Here is an e-mail I sent to the “ask-us” link from the JD Power web site about their survey methodology for “New-Home Builder’s Customer Satisfaction Survey”. I haven’t heard anything back from JDPA, but I will update this post if I do. Be careful how you interpret the results of this survey as it is […]
Why we shouldn’t trust markets with our civic life (by Michael Sandel)
“In the past three decades, says Michael Sandel, the US has drifted from a market economy to a market society; it’s fair to say that an American’s experience of shared civic life depends on how much money they have.” TED.com Another great TED Talk by Michael Sandel that highlights once again that thinking in the […]
Bell is at it again…
If there is one thing Bell is good at, it is creating an unfair playing field, always tilted in its own corporate favour. Whether it is about unilaterally changing user agreements after you sign up for them or collecting your usage information without your consent, Bell behaves as if it was immune from the social […]
Hydrogen storage idea…
Graphene can be triggered by an electric field to build itself into a three-dimensional box and store hydrogen: http://t.co/C3RTQnPiGT — Discovery (@Discovery) March 16, 2014
Foldscope paper microscope can diagnose malaria, costs 50 cents – Technology & Science – CBC News
I am always amazed at how imaginative people can be. The TED.com blog is full of stories and videos of interesting people with amazing things to say; and so are universities. You will find a number of entries on my blog site that are based on something amazing that has been developed for the third […]
Making investment practices more sustainable – Another great TED talk
I have thought a lot about the vocabulary we use when we speak about issues. Much of the language we use comes to us courtesy of Economists. We speak of consumers or clients rather than citizens. We speak of economic debt and deficit to the exclusion of the discussion of social, cultural, environmental or infrastructure […]
TED talk on affects of wealth on personality
TED talk on effects of wealth on personality This excellent TED talk describes how wealth can change the way we look at the world. The first few minutes are devoted to the type of tests that the researchers used to tease out the differences in perception between rich and poor but the real meat was […]
What the heck is an Earthship? … maybe an idea whose time has come!
Have you ever heard of the concept of an “Earthship“? I was introduced to the concept by my brother-in-law about 14 years ago and was blown away. What is an Earthship then? In a nutshell, an Earthship is an Eco-friendly home, made predominantly from recycled materials, designed to be as close to “off-grid” as possible.
The concept of Earthships arose in the halcyon flower-power days of the 1970s in various states in the southern USA. The concept seems to have developed by Michael Reynolds, an architect from New Mexico. As you can see in the linked Wikipedia article, his idea was not without problems, but it was, none-the-less revolutionary. Michael has a website where he educates about, demonstrates and promotes the Earthship technology. The site has designs for a number of systems that an Earthship needs if it is to meet code (see figure 2, below). Continue reading “What the heck is an Earthship? … maybe an idea whose time has come!”
Are you annoyed enough at Bell Canada to want to switch?
If you are annoyed enough by the planned #BellDataGrab to want to switch, you may find it harder than you imagine. If, for example, you have a contract with Bell for one or more of their services, it may not be easy to get out of the contract. Don’t lose hope. CRTC required the telecommunications […]
How to submit a privacy complaint with the Privacy Commissioner
If you feel that your privacy has been, or is being, violated by someone or some organization, you can file a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner for Canada. If your complaint is with a federal government department or agency, you can file the complaint under the Privacy Act. If it with the private sector, you have to file the complaint under PIPEDA (the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act).
If, for example, you are concerned that Bell Canada (and now Virgin Mobile) are going to be collecting massive amounts of information about your surfing habits, your television habits, your calling habits or your texting habits, you may wish to make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. Continue reading “How to submit a privacy complaint with the Privacy Commissioner”
Bell being investigated by Privacy Commissioner
Did you know that Bell Canada (and their daughter company Virgin Mobile Canada) plans to collect massive amounts of information about you and about your surfing habits? Well they are, and it isn’t clear that they should be able to. Here is an interesting article by CBC in Montreal that you should definitely read and […]
Some links to interesting environmental sites
One of my colleagues at work sent me this list of ten interesting environmentally-related web-pages. He recommended them to me and suggested I take a look at them. You may wish to take a look at them too. Thanks Phil!
http://www.marine-conservation.org/
Marine Conservation Institute is a leader in the global movement to protect and recover the integrity of vast ocean areas.
