Saturday, December 31, 2005
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Bush defeated on ANWR
The Senate handed GWB a defeat on drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a critical caribou habitat. Opening up the vast Alaskan wildlife refuge for oil exploitation would place the herd of caribou at risk. The Republicans, manipulative buggers, had inserted the drilling provision in a defense appropriations bill. Maybe the path to energy security lies in reducing the grotesquely inflated consumption of North American consumers? Just a thought.
Should this man be Prime Minister?
A number of my co-workers are Tory supporters. They believe Stephen Harper is the victim of the news media. These Tory supporters are critical of the hidden agenda charge that is sometimes levied against Harper. "Why are people 'afraid of Stephen Harper', especially in Ontario?" is the question that was posed to me.
Ontarians believe that Harper is not being straight with them. Harper portrays himself as a moderately conservative politician; basically a similar but non-corrupt alternative to the Liberals. This hidden agenda allegation is a valid and astute observation of Stephen Harper.
The agenda is a radical transformation and attack on the government, on the scale of the vicious and radical restructuring of the provincial government in Ontario. A Harper majority government will not simply be a caretaker "non-corrupt" version of the Liberals, but will involve the dismemberment of many government programs that conservatives despise.
His hidden agenda can be extrapolated from his past statements and associations. First, he is undoubtedly anti-environment. His fierce oppostion to Kyoto, plus his association with the oil and gas industry should firmly entrench his status as an anti-environmentalist. Check out his Wikipedia bio here.
Second, he is openly hostile to the federal government in general. He has suggested in the past that Alberta should build a firewall seperating itself from the rest of Canada. This has prompted legitimate questions about his patriotism, and committment to govern on behalf of all Canadians, rather than just conservative Albertans.
Third, he is hostile to the values that many Canadians share, such as universal health care and worker's rights. He is the former leader of the National Citizen's Coalition, a conservative special interest group which campaigns against unions and universal health care. Coupled with his masters degree in economics, it suggests that he would govern as a radical fiscal conservative, regardless of the middle of the road values that Canadians share.
Monday, December 19, 2005
Le Parkour
Radio One had an interview today with a practitioner of Parkour. This sport originated in France and is a type of urban adventuring; a type of dangerous-looking steeplechase praticed in cities. Holy mackeral, these people have guts of steel. I like the idea of urban adventuring - making use of the city in a creative way, but frankly I am unwilling to risk my 30-something ass in such a dramatic way.
Toronto has a local parkour group with much tamer-looking stunts, pictured here.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
humbug
On further consideration, it's a ballsy. Christmas can be quite crazy; it makes sense to simplify and not give a lot of unnecessary trinkets. Christmas ends up being an internal struggle. You want to avoid the situation where someone buys a gift for you and you didn't get anything for them. How embarassing! Heaven forbid! And for those you are giving gifts to, you don't want to appear cheap
R's directive on gift giving is straightforward and refreshing. Fuck the local retailers anyway. I am not responsible for WalMart's or the Bay's profit margins.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
EcoBunk Awards
Toronto's ecorati were present at the 15th annual EcoBunk Awards on Thursday. EcoBunk is an annual roast of some of the worst greenwashing and anti-environment advertisements of the past year. The ads ranged from the horrific and absurd hunting gear ads from Gerber Gear (example above) to the merely cynical (GE's PR campaigns).
This was my first EcoBunk and I'm told the tone was a littler happier than in the dark and dreary Mike Harris years, when much of the show was spent bashing the Harris government.
SUV's came in for some hard knocks, and rightly so. For next year's EcoBunk awards I would nominate Volvo's new V8 SUV which currently bills itself as providing "intelligent transportation for families that value performance, safety and the environment." This is of course, an oxymoron - an environmentally friendly SUV. I doubt I will ever buy a Volvo after seeing that particularly cynical and disingenuous piece of advertising
CBC Radio One host Bob MacDonald was an emcee at EcoBunk this year. Gord Miller, Ontario's Environmental Commissioner was sighted in the audience. NDP federal candidate and retiring Senior Campaigner Gord Perks presented one award. Also in attendance was local councillor and federal NDP candidate Olivia Chow.
Friday, December 09, 2005
London Congeston
CBC's Linden MacIntyre interviewed Nicky Gavron today on The Current.
Gavron is the deputy mayor of London in Ken Livingstone's administration. In 2003, their administration introduced a congestion charge in the downtown core. Each driver wishing to enter Central London must pay the charge which is directed towards transit programs. The £8 charge has reduced traffic in the downtown core by 30 per cent, according to Gavron. Additionally, the city has supported transit by strictly enforcing buses-only lanes.
"I used to think that if you change attitudes you change behavior. I now know that if you change regulations you change behavior, said Gavron.
