Haft2Know

Poor pink; if it weren't for young girls, it would continually get a bad rap. Pink gets assigned to children's medicine, Pepto Bismol and even prison uniforms because it demoralizes those who wear them and dampens their escape-thirsty spirit.

Now a Dutch study has claimed that if your car is pink, there's a much lower chance (almost non-existent) that it will be stolen. This is because nobody wants your pink car - not even for free.

Dutch professor Ben Vollaard discovered that pink cars just get stolen less. He says that with car theft becoming a realm almost solely for professionals, the end destinations of most stolen cars are now Asia, the Middle East or Africa. And few people in those places are buying pink cars - or yellow or purple ones for that matter. So those are the ones that sit, right where you left them.

So while a silver car may be appealing - globally it's still the first choice for car colour, followed in order by black, white, grey and blue - you might ask your 10-year-old neighbour Chloe what her preference would be.

If you live in the UK, you can begin shopping for your pink car here.

Another way to get a pink car is to begin your career with Mary Kay Cosmetics who, since the 1960s has awarded 100,000 pink cars to its top salespeople.

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On display at NYC's New Museum until September is a series of three installations by Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander. The most colourful part of the work is the installation, 'I Wish Your Wish'. From now until the end of the exhibit, you can submit a wish here. It can be a wish for love, or health, or the freshest watermelon you've ever tasted. Submitted wishes are then printed on coloured ribbons and hung at the gallery, (which is free of charge, btw). Based on a tradition from the church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim in Brazil, visitors to the exhibit select any coloured ribbon they like. It's said that when the ribbon wears away and falls off, the wish will be granted.

Gallery link here.

Thanks to our friends at The Color Association of the United States who wrote about this beauty we couldn't possibly ignore.

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Here's a viral ad for Levi's in which a guy named Mike 'walks' across America. Shot over two weeks, the vid is so good, that we're happy to do what Levi's wants us to do and pass it along.

A Google map of Mike's journey can be found here.

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Last year, French automaker Renault presented 'Zoe', their first zero-emission concept car (hence the name) slated for mass production. According to the company, the Renault Zoe is meant to revolutionize the day-to-day travels of Europeans skipping from home to work to the market. Treehuggers and design aficionados alike shouted "oui, oui" for the Zoe, but one dissenting voice failed to agree. That voice belongs to a woman named Zoe Renault. The 23-year-old student says she doesn't want to be associated with a car her whole life, and has hired a lawyer to write automaker Renault, insisting they find another name for the vehicle. The final verdict is still pending.

It isn't the first time a car manufacturer has run into challenges with a car name. A few years ago, GM ran into some difficulty in Spain with their car the 'Nova', which in Spanish actually means 'doesn't go'.

In recent car naming news, General Motors just released a statement to all of their employees that the name 'Chevy' should be discontinued from everyday use. The company wants to reintroduce the full use of 'Chevrolet' into the daily vernacular of North Americans.

Here's the link Ms. Zoe Renault doesn't want any part of.

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If the drone of South African vuvuzelas is keeping you awake these days, perhaps you can make your way to dreamland by counting the sparkles on this fancy-pants soccer ball. South African jeweller Shimansky just unveiled this life-size piece made of 6,620 white diamonds and 2,640 black diamonds, comprising a considerable 3,500 carats. The ball took three months to make and is estimated at a value of $2.6 million USD. That fact alone is enough to keep you awake at night.

This link sparkes.

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From Japan comes 'Otete & Anyo' - Japanese for 'Hand & Foot' - beautifully made stamps customized to serve as a moment in time for the baby of your choice. Email a simple scan of Baby's hand or foot print and for about $100 you'll be able to stamp your little one's prints on everything, forever. The back of the stamp comes engraved with his / her birthday and name - all guaranteed to make a life-long impression for sure.

Here's the site

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From Ballard, Washington comes the story of Edith Macefield, who refused to bow to pressure to sell her long-time home to land developers - so they built around her. Something for you to think about.

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If you're hankering for a margarita lately, it must be because Cinco de Mayo is approaching. The day celebrates May 5, 1862 when, armed with pitchforks and clubs the people of Puebla, Mexico fought off the invasion of Napoleon III's French forces. (Imagine Mexico owned by the French.) The day has since come to symbolize the triumph of all North American people over foreign occupation.

