It is with heavy hearts that we have continued to watch the ongoing devastation unfolding in Fukushima, Japan this week and bought to the attention of the world – in frightening detail – thanks to new media coverage of the nuclear melt-down.
While this is certainly not the first time in history that we have all been shown the potential devastation that this so-called “clean” energy can have (and the lingering damage inflicted upon generation after generation) when the “worst case scenario” inevitably occurs, this is probably the first time time that we have ALL been able to witness, first-hand, the horrendous reality of when it all goes wrong.
Yesterday, in the office, thanks to Zamg, an online Austrian weather service, we were able to watch an animation of the radiation plume emanating from the nuclear plants and see just how much radiation is being release and just how far it can reach.
Unsurprisingly, when it comes to non-renewable energy sources such as nuclear, the latest news update, provided by Business week, has revealed that in actual fact, the disaster at the Fukushima plant follows decades of falsified safety reports and underestimated earthquake risk in Japan’s atomic power industry.
All of us working for NGOs and the social sector must make the most of the public interest in Fukushima, work together and pull out all the stops to make one final push towards serious, worldwide commitments to prevent “worst case scenarios” from ever, ever occurring again. And really the only way we can achieve this is to stop talking about it and considering it and actually start implementing renewable energy systems on a massive and international scale.
We just got word that Lucy Innophoria’s monthly article is out this week…on Sofii.org!
This month, Lucy discusses fun, interactive fundraising ideas from the social sector…and beyond!
There are some really great examples, including Volkswagen’s Funtheory (check out the video above for it’s great interactive staircase, designed to encourage people to get more exercise) and Services for the Underserved’s cardboard apartment installation in Times Square.
These fun campaigns are all sure signs that there are indeed a few divergent thinkers out there!!
To find out more, check out Lucy’s full article here
I recently came across yet another great talk from Sir Ken Robinson on the education system. In his talk, Ken discusses the standardisation of education and the fact that something designed to be used during the industrial revolution may no longer be relevant for today’s youth. If anything, the system serves only to quash creativity and anaesthetise.
In his talk, Ken talks about the importance of Divergent Thinking – which is basically an essential capacity for creativity, the ability to see lots of answers to a question, lots of possible ways to interpret a question, to think laterally.
I am wondering whether this might perhaps shed some light on why NGOs are so reluctant when it comes to innovation – Perhaps we need to be increasing our efforts to promote divergent thinking within social organisations!
(Many thanks to Mariana Rios from Gire for sending us this video!)
Our predictions here at Marceloiniarra.com were spot on! The Smartphone is now the personal computer of choice.
Recent announcements made by market intelligence firm, IDC today, reveal that Smartphone manufacturers shipped over 109 million devices in the last quarter of 2010 alone, bringing the total number of devices sold during 2010 to 302.6 million – a 74.4% increase from 2009.
For all of us, including the social sector, these figures spell massive changes in the way we communicate and interact with one another.
According to Ramon Llamas, Senior Research Analyst with IDC’s Mobile phone technology and trends team, “Android especially, continues to gain by leaps and bounds, helping to drive the smartphone market.”
The main reason behind Android’s popularity is its open-source Linux operating system which allows for increasingly more novel apps. This is particularly relevant for the social sector as it enables developers from all over the world to create relevant apps without any boundaries or regulations imposed by more controlled operating systems such as Apple and Windows.
The team at Surrey Satellite Technology, in the UK, announced this week their intention to launch the first mobile phone device into space!
The aim of the experiment is to push today’s sophisticated mobile phone technology to its absolute limit and find out just how much the device can function in the most challenging of environments.
This could have massive implications for the social sector, when it comes to the design of reliable mobile and smartphone devices to function in the field, especially in extreme environments.
The phone that is to be launched into space will operate using an Android system and will be used to control a 30cm-long satellite and take pictures of the Earth in orbit. Because Android is open-source, engineers will be able to make adaptations to the operating system as required.
According to Chris Bridges, from the Surrey Space Centre, “If a smartphone can be proved to work in space, it opens up lots of new technologies to a multitude of people and companies for space who usually can’t afford it. It’s a real game-changer for the industry.”
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