i-eclectica.org

Last week the retail empire Wal-Mart announced that it will team up with the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) to start tracking and reducing the energy consumed and carbon emissions produced by its suppliers. The project will begin with seven product categories: DVDs, toothpaste, soap, milk, beer, soda, and vacuum cleaners.

Wal-Mart though is not the only company keeping tabs on its supply chain. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, one of Wal-Mart’s suppliers, has already initiated a supply-chain analysis of the carbon impact of the production, manufacture, and distribution of its DVDs. More than 20 of Fox’s key suppliers embraced the study by supplying detailed information on their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. HP, IBM, Dell, and Xerox also assess their suppliers’ environmental responsibility practices and, in some cases, work actively with those companies to help them become more efficient, as well as better environmental stewards.

While the aforementioned organisations are pushing for change, Wal-Mart is certainly the largest, most influential, and farthest-reaching organisation out there throwing around its formidable economic weight in asking its customers for specifics on energy use and GHG emissions. One can be certain though that all these companies have not all of a sudden found ethical responsibility in their corporate souls. For one, a green corporate image sells well and most likely will become even more important in dollar terms as global warming increases. Secondly, there is lots of evidence that energy audits lead to cost savings (if followed up by energy saving actions) and therefore increase profit margins. So, businesses win on both sides of their ledger. But of course, the planet hopefully will win as well, even if only indirectly. Let’s first though see whether these green announcements are more than just PR.

[source: InfoWorld]

Normally I don’t write a second post on a group, but having listened to Silent Shout by The Knife a few times now, I can’t help but raving about it. The Knife and Deep Cuts (their previous albums) were great Indie Electropop, but what they’ve done with Silent Shout is simply awesome. They could have polished the pop hooks of those former albums even further, creating a sleek dance floor monster, but instead they made a number of choices that lifted them above the world of mediocrity and superficiality represented by most modern pop. First, following their same move from 2003, they did not to attend the Swedish Grammy Awards ceremonies in 2007 where they scooped up no less than six awards - I guess they were still protesting against male domination in the music industry. Second, they defied gravity and left the highway to mass adoration by creating Silent Shout.

Allmusic metaphorically compared Deep Cuts and Silent Shout with the “northern lights” vs. a “sunless, vast expanse of tundra”, which is spot on. Silent Shout certainly sounds more sinister, deranged and chilling yet mischievous, filling you with a yearning sense of unease. It’s not shocking, like a well-made horror movie - it rather has a floating darkness that draws you in. “This becomes already quite clear by opener and lead single, ‘Silent Shout’, which is built around a droning one-note bassline, a maddeningly random synth arpeggio blipping all over the place and a choir of nightmarish pitch-shifted voices chanting about their teeth falling out.” At the same time, Karin Dreijer’s vocals are full of trickery, creating the overall effect of “a parade of insane guest vocalists detailing their messed up lives. It’s pop gone wrong, about people gone wrong.” [Rabid in Stylus]

There are more upbeat songs (”Neverland”, “One Hit” or “Marble House”) but they too seem to be focused on creating a certain bleak, sinister atmosphere and sustaining it. But again, despite the often creepy sound, there is also an immense beauty in this music. “One Hit” is quite playful and cartoonish but it’s not exactly funny, “Neverland” has a stabbing synth-brass riff running through it, and “Marble House”, apparently inspired by the classic French film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, embodies doomed romance with its gliding melody and brittle castanet rhythms. The mournful, icy synth noises that slowly expand at the beginning of “The Captain” are heartbreaking and, like in “Forest Families” and “Still Light”, have a hushed, eerie intensity. “From Off to On”, dealing with voyeurism and TV addicts, is similarly affecting, while never developing beyond tranquil, almost-whispered harmonies. On “Like a Pen,” Dreijer describes a character’s struggle with body issues with disturbing clarity: “Sharpen my body like a pen…something too small for a lens”; on “Na Na Na” Karin sounds like an alien diva, with her whimsical, detailed lyrics having a darker cast, offering glimpses of strange people in stranger situations, while “Still Light” closes things with a low, droning harmony and a childlike voice describing a patient staring at the ceiling of a hospital..

All up, Silent Shout is much darker and at the same time more ambitious than The Knife’s previous work; the album finds the Dreijers stretching their sonics and downplaying the overt poppiness of Deep Cuts and The Knife. It’s creative and inventive, and more striking than ever. It draws you into into a twisted little world, ornately strange and yet compelling. Right now I find myself returning to it again and again.

[see also Allmusic and Stylus Magazine]

More images at Sunbelt-Software.

I don’t wanna come out of the closet as a Nokia fan - I don’t think I’d ever commit myself to any product to such an extend! But this is a great website! The Best Page In The Universe! And Maddox seems to have a lot good points on his side against the iPhone. There’s one thing though to be said against Nokia’s E series (as Stephen Fry pointed out): it’s outrightly ugly! But design alone doesn’t make a good phone, and neither does a marketing show to the idolisers. Even if you don’t agree with Maddox at all, he nevertheless provides a good reminder, which I’m more and more hardwiring into my brain especially since I live on borrowed time with my current phone - literally): before you buy, detach from the hype! Not always easy nowadays …

	iPhone	Nokia E70
Resolution:	320×480	352×416
Storage:	4 or 8 gigs (fixed).	Unlimited. The E70 can use hot-swappable 2 GB mini SD cards, so you can have as much storage as you want.
Can customize ringtones with your own mp3s:
Can record video:
Screen turns into a smudgy piece of shit after a few minutes of use:
Can send MMS messages:
You have to send your phone to Apple when the battery dies and risk getting your phone lost, stolen, or damaged in transit:	Yes.	No.
Plays MP3s:
Holds your phone hostage to Apple for new software updates because Apple won’t allow everyone to develop applications for it:
Voice dialing:
Can record voice:
Instant messaging:	No.	Yes.
Can’t do fundamental tasks like copy & paste text:	Yes.	No. Double negative, bitches!