In times where saving money is also important, you should remember that by going green you will save some green as well- recycle your clothes with Threadbanger, learn how to  green your house appliances with Green House , learn some useful green tips with Ideal Bite, and grow your own vegetables with the Garden Girl.

And because we do care about the environment and we’re happy to be providing simple solutions for people to save energy and time, we heart the Discovery Channel too!

Commemorating the Stonewall Riots, many Pride Parades take place in the month of June, so in the last weeks, we’ve seen how the cities of San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, NYC, Berlin, Tel Aviv, and many others have colored up the streets and added some cheerful spirit to the daily life.

And this is not over-July and August will witness the birth of rainbows in cities like Copenhagen, Munich, London, Madrid, Vancouver and Stockholm. So if you’re around any of these cities, don’t be shy-go out, be proud! You can even make your own flag:

Just keep it gay!

Coming from a family of just girls, my dad made it clear that he had never wished for a boys and that having three princesses was the best thing that could have ever happened to him. And still, whenever we need advice, we go to him, because, as we say to each other “he’s the best”. And it’s the best therapy: for him, I have Audrey Hepburn’s looks and Albert Einstein’s brain. And if things don’t work out for me, it’s just “because I’m too good”. Call it distorted reality, I call it love.

But when it comes to special occasions, I find myself in trouble. Despite having so many things in common and being able to talk about everything with my dad (from the origins of the Universe until the food in Buenos Aires), when it comes to presents, we never seem to choose the right present for him. The only time when I was sure that he would like what I was getting, was when I bought a copy of the Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries. But I can’t go on buying Bergman’s masterpieces and giving them to my dad for any occasion. After all, an occasion is only special if you make it special.

Like Father’s Day. For some, a commercial day, but for me, a great opportunity to tell my dad that I still think he’s the most handsome man in the world and that he will always be my hero. But words don’t make a present, so I better start thinking about another director he might like, and if I don’t find any, get my crafty side out:

Even if he doesn’t like it, he won’t have the heart to tell me so. After all, besides having Hepburn’s looks and Einstein’s brain, he thinks I’m as gifted as Van Gogh, so, how could this go wrong?

For weeks now we’ve been working at full capacity to bring you the latest version of 5min’s Smart Player – the third major release of our flagship distributable player – now sleeker, noticeably lighter, faster and above all – more customizable than ever before, making it the ideal white-label player solution for your site.

During this time and since the release of the player’s previous version, we’ve been making every effort to listen to you, our Content Partners, Distribution Partners and the 5min community itself in order to bring you the best possible player to suit your needs across every online outlet – the result is a new and improved Smart Player, armed with new customization, content delivery and monetization options for an enhanced viewing experience alongside more control over the player’s overall look and functionality.

The same all-in-one player, now with more customization options than ever before, to ensure seamless integration on your site, on your blog or any of your web pages. With such a smart, simple way to add 5min’s quality how-to video content to your site, you can now define your player, tweak and skin it, and create a custom-made video section for your site or blog – all in minutes and with a lightweight snipper of code. One of our goals was and remains to make relevant distribution of quality how-to’s a cinch – whether via the embeddable default Smart Player, through our VideoSeed product range, or our dynamic video widgets Now, with a new player in tow, we’ve also made it easier for you – publishers, bloggers, site owners and content creators – to gain maximum control over the latest Smart Player and make it totally your own.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be rolling out with the new player across our Partner websites, so keep your eyes open and let us know what you think of the changes we’ve made.

So, what’s new? Below are some of the highlights of the new 5min Smart Player:

More Display Options to Choose From:
The latest version of 5min’s flagship player is now more customizable than ever before, allowing full customization on a per-publisher level — you get total control over the display of your player, from color scheme to branding to sizing, so that you can create a player which suits your website’s needs to a tee. Publishers can also choose which Related Videos are featured within the player and how.

