Thriving too

Every Product Has a Backstory

The video below is a really good interview with Daniel Goleman and Bill Moyers about Goleman's book Ecological Intelligence. The book looks at a variety of new ways of gathering information about products that we use. The book was listed by Time Magazine in March 2009 as one of the ' 10 ideas changing the world right now'. 

The concepts help us go a little deeper into green consumerism. I have just downloaded the iphone application from Good Guide which lists 65,000 products based on their ecological assessment - lots of familiar products rated, but think there is a US focus.  This application even has the ability to process a photo of a bar code and give you a rating.

There are many examples cited in the interview and in the book, but one which seemed particularly striking was that some sunscreens contain chemicals that when washed off in the sea, encourage the growth of some algae which are detrimental to coral reefs.... and that literally thousands of tons of this chemical are estimated to be washed into the sea every year.  As far as being a responsible consumer goes, it seems that a lot of knowledge could take us a long way.

Also interesting in the interview was discussion about how companies will be forced into this type of 'radical transparency' and that social media such as twitter will be carriers and spreaders of information on good and bad about products - you can follow Good Guide on Twitter!

Happy Christmas!

 

Nurturing Relationships

 There is a very insightful article in the Guardian about how important Christmas is for nurturing our relationships with friends and family. Using some data from the new report by the Young Foundation Sinking and swimming: understanding Britain's unmet needs, the article points to the increase in anxiety and depression and how important a renewed sense of connection is at Christmas "Between 1991 and 2007 prescriptions for antidepressants more than trebled. Anxiety and depression are set to double in a generation."

"Both Labour and the Conservatives have already begun to position themselves as the party of the family, but the debate so far has been dominated by ugly jousting over the importance of marriage. This is a dangerous impoverishment of a crucial debate. Contrary to the politicians' rhetoric, the structure of the family is far less important than the quality of its relationships, as a recent Gingerbread report demonstrates. We also need to affirm the importance of all relationships, not just marriage. As society ages, the relationships between young and old will become all the more important. And the importance of relationships goes beyond the intimacies of home, into the public realm."

[Pic: Thank you ribbon from palomasnest]

RSA's Christmas Card

   

Cardboard horses

I love these carboard horses created by Brooklyn arist Ann Wood. Ann cretaes the most wonderful designs, but even better, she sometimes shares her skills with readers of her blog. She mainly works with vintage or salvaged materials and her creations often feature in magazines such as Martha Stewart. Not only is her blog full of inspiration, such as the beautiful birds and gift tags she has designed for Christmas, the comments are worth reading too as an example of a wonderfully open and generous online community - A bit like Thriving Too in fact. Please go ad take a look at Ann's creations and be inspired. It's been a pleasure to contribute here over the past few months and I hope you all have a Happy Christmas.

Direct Descendant

 

London-based architects DSDHA has created this installation in York’s Exhibition Square from 1,000 orange boxes.

Is this a direct descendant of this wonderful project in Castleford?  The Cratehouse in Castleford, Yorkshire, was named one of the top ten works of public art in the U.K last year.

Created by German artists Wolfgang Winter and Berthold Hörbelt, it's made out of hundreds of bottle crates perched on a shipping container.

Via: David Barrie

 

Snook Launches

I am really excited by Snook! It is a new partnership between designers Lauren Currie (who blogs here) and Sarah Drummond. There are going to be some special ideas and projects emerging....

"The idea is to make it easy for people to think differently and work together. And to make it fun and worthwhile too. We want people to think of Snook as an alternative route to their future; like a new way of looking at your every day life, but with the glass always half full."

Back To The Land

Wonderful photo essays from Maira Kalman's 'Back to the Land'

 
 

Beautiful Book Jackets

  

I have a thing for Kraft paper and all things brown at the moment and have just bought some notebooks from Paperchase for the Christmas break... so delighted to see these beautiful book covers by Book City Jackets.

Via: Black Eiffel

If You Could Collaborate

 The If You Could Collaborate exhibition will feature the artwork produced by all 33 pairings at the A Foundation Gallery, Rochelle School in London. The contributors have been challenged to produce something a little unexpected, by working with a partner of their choosing from any discipline, profession or background. 

15 — 24 January 2010, 12–6pm
(open late on 21 January, 12–9pm)
A Foundation Gallery at Rochelle School, London E2 7ES.

 

Big Picture Inspiration on How They Design Their *Amazing* Schools

How Unemployment Hurts us All

 
 In an article in USA Today, Thomas Sander and Robert Putnam have been highlighting some of the important key findings of new research, published by Chaeyoon Lim of the University of Wisconsin and others, into the effects of unemployment.

The findings include:

+ Unemployment badly frays a person's ties with his community, sometimes permanently.

+ Unemployed Americans are significantly less involved in their communities than their employed demographic twins.

+ The jobless are less likely to vote, petition, march, write letters to editors, or even volunteer. 

+ They attend fewer meetings and serve less frequently as leaders in local organizations.

