The Life Box is a perfectly normal cardboard box. Sellers can ship goods in it. Receivers can recycle it. But recycling would be a waste, as the Life Box can also be torn up and planted to grow 100 trees.

The makeup of each box is simple—recycled paper laced with 100 or so tree seeds, each dusted with mycorrhizal fungal spores. When planted, the seeds sprout thanks in part to the nurturing fungus. Hopefully, the UPS guy doesn’t get the box wet, or the process might start a bit early.

Right now, Life Boxes are produced on the small scale. You can order up to 100 for your business at an undisclosed price, or a single for $30-$50. (Yes, it’s too pricey to consider.) But imagine if a big company—like an HP or a Sony—got behind the idea and funded the process on scale. As inhabitat points out, “a 1-2% share of the cardboard box market in the United States could cover up to 25,000 acres of land per week.” And if only one tree from from any box survives for 30 years, it’ll still suck up a literal ton of carbon.

Company: Life Box

Originally posted at Gizmodo by Mark Wilson

Rather than learn fancy wraps or buy specialty holders to manage headphone tangles, why not sheath your standard earbuds in paracord, that durable, hard-to-twist wonder material? One crafty Instructables writer shows us how.

By running your headphone wires through some paracord and rebuilding the Y junction, you get an audio set that hardly ever ties in on itself, is far less prone to breaks or rips, and can be changed in color, too, if you don’t dig the hue the cord came in.

The author notes that on some cheaper headphones (likely those you’d use for this mod, anyways), performing this hack might result in a little audio quality loss, and that having the paracord rub against your skin or clothing might result in some occasional audible grinding. He gets around that by re-soldering a connection and adding a clip to his headphones, but the takeaway is that you shouldn’t pull this off on headphones you spent a lot of good money on. Otherwise, it turns a cheap, flimsy pair into a durable, convenient audio device.

Sleeving Earphone / Earbud Cords with Paracord [Instructables]

Originally posted at Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy

Photo by Môsieur J.

It’s always possible to keep your shoes smelling like the day you bought them. If your shoes are starting to give your nose a double take, how-to site eHow suggests putting them in the freezer to kill the smell.

I’m not suggesting to throw your dirty shoes into the freezer without any kind of barrier, though. Put the shoes in a plastic zip-lock bag, and put the shoes in overnight to kill the smell. Web site eHow explains that the freezer temperatures in the fridge kills the odor-causing bacteria.

Sure, you can sprinkle cat litter or baking powder in your shoes to deodorize them, but those methods require a possible trip to the market (or a cat). The freezer method is another free and easy alternative to get your shoes smelling fresh again.

How to Freshen Smelly Shoes

Originally posted at Lifehacker by Erica Ho

Ours sure were. Shockingly, I not only noticed how chewed up and beat up they were, but I actually did something about it. The new cups sparkle like jewels.

And now they have some tricky silicon cover, which is good, because these Take & Toss cups most definitely leak when they get tipped over. Though I suspect those things’ll last about two minutes knowing my son.

The First Years Take And Toss Spill Proof Cups, 4 Pack, Colors May Vary , 10 Ounce
The First Years Take And Toss Spill Proof Cups, 6 Pack, Colors May Vary , 7 Ounce

Sometimes, my dreaming is a little bit premature. I think about what I could do with all that money that I’ll never win because I always forget to buy a ticket. When I stop at the 7-11 every couple days to grab a soda I always toss a dollar towards a Powerball quick pick.  I never look at what the jackpot is up to, I never even really look at the numbers.  I only check them when I remember to pull the tickets off my visor and scan them at the kiosk in the 7-11 when I visit next.

If I did win the lottery, I’ll be willing to bet (and honestly hope) that I wouldn’t end up broke like some of the past lottery winners. 28 million dollars may sound like a lot of money. Yeah it is, but if you don’t spend wisely, that money will be gone before you know it. I’m not going to lie and say that I wouldn’t buy me a new house and a new car because I would. I just wouldn’t go crazy with it.

If I won the lottery, I would buy a new house. The maximum amount I would spend is $650,000. I would be able to get a nice house in a great area. I wouldn’t need to buy a 50 room house and spend millions of dollars. I would want a nice yard for my son to play in, like I had when I was a kid.

If I won the lottery, I would buy a new car. I would buy a 2011 Lexus RX Hybrid. It would cost about $55,000. Maybe even go with it fully loaded.  This would be my big splurge.

If I won the lottery, I would make a sizable donation to several of my favorite charities. To name a few, I would give to the American Red Cross, Northwest Harvest, and the National MS Society to name a few. I would also donate a large sum to the church I attend.  All as anonymously as possible.

If I won the lottery, I would purchase homes for my family members. I would immediately pay off the mortgage on my parents home.  One thing I have learned over the years, friends come and go, family will always be there for you.  What is mine is theirs.

If I won the lottery, I would purchase a few homes and turn them into rental homes.  This would be an investment in my future.  I would take the earnings from the first few homes and grown them into more homes.  Maybe one day it would be a real estate empire I can hand down to my son.

If I won the lottery, I would put money in a trust for my son’s college education.  Enough so that he would not have to worry about student loans.  It would be enough to cover his education, books, and housing.

If I won the lottery, beyond the above purchases, I would attempt to keep a normal life…just a bit more comfortable.  I would make strong focus on showing my son that he still needs to work for things in life.  There would be a heavy focus in volunteering.  One of the hopes would be that while in college he would spend his extra-curricular time volunteering in the community since he would not have to work.

This is just a small list of the things I would do if I won the lottery. If I actually won a big lottery, I would consult a professional on how to best make the money last for the rest of my life.

What is the first purchase you would make if you won the lottery?

Being the crap-tacular chef that I am (note to self: do not say crap-tacucalr in the same post as comfort food again) I went straight to the web to find what it takes to make “The Grilled Cheese Sandwich”.  Following this great video below (cost of time – 2:30) you too can crank out a quick, yet tasty main course in no time at all.

Necessary Things:
•Cheese and Bread.. What else do you think you need?
•A stove and grill pan
•some kids that will help you enjoy this recipe!

Tips and Tricks:
•Great Sandwich to make with Soup!
•Bacon – nuff said

Resource:
Chow.com