There were only two entries for the Recycled Solar Contest. First Prize went to Daanish Maqbool for a heat driven fan made from aluminum cans and Second Prize went to Jonathan Tejada for a wind generator made from plastic bottles.
Both were conceptual rather than working models. No Tim Harkness Prize for most imaginative design was awarded.
On a day with rain showers, Tim Harkness' small parabolic dish maxed out the oven thermometer at over 600 degrees Fahrenheit or 315 degrees Celsius.
Looking over my collection of single LED lights that are already on the market today, I could imagine a solar LED reading light that will allow every child around the world to read under the covers.
In 1988, I visited China and spent a few days in the city of Guangzhou. The first evening there I walked down the street and saw men in the doorways standing before small tables. They were repairing and selling disposable lighters.
Could a solar reading light become as relatively affordable and ubiquitous as a disposable lighter?
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Recycled Solar
Recycled Solar
Recycled Solar
Take the label off a clear plastic 2 liter
soda/pop/tonic bottle.
Cut the bottom off the bottle.
Plant a seed.
Press the edge of the bottomless bottle
into the soil around it.
The bottomless bottle is now a cloche or hot cap,
allowing earlier planting.
Open the bottomless bottle's bottle top
for warm days and close
it
for cold nights.
Take the labels off a few more
clear plastic 2 liter soda/pop/tonic bottles.
Fill them with water
and surround the bottomless bottle cloche hot cap.
Tie a string around this circle
and pull it tight.
During the day, the bottles of water
get warm
and stay warmer longer at night.
This recycled solar cloche
can take a month off planting season.
If you have green
plastic 2 liter soda/pop/tonic bottles,
place them on the North side
of the solar circle.
The darker the bottle
the hotter the water gets
in the sunlight.
This is a two tone solar cloche.
Take some silver paint
and paint the backs of
the green bottles
to reflect
light back
into the system
and you have a
three tone tuned
solar
cloche.
I built one once
for Candide's garden.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Folding the Circle
A friend was just visiting and brought the book, _The Geometry of Wholemovement_ by Bradford Hansen-Smith (ISBN 1-887229-24-8)
Hansen-Smith folds complex polyhedra out of circles, specifically paper pie plates. He writes of his method: "There was no measurement, only the proportional movement of dividing into the circle. I could form a circle into a tetrahedron, truncate it, reform it into an octahedron, into a tetrahelix, transform it into a cube and a hundred other spatial configurations simply by an in-and-out moving of a pattern of folded lines."
The book is excellent. You can get it from the author:
Bradford Hansen-Smith
4606 N Elston #3
Chicago, IL 60630
bradhs@interaccess.com
www.wholemovement.com
773-794-9764
Hansen-Smith folds complex polyhedra out of circles, specifically paper pie plates. He writes of his method: "There was no measurement, only the proportional movement of dividing into the circle. I could form a circle into a tetrahedron, truncate it, reform it into an octahedron, into a tetrahelix, transform it into a cube and a hundred other spatial configurations simply by an in-and-out moving of a pattern of folded lines."
The book is excellent. You can get it from the author:
Bradford Hansen-Smith
4606 N Elston #3
Chicago, IL 60630
bradhs@interaccess.com
www.wholemovement.com
773-794-9764
Friday, February 11, 2005
Digging Infinity! with Lord Buckley
_Dig Infinity!: The Life and Art of Lord Buckley_ by Oliver Trager (NY: Welcome Rain Publishers, 2001 ISBN 1-56649-157-6) (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=fz1mCrlAEn&isbn=1566492920&itm=1)
I recently read a biography of Lord Buckley, the declaimer of "The Nazz," known as a comedian, because I knew "The Nazz" from the late 60s and early 70s and was interested in discovering what else Lord Buckley did. The book comes complete with CD of some of his proto-Beat, hipster raps like "Subconscious Mind" and "Black Cross," a little of "Knock Me Your Lobes," Shakespeare in jive, and, of course, "The Nazz," his hip Gospel.
Turns out Richard "Lord" Buckley was a traveling showman from California who worked Depression Era dance marathons and walk-athons as an emcee and comic and the nightclub and Vaudeville and burlesque circuit in Chicago, Las Vegas, NY, LA, and SF. A self-made aristocrat, he gave himself his own title and gathered a Royal Court around him filled with people he dubbed Prince, Princess, Count, Earl, Sir, Lady...
Lord Buckley believed, "We have to spread love. We've got to. People of this nation have got to learn to be kinder, more gracious. They must rehearse kindness and graciousness with other people. They must do that. They must be more generous. The people who have things who are living next to people who haven't got things should give them some of the things that they have. We have to learn to give more. We have to learn to tighten, to magnetize this nation by love in this coming fight that we're in. We've _got_ to do that. We must do it. We _absolutely_ must. The government cannot do everything. The people must help. And they can help it by rehearsing love for each other."
"Rehearsing love for each other" where "love is the international understanding that each and every one of us have exactly the same problems to fight," and where God is love, as well as people:
"I went out looking for God the other day and I couldn't pin him. So I figure if I couldn't find him I'd look for his stash: his Great Lake of Love that holds the whole world in gear. And when I finally found it I had the great pleasure of finding that people were the guardians of it. Dig that. So, with my two times two is four, I figured that if people were guarding the stash of love known as God then, when people swing in beauty, they become little Gods and Goddesses. And I know a couple of them myself personally and I know you do too."
