Archive for the ‘Solution’ Category

Four Nibbletts for you

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Walter Cronkite died last weekend. And the world is a bit poorer place for it. He exemplified honesty and trustworthiness and transparency — and it wasn’t for some PR campaign. I couldn’t stop myself from sneering as I saw current “news people” pay tribute, the worthless sods. Here’s a great interview (brief) from a few decades ago, and well worth the read to compare Walter then and news now.

Bureaucracy can be amusing. At least in the hands of these creative people who’ve provided a site to allow one to funnel those messy events like, er, liking someone, onto the proper form. No word if triplicates allowed.

Such a small thing — helps. I still don’t know the significance of the phrase “three cups of tea”; I supposed I’d need to read the book (which, happily, is at my local library). But it’s lovely to have found this group (which I did via Nicholas Kristof) which provides education in an area where it’s hard to get (Afghanistan, N. Pakistan) to a population who’s least likely to receive it (girls).

Ah, Ireland. goddammit. Oops! Would that land me in prison? A great write up on Ireland and — yes — a blasphemy law. It’s more interesting than you’d think. The convolutions, the weaving of threads …

Are the Dutch capitalistic or socialistic …?

Sunday, May 31st, 2009

Or have they come up with their own blend or “something entirely different” that seems to work rather well. Have started to read this most interesting article; will return to it.

American perceptions of European-style social welfare are seriously skewed. The system in which I have embedded myself has its faults, some of them lampoonable. But does the cartoon image of it — encapsulated in the dread slur “socialism,” which is being lobbed in American political circles like a bomb — match reality? Is there, maybe, a significant upside that is worth exploring?

LET’S FOCUS FIRST ON the slur. I spent my initial months in Amsterdam under the impression that I was living in a quasi-socialistic system, built upon ideas that originated in the brains of Marx and Engels. This was one of the puzzling features of the Netherlands. It is and has long been a highly capitalistic country — the Dutch pioneered the multinational corporation and advanced the concept of shares of stock, and last year the country was the third-largest investor in U.S. businesses — and yet it has what I had been led to believe was a vast, socialistic welfare state. How can these polar-opposite value systems coexist?

An oven for under $10

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

I love clever, ingenius, effective, inexpensive engineering solutions to problems. That’s one reason I love the PlayPump. (Read my previous post discussing how water’s no longer a necessity of life but something for the privileged who can pay.)

So that’s why I love this cardboard oven that uses solar power to bake, boil – reducing the need to scavenge for depleted fuel. Cheers to you, Jon Bohmer. To read more, just google Kyoto Box.

Want to volunteer?

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Here’s a US-based volunteer match site and here’s an Australian volunteer match-up site.

And on the topic of “solutions” — here are about 10 tips (“low tech solutions for high tech problems”): cellphone batteries, remote car key, printer ink cartridge, cellphone in toilet, extend wi-fi, clean CDs and DVDs, camera flash, and crashed hard drives.

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