So much time has passed since Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) became a hit, but its message is timeless. Consider everything you’ve been through in the past decade: heartbreaks, loss of loved ones, friendships ending, financial troubles. But there are some overall points of life that remain a constant throughout our journeys.

Live freely. Celebrate Valentine’s Day if that’s what you do. Or don’t. Take a deep breath. Stand on your head. Enjoy!

- Leigh Shulman and Candice Walsh. Feature photo by Let’s Eat.

1. Here’s a sink dressed up in pastel colors and checkerboard print found in a chalet in Alsace. Photo by socaloca

2.Part of me wants to clean up the muck splattered all over, but mostly, I’m taken in by the collision of color. Photo by Philo Nordlund.

3. A decrepit sink in an abandoned house on the eastern plains of Colorado. Photo by vjstark.

4. This sink comes from an exhibit not-surprisingly titled “Everything But the Kitchen Sink” at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County, South Carolina. The original sink-art by Keith Tolen is called Sink-e-delic. The photographer calls his sink photo Testing Twittergram. Photo by raggedj.

5. Sink graffiti, from Paris. The photographer explains how you find them all over the city in different colors. Photo by reel aesthete.

6. You never know what you’ll pass along the way. This sink looks like it somehow belongs all shiny, clean and among the weeds. Photo by DPhotoOP.

7.Flamingos in the sink. Of course there are. Photo by ricko.

8. Underneath the sink. The parts you rarely notice unless they stop working. Photo by jhhwild.

9. Every sink should have a window over it, so your eyes can drift to the outside world while you’re finishing those mundane chores. The photographer calls the photo “Canning Day,” but it’s the striking blue scene outside the window you notice first. That and the evil strawberry on the wall. Photo by MizMagee.

10. This sink took part in the 2008 Museum of Modern Art exhibit titled “Home Delivery.” Want to see more from this exhibit? Photo by Scott Norsworthy.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

These photographs attempt to take the mundane, boring kitchen sink and turn it into something different. Do they succeed? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

It was no surprise when we did a search for the word “Life” on Flickr we found ourselves buried deep in a mass of imagery. As we sorted through the photos, trying to choose only 10-15 images to represent the range in the “meaning of life,” we began realizing our goal was impossible.

We found ourselves automatically dividing our thoughts into categories. Some of people. Some of lifestyle choices. Others of non-human life. Still life. Biodiversity of life. Life and death. On and on.

Finally, we had to make choices. In many ways, it felt random. Why the photo of a man wearing a LIFE t-shirt over the pro-life woman with tape over her mouth and the word “life” written on it? Why the statue outside of Columbia University over a still life painting with a pewter frog?

But that’s how it is, you cannot do and experience the entire world and all it has to offer. You can only do your best at the moment with the information you have. You can only exist, appreciate, rail against, love or hate what you have. The crux is in making a choice.

That, right there, is life.

-Leigh Shulman and Candice Walsh

1. An exhibit in Chicago’s Field Museum, showing the diversity of life with the addition of a little girl. Variety is key. Photo by Brian Finifter.

2. The Dalai Lama’s Instructions for Life, organized in an impressive tree-chart. Just about everything you’ll ever need to know. Photo by pshutterbug.

3. Apartment Life, even at home things get upside down. Find balance. Photo by shoothead.

4. She Lives in Nurnberg, a portrait of waiting. This leaning figure with laced fingers is in no rush. Photo by egomaniackid.

5. Life Force, taken at Columbia University. Sometimes you just need to look at things from a different perspective. Photo by llahbocaj.

6. Thug for Life, life-sized graffiti. Art comes in all forms, you just have to look for it. Photo by silverfox09.

7.Colour Your Life, crosswalk art. Why not add some colour? Photo by zigazou76.

