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Today on Boing Boing tv, Xeni visits TechShop, an open-access public workshop that’s kind of like a health club with heavy machinery and sparks instead of treadmills. Tinkerers, inventors, and hackers pay a membership fee, and in turn receive access to professionally-maintained gear, workshops, mentors, and a community of like-minded makers.

Currently there is only one site in Silicon Valley, and it opened in 2006. But founder Jim Newton (a lifetime maker, veteran BattleBots builder and former MythBuster) plans to open a number of locations around the US — and eventually, the rest of the world.

TechShop
Equipment
120 Independence Dr
Menlo Park, CA 94025
(800) 640-1975

Open 9:00 AM to Midnight 7 Days a Week (except major holidays)

Related:
Berkeley’s tool lending library

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Interesting. Very interesting.

From the NYTimes:

TRAVELERS who don’t trust the water from a mountain stream or a hotel-room faucet have often used chemicals or filters to purify it. Now they have a high-tech option as well: swirl the water with a portable, lightweight wand that beams rays of ultraviolet light.

Video at Steripen booth from 2007’s annual Travel Goods Show in Las Vegas.

How to use the Steripen JourneyLCD

SteriPen JourneyLCD
Available at REI, LL Bean, etc.
Retails at $129.95 (Ouch!)
Uses CR123 Batteries, most often seen in digital cameras.

Thanks, Pete.

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I wrote last week on how our community partner SCIDECO was able to buy the finca La Florida after decades of struggle and several conflicts.

The following is a video of how Mercy Corps is using mediation, together with economic development, to resolve land conflicts peacefully in Guatemala.

The second video in particular talks about how Mercy Corps, USAID and Walmart are working together to help local farmers move past traditional frijoles and corn for subsistence to fruits and vegetable that are in demand to supermarkets in Guatemala and the rest of Central America.

via Guatemala Solidarity Network

Related Article:
Wal-Mart comes to Guatemala [Entremundos]
Communities We Work With: La Florida (Guatemala)

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Onslaught(er) Lyrics

Written by Daniel Bird
Performed by Ohm square

There they go
There they go
There they go
There they go

There they go your trees
Are gone today
All that beauty hacked away

So use your minds

And use your voice to make them stay
It’s not a price you’ll have to pay

They cannot hide

There they go your trees
Are gone today
All that beauty hacked away

Just to soap your hide
Just to soap your hide

Whoa there go the trees
Whoa there go the trees
Whoa there go the trees

via Greenpeace’s Making Waves Blog

The Original Dove Onslaught Commercial

via fubiz

Podcast featuring some companies that are working to make their supply chains more sustainable [Stanford’s Social Innovations Conversation]

With increasing pressures on firms to operate in socially and environmentally sustainable ways, corporate social responsibility has become a regular part of the business landscape. Now those pressures are extending to one’s entire chain of product and service suppliers. But just how do you make CSR work, particularly with your suppliers? How do you justify it financially, and how do you measure its effects? In this breakout panel from the Socially and Environmentally Responsible Supply Chains conference at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Bethany Heath of Chiquita and Mike Loch of Motorola discuss the benefits that have resulted from new supplier standards in the areas of energy efficiency, health, safety, and labor. Michael Jarvis talks about how the World Bank works with companies in emerging markets to help them meet CSR standards so that they may gain access to the supply chains, markets, and capital they need.

Subscribe to their feed.

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From the video: “A study found that young people could identify 1000 corporate logos bu fewer that 10 plants or animals native to their backyards.” [Citation needed. Anybody?]

http://www.nclicoalition.org to increase environmental education opportunities at your school. Celebrating environmental education and its impact on children’s learning, health and leadership.

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Gever Tulley: 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do [TED]
No child left inside: reclaim outdoor play [Boing Boing]

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Tyler Valiquette of EWB-SF

When we first started in Guatemala with XelaTeco, we had the bold plan of manufacturing windmills based on Hugh Piggott’s design from OtherPower.com. We soon discovered that an essential component, permanent magnets, where difficult to obtain in country and that the cost of the windmill tower, battery bank, inverters, etc. were prohibitively expensive for the populations we wanted to serve. The size turbine we were considering would have been too expensive for a family and insufficient power for a community. So for a time we had to put aside our dreams of harnessing the power of wind.

In spring 2007, we teamed up with the San Francisco chapter of Engineers Without Borders to develop a low cost windmill as part of our Project Placement Program. The goal was to provide low cost (under $100) renewable electricity for LED lighting, cell phone charging, or small radio use, etc. The idea is to beat the price of a small (less than 3 watt) photovoltaic solar panel system. The initial inspiration for the project was a design developed by Ed Lenz made with coffee cans.

Just this last week, members from EWB-SF’s Appropriate Technology Design Team,Heather Fleming, Tyler Valiquette and Jesse Wodin, came to Guatemala to build a prototype of their vertical axis design.

Simple vertical axis wind turbine prototype. Wind is captured by the fabric blades which turn the steel axis.

Bicycle Gear affixed to the bottom of the shaft

The gears turn a small motor to generate electricity. Much work remains to be done in perfecting the motor and the electronics.

Heather Fleming and Jesse Wodin relax after a long week of prototyping.

Stay Tuned for more information on other designers/engineers participating in our Project Placement Program in Guatemala.

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Proyecto Futuros Verdes. Future site of AIDG’s interactive environmental education center in Guatemala (Photo taken 03/28/08)

Proyecto Futuros Verdes aims to address the educational component of AIDG’s mission by providing an interactive environmental education center in Xela, Guatemala. This Center will be geared primarily towards schoolchildren, providing general information about environmental trends in Guatemala, simple advice on how to reduce individual and family environmental impacts, and demonstrations of appropriate technology.

The exhibits will be divided into modules (Earth, Water, Wind and Sun) that each feature a set of relevant appropriate technologies. The educational material will cover topics about the major environmental problems facing Guatemala, interactive brainstorms about environmentally friendly household habits and explore the innovative solutions offered by appropriate technology to many environmental challenges.

The Center will be free to school groups, yet tourist groups or travelers would pay a nominal entrance fee (TBD) to defray the operating costs.

The site is scheduled to be completed by the end of May 2008. Use of the property was generously donated to AIDG by a local businessman, Jack Mannen, originally from Texas.

AIDG Intern Carlos Poza describes the project:

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Peter was interviewed on “The New Entrepreneurs”, a podcast from Social Edge [March 18, 2008].

Download the Podcast
More New Entrepreneurs Podcasts

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