It’s a titanium jewel that Occidentals can wear in order to assume the more obvious oriental somatic features, showing off fascinating almond-shaped eyes. It’s also an instrument of visual correction that offers westerners the possibility to look at the world with Chinese eyes, helping them to face… a probably New World Order.

Carrot-mob is a Web 2.0-empowered, open community that promotes social responsibility in a simple, clever fun way. Initiated in California they invite company’s of all kinds – though the most illustrative examples come from retail shops – to behave more social responsible and environmental friendly. The process is guided by the Carrot-mob coaches. If things have worked out fine as a rewards – the carrot – www.carrotmob.org invited all their members to go shopping and eating at the now more responsible and environmentally same and sane place.

Google Video is YouTube’s little sister – with a big advantage: it has no limit to its video length (just 10 minutes on YouTube). So on Google Video we find the full length content that YouTube is missing. When looking at the top 50 most viewed videos on Google Video, we find something amazing. The majority of videos are what I call ‘truth videos’. In these videos - mostly made by amateurs or independent filmmakers - a new truth is presented which radically opposes the information provided by our conventional media. The current top three consists of: 1. The Energy Non Crisis (75 min) on the a secret treaty between oil companies and the US government. 2. The Story of Stuff (21 min) exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues.3. Zeitgeist (116 min) sets out three conspiracy theories (on Jesus, 9/11 and the Federal Reserve Bank).
See Zeitgeist the Movie by clicking on ‘Read Why it’s Cool’.

Recent promotional picture for “Medals of Honor” computer game. Scored high at the Cannes commercial communication Festival. The pictured emotions are very real and easy to recognise. Though home coming dad only exists in a computer game. Intriguing if not deeply confusing.

From bicycle racks for motorcycles to intermodal transportation, Americans are discovering how different forms of mobility can be linked without the mediation of the car. Bicycle racks for motorcycles, bike racks for buses or bike hooks installed inside trains are the simple infrastructure that puts the bicycle at the centre of intermodal transportation.

The whole world feels the threat of global pollution. We all are warned. It is cool to strive for a better environment, up to the point where it might get boring the cool. However a kaleidoscope of cool initiatives are finding their ways to broader audiences. Like www.omlet.co.uk which makes home farming cool. Like http://350.org that invites us all to put our shared creativity into keep the amount of C02 under 350ppm. Like the Plastiki Expedition that tries to capture worldwide imagination and concern by building a boat from plastic bottles and recycled materials and drive with it from North America to Australia, visiting an ominous place, The Eastern Garbage Patch. This is a region, six times the size of the United Kingdom, that due to ocean currents has accumulated vast quantities of plastic pollution.
By John Grant

So you walk around in this garage, or in this Osaka shopping mall. And you see these blue or red markings all over the place that at first sight don’t seem to make too much sense. What purpose do they serve? Are they directions? Is there a code? Yes, there is a code. It’s hidden in a point of view. What you see depends on where you are. So suddenly you grasp its meaning and you gradually cruise up the one spot that will give you this great visual kick of catching the perspective of the artist. The Paris based Swiss artist who made it is called Felice Varini
Click on ‘Read Why it’s Cool’ below to see video’s of his art: these are much more illustrating.

Solar powered handbags, purses, briefcases with a thin solar panel incorporated into the outer design so that one can constantly charge ones’s iPod, mobile phone, computer.

It’s not a tree cabin. It’s a luxurious tree house! Like, say, a boat with a sunroof, where one can play and sleep. Or like a walnut in a walnut tree, where a whole family can spend the night. Build in trees in undamaging ways. A full nature promise of adventure for the kids, a retreat for the adults, a romantic hideaway for lovers. Simplicity and luxurious living get more and more together.

Men using cosmetics: we have been here many times before. Especially in Britain, the country that perfected metrosexuality in the glamorous shape of David Beckham. But now the metrosexualisation of masculinity takes its next elegant step. After moisturizers/conditioners/mousse/teeth whitening tooth paste/fake tan/eye gel now comes: Manscara and the Guyliner from Taxi Man Cosmetics.

Barack Obama t-shirts have transcended the traditional promotional item and made their way into popular culture, with dozens of releases from credible street wear designers, including Geoff McFettridge, Ron English, and of course Obey’s Shepard Fairey. There’s an Obamafied Run-DMC logo shirt as well as an LL Cool J-inspired “Obama Said Knock You Out”. Web store Digital Gravel has an expansive Obama series from artists from around the globe.

www.magcloud.com is a platform that enables people to publish their own hardcopy magazines. A person/persons only needs to upload a PDF, and MagCloud takes care of the rest: printing, mailing, subscription management and more. Printing good-old, full-colour, 80lb paper, with saddle-stitched covers, on-demand.

Everything is getting smaller, from homes to cars to technology to packaged goods products to supply chains. In the auto car sector the trend is all about greater fuel efficiency and reduced environmental impact. Which means that smaller cars are starting to rule the world and more models are in the works. Look for packaged goods companies to extend the concentrated detergent concept to other products (like ground coffee), decreasing the weight and bulk of packaging and allowing companies to ship more in each truckload, cutting down on cost, carbon emissions and waste. And while the latest mobile phones seem bigger than their ancestors, they’re actually minuscule relative to their robust computing abilities.

PLASTIC ART AGAINST POLLUTION
This Korean artist turns polluting plastics in thoughtful art. Asia by now is covered with plastic waste. Here the plastics trays used all the time at home or temples for fruits etcetera, are transformed into colourful art objects that looks magical when sunlight shines through. 

Thomas Voorn, a Dutch Renaissance man/artist/designer makes Garment Graffiti. He leaves (his) clothes in public spaces transforming it into remarkable artistic urban signs, robust and fragile at the same time.