Weasel: Sustain this, hippy!

Sustainability and eco-mindedness is something that I have been interested in for many years. I was one of the people who believed that by making small but significant changes to our lives, such as the 3 R’s: Reduce; Reuse; Recycle, we can make things a bit easier for our planet.

Over the past few years of studying a BA in 3D Design For Sustainability, I have heard a million and one arguments for and against environmentalism. I have studied ways in which we can appeal to the sceptics and bring everyone together in one big mutually beneficial society, but then I have also conducted research which suggests that due to years of mass consumption indoctrination we are pretty much fucked no matter what we do.

However, I found that as my awareness of things such as peak oil and ever depleting raw materials grew, I became aware that sustainable design isn’t just about saving the planet, it is about letting us continue to live in the way we want.

We are all neophiles who like to have nice new things, this is not a problem. Our consumer economy is driven by products, and this is not necessarily a bad thing either. When we design products to have minimal environmental impact throughout their whole lifecycle and also design them to be long lived, easily dismantled and the materials easily recycled (not down-cycled), we allow ourselves to continue to live as we want.

Consumer culture need not be wasteful and detrimental to future generations. Sustainable design is not a hippy idea, it is what lets you continue to have new products.

Push for a capitalist consumer culture, re-use old things and plant a tree!

- James Howlett

Enjoy a great big screenful of Weasel's superb design work, including some far-out furniture, here: www.jameshowlett.co.uk

RUTHIE: Obstruct abstract, or else...

In an art magazine recently (I use the term 'art' loosely) there was one feature which caught my proverbial (and actual) eye. An ex-cricketing gentleman (who shall remain nameless, the fool) was producing 'art' by hitting cricket balls covered in paint against a canvas. I believe I did this when I was about five, using tennis balls and my mother’s kitchen wall.

However, I did not get paid millions for this childish behaviour; in fact I probably got a smack on the arse, to be frank. Did the cricketer get a similar punishment? Was he made to clean up his mess, then banished to sulk in his room while he thought about what he'd done?

No. He got the first thing. The millions. What a farce.

Some washed up old sportsman trying to make some extra cash can now be an artist? What about people who can actually paint, spend their whole lives struggling to scrape a living from their work, while Mr Smackballs makes some splodges on a canvas (not even in an interesting way, I may add) and he gets a bloody fortune for it.

'Abstract art' covers all manner of sins doesn't it?

- Ruthie (the girl who likes to rant about annoying stuff)

P.S. What Ruthie means by people who can actually paint is, well, Ruthie! Check her out:

Phantom by Ruth Joyce

TBTSTW's Favourite Lyrics...

These are some of our favourite lyrics, if not necessarily our favourite songs. The reason? There ain't one so get over it and read on. Please?

All the links are to YouTube videos of the songs. This shall be updated...

Andy: From P.C.P by The Manic Street Preachers

"...Liposuction for your bad mouth boy
Cut out your tongue, effigies are sold
Words discoloured, bow to the bland
Heal yourself with sinner's salt
Doctors arrested for euthanasia
Kill smokers through blind vanity
If you're fat don't get ill
Europe's gravestone carved in plastic..."

AP: From

Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse by Minus the Bear

"Hey, let's cross the seas
and get some culture.
Red wine with every meal
and absinthe after dinner.
We'd look good side by side
walking back to the hotel...

Let's get a bottle and drink alone tonight."

Ruthie: From Cosmic Love by Florence and The Machine

"A falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes
I screamed aloud as it tore through them, and now it's left me blind

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart..."

StewART: From Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise by The Avett Brothers

"There's a darkness upon me that's flooded in light

In the fine print they tell me what's wrong and what's right

And it comes in black and it comes in white

And I'm frightened by those who don't see it

When nothing is old, deserved or respected

And your life doesn't change by the man that's elected

If you're loved by someone you're never rejected

Decide what to be and go be it..."

TomH: From Headstrong by Capdown

"As I look back now it's exactly how you said
But it made no difference to the life that I led
The route that I took may mean that I learnt hard
But you only get one chance to make things play the way you're dreamin' of
I didn't know then but then what the fuck is life for
I still regret it, but now I'm stronger than before..."

TJ Wales: From Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads

"You may find yourself living in a shotgun shack

You may find yourself in another part of the world

You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile

You may find yourself in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife

You may ask yourself, well, how did I get here?..."

James: From Cherbourg by Beirut

"...Sunday morning
Only fog on the limbs
I called it again
What do you know
And I filled our days
With cards and gin
You're alight again, my dear..."

A-Bomb: The guitar solos of Jimi Hendrix are all the lyrics I need.

C. Connersby: From Still The Same by Bob Segar

"...You always won everytime you placed a bet

You're still damn good
No one's gotten to you yet
Everytime they were sure they had you caught
You were quicker than they thought
You'd just turn your back and walk

You always said
The cards would never do you wrong
The trick you said
Was never play the game too long
A gambler's share
The only risk that you would take
The only loss you could forsake
The only bluff you couldn't fake..."

