PSFK Author:
Kristin Gorski

ELLE’s second annual "Green Issue" is out now, and it strongly makes the case that green is the new black. The entire issue covers subjects related to the environment. Its guest editors are Laurie David (global warming activist, producer of "An Inconvenient Truth", and "Stop Global Warming Virtual March" founder) and Danny Seo (author of the "Simply Green" book series and eco-stylist to Hollywood). Also, ELLE’s May 2007 issue is printed entirely on recycled paper (Aveeno is underwriting the cost of this).

In addition to environmentally themed articles featuring Julia Roberts, Sheryl Crow and Orlando Bloom, there’s an exclusive look at Stella McCartney’s new fashion line (entirely organic). ELLE’s 2007 Green Awards recipients are also highlighted. Winners include the already famous and the soon-to-be of the growing eco movement. A few of them are:

- Daniel Gold and Judith Helfand, directors of "Everything’s Cool", described as a "toxic comedy about global warming coming to America"
- the SOS/Live Earth Concerts, which will present environmental-awareness rock-outs on all seven continents this year
- Paul Rice, CEO of TransFair USA, who convinced Starbucks to start importing fair-trade coffee
- Laura Ziskin, who got the 2007 Academy Awards to go green
and
- the CF (compact fluorescent) bulb: "Order 10 and save the world!"

If ELLE’s current issue is any indication, and we believe it is, we’ll be seeing a lot more green for the rest of 2007 and beyond. The eco movement continues to go strongly mainstream.

Avatars are no longer known only for being the virtual toys of hard-core online gamers. The word "avatar" is losing its exotic, tech-geek luster in part because of a growing acceptance of "life" taking place on the Web. With so many people and businesses participating in avatar-related sites and activities like Second Life and World of Warcraft, and with more just around the corner, the avatar population could soon explode dramatically.

New technologies could further encourage avatar growth. From the Christian Science Monitor article "Is this the age of the online avatar?":

…On March 7, Linden Labs, the California firm whose massive servers have hosted Second Life for three years, announced the beta testing of an integrated voice function that could substitute, as desired, for typed exchanges that appear on screen.

"We know where other [avatars] are in your audible range," says Joe Miller, a Linden vice president. New software mimics the human ear so that voices come from "wherever they are."

That move and others go toward creating what Mr. Miller calls a "persistent space." He predicts a near future in which far-flung family members circle a virtual campfire, in photo-realistic avatar form, on a regular basis.

As more people accept avatar worlds into their lives, marketers will have new venues for reaching them:

…Businesses both real and virtual thrive in-world. Reuters recently established a Second Life news bureau. Presidential candidates have built campaign headquarters. Major League Baseball has a presence. Some 70 colleges and universities, including Harvard, now teach classes inside Second Life.

There are still obstacles, however, to virtual worlds becoming the place we’d rather live instead of out here with the flesh-and-blood and brick-and-mortar:

…"Fantasy playgrounds actually don’t work particularly well as social networks," says Danah Boyd, a doctoral candidate at Berkeley and fellow at USC’s Annenberg Center who was dubbed the "high priestess of Internet friendship" last year by the Financial Times.

Yet a new level of avatar fascination may just be beginning. The artistic duo Eva and Franco Mattes (a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG) has created an online show titled "13 Most Beautiful Avatars". (Two of their images are above.) In doing so, they have created the ultimate beautiful "people."

Or have they? As the real/virtual line continues to blur, what’s next? With the growing acceptance and creation of avatars and their realms, could avatar brands, celebrities, and a unique avatar culture be so far behind?

How will all of this play out as what and who we create online influences how we live in "real life"?

"Is this the age of the online avatar? As Internet communities grow, virtual alter-egos are becoming mainstream." from the Christian Science Monitor

13 Most Beautiful Avatars by Eva and Franco Mattes (a.k.a. 0100101110101101.ORG)

found via NOTCOT

Experienced underground foodies — and those of us wannabes — will soon have a new opportunity for culinary fantasies to leave the virtual and become real. It seems in all creative genres, including cuisine and craft, people are reaching across traditional boundaries via technology to connect, create and push the limits of common experience.

