Technology, DIY survival kit
2017 Allied Media Conference
Imagine: A storm has just hit, and everyone has been
evacuated to a converted, temporary
emergency-storm-shelter-hurricane-evacuation-safety-zone-medical-assistance-center-soup-
kitchen. Two people, one a single parent looking for their child, and another,
looking for their teacup Yorkie named Madex. There is no cell service or WiFi
in the building. What will they do?
…on June 17th, at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit,
MI, New America’s Resilient Communities team members Raul and Katherine
answered this question in a workshop on how to make your own Portable Network
Kit (PNK). Participants in the hands-on session played around configured a
wireless router and a Raspberry Pi in order to create a local pop-up network in
a pinch.
A PDF is attached at the end of the article for how to
construct your own PNK.
Travel,
well-being
But Scott isn’t just an active grandmother with a passport
full of stamps. She’s also a participant in Northwestern University’s SuperAging study—a research project analyzing
the brains of people who seem to be resistant to the detrimental memory changes
all-too-often associated with aging.
As most of us age, our brains shrink, which leads to a
decline in cognition (or thinking skills) the older we get. “Atrophy is thought
to contribute in part to the moments of forgetfulness we experience with
aging," says Emily Rogalski, Ph.D., the director of the study. SuperAgers
like Scott, however, lose less brain volume—one study found that over the
course of 18 months, 'normal' agers lost volume in the cortex (the brain area
linked to critical thinking) twice as fast as SuperAgers. In other words, Scott’s
brain is considered younger than she is, with parts of it looking similar to
the brains of people in their 50s.
So, what has travel got to do with it? It depends on who
you ask.
Scott will tell you that her travels keep her youthful.
“I’m a curious person,” she says. “I want to be a lifelong learner, and to me,
travel makes life so much more interesting.”
Politics,
government, voting
The
Fair Representation Act is one idea
for fixing our winner-take-all system using ranked choice voting. It is a way
to ensure all votes actually do count, rather than shut out the minority in a
state (e.g. - Republicans in blue states or Democrats in red states) when
electing our congressional representatives.
Watch the
video for more information.
Environment,
healing
A 2008 study found that the percent of
Americans who participate in outside activities like camping, fishing, or
hunting has been decreasing by about 1 percent a year since the late 1980s. A
survey done in the U.K. found that 70 percent of adults remembered doing most
of their “adventurous play” outside, while only 29 percent of kids said the
same. And, at least in 2001, when the Environmental Protection Agency did its
National Human Activity Pattern Survey, adults spent 87 percent of their time
indoors in buildings, and another 6 percent of their time in vehicles.
“That goes to this issue of who has access to nature, and
who can gain access,” says Michael Dorsey, the senior program officer for
sustainability at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.
“The decline is differential, based on socioeconomic differences, on race, and
on class.” As more people move to urban areas, nature gets farther away. And
it’s easier to get to the nature if you have the money to pay for the gas to
drive there, for the park entrance fee, for camping gear. When coming up with
prescriptions for nature, Dorsey says, “we also have to do that in a political
economic context.”
That means making nature available for people who can’t
trek to the mountains—making it part of people’s day to day lives.
Literature,
Culture
Congrats,
JK Rowling! The Harry Potter book series influenced and thrilled children and
adults alike and will continue to do so.
20 years
ago today, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (AKA Sorcerer's Stone) was
published in the UK.
In celebration of the 20th anniversary the first Potter
adventure, watch the video in this post that shows how Rowling's magical
writing changed the world.
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