Crux is taking a six week hiatus traveling overseas - consequently there will be no new posts during this time.
However, there will be lots of news in the lead up to the winter solstice on 21 June, so watch this space!
01 May 2010
The Global Phones-to-Toilets Ratio
Excerpt from Change.org, 15 April 2010
'Right now, India has more cell phones than toilets. That's the headline buzzing over the wires today, thanks to the latest phones-to-toilets ratio released by the United Nations. It's certainly a dramatic factoid. But it's not just true of India's 1.2 billion-strong population — this lopsided statistic is true around the globe, as well.
'Right now, India has more cell phones than toilets. That's the headline buzzing over the wires today, thanks to the latest phones-to-toilets ratio released by the United Nations. It's certainly a dramatic factoid. But it's not just true of India's 1.2 billion-strong population — this lopsided statistic is true around the globe, as well.
It's a "tragic irony" that India is wealthy enough to provide its people with so many phones, and yet so many "cannot afford the basic necessity and dignity of a toilet," says the director of the UN think tank behind the new report, Zafar Adeel. It's an irony that applies globally, too: this year, the International Telecommunication Union reports, the number of mobile subscriptions is expected to surpass five billion. By contrast, some 2.6 billion people — or nearly 40% of the world population — live in conditions with dismal sanitation. Fully 16% of the world is still forced to defecate in public every day...
But why does the number of cell phones so radically outstrip the number of toilets out there, when the latter are literally necessary to keep populations alive?
Polar Bear Sugar Cubes Melt Away in Your Morning Coffee
Sourced from Inhabitat, 27 April 2010
'These days it’s hard to deny that global warming is melting away our precious glaciers, and, sadly, the animals living in the polar regions are the ones that are suffering most. Using this dire fact as her inspiration, Jovana Bogdanović from Young Serbian Designers sends a clear and provocative message regarding a specific endangered species – the polar bear. Showcased during Milan Design Week, Sugar Bear is a sugar cube in the shape of a polar bear that will slowly melt away in your morning cup of tea or a coffee.'
'These days it’s hard to deny that global warming is melting away our precious glaciers, and, sadly, the animals living in the polar regions are the ones that are suffering most. Using this dire fact as her inspiration, Jovana Bogdanović from Young Serbian Designers sends a clear and provocative message regarding a specific endangered species – the polar bear. Showcased during Milan Design Week, Sugar Bear is a sugar cube in the shape of a polar bear that will slowly melt away in your morning cup of tea or a coffee.'
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