Volunteer to Help – Hurricane Sandy Resource-links Guide :: Volunteer | Donate | Help

This page is a growing resource guide for links to places to help with Hurricane Sandy including volunteering to help with Hurricane Sandy devastated areas, donating money to help with Hurricane Sandy damage, donating food or other items for those affected by Hurricane Sandy, and any other resources people share with us. Feel free to add any other resources you know to the comments section below.

RED CROSS DONATIONS FOR HURRICANE SANDY

To donate, visit www.redcross.org, call 800-Red-Cross or text the word “Redcross” to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Donating blood also helps.

SALVATION ARMY FOOD AND SHELTER FOR VICTIMS OF HURRICANE SANDY

The Salvation Army has dozens of mobile feeding units and shelters along the East Coast that are working to serve thousands in the most heavily hit areas. Visit www.salvationarmyusa.org to donate.

FOOD WATER AND SUPPLIES FOR DISASTER ZONES

Feeding America has thousands of pounds of emergency food, water and supplies in the disaster zone that it is working to distribute to the storm’s victims. To donate, visit www.feedingamerica.org or call 800-910-5524.

AMERICARES MEDICINE AND OTHER SUPPLIES TO HURRICANE AREAS

AmeriCares is providing medicine and other supplies to people affected by Hurricane Sandy. To donate, visit www.americares.org.

WORLD VISION FLOOD CLEAN-UP KITS, PERSONAL HYGIENE ITEMS AND MORE

World Vision is distributing flood clean-up kits, personal hygiene items and emergency food kits to people hit by the hurricane. To donate, visit www.worldvision.org.

SAMARITAN’S PURSE ASKING FOR HURRICANE VOLUNTEERS

Samaritan’s Purse is asking for volunteers to help storm victims. To volunteer, visit their website.

VIRTUAL FOOD DRIVES AND SPECIFIC LOCATIONS SEEKING VOLUNTEERS

If you go to volunteermatch.org and put “hurricane sandy” in the search or keyword bar, and a location (like “New Jersey”), you will find virtual food drives and specific places that are looking for volunteers.

OTHER HURRICANE SANDY VOLUNTEER RESOURCE SITES WE’VE FOUND

Daily Kos: Volunteering options listed by state

Gothamist link to New York specific requests for everything from belts to volunteers.

Jacque Fresco Venus Project and Futuristic Society Interview by London Real TV

http://youtu.be/0hPXQwLas-E

Futurist Movement | Jacque Fresco Venus Project

96 year old Futurist Jacque Fresco, Founder and Director of The Venus Project (www.thevenusproject.com), flew out to London for an interview with London Real TV to discuss everything from his philosophies and his vision for the future of our world to the Zeitgeist Venus Project movement. This short blog post covers the comments and questions we thought were most significant, and the Jacque Fresco quotes that answered them.

Watching this interview and Jacque’s comments regarding his vision of our futuristic society, it appears that he puts heavy emphasis on the way that man thinks and how it is affecting our world today.

“When you think, you think in terms of your culture.”

He even goes as far as to say, “There is no way you can think outside of your culture.”

The example that he uses to support this philosophy is that back in the old days, people wrapped the electrical wire around a cardboard spool so that it would not get tangled up. He then reminds us that it was Tesla who discovered that if you had a coil nearby, it would induced the current in it.

Jacque Fresco quote: “Tesla didn’t say, ‘I have to make wireless electricity!’ The brain does not work that way.”

Fresco Meets Einstein

Jacque Fresco (JF) met Albert Einstein (AE) when he was a kid and asked him if he believed in God…
Einstein’s response was, “Which one?”

JF: Do you believe in truth?

AE: What do you mean by truth?

JF: Like certain things are so.

AE: Like what?

JF: Well this is smooth.

AE: You really believe that don’t you?

JF: Yes I do.

Einstein then puts the item under a microscope and it looked rough.