Lighter, Faster Player Behavior:
Now more than 3 times faster in behavior and response, 5min’s latest Smart Player is built with ActionScript 3, designed for high-level functionality and lighter, faster performance — with an initial weight of under 100K, the Smart Player has never been so impressively lightweight and sleek. 5min’s new Smart Player is event-driven, providing a higher performance rate and fine-tuned capabilities alongside a wider variety of customization options, skins, and display preferences. From shorter to loading times to record-time response, the Smart Player has never been faster to use.

Different Ratio Options:
Designed for ideal viewing in either 4:3 or 16:9 format — choose your ratio display settings according to your needs.

Better Branding & Personalization:
More possibilities than ever for content creators and publishers – now you can add a watermark logo to accompany your content in the video area itself, benefit from better branding and even opt for a permanent branded banner addition to appear right below the player.

Streamlined Ad Unit Placement:
The new Smart Player is available for use in all sizes provided via 5min’s VideoSeed range, and supplies an optimal placement of 300 x 250 ad units on your site.

Smart Ad Management:
The new Smart Player incorporates a 3rd party integrated platform for management of video ad inventory — all ads can be easily and accurately managed through this new component, providing up-to-date in-house reporting for your content and monetization of such. All player options may display all ad types and are compatible with a companion banner, for a maximum number of ad views.

Distribution Made Simple:
With the latest Smart Player, it is now more simple than ever to share videos – one click within the video player to embed, send to a friend or share through any one of social networks and web services supported.

In addition to the new and improved Smart Player, you’ll probably notice some exciting changes on our watchpage:

- We’ve made the move to a 16:9/widescreen display as default.
- Easier, more intuitive navigation — now you can easily browse your favorite categories directly from the new watchpage.
- Discovery, made simple – now more than ever it’s simple to find more of the great content you’re after, with the new watchpage tabs.

Stay tuned for the many more great and exciting changes we plan on unveiling in the coming months – we’d love to hear your comments!

When The Cult of iPod took the world by storm in late 2001, suddenly all of my extreme and tedious efforts were rendered useless – the world’s population had made the migration to individual MP3s, and music libraries left at the mercy of the shuffle. The secret to surviving this brave new world, once you get past your jewel case inhibitions? Smart tags, with which you could easily look up and find music in your collection – no matter how deep you buried it, easily create playlists according to genre, artist, album, year or just about anything else. And how could we forget the glorious vanity of skimming through your iTunes albums’ artwork?

However, people don’t walk around toting baskets filled with goodies, and life ain’t exactly a picnic – sometimes, even tags are missing in action when you desperately need them. Sure, you could – in theory – spend hours or possibly days manually fixing all those missing tags in your iTunes stash, but come on, this is the 21st century we’re in. Enter FixTunes, and you’ve got yourself a sweet little solution that mostly does the job.

FixTunes is completely automated, meaning you don’t need to overwork your fingers by typing, and is quite flexible, allowing you to either go song by song and approve the new information it locates for your tracks and albums, or to just sit back and let the magic happen. Of course, nothing’s perfect – this will become clear when you try to look up information for covers or remixes of original tracks, or bands who are pretty much doomed to obscurity, but all in all, this is a sweet deal. To work some Mary Poppins magic on your iTunes collection, just check out this handy video tutorial from VitaminCM.com:

Go forth an catalog your tunes, kids! Got Mac tips or playlist suggestions? Drop us a line via email or comment on this post.

That makes us realize that if there’s something we can’t start making urban legends about, is the environment, reason why every 5th of June, the world celebrates the World Environment Day (WED), searching for attention and political action from all the governments of the world.

Some people believe that by caring for the environment they will be tagged as tree huggers and will start looking like Oscar Bluth, but I can assure you this will not be the case. Just look at the guys from Green House, who show us a bunch of green tips that will help the environment. You don’t have to change your habits drastically to become a green person, you just have to remember that for everything you do, there is a green alternative:

So, on this June 5th, make your own New Green Year resolutions, and start following these green tips. After all, your planet needs you!

Ironically, it took an American movie to get me interested in Queen Victoria.  Being a Jane Austen junkie I could not resist the elaborate costumes, British accents and countryside and was immediately drawn into the 19th century. But even if corsets are not your thing, you have to admit that the queen’s life has everything it takes to tell a great story: Ruling the

British Empire at 18, falling in love and marring a first cousin, giving birth to 9 children, surviving several assassination attempts and being the longest-reigning monarch in British history.

