Author Archives: Vanessa King

About Vanessa King

Vanessa is a co-founder and the in-house artist of ThingsAreGood.com. She is a fundraising administrator working on behalf of various charities and dreams of being the sole person who, through synchronistic and somewhat accidental circumstance, ends up saving the World. After her 13 year stint as a professional actress in film and television, Vanessa is now pursuing her musical ambitions as a singer as she also hopes to save the World through music.

Man Grows Furniture, Art From Living Trees

It’s called arborsculpture, and Richard Reames has been doing it for years. He plants trees in patterns, and uses bending and grafting techniques to form the saplings into benches, staircases, sculptures, and an assortment of other amazing living things.

I believe that if enough people put their minds to using living trees, we can learn to grow houses. I believe that if we put our minds to it, like going to the moon, there’s no reason we couldn’t all be living in houses where the walls and ceilings are composed of living tree material and there are leaves coming out of the roof. We could accomplish this in one generation. We’d build doorways and windows that the trees would grow around, and also plumbing and electrical conduits. The trees would just swallow all the pipes. We’re going to call this “arbortecture.”

You’ve just got to see the pictures in this article!

Musicians In New Orleans Build A Village

A 23-year-old saxophone player named Dan Oestreicher and other fellow residents of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans have come together with Habitat For Humanity to build a “Musicians Village”. The new housing program aims to provide affordable housing for victims of last years hurricaine as well as to bring together the musicians in the area. The concept was dreamed into frution with the help of Harry Connick Jr and sax player Branford Marsalis. The only catch is that they have to help build it! They must spend 350 hours pounding nails and cutting drywall, and the result will be a community based in commradere and good tunes!

Scientists Regrow Damaged Nerve Cells in Rats

In an amazing new discovery (ScienceDaily), Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Michigan have been able to regrow damaged nerve cells in lab rats. The researchers used an enzyme called sialidase from bacteria to treat the rats’ spinal cords.

There is hope that the proceedure will also work on other types of spinal cord injuries.
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How to Train Your Husband Like a Dolphin

A brilliant animal trainer named Amy Sutherland has been using animal training techniques on her husband with great results!

She’s learned how to train wild animals, and is applying the same techniques to her husband Scott. She says her marriage is happier and smoother than it was before, and best of all, she doesn’t have to nag!

I hope this one helps smooth over a few rough marriages!

Super Efficient House Uses 800 Watt Hours/Day

The Treehugger website is running some good news on an ultra-efficient model home.

This house has the conveniences of a modern house, but consumes only 800Whr on average per day. Compare this to a typical U.S. suburban house that uses 45 kilowatt hours (kWh) per day. How is this reduction possible? It’s through the strategic use of ultra-efficient appliances, daylighting, and green design principles for temperature control and ventilation.

The house also automatically turns off computer peripherals when not in use.