VISIT

Storm-ready prefab buildings set to debut at NYC beaches

While all eyes have been on the Hurricane Sandy-ravaged New Jersey shore this week thanks to a visit from a periodically debauched, occasionally bare-chested warrior-prince by the name of Harry, allow me to head north for a moment to the beaches of New York City where a handful of solar panel-clad structures including lifeguard stations, offices, and public restrooms are being installed — they’re replacing the older ones wiped out by the aforementioned superstorm — just in time

Veröffentlicht am 14.05.13 von mhickman mehr...

Save the Pallet Pavilion, A Treasured Pop-Up Public Space

Gap Filler is a post-quake urban regeneration initiative in Christchurch, NZ that activates vacant sites with temporary, creative projects for community benefit.

Veröffentlicht am 17.05.13 von CoralieNZ mehr...

Barbie Gets Crucified in Germany

In Berlin, it's hard to miss the massive pink structure that has sprouted up seemingly over night in the middle of town. Emblazoned with the words Barbie, The Dreamhouse Experience, it is a 50,000 square foot replica of the plastic doll's Malibu mansion. Inside, visitors can see over 350 Barbies, try on the petite doll's outfits using a "digital mirror,"and virtually bake cupcakes in a the Dreamhouse kitchen. But some people, namely the "sexstremists" in FEMEN, are not happy about the pink playhouse, arguing that Barbie is a symbol of repression and sends the wrong message to young girls about what their role in society should be. During the opening of the "experience" yesterday, topless women and men in drag took over the entryway carrying signs that read, "I will free you from the horror house" and "Stop Sexism." One woman, with "Life in plastic is not fantastic" scrawled across her stomach, stood in the massive high heel water fountain and burned a Barbie tied to a crucifix. Ritual Barbie'cue with fried meat of the plastic idol was made to demonstrate the true meaning of the history of commercial monster Mattel. They have turned a piece of plastic into a god for millions of girls from all over the world who now seek only to imitate plastic shapes and stupidity and absurdity of conduct. The nazi ideology of Mattel purposefully creates the image of a female doll dictating not only the appearance of new generations, and that the worst social role of reckless beauty finding a reason to exist in the continuous care of their appearance and the house. FEMEN urges mercilessly burn the idols! A woman is not a Barbie! These radical men and women weren't the only ones who showed up in opposition yesterday. Germany is one of Europe's largest markets for Barbie. She has been available there since 1959, and has been a polarizing figure ever since. The Barbie Dreamhouse is one of the first times protesters have had a landmark, or place to convene to voice their distaste for the doll, the franchise and what the corporation represents. What do you think?
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Veröffentlicht am 17.05.13 von Yasha Wallin mehr...

Drumbeat: May 18, 2013

The Energy Department gave a terminal near Freeport, Tex., permission Friday to ship liquefied natural gas to Japan, providing a new outlet for rising U. The permit marks another step in the sudden reversal of fortune in the natural gas business. But advances in hydraulic fracturing techniques have unlocked new supplies of natural gas from shale rock. The US Department of Energy has authorized Freeport LNG Expansion, L.P. and FLNG Liquefaction, LLC (Freeport) to export LNG to so called non-Free Trade Agreement (non-FTA) countries. Despite lacking FTA, Japan to get U.S. Futures increased 0.9 percent as the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment rose to 83.7 in May, higher than any projection in a Bloomberg survey. Two years ago, he spent $500 to upgrade his signs so they can display prices above $4. He said he hopes he doesn't have to use them. Since then, Liberia's enormous resource wealth has attracted a flood of interest from foreign investors. The government has signed major mining and oil contracts including a $1.5 billion deal with Anglo-Australian miner BHP. Americans spent more money on gasoline in 2012 than in any other year... ever. Meanwhile, here in 2013, retail gasoline prices spiked to $3.60 a gallon on average -- $3.94 on the West Coast -- the sharpest rise in prices seen in the past three months. In fact, if the Islamic Republic has anything to say about it, Americans could wind up paying even more for gas than we already do. Right now, a barrel of benchmark crude costs about $95. Baku. Right now, the scarcity index in Venezuela is at 21 percent — meaning that out of 100 basic goods, 21 of them aren't available on store shelves. The flip-side of state-controlled prices, writes the BBC's Irene Caselli, is that poor Venezuelans can afford foods that they couldn't before. A kilogram of pasta costs 30 cents at government-run supermarkets. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission voted 4-1 in Washington today on rules determining how buyers and sellers must trade credit-default, interest-rate and commodity swaps in a $633 trillion global market. Shale gas is a game changer. We are in the very early innings of this process and investors still have ample opportunity to position their portfolio to capitalize on the phenomenon. Stocks poised to benefit have already made strong moves, but substantial upside remains if one takes a patient, long-term approach. This is a secular story that will play out over the next decade. Thus certain stocks stand poised to reap outsized gains in the next decade, but they will still be at the whim of market psychology and prone to substantial volatility over short-term periods. Gains certainly won’t be realized in a steady pattern and most likely via large upside moves followed by sharp pullbacks. Texas sued BP Plc, Transocean Ltd. and others involved in the 2010 oil spill, calling it the “worst environmental disaster” in U.The state accused the companies of violating Texas environmental laws, and is seeking damages for economic loss, including lost tax revenue, as well as for harm to natural resources. WINDSOR, Ontario — Assumption Park gives residents of this city lovely views of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline. Scaled-Back U.S. Oil and gas industry representatives offered qualified support for a U.The man behind the firm's massive collapse is seeking to shave as much as 10 years from his prison term. Two Metro-North Railroad commuter trains collided in Bridgeport, Connecticut, injuring dozens of people and limiting Amtrak service between New York and Boston in one of the worst U.Most of the world’s roads are dominated by only a few auto brands. However, there is a multitude of automakers on the fringe that are trying daring new things with their vehicles. 100 countries worldwide now produce electricity with wind power. So far, it's a boom that has mainly occurred in Asia, North America and Western Europe. Which are the biggest companies in the world? Which corporations control them? It’s the end of the world as we know it, but the futurists feel fine. A new book explores the history of mass extinctions and how the human species can survive the next one. At the same time, salty Gulf water moving upstream against the low river threatens municipal water supplies, as well as cooling intakes at oil refineries, chemical plants and power stations. Like a cardiac monitor warning of a soon-to-be lifeless patient, for more than 20 years the red line hovers around zero showing barely a flicker of life. In the financial markets, volatility is rising and all manner of derivatives are employed to hedge against potentially catastrophic losses. When a handful of retired homeowners from Osborn Island in New Jersey gathered last month to discuss post-Hurricane Sandy rebuilding and environmental protection, L. “I said, look people, you built on a marsh island, it’s oxidizing under your feet — it’s shrinking — and that exacerbates the sea level rise,” said Dr. Their answer?
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Veröffentlicht am 18.05.13 von Leanan mehr...

Verpackungsentsorgung: Teuer und ineffizient

Berlin (csr-news) > Die zehn dualen Systeme zur Verpackungsmüllentsorgung kosten den Verbraucher jährlich rund 120 Millionen Euro.

Veröffentlicht am 09.05.13 von Thomas Feldhaus mehr...

Documenting Urbanisation Through a Global Lens

Dhaka, Bangladesh United Nations Photo The travelling exhibition, People Building Better Cities: Participation and Inclusive Urbanization, will visit 10 countries over the course of the year aiming to promote dialogue on inclusive urbanisation and climate change. read more

Veröffentlicht am 07.05.13 von anna_84 mehr...

Kevin Spacey adopts dog, names her 'Boston' in honor of the city

After tweeting a photo of his visit with officers from Boston's Special Operations (SWAT) team last week, Kevin Spacey followed up with just one more — a cryptic shot of an animal's tail. His almost-3 million followers were left guessing until two days later, when the 53-year-old revealed the newest member of his family, an adopted puppy named "Boston."

Veröffentlicht am 09.05.13 von mdestries mehr...

Why We're Designing a Digital Support Network for Single Moms

Last Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day. It’s unlikely that Mother’s Day made you think of all the mothers struggling to put food on the table and provide their children with the proper environment to grow.

Veröffentlicht am 16.05.13 von AlexTodaro mehr...

Drumbeat: May 17, 2013

Hofmeister is the former president of Shell Oil, the same Shell Oil that is preparing to drill the deepest hole yet drilled to reach oil and gas 200 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico in 9,500 feet (2,900m) of water, surpassing the working depth of Shell’s Perdido rig, also located out in the Gulf and producing around 100,000 barrels a day. “It’s inevitable. The industry that produces oil can’t produce enough, unless the world doesn’t grow. It’s possible that we will have such expensive oil that we will stymie growth. How many people will suffer? How many poor will become poorer, while rich become richer because we have failed rational tests of creating alternative competitive fuels? Why aren’t we more thoughtful about the future? I think in this regard, we are missing in the whole construct, a meaningful voice of government as an intermediary and an enabler to a better future when it comes to fuel choice. U.S. oil production which grew by 800,000 barrels a day (b/d) last year is now expected to grow by another 2.3 million b/d by 2018. In addition another 1.3 million b/d increase from Canada’s oil sands is expected. The widening investigation comes as Pannonia Ethanol, a Hungarian biofuel producer, said it lodged a complaint with the European Commission last year after data-pricing company Platts denied requests to contribute to its price-setting process. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, BP Plc and Statoil, three of Europe’s biggest oil explorers, are being investigated by European Commission officials about potential manipulation of prices in the $3.4 trillion-a-year global crude market. Platts, owned by McGraw Hill Financial Inc., also is a target in the inquiry. The probe, which extends to undisclosed crude-derived products and biofuels, shows how some energy markets lack the transparency of stocks and U.West Texas Intermediate crude headed for the first weekly decline in a month after U.Futures fluctuated in New York after rising yesterday by the most in six days. U.S. gasoline consumption shrank 1.2 percent last week and demand for distillate fuels, including heating oil and diesel, decreased 2.4 percent, Energy Department data show. “We still expect renewed downside pressure,” Andrey Kryuchenkov, an analyst at VTB Capital in London, said in an e-mail. “Demand is yet to improve ahead of summer” in the U.The Labor Department said on Thursday its Consumer Price Index slipped 0.4 percent, the biggest decline since December 2008 when America was suffering some of the darkest days of its financial crisis. Does U. The International Energy Agency says the oil fields of North Dakota are turning the global oil market on its head. Canada's oil sands, too, to be fair. The agency's latest report on world oil supplies says North America's oil boom is turning out to be even bigger than predicted. Within five years, the U.Whoa. LPG Ship Rates Head for Biggest-Ever Weekly Gain on U.S. The cost of shipping liquefied petroleum gas headed for the biggest weekly gain on record as surging U.Rates for very large gas carriers already jumped 24 percent to $68 a metric ton since May 10, according to the Baltic Exchange, a London-based publisher of shipping prices on more than 50 maritime routes. If we believe endless growth on a finite planet is possible, then it's all good. China State Grid Corp., the nation’s largest power distributor, agreed to pay Singapore Power Ltd. The Chinese state-owned company will also acquire 60 percent of Singapore Power’s other Australian energy and infrastructure assets held by SPI (Australia) Assets Pty, the Singaporean company said today in a statement. Green party has decades-in-making breakthrough in B.But the reaction among environmental groups to the Green victory was tempered by the surprising loss of the B.C. Harper Seeks to Build Keystone XL Support on U.S. Harper, at an event today moderated by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin for the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, said there is a strong case for the U.Keystone XL pipeline 'needs to go ahead,' Harper tells U. Do nuclear power plants need a redesign? Critics of nuclear energy seem to think so, and so does nuclear energy advocate, Taylor Wilson. A physics wunderkind, Wilson became the youngest person to ever create fusion at age 14. A streetcar may be a longshot, and Lewis and Swanson are both skeptical that it’d help Ivy City residents. But up to now, the neighborhood has been taunted by transit it doesn’t benefit from: the Amtrak tracks that box in a neighborhood that lacks easy access to any Metro or intercity rail stations, and the whizzing cars along New York Avenue that rarely have occasion to pull off in Ivy City. Adding destination retail, a community-serving supermarket, greater transportation options, and jobs in the office building—Jemal says there could be up to 5,000 people working there—could change all that. Tesla to Raise More Than $1 Billion to Repay U.S. Tesla Motors Inc., the electric-car maker run by Elon Musk, will use proceeds from a sale of shares and debt to repay its U.Tesla Motors As The 4th U.S. Tesla Motors has been a fairly controversial stock ever since its 2010 IPO, as its critics and supporters argue over Tesla's profit potential, its relevance, and even the utility of its cars. For Tesla's critics, what is effectively Elon Musk's most famous venture is little more than a pipe dream, a futile exercise in unworkable technology financed by taxpayers. And to Tesla's supporters, the company represents a paradigm shift in the automobile business, and they believe that the company will emerge as America's 4th automaker, alongside the "Big 3" of Detroit. With Tesla's Q1 2013 results on May 8, we believe that Tesla will indeed take its place as America's 4th automobile manufacturer. Even after overlooking all the Model S' objective blemishes (the team over at CR mentioned its lack of certain high-end features, stereo issues and parasitic battery energy losses when parked), electric vehicles lack a national infrastructure of charging points, accessible cross-country range and remain cost prohibitive for most consumers. These are major hurdles, preventing tens of millions from even considering vehicles like the Model S. Don't feel sorry for just the electric crowd, either. Tesla's high-scoring 85 kwh Model S, arguably at the top of its pure-electric segment, is limited to a range of about 265 miles. As used car deals go, this is one to make you think twice. Used Fisker Karmas, which sold for $103,000 just a year ago as new models, are now being sold for roughly half price. The solar-energy installer surged 9% Thursday after announcing an agreement with Goldman Sachs that will finance $500 million worth of solar projects. This contribution is about "Build your Dreams" - BYD, Warren Buffett's most famous investment in China. California and Texas might be leading the nation’s rollout of solar and wind power, respectively, but Washington, where hydroelectric dams provide over 60 percent of the state’s energy, was the country’s biggest user of renewable power in 2011, according to new statistics released last week by the U.S. Senate Panel Advances Nominee for E.P.The Environment and Public Works Committee voted to clear Ms. McCarthy by 10-to-8 along strictly partisan lines, sending the nomination to the Senate floor where Republicans are threatening to filibuster unless the E.P.Why do we need a space program? The key question is: How do we get enough farmers to practice sustainable agriculture so that algal blooms and dead zones — whether in Lake Erie or the Gulf of Mexico — become a thing of the past? The answer lies in convincing farmers that sustainable agriculture is not at odds with high yields and profitability. American eaters, let’s talk about the birds and the bees: The U. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With a barrage of legal briefs, a coalition of business groups and Republican-leaning states are taking their fight against Obama administration climate change regulations to the U.S. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups, along with states such as Texas and Virginia, have filed nine petitions in recent weeks asking the justices to review four U.S. Conventional reserves of oil, gas and coal already have more carbon embedded in them than is safe to burn without causing “dangerous” levels of warming beyond a rise of 2 degrees Celsius since industrialisation, Hansen told a U.E.U. There is no disputing the real-time effects of climate change. “Up here in Alaska, I would say most people do not have an argument that climate change is happening because we see it,” said Douglas Causey, a wildlife biologist at the University of Alaska at Anchorage. “The debate is not whether climate change is happening. As North Pole Melts, U.S. Behind the Arctic’s intensifying geopolitics are some powerful geophysics. Climate change is causing Arctic ice to melt at an accelerating rate. Last summer, the area of ice covering the Arctic Ocean was about half what it was, on average, from 1980 to 2000. The thickness of the remaining ice had diminished by 80 percent over the same period. Although these developments portend ominous changes in the jet stream, ocean currents and global climate, they also promise great opportunities. With less ice will come more access to oil and gas: The U.S. To declare and enforce our sovereignty in the huge archipelago we claim, an area the size of Western Europe, we must have ships and sailors in those waters in sufficient numbers, and with sufficient capability, to let no nation doubt our commitment. But even with the government’s highly-touted shipbuilding program, the worry is that our will shall fail, and the resources wither below what was promised.
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Veröffentlicht am 17.05.13 von Leanan mehr...

