Haft2Know

One quarter of the world's population lives in extreme poverty, and 70% of that 1.5 billion people are girls and women. Women are less likely to be literate, properly nourished or treated with respect. It is with this in mind that Plan (formerly Foster Parents' Plan) has established 'Because I am a Girl'; a global initiative meant to highlight the importance of investing in the world's women. Having just been released, the Canadian arm of the movement strives to collect one million signatures in order to help spread the word. Visit the site to find out more about these and other staggering statistics, as well as the trickle-down value of changing the world, one girl at a time.

http://www.becauseiamagirl.ca

Posted by Haft2 at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a site that puts the humanity back in the way we tell time. The Human Clock is a site with thousands of photos depicting people that are somehow displaying the time. Every minute, the clock updates with a new photo. The pics themselves are fascinating due to the variety of the banal.

Click here to check out the Human Clock.

Need more of this? Check out this link to their other site - The Human Calendar.

Posted by Haft2 at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In 1980, Finnish potter Otto Heino attended a ceramics conference in Japan. There he met a Buddhist monk in search of a lost colour: a pale oat-yellow that had been made popular in 4th Century China. The process that made the colour had become lost, because it was so sought after and so esteemed, that those in charge of maintaining its integrity feared it would be applied to substandard wares, in substandard ways. So Otto and his wife Vivika made it their work to rediscover the recipe for the lost hue.

In 1995, just two months after Vivika passed away, Heino rediscovered the yellow. The ceramics world took notice and descended upon his studio in Helsinki. Otto Heino's work took off, and the potter became rich through six-figure sales of his pieces. The Chinese government offered him $1 billion for the rediscovered recipe of the yellow, but Heino refused. He feared, like those once in charge of the colour that the colour would end up being applied to pieces that weren't worthy of it. He died without revealing its make-up to anyone.

It does beg, this question. Would you share something with the world, or keep it close to retain its integrity?

Posted by Haft2 at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

London interior designer David Carter wants to tell you a story, and he wants to do so in his own house. Just last year, Carter turned his beautiful 18th Century townhouse into a boutique hotel with only two rooms to let. (Those are them pictured by the way. Ya I know - stunning.)

40 Winks, as it's called, has since become a hit and due to its size, a hit with a waiting list. Something that's made this little place so popular has been Carter's nights of storytelling, when hotel guests (and anyone else) are invited to gather in one of the living rooms of the house in their pajamas to listen to readers - both known and not - read, relate and recant tales by candlelight. Cocktails are served to take the edge off lying around in your Victoria's Secret silks. Events conclude with a live musical performance.

http://www.40winks.org

Posted by Haft2 at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This weekend, Britain's Royal Opera House will debut a work unlike any other they've exhibited before. The libretto to 'The People's Opera' was written solely by Twitter users - "Tweeters", I suppose. For months, the venerable ROH has been accepting additions and plot twists 140 characters at a time. Once the story began to take shape, the Opera moved forward with composing corresponding music, which will be performed by an orchestra, one baritone and one soprano.

To date, users have determined that the story will involve a talking cat, a secret potion and a man kidnapped by birds. Throw in some colour forecasting and it sounds like a typical day at Haft2.

http://royaloperahouse.wordpress.com/

Posted by Haft2 at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In London's Trafalgar Square, there are three plinths holding royal statuary. There was a fourth built in 1841 by Sir Charles Barry, and meant to display an equestrian monument of William IV. There were insufficient funds however, and the statue was never completed. To this day, Londonders have grown used to the empty platform, which has never been filled because no agreement could ever be settled on which king, queen or hero to feature there.

In the summer of 1999 there was an art project opened to the public in which ultimately, three winning sculptural installations each had their own time on top of the plinth. This summer, installations of a different kind have been awarded. Between July and October, 2400 Brits will be (or have been) awarded one hour each atop the plinth to speak, shout, sing, demonstrate, dance, protest. The website offers a live webcam performance on whose turn it is right now. (As I write this, "Paula C." from North-West London is quoting the songs of The Smiths and Simply Red.)

The ongoing performance continues as you read this.

http://www.oneandother.co.uk/
http://www.london.gov.uk/fourthplinth

Posted by Haft2 at 08:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)