Every year there are a number of ways to celebrate the date no matter where you are. A skydiving school in Vancouver celebrates with an annual group jump; in Malta they have a Cinco de Mayo Beer Festival; and numerous cities throughout the U.S. celebrate the day with a festival in the park. However it's celebrated, observation of the date is never meant to glorify the military battle itself, but rather the spirit of independence and respective national pride.

So Feliz Cinco de Mayo, everyone! Here's a selection of Texas Margarita recipes to help you celebrate.

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One more bit of interest for anyone who wishes to try his or her hand at naming. The City of Toronto and online magazine Torontoist.com have just announced a competition to name a new park currently under construction. Sherbourne Park is currently and temporarily named after the street that runs along beside it. Due to open this summer, the park will become an integral part of the city's new waterfront and will signify a new dawn for an area long in need of some colour and some love.

We're pushing for 'Haft2Know Gardens'.

Here's the link and the chance to put your mark on the city of Toronto.

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For those considering relocation to another city, Expatistan.com uses user-generated stats to display how costly somewhere is to live, in relation to somewhere else. Users enter various prices for health, living, entertainment costs etc. These range from a beer, to toilet paper, to the cost of leasing a car. Prices then get averaged out over a number of entries and answers are revealed - and done so a little colourfully we might add.

It might feel a little good - or not so - to see what your friends are paying for living elsewhere. Find out here.

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It's easy to forget the origin of Easter and the sense of Spring's rebirth amid the marshmallow eggs and chocolate hens. Regis College at the University of Toronto recently released their new prayer website, ForThisWePray.com, and until Easter you can visit the site and customize your own Easter e-card to send to a loved one. Awareness to the site helps advance the College's mission of prayer, outreach and social justice.

Select your Easter card here.

Happy Easter.
And Happy Spring.

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As our attention spans get shorter, more sites offer ways to keep up-to-date on anything and everything, all the time. Newsmap presents the world's news about everything, all on one page, and in an impressive palette. Select from a number of countries and disciplines, or combination thereof, and Newsmap does the rest. Colour is used to distinguish the areas of interest, and how recent any news item may be - from less than ten minutes, to more than one hour ago.

Click here to see what's happening in the world right now.

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Thanks to the internet, nearly anything can be found quickly now - including a black Christmas tree. (They call it 'Tuxedo Black', to reconcile any hesitation you may have in buying one for your surly 16-year-old.) Treetopia.com might not be able to get your 'In the Navy' blue tree to you by Friday, but they're sure a great resource to check out for Boxing Day sales. The array of colours is staggering, and they come lit, or not. A nice way to mix a little extra brilliance into your tree next year.

This one below is the Stephen J. Colbert Tree. For real.

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While a fruit cake renaissance may be yet to come, poinsettias are becoming cool again.

The plant originally came from Mexico and while revered by the Aztecs, eventually became a symbol of Christmas to the Mexican culture. It became tradition to decorate them around Christmas time. Then in 1824, the American Ambassador to Mexico - Joel Poinsett (see where this is going?) was so impressed with the red plants that he brought them up to the U.S. and thus began their Americanization.

In the late 19th Century, a California farming family named the Eckes started selling them widely. Back then they were three feet tall. They've since been cultivated to grow smaller, and brighter. Oh, and they've never been poisonous. That's only ever been a rumour, viciously started no doubt, by another, less fortunate California farming family.

Martha Stewart wants to show you a few things to do with poinsettias.

Happy Holidays from all of us at Haft2.

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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.

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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/

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Well on a busy day, who wouldn't want a portion of Heinz Baked Beans that they could plug into their computer and heat up at their desk. Yes, this is real. Heinz has just introduced 'Beanzawave' a small low-powered microwave that plugs into your computer, via USB cable. It uses the same technology that your cell-phone uses, as opposed to actual microwave rays, and will heat your lunch of baked beans or any other comfort food, I suppose - right at your desk. Cost is estimated to be about $150, and Heinz is looking at releasing this saucy little heater within a year.

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For those of us venturing into the world of e-books, either on the iPhone, or Amazon's Kindle, here's a little something so you don't feel like your library is becoming too virtual. Smell of Books claims it will make your e-reading experience smell like you're pawing your way through a paper bound classic. Scents include 'Classic Musty Smell' and 'Scent of Sensibility'.

http://smellofbooks.com

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Living next door to a big personality can be challenging. Ask Canadians, and the Swiss, and Northern Ireland. Recently, South Korea - maybe the world's most overshadowed country - launched its bid to rebrand itself, in the hopes of becoming an international centre of culture and environmental technology.

