Not Intent on Arriving

The World Wide Fund for Nature has developed an ingenious new idea to address the problem of overprinting. A new file format that will not allow you to print.

In their promotional video (see below), WWF makes a pretty powerful case. They argue that with the growing popularity of .pdf documents and the frequency of laptop access, the need to print documents has truly decreased. With regards to the costs to the environment, they suggest that simply PDFing, and not printing, one document could save a tree.

They’ll save you the internal debate about whether you need to print. You can’t do it with the WWF file format! (Take note Middlebury professors).

Easily. Have you ever wondered what happened to such memorable celebrities as Ricki Lake, Huey Lewis (singer), The Rednex (“Cotton Eyed Joe”), Roger Moore (“James Bond”), Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton on “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”), Tonya Harding (Skater known for ordering the beating of Nancy Kerrigan), George Wendt (Norm Peterson on “Cheers”), Right Said Fred (“I’m Too Sexy”), Fabrice Morvan (1/2 of Milli Vanilli), Steve Guttenberg (movie star), Glenn Close (movie star) and MANY others? Well, apparently they’ve all come together to film a promo for an upcoming Norwegian talk show.  You really couldn’t get more random than this crew, if you tried. Oh… and it’s set to “Let it Be” by the Beatles. With a green screen of a tropical beach. You may ask, “why?” Great question.

Two pretty memorable stories came from the Big Apple this weekend alone.

1) Man Saves Fellow Passenger Who Fell Onto the Subway Tracks: Unassuming Carlos Flores was on his way to work over the work when he saw a fellow man fall onto the tracks because of a medical emergency. Flores jumped down below and helped haul the much larger man to safety. What a hero…well until you hear why he decided to save the man. Following the rescue, Flores took that same train to work.

“I was thinking, if he gets hit I can’t go to work. It’s Sunday. I can’t miss out. It’s a time-and-a-half day. Christmas is around the corner. You need these time-and-a-half days”

2. Beauty Queen Wants One Last Moment in the Sun: Well, she was only going to be Miss New York for a couple more days. Davina Reeves decided to make the most of them. At the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the beauty queen decided to jump into Miss USA Rima Fakih’s float uninvited. Wearing her sash and crown, she rode in the parade for several blocks before security ordered her off.

“It’s the biggest parade in the world, and my sister and I were like, ‘Hey, this is my last weekend as Miss New York — let’s go out with a bang.’ At first, it was just fantastic, but then there was this woman who said, ‘Miss New York, I need you to leave. I don’t care how you leave, just go.’ We had a blast. This title is about growing, about being courageous and fearless. That’s what life’s about.”

 

In the recent weeks, socially conscious rap has been in the news.

First, a group of organic farmers took the UK by storm. Yeo Valley popped wheelies on their tractors and laid down mad beats about milking cows. Word.

Now, we have a rap in favor of banning single-use plastic bags made in the USA. Listen up, this message’s important.

I’m waiting for a video about the proposal to ban circumcision in San Francisco.

1) Surprising Places with Wi-Fi: In case you aren’t fortunate enough to take place of Google’s offering of free Wi-Fi on the flights of three airlines for the holiday season, this list from Unplgged suggests some unexpected places to look. Examples: Laundromats and courthouses.

2) First Look Inside the Spider-Man Musical: Vogue offers the first look at the world’s most expensive musical ever— Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark will open in January 2011.

3) Man Afraid For His Life in Africa: Unfortunately, that by itself would not be news. In the past weeks, a newspaper in Uganda published a list of gay men to kill.  This man, however, is targeted for a different reason. His skin color. Salum Khalfan Barwany was elected to parliament in Tanzania. He’s albino.

4) He Doesn’t Waste Time: Lil’ Wayne has been out of jail for less than two weeks, but a track featuring new vocals from the artist has already come out.  Wayne returned to the studio last week (for a 15-hour session) and his record label says they will release a post-prison Wayne track “like tomorrow.”

5) Steve Jobs is Normal: That’s the real news of the day. We learn it after the release of some images from Jobs’ personal home office, which are… surprisingly normal. The other Jobs news of the day. Apple completely overhyped the addition of Beatles songs to iTunes.

6) Amazing Art Project: Courtesy of London. One local photographer chronicles the scenes of 12 murders through ordinary pictures.

7) Also From London: The world’s largest 360 degree view of a city. In huge resolution.