Oddly enough I consider either sitting on the toilet or in the bath the best places to digest large quantities of text. That’s is why there always magazines and books in my bathroom.
And were do you enjoy your books?
Stumble it!The crazyness about modern life that it is already stressful, but people crave even more excitement. The solutions are extreme sports like Parkour - were you make your home town your racing track and play ground.
It’s bloody dangerous and you don’t see all the failed attempts in this video. But if this help to trim the herd - so be it.
*thanks to Edosan for sending in that video*
Since we lived in caves humankind was on a building rampage. We spent huge amounts of resources on building ever bigger, nicer and comfier caves.
But does a modern (single) person or a small family really need a huge house with a lot of space? Big houses mean more heating, more electricity and more building material. And more big individual houses mean wider spread cities and longer drives to work, school and shopping. Look at the typical American city - which are spread all over the countryside, they are not well planned, they don’t mix work, shopping and entertainment areas together, so long drives are normal.
Spacious individualism is expensive and eats loads of resources.
Isn’t it time for a new modesty - by combining minimalism, comfort and efficiency. We don’t need to resort to ugly skyscrapers, but we should be smarter about building our homes and cities.
This is the real thing! From the product description:
Plays "SpongeBob SquarePants Theme" at the end of temperature taking.
So when you hear music in your ass Spongebob is ready to tell you your temperature. Isn’t merchandise a wonderful thing!
Pat Robertson would have loved this - Spongebob is for the Gays.
Your Ikea nesting instinct made you buy the perfect kitchen and you are the perfect wife. You know how to perfectly please everybody. You know how to perfectly organize your perfect life. You read all the perfect books Oprah recommended to be perfect. And your career is going perfect too.
Too bad there is no perfect husband for your perfect fantasy world - and it’s perfectly normal that you are running out of time.
Fertility has a limited shelf life and so does your happiness … don’t waste it on perfection.
I am sure this is where you want to read books about GOOD interior design and a horror stories …
Humans from all former periods would be pretty amazed how clean we keep or clothes and how much effort we make to keep them almost sterile.
Personal hygiene was always an important part of human culture. The Romans had huge public bathing houses. So cleaning ones clothes was also important. Perfume was also used pretty early in human history - so we always liked to smell nice (because it helps us to catch nicer genetic partners).
In Christian Europe the denial of the body (and sexuality in relation with the original sin of Adam and Eve) brought back the dirt big time. Personal hygiene and clean clothes were not very high on the agenda.
But there is a difference between clean and clinical. There are gazillion products for keeping yourself and your clothes clean. Even the smallest stain of dirt on your shirt is a modern offense. Shirts need to be perfectly ironed and folded. It’s almost like that cleaner (whiter) a person is, the higher the social rank.
So the cleaner you and your clothes are, the nicer and more perfect is your public persona. Public, professional and even our private life’s are dictated by a proper clean appearance.
So no surprise almost everyone owns a washing machine and an flat iron - and there is a dry cleaner at every street corner. We all also own several shirts, dresses, trousers, jackets, socks or underwear - a total luxury until the industrial age for most people. And finally the huge amount of chemical to keep it all clean.
We are truly obsessed with clean clothes and keeping them in perfect condition.
(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)
The more confusing and stressful life becomes, the more we hunger for that easier and blissfully ignorant exit to a far away island.
But simplicity would bore us to death. Once your brain has been on fire (and on the Internet) there is no way going back. Once you have tasted the variety of life - it’s very hard to throw it all away for literally nothing.
But the real question is: are there any places left on this planet that are isolated and far away? Is there still such a thing?
Furniture is relative new invention of human culture (and bloody interior designer, Martha Steward and Feng Shui consultants as well).
Before bookshelfs, comfy chairs and pull out sofas our ancestors were pretty happy with simple tables and chairs, slept on the ground and used simple boxes or a sack to put their stuff into …
One of the foundations of our modern lifestyle are fridges (even the ones without Internet access). Preserving food has always been a hard task - before fridges they used dark, cold cellars and for a brief period of time ice blocks delivered to your home.
A fridge is such a practical thing: just open the door and stuff your goodies inside. Done!
The fridge and cold warehouse allowed easier transport and mass storange of persihable goods and layed also a foundation for mass delivery and consumption of fresh veggies, fish and meat from far away places. Frozen food can last an eternity compared to normal storange.
