Italian artist Graziano Cecchini decided to protest the halt on garbage collection in Italy… how? By making more garbage! But cute, colorful, fun garbage in the form of 50,000 balls. I think he wanted to make a ball pit out of the Piazza di Spagna… apparently nobody warned him what those are like in McDonalds.
It does beg an interesting question though – what to do with all of the garbage. I mean we accumulate this stuff continuously, if we reached a critical mass where would we put it that wouldn’t hurt the environment?

The impact on Naples has been pretty bad – nobody wants to buy products from the area anymore because they might be contaminated. There’s talk of building a modern incinerator to help ease the problem (or you could just talk to the mob and get it dumped in eastern Europe) but I suspect they’re going to need a more long-term solution. Time will tell…

http://www.batterblaster.com/ is an organic solution to all the "hard work and dancing":http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnxPIv99e-E&feature=related that used to go in to making pancakes from scratch. Just shake the pressurized can of organic wheat flour (unbleached), organic cane sugar, organic whole egg solids, organic soybean powder, lactic acid from beet sugar, baking soda, and organic rice bran extract propellant, and spray it on to a greased pan or waffle iron. Oh yeah, it makes waffles too. Thanks to the "Shiny Shiny blog":http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2007/11/organic_batter.html for bringing this product--or delightful hoax--to my attention.

http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/world-ocean-thermohaline-circulation1 , demonstrates the current system of currents that transfer heat throughout the oceans. Often called the "ocean conveyor belt," "thermohaline circulation":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermohaline_circulation is what keeps northern Europe and North America from being all together too cold in winter because it brings hot water from the tropics which warms the air in those regions. Recently the thermohaline process has become quite popular to talk about because of increased cold, freshwater run-off coming from the polar ice caps. Scientists are saying that these effects could slow down, stall or even reverse thermohaline circulation and (worst-case scenario) plunge northern Europe and North America into a local ice age. Previously featured from UNEP on Map Monday: * "Deforestation in Borneo":http://duenos.net/article/432/MapMondayDeforestationinBorneo

This is what reading blogs is all about!
“m4intern”:http://m4intern.wordpress.com is a place for all the best of “male for intern” lust to play out across cyber space. Here are some of my very favorites”
“Would you like a free room”:http://m4intern.wordpress.com/2008/06/12/would-you-like-a-free-room-m4w-34-nova/
_Rents are very expensive in this town and if you are intern, recent college grad or work for a non-profit, well, it is pretty hard to make rent. So I would like to offer one room in my two room condo, fully furnished to the right girl in exchange for some physical intimacy (we can discuss the exact details)_
“Wanted: Princess to spoil intern recent grad or young prof”:http://m4intern.wordpress.com/2008/06/14/wanted-princess-to-spoil-intern-recent-grad-or-young-prof-m4w-32-dupont-west-end/
_I’m looking for an intern, recent graduate, or young professional who is used to or wants to be treated like a princess! Let’s do dinner, drinks, shopping, whatever!_
_I’m a busy professional with no time for a full time girlfriend! However, I see this as being a fun and exciting opportunity. I have a awesome apartment with all the bells and whistles – pool, fitness, cafe, etc.! Luv it!_
“Hello beautiful”:http://m4intern.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/hello-beautiful-m4w-capitol-hill/
_Me: I’m that 20-something hill staffer. I have waited for this day for nine months. And now, you are back, Beautiful, you are back. You’ll see me at the bars, leaning back in my chair, my tie loosened, my wallet open to you and your beautiful friends. I know the best bars you’ve never head of, the best restaurants you can’t afford. And I would love to show you around my city._
“An interesting proposition for dc summer interns”:http://m4intern.wordpress.com/2008/06/17/an-interesting-proposition-for-dc-summer-interns-m4w-40-dc-md-nova/
_This is addressed to all the young interns who have invaded this great city for the summer to gain a real education about how our nation’s capital really works. Although I am not one of you I am, instead, one of the powerbroker lobbyists who is in his forties who has his fingers on the pulse of this city._
_But as I am sure all you young interns, with your tanned and toned lean, muscular legs, long silky hair, and firm breasts and tight firm asses know…this town is full of powerbrokers like me who are very sexual and have kinky desires that we fantasize about and want to make a reality just like we make most things happen in this town._
_I am looking for those interns who are open minded, willing to try something new and safe and help make this powerbrokers fantasy come true and earn a little extra spending cash during your internship._

“Engadget”:http://www.engadget.com/2008/06/18/lg-secret-viral-ad-aims-for-sexy-ends-up-squarely-at-creepy/ has it right when it describes this phone ad (for the “LG Secret”:http://secret.lgmobile.com/) as more creepy than sexy. If you live in Europe this is probably work-safe, but if the person sitting next to you gets uncomfortable at Hanes underwear ads, I’d suggest waiting for them to take a potty break before watching.

“Global emissions from consuming/flaring of fossil fuels”:http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/co2_emissions_from_consumption_and_flaring_of_fossil_fuels
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/national_carbon_dioxide_co2_emissions_per_capita take on co2 emissions.

http://www.nchsoftware.com/prism/ (which I highly recommend by the way) and I started to wonder what kind of game I was playing. Is it really worth risking death to convert that .avi to a lower quality .wmv? Has any one else seen something like this before?

http://melvin.net described himself as a "hacker, entrepreneur, and all-around mischief maker" back when his website was still functioning. I suppose that's why he wanted something a little different for his business cards, which is why he had "these":http://jenimattson.com/index.php?id=melvin#identity made. The designer is named "Jeni Mattson":http://jenimattson.com/index.php?id=aboutme#main and the card is made of punch-out lock-pick tools which apparently work. Pretty cool.

This is the first of what will hopefully a popular series highlighting different maps from and about different parts of the world. Enjoy.
http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/orangutan-distribution-on-borneo-indonesia-malaysia for native orangutans and it correlates very closely with the above "deforestation map":http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/extent-of-deforestation-in-borneo-1950-2005-and-projection-towards-2020.

http://flickr.com/photos/dania_h/956623907/ of it by Flickr member "Dania H":http://flickr.com/photos/dania_h/.