Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Portable high-tech shelters for the homeless?

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As reported by Gizmodo: One of those tasteless morning radio shows recently had a "pimp my shopping cart" promotion, obviously making fun of the homeless; the finished cart has such amenities as GPS, an alarm clock, a heater and a refrigerator, all powered by built-in solar panels. (Check out the Gizmodo article to see photos of the finished cart.) I think it's obvious that I find the whole thing rather offensive, but it did give me an idea: Couldn't something like this be built in a serious way, so as to provide actual temporary shelter to those who don't have shelter, like the homeless or victims of natural disasters? Obviously it's too progressive an idea for the US, but such a project would be perfect for forward-thinking countries, like in Scandinavia; I could see such a shelter being of crucial benefit, for example, to residents of Copenhagen's anarchic "Christiana" community. Just something to chew on...