Adam Clare

Mottainai Furoshiki

In Japan the Minster of the Environment has started a neat way to raise awareness about wastefulness.

“Ms Yuriko Koike, Minister of the Environment, has created the “Mottainai Furoshiki” as a symbol of Japanese culture to reduce waste. Furoshiki is a Japanese traditional wrapping cloth which is used repeatedly in a stylish way. (The utilization of this “Mottainai Furoshiki” will contribute to reducing household waste from plastic bags.) The Minister presented the “Mottainai Furoshiki” at the Senior Officials Meeting on the 3R Initiative held in Tokyo, Japan on March 6-8, 2006″

Thanks Allison Belisle!

Corporations and Society

noradawn wrote us to tell us about corporate social responsibility (CSR):

“Are corporate giants waking up? The increase of public demand for more sustainable and socially responsible practices is causing the giants of the business world to reevaluate how they do things and start implementing new practices. In essence, doing what they can to save the world. This practice commonly called CSR is being seen more and more in giants such as Wal-Mart, Levi & Strauss, and Hasbro to name a few.

The trend was started by smaller, socially and environmentally aware companies such as Tom’s of maine toothpaste and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, who pioneered this concept…and wound up having incredible growth rates. In turn, this caused the larger companies to turn their heads to see what they were doing right from a business perspective. As a result, it looks like it is the new trend that is emerging, and the corporate giants…many of whom have more capital than some entire countries- are the ones with the dollars and cents to really help in making a big difference.”

For more on CSR this noradawn suggests this good article on CSR.

Thanks noradawn for sharing this!

Psiphon Fights Censorship

Earlier this year we covered that Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto was creating some software called Psiphon that lets people bypass firewalls. Psiphone is designed to let people access sites that are blocked for censorship reasons like in China where there is a lot of online censorship.

“psiphon is a censorship circumvention solution that allows users to access blocked sites in countries where the Internet is censored. psiphon turns a regular home computer into a personal, encrypted server capable of retrieving and displaying web pages anywhere.”

Safe Toys

Chris Coleman has written in to tell us about toys, and what’s more fun than toys? Nothing.

From Chris:

“Ableplay.org is a toy rating system and Website that provides comprehensive information on toys for children with disabilities so parents, special educators, therapist and others can make the best choices for the children in their lives with disabilities.

Developed by the National Lekotek Center, the leading nonprofit authority on play for children with disabilities, AblePlay will provide parents, and the professionals who work with them, access to the most useful, product-specific information about the top play and learning products and toys for children with disabilities. ”

Conversely, BoingBoing linked to a list of the most dangerous toys.

Ancient Computer Hacked

A bizarre looking device that was used to chart and predict moon cycles. Researchers had to use the most modern of today’s technology to understand this 2,000 year old device.

“Using 21st-century technology to peer beneath the surface of the encrusted gearwheels, stunned scientists say the so-called Antikythera Mechanism could predict the ballet of the Sun and Moon over decades and calculate a lunar anomaly that would bedevil Isaac Newton himself.

Built in Greece around 150 to 100 BC and possibly linked to the astronomer and mathematician Hipparchos, its complexity was probably unrivalled for at least a thousand years, they say.”