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Mottainai Furoshiki

- Adam Clare

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!

World Usability Day

- Adam Clare

Today is World Usability Day!

Making things easy to use is hard, and it goes unappreciated. People are more likely to complain how something is not working and hard to use than express their appreciation of things that just work.

World Usability Day wants to make the world easier to use. That sounds weird, but I assure you that it’s a good thing.

“Why doesn’t this work right? What am I supposed to do with this now?”

World Usability Day, November 14, 2006, is for everyone who’s ever asked these questions. This Earth Day style event, focused on raising awareness and visibility of usability engineering and user centered design, is currently being organized by volunteers and local event coordinators from around the world. Whether a usability professional or just an enthusiastic (or frustrated) user, each participant is making a contribution to “making life easy”.

French Kissing

- Agasel

Last week France, land of the French Kiss, fell far short of beating the current Guinness World Records holder for Most Kissers At Once.

At the Guinness World Records’ sponsored event, in Paris, 1,188 people showed up for simultaneous kissing.  (I know, you’re thinking, “Best. Date. Ever.”) Unfortunately, they failed to beat Budapest’s impressive 2005 record of 11,570 kissers.kissers.jpg

Some Parisians blame the location chosen for the event: La Defense, a modernist business park on the west edge of Paris.  It’s been suggested that a better known, and perhaps more inspiring spot, would have been the Eiffel Tower.

Lifestraw a Life Saver

- Adam Clare 2 Comments

he looks highGlobally, about 6,000 people a day die from water-borne disease. These are preventable deaths but, in many places it is too expensive to provide clean water for everyone and as a result people contract water-borne diseases. A fancy new drinking straw can stop 99.99% of parasites and bacteria from drinking water.

It’s called the Lifestraw and is currently being tested in the field. It is not as small as your average straw, but it’s small enough to wear around your neck. The manufacturing costs are low too – only $3 per unit. 70,000 units were handed out to earthquake victims in Kashmir last year. More testing is needed, but this is off to a very promising start!

Thanks, Kathryn!

Introducing……Agasel

- Adam Clare

AgaselYou may have noticed a new name popping up around this site. Agasel has joined the team of volunteers that help spread good news around the world via this very website.

She brings with her a lot of knowledge of how traditional media functions and an interest in making the world a better place. Agasel is based in Vancouver, but looking for a more tropical climate to spend her life in that is conducive to her writing.

Agasel has already told us that we should do less homework and fashionable horseback riding.

You can get to know her personally at her blog.

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