Candle Night Summer Solstice 2007

Japan is doing its part in the effort to save energy as Friday night witnessed the Candle Night Summer Solstice 2007. The event was launched in 2003 to foster an understanding of global environment and to encourage participation in the effort to cap the energy spending. The country who is host to the Kyoto Protocol is itself trailing behind its commitment to reduce the greenhouse gas emission.

The Mainichi Shimbun reported that ". . . about 20,000 light-emitting diodes on the outer walks of the Omotesando Hills building in Tokyo's Shibuya-ku were turned off at 8 p.m. on Friday, and replaced with some 500 candles in plastic tubes. Subdued lights from the candles lit up Omotesando street through the windows. . . . This year, the owners of over 60,000 buildings usually lit up at night are expected to participate in the annual event, and organizers are urging households to participate. About 630 related events are expected to be held by Sunday."

No to This, but Yes to That!

Junk Mail. You know 'em. In the U.S., supposedly one is able to write to an authority dealing with this issue, somewhere in Colorado, to request that your name and address be withheld from junk mailing; but despite my doing that more than a decade ago, it never seemed to have worked. Even spam filters work better in keeping the junk mail away.

During my stroll in the city today (in Amsterdam, that is), I saw tiny stickers affixed to people's mail slot. On it are two options: the left one states whether or not you want unaddressed advertising, while the right part gives you the option of whether or not you want catalogs. The home owner gets to choose: Yes or No to either part. As you can see in the pictures above, one house decides it does not want unaddressed advertising mail (Nee or No), but welcomes catalogs (Ja or Yes); while the other house wants neither of the mailing (Nee, Nee, or No, No). It only wants personal mails and bills.

Unfortunately I never found out whether or not the system worked. Any Amsterdamers out there who could verify this?