My bedroom is now basically off-grid.
For years my bedside radio has been a solar/dynamo flashlight/radio. This particular one has been modified to charge AA batteries besides the hard-wired internal battery it was designed to charge. It gives me about two months of radio for an hour or more a day before running down. Then I place it next to the window for two days and have the use of a radio for another two months. In a pinch, a minute of turning the crank gives me about ten minutes of radio.
Of course, since I have been experimenting with these things, I have a few solar/dynamo flashlight/radios so I always have one charging in front of the window. You can see an example of a solar/dynamo flashlight/radio at http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/details/om_sdradio.html. It's not the one I'm using but it looks to be much the same, without the ability to charge AA batteries in the battery bay, and is close to half of what I paid.
Now I've installed two solar powered LED lights above my bed so that my reading light is off the grid as well. Came in handy just the other day when we had a black-out for a couple of hours. The lights are attached to solar electric panels I place in the window and have batteries in the base of the lamps that provide power for up to 24 hours on a full charge. You can see the specs and order them at http://www.kansaswindpower.net/portable_led_lights.htm
This system is still a work in progress but for about $150 I've got one room that is independent of the grid, that provides me with radio and reading light for the foreseeable future without the use of coal, oil, gas, or nuclear energy. I have one room running on sunlight.
Now on to the next.
Update: Take your spare room off-grid! (http://www.off-grid.net/index.php?p=294) describes a solar electric system that powers two lamps, TV, Stereo, satellite box, dvd, vcr, and XBox, and a battery charger for the rechargeables in the battery powered clock.
This 600 watt hour system includes solar panels, batteries, and inverter and prices out at $1300.
I think that's a little pricey. A few years ago I assembled the parts for a one window solar electric system. It consisted of a 2 foot by 2 foot Kyocera panel, peak wattage around 64 kw, a power controller, battery, and wiring. The cost for those pieces was around $500, but I have yet to built the frame, hang the panel, and connect the system. In fact, I've since given the pieces to a friend in the hopes that he can finish the project before I would probably get around to it.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Solar Triple Decker
Ambrose Spencer has been going over the figures for the current state of the art of PV electricity on for example, a Boston "triple decker," three family house. As Ambrose has been thinking about and working on these issues for decades now, I'd trust his numbers.
THREE FAMILY HOUSING
In Dorchester and other parts of Boston there are thousands of triple deckers. While some midatlantic cities are filled with attached row housing, aka terrace housing which has less surface area per unit available solar estate, the predominant housing in Boston is the triple decker. These have full basements which are starting to be converted into a fourth apartment. They have three flats one over another and their floor plate is 40 to 50 feet deep from the street and the width is 25 to 28 feet. The triple deckers are in all different orientations depending on the street. The narrow face is to the street. The separation runs from 20 feet to just three feet, and is usually large enough for a narrow driveway.
For a triple decker, long dimension east and west, on the roof you can erect a solar collector 10 to 12 feet high before you start to shade the solar estate next door. Having laid out solar thermal on a couple of these I know that you can put 400 to 500 square feet before the shading next door is too much of a problem .
EXISTING TRIPLE DECKER
SOLAR ELECTRIC SOURCE 10 Mwhrs.
Using your numbers: 500 square feet at about 16 percent, 8 kw
and using 3.5 hours per day annualized is 1266 hours of collection
and 10 megawatt hours.
LOADS
HEATING 17 Mwhrs
An insulated triple decker uses about 1500 gallons of oil for the three units. This is 210 mmbtu per year gross, or 50 Mwhrs net. Using a heat pump with fan coils and a cop of 3 the annual electric load for space heat is 17 Mwhrs; this does not include domestic hot water or air conditioning.
LIGHT, PLUG LOADS, APPLIANCES AND DRIVES 7.5 Mwhrs
I used 2 kw of pv allocated for a family of four. 1266 hours of collection is 2.5 Mwhrs per apartment times 3 is 7.5 Mwhrs
THREE AUTOMOBILES. 7.5 Mwhrs
I reduced my use to 10,000 miles per year at 250whrs /mile. This gives 2.5 Mwrhs times 3 is 7.5 Mwhrs. This is for battery electric vehicles.
