Not content with the future of designer minimal phones, Simon Claessen has mashed up an old landline phone with a mobile phone to create a wireless mobile device. He has hooked up a used Sagem GSM-phone with the old phone’s parts (keypad, bell) and only very few extra electronics are needed to merge the two into a working phone.
An initiative of registered UK charity The Charities Advisory Trust, Peace Oil is an ingenius project that encourages co-operation between communities. Peace Oil is produced in Israel by Jews, Arabs, Druze and Bedouin working together - it can be done! Grown in the foothills of the Carmel Mountains, the olives are pressed within hours of picking, to produce a prize winning extra virgin olive oil. Hopefully with these kinds of projects barriers can be broken down and replaced with understanding and respect. A bottle of the oil costs about 10 Euros. You can order now for Christmas and do your bit for helping support ideas that can help break the mindset needed to bring about peace.
It was on my recent trip to Tokyo that I realised we have been marketed the wrong type of bike to help solve our climate problem. What we need is pedestrian bikes. For many people when they think of riding their bike, it is exercised based - not the ‘I’ll just go for a cruise’ thought. In Tokyo everyone rides bikes to get them around. For this reason the bikes are not your traditional mountain bikes but more of a cruiser - design has not been overlooked. The bikes come in all sorts of cool and wonderful shapes. And as much as many would disagree, I loved not having to wear a helmet. The Hotel Claska, where I was staying, offered a very retro bike made by Yamaha for guests to ride around on. The bikes have asistance from a battery which means that going up hills is easy. I went for a 20km ride and didn’t even work up a sweat.
After a nine hour plane flight I found myself sitting on a tokyo train headed for Shimbashi Station. Absolutely starving and having found out that I definitely would be going to have language barrier problems, all I could think about was getting something to eat. Shimbashi is an area next to the popular shopping mecca Ginza, but nevertheless, an area which does not play home to many foreigner outlets. As I was in Tokyo to explore and discover off the beaten track, it made sense to start somewhere less known. Upon arrival I went for a walk around the area passing endless japanese noodle houses until finally one attracted me. After choosing No. 40 from the picture menu outside, I ventured inside and asked the chef for No. 40. He immediately asked me to leave the restaurant, pointing to the door. Nothing could convince him of letting me order No. 40, so I made my way to the door. Upon leaving he shouted at me, pointing to a machine. As I soon realised, in Japan many noodle houses have vending machine for you to pay. Once you have paid you receive a ticket which you give to the chef for your meal. They were the smoothest silkiest Udon noodles I had ever tasted!
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