{"id":3806,"date":"2007-11-01T08:09:09","date_gmt":"2007-11-01T15:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/archives\/2007\/11\/01\/bbc-reports-wind-up-light-bulbs-to-light-some-african-homes-plus-red-pandas\/"},"modified":"2007-11-01T08:09:09","modified_gmt":"2007-11-01T15:28:57","slug":"bbc-reports-wind-up-light-bulbs-to-light-some-african-homes-plus-red-pandas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3806","title":{"rendered":"BBC Reports: Wind-Up Light Bulbs to Light Some African Homes. (Plus, Red Pandas!)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/technology\/7072741.stm\">This is neat<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The technology behind the wind-up radio could soon be helping to light up some of the poorest homes in Africa.<br \/>\nThe Freeplay Foundation is developing prototypes of a charging station for house lights it hopes will improve the quality of life for many Africans.<\/p>\n<p>The Foundation said the lights would replace the expensive, polluting and unhealthy alternatives many Africans currently use to light their homes.<\/p>\n<p>Field testing of the prototypes will start in Kenya in the next few months. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A few basic facts remind us what electric lights can mean to those who don&#8217;t have them:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nKristine Pearson, director of the Freeplay Foundation, said few Africans in the continents most vulnerable areas had access to electricity to light homes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Their life stops or is very narrowed when the sun goes down,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Two extra hours of light would make a big difference to their life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The World Bank estimates that more than 500 million people in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to electricity supplies that could be used to light their homes.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, said Ms Pearson, many used kerosene lamps, battery-powered lights or wood fires as sources of illumination after sundown.<\/p>\n<p>Buying kerosene or batteries can consume up to 15% of a household&#8217;s budget, said Ms Pearson. In addition wood was hard to gather and unhealthy to burn.\n <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Also, I have to admit &#8212; I have a big soft spot for red pandas, which I think might be just about the cutest critter ever. So when I saw a link to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/mediaselector\/check\/player\/nol\/newsid_7070000\/newsid_7072700?redirect=7072761.stm&#038;news=1&#038;bbram=1&#038;bbwm=1&#038;nbram=1&#038;nbwm=1&#038;asb=1\">a video of two elderly red pandas kissing and cuddling<\/a>, I had to squee over and pass on the cute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is neat: The technology behind the wind-up radio could soon be helping to light up some of the poorest homes in Africa. The Freeplay Foundation is developing prototypes of a charging station for house lights it hopes will improve &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=3806\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100,93],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mind-blowing-miscellania-and-other-neat-stuff","category-race-racism-and-related-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}