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There has been growing concern about bottled water recently. A little while ago there were reports that the plastic that bottled water was packaged in was leaching into the water itself which isn’t great. Next there is the environmental impact the disposed of bottles have.
Well, the NY Post is reporting that some New York restaurants are addressing this issue and ‘banning’ bottled water at their locations. so far 12 are on board with the ban (including the Waverly Inn, Del Posto, Gemma, Bobo, Gusto Organics and Broadway East). Apparently the issue has become big enough that even the Park Slope Food Co-op will be voting later this month on whether they will continue to sell bottled waters.
According to the NY Post article, it takes 41 million barrels of oil a year to produce, transport and store bottled water. In place of bottles like Pellegrino you will have the option of free tap water (as you always did) or specially filtered tap water that will run you about $5 a glass. Of course at places like Per Se all non-alcoholic drinks are free of charge (they offer both bottled water and filtered water).
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Well, that is one of the many creatures found off the coast of Antarctica during a survey done by a team of New Zealand scientists during the beginning of this year.
The sea pig (in her hand on the right) is a member of the sea cucumber family and is just one of the “Giant, Unknown Animals Found Off Antarctica.” Another find may be a totally new species, the Hydroid.
During the two month excursion the scientists collect more than 30,000 different sea-creatures. a bunch of them new. National Geographic (or NatGeo for those in the know) has some beautiful images of some of the finds.
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We all know the pirates are big right now. Since Johnny Depp dawned mascara and started impersonating Keith Richards pirates have been on the rise and getting really popular. Based on this you would think an article about the rise in piracy would either be referring to bootleg DVDs or Hipsters in Williamsburg.
Instead we have an article coming to us from National Geographic* about the Malacca Strait, a heavily trafficked trading route and home to some of the world’s most dangerous pirates or lanun. And these aren’t the swashbuckling pirates of yore, these are pirates armed to the teeth with modern weapons like machine guns and grenades.
Read more »
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Yes, I have written about the Palace Bottle by Evian before (I even used the same picture), but this isn’t a post about the new design or anything, this is an actual review of the bottle and its setup. Evian recently sent me a bottle and I had the chance to really check it out and I figured since folks don’t exactly need a review of Evian Water I conducted a blind taste test on some of my friends with New York Tap Water, Evian, Fiji and Smart waters.
First let’s discuss the Palace bottle. The one I received came in a really nice box, all shiny with the Evian bottle and pouring spout nicely displayed. I was kind of impressed by my first impression, then I touched the bottle and discovered it was plastic. I am not sure exactly what I was expecting… Okay, that’s not true, I was expecting a glass bottle. I guess I figure if you are going to a nice restaurant and ordering bottled water, let’s say Evian, and the palace bottle comes out with its spout on a coaster you kind of expect a nice glass bottle, not a light weight plastic bottle. On the other side of things I was impressed by the pouring spout, while I was expecting something cheap made of lightweight metal, it actually had a fair heft to it and looked great, nicely designed with curves that compliment the shape of the bottle. Read more »
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Continuing in our tribute to Columbus we have another story:
While so many companies these days are working on making their products more affordable for people and others are working to help poor nations get access to the basics like food, drinkable water and shelter, other companies are working in the opposite direction.
With so many companies concerned about the poor these days, you almost start to feel bad for people with so much money they don’t know what to do with it. Fortunately for them Neiman-Marcus is working to keep its name as a luxury department store intact.
On their website you can now check out the specs on the NM Gem Triton 1000 Submarine. That’s right, for the bargain price of $1.44 million you can have your own submarine to tour around… Well, um, I guess since this seems so out of my helm of understanding I really don’t know where you would use this… In your jumbo sized swimming pool? Your personal super-sized koi pond? Touring around the sea reefs near your private island?
Anyway, for specs on the NM Gem Triton 1000 you can call Neiman-Marcus. I think it looks like it is straight from the design team that did The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou if you ask me. Though if you want to get me a Christmas gift and you’ve been stumped… Well, opt for the bottle of Partida I want to try, I am all out of super-sized koi ponds to tour around.