Tag Archives: Transportation

Dial-a-Meal

Over at OneWorld South Asia they are running this neat story about a dial-a-meal program:

“Hunger Helpline allows hungry in Gujarat to dial-a-meal. Poor and hungry and living in Gujarat? A meal is just a phone call away, if the state’s food and civil supplies department, which is launching a Hunger Helpline, is to be believed

A novel Hunger Helpline in Gujarat, initiated by the state government in collaboration with civil society organisations (CSOs), aims to connect poor people in need of a meal with food donors through the telephone.

The brainchild of the state’s food and civil supplies department, this first-of-its-kind service aims to ensure than no person in the state goes hungry, either during a natural calamity or even on an ordinary day.”

Off-Grid Trailer House

home? The Mini Home is a portable house that allows the inhabitants to live off the grid. Off-grid basically means not using water and power from public (or in some places private) sources, almost a self-sustianable lifestyle.

The mini home itself looks like a futuristic trailer park home because of the layout and materials used. Power comes from solar panels, I don’t know where the water comes from (or goes to) though.

It’s good to see companies making living spaces that can function without sucking power from non-renewable resources.

Seven Hybrid Concerns?

People seem to not like change and changing from a car that produces smog to a car that produces less smog is shocking for some. They don’t know what is true and what isn’t true when it comes to information about hybrid vehicles. CNN has tried to clarify what people should consider when buying a hybrid car and other points that aren’t that important.

Of their list below only three are “legitimate” concerns.

  1. Hybrids have complicated technology that is difficult or expensive to fix
  2. Hybrids have limited battery pack life
  3. Hybrids have technical problems like stalling and sputtering
  4. Hybrids do not pay for themselves to justify their premium cost
  5. Hybrids do not offer the driving performance needed
  6. Hybrids will not hold resale value
  7. Hybrids do not get the level of mileage promised

BA Flight Makes Unexpected Delivery

A BA flight from London to Boston made a rather unexpected delivery yesterday as one of its passengers gave birth to a healthy baby mid-flight.

Shortly after take off on Saturday night, one of the BA flight’s female passengers began to experience discomfort and then went into labour. The crew, trained in medical birthing procedures, helped to deliver the baby with the aid of two medical students who were on board.

The flight was diverted to Halifax in Nova Scotia where the woman and baby were taken to a medical centre. The baby was born 6 weeks premature.
Although flight crews are trained to deal with such eventualities, passengers are encouraged to avoid flying after 36 weeks, making this a rare occurrence.

Share and Save

trafficWe’ve covered car sharing programs before on ThingsAreGood and I don’t think this will be the last time we mention them.

The BBC is running a good article on car sharing in the UK. Richard Ghail writes about how carpooling is a great way to meet people, save money and the environment all in one go.

He credits the congestion charge in London reinforces of environmental protection. What’s more, he points out that the economy benefits from less congestion on the road.