Kerosene is actually expensive as the price can fluctuate (even with subsidies the black market ensures price inflation). Kerosene is also responsible for many early deaths and chronic diseases due to inhaling the poisonous fumes, not to mention the fire hazards. A viable solar cooker would not only be more sustainable, but also safer for the users.
That is fit for the 21st century. We had a food revolution in the 20th century, where we used massive amounts of fertilizer and massive amounts of water, this resulted in massive amounts of food. But at what cost? We chopped down most of the great rainforests and are quickly depleting what remains of the prime topsoil left in the world. We need a paradigm shift. We have the technology to make maximum use of water, we only need to make the investments needed to reap the savings. There are numerous small scale initiatives around the world, utilizing mangroves, saltwater irrigation, greenhouses, hydroponics. Wastage results in more than 1/3 of food going bad or being thrown away due to market conditions. Much work needs to be done if we are to feed 10 billion humans.
Iridium is useful in conflict areas where governments/terrorists shut down local cellphone networks. Iridium has its uses. I have one here in Egypt for emergencies, as the cellphone networks were turned off here during the last revolution.
Heh no, Dell was just an example. Dell, HP, Samsung, all have a huge presence and a reputation for offering quality hardware though. Granted, the Chinese brands are cheaper, but if people can afford it, they do go for the big name brands.
Ban the sale of reusable goods to countries fully capable of using them and force them to buy new stuff they cannot afford. This whole planet's gone mad, I tells ya', MAD.
I'm beginning to regret knowing my grandparents. They taught me to fix what could be fixed and only replace what you finally cannot fix. I'm writing this on an old CRT monitor that a friend gave me because the image was getting too dark. I did a little research, found that changing out a single resistor would brighten up the image for another ten years or so and it's still working. Meanwhile, he's using a "new" LCD monitor that's starting to suffer pixel dropouts as it ages. When the power supply fan bearings get noisy, I replace the fan in the power supply. I've even replaced capacitors on motherboards and in power supplies rather than replace the whole unit.
God, I hate using this term but if that isn't being green I don't know what is. In the old days it wasn't called being green. It was called being frugal (or, if you weren't Scottish in background, being cheap.:-)
(I'm in Canada, btw, not Africa.)
My guess is you have never seen how ewaste is 'recycled'; picture pre-teenage boys using the crudest tools (or their bare hands) to rip apart electronics, including monitors (that are chockful of cancer causing agents), pound the pieces into powder, then melt them down in makeshift smelters (no masks here, just breath in the fumes), then cook out the chemical elements. Most of these kids have brain damage from exposure. Most will get cancer and die painful deaths. Lets also not forget that while they surely get paid something for their labor, in all likelihood they are virtual child slaves. My guess is your sensibilities make you incapable of imagining the abject horror of their existence.
Some perspective on the reality of the situation would be advised.
Most Africans use their phone to access email, twitter, SMS info, this does not require the latest hardware. There are African versions of Android/Nokia/samsung phones that aim to maximize cost and battery life. One can buy a decent smart phone for under $100 for example. The cheapest Nokia phones that can access the internet cost around $30.
I've worked and lived in several African countries for almost ten years now. I've helped set up computer labs, including one that was self-sufficient with solar panels located way off the grid. There is no shortage of old computer parts, they are shipped in by the cargo container. Much of the parts are broken down to get at their base elements to sell for scrap. I'm sure everyone is aware of footage showing young men ripping apart and melting computer components and poisoning themselves in the process.
I am well aware of charities out there who like to package up used computers and sent them off to Africa, the truth is, the computers are old and mostly useless. It's not that people aren't appreciative, but realistically, setting up a refurbished CPU, monitor, keyboard, powersupply, stabilizer, ect... it takes a lot of work. It also takes maintenance and training. It takes a lot of money to do all this. Furthermore, once a computer lab has been set up, it must be made sustainable, it needs security, someone to look after it. All of this entails an infrastructure of some kind.
This is why, it is very easy to donate computers, or to even set up computer centers and labs, but it is much harder to make them a success within a community.
