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Protest against child labour in the tech and car industry

Since it has been proven several times(2016 & 2018) that companies like Tesla, BMW, Samsung and Apple etc. are using cobalt from mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo(DRC), which uses child labour to mine and gather the cobalt, I chose to make a protest against it. The cobalt is used in cobalt-lithium batteries which are in smartphones, PC’s and electric cars etc, they are used because cobalt-lithium batteries are very light compared to other batteries.  It is also possible to mine cobalt in Canada, but that would mean a high increase in the price of cobalt, and looking back just two years, the price of cobalt has already quadrupled. All these famous brands/companies we know admits that their products aren't 100% free for child labour, but why don't they just make sure of that? Because it costs $$$ and many of them. 

My protest I chose to make stickers to spread the word, my first idea was to use the Apple and Tesla etc. logos to spread the issue.  Materials -Computer with Adobe Illustrator and KNK Zing Orbit design program -Zing Orbit Die Cutter -Black vinyl and transfer tape -Tools(scissors, ripper and tweezer)

Process Brainstorm and sketches:

Designing in Adobe illustrator 

Printing by using Zing Orbit Die Cutter: Photo from google

Removing parts, putting transfer tape on and cutting out the stickers:

Final result:

- LOL LAND

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Small Scale Aquaponics

Aquaponics is a combination of hydroponics and aquaculture, or the growth of plants without soil and the raising of fish. These systems use fish waste, processed by beneficial bacteria in the nitrogen cycle to grow plants. There are numerous examples of these systems being used both on an industrial scale, and at home with large, DIY backyard pond systems. Several organisations, such as The Aquaponics Source, champion aquaponics as being a sustainable solution for some of our current problems with agriculture (you can read more about their arguments on their information page, linked above).

But for those of us without the room for a pond to raise Tilapia, but still interested in benefiting from aquaponics, grow beds can be built off of small (or large) aquariums in ones home. Though a 5 gallon system like we built might not be growing a bumper crop of zucchini, or raising a salmon dinner any time soon, one can still grow low nutrient greens or ornamental plants to use some of the excess waste from your pet betta and it’s shrimp colony.

This system was built using easily available and re-purposed materials to limit costs as well as make the design easily recreated. Below is a list of the materials used:

A 5.5 gallon glass aquarium

An old Rubbermaid storage bin (lid lost long ago)

A small water pump, re-purposed from a previously modified aquarium filter

Corrugated plastic, left over from building radio control airplanes

Small shelving brackets

Disposable plastic cups

2.5 Lbs of expanded clay balls

Plastic threaded piping, 8″ and 12″

PVC adapters

Aquarium safe silicone

Granite gravel (collected from back yard)

This system uses six plastic grow cups with the expanded clay balls as a growth medium in the above grow bed where water is continuously pumped for circulation of nutrients and aeration of water. The height and small size of this system allows for its placement on a desk or table under a window to provide light, rather than providing it artificially (the tank should be kept below the window, and out of direct sunlight.) A system of this size would be ideal for a betta or a few guppies, and some shrimp. The addition of a heater would be recommended if keeping guppies or shrimp, and for the winter months for a betta. 

Initial concept sketch and measurements before building

Pipes attached to grow bed through drilled holes, with PVC adapter and silicone

Grow cups after being cut for water flow and filled, along with spacing plate cut from corrugated plastic.

Complete assembly of system, pump and shelf bracket legs attached with more silicone. The whole top grow bed is removable from tank for easy access when needed.

Filling the system and staring the pump.

The system, now full. It was left to pump overnight to for leaks and how far the clay balls would wick up water.

Example of a 3 year old 20 gallon indoor system for comparison.

-Indigo Iffy and Gourami Wrangler

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WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

Perhaps one of the most dangerous modern inventions is self-driving cars. There have already been cases of people being killed while in Teslas, among other car brands, that were set on the self-driving feature. This article explains what happened in the March Tesla crash that killed a man who had his car set on the self-driving feature. 

People seem to forget sometimes while driving that they are in a machine that weighs thousands of pounds and could cause a lot of harm to themselves or to others on the road. A self-driving feature could only make this problem worse. People will become lazy and rely too heavily on the car to drive by itself and stop paying attention to the road, leading to more accidents in the near future. There is already too much reliance on special features that cars have, such as rear view and side cameras, that can potentially lead to people forgetting how to drive well without assistance. Plus, the more self-driving cars there are on the road the more likely there are to be accidents.