DIY: Make This Beautiful Log Lounge Chair for Just $30

The log lounge chair is one of the coolest DIY projects I've seen in a while, and it can be all yours with a little bit of free time, a steady hand, and about $30.

Veröffentlicht am 12.05.13 von Yasha Wallin mehr...

Millionen-Einnahmen aus der Spekulation mit Nahrungsmitteln

Berlin/München (csr-news) > Oxfam Deutschland veröffentlicht heute anlässlich der Hauptversammlung der Allianz in München den Bericht „Hungerroulette“.

Veröffentlicht am 07.05.13 von Thomas Feldhaus mehr...

Travel Like You Give a Damn: Eyes out West

Since I was very young, I’ve had a strong impulse to go into nature. Not just the nature you find in your backyard, or on the roadside, or even in the fields and hills and forests of the countryside near towns, but deep, dark, immense wilderness. Somehow, amongst all that space I feel most at home. Nearly every summer for the past decade and a half I have traveled west from Nebraska. These trips started because of that initial feeling—my impulse to return to nature. From these trips over the years I have learned a thing or two about traveling — I think travel should be uninhibited, unconstrained. While on the road, I intentionally push myself away from habits and strict schedules. I see something with my eyes, and I go to it with my feet. I wander around. I see what happens. While traveling, I also learn a lot about myself. All the bad habits and views that hang out on the periphery of my busy-scheduled mind appear right in front of me, and I can’t dismiss them anymore. Last summer, I drove from Nebraska to Oregon alone. During that drive, I worried about everything. I constantly feared the car would break down. I wondered where I would sleep that night. I was worried about this and that, to the point of rushing by, without seeing, the scenery I was on a trip to see. Over the years, because of this desire to document the trips I’ve taken, I have amassed many photos and bits of writing. However, the writing was incomplete, and the photos represented only a half-formed aesthetic, seen by only a few people. This year, I wanted to do something different: to relate to others how amazing travel can be, both as an experience, and as a vehicle for inner change. I want to relate a living, vital example of this very process, of change through travel. It is possible that travel can take you deeper into yourself, deeper into your life, while at the same time taking you away from that same day-to-day life. This is the kind of thinking I want to inspire in people through this book, through my writing and photography. This project will be featured in GOOD's Saturday series Push for Good—our guide to crowdfunding creative progress.
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Veröffentlicht am 14.05.13 von hudson.gardner mehr...

We need to get out of the Bt trap

BORN TO the families of teachers, Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl always wanted to "change the world". Moving from English literature to mainstream journalism to independent film making, the husband-wife duo has developed a valued understanding of India's development model and how it fails us. Their film, "Cotton For My Shroud", which focussed on suicides by cotton farmers in Vidarbha, got recognition at the 59th National Film Awards. In 2006, a farmer was killing himself every 37 minutes in India. P. Sainath was writing about the situation in Vidarbha like a lone warrior as no other national media house was giving much coverage to the tragedy except for single column news here and there with twisted facts. We were also reading and getting worried about the constant inflow of such news. After some time we got so fed up with our own inaction and decided to pack our bags to visit the villages. When we reached there this realisation dawned upon us that the situation was extremely terrible and the news was not reaching Delhi. We decided not to wait for funding and start making the film. It was the right decision because maybe nobody would have funded this film. We went there twice. First, during the sowing season and then when the cotton is plucked. We followed up lives of certain families and completed the shooting in two years, 2006-07. But when the editing started, we fell into a depression going through those moments, especially the funeral scenes, again. It had moved us so much that we decided to take a break which extended to two years. In fact, when the farmers and people working on the ground used to call us enquiring about the progress made, we had no answers for them. They stopped calling after a while thinking we might have been bribed by the politicians not to pursue the subject. When we first called up Kishor Tiwari of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, he scolded us saying you media people are just doing stories over the phone without coming over to see the ground reality. On meeting us, the first question he asked was when were we leaving. He was surprised to know that we had not got our return tickets as his experience with journalists was that they always arrive in a hurry, thrust mikes at a few people before flying off. We told him we were not TV journalists but documentary makers and would stay there. The film is not targeted at policy makers since they already know what wrong they are doing. The film is directed at people who should know how politicians and corporates are profiteering at the expense of those who are feeding us. Now Sharad Pawar is saying that Bt Cotton has failed and we should work on developing indigineous Bt. They don't have traditional seeds since big corporates selling Bt Cotton have shrewedly taken over the small seed companies. There are seed banks saving traditional seeds but they can't replicate them at a large scale without institutional support. Vandana Shiva is a lone warrior in this field. Earlier, in every village, there used to be women who were traditional seed keepers. This practice needs to be revived across the country. After watching this film, many farmer groups have approached us seeking traditional seeds. Lot of people ask do you think suicides are going to stop or your film will make a tangible change. These films are meant to create awareness. We say we are like farmers. Like them, we also sow seeds. The only difference is they do it in soil, we sow them in minds of people. Lot many youngsters have taken our films to their colleges. Many of them ask us what they can do for the farmers. We tell them next time you take a vacation, don't go to Goa or Manali, go to villages and you will find your own way. Also, we should not go with mentality of a giver. There are many things we can learn from them. The problem is that urban Indians think they are the lords of this country and rural people thinks they are the beggars. The equation is just the opposite. Only because you can throw money to buy food does not give you a right to rule over those who grow that food. Our farmers are toiling in the fields facing harsh weather and harsher government policies which are forcing them to commit suicides. On the other hand, there are several changemakers in this country working at different levels without waiting for support from the government or funds and we don't even know about them because the media gives us the news where either government or corporates are benefiting. But even this is old news. The two years we spent in north east changed our lives. Being city bred never been away from our families, we were exposed to several problems at one go. There were so many tribes, people literally living with nothing and nothing being done for them while insurgency was at its peak. We realised that these people have fallen off our radar and in fact, we are excluding them by choice. We got clear that the people who own the media are not the agents of change, they are the agents of satan. They are constantly hijacking agendas so that the ordinary as well as thinking people are always caught up in wrong dialogues and nobody questions the government or the corporates. Constructs like nationalism, religion, ethnicity, caste, reservations are brought into limelight to divert attention from poor governance. We decided we don't want to be tools in hands of a few people. However, it was not easy. The first two years were tough since as a worldly person, you are always caught up in the struggle for survival. In 1996, we started independent work, also covered elections and made documentaries for others to make the ends meet and gradually moved to our kind of work. Our attitude has developed our time but this is not something new to our country. Before 20th century, career and success were not discussed here. These are constructs developed by the people who want to control resurgent minds.
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Veröffentlicht am 14.05.13 mehr...

Staples Becomes First Major US Retailer to Sell 3D Printers

Staples is set to go beyond stocking regular old inkjets and paper - the United States’ largest office supply store just announced that it will be the first major retailer to offer 3D printers for sale. Customers can already visit the Staples e-commerce

Veröffentlicht am 06.05.13 von Lori Zimmer mehr...

Batterien im Test: Zu viele Schwermetalle, mangelhafte Kennzeichnung

Dessau-Roßlau (csr-news) > Eine Reihe von Batterien enthält zu viele Schwermetalle.

Veröffentlicht am 06.05.13 von Thomas Feldhaus mehr...

Thandie Newton: Actress asks celebrity friends to curb emissions

Thandie Newton: Actress asks celebrity buddies to curb pollutants British actress Thandie Newton does numerous things to become eco-conscious, from supporting community services to strengthening her kids to keep yourself informed. “We’ve good recycling within our neighborhood working in london. In the school my children visit, they're constantly …See all tales about this subject Eco-friendly [...]

Veröffentlicht am 04.05.13 von Nigel mehr...

A man, a van, a plan, Africa

In December 2010, we sent a van to Malawi. It’s been doing brilliant things with a charity there, Starfish Malawi.

Veröffentlicht am 02.05.13 von NickyB mehr...

Ship Island Excursions one of the oldest eco-tourism businesses on Coast

Ship Island Activities among the earliest eco-tourism companies on Coast Among the Coast's earliest eco-tourism companies gives site visitors use of a few of the Coast's lovliest beaches and wave action. People visit Ship Island to go swimming, snorkel, have a picnic and seafood, however they most likely don't realize the look, money and work [...]

Veröffentlicht am 01.05.13 von Nigel mehr...

Surgery Lit By a Cell Phone? This Solar Lantern Saves Lives During Childbirth

I looked at her soberly, taking in the significance of what she had just told me. In Malawi, as in so many parts of the developing world, pregnancy is indeed fraught with peril. In 2010, the WHO reported the Maternal Mortality Ratio for Malawi was 470. That means that for every 100,000 live births, about 470 women will lose their lives. And my Malawi colleagues on this trip suggested the risk in rural areas is significantly higher. When I was a practicing obstetrician in California, a big part of my job was to provide preventive care, identify and treat pregnancy complications as they arose, and ensure a joyful outcome for mother and baby. My pregnant patients had a lot of questions—about natural childbirth, the use of pain medication, the chances of needing a c/section, and so on—but never about the odds of survival. In Malawi, a healthy outcome is far from certain. For a rural woman, access to a decent health center is a significant challenge, often necessitating hours of travel by foot. Women in Malawi are encouraged to have at least four prenatal visits, compared to a minimum of eight visits for routine care in the United States. But at best, prenatal care identifies only a fraction of the complications that can occur in childbirth. The greatest threats to life: hemorrhage (excessive bleeding); obstructed labor (inability of the baby to fit through the birth canal); eclampsia (high blood pressure leading to convulsions); and sepsis (disseminated infection)—usually manifest close to the time of delivery. These conditions may not be preventable, but they are certainly treatable with proper medical and/or surgical care. They need not result in death. The global Safe Motherhood movement now recognizes that emergency obstetric care—critical care that addresses the major complications of pregnancy—is an essential part of the package of health services that must be provided to every pregnant woman. In Malawi, community health workers and village leaders are called upon to encourage pregnant women to deliver in a health center. The law now forbids home births. We've designed the WE Care Solar Suitcase to help address this problem. The Solar Suitcase is an economical, easy-to-use portable power unit that provides health workers with highly efficient medical lighting and power for mobile communication, computers and medical devices. On this trip to Malawi, we travel for hours to reach each clinic. As our four-wheel drive carefully maneuvers muddy dirt roads with deep trenches of water, I ask myself if I would choose to make the trip by foot if I were in labor. Would I be willing to leave the security of my home to arrive at a clinic shrouded in darkness? In Malawi, clinics lacking electricity expect women to bring their own candles and matches as part of their birthing kit. So many women make a calculated risk. They stay home. They make the same choice their mothers made, and try and deliver by traditional means. They take their chances. And, in places like Malawi, where skilled health care is far and clinics are often in darkness, many of them are unable to obtain the care they need when problems arise. I visited one health center in the middle of the night. Without my flashlight, I would not have been able to see my hand in front of my face. I look at the midwife in this health center with awe, imagining the courage it must take to come to work each night. On this evening, the midwife shows me the only light available. She pulls her cell phone out of her pocket and shines a dim blue light in my direction. The battery is low, she explains. She shows me how she carefully sets the phone on a counter and points it in the direction of the delivery table six feet away. I pull out the bright yellow suitcase that is the reason for my visit. When I open it and turn on the lights, the room becomes visible again. And now Fanny has a wide smile on her face. She immediately realizes that she will no longer rely on cell phones or candles at night. That her cell phone can always be charged.
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Veröffentlicht am 10.05.13 von Dr Laura Stachel mehr...

Where do you draw the line on rape culture?

I was recently introduced to this campaign by its project manager, Julie Lalonde.

Veröffentlicht am 06.05.13 von Tom Megginson mehr...

Technology Green Energy: Eco Houses For Sale

Technology Eco-friendly Energy: Eco Houses Available eco houses available environmentally friendly houses available have become a real possibility atmosphere 911 eco houses available tutbury energy home tutbury energy is really a community …See all tales about this subject Neighbours challenged to visit eco-friendly in economical competition Neighbours in 2 Stoke-on-Trent roads happen to be set [...]

Veröffentlicht am 29.04.13 von Nigel mehr...

GET THE LOOK: Get a gorgeous glow like Kate Middleton in powder blue hues

Kate Middleton looked radiant in a recent visit to the National Portrait Gallery in London this week.

Veröffentlicht am 25.04.13 von Global Cool mehr...

2013 SkS News Bulletin #10: Alberta Tar Sands and Keystone XL Pipeline

In this conversation, Mr. Arctic Ho! Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver will make the Harper government’s case for the Alberta oil sands in Europe this week.

Veröffentlicht am 07.05.13 mehr...

Natural Cleaning Products & Eco Cleaning Products by Green Line …

Natural Cleaning Items &lifier Eco Cleaning Items by Eco-friendly Line … To learn more about Eco Cleaning Items visit our website now! – Environment Paper, Recycled Paper: Eco-friendly Line Paper, a number one recycled paper …See all tales about this subject Energy-saving lights and 'Inteli-Electrical sockets' help spend less for WCC Energy-saving lights and 'Inteli-Electrical [...]

Veröffentlicht am 28.04.13 von Nigel mehr...

Eco Friendly Gifts Giftscom

Environmentally Friendly Gifts Giftscom Visit Gifts.com to locate Environmentally Friendly Gifts in the best stores on the internet. Our Gift Gurus hands-pick and recommend unique Environmentally Friendly Gifts ideas according to …See all tales about this subject Freewatt continues United kingdom expansion with Loughborough office Photo voltaic … The up-to-date MCS design guide was lately [...]

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The Theme Park on Drug Lord Pablo Escobar's Estate

Hacienda Nápoles was once the ranch of notorious Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, but today families visit to see exotic animals and climb the plaster dinosaurs.

Veröffentlicht am 18.04.13 von Yohani Kamarudin mehr...