+ Sociologist Cristobal Young's research finds that the unemployed spend most of their increased free time alone.

+ High unemployment rates reduce the social and civic involvement even of those still employed.

+ Americans with jobs who live in states with high unemployment are less civically engaged than workers elsewhere. In fact, most of the civic decay in hard-hit communities is likely due not to the jobless dropping out, but to their still-employed neighbors dropping out.

+ Beyond civic disengagement, places with higher joblessness have more pervasive violence and crimes against property.

+ They have more fragile families with harsher parenting, and higher rates of mental disorder and psychological distress among both the unemployed and the employed. 

+ The jobless shun socializing, shamed that their work was deemed expendable. Economic depression breeds psychological depression. 

+ Above all, in afflicted communities, the contagion of psychic depression and social isolation spreads more rapidly than joblessness itself.

With unemployment in the US just toping 10% for the first time in a quarter century these findings are serious.

My life is fueled by relationships based on trust

Andrew Zuckerman is one of my favourite artists.  His latest piece on Trust is on the Anthropologist site. His book Wisdom is a treasure.

 I trust my elders. I trust the Ladd Brothers. I trust my Italian grocer. I trust my tailor. I trust Locanda Vini e Olii. I trust Claire Oswalt. I trust Chiara Clemente. I trust my butcher. I trust Bill Withers. I trust short film. I trust my jewelers. I trust my architect.

My life is fueled by relationships based on trust. I need to trust the work that I make, the space I inhabit, the food I eat, the clothing I wear, the art I experience, and most importantly my collaborators in these pursuits.

Trust has never been a more valuable commodity than it is today. As transparency becomes pervasive in our lives, we are growing more and more accustomed to requiring a level of integrity and strength in our partners and what we endorse.

10 Best Jobs for Over-Forty Women

 

More Magazine conducted a survey to ask women what they wanted from their jobs. They wanted autonomy and meaning.

"In a nationwide survey, we asked midlife women to define the most important elements of a great job. In addition to a good salary and benefits, you told us you want a profession with a bright future, a high level of control and a flexible schedule." 

No1 - Community  Service Manager

No 2 - Personal Financial Advisor

No 3 - Environmental Scientist

No 4 -  Registered Nurse

No 5 - Computer Systems Manager

A Place For Change

Promotional piece designed and written for Martha's Place, a women's drug rehab center in west Baltimore. 

Teachers

Via: Bunchberry and Fern Via: Roberto Greco Via: David Barrie

Going Outside and Doing Stuff is Good for Learning

Institute for Applied Aesthetics has just produced a new Research Brief entitled Going Outside and Doing Stuff is Good for Learning.  I love it!

  

Hopenhagen

 We blogged about Hopenhagen in June. Their site now has nearly 450,000 sign ups. COP15 starts in a couple of days... Fingers crossed!

Phone Box Library

 When the mobile library stopped visiting, it was a blow for the villagers of Westbury-sub-Mendip. And when they found out they could lose their beloved red phone box, there was something of an outcry.

Happily a bright spark in the Somerset village (population 800) hatched a clever plan to tackle both difficulties. Why not buy the phone box and use it to set up a mini-library?

 The small but perfectly formed Westbury book box is doing a brisk trade. Adults were bringing in thrillers, romances and true-crime books, leaving them on the four wooden shelves and choosing another to take home. 

Making Openness Work

 
 

The 'Open100' competition is a celebration of the power of openness and mass collaboration. You can be part of the competition by nominating the company you think is the best open innovator. The competition will be open until 12^th February while the winners will be announced on 24^thFebruary. The winners are those who will be included in the list of the world's top 100 open companies.

The 'Open100' is brought to you by 100% Open and powered by the UK's National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA).

Don't Stop Me Now

A documentary film by Kaspar Astrup Schroder about movement in urban space. Via: Roberto Greco

David Bailey: Portraits of The Artists

 

David Bailey's portrait of Andy Warhole, from his new book Eye.  For more artist portraits click on the slide show on Times Online.

Ommwriter

Try this new writing environment software in beta.

This Emotional Life

 
 This Emotional Life is  a three-part series that explores improving our social relationships, learning to cope with depression and anxiety, and becoming more positive, resilient individuals.

Harvard psychologist and best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness, Professor Daniel Gilbert, talks with experts about the latest science on what makes us “tick” and how we can find support for the emotional issues we all face.

Premiering on PBS on January 4th 2010. Looks brilliant!

Their website also has some really interesting blogs.

(My) Police

 
 Keeping an eye on the fantastic progress being made by MyPolice. 

MyPolice is an online feedback tool that enables the public and the police to have a conversation. It fosters constructive, collaborative communication between people and the Police forces which serve them.

MyPolice helps communities identify weaknesses and opportunities in Police services. In providing analysis and data for the Police to act on, MyPolice challenges policy decisions that are made and ensuring that service users have an active part in changing the Police for the better.