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But hey, with the US$ so strong, thats only $ 382,469 and it is for two dogs, so that is a lot less per dog. So what if people are hungry or losing their jobs, let them build doghouses. Inside:

the dogs will sleep on sheepskin-lined, temperature-controlled beds, soothe their aches in an 18in-deep spa, howl along to a £150,000 sound system and watch dog-friendly programmes on a 52-inch plasma TV.

Automatic dispensers will ensure that chilled, filtered water and deluxe dry food are always available.

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Source: TreeHugger

happy meat via Green as a Thistle

The Guardian's Ethical Living columnist Lucy Siegle writes:

Ecotarianism has a winningly common-sense approach. The concept is simple: eat the foods with the lowest environmental burden, those with the lowest global-warming potential (GWP) and the least chance of messing up the planet via their acidification and pollution potential.

Photo By: brian.chu

For most of us snowboarding is pretty exciting; riding down mountains strapped to a board is something many of us either love or would love to try. However, some have been left wanting more and these riders have been at the forefront of the scene known as extreme snowboarding.

Essentially extreme snowboarding is nothing but snowboarding on difficult terrains containing obstacles such as cliffs, ravines and deep snow. To do this it means that you need to be an accomplished rider in good physical shape and with a great knowledge of the slopes and their dangers.

Image credit:Volksbloggin, VW Rabbit trapped in parking garage

When money is tight, people will naturally tend to:- 1.) Purchase less "stuff"; 2.) Postpone repairs; 3.) Prepare meals from scratch; 4.) Play more music (TeeVee ads too depressing); and 5.) Poach .

TreeHugger readers have a love/hate relationship with London designer Ross Lovegrove; most loved his solar trees and hated his car on a stick. He is at it again with his Alpine Capsule,

A compact shelter where one may spend the evening admiring the stars and the beautiful surrounding mountain range. It would offer the opportunity of overnight stays within a spectacular 360 degree view.

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Photo: AFP from Guardian

John recently noted that the recycling business is in the toilet in the US; Jaymi wrote that the same thing is happening in Britain; now they are drowning in paper that used to be shipped to China but that nobody wants now. The Confederation of Paper industries says in the Guardian:

John-Paul Flintoff of the Times drove to Oxford and back, a total of a hundred miles, and noticed that he had a bottle of water on the seat. He wondered how much energy it took to move it.

I converted the weight of the bottle (1 kilo) into pounds, and divided the distance (100 miles) into feet, using one of many online conversion sites. Then I converted the total number of foot-pounds into kilowatt hours. The result: 0.437 477 242 4.

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Source: TreeHugger

Industrial designer Michael Lambourn has an idea that might help reduce bicycle theft: integrate a dye pack, like the kinds built into some fire alarm pulls and clothing tags, that that explodes and covers the bicycle and thief in loud purple dye.

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Students at London's Architectural Association School of Architecture were asked (architectspeak in italics) Can extremes of programmatic effectiveness blend with the fragility of human habitat? Can food production be integrated into the fabric of the City?

AA Student Benedetta Gargiulo writes: Aquaculture is an urban landscape that playfully explores and re-imagines industrial food production, inviting visitors to examine the complex interrelationships between the private consumption and mass production of fresh fish. People will be invited inside to see the production of fish....

When we previously presented Danish designer N55's walking house it was just a model, and we asked miniHome designer Andy Thomson what he thought of it; he suggested "You should tell them wheels will be cheaper!" I never thought it would get past the model stage. But if you watch the video you will see that, remarkabl...

Civilian Conservation Corps Working With Bricks

We keep saying that the best source of energy is conservation and efficiency; by coincidence, Franklin Roosevelt set up the Conservation Corps to build ditches, plant crops and reforest America in the Great Depression. Now leader of the free world Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the UK is doing the same, creating a new Conservation Corps to conserve energy- training thousands to insulate attics.

24 years ago HRH got in trouble for calling an addition to the National Gallery a "monstrous carbuncle". He is at it again, complaining about glass buildings with green gizmos on top.

"It would seem, however, that the emergent climate-change agenda seems to have offered licence to another generation of architects and designers bent on further divorcing us - through random and untested building shapes and types - from our deeply-rooted connection with Nature's ordering systems which remain true to the rule of climate and season.

George Marshall of Climate Change Denial explains in two minutes how climate change is not an issue for environmentalists, and calling it such lets politicians draw a fence around it, ignore it, or make fun of it. He makes a case that it is a social issue, a welfare issue, a jobs issue. He does it well.
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A new report from the Food Climate Research Network at the University of Surrey says people will have to be rationed to four modest portions of meat and one litre of milk a week if the world is to avoid run-away climate change.

According to Juliette Jowit in the Guardian, the report says "total food consumption should be reduced, especially "low nutritional value" treats such as alcohol, sweets and chocolates."

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