Drumbeat: May 8, 2013

There are many kinds of “unconventional oil” – meaning hydrocarbons that are not found in fluid form, but that can be “fluidised” in a straightforward way (unlike coal, for instance). But the big change in the last two decades is shale gas and “tight oil” – a liquid, trapped in shale (rock), where it doesn’t flow naturally but can be extracted by horizontal drilling and “fracking”. King Coal Losing Crown as U.S. After working 37 years in the coal mines of West Virginia, Ronny Justice punctuates his sentences with coughs. Justice, 57, had planned to work four more years in a job that paid him about $58,000 a year, enough to eat out anytime he wanted. Boone County, where he lives, hosts 91 mines and an annual festival meant to celebrate “coal and its heritage.” Like Justice’s health, that heritage is under siege. In the next three years America will close a record number of coal-fired power plants, enough electricity to power 18.4 million households for a year, government estimates show. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) - Here's an intriguing switch in the energy market: U.Brent Drops for Second Day Amid Rising U.S. Brent futures dropped for a second day after industry data showed U.Futures dropped as much as 0.8 percent after declining 1 percent yesterday. U.S. crude supplies increased 680,000 barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute said. An Energy Information Administration report today may show stockpiles gained 2 million barrels, rising from the most in more than 82 years, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The EIA cut its forecasts for West Texas Intermediate and Brent on increasing output and lower global consumption. The utility’s profit from trading energy for its own account was 7 million euros ($9.18 million) on an earnings before interest and tax basis in the three months through March, according to the Dusseldorf, Germany-based company’s report published today. The negotiations are under way and a deal could be reached as soon as this month, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. (Reuters) - U.Abu Dhabi's recent history, economy and even identity are dominated by oil. Natural gas has been a footnote in the emirate's hydrocarbon story so far. But the low visibility of gas hides its growing domestic importance, and the fuel has played a central role in energy plans for some time. Abu Dhabi is not without gas. If approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, it would be by far the largest penalty even levied by the agency. The fight over TransCanada Corp.’s proposed Keystone XL project probably will be repeated as companies build more conduits to carry oil and gas to U.Brigham McCown, who led the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for President George W. Bush, said the lengthy review for TransCanada’s application to transport a type of heavy crude from Alberta’s oil sands to refineries along the U.S. When Mr. Stackhouse asked whether Alberta oil was more ethical because it came from a democratic nation with a commitment to human rights, Mr. It may go to sleep, Snow White-style, for 50 years, to be awakened when its radioactivity has subsided. Or it may be dismantled in the next decade or so. What if there were rare minerals so valuable to many of the United States' most advanced weapons systems that their disappearance from the marketplace could threaten America's national security interests? Well, guess no more — it's true. Despite years of concern in the United States and around the world, China still holds a monopoly on rare earth elements (REEs) that are critical to a number of advanced weapons systems, mobile devices and emerging green technologies. Through these political efforts to bring electric cars to the wider market, Tesla has been endowed with credits worth about $35,000 for each Model S sedan that the company sells. While these ‘subsidies’ are viewed as a wholly positive aspect of helping gasoline-alternative vehicles reach the masses, there is a slight twist to the tale: Tesla can then sell the green energy credits to other car manufacturers, who snap them up as fast as it chooses to put them up for sale. Car makers need a certain number of credits to operate in California, where pollution regulations are especially strict. Last year, The Pew Charitable Trusts organized roundtable discussions across the country to gather input from clean energy industry leaders on strategies for enhancing U.S. competitiveness in this key sector of the global economy. Throughout these discussions, we heard from business leaders, investors, and innovators about the importance of eliminating barriers to competition and low-cost capital for clean energy technology development. The Master Limited Partnership Parity Act, or MLP Parity Act, provides an opportunity for U.Our research indicates that nations with consistent, transparent clean energy policies do better in attracting private investment. This bill, a measure with bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress, is an important step toward providing the U.S. clean energy sector with a steady, long-term policy that can help leverage private capital and provide financial certainty to investors and companies alike. Scientists from the Alfred-Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven will release 3,000 lobsters next year around the stone field section of the foundations of EWE AG’s 108-megawatt Riffgat project. On the southern edge of Louisiana, there is almost as much water as land. You can't drive to anyone's house, you have to travel by boat, and sometimes there are hours of water between neighbors. It takes a special breed to make a home here, in the swamp, amongst the mosquitos and almost annual hurricanes. But those who do call it home, love it. But this Huck Finn way of life is being attacked on multiple fronts. Climate change's stronger storms are beating away at the fragile coastline, and the oil and gas industries are scarring the skyline while luring younger generations away from the local farming and fishing way of life. Methane emissions from coal mines escaped being curbed by the Environmental Protection Agency, which said mandatory U.California is world famous for its visionary environmentalism. So the state's Global Warming Solutions Act (AB32), intended to reduce carbon emissions from nearly all sectors of the economy, was welcomed as forward-thinking legislation. There's a growing campaign in the US to get universities to stop investing in fossil fuels. China is an environmental mess. Smog in Beijing is so bad it’s literally broken the air-quality index. In Shanghai, it’s at times turned the city into a scene from Blade Runner. (It almost matches the infamous Cleveland smog of the 1970s.) Meanwhile, thousands of dead pigs—cause of death not yet known—have been floating down a river that cuts through Shanghai and provides part of the region’s drinking water. More than half of China’s water is so polluted, in fact, that even treatment plants can’t make it safe to drink. And China is now responsible for almost half the world’s coal consumption. All of that makes what I’m about to say sound even crazier: China may one day be the world’s leader in combating climate change. Floodwaters or not, it’s still buyer beware in Delaware. Last month, a state advisory panel on sea level rise decided against requiring sellers to tell buyers how vulnerable a house is to future flooding. We suppose no one can blame the panel from backing away from a controversial action like that. HONIARA, Solomon Islands (IPS) - Life is difficult enough for communities on the remote southern Weather Coast of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Sustaining a livelihood from the land is a daily struggle on the steep coastal mountain slopes that plunge to the sea, made worse by the absence of adequate roads, transport and government services.
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Veröffentlicht am 08.05.13 von Leanan mehr...

The Bangladesh factory collapse: why CSR is more important than ever

Corporate social responsibility is not about writing cheques to museums. Corporations have poured billions of dollars into building CSR teams and conducting social audits since the 1990s, when the sweatshops supplying Nike and Kathie Lee Gifford came to the world's attention. Part of the problem is that some companies think CSR is sending employees out in matching T-shirts to paint a wall or writing cheques to museums. CSR is about a company owning its impacts on individuals and communities. It is a constant battle to prevent the next Rana, the next Tazreen, the next Deepwater Horizon, being waged every day by a global invisible army of people deep inside multinational corporations. On some days, these CSR leaders succeed. I've got to know many of these corporate goalies over the years (I was one). They work hard, they build coalitions, they see the big picture, and they take their jobs very seriously (if not themselves). • Customers don't care. Shoppers say they'll pay more for ethically made products but don't. So it falls to brands and manufacturers to fund decent wages and safety measures. Enlightened companies know they'll recoup that expenditure in employee retention and business continuity. • It's complicated. • Their worst enemies sit next to them. • People lie. Unscrupulous factory owners falsify records, and government inspectors (where they exist) take bribes to ignore violations. • No one gets rewarded for something that doesn't happen. • Power to flick the switch. Cutting off a factory isn't always the answer, as unemployed workers can end up in even worse forms of exploitation, such as prostitution. Disney's decision to pull out of Bangladesh gradually was thoughtful, although some labour rights experts would prefer that they had stayed. • A seat at the grown-up table. The CSR team can't be relegated to the playroom while the real decisions are made in the boardroom. • Vigilant media. CSR practitioners from multiple industries have told me that last year's New York Times exposé of working conditions in Foxconn's iPad factories got them the attention and support from their CEOs for which they'd been clamouring their entire careers. • Governments, investor and consumer support. Government involvement which is smart and consistent; investors who reward company candour on supply chain challenges; consumers who put their money where their mouth is. The Bangladesh tragedies demonstrate that CSR is more important than ever before. But we don't need more matching T-shirts; we need better, real CSR. We need to hear from the people promoting safer, more responsible practices inside companies, why they fail and what they need to succeed. Christine Bader worked for BP from 1999 to 2008. guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
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Veröffentlicht am 07.05.13 mehr...

Eco Saver 20-Foot Solar Heating Panel System | Suetebate …

Eco Saving idea 20-Feet Photo voltaic Heating Panel System Suetebate … Visit site reviews for Eco Saving idea 20-Feet Photo voltaic Heating Panel System spec , Make use of this site to locate and compare Eco Saving idea 20-Feet Photo voltaic Heating Panel …See all tales about this subject Wirral school flies the flag for [...]

Veröffentlicht am 26.04.13 von Nigel mehr...

West Roxbury gets a push to go solar

West Roxbury will get a push to visit photo voltaic A partnership between two energy-saving organizations is analyzing roofs in West Roxbury — not for leaks or moisture, however for potential. West Roxbury Saves Energy (WRSE), a company devoted to enhancing the community cut costs and safeguard the …See all tales about this subject Panama [...]

Veröffentlicht am 26.04.13 von Nigel mehr...

Finally, a good excuse to post food pics on Instagram! #PictureLessHunger

#Picturelesshunger is a new campaign from Salvation Army Canada that takes advantage of the popularity of mobile social networks.

Veröffentlicht am 03.05.13 von Claire Kerr mehr...

Gericht stoppt “Hygienepranger” in Nordrhein-Westfalen

Münster (afp) – Das Oberverwaltungsgericht (OVG) Münster hat es den Behörden der Lebensmittelüberwachung untersagt, bei Betriebskontrollen festgestellte Hygiene-Mängel auf der dafür vorgesehenen Internet-Plattform www.lebensmitteltransparenz-nrw.

Veröffentlicht am 24.04.13 von AFP Agence France-Presse mehr...

2013 Green Ribbon Schools Announced!

On Earth Day, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the sixty-four 2013 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools and 14 District Sustainability Awardees during a visit to Mundo Verde Bilingual Public Charter School in Washington, D.C. Education read more

Veröffentlicht am 24.04.13 von Earth Day Network mehr...

Umfrageergebnisse zur Anwendung von EMAS in Deutschland veröffentlicht

Berlin (csr-news) > Am 15. April 2013 stellten Bundesumweltminister Peter Altmaier und Karl Falkenberg, Generaldirektor Umwelt der EU-Kommission, auf der EMAS-Konferenz 2013 die aktuelle EMAS-Studie von Bundesumweltministerium und Umweltbundesamt vor. Die befragten Unternehmen und Organisationen halten EMAS für ein etabliertes Instrument des … [visit site to read more]

Veröffentlicht am 23.04.13 von Thomas Feldhaus mehr...

Publikation: Tarifpolitik für familienbewusste Arbeitszeiten

Berlin (csr-news) > Mit der „Charta für familienbewusste Arbeitszeiten“ hat sich die Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände im Jahr 2011 dazu verpflichtet, darauf hinzuwirken, dass die Tarifpartner ausreichend Spielräume für familienbewusste Arbeitszeiten in den Betrieben schaffen. Dazu hat der Verband nun eine Broschüre veröffentlicht, die Modelle … [visit site to read more]

Veröffentlicht am 23.04.13 von Thomas Feldhaus mehr...

Parisian Insights: Fashioning Fashion – Deux siècles de mode européenne 1700-1915

Last week, I hopped to Les Arts Décoratifs museum to visit the Fashioning Fashion: Deux Siècles de Mode Européenne 1700-1915 exhibition before its imminent closure. Our fellow American readers may recall this show that was held at LACMA in 2011 before travelling to Germany in 2012, at Berlin’s Deutsches Historisches Museum and finally stopping here, [...]

Veröffentlicht am 23.04.13 von Hayley-Jane mehr...

The first farmer

Last week, we went to visit this chap: He’s Bernard Govier, he’s a farmer, and he’s brilliant. Back when Keith was selling potatoes door to door (25 years ago this year), Bernard said something momentous: “Fancy some of my potatoes without the chemicals?” And once Keith had got the hang of how fantastic organic was, it [...]

Veröffentlicht am 22.04.13 von NickyB mehr...

Bird's Eye View of Holland's Tulip Fields, A Vivid Two Week Show

"It's now or never," says French photographer Normann Szkop referring to the very short period of time that you can see the lush, blooming tulip fields in the town of Anna Paulowna, in the Netherlands.

Veröffentlicht am 30.04.13 von Yasha Wallin mehr...

How To Hack Big Energy Savings With a Simple Sign and a Revolving Door

It slips into buildings, slaps us in the face, and sends shivers down our spines: we have all felt the chill of cold air that rushes through an open door. I doubt that I am the only person annoyed by uncomfortable drafts, which is why I am often surprised when so many of us use swinging doors instead of revolving doors. I recently noticed this at Columbia University's new "Northwest Corner" building, which rises 14 stories, is clad in a beautiful aluminum facade, and has LEED Gold certification. Yet, the air that escapes its frequently-opened swinging doors seems to defeat the building's energy efficiency. Invented in 1888, the first revolving door was designed to prevent wind, snow, rain, dust, or noise from entering buildings. In comparison, swinging doors exchange eight times more air. Revolving doors also allow people to enter and exit buildings at the same time without running into each other. We usually see revolving doors in large buildings—the same buildings that account for 18.6 percent of America's total energy costs. According to a 2006 study by MIT urban planning students, if everyone used revolving doors in a building, those buildings could save thousands of dollars a year, enough energy to heat 5 homes, and would avoid 14.6 tons of carbon emissions. These numbers are impressive, but multiply them by the total number of buildings that have revolving doors and the total impact would be massive. So how can we get more people to use them? I watched people entering and exiting 42 buildings and counted approximately 28 percent of them using revolving doors. I noticed three reasons why people used swinging doors: people followed the person in front of them through open swinging doors, door attendants opened them as people approached buildings, and because no signs instructed people to use the revolving doors (or the signs were small). In the 2006 study, the MIT students learned that some people think revolving doors are difficult to push, while others said they fear getting stuck or injured. While revolving doors need to be easy for everyone to use, most of the people I saw in midtown seemed to use swinging doors out of habit, without thinking twice about which door to use. After all, we spend nearly half of our time in the same locations every day, where we quickly form habits. The MIT students recommended several ways to motivate people to use revolving doors, including better signs. I wondered if better signs could disrupt people's habit of using the swinging doors at Columbia. There are no signs on the doors at Columbia, and only 29 percent of people chose the revolving doors. So I taped crude, 8.5" x 11" signs to the swinging door with a simple message: "Please Use Revolving Doors." The sign increased the number of people who used the revolving door to 58 percent, making it clear to me that a simple sign could prompt people to change their behavior. The second sign I made was smaller but had an arrow pointing to the revolving door. The average number of people who used the revolving doors only increased to 53 percent. My third sign spanned two feet long, was seven inches tall (allowing for larger letters), and it not only pointed in the direction of the revolving doors but also adopted the dark blue color of Columbia University to give it more authority. This larger sign caused 70 percent of people to use the revolving doors. It seems clear that even more people would use revolving doors if even larger signs were used on the swinging doors (or covered the whole door), but I resisted this temptation to test or install larger signs since I carried out these experiments discreetly. The best way to plug the draft in your lobby is by installing revolving doors, which pay for themselves in just a few years. And the best way to make sure people use your revolving doors is with effective signs. If you need new or updated signs, download the sign templates below to use at your building, or visit Small Disruptions. You can customize the templates with your color scheme, logo, address, and contact information. If you need a printer, check Inker Linker for one in your area. Then add the directional arrows to your swinging doors, the circular facts to your revolving doors, and use the 8.5" x 14" poster near the entryway.
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Veröffentlicht am 02.05.13 von andrewshea mehr...