President Lee Myung-Bak has already pledged hundreds of millions of dollars as part of the grand scheme. He's vowed to: make tae kwon do an international sport, turn Korean cuisine into a global top-five favourite, and reposition South Korea as THE planet's environmental leader - and all by 2017.

Tourism Korea

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For two thousand years, people throughout the world have chosen a Springtime day to honour motherhood. It wasn't until 1870 however, that American writer Julia Ward Howe called on mothers to come together in protest against the American Civil War and what she saw as the futility of sons of mothers killing other sons of mothers. Mother's Day as we know it, was born.

Since then, Mother's Day has turned into a $14 billion USD industry. Restaurants often claim it to be the busiest day of the year. Flower and jewelery sales skyrocket. And the collective and loving energy generated by millions of children penning "Roses are red" poems can be felt throughout the universe.

However you choose to celebrate Mother's Day - it's May 10 this year, by the way - we hope you have a great one. And wherever or whoever your mother is, close your eyes and think of her, and thank her. You're here because of her. We love you, Moms.

Here are lots of ways to show Mom how much you love her.

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Well if you're finding times are tough, you may wish to rethink the way you're getting around and look at trading in your auto for a bike. This sweet ride is plated with 24 karat gold and adorned with over 600 Swarovski crystals. It's also entirely hand-built and hand-delivered anywhere in the world, (and for the $102,000 USD it will set you back, it should be). The company that makes it - they're making only ten in all - is named 'Aurumania'. They're a small firm that has self-commissioned to construct everyday objects out of gold. Their collection is so far limited to these 24 karat gold bikes and a corresponding bike rack, which is more beautiful.

Incidentally, if the price is a tad too steep for you, consider the version that comes without the hand-laid crystals; it's a more palpable $30,000 USD.

http://www.aurumania.com

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This sign was spotted recently on the lawn of the Capitol Building in Washington and serves as a reminder that this two-year Battle Royale is finally coming to a hopeful close. Whatever will we talk about?

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UK Designer Mikael Metthey could potentially become God in the eyes of the world's children with 'Pox Teddy' - a concept toy that if successful, could eliminate the need for syringed vaccinations. (Needle Day was always the most dreaded at school.) This smart little bear exposes kids to a virus in order to foster their natural immunity against harmful diseases. The website below offers some more images, as well as one of Metthey's 'Vaccination Playground'. The future is upon us.

http://www.interaction.rca.ac.uk/people/alumni/05-07/mikael-metthey/projects/project6.html

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Sotheby's announced last week that in one day, UK artstar Damien Hirst raised more than $125 million at auction. It's a new world record for an auction day of art offered by a single artist. (The previous record was held by a day of Pablo Picasso in 1993, which raised a mere $20 million.) The most expensive piece was 'The Golden Calf' - an embalmed calf with golden horns and hooves that sold for almost $19 million. Hirst could have chosen to have his works sold in a gallery but chose auction because he felt it was a more democratic way of bringing art to the people - the very rich people, that is.

http://www.sothebys.com/app/live/lot/LotResultsDetailList.jsp?event_id=28883&sale_number=L08027

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It's not known exactly when we started naming our weather systems but hundreds of years ago in the West Indies, hurricanes were often named after the Patron Saint of the day on which they hit land. The current system is an annual set-list of names that repeats every six years. If a storm is particularly destructive or infamous, the name will be retired. (Katrina became Katia. 1992's Andrew became Alex.) Originally, all storms were given women's names until 1978 when men's names started being alternated in to share the brunt of the surge.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

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Fresh off the Olympics, it's a good time to look ahead, not to 2012, but to 2016. Four candidate cities are currently in the running to take on the responsibility of hosting the sporting world for two weeks, eight summers from now. Each of them released their Olympic logos last year, but not all cleared the International Olympic Committee's strict standards of representation. Chicago's original logo for their candidacy was absolutely beautiful. That's it on the left. A stylized skyline, with the Hancock Tower at the centre, burns brightly over its own image, reflected in Lake Michigan. The problem the IOC is strict in its visual representation of the Olympic torch; only officially licensed users are allowed to use the torch, and as a mere candidate city, Chicago doesn't yet qualify. And so, they had to redesign the logo and released the image of the 6-pointed star in its stead. There's something very World Exhibition about the font and star choice. It's a little nostalgic, a little Brave New World and all the time, very human. I do hope that eventually, we get to see more of the original torch though.

