Would putting a forest in our homes be enough to make us eco-logical?
Well, Naruse Inokuma has designed a room containing only biocompatible materials. It would add a touch of nature to my plastic Ikea plants!

Of course, it wouldn’t be enough. Now, I’m not suggesting that we go back to old-fashioned wood-burning stoves but to start living better, we only need to take a few eco-actions:

1. Drink tap water: use the now famous Brita “water pitcher” with replaceable filters for fast and easy drinking water!

2. Generate energy: if you have no place for solar panels, then try the “Energy Tree” created by Beghelli that uses both solar and geothermal energy. The yard of my apartment building needs a new look and in summertime the temperature reaches 50°C there. So, I’ll definitely propose this at our next tenant meeting!

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“Nourish the inner aspect” is the motto of Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s website dedicated to lifestyle.
Simple recipes, places to visit, green things to do. The project tries to raise awareness on eastern philosophy: nourish the spirit while rediscovering the little things of everyday life. Very zen!

Perhaps, I’ve found a good reason to go to the gym: you can generate electric energy while riding a bike! It’s so cool to control both the calories you burn and the watts you produce. Twenty minutes of hard pedaling and you can recharge your iPod! Too bad,  there are only eco-gyms in Oregon and Hong Kong.

Anyway, there are plenty of choices for eco-sustainable workouts in Italy!
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During one of my many attempts to restyle my grandmother’s apartment, I took possession of a strange orange “box-radio“. I was going to take it to the dump until a well-informed colleague of mine insisted that it was a real piece of design history!

Hold on! Her old radio – on permanent loan on my desk – is a mix between a brand new Eton F250 and a shiny Brionvega. 
The only (irrelevant) difference is that it doesn’t have USB, MP3 or iPod ports.

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I always tire out easily when I run and now I’ve discovered why. I’m wearing the wrong fabric! I need an aerodynamic suit like Fiona May has!

Well, I could go to Superhuman Performance - at the Textile Museum in Prato - and choose from a variety of high performance, aerodynamic, hydrodynamic and fireproof sports garments that would make even Spiderman envious!

We often buy clothes because we’re dazzled by their shapes or colors while we see their fabrics as secondary. However, fashion is adapting to new lifestyles primarily because of the development of new sportswear fabrics.

Let’s see what new textiles come out of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, which just may become part of the history of fashion!

Technorati Tags: textiles, sports garments, Olympics, Beijing

New technologies are moving towards more compactness.
Miniaturization is the latest trend and ultra-light devices are impossible to find. Take a look at this a MacBook Air that was thrown out because it was buried in wastepaper.

I was about to buy one when I thought that perhaps I’d should reorganize my own desk first.
Ultra-small-mania began last summer, when the MID (Mobile Internet Device) was launched.
It’s based on ultra-slim Atom PC technology and, thanks to WiMAX, is being used worldwide offering people real time connections.

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Here I am again to tell you about my latest experiences in the world of hi-tech and information technology.

The new Apple Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard” has just come out and I absolutely had to run to an Apple store to see, try and buy the ultra-flat 24″ screen with an integrated Leopard system.

Luckily, I was in Hong Kong when the new operating system was officially launched, so I rushed to my favourite store in Kowloon to find out all about it.
Have you tried it yet?
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Hello? So, did you hear rumors on the web about the launching of a brand new Mandarina Duck cell phone?
Well, guess what, it hasn’t been launched yet!
That was until yesterday. Its official presentation to the press took place yesterday at Shu Uemura, a temple dedicated to women’s cosmetics. This choice of location highlights the feminine aspect of the new phone.

Ring, Ring, Ring. I dare any woman to find her phone in her bag within the first ten rings. Despite the fact that bags have an inner pocket especially for cell phones, they always end up lost in the mess at the bottom the bag.
Well, thanks to a funky clip on the Mandarina Duck cell phone, it’s easy to use and can be hooked directly onto a bag.

The brand new Mandarina Duck cell phone collection comes in three feminine colors: cherry red, lilac and lime green.

My favorite color is cherry red. What’s yours?

Made in collaboration with Alcatel Cellular Phones, the Mandarina Duck Cell Phone will be on sale in Italy starting in December 2007.

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Update: 

Reading your comments, I understand that most of you had some problem with the Mandarina Duck Mobile. I call Alcatel to ask how you can solve it, here the answer:
“Dear customers,

we apologise for the difficulties you found in using the mobile phone, even if we always try our best to make userfriendlyness the key point for our products.
As the memory of the mobile phone is quite small and suitable for only 1 song, we strongly suggest you to buy a MICRO SD card, a simple, very small memory card available in all electronics equipment shops (from 128 MB up to 1GB - 1 GB memoy card allows to store about 120 songs - ) that you can insert in the slot available on your phone (see instructions for details).
Then, you need to connect your mobile phone to a PC through the USB cable you will find in the packaging; the PC need to first register the mobile phone as a “new device”, so connect the mobile phone to the PC to allow the PC recognize the mobile phone; as you will connect the cable to PC and mobile phone, 4 options will appear on mobile display. You will need to chose the first one, called “mass storage”. Wait for the PC to find the new device and recognize it, then disconnect the two items. Then pls connect them together again, always chosing “mass storage” as option on mobile phone.
Go into your PC, find the MP3 file of a song you would like to upload on the phone and click on it with right key and select “send to..”. The PC will be able to recognise the mobile phone as a memory device (like a USB key), so it will call it “removable disk”. Chose this option and the PC will copy the song on the MICRO SD card.
Repeat this operation with all the songs you would like to insert paying attention to maximum memory capacity.
To see the results of these operations, disconnect the mobile phone from the PC, go into the “media album” of your mobile, chose the option “memory card” and you will find the files you copied on the mobile phone. To play a song, simply select it and chose “play” from “options” of the “media album” or go to the music player, chose “update songs” and then select “all songs”, find the song you would like to play, select “play” and have fun!
Do not hesitate to contact us for further clarifications and thanks again for purchasing Mandarina Duck Mobile Pack”.

Technorati Tags: cell phone, mobile, mandarina duck, alcatel

“The Being Digital revolution, the shift from atoms to bits, is irreversible and unstoppable”.

This was a theory that used to sound like science fiction. It was propagated in that period when the RAI reigned over Italian TV and was always quarrelling with the new, private ‘heretic’ channels of Mediaset. When DOS was the most common operating system and Windows was a pioneer regarded with scepticism.

However, the prophecy of Negroponte (a modern Nostradamus) has now come true!

Current TV - an interactive Web TV channel started by Al Gore in 2005 – has just won a very coveted Emmy Award for best “interactive television services”.

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Good morning readers. My name is Massimo Venturini and I am the Production Manager for MD. My job often takes me around the world, so Rossana has asked me to share some of my experiences with you on Duck Side. Flights tend to be long, so I’ll have time to tell you something about my job and my “discoveries”.

I recently traveled to New York to collect the Travel & Leisure Design Award 2007 for our Y’s collection and to work on an upcoming project, which I can’t tell you about just yet.

The Big Apple has always fascinated me, the melting pot, the surreal atmosphere, the frenetic life (“The city that doesn’t sleep”, as Frank used to sing). I had a marvelous view from my hotel room. We stayed at the Mandarin Hotel (nice coincidence) which is located on top of the Time Warner Center at the southwestern corner of Central Park.
I’m quite fond of technology, especially Macintosh. Whenever I happen to be in New York, I can’t wait to go down 5th Avenue to the corner of Central Park and be swallowed up by the Apple. Read the rest of this entry »