A Design To Help Forget Your Phone, Remember Your Friends

In the recent documentary Connected, filmmaker Tiffany Schlain talks about going to visit an old friend she hasn't seen in years.

Veröffentlicht am 28.04.13 von adele_peters mehr...

A Cute Video About Banning Horse-Drawn Carriages

A lot of people don’t realize that one of the classic NYC traditions -- horse-drawn carriage rides -- are ultra cruel to horses.

Veröffentlicht am 29.04.13 mehr...

“Dreisteste Werbemasche” für Kinderlebensmittel gesucht

Berlin (afp) – Die Verbraucherschutzorganisation Foodwatch sucht die “dreisteste Werbemasche” des Jahres für ein Kinderlebensmittel: Seit Donnerstag können Verbraucher darüber entscheiden, welches Unternehmen dafür den “Goldenen Windbeutel” bekommt.

Veröffentlicht am 18.04.13 von AFP Agence France-Presse mehr...

The Story of the 'Miraculous' Inhaler and Why Inequality Is Everyone's Problem

I was diagnosed with asthma in 1984. My Haitian colleagues, who had built a clinic in rural Haiti, and I attended to the sick and injured as best we could. My Haitian colleagues, who had built a clinic in rural Haiti, and I attended to the sick and injured as best we could. We could see that much more preventive care was needed, and to this end we trained and salaried community health workers in dozens of villages. Part of my job was to visit them and their neighbors. One day I walked eight miles to attend a town meeting in a thatch-roofed, dirt-floored church. Afterward, anxious to get back, I looked up at the gathering storm clouds. “Dr. A community health worker wanted me to see a patient. I had an image, in my mind, of an older person, short of breath. I responded firmly, “The patient’s home is not even in the right direction and it will soon be dark. The sick man’s young wife came to my side. “Please come see him. It took 45 minutes to reach the house. There, leaning against a dirty pillow on a mat on the floor, was Jean. His muscles looked corded and tensed; his lips were the color of bruises; and he couldn’t speak. I thought I’d been telling the truth when I protested that I had no medications with me. But I did have one: an inhaler of albuterol, one of the few things that might save Jean’s life. Within minutes—suspenseful, painful minutes—his shallow gasps turned into quiet wheezing. Within half an hour he could speak haltingly. “Thank. You, doctor,” he said, squeezing my hand. A little crowd had gathered outside. Huge mounds of praise were heaped upon me. “I can’t believe it! Technically, it was true. That is, the inhaler had saved his life. There was no other illness I might have palliated on that afternoon. It seemed unnecessary to explain, then and there, that it was pure dumb luck, or that I’d originally been unwilling to come to his house. I left the inhaler with him and explained that we had other medicines at the clinic that would reduce the risk of another attack. Less than a week later Jean was back in clinic, this time with clear lungs, a gift of a small goat, and another heaping of thanks and praise. “Nonsense!” he replied, “So what if you have asthma, Dr. Paul, and were walking with the inhaler for yourself? To this day, Jean and the community health workers probably feel the same way. First, and most obviously: we inhabit a bizarrely unequal planet. This was true in 1492, when Columbus crossed the ocean only to shipwreck off Haiti’s northern coast. It was true when Haiti became a French slave colony. It’s even more true today. In 2011, 93 percent of all new wealth generated in the U.S. economy went to the “one percent.” Worldwide, 0.5 percent of the global population holds over 35 percent of the world’s wealth. Plutarch, in ancient Greece, noted that, “an imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” Such imbalances are even less tolerable in modern times. What does it mean to die unattended of a severe asthma attack in the age of Facebook or LinkedIn? Second, I’ve come to understand that there is something miraculous in the Story of the Inhaler. I don’t mean miraculous in some fatalistic sense, but rather the miracle of human solidarity. Third point, and hardest one to make: inequality and injustice can make fools of us all. Only a fool would take full credit for saving Jean’s life, or mistake happenstance for destiny. Inequality is everybody’s problem, whether we contemplate pandemic disease or global warming. How we choose to build systems to deliver the fruits of science and technology is critical to our planet’s flourishing in the coming decades. It will take all of us, together. Paul Farmer, MD, PhD, is Kolokotrones University Professor and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and co-founder of Partners In Health. He also serves as UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Community Based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti. Dr. Farmer and his colleagues have pioneered novel, community-based treatment strategies that demonstrate the delivery of high-quality health care in resource-poor settings. The Story of the Inhaler is adapted from Dr. Farmer’s May 2012 commencement address at the College of the Holy Cross. The address appears in full in Dr. Dr. Farmer examining a patient photo credit: Mark Rosenberg. Photos showing Cange - where Dr. Farmer worked in Haiti and where PIH continues to work today -- in the early 1980s and again 20 years later.
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Veröffentlicht am 01.05.13 von Paul Farmer mehr...

CVS Caremark: Building Healthier Communities With Strategic Local Grants

As a pharmacy innovation company, CVS Caremark is committed to helping people on their path to better health and we give back to the communities we serve through impactful community engagement and support.

Veröffentlicht am 29.04.13 von Eileen Howard Boone mehr...

Scientific Proof that Trees Make Us Happier

A tree-lined neighborhood doesn't just look good, it actually makes you happier.

Veröffentlicht am 26.04.13 von adele_peters mehr...

Drumbeat: May 1, 2013

The U.S. Remember peak oil? It’s the theory—current about a decade ago—that global oil production would soon top out, leading to an inexorable rise in prices. Long story short, we're in nothing like the peak oil nightmare that a naive forward projection of the 2003-08 hockey stick would have led you to expect. S. Remember peak oil? It’s the theory—current about a decade ago—that global oil production would soon top out, leading to an inexorable rise in prices. Long story short, we're in nothing like the peak oil nightmare that a naive forward projection of the 2003-08 hockey stick would have led you to expect. But we've hardly conquered oil scarcity either. New discoveries are having trouble keeping pace with rising car ownership in Asia and declining production from many established oil sources. Meanwhile, unconventional oil is coming onto the market in part because oil is scarce and expensive, which makes it profitable to extract hard-to-extract oil. Brent crude fell for a second day after OPEC’s production increased to a five-month high and an industry group said U.Futures slid as much as 1.7 percent in London after dropping 1.4 percent yesterday. U.S. crude inventories rose by 5.2 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute said. Government figures today are projected to show a gain of 1.1 million barrels, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Daily output by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries increased in April by 194,000 barrels a day, a separate survey indicated. Prince Turki Al Faisal, a former intelligence head, said that the increase would allow for the Gulf country to export up to 10m barrels per day. Naimi stressed that Saudi Arabia does not want to see a rise in oil prices, except where this reflects actual market conditions: “In 2012, I came out and called for lower oil prices…. Since U.(Reuters) - The U.The Basrah Gas Co. project, the biggest of its kind, captures so-called associated gas flared from the southern oil fields of Rumaila, West Qurna-1 and Zubair, according to a statement on Shell’s website. Eduardo Eurnekian, tapping a fortune of at least $1.3 billion, has pledged $700 million in two deals to hasten a definitive partnership with Argentine government-owned YPF SA to develop its Vaca Muerta fields. After his $500 million preliminary accord with YPF in October, the 70-year-old last week paid about $200 million for 81 percent of Cia. The company may raise about $5 billion in the offering, two of the people said, asking not to be identified because the terms aren’t set. A borrowing that large would match the biggest note sale in the U.S. currency in Asia outside Japan, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Chesapeake Energy Corp., the U.Net income was $58 million, or 2 cents a share, compared with a loss of $28 million, or 11 cents, a year earlier, the Oklahoma City-based company said in a statement today. Even at reduced export levels, Iran is benefiting from near-record oil prices. As recently as the 1999 oil price slump, it was receiving just $250 per person in oil export revenues; in 2012,that grew to $875. The sanctions have laid bare the Iranian administration's remarkable incompetence and waste. If anything, the collapse of the rial has returned it to a realistic rate, given Iran's continuing high inflation, making domestic industry more competitive. Ironically, sanctions pressure has spurred Tehran's fractious polity to take long-needed steps, upgrading domestic oil refining and removing costly energy subsidies. MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Days later, the survivors’ faces tensed at the memory of the grim evening: soldiers dousing thatched-roof homes with gasoline, setting them on fire and shooting residents when they tried to flee. The cost to science may be less visible to the public. Shell Moves Australia Head to U.S. Royal Dutch Shell PLC is moving its Australian head to run operations in the U.S. Ann Pickard, who has been overseeing billions of dollars of investments in Australian gas-export projects, will take up a new role in the U.LAFITTE, La. (AP) — Gov. Mr. Japan’s power utilities reported combined losses of about 1.6 trillion yen a year ago, the equivalent of $20 billion at the time. On the face of it, the bad news for the companies looks like a boost for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his 2 percent inflation target in Japan as the utilities will probably raise electricity tariffs. U.U.Formerly chief executive officer of Codexis Inc., the first advanced biofuel technology company to trade on a U.S. exchange, Shaw now says it’s impossible to economically turn crop waste, wood and plants like switchgrass into fuel. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Verizon said on Tuesday it plans to invest $100 million in solar power and fuel cells at 19 facilities in seven U.Wouldn't it be nice if China and the United States fixed the problem of climate change? Many came to agriculture through an interest in food systems and social justice. They included young men and women who believe organically grown local food should be available to people of all races and income levels. Such activists believe the U.S. food system needs to get out from under the control of multinational corporations, and that a warming planet demands sustainable, regional food systems. The students in New York City’s first Farm Beginnings class represent a new chapter of an enduring American story. Immigrants and ethnic minorities have always gone into farming — some against their will, some willingly. But in an important way, this is a different version of that story. When software engineers from India and social justice activists from the South Bronx want to enter agriculture, something has changed in American culture. To judge the health of the economy by whether growth rises or falls by a fraction of 1% is like measuring the height of the tide to see whether the ocean is thriving, or sick and polluted. It's ironic that lust for unsustainable growth of returns in the financial sector destroyed conditions for significant wider growth in the economy. What passes for meaningful public debate about economics today concerns almost entirely who has the most convincing plan to restore growth. Like a pitcher taking the mound on opening day, Frank Gehrke gets the spotlight in California every early April. U.(Reuters) - A U.S. submission to U.This wasn't just another 1-in-500-years event happening, a freak occurrence, a one-off event. Such storms have become the signature of climate change across the Northeast, afflicting older cities and towns built at a time of more modest rainfall.
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Veröffentlicht am 01.05.13 von Leanan mehr...

The Food Book Fair: Where Food Systems and Culture Collide

Food is intertwined with goodness. Our planet is hungry for a better food system. One that is more viable for the future and treats our world more respectfully. Our planet is hungry for a better food system. One that is more viable for the future and treats our world more respectfully. Food is also cool. People devour restaurant openings like they bought cassettes in the 80s. And, food is about people. The restaurant industry provides an exceptionally large number of jobs, many of which do not treat their workers adequately. Food is about what it means to be authentic: to cultural roots, to the land, and to our bodies. Food is about home and outside, cultural and technological evolution, art and literature, and the economy. The Food Book Fair aims to explore all of these ideas, and so many more, from May 2-5. It's an event where food systems and food culture meet, with the hope of creating a scintillating dialogue around what food means in our society. Over three days it will feature over 200 food books in Brooklyn's Wythe Hotel, sixty visionaries from the food space, thirty independent food publications, eight cooking demonstrations, eight panel discussions, a coffee crawl and an entrepreneurial pitch competition. We hope that the Food Book Fair will educate and inspire those who attend, and that those who attend will in turn educate and inspire others. The event, now in its second year, will commence on Thursday, May 2nd with a fundraiser for Veggie Island, a community hub for locally-grown products that improved access to fresh produce in Rockaway Beach, which suffered tremendously from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy. The proceeds of the benefit will help the organization rebuild and thrive. Veggie Island plans to provide increased outreach to their community in the form of gardening, cooking, and youth internships. A compelling cast of culinary characters will bring their novel cuisine to the event. Chefs include Melia Marden, Nancy S. Hachisu, Raquel Pelzel, and many others. The weekend will wind down with a resource fair that will bring helpful information to small food start-ups. The Food Book Fair is so much more than its name may suggest.
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Veröffentlicht am 29.04.13 von Food Book Fair mehr...

19 Years After the Rwandan Genocide, Educating Women Is Key to Rebuilding

This month marks 19 years since the 1994 Rwandan genocide that killed an estimated 1 million people in 100 days, devastating the country and its people.

Veröffentlicht am 29.04.13 von Mutoni Kayihura mehr...

Hosting a Neighborday in Brooklyn? Why Not Cook a Free Dinner

Simply put, there’s something special about sharing a home-cooked meal that brings people together.

Veröffentlicht am 25.04.13 von adamwinski mehr...

Toyota Adelaide - Auto Brand You are able to Trust With Eyes Closed

Toyota is one of the most reputed automobile manufacturers on the planet and has been so for many decades now. It is a Japan based company, with multinational operations and features a considerable market share in the auto industry. In Adelaide, there’s an enormous demand for Toyota vehicles, simply because Toyota Cars are recognized to supply higher fuel efficiency, fantastic comfort, impeccable luxury and safety features while delivering high performance. If you are searching for inexpensive Toyota Adelaide cars, then the first thing you need to do is appear more than the web and discover out the name of the dealers in Adelaide coping with Toyota vehicles. The very best part about Toyota, as a vehicle manufacturer, is the fact that it manufactures all categories of vehicles, starting from luxury sedans to heavy duty overall performance oriented SUVs and MUVs and from trucks and buses to mid range cars and hatchbacks. Regardless of what your specifications are, you can be sure that you simply will discover it at Toyota Adelaide dealer’s showroom. You are able to take the test drive in the dealer’s showroom and see if it’s fit for you. Toyota Adelaide dealers also offer servicing and repair services and use only the authorized Toyota motor parts and thus, you’ll never have to be concerned concerning the authenticity from the materials they use or the quality of services they offer. For people who are searching for overall performance oriented vehicles with sleek design and integrated with all of the contemporary attributes, while nonetheless becoming affordable priced, Toyota will be the best option. To find a cheap Toyota Adelaide car, make certain you do a complete research around the internet, shortlist a few reputed dealers, visit their facility and check out the vehicle physically as well as take its test drive. You can also take the help of a licensed mechanic within this case, as he can let you know the exact situation of the vehicle and if it has any issues persisting in it. This helps in deciphering if the quoted cost is affordable or not.
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Veröffentlicht am 26.04.13 mehr...

