Bill Gates – reinventing the toilet

On August 16, 2012August 16, 2012 By Rick McIn good news, health & fitness, things getting betterLeave a comment

My personal priorities include anti-smoking, education of girls & women, and clean water.

Bill Gates:

This week in Seattle, the foundation is holding a Reinvent the Toilet Fair.

Today I awarded prizes to three universities who responded to our challenge a year ago to come up with solutions for capturing and processing human waste and transforming it into useful resources. The winners included: first place to California Institute of Technology in the United States for designing a solar-powered toilet that generates hydrogen and electricity, second place to Loughborough University in the United Kingdom for a toilet that produces biological charcoal, minerals, and clean water, and third place to University of Toronto in Canada for a toilet that sanitizes feces and urine and recovers resources and clean water.

A special recognition was awarded to Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology) and EOOS for their outstanding design of a toilet user-interface.

And the Winners of the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge Awards are…?

Click PLAY or watch the winning design on YouTube.

(source)

Obviously, that’s too complicated for the developing world. A simple, foolproof design is needed.

But kudos to Bill Gates for pushing this forward.

I first got interested in this topic when visiting Gandhi’s toilet museum in India.

ma parkour in Quebec

On August 6, 2012August 5, 2012 By Rick McIn health & fitnessLeave a comment

My gymnastics website crashed …

@bluehost sucks

… due to too many visitors over the Olympics, so I had time for some exercise.

Parkour … (abbreviated PK) is a physical discipline and non-competitive activity which focuses on efficient movement around obstacles.

Developed in France by David Belle, the main purpose of the discipline is to teach participants how to move through their environment by vaulting, rolling, running, climbing, and leaping. …

Etymology

“Le parcours” was the original word passed down to David Belle from his father Raymond Belle. This was the term Raymond used when speaking to David about the training he had done. The term derives from “parcours du combattant“, the classic obstacle course method of military training proposed by Georges Hébert …

One day when David Belle was on a film set he showed his ‘Speed Air Man’ video to Hubert Koundé, who suggested to change the “c” of “parcours” to a “k” because it was more dynamic and stronger, and to remove the “s” for the same reason. Belle liked the idea and officially changed the name of his discipline to “parkour”. …

On a break from activity at GymRep Gymnastics & Cheer Camp near Montreal, I took to these woods trying each and every home made obstacle course challenge. Dozens.

Survived. 🙂

One fall from a rock scramble. And one collapsed wooden rung.

GREAT FUN.

I love parkour as fitness exercise.

Kyle Shewfelt runs a marathon

On June 2, 2012 By Rick McIn friends, health & fitnessLeave a comment

The 2004 Olympic Champion in Gymnastics spent decades fine tuning his anaerobic capacity. … And then switched to aerobic sport after retirement.

Yeesh.

A great read on his blog – Marathon: The Finish Line

My only Marathon was the same one — Calgary. I limped in near the cutoff time. 5hrs plus …

“standing desk” $20

On May 30, 2012 By Rick McIn health & fitness, product endorsements1 Comment

Mark Lukach posted the ultimate research summary on stand-up desks on Wirecutter:

… The standing desk fad that you keep hearing about is based on a pretty substantial amount of research. Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic has a scary statistic to share: here in the US, we spend more than half of our waking hours sitting down, split between watching TV, driving a car, and working at a desk. This is not good. …

… Ernest Hemingway stood while he worked. So did Thomas Jefferson, Leonardo DaVinci, Benjamin Franklin and Valdimir Nabokov.

On the contrary, Winston Churchill once said, “Why stand when you can sit, and why sit when you can lay down?” However, it turns out that Churchill was not being completely honest when he said this–Churchill stood when he worked, too. And he lived until 90. …

Best Standing Desks

I’ve had no luck at all trying to sit on an exercise ball. Standing, for a time, works for me.

(via Kottke)

Chagas disease – 10+ million victims

On May 30, 2012 By Rick McIn health & fitness, things getting worse, travel, travel MexicoLeave a comment

Have you heard of Chagas?

Chagas Disease: “The New HIV/AIDS of the Americas”

I hadn’t.

That editorial, published in a journal dedicated to neglected tropical diseases, was picked up by the NY Times, the Daily Mail, and more.

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Chagas disease … is commonly transmitted to humans and other mammals by an insect vector, the blood-sucking “kissing bugs” …

The disease may also be spread through blood transfusion and organ transplantation, ingestion of food contaminated with parasites, and from a mother to her fetus. …

… It is estimated that as many as 8 to 11 million people in Mexico, Central America, and South America have Chagas disease, most of whom do not know they are infected. …

Coffee drinkers live longer

On May 17, 2012May 16, 2012 By Rick McIn food, health & fitness, product endorsementsLeave a comment

Huge study. Over 400,000 subjects. Even a single cup a day seems to help …

MARILYNN MARCHIONE – AP – Coffee drinkers live longer, big study finds; regular and decaf are equally good

Kyle Shewfelt at 30

On May 10, 2012May 9, 2012 By Rick McIn friends, health & fitness, philosophy1 Comment

I recall the day I met Kyle. He was age-6 or 7.

… seems just a few years ago.

Kyle:

On May 6th, I turned 30. In celebration, I ran 33km’s. It was my longest run yet and it felt pretty awesome. …

While running, I had some time to think and ponder what entering my 30’s means to me. …

In my 30’s, I will:

Be FEARLESS

Be decisive

Let go of my perfectionism

Manage my time and energy more wisely

Make health and activity my #1 priorities

Take on new scary audacious challenges

Stop trying to please everyone

Have more productive screen time

Simplify email: I’m checking it twice a day and that’s it.

Take BIG risks

Create opportunities rather than wait for them to happen

Do things rather than think about doing them

Publish books

Finish what I’ve started

Re-organize and down-size

Take more pictures

Have more dinner parties

Have less stress

Be more appreciative

Enjoy my life

KyleShewfelt.com – Thirties Manifesto

Wise beyond his years.

running the Memorial Drive stairs

On April 9, 2012April 8, 2012 By Rick McIn friends, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Better Kyle Shewfelt, than me.

Kyle:

… I both hated and loved the next 45 minutes of my existence. I hated the fact that it was cold, slippery and lonely and that my eye balls were being pummelled by snowflakes. But I loved the fact that I was out there pounding through my sets and feeling the burn. With each journey up the stairs/hill, the layer of snow got thicker on the ground, but my mission got more empowered. …

read more – Hardcore Hills!

100yr-old Marathon runner

On March 22, 2012 By Rick McIn health & fitnessLeave a comment

He’s the world’s oldest marathon runner – and at the grand old age of 100, Fauja Singh is certainly showing no signs of slowing down.

The quick-footed centenarian, who has completed seven marathons since turning 89, has become the first person to sign up to the 2012 Edinburgh race. And he has revealed the key to conquering his daily 10-mile training regime is eating plenty of ginger curry and drinking copious amounts of tea. …

read more on I ❤ to run on Facebook.