Nature's photovoltaics—leaves—recycle as mulch. It's a lovely closed-loop system, the very definition of a circular economy. Solar panels are more of a problem. In Europe, manufacturers are responsible for end-of-life-cycle costs, so there's more motivation to figure out a solution than there is here in the US. Still, within the next few years, old solar panels are going to start entering the waste-stream at scale, so there is a lot of opportunity for companies that develop solutions. via Ensia
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Battery storage for clean energy is great. But it wouldn't it be even better if the batteries were...prettier? Rows of white metal boxes—how boring. If we're going to have an clean energy revolution (and, yes, let's have one) let's make as beautiful in every way. Hello designers! Have I got a project for you!
Lovely article by a CNN's David Allen about reading to / with kids. One of my favorite memories was crawling into my Dad's lap for a story. I loved being read to so much that I purposed resisted learning how to read until first grade. Mrs. North (like the Wicked Witch?) put in the second reading group, which was understandable if not acceptable. I cracked the code in the week and moved up to the "Apples" group. Even so, to this day, I love to be read to...
My friends Debra Lunn and Michael Mrowka run a batik factory in Indonesia, creating mind-blowing fabrics for quilters. Michael often posts photos and videos of the batik process on his Facebook, which is one of the reasons I still haven't quit Facebook. Fascinating! You could leave me alone in a room full of fabric, dyes, stampers and wax and I would never come up with this. More on the batik process here. Also, check out Lunn Fabrics!
Several years ago my friends and noted quiltmakers Debra Lunn and Michael Mrowka opened a batik factory in Solo, a city of half million people on the island of Java in Indonesia. They wanted to give back to the community and thought a public library--Ganesa—might be a good way to do that. Over the years, the collection has grown as has the enthusiasm for reading (and also Legos which are transported by the suitcase-full—.the kids love them!). Read more about the backstory here and visit their Facebook page here.
I first met Eric Rasmussen, a former Navy doctor and a co-founder of humanitarian tech consultancy IHS (and also a six-time Burning Man veteran), at a charette on refugee issues organized by Rocky Mountain Institute. That led to being embedded in the last of three enormous military/civilian humanitarian exercises known as Strong Angel that he organized. During his decades in the military Eric was deployed 18 times, including stints to Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq. If he hasn't seen it all, he has certainly seen considerably more than the rest of us.
A few months ago Eric gave a keynote at conference organized by the Alliance for Peacebuilding. It is well worth listening to the entire presentation (it's talking head video, so you don't really need to watch). There is a quite a bit to unpack—from energy to social media—and all of it is thought-provoking. My favorite quote, though, is about libraries. It is a small point in a big talk, but still an important one: "Many don't realize how important public libraries are in the United States and how rare they are in the rest of the world. We rightly put an emphasis on schools, but I think not nearly enough on general access to libraries. Not many people can attend school. Anyone and everyone can walk into a library." Full disclosure: I am the child of a public librarian. They rock. ••••••••••••••••••••••• • re reference to photographer Lorenza Moscia - the video did not cut-away to his photographs, so click here to see a portfolio on his website. • re reference to 19 Copenhagen Goals —click here to see a pdf. In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, my friend Eric Rasmussen, a former Navy doctor and co-founder of humanitarian tech consultancy IHS, traveled to Puerto Rico with his colleague Alex Hatoum. There the IHS team met up with a team from MIT's Lincoln Labs to install a cutting edge no-moving-parts water purification system. With funding from the Roddenberry Foundation, the system will be supported for a year after which it will be converted into a locally-owned social enterprise. The project is a small drop in an enormous bucket of need, but the technology can scale. It is much, much cheaper to filter and store water on site than to bring in pallets of bottled water by cargo plane, ship and truck. The environmental footprint is also considerably lighter.
A few years ago I helped Eric put together a deployment guidebook. These missions, which take place in the aftermath of major infrastructure-shredding disasters, are not for the faint of heart. At the time, no one imagined that there would ever be a domestic deployment. Yet six months on and much of Puerto Rico is still without power and access to clean water. Lorenzo Moscia is an Italian lawyer who found his true calling behind the lens of a camera. He is fearless, seeking out that which is difficult to see and even more difficult to know. But he also finds the beautiful moments, the timeless details of what daily life is like for those far beyond our blinder'ed, personal horizons. I am one degree removed through my friend Eric Rasmussen and hope at some point that our paths will cross. For the last several years he has documented Eric's work with IHS and the Roddenberry Foundation to bring clean water to communities from Nepal to Puerto Rico in the wake of massive natural disasters.
