Country Life In The City

Ever thought how great it would be to have natural, fully recyclable underwear, fellas?

Well now you can, thanks to Australian underwear company AussieBum.

The eco-friendly underwear is made from 27% banana fibre, 64% cotton and 9% lycra. It’s not made of banana flesh though, the fibre comes  a bark weave from the banana plant, which makes it lightweight and absorbent, according to AussieBum’s Lloyd Jones. He was also keen to point out that it doesn’t smell like bananas and people wouldn’t have to worry about real monkeys.

Its too early to say yet whether or not this eco friendly material will be expanded into ladies lingerie in the high street or styles such as those featured in this lingerie video.

It has become more popular in recent times to use eco-friendly materials from managed forests to make furniture and even houses. I think this has got to be a move in the right direction as the world’s resources have been squandered by man for long enough.

Storied like this do leave me wondering what the future holds for our clothing and furniture. Will we be presented with a choice of banana fibre or bamboo leaves, or will we find better ways to manufacture synthetic materials safely and look after the planet in the way we should.

Etihad airways are to introduce a new system to help monitor passengers that fall seriously ill on their long haul and ultra long haul flights.

The Tempus IC system will initially be installed on Etihad’s Airbus A340 and Boeing 777 aircraft, so in the UK this technology could be in use on flights to Australia, flights to Thailand and flights to Bangkok for instance.

The Tempus IC is able to measure blood pressure, do an ECG and take photo imagery which can then be passed on to experts to evaluate. The crew can then take appropriate action and if necessary the plane can be diverted to receive treatment.

Captain Richard Hill, Etihad Airways’ chief operations officer, said: “Passenger welfare and safety is of the utmost importance to Etihad Airways and the introduction of the Tempus IC system will ensure that when medical emergencies do occur they are evaluated quickly.”