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Thursday, December 11, 2008
Photo Contest Winner
Congratulations Rex and thank you to all who submitted entries!
Rex from South Africa was our photo contest winner with this submission: Pictured: A crossflow water turbine
Here is what he had to say about his design from DVD 3, the section titled Energy: Water - "For building my unit, I relied heavily on "Small Michell (Banki) Turbine" to get the basic design right. I modified this design to include four nozzles (their unit only has one nozzle) each fed by a parallel channel. This allows me to block the tops of the feed channels in times of low flow so that the velocity of the water reaching the nozzle of close to design.
We have a river with a weir on it and a 4m drop to the first significant pool some 25m away. I intend building a wooden flume (made from deodar tiber that does not require chemicals to prevent it from rotting when immersed in water) to direct the water to the top of the inlet channel (penstock by definition). The water will drop through four channels into four nozzles that will drive the turbine at about 310 rpm. This will be speeded up by either chain or pulley drive (still working on the consequences of each) to drive an AC, 4 pole ST generator. Frequency control will be by an electronic load controller supplied by RetraceElectronics of India. The power will partially be stored in batteries with the balance going into key circuits for emergency power during grid outages."
We love to hear how the AT Library is being put to use! We welcome photos and written entries to our blog if you would like to share how the AT Library has been useful to you. Send your submission to: atlibrary@villageearth.org
Village Earth would like to invite you to participate in our first ever APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY PHOTO CONTEST!
Submit photos of appropriate technologies you have designed using the library or outcomes of the technologies you have implemented (such as new agricultural techniques, etc). Please include a caption with each submitted photo.
Photo Contest Winners will receive:
First Prize - $100
Second Prize - $50
Read the Photo Contest Rules below to determine eligibility.
Photos can be submitted in an high-resolution (300 dpi) electronic format (preferably .jpg, .tif, .png) to kristina@villageearth.org Please include your name, contact information, and photo caption with your e-mail submission.
Photo Contest Rules
Term The photo contest begins October 1, 2008 and ends October 15, 2008. By submitting an entry, each entrant gives permission to Village Earth to use their submitted photo on the website and in publicity materials.
Who May Enter Anyone who has purchased and used Village Earth's Appropriate Technology Library to design or implement a technology. Anyone from any country may enter. CONTEST IS VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.
1. How to Enter Each entry must comply with the following requirements (the "Photograph Requirements"):
Photographs must be in digital format. The photograph need not be taken with a digital camera; scans of negatives, transparencies, or photographic prints are acceptable. Please submit photos in high resolution format (300dpi).
Minor burning, dodging, and/or color correction is acceptable. Hand tinting is acceptable, as is cropping. Any changes to the original Photograph not itemized here are unacceptable and will render the Photograph ineligible for a prize.
Photographs that include sculptures, statues, paintings, and other works of art will be accepted as long as they do not constitute copyright infringement or fraud. When photographing the work of others, it must be as an object in its environment and not a full-frame close-up of another person's art.
The photograph, in its entirety, must be a single work of original material taken by the Contest entrant. By entering the Contest, entrant represents, acknowledges, and warrants that the submitted photograph is an original work created solely by the entrant, that the photograph does not infringe on the copyrights, trademarks, moral rights, rights of privacy/publicity, or intellectual property rights of any person or entity, and that no other party has any right, title, claim, or interest in the photograph.
The photograph must not, in the sole and unfettered discretion of the Village Earth, contain obscene, provocative, defamatory, sexually explicit, or otherwise objectionable or inappropriate content.
Any entrant whose photograph does not meet the Photograph Requirements may be disqualified in the sole discretion of Village Earth.
2. Releases If the photograph contains any material or elements that are not owned by the entrant and/or which are subject to the rights of third parties, and/or if any persons appear in the photograph, the entrant is responsible for obtaining, prior to submission of the photograph, any and all consents necessary to permit the exhibition and use of the photograph in the manner set forth in these Official Rules without additional compensation. If any person appearing in any photograph is under the age of majority in their state/province/territory of residence the consent of a parent or legal guardian is required.
3. Contest Prizes First prize winner will receive $100 US dollars (payable by check or bank transfer). Second prize winner will receive $50 US dollars (payable by check or bank transfer).
4. License By entering the Contest, all entrants grant an irrevocable, perpetual, nonexclusive license to Village Earth to reproduce, distribute, display, and create derivative works of the entries (along with a name credit) in connection with the Contest and promotion of Appropriate Technology, in any media now or hereafter known.
Display or publication of any entry on Village Earth's website does not indicate the entrant will be selected as a winner. Village Earth will not be required to pay any additional consideration or seek any additional approval in connection with such use.
5. Limitation of Liability By entering this Contest, all entrants agree to release, discharge, and hold harmless Village Earth and its partners, agents and their employees, officers, directors, and representatives from any claims, losses, and damages arising out of their participation in this Contest or any Contest-related activities and the acceptance and use, misuse, or possession of any prize awarded hereunder.