Buckley not only spun the Gospel his own way but he also told other Bible stories like "Jonah and the Whale," some of Aesop's fables, and the biographies of such people as Einstein and Gandhi. He was a pioneer monologuist and helped develop the comedy record.
He also dramatized the memoirs of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, _The Power Within_. De Vaca was a Spanish explorer who was shipwrecked in Florida and walked through the plains of the Americas for eight years until finally reaching Mexico. De Vaca and his companions survived because of his reputation as a healer. De Vaca wrote, "There is a great power within that when used in beauty, in Immaculate Conception and complete purity can cure and heal and cause miracles.... When you use it, it spreads like a magic garden, and when you do not use it, it recedes from you." Reportedly, De Vaca healed by laying on hands.
Buckley believed that everybody had access to this ability - if they swung in beauty. "All over this world in the alleys and valleys, on the plains, on the mesa, and the mountain top on the plateaus to the sands to the Gulf through the whole scene of this world - black, green, blue, yellow, and pink - there's loaded with _beautiful_ people that we never hear a thing about. We only hear about the winners and the losers and the others. But they're there. And those people are the protectors and progressers of the vaults of love which is known as 'God.' And when you appeal, when you go up a ladder, you go up the ladder and you go up so that you may get your vibrational points spread out so they go round-wise, electronic-wise, and you contact these people and you see their beauty and you hear the voices of the children and you see the sweet swing and the mighty power that's going ahead for greater perfection - for greater individual protection, for greater individual understanding, for greater presentation of the powers of the Garden of Love and contact with these people and - thack! - you could feel burning right in your hand."
One of Lord Buckley's most powerful pieces was "Black Cross" a poem by Joseph Newman, uncle of Paul Newman, about Hezikiah Jones, a black subsistence farmer, who runs afoul of the white man's preacher. He is accused of believing in nothing and responds:
Ah be'lieve that a man should be beholding to his neighbah
Widout the hope of Heaven or de fear o' Hell's fiah."
"But you don't understand," said the white man's preacher,
"There's a lot of good ways for a man to be wicked!"
And they _hung_ Hezikiah as _high_ as a pigeon,
And the nice folks around said, "Well, he had it comin'...
'Cause the son-of-a-bitch didn't have no religion!"
Can you say son-of-a-bitch on primetime network TV these days?
Buckley thought that religion would be replaced because "the steeples of the churches are too high for holes in the pants of the poor. And the drunk, the sickest and squarest of all, lies too long outside the closed doors without the arms of love to give him or her or it or they surcease, as it is written in every page of The Book." He said, "according to the study of the science of the cycle of design, that there must have been, and is working now, a whole new movement in great public beauty and therapy to take over the delinquencies of the church at _just_ the propitious moment.
And I found that that is _music_, ladies and gentlemen... music."
Buckley advised fighting injustice with humor: "It is the duty of any given nation in time of high crisis to attack the catastrophe that faces it in such a manner as to cause the people to laugh at it in such a way that they do not die before they get killed." At the same time, "he dug that it made no difference who be in the driver's seat since, no matter who, he be bound to square up - since square be the shape of all driver's seats."
Swing in beauty, cats and kitties, treat each other as the Lords and Ladies we all are, our noblest natures, all "created level in front."
Richard, Lord Buckley always has the last word:
"Well, I would like to say that in my feelings for the people everywhere I've worked, that their wonderful attention, their divine concentration, their precious presence and their attitude to _each_ and _every_ performer on the stage only goes to prove more and more: that the flowers, the beautiful magical flowers are _not_ the flowers of life. That _people... people_ are the true and wonderful flowers of life and it is always a great honor and a great privilege and a rare pleasure to even temporarily stroll into the gardens of their attentions. God swing them and God love them."
Further information at http://www.lordbuckley.com
I recently read a biography of Lord Buckley, the declaimer of "The Nazz," known as a comedian, because I knew "The Nazz" from the late 60s and early 70s and was interested in discovering what else Lord Buckley did. The book comes complete with CD of some of his proto-Beat, hipster raps like "Subconscious Mind" and "Black Cross," a little of "Knock Me Your Lobes," Shakespeare in jive, and, of course, "The Nazz," his hip Gospel.
Turns out Richard "Lord" Buckley was a traveling showman from California who worked Depression Era dance marathons and walk-athons as an emcee and comic and the nightclub and Vaudeville and burlesque circuit in Chicago, Las Vegas, NY, LA, and SF. A self-made aristocrat, he gave himself his own title and gathered a Royal Court around him filled with people he dubbed Prince, Princess, Count, Earl, Sir, Lady...
Lord Buckley believed, "We have to spread love. We've got to. People of this nation have got to learn to be kinder, more gracious. They must rehearse kindness and graciousness with other people. They must do that. They must be more generous. The people who have things who are living next to people who haven't got things should give them some of the things that they have. We have to learn to give more. We have to learn to tighten, to magnetize this nation by love in this coming fight that we're in. We've _got_ to do that. We must do it. We _absolutely_ must. The government cannot do everything. The people must help. And they can help it by rehearsing love for each other."
"Rehearsing love for each other" where "love is the international understanding that each and every one of us have exactly the same problems to fight," and where God is love, as well as people:
"I went out looking for God the other day and I couldn't pin him. So I figure if I couldn't find him I'd look for his stash: his Great Lake of Love that holds the whole world in gear. And when I finally found it I had the great pleasure of finding that people were the guardians of it. Dig that. So, with my two times two is four, I figured that if people were guarding the stash of love known as God then, when people swing in beauty, they become little Gods and Goddesses. And I know a couple of them myself personally and I know you do too."