EXISTING TRIPLE DECKER SUMMARY
On an annual basis 32 Megawatt hours is needed of which the on site solar electric, 10 Megawatt hours, can only supply one third.
IMPROVED TRIPLE DECKER
SOLAR ELECTRIC SOURCE 10 Mwhrs
The supply is the same 10 Mwhrs per year
HEATING 6.2 Mwhrs
Super insulation retrofit can cut the heat load in half, and radiant ceiling heat can raise the cop from 3 to 4. These two changes reduce the heating load to 6.2 Mwhrs.
LIGHT, PLUG LOADS, APPLIANCES AND DRIVES 5 Mwhrs
Using additional efficiency, task area illumination and higher efficiency appliances these electric loads can be cut by a third. to 5 Mwhrs.
THREE AUTOMOBILES. 7.5 Mwhrs
This load remains unchanged.
IMPROVED TRIPLE DECKER SUMMARY
The load has been reduced to 18.7 Mwhrs of which the solar electric can carry more than half
CONCLUSION
I have briefly explored a realistic application of solar electricity to the type of housing most common in Boston's older neighborhoods, in the context of a likely necessity of a 50 year schedule for accelerated climate change mitigation, although the schedule will likely be more demanding as a result of climate induced positive feedback.
I have found that to supply a typical triple decker on a Net Zero Energy basis the efficiency of the photovoltaic efficiency would need to be raised by 2 to 3 times. That is 32 percent efficiency for the superinsulated, radiant heated improved building and 48 percent efficiency needed for the unimproved building.
In a zero carbon future, all of the triple decker load not supplied on site will need to be supplied by Wind, Biofuels and other sustainable forms of renewables. Each of these carry attendant development problems like the siting of wind farms, bird kill, and the difficulties of achieving sustainable forestry on privately held lands.
Hybrid thermal electric collectors being developed by Shell in collaboration with the Dutch government and other partners can help reduce the heating load still further, but even another reduction in electric part of the heating load by one half will only affect the total electric load by 10 percent for the existing building case. .
THREE FAMILY HOUSING
In Dorchester and other parts of Boston there are thousands of triple deckers. While some midatlantic cities are filled with attached row housing, aka terrace housing which has less surface area per unit available solar estate, the predominant housing in Boston is the triple decker. These have full basements which are starting to be converted into a fourth apartment. They have three flats one over another and their floor plate is 40 to 50 feet deep from the street and the width is 25 to 28 feet. The triple deckers are in all different orientations depending on the street. The narrow face is to the street. The separation runs from 20 feet to just three feet, and is usually large enough for a narrow driveway.
For a triple decker, long dimension east and west, on the roof you can erect a solar collector 10 to 12 feet high before you start to shade the solar estate next door. Having laid out solar thermal on a couple of these I know that you can put 400 to 500 square feet before the shading next door is too much of a problem .
EXISTING TRIPLE DECKER
SOLAR ELECTRIC SOURCE 10 Mwhrs.
Using your numbers: 500 square feet at about 16 percent, 8 kw
and using 3.5 hours per day annualized is 1266 hours of collection
and 10 megawatt hours.
LOADS
HEATING 17 Mwhrs
An insulated triple decker uses about 1500 gallons of oil for the three units. This is 210 mmbtu per year gross, or 50 Mwhrs net. Using a heat pump with fan coils and a cop of 3 the annual electric load for space heat is 17 Mwhrs; this does not include domestic hot water or air conditioning.
LIGHT, PLUG LOADS, APPLIANCES AND DRIVES 7.5 Mwhrs
I used 2 kw of pv allocated for a family of four. 1266 hours of collection is 2.5 Mwhrs per apartment times 3 is 7.5 Mwhrs
THREE AUTOMOBILES. 7.5 Mwhrs
I reduced my use to 10,000 miles per year at 250whrs /mile. This gives 2.5 Mwrhs times 3 is 7.5 Mwhrs. This is for battery electric vehicles.
