Author: ana

about me

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geek links and ideas

SnūzNLūz


snuznluz (to be read “snooze and lose”) is an alarm clock that connects via WiFi to your online bank account, and donates YOUR real money to an organization you HATE when you decide to snooze.

the people at thinkgeek have finally found out a way to make you want to wake up on time. with the snuznluz, everytime you press snooze when the alarm goes off, you donate a minimum of $10 to a charity you hate.

the clock is connected via wifi (or cable) and comes with an embedded configuration browser utility, that lets you set your bank details and to which charity you’d like to donate.

for example they say, if you’re a butcher you might want to donate to PETA, and vice-versa.

i’m more of a morning person, so snoozing doesn’t happen all that often… but how efficient would this be to you?

seen on bb-blog. shame on me that i’m so late on this april fool’s joke… but it would be such a great item! :)

Categories
in china just life links and ideas postcards postcrossing

our own little ikea hack

a few months ago, at ikea, we noticed this pot lid holder. we don’t have a lot of pots and less pot lids even, but we purchased it anyway. guess what we use it for… postcards, of course!!

postcards stand 3

it’s isn’t exactly an ikea “hack”, but it fits our needs well. also, the higher racks are smaller and the lower ones are larger, which comes in quite handy for those big sized ones.

we don’t like the idea of “storing” postcards away, once received. they make us happy, so we want to look at them! :)

more pictures, on flickr (click for larger):

postcards stand 2     postcards stand 1

Categories
in china

on beijing air pollution, 2 weeks ago


“Beijingers were warned to stay indoors on Thursday as pollution levels across the capital hit the top of the scale, despite repeated assurances by the government that air quality was improving.
“This is as bad as it can get,” a spokeswoman for the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau told AFP.

“Level five is the worst level of air pollution. This is as bad as it has been all year.”

According to the bureau’s website, 15 out of the 16 pollution monitoring stations in urban Beijing registered a “five” for air quality rating.

The main pollutant was suspended particulate matter, which is usually attributed to coal burning and automotive exhaust.

“Old people and young children should reduce outdoor activities and protect their health,” the spokeswoman said.

The Beijing Evening News warned residents not to do their morning exercises on Friday as pollution levels were likely to linger over the capital until a cold front moved in and blew some of the bad air away later in the day.

A lack of wind in the capital over recent days has led to a heavy cover of smog trapping in the pollutants, the paper said.
By nightfall, the pollution was still horrendously thick.

Beijing’s air quality is routinely rated among the worst in the world by international agencies such as the United Nations and the World Bank, with rampant coal burning, regular dust storms and a growing number of cars cited as the main reasons.

The head of the government’s information office, Cai Wu, told reporters on Thursday that Beijing’s environment was improving and they should have “full confidence” that the Olympics would be pollution free. ”

hard to believe, mr. wu… !

(from physorg.com, image by princess pie on flickr – the image is from february 2007.)

Categories
geek

poor postman pat!

did you know the most common name for a city in the world is “oktjabrskij”? or that there are 11 cities named “springfield” in the usa, and another 11 named “clinton”? :)

here’s a ranking of the top-20 most frequent names of cities, freshly squeezed from postcrossing‘s database (might not be totally accurate):

City name      Country     Total of cities    
Oktjabrskij Russia 23
Springfield USA 11
Clinton USA 11
Pervomajskij Russia 11
Neustadt Germany 9
Madison USA 8
Hidalgo Mexico 8
Komsomolskij Russia 8
Washington USA 8
Lebanon USA 8
Shāhpur India 8
Dmytrivka Ukraine 7
Kamenka Russia 7
Auburn USA 7
Burlington USA 7
Greenville USA 7
Viişoara Romania 7
Áyios Dimítrios Greece 7
Troickoje Russia 7
Farmington USA 7

impressive redundancy if you ask me, but then again, except maybe a couple of countries, all the others on this list are pretty big… perhaps they just ran out of imagination?

anyway, there you go: one more reason never to forget the zip code! 8-)

Categories
links and ideas photography

terrazo: views of mexico city

terrazo: views of mexico city is a photo exhibition by pablo lopez that was until recently on sasha wolf gallery, ny.

some samples of the photos are up on the exhibition website, and what a sight they are. the city seems to run immense through hills and valleys, evergrowing and yet strangely quiet and still, in the distance of these images.

via notcot, a long time ago.