Earthships-What Rubbish.

I would like to start by giving credit where credit is due. The following subject was brought to my attention by a crazed fan of the blog. If you have something you would like to see addressed please email me and we will see if we can pencil it in!

     In Taos, New Mexico there is a company called Earthship Biotecture that essentially builds houses made out of garbage. When someone told me about this I thought it was some kind of tasteless joke, but the sad truth is this is all too real. Basically, the idea is to take waste and 'recycle' it in order to cut down on unsightly garbage filling landfills across the world, while at the same providing affordable and attractive housing. There are so many problems with this I almost don't even know where to start.

What is an Earthship, anyway?

     When one hears the name 'Earthship' one can only picture a huge spaceship designed to save humanity from a ravaged planet, much like the Axiom from the animated Disney Pixar film Wall-E. Interestingly enough this is quite the opposite. An earthship is a home built using a combination of garbage and dirt. Typically made of old tires filled with dirt and the other recyclable materials this concept combines bad taste along with a complete disregard for Earth and its inhabitants. In a nutshell, Earthship Biotectutre has found an ingenious way to take a pile of trash and magically transform it into a pile of trash you live in.

Who wants to live in a dump?

     Other than Oscar the Grouch I can think of nobody that willing chooses to live in a trash heap (except, of course, the customers of Earthship Biotecture). In some ways this is actually offensive to me because there are thousands of homeless people who, through no fault of their own, are forced to live in boxes and dig their food out of dumpsters. Now we have a company that is actually taking money from people in exchange for this unappealing lifestyle. It's almost as if they have glamorized being 'down on one's luck', if you will, and put a hefty price tag on it! Talk about kicking the less fortunate while they're down. This perverse marketing ploy is enough to merit an all-out boycott of this company but let's also look at the practicality of the situation just for good measure.

Helping the Environment?

     I don't know about you but I can think of nothing that would help Mother Nature out more than taking a bunch of old tires nobody wants and putting them right in the middle of a suburban neighborhood for a family to raise their children in. Obviously the former sentence is rank with sarcasm, but unfortunately the patrons of this company really believe this to be true. These dwellings are actually quite bad for the environment because of the fact that we are taking garbage that would otherwise be contained in a sole isolated place (a landfill) and basically spreading it all over creation. Another factor to consider is the housing market is so bad right now there are tens of thousands of homes unoccupied and/or being torn down and discarded causing trillions of tons of construction waste every single day, and all the while this 'green' housing scheme is encouraging people to build these 'environmentally friendly' homes. I think even Marjory the wise Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock would consider this concept to be utter foolishness.

The Solution?

     My audience is generally well educated and successful so I have no doubt you already know the solution: Do not buy a home made of garbage. Instead, help the environment, the economy, and your fellow man by purchasing a traditional home and throwing away any trash. And for the tires? We will be exploring the natural benefits of burning those soon enough! Thanks for your interest and please spread the word!

Technology-1 Step Forward 2 Steps Back

   Have you ever heard the song "Mo Money Mo Problems"? The premise is that the more money you acquire (something that seems like a desirable thing) the more problems that come along with it. It seems like a paradox to be sure, but I was thinking about it the other day and I believe the same could be said about technology. Think about it: Technological advances further things like education, entertainment, information sharing, and comfort but at the same time they cause more frustration, sadness, pain, and discomfort than at any time in history. 

     Here is an example: In the year 1748 the first refrigerator was introduced to the public. Before that food was kept cold by simply attaching it to a string and dipping it in a nearby spring-fed brook. Now, at the time the refrigerator seemed like a pretty great idea, but little did inventor William Cullen know that this invention would almost lead to the downfall of an entire civilization centuries later. Billions of dollars of food are lost every year from refrigerator failure while other people starve in the street. Obesity runs rampant in America due to fridge sizes steadily increasing and the fact that we only have to take a few steps to eat (instead of running down and savagely slaughtering everything you must eat). Have you ever heard of a brook failing or seen an overweight Pilgrim with high blood pressure? This would certainly be an example of "Mo Technology Mo Problems".

     Or how about computers? Do you remember when the internet first came out? You would type in a web address, go to bed for the evening, then wake up to find the page finally loaded up. No one thought this was a problem because we were just happy to have the internet and, at the time, that wasn't considered "slow". Nowadays we expect even the lowest-end computers to download an entire movie in under a second, and if it takes longer...let's just say bad things happen. Have you ever noticed that the faster computers get the higher murder, suicide, teen pregnancy, and depression rates all get? Coincidence...I think not.

