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Your comment reminded me of the PlayPump idea that was going to supply fresh water to every village. https://newrepublic.com/article/120178/problem-internation

Your comment reminded me of the PlayPump idea that was going to supply fresh water to every village. https://newrepublic.com/article/120178/problem-international-development-and-plan-fix-it https://newrepublic.com/article/120178/problem-international...

0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago
Gordon Murray recently designed a flat pack truck for the third world: "[The Ox is] The world’s first ‘flat-pack’ truck [...] designed to provide low-cost all-terrain mobility for remote parts of Africa and the developing world" [1] I wish they would try to disrupt the first world first instead. [1] http://www.gordonmurraydesign.com/news-articles/the-world%E2%80%99s-first-%E2%80%98flat-pack%E2%80%99-truck-revealed,-set-to-bring-aid-to-remote-parts-of-africa-and-the-developing-world.html http://www.gordonmurraydesign.com/news-articles/the-world%E2... Edit: And a truck like this is just the thing for transporting crops or doing farm related tasks. This statement from 1 makes me worry, but I think it was meant to instill confidence, which is also worrisome: "It is unlike any other vehicle and has no direct competitor – whether from a concept, performance or pricing point of view."
- Avshalom 10y ago
  Of course you can buy like two Nissan frontiers or like 5 pixos (retail) for the price of of one of those, and spare parts and knowledge base for those is pre existing.
- pimlottc 10y ago
  Good grief, they go on about being "flat pack" and easy to put together but offer no photos of it as shipped or during the assembly process...
  - sandworm101 10y ago
    Worse yet, they are playing tricks with the perspective. Look at the loading ramp. That's actually the rear gate unmounted and used as a ramp. But see how photographing it from that angle makes it look so much longer. The entire thing is a deathtrap. A used toyota pickup is better in every regard.
    - pimlottc 10y ago
      Yeah, I couldn't help but think there's probably a reason no normal car or truck on the road has completely flat sides.
      - tgb 10y ago
        Don't the LLVs that the US postal service uses have flat sides? Similarly for UPS trucks and the containers that eighteen wheelers haul. Seems pretty normal to me.
  - tgb 10y ago
    I recall seeing a timelapse video of it being constructed, here's one http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/09/ox-flat-pack-truck/ http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/09/ox-flat-pack-truck/
- toomanybeersies 10y ago
  Hmm, rear coil springs on a cargo truck. Disk brakes on all corners too. I think Gordon Murray has spent too much time designing performance cars rather than utility vehicles.
sandworm101 10y ago
PlayPump failed, as so many others, because children do not make good horses. Countless projects in many fields have attempted to "harness" children for energy. There was the soccer/football generator (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeb2fyHKirQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeb2fyHKirQ). I've even seen attempts to install power-generating floor tiles in English schools (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9AZxB55xjI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9AZxB55xjI). We think we can tell children what to do, use them as beasts of burden, but they are not a reliable power source.
- adamsea 10y ago
  "... children ... are not a reliable power source." Tell that to The Matrix ;)
  - bashinator 10y ago
    The problem with the Matrix is even with made-up physics, they did a terrible job writing in humans as a power source into the plot. That's a fairly low bar and they failed.
    - whatupdave 10y ago
      I've always thought this too but I haven't come up with a better plot device
      - lovemenot 10y ago
        Me too. I always thought it would have been better if humans' processing cycles (thoughts) were utilised to supplement, validate and expand the Matrix. A sort of automatic, involuntary, unaware Mechanical Turk.
      - inimino 10y ago
        I think it's a better and more terrifying plot if you watch it as a Kafka-esque dystopia where people are imprisoned by the machines for inscrutable reasons that no-one truly knows. Morpheus's power supply theory is then just a necessary rationalization and a part of the mythology that allows the resistance to continue, while being fundamentally incorrect. Thermodynamic impossibility is a relatively minor obstacle for a true believer.
nekopa 10y ago
Thanks for the link, a long, but extremely eye opening read. I has made me rethink how I donate to charity from now on: I really did use only one metric- overhead percentage. Now I will have to reevaluate this.
- bjelkeman-again 10y ago
  Good. I (sort of) work in that sector and investments and grant/donations support often goes to things that look good in the marketing, and show low overheads. Imagine investing in startup based on low overheads. I know, it isn't the same but the end result can be very poor. Some of the biggest names in the aid-charity business are truly awful at implementation. And there is little transparency, so it is very hard to learn what is truly effective.
  - nekopa 10y ago
    So what would you suggest? The article gets a little hand wavy about what donors should do - eg the playpump worked at first, then sucked, and is now working well in some instances. So should I have invested in it at first, then stopped investing as it started sucking, and then reinvested again to the new people using it? Given that type of friction, I may give up donating altogether. Or good ideas which hit a genuine rough spot may lose all funding and die off before reaching their full potential. What would be a realistic ratio of overhead to target? Apple-like? Say 30% should be acceptable overhead? Or a sliding scale? For example, if a charity raises $1bn does it really need $300m for overhead? Maybe there is some middle band of maximum overhead percentage, say up to $1m <=5% $1m-$1bn up to 30% and over $1bn <= 15%?
    - greglindahl 10y ago
      Invest in successful water charities instead? https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=10831 https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summar...
      - bjelkeman-again 10y ago
greglindahl 10y ago
http://kickstart.org http://kickstart.org is a successful charity/startup selling human-powered water pumps.