We use the latest science to identify important marine ecosystems around the world, and then advocate for their protection, for us and future generations.
For 50 years, WWF has been protecting the future of nature.
The world’s leading conservation organization, WWF works in 100 countries and is supported by 1.2 million members in the United States and close to 5 million globally. WWF’s unique way of working combines global reach with a foundation in science, involves action at every level from local to global, and ensures the delivery of innovative solutions that meet the needs of both people and nature Continue reading “Some links to interesting environmental sites”
Conservation International – A blog to make a difference
One of my colleagues showed me this site today and it looks really good. This is a link to their blog page. This group has some pretty high priced help on their roster. From Harrison Ford to Hillary Clinton, they seem to have the bases covered. One of the environmental movement needs more of is […]
Do Canadian companies represent you well abroad?
rabble.ca has published this very short, interesting article by the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union president, Dave Coles. In the article he tells of how Canadian companies extractive practices in Columbia trample on the rights of indigenous peoples and give Canada a bad name abroad. It is entitled “Not in our name…A Canadian energy giant […]
Stuff
Originally posted on poem storm:
we are living in a daze caught in our own material haze, we always want, but do not need, heart and soul, filled with greed, -Storm
Being green can sometimes be as simple as following the frog
It may be an advertising pitch, but there is some truth to it. The Rainforest Alliance has put together a cute pitch that TED.COM has nominated as one of the 10 best ads of the year. The ad shows you what you don’t want to do to be green, and then goes on to show […]
Aggressive Driving – Some observations from the peanut gallery
I often hear pundits decrying the aggressiveness of drivers. It is hard to disagree with the premise that aggressive driving is bad, but the picture isn’t as simple as the pundits would have you believe.
For one thing, not all aggressive driving is “actively aggressive”. The pundits rarely discuss the passively aggressive drivers, like the folks that drive in passing lanes. They also often fail to look for root causes for the driving aggression.
I have been thinking about this issue for a long time and think I have a few suggestions on how to reduce aggressive driving. My suggestions are in the form of tips and I have organized these suggestions around four possibly overlapping groups of people … 1) the aggressive drivers themselves, 2) traffic planners, 3) other drivers and 4) law makers. There probably isn’t much new here, and I hope it doesn’t appear to be condescending, but aggressive driving is an issue that has been bugging me for years so I wanted to add my two cents to the conversation. Continue reading “Aggressive Driving – Some observations from the peanut gallery”
A better way to recycle plastics? Mike Biddle replies to questions and comments about his 2011 TEDTalk
This is a follow-on article to Mike Biddle’s excellent video on new ways of dealing with plastics recycling. In this article (originally published on the TED.COM website, Mike responds to a number of questions that arose from his original TED talk. He deals with the thorny issue of getting the waste to one of the […]
The Story of Change : a new video from the makers of the “Story of Stuff”
This video is all about empowerment. It is all about acting on our commitments…to the environment, to social justice, to each other. It is about supporting our government’s initiatives for becoming a “World Class Regulator“. As with other “stuff” video, this one makes its point in the same clear logical fashion, taking us from being […]
Reducing herbicide use – Amazon hires goats for Japanese office landscaping – Your Community
Here is an unusual article from CBC about how Amazon.com is making use of Japanese goats to get rid of problem weeds on the company’s Japanese office grounds. Companies don’t always get it right, but when they do, they should get kudos from the rest of us. Amazon hires goats for Japanese office landscaping – […]
The real price of market values: Michael Sandel at TEDGlobal 2013
My Comments: This is another great TED talk about a subject of real importance…how market forces change our society and the cost of those changes. The comment about hollowing-out of discourse is most apt. Everything these days seems to be about the sound-bite, about quick fixes for complex social problems. We seem incapable of communicating […]
Uncovering corruption: Charmian Gooch at TEDGlobal 2013
My Comments: Once again, TED has published a very timely piece on an issue that is becoming huge in the west these days…corruption and its societal costs. Corruption has always been around, but until recently in the west, it was associated with shame and scandal. Now it seems to be so commonplace that we barely […]
Scientific American Article about the Dangers Associated With CF Light Bulbs
Scientific American Article about the Dangers Associated With CF Light Bulbs As a follow-on to my earlier article about various technologies for lighting your home, I wanted to post this link. As the date for conversion of all light bulbs from incandescent looms near there is a lot more is being said about the safety […]
Pool leaks are an environmental disaster!
