BP Makes a Mess

I don’t usually post funny videos on here but today I’m going to make an exception. You will all have seen the mass coverage of the BP oil disaster in the gulf of Mexico, and you still haven’t seen it be solved. BP are directly responsible for those who lost their lives when the rig exploded and for the Environmental impact the oil leak has already and continues to cause in the area.

Their efforts to solve the problem have been as ridiculous as the methods in this video to clean up spilt coffee.

Climate Change Sculpture Sinks

In March Dutch sculptor Ap Verheggen constructed a statue on a large iceberg near Greenland to highlight the impacts of climate change. The hope was that the iceberg would drift down the Davis Strait to Newfoundland and Labrador, and it was expected to melt off the shores of Newfoundland for a period of two to four years.

But the effects of climate change on the iceberg were much quicker than expected. The iceberg has already broken apart and the statue has fallen into the sea. It has been spotted about 500 meters below sea level off the coast of Greenland.

The iceberg broke loose and began its journey from the island of Uummannaq in May. The GPS signals set up on the statue to track the iceberg’s progress disappeared Thursday. “The sea doesn’t freeze. People can’t trust nature anymore. As an artist, I see it as a sort of mission to make people aware of what’s happening over here.”

You can see the whole story of the iceberg’s short lived journey on the coolemotion blog

Car Sharing to Rival Car Hire

According to Scott Griffith, chief executive officer of Zip Car Inc “Car hire is so last-century.” Zip Car are perhaps the leaders in a new wave of ‘Car Sharing’ companies that take a different approach to car hire.

Car sharing is not a new idea. The concept had some success in the 80’s in built up cities in Switzerland, Sweden, Canada & America. What makes this idea different from car hire, is that instead of picking up and dropping off cars at the companies parking lots, you can drop them off anywhere, leaving them for the next person to pick up. You can pay a monthly fee to have access to the fleet of cars and use them whenever you like. You simply search online to find the nearest car too you, and use your card to access it, then just park it up anywhere when you are done.

It is more recent developments in technology, such as online booking, electronic locks and low-emission vehicles that has sent the business model into new highs. Zip Car confirmed this week that the 400,000 member car share operation has formally begun the process of going public. Shares of the rapidly growing company expected to go on sale later this year in a $70-million initial public offering.

In April the Wall Street Journal declared car-sharing to be “a hot area of the otherwise slow growth global car hire industry.” One market research report even predicted that European car share networks could have 5.5 million members by 2016.

What Motivates You?

This video makes me happy. It talks about a study on how to motivate employees at work and what does and doesn’t work. It turns out big money bonus’ don’t help productivity for anything other than manual labour. In fact for important jobs in the economy it is thought to have a negative impact.

It has also resorted my faith in people a little bit, by discovering that most of us really are motivated by good things like mastery and purpose. Well worth a watch, especially if you are in management.

Sofa Savings

How often do you lose something down the back of your sofas and end up finding some cash instead of what you were actually searching for? If you are strapped for cash and your sofas are not as comfortable as you remember, you might want to stand up and look down the cracks in your sofas now and find a hidden fortune.

A new study has revealed that more than £57 Million is lost down the back of sofas in Britain every year. People individually on average lose £1.43 in lose change each year in things like furniture and old wallets.

“It’s astounding when you think about how much money is potentially waiting to be found. People take out loans and get credit cards every day, but perhaps they should start looking down the back of their sofa, in old coat pockets and under the bed for a bit of extra cash.”

That is such a massive sum of money, way more than we ever raise together for things like comic relief or children in need. It just goes to show the awesome power we could have if we all gave a little effort into one united goal. I wonder if we all looked down the back of our sofa and gave the discovered money we found to charity, if it would really come to £50 Million. Just imagine the difference that could make to peoples lives.

Worlds Best Cities to Live

A new study released by Mercer into quality of life in cities around the world has revealed the top 50 places to live. The study assesses 221 of the worlds major cities, using factors such as crime, political stability, hospitals, transport, food and drink, leisure, climate and personal freedom to calculate the overall quality of life for those living in each city.

The Winner? According to the survey, Vienna in Austria is the best city in the world to live in with the highest quality of life, for the second year in a row. European cities dominate the top 30, with Zurich & Geneva of Switzerland scoring second and third respectively. Vancouver in Canada and Auckland in New Zealand are tied at fourth place, with German Cities Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich completing the top 8.

Other rankings include Sydney Australia at number 10, Copenhagen in Denmark at 11 and Amsterdam in the Netherlands at 13 (take that Bill O’Reilly you massive idiot). Canada scores well above the USA with Vancouver at 4th, Ottawa at 14th, Toronto at 16th, Montreal at 21st and Calgary at 28th.

Both the UK and the USA scored pretty poorly compared to the rest of the world. The only city from England to make the top 50 was London at number 39, out placed by Dublin at 26th. The highest ranking city for the USA is Honolulu at number 31, followed by San Francisco in joint 32nd. Japan’s highest entry was Tokyo at number 40. Paris was France’s highest scoring city at number 34, just ahead of Helsinki of Finland and Brisbane Australia.

New York City and Seattle rounded up the bottom of the top 50, just behind Chicago and the USA capitol Washington. In the Middle East, Dubai and Abu Dhabi scored 75th and 83rd respectively, and last place on the list of 221 countries went to Baghdad in Iraq. Iraq’s score improved slightly from last year, but remained in last place due to it’s lack of security and stability.

A second list was also released showing the top 50 Eco-Friendly cities in the world. Canadian City Calgary scored highest, with Canada also achieving 3rd (Ottawa) and joint 13th (Vancouver & Montreal). Aberdeen is the cleanest UK city in at number 19, with Belfast (30) and Glasgow (47) also making the top 50. Surprisingly, Eco capital of the world Copenhagen in Denmark made only 8th on the list.

You can see the complete lists here