product

In 1998, John Brockman asked a select group of scientific thinkers, “What is the most important invention in the past two thousand years?” Find out.

“The Netherlands is struggling with a vast manure surplus. Although a small country, we have an enormous livestock industry and a correspondingly huge dung mountain.” So Andreas Muller, of Droog Design, created a package for tulip bulbs is made from compressed cattle dung. “The interesting thing about this packaging is that it eats into the surplus and acts as a fertilizer at the same time.” Check out the sculpted gourds, too, on o2.org.

Why was Tony Blair’s speech to the Royal Society so full of “misconceptions and logical elisions?”

“The Bivings Group, a PR company contracted to Monsanto, had invented fake citizens to post messages on internet listservers. These phantoms had launched a campaign to force Nature magazine to retract a paper it had published, alleging that native corn in Mexico had been contaminated with GM pollen. But this, it now seems, is just one of hundreds of critical interventions with which PR companies hired by big business have secretly guided the biotech debate over the past few years.”

See George Monbiot’s article in The Guardian. Monbiot identifies several “research” and “activist” Web sites as PR fronts for corporations including the influential AgBioWorld site, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Center for Food and Agricultural Research, Alliance for Environmental Technology, ActivistCash, Center for Consumer Freedom, and Stop Eco-Violence. See also this TomPaine article from March, PR Watch’s Impropaganda Review, “a rogue’s gallery of industry front groups and anti-environmental think tanks.” From also not found in nature.

“Joe Paff tells me that when he grew up in the late Thirties in a steel town on the edge of Pittsburgh, ‘as long as my father was unemployed and we were dirt poor, we ate very well. My father made his own beer. My mother baked bread and canned her stewed tomatoes, and my brothers brought home rabbit, pheasant and other game. As soon as my brothers and my father got jobs in the booming steel mills, we were now well off. My father had a new car. We ate Wonder Bread, store-canned tomatoes, and my father drank Iron City Beer. Moral: The victory of these debauched foods was the product of American prosperity and TV advertising that made my mother and father think that’s what they ought to eat to emulate the middle class they saw on TV shows. My mother finally denied having actually baked bread.’”

See the column by Alexander Cockburn.

A handbag depicting New York’s September 11 terrorist attack has been slammed as insensitive by the family of an Australian victim. The $159 handbag, being sold by the Melbourne fashion chain Quick Brown Fox, is almost sold out.... Quick Brown Fox owner Tess Reeves said she had bought the bags in Beijing. “I thought they were an artistic interpretation of what is a tragic event,” she said. “They are the sort of thing high fashion would do. Thousands are being shipped to Europe every day. “It’s not necessarily a negative thing and, as with all tragedies, time heals. In time it won’t be as controversial.” See The Australian.

Found via The Guardian.

“Aladdinpower is the world’s first and only hand held and operated regulated generator capable of charging rechargeable batteries instantly, just by squeezing your hand together.” Each unit includes a universal connecting cell phone cable and a high powered emergency light. Coming soon, the foot powered StepCharger.

“The Ribbon Project was created in 1991 by the Visual AIDS Artists Caucus, a group of artists who wished to create a visual symbol to demonstrate compassion for people living with AIDS and their caregivers. Inspired by the yellow ribbons honoring American soldiers serving in the Gulf war, the color red was chosen for its, ‘connection to blood and the idea of passion — not only anger, but love, like a valentine.’ First worn publicly by Jeremy Irons at the 1991 Tony Awards, the ribbon soon became renowned as an international symbol of AIDS awareness, becoming a politically correct fashion accessory on the lapels of celebrities. While this has caused concern to many activists, who worry that its meaning has become trivialized, as well as denigrated by the proliferation of ‘kitsch’ ribbon objects, the Red Ribbon continues to be a powerful force in the fight to increase public awareness of HIV/AIDS and in the lobbying efforts to increase funding for AIDS services and research.”

“From its manufacture to its disposal, PVC emits toxic compounds. During the manufacture of the building block ingredients of PVC (such as vinyl chloride monomer) dioxin and other persistent pollutants are emitted into the air, water and land, which present both acute and chronic health hazards. During use, PVC products can leach toxic additives, for example flooring can release softeners called phthalates. When PVC reaches the end of its useful life, it can be either landfilled, where it leaches toxic additives or incinerated, again emitting dioxin and heavy metals. When PVC burns in accidental fires, hydrogen chloride gas and dioxin are formed. For virtually all PVC applications, safer alternatives exist.... This international database is intended to help anyone from do-it-yourself enthusiasts to construction companies track down alternatives to PVC products.”

From Greenpeace.

“The AgeLab was established at MIT in 1999, as a partnership with industry and the aging community, to develop new technologies promoting healthy, independent living throughout the human lifespan. Our research involves an array of disciplines including engineering, computer science, human factors, health and medical sciences, management, marketing, and the social and behavioral sciences. All of our work is motivated by a shared belief that the appropriate use of technology, along with innovations in its delivery, can have a significant impact on the quality of life for older people, their families and caregivers.”

See the article at Metropolis Magazine.

“The Centre for Sustainable Design [at The Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College, in the UK] facilitates discussion and research on eco-design and environmental, economic, ethical and social considerations in product and service development and design. This is achieved through training and education, research, seminars, workshops, conferences, consultancy, publications and Internet. The Centre also acts as an information clearing house and a focus for innovative thinking on sustainable products and services.”