0xdeadbeefbabe 10y ago

Gordon Murray recently designed a flat pack truck for the third world: "[The Ox is] The world’s first ‘flat-pack’ truck [...] designed to provide low-cost all-terrain mobility for remote parts of Africa and the developing world" [1] I wish they would try to disrupt the first world first instead. [1] http://www.gordonmurraydesign.com/news-articles/the-world%E2%80%99s-first-%E2%80%98flat-pack%E2%80%99-truck-revealed,-set-to-bring-aid-to-remote-parts-of-africa-and-the-developing-world.html http://www.gordonmurraydesign.com/news-articles/the-world%E2... Edit: And a truck like this is just the thing for transporting crops or doing farm related tasks. This statement from 1 makes me worry, but I think it was meant to instill confidence, which is also worrisome: "It is unlike any other vehicle and has no direct competitor – whether from a concept, performance or pricing point of view."

Avshalom 10y ago
Of course you can buy like two Nissan frontiers or like 5 pixos (retail) for the price of of one of those, and spare parts and knowledge base for those is pre existing.
pimlottc 10y ago
Good grief, they go on about being "flat pack" and easy to put together but offer no photos of it as shipped or during the assembly process...
- sandworm101 10y ago
  Worse yet, they are playing tricks with the perspective. Look at the loading ramp. That's actually the rear gate unmounted and used as a ramp. But see how photographing it from that angle makes it look so much longer. The entire thing is a deathtrap. A used toyota pickup is better in every regard.
  - pimlottc 10y ago
    Yeah, I couldn't help but think there's probably a reason no normal car or truck on the road has completely flat sides.
    - tgb 10y ago
      Don't the LLVs that the US postal service uses have flat sides? Similarly for UPS trucks and the containers that eighteen wheelers haul. Seems pretty normal to me.
- tgb 10y ago
  I recall seeing a timelapse video of it being constructed, here's one http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/09/ox-flat-pack-truck/ http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/09/ox-flat-pack-truck/
toomanybeersies 10y ago
Hmm, rear coil springs on a cargo truck. Disk brakes on all corners too. I think Gordon Murray has spent too much time designing performance cars rather than utility vehicles.

sandworm101 10y ago

PlayPump failed, as so many others, because children do not make good horses. Countless projects in many fields have attempted to "harness" children for energy. There was the soccer/football generator (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeb2fyHKirQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeb2fyHKirQ). I've even seen attempts to install power-generating floor tiles in English schools (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9AZxB55xjI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9AZxB55xjI). We think we can tell children what to do, use them as beasts of burden, but they are not a reliable power source.

adamsea 10y ago
"... children ... are not a reliable power source." Tell that to The Matrix ;)
- bashinator 10y ago
  The problem with the Matrix is even with made-up physics, they did a terrible job writing in humans as a power source into the plot. That's a fairly low bar and they failed.
  - whatupdave 10y ago
    I've always thought this too but I haven't come up with a better plot device
    - lovemenot 10y ago
      Me too. I always thought it would have been better if humans' processing cycles (thoughts) were utilised to supplement, validate and expand the Matrix. A sort of automatic, involuntary, unaware Mechanical Turk.
    - inimino 10y ago
      I think it's a better and more terrifying plot if you watch it as a Kafka-esque dystopia where people are imprisoned by the machines for inscrutable reasons that no-one truly knows. Morpheus's power supply theory is then just a necessary rationalization and a part of the mythology that allows the resistance to continue, while being fundamentally incorrect. Thermodynamic impossibility is a relatively minor obstacle for a true believer.

nekopa 10y ago

Thanks for the link, a long, but extremely eye opening read. I has made me rethink how I donate to charity from now on: I really did use only one metric- overhead percentage. Now I will have to reevaluate this.

bjelkeman-again 10y ago
Good. I (sort of) work in that sector and investments and grant/donations support often goes to things that look good in the marketing, and show low overheads. Imagine investing in startup based on low overheads. I know, it isn't the same but the end result can be very poor. Some of the biggest names in the aid-charity business are truly awful at implementation. And there is little transparency, so it is very hard to learn what is truly effective.
- nekopa 10y ago
  So what would you suggest? The article gets a little hand wavy about what donors should do - eg the playpump worked at first, then sucked, and is now working well in some instances. So should I have invested in it at first, then stopped investing as it started sucking, and then reinvested again to the new people using it? Given that type of friction, I may give up donating altogether. Or good ideas which hit a genuine rough spot may lose all funding and die off before reaching their full potential. What would be a realistic ratio of overhead to target? Apple-like? Say 30% should be acceptable overhead? Or a sliding scale? For example, if a charity raises $1bn does it really need $300m for overhead? Maybe there is some middle band of maximum overhead percentage, say up to $1m <=5% $1m-$1bn up to 30% and over $1bn <= 15%?
  - greglindahl 10y ago
    Invest in successful water charities instead? https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=10831 https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summar...
    - bjelkeman-again 10y ago

greglindahl 10y ago

http://kickstart.org http://kickstart.org is a successful charity/startup selling human-powered water pumps.