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Environment
Designers Take on Homeland Security, Lemur Named for John Cleese, Get Your Degree in Bra Studies, Stork Gets Prosthesis, Tiff over Carrageenan
November 28, 2005
| A version of this story appeared in
Volume 83, Issue 48
Designers take on homeland security
Fashion mavens want to be safe and secure, too. So the New York Museum of Modern Art has assembled more than 300 contemporary products and prototypes in an exhibit called Safe: Design Takes On Risk. MoMA chose objects designed to protect body and mind from dangerous or stressful circumstances, respond to emergencies, ensure clarity of information, and provide a sense of comfort and security.
Reviewing the exhibit, set to run through Jan. 2, 2006, the men's fashion magazine DNR says the show is mostly one big celebration of shape and ingenuity, crammed with goofy-looking anthropomorphisms, cartoony colors, and wacky responses to design problems. Objects on display include a cushy-looking bulletproof duvet; a swan-feather, bullet-resistant blouson; and a red, tongue-shaped, padded pod designed for protestors to wear as protection against police batons.
Lemur named for John Cleese
Researchers at the University of Zurich have named a recently discovered species of lemur after the British comedian John Cleese. The Avahi cleesei weighs less than 1 kg and was discovered in Madagascar in 1990 by university anthropologists.
Though Cleese is better known as Monty Python's Minister of Silly Walks, he has taken the plight of these endangered animals to heart and has made a documentary-Operation Lemur with John Cleese.
Get your degree in bra studies
The Chinese have become significant competitors in a number of industries. Now they are serious about building a better bra, according to the Associated Press. Hong Kong's Polytechnic University is offering a degree in bra studies.
Top Form, a Chinese firm that makes 60 million bras a year for labels including Victoria's Secret, Playtex, and Maidenform, has a bra lab at its factory. The firm has experimented with ways to boost busts. Air-filled bras tend to get flat like tires. Oil-filled bras tend to be heavy and expensive. The firm is now trying fiberfill.
Stork gets prosthesis
A Japanese dentist has attached a plastic resin prosthesis to the end of an oriental white stork's beak. Zookeepers at Omoriyama Zoo in Akita say the beak snapped off after getting stuck in cage wiring. Since then, the stork has lost weight because it couldn't catch live fish easily. And because of stress, the stork couldn't live with its female breeding mate. According to an Associated Press report, dentist Toshiaki Chiba attached the resin prosthesis using a dental adhesive.
Tiff over carrageenan
To clear the air, the city of Rockland, Maine, put off a decision on allowing FMC Biopolymers to continue to dispose of seaweed waste in the city's landfill at a bargain price.
FMC extracts carrageenan from the seaweed, leaving behind a mixture of seaweed particles, perlite, water, lime, salt, sand, and rock. When landfill workers do not promptly spread the waste, it creates a widespread odor. And that is just what happened as the scenic New England city on Penobscot Bay was set to renegotiate its agreement with FMC.
According to the Bangor Daily News, one resident argued that the odor issue could be solved if the company paid the same disposal fee as other businesses. FMC has been paying a fee of $3.50 per cu yard, while the general public pays $75. Other residents say their beef is not over the tipping fee but over the smell, which recurs periodically, and they believe something ought to be done.
Carrageenan, a gelling and thickening agent, has really gummed up city government. City Councilman Brian Harden says: It's not a good time to bash the city's highest taxpayer. Yet it is not a good idea to ignore the concerns of its residents.
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This week's column was written by Marc Reisch. Please send comments and suggestions to newscripts@acs.org.
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