8. Way of Life. Stay true to your beliefs, discard the ones that don’t fit. Photo by Paraschiv Alexandru.

9. Soho Life, a Corner Shop Chorus Line. The caption says it all: “This lot had just been singing some kind of show tune, inside this small shop. I had my camera poised & as soon as they spotted me we had a bit of a showbiz moment, it’s a Soho thing.” Dare to be bold. Photo by fast eddie 42.

10. Fill Your Life With Croutons, graffiti from Melbourne. Because why the hell not? Instincts matter. Photo by s2art.

11. Life. I didn’t choose this image for the final cut the first time around, but it had to be included. Sit. Close eyes. Smile. Enjoy. Repeat. Photo by rbackowski.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION

Do these photos represent Life to you? How so or how not? Try your own Flickr search, give us the links to photos you would have chosen to include in this photo essay.

Feature photo by petaflickr. Photo of Sexiest Vegetarian finalist Joan Jett by Spacehindu

How do you sex up vegetarianism? You give it a poll, courtesy of Peta2. Voting has begun for 2009’s Sexiest Vegetarian award, a saucy affair that pits celebri-tarians against each other for the title of Most Soy Friendly.

Peta2 is Peta’s organization geared towards high school and college-aged activists, designed to appeal to a Perez/Paris-fueled generation. The contest reminds us of the “meat-free hotties” who are “shunning flesh” in the Entertainment World and points out that vegetarianism is a great way for celebs to “keep their tummies flat.”

Peta2 is also running Cutest Vegetarian Alive contest, where normal folks are allowed to out-vegetarian each other. Christopher McClure, a finalist from New Hampshire, wants everyone to know that the “lack of cruelty within my system has shaped my face with cuteness and nothing else!”

Winners will be announced on June 8th.

Feature photo by Andres Rueda. Photo above by TheTruthAbout…

A credit card can be your best friend when you need to buy a shiny new object that you really can’t afford, or your worst enemy when you’ve surpassed your credit limit and your bank is trying to rip you off as punishment.

Love them or hate them, credit cards have become a permanent fixture on the financial landscape of most developed countries. Yet we often take them for granted and rarely consider how we feel about them and why.

This article looks at countries from both the developed and developing world, and the differences in how credit cards are used and viewed. We discover why Americans love their flexible friends, why the Japanese are really not interested in paying with plastic, and why India has witnessed such a backlash against the spread of credit.

Japan

Despite Japan’s status as the world’s most technologically advanced nation, it remains a strongly cash-based society. Its use of credit cards lags way behind most developed countries and many developing nations too.

It’s common for smaller shops and restaurants not to accept credit cards and there are few 24-hour ATMs, even in large cities. On average, only four credit card transactions are undertaken per person per year!

Photo by the_toe_stubber.

Banks have tried every trick in the book to convert the Japanese to credit cards, but to no avail.

Significant barriers to such a conversion include the high costs charged to Japanese merchants that accept cards and high telecommunication costs, which impede responses to fraudulent transactions.

The traditional role of women in Japanese society has also been cited as a cause for the country’s low credit card penetration figures. Men and women think differently about crime, technology and other factors that influence a preference for cash or card.

Perhaps if women played the same role in Japanese society as they do in the USA or Australia, carrying a credit card would prove more popular than having a huge wad of cash in your pocket.

China

The use of credit cards in China is growing rapidly, in line with the country’s economy, income levels and middle-class population. In 2008, China had 104.73 million credit cards in circulation, a 92.9% increase on the previous year. 15 to 20 million more cards will be issued in 2009.

The Chinese were once famous for their frugality, with saving rates of around 40%, but not any more. Saving rates among today’s young, urban Chinese population – those driving the economy – are effectively zero. This demographic is finance-savvy and hungry for credit cards.

India

Credit card use has grown steadily over the past 5 years in an increasingly consumerist India. Economic reforms and growth have made foreign and domestic goods more affordable for the upper and middle-classes, while improvements to the country’s payment infrastructure (more ATMs and POS terminals) have made credit cards easier to use.

Nevertheless, only 4% of Indians own a credit card, one of the lowest rates in the world. It seems that traditional values of thrift and prudence have endured here.

