January 2011
And that doesn’t even include veterans.
28 January 2011 | Egypt's Tears
Via Facebook: photo of a tear gas canister from a police crackdown on protesters in Egypt.
The label: “Made in U.S.A.”
Building a House of Light and Wind
David Biello on the daunting physical logistics of scaling up green energy:
“It’s not just a matter of making the necessary equipment, it’s also a question of finding the space for it. A coal-fired power plant produces 100 to 1,000 watts per square meter, depending on the type of coal it burns and how that coal is mined. A typical photovoltaic system for turning sunlight into electricity produces just 9 watts per square meter, and wind provides only 1.5 watts per square meter.
The challenge is worse for smaller countries: the United Kingdom would have to cover its entire landmass with wind turbines to provide enough electricity for the current Briton’s average consumption — roughly 200 kilowatt-hours per day, according to MacKay, the Cambridge expert.”
Supply Side
On the War of the Poppies:
Myles Ambrose, one of President Nixon’s closest advisers in the War on Drugs, was scathing in his judgement of some of his fellow drug-warriors:
“The basic fact that eluded these great geniuses was that it takes only ten square miles of poppy to feed the entire American heroin market.
And they grow everywhere.”
I’d love to see if a finer-grained city or census tract correlation bear out these findings, as well as other factors like, say, the scale of gun ownership.
One for One
- Noted previously, with every pair of shoes you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. As of September 2010, TOMS has given over one million pairs of shoes.
- In 2007 and 2008, under its Give 1 Get 1 program the One Laptop per Child program donated a laptop to a child in the developing world for every computer sold. 83,500 laptops were donated in 2007 and 12,500 in 2008.
- FIGS, a necktie retailer in Santa Monica donates one school uniform to a child in Africa for every tie it sells.
- For each pair of eyeglasses sold, Warby Parker donates a pair of eyeglasses to someone in need through Restoring Vision. To date, that’s almost 10,000 pairs.
- Out of Print in Brooklyn, donates one book to Books for Africa every time it sells one of its T-shirts, which feature the covers of mostly out-out-of print books.
- For every condom it sells, Sir Richard’s plans to give another condom away for free in a developing nation through Partners in Health.
- For every nutrition bar you buy from Two Degrees, they give a nutrition pack to a hungry child..
- Every time you buy a book, Better World Books will donate one to someone in need.
Happenings
I don’t usually publicize events here (mostly because I hate reading other peoples’ posts about the wonderful events I will never get to) but there are a few social design-related events coming up in the next few months. Perhaps something near you?
- Compostmodern, San Francisco, January 22-23
- World Social Forum 2011, Dakar, February 6-11, 2011
- Poster for Tomorrow: The Right to Education, global. Call for entries posted in March.
- World Non-Profit and Social Marketing Conference, Dublin, April 11-12, 2011
Know of others?