But fridges are also responsible for fast food and so called convinience food: quick and dirty dishes without the pleasure to shop for daily needs, selecting stuff from your personal dealer and preparing it yourself (a typical mom job) …
Check also: the webfridge project
I guess only the complicated western mind could develop such a crazy system of eating utensils? While other cultures are happy with a a knife, spoon, some bread and maybe chopsticks to pick up their food - Europe indulged into a complicated system of silverware.
From Wikipedia:
Cutlery refers to any hand utensil used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food. It is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery can have the more specific meaning of knives and other cutting instruments. This is probably the original meaning of the word. Since silverware suggests the presence of silver, the term tableware has come into use.
The major items of cutlery in the western world are the knife, fork and spoon. Traditionally, good quality cutlery was made from silver (hence the U.S. name), though steel was always used for more utilitarian knives, and pewter was used for some cheaper items, especially spoons. From the nineteenth century, Electroplated Nickel Silver (EPNS) was used as a cheaper substitute; nowadays, most cutlery, including quality designs, is made from stainless steel. Plastic cutlery is made for disposable use, and is frequently used in fast food or take-away outlets and provided with airline meals.
Two forms of utensil combining the functionality of various pairs of cutlery are the spork (spoon / fork) and knork (knife / fork). Cutlery gets its name from the term for a person skilled in making knives, a cutler. The Worshipful Company of Cutlers was one of the London livery companies, reflecting the importance of this trade in the Middle Ages.
Cutlery gained prominence during the Middle Ages.
Pink has become a terrible lifestyle and attitude the recent years: just be happy, just be fluffy, just be nice. LOL LOL LOL …
Your life as a Kitsch object. Terrible!
Life isn’t a pink pony to ride. Life is a bit more colorful, exciting and terrible. Enjoy all the colors and attitudes. Thinking Pink is fucking boring.
Anything born in the last 25 to 30 years is called Millennials - because they are the bulk of the workforce of the new Millennium.
Raised by overcaring soccer moms and freeform hippie parents, still living at home with 30 and a very pampered bunch.
This generation is the special needs generation, that needs constant attention, constant gratification and loads of ‘creative space’ for their mostly empty brains. Most of all they need constant stimulation to stay on the job. Even when they work their own jobs their parents call employers and challenge reviews and their salary - like they called their teachers and professors in school or university before. This is overprotective individualism gone wrong.
My Mom said it’s oke to show off my skills …
I am actually very happy that now the first studies and articles about the awkwardness of this generation are coming out - because it confirms my experience in many companies working with these ‘youngsters’.
I guess every generation says that the next one is softer, stupider and more pampered. This is mostly true, since most kids in western countries had the LUCK to grow up in ever better living conditions, education, spoiled consumerism and a highly expanding ‘fun culture’. It’s better to work your Nintendo instead of working the coal mines.
Classical Hero figure transformed into a multimedia cash cow.
Kids and young adults have become highly targeted consumer groups since the 1950’s. Youth culture didn’t exist before that. A total media sphere for kids and young adults didn’t exist before the 1970’s. And total consumerism didn’t arrive before the 1980’s. The sheer amount of media archetypes, lifestyle choices, trends, weird and cool stuff only aimed at youngster is incredible and aggressively enforced by companies.
Plus we are now experiencing the total ‘digitization of social behavior’ since the arrival of cheap cell phones, broadband and social networks on the intranets.
Yes, kids have spent less and less time doing sports or experiencing nature in the last 25 years. They have spent more time shopping and in front of a screen.
On the Internet everyone can see your IQ. Thanks for sharing!
The attitudes and goals have changed. Hardly anyone wants to be an Astronaut, Pilot or other Hero figure these days. Too much effort, too little coolness.
Most teen idols are either ‘human products’ invented by companies or the media like lifestyle choices like ‘Gangster Rapper’ or ‘Super Model’. Shows like Big Brother and the whole mechanism of media whoring by being a slut (I am looking at you Paris and Perez Hilton) shows kids only that you don’t need ANY ’skillz’ to be a gazillionaire.
There has never been a Generation that grew up in in such a safe environment and with so much constant distraction. Life is no longer just about the ‘basics’ to them - they want more, more and more - and they are used getting it without much effort apart from bitching.
The Queen of the Millennials.
It is GOOD that less and less kids grow up experiencing hunger, war and poverty - like still way too many kids do in Africa, Asia, Russia, South America and the Middle East. The global society overall is getting richer. Teenager in Tehran have as often facial surgery as in LA. Millennials all over the world grew up with MTV, Madonna, McDonalds and Mobiles. Theirs styles and attitudes are very similar.
