Hey Everyone! How was your weekend? To sum up what I learned over this weekend:
Don’t throw out that empty water/juice bottle because I could use that in my living room. Greece is looking for someone, anyone, to be the person everyone can look to (and eventually point at) when they default on their national loan and begin the 2nd part of the double-dip recession. And finally, Men’s cotton boxers, honey, and Red Wine can all be used to give yourself a spa-like beauty treatment (for practically nothing). More after the break:
Bottle-Bonanza!
So Nigeria has two fairly sizeable issues they need to deal with:
1) They have a terrible pollution and garbage situation where there are billions of plastic bottles and they each take hundreds of years to bio-degrade in landfills.
2) The country of about 160 million has a deficit of 16 million houses which would require 45 trillion naira or $300 billion according to Nigeria’s Federal Mortgage Bank.
So can we think of a potential solution to solve these two big issues? Well, assuming you can put one and one together (1+1= ), you might have suggested “Hey, why not build houses out of the plastic bottles?”. And that wouldn’t be that crazy an idea! Kaduna-based NGO Development Association for Renewable Energies (DARE) with help from experts from Africa Community Trust have initiated a Housing Project that will take the thrown out bottles from Nigeria’s streets and turn them into building blocks to chip away at Nigeria’s massive housing deficit.
They are currently in the process of completing their very first home- a 58m2 2 bedroom bungalow. Now you’re probably wondering how are they making flimsy, plastic bottles an alternative to cement blocks? Well, first off, they are not using that 30% reduced plastic Nestle Purelifebottles that can barely hold the water that’s inside it. And that’s a start. Secondly, each of these capped, sand-filled bottles weigh 2 kilograms, and are stacked and glued together using mud and cement. The project organizers claim that these sand-filled bottles have certain unique properties such as being fire-proof, bullet-proof, earth-quake resistant, maintaining an interior temperature of 18c , and finally x-ray vision and the ability to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Oh whoops, I got a little carried away there. Ignore the last two things on that list (x-ray and tall buildings) and these are still pretty amazing “bricks”? The final kicker is that each of these houses is costing only 2 million naira ($12,700). I would love to have a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen, 1 living room bungalow with superman-like walls for a measly 12k. Where do I sign up?
Link: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/plastic-bottles-solve-nigerias-housing-problem-042708558.html
Greece is walking on a financial tight-rope:
So we dodged one of many upcoming bullets as the Euro situation which has been bubbling up for the past 2 years (since 2010) is finally beginning to pop like an overdue acne, except this financial crisis might actually be messier (although not as gross). “Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won a parliamentary confidence vote on Saturday, avoiding snap elections which would have torpedoed Greece’s bailout deal and inflamed the euro zone’s economic crisis.” Now Greece is looking for their scapegoat to handle the bleak future of Greece’s finances.
Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/papandreou-wins-confidence-vote/article2226141/
New Beauty Secrets:
So for those girls with boyfriends/ex-boyfriends that left lots of things at your place, or if you just happen to have a healthy obsession with men’s boxers, I have great news for you. Using a simple, cotton boxer is far less agitating to your curls then most towels and this can reduce the frizziness of your hair.
Keeping with techniques to keep your hair fantastic: adding a bit of mint extract (boil fresh mint leaves and strain) to shampoo (2shampoo-1mint extract ratio) will significantly reduce oiliness and also provide an aroma that is quite attractive to the opposite sex.
Finally, a dime-sized amount of olive oil mixed with a styling-cream will cause your hair to be smoother and have an unbelievable shine-although this will add to any existing oil-issues which of course if why I mentioned the mint-shampoo technique. 
Honey makes a fantastic-tasting lip balm for dry cracked lips, and its anti-viral properties also helps with cold-sores. Last but most definitely not least, for anyone that wants to indulge and really relax this evening or weekend, there is a red-wine bath: you can fill your tub with red wine (5:1 ratio, water/wine) to soften skin, remove light abrasions, and restore colour and shine to tired skin. I would strongly recommend accompanying this experience with candles, light music (classical or soft jazz), and of course a nicely aired glass (or bottle ) of Cabernet Sauvignon or Red Zinfandel (if you want something lighter and sweeter). Let me know which of these tips were your favourite and why.
Enjoy!
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