While you're at it, check out the logos of the other candidate cities. Whichever one is chosen, there will be some intriguing design avenues explored.

http://www.chicago2016.org
http://www.tokyo2016.or.jp
http://www.rio2016.org.br
http://www.madrid2016.es

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This beautiful and somewhat ghostly image comes from the Statler Hilton Hotel in Dallas, Texas. The building, long empty now, was added this year to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2008 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Every year the Trust releases their list of man-made phenomena that are in danger of disappearing, either through demolition or redevelopment, or mere neglect. It's an impressive list and always succeeds in reminding the viewer how much there is to offer one's love of history throughout the United States. But because they're smaller sites, they somehow strike a more personal chord than say, Mt. Rushmore or the Smithsonian. Becoming a member of the Trust is easy and serves to save these ghosts that are disappearing at an alarming rate.

http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/11-most-endangered/

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Since the 1970s, the government of Japan has been trying to set limits on overtime hours for the country's workforce. The problem has become so prevalent in recent years that the United Nations' International Labour Organization has described Japan as a country with no legal limits on overtime expectations. When 60-hour work weeks became commonplace, a word was even coined to define death from overwork - karoshi. There's even a national karoshi hotline and a set of laws that funnels money toward the widow and children of a man (it's almost always men) who has worked himself into an early grave. The law started to gain international attention in 2002 when a 30-year old Toyota employee collapsed and died on the job after working more than 80 hours of overtime every month for the previous six months. A court later ruled his death to be the result of this overwork, most of which was unpaid and that his wife was entitled to compensation.

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Now that Summer is here, people look to bridal shows and glossy mags for inspiration on how to make their big day different from everyone else's. Well, if you have the patience to wait until 2011, you might consider looking at SpaceWedding, a Japanese company that will fly you 100km over the surface of the earth so you and your honey can exchange your vows among the stars. The price is the equivalent of over $2 million USD, but man, what an album you'll have.

http://www.spacewedding.jp

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When Canada's Hudson's Bay Company revealed their Olympic apparel collection earlier this year, you could barely hear yourself think over the noise of the complaints en masse. Design critics (and those purporting to be) hated it. It didn't help matters that the pieces are made in China, as opposed to homegrown, homemade patriabelia. HBC stands by where the pieces are made though because the collection is manufactured from eco-friendly fabrics derived from bamboo and coconut and constructed to keep our athletes cool throughout a humid Beijing August. Whatever they're made from, consumers are loving it and designer Tu Ly is getting the last laugh as HBC can't keep their shelves stocked with the stuff.

http://www.hbc.com

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UK artist Abigail Reynolds presents some startling stats in her series entitled Mount Fear. Each of the city maps featured, (London, Manchester and Eindhoven) are built up with layers that represent a specific police statistic of the number of occurrences of a crime. Check out Mount Fear Manchester which depicts police statistics for violent offenses between 2001 and 2002.

abigailreynolds.com

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Read all about it. Well, at least read the headline. CNN and Boston's Barbarian Group have teamed up on a venture to bring a selection of CNN.com's headlines to t-shirts near you. The idea is to immortalize newsworthy moments that would otherwise be quite fleeting, along with the rest of what's virtually current. Look for this icon beside featured headlines under the "Latest News" heading to see which shirts are available for mail-order. As I write this, the most intriguing t-shirt available reads "Colossal squid has soccer-ball eyes". Oh yes, we'll be watching this one for some time. Shirt selection differs from day to day.

http://us.cnn.com/

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Happy Earth Day. After nearly four decades of relative obscurity, April 22 is finally becoming more well known for its environmentally benevolent intentions than for its lesser known title as the Feast Day of St. Epidodius, (who coincidentally, is the patron saint of victims of betrayal). Some however, are starting to notice a creeping commercialization of this most uncommercial of dates. In fact, the more environmentally aware we become, the more retailers we're seeing that are offering Earth Day promotions and sales. (Could cut-out paper decorations and greeting cards be next?) There's a great article highlighting April's new oxymoronic Monday on Advertising Age's website. It'll make you question how green you really are.

adage.com

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