JF: Is that what it’s really like?

AE: We can’t see things as they really are. There are so many things we can’t see. We can’t see the radio waves, even germs.

Jacque says, “You can’t be conscious unless you have variable receptors… When people say the way I see the world is the way it is – that’s ridiculous. We can only see it depending on the quality of our receptors and background.”

When the interviewers asked him if he invented anything, he goes about explaining the process of coming up with the Venus Project models for the future. From Jacque’s perspective, he looked at several architectural books, primitive and advanced, and concepts of other people and extracted from that.

“Your frame of reference is what you see.”

Not afraid to say things often considered controversial, Jacque speaks his mind saying, “All cultures are basically corrupt – its language is old – designed hundreds of years ago.” In his opinion, this is foundational to many of our societal problems and he emphasizes that designing a language that is not subject to interpretation is very important, and that the solution to the “corruption” of cultures is the Venus Project.

Jacque and the Venus Project encourages working with children

Jacque states that raising a human being is very complex and that “the worst thing anyone can do is to give people the right to their own opinion.” He encourages teaching kids to say three key words: “I don’t know.” His vision for the future of all education will show visuals and focus on hands-on-learning only.

“Are there any leaders in the Venus Project?”

Jacque expresses that although there are no leaders of the Venus Project, there are people coming up with ways to make things efficient.

“You can never design the best city, but you can design
the best city you know how to design at this time.”

“What do you think of the Zeitgeist movement and Peter Joseph?”

Jacques was featured in the Zeitgeist movie because After Peter read Jacques book The Best that Money Can’t Buy he flew out and spent several hours with Jacque…. and said he got the idea now and was going to run with it his way and make a movie. Jacques said, “I spent 75 years studying this and you’ll have to go out on your own.” He’s been working on it for so many years in order to understand what shapes human behavior.

Jacque says Peter needs more exposure. Jacque said he didn’t work with Peter because Peter said he wanted to use the Zeitgeist Movement as the activist arm of the Venus project, but then Peter never consulted Jacque about it.

“It’s wrong to criticize government without offering a possible alternative.”

“What if we elected you president this year and you started in the oval office Jan 20th 2013?”

“I’d declare all the world’s resources as a common heritage of all the world’s people and get them to join and become one nation who takes care of the environment, the earth, the atmosphere…. I’d abolish all separate nations because they are all corrupt.”

“And the banking system?”

“Gone, no money anymore.”

Click here to see how One Community is developing as a viable path to the Venus Project
Click here for One Community’s perspective on creating a utopian planet for The Highest Good of All
Click here for our Ethosolution featuring details of Jacque’s designs and ideas

To enjoy the complete hour and fifteen minutes of this interview, watch the full video below:

http://youtu.be/42RYbA_3ImU

 

Vermiculture Composting Toilet Plans and How to Compost at Home

Incorporating vermiculture bins into our composting toilet plans is one way we see of building a compost bin into our human waste disposal plan. Doing this will take composting with worms indoors with a new eco friendly toilet we believe anyone will be able to duplicate. In our opinion, there are more and more people starting to think about how to compost at home and we are open source project-launch blueprinting  and free-sharing all our plans for a vermiculture composting toilet (and eco showers) as part of the earthbag village (Pod 1) that will incorporate vermiculture bins into an eco friendly toilet model that will:

● Teach people how to make their own eco friendly toilets and compost at home
● Demonstrate indoor worm composting as an option for human waste disposal
● Include a traditional septic for people that want one and counties that need one

Continued evolution of these designs posted at the bottom of this page.

RELATED PAGES

   OPEN SOURCE PLANS   ●   EARTHBAG VILLAGE HUB   ●   OUR OPEN SOURCE PURPOSE

Worms for Composting and Zero-waste Living

Building a composting bin and composting with worms is nothing new; what is new is what we see as a large shift in people interested in what we call living For The Highest Good of All and comprehensive sustainability focused on zero-waste living that includes a re-examination and consideration of our current collection and processing approach to human waste disposal through collection at centralized processing centers, sterilization, and then pumping it into our global water bodies.