Curious Fork/Furious Cork: the alternative wining and dining network features a pre-launch website which promises much and asks for your name, email and optional comments in return:

Coming Soon! The Curious Fork network. Sign up to be a part of the wildest thing to hit the culinary world.

The Curious Fork is a space where the hungry, the hospitable and the talented connect to create delicious community dining experiences.

Join others in your area, share ideas with foodies from all over the world and document your journey.

Do you offer a creative culinary experience?

Are you interested in alternative dining projects in your area?

Found at the (luscious) Tastespotting.

Shutdown Day, scheduled for 24 March, could have interesting repercussions worldwide if many people indeed keep their computers off for a 24-hour period. From ShutdownDay.org:

Be a part of one of the biggest global experiments ever to take place on the Internet. The idea behind the experiment is to find out how many people can go without a computer for one whole day, and what will happen if we all participate!

A few scenarios come to mind. Emails will go unanswered, and blogs will not be updated. During lunch breaks, people might talk to their co-workers and go for walks outside. One might even buy a newspaper to catch up on the latest.

At home, computer games will wonder what they’ve done to cause their players to ignore them so completely. The echoes of IM bleeps and pings will temporarily cease.

But the underlying questions beneath Shutdown Day are: Are we so addicted and dependent on our computers that we cannot go without them even for a day? How do we relate to the world when computers are not the biggest blips on our radar screens?

On the Shutdown Day site, the running tally is 12,292 boldly claiming that yes, they can go without computers, while 1,187 have admitted they cannot (as of February 22nd). Is this nay-saying minority pessimistic or just realistic?

The site also has a Google Map featuring participants from all over the world and their predictions on how they’ll fare that day. A running comment thread on the homepage and three YouTube videos about the day add to this site’s entertainment and conversational value. Aiming for global reach, ShutdownDay.org has been translated into seven languages. (Update, 25 February — Make that eight languages — Italian has recently been added.)

Found via NOTCOT.

Imagine walking into a home decor and carpeting store, finding that parts of it have been converted into a spa which offers Ayurvedic massages and beauty treatments, and a theater which offers rich cultural experiences.

For one month starting February 16th, ABC Carpet & Home’s New York City location will feature “Gateway to India,” a “journey exploring the essence of the spirit, culture, color and artistry of India,” states the ABC Carpet & Home website. It “grew out of ABC Chief Executive Paulette
Cole’s interest in Eastern religions, Crain’s New York Business
reports” according to an article from United Press International.

The ABC Om Mind, Body & Spa will feature treatments and "…healing therapists from the Chopra Center and Spa." Experts like Dr. Deepak Chopra, Sharon Gannon of Jivamukti Yoga, Krishna Das, and Simran Sethi of Treehugger TV will be presenting throughout the month on topics such as yoga, meditation, green design, wildlife conservation, Bollywood, artisan demonstrations, politics, film and music.

The art project You Are Beautiful
aims to "make a difference in the world by catching us in the midst of
daily life and creating moments of positive self realization."

Its
idea is simple: post the phrase "You are beautiful" in random places
where anyone can see them. This has inspired people throughout the
world to create installations along roadways or plaster signs in
windows.

"You are beautiful" stickers are another primary way to
spread this message. Stickers can be ordered directly from the "YAB"
site (send a self-addressed stamped envelope and check the site for
postal rates) or can be printed on label sheets using the sticker PDF available for download
from the site.

An excerpt from the site’s essay explains why trends toward empowering people through grassroots methods continue to grow:

The
reasons why street artists are doing what they are doing, in the way
that they are doing, is not simply to question their surroundings; but
to provide alternative perspectives, meanings, or values to those of
consumerism.

Advertising
elicits a response to buy, where this project elicits a response to do
something. The attempt with You Are Beautiful is to create activism
instead of consumerism.

You Are Beautiful uses the medium of advertising and commercialization to spread a positive message. 

View some of their installations here.

You Are Beautiful