Makers and Disaster Relief: Searching for Sustainable Cooking Methods
When disaster strikes, and electrical or gas stoves aren’t an option, how can we use upcycled solar panels and seawater to cook food?
disaster
Hackerfarm Builds and Donates Lights to Hurricane Victims
After hearing that Puerto Rico would be without power for at least six months, Freaklabs worked to send the country some light.
California Wildfires: How Makers Can Respond When Disaster Strikes
Wildfires have ravaged Northern California all week, and makers are beginning to organize.
Hurricane Irene: What Worked, What Didn’t?
A little while ago, the utility gods smiled upon my house, renewing the electricity, telephone and internet. Hurricane Irene provided many people an opportunity to examine our cultural commitment to the systems of technology. We were without these modern amenities for about 48 hours, long enough to regain a healthy appreciation.
Thinking back upon my family’s recent technology vacation, it occurs to me that more things fell into the ‘Works Fine’ category than the ‘Doesn’t Work’ category. There’s also the ‘Works, but…’ column, which may be the most interesting to us makers. Having things stop working gives a great view into the systems that we depend on, how they work, how they fail, and what we can do to either prevent failure or deal with it when it comes our way.
DIY Geiger Counters in Japan
In the wake of the Japanese disaster trifecta, I contacted our pal Francesco Fondi, of Wired Italy’s Otaku News and Hobby Media, to make sure he was OK (in Tokyo). He’s fine. He also sent us a link to a piece he’d done on Wired.it about DIY Geiger counters. It looked interesting, so I asked […]
Where Have All the Robots Gone?
Right after the Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, I began jokingly mentioning to friends: “At least Japan has lots of robots that can help.” Then, as the days have worn on, and the tragedies mount, I started seeing comments on Facebook and blogs, asking: “Where are the robots!?” Where are the robots? Japan is […]
Post-disaster shelters
Around the world, people are preparing systems to deploy in emergencies like the earthquake in Haiti, the Asian Tsunami of a few years ago and other situations such as hurricanes, floods, fires and the aftermath of war. Medical personnel are crucial, but their stuff needs to be with them, and they need a place to work. Below are a number of shelters that can be delivered and set up in places of need around the world. The people developing these systems are working hard, often with little funding and driven by their passion to create better designs. The projects below are all in some phase of the Design Process, and each could have its place in a variety of challenging situations. Each community has its’ own traditions of architecture, and the materials available vary by region. The designers of long term structures need to remain sensitive to these local realities.