I curated a retrospective for a Chicago-based photographer named Mickey Pallas. He got his start taking pictures for unions. This was from a strike in Louisiana in the mid-1950s where one the issues on the table was desegregating the pay line.
On the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination—gunned down at a Memphis motel at age 39—the words and the silence of the impossibly brave high school student Emma Gonzalez are that much more poignant. A half century later and where are we? Who are we?
I can't wait until the dream finally becomes reality. Until then, the words continue to inspire ("I Have a Dream" - text)
Brilliant interview. "Organic-ish" agriculture—no till, cover crops, crop rotations—not only builds up soil fertility comparatively quickly, but it also scales. It is also more profitable for farmers. One commodity farmer in Ohio now uses less than half as much diesel, about 1/8 the nitrogen fertilizer and less than 1/5 the amount of Round-up pesticide to grow his crops.
"Growing a Revolution" quickly became one of my all-time favorite books when I read it last year. In fact, I wrote about: Lessons of the Lamp Post Garden: How a Healthy Soil Microbiome Can Slow Climate Change, Fix Agriculture & Make Just About Everything Better. How is it ten years since the cows moo'ed their way into Chicago lore? Along with a river that turns green(er) on St. Patrick's Day and the incredibly well-named Wacker Drive (which goes north, south, east and west and, in parts, has three levels), the art-covered cows quickly became part the quirky scenery. In years since, there have been painted horses and painted dogs. Cincinnati ("Porkopolis") even did painted pigs. They were all cow-wannabes. Moo.
For my birthday this year I received a membership to Sock Club. Genius on so many levels... The socks are cool, but mostly it's that it's so marvelously ridiculous. Socks by mail? Why didn't I think of that? There's the added bonus that I am at best a reluctant shopper (so many other things to do!) and now I'm well-stocked on the sock front for the foreseeable.
A good proxy for a time machine. via Expedia.
Amory Lovins, co-founder and Chief Scientist at Rocky Mountain Institute explains how "good old Victorian" engineering can save us all. Who knew fat pipes and small motors could close coals plants? A LOT of coal plants...
My friend Stuart J. Murphy created the I See I Learn series to help young kids (pre-K / Kindergarten) learn critical social, emotional, health & safety and cognitive skills. Even though Ready Set Pre-K in See-and-Learn City is a terrific school (Yay Miss Cathy!), bullying can still happen.. Stuart reads the story, which makes it even more special. FREE pdf poster!
The algorithms of Wildbook can identify any individual animal by its stripes, spots, wrinkles or notches, providing conservationists with a powerful new tool. Great segment on the team's recent work in Kenya!
"Design is always driven by hope for something we didn't have before." Related article: "'Space Fabric' Links Fashion and Engineering" via NASA JPL
..."People who are more creative can simultaneously engage brain networks that don't typically work together.” And it’s not just that those brain areas work well together in the creative brain, but they also evidence a “flexibility of thought” that stands in contrast to the rigidity common to most brains when faced with creative challenges.... via Psychology Today.
I met Nina Leopold Bradley—Aldo Leopold's oldest daughter—when I was invited up to "the shack" in Baraboo, Wisconsin after writing an article about Leopold's classic, A Sand County Almanac. Nina died a few years ago, but what a highlight to have had her as a friend. As spring begins to unfold, take a moment and pay attention...
In 2015, a father/son team from Australia surprised everyone—especially themselves— by raising tens of millions of dollars on Indiegogo to mass produce a new kind of bee hive that makes it easier to harvest honey. It's now available on Amazon. They just finished up the campaign for Flow Hive 2, this time raising nearly $15 million. Now, all we need to do is make sure bees don't go extinct...
With nearly one million campaigns and over a billion dollars raised so far, crowdfunding platform Indiegogo has helped change the game for entrepreneurs. It's not just for small independents any more, either. Big companies routinely use the platform to test the market for new products. (via 3billionseconds.com)
I can't post about Studs without thinking about Mickey. What a wonderful photographer! what a great friend! See a portfolio of his work here.
The courage, passion and determination of 800 people on the overnight train ride from Chicago to DC in 1963 is as inspiring as it is humbling. How far we have come. How much further we need to go...
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March 2021
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