‘Satomi Kobayashi and Mikako Ichikawa nosh down on fresh lobster in Naoko Ogigami’s new film, “Glasses.”‘

The Moment, The Post-Materialist | Japanese Food Porn:

“(…) eating and sleeping are their reason for living. If sex is curiously absent, it’s because the eating is sex.”

The Independent, YAWN: The new yuppies: They’re back – and this time they’re green. (more):

“They brag about their wind turbines rather than their wads, and they’re more likely to wear recycled trainers than red braces. But be in no doubt – they’re still loaded.”

IHT, Voluntary simplicity movement re-emerges:

“Modern “downshifters” are chasing a utopian vision of a self-sustaining life as partisans of a movement some call voluntary simplicity.”

Chris Jordan – Plastic Bottles, 2007. 60×120″. Depicts two million plastic beverage bottles, the number used in the US every five minutes. Detail at actual size.

“Possessing an excessive carbon footprint is rapidly becoming the modern equivalent of wearing a scarlet letter. Because neither the goals nor acceptable emissions limits are clear, however, morality is often mistaken for science. A recent article in New Scientist suggested that the biggest problem arising from the epidemic of obesity is the additional carbon burden that fat people—who tend to eat a lot of meat and travel mostly in cars—place on the environment. Australia briefly debated imposing a carbon tax on families with more than two children; the environmental benefits of abortion have been discussed widely (and simplistically). Bishops of the Church of England have just launched a “carbon fast,” suggesting that during Lent parishioners, rather than giving up chocolate, forgo carbon. (Britons generate an average of a little less than ten tons of carbon per person each year; in the United States, the number is about twice that.)”

London, UK.

NY Times, Motivated by a Tax, Irish Spurn Plastic Bags:

“There is something missing from this otherwise typical bustling cityscape. There are taxis and buses. There are hip bars and pollution. Every other person is talking into a cellphone. But there are no plastic shopping bags, the ubiquitous symbol of urban life.

In 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them must now pay 33 cents per bag at the register. There was an advertising awareness campaign. And then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts.

Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable — on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one’s dog.”

De brug over de Schinkel in Amsterdam sinds gisternacht. Maker onbekend.

“If the water reached

this

level we would
not need the bridge.
Drive on, maybe we
will achieve this!”

(Foto via Wooster.)