Now Saving Twitter...

Every hero should have a faithful, though slightly less competent side-kick...

...and The Blog That Saved The World is (now) no exception having recruited the not-as-snappily-code-named The Twitter Account That Helped Save The World to the cause.

Get our twattering in your eyeballs here: https://twitter.com/tbtstw

TJ WALES: Time For a Think

17:55

How does the 24-hour clock feel when the beautiful, the enigmatic, the symmetrically perfect 12-hour clock hits 5:55? Uhhhhh... the fucking wonder of it.

FIVE. FIFTY. FIVE.

It knows deep down how perfect it is being, that it has "made it" and is every bit as glorious as the 12-hour clock.

But this isn't enough.

It wants to radiate its form, consume your imperfections, blind you with its LED light in a bloom of green light as bright as the shriek of a dying man.

Of course it could tell everyone, it could plea with passersby to think, to spend a little time, to learn it's nuances and go for long walks in the park.

But it's all futile, utterly futile- the passerby is already fucking the 12 hour clock in a carpark, sweat rising through greasy hair and grit in the knees.

No. It was no use.

- TJ Wales

JAMES: Seaside, Motherfuckers

There are some obvious upsides to leaving near the sea: sunbathing, swimming for free, re-enacting the montage from Rocky III, and so on. The downsides, however, might be less apparent...

Enjoying a delicious Cornish ice cream on a sunny beach near my house, I noticed a cloud of shadows skimming along the sand toward me. I barely had time to look up before being set on by a vicious flock of birds. A well-aimed peck saw the ice cream dashed from my grasp and to the sand. I soon followed, covering my head amid the flurry of scratching, flapping and machine gun fire.

I think they were Seagals...

- James

JAMES: Jon Tamlyn's Travel Blog

Don't feel bad enough about your crap life? Read on...

Sickeningly, Jon Tamlyn (freelance journo and travel writer extraordinaire) has been teaching English in South Korea and generally enjoying/blogging his way around Asia for some time now, lapping up some of the most beautiful sights you could imagine.

He regularly updates his inspiring (or depressing, depending on the strength of your prescription) blog with thorough and engaging entries and more photographic evidence of his escapades than you could shake a stick at.

Jealously aside, it's a blog well worth following. And knowing it's a bloody nice guy doing all these bloody nice things in bloody nice places makes reading it a less-bitter pill to swallow.

www.jontamlyn.wordpress.com

- James

CONNERSBY: The Rules of Ribs

There are certain rules that must be abided by when eating certain foods. Memorise these five and never again be embarrassed by your lack of rib etiquette.

1. Always have a bun

2. No cutlery

3. You gotta eat all the ribs

4. No napkins

5. Nominate Connersby to drink

- C. Connersby

GEORGE ST: Well, I laughed... #3

Do you know what the temperature is in Motown?

Three Degrees, Four Tops.

- GST

AP: Well, I laughed... #2

Why do people do mic-checks?

Because they one-two one-two...!

- AP

AMÉLIE: Heavy Load

Gruesome and sweet, funny and dark, such are the stories to be told here.

I have a few stories in my repertoire, and thought of a few to start the archives with, but in my never ending quest for new strange stories, I found a deadly amusing one, one that shall be the introduction to the Conty Archives.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine was looking after her neighbours’ house whilst they were on holiday. With the house came the old, lumpy family Labrador: too old to go on holiday and just about able to lift his head up from his munched old carpet.

One morning, my friend Amy went over to feed the dog and what had to happen happened: the dog had died. In her good self she called her neighbours and told them what had happened. The blame could not have been on her but they asked for a favour, could she get the dog cremated? "Of course" was the direct response. But once the phone was down and the panic calmed, she realized she did not have a car. An idea spread in her mind.

The vet was only two stations away by train, so she lifted the 35kg dead dog and put it in a big suitcase. She pulled it to the station as well as she could and waited on the platform. When the train arrived, she tried her best to carry the suitcase onto the train.

Seeing she was having some difficultly, a young lad ran to her rescue and they both loaded the suitcase on the train. Once on the train, they started chatting until the train arrived at Amy’s destination. The young lad politely offered his help once again, but this time, only to run off with the dead dog suitcase! Faith!

What happened to the dog? God knows. But Amy, incapable of telling her neighbours what happened to their beloved dog, burnt what she could, put it in an urn and then gave it to them. And that’s the end of this story.

- Conty. A

P.S. Next time you’re at a train station, please check for me that no suitcase has a fluffy tail coming out of it.

JAMES: From the Blogosphere

Like Rock? Like Myths?

Then you'll absolutely, positively love Rock Myths!

- James

JAMES: Well, I laughed... # 1

You know what I hate about Russian Dolls?

They're so full of themselves.

- James