space tourism... and what that means for the rest of us

from 2012 Vertu limited edition phone owners can also travel to the rim of space for a cool 200 000 bucks.
'Space tourists' ,as they are called, can take a Virgin Galactic flight that takes them to a hight of 16 km to look at our good old planet as long as it is still around. However - Geoscientists believe that an estimated
1000 or more flights per year will have a big impact on our climate as small particles - left overs of the huge amount of fuel being burned - will remain in the stratosphere and may even have an impact to the layer of Ozone.
Now - this may seem far fetched, but i'll be mad like crazy to experience more of this super-hot summer days only to have some rich blokes sip champagne in out space. AJ

Nokia- from Vertu to Timbuktoo...

And on the other side of the coin is the Nokia 1100. Great article (URL below) on how most of the world still uses a basic phone, and that users in those parts of the world exist in such furiously enormous numbers that Nokia losing market share in those markets to local players (with low prices and successful bottom up innovation strategies) are of a greater concern to them than their smartphone making inroads with the wealthy human populace. Additonally the writer has an interesting take on what smart phones in these humongous people-packed-economies bursting at the seams with micro-entrepreneurs on BOP budgets but just-in-time assembly+deliverables will need to be about!

http://gizmodo.com/5634258/the-most-popular-phone-in-the-world

Sad achievement for Hong Kong - maybe there's hope yet!

From Springwise...

Though they're all important parts of sustainability, the 3Rs of waste management — reduce, reuse and recycle — are not equally effective. Rather, they're intended as a hierarchy, with the goal of first reducing waste as much as one can, then reusing as much as possible, and then finally recycling at the end of an item's useful life. Aiming to extend the “reuse” stage for more industrial materials, Houston-based RecycleMatch helps companies with unwanted waste find companies that want to reuse it.
Similar in many ways to BoxCycle — which focuses specifically on cardboard boxes — RecycleMatch seeks “to create an industrial ecosystem in which the use of energy and materials are optimized, waste is minimized, and there is an economically viable role for every product of a manufacturing process,” in the site's own words. Toward that end, companies with items to dispose of begin by listing them for free on the site, which will accept almost anything but equipment, trucks, salvage or other capital assets. The listing company's name is kept confidential, but other RecycleMatch participants can see descriptions and photos of the materials in question along with the quantities available and their location. When another company is interested and a match is made, the owner pays RecycleMatch a fee of USD 10 per ton for a period of up to three years plus a one-time match fee of USD 1,500. The buyer, meanwhile, pays a one-time finder's fee of USD 250. Users can also post “wanted” listings on the site for a one-time fee of USD 500.
More than 3 million pounds of waste materials have already been diverted from landfills, RecycleMatch says, with obvious benefits for the environment, the companies involved and any zero-waste goals being pursued. Currently, however, RecycleMatch serves only US users. One to partner with or emulate in your part of the sustainable world...? (Related: Online exchange for builders' surplus goods — Community-focused deconstruction & salvage.)


http://springwise.com/weekly/2010-10-20.htm#recyclematch

more bling for China - the Vertu case

a mobile phone for 5,500 Euros ? And that is the starting price. As Perry Oosting, chief of Nokia's Vertu brand pointed out ' we are not a bling company..' I start to wonder what else that would it be if not bling. Vertu expects a boom on the Mainland (SCMP, Oct. 26) with predicted revenue growth of 50% as they are now looking at tier two cities. Mind you - prices for this phones can go as high as a quarter million Euros for custom made versions with diamonds and all the other spiel. And Mainland Chinese consumers seem to be snapping them up - at least those who can afford to loose such phone in a cab. Is it for the value of design or the design of value ? Hmm.. AJ

sad achievement for Hong Kong

Now we know - Hong Kong is the most wasteful place in the world (SCMP, Oct. 26) and it's 7 million people have produced almost 6.5 million tonnes of waste, which is about 921 kg per head. About half of it ends up in landfills, which is why our beloved harbour will look like a drainage channel one day. Who's to blame ? It concerns all of us and should be considered a serious wake-up call. AJ

Color Psycho

It's hard to refute that a blaze of bright colors can blind the eye, leaving us helplessly desirous of possessing multiples of one product whose function remains constant...in clothes and shoes we consume a little less slowly but when the product is for the entire family, well the family can 'share' the experience and own five different colors at one time! M&M lets you possess that delight in one pack since it's cheap and therefore also easy to share. When shared, conversations are still about color...umm, I'll have the red one this time...but Vitamin Water takes this 'color Psycho' to whole new levels. It takes color packaging one step further by representing the core ingredient of the drink through vibrant colors and a strong product naming strategy such as 'Focus', 'Endurance', 'Stress-B', 'Revive' ...thereby addressing the psychology of the user, I mean at this rate an un-savvy consumer will find Vitamin Water to be nature's psychiatrist, addressing their every single mood, about 5 times a day...before work, during, at the gym, after...! PJ

http://www.glaceau.com/

What we eat per year...and what the rest of the world eats...

A nice ethnography of what people eat around the world...see URL below...
http://www.humanespot.org/content/what-world-eats-one-week