Buckingham Palace Guardsmen May Get Designer Fur-Free Hats

Earlier this week, beloved British comedian Ricky Gervais (of the original Office and Extras, in case you live under a rock or are severely comedically deprived) made headlines when he wrote to Prime Minister Gordon Brown asking him to find an alternative to using fur in the Buckingham Palace Guardesmen’s bearskin hats.  After the news got out, some people started joking about having famed PETA ally and vegetarian designer Stella McCartney to design new, cruelty-free hats.  It seems that those jokes might have something to them after all.

From Ecorazzi:

This week, Baroness Taylor, the Minister for Defence procurement (and in charge of acquiring all military equipment), will meet with PETA to discuss synthetic materials or other replacements for the bear fur. PETA has tapped British designer Vivienne Westwood to come up with something “innovative”, while Stella McCartney and the US designer Marc Bouwer have both agreed to produce caps if commissioned by the MoD.

It currently takes one black bear for every hat worn by the Buckingham guard. 50-100 new hats are needed every year. Over the past five years the MoD has spent more than $600,000 on bear skins. If this meeting proves successful — and it looks like there’s a serious chance — then a major step forward in saving the black bear of North America will have been taken.

There are so many humane alternatives out there, and while some may argue that the hats are an important and sentimental link to the past, we’re finally entering an age of consciousness and responsibility.  We can’t wait to see what the designers come up with.  Thanks, Ricky!

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Metro.co.uk

Meet the King of All Squatters: Harry Halowes Turns 21 Years of Squatting into $8,000,000 in Land

This is Harry Halowes:

Harry has been living in a discarded junk tent camp right down the hill from a vacant London estate for the past 21 years. A big fat cat billionaire bought the estate, dumped over a hundred million dollars into fixin’ it up, and was shocked when his attempt to boot Squatter Harry from the land was turned away by the courts whose ruling gave Harry rights to his plot of land.

Harry’s lot is now worth nearly $8,000,000. We hope he sells out and gets himself setup with a nice apartment in some swanky part of town. He should have enough left over for a butler and 20 or 30 years of eeeeasy livin’. Not a bad upgrade from a dingy squat lot. Huzzah for Harry.

Link [Daily Mail]

BBC Puts Reality TV Show Stars Out With the Trash- Literally

Talk about trash TV – Tune into BBC America this Sunday and you might just happen upon a gaggle of lost and forlorn Brits, rummaging through mounds and mounds of their own waste. No, not THAT kind of waste… get your filthy minds out of the sewer. We’re talking garbage here, folks. Sweet-smelling and abundant, beautiful and glorious: TRASH!

For a three week period, 11 landfill-rumaging dwellers made their ways through a dump, accepting challenges along the way that involved making the most out of the one thing that they had tons and tons of: crap. Dumped, a four part BBC series, means to draw attention to the dreadful UK landfill situation and airs until the end of March.

Compared to other European nations, the UK ranks low when it comes to recycling. It is estimated that each UK resident throws away 1/2 ton of trash each year, something that this whacked-out reality show is trying to make a stink about…

Links [Green Daily] & [BBC Dumped]