Monthly Archives: November 2007

Small Town Fights Big Smoke

Smoking is clearly bad for your health, and it’s bad for the people who happen to be around a smoker too. A small town in Nova Scotia, Canada has made it illegal to smoke while in a car that is transporting children. Wolfville is a community that is turning out to be one of the more progressive ones in Canada, and all the more power to them in their ongoing adventure to make the world better!

Meg McCallum, a spokeswoman for the cancer agency, said the bylaw is part of a societal shift that began years ago when similar bans were placed on airplanes, followed by workplaces, restaurants and bars across much of Canada.

“It’s all about what’s best for children and youth,” she said from Halifax. “This is part of evolving to a culture where being tobacco-free is the norm.”

The law, expected to come into effect June 1, 2008, would prohibit exposing children under 18 to secondhand smoke in a vehicle.

The Hexayurt Project

The Hexayurt Project is looking to house more people more efficiently. This simple housing design maybe able to help the world’s poor.

The Hexayurt is a prize-winning shelter you can build yourself for about $200 (cache). Suitable raw materials include common building materials (insulation boards,) hexacomb cardboard and plastic. You cut six 4′ x 8′ panels in half diagonally to make the roof, and use six more whole panels to form the walls. It takes about two hours. The design (cache) is in the public domain.

What’s The Point?

The Point is an online community that is geared to changing the world when they reach “the tipping point,” that is to say when a movement has enough people embracing its ideas then it’s time to act. The thing with this point is that participants decided when that tipping point is and act only once that point is reached.

The Point is a groundbreaking way to use the Internet that helps groups of like-minded people get things done. How? No one is obligated to do anything unless a campaign reaches its “tipping point.” At the tipping point, everyone springs into action, knowing they have the numbers to make a difference.

Think of how often you confront this problem – you want to know what everyone else is doing before you decide what you are going to do. Voting, complaining to your phone company, contributing to a group purchase or charity, standing up to your boss, boycotting a company, planning a party – the list is endless. On The Point, all action is contingent on its effectiveness.

Via TechCrunch

OLPC For You and Me

olpcThe One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project aims to bridge the digital divide by providing relatively inexpensive computers to kids in the developing world. The cost of the machine has unfortunately increased from their proposed $100 USD to almost double that, in oprder to ensure that they can still get these laptops out to the kids they are selling them as pairs.

You buy an OLPC laptop for yourself, but in doing so you also buy one to be donated to a child somewhere in the majority world.

The mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege. Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. During this time, you can donate the revolutionary XO laptop to a child in a developing nation, and also receive one for the child in your life in recognition of your contribution.

Previously on Things Are Good: Cheap Laptop