The are now enjoying the fruits of the war and post war generations, the new creative and sexual worlds of the hippie revolution - and the blatant consumerism of the Reagan years.
Apart from being nice, being loved, being entertained, able to shop and fuck something this generation hardly has an agenda. It is hardly a political generation - apart from passively ’saving the earth’ - probably by shopping Al Gore T-Shirts and blogging about it.
I am oke, you are oke. Together we watch DVDs about saving the Earth or pirate it from the Intranets!
Unlike the Hippies or Yuppies they don’t know the hunger for change or power. As long as it’s cool and entertaining anything goes. If angry give them a promotion, a hug or a Amazon.com coupon and they are happy again.
Without the absence of real dangers and challenges any human being softens up and relaxes - and after over 60 years of peace and prosperity in western nations there are hardly any direct challenges left. How can you feel like REALLY doing something, when you can stuff your face with organic burgers, surf the web on your iPhone and travel to India for Yoga?
It’s all so nice and pink. Life is almost like being with mom.
More: Wikipedia on Generation Y and read this Managers Guide to Millenials
Ok, it began with fast food and pizza restaurants. Grabbing a bite in our hectic days makes sense, having the same boring food all over the world doesn’t.
Then came the Coffee Shops to give us the extra needed caffeine kick and sugar rush - plus some free wireless access. Well, still makes sense - although I hate the standard Ikea-Starbucks nesting instinct that’s developing globally.
But who needs a cell phone store - one for each provider - on every highstreet? It’s not that we need a daily supply of ‘phonettes’, batteries or ‘call minutes’?! We maybe upgrade our phone once a year or change our contracts maybe every two?
These shops are there mostly for presence, marketing and showing off their brand. I rather have some good old sandwich shops or some other specialized merchant that sells anything BUT a cell phone, a burger or a Latte.
Our inner cities have lost their unique mix of local shops and retailers. Almost all over the planet the big shopping centers offer the same crap from the same crappy companies. So much about free markets, choice for the consumer and competition.
BBC article: UK ‘landfill dustbin of Europe’
According a EU study there is a huge difference between the recycling rates in Europe and how much trash is thrown onto landfills per person.
As one can expect the Nordic countries are the cleanest while nations like Ireland, Britain and Spain have a long way to go to reduce their dirty lifestyles.
Don’t forget to read this article (also BBC) how some nations approach recycling and handling trash.
Taken from here. What a nightmare of a room! That was definitely before Ikea was hip all over the world.
Thank you Lisa for that mad catch!
I am usually not much of a fashion person, but I do like T-Shirts (and other crap) with a mission. Jeremy Kalgreen has created some cool designs and used the many shopping system on the intranets to sell his wares.
But I really do like the designs and humor behind them. If you gonna wear something wacky, than choose something good like this.
Buy here: http://wearscience.com/
Love H.P. Lovecraft? Love cool Toys? Then head over to Dreamland Toyworks - they have some nice plastic paypals for you and me.
I think these are fucking brilliant! 
Somehow the design of the 70’s totally eludes me - it’s ugly, it’s unpractical and simply weird. Like these bubble chairs - space age meets Lego?!
I never quiet understood the attitude behind ‘country style’ and reading something like ‘House & Garden’?! Is it an old historical thing to imitate the lifestyle of rich aristocratic bastards? A bedroom like this would give me serious nightmares …
Although this is a very health conscious generation - we are even more addicted to coffee then any generation before us: soda drinks with caffeine, water with caffeine, energizer drinks with caffeine, the normal cokes and Pepsis, latte’s and cappuccinos.
Plus we pour huge amounts of sugar, sweetener and also milk into these drinks (maybe not into a cold coke) - not very healthy either. It’s a mad generation Starbucks and Diet Coke rolled into one big global addiction. You find no country without coffee shops and cooled coke dispensers. There is even a Mecca Cola.
You have to turn to Mecca before you take a sip.
Here are the basics about coffee from Wikipedia:
Coffee is a beverage, usually hot, prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant. These seeds are usually called coffee beans, although they are not technically beans. Coffee is the second most commonly traded commodity in the world, trailing only petroleum. A total of 6.7 million tonnes of coffee were produced annually in 1998-2000, forecast to rise to 7 million tonnes annually by 2010 FAO figures. Coffee is one of humanity’s chief sources of caffeine, a stimulant. Its potential benefits and hazards have been, and continue to be, widely studied and discussed.