Buckley not only spun the Gospel his own way but he also told other Bible stories like "Jonah and the Whale," some of Aesop's fables, and the biographies of such people as Einstein and Gandhi. He was a pioneer monologuist and helped develop the comedy record.
He also dramatized the memoirs of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, _The Power Within_. De Vaca was a Spanish explorer who was shipwrecked in Florida and walked through the plains of the Americas for eight years until finally reaching Mexico. De Vaca and his companions survived because of his reputation as a healer. De Vaca wrote, "There is a great power within that when used in beauty, in Immaculate Conception and complete purity can cure and heal and cause miracles.... When you use it, it spreads like a magic garden, and when you do not use it, it recedes from you." Reportedly, De Vaca healed by laying on hands.
Buckley believed that everybody had access to this ability - if they swung in beauty. "All over this world in the alleys and valleys, on the plains, on the mesa, and the mountain top on the plateaus to the sands to the Gulf through the whole scene of this world - black, green, blue, yellow, and pink - there's loaded with _beautiful_ people that we never hear a thing about. We only hear about the winners and the losers and the others. But they're there. And those people are the protectors and progressers of the vaults of love which is known as 'God.' And when you appeal, when you go up a ladder, you go up the ladder and you go up so that you may get your vibrational points spread out so they go round-wise, electronic-wise, and you contact these people and you see their beauty and you hear the voices of the children and you see the sweet swing and the mighty power that's going ahead for greater perfection - for greater individual protection, for greater individual understanding, for greater presentation of the powers of the Garden of Love and contact with these people and - thack! - you could feel burning right in your hand."
One of Lord Buckley's most powerful pieces was "Black Cross" a poem by Joseph Newman, uncle of Paul Newman, about Hezikiah Jones, a black subsistence farmer, who runs afoul of the white man's preacher. He is accused of believing in nothing and responds:
Ah be'lieve that a man should be beholding to his neighbah
Widout the hope of Heaven or de fear o' Hell's fiah."
"But you don't understand," said the white man's preacher,
"There's a lot of good ways for a man to be wicked!"
And they _hung_ Hezikiah as _high_ as a pigeon,
And the nice folks around said, "Well, he had it comin'...
'Cause the son-of-a-bitch didn't have no religion!"
Can you say son-of-a-bitch on primetime network TV these days?
Buckley thought that religion would be replaced because "the steeples of the churches are too high for holes in the pants of the poor. And the drunk, the sickest and squarest of all, lies too long outside the closed doors without the arms of love to give him or her or it or they surcease, as it is written in every page of The Book." He said, "according to the study of the science of the cycle of design, that there must have been, and is working now, a whole new movement in great public beauty and therapy to take over the delinquencies of the church at _just_ the propitious moment.
And I found that that is _music_, ladies and gentlemen... music."
Buckley advised fighting injustice with humor: "It is the duty of any given nation in time of high crisis to attack the catastrophe that faces it in such a manner as to cause the people to laugh at it in such a way that they do not die before they get killed." At the same time, "he dug that it made no difference who be in the driver's seat since, no matter who, he be bound to square up - since square be the shape of all driver's seats."
Swing in beauty, cats and kitties, treat each other as the Lords and Ladies we all are, our noblest natures, all "created level in front."
Richard, Lord Buckley always has the last word:
"Well, I would like to say that in my feelings for the people everywhere I've worked, that their wonderful attention, their divine concentration, their precious presence and their attitude to _each_ and _every_ performer on the stage only goes to prove more and more: that the flowers, the beautiful magical flowers are _not_ the flowers of life. That _people... people_ are the true and wonderful flowers of life and it is always a great honor and a great privilege and a rare pleasure to even temporarily stroll into the gardens of their attentions. God swing them and God love them."
Further information at http://www.lordbuckley.com
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
Project for a New Year: Free Secular Literacy for All
"Asked about the biggest threat to their groups' survival, a militant says that 'free secular education for all' leading to an 'increase in the literacy rate' is the gravest threat to the survival of the jihadi groups in Pakistan."
_Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill_ by Jessica Stern (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), page 230
"Free secular education for all."
Why not an ad hoc, all media, open source push to make literacy possible for everybody in the world? When Google can announce that it will digitize the NY Public Library, why not free secular education for all, teaching literacy in local languages available through cell phone, Web/Net, radio, video, hard copy, and word of mouth?
Why not universal availability of learning materials by every means possible, taking into account the varieties of learning intelligences and the concept of literacy beyond the written word, rune, and ideogram, beyond numeracy? What about providing universal global access to the world's libraries to balance those who teach only the the One Holy Book, be it Koran, Bible, or little red book, only by rote, and always subject to higher or Higher Authority?
We are already a couple of years into the UNESCO Literacy Decade scheduled to run from 2003-2012 (http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5000&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html). The goals include achieving "50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women... ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality... eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender equality in education by 2015."
With some 800 million or more illiterate adults in the world, about two-thirds of whom are women, and 100 million children children with no access to school, total literacy is going to be a difficult process. Making the best methods and resources universally and freely available through as many different media as possible would be a great help.
