The idea is so simple you have to wonder why no one thought of it before. The simplicity, of course, is part of the genius behind these two design proposals for boxing water instead of bottling it. The depressing reality of the post consumer waste that plastic bottles generate is staggering: of the 60 million plastic bottles thrown away each day in the US alone, only 14% get recycled, meaning 86% lay in a land fill for up to 1,000 years. That’s nearly 19 billion bottles a year. Finally, someone is doing something about it.

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Above, the covers for two erotica anthologies. When MILF Fantasies was released as an ebook by Ravenous Romance earlier this year, it barely sold. Young Studs was made available shortly after, and shot into Ravenous Romance’s top ten.

This would be nothing more than a curiosity of sales data, were it not for one essential fact: MILF Fantasies and Young Studs are the same book, just with different titles, and different covers.

Book sellers (and pretty much everyone else) are accustomed to the idea that if you want something to sell, you put a picture of a woman (preferably young and white) on the cover. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider that assumption–at the very least, when trying to sell erotica to straight women.

Erotica Cover Watch: Young Studs, ed. Cecilia Tan, pub. Ravenous Romance [eroticacoverwatch.wordpress.com]

Still have bottled water as a regular item on the grocery list? Or just pick up the occasional bottle when you’re out? It’s so convenient…

As you probably know, that convenience comes at an environmental and social price: documentaries such as FLOW and Thirst, organizations such as the Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund, and even a few of us lowly bloggers, have reported on the costs created by water’s transformation from a freely-available resource to a multi-billion dollar commodity. That bottle of water you buy now contributes to the world’s third-largest industry.

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