Neighbor dining for energy saving

A rather peculiar new idea by Creative artist Luong Lu and Vattenfal, one of the largest utlitity companies in Germany, if not Europe.

It is about the idea, that people living alone waste a lot of energy cooking meals for just one person. But, rather than choosing the obvious solution (ordering pizza), here is a much more original solution:

(neighbor dining is) a community website integrated with Foursquare that would detail the daily menu of all users. Interested folks would simply send a request to that user and join them for dinner. And what’s in it for the host? Members who serve the dinner get a discount on their energy bill when the guests ‘check-in’ to their place using Foursquare. We think its an excellent way to cure loneliness and save energy at the same time. (thanks)

Oakley sunglasses for the chilenian miners

Now this completely slipped my attention until someone pointed it out to me (maybe, because I didn’t really watch the news on television).

The chilenian miners were rescued after a very long time underground, as we all know. We all cheered when we heard the news! But because one’s eyes need adjustment to the light of day after such a long time, Oakley managed to do something remarkable, that killed two birds with one stone: they supported the rescue ambitions (at least in a small way), by donating 35 sunglasses for the miners, and also managed to get some product placement into every news show on the planet, since the miners were shown in close up when they were rescued.

All that, without having pushed it, since they were asked to support the mission.

The result? See for yourself, at minute 1:07, 1:21 and 3:15 – perfect product placement!