Here is an example of what is already beginning to happen from Meskel Square, a blog about Ethiopia (http://www.meskelsquare.com):
"The shock of the new (http://www.meskelsquare.com/archives/2005/01/the_shock_of_th.html))
"Just returned from a three-day trip to Ethiopia's very beautiful Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR).
"The scenery was stunning and the rural development sites we visited (with the UN's World Food Programme) were fascinating. But, for me, they were topped by a visit to a remote high school, a day-and-a-half's trip on rocky, unmade roads south of Addis Ababa.
"Just returned from a three-day trip to Ethiopia's very beautiful Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR).
"The scenery was stunning and the rural development sites we visited (with the UN's World Food Programme) were fascinating. But, for me, they were topped by a visit to a remote high school, a day-and-a-half's trip on rocky, unmade roads south of Addis Ababa.
"As we walked up to one of the outdoor classrooms, we heard the voice of a Maths teacher going into great detail about the angles of a parallelogram. When we went in, we found the 60 or so students were all taking their lesson from a professor speaking through a state-of-the-art Samsung plasma video screen that would be way beyond the budget of many schools in the UK. The lesson was being beamed in from Addis via a huge satellite dish outside through a rack of Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) receivers.
"Headteacher Mohamed Nur Osman said there had been an initial adjustment period when the screen was first installed six months ago. Students had found it hard to keep up with the English used by the Addis-based teachers. But they soon got used to it and grades had improved by up to 45 per cent over the period.
"These days students at Mudula Senior Secondary School receive Maths, English, Civics, Chemistry, Biology and Physics lessons by satellite. They have a computer room stocked with 35 Acer PCs. And they also have a handful of Dells which they plan to use in two months time to access the internet, also by satellite.
"Apparently, every high school in Ethiopia has similar equipment (including the plasma screen), paid for by the Ministry of Education.
"The technology and its application were interesting enough. I also liked the sheer excess of it all. If someone is going to provide you with lots of gear, why settle for a boring old TV monitor. If in doubt, go for plasma."
Resources to begin the Project for a New Year: Free Secular Literacy for All
I've been playing with a list of 100 Basic Words I found someplace on the Net a few years ago. I think there's a poem in there someplace:
yes no hello goodbye good morning good night
please thank you you're welcome excuse me/I'm sorry
who what/what kind which where when why how how much/many (some languages have one word for both)
and but also maybe only too (as in "in excess")
a little
something someone anything anyone nothing no one
man woman child boy girl
mother father sister brother son daughter husband wife family friend
food water breakfast lunch dinner
day night/evening morning afternoon dawn sunset
chair table pen paper book newspaper magazine
money store restaurant car city town
language student teacher
east west north south right left
help
see hear think speak know (most languages have 2 verbs for to know; to know a fact and to know a person/place) understand
do, make (often the same)
ask
eat drink
want need
study/learn (often the same)
sit stand walk run
come go live (most languages differentiate between to live as in 'to be alive' and to live as in 'to inhabit' )
like/love (often the same)
buy sell work pay
look for, visit
good/well bad
beautiful/pretty ugly interesting
big small
sick well nice
hot cold
new old (many languages distinguish between an old person and an old thing)
near far
Some categories of useful words:
Food
Parts of the body
Clothing
Family
Occupations
Nationalities and language names
Days of the week and the months
Times of day
Your own occupation
Your own nationality
Your native language and others you speak
from http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000515.php
Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design
"I thought I was the only one in the world stealing the safety instruction cards from airline seats because of their terrific folk graphics. For radically clear thinking nothing can beat a really good set of wordless diagrams; hundreds of examples from around the world are paraded here. Designers of the world, please heed."
-- Kevin Kelly
Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design
Paul Mijksenaar and Piet Westendorp
1999, 144 pages
$6
Joost Elffers Books
The Literacy Site (http://www.theliteracysite.com/) will donate books to children around the world if you visit the site and click.
"Literacy in SIL (http://www.sil.org/literacy/) distinctively focuses on developing programs in lesser-known and endangered languages and emphasizes using the mother tongue as the gateway to basic literacy. SIL's vision for language programs is to see literacy become a sustainable community value with the ownership of literacy goals and activities in the hands of the people."
You should be aware that the World Literacy Crusade seems to be a Church of Scientology project.
_Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill_ by Jessica Stern (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), page 230
"Free secular education for all."
Why not an ad hoc, all media, open source push to make literacy possible for everybody in the world? When Google can announce that it will digitize the NY Public Library, why not free secular education for all, teaching literacy in local languages available through cell phone, Web/Net, radio, video, hard copy, and word of mouth?
Why not universal availability of learning materials by every means possible, taking into account the varieties of learning intelligences and the concept of literacy beyond the written word, rune, and ideogram, beyond numeracy? What about providing universal global access to the world's libraries to balance those who teach only the the One Holy Book, be it Koran, Bible, or little red book, only by rote, and always subject to higher or Higher Authority?
We are already a couple of years into the UNESCO Literacy Decade scheduled to run from 2003-2012 (http://portal.unesco.org/education/en/ev.php-URL_ID=5000&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html). The goals include achieving "50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women... ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality... eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005 and achieving gender equality in education by 2015."
With some 800 million or more illiterate adults in the world, about two-thirds of whom are women, and 100 million children children with no access to school, total literacy is going to be a difficult process. Making the best methods and resources universally and freely available through as many different media as possible would be a great help.
