· May, 2014

Stories about Ideas from May, 2014

Learning How to Sing

  29 May 2014

Do you think it's impossible to sing if you don't have a good voice from birth? Carlos Campaña on Vox Technologies thinks [es] the opposite: It's possible to learn how to sing without having a good voice, as the concept of “having a good voice” lacks sense when we understand...

Twitter Effects in Thinking

  29 May 2014

Carles López Cerezuela believes Twitter produces some kind of “collateral damage” in human thinking, and on his blog KRLS he relates [es] some of those effects considering the good and bad parts of each one. Besides the already widely pointed out by several analysts, these are some of the mentioned...

Disempowerment for Collective Growth

  28 May 2014

On Mi pensadero there is a review of the Seminar about Participation, Self Management and Disempowerment #ikaskide1314. About disempowerment, the website comments [es]: Disempowerment is leaving power that incites a collective construction. From simple to complex and from complex to simple. It's not a show, it's not a place where...

Creating Biogas from Water Hyacinth

  27 May 2014

Water hyacinth (water weed) is a menace in Bangladesh which restricts water flow and blocks sunlight in rivers and ponds contributing to contamination and killing of fish. Instead of spending much in removing or eradicating them they can be used for a good cause. Kristin Boekhoff at Panigram blog informs...

VIRAL VIDEO: ‘But We're Speaking Japanese’

  25 May 2014

A video skit of a Japanese waitress serving a group of foreign-looking customers who speak Japanese has gone viral. The clip has resonated among many Japanese-speaking expats who occasionally experience how local Japanese communicate with foreigners based not on the language they are speaking but on how they look. Watch the...

Drawings With Coffee Foam

  25 May 2014

The blogger on El Francotirador shares [es] his experience on a fast food shop, when as the waitress gave him the coffee he had ordered, she added: “There you go… I drew a heart with the foam” – she said smiling. As a result of this gesture, the author reflects:...

Adventures of a Cyclist in Mexico City

  24 May 2014

Global Voices contributor Andrea Arzaba blogged about her adventures the first time she went through Mexico D.F.: There was no turning back. I took the card from my wallet and slided it through the Ecobici reader. This was the first time I went to work riding a bike. You usually...

A Bolivian Drone with Recycled Parts

  21 May 2014

If you look up at the bright blue sky in El Alto, Bolivia, you may catch a glimpse of a drone flying overhead. This is not any ordinary drone, but a flying aerial device assembled partly out of recycled materials found at one of the city's many bustling outdoor markets....

39 Ideas to Do on the Internet

  19 May 2014

Masticable shares [es] 39 creative, fun, active or self-taught ideas to do on the Internet, available to everybody. Here we randomly share three of those ideas: Learn and practice other languages, music included. Tools: Duolinguo and Lyricstraining Share your drawings. Tool: Gimp for drawing o editing and devianart for sharing...

Guyana: Remembering Walter Rodney

  18 May 2014

I wish I could wish you a good afternoon. But I believe that if I could hear souls whisper…Dr. Rodney’s soul would say that it is not a good day. How can it be…when our children are being raped, beaten and shot…when the nation witnesses such injustice in silence? Sara...

Meet Khadija, a Motorcycle Repairwoman Breaking Boundaries in Bangladesh

  17 May 2014

BRAC blog profiles how girls in Bangladesh are learning lucrative yet unconventional trades for women. Khadija, for example, was forced to drop out of school before finishing fifth grade to help support her family. Not so strange, given that only 55 percent of children in Bangladesh complete their primary education.  But now,...

Tips for Being a First World Country

  15 May 2014

Mexican Alfredo Cortés de Café Financiero reflects [es] after a trip to Canada about things and attitudes that in this country mean to belong to the “first world”: I want to mention the simplest things I observed, that we all could accomplish; and as a whole this is what makes...

Playing with Marbles

  13 May 2014

From Colombia, Carlos Múnera, author of Todos somos iguales blog, recalls past times, when he used to play with marbles [es], when “the stage was like a duel that confronted more than one boy”: The positions start, the bending downs, the visual calculations and the impressive aim by the game...