It's actually much cheaper just to source a brand new dell laptop from a local supplier than to ship in in from half way around the world. Many companies, even a few African one's have localized hardware and special low-cost versions that do not sacrifice much performance and still offer the latest technologies. A low cost laptop/netbook/smartphone uses several MAGNITUDES less electricity than a bigbox cpu. Electricity is the biggest problem, or lack of it. Anyway, the economies of most African nations are growing at 5-10%, there is a lot of money to be made in IT. There are African multimillionaire being made in every African country due to the IT boom
I'm rambling now, but back to the e-waste, it's a huge problem, but on the other hand, if someone were to set up a properly functioning e-waste recycling business and properly employ the young men, give them training, and safety equipment, they could do a lot better for themselves.
Gattaca wasn't completely distopian. It did present a society that had accepted genetic modifications as an integral part of society, but not at the expense of scientific progress. At the end of the movie, both those that were deemed genetically superior and the protagonist who proved himself intellectually capable both made it to space.
They have destroyed $5 billion worth of hardware and 14 lives because of their nonsense.
(This is going to be incredibly insensitive torwards those lives that were lost, but it has to be said.) 17 lives lost in the last 50 years of U.S. space exploration really is not too bad considering how many lives where lost during other times of exploration, pioneering eras and the building of industry. I think NASA tries to be perfect and after all they are rocket scientists, but to assume that NASA is the only place that has mismanagement is incredibly naive. Look at the rest of government. Look at the military. Look at the FDA for crying out loud. Am I saying that you should have deaths? No, what I'm saying is that you need to have a little perspective. Only 17 lives lost in 50 years means that you're at least doing something right to safeguard all the other lives that you saved through careful proceedure and cool heads.
Sometimes, Failure really is not an option. If you want to work at the highest levels, you need the highest standards, and you need managers who keep pushing for the highest standards, no matter ego, emotion, or pride. Your kind of thinking leads to failure.
Space should not be just for the 'elite'! It should be able to pay a few thousand and go spin water droplets for a few hours, we should all be so lucky! I'm sure past elitists such as Christopher Columbus felt the same way hundreds of years ago.... "Damn those bourgeois traders and colonists ruining the New World for the REAL explorers!.... bah!
Going to spend $600 just to be cool? Ok. But lets be honest here, the iPhone makes phone calls just fine. Using the default Apps is also just fine. A beautiful user experience. It's only when people go totally gaga with the apps downloading every spammy, game demo, half-assed implemented app, by the dozens (or even hundreds)....then its not wonder things start crashing. As for QUALITY apps, there are arguably more of them available for iphone than android...then again, most major apps have versions for each. In other words, pick your poison and have fun. If you want to just make reliable phone calls, buy a $30 Nokia choco bar phone and be done with it.
Just a giant tax shelter. The real work is being done by the US Government with PEPFAR which has accounted for nearly $20 billion in funding going towards combating HIV and Malaria in Africa.
Gaddafi was a BAD guy, he funded insurgencies and terrorist groups around the world for forty years. He kept his population in poverty, neglected infustructure, and enriched his own family. He also tortured and murdered thousands of his own people with foreign mercenaries. The opportunity came for the west to end his reign of terror and they took it. There is no need for conspiracies.
Democracy is probably the last thing on people's mind. First they need electricity and water. Then they need food. Then they need shelter (actually this is a big one considering that thousands of building were almost completely destroyed in the war)....then the big one, they need JOBS. They need industry to get back on its feet, children to go back to school, hospitals to reopen, supermarkets to get restocked. Democracy? Elections? Who cares about that when you have roving bands of heavily armed militia trying to boss everyone around and having turf wars with the tribe next door? No, law and order first, then redevelopment, true democracy comes much later. It's a long process, decades in fact.
What we really need is "The Assange Monologue Hour" - wherein the audience is drawn into the mind of Julian the rebel, the 'outsider', the shining knight fighting the 'black ops' and 'cigarette smoking men' of the world, who spend their every waking hour hiding the truth from us, the voting public. This is the show I want to see. The producers could just film the show with a single head shot, zoomed into Julians' perfectly symmetrical face and hypnotic greyish eyes. The face of truth!
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Kerosene is actually expensive as the price can fluctuate (even with subsidies the black market ensures price inflation). Kerosene is also responsible for many early deaths and chronic diseases due to inhaling the poisonous fumes, not to mention the fire hazards. A viable solar cooker would not only be more sustainable, but also safer for the users.