Here is an example of what is already beginning to happen from Meskel Square, a blog about Ethiopia (http://www.meskelsquare.com):
"The shock of the new (http://www.meskelsquare.com/archives/2005/01/the_shock_of_th.html))
"Just returned from a three-day trip to Ethiopia's very beautiful Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR).
"The scenery was stunning and the rural development sites we visited (with the UN's World Food Programme) were fascinating. But, for me, they were topped by a visit to a remote high school, a day-and-a-half's trip on rocky, unmade roads south of Addis Ababa.
"Just returned from a three-day trip to Ethiopia's very beautiful Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR).
"The scenery was stunning and the rural development sites we visited (with the UN's World Food Programme) were fascinating. But, for me, they were topped by a visit to a remote high school, a day-and-a-half's trip on rocky, unmade roads south of Addis Ababa.
"As we walked up to one of the outdoor classrooms, we heard the voice of a Maths teacher going into great detail about the angles of a parallelogram. When we went in, we found the 60 or so students were all taking their lesson from a professor speaking through a state-of-the-art Samsung plasma video screen that would be way beyond the budget of many schools in the UK. The lesson was being beamed in from Addis via a huge satellite dish outside through a rack of Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) receivers.
"Headteacher Mohamed Nur Osman said there had been an initial adjustment period when the screen was first installed six months ago. Students had found it hard to keep up with the English used by the Addis-based teachers. But they soon got used to it and grades had improved by up to 45 per cent over the period.
"These days students at Mudula Senior Secondary School receive Maths, English, Civics, Chemistry, Biology and Physics lessons by satellite. They have a computer room stocked with 35 Acer PCs. And they also have a handful of Dells which they plan to use in two months time to access the internet, also by satellite.
"Apparently, every high school in Ethiopia has similar equipment (including the plasma screen), paid for by the Ministry of Education.
"The technology and its application were interesting enough. I also liked the sheer excess of it all. If someone is going to provide you with lots of gear, why settle for a boring old TV monitor. If in doubt, go for plasma."
Resources to begin the Project for a New Year: Free Secular Literacy for All
I've been playing with a list of 100 Basic Words I found someplace on the Net a few years ago. I think there's a poem in there someplace:
yes no hello goodbye good morning good night
please thank you you're welcome excuse me/I'm sorry
who what/what kind which where when why how how much/many (some languages have one word for both)
and but also maybe only too (as in "in excess")
a little
something someone anything anyone nothing no one
man woman child boy girl
mother father sister brother son daughter husband wife family friend
food water breakfast lunch dinner
day night/evening morning afternoon dawn sunset
chair table pen paper book newspaper magazine
money store restaurant car city town
language student teacher
east west north south right left
help
see hear think speak know (most languages have 2 verbs for to know; to know a fact and to know a person/place) understand
do, make (often the same)
ask
eat drink
want need
study/learn (often the same)
sit stand walk run
come go live (most languages differentiate between to live as in 'to be alive' and to live as in 'to inhabit' )
like/love (often the same)
buy sell work pay
look for, visit
good/well bad
beautiful/pretty ugly interesting
big small
sick well nice
hot cold
new old (many languages distinguish between an old person and an old thing)
near far
Some categories of useful words:
Food
Parts of the body
Clothing
Family
Occupations
Nationalities and language names
Days of the week and the months
Times of day
Your own occupation
Your own nationality
Your native language and others you speak
from http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/000515.php
Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design
"I thought I was the only one in the world stealing the safety instruction cards from airline seats because of their terrific folk graphics. For radically clear thinking nothing can beat a really good set of wordless diagrams; hundreds of examples from around the world are paraded here. Designers of the world, please heed."
-- Kevin Kelly
Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design
Paul Mijksenaar and Piet Westendorp
1999, 144 pages
$6
Joost Elffers Books
The Literacy Site (http://www.theliteracysite.com/) will donate books to children around the world if you visit the site and click.
"Literacy in SIL (http://www.sil.org/literacy/) distinctively focuses on developing programs in lesser-known and endangered languages and emphasizes using the mother tongue as the gateway to basic literacy. SIL's vision for language programs is to see literacy become a sustainable community value with the ownership of literacy goals and activities in the hands of the people."
You should be aware that the World Literacy Crusade seems to be a Church of Scientology project.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Human Power Stations
Here's a company that sells human power generators
http://www.windstreampower.com/humanpower/hpg.html
There's always Freeplay and they have a "FreeCharge Marine Power Pack" that's "available soon"
http://www.freeplayenergy.com/index.php?section=home
And this company, Dynosys, seems to have optimized the wheel-rim generator
http://www.dynosys-ag.ch/indexe.html
http://www.windstreampower.com/humanpower/hpg.html
There's always Freeplay and they have a "FreeCharge Marine Power Pack" that's "available soon"
http://www.freeplayenergy.com/index.php?section=home
And this company, Dynosys, seems to have optimized the wheel-rim generator
http://www.dynosys-ag.ch/indexe.html
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Three Solar Projects
1. Solar Product Chain
I want to make a series of steppingstone products to full solar electric power:
solar powered LED light - flashlight, keychain or backpack fob
solar jewelry - rings, bracelets, necklaces, with solar charging brooch and rechargeable battery pack
solar bicycle light (for visibility)
This set of products uses button batteries, CR2016 and CR2032 size and hearing aid batteries, for instance. The simplest system is a solar cell, with a blocking diode, a set or rechargeable batteries, and a single LED
solar/dynamo flashlight/radio and battery charger
The charger works on AA and other dry cell sizes, possibly up to 12 volts. A radio and flashlight are what is recommended in case of emergency and disaster. If the extra set of batteries is rechargeable, the solar/dynamo system can produce electricity day or night by sunlight or muscle power as long as the batteries can carry a charge.
solar car battery charger (one square foot)
12 volt (and multiples)
Every car can become a "hybrid vehicle" by installing an extra battery and a control system to charge from the alternator when the engine's battery is finished. Battery switching, with 12 volt or dry cell or even button batteries is a key concept in the solar transition.
one window solar electric system (four square feet)
12 volt, with AC inverter and possible grid connect
The one window system is 4 square feet of solar collector and should be almost as easy to install as an air conditioner. Open the window, erect the frame, aim it at the sun, attach collector, plug it in, and close the window.
