I recently found out about Litracon, and man does it seem like a great green invention. Blocks made of Litracon have the strength of standard concrete, but also have a system o’ embedded fiber optics that allow light to come through the blocks.

Litracon Inventor

Litracon was recently invented by Hungarian Áron Losonczi, who had this to say about his light-transmitting concrete: “Thousands of optical glass fibers form a matrix and run parallel to each other between the two main surfaces of every block. Shadows on the lighter side will appear with sharp outlines on the darker one. Even the colours remain the same. This special effect creates the general impression that the thickness and weight of a concrete wall will disappear.”

Benefits of Litracon

You can even build very thick walls with Litracon, as the light can be transmitted up to 20 meters through the concrete with no loss of brightness. If more and more buildings begin using this technology, more natural light can be used to light offices and stores. This could lead to huge drops in the amount of electricity used to light buildings, since they’d be naturally lit during the day. Also, people who get exposure to the sun are generally happier and more productive, so that is another reason for businesses to use this light-transmitting concrete.

I’m excited to see if Litracon catches on in the construction world. If you know of any real-life examples of someone building with Litracon, please let me know.

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If you like the fun of having pets, but hate all the time and money it takes to take care of them, then have I got the solution for you! It’s called the Lil’ World in a Jar©®, and it combines the fun of pet ownership with the omnipotence of playing God to your tiny world. It has the added benefit of being able to teach you a thing or two about eco-systems, and all the interactions that take place in them. Here is how to make your very own Lil’ World in a Jar.

Get yourself a smooth-sided glass jar. Pickle-jar-size will do. You want smooth sides so that dirt doesn’t settle on the ridges of the inside of the jar.

Grab your jar and go find a swamp or pond or lake. Look for a lot of plants in shallow water; there will be a lot of plants and animals in areas like that.

Using a cup, scoop some of the pond mud into your jar. Add water and swamp mess until your jar is almost full. Be sure to leave some room for air.

Seal up the jar, and bring it back to your house. Put it in a good, sunny window. The sunnier, the better.

What Will Happen?

Over the next couple days, you will hopefully be able to see tiny creatures swimming back and forth. Some plants might even begin to grow. As time goes on, you might observe strange creatures and their habits, or you might see plants grow to dominate this lil’ world. There are many different variations as to what you could see, so the only way to know for sure is to go out and do this experiment.

As for my world in a jar, I came home one day to find that one of my cats had murderously knocked it off the windowsill and onto the floor. Everything in it was in abject chaos. After waterboarding the cat to punish it, I set the lil’ world in a jar back up, but all that has grown since that disaster has been algae. Hopefully you’ll have better luck with this. Good luck to anyone trying this out; it should turn out pretty cool.

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Welp, today I finally took the plunge and actually managed to have a cloth bag in my car when I went to the grocery store. As I entered the store with my reusable cloth bag in hand, little did I know the amazing experience that I was about to have…

No Shopping Cart, No Problem

I passed rotch by the shopping carts, and just went straight to filling my cloth bag with some groceries. This was good, since I just could go straight to the food. Of course, I wasn’t getting too much stuff, but if you are, you might want to use that shopping cart.

Durability

After buying the groceries, I stuffed most of the food inside the reusable cloth bag. I didn’t have to worry about it ripping (like a plastic or even paper bag might have), so I just stuffed food into it until it couldn’t hold no more. Luckily, the tote bag held quite a bit, mainly because it had

More Room than a Plastic or Paper Bag

I was downright dumbfounded when I dared to discern the depth of the dapper cloth bag. I fit pretty much all the groceries I bought into it, making it easier to carry them all to the car and into mi casa. The only groceries I didn’t put into the bag were the ones that already came in a bag (a bag o’ apples). So the reusable cloth bag’s big volume was a definite advantage over plastic or paper bags.

Lack o’ Clutter

I would’ve used two or three plastic or paper bags today, but instead I just used one reusable cloth bag. The paper or plastic bags would’ve ended up taking up more room inside my house, but Mr. Cloth Bag just sits in the car, awaiting another mission to the grocery store.

Ecological Impact

This is what causes most people to choose reusable cloth bags over flimsy, disposable paper or plastic bags. Yes, it took some ink (and chemicals) to make my cloth bag, but now that I am reusing it again and again, that can be a sunk cost. If I was to continue to use paper and plastic bags, each one would have a double environmental impact; the considerable chemicals used in their production, plus the impact of their disposal, whether it’s in a landfill, or disposed by burning it.

Using a reusable cloth bag seems to be the way to go. It’s a tiny difference that everyone can easily make, and instead of being a sacrifice they have to make, it’ll actually give them the same benefits that I enjoyed today. So be cool, and use (and reuse) that cloth bag with pride.

Oh yeah, I got my reusable cloth bag for free. So they’re not too expensive.

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