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Curious Cat Science and Egineering blog full tag cloud
This is a post from my Curious Cat Investing and Economics Blog: Financial Thanksgiving. I have tweaked a bit to tie into appropriate technology since that is the related area to me on this blog.
For me, giving back to others is part of my personal financial plan. As I have said most people that are actually able to read this are financially much better off than billions of other people today. At least they have the potential to be if they don’t chose to live beyond their means. Here are some of the ways I give back to others.
Kiva is a wonderful organization and particularly well suited to discuss because they do a great job of using the internet to make the experience rewarding for people looking to help - as I have mentioned before: Reducing Poverty. One of my goals for this blog is to increase the number of readers participating in Kiva - see current Curious Cat Kivans. I have also created a lending team on Kiva. Kiva added a feature that allows people to connect online. When you make a loan you may link you loan to a group.
I actually give more to Trickle Up, I have been giving to them for a long time. They appeal to my same desire to help people help themselves. I believe in the power of capitalism and people to provide long term increases in standards of living. I love the idea of providing support that grows over time. I like investing and reaping the rewards myself later (with investment I make for myself). But I also like to do that with my gifts. I would like to be able to provide opportunities to many people and have many of them take advantage of that to build a better life for themselves, their families and their children.
The photo shows Frew Wube, Haimanot and Melkan (brother and two sisters), an entrepreneur that received a grant from Trickle up. Trickle Up provides grants to entrepreneur, similar to micro loans, except the entrepreneur does not have to pay back the grant. They are able to use the full funds to invest in their business and use all the income they are able to generate to increase their standard of living and re-invest in the business.
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18 year old self-taught electronics ‘genius’ invents mobile phone-based vehicle anti-theft system
The system, that Mbetsa created by combining technology from projects that he has completed in the past, uses a combination of voice, DTMF and SMS text messages over cell-based phone service to carry codes and messages that allow control of some of a vehicles’ electrical systems including the ignition to manage vehicle activation and disabling remotely in real time.
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Mbetsa is now looking for funding to commercially develop his proof of concept and bring it to the market
Another cool example of engineering in action.
Related: Inspirational Engineer - Africa Turning to China and India for Engineering and Science Education - Car Powered Using Compressed Air - Engineering Entrepreneurs
Low-cost system could revolutionize global energy production
The system consists of a 12-foot-wide mirrored dish that team members have spent the last several weeks assembling. The dish, made from a lightweight frame of thin, inexpensive aluminum tubing and strips of mirror, concentrates sunlight by a factor of 1,000 - creating heat so intense it could melt a bar of steel.
To demonstrate the system’s power, Spencer Ahrens, who just received his master’s in mechanical engineering from MIT, stood in a grassy field on the edge of the campus this week holding a long plank. Slowly, he eased it into position in front of the dish. Almost instantly there was a big puff of smoke, and flames erupted from the wood. Success!
Burning sticks is not what this dish is really for, of course. Attached to the end of a 12-foot-long aluminum tube rising from the center of the dish is a black-painted coil of tubing that has water running through it. When the dish is pointing directly at the sun, the water in the coil flashes immediately into steam.
Someday soon, Ahrens hopes, the company he and his teammates have founded, called RawSolar, will produce such dishes by the thousands. They could be set up in huge arrays to provide steam for industrial processing, or for heating or cooling buildings, as well as to hook up to steam turbines and generate electricity. Once in mass production, such arrays should pay for themselves within a couple of years with the energy they produce.
“This is actually the most efficient solar collector in existence, and it was just completed,” says Doug Wood, an inventor based in Washington state who patented key parts of the dish’s design–the rights to which he has signed over to the student team.
Great job students. Good luck with RawSolar. Photo (by David Chandler): Matt Ritter shows steam coming from the return hose after passing through the coil above the solar dish.
Related: Cheap, Superefficient Solar - Solar Thermal in Desert, to Beat Coal by 2020 - Solar Tower Power Generation - Engineering Students Design Innovative Hand Dryer - posts on solar energy
Dropbox aims to simplifying file backup, sync, and sharing for the world. Like other Y Combinator startups it is small and focused - 3 MIT computer science alums. Watch a web presentation that shows a very useful looking service. It is in private beta now - you can register to be notified when it is open for public launch.
Y Combinator: “We care more about how smart you are than how old you are, and more about the quality of your ideas than whether you have a formal business plan.” You have until April 2nd to apply for funding for the current cycle.
Related: Google and Paul Graham’s Latest Essay - Six Principles for Making New Things by Paul Graham
Three ways to make the world better. First, Kiva is lets you loan money directly to an entrepreneur of your choice. Kiva provides loans through partners (operating in the countries) to the entrepreneurs. Those partners do charge the entrepreneurs interest (to fund the operations of the lending partner). Kiva pays the principle back to you but does not pay interest. And if the entrepreneur defaults then you do not get your capital paid back (in other words you lose the money you loaned). See my post: Helping Capitalism Make the World Better (if you donate to Kiva I have a Curious Cat Kivan - comment to have you link added).
Second, donate using the widget displayed in this post: to William Kamkwamba who built his own windmill in Malawi to get electricity for his home. The donations go to help him with his education and engineering projects. He is a young student and engineer. I have donated $50, I would love to see readers donate - do so and send me a link to your personal blog or personal home page and I will update this post with a link (only to a site obviously associated with you - I reserve the right to link or not link to whoever I want). [the campaign is over so I removed the widget - $943 was raised, the goal was $2,000]. A recent post to his blog: My sisters and cousins with their first books:
Third, create a Kiva like setup for donations that could be used to provide a source for finding remarkable people that have plans for possible donated funds. The potential is huge.
Related: Children’s books - Appropriate Technology - What Kids can Learn - Lesson on Life - $100 Laptop Update - Millennium Development Goals
Excellent interview of Steve Wozniak from Founders at Work: Stories of Startups’ Early Days by Jessica Livingston, to be published in a few months.
Sounds like Google today, see: How Google Works focused on engineering and Enginners at Google Make Decisions.
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Do Great Engineering Schools Beget Entrepreneurism? by Brent Edwards provides two great links.
How to Kick Silicon Valley’s Butt by Guy Kawasaki:
If I had to point to the single biggest reason for Silicon Valley’s existence, it would be Stanford University—specifically, the School of Engineering. Business schools are not of primary importance because MBAs seldom sit around discussing how to change the world with great products.
Why Startups Condense in America:
Both essays make many excellent points - read them! (more…)
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