Viands rescued by Berlin Restaurant

13.06.2016

„Hunger is one of the world’s most urgent development challenges. One third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally“, says FAO, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Half of what is being wasted alone could feed the entire world. While the privileged drown in affluence, about one billion people are going hungry. Food waste simultaneously means squandering of land, energy, water and natural resources in general and renders the increased level of emission it creates even more paradox. Costs associated with the 88 million tonnes of food waste caused yearly within the EU is estimated at more than 143 billion euros. Food waste does represent a serious environmental and economic issue, but more than anything else it is an ethical one!

A group of young people in Berlin have made it their mission to contribute to reduction of food wasted thoughtlessly. In May, 2016 they opened Restlos Glücklich, Germany’s first restaurant predominantly utilising food surplus which might otherwise be destined for the bin. The team cooperates with providers who follow the same creed and who have become reliable partners of a number of charitable initiatives.

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TED Talk. Tristram Stuart: The global food waste scandal

8.06.2016

Most rich countries produce three to four times the amount of food needed to feed their own population – and almost half of the produce is being discarded before it even reaches the consumer. Not mainly because it’s expired and has become inedible, but often solely for cosmetic reasons. „What we see is only the tip of the iceberg. Food waste is happening on a gargantuan scale“, says Tristram Stuart, activist and strong advocate against global food waste. By 2050, Earth will be inhabited by around nine billion people who expect to be fed. This talk helps understand the implications of food waste and how urgent immediate action is.

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The Princess and the Pea

Higher and higher: The Box Spring Hype

13.05.2016

One wonders why things already bulging at the seams have to be inflated out of proportion until – worst case and poof! – they are blown to bits. Take FIFA. Poof! Or the stock market. Or diligent kids having to excel on an ever wider field until poof! their attitude-refusal-button is activated and stays triggered seemingly forever. Take parts of the body high and low – enlarged to gigantic enormity until, oops, poof! and ouch! … And – greetings from the Princess and the Pea in Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy-tale – take the fashionable box spring bed with mattress over mattress forming layer over adventurous layer. Aerial ladders will soon have to be employed to conquer the silly tiered pile and safety nets mounted for the restless sleeper. If it makes poof! then, there won’t be much space left for the debris to disperse. Just beware of the springs!

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Pretty fish in orange and yellow: A coral reef inside the George Aquarium in Atlanta.

The Georgia Aquarium: Pause with Jaws

5.05.2016

Swimming against the tide can be a tiring affair, even if only meant as a literal term. When on the look-out for extraordinary venues for discerning business or private functions, the variety on the locations platter has grown so rich that the final decision often represents more of a helpless surrender than that of earnest determination. Opting for something lying completely off the beaten track narrows down the confusing kaleidoscope of choices considerably and ideally alleviates avoidable worries. Ever thought of going aquatic big style? If so, aquariums may be the trump up your sleeve.

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Al Gore's TED Talk on Climate Change

TED Talk. Al Gore: The case for optimism on climate change

17.03.2016

Former US Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore presents drastic examples on how man-made forces are gradually destroying our planet. „After World War II, the emission rates started really accelerating. And the accumulated amount of man-made, global warming pollution that is up in the atmosphere now traps as much extra heat energy as would be released by 400,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs exploding every 24 hours, 365 days a year – a fact-checked over and over again.“

Still Al Gore is optimistic that climate change can be tackled. But how?

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