For some reason yesterday — December 2nd — Christmas spirit arrived.
My favourite holiday is nearly here.
How will YOU #LightTheWorld this Christmas?
Click PLAY or watch a celebration on YouTube.
Category: things getting better
The future of global energy
I’ve always been suspicious of stories predicting the rise of solar and wind and the imminent plunge of coal and oil.
But it’s here. Solar in Dubai is already the least expensive source of electricity in the history of the world — 2.42 cents / kwh.
Click PLAY or watch a TED Talk on YouTube. (38min)
Incumbents will increasingly be asking for government subsidy for coal and oil. Those requests should be denied.
(via tywkiwdbi)
Religious Leaders call for friendship
World’s Top Religious Leaders Issue Rare Joint Appeal
“Our advice is to make friends to followers of all religions.”
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Racists tend to ghettoize. Cling to people who look and think like themselves.
new – WikiTribune NEWS
The founder of Wikipedia is launching a news site.
Sounds great. Ad free. Donor supported.
Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.
Rick is downsizing
What, you ask? A smaller backpack?
ALL my cassette tapes, reel-to-reel and VHS are headed for Value Village. A few CDs, as well. Software. Old electronics.
Even that romantic mix tape. 
I’ll donate at least 75% of my old clothes. Less is more. 🙂
related – my philosophy of Voluntary Simplicity
mapping the world in a simpler way
What3words (stylizedwhat3words) is a geocoding system for the simple communication of locations with a resolution of 3 m.
what3words encodes geographic coordinates into 3 dictionary words (for example, the Statue of Liberty is located at planet.inches.most).
Click PLAY or see how it works on Vimeo.
Mongolia officially adopted the new address system. Click PLAY or watch it on Vimeo.
best refugee housing
Let’s say you have to flee your country.
Where would you go?
You’d cross the border hoping to return to your home, family and friends as soon as possible.
To a clean, safe refugee camp.
Former soldier and UN observer Neale Sutton and businessman Andrew Hamilton’s self-designed “Humanihut” was last week plucked from relative obscurity to be on the Disrupt 100 list, an index of the most promising start-ups around the world. …
After securing a $50,000 grant from the South Australian government, the pair then engaged Adelaide company Applidyne to create “proof of concept” drawings based on their specifications.
The final product is a robust family-sized hut that can be set up in five minutes, with a village of 2400 huts designed to be set up in three days, inclusive of power, water and sewage. Their calculations show that one shipping container can hold 16 Humanihuts.
“When you unpack the 16 huts, the shipping container is then reconfigured to be the shower, washing and cleaning facilities for those people living in those 16 huts. We bring our own water treatment plant that can reuse 85 per cent of the “black water” for showers and toilets,” said Sutton. …
South Australian entrepreneurs seek to improve refugee lives with Humanihut
Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.
The Humanihut Shelter System is an inexpensive, innovative and robust shelter system for people at their time of greatest need.
Thanks Mary.
Thou shalt not kill.
Christ was sentenced to be killed by the government of the day. That was wrong.
In America, however, most Christians still support capital punishment. That seems a disconnect to me.
A poll by the Pew Research Center in March found that 56% of Americans back the death penalty while 38% oppose it. Catholics were slightly less supportive (approving it by 53% to 42%) than average, whereas Protestants were more keen. Among white evangelicals, some 71% agreed with execution and only 25% were against. Black Protestants felt differently; 37% agree with the death penalty while 58% oppose it.
But even in America, support for the death penalty is waning, falling from 80% in 1994. …
Tea Party types, in general, believe in Capital Punishment. Surprisingly it’s not one of their “15 Non-negotiable Core Beliefs”.
Almost anything supported by the Tea Party, I oppose.
harvesting clean water from fog
Clean water is the world’s immediate need. Education of girls and women the long term priority.
Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.
The research paper.
via Hashem Al-Ghaili
pedal 1 hour, electricity for 24 hours
Pollution free energy. 🙂
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Billions in Change is a movement to save the world by creating and implementing solutions to the most basic global problems – water, energy and health. Doing so will raise billions of people out of poverty and improve the lives of everyone – rich and poor.
That’s the mission of founder philanthropist Manoj Bhargava, born in India, educated in the U.S.
Bhargava has committed to giving away 99% of his $4 billion dollar net worth and signed the well-known Giving Pledge in 2012.
Thanks to Doug Davis for the link.
Rick McCharles 