- Indigo Iffy

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WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

Biohacking

A new trend of at home biological experiments, dubbed biohacking, ranges from altering diet and lifestyle, to homemade implants, to the attempt to edit one's own genes. On this extreme end of genetic editing, Josiah Zayner, a NASA Researcher, is now selling at home CRISPR kits to edit genetic materials, potentially for human DNA.The legality of these kits and others like it is dubious, but there is a growing interest in this kind of at home biology, spurred by a drop in the price for the materials to do this kind of science.

This article from the financial times details a number of cases where individuals have self administered untested, self made medicines in attempts to edit their own DNA. But there is also concerns that this growing trend could lead to accidentally, or purposefully harmful outcomes. The growing availability of these materials also makes it easier to create biological weapons, such as anthrax, by anyone in their own home lab.

-Gourami Wrangler

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CITIZEN JOURNALISM

This video, a montage of images from the eruption in Hawaii, incorporates citizen journalism for first hand perspectives of the destruction.

Student Video taken of School Arrests in Coletrain Township, Ohio, showing possible use of necessary force that led to the arrests of several students, rather than one. 

-Gourami Wrangler

This video  shows a man climbing a four-story building to save a child. He was later nicknamed the Spider-Man of Paris and was granted citizenship for his courageous act.

This article  features an array of photographs, taken by Navid Baraty, of people who were watching the Mars rover landing. He was able to capture wonder and excitement on people’s faces.

-Indigo Iffy

Danish documentary “The Danish terror witnesses” is made solely using recordings made by the witnesses themselves under different terror attacks in Europe the last couple of years.

Video showing a neon blue tide in San Diego, CA. The video is made of pictures and videos taken by citizens. 

-LOL LAND

Just an example of citizen footage being used to display a natural disaster. 

-Tom Tenderloin

A deadly and terrible crash happened when a Georgia National Guard KC130 aircraft used for weather reconnaissance occurred in Savannah. The saddening crash took 9 lives and its cause is under investigation, but cell phone footage of the crash is potentially leading to an answer.

In 2015, Nepal faced a horrific 8.0 earthquake that shook the world. Damage was caused in excess of 10 Billion dollars, a huge sum for a country whose GDP is only around 21 Billion dollars. Cell phone footage taken across the nation shows just some of the devastating effects and this video, in particular, is chilling.

Bo Blackstone

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ROBOTS ARE TAKING YOUR JOBS

This one won’t complete replace an industry in the next five years, but there are certainly places in the world where these retail jobs will be (and already are in some places) fully automated in the near future. 

-Gourami Wrangler

Google Assistant

Who needs a personal assistant, when you by one click can have your own assistant with you wherever you go! Google assistant can make appointments for you such as booking a table at a restaurant or making a haircut appointment etc.. He/her works from you phone, Google Home, some cars and even some SmartTVs and you can even decide his/hers voice, like John Legend? Now he can be your personal assistant.

It sounds like a human, it thinks like a human, it almost is a human!

-LOL LAND

You can actually see them in use in the Bay Area 

-Tom Tenderloin

Every 80 seconds a new car shell is made by robots at Kia’s new futuristic factory in Slovakia. Did we really need a new Sportage every 80 seconds! 

-Bo Blackstone

A video about a hotel in Japan that is run by robots; also talks about the cons of having only robots working there - Indigo Iffy

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TECHNOLOGY AND THE HUMAN BODY

Jetman

-Tom Tenderloin

Gloves meant to allow the deaf to communicate with those who don’t know sign language. 

-GouramiWrangler

The 7 most insane ways that tech enhanced the human body in 2015 

-LOL LAND

Type 1 Diabetes affects nearly 15,000 children every year, and a diagnosis means facing a lifetime of testing your blood before meals and accurately self-prescribing and administering insulin just to make it to the next meal. Advances in research and generous funding from nonprofits like JDRF have brought about the potential of Managing diabetes with nanomedicine.

-Bo Blackstone

Woman blind for 40 years receives sight with bionic eye

-Indigo Iffy

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