Transparenz in der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit auf gutem Weg

Berlin (csr-news) > Die Antikorruptionsorganisation Transparency International Deutschland begrüßt, dass das Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ) erstmals Daten über Maßnahmen der deutschen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit im Standard der International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) veröffentlicht hat. Der IATI-Standard umfasst Auszahlungen von Projektmitteln, Auszahlungsbedingungen und geplante Auszahlungen: wer gibt wann, wie viel, wofür, wohin. … [visit site [...]

Veröffentlicht am 12.04.13 von Thomas Feldhaus mehr...

In Sandy-Ravaged Long Island, Every Day Is Neighborday

Last October, when Super Storm Sandy hit New York, it decimated the neighborhood where I grew up, Lindenhurst, and the surrounding areas on Long Island. In the days following the storm—while I was stuck at home seven miles away because of the gas shortage—I did what I could do to help: I started fundraising from my iPhone. Over in Lindenhurst two women were spearheading their own recovery efforts. Jen was going door-to-door with order forms and returning with supplies and food. Thousands of us "Lindy alums" working to help our hometown relied on Facebook to keep up with what was happening in the neighborhood. Folks were helping each other virtually, in-person, and via cellphone, because in most places there was no power, or no cable, or both. Those who could help went; those who couldn't sent supplies or money. I cofounded a nonprofit called Adopt A House to raise money for damaged houses and help residents through the process. Let me be clear, this is not a wealthy community; many of the houses in the affected area of Lindenhurst were bungalows, built in the 1920s and 30s when folks from the city would come out for weekends and summers to enjoy the Great South Bay. In the 50s and 60s, after World War II, during the baby boom, and as people could live further from the city thanks to parkways and cars, the suburbs expanded and many of those summer bungalows transformed into year-round residences in a tight-knit and prospering community. Many residents here have known each other’s families for decades, so when the emergency presented itself, it was the neighbors who sprung into action. The generosity was astounding. It may come as a surprise that it’s been six months and people are still not back in their homes, or are living in them unfinished. There are insurance claim issues, bank issues, and federal aid that is promised but must filter through 18 different agencies before it gets here. Literally, 18 different agencies. There is mold and contamination from the floodwaters. Homeowners who’ve paid their insurance and their mortgages responsibly for years without incident are caught in a myriad of red tape and ineptitude. For most, managing this process has become a full-time job. For the past six months, everyday has been Neighborday. In many communities across Long Island the residents have pulled together to help each other stay strong as we trudge through the convoluted, red-tape-filled process of repairing and rebuiding. In Lindenhurst alone, we saw the metamorphosis of a makeshift hot food station and supply pickup point into “Camp Bulldog,” an entirely volunteer camp, where folks could go and hot grab a meal while working on their homes. Lindy Manpower, an all-volunteer organization, stepped up and continued the effort to gut houses for residents for free (contractors were charging more than $10 thousand, taking away valuable cash resources for rebuilding). Neighbors who are still in their homes keep an eye on the homes that sit empty. Neighbors keep each other informed about programs and resources that are available to them. Those who have made progress have stepped up to help those who haven’t by offering insight and advice. In fact, one of our most active volunteers has made herself available to anyone who needs help with insurance claims and has guided a number of people through the process. I have personally witnessed these accounts of generosity and so much more, but we are stalled. The first thing I said to myself back in October as I set up my little fundraising campaign was, “They are going to need cash.” And they still do. We're working hard to identify the homes that can be repaired with non-cosmetic rebuild, using donated sheetrock, subfloor and other basic materials and use the available funds for labor, while fundraising for that gap cost. Please visit here if you would like to donate to this program, or take a moment to peruse our Crowdrise site and ‘adopt’ a house if you would like to help a family directly. Share it with friends, colleagues, or your neighbors to choose a house and help them get back on track. Hang out with your neighbors on the last Saturday of April (a day we're calling "Neighborday").
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Veröffentlicht am 27.04.13 von sassaffrass mehr...

Creative Despite War: A Film on Afghanistan's Most Resilient Artists

Monoduo Films is crowdsourcing funding to present Creative Despite War, a documentary film by Ruì Díaz and Christian Rinke-Lazo about some of the most innovative young artists in Afghanistan.

Veröffentlicht am 25.04.13 von juancamilocruz mehr...

Designers Don't Always Have the Answers: Keeping Our Work Grounded in Communities

This post is part of a series from students in the Master of Arts in Social Design program at Maryland Institute College of Art, which focuses on how design can reimagine solutions to world challenges. Over eight weeks, MASD students are sharing their personal thesis journey. We often hear this phrase used within the social design world as supporting evidence of a designer’s ingenuity above people’s self-articulated needs and desires. Of course, designers are makers: creative, solution-oriented problem solvers who can ideate beyond the conventional. But, what we see in the use of this quote is something else, something slightly uncomfortable, something that perpetuates a hierarchy of solution making and values. It is important to remember, as designers of social change, that people living in situations that we consider less than ideal are not deprived of the creativity to solve their own problems, likely only the power and resources to do so. It is essential that we remember how insightful, capable, and intelligent our stakeholders are. So, how can we avoid letting our good intentions become misguided in imposing projected solutions on communities, and instead use design to empower others? In an effort to begin tackling some of these complex issues within the foundations of social design, we have developed a tool (in the form of a matrix) that serves as a potential shared framework for understanding, executing, and evaluating initiatives and interventions. We think that the most positively transformative change occurs through situation design where change-makers are deeply embedded in and committed to the community addressed (what we call an “inside attitude”). For example, one of the case studies we share in our matrix is Bicycles Against Poverty (BAP), an organization that designed a system for making bicycles an accessible option for Ugandan communities in order to assist with access to water, employment, and healthcare. Conversely, designing a situation with very little cultural and contextual understanding or commitment can yield rejected and ineffective results. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is an initiative where laptops were developed in isolation from the end-using communities. OLPC employed Western perspectives and attitudes that were imposed on foreign communities in an effort to change situational contexts of education systems. We hope that the matrix can be used to guide projects away from design imperialism and towards transformative social change. We do not claim that this tool is comprehensive or flawless.
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Veröffentlicht am 26.04.13 von Lauren Weinstein mehr...

Why True Neighborhood Building Requires the Dedication of a Few 'Zealous Nuts'

We all have our own families, friends, and professional networks, and our own interests and hobbies that determine with whom we interact. Each of us is a member of many different communities that can extend over vast geographical areas. But there is something very unique about the neighborhood, and the role that we play as a neighbor within the community where we choose to live. Through proximity alone, we gain a special status among a group of people with whom we might never otherwise interact. Today we are digitally connected to communities around the globe, making it easier for us to move and live were we like. What we share with our neighbors is place: the magical, intangible quality that is created when people interact around a tangible space, be it a park, a street, or a vacant lot. At the Project for Public Spaces, we advocate for citizens to be included more directly and meaningfully in the process of shaping their neighborhood’s public spaces. To that end, we facilitate communities in undertaking Placemaking, a process that helps neighbors work together to determine how public space can meet a variety of local needs, from the economic to the social. While this process often results in vibrant, well-used spaces, we believe that the true value of Placemaking lies in its capacity for building stronger and more varied connections between neighbors. Here’s the best part: while great places are the result of the layering of many individual contributions within a public space, the Placemaking process starts with each individual neighbor. Time and again, in cities all over the world, we have seen the impact that one person can have when they realize the unique capacity of public spaces to bring communities together. Most recently, we visited Detroit, Michigan, for the inaugural meeting of our Placemaking Leadership Council. While there, we were able to visit a number of places around the city where groups of dedicated people were working to save cherished civic institutions, from dynamic local art projects to historic aquariums and sprawling parks. Detroit has been in the news, in recent years, for its deterioration. Detroit is struggling, but this is bringing out the best in the citizens who have chosen to stay. What we are seeing there today is neighbors realizing, en masse, that they can’t wait any longer for someone else to turn things around, and they are taking action to create the kinds of neighborhoods that they want to live in, with or without official permission. In our Placemaking workshops, we often tell people that 80-90 percent of the success of a public space comes not from its design, but its management. In the very best public spaces, one often finds that the sense of place is self-generating; no one group dominates, and everyone feels welcome to enjoy the space as they please. The resulting overlap of activities and uses creates the unique local culture that defines great neighborhoods. We all choose to be the kind of neighbors that we want to be, through the ways in which we interact with each other in our local streets and spaces. In so doing, we choose to make our neighborhood the place that it is. Hang out with your neighbors on the last Saturday of April (a day we're calling "Neighborday").
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Veröffentlicht am 26.04.13 von Fred Kent mehr...

How We Built a Community With Purpose by Hacking Crowdfunding

I didn't want to become one of those people. You know who I mean. If so, here's your MO: constant social media posts about your exercise routines. Status updates filled with pre-fab facts about the cause. You know who I mean. If so, here's your MO: constant social media posts about your exercise routines. Status updates filled with pre-fab facts about the cause. Endless e-mails asking for $10 more. Yet in February 2012, there I was. I had signed up for a fundraising walk—specifically, the Out of the Darkness Overnight held each year by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. I'd had a perfectly good reason for signing up: my sister, Jen, had asked me to. We lost our mom, Joan, to suicide in July 2011. Jen had done the responsible thing, learning more about suicide and connecting with people committed to understanding and preventing it. That February, my gig with Insight Labs happened to bring me to California, where Jen lives. I knew that suicide prevention was an important cause, but I didn't feel motivated to get involved. I didn't see myself in it. More importantly, I didn't see my mom in it—a pediatric nurse practitioner, she had access to all the suicide prevention resources in the world, yet still chose to end her life. So Jen and I did what we'd been doing for years. We realized that what we both wanted from the walk was pretty specific. We wanted to meet other people who had lost their moms to suicide. We had a hunch that this specific population would share our weird mix of feelings: our vast appreciation for the woman who brought us into the world as well as the anguish over not having her around. Being something of an information geek, I pointed out to Jen that we did have one resource that could change things: the web. All of the fundraising for the walk took place through the Internet, and every walker had a public profile. We could easily find the participants who had lost their moms. So we stayed up all night going through the profiles of all the other teams, giving $5 to each one walking in memory of a mom. We decided we needed a place for all these teams to find each other ahead of the event, so we created a page on Facebook and gave them the address. Instead, it turned out to be a dream come true. Other walkers were astonished that strangers had given them money. Several had already liked the Facebook page and said how eager they were to meet each other. Over the next few months, Jen and I discovered a new way to relate to the cause. Instead of advertising our own fundraising pages, we put most of our energy into promoting Mom Squad members who hadn't yet reached the minimum requirement for the walk. In addition to ensuring that these folks could participate, we raised thousands of additional dollars. In the process, we easily garnered enough attention to meet our own fundraising goals. You could call what Jen and I did a "hack." While the term draws its origins from the computing world, it can refer to any use of a system to accomplish a goal for which it was not intended. In one sense, Jen and I hacked the system of individual fundraising. We were using it not just to raise money, but to build a new network of people affected by a specific kind of suicide. But more importantly, I also discovered that I could hack the system of my own motivations. I had been reluctant to talk to others about my mom's suicide because I didn't want to seem as if I was playing the victim or asking for help. But when I was doing something on behalf of a specific group of other people, I discovered that I was eager to talk about what happened and how I felt about it. This year, Mom Squad is going for an even bigger hack. We searched the country to find more folks who had lost their moms to suicide, but who might not be able to attend the Overnight because of the cost of travel and lodging. We launched an Indiegogo campaign to cover those costs. So if you're my friend on Facebook on Twitter—well, yes, you're going to be seeing a lot fundraising posts in the next few weeks. If you'd like to help out Mom Squad, visit our website, our Indiegogo page, or our Facebook page. Later this year, Jen will be launching a broader project aimed at helping all those affected by the suicide of a loved one.
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Veröffentlicht am 26.04.13 von Andrew Benedict-Nelson mehr...

Ode to the Humble Potluck, that Building Block of Meaningful Relationships

The potluck. This year, on Neighborday weekend, epic potlucks will abound. In my two years in San Francisco, I have hosted or helped organize at least a dozen potlucks. This year, on Neighborday weekend, epic potlucks will abound. In my two years in San Francisco, I have hosted or helped organize at least a dozen potlucks. Fireside Potluck number five is on the topic of failure, and will be held in May at a friend’s house in Noe Valley. Space constraints now require us to cap the event, as over 70 people showed up to the fourth #firepot (yes, some people live-tweet), which was on the topic of success. At the Fair Oaks Neighbors Potluck last Sunday, the youngest attendee was five days old. A mix of young tech professionals and long-time residents mingled together at the vibrant event. The family with the newborn had moved into the neighborhood just a month prior. Recently, my friend Lisa invited me and 10 other people to join her for a “random group dinner" at her apartment in Palo Alto, potluck-style. I hesitated about going: I didn’t know anyone else who was going, and I had just met Lisa recently. Most of the other attendees knew each other from church. I imagined an angelic tight-knit group laughing together while I lapped up casserole in the corner, alone. The number of topics we discussed were almost as numerous and diverse as the dishes available. Even without a bite or morsel, I would have left well-sated from conversation. Sliders with blue cheese, penne with bolognese sauce, prosciutto-wrapped dates, three veggie salads (all of the tasty variety, I am happy to report), and, for dessert, artisanal ice creams. I opted for the salted caramel with fresh rasberries on top. There was Mark, the Stanford assistant basketball coach, who played high school ball at a rival school in the East Bay; Mandy, the Army public affairs officer from Austin by way of Houston, who had a delightful accent and dreamed of visiting New Zealand someday; Glen, who lives in Livermore (my hometown) and knows the Jacobs Family whom I adore; the gal across from me who had moved to New York City three weeks before 9/11; Elizabeth, who everyone calls Liz, who invited me to the dinner and took a ribbing for being from Canada; and the guy from Google who emailed me before he left (early) and said he was thinking about ideas for remaking social networking in a very similar way to me. We’re meeting for lunch next week. The seed of a relationship was planted with each person at the potluck. Some have begun to sprout into friendships already, as follow-up plans are made and emails are exchanged. While most will surely grow no further, as time, energy, and distance dictate, it matters not. Regardless of what happens next, I was grateful for the people, the food, and the conversations as a unified whole. I enjoyed each, but not just as individual delights; it was about being together as a group, as a community. Hang out with your neighbors on the last Saturday of April (a day we're calling "Neighborday").
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Veröffentlicht am 25.04.13 von kevinadler mehr...

This Earth Day, Resurrect the Cell Phone Graveyard

Spring: A time of restoring and renewing. A time of plans and projects. A time for spring cleaning. A time when most people want to clean out garages, closets and junk drawers. You know the drawers we're talking about—especially the one that serves as a graveyard of old cell phones and electronics.

Veröffentlicht am 22.04.13 von Medic Mobile mehr...

