Over at Crooked Timber there is a discussion going on about the best opening lines to (mainly) academic books.
Some examples from the comments:
“In this book I shall show that there are no books.”
“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must remain silent.â€
“Chaos theory is not nearly as exciting as it sounds. How could it be?â€
Taking your beer and liqour bottles back to the beer store is a fantastic GREEN option called re-using. Its been around for a while, but North America seems to have forgotten how to do it; opting for a simple trash and replace mindset. Now a new funky eco-chic movement is taking re-use to new heights and its called up-cycling.
I started thinking about up-cycling a couple of months ago whenever I was going to recycle something (I have a bread bag of trash every 2-3 weeks) and I was amazed at how creative and rewarding it can be. My best upcycles include:
1. Hydroponic watering system from 2L pop bottles
2. Using a wine bottle as a rolling pin
3. Old shirts, cloths, etc as drapes
4. TV or Computer stand stand of aluminum cans
5. Various cat toys
This a fun thing for this Friday. Japan now has a robot museum.
“Finally, scholars have a place to conduct Astro Boy studies. Robothink, Japan’s first bot museum, opened its doors this fall. The 28,000-square-foot facility is housed in a former used-car dealership in Nagoya. From Robby to Aibo, the droid depository features dozens of actual automatons, plus replicas of real and fictional bots.”
Tea cups get stained and that’s a fact that once was bad and now is good. Thanks to artist Bethan Wood who has made a tea cup that shows groovy designs when it gets stained.
“Stain is a set of a teacups designed to improve through use. This project examines the assumption that use is damaging to a product (For example, scratches on an iPod).
The interior surface of the cup is treated so as to stain more in predetermined places. The more the cups are used, the more the pattern is revealed. Over time they will build up an individual pattern dependent on the users personal way of drinking tea.”
Retro/out-dated technology can still be useful! Cassette tapes seem to never go out of style in some way or another. Last week we saw how old magnetic tape reels from inside an old cassette tape can be used to make clothing, now the casing can be used to make a wallet.
Reusing old items is not only groovy, but it’s also environmentally friendly! This wallet venture looks very easy to make – give it a try.