There should be a consistent look and feel to all the products along the product chain and as much inter-operability as possible.
2. Your Southernmost Window
A series of half hour programs for TV, videotape, DVD and other digital media
What you can do with one south-facing window, or how to live within a solar budget, including designs viewers can replicate at home to provide heat, light, ventilation, and/or stimulate ecological growth.
Program 1. What You can See from a Window - one square foot of sunlight, orientation to the sun, design principles, window types, glazing, heat loss, infiltration, insulation, heating ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), air purification, breathing
Program 2. Every Window in the House - window types take 2, radiation and convection, caulking and weatherstripping, drafts and infiltration, how to chart your airflows, how to use them, window insulation, whole house HVAC
Program 3. The Electric Window - solar electricity/photovoltaic/PV, small battery charger, solar/dynamo flashlight radio, one window systems, permanent emergency capacity, battery switching and your car
Program 4. Hot and Cold Windows - windowbox heaters, passive and active ventilators, advanced airflow usage, active and passive water heating, your northernmost window, a nod towards refrigerators and low heat differential heat pumps
Program 5. The Greenhouse Window - windowsill gardens, bubbling out/bubbling in, heat storage, aquaculture, vermiculture, and ecological housekeeping, the neighborhood
Program 6. Most Windows in Town -what if everybody did it?, the economics of sunlight, systems thinking from community to region to country to world, globalization of solar physics
3. Mister Franklin's Folks
Mister Franklin’s Folks began when a small group of people decided to bring a solar fountain to the local farmers markets, swap meets, and outdoor community events and began to generate public power. Each week, they’d float the solar electric panel and pump the water in a tub and the little fountain would splash and spray. The brighter the sunshine the higher the water would go. Children loved to turn it on and off with their shadows, jumping into and out of the sunlight, making the water dance and themselves laugh. Older kids asked questions and so did some of the adults. “What’s it for?" "How does it work?" "Why are you doing this?" "So what?”
The exhibit was labeled, “Solar Fountain/Wishing Well” and some coins lay at the bottom of the tub. There was a big can labeled “Donations” on the table under the shade of an awning or umbrella where one of Franklin’s Folk sat with a portable computer and a collection of books, pamphlets, leaflets, cards, and stickers. The car, van or truck parked behind them was full of working models and public experiments, product demos and testing equipment. The computer had a wireless connection to the Internet and could print out paper copy or otherwise transfer the information. For a donation.
Each week, from Memorial Day to the week before Thanksgiving, throughout the farmers market season, they’d be there. Each week, they’d set up the solar fountain and present a different demonstration of solar ingenuity and practical power. When they said "Power to the people," they meant it literally.
The Franklin Folk said “Your south-facing window is already a solar collector and we can show you how to use it.” They provided designs and projects that began by caulking and sealing a window and ended with a complete one room HVAC and electrical system for daily and/or emergency use.
They liked the little solar/dynamo radio/flashlights that were around then. “A solar/dynamo and a set of rechargeable batteries is a perpetual source of personal AA electrical power - at least until the batteries wear out. You should have power as long as the sun keeps shining, you can turn the hand crank, and the batteries hold a charge. And when the batteries die, all you have to do is go out and buy some new ones. That is, unless we’ve changed to fuel cells or flywheels by then.”
“If you have a bicycle or exercise equipment, you can probably install a generator device and provide another lifetime supply of AA power from that, too!” They had the plans so you could do it yourself and a bulk buying club so that people could save money on parts and supplies. “Let your kids make their own battery power from sunlight and a little exercise. Power your devices with a walk on the treadmill or while biking on errands.”
They did simple experiments like the one with three boxes of air - three small, sealed, transparent boxes all the same size, each with a thermometer. They set them out in the sun - one box totally transparent, one box's clear sides covered in white insulation board except for the side facing the sun, the third box covered with black insulation board and one side, also, clear to the sun. Two thermometers measured the temperature of the outdoor air, one in the sunlight and another in the shade. The Franklin Folk displayed the results of that day’s solar race with a running total on computer by their table and on the Internet with a mobile uplink.
They called themselves Mister Franklin’s Folks because, like Benjamin Franklin, they believed in ingenuity and thrift. They quoted Poor Richard:
A penny saved is two pence clear. A pin a-day is a groat a year. Save and have.
Every little makes a mickle.
A wise Man will desire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully and leave contentedly.
Spare and have is better than spend and crave.
Like Mr Franklin, they were experimenting with electricity but instead of kites and lightning, they were looking at the sun for energy independence and building the idea of a renewable economy use by use, appliance by appliance, socket by socket, room by room.
