Month: November 2010

Teenagers Should Get Dirty

- Adam Clare

Cleaning too much and using too many strong cleaning products can hinder the development of a robust immune system in teenagers. That’s right, it’s imperative that teenagers do what they do best: get dirty.

It seems teenagers are becoming over-exposed to a compound called triclosan, widely used in household products such as soaps, toothpaste, pens and nappy bags.
Allison Aiello, associate professor and principal investigator, said: ‘The triclosan findings in the younger age groups may support the hygiene hypothesis.
‘Triclosan may play a role in changing the micro-organisms to which we are exposed in such a way that our immune system development in childhood is affected.
‘It is possible that a person can be too clean for their own good.’ Adults also can suffer a weakened immune system because of exposure to plastics.

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Being Grateful Can Lengthen Your life

- Adam Clare

Being grateful and appreciating the world around you can contribute not only how good you feel but also to how long you’ll live. New research has drawn a connection between positive thoughts and enjoying them to a gernally happier life.

Hopefully this isn’t a surprise to anyone.

Adults who frequently feel grateful have more energy, more optimism, more social connections and more happiness than those who do not, according to studies conducted over the past decade. They’re also less likely to be depressed, envious, greedy or alcoholics. They earn more money, sleep more soundly, exercise more regularly and have greater resistance to viral infections.
…

Much of the research on gratitude has looked at associations, not cause-and-effect relationships; it’s possible that people who are happy, healthy and successful simply have more to be grateful for. But in a landmark study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2003, Dr. Emmons and University of Miami psychologist Michael McCullough showed that counting blessings can actually make people feel better.

The researchers randomly divided more than 100 undergraduates into three groups. One group was asked to list five things they were grateful for during the past week for 10 consecutive weeks. The second group listed five things that annoyed them each week and the third group simply listed five events that had occurred. They also completed detailed questionnaires about their physical and mental health before, during and after.

Those who listed blessings each week had fewer health complaints, exercised more regularly and felt better about their lives in general than the other two groups.

Read the full article

Random Hacks of Kindness

- Adam Clare

Random Hacks of Kindness is a chance to get tech people together with creative people to make the world a better place. One in Toronto is happening on Dec. 4th so if you can make it, do it. The world will thank you.

We will need Hackers, storytellers, software engineers, programmers, university students, marketers, web content creators, emergency planners,international policy and development students, teachers, librarians, videographers, event planners, organizers, project managers and YOU. Creating humanitarian software in a hackathon is a very special collective collaboration.
Participants can select from a number of problem definitions. (These will be posted in the new few weeks.)
Video screens and online tools like IRC, blogs, wikis and more tools will connect the world. You could be collaborating with any of these countries to solve problems and brainstorm. Yes, there is even some healthy competition in store.
Help us make this global event RHoK. RHoK 2.0 is happening in Toronto (Canada), Chicago (USA), Berlin (Germany), Bangalore(India), Mexico City(Mexico), New York(New York), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Aarhus (Denmark), Nairobi (Kenya) and Lusaka (Zambia).

Check out Random Hacks of Kindness.

Hydroponics in Schools

- Adam Clare

In urban centres where the land has been used for buildings and other infrastructure there is little room for production farms, so how do we teach children about farming? Well, we can use hydroponics to grow plants and help people understand why plants and food are so great.

A school in New York City has installed a hydroponic greenhouse that makes use of rainwater to grow plants for their school.

There’s no soil in a hydroponic greenhouse, which captures and recirculates rainwater to the roots of plants. In capable hands — though maybe not in 5-year-old hands — the 1,400-square-foot structure can produce up to 8,000 pounds of vegetables every year. It is an experiment in environmental education its founders hope will be replicated in schools citywide.

Two mothers at the school, Sidsel Robards and Manuela Zamora, founded the greenhouse, inspired in 2008 by a trip to the Science Barge, a floating urban farm docked in Yonkers. They got New York Sun Works, the nonprofit green-design group that built the barge, interested enough to execute the greenhouse, a bright, open and wheelchair-accessible space, covered by glass and entered from the school’s third floor, that is essentially the Barge on a roof.

It includes a rainwater catchment system, a weather station, a sustainable air conditioner made of cardboard, a worm-composting center and solar panels. In the center of the room is a system resembling a plant-filled hot tub: an aquaponics system home to a community of tilapia, whose waste is converted into nitrate. The system loses water only when it evaporates to help cool plants, consuming only a tiny fraction of the water that a field of conventional dirt does.

“You basically can have this closed system, this symbiotic thing going on, where plants are eating food, creating waste, you’re converting it and then the plants are taking it up,” said Zak Adams, director of ecological design at BrightFarm Systems, which designed the greenhouse and the barge.

Read the full article at The New York Times.

Roll-Out Garden

- Adam Clare

Starting a vegetable garden can be intimidating for some due to the tons of questions that one inevitable has to address. When should plants be planted? What if it’s a seed? How do I know when to pick them? These questions and more have been answered by a neat roll-out garden designed by Chris Chapman.

english designer chris chapman wanted to make planting vegetables and herbs at home less work with his roll-out vegetable mats. the design aims to make home food production as simple as possible and easy to maintain for busy individuals and families. the design features a mat pre-treated with fertilizer on its underside and a series of seed pouches which slowly biodegrade over time. this arrangements allows the plants to develop before coming in contact with nutrients, increasing the chances of germination. the mat is made from corrugated cardboard and come sin a variety of options each suited for different planting seasons. small signs designate which plant is where, making harvesting a breeze.

From Deisgnboom.

Thanks Shea!

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