EXISTING TRIPLE DECKER SUMMARY
On an annual basis 32 Megawatt hours is needed of which the on site solar electric, 10 Megawatt hours, can only supply one third.
IMPROVED TRIPLE DECKER
SOLAR ELECTRIC SOURCE 10 Mwhrs
The supply is the same 10 Mwhrs per year
HEATING 6.2 Mwhrs
Super insulation retrofit can cut the heat load in half, and radiant ceiling heat can raise the cop from 3 to 4. These two changes reduce the heating load to 6.2 Mwhrs.
LIGHT, PLUG LOADS, APPLIANCES AND DRIVES 5 Mwhrs
Using additional efficiency, task area illumination and higher efficiency appliances these electric loads can be cut by a third. to 5 Mwhrs.
THREE AUTOMOBILES. 7.5 Mwhrs
This load remains unchanged.
IMPROVED TRIPLE DECKER SUMMARY
The load has been reduced to 18.7 Mwhrs of which the solar electric can carry more than half
CONCLUSION
I have briefly explored a realistic application of solar electricity to the type of housing most common in Boston's older neighborhoods, in the context of a likely necessity of a 50 year schedule for accelerated climate change mitigation, although the schedule will likely be more demanding as a result of climate induced positive feedback.
I have found that to supply a typical triple decker on a Net Zero Energy basis the efficiency of the photovoltaic efficiency would need to be raised by 2 to 3 times. That is 32 percent efficiency for the superinsulated, radiant heated improved building and 48 percent efficiency needed for the unimproved building.
In a zero carbon future, all of the triple decker load not supplied on site will need to be supplied by Wind, Biofuels and other sustainable forms of renewables. Each of these carry attendant development problems like the siting of wind farms, bird kill, and the difficulties of achieving sustainable forestry on privately held lands.
Hybrid thermal electric collectors being developed by Shell in collaboration with the Dutch government and other partners can help reduce the heating load still further, but even another reduction in electric part of the heating load by one half will only affect the total electric load by 10 percent for the existing building case. .
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Emergency Preparedness 101
The BASEA Forum
Renewable Energy Lecture Series
November 10 , 2005
Emergency Preparedness 101
What happens when the power goes out
and how to best get through the storm
David O'Connor
Director
Cambridge, MA Emergency Management Department
1st Parish Unitarian Church ,
#3 Church St., Harvard Square, Cambridge
Doors open at 7:00 p.m. , Presentation starts at 7:30 p.m.
Renewable Energy Lecture Series
November 10 , 2005
Emergency Preparedness 101
What happens when the power goes out
and how to best get through the storm
David O'Connor
Director
Cambridge, MA Emergency Management Department
1st Parish Unitarian Church ,
#3 Church St., Harvard Square, Cambridge
Doors open at 7:00 p.m. , Presentation starts at 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Homefront Advantage
I believe it is time to bring the oil war home, especially since fuel prices indicate it's coming this direction whether we like it or not. My gut has been telling me that the homefront attitude of WWII, with its emphasis on belt-tightening and conserving, may be an appropriate response to our current situation.
Doing a little research on WWII slogans I came across a great collection of posters at http://www.state.nh.us/ww2/. You should really look at the pictures but here are some of the words:
Do with less so they'll have enough!
Millions of troops are on the move... is YOUR trip necessary?
Have you really tried to save gas by getting into a car club?
All fuel is scarce. Plan for winter now!
1. Winterize your home!
2. Check your heating plant!
3. Order fuel at once!
Food is a weapon. Don't waste it!
Can all you can. It's a real war job!
Plant a victory garden. Our food is fighting.
Use it up - wear it out- make it do! Our labor and goods are fighting.
I wonder if reproductions of these posters would be useful at Camp Casey or in Washington DC on September 24.
PS: One slogan I'd add for the 21st century is
Solar Is Civil Defense
Doing a little research on WWII slogans I came across a great collection of posters at http://www.state.nh.us/ww2/. You should really look at the pictures but here are some of the words:
Do with less so they'll have enough!