6. Conditions THIS CONTEST IS VOID WHERE PROHIBITED. Entries void if the Sponsor determines the photograph to not be an original, or if the entries are illegible, incomplete, damaged, irregular, altered, counterfeit, produced in error, or obtained through fraud or theft.
By entering, entrants also agree (a) to be bound by these Official Rules; (b) that the decisions of the Judges are final and binding with respect to all matters relating to the Contest; and (c) if the entrant wins, that Sponsor may use the winning photographs and each winner's name in any publicity or advertising relating to the Contest or future promotions without compensation or approval (except where prohibited by law). In the event that the selected winner(s) of any prize is/are ineligible, cannot be traced or does/do not respond within ten (10) days to a winner notification as required by the "Contest Prizes" Rules above, or refuses/refuse the prize, the prize will be forfeited, and Sponsor, in its sole discretion, may choose whether to award the prize to another entrant. Failure by the Sponsor to enforce any of its rights at any stage does not constitute a waiver of those rights.
7. Right to Cancel or Suspend Contest If for any reason the Contest is not capable of running as planned or any other causes beyond the control of Village Earth, Village Earth reserves the right, at its sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Contest. If Sponsor elects to cancel or terminate the Contest, Sponsor will not retain any rights to the submitted photographs.
Village Earth, who created the first wiki for appropriate technology, has joined forces with Appropedia.org, the largest wiki for sustainable development, appropriate technology and poverty reduction. Together, Village Earth and Appropedia are promoting the concept of a centralized, consolidated and open information clearinghouse where users can share what they know and find the information they seek. As Dr. Maury Albertson, founder of Village Earth and Peace Corps, put it, "There is an ENORMOUS POTENTIAL here." (His emphasis.) Appropedia Founder Lonny Grafman said "I'm particularly excited to see this public support for open source solutions coming from an organization as highly regarded as Village Earth!"
Appropedia is a 12 month old living library of sustainability and international development solutions that is managed by a committed team. Appropedia has been experiencing explosive growth in content and user base, and has recently begun recruiting a variety of partner organizations. Appropedia welcomes Village Earth as its newest partner helping to raise awareness of the benefits of open source sustainability solutions. Appropedia uses the same software as Wikipedia, and is committed to being the most user-friendly environment for collaboration in sustainability.
To join Appropedia, Village Earth and their partners in co-creating solutions for a sustainable world, visit Appropedia.
Appropriate Technology Library Used as Teaching Aid in the Phillipines
Testimonial sent via email.
My wife Debra and I are located near Iligan City on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines.We teach at the Life Resources Foundation (LRF) which is a two-year residential, post-high school, training institute.Our goal is to give our Filipino students skills they can use to make an impact in the community.Our main focus are Muslim communities.There are thirteen tribes of Muslims in the Philippines and many are very poor.
Debra and I teach community development and we want what we teach to be simple, sustainable and reproducible.Here are some of the classes we are teaching: Nutrition especially about the Moringa plant, simple health care, simple dentistry Debra has training in Atraumatic Restorative Treatment, sanitation, soap making, sewing basics with treadle sewing machines, about water, bio gas and other things.
Our school is located on about 30 acres, so we are also in charge of developing our farm and training our students in agriculture.We are using the SALT system of farming and try to be as organic as possible to help keep cost down.We also teach vermicomposting, herbs, composting, container gardening, seed production and hope to soon get into bee keeping.
The AT Library has been a great resource for us in teaching in all of these areas.We could never have brought all of these resources with us in a printed form and some classes we did not decide to teach until we were here, but thanks to the AT Library we had information readily available.
So we use the AT Library in our teaching and in developing the school.We get so many ideas just looking through the AT Library that I am sure we will not live long enough to try them all.We believe having the Library on DVD will be a big advantage over the many CDs.
VE's Appropriate Technology Library Helps Villages in Uganda
Bob Wright is originally from New Jersey. He now lives in Karamojo, a district of northern Uganda where he purchased 150 acres of land. On this land he has created a service center similar to those developed by Village Earth's partners around the world. He has sparked interest from local people and they have helped each other develop a village.
Bob recently came to the Engineering Research Center at Colorado State University to visit Village Earth to share his success using the library.
Hostility, caused by ’s dependence on fossil fuels, is severe in Karamojo. Bob pays an armed guard to travel with him because, "bandits will shoot you for your gas." Using the AT library, the village is reducing its dependence on fossil fuels. They have installed solar panels to supply electrical power for their medical clinic and veterinary hospital and they used the AT library book, "Maintaining Motorcycles," to repair and operate fuel efficient dirt bikes. The AT library has been used for many other things too.
They have successfully drilled for water and now have an ample supply for themselves and the arid land. They built an irrigation system and use manure to fertilize crops. The crop production has improved significantly and has excited many villagers.