Photo by Carol Mitchell.

In addition to this cultural bias, high interest rates (typically 24% per year), high fees, hidden charges and poor customer service have all acted to dissuade Indians from using credit cards.

Lenders maintain that high rates and fees are necessary in a country without a robust credit checking system, where account holders can disappear without a trace.

One reason for the high charges that banks don’t give so readily, however, is that a large proportion of prudent Indians pay their full credit balance monthly, thus depriving card issuers of interest earnings from revolving credit.

United Kingdom

The UK has had a long love affair with the credit card, ever since the Barclaycard was launched in 1966, becoming the first credit card available outside of the US. Today, cards are more popular in the UK than ever, with the average UK consumer owning 2.4 credit cards (to go with their 2.4 children!).

Credit card fraud has become an increasing concern for UK residents and has received a high level of media coverage in recent years. In 2004, the cost of credit card fraud was particularly high: estimated at 500 million. In response, the UK and Ireland implemented the EMV standard (known as Chip and PIN) for credit and debit card payments.

This means that all credit cards now come with a built-in microchip and a cardholder must supply a PIN number rather than a signature during a transaction.

United States of America

The USA is the credit card’s ancestral home. It was here that the first merchant credit scheme was used in the 1920s and where the concept of different merchants using the same card was founded by the managers of Diners Club, in 1950.

Photo by moacirpdsp.

The USA is the most credit-card-intensive country in the world, with an average of 5 cards per person. US consumers use credit cards to pay for one quarter of all their retail purchases.

The disjointed nature of the US banking system has helped promote credit cards there. Historically, Americans found it easier to use credit rather than direct banking facilities when travelling interstate. The use of credit cards has now become completely entrenched in the US’s ultra consumerist society.

Brazil

In the recent past, Brazil’s unstable economy has acted against the widespread introduction of credit cards. Corruption made it difficult to enforce contracts, so debtors didn’t pay and creditors didn’t lend. Banks found it very hard to check potential customers’ credit ratings because of the lack of skilled labour and the high cost of technology.

The potential credit card market was small anyway, due to low and unevenly distributed incomes. Brazilians had nothing against credit cards, but risks were high and so, in turn, were interest and default rates.

In 2009, Brazil is a very different country. It now has the eighth largest economy in the world, thanks to many years of protectionist economics and a highly skilled IT workforce. The nation’s top three credit card issuers (Banco Itau, Banco Bradesco and Banco de Brasil) are furnishing credit cards in ever-increasing numbers: in 2008, there were 261 million credit cards and a further 210 million debit cards in circulation in Brazil.

Canada

Despite Canada’s proximity to the USA, its attitudes to credit cards are very different. Here, debit cards (which Canadians often refer to as ‘Interac’ after the Interac Direct Payment system) are far more popular.

In fact, Canadians use debit cards in more transactions than credit cards or even cash, making them world leaders in debit card use, with an average of 71.7 debit card transactions made per person, per year.

Photo by nicolasnova.

The many Canadians that do opt for a credit card will find that charges are far less hidden than they are in most other countries. The Government of Canada maintains its own list of fees, features, interest rates and reward programmes associated with the vast majority of credit cards available. Its database is published quarterly on the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada website. There’s even an interactive tool that will find the best credit card for you.

Australia

There are 13 million credit cards and a further 28 million debit cards circulating among Australia’s 21 million strong population. The popularity of credit cards is considered to be a central cause of many Australians’ debt. In May 2008, credit card debt in the country reached a record high: the average balance on each individual credit card account was a staggering $3,299.

Identity theft, inextricably linked to credit card use, is common in Australia, a country with one of the highest incidences of cyber crime in the world. 1.1 million Australians have experienced identity theft and it costs the economy $1 billion each year.

Perhaps the stereotype of the laid back Australian is true: research shows that 70% have still not taken any steps to protect their identity.

Community Connection

How do you use / abuse credit cards? Please share your comments below.