Millions of troops are on the move... is YOUR trip necessary?
Have you really tried to save gas by getting into a car club?
All fuel is scarce. Plan for winter now!
1. Winterize your home!
2. Check your heating plant!
3. Order fuel at once!
Food is a weapon. Don't waste it!
Can all you can. It's a real war job!
Plant a victory garden. Our food is fighting.
Use it up - wear it out- make it do! Our labor and goods are fighting.
I wonder if reproductions of these posters would be useful at Camp Casey or in Washington DC on September 24.
PS: One slogan I'd add for the 21st century is
Solar Is Civil Defense
Monday, May 30, 2005
Solar Swadeshi, Hand-Made Electricity
After much thinking, I have arrived at a definition of "Swadeshi" that perhaps best illustrates my meaning. Swadeshi is that spirit in us which restricts us to the use and service of our immediate surroundings to the exclusion of the more remote.
Speeches and Writings of M. K. Gandhi, 1919 (http://members.tripod.com/~anusandhan/articles/article1.html)
Gandhi was a middle-aged man when he first asked his wife Kasturba to teach him to use the spinning wheel. Once he had mastered the wheel, he practiced spinning every day for the rest of his life. Home-spinning became a symbol for independence and self-reliance throughout India under his encouragement and direction.
(http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1998/3/98.03.05.x.html)
Gandhi would spin for an hour each day, usually producing a hundred yards of thread, and helped develop a simple spinning wheel (charkha) that allowed many to do the same. He believed that spinning was the foundation of non-violence. I believe this type of practical labor has to be the core of any sustainable ecological action.
We need a solar swadeshi, an ecological practice on a daily basis that allows us to live within our solar income. Gandhi used the charkha, the spinning wheel. What would be an ecological charkha, a solar charkha? I suggest a hand cranked, pedalled, or treadled dynamo. Work it for 30 minutes a day and generate watts and watts of electrical power for your own use or to put back into the grid for the benefit of others. Solar swadeshi. Hand-made electricity. 21st century khadi cloth. Real electrical power to the people. True energy independence with minimum waste, at least in terms of generation. Doing what Gandhi did with cloth but now with electricity.
In this "deregulated environment" with oil used as a weapon and national security identical to energy security, direct ecological and economic action toward renewables and away from the nuclear, gas, coal, and oil that we presently use can be a primary political as well as economic act. A treadle/pedal/crank powered generator with a flywheel can be the solar swadeshi, an ecological and economical electrical charkha.
One humanpower is about one sixth horsepower. A healthy person can put out 100 watts of power for hours on end and 300 watts in a sprint. Let's not be batteries in the Matrix but generators in a net metered ecological Network.
The ultimate goal I envision is to meet all electrical non-space-heating and refrigeration needs within the space of one south-facing window (4-10 square feet of photovoltaics) and a half hour to an hour a day's human power. The realistic goal today is most of the electrical load with the exception of refrigeration and space-heating: lighting, TV, audio, computer, phones...
This isn't Edward G. Robinson in "Soylent Green" pedalling a broken down three speed to light one sickly incandescent bulb. This is more like Lance Armstrong powering his energy efficient Spanish villa with a morning workout on his state of the art Tour de France simulator stationary bike and power generator.
from http://www.swadeshi.org/philos.htm
The essential ingredients of the Swadeshi thought may be summarised as follows :
1. Swadeshi means that which is natural and native to a country and society, but allows scope for assimilation of wholesome and beneficial elements from the outside. This applies to economics as well as politics; culture as well as technology.
2. It is the principle of prefering the neighbourhood over the remote.
3. It commands need-based life, and rules out unlimited consumption as an end.
4. It renews and relies on family, community and society as socio-economic delivery systems. It does not substitute these traditional institutions by the State and the Market.
5. It is not autarky; but a global alternative which accepts only need-based transnationalism.
6. Swadeshi restores economics to its earlier definition which even now the dictionary meaning of economy indicates, namely, practical human needs, frugality, savings, thrift etc. and seeks to remove the latter-day distortion of defining economics as multiplication of wants and efforts to satisfy them, powered by greed.