 “Turn the ‘garbage’ into ‘compost’ for the garden of your life.”
~ Author Unknown

How to Make Your Own Compost ResourcesWhile most people are still thinking about how to make a compost bin for home-garden or basic indoor composting only, we see a much broader application if eco friendly toilets incorporating vermiculture and worm composting can be made easily, safely, more affordably, so it’s easy to use, and in compliance with county requirements. We are now designing a vermiculture composting bathroom that will meet these requirements with the added open source details covering exact labor hours to build it yourself, detailed materials costs and where to buy, maintenance requirements, compost production volume based on number of people using it, trouble shooting, working with your local government guides, and more.

Earthworm composting and red worms composting are incredibly efficient ways to convert everything from paper to table scraps and even human waste into nutrient-rich compost for your garden. Vermiculture composting experts agree that compost produced by worms will produce the best results and help your plants thrive.

Click here for a free PDF manual comprehensively covering vermiculture and vermicomposting

Here’s a great overview video including how to make your own worm composting bins from plastic containers you can get pretty much anywhere:

http://youtu.be/JHE5hyIyNqk

Vermicomposting for the Future

We see worm composting bin integration into eco friendly toilets as the wave of the future with tremendous benefit and application especially for third world countries struggling with waste disposal and food production. Before this can happen, however, we see the necessity for demonstrating and open source sharing a model that is affordable and easy to build and use while simultaneously meeting existing international building and health standards.

This is what we are creating and here are some possible links of interest if you’d like to learn more about the open source purpose of our non-profit organization or follow the details specific to our vermicompost bin integration and open source sustainable building and composting toilet plans:

● Pod 1: Where we will be integrating this vermiculture composting toilet
● Progress Page: Everything we are working on and the aspects of One Community we need help with
● New Updates Fan Page: Where we post all updates and announce open source resources as they become available

The Benefits of Creating a Culture of “How Can I Help” and “Build On Top Of”

One of the greatest learnings about leadership and team management that we have gained from operating a project of the magnitude and scope of One Community is the value of creating a culture of “how can I help” and “build on top of.” Working with diverse teams on goals as large as ours has clearly identified the value of these approaches in supporting the necessary on-going positive mindset, energy, accountability, proactivity, and leadership supportive of our collective success. Because of this, we have made these two statements a sort of mantra within our organization that is foundational to how we look at accomplishing tasks together.

HOW CAN I HELP

Creating and maintaining a culture of “how can I help” means expecting all individuals to ask “how can I help” versus appointing a Facilitator or Manager to seek out individuals needing things to do and then assigning tasks. Most of us have had the experience of working with a group where one or more individuals are constantly needing to be asked to help. In situations like these, even with an energetic and willing participant, it still takes on-going energy from someone else to keep these individuals engaged in whatever process is being undertaken. This is energy we would much rather apply to tasks. So instead of accepting that some people just need to be asked all the time, we’ve created and maintain a culture of “how can I help” with the understanding that needing to be asked to help repeatedly is a great opportunity to share feedback so we can all be more accountable and effective moving forward.

BUILD ON TOP OF

The second important mindset and One Community cultural element we have created is the concept of “build on top of.” What this means is that we constantly seek to improve or evolve an existing idea rather than start over because we have recognized the vast majority of what we are doing has never been done to this extent before, and there are a seemingly endless variety of different approaches to doing it. While this doesn’t mean any idea is set in stone, what it does mean is that with a culture of “build on top of” we have found benefit in asking the following key questions first when engaging any part of the One Community project:

1. How does what I’m about to engage build on top of/fit with everything else?
2. What has already been done and how can I build on top of that versus starting something new?
3. Will my contribution, approach, etc. ultimately add to or reduce related net energy/time needs?

