My clock's running a bit fast

The talented designers at Diamantini & Domeniconi create the coolest clocks ever. Here are three I covet:

Uomino Wall by Juan Carlos Viso.

Giove by Pascal Tarabay + Rafaelle Darra.

Arcoiris by Rafaelle Darra.

Room with a view: lookout cabins and towers

"View from the lookout cabin," Mendocino National Forest, California. Photograph by sf eyes, from Flickr.

God's country, all right.

"View to south from Kendrick Mountain Fire Lookout Tower," Arizona. Photograph by Al HikesAZ, from Flickr.

Hidden Lake Lookout, Washington. Click to embiggen. Photograph by Bmaas [see him resting above the clouds here], from Flickr.

Not a fire lookout — this is a lakeside home in Finland. I totally adore this photo. See more at Arch Daily.

BBC profiles Staffie breeder

BBC image grabbed from the Cold Wet Nose Blog.

For those who get BBC2, this Thursday you might want to check out a documentary on a litter of Staffie pups, their breeder, and their new owners:

Seven puppies are born to a first-time mother called Uggs in a cramped front room in East London. These aren't just cute and cuddly puppies - they are Staffordshire bull terrier crosses, the dogs the tabloids sometimes call 'devil dogs'. They are both one of the most sought-after breeds in the country, and perversely the most frequently abandoned. This film follows the fate of Uggs' puppies as her owner tries to find new homes for them at 300 pounds a pup.

Here's a link.

H/T to Beverley Cuddy, blogger at Cold Wet Nose and editor and publisher of Dogs Today Magazine [UK].

Veterans Day

From the poem At a Calvary Near The Ancre by Wilfred Owen, who was "killed in action at the Battle of the Sambre just a week before the war ended, causing news of his death to reach home as the town's church bells declared peace."

The scribes on all the people shove
And bawl allegiance to the state,
But they who love the greater love
Lay down their life; they do not hate.

[Hat tip: The Edge of the American West.]

And from Andrew, though I know you've all seen it:

Paging Jonathan Safran Foer

Maybe the authors of the study should get back to us once they've given everything they own to the poor and have subsisted on nothing but fallen fruit for a few years. I keed. But the suggestion that pariah dogs are "better for the planet" than companion dogs? That's just messed up. Click to embiggen.

Are dogs really worse for the environment than SUVs?

I keep a bunch of them [dogs, not Land Cruisers] and I beg to differ. Children are worse for the environment than SUVs, not that I'm advocating shipping all kids to Mars, because then I'd be out of a job. Companion dogs make the world a better place. We need more of them.

Stray and feral cats, though, are another story. And no, I'm not just saying this because neighborhood strays are busy hunting wild birds in my backyard [or would be, if it weren't for my dogs]. I'm saying this because of a bug that kills sea otters and other marine mammals. I'm saying this because outdoor and feral cats generally have short lives marked by contagious disease and infection, and miserable deaths.

Inside cats: wonderful! My Gus [formerly feral, from the local pound] was a super terrific cat [an inside-only, non-declawed cat, for the record].

Outside cats: bad news. Feral cat colonies: don't even get me started. Best solution: trap, neuter, and adopt them out or send 'em to a sanctuary. And let me make this as clear as I can: feral cats themselves are not to blame for the problems they cause and the countless ills they suffer. That blame falls squarely on people who believe that feral cat colonies must be maintained at any cost, environmental and public health concerns be damned.


Also: if Jonathan Safran Foer ever saw what a combine does to wildlife [I've seen it], he'd never eat wheat or oats or barley again. Eating fallen fruit from native plants is the only way to go. That, and hunting.

Hen Heaven

Photo grabbed from the most excellent Design*Sponge.

Ye gods check out this Design*Sponge post on chicken coops. The green roof...! [swoon]

Irony deficiency

Can't wait for their anti-spay/neuter campaign.

There is a law pending here in California that will prevent cities and counties from passing ordinances banning medical procedures. This law goes into effect on January 1. You'd figure that politicians who let kids die on their watch would so not give a damn, right?

You would be wrong.

County Supervisors in Los Angeles have put on their righteous faces, rolled up their sleeves and drafted an ordinance reforming and streamlining child protective services once and for all opposing elective veterinary procedures that cause “unnecessary pain, anguish and permanent disability” to pets.

Elective procedures like neutering, right? No, silly.

The L.A. Supes think neutering dogs should be mandatory. Opposition to mandatory spay/neuter would require, let's see... a heightened sense of irony, under the circumstances, and a certain amount of, gosh, I dunno, research, maybe. And a degree of... literacy, reading comprehension, that kind of thing. Don't take my word for it: if you want the straight dope on spay/neuter, ask your vet. She'll take a good look at you, and if she figures you're sane, she'll pull the door closed and lower her voice and say, "Based on all the science we have, most male dogs are probably healthiest if they're not neutered."

Hear that, Villaraigosa et al? Whoops! Sorry, dudes, didn't mean to interrupt the photo op.

When you remember that Ed Boks and Judie Mancuso were able to lead the L.A. County Supervisors around by their noses, you'll understand why the Department of Children and Family Services, among other county agencies, is in such sad shape. But hey, we wrote that cat bill! Countywide epidemic of declawing stopped cold, yay us Supes!

[What's Judie Mancuso up to these days? Given the nature of her hubby's blog, I suspect she's not busy fostering abandoned pit bull puppies. Yeeesh.]