Stated in simple terms, Swadeshi rejects materialistic and imperialistic homogenisation and aimless transnationalism of the Western assumption. Swadeshi is a multidimensional thought, embracing civilisational, political and economic aspects of human life and presenting an integrated vision of life in harmony with nature.
from http://www.mkgandhi.org/momgandhi/chap86.htm
The message of the spinning-wheel is much wider than its circumference. Its message is one of simplicity, service of mankind, living so as not to hurt others, creating an indissoluble bond between the rich and the poor, capital and labour, the prince and the peasant. That larger message is naturally for all...
The message of the spinning-wheel is, really, to replace the spirit of exploitation by the spirit of service...
There is no "playing with truth" in the charkha programme, for satyagraha is not predominantly civil disobedience but a quiet and irresistible pursuit of Truth.
NB: I've been thinking about these ideas for quite a few years now. It seems appropriate to be publishing them on Memorial Day. People laugh at Gandhi for his insistence on swadeshi, on "wasting" his time by drawing thread from a spinning wheel but he was doing something fundamental in terms of self-reliance and self-respect on a level so obvious and so deep that most people can not see it at all. This lesson is one we need now more than ever. This practice is something that can generate the beginnings of real economic freedom.
Speeches and Writings of M. K. Gandhi, 1919 (http://members.tripod.com/~anusandhan/articles/article1.html)
Gandhi was a middle-aged man when he first asked his wife Kasturba to teach him to use the spinning wheel. Once he had mastered the wheel, he practiced spinning every day for the rest of his life. Home-spinning became a symbol for independence and self-reliance throughout India under his encouragement and direction.
(http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1998/3/98.03.05.x.html)
Gandhi would spin for an hour each day, usually producing a hundred yards of thread, and helped develop a simple spinning wheel (charkha) that allowed many to do the same. He believed that spinning was the foundation of non-violence. I believe this type of practical labor has to be the core of any sustainable ecological action.
We need a solar swadeshi, an ecological practice on a daily basis that allows us to live within our solar income. Gandhi used the charkha, the spinning wheel. What would be an ecological charkha, a solar charkha? I suggest a hand cranked, pedalled, or treadled dynamo. Work it for 30 minutes a day and generate watts and watts of electrical power for your own use or to put back into the grid for the benefit of others. Solar swadeshi. Hand-made electricity. 21st century khadi cloth. Real electrical power to the people. True energy independence with minimum waste, at least in terms of generation. Doing what Gandhi did with cloth but now with electricity.
In this "deregulated environment" with oil used as a weapon and national security identical to energy security, direct ecological and economic action toward renewables and away from the nuclear, gas, coal, and oil that we presently use can be a primary political as well as economic act. A treadle/pedal/crank powered generator with a flywheel can be the solar swadeshi, an ecological and economical electrical charkha.
One humanpower is about one sixth horsepower. A healthy person can put out 100 watts of power for hours on end and 300 watts in a sprint. Let's not be batteries in the Matrix but generators in a net metered ecological Network.
The ultimate goal I envision is to meet all electrical non-space-heating and refrigeration needs within the space of one south-facing window (4-10 square feet of photovoltaics) and a half hour to an hour a day's human power. The realistic goal today is most of the electrical load with the exception of refrigeration and space-heating: lighting, TV, audio, computer, phones...
This isn't Edward G. Robinson in "Soylent Green" pedalling a broken down three speed to light one sickly incandescent bulb. This is more like Lance Armstrong powering his energy efficient Spanish villa with a morning workout on his state of the art Tour de France simulator stationary bike and power generator.
from http://www.swadeshi.org/philos.htm
The essential ingredients of the Swadeshi thought may be summarised as follows :
1. Swadeshi means that which is natural and native to a country and society, but allows scope for assimilation of wholesome and beneficial elements from the outside. This applies to economics as well as politics; culture as well as technology.
2. It is the principle of prefering the neighbourhood over the remote.
3. It commands need-based life, and rules out unlimited consumption as an end.
4. It renews and relies on family, community and society as socio-economic delivery systems. It does not substitute these traditional institutions by the State and the Market.
