Cranky Goat & The Laughing Dog Café

Leafy Pleasures & Tranquil Woodlands!

2012-02-08T08:41:00.001-08:00

Henry David Thoreau famously fled to a small cabin on Massachusetts’ Walden Pond to recoup his mental faculties. The American writer, it seems, didn’t just inspire generations of poets both good and bad. He also may have stumbled across a prescription for better health. A new study shows that even brief encounters with parks or forests may have beneficial impacts on human hormone cycles,

FYI: Do Animals Dream?

2012-02-01T08:33:00.003-08:00

FYI: Do Animals Dream? original article from Popular Science by Kaitlin Miller Yes. Many pet owners have seen their sleeping dog or cat twitch or paw the air, as if dreaming of bones to bury or mice to chase. Stanley Coren, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia and author of the book The Intelligence of Dogs, says that canines go through the same sleep stages as

Elegant Simplicity

2012-01-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

Elegant simplicity - a notion well worth considering, as it potentially offers a partial solution in terms of personal behavior and habits to a number of our burgeoning environmental problems. First of all, what is elegant simplicity? The simplicity part may be viewed as follows: Elegant Simplicity - Live Happy. Live Simply. Live Happy... Although sometimes people think simplicity means a

7 Reasons Kale Is The New Beef | Food For Thought

2011-12-30T11:54:00.000-08:00

7 Reasons Kale Is the New Beef Original Article: Organic Health Like the saying goes, the only constant is change. We may resist it all we want, but Time and its inevitable evolution of everything in its path is unaffected by our attempts to stop it. The resulting trajectory of humanity's nascent ascent appears to be positioning itself to sweep us into progressive new times,

TOP 10 U.S. ENDANGERED SPECIES THREATENED BY OVERPOPULATION

2011-11-29T13:04:00.001-08:00

As the human population grows and the rich countries continue to consume resources at voracious rates, we are crowding out, poisoning and eating all other species into extinction. With the world population hitting 7 billion, the Center is marking this milestone by releasing a list of species in the United States facing extinction caused by the growing human population. The 10 species represent

Amazingly Obtuse and Still Annoying - Our Neighbours Updated...

2011-11-11T22:01:00.001-08:00

We have peaked at nearly 40,000 hits per month on our Cranky Goat Lifestyle Blog, and many viewers are asking for an Annoying Neighbours update to our blog posted some time ago! It seems we have many visitors signing in just to view our webcam (which essentially has turned into a neighbour cam of sorts) ... the essence of that previous blog goes as follows: Have you ever been annoyed so

Mountain Ranges Can Act As Conservation Safe Havens in a Warming World

2011-08-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

While there have been some pretty dire reports about the extinction of plants and animals due to global warming, there has also been some interesting and encouraging research about how species may be able survive in certain places. For example - Research coming out of the University of Basel, Switzerland shows that conditions in mountain ranges offer important climatic stepping stones for

Shepherds of Gaia - Early 2012 Book Release

2011-08-25T21:51:00.003-07:00

Shepherds of Gaia The Warrior Seeker © 2011 Shepherds of Gaia Stay tuned for this exciting new scientific based action adventure series. Shepherds of Gaia - The Warrior Seeker will hit store shelves and eBook apps by early 2012 ... with many more exciting new adventures to follow. _____________ The Gaia Hypothesis is a compelling theory around understanding life on our planet;

Sustainable Lifestyle - What Holds Us Back?

2011-08-25T21:51:00.002-07:00

Who wants a sustainable lifestyle? Well actually quite a lot of people, apparently. Far from being a niche concept, a major new study on sustainability from the UNEP says the idea is 'misunderstood as a rich nation choice'. While the desire to enjoy western living standards is strong, the study picks out a range of sustainable living ideas being developed across the world. It says one of the

Annoying Neighbours - We All Have One...

2011-08-25T21:51:00.001-07:00

Have you ever been annoyed so badly by a neighbour that you're ready to go to almost any extreme to annoy them right back? Come on, be honest, we have ALL had one at some point in our lives. It may indeed sound childish and petty, but it is an unfortunate reality many of us face. Our home is our castle, as the saying goes, yet just about everyone has at least one annoying neighbour story -

Sleep - It is Awesome Indeed!

2011-08-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Water - A Year in Review

2011-08-25T21:50:00.002-07:00

Originally from Tree Hugger: This year has been quite a doozy for water. From spreading smart metering to our water works, to shipping water from Alaska all the way to India, to clever and crazy ideas to help us conserve, down to our annual month-long Blue August feature, we've been through the wringer, so to speak. Check out the top news of 2010 in the world of water. Smart Water

Burning Wood May Do More Harm Than Good!

2011-08-25T21:50:00.001-07:00

Original Article from TreeHugger.com Of all the sources of renewable energy, one type invariably dredges up more debate than any other—biomass. Granted, the term biomass does cover a lot of topics and a lot of different controversies—from food versus fuel to the unintended consequences of anaerobic digestion. But perhaps the most enduring of all the biomass conundrums is this one—to burn wood

Who Cares About The Environment, Give Me Clean Dishes!

