Stephanie Posterizes The Cloud

I HELPED FUND THIS! (By attending a party!!)

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Get with the FLOW

    If this isn't a kick-ass example of cradle to cradle design I don't know what is! This simple kitchen structure, fabricated by Dutch designer John Arndt, uses the systems in nature as an example of perfect sustainable design. Here he uses the waste from one daily process as fuel for another. The dishes get washed in place, in return watering the edible herbs who prosper, providing a dust free environment for the dishes. Check out his website for more info on this Design^Sprout hero.

via designsprout.com

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I tried to post this a few minutes ago, but the article is terrible, and I had to delete it. Trying again, heavily edited. Read the whole thing here - very interesting ideas if you have the patience to sift through...

Innovation at the intersection of art and social work  - 3/3/2009

“How can an arts-based institution such as the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts have significance for social work as a field and for the Brown School in particular?” asked Paul Shattuck, assistant professor at the Brown School, speaking to alumni gathered at the Pulitzer during the final week of the Dan Flavin: Constructed Light exhibit.

The obvious, converse question arises: “What is Brown’s significance to the Pulitzer?”

The answer to both questions lies in a single word: engagement. The Pulitzer’s commitment to engaging their urban neighbors aligns perfectly with social work’s traditional strength in building communities.

Director Matthias Waschek explained, “In essence, this is a new take on what is generally conceptualized and implemented as part of the educational mission of cultural institutions: instead of teaching, we are engaging the community, and instead of working with one skill set, we are combining two, that of the social worker with high ethical standards and that of the art historian with high aesthetic standards. Because we are small, we can explore things, and you can use us to engage in the cultural world as a place of possibility to just play out ideas.”

To some, “play” might sound frivolous—and there’s no doubt that Lisa Harper Chang, MSW 2007, enjoys her work—but as Manager of Community Engagement, she is quite serious about evidence-based practice. “We are very intentional in framing these programs,” she says, citing research that promotes community members’ active participation (e.g., collective art-making, amateur arts practice); the integration of the arts into education; the development of social capital; and art as a vehicle for skill development.

The first program emanated from the Dan Flavin: Constructed Light exhibit, which cast magical colors onto largely vacant neighboring streets, wordlessly communicating, “There is life in the area,” says Harper Chang.

The Pulitzer expanded on this exhibit by commissioning professional artists to create four outdoor installations, all expressing the theme of light.  Collectively known as The Light Project, the installations ranged from an illuminated, faux church roof to a solar-powered ice cream machine.  

“People from the neighborhood stopped to watch the artists working, and the artists stopped to talk with them,” Harper Chang reports.

Then the Light Project flowed into neighborhood schools, creating a new component: the Community Light Project. Guided by their teachers and project volunteers, students at Cole Elementary, Loyola Academy, Cardinal Ritter Preparatory School, and Metro High School, designed and constructed light-themed art installations, which were exhibited in their schools, with one collaborative installation displayed on the Grand Public Arts Plaza next to Powell Hall.  

Active participation and social capital development top the list of the Community Light Project achievements. More than 150 students engaged in visual, musical, and performing arts. Teachers worked together with interns from the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Pulitzer gallery assistants and docents, professional musicians, and a Brown practicum student, while volunteers from the St. Louis Science Center and the WUSTL student group Engineers without Borders designed and built the circuitry of the illuminating drums.

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This report was written to shine a spotlight on the under-reported plight of America’s nonprofit organizations and to make recommendations for how the nation can respond. In the wake of the economic downturn, hospitals, nursing homes, nursery schools, senior centers, soup kitchens, and other nonprofit organizations have been hit by a triple whammy. The evaporation of wealth has decimated charitable donations; the state and local budget crunch is costing nonprofits their foremost paying clients; and the human need for nonprofit help is skyrocketing as nonprofit resources shrink.

Reversing the nonprofit plunge is a matter of jobs, not just charity. With 9.4 million employees and 4.7 million full-time volunteers nationwide, nonprofits constitute 11 percent of the American workforce—greater than the auto and financial industries combined. If the nonprofit sector were a country, it would have the seventh largest economy in the world. We cannot afford for it to go the way of Iceland, whose financial system collapsed.

So far, the economic debate has almost completely overlooked nonprofits. That is a mistake, because no sector offers more bang for the buck. For example, national service volunteers—individuals who spent one or more years of their lives in full-time or part-time civilian service to the country—cost less per hour than private-sector employees making the minimum wage. A report showed that such national service among disadvantaged youth led to successful post-service employment and higher earnings than their peers with no national service experience. Such citizen service, one of America’s finest and longstanding traditions, offers policymakers a hat trick: a way to create hundreds of thousands
of jobs at low cost to government, with great national purpose—meeting the country’s most challenging needs in education, poverty, health care, energy, and the environment—and with no new bureaucracy, since individuals work through existing nonprofit organizations.

This report makes several concrete recommendations on how our nation can spark a strong nonprofit recovery and permit more Americans to do good works in hard times.

Read the recommendations and the rest of the report here.

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Below is some info and a link to the website - but the basic premise (and i'm sure some heifer international branding czar out there will hate me for this grossly oversimplified explanation) is that someone can give a small gift (starting around $20 for a flock of geese) to subsidize a farmer, and eventually a community of farmers (as those original geese make many babies!).

--> Rather than giving one time shopping bags full of consumables, you are contributing to an ongoing means of food production: meat, eggs, milk, etc. Heifer is an excellent gift for family, friends, colleagues, etc.

http://www.heifer.org/

Heifer's Mission to End Hunger

Heifer envisions…
A world of communities living together in peace and equitably sharing the resources of a healthy planet.

Heifer's mission is…
To work with communities to end hunger and poverty and to care for the earth.

Heifer's strategy is…
To "pass on the gift." As people share their animals' offspring with others – along with their knowledge, resources, and skills – an expanding network of hope, dignity, and self-reliance is created that reaches around the globe.

Heifer's History
This simple idea of giving families a source of food rather than short-term relief caught on and has continued for over 60 years. Today, millions of families in 128 countries have been given the gifts of self-reliance and hope.

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Idealist.org Global Volunteering Fairs provide a unique venue for individuals to meet with volunteer-sending organizations as well as participate in free workshops like "International Volunteerism 101" and "The Cost of Doing Good: Affordable Options for Volunteering Abroad." The fairs are free for individuals.

Fairs are the week of February 2nd: Washington DC (2/3), New York City (2/5), and Boston (2/7)

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Excerpted from DEMOCRATIC CULTURE, by John Holden

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[i have been blogging daily since october. i took a no internet break over xmas, and have been stuttering ever since. here's to another attempt to get back on the ball!]

A fascinating 52 minute documentary on the rise and fall of suburbia.  In order to successfully transition through the global food crisis, climate change and peak oil, the new suburbia must reinvent a sustainable "mom and pop" localized economy.

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Imagine a plaza or town square bustling with people who are greeting each other, buying, selling, and exchanging ideas. For everyone striving to make public spaces better, Project for Public Spaces is that town square. Our vision is to act as the central hub of the global Placemaking movement, connecting people to ideas, expertise, and partners who share a passion for creating vital places.

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Scientists hack cellphone to analyze blood, detect disease, help developing nations

  @ Wired via Make

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