Today, when Warhol’s 15 minutes turned into 15 seconds, everyone wants to be in the public eye, yet no one seems to leave a lasting impression, it’s quite incredible to think that we’re still celebrating the birthday of a woman who was born almost 200 years ago. Learn more about celebrating Victoria day with this insightful video, courtesy of WatchMojo.

Happy Victoria Day from 5min!

Except that these days urban gardening is hardly a rarity. Rooftops, balconies and little pieces of earth all over the city seem to get covered by flowers, herbs and veggies.  In fact in the U.S. alone, there are an estimated 10,000 community gardens.  Not to mention today’s ultimate trend setter:  First Lady Michelle Obama who planted the new White House vegetable garden with a group of fifth graders.

And so, just like Barbra Streisand told Ryan O’Neal all those years ago: “Listen kiddo, you can’t fight a tidal wave”, I too have succumbed to this earthy enthusiasm.  Recently I moved into a new place with a tiny bit of earth not covered with cement. This called for some serious action. With a little help from my friends I’m now the proud care taker of some scented mint, sassy lemon grass, shy sage and minuscule cherry tomatoes. If all goes well I might risk it and add strawberries or sweet pea later on.  I didn’t forget a small cactus, because you should never forget where you came from.

Happy Earth Day!

Adding a video to your favorite wikiHow articles can add terrific value for other readers looking to get their how-to groove on, and can often times improve the article and help in providing a visual explanation for an idea or project. Personally, I find this to be particularly true when it comes to Origami – while the written steps I usually see in paper-craft guides or magazines are great, being a little clumsy I usually need someone to walk me through the steps of an elaborate fold.

Embedding videos on wikiHow is quick and quite easy – when browsing or penning a wikiHow article, look on the left hand side navigation bar of any article. Under “Editing Tools” click on “Embed Video”, and refine your search to help locate an appropriate match from the 5min library. For a detailed step-by-step explanation of the process, please read this handy guide pieced together by the awesome folks at wikiHow. Below, you can see an example of a 5min video embedded in a wikiHow article, How to Make White Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies:

If you’re a big wikiHow fan like us, or just hang out and contribute as a part of the wikiHow community, be sure to stop by and say hello! We’d be more than happy to help you find the right 5min videos for your wikiHow articles.

Patty Moreno: This garden girl not only cares about growing beautiful flowers, but about creating a sustainable living in the middle of the city! In a world that’s melting and choking, learn from her tips and enjoy a healthy life!

Kimberley Clayton Blaine: Sending a rocket to the moon is probably easier than raising a child. Until Kimberley from the Go-To-Mom decided to share her knowledge and experience with all the new moms. So, before you go crazy, listen to what she has to teach you…

Barbara Wurden: Whoever said that women aren’t handy, obviously never saw what the Handy Goddess can do! So, don’t wait for your hubbie to help you fix that door, do it yourself! And add that extra feminine touch that only you’re able to do!

Kara Korhonen: If there’s something that only women can do, it’s being pregnant. And this is a big responsability: keeping a balanced diet will be the base for your and your baby’s health. Kara knows exactly what, how much and when to eat to have a safe and easy pregnancy!

E. Jean Carroll: Are you feeling confused, tormented, needing some advice? Well, ask E. Jean! This ELLE magazine guru’s wisdom will help you from getting rid of Mr. Wrong to finding Mr. Right!

Hattie Bryant: want to start your own business, but don’t know how? Well, check what Hattie has to tell you about it. Gathering stories from small businesses that have grown and expanded, she brings you all the best advice from people who did the right thing in the right time!

Shiva Rea: Yoga is not only about having Madonna’s arms. It’s a practice full of wisdom, spirituality and evolution. Follow Shiva Rea’s steps in this flowing vinyasa yoga, finding your inner self!

So, celebrate this  International Women’s Day learning in a fun way what other women have to teach you. After all  the best thing about being a woman is the prerogative to have a little fun!