She is also pushing for greener technologies for heating and cooling to reduce domestic energy use: "We want to overcome market failure and and stimulate markets".
She remarked that London has a lot to learn from Canadian initiatives such as the EnerGuide and loan structures to promote efficiency.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Google Transit - Coming Soon?
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Linux & Lentils
Part community center, part professional group, and local coffee joint - the LinuxCaffe is open for business at Harbord & Grace. David Patrick opened his cafe seven months ago. Barista is a radical job change for him, after his work in the film industry. But he already had the IT experience needed to run the cafe.
Run the cafe? That's right. The cafe is stock-a-block with laptops and servers running various distributions of the open source O/S kernel Linux. The shelves are full of quality technical books related to IT, programming, and Linux. The sound system runs on Linux. And the cafe hosts a wireless access point for its customers covering the cafe and southern part of Bickford Park.
The food is sourced from suppliers within walking distance and picked up with a wagon. Paninis, soups, and wraps are the steady favorites.
I order hot lemon tea with lentil soup, seasoned with 'Spike', a celery salt based seasoning, and the soup comes with fresh slices of baguette. Good comfort food on a cold December night.
Great place to spend a quiet evening surfing the Net and writing software.
Hours (from the LinuxCaffe site):
----------------
Monday - Thursday
7ish to 7ish
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Friday
7ish to 11ish
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Saturday
10ish to 11ish
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Sunday
10ish to 5ish
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Beer Hunter
There are an increasing number of 'Google mash-ups', sites that leverage Google's map and earth imaging technology in innovative ways. For example, this site which allows you to view the storm track of hurricanes and cyclones.
Saturday, November 26, 2005
Quirks special on climate change
CBC's science program hosted a special show on climate change today. Download and real media stream available here.
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
The Corporation
In his 2004 book, The Corporation, Joel Bakan provides a searing indictment of the corporate form. His thesis is accessible, concise, and devastating
1. The corporation enjoys the powers and rights of a person
2. The personality of the corporation is generally that of a sociopath: amoral, egotistical pursuit of self-interest
3. Since the corporation is a creation of governmental laws and treaties, it is time to re-establish control over this entity.
The book is well documented and footnoted, but not as dull or lengthy as Fast Food Nation. The story of the Bolivian city of Cochabamba is particularly chilling. In an effort to employ market solutions, to a public policy problem, the government of Bolivia privatized the water system of Cochabamba. The water company raised rates to up to three times the previous rate, and even charged peasants for water they drew from their own wells. In complicance with its contract with the company, the government prohibited people from even collecting rainwater and local river water. After a bloody confrontation between citizens and police, the water system was de-privatized.
Urban Vancouver has an interview with Bakan. The movie of the same name has their own site with a Get Involved Link.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
Drive Clean program to be adjusted
Ontario's Drive Clean program is being adjusted to target older cars. 4-5 year-old cars will no longer be tested - testing starts after a car is 5 years old. Light-duty trucks (read SUVs) older than 20 years old will now be tested.
The maximum limit for repairs will be increased from $450 to $600. 600? This is of course, a bizarre subsidy to the worst polluters. Your car fails the test? Fix it or get it off the road. It's not the government's job to make it easy for you to drive. Can't afford it? I can't afford an i-Pod - is the state going to cap the costs of an i-Pod for me?
It's reasonable to exempt 4-5 year old cars. This change is likely due to pressure from research by the Hamilton Spectator and others showing that the vast majority of 4-5 year old cars passed their test with flying colors. This research is giving strength to claims that the billion or so-dollars that Ontario vehicle owners have spent on Drive Clean was 'wasted'.
Reforming and cutting the fat in the Drive Clean system will reduce the program's vulnerability to political attacks. Drive Clean is a powerful and revolutionary idea because it channels the responsibility and costs of curbing pollution on the individual, not the state. The claim that 98% of cars pass Drive Clean, therefore the program is a waste, is a specious argument at best. The 2% of cars that fail are the problem; they are exactly what the program was targeted against.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Larry David special on Climate Change
Saturday, November 12, 2005
Profile of a sunny afternoon
New subway line for Toronto?
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
The Sausage of Hardwood
Just installed a tongue-in-groove mix of hardwood from Timeless Materials in Guelph, ON. This company salvages wood from condemned factories and barns in Southern Ontario and re-mills the wood into flooring. Each board is a different wood, kind of like sausage (everybody likes sausage). As long as you distribute the different varieties sufficiently randomly it looks good. The spouse and I wanted to use recycled materials if possible and we were able to get this stuff for slightly more than a new batch of hardwood. Pretty exciting that the wood may be from a hundred year old building
We just finished oiling it with Tung oil and are very pleased with the results. The Tung oil was rosemary-scented and non-toxic. It gets applied using a brush and three coats were enough to protect the floor
Monday, October 24, 2005
Toolworks
On Saturday I visited the Toolworks drop-in workshop and learned how to remove my bike's bottom bracket. Or rather we tried to remove the bottom bracket but were thwarted by the cold-weld effect of ten years of riding in Vancouver and Toronto year-round.