5. It is not autarky; but a global alternative which accepts only need-based transnationalism.
6. Swadeshi restores economics to its earlier definition which even now the dictionary meaning of economy indicates, namely, practical human needs, frugality, savings, thrift etc. and seeks to remove the latter-day distortion of defining economics as multiplication of wants and efforts to satisfy them, powered by greed.
Stated in simple terms, Swadeshi rejects materialistic and imperialistic homogenisation and aimless transnationalism of the Western assumption. Swadeshi is a multidimensional thought, embracing civilisational, political and economic aspects of human life and presenting an integrated vision of life in harmony with nature.
from http://www.mkgandhi.org/momgandhi/chap86.htm
The message of the spinning-wheel is much wider than its circumference. Its message is one of simplicity, service of mankind, living so as not to hurt others, creating an indissoluble bond between the rich and the poor, capital and labour, the prince and the peasant. That larger message is naturally for all...
The message of the spinning-wheel is, really, to replace the spirit of exploitation by the spirit of service...
There is no "playing with truth" in the charkha programme, for satyagraha is not predominantly civil disobedience but a quiet and irresistible pursuit of Truth.
NB: I've been thinking about these ideas for quite a few years now. It seems appropriate to be publishing them on Memorial Day. People laugh at Gandhi for his insistence on swadeshi, on "wasting" his time by drawing thread from a spinning wheel but he was doing something fundamental in terms of self-reliance and self-respect on a level so obvious and so deep that most people can not see it at all. This lesson is one we need now more than ever. This practice is something that can generate the beginnings of real economic freedom.
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Gaian Design of Ecological Alchemy
A history of New Alchemy Institute. Here is the core of their natural systems designs.
_A Safe and Sustainable World: The Promise of Ecological Design_ by Nancy Jack Todd
Washington: Island Press, 2005
ISBN 1-55963-778-1
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=fz1mCrlAEn&isbn=1559637781&itm=1
(82-83) The living world remained our conceptual model for the architecture of the bioshelters. Evolution is continuous, dynamic, and highly adaptive. As John was wont to point out, the Laws of Thermodynamics determine that there is a progressive deterioration in the quality of energy, but living forms create spatial form and morphic order. In defiance of entropy, energy can be harnessed to work on the side of life - which is precisely what we were trying to do.
(190) A Gaian worldview holds all life to be a sacred ecology in which humankind serves as steward.
(155) Gaia knows what she is doing, and our best bet is to get better at playing junior partner in the overall scheme of things.
(142) We had, in our experiments in applied Gaia, decoded some of the elements for healing both people and the planet and had helped to give the world what Gregory Bateson had called a "paradigm with a future."
(162-163) Twelve principles fundamental to the practice of ecological design:
1. Geological and mineral diversity must be present to evolve the biological responsiveness of rich soils.
2. Nutrient reservoirs are essential to keep such essentials as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium available or the pants.
3. Steep gradients between subcomponents must be engineered into the system to enable the biological elements to evolve rapidly to assist in the breakdown of toxic materials.
4. High rates of exchange must be created by maximizing surface areas that house the bacteria that determine the metabolism of the system and facilitate treatment.
5. Periodic and random pulsed exchanges improve performance. Just as random perturbations foster resilience in nature. in living technologies altering water flow creates self-organization in the system.
6. Cellular design is the structural model as it is in nature where cells are the organizing unit. Expansion of system should also use a cellular model, as in increasing the number of tanks.
7. A law of the minimum must be incorporated. At least three ecosystems such as a marsh, a pond, and a terrestrial area are needed to perform the assigned function and maintain overall stability.
8. Microbial communities must be introduced periodically from the natural world to maintain diversity and facilitate evolutionary processes.
9. Photosynthetic foundations are essential as oxygen-producing plants foster ecosystems that require less energy, aeration, and chemical management.
10. Phylogenetic diversity must be encouraged as a range of aquatic animals from the unicellular to snails to fish are as essential to the evolution and self-maintenance of the system as the plants.
