Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses.

In an uncharacteristic fit of romantic desire, free from the guilt-inducing sins of hangover or forehead glitter, I randomly and voluntarily decided to get my wife flowers. It's been a while, some might say far too long, but I wanted to do something special.

Daunted by the price tags, I sat there in a haze as I tried to break down the cost per ounce --as if I was buying cheese or bulk laundry detergent-- all for an item who's prophesy had been subsequently foretold: store to home, home to vase, vase to shelf, shelf to compost. Basically, it would be $60 to buy something just to watch it's slow, quiet death. How did this tradition begin?

Fortunately, there was a local nursery across the street and I decided to see what they had to offer. The combination of their aisle-after-aisle Ohio grown roses and the warm humid weather sprung my wallet into action, and I was out the door two ripe hybrid tea Peace roses (perfect, given the warm political, romantic and environmental climates).

Fast forward to one week later...

While the romantic sentiment took well, I wholeheartedly admit that I have never been an avid gardener, and our house has, for some time, been the Guantanamo Bay of gardens. My black thumb has consumed more plants than a Cheech and Chong movie, and it's all because of my laziness. On the first day I'll water and coddle, on the second day I'll just water, and on the third day I drink beer. Fourth day usually involves buying more beer and drunkenly pulling up dead plants. So what's a lazy beer connoisseur to do?

Well, for us lethargic gardeners that rent our homes, but consistently search for permanent solution sans permanent solution prices, Book of Joe had an interesting April 13th solution.

From the Picket Fence website:

Watering Made Easy Original Sprinkler System
The easy way to green grass. Here’s a permanent, hidden sprinkler that costs a fraction of the cost of an underground system. Click on your garden hose — no screwing. Sprinkler pops up as it waters up to 70 ft. diameter. Installs quickly and stays in place, adjusted as you set it. Simply mow over it. Includes sprinkler assembly, hose quick-connect, protection shell and cover, twine for determining location and layout guide. $39.95


Definitely more appealing than the temporary set-up of a Yard Camel and I'd honestly consider a purchase, but while I like the idea, I was trying to figure out if there was a way that I could set it up with a greywater reclamation system (remember the Aqus post?).

For instance, take the gray water package units from Brac Systems. It's all well and good from an ambitious standpoint, but tell me if this looks like a renter's set-up...


I'd be happy to invest 10% with our current landlord for its installation, but even if I was a homeowner, this project would daunting in scale alone. So I was wondering...

Given the ease of installation with of a rain catchment barrel, combined with the ease of use of a temporary sprinkler system, compounded with the impermanence of its implementation, given the power of water pressure as a result of gravity, could you hack it to be both eco-friendly AND affordable to the masses? Basically, could you do this...If we're going to utilize gravity to push the water through the pipes, the barrel would most likely need to be a tad bit higher than shown in my shoddy Photoshop rendition. But all in all, I think the concept could work. This way, you wouldn't need to permanently install the application, but could choose where you wanted to use the typically wasted rainwater in your yard or garden.

Version 2.0 attaches to the commode so I'll spare you the stinky details, but you get the point. Anybody want to hack this and tell me how it goes?

Huge pipes with big laser beams on their heads...

Off we go into the cold blue/warm red yonder...

I am a big proponent of grandiose scheming when it comes to green design, but I'm filled with trepidation when it comes to the screwing-with of Mother Nature's methods. She's existed this long for good reason, and throwing a stick into the spokes to get the bicycle to stop speeding down the environmental hill might not be the best method to slow down global warming.

BldgBlog has yet another interesting post, this one concentrating on James Lovelock's grandiose scheme to line the ocean with a bazillion vertical pipes in order to pump nutrient-rich seawater from the depths of the seafloor to the surface. He posits that the pipes would spur algaeic (my word) growth, thus spurring the "natural" consumption of carbon dioxide.



The concept of deep water exploitation is not a new one. Since 2004, the city of Toronto has been utilizing a 5 km long pipe to draw cold water from the depths of Lake Ontario and distribute it to office towers for air conditioning, Cornell University employs a similar program from Lake Cayuga, Stockholm uses deep sea waters for air conditioning, and Honolulu is debating doing the same.

Additionally, many geothermal pockets in the earth are being tapped in the US to heat and cool buildings. Las Vegas, in their infinite hotness, is desperately scurrying under their gambling tables for a viable source of cool earth.

Similarly, China has gone batty over geothermal exploration:

Last year alone, China added 102 gigawatts to its electrical grid--roughly twice the total capacity of California's--and about 90% of that came from carbon-belching coal plants... The China Energy Research Society expects 110 gigawatt hours (GWh) to be produced through geothermal power nationally by 2010, out of 2.7 million GWh in total.

Take Steven Holl's Linked Hybrid in Bejing, a community of buildings that employs 45 bajillion (my estimation...I think it's actually around 600) geothermal wells beneath its span.


While the majority of this award-winning design rests on firmly-grounded pillars, one must wonder what effect it has on the supporting ground mass to, in essence, dispose of half of that ground's strength by drilling well after well, side-by-side.


You must admit, those green roofs make you drool a little bit.

Given the building's weight, their must be some reduction in foundation integrity. Keep in mind, of course, that I have ZERO education and/or knowledge in architecture and engineering. I just like to ask questions :)

To get a firm understanding on the "hybrid" aspect of this project and its innovations linking building to building, watch this video (they start talking about the building about 3:00 into it):



While the reduced energy usage resulted from this practice is being lauded as the next big elucidation in eco-friendly heating and cooling, one must ask if we're not, in fact, warming the earth in areas we have never warmed before? Fortunately, most proposed installations are now carrying out environmental impact studies prior to their installation, but as we all know with green design/ideas/hypotheses, the trend usually precedes the technology.

My question is this:

If you're pulling cold air from the earth or sea, what takes its place? Are we not warming one area and compromising another?

Not to mention, you might cause an earthquake or two.

Because even the Jetsons need to barbeque...

It's about damn time somebody came up with an alternative to the wicker tiki. Granted there are thousand of copper alternatives on the market, but how many people crane their necks at copper? This will get people talking.

Dutch design house Demakersvan is often conceptually inimitable, playing with forms and functions until they resemble something almost familiar (see: lace fence), but this design has me salivating at the pocketbook, wanting to know when/where/how I can purchase.

What's more is that they claim that "the fuse is calculated to last for more than 100 years" - a claim that doesn't necessarily have to be demonstrable to be advertised, but adds to my gimmegimme yearning nonetheless.

If you'd like to check out more madness from Demakersvan, check out their website.