Corruption leads to poverty

The map above shows the corruption index of countries around the world… red is bad, white is good and Australia is a faint pink. Notice how all the countries in red are the poorest?

Here I was blaming factors like natural resources, climate, lack of education etc as factors that kept countries in poverty… but it seems that the more corrupt a country is, the poorer the people. I’d like to say more but I have a march to attend, dreadlocks to grow and a flag to burn so in the meantime you can learn more about how to fight corruption here.

small scale food scenes

It’s amazing what some time on your hands and a macro lens can create. Found this neat blot about architecture which also has some amazing photos of miniature figurines doing things to food… quite fascinating.
BLDGBLOG: Foodscaping

Cooking for engineers

When designing a cookbook or a recipe for the cooking school we want the ingredients and method to be as easy to understand as possible… and that takes time and page space. I should have known that an engineer could turn ingredients and instructions into something incredibly elegant… in fact the guy behind Cooking For Engineers has a patent pending on his innovative way of formatting recipes.

While the recipes on his site aren’t exactly 5 star, there’s some neat stuff in there. Check out his recipes at: Cooking For Engineers

Soya sauce super hero fights foreign condiments

This is just so cool. Kikkomaso make soya sauce and have created this dumb animation and song showing their super hero/masocot fighting foreign condiments. I just love it and shows that advertising doesn’t have to be slick and glossy… and can contain some bad language- you’ve been warned.
Fight ! Kikkoman

Godzilla Eggs

Here’s a great way to sell fruit to kids… repackage it and call it something cool. Check out this japanese site for more cool ways that fruit vendors sell watermelons.

Jamie Oliver email is a hoax … or … a clever way to sell new book

This email hoax from about two years ago is doing the rounds again and has just arrived in my inbox. It reads:

Cook book = $50
Ingredients = $25
Getting sacked for “accidentally” releasing the new Jamie Oliver cook book to the entire planet before it even hits the shelves = PRICELESS!

The story is that someone at Jamie Olivers publishing Company sent a word document version of his 2nd book to one of their mates this morning and it’s now zooming around the internet – again.

It turns out that this email and the attached word file is a fake… true it does have real recipes in it and food photos but some further investigating showed that the recipes weren’t that new and Jamie’s lawyers were on the case trying to track down the originator of the email.

But what a fantastic way to MARKET a new cook book (Penguin says Jamie didn’t have a new book due for release btw)… spread a fake copy, generating a huge amount of interest and then deny it to the public but point out that the REAL cookbook is on the way. Hmmm … we have the new Spirit House music CD about to be released … might have to call the marketing people.

Read more about the Jamie Oliver email is a hoax.

One thing I have to say to Mr Oliver… “Dude, your Thai chicken curry recipe sucks! No fish sauce, palm sugar, shrimp paste – and virgin olive oil? – what are you thinking?”.

Land mines or Life Straws?

The situation in New Orleans has us thinking. People are suffering because they don’t have water to drink. Yet they are surrounded by water and for $2 an ingenious invention called the ‘lifestraw’ could be given to the people thus eliminating dehydration and water born diseas. This incredible device filters and purifies water as you suck water through the straw.. it removes all sorts of bacteria and waterborn pathogens etc. What’s more it can filter around 700 litres of water… which is enough water for someone to live on for a year! The lifestraw was invented in Denmark to help the millions of poor people who die of water born diseases each year. What amazes me is that a landmine costs around a few dollars (the USA is the largest produces of land mines) and there seems to be no problem distributing those to the poor countries/people of the world. I just wish you could buy lifestraws in the hundreds and donate them to communities… find out more from the Life Straw website

Customise your own beer

Is the Spirit House brewing it’s own beer?

Here’s a great idea just in time for Christmas and summer too. An Australian company called brewtopia are a boutique beer brewery and have created a fantastic online application that allows you to create your own beer labels so you can customise your own beer. They will brew your beer, stick on your labels and deliver it to your door. Check there website out to

customise your own beer.

Optical Illusions and Visual Phenomena

Stare at the cross in the middle of the image above and the dots will disappear – how cool is that?
Here’s a great site full or more Optical Illusions and Visual Phenomena.
viaboingboing

Killer Crochet

Wouldn’t you love a cool Grandmother who could crochet you cool stuffed toys like the bunny being impaled on his carrot above?

Patricia Waller would have to be the coolest crocheter on the planet. Check out her gallery of uniquely grotesque crochet work.