Too many people cutting down the trees day after day means....no more trees.
That is fit for the 21st century. We had a food revolution in the 20th century, where we used massive amounts of fertilizer and massive amounts of water, this resulted in massive amounts of food. But at what cost? We chopped down most of the great rainforests and are quickly depleting what remains of the prime topsoil left in the world. We need a paradigm shift. We have the technology to make maximum use of water, we only need to make the investments needed to reap the savings. There are numerous small scale initiatives around the world, utilizing mangroves, saltwater irrigation, greenhouses, hydroponics. Wastage results in more than 1/3 of food going bad or being thrown away due to market conditions. Much work needs to be done if we are to feed 10 billion humans.
Iridium is useful in conflict areas where governments/terrorists shut down local cellphone networks. Iridium has its uses. I have one here in Egypt for emergencies, as the cellphone networks were turned off here during the last revolution.
@sahara, flat tire, canteen empty, delirious, to follow mirage, please feed Rex.
Heh no, Dell was just an example. Dell, HP, Samsung, all have a huge presence and a reputation for offering quality hardware though. Granted, the Chinese brands are cheaper, but if people can afford it, they do go for the big name brands.
Mod up! Those who blame colonialism are in the past. African solutions for Africa is where its at.
Ban the sale of reusable goods to countries fully capable of using them and force them to buy new stuff they cannot afford. This whole planet's gone mad, I tells ya', MAD.
I'm beginning to regret knowing my grandparents. They taught me to fix what could be fixed and only replace what you finally cannot fix. I'm writing this on an old CRT monitor that a friend gave me because the image was getting too dark. I did a little research, found that changing out a single resistor would brighten up the image for another ten years or so and it's still working. Meanwhile, he's using a "new" LCD monitor that's starting to suffer pixel dropouts as it ages. When the power supply fan bearings get noisy, I replace the fan in the power supply. I've even replaced capacitors on motherboards and in power supplies rather than replace the whole unit.
God, I hate using this term but if that isn't being green I don't know what is. In the old days it wasn't called being green. It was called being frugal (or, if you weren't Scottish in background, being cheap. :-)
(I'm in Canada, btw, not Africa.)
My guess is you have never seen how ewaste is 'recycled'; picture pre-teenage boys using the crudest tools (or their bare hands) to rip apart electronics, including monitors (that are chockful of cancer causing agents), pound the pieces into powder, then melt them down in makeshift smelters (no masks here, just breath in the fumes), then cook out the chemical elements. Most of these kids have brain damage from exposure. Most will get cancer and die painful deaths. Lets also not forget that while they surely get paid something for their labor, in all likelihood they are virtual child slaves. My guess is your sensibilities make you incapable of imagining the abject horror of their existence.
Some perspective on the reality of the situation would be advised.
Most Africans use their phone to access email, twitter, SMS info, this does not require the latest hardware. There are African versions of Android/Nokia/samsung phones that aim to maximize cost and battery life. One can buy a decent smart phone for under $100 for example. The cheapest Nokia phones that can access the internet cost around $30.
I am well aware of charities out there who like to package up used computers and sent them off to Africa, the truth is, the computers are old and mostly useless. It's not that people aren't appreciative, but realistically, setting up a refurbished CPU, monitor, keyboard, powersupply, stabilizer, ect... it takes a lot of work. It also takes maintenance and training. It takes a lot of money to do all this. Furthermore, once a computer lab has been set up, it must be made sustainable, it needs security, someone to look after it. All of this entails an infrastructure of some kind.
This is why, it is very easy to donate computers, or to even set up computer centers and labs, but it is much harder to make them a success within a community.
It's actually much cheaper just to source a brand new dell laptop from a local supplier than to ship in in from half way around the world. Many companies, even a few African one's have localized hardware and special low-cost versions that do not sacrifice much performance and still offer the latest technologies. A low cost laptop/netbook/smartphone uses several MAGNITUDES less electricity than a bigbox cpu. Electricity is the biggest problem, or lack of it. Anyway, the economies of most African nations are growing at 5-10%, there is a lot of money to be made in IT. There are African multimillionaire being made in every African country due to the IT boom
I'm rambling now, but back to the e-waste, it's a huge problem, but on the other hand, if someone were to set up a properly functioning e-waste recycling business and properly employ the young men, give them training, and safety equipment, they could do a lot better for themselves.
