"Snus" or snuff is popular in Sweden and Norway. It's considered perfectly polite and socially acceptable to insert a small snuff packet in between lip and gum while you are sitting at a dinner table with friends or waiting in line for the tram. (Luckily unlike 'dip' or chewing tobacco - also originally a Swedish import!

Photo credit to Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Setting up a green office has a lot less to do with buying high tech ergonomic equipment, and a whole lot more with how you use them. We spoke with one of the experts of the forefront of office ergonomics, Tony Biafore, to find out some of the facts of setting up a proper office.

Image by M. Betti and WaterAid

Don't laugh, this is serious. Did you know that 40% of the world's population, 2.6 billion people, don't have access to a toilet. To raise awareness of this global sanitation crisis and to celebrate a humble yet essential bathroom fixture, World Toilet Day is being proclaimed today, November 19.

Even though Lloyd wrote about the Corn Refiners Association ramping up an ad campaign to push back against the rising tide of realization that perhaps our current corn-centered agricultural system isn’t the best thing for our collective health or the environment, I confess that the whole thing wasn’t on my radar until this week, when New York Magazine’s ever popular and ever ...

photo: Nattu

The bane of over-packaging, especially with materials which are not biodegradable and renewable isn’t just something which is confined to wealthy nations. Though banana leaves have been traditionally used to wrap food, or to eat off of, in South Asia for millennia, as has happened elsewhere non-biodegradable synthetic materials have gained in popularity in the region without much though to the environmental consequences.

Istanbul undoubtedly has one of the world's great market cultures. Salesmen (and they almost always are men) have been plying their wares at the now-4,000-shop-strong Kapalı Çarşı (Grand Bazaar) for more than 500 years, and in every neighborhood, small fish markets, produce bakkals, and street vendors selling everything from antique furniture to the latest knock-off sunglasses coexist with massive new shopping malls.

Scanned from the Oct 13, 2008 issue of Newsweek

The October 13, 2008 issue of Newsweek features a confounding face-off between Lucky Charms and low-fat granola. "If your first instinct is to reach for the granola, think again," writes reporter Tina Peng.

Will Allen fishing for tilapia by cpentecost via flickr

Earlier this year, Sami recognized the good work of the organization Growing Power. The John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation took the praise one step further and named the organization's co-founder and CEO as a "MacArthur Genius".