organic resourcing

The idea was to start with a [Toyota] 4Runner, and take away all the parts that weren’t an incubator.

Timothy Prestero, founder and chief executive of Design That Matters, in Looking Under the Hood and Seeing an Incubator in this morning's New York Times.

In an act of "organic resourcing" Dr. Rosen and Design That Matters have created an infant incubator that relies on auto parts -- parts that are readily available in countries where incubator parts -- and the expertise that accompanies their repair -- are not.

"The heat source is a pair of headlights. A car door alarm signals emergencies. An auto air filter and fan provide climate control."

Human resources are an important part of the equation: “The future medical technologists in the developing world,” Dr. Malkin said, “are the current car mechanics, HVAC repairmen, bicycle shop repairmen. There is no other good source of technology-savvy individuals to take up the future of medical device repair and maintenance.”

speaking of upcycling

Finding a $1 million painting in the garbage is very unusual.

FBI agent James Wynne commenting on Elizabeth Gibson’s discovery of Rufino Tamayo’s Three People in the trash on the Northwest corner of Broadway and 72nd Street one March morning in One Person’s Trash Is Another Person’s Lost Masterpiece in this morning's New York Times.

Update: The BBC reported on 21 November that, indeed, the painting did manage to fetch $1M at auction.

upcycle

weiner bench 02
Originally uploaded by jackrabbit.etsy.com.

Upcycling: The process of taking something that’s essentially waste and moving it up the consumer-goods chain.

Coined by architect William McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart in Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, and cited in last Thursday's New York Times by Etsy founder Robert Kalin in Romancing the Flat Pack: Ikea, Repurposed

Shown: Jack Rabbit's Famous Weiner Bench