Ikea launches first Christmas ad with 'irreverent' take on festive hosting
Ikea is launching its first Christmas ad, encouraging Britons to defy ‘home shame’ and open up their homes to guests over the festive seasons. The ‘Silence the Critics’ campaign, created by Mother, kicks off with a TV ad featuring a couple who become racked with home shame when they’re faced with the prospect of having guests round. This isn’t helped when ornaments and objects from around the home come to life to taunt them about the state of their house.
What Exactly Is Design Thinking? □(Updated Guide for 2020)
Design Thinking is both an ideology and a process, concerned with solving complex problems in a highly user-centric way. In this guide, we’ll give you a detailed definition of Design Thinking, illustrate exactly what the process involves, and underline why it matters: What is the value of Design Thinking, and in what contexts is it particularly useful? We’ll also analyze the relationship between User Experience Design and Design Thinking and discuss two real-world case studies that show Design Thinking in action. All sound a little overwhelming?
Second life lithium battery storage in Kenya to come in at 'half the cost' of lead acid
While it's early days for recycling and for second life reuse, the potential in both supply and demand terms could be really big. Image: Aceleron. Lithium-ion waste from a solar lantern scheme run by oil & gas major Total in Kenya will be recycled into new batteries for solar home systems by start-up Aceleron. Total Access to Energy Solutions (TATES) sells solar lamps and kits in emerging markets and aims to sell 6 million distributed “solar energy decentralised solutions for homes and communities” by 2025, which would enable electricity access for roughly 25 million people. Aceleron, meanwhile is a UK-headquartered company which is at an early stage of commercialising what company CEO Amrit Chandan recently described in a blog for this site as “simple assembly technology” which “facilitates the easy replacement of components, coupled with advanced machine learning technology that can tell which components are faulty.”
Why Design Thinking Works
Occasionally, a new way of organizing work leads to extraordinary improvements. Total quality management did that in manufacturing in the 1980s by combining a set of tools—kanban cards, quality circles, and so on—with the insight that people on the shop floor could do much higher level work than they usually were asked to. That blend of tools and insight, applied to a work process, can be thought of as a social technology. In a recent seven-year study in which I looked in depth at 50 projects from a range of sectors, including business, health care, and social services, I have seen that another social technology, design thinking, has the potential to do for innovation exactly what TQM did for manufacturing: unleash people’s full creative energies, win their commitment, and radically improve processes. The Challenges of Innovation
Snapmaker Launching 2.0 Version of Combination 3D Printer, Lasercutter and CNC Mill (and Selling the 1.0 at a Discount)
I'm typically skeptical of tools that claim to do multiple things. (One notable exception is the LogOx, which I've confirmed performs all of its tasks well.) I'd be extra-skeptical of a tool that claimed to be able to handle three separate digital fabrication operations.
Rocky Mountain Institute Claims New Gas Generating Stations & Pipelines Are Tomorrow's Stranded Assets
Clean Power Published on November 7th, 2019 | by Steve Hanley November 7th, 2019 by Steve Hanley The natural gas industry claims its product is a bridge fuel to the future because it burns clearer than coal. That part is true, but in reality, the methane emissions from extracting it and transporting it more than offset any reduction in carbon emissions.
Cohousing coming to West Sacramento
Washington Commons is hosting a reception on November 11th to show off the design of their future home to be located the ½ acre property it owns in the Washington Neighborhood of West Sacramento. The community was founded by local residents who seek a collaborative neighborhood based on the shared values of supportive personal connections and sustainable living. These eventual homebuyers pooled their funds to purchase the property, pay for pre-development costs and brought in a Portland cohousing developer to partner with them. The four-story, 35-condominium unit building to be constructed at 330 G Street, one block from the Sacramento River, is being submitted to the City of West Sacramento for entitlements this month. The community will include over 6000 square feet of common amenities, with a Great Room that opens onto a generous outdoor terrace, as well as a lounge, guest rooms, workshop, and exercise space.
As Solar Eats The Energy Sector, It’s Time To Revise The “Real Assets” List - DollarCollapse.com
In the energy market, there’s always a revolution going on somewhere. For most of human history, light and heat were provided by wood and candles. Then we discovered whale oil, and in the early 1800s lamps replaced candles. Later in that century, kerosene, a petroleum derivative, became the lamp oil of choice, and the whaling industry (thankfully) collapsed. A few decades later, electricity from coal replaced kerosene.
Coastlines' contribution to climate change might have been underestimated
Permafrost coasts make up about one third of the Earth's total coastline. As a result of accelerated climate change, whole sections of coastline rapidly thaw, and erode into the Arctic Ocean. A new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters now shows that large amounts of carbon dioxide are potentially being produced along these eroding permafrost coastlines in the Arctic. "Carbon budgets and climate simulations have so far missed coastal erosion in their equations even though it might be a substantial source of carbon dioxide," says George Tanski of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, lead author of the study.
About the Book – The Enlightened Worldview Project
We all have fundamental beliefs about reality and about ourselves, and it is from these beliefs that one constructs a worldview. Some people have a traditional worldview, while others have a more modern or postmodern worldview. In the world today there is a clash of worldviews, between those who are traditionally minded with religion and spirituality vs. those who embrace science and are largely nonreligious in character.
Future of Aging: Senior Cohousing as Antidote to the Loneliness Epidemic
By Nancy P. Kropf, Dean of Perimeter College & Professor of Social Work at Georgia State University and Sherry Cummings, Associate Dean and Profesor of Social Work at University of Tennessee One of the major questions of growing older is, “where do I want to live as I age?” For many baby boomers, an important goal is staying independent as long as possible.
Circular economy: Why we need to stop recycling
Too often the concept of a circular economy is muddled up with some kind of advanced recycling process that would mean keeping our industrial system as it is and preserving a growing consumption model. This idea is based on a belief that recycling will take care of everything. One of the most startling examples of this is the part of the European Union’s Circular Economy Action Plan which aims to increase recycling rates: up to 70% of all packaging waste by 2030 and 65% of all municipal waste by 2035.
The Delhi Air Crisis: What It Means for the World
Photos: Delhi’s toxic sky Automotive and industrial emissions fill the air with nitrogen, sulfur dioxides, and “black carbon,” the latter of which includes tiny particles that penetrate deep into the lungs. Over the past days, levels in New Delhi have exceeded 10 times what the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deems safe. (The idea that any level is “safe” is disputed, as even very low levels have been found to cause disease.) The effect is lethal, in India and beyond.