11. Sequenced and repeated seedings are part of maintenance as a self-contained system cannot be isolated but must be interlinked through gaseous, nutrient, mineral, and biological pathways to the external environment.
12. Ecological design should reflect the macrocosmos in the microcosmos, representing the natural world miniaturized and reflecting its proportions, as in terrestrial to oceanic and aquatic areas.
(183) This approach to watershed restoration involves the following:
1. Modifying hydrological cycles on a microscale.
2. Working first upstream then downstream in the watershed,
3. Developing many local points of intervention.
4. Allowing local topography, including buildings, parking lots, and roadways, to direct design.
5. Employing natural systems engineering.
6. Incorporating organisms such as fungi, mosses, and higher plants to sequester metals, bind phosphorus, and destroy pathogens or to break down organic compounds, including petroleum-based products.
_A Safe and Sustainable World: The Promise of Ecological Design_ by Nancy Jack Todd
Washington: Island Press, 2005
ISBN 1-55963-778-1
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=fz1mCrlAEn&isbn=1559637781&itm=1
(82-83) The living world remained our conceptual model for the architecture of the bioshelters. Evolution is continuous, dynamic, and highly adaptive. As John was wont to point out, the Laws of Thermodynamics determine that there is a progressive deterioration in the quality of energy, but living forms create spatial form and morphic order. In defiance of entropy, energy can be harnessed to work on the side of life - which is precisely what we were trying to do.
(190) A Gaian worldview holds all life to be a sacred ecology in which humankind serves as steward.
(155) Gaia knows what she is doing, and our best bet is to get better at playing junior partner in the overall scheme of things.
(142) We had, in our experiments in applied Gaia, decoded some of the elements for healing both people and the planet and had helped to give the world what Gregory Bateson had called a "paradigm with a future."
(162-163) Twelve principles fundamental to the practice of ecological design:
1. Geological and mineral diversity must be present to evolve the biological responsiveness of rich soils.
2. Nutrient reservoirs are essential to keep such essentials as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium available or the pants.
3. Steep gradients between subcomponents must be engineered into the system to enable the biological elements to evolve rapidly to assist in the breakdown of toxic materials.
4. High rates of exchange must be created by maximizing surface areas that house the bacteria that determine the metabolism of the system and facilitate treatment.
5. Periodic and random pulsed exchanges improve performance. Just as random perturbations foster resilience in nature. in living technologies altering water flow creates self-organization in the system.
6. Cellular design is the structural model as it is in nature where cells are the organizing unit. Expansion of system should also use a cellular model, as in increasing the number of tanks.
7. A law of the minimum must be incorporated. At least three ecosystems such as a marsh, a pond, and a terrestrial area are needed to perform the assigned function and maintain overall stability.
8. Microbial communities must be introduced periodically from the natural world to maintain diversity and facilitate evolutionary processes.
9. Photosynthetic foundations are essential as oxygen-producing plants foster ecosystems that require less energy, aeration, and chemical management.
10. Phylogenetic diversity must be encouraged as a range of aquatic animals from the unicellular to snails to fish are as essential to the evolution and self-maintenance of the system as the plants.
11. Sequenced and repeated seedings are part of maintenance as a self-contained system cannot be isolated but must be interlinked through gaseous, nutrient, mineral, and biological pathways to the external environment.
12. Ecological design should reflect the macrocosmos in the microcosmos, representing the natural world miniaturized and reflecting its proportions, as in terrestrial to oceanic and aquatic areas.
(183) This approach to watershed restoration involves the following:
1. Modifying hydrological cycles on a microscale.
2. Working first upstream then downstream in the watershed,
3. Developing many local points of intervention.
4. Allowing local topography, including buildings, parking lots, and roadways, to direct design.
5. Employing natural systems engineering.
6. Incorporating organisms such as fungi, mosses, and higher plants to sequester metals, bind phosphorus, and destroy pathogens or to break down organic compounds, including petroleum-based products.
Thursday, April 28, 2005
Recycled Solar Results
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?
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, 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.
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