Gattaca wasn't completely distopian. It did present a society that had accepted genetic modifications as an integral part of society, but not at the expense of scientific progress. At the end of the movie, both those that were deemed genetically superior and the protagonist who proved himself intellectually capable both made it to space.
They have destroyed $5 billion worth of hardware and 14 lives because of their nonsense.
(This is going to be incredibly insensitive torwards those lives that were lost, but it has to be said.) 17 lives lost in the last 50 years of U.S. space exploration really is not too bad considering how many lives where lost during other times of exploration, pioneering eras and the building of industry. I think NASA tries to be perfect and after all they are rocket scientists, but to assume that NASA is the only place that has mismanagement is incredibly naive. Look at the rest of government. Look at the military. Look at the FDA for crying out loud. Am I saying that you should have deaths? No, what I'm saying is that you need to have a little perspective. Only 17 lives lost in 50 years means that you're at least doing something right to safeguard all the other lives that you saved through careful proceedure and cool heads.
Sometimes, Failure really is not an option. If you want to work at the highest levels, you need the highest standards, and you need managers who keep pushing for the highest standards, no matter ego, emotion, or pride. Your kind of thinking leads to failure.
Space should not be just for the 'elite'! It should be able to pay a few thousand and go spin water droplets for a few hours, we should all be so lucky! I'm sure past elitists such as Christopher Columbus felt the same way hundreds of years ago.... "Damn those bourgeois traders and colonists ruining the New World for the REAL explorers!.... bah!
But they don't record or resell that information.
I've had to remove the battery on the Blackberry quite a few times to recover. annoying!
Honestly, Sarfari for iPad is the best mobile experience out there, what is causing it to crash?
Going to spend $600 just to be cool? Ok. But lets be honest here, the iPhone makes phone calls just fine. Using the default Apps is also just fine. A beautiful user experience. It's only when people go totally gaga with the apps downloading every spammy, game demo, half-assed implemented app, by the dozens (or even hundreds)....then its not wonder things start crashing. As for QUALITY apps, there are arguably more of them available for iphone than android...then again, most major apps have versions for each. In other words, pick your poison and have fun. If you want to just make reliable phone calls, buy a $30 Nokia choco bar phone and be done with it.
Are SO fare and transparent....right...... (ie. see most recent selling of cellphone spectrum that cost tens of billions in tax revenue)
So it was Colonel Mustard in the Billiard room with the candlestick that caused the Great War after all!
Dude, I commend you for the insightful commentary. Good luck out there. ;)
For a titanium PENIS! The womens would go CRAZY over it.
Just a giant tax shelter. The real work is being done by the US Government with PEPFAR which has accounted for nearly $20 billion in funding going towards combating HIV and Malaria in Africa.
Gaddafi was a BAD guy, he funded insurgencies and terrorist groups around the world for forty years. He kept his population in poverty, neglected infustructure, and enriched his own family. He also tortured and murdered thousands of his own people with foreign mercenaries. The opportunity came for the west to end his reign of terror and they took it. There is no need for conspiracies.
Democracy is probably the last thing on people's mind. First they need electricity and water. Then they need food. Then they need shelter (actually this is a big one considering that thousands of building were almost completely destroyed in the war)....then the big one, they need JOBS. They need industry to get back on its feet, children to go back to school, hospitals to reopen, supermarkets to get restocked. Democracy? Elections? Who cares about that when you have roving bands of heavily armed militia trying to boss everyone around and having turf wars with the tribe next door? No, law and order first, then redevelopment, true democracy comes much later. It's a long process, decades in fact.
What we really need is "The Assange Monologue Hour" - wherein the audience is drawn into the mind of Julian the rebel, the 'outsider', the shining knight fighting the 'black ops' and 'cigarette smoking men' of the world, who spend their every waking hour hiding the truth from us, the voting public. This is the show I want to see. The producers could just film the show with a single head shot, zoomed into Julians' perfectly symmetrical face and hypnotic greyish eyes. The face of truth!