It is unlikely you ever will get a chance to use the “Green Johnny”, a male preservative based on eco-friendly extracted natural latex from the Amazônia rainforest. Maybe when you ever visit Brazil during the carnival or one of the holiday centres you might be offered one of the 120 million condoms courtesy of the federal government of Brazil. Brazil’s Public Health Ministry distributes the free condoms as part of its successful Health Programs to combat STD/Aids.
Up till now the approx. 120 million condoms are imported from China, South Korea and Thailand, made from cultivated rubber trees. That will change soon.
Natex, a Brazilian company founded by the Public Health Ministry and the government of the federal state of Acre, will manufacture male preservatives from pure natural latex extracted from the Amazon rainforest in a sustainable and eco-friendly way. The condoms will be solely sold to the federal government for its national program to combat STD/Aids.
The expected initial production of condoms will be 100 million pieces a year. The factory, the only one in the world to use natural latex as raw material, will have a future capacity of 270 million condoms a year. The construction of the factory is based upon sustainable, social and environmental development.
Natex will create 150 direct jobs and employ 700 native families of the Chico Mendes reservation for the supply of the raw material. It is estimated that in the Amazon rainforest of Acre some 70.000 native rubber tappers are active.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Condoms From Brazil
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Shoes That Tweet
You’ve MySpaced, Facebooked, Plurked, and Tumblred. Tweeting your life in 140 characters or less was only the next logical move. But if all this public posturing still rates as undersharing, take heart: You can now microblog with every step you take. Ricardo Nascimento, an artist and multimedia producer from Brazil, has created the Rambler, a pair of sensor-equipped sneakers that tracks movement and then blabs about it on Twitter
EVERY MOVE YOU MAKE
Depending on the pressure exerted on the soles of the shoes, each footfall is translated as a “tap” or “.” This information is then transmitted via the magic of Bluetooth to a cellphone, which, in turn, updates the Rambler’s Twitter page. “Following these postings, one can know if the wearer is walking or not and also predict his speed,” says Nascimento.
Depending on the pressure exerted, each step is translated as a “tap” or “.”
The Rambler isn’t in earnest, however—it’s more of a satirical statement on our navel-gazing Internet culture and the glut of completely pointless information circulating the Twitterverse. Now excuse us, it’s time for a java break—and, by God, 1,180 of our closest friends need to know about it
