“What’s wrong with what we eat” is a 20 minute TED lecture by a man who has been writing about food for the last 30 years. I think he gives a good description of how our current food consumption harms not only our own health, but also the environment.
Worth a look.
After a long time I’ve finally updated my profile on Kiva.org.
Kiva is an international non-profit organization that uses Microfinancing in order to help small businesses worldwide. Through Kiva, a person can easily loan money and help underprivileged and struggling businessman in the third world help themselves. This service is truly revolutionary and creates real impact (don’t take my word on it, check it out at the site - they have journals of each loaner with updates on the status of his business)
Anyway, Here is a link to my updated profile. You’ll find a really cool picture of me taken during a deep blue dive.
Have you noticed how clothes for women are always made small? The textile industry makes all clothes work only for slim woman that have small breasts. This is also what one always sees in the commercials, posters and shops. So basically, woman who are not looking exactly like the models for whom the clothes are made have a really tough time to find something flattering. I’m talking about most women after teenage years.
On the other hand, men’s clothes are a different story altogether. I’ve noticed this only because I’ve been shopping for a business suit and some shirts lately. It seems that most of these clothes are tailored to fit men with big stomaches. Both shirts and jackets have “space” intentionally left for this purpose. This makes buying elegant clothes for someone who doesn’t have a belly to be extremely hard.
I just don’t get it. Why are women supposed to be skinny, while men are supposed to have hanging stomaches?
Like most people I believe that helping our planet, recycling and saving energy are very important. However, until recently I’ve found the conduct of various environmental groups to be tactless. That’s until I’ve stumbled on this beautifully laid out site.
They have done a really nice job of making you feel that saving the environment is a really cool thing to do. I really like their layout. Whoever did this understood that if you score high on the “coolness” factor, you’ll have a much higher chance of creating impact.
And this is what branding and design is all about.
An interesting thought have crossed my mind lately- Are there any unexpected side effects to surging in crude oil prices? I think there are. On of them might be an impact on real-estate prices. This may will have an impact in the medium to long run but it might be a strong impact non the less. Let me explain.
There has always been a tradeoff between living in a bigger house in the suburbs and commuting to work and between living in a smaller, more expensive place in a city center, and cutting on the commute. In the past - this trade off main issue was the save time, energy and improve quality of life. I believe that the recent surge in crude oil prices is going to change that. I think that with oil becoming more expensive by the year, transportation prices will soon become a major factor in the decision on where to live. This will increase demand for homes in city centers - which can eventually increase residential real estate prices.
Naturally, There are many other factors to this equation. Nevertheless, rising transportation prices will be an important player in future residence choice.
What do you think?
Roman