How a Former Mill Became an Intentional Community Mister Rogers Would Love

On and off for the past 12 years, I have been living in an intentional artist community in a converted former mill space in Providence, Rhode Island. As anyone who has ever been to visit us here will attest, it’s a special place, mostly because of the organic sense of community that has arisen here over time. We’re in the middle of the city, but located in a primarily industrial neighborhood—with a strip club or two thrown in for good measure. Some of our neighborly self-sufficiency is by necessity—there just aren’t a ton of other folks walking the streets (at the hours I’m awake anyways) to strike up a conversation with. A native New Yorker who thrived off of the energy of my city growing up, I worried in my early adult life that living anywhere else wouldn’t provide me with the same level of stimulation and satisfaction. In our community, it’s about watching each others children, feeding each other’s pets, watering each other’s plants; it’s about borrowing eggs, milk, sugar, batteries, skills and tools; it’s about putting on crazy costumes and having roving dance parties or progressive dinners that move from space to space; it’s about throwing bonfire parties every time there’s a big snowstorm or pulling on our boots and splashing in the muck while we ready sandbags for the occasional flood; it’s about the summertime barbecues where we bring out the contents of our fridges to throw on the grill, our feet cooling in a kiddie pool; it’s about an annual Yankee Swaps with ridiculous homemade gifts; it’s about walking your dog or going to get your mail and running into six people you know and stopping to have six conversations. Do all these things take time? Sure they do. Once in a while would you rather be invisible or anonymous? Absolutely. But overall, the sense of well being, of being held by your community, borne up, supported, known, far outweighs any negatives. In my professional life at the moment, I produce and co-edit Outpost Journal, an annual arts publication that seeks out communities of artists and activists engaged in similar kinds of work and play in other smaller size cities. It is our belief that many of those working in these creative “Outposts” are developing the foundations of a more connected, hands-on creative future, the shape of which we can just begin to glimpse. From our travels to places like Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Kansas City, we have confirmation that this movement is not only thriving but gaining speed—it’s alive in projects like the community-bridging Waffle Shop in Pittsburgh, in a national printmaking collective called Justseeds that focuses on social justice, in an incredible house of art and magic in Baltimore called Tarantula Hill, in Kansas City’s Whoop Dee Doo performance troupe. To be sure, back home, things are changing. Even our community of progressive artists has not proven immune to the call of the suburban—better schools, more access to green space, more room for expanding families—it is happening here too, as friend after friend packs up their beautiful, colorful life and plops it down again in more “adult” pastures. Still, what we’ve forged here continues on, as new people take the place of the old, and for the old, we adapt to a new definition of proximity. While in Pittsburgh, we commissioned local artist Alicia Kachmar to create a red zippered cardigan for an 11-ft statue of the city’s hometown hero, that consummate neighbor, Mr. Rogers. An official Neighborday is a great way to begin but it is nowhere to end. Being a neighbor is not something that can get turned off once it has truly been turned on, it is entering into a state of relation that will sustain, nourish, complicate, enrich, annoy, buoy, and can ultimately even transcend. Hang out with your neighbors on the last Saturday of April (a day we're calling "Neighborday").
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Veröffentlicht am 23.04.13 von manya rubinstein mehr...

These Four Big Ideas Are the Cornerstones of Good Neighboring

Recently, we here at Neighborday HQ have been asking ourselves: What are the ingredients of good neighboring? We think it comes down to four big ideas: social capital, neighborhood characters, third places, and sacred landscapes. You might notice these ideas sneaking into many of the Neighborday articles you read this month. But there’s a catch. As you already know, no two neighborhoods are the same, so even though we’re sharing the best thinking about good neighboring, only you can figure out what will make your neighborhood come alive. To help you out, we’ve got some suggestions for DIY neighborhood research that will turn you into a local expert, just like Jane Jacobs in her Greenwich Village. All it takes is a question, and being open to hearing the neighborhood’s answer. Social relationships are an important kind of asset, called social capital, which are important for your health, your potential earnings, your mental well-being, and even the flourishing of American democracy. A crucial outcome of social capital, as Robert Putnam explains in Bowling Alone, is trust. Trust is important because it creates a feeling of mutual responsibility: if you know that you’ll encounter your neighbors regularly, and that they talk with each other as well, than you can trust them to keep their word and keep an eye out. Another is information: when you interact with your neighbors you share the number of a gardener you like, you let them know that the parking department has been giving tickets on your block lately, you alert them that your bike was stolen from the sidewalk. This is where social capital can get tricky. There are two kinds of social capital: bonding social capital, between people who see themselves as similar in some way, and bridging social capital, between people who are different. And there are two kinds of social relationships: weak ties (an acquaintance or loose friend) and strong ties (a deep connection, like a close friend or family member). You need bonding social capital and bridging social capital for the trust wheels to be greased across a community. Neighborhoods can be bonding with weak ties, bonding with strong ties…you get the idea. DIY QUESTION #1: As you take the social capital temperature of your neighborhood, you want to ask: “How do my neighbors support each other, how well do we know each other, and what do we have in common? DO: Stop. Linger on a street corner, at a bus stop, on your front porch, or in your building lobby. See what makes people stop and chat with you, or with one another. Pay attention to advice, awareness, and support, and the times when you see it. Are your neighbors comfortable with each other? DO: Find a community message board. Online, at the supermarket, at the hardware store. DO: Play. Draw a hopscotch board in front of your building, wherever it is. See who joins. Are people eager? Reticent? DO: Ask. Develop an informal survey and stand on your street corner or knock on your neighbors’ doors for a chat and some answers. If you don’t know your neighbors already, you could also do an informal, anonymous poll, with tokens in cups, sidewalk chalk, or pull tabs on a poster. DO: Experiment. Leave something outside your unit, in your lobby, or in front of your house, for neighbors to take. Homemade cookies, seedlings, mix cds, backyard fruit. DO: Learn the names of your neighbors’ dogs. “The character of a third place,” describes Ray Oldenburg, in The Great Good Place, “is determined most of all by its regular clientele and is marked by a playful mood, which contrasts with people’s more serious involvement in other spheres. Traditional third places are often food establishments, like bars or coffee shops (think Cheers, the diner on Seinfeld, or Central Perk on Friends), but anywhere where people gather casually, between work and home, can be a third place. What makes a regular old place into a third place are the rules and traditions that you have to be “initiated into” so you are part of the club: the right way to order, the right channel for the TV, the right outfit, knowing the names of the players or bartenders. The little league field, the library, the grocery store, are all contestants for third place. DIY QUESTION #2: The important question is: what places where people hang out in my neighborhood work like third places? You’re looking for habits, for regulars. DO. Visit! Go to some places you suspect are third places, watch, and listen. Get to know how these places work. Public characters are good for sharing news, holding packages and keys, looking out for wayward kids, and generally giving you the piece of mind that someone’s paying attention to what’s going on, but not going to get into your business. So, yes, there’s a difference between a busybody and a public character. DIY QUESTION #3: Most public characters you won’t have to look for, of course, because they’ll find you. But if you want to understand your neighborhood, or to spread the word about Neighborday, you’ll need to get them involved. LISTEN TO: your building super, mailman, or another person who moves around the neighborhood regularly. How long have they been working in your neighborhood? LISTEN TO: your neighbors: how long have they lived here? What other neighbors do they know and interact with? LISTEN TO: an oldtimer about their life, and the neighborhood. Randolph Hester, a landscape architect known for his work helping communities to develop meaningful places, calls this a city’s “sacred landscape.” The sacred landscape is what causes people to have an emotional connection to specific places. What connects them is the power they have in the minds of the neighbors, Hester explains in Design for Ecological Democracy. “Sacred places not only concretize, embody, and symbolize our highest values, convictions and virtues, but they also make visible our efforts to comprehend mysteries and profess faith. Rootedness. Feeling like you belong, like you have a place. Someone looking out for you, someone you can borrow a cup of sugar from, somewhere you know like the back of your hand. DIY QUESTION #4: You learn about sacred landscapes by paying attention to the little things, the details and rhythms of your neighborhood, and putting them together with the stories of your neighbors. DO: Learn to identify one of the birdsongs you hear everyday. DO: Forage. Something edible grows in your neighborhood. DO: Slow down. DO: Go for a walk. DO: Find out what your neighborhood looked like, 50 and 100 years ago. DO: Find something commemorative in your neighborhood and learn more about it. Who’s that park named after? DO: Find a thinking spot, that’s not in your house. As you explore, share what you find with us! Take a short video for our documentary, or tweet us what you find at #nbhdetectives.
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Veröffentlicht am 24.04.13 von diana.lempel mehr...

Drumbeat: April 24, 2013

WTI Crude Climbs to One-Week High After U.S. Futures increased as much as 0.9 percent in New York to the highest intraday price since April 15. Banks including UBS AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) expect a rate reduction for May. S. Futures increased as much as 0.9 percent in New York to the highest intraday price since April 15. Banks including UBS AG and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) expect a rate reduction for May. U.S. crude stockpiles fell 845,000 barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute said yesterday. The price of oil is being driven lower by rising global supplies and lower-than-expected demand in the world's two largest economies, the United States and China. As oil and gasoline become more affordable, the economy benefits because goods become less expensive to transport and motorists have more money to spend on other things. Retail gasoline will fall by 395 yuan ($64) a metric ton and diesel by 400 yuan, effective from tomorrow, the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner, said on its website today. The reduction is in line with changes in average global crude costs in the past 10 working days and includes an amount from the last price review, it said. The pump price of 90-RON, China III gasoline in Beijing will decline 4 percent to 9,325 yuan a ton, or $4.31 a U.Goldman Sachs Group Inc. cut its “near-term” outlook for commodities and reduced forecasts for oil and coffee amid prospects for weak demand from China to Europe. U.S. The U.S. needs to act quickly to take advantage of overseas demand for its glut of natural gas or lose market share to international competitors, Dominion Resources Inc. “The U.S. must act very soon -- or the door is going to close and our country will have missed a major economic opportunity,” Farrell said today during a luncheon speech at the U.S. Since its inception in 1960, OPEC has never been shy in flexing its energy-fuelled power over the West. But those days are done. To put it bluntly, you could say that OPEC power has been well and truly fracked. And it’s not just the US and Israeli shale gas and oil revolutions which threatens OPEC’s decline. Let’s just focus on the OPEC kingpin and world’s leading oil producer, Saudi Arabia. Even as the Saudis and other OPEC leaders have played down the nascent impact of US shale development on global production (especially America’s growing self-sufficiency), the signs are that the Saudis are increasingly desperate to keep their world number one ranking in oil production. Each morning when I release my cat from the basement where he sleeps, he rushes to the upstairs bathroom to drink water from a bowl placed there for him. He appears to have a 'religious' belief that the water in this bowl is far superior to that in the bowl sitting alongside his food in the basement. So far as I can tell, there is no discernible evidence available to him to make this distinction. I take his preference then as a matter of faith rather than evidence. The water upstairs is holy. How do I know that the upstairs water is really holy? When I forget to fill the upstairs bowl, the cat complains even if his basement bowl is full. The country has new crude discoveries at different stages of appraisal and development, Nana Boakye Asafu-Adjaye, chief executive officer of the state-owned Ghana National Petroleum Corp. known as GNPC, said in an interview in the capital, Accra, yesterday. Driven by the biggest, fastest growing energy demand in the world, a major transformation is taking place in China. But this exciting, dynamic country faces environmental challenges, too, as the recent big smog in Beijing dramatically demonstrated. As "clear signals" go, this one could hardly be clearer. The gulf between them was larger than the ice-and-snow-covered Heartland Events Center, the state fairgrounds and arena complex where nearly 1,000 people braved a late April snowstorm to testify to State Department officials. Tohoku Electric saw the amount of electricity sold in Fukushima drop by up to nearly 30 percent in a single month after the March 2011 disasters triggered the nuclear crisis that forced residents from their homes. Soviet radiation biology took a different trajectory from science in the United States. American researchers at that time were working with the highly politicized medical studies of Japanese bomb survivors. They narrowed the list of radiation-related illnesses to leukemia, a few cancers, and thyroid disease. Soviet doctors in formulating chronic radiation syndrome had grasped the effects of radiation on the body more holistically. They determined that radiation illness is not a specific, stand-alone disorder, but that its indications relate to other illnesses. Ford and General Motors are reviving two familiar nameplates at the Shanghai Auto Show this week in a bid to make inroads in China, where the auto market could soon eclipse the U.Demand for hybrid and battery-operated cars may be increasing – the Toyota Prius accounted for 3.1 percent of the total U.The government will grant 970 million reais ($480 million) in credits to offset a 0.12 real per liter tax on ethanol and offer 4 billion reais in loans for crop renewal this year, Finance Minister Guido Mantega told reporters in Brasilia today. There will also be a 2 billion-real line of credit for ethanol stockpiling and tax credits for the chemical industry, he said. The EU-funded project, called SUPRAPOWER, is working on a more powerful, reliable and lightweight superconducting offshore wind turbine. U.S. More than half the U.Introspection is healthy within limits. And yes, saving the planet is more complicated now than it seemed 40 years ago. A crackdown on slaughterhouses has helped cut rates of certain types of food poisoning, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday. Pollan shows us the folly of our decision to hire food corporations and other industrial forces as our live-in cooks. The consequences include the gluten intolerance that he suggests might be tied to modern flour cultivation and processing, and the compromised immune systems that might be related to our diet’s relatively recent absence of live-culture foods. What’s the most reliable predictor of a nation’s obesity rate? It’s not income. It’s not the share of women in the labor force. And about that time crunch that keeps so many of us ordering takeout? Time for a recalculation. Pollan cites Richard Wrangham’s fascinating theory, espoused in “Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human,” that it was the control of fire to help make food more digestible that allowed us to develop smaller jaws, teeth and guts, and a larger brain. In Wrangham’s calculation, cooking gave humans an estimated four hours of extra time a day, time that we once spent chewing food to prepare it for digestion — and time that now, Pollan points out, happens to be about what we spend watching TV. How Did the World's Rich Get That Way? At the international level, the relative impact of effort vs. luck is even more biased in favor of luck. A recent New York Times story pointed out that household incomes in Manhattan are as evenly distributed as in Sierra Leone — in both places, the wealthiest fifth make 40 times more than the lowest fifth. The difference, of course, is the average around which that income lies. The median household income in Manhattan is around $67,000. Gross domestic product per capita—a measure of mean incomes in a country — is $1,131 in Sierra Leone and the median will be significantly lower. According to Branko Milanovic, about two thirds of total global inequality can be explained by geography. Our one-floor-of-a-brownstone apartment is just too small for a family of four. We are fortunate to have two children and three bedrooms, though the rest of our living space is limited. There is little room for movement, and any movement is mitigated by the fact that we have neighbors downstairs who don’t want to live below the circus. “Please stop jumping,” is the sentence I repeat more than any other while at home (followed closely by “Do we have any more wine?”). Like most of our peers, we have no outdoor space safe for children, nor a basement or even a room dedicated to games. There are not a lot of easy options for parents and their young children in the city. Most schoolyards are closed on the weekends. Many neighborhood parks are open concrete, with tiny playgrounds bursting with toddlers through teens. The big city parks, for most, require a hike beyond physical means of a child or a time-consuming trip via public transportation. People do it, but having an active small child along severely complicates matters. Riding bikes on the sidewalks or bike lanes is too perilous for my son. Simply walking around can be scary. On three separate occasions, he has bolted across a busy street. Once in the park, he can run till near collapse, but there’s nowhere for him to explore on his own. Parents are confining sons and daughters to their homes, even if it means keeping them away from friends. Schools are canceling outdoor activities and field trips. “I hope in the future we’ll move to a foreign country,” Ms. She is not alone in looking to leave. Some middle- and upper-class Chinese parents and expatriates have already begun leaving China, a trend that executives say could result in a huge loss of talent and experience. Court Backs E.P.A. The Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to revoke a mining permit to protect streams and wildlife, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The decision was a victory for the agency, which in 2011 retroactively vetoed a permit granted by the Bush administration in 2007 to allow a subsidiary of Arch Coal of St. 20 Pounds? That Lahontan cutthroat trout he caught last year, a remnant of a strain that is possibly the largest native trout in North America, is the first confirmed catch of a fish that was once believed to have gone extinct. There is no real debate about whether climate change is occurring. The only dissent comes from the fringes, and generally from those whose research institutions or blogs are devoted, for ideological or other reasons, to attempting to debunk the notion that human activities are altering the planet's climate. But for many, the discussion, such as it is, can seem confusing. Is the Arctic Ocean predicted to be ice-free by the summer of 2100, or 2050, or 2030? And what exactly does ice-free mean? For scientists studying the impacts of climate change, such questions - and answers - are constantly being revised and refined as more information is gathered, models are fine-tuned, and feedbacks are better understood. But even as they focus their forecasts, those scientists are increasingly seeing the evidence of global warming happening right now, many of them in line with predictions and some of them even more severe and more rapid than anticipated. The National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. U. OSLO (Reuters) - The United States should do more to fight climate change and help industry catch up on missed economic opportunities in clean energies, the head of the U.N. The rate of heat building up on Earth over the past decade is equivalent to detonating about 4 Hiroshima atomic bombs per second. Take a moment to visualize 4 atomic bomb detonations happening every single second. There are periods when the ocean heats up more quickly than the surface, and other periods when the surface heats up more quickly than the oceans. The confusion on this subject lies in the fact that only about 2 percent of global warming is used in heating air, whereas about 90 percent of global warming goes into heating the oceans (the rest heats ice and land masses). But humans live at the Earth's surface, and thus we tend to focus on surface temperatures. Over the past 10–15 years, Earth's surface temperature has continued to rise, but slowly.
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Veröffentlicht am 24.04.13 von Leanan mehr...

