We Heart This: Best Reads of the Week

EcoSalon’s selected favorite reads of the week.

Want to know what the EcoSalon team has been reading this week? Check in every Saturday or stay up to date with our daily EcoSalon reading list in the We Heart This section.

If The Clothes Fit: A Feminist Take On Fashion, at Ms. blog

the team of researchers led by Dr Philippa Darbre from the University of Reading in the UK, found that virtually all—99 percent—of the tissue samples collected from women participating in the study contained at least one paraben, and 60 percent of the samples contained no less than five parabens.

Breast Cancers Study Finds Parabens In Virtually All Tumors, by Jill Ettinger at Organic Authority

Even with the sultan at the front door with a sword and the executioner at the back door with a sewing kit, they still wanted their daily cup of joe. And that’s the history of coffee in a bean skin: Old habits die hard.

Drink Coffee? Off With Your Head, by Adam Cole at The Salt

The term “smart cities” is a bit ambiguous. Some people choose a narrow definition – i.e. cities that use information and communication technologies to deliver services to their citizens. I prefer a broader definition: Smart cities use information and communication technologies (ICT) to be more intelligent and efficient in the use of resources, resulting in cost and energy savings, improved service delivery and quality of life, and reduced environmental footprint – all supporting innovation and the low-carbon economy.

The Top 10 Smart Cities On The Planet, by Boyd Cohen at Co.EXIST

Back then, people took the bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?

Anyone over the age of 35 should read this, as I copied this from a friends status, at Gaasedal’s Weblog

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Image: swruler

Mike Sowden

Mike Sowden is a freelance writer based in the north of England, obsessed with travel, storytelling and terrifyingly strong coffee. He has written for online & offline publications including Mashable, Matador Network and the San Francisco Chronicle, and his work has been linked to by Lonely Planet, World Hum and Lifehacker. If all the world is a stage, he keeps tripping over scenery & getting tangled in the curtain - but he's just fine with that.