One day, one of Mr Franklin's Folk pointed back at their car and said, "This car is now a hybrid vehicle. We modified it to charge an extra battery and can switch that battery with one in the house to run another room or part of the household. Many of us Franklin Folk are reducing our electrical bills considerably. Eventually we want to use the the grid only for back-up and you can too. With the money we save, we'll be able to install enough solar electric panels so we can begin to run the meter backwards and the electric company will have to pay us."
Other days, they had information on how to keep a pantry and food storage. Not only did they teach people how to can and salt and dry foods but they also helped organize buying clubs and bulk purchases in season to save everybody money and help the farmers in the local agricultural system steady their income and cash flow. At the farmers market they displayed maps of all the agricultural resources in the state - farmers markets, pick-your-owns, farm stands, CSAs, community gardens and farms, coops, buying clubs, community kitchens, food pantries and feeding programs. They had composting and worm farming demonstrations, taught the local community, backyard and windowsill gardeners how to lengthen their growing seasons, and encouraged the public planting of fruit trees and berry bushes throughout the city and town.
“Spare and have is better than spend and crave.”
"A wise Man will desire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully and leave contentedly."
"Every little makes a mickle."
"A penny saved is two pence clear. A pin a-day is a groat a year. Save and have."
They quoted Poor Richard's old home truths but put them into an ecological survival context. Each week they offered practical lessons in real thrift or how to save a fortune while saving the environment, the community, and the world.
"Franklin established the oldest working cooperative in the United States, the Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss Against Fire in 1752. It was called the Hand-in-Hand, after the symbol of four hands grasping four wrists in a form commonly known as a Jacob's Chair. It was their fire mark, a sign they put on the houses they insured so that their volunteer fire department would know which houses it had responsibility for. A volunteer fire department not associated with the Hand-in-Hand would just let the building burn."
"How would Mister Franklin do business these days?" Mister Franklin's Folks asked. "Benjamin Franklin was one of the early researchers into the Gulf Stream. How would he deal with global warming and the ozone hole, let alone local pollution? He invented an odometer to set up postal routes and was the first postmaster general of the United States. What do you think he'd do with the Internet? He published the first political cartoon in North America and refused the job of writing the Declaration of Independence because he would not be edited by anyone but himself.
"Benjamin Franklin was a printer, writer, editor, newspaper, magazine, and book publisher. What do you think he would have done in the modern news environment?"
These were some of the things Mr. Franklin’s Folks brought to their table at the farmer’s market, church social, and neighborhood celebration week after week all that year.
I want to make a series of steppingstone products to full solar electric power:
solar powered LED light - flashlight, keychain or backpack fob
solar jewelry - rings, bracelets, necklaces, with solar charging brooch and rechargeable battery pack
solar bicycle light (for visibility)
This set of products uses button batteries, CR2016 and CR2032 size and hearing aid batteries, for instance. The simplest system is a solar cell, with a blocking diode, a set or rechargeable batteries, and a single LED
solar/dynamo flashlight/radio and battery charger
The charger works on AA and other dry cell sizes, possibly up to 12 volts. A radio and flashlight are what is recommended in case of emergency and disaster. If the extra set of batteries is rechargeable, the solar/dynamo system can produce electricity day or night by sunlight or muscle power as long as the batteries can carry a charge.
solar car battery charger (one square foot)
12 volt (and multiples)
Every car can become a "hybrid vehicle" by installing an extra battery and a control system to charge from the alternator when the engine's battery is finished. Battery switching, with 12 volt or dry cell or even button batteries is a key concept in the solar transition.
one window solar electric system (four square feet)
12 volt, with AC inverter and possible grid connect
The one window system is 4 square feet of solar collector and should be almost as easy to install as an air conditioner. Open the window, erect the frame, aim it at the sun, attach collector, plug it in, and close the window.
There should be a consistent look and feel to all the products along the product chain and as much inter-operability as possible.
2. Your Southernmost Window
A series of half hour programs for TV, videotape, DVD and other digital media
What you can do with one south-facing window, or how to live within a solar budget, including designs viewers can replicate at home to provide heat, light, ventilation, and/or stimulate ecological growth.
Program 1. What You can See from a Window - one square foot of sunlight, orientation to the sun, design principles, window types, glazing, heat loss, infiltration, insulation, heating ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), air purification, breathing
Program 2. Every Window in the House - window types take 2, radiation and convection, caulking and weatherstripping, drafts and infiltration, how to chart your airflows, how to use them, window insulation, whole house HVAC
Program 3. The Electric Window - solar electricity/photovoltaic/PV, small battery charger, solar/dynamo flashlight radio, one window systems, permanent emergency capacity, battery switching and your car
Program 4. Hot and Cold Windows - windowbox heaters, passive and active ventilators, advanced airflow usage, active and passive water heating, your northernmost window, a nod towards refrigerators and low heat differential heat pumps
Program 5. The Greenhouse Window - windowsill gardens, bubbling out/bubbling in, heat storage, aquaculture, vermiculture, and ecological housekeeping, the neighborhood
Program 6. Most Windows in Town -what if everybody did it?, the economics of sunlight, systems thinking from community to region to country to world, globalization of solar physics
3. Mister Franklin's Folks
Mister Franklin’s Folks began when a small group of people decided to bring a solar fountain to the local farmers markets, swap meets, and outdoor community events and began to generate public power. Each week, they’d float the solar electric panel and pump the water in a tub and the little fountain would splash and spray. The brighter the sunshine the higher the water would go. Children loved to turn it on and off with their shadows, jumping into and out of the sunlight, making the water dance and themselves laugh. Older kids asked questions and so did some of the adults. “What’s it for?" "How does it work?" "Why are you doing this?" "So what?”