The word entered English in 1598 via Italian caffè, via Turkish kahve, from Arabic qahwa. Its ultimate origin is uncertain, there being several legendary accounts of the origin of the drink. One possible origin is the Kaffa region in Ethiopia, where the plant originated (its native name there being bunna). Coffee beans were first exported from Ethiopia to Yemen. One legendary account (though certainly a myth) is that of the Yemenite Sufi mystic named Shaikh ash-Shadhili. When traveling in Ethiopia he observed goats of unusual vitality and, upon trying the berries that the goats had been eating, experienced the same effect. A similar myth ascribes the discovery to an Ethiopian goatherd named Kaldi. Qahwa originally referred to a type of wine, and need not be the name of the Kaffa region.
Consumption of coffee was outlawed in Mecca in 1511 and in Cairo in 1532, but in the face of its immense popularity, the decree was later rescinded. In 1554, the first coffeehouse in Istanbul opened.
Largely through the efforts of the British and Dutch East India companies, coffee became available in Europe no later than the 16th century, according to Leonhard Rauwolf’s 1583 account. The first coffeehouse in England was set up in Oxford by one Jacob or Jacobs, a Turkish Jew, in 1650. The first coffeehouse in London was opened two years later in St. Michael’s Alley in Cornhill. The proprietor was Pasqua Rosée, the Ragusan servant of a trader in Turkish goods named Daniel Edwards, who imported the coffee and assisted Rosée in setting up the establishment. The coffeehouse spread rapidly in Europe and America after that, with first coffeehouses opening in Boston in 1670, and in Paris in 1671. By 1675, there were more than 3,000 coffeehouses in England.
The British actually love coffee as much as tea.
Women were not allowed in coffeehouses, and in London, the anonymous 1674 “Women’s Petition Against Coffee” complained:
“…the Excessive Use of that Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish Liquor called COFFEE […] has […] Eunucht our Husbands, and Crippled our more kind Gallants, that they are become as Impotent, as Age. “
Legend has it that the first coffeehouse opened in Vienna in 1683 after the Battle of Vienna, taking its supplies from the spoils left behind by the defeated Turks. The officer who received the coffee beans, Polish military officer Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki, opened the first coffee house in Vienna and helped popularize the custom of adding sugar and milk to the coffee. Another more credible story is that the first coffeehouses were opened in Krakow in the 16th or 17th century because of closer trade ties with the East, most notably the Turks.
Turks at the Gates of Vienna: We are only here to deliver the coffee!
The first coffee plantation in the New World was established in Brazil in 1727, and this country, like most others cultivating coffee as a commercial commodity, relied heavily on slave labor from Africa for its viability until abolition in 1888. The success of coffee in 17th-century Europe was paralleled with the spread of the habit of tobacco smoking all over the continent during the course of the Thirty Years War (1618– 48).
One brand to rule them all - and with dark brew to bind them …
For many decades in the 19th and early 20th centuries Brazil was the biggest producer and virtual monopolist in the trade, until a policy of maintaining high prices opened opportunities to other growers, like Colombia, Guatemala and Indonesia. The mother plant for much of the arabica coffee in the world is kept in the Amsterdam Hortus Botanicus.
After so many dry facts I need a coffee myself!
Only the best ingredients for your beloved pets. I guess many starving people would kill such a great feast. Many pets in industrial countries are incredibly spoiled.
Hey Al, you have been cheated out of your Presidency - but the rest of the world loves you and appreciates your tireless effort to save humanity. Not many politician are so dedicated and willing to fight again for an important cause after they received a kick in the butt.
Can’t wait to see all the venom and hate you get from the American rightwing for winning the Peace Nobel Price. Peace seems a hard thing to swallow for some people …
More? BBC some early reactions
Compared to most animals we humans have developed a huge variety of jobs. First we started out as simple hunter-gatherers with only a specialization between genders. But as our mental capabilities grew - so did the job market.
Since we are lazy creatures we tried to find methods to make life easier and work less. Technology and machines are the result of this - sadly slavery and feudal systems as well.
Until the industrial revolutions everything was handmade - machines played only a limited role for example in irrigation, mills and building. That all changed with the steam engine.
But in early stages of industrialization life & work was still harsh and deadly.
World War II laid the foundation for a different global economy after colonialism and the coming information age.
Overall work (and life) got a lot easier for most humans. We even invented holidays - a very modern social gimmick that would be astonishing to Egyptian slaves or medieval peasants.
Even more amazing is our range of jobs: some people get huge amounts of money for hitting small balls with sticks, some very few navigate machines thru the sky and some others simply for listening to other people’s problems.
Amazing, don’t you think?