     Other than the added stress technology puts on us here are some other downfalls: Price-When you buy a new gadget generally speaking the price decreases 50% every day it is on the market, but on the other hand it becomes 50% more obsolete for every day on the market. So if you buy early you spend a fortune but if you wait you have basically bought a fancy paper weight. Ignorance-Our kids don't really need to learn much of anything these days because everything is on the internet, which is available almost everywhere. But what if the internet goes down one of these days and we lose access to all that readily available info? Have you ever seen Terminator? It doesn't end well for us.

     Anyway, I'm not saying all technology is bad, just most of it. Be careful when you are getting yourself all worked up for the newest iPad 17 that is supposed to be able to create matter. Keep your expectations low and expect to spend a lot. Also, expect whatever it is you are buying to fail almost immediately. Following these simple guild lines will ensure that, instead of blindly depending on technology as a crutch, it will simply remain a non-essential aspect of life you can take or leave! Thank you and goodnight!

*I would like to add that even in the creation of this very post my computer (which, sadly I have come to depend on) was acting up and caused me such grief that I had to be admitted to the hospital due to irregular heartbeat and extraordinarily high blood pressure to which the doctor informed me I had lost 17 months off the end of my life. Please don't let this happen to you!

NFL Predictions for the 2011-2012 Season

Hello everyone! Anyone that knows me knows that, although I am not generally a football fan, I am a fan of making successful predictions regarding football and I have a pretty clean track record (and by pretty clean I mean perfect). I realize I am a bit late considering the regular season has already began, but better late than never. I personally do not believe in making team-by-team predictions so we are going to break this down by preseason, regular season, and postseason-let's begin!

Preseason

-I predict that this preseason many teams will play their 2nd and 3rd string players and some of them will be cut before the regular season begins.

-Starters will not be played often by many teams.

-At least one team will look great in the preseason, and then lose on opening day.

-At least one team will look terrible in the preseason, and then lose on opening day.

Regular Season

-I predict that no team will tie every game this season.

-Some teams will do well, and others will do poorly

-There will be several injuries.

-Some coaching and other personnel will get fired.

-Many trades will be made.

-There will be a few incarcerations.

-There will be a few blow-out games (meaning one team will be defeated by a large margin).

-Only 12 teams will make it to the playoffs.

Postseason

-Several teams will play well in the playoffs.

-Each round, half of the remaining teams will be defeated and then exit the playoffs.

-Every team, with the exception of the Superbowl champions, will lose at least once in the postseason.

-There will be spectators and analysts that believe the final 2 teams do not deserve to be there.

-The Superbowl half-time show will be sub-par and overly obnoxious.

-There will be several note-worthy Superbowl commercials.

-The following teams will NOT win the Superbowl: The LA Rams, Dallas Texans, Baltimore Colts, New York Yankees, DEI Racing.

-Brett Farve will not play in the Superbowl this year.

-And finally, I predict there will be only one team that wins the Superbowl this year.

There you have it. I'm certianlly no advocate for gambling, but if you must do so place your money on the above predictions. I'm not going to predict that I have a perfect year again, but I will say history has a way of repeating itself. Good day!

Grease: The benifits they don't want you to know about.

As a blogger, one thing I feel very strongly about is using this medium as a tool to expose lies and half-truths most people have come to accept as gospel, and this evening I intend to do just that yet again. I recently saw a commercial that depicted a short-order chef cleaning grease off a grill at a restaurant while his supervisor looked on. In the end grease from the cooking surface gets all over the kitchen floor and the two gentlemen fall, are injured, and are presumably left for dead. Quite frankly this is one of the most absurd things I have ever seen in my entire life and is an outright exploitation of the ignorance of the human race. Common hamburger grease causing death? The more I turned this over in my head, however, I realized that most people actually do believe too much grease can kill you! Maybe not in the form of falling, but rather from various heart diseases and other medical issues. The truth of the matter is that grease has many vitamins and nutrients that are found in very few (or in some cases no) other foods. Grease also lubricates the digestive system much like a cars engine. Yes, it's true-grease, the very same household grease that many so-called "doctors" are blaming for mass murder, is actually our friend! Do you remember how they used to say wine was deadly in any dose, but then they came out with a study that said drinking a glass a day could actually prolong your life? There is a similar study relating to grease. A small but powerful group of doctors have published a study declaring what some of us have been practicing for years, drinking a glass of grease a day can give you a longer, more productive, happier, stress free, and pain free life! So raise your glasses everyone, and give a toast to good health!

*Justin Cunningham would like to thank Alan Hathcock for his information contribution for this piece.