Gum (口香糖) Shoes

Dutch fashion and shoe label Explicit Wear is hoping to solve one of life's sticky situations the annoyance of stepping in deserted chewing gum on the pavement-while helping to keep Amsterdam's city streets clean. The brand has partnered with local marketing organization Amsterdam and another firm Gumdrop to create a limited-edition sneaker for adults made from recycled gum that's been removed from the city's pavements.

According to the project, more than 3 million pounds of gum end up on Amsterdam's streets and sidewalks each year, costing the city millions of dollars to clean up. The designer, Anna Bullus, created a pink, bubble-shaped bin-itself made from recycled gum, mixed with other recycled materials-to begin to collect the gum on central city streets, train stations, and other places with heavy foot traffic. When the bin is full, the whole container goes to a machine. The gum and bin are then recycled together and made into little balls that can be used in the same type of producing equipment that usually works with regular plastic.

Priced at around $332, the shoes will be shown for the first time sometime in June. Available for preorder now, the Gumshoe sneakers-offered in both a bubblegum pink and a black colorway-feature durable rubber outsoles (外底) fashioned from recyclable material (called Gum-Tec) produced by Gumdrop, 20 percent of which are made from gum.

Every four pairs of shoes require nearly 2.2 pounds of gum. A map of Amsterdam is carved into the bottom of the shoes to remind people of the littering problem. Even better, the sneakers actually smell like bubblegum-without the annoying stickiness.

To help spread their message, Gumshoe's creators are hoping to expand the project to other major cities around the world.

JP Morgan Chase, the world’s biggest fossil fuel funder, has noted in an internal report leaked to Extinction Rebellion that the company “cannot rule out catastrophic outcomes where human life as we know it is threatened.”

Most of the science inside the report is not shocking to the casual reader, but the analysis is most concerned about climate change caused by fossil fuel. These include possibilities like the sudden collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which would send sea levels more than 10 feet higher than current levels and displace millions of humans. Another terrible case is that the melting permafrost sends more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing more warming, and in turn more the melting of ice sheets, and carbon emissions. Of course, these are already happening. The real danger behind the motivation for this internal report lies in the possibility that the Earth’s climate could reach a tipping point.

Many believe the emergence of the internal report should serve as proof convincing enough for world leaders to take collective and decisive action. However, the attitude of many world governments towards the development of fossil fuel can surely make the global situation even worse for future generations now.

However, the report doesn’t mention other banks, or even JP Morgan itself, even though these institutions are often the ones blamed in enabling this crisis, according to a Gizmodo report. “Changes are occurring at the micro level, involving shifts in behavior by individuals, companies and investors,” says the Extinction Rebellion report. It goes on to suggest that these micro-level changes “will push emissions in the right direction,” but says nothing about government oversight, or actions that many believe is necessary to reverse the current course of the climate crisis.

It’s still half way even though one has made 90 miles out of a 100-mile journey. Humans may still fail the journey if they doesn’t persist to the last. Therefore, something will have to change at some point if the human race is going to survive.

Before Sydney’s 2000 Olympic Games, Eric Moussambani had never set foot outside of his home country, the tiny nation of Equatorial Guinea where most citizens get by on less than one dollar a day.

Having secured his entry into the Games with the help of a wild card, Moussambani set about teaching himself to swim. He had no coach, no lanes, and no ways of tracking his efforts. The only pool available belonged to a local hotel, and they allowed him to use it between 5 and 6 am, just three times a week. Before Sydney he had never sel eyes on an Olympic pool, let alone swum in one.

When the day came, the underdog captured the hearts of the Australian audience, and although he flagged in the second half of the race, with commentator Adrian Moorhouse remarking that “this guy doesn’t look like he’s going to make it”, he completed the heat with a time of 1 minute 53 seconds.

It was the slowest time in Olympic history, but a personal best.

International media named him “Eric the Eel” and he was hailed(赞扬) as the embodiment of the Olympic ideal that it’s not the winning, but the taking part that counts.

When he was interviewed, still dripping from his exhausting feat, Moussambani remarked, “The first 50 metres was OK, but in the second 50 metres I got a bit worried and thought I wasn’t going to make it. Then something happened. I thought it was all the people getting behind me. I was really, really proud. It’s still a great feeling for me and I loved when everyone applauded me at the end. I felt like I had won a medal or something.”

Moussambani is now the head coach of the Equatorial Guinea swimming squad and thanks to his efforts, the country has since built two 50m swimming pools.