cool product :: the minimalist watering can

The challenge with conventional watering cans? Ensuring that the water hits its target and not everywhere else.. They're also pretty unsightly, so why not make a watering can thatlooks like a work of art too? French-born Pascal Charmolu came up with the antidote: This beautifully streamlined, practical design. Made of 18-0 stainless steel, this can features a flexible silicone hose with a built-in magnet that allows it to be attached to the can’s body when not in use. When watering your plants, simply hold the metal cylinder with one hand and the hose in the other. Move the metal cylinder up or down to cease water flow. Pascal is the other half of Born in Sweden, a new design house from Europe that has just opened up in the North American market.A pretty slick looking watercan, don't ya think? Now the only problem left is which color to choose?

It's very JUST COOL!

via grassrootsmodern

food :: bottled tap water

I'ts nice to see city tap water finally being bottled, especially when it's New York City tap water which incidentally happens to be the best tasting (award winning!) tap water.

Tap'dNY is a New York City bottled water company that serves up it's local H20 in the coolest looking water bottles yet. The company doesn't need to travel the world over seeking the finest tasting spring water and packaging it in gimmicky plastic containers when it's right there for the taking in their own backyard (and kitchen sink). Tap'dNY has been working with NYC’s public water system to source the world's best tasting tap water.The water is purified through reverse osmosis and then bottled locally, cutting out the air polluting, gas guzzling transportation miles.

They offer an honest and local alternative to thirsty New Yorkers, giving them a smarter choice: to drink their own (award winning) water. Me, I've always been pro tap water . And why not? Its JUST COOL!

green water...

These days everyone is drinking bottled water. And every restaurant, event and vending machine is cashing in on this so called "healthy" consumer trend. But just how healthy is it and which is best, bottled or tap? In actuality, the United States--and most of the developed world in general--has some of the finest water in the world running through its taps. I have and will (after reading a few articles) continue drinking my "not so cool" tap water, and from a glass - not a plastic bottle. The fact is my water tastes great, it's convenient, its cold enough and, ok I'll be honest here, IT'S FREE. And from what I'm reading it may be better for me than I knew! Yup - read on...

From Union of Concerned Scientist ...Bottled water manufacturers’ marketing campaigns capitalize on isolated instances of contaminated public drinking water supplies by encouraging the perception that their products are purer and safer than tap water. But the reality is that tap water is actually held to more stringent quality standards than bottled water, and some brands of bottled water are just tap water in disguise. What’s more, our increasing consumption of bottled water—more than 22 gallons per U.S. citizen in 2004 according to the Earth Policy Institute—fuels an unsustainable industry that takes a heavy toll on the environment....read more here

And here's a great site I happened upon. You can go here and check your city/towns water purity ranking. To help see where your's ranks, the Environmental Working Group has created the National Tap Water Database, which looks at more than 22 million water quality tests and organizes the results such that you can search by city, state, or by contaminant, to see what's in your water and what health issues are related to each substance.

Still a tad leary about throwing out that plastic bottle of mystery spring water for a sparkling clear glass of refreshing cold tap water?( oh, and did you know that only about 10 percent of water bottles are recycled, leaving the rest in landfills where it takes thousands of years for the plastic to decompose?)

Then take an extra precaution if your not sold on tap yet. I got an email from my friend, Doug Cloud over at dcblog.net

Doug wrote - I own this pitcher and it is fabulous. stick the adapter on your
faucet, snap the hose onto it, and fill the pitcher. much better than
having that huge PUR unit. the Clear20 pitcher is both affordable and
attractive and the filters last a long time.

The Clear 2 0 (ingenious water filtration pitcher):
the best price I found was here at Walmart.com

So for now, I think I'll stick with my tap water. It's JUST COOL