Here's a story from our friends in the U.K. about home buyers and the Energy Performance Certificates the government has mandated for several years now. It seems that very few people give a hoot about what the paperwork states, and most don't look at it. The missing link, it appears, is that the E.P.C. doesn't get specific enough about how much money a home buyer will save by making the recommended changes, but then we face the age-old problem of how many heating professionals, let alone governments, want to actually put savings in writing. Ah, people!

This rotating house is in Australia, and isn't it grand to know there are people in the world who will set out to do such fun things, and actually get them done? I want to sit on the porch with this guy and rotate with a case of Victoria Bitter.

Hey, don't blame me; I'm not asking the question. The author of this brief article is. Her comment about us all migrating from the equator reminded me of a story I wrote a while ago. You want to know stuff you have to look it up, right? Enjoy!

Leave it to the Japanese to come up with a great idea. But there are some questions about this one, as you can see from the comments. Got ten grand kicking around?

We visited Marianne's sister in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia last February. They had just had eight inches of snow and no one in the subdivision owned a snow shovel. As a transplanted New Yorker, my sister-in-law was laughing out loud. She thought she had gotten away from all that. Now I read this story about the passive-house movement showing up in Atlanta. Seems like a fine idea to me. It has to be better than those all-electric houses they've been putting up for years.

The Danes don't seem to do anything ordinary anymore. Check out this article about what they're planning to go over their new waste-to-energy plant. All it takes in imagination, oh, and money. And skis.

It's not earth-shattering news to switch a radiant heating system from an oil-fired boiler to a heat pump these days, but I just thought you'd like the picture of the gorilla enjoying it all. Looks like me on any given Saturday.

I write to you today from Germany, where I am attending the big ISH fair, and trying my best to explain the glories of Guinness to Germans. Wish you were here.

Hug your kids.