After this morning’s conversation about sharing ideas, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to do a series of blog posts asking for ideas on a theme.
The purpose of the theme is to either remind you of a particular idea you might have already had, or to get you thinking about something you might not yet have had an idea about.
So here’s the first of them:
01. RAIN
This has been a big topic of conversation around here recently, and there’s been an awful lot of it, so it’s something I’ve been thinking about.
What ideas do you have related to rain? It could be a new type of umbrella, something about rain collection, flood prevention, rain-powered cars, new things that we could do with rain — anything at all related to the concept of rain.
You may have a fun idea, a serious idea, a business idea, a simple idea, a complicated idea or perhaps an idea that you’d like to start a conversation about. Over to you.
Simply post a comment under this blog post about your idea, and let’s give the matter some thought. Who knows what we might come up with?
You should feel free to brainstorm, to take the theme in any direction you like, or to use it as a springboard into other things. There are essentially no rules – except the fact that any ideas that you come up with here are SHARED.
We’re using a Creative Commons licence: Attribution, non-commercial, share alike. That is, you can use any of the ideas presented in the comments of this series of blog posts for any non-commercial use, as long as you give credit for whose idea it is, and that the thing you make is also shared in the same way..
But to make things easier for people who DO want to pick up any of the ideas here and run with them on a commercial basis – you have permission, so long as you ensure that you cut the person whose idea it is in for ONE PERCENT (1%). That’s only fair.
Look forward to seeing your ideas in the comments…
We are always sheltering from rain. We dress against it, forecast and plan ahead to avoid it and curse its very existence. For such a fabulous resource I think it gets bad press.
Everyone, even if for just one moment of one day a year should just go and stand in the rain, wear what you like, listen to an iPod or sing, stand on a beach, bridge or lonely field, but just feel it, enjoy it and feel the energy that we run from.
Then go and get a shower and get on with your life. It’s not worship or any hippy new-age healing, it’s just about being alive and soaking up a moment.
That’s all.
I don’t have any specific ideas about rain, but reading this post and comment and mulling it all over for the past half hour has been a really enjoyable experience.
I’ve been thinking about drinking unfiltered rain water before
I’ll keep an eye out for (29?) more topics to think about, and hopefully I’ll have something constructive to say on some of them. For now, I’d just like to say that this is a fantastic concept – and I hope you get a good crop of creative comments!
Okay – so here’s mine: turbines in drains that charge batteries and generate electricity.
In every kitchen sink, in every downpipe and guttering, in every storm drain, a little wheel that generates electricity. Mass produce them so they’re dirt cheap and make them dead easy to install.
Then every time you wash the dishes, every time you flush the toilet, every time you have a shower – and, importantly, every time it rains – a little bit of electricity goes back into the grid or gets stored for home use.
I think about rain a lot, mostly because I live on a small island and we collect rain water for all our water needs: drinking, washing, toilet flushing, etc. I’ve never understood why more people don’t collect rainwater, even if for watering veggies, gardens, etc., but from what I understand in some cities (like Auckland central) this is actually illegal! Having lived for 8 years now mostly on water collected from the roof (occassionally we have to purchase water) really makes you realise how much water a household uses and changes your water usage habits for life.
My rain idea – return of the cistern – a 2 (or 3?) chamber Cistern that collects rain water and filters it naturally (reverse osmosis?). Then 2 choices- into chamber for drinking or into chamber for solar heating for reserve hot water.
I had a vague idea about recycling umbrellas left in train stations with proceeds going to charity, but that mini-turbine idea sounds brilliant. Go do it!
I don’t have a RAIN idea, but if anyone is thinking about one then may I suggest that Half Man Half Biscuit have some wise words:
“Opinionated weather forecasters telling me it’s going to be a miserable day
Miserable to who? I quite like a bit of drizzle, so stick to the facts”
From: Half Man Half Biscuit: A Country Practice – lyrics http://www.chrisrand.com/hmhb/four-lads-who-shook-the-wirral-1998/a-country-practice/#ixzz1tkn2RmIw
@dubber: …I was just about to post *exactly* the same idea. Been wondering why we don’t have those for years. :)
@Craig:
How wonderful to see the mighty HMHB quoted here!
And Jake, I’m right with you. I recently had one of the most amazing experiences of my life swimming in the rain in Malaysia.
Andrew (and Steve) – your idea is inspired. I hope someone runs with it.
Related to rain but I remember when I was a kid talking to my brother about car design and what cars would look like when we got older. We fantasised about detectors that told the car when it was dark to turn lights on, or rain sensors to turn wipers on; both very common these days.
Then we thought about the humble windscreen wiper. There it sits, primitively wiping rain away in its post industrial age way, on a 1930s Austin 7 or 2012 Mercedes Benz. We laughed in the late 70s just thinking how primitive it all was. Surely it wasn’t long before we looked back and laughed.
But look on the front of a £300m jumbo jet next time you’re at the airport. There they sit in all their 2012 British Aerospace glory. Wiping away. As high tech as you like but without a bit of plastic and rubber going back and forth on the glass you can’t go anywhere in the rain.
Surely it’s only a matter of time before we come up with a high tech alternative to the humble windscreen wiper? Isn’t it?
I love the smell of ozone that comes before it rains. Let’s bottle and sell it.
There’s a weather radar in Ontario, Canada called Kind City Radar. It’s incredibly useful, as you can literally watch the rainstorms track across the country towards Toronto. It means you don’t really need a forecast – you just watch the playback of the past hour or so and can often work out when the rain will hit the city.
I often wish we had weather radars, and data accessibility like that in the UK – so that we could take a lot of the guess work out of when it will rain, and also hone our appreciation of any common occurrences that precede rainfall in our area.
This is both inspired and inspiring – a great place to start, and I’m already looking forward to the next 29 posts.
Len’s approach is particularly enlightening – I always get downcast by the rain, and rainy days send me in to an entirely irrational depression. Finding the right mindset to shift out of that mood is often very difficult. How could we change our approach to rain so that grumpies like me can see it as a good thing? Without using drugs I suppose…
On a separate note, I spent two months in American Samoa last year making a documentary; while there, we stayed in the Sadie Thompson’s Hotel, which takes it’s name from a character in W. Somerset Maugham’s short story ‘Rain’. I only mention it because it’s a cracking read – check it out.
Rain sensors on top of pedestrian crossings – when it’s raining hard, give pedestrians pushing the button higher priority, so the lights change quicker and they have less time to wait in the rain. Car drivers (in the dry) may have to suffer the slight delay…