The Clayton iHouse

This may be the coolest thing I've ever seen in the realm of affordable housing - to say nothing of it being manufactured housing as well:

the Clayton iHouse

There's also a good article about it on Yahoo! News and a blog devoted to it as well. And guess who thinks it's such a good idea that he bought the parent company ? Warren Buffet.

I want one out in the Hill Country on the West side of Austin :)

QotD for 18 Sep., 2008

The oil industry has a 50-year lease on the Republican Party. And they're drilling it for everything it's worth. ---Al Gore, former VP of the U.S.

"We're stuck with dirty, expensive energy because the oil and coal lobbies are spending hundreds of millions to block real change." See the latest ad from We Can Solve it for details.

Help Save Totoro's Forest

The Totoro no Furusato
(The Homeland of Totoro) Foundation was created for the purpose of preserving the urban forest of the Sayama Hills near Tokyo.

"Located about 24 miles from the Tokyo metropolitan area, in an area overlapping Tokyo and Saitama provinces, Sayama is a lush hill of greenery, encompassing 8650 acres...The vast woodland area, which includes two reservoirs, Lake Sayama and Lake Tama still maintain an old-world charm. Seen from above, the Hills resemble a small green island in the middle of a metropolis."

Sayama Hills is known as the inspiration for Hayao Miyazaki’s beloved anime My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro), and the foundation was named in honor of this, with Miyazaki being one of the original donors.

With more and more pressure from the surrounding cities, Sayama Hills is in danger of being lost to always increasing urbanization. To help, contact them at the email addr shown on the website above, or consider participating in the fundraising efforts of the Totoro Forest Project - an art auction to be held this Sept. at Pixar Studios in Emeryville, CA by a group of acclaimed artists in the fields of animation, comics, and illustration.