Through asking these three simple questions, we have found that we have been able to more effectively maintain our creative input and energy on designing solutions, continued expansion, and what is needed to move everything forward versus less productive approaches.

CFL Bulbs vs Incandescent Light Bulb Efficiency

Have you been introduced to the new free CFL lightbulbs from the power companies and ever wondered what kind of research has been done to demonstrate the benefits of CFL bulbs vs Incandescent bulbs? Paul Wheaton started thinking about high efficiency light bulbs, his own experience with energy efficiency lighting, and “free” and decided to run an experiment (demonstrated in the video below) comparing CFL vs incandescent. In this entertaining video, what his experiment showed was not what many would expect.

“I’m very much in favor of less power plants, less pollution and most of all more money in my pocket, but when I run the math for myself, I see that switching to CFLs might save me $4 per year in electricity… but if they sent me a $5 clothesline that might save me $75 dollars per year. Something ain’t right.”

Paul Wheaton of www.permies.com

Light Bulb Efficiency Comparison

What Paul did was to conduct a light bulb efficiency audit using twelve free CFLs in areas such as the closet and hallways. His theory was that if the lights were used more often for a shorter period of time the free light bulbs (CFL bulbs) would wear and deteriorate the fastest. During the audit the light bulbs were left on for no more than thirty seconds at a time and only lasted a total for 504 hours, but the box said they were guaranteed at 10,000 hours! Paul then continued his research and compared a common incandescent light with the CFLs,  a long life incandescent, and an LED bulb using a cyclic timer that would be on for thirty seconds and off for two minutes. He chose thirty seconds to simulate what he expected to really show why CFL bulbs vs. incandescent truly was a big difference in efficiency: the many occasions where a person walks into a room, turns on the light, and does something and then leaves. (see video for examples of why he considers 30 seconds as accurate)

INCANDESCENT VS CFL EXPERIMENT RESULTS

The results of the incandescent vs CFL experiment were nothing short of shocking. The first light bulb died after fifteen days, but its box said it would last for 1200 hours. The total time it was on was 72 hours. It lasted less than 1% of the time that was reported on the box. Even though the box claimed that when you buy two of the light bulbs it would save you $74. The next CFL died on day 20 and another on day 26. The Incandescents and the LED were still going when Paul stopped the experiment on day 42 so he could produce the video above.

The next experiment he did was looking at a different form of CFL versus incandescent light bulb efficiency: the efficiency of a light bulb illuminating a room. To test this, Paul mounted a light meter in a fixed position and then videotaped four lights for 30 secs (see 30 second reasoning above). Once he turned them on he showed that the incandescent lit up right away, but the CFLs start out at about 70% less light than the incandescent light and thus are less efficient in all the 30 second “enter and leave” room examples – meaning you would need twice what the box says (so approximately an 80 watt CFL bulb) to equal the same brightness as a regular incandescent bulb.

“For any light in the house that averages less than 30 seconds of use, you need a CFL that is twice as powerfulas labeled to give off almost as much light.”

Paul Wheaton

BROADENING THE BULB EFFICIENCY PERSPECTIVE

Paul then quotes a study by the International Association for Energy Efficient Lighting reported that it takes 1.8 kWh of electricity to assemble a CFL compared to 0.11 kWh to assemble an incandescent. Paul adds, but what about the cost of all the extra parts, chemicals, the glass and the shipping of a heavier bulb? Well that will be reflected in a price, right? The average price of a light bulb has consistently gone up, soon Paul hypothesizes that the end price of a light bulb will be about $12 a bulb. The US Government, Paul says, is trying to ban incandescents so the price of CFLs can be raised, because if there is no competition they can raise the price as high as they like; or they can give them to you for free and get the money out of you one way or another.

