I can't believe its not paper, it's better

While in Manchester i came across this amazing arts and crafts shop which i could of spent all day in but sadly i couldn't.

I was browsing around and came across this wallet which i thought was really unusual it was made from what looked like paper but on the packaging it said water proof and tear proof, meaning that it could't possibly be made form paper. I took a closer look and revealed that it was actually made from a material called Tyvek® which is durable olefin sheets spun and bounded together using heat and pressure without any binders. The material itself is much stronger than paper and cheaper than fabric its also fully recyclable.

I bought one of the wallets for my brother and he seemed to really like it he said it would be a really handy wallet for school as the material its made from makes it lightweight, we've yet to check if it actually withstands water damage but it definitely seems durable as we failed to tear it.

I think this material could come in very handy with certain projects as you could achieve a handmade, natural look like when you use paper but with a longer life expectancy, as projects made with paper are easily damaged.

I will definitely try and get my hands on some sheets of Tyvek® so i'm prepared for future projects it may be useful for.

Bon voyage!

Sadly one of my high school friends is moving to Australia next week :( I'm really going to miss her even though i don't see her as much as i use to because of uni, work, etc i always knew she was there if i needed her. Whenever i had spare time i could just go and visit her but now i'm going to have to save a hell of a lot of money and travel to the other side of the world.

Due to the fact we may never see each other again i thought i would make her a wee something to remember me by as it would be far more personal than buying a present and seeing as we never received a summer project i thought it would be an ample opportunity to get creative.

Ideally i would have liked to have made her a photo album/memory book thing, but it turned out i didn't have that many photos of us together as they were all on my old computer, so instead i made her a kind of book/card thing including the few pictures i could find.

I made it entirely from resources lying around the house to give it a kind of rustic look but then realised it would also have the value of being eco-friendly, and seeing as my friends going to leave a pretty big carbon footprint by flying "down under"i thought i better do my bit :P

Handburger

While reading the recent issue of Wired magazine i came across an article by Warren Ellis which i found quite unusual.

The article was talking about cannibalism and what if, human meat is the tastiest of all meats (being similar in taste to pork), not being the greatest fan of meat in the first place the thought of eating human meat makes me retch, so why would anyone want to do it?

Other cultures and in medieval times humans ate other humans mainly for mythical beliefs however eating another human being in this country is illegal as its cannibalism. There is a certain situation which makes this law void though, if you were stranded on an island with other people, some of which have already died then you are allowed to eat them if the only other option would be to starve and die. If you decide not to eat the others not so fortunate to still be alive and you end up dying then its considered suicide, as you had the choice not to starve but you chose to do so.

In this situation there is no way i can see myself being able to eat human meat as it just seems so wrong and disgusting, even if it is the "tastiest" meat, the thought of eating lamb or deer alone makes me feel sick enough.
I'm sure there would be plenty of people who would agree and also many others who wouldn't see the meat as being a human but just a means of survival and to be fair if there already dead why should they have to die too?

Seeing as human meat could be the tastiest of all and there is only one circumstance in which you can try it scientist have been doing experiments which allows them to make meat from the cells of the animal in which the meat would usually come from, creating artificial meat.
"A collagen matrix is impregnated with cultured muscle cells, thousands of them, all derived from a single muscle cell extracted from an animal. The meat then grows over the matrix, in sheets or blobs. There will be scenarios where the meat is "exercised" to gain the correct texture, either mechanically or through electronic stimulus."
This results in meat which has never been cut off a living thing or caused it any pain.

Using this technique, it may actually be possible to create human meat which everyone can try and taste, next time you go to a supermarket you may be buying human burgers rather than beef.