In the last couple years, we've seen belts cinching their way up our waists. But did you ever think you'd find them covering your floor? That is, aside from in your floordrobe? The Branch Home Vintage Belt Floor Mat ($688) has rescued vintage leather belts destined for landfills by mounting them together to become a cushy mat for the floor of your home. The combination of rich, aged tones and textures of each belt comes together to resemble quite aptly the patina acquired by your hardwood floors — albeit you've probably never wrapped your floors around your waist. This sort of inventive design, which reconstitutes recycled parts for a new purpose is becoming more and more common these days. Have you seen designs with similar origins?
Earlier this month, crushing rains left 20 people dead and over 20,000 stranded when overwhelming rainfall left five feet of standing water in the low-lying areas. This is on top of already taxed landscapes that flooded when melting Himalayan glaciers burst the 200 rivers that web across the country last year. Bangladesh under water is seeming like a real and permanent possibility.
The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — whose claims are usually conservative — said that Bangladesh is heading to lose 17 percent of its land and 30 percent of its food production by 2050. That's like California and New York drowning, and the whole Midwest ceasing production of food.
If this happens, more than 20 million Bangladeshis will be without a patch of land to stand on. Though hardship in the country isn't entirely recent: since 1971, Bangladesh has endured over 200 disasters that have left a total of 500,000 dead and affected a total of 500 million people.
And I haven't even said anything about the plague of rats that's consuming all of their food. A plague of rats. I wish, wish there was more room for stories like this in the general consciousness — shouldn't we be hearing about this every night? Not to dwell on the gloomy, but just knowing about this makes the answer to this question pretty clear to me.
Reuters - The Polish prosecutor's office is
investigating allegations that there was a CIA prison in Poland
where al Qaeda suspects were questioned and guards might have
used methods close to torture, the prime minister's top adviser
said on Friday.