2011-08-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

Clean Water - It Doesn't Just Happen! Two years ago, when Washington State banned phosphates in dishwasher detergent (the last detergent or soap that still had it), posts were deluged with comments complaining how the new stuff didn't work as well as the old. Nobody seemed to much care about lakes and algae and eutrophication, they just wanted everything to be like it was. Now, with 17

We Are Killing Everything - Including Ourselves?

2011-05-20T22:45:00.000-07:00

In case the litany of separate studies showing how bad the ongoing extinction crisis the planet is undergoing, driven for all intents and purposes entirely by humans, really hasen't driven the point home: A new series of content from the Royal Society lays it bare, if not stating it bluntly enough. There are very strong indications that the current rate of species extinctions far exceeds

Annoying Neighbours - A Sad Commentary on Society in General?

2010-07-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

If you are unable to display common courtesy and consideration to your neighbours, how can we honestly believe you have any regard for our planet?Have you ever been annoyed so badly by a neighbour that you're ready to go to almost any extreme to annoy them right back? Come on, be honest, we have ALL had one at some point in our lives. It may indeed sound childish and petty, but it is an

Strathcona Park - The First and The Best of BC's Magnificent Park System

2010-07-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

Stephen Hume, Vancouver Sun This is such a good article about Strathcona Park, I simply had to post it on my blog ... please refer to the original by clicking here, and my humblest of thanks to Mr. Stephen Hume for writing such a fine article about this magnificent park. A breeze ruffled Victoria's Inner Harbour and a red sun rolled down the dark rim of the Sooke Hills on the fine July

Top nature photographs of all time (currently) to be auctioned for a noble cause - an attempt to save our planet!

2010-07-02T06:49:00.000-07:00

Green Auction - Celebrating Earth Day Entering the 40th annual, Earth Day today has left people worldwide being part of green initiatives of various kinds. Earth Day this year is full of eco-friendly events, conferences on Climate Change, recycling activities and what not. Joining the league is the inaugural Green Auction, an attempt to save the planet. Members of the International League of

Elegant Simplicity : What It Means...

2010-07-02T06:47:00.001-07:00

Elegant Simplicity - Live Happy. Live Simply. live Life Elegant simplicity - a notion well worth considering, as it potentially offers a partial solution in terms of personal behavior and habits to a number of our burgeoning environmental problems. First of all, what is elegant simplicity? The simplicity part may be viewed as follows: Although sometimes people think simplicity means a kind of

Will We Ever Change Our Destructive Ways ...

2010-05-27T22:34:00.000-07:00

Earth IS a beautiful planet. It is also small, fragile, crowded and ravaged by overpopulation and overdevelopment, primarily in coastal areas. Even if birth rates in developing countries rapidly decline, which seems unlikely, there will be twice as many of us by 2050. At the same time, rapid economic development around the world will further diminish our planet’s biodiversity. In this

The 'alarming' rate of nature loss could harm food sources and industry, and exacerbate climate change, UN report warns

2010-05-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

The "alarming" rate at which species are being lost could have a severe effect on humanity, conservationists warned today. Targets set eight years ago by governments to reduce biodiversity loss by 2010 have not been met, experts confirmed at a UN meeting in Nairobi, Kenya.The third Global Biodiversity Outlook report said loss of wildlife and habitats could harm food sources and industry, and

6 Prefab Houses That Could Change Home Building --> Affordable prices, cool design, easy delivery. What’s not to like?

2010-04-27T07:01:00.000-07:00

Remember when prefab housing was supposed to be the cost-reducing savior in a housing market where prices had ballooned way out of control? Sure you do. It wasn’t that long ago. Well, you’d think that with prices falling as fast as a brick that prefab housing would be a non-factor, but just the opposite appears to be true. In fact, prefab may play an even bigger role in the housing industry from

If You Care About Mother Earth - Then PLEASE Read On... and watch this movie.

2010-04-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

If you care about your health, or the environment; if you care about human rights, or justice, if you care about food safety, national security, animal rights, sustainability, nutrition, integrity, fairness, or doing what’s right, you (the person reading this blog right now) should see Food, Inc.Ignorance may be bliss, but ignorance is costly. This movie may not change how you eat – but at the

The Future Of Energy? Bloom Energy Boxes

2010-04-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

Over the past several years, there’s been no shortage of talk about alternative energy, and its potential to change the world. The problem is that most of it is just that — talk. But tonight, a report that aired on 60 Minutes showed one alternative that is not only real, it’s already being tested by companies such as Google and eBay. You simplyhave to watch this. Bloom Energy are producing tiny

Green Walls - An Eye Pleasing Future Trend

2010-04-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

A green wall – often confused with a vertical garden or a sky farm – is either free-standing or part of a building with some sort of vegetation, seeking to make amends to the lack of space on the ground. These green wallsdon’t only add a definitive grace to a building’s façade, they also help filtering air into edifices. Since the living walls require no soil for sustenance, the only prerequisite