DOGS visiting a selection of Scottish luxury resorts with their owners this month are in for a special treat. Celebrity chef Albert Roux has turned his hand to canine fare to mark Pet Month and has devised a menu for man’s best friend featuring salmon, mackerel, spinach and brown rice risotto, turkey and sweet potato stew and meatloaf with chicken jelly. “My own dog loves the special menu, so I’m sure many others will have a similar reaction,” Mr Roux said. The dog’s dinners are being served at pet friendly venues run by small luxury hotel operator Inverlochy Castle Management, including Roxburghe Hotel & Golf Course in the Borders, Greywalls in East Lothian and Cromlix in Perthshire. Each item on the dog menu costs £10.50 and can be ordered via room service.

STAYING on a doggie theme, Apple's iconic 1997 'Think Different' advert has been remade with dogs. The film is narrated by Sir Michael Gambon and replaces human thinkers including John Lennon, Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso with canine characters. Twenty different dog stars, including Pickle, Denny, Teddy, Winston, Molly, Truffle and Rio are featured. The film has been made by BAFTA-nominated Gary Tarn for Tails.com, a new tailor-made dog food company backed by the founders of Innocent, LOVEFiLM and snack brand Graze. “Because every dog is different, we believe its food should be too,” said Tails.com chief executive and co-founder James Davidson.

SCONE Palace in Perth has taken its coffee shop back to the future with a Renaissance-inspired makeover aided by Dunfermline–based Craig & Rose, Britain’s oldest independent paint manufacturer. Famous for providing the paint for the Forth Rail Bridge for more than 100 years and a supplier to stately homes since the 18th century, the company has produced 50 litres of a new period hue for the palace coffee shop. “The colour is called Pale Mortlake, which is a cream shade that was used in the Renaissance period,” explains Craig & Rose managing director Stephen Percy-Robb. Alloa-based civil engineer Marshall Construction handled the decorating as part of some wide refurbishment work, while Glasgow-based Service Graphics provided new painted wall panels in the coffee shop, which was once the Servants’ Hall. “Visitors to Scone Palace can now savour a scone in style,” said the palace, which is celebrating 50 years of being open to the public.

SCIENTISTS at the University of Southampton are offering an enticing look into new technology that is being hailed as the future of data storage. The technology, dubbed the ‘Superman memory crystal’, uses lasers and nanostructures to record up to 360 terabytes (360,000 gigabytes) of data onto miniature glass disks, and could allow people to preserve data and documents for billions of years – meaning it could potentially outlive the human race. The masterminds behind the technology have recently used it to record historical documents including Newton's Opticks, the Magna Carta and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “This technology can secure the last evidence of our civilisation: all we’ve learnt will not be forgotten,” said Professor Peter Kazansky from the university’s Optoelectronics Research Centre.

MORE than half of small and medium businesses in Scotland are losing up to 22.5 days a year removing emergency waste, including illegal fly-tipping, from their premises, according to research from waste management group Biffa. “Fly-tipping on small business premises was most prevalent in regions across London, the Midlands, Scotland and the North West and 77 per cent of businesses questioned said that this single issue can take contractors on average a full 24 hours to handle and remove compliantly,” the company said. The stuff businesses have to clear up ranges from broken freezers to spilled fuel. Biffa is promoting is 24/7 OneCall service for emergency waste collections.