So for Pauls experiment where the first CFL died at 72 hours that bulb cost him $3. It used about 7 cents of energy during its short life. The incandescent used 28 cents of energy during the same time. If you’re okay with this total energy idea then it looks like the CFL used four times more energy than the incandescent. Paul says, “But if we factor in the subsidy, the CFL used 15 times more energy than the incandescent!”

PAUL EXPLORES THE HEALTH DANGERS OF CFLs

Paul also corrects some interesting report math during his video and discusses mercury pollution and includes commentary on the following effects of CFL lighting on people:

• possible epileptic seizures
• lower IQ scores
• emotional outbreaks
• learning disabilities
• increased cancer levels
• cataracts

SUMMARY

The efficiency of light bulbs debate comparing the many facets of CFL high energy efficiency lighting and bulbs to traditional incandescent lighting and bulbs is becoming a more and more hotly debated topic. Paul’s video make a very compelling argument for sticking with incandescent lighting for your health and your wallet. Our suggestion: watch the video, do your own additional research, and make your own decision.

Donald Sadoway: Reinventing the Battery

Professor Donald Sadoway says we can’t bomb our way out of our current energy situation; we can’t conserve our way out or drill our way out either. Instead we must invent our way out by working together! Today our electricity demand must be in balance with our electric supply. If the wind suddenly stops while supplying the electric grid other generators must kick on to make up for the loss. When the sun is not out providing solar energy other methods must supply the grid. A giant storage battery however would solve the intermittency problem.

The first battery was invented 200 years ago by Alessandro Volta, an Italian Professor who used a stack of silver and zinc coins as electrodes separated with cardboard soaked in brine (saltwater) as the electrolyte. This battery worked at room temperatures. Professor Sadoway realized that a new battery was needed for today’s increased power consumption and high current surges. One that could handle high temperatures due to surges in electrical current and that could be made from an abundant green energy earth  source to also keep costs down. He says, “if you want to make something dirt cheap – make it from dirt!”

Six years ago Professor Sadoway thought to look into a big consumer of electricity for the answer, namely the production of Aluminum. Aluminum battery cells require high temperatures so the liquid metal enables high currents to flow through. Donald designed his liquid battery to solve modern needs by using two liquid metals for electrodes and molten salt for the electrolyte. When considering what metals might work he looked to the Periodic Table as everything we know is a combination of this in some way. He chose magnesium (Mg) for the top layer and antimony (Sb) for the bottom. To produce current these metals mix across the electrolyte to form an alloy and give us power for our devices. We can then charge the battery from a wind farm, solar, or other green energy source. This storage battery simply stores power waiting for our energy needs.

Instead of hiring “experts” to develop his new battery technology he brought in students and mentored them. At first Sadoway wondered if his battery would really work. After diligently working through his ideas, he along with his students came up with his first test liquid battery which he named “the Shot Glass” because of its small 3/4″ size. It was a success with a 1watt hour capacity. He then went on to a 20 watt hour 3″ battery and named it “the Hockey Puck.” Another success led him to “the Saucer” at 6″ with a 200 watt hour capacity. Next was a 16″ battery called “the Pizza” capable of 1000 watt hours (1 kilowatt). Coming soon professor Sadoway will have the 4 kilowatt hour liquid battery known as the “Bistro Table” which is a stackable 36″ liquid metal battery. This new battery technology is designed to stack as modules and placed  into a 40′ shipping container. This green energy battery will have a capacity of 2 Million watt hours and enough to power the daily needs of 200 American households!

Professor Sadoway’s liquid metal battery has these great feautures:

● Silent Operation
● Emissions Free
● No Moving Parts
● Remote Controllable

The big differences from conventional wisdom are:

● Liquid metal battery is designed for elevated temperatures which come from electrical current surges
● Reduces costs by producing fewer yet larger batteries rather than producing many
● He hired  students and mentored them rather than hiring expert professionals

Donald Sadoway believes that rather than inventing only technology a better blueprint is to invent Inventors.