Sunday Links

The Bird Dress by Studio Habeas Corpus - a dress you can make from 5 used t-shirts (via Unconsumption)

My food hero Michael Pollan is interviewed about "how America got so screwed up about food." It's highly relevant to Australia, too.

Part of the reason we have an eating disorder is because of the ideology of "nutritionism" we bring to food. There’s a long history behind this "scientific" approach.

Planning any last minute Christmas shopping in the next few days? Eco Warrior Princess shares 14 Eco Tips to Help You Avoid Excessive Consumerism This Christmas. Her blog archives are great reading, too.

Researchers Have Made Socks That Use Urine to Create Electricity. That's innovative. (Gizmodo)

The Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal always features tongue-in-cheek articles. This article, "Parliamentary privilege", about mortality in members of parliament (in which MPs have longer life expectancies than the general population, and Conservative MPs longer than Labour MPs), has a serious conclusion - education is an important determinant of health.

Sunday Links

• I think it's fun seeing fashion week looks recreated from charity clothing stores, as in the above video from London's Back of the Wardrobe
• Still in the UK,  Treading My Own Path shares her eco-inspiration from travelling to the UK and Europe
• I love the concept of building schools cheaply with rubbish-stuffed plastic bottles as insulation. (Also love the name of the nonprofit, Hug It Forward.) via Unconsumption
• More upcycling: German Artist Tino Seubert Dyes Clothing With Airborne Pollution (Ecoteurre) 
• Clothes that charge your smartphone? Yes please. (The Guardian)
• Big Food with regional flavour: how Australia's food lobby works. (The Conversation)
• Did you participate in Zero Waste Week? Me neither. But The Double Life of Mrs M did and shares some advice here.
• On the same theme, The Rogue Ginger shares her top movies about plastic that will change your life. 
• I previously promised a post about evidence-based charitable donations. That still hasn't happened but the Australian Medical Students Association (AMSA) Global Health Conference gives a good summary of the issue.
• Philanthropy: reclaiming the "P-word" for a modern world. (The Guardian)
• What happened to the Make Poverty History movement? (Sydney Morning Herald)

Sunday links

video via Unconsumption

For the past six months, I have been collecting links to share on this blog. It is a very long list. Here are some of the more recent reads:

• "Admire success. But do not praise excess." 7 Reasons Why We Should Stop Praising Excess by Joshua Becker. (Becoming Minimalist)
• I would like to master The Elegant Art of Not Giving A Shit. Imagine how much worthwhile stuff I could get done. (Raptitude)
• Lifestyle blogger Sarah Wilson has written a Slow Food and Outdoors Guide to Perth and Fremantle. While I am certainly not planning to quit sugar (she authored the best-selling I Quit Sugar program), I do enjoy Sarah's blog and will be trying out some of her recommendations of places to visit in my home town. It's worth checking out the comments for further suggestions. I'm excited to try some new places that popped up while I was out of town for six months.
• Australian blogger The Rogue Ginger recommends some sites for collaborative consumption.
• 'The Great Fish Swap': How America Is Downgrading Its Seafood Supply - NPR interview with Paul Green, author of American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood, about how the US exports a lot of its best quality fish (eg wild Alaska salmon) and imports poorer quality seafood.
• Two Economic Concepts That Might Just Save Us ( or at least help us make better decisions) by Aussie doctor Alessandro R Demaio. (The Conversation)
• A supermarket in the UK is planning to power one of its stores completely off food waste. I hope it works and becomes standard practice. I wonder if other businesses could be powered off their waste? (Unconsumption)
• While we're on food wasted, closer to home, a "campaign for ugly fruits aims to end food waste". Personally, I prefer ugly fruit and vegetables. They usually taste better and I like ugly things in general. Wabi sabi. (ABC) The video at the top of the post addresses the same subject.