The exhibit was labeled, “Solar Fountain/Wishing Well” and some coins lay at the bottom of the tub. There was a big can labeled “Donations” on the table under the shade of an awning or umbrella where one of Franklin’s Folk sat with a portable computer and a collection of books, pamphlets, leaflets, cards, and stickers. The car, van or truck parked behind them was full of working models and public experiments, product demos and testing equipment. The computer had a wireless connection to the Internet and could print out paper copy or otherwise transfer the information. For a donation.
Each week, from Memorial Day to the week before Thanksgiving, throughout the farmers market season, they’d be there. Each week, they’d set up the solar fountain and present a different demonstration of solar ingenuity and practical power. When they said "Power to the people," they meant it literally.
The Franklin Folk said “Your south-facing window is already a solar collector and we can show you how to use it.” They provided designs and projects that began by caulking and sealing a window and ended with a complete one room HVAC and electrical system for daily and/or emergency use.
They liked the little solar/dynamo radio/flashlights that were around then. “A solar/dynamo and a set of rechargeable batteries is a perpetual source of personal AA electrical power - at least until the batteries wear out. You should have power as long as the sun keeps shining, you can turn the hand crank, and the batteries hold a charge. And when the batteries die, all you have to do is go out and buy some new ones. That is, unless we’ve changed to fuel cells or flywheels by then.”
“If you have a bicycle or exercise equipment, you can probably install a generator device and provide another lifetime supply of AA power from that, too!” They had the plans so you could do it yourself and a bulk buying club so that people could save money on parts and supplies. “Let your kids make their own battery power from sunlight and a little exercise. Power your devices with a walk on the treadmill or while biking on errands.”
They did simple experiments like the one with three boxes of air - three small, sealed, transparent boxes all the same size, each with a thermometer. They set them out in the sun - one box totally transparent, one box's clear sides covered in white insulation board except for the side facing the sun, the third box covered with black insulation board and one side, also, clear to the sun. Two thermometers measured the temperature of the outdoor air, one in the sunlight and another in the shade. The Franklin Folk displayed the results of that day’s solar race with a running total on computer by their table and on the Internet with a mobile uplink.
They called themselves Mister Franklin’s Folks because, like Benjamin Franklin, they believed in ingenuity and thrift. They quoted Poor Richard:
A penny saved is two pence clear. A pin a-day is a groat a year. Save and have.
Every little makes a mickle.
A wise Man will desire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully and leave contentedly.
Spare and have is better than spend and crave.
Like Mr Franklin, they were experimenting with electricity but instead of kites and lightning, they were looking at the sun for energy independence and building the idea of a renewable economy use by use, appliance by appliance, socket by socket, room by room.
One day, one of Mr Franklin's Folk pointed back at their car and said, "This car is now a hybrid vehicle. We modified it to charge an extra battery and can switch that battery with one in the house to run another room or part of the household. Many of us Franklin Folk are reducing our electrical bills considerably. Eventually we want to use the the grid only for back-up and you can too. With the money we save, we'll be able to install enough solar electric panels so we can begin to run the meter backwards and the electric company will have to pay us."
Other days, they had information on how to keep a pantry and food storage. Not only did they teach people how to can and salt and dry foods but they also helped organize buying clubs and bulk purchases in season to save everybody money and help the farmers in the local agricultural system steady their income and cash flow. At the farmers market they displayed maps of all the agricultural resources in the state - farmers markets, pick-your-owns, farm stands, CSAs, community gardens and farms, coops, buying clubs, community kitchens, food pantries and feeding programs. They had composting and worm farming demonstrations, taught the local community, backyard and windowsill gardeners how to lengthen their growing seasons, and encouraged the public planting of fruit trees and berry bushes throughout the city and town.
“Spare and have is better than spend and crave.”
"A wise Man will desire no more than what he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully and leave contentedly."
"Every little makes a mickle."
"A penny saved is two pence clear. A pin a-day is a groat a year. Save and have."
They quoted Poor Richard's old home truths but put them into an ecological survival context. Each week they offered practical lessons in real thrift or how to save a fortune while saving the environment, the community, and the world.
"Franklin established the oldest working cooperative in the United States, the Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss Against Fire in 1752. It was called the Hand-in-Hand, after the symbol of four hands grasping four wrists in a form commonly known as a Jacob's Chair. It was their fire mark, a sign they put on the houses they insured so that their volunteer fire department would know which houses it had responsibility for. A volunteer fire department not associated with the Hand-in-Hand would just let the building burn."
"How would Mister Franklin do business these days?" Mister Franklin's Folks asked. "Benjamin Franklin was one of the early researchers into the Gulf Stream. How would he deal with global warming and the ozone hole, let alone local pollution? He invented an odometer to set up postal routes and was the first postmaster general of the United States. What do you think he'd do with the Internet? He published the first political cartoon in North America and refused the job of writing the Declaration of Independence because he would not be edited by anyone but himself.
"Benjamin Franklin was a printer, writer, editor, newspaper, magazine, and book publisher. What do you think he would have done in the modern news environment?"
These were some of the things Mr. Franklin’s Folks brought to their table at the farmer’s market, church social, and neighborhood celebration week after week all that year.
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