhumanity.org
Source: Novica.com
Source: Novica.com
Sunday, March 6, 2011
An Ocean of Plastic...In Birds' Guts
An Ocean of Plastic...In Birds' Guts
By David DeFranza
Chris Jordan 's work attempts to place the impact of consumerism in perspective. For his latest project he traveled to the Midway Islands, near the heart of the Pacific Trash Gyre , to photograph the decomposed bodies of chicks that have been fed plastic litter by confused parents.
Home > Slideshows > Travel & Outdoors > An Ocean of Plastic...In Birds' Guts (Slideshow)
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/slideshows/travel-outdoors/chris-jordan-midway-birds.html
Thursday, March 3, 2011
The Economics of Happiness
Comment fromChuffChuffWoo, on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYEvFRQchyw
Current consumer lifestyle is not there to give us happiness, but to keep it just out of reach, so we're always spending and consuming in a futile effort to reach that little bit further - always being allowed to edge that little bit closer, but never actually being allowed to get there.
ChuffChuffWoo 3 months ago
Comment to me: @CommentsSurvey Have done so - google 'energy4all.coop' and build your own community funded wind farm - like we did at Westmill near Swindon (google Westmill Wind Farm) :-))
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@ChuffChuffWoo : Thanks! Quick google search for: Westmill Mk2 - a 5MW solar farm
Welcome to Express Voice.
Don-Bur is now testing the Teardrop MK2 which has several radically altered ...... Between Cologne, the largest US solar rooftop installation in Woodbridge, ...
www.expressvoice.co.uk/news.htm
FedEx Receives Committed to the Environment Award | 3PL
Oct 12, 2010 ... Between Cologne, the largest US solar rooftop installation in Woodbridge, NJ, and a number of solar-powered facilities in California, ...
http://www.3plnews.com/3pl/fedex-receives-committed-to-the-environment-award.html
Dry Composting Toilet - Escuela Tecnico Maya, Long Way Home, Inc.
From Catorce Word Press Blog
dry composting toilet
December 21, 2010
base - where the waste will go
The dry composting toilet is under construction! This toilet will be used during construction and then by the vocational section of the school. The solid and liquid waste are separated, both being used to nourish the adjacent gardens. The latrine will be odorless and non-polluting, while producing free organic fertilizer. Low-cost, and low-maintanance we are excited to put our new toilet to use soon!
Check out this diagram highlighting the dry composting toilet’s main design features. More pics to come . . .
how our latrine will work
more: http://catorcekt.wordpress.com/
LongWayHomeInc.org
Westmill Wind Farm
Let's see about a wind farm and solar hot water for baths. LongWayHomeInc.org is doing the solar hot water with black tubes on top of the houses; I'm sure we can do the same in Pana. Even if it's not hot all the time, it's better than cold all the time! Plus someone wrote me about the wind farms (see below). CT
1.
Energy4All
Energy4All is the UKs leading expert in Community-owned renewable energy ... by the award winning Baywind Energy Co-operative Ltd. (www.baywind.coop) ...
www.energy4all.co.uk/
2.
Community owned renewable energy, ethical green investment ...
Gartree Wind Power Co-op planning decision ... Energy4All committed, 18 months ago, to develop a scheme that was of appropriate scale for the site, ...
www.energy4all.co.uk/energy_newsdetails.asp?newsID=83
3.
Westmill Wind Farm Co op - Community owned renewable energy ...
Community owned renewable energy and windpower, ethical green investment, westmill, baywind, co-op, e4all - Energy For All.
www.energy4all.coop/community.asp?id=ENPR6
4.
Co-operative Solution - Community owned renewable energy, ethical ...
Co-op's are constituted under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act. Energy4All are developing several new wind farm projects to offer co-ownership. ...
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5.
Services - Community owned renewable energy, ethical green ...
For wind energy projects Energy4All has established the website www.energysteps.coop which provides tools for an initial self-assessment. ...
www.energy4all.coop/aboutus.asp?ID=ABT2&catID=1
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
The Economics of Happiness
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYEvFRQchyw&feature=player_embedded
brianpatrickemerson | Oct 21, 2010
Going local is a powerful strategy to repair our fractured world—our ecosystems, our societies and our selves
Film Synopsis -
Economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. It has also worsened nearly every problem we face: fundamentalism and ethnic conflict; climate chaos and species extinction; financial instability and unemployment. There are personal costs too. For the majority of people on the planet life is becoming increasingly stressful. We have less time for friends and family and we face mounting pressures at work.
The Economics of Happiness describes a world moving simultaneously in two opposing directions. On the one hand, government and big business continue to promote globalization and the consolidation of corporate power. At the same time, all around the world people are resisting those policies, demanding a re-regulation of trade and finance—and, far from the old institutions of power, they're starting to forge a very different future. Communities are coming together to re-build more human scale, ecological economies based on a new paradigm -- an economics of localization.
We hear from a chorus of voices from six continents including Vandana Shiva, Bill McKibben, David Korten, Michael Shuman, Juliet Schor, Zac Goldsmith and Samdhong Rinpoche - the Prime Minister of Tibet's government in exile. They tell us that climate change and peak oil give us little choice: we need to localize, to bring the economy home. The good news is that as we move in this direction we will begin not only to heal the earth but also to restore our own sense of well-being. The Economics of Happiness restores our faith in humanity and challenges us to believe that it is possible to build a better world.
www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/
Become a facebook fan of The Economics of Happiness: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/p...
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Selected Endorsements -
"Helena Norberg-Hodge delivers a powerful message about globalization: It is the small, local economies around the world that are preserving traditions, cultures, and communities, and ultimately safeguarding our happiness." (Alice Waters, chef, author, and the proprietor of Chez Panisse)
"It is good news indeed to find so persuasive an explanation of our ailing world as 'The Economics of Happiness.' This film connects the dots between climate chaos, economic meltdown, and our own personal suffering--stress, loneliness, and depression. It presents the localization movement as a systemic alternative to corporate globalization, as well as a strategy that brings community and meaning to our lives." (Joanna Macy, author World as Lover, World as Self)
"'The Economics of Happiness' offers a unique global perspective on a movement that is often reduced as being too small. Not so. The film tells the story of a grassroots movement for localization that is bubbling up from the cracks of a faltering global economy, in every corner of the world. These are the real 'green shoots' to be hopeful about." (Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director, The Oakland Institute)
"I think this is the best, most holistic film I have seen on the subject." (Jacob Bomann-Larsen, Coordinator of Nordic New Economy Network)
"...it is a great honor for me to endorse such an historic work." (Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of Tibet's government in exile)
"A must-see film for the future of the planet." (Zac Goldsmith, Member of UK Parliament)
Category:
Film & Animation
Tags:
* The Economics of Happiness
* localization
* local food
* movie
* new economy
* globalization
* Vandana Shiva
* David Korten
* Bill McKibben
* Michael Shuman
* localisation
* Zac Goldsmith
* film
* Helena Norberg-Hodge
* documentary
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Bamboo Framework
Building at Long Way Home, Inc.org in Comalapa Guatemala. Taken by Pana Project during their site visit, 2011.
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