Category: things getting better

District 6 Museum – Cape Town

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, product endorsements, things getting better, travel2 Comments

District Six … is the name of a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town, South Africa. It is best known for the forced removal of over 60,000 of its inhabitants during the 1970s by the apartheid regime. …

joyceMUST see attraction.

After World War II, during the earlier part of the apartheid era, District Six was relatively cosmopolitan. Situated within sight of the docks, it was made up largely of coloured residents which included a substantial number of coloured Muslims, called Cape Malays. There were also a number of black Xhosa residents and a smaller numbers of Afrikaans, whites, and Indians.

identity card

Government officials gave four primary reasons for the removals.

In accordance with apartheid philosophy, it stated that interracial interaction bred conflict, necessitating the separation of the races. They deemed District Six a slum, fit only for clearance, not rehabilitation. They also portrayed the area as crime-ridden and dangerous; they claimed that the district was a vice den, full of immoral activities like gambling, drinking, and prostitution.

Eurpeans only

Though these were the official reasons, most residents believed that the government sought the land because of its proximity to the city center, Table Mountain, and the harbor.

On 11 February 1966, the government declared District Six a whites-only area under the Group Areas Act …

white persons only

… in 1994 the District Six Museum came into being. It serves as a remembrance to the events of the apartheid era as well as the culture and history of the area before the removals.

Floor

The ground floor is covered by a large street map of District Six, with handwritten notes from former residents indicating where their homes had been; other features of the museum include street signs from the old district, displays of the histories and lives of District Six families, and historical explanations of the life of the District and its destruction.

In addition to its function as a museum it also serves as a memorial to a decimated community, and a meeting place and community center for Cape Town residents who identify with its history. …

Face

District 9 is a 2009 science fiction film produced by Peter Jackson and directed by Neill Blomkamp. Although set in an alternate Johannesburg, it is inspired by the events surrounding District Six. …

climate change – SOLVED

On By Rick McIn economics, education, food, good news, government, things getting betterLeave a comment

I’m a “global warming” skeptic.

The climate is changing as it always has. Ice ages come and go.

I’m skeptical that the Earth is warming mainly due to fossil fuels. And I hope I’m right. Because there is almost NO chance that the world is going to reduce the use of fossil fuels anytime soon.

Here’s the best solution I’ve yet heard. Allan Savory’s explains how we can improve the world’s climate in a cost efficient way. AND feed millions of the poorest of the poor at the same time.

Click PLAY or watch it on TED.

“Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert,” begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And it’s happening to about two-thirds of the world’s grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it.

He now believes — and his work so far shows — that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert.

Allan Savory: Grassland ecosystem pioneer

Thanks for the link, Ron.

Getting Things Done – The Secret Weapon

On By Rick McIn internet, product endorsements, things getting better2 Comments

Have I dreamed of the PERFECT to-do list and workflow?

YES I HAVE.

So have the good folks at Brain Toniq:

If you dreamed of the “perfect system” what attributes would it have? We think it would:

Keep everything in one system (versus one way for one kind of to-dos and another method for other types of to-dos).

Allow you to group items in different ways, so that you’re not staring at all 80 to-dos that you’ve written down. Instead, you can look only at “Downtown” to-dos, or “My daughter” to-dos. You can sort by priority, where, who, what.

Allow you to remove emails out of the Inbox and into your to-do system …

Be where you are, up to date, when you need it.

Allow you to approach what to do next from different points of view, “wearing different hats” and organize and view those items accordingly.

Have a way to capture ideas and to-do items when you think of them, getting ALL of them out of your head.

Keep you in control and not overwhelmed even if you have a TON of things to do.
We have created exactly this. Because of the impact it’s having on our lives and businesses, we call it The Secret Weapon, or TSW for short. …

If interested, start here — Secret Weapon Manifesto – The Issue

I spent a few hours getting up-to-speed, and am now trying to use the incredibly powerful Evernote for my to-do list.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I’m keen to capture audio notes … and visual notes with my iPhone. (VIDEO)

Yesterday I updated to Evernote 5 for Mac, a significantly different interface. So far, I like it better.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

More Evernote videos.

Wish me luck. I’m trying to transition away from Google Tasks and text to-do lists.

(via Lifehacker)

biggest winner last night – Nate Silver

On By Rick McIn blogs, ethics, government, product endorsements, things getting betterLeave a comment

… Silver runs a blog called FiveThirtyEight, which is licensed by the Times. In 2008 he called the presidential election with incredible accuracy, getting 49 out of 50 states right.

But this year he rolled a perfect score, 50 out of 50, even nailing the margins in many cases. His uncanny accuracy on this year’s election represents what Rowinski calls a victory of “logic over punditry.”

… What does it mean when some punk kid baseball nerd can just wade into politics and start kicking butt on all these long-time “experts” who have spent their entire lives covering politics?

It means something big is happening.

… The age of voodoo is over. The era of talking about something as a “dark art” is done. In a world with big computers and big data, there are no dark arts. …

Read Write Web – Why Nate Silver Won, And Why It Matters

The fact check sites have helped. But what we really need are the facts.

It’s time to take down bloviating pundits in the USA, Dick Morris often being listed as WORST.

It’s Moneyball time. 🙂

Salman Khan Academy – online

On By Rick McIn education, product endorsements, things getting betterLeave a comment

Warren had myself and his parents watch an excellent TED talk on a super successful distance learning model. All free and open source.

Salman Amin ‘Sal’ Khan, born October 11, 1976, is a Bangladeshi American educator and the founder of the Khan Academy, a free online education platform and nonprofit organization. From a small office in his home, Khan has produced over 3000 videos elucidating a wide spectrum of academic subjects, mainly focusing on mathematics and the sciences.

As of September 2012, the Khan Academy channel on YouTube has attracted nearly 400,000 subscribers.

… In 2010, Google provided $2 million to support the creation of more courses and to enable the Khan Academy to translate its core library into the world’s most widely spoken languages. …

In March 2011, Salman Khan was invited to speak at TED by Bill Gates who says he uses the Khan Academy Exercise Software to teach his own children. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

khanacademy.org

Bill Gates – reinventing the toilet

On 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.

campaign against warlord Joseph KONY

On By Rick McIn things getting betterLeave a comment

#Kony2012

This must be the best organized VIRAL VIDEO campaign I’ve ever seen. Regular folks rallying to help the kids of Africa.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Joseph Kony (born 1961 in Odek, Uganda) is a Ugandan guerrilla group leader, head of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a group engaged in a violent campaign to establish theocratic government based on the Ten Commandments …

… (the LRA) has abducted and forced an estimated 66,000 children to fight for them, and has also forced the internal displacement of over 2,000,000 people since its rebellion began in 1986. As a result, in 2005 Kony was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court at the Hague, but has succeeded in evading capture since. …

Campaign webpage

animated history of aviation

On By Rick McIn things getting betterLeave a comment

… a brief history … in 3D animation.

While there are many contributions … that could not be included, this video shows many of the substantial advancements that propelled aviation to what it has become today. …

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.