China wants non-GM soy and Brazil will supply it

NOTE: An interesting report has just been published by Glauber Silveira, the president of Aprosoja, the Brazilian soy producers association, regarding his and Brazilian Senator Blairo Maggi's recent visit to China to meet with the Chinese government. Brazil's total soy harvest this year was 80 million tonnes. Out of this 80 million tonnes, Silveira says 10 millions tonnes are non-GM and could be supplied to China soon. But that isn't all, as there are other companies certifying and supplying non-GM soy. And still more non-GM soy is grown in Brazil but the producers do not bother to segregate and certify it non-GM, due to lack of advance purchase contracts. The total non-GM proportion of the Brazilian harvest is therefore likely to be 20-25%. Silveira's report from China unintentionally reveals that British retailers and the British public are being played for fools by some elements of Big Soy agribiz. Silveira's report re-emphasises that Brazilian producers are eager to plant whatever consumers want. For them it is no problem to plant more non-GM, if they know they can sell it. China is by far the biggest buyer of soy from Brazil, so China's view of GMOs will dictate what proportion of GM to non-GM soy Brazil plants. It's also worth noting that China has not approved Monsanto's Intacta RR2 soy for import -- though Europe has. Another point that stands out relates to GMOs. There was clear corporate interest in conventional [non-GM] soybeans. When asked what is the market trend in the relationship between GM and non-GM crops, [the Chinese said] the majority of the population is less sensitive to this issue, or buys the cheapest. All [Chinese] importers [of soy] from Brazil who spoke expressed interest in creating a specific market for conventional soybeans, even if they have to pay more. We questioned the possibility of providing short-term volume exceeding 10 million tons of soy. There is a change in trend regarding Chinese imports and security of food supply -- there is also a tendency to make space for non-GM and GM soy. This, for us producers, is very positive as it allows us to handle both technologies. However, it is clear that we have urgent homework to do with regard to infrastructure.
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Veröffentlicht am 21.04.13 mehr...

Pet Diaries: The Bernese Mountain Dog That Taught Me to Survive Tragedy by Connecting with My Community

Introducing Pet Diaries: Life lessons learned from our pets. This 12-part series is brought to you by GOOD, in partnership with Purina ONE®, and explores how having a pet can change your place in your neighborhood, community, and beyond. I woke up early in the morning and ran directly to the corner bodega to buy a carton of milk for breakfast. That’s how my morning began on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, in New York City. Most of lower Manhattan was cordoned off. You needed proper ID to show that you lived in the neighborhoods below 14th Street. The lines for giving blood were long with nowhere for the donated blood to go. No more volunteers were being taken in anywhere. The smell in the air at times became unbearable and burned your eyes and throat, so everyone wore masks. People sat on benches outside coffee shops and restaurants for hours on end in the East Village, with nowhere to go and nothing to do but share stories. The streets were devoid of any traffic, cleared for emergency vehicles only. I heard about a few friends that were actually able to get down to Ground Zero to help out in any way they could. My friend, Ignacio, brought an entire garbage bag full of socks that he had collected from neighbors in his building, for the rescuers' feet (layering socks was said to help prevent fatigue and blistering). Whiledown there, he started organizing supplies and donations as they came in. Another friend of mine, Kari, jumped onto a passing emergency vehicle that was heading downtown and administered massage therapy treatments to recovery teams. The same news images played over and over again in a nonstop loop. Live shots from St. Vincent's Hospital. Live from Bellevue Hospital. Live from the Armory Building. Abby, my five year-old Bernese Mountain dog, after waking from a nap, began nudging me under the arm, asking to be taken out for her afternoon walk. That’s when it dawned on me. Two years prior to September 11, Abby and I volunteered with Chenny Troupe Therapy Assistance Dogs in South Chicago, working with clients who were rehabilitating from heart attacks, strokes, spinal cord injuries, gun shots, burns, and abuse. At the Schwab Rehabilitation Center, we’d set up a dog agility course indoors and taught the clients how to take our dogs through the course. Though it was mostly meant for fun, patients would focus so much on the tasks at hand that they’d take their minds off their own ailments. Because of my work with Chenny Troupe, it only made sense for me to dress Abby up in her vest and see if I could offer my services to St. I called the hospital beforehand to let them know that I would be stopping by with my trained therapy dog and asked if there was someone there I could talk to about providing some assistance. They told me that there was, though when I arrived and met with the head nurse in the lobby of St. I saw the exhaustion on her face, and in her eyes. We stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, when I finally said, "You realize that makes no sense at all. Just then four other nurses with the same looks of exhaustion came towards us, crowded around, and laid their hands on Abby, fawning over her. They asked me questions, wanting to know more about the work Chenny Troupe did with its dogs and handlers. I showed them a handful of Abby’s tricks that I taught her over the years—your basic sits, and stays, downs, rollovers, giving paws, retrieving objects, etc. I then taught the nurses how to use the same commands that I used with her, explaining how patients would benefit from working hands-on with therapy dogs like Abby. “It’s not just tricks,” I said. “A lot of it is just being present.” The head nurse said she would call me at a later date and that maybe in the future we could try something like this. Though I knew sheappreciated us coming in there that day, I had little confidence that she would follow through on her promise. I tried to hide the frustration on my face, as Abby and I left. We paused in front of the Wall of Prayer, where people had come to hang pictures of their friends and loved ones who had gone missing since the towers fell. All these people are gone... just, gone. How can that be? I mean that's his wedding day. That's her on vacation. And that's when the idea came to me. I phoned my friends Cathy and John from Chenny Troupe. I explained that I planned on taking Abby to the Armory, to Union Square, and to the firehouses wherever grieving families and friends were gathering, simply to be there with them. I had absolutely no idea what I was proposing, but I knew it wouldn’t just involve doing tricks and running an obstacle course. I asked for their support because I knew I was going to have to go at this on my own and make up my own rules as I went along. Wherever we’d go to work, Abby and I would just stand in place and people would come from everywhere. Outside of the Armory and around Union Square, Abby greeted everyone with a smile on her face, a lean in her body and a gentle wag in her tail. She performed this very simple task tirelessly, for hours on end. A few people were curious and asked questions about what kind of work she did and what it meant to be a therapy dog. Others sat with her and cried, holding on to Abby tightly for a long private moment and then quietly they would get up and leave. I finally felt as if I was participating with — and helping, at least in some small measure — my community. All it took was merely showing up, but the feeling was so invigorating and empowering. The images, the sounds, and the lingering acrid smell that hung in the city air remained with me a few months after. John Grady and Abby at 4th St. Abby’s presence and being, her rules and work ethic, were not convoluted with a lot of language. There was no red tape blah, blah, blah. The rules were simple. Just be. Written in memory of Abby.
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Veröffentlicht am 22.04.13 von John Grady mehr...

New Forest offers Renault Twizy EV hire

As part of the celebrations of English Tourism Week, Visit England Chief Executive, James Beresford, launched The New Forest's newest 'green' initiative – the Twizy, at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu. The idea behind this initiative is that visitors will be able to explore the stunning New Forest by hiring one of Beaulieu Museum's new Twizy electric vehicles, and making use of th...

Veröffentlicht am 26.03.13 mehr...

Earth Day Weekend Events in the U.S.

Really, every day is Earth Day for us Kind Lifers. But the official holiday, April 22, is a great reminder to get out and celebrate our home, planet Earth. I gathered up as many celebrations during Earth Day weekend I could find in our biggest Kind Life cities—New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle—and included links to find more in all of the other U.S. states. What: Community volunteers are invited to help plant over 2,400 trees, pick up trash, and complete beautification projects, helping to restore the city's canopy after Hurricane Sandy, which resulted in the loss of 30,000 trees. Includes breakfast and lunch for volunteers, tree planting training, and family-friendly activities and entertainment. What: Think that bugs and worms are yucky or amazing? Actually, they can be both. Read Yucky Worms! by Vivian French along with bug- and Earth Day- themed books with Karyn Mooney to learn the importance of sharing the earth with our invertebrate friends as well as ways to take care of the planet. What: We will be working on a variety of projects, including removing invasive plants, re-mulching the garden, defining a walking path, planting, celaring, and installing seating. What: It’s an outdoor extravaganza, loaded with environmental heroes, exotic food, celebrity guests, eco-friendly games and crafts, green shopping, live entertainment, and giveaways. Check out the new toddler area, recycle-themed maze, and drum circle. What: The City of Manhattan Beach Parks and Recreation Department, in conjunction with V.O.I.C.What: Take a tour of the Recycle Center, pick up free compost, enjoy lunch at one of the food trucks, listen to live music, and enjoy complimentary coffee and iced tea while lounging at the "Cafe." Parking is limited so biking, walking, carpooling and busing are encouraged. What: There will be hikes of the 9-acre urban park, ranger-led nature presentations, kids’ crafts, and face painting. What: The event begins with a beach cleanup from 10 a.m.-noon. Special events include a home composting workshop at 11 a.m., a “gently used” work attire reuse drive, and a plastic bag-for-reusable-tote exchange. Enjoy children’s activities, environmental exhibits, and more. What: Green Exchange community will host a series of workshops + speakers (full list coming shortly). What: Join volunteers to clean and green a neighborhood park or preserve from. Most sites will have extra work gloves - but you may want to bring your own to insure you have a pair. T-Shirts will be given on a first come, first served basis. What: Courtyard events include planting of our 2nd annual Urban Garden, visiting our outdoor meditation garden, and a public display of "Flags: Sculpture in the Sky," Art Lab's ongoing public arts project spanning over 500 feet! Studio events include an opening reception for showcase artist Brook Woolf. Plus works by Liz Cunningham, Delores Rix, John Henderson, Mimi Clayton and Megan Besmirched will be exhibited, along with workshops and demos. What: Put on your gardening gloves and help prepare the Edgewater Gateway Garden for the Spring! Who: SCA alumni, SCA supporters, community members, HUD, Department of Family Services. (All volunteers must bring a participant agreement form. What: Join the Student Conservation Association (SCA), HUD, and the Department of Family Services for a day of fun projects preparing the Little Village Pocket parks for Spring! Fullersburg Woods - Go Green! What: Celebrate conservation through a day of fun while learning how to help change and support our planet. What: The Bay Area Rapid Transit District Celebrates Earth Day and its 40th year of service to Bay Area commuters. Who: Family-friendly project. Volunteers of all ages are welcome.  What: Join the cleanup! Together we can keep our coastline and oceans healthy, clean, and safe. Who: Family-friendly project. Volunteers of all ages are welcome. What: Pitch in to restore unique San Francisco coastal habitat at Lands End. Who: Volunteers ages 10 and up are welcome. What: Help grow your national park! What: The Earth Week programs range from live chats with scientists, hands-on activities, special film screenings, nature walks, family nature crafts, and a “little naturalist” program designed for children ages 3-5. What: A citywide celebration of local efforts to reduce, reuse, conserve and work together for a better global future. What: Seattle Magazine has partnered with REI to raise funds for Green Seattle Partnership in an effort to keep Seattle green.
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Veröffentlicht am 15.04.13 mehr...

Kicking McDonald's out: the hospitals getting serious about food

My first daughter was born at 12:49am on a hot night in July after 35 hours of labour. She and I experienced several minutes of heartfelt awe. Then, we both promptly fell fast asleep. The next morning, I awoke in a West Village hospital bed, famished. The tray that sat in front of me included something that slightly resembled oatmeal, bright-red Jello, "orange juice", and black coffee paired with a packet of sugar and non-dairy creamer. Flash-forward three years and one more daughter later and I'm spending four nights with our infant daughter in the pediatric intensive care unit at UCSF Medical Center. On the menu is organic plain whole milk yoghurt, fresh fruit, organic apple sauce, and wholegrain locally made bread. In the cafeteria downstairs is a salad bar stocked with fresh vegetables. All across the country, hospitals like this one in San Francisco are rethinking what's on its menu and in the cafeterias. In the past few months, hospitals are even stepping up to tell junk food purveyors to leave the premises. In January 2013, Truman Medical Centers in Kansas City, Missouri announced it was ending its lease with a McDonald's in its facility. You'd think getting big macs out of hospitals would be easy, but fast-food chains often require decades-long leases when they locate in a hospital. Corporate Accountability International (CAI), a non-profit organisation I partner with at Food MythBusters, has been supporting public health officials who want to get McDonald's and other fast food establishments out of their hospitals. Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas, Vanderbilt Medical Center, and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have all been successful in removing McDonald's food and marketing from their hospitals. Fast food chains aren't the only ones getting the boot. Deon says hospitals are looking at ways to remove soda and other sugared beverages from their campuses, too, and think more holistically about how food service is a key part of patient health. And in California, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) is working intensively with seven hospital groups to purchase food from local, sustainable growers. Ariane Michas who is leading the effort at CAFF says, "hospitals have an extraordinary opportunity to affect their local food systems. By pooling their purchasing power, they can throw their collective weight behind good, fresh, healthy, fair food and the farmers who grow it. Transforming hospital food, and connecting good food with patient health, is a movement that's expanding across the United States. And patients, like me and my daughter, are the better for it. Of course, this change won't happen overnight. But have no doubt it's happening. This content is brought to you by Guardian Professional. guardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
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Veröffentlicht am 04.04.13 mehr...