My scheduled maintenance activities are.. let's see... nothing. If something breaks on my bike, or the tires are completely flat, I will grudgingly get out my tools and patch the problem. That's why it's great to have a local resource for bike repair.
Toolworks is run by the Community Bicycle Network and is a program where you can drop in and use a full set of bike tools for $5/hr or get access to tools and mechanical advice for $10/hr. A number of bike maintenance activities require specialized tools. E.g. crank removal, brake cable adjustment, enormous adjustable wrenches for extra torque.
I stopped off at a nearby bike shop and got a replacement bracket and will try again in 2 weeks. It was fun to hang out with people who ride in Toronto a lot and work on our bikes together.
Saturday, October 22, 2005
89.9 <-- This is Not a Government Plot
Look RW, the current gas prices are the result of free markets. You love free markets. Pay your 90 cents a litre and stop complaining dude. Check out the prices for gasoline in Europe
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Hundred Mile Diet
I prefer to think of food in a more continuous curve of fossil fuel consumption. E.g. Kiwi fruit=very high fossil fuel consumption. Grain from Alberta medium fuel consumption. Locally grown apples, very low fuel consumption. I have been trying to get the Spouse off Kiwi fruit. Buying fruit from the other side of the planet is just plain madness in this day and age.
Friday, October 14, 2005
Tsunamis and Mangroves
Saturday, October 08, 2005
Sprawl moves to Simcoe County
Why build way out in Simcoe County? Are these retirement villages we're talking about? Or more commuter sprawl. Since the province will end up footing the bill for highways to support this kind of development, they need to look it more closely.
This may be the leapfrog effect that environmentalists warned about when the McGuinty government proposed the greenbelt plan - development jumping over the Oak Ridges Moraine and moving farther out. Same bad planning, different place
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Squishy conservatives
Perhaps instead of screaming for the state to fix gas prices, Stephen should educate consumers about the law of supply and demand. A former economics student should know better. Higher prices will lead to greater efficiency and send signals to consumers.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Urban Splendor
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
This is What Climate Change Looks Like
This is what climate change looks like. Without significant action on CO2 emissions, the fate of New Orleans will be repeated in many places over the coming century.
Climate change is expected to bring with it rising sea levels and more frequent weather patterns. The waves of destruction that immersed New Orleans could soon be washing over parts of Florida and cities all along the coast. Entire countries will soon face annihilation - low-lying coastal nations such as Bangladesh and Tuvalu
For too long we have allowed short term economic wants dictate decision making. A short term economic analysis shows that New Orleans is a great place to build a business. It has a fantastic port, access to the Mississippi river, and the Atlantic.
A long term analysis would conclude that building a city of 3 million in a soup bowl 3 meters below sea level in a hurricane-prone area is fundamentally unsound. Let's get it right on CO2 emissions before it's too late
Monday, August 29, 2005
Urban Ecosystem
Our world is changing with a speed that is difficult to grasp. Land and resources are gobbled up and discarded at a staggering pace. Toronto artist Kendall Anderson documents some of our urben detritus with his photography site, Invisible Threads
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Death to the Oil Furnace
My neighbor replaced his circa 1973 oil furnace with a high-efficiency natural gas model. Older oil furnaces are a nasty, dirty business. The new model will save on CO2 emissions, and provide less oil money to Ralph Klein's government. And that can only be a good thing...
Carbon coefficients of each fuel source
- fuel oil: 161.44 pounds of CO2 per million BTU
- natural gas: 117 pounds of CO2 per million BTU
data from EPA's Global Warming Research Center
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Best coffee cup in town
This is the best re-usable coffee cup in town. Lightweight, inexpensive, it holds 14 oz of java & is a great replacement for two daily paper cups of coffee. $2.75 from Mountain Equipment Co-op
Saturday, August 20, 2005
Environment on radar screen
"It's having major impacts - on quality of life in terms of smog. I think it's
an immediate and pressing problem. It's a pressing problem for our health, a
pressing problem for the environment and it's a pressing problem for
sustainability. And when you take a look at gas prices where they are - our
reliance on petroleum is no longer sustainable."
Good to see the green message is getting through to the Liberals - they need to act effectively to reduce smog and meet our CO2 reduction committments. It's fine for backbenchers to raise these issues but the environment has clearly not been at the top of the Liberal decision-makers' agenda in recent years.