Searching for a Kind Easter and Passover

Last year I got thinking about the similarities between the Passover and Easter traditions.

Veröffentlicht am 21.03.13 mehr...

Use up leftover Easter eggs

Hard-boiled eggs are common leftovers after Easter.

Veröffentlicht am 22.02.13 von Sara Noel mehr...

Public & Collaborative Days Conference In Liège, Belgium

On the 26th and 27th of October during RECIPROCITY 2012, the International Design Biennial in Liège, the DESIS Network is organizing Public & Collaborative Days, a two-day conference focused on Design for Public Innovation. For more information visit: http://www.designliege.be

Veröffentlicht am 19.10.12 von desis mehr...

Kickin it Old Skool!

Unbiased observers would agree Carrotmob is ALMOST the perfect way to have an impact while spending your money.

Veröffentlicht am 22.01.13 mehr...

Articles: Tim Brown in LinkedIn’s Top 150 Thought Leaders

Tim Brown is one of 150 thought leaders selected for LinkedIn’s original content launch, which was recently covered in Wired, Fast Company, and All Things Digital.

Veröffentlicht am 02.10.12 mehr...

Amplify Soundview

Join the students of Parsons Transdisciplinary Design Program to amplify citizen engagement and stewardship in the development and care of the Soundview Park in the Bronx. When: Saturday, October 20, 2012 12pm–3.30pm Where: Soundview Park - Bronx River Ave. bet. Lafayette Ave., Surf Dr. At Rosedale and Lacombe Ave (Basketball Courts) Bronx For more information about this project visit: http://locast.mit.edu/U/?project=amplify-soundview

Veröffentlicht am 19.10.12 von desis mehr...

Meeting the President & Going Social: the Intel Israel CSR Report is on the Move

Two weeks ago, we were honored to host the President of Israel, Mr.

Veröffentlicht am 07.08.12 mehr...

The Pope gets electric Kangoo ZE van

Renault has presented the Vatican with two electric vehicles made especially to meet the mobility needs of the Pope. The vehicles were handed over last week to His Holiness Benedict XVI by Renault's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Carlos Ghosn, during a visit to the Pope's summer residence in Castel Gandolfo. The first vehicle, for use when the Pope is travelling at his summer re...

Veröffentlicht am 10.09.12 mehr...

Events: Edutopia Educators Workshop Opens for Registration

Edutopia, IDEO and the Riverdale Country School are offering “Design Thinking for Educators,” a five-week, free virtual course for K-12 teachers.

Veröffentlicht am 25.07.12 mehr...

Articles: Tom Hulme Appointed to Tech City Advisory Board

OpenIDEO co-founder Tom Hulme has been appointed to the Tech City Investment Organisation advisory board with the objective to provide “strategic direction” for the UK government’s efforts to support the startup community in East London.

Veröffentlicht am 23.07.12 mehr...

Toyota delivers first fleet Prius Plug-in

Toyota has hosted a vehicle hand-over to one of its leading business customers where Dr Shoichiro Toyoda, Toyota Motor Corporation Honorary Chairman, personally presented the keys of a new Prius Plug-in to Electricity North West. Dr Toyoda was at Toyota GB's Surrey headquarters during a visit to the UK and was able to present the first new Prius Plug-in to be ordered by a fleet customer. Th...

Veröffentlicht am 06.08.12 mehr...

Survey: Consumers Prefer Restaurants That Recycle

June 1, 2011 - Three out of five consumers prefer to visit restaurants that have recycling practices in place, according to a new study conducted by the National Restaurant Association.

Veröffentlicht am 01.06.11 von Bart King mehr...

3M's Sustainability Innovation Machine

Planes are now held together by tape, not bolts. It's really, really strong tape, but still. This somewhat frightening factoid is just one of the fascinating things I learned in a recent visit to the St. It's really, really strong tape, but still. This somewhat frightening factoid is just one of the fascinating things I learned in a recent visit to the St. Paul, MN, headquarters of the perennial innovation leader, 3M. For good reason, the $30-billion company has long been held up as a role model of how to manage innovation. In the sustainability realm, 3M pioneered what now seems like an obvious idea: avoiding pollution before having to clean it up. The environmental results of its near obsession with eco-efficiency are frankly astonishing. In the last two decades, 3M has slashed toxic releases by 99% and greenhouse gas emissions by 72%. 3M's sustainability leadership has come mainly from its eco-efficiency success, but these practices are increasingly the norm in business. Before my presentation at an employee event, I listened as CEO Inge Thulin and senior execs from each of the major divisions laid out their strategies. Thulin spoke about sustainability being "embedded...in our new vision" of growth and innovation. But most importantly, I heard about some great new products and technologies. When you're describing a company that launches an average of 20 new products every week, it's hard to pick favorites. The world's highest reflectivity mirror film, which can take sunlight from a roof and carry it deep into a building — the length of a football field, in fact — all while losing less than half of the light. I saw this technology paired seamlessly with some regular fluorescent lighting and working well in an interior conference room. Pipe linings: Every year, due in large part to 250,000 water main breaks, our cities lose 1.7 trillion gallons of treated water (equal to the total water use of the 10 largest cities). An industrial paint application product/service that reduces toxic solvent use by 70% and is saving customers, mostly auto repair shops, $2 billion from simpler paint operations and reduced waste. 3M's Novec Fluids, which provide cleaning, coating, cooling, and fire suppression for the electronics industry (chip manufacturing, datacenters, and so on) in a non-flammable, non-ozone-depleting way. 3M is a refreshingly humble company: every estimate or "boast" is carefully and conservatively calculated to not overstate the case. For 36 years, the company has used only first-year savings to tally the benefits of pollution prevention projects — that's an effective discount rate of, well, infinity. And with the water-pipe-lining technology, the payback calculation for customers includes only labor savings and overall construction efficiency. But there are signs of a feistier attitude brewing. The new CEO is making sustainability, growth, and innovation a powerful trifecta. With Novec Fluids, the team is not only working with key customers and early adopters, but it's also pushing the market toward greener options by advocating for tougher government standards and regulations. Finally, I toured the company's relatively new innovation demonstration center. Bottom line: sustainability is deeply integrated in 3M's innovation pipeline, which is the engine of the company. Many companies start talking about sustainability efforts before they've really made significant changes to the company or its products. Although 3M may have the opposite problem — getting too little brand and marketing value out of its efforts — it is usually smarter to execute first, and then tell your story. (Sign up for Andrew Winston's blog, via RSS feed, or by email.
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Veröffentlicht am 25.05.12 mehr...

Episode 14 of the AshokaTECH Podcast: Marc Maxson of Global Giving

The two of them discuss the work Marc has been doing with encouraging storytelling in Kenya and the latest in the field of analytics and measurement for non-profits.

Veröffentlicht am 27.05.10 von Alex Budak mehr...

EWG's Skin Deep Sunscreen Guide

Environmental Working Group's 2011 Sunscreen Guide is out!

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The Squeakquel

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Veröffentlicht am 08.04.10 mehr...

A winter’s tale

In the Iowa winter, as the poet Robert Hass wrote, “a farmer’s dreams are narrow,” and autumn can inspire me with a kind of dread as I work in the garden that will soon be buried under snow. To anyone familiar with the birds primarily through American patriotic kitsch, the sight may not seem that moving. But after the bald eagle became our national symbol in 1782, Americans drove it to the brink of extinction. In 1973, two years before I was born, nature writer George Laycock chronicled the “impending disappearance of the bald eagle” in a book that details the manifold challenges facing the birds, from pollution to hunting to development. His book, Autumn of the Eagle, advocates change but reads more like a lament for a species that is already gone, complete with data charts showing the extirpation of the birds from the lower 48 states. The practice emerged as a response to sheep ranchers’ mistaken belief that the birds, which grow to nearly four feet long and have a seven-foot wingspan, could prey on young lambs, a myth akin to the persistent rumor that the birds snatch small children. But it developed into a uniquely American high-octane sport. DDT was a far bigger threat. American farmers dumped thousands of tons of the insecticide on their crops each year in the 1950s and ’60s, before Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring established the link to waning bird populations and helped launch the American environmental movement. As DDT made its way through the food chain in ever-more-concentrated doses, it caused eagle shells to become thin and eagle eggs sterile. Against fierce industrial opposition, the U.S. banned DDT in 1972 and the birds were protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. In Shakespeare’s A Winter’s Tale, a character who has found a lost infant meets another who has just witnessed a death. “You have met with things dying,” he says, “and I with things newborn,” and the moment shifts the play from tragedy to comedy. The eagle’s return marks a similar narrative shift, a victory for those who spent their Januaries tramping around the frozen Midwest looking for the single eagle’s nest that remained in Iowa by 1977, holding out hope that the story could be changed if they could find and protect a viable egg. Even the most optimistic could never have predicted the resiliency of the birds and the ferocity of their comeback. In Iowa, environmentalists set a goal of 10 or 20 nests by 2010. But population growth took the U.S. Department of Wildlife by surprise. Last year, federal staffers lost count at 254 nests, nearly as many as once existed in the continental U.S. The birds left the Endangered Species List in 2007. This year, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources spotted 47 new eagle territories and stopped counting. Busloads of tourists now visit Iowa and Illinois in the winter—a trip that defies logic and comfort—to go on “eagle safaris” with leaders like Bob Motz. The retired biology teacher offers your money back if you don’t see eagles, “and I’ve never had to give it back,” he says. On a recent walk with my children, I lost track of how many eagles we saw fishing and nesting in trees. As one giant bird wheeled toward us and dove for fish, my daughter screamed, “Don’t eat me!” Then she returned to ignoring the bird. The lack of portentous symbolism the event held for her is a cause for celebration. For me, the eagle’s return is a scene of renewal at the time of the year that seems most barren and bleak, a reminder that a few dedicated people can change the narrative for a species or an ecosystem.
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Veröffentlicht am 12.09.11 mehr...

Women broadcasting peace in Brazil

So of course you know how once something enters your conscious awareness, you see it everywhere.

Veröffentlicht am 26.07.11 mehr...

Meditating on Pema Chödrön's 'Dusk on the River'

Although my main job is in a university, I also teach privately. My favorite of those lessons is an advanced English class for adults. I have been teaching them for many years, so we have become good friends. Recently I found the following story by Pema Chödrön in a lovely magazine called Fellowship in Prayer. It is a clear, seemingly simple tale about life as seen from a Buddhist perspective. I added questions (in red), which the students were to discuss one by one as they worked their way through the story. I was curious to hear their thoughts because this piece was written by an American Buddhist for a western audience. He is in a small boat. Do you get pleasure knowing others are enjoying themselves at the same time you are? He begins to get upset and shouts, “Hey, hey! Watch out! For heaven’s sake, turn aside. But the boat just comes faster and faster, right towards him. My students became very involved in this story, discussing each question from many different angles. First, they all agreed that as Japanese and Buddhists they would not have become angry that the other boat was coming towards them rapidly. They also said they would not have stood in the boat, screaming and shaking their fists. “We Japanese don’t do that sort of thing,” they reassured me. “We are taught not to express our anger openly. Another student made this comment: “Everyone has good and bad in them. That is natural. So when someone becomes angry, we wait. We are sure that a more positive side will soon come to the fore. We prefer to look upon the good side of others, if we can. “In my case,” said one man, “I would immediately have steered out of the way of the boat racing towards me. One woman then added, “I would have apologized immediately (to the empty boat, or maybe to her own!), but that is not what a westerner would do, I don’t think. When we get international drivers’ licenses, we are instructed never to say we are sorry if we have an accident. But here in Japan, we always apologize, even if we are not wrong. We say we are sorry for many reasons. The most important is that we want to be polite. Saying we are sorry shows our respect for the other person and we consider saying “Gomen nasai” (I am sorry) to be very polite. Another reason we say we are sorry, even is someone hit us, is because maybe we were in the other person’s way. Or possibly it is because we are sorry to have brought disharmony into the world. Maybe, too, it is because we know that this situation will cause problems for the person in the future. There are so many reasons why we apologize here in Japan. And sure enough a few days after this class a former student sent me an email in which she told me she was getting a divorce. But then she continued by saying, “I must apologize to you about this. You came to my wedding, but now I am divorcing. I feel so bad for doing this to you. I am sorry.” Her comment came as a surprise to me. “For me, I see this story as the recent tragic events in this area. The earthquake and tsunami came to us without warning. And then the nuclear problems began and continue. Of course, we are not happy with the nuclear situation or the government’s handling of it. We hope that something will soon be done about those human errors. But we do not go out and shake our fists to show extreme anger. We also did not scream and yell at the awful happenings of nature. Personally the more I think about it, the more I believe the basic psychic structure of the Japanese comes because throughout history we have experienced one huge tragedy after another. We had the enormous Jogan Earthquake in 869 AD. There are mass graves that tell us that thousands of people died then, too. Then in 1611 there was the Keicho Sanriku Earthquake. And in 1671 the Enpo Boso Offshore Quake hit. Also in 1923 there was a tremendous quake and fire in the Tokyo area in which over 100,000 people died. And the recent quake in Kobe caused a lot of deaths, too. We Japanese live on the edge of risk always. “We also have balance,” added another. “We know about the reality of earthquakes and tsunami and the possibility of losing everything very suddenly. But that is not the full picture. We also have a saying that goes like this: ‘When there is an earthquake, go into the bamboo forest.’ Bamboo has long roots, so a bamboo forest is more stable than other areas. And in everyday life, if there is upset or anger, we can always retreat to areas, even inside ourselves, that are stable and secure. Another student saw this story from a different angle. “The boat was empty. I think we live always knowing that life itself is empty. Today we may have things; tomorrow we might not. Even our own life, we have it now, but we know it is passing through us. That is basic to our way of thinking and to how we live each day. One final comment seemed to sum up a lot. “This story was definitely written by and for westerners. We Japanese somehow live knowing we are part of nature and of one another. And that is true even when nature shows her very destructive side. If you think of the tsunami as unleashed anger, then recent past events have shown us how terrible raging anger can be. That should be a good reminder of why we do not express fury in destructive ways. Also we are not separate and isolated from nature or from others. And we know that we have to work together to survive. I hear that there are people in America who live all by themselves far out in the woods. How do they do that? I can’t imagine it! For us we believe that being part of each other is fundamental to being human. Even though I have lived immersed in this culture for many years, I realize how my own psychic structure and thought patterns still remain very western. So I always appreciate a class like this one.
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Veröffentlicht am 27.07.11 mehr...

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