- swimming pool (Photo credit: freefotouk)
Regardless of what anyone tells you, if you live in North America your pool should not be losing more than about an eighth of an inch of water (3 mm) each day in the summer. If it is losing more that that…don’t ignore it and don’t let people tell you that the larger amount of water loss is to be expected. An inch of pool water is a huge amount and the western world is just beginning to understand that water is our most precious resource. Don’t waste it like I did!
My family has had an in-ground swimming pool since the kids were little. Generally, we have only had to fill up the pool in the early spring and we are more-or-less good for the rest of the season. There is a bit of evaporation, but it is usually replaced by rainfall. This year, unfortunately, was “off the charts” as far as water consumption goes and that is an environmental disaster. Continue reading “Pool leaks are an environmental disaster!”
Do you remember when Hudson Quebec changed the world of lawn care?
One of my colleagues passed me a link to the trailer for a really interesting movie entitled “A Chemical Reaction”. The documentary was produced by Paul Tukey, an award winning writer about lawn care. He is the founder of the safelawns.org, which is an organization that has as its mission to “To create a broad-based […]
What’s with the wind every recycling day!
Have you every noticed, that it is almost always windy on the nights when you have to put out your paper or your plastic for recycling? My house is at the end of a long street that parallels the direction of the prevailing winds and you should see my front yard on recycling mornings. What a mess. […]
Exercise – not only does it save energy, but it saves you too!
You may think it a bit of a stretch to link exercise to the environment, but I think it is pretty appropriate. What got me thinking about it was an article on CBC.ca that pointed to the following YouTube video. I hope that after watching the video you agree with me. The video is by Toronto’s Dr. […]
Metroland.com – Trash Troubles
The other day at work, one of my colleagues passed a link on to me because she knew that I am interested in waste management. I really have to thank her because the link she provided was to an excellent 3 part article entitled “Trash Troubles – grappling with our garbage” (Metroland.com – Trash Troubles) […]
Solar Lights Recycling | Your Solar Link
I am constantly looking for good environmental blogs and have been following a really good one lately named “Environmental world for all”. The site is authored by a university student in peace studies with minor in environmental studies. One of the author’s recent posts discusses the benefits of solar LEDs for use as Christmas lights. It is a […]
Hybrid cars – one buyer’s thoughts
Back in 2009, my family bought a 2010 model year Honda Civic Hybrid. The chart in the dealership, which was produced by an independent tester, gave the Civic a rating of 60 miles per imperial gallon (mpg) in the city and 66 mpg on the highway. A review of the Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) website […]
Not everything environmental is about new technology…sometimes it is doing what we do in a smarter way.
Sometimes being environmentally friendly means using new technologies like solar and wind power, but sometimes it is simply about doing what we have always done, but doing it in a smarter way. URISA, an association of GIS professionals, has an annual competition for students in the GIS field to produce papers and posters on using GIS to […]
Who’s making money on bio-fuels and are they a good alternative to oil?
I just read an interesting paper from the MIT Centre for Energy and Environmental Policy Research and it had some interesting things to say about bio-fuels and politics. The paper Some Inconvenient Truths About Climate Change Policy: The Distributional Impacts of Transportation Policies (August 2011), by Stephen P. Holland, Jonathan E. Hughes Christopher R. Knittel and Nathan […]
An open letter to the plastics industry
First, I am not rabidly anti-plastic. I think that plastic has made many parts of our life better, but I am against plastic waste (plastic for which there is no after market recycling program) and I am against over packaging, and your industry is implicated in both. From an energy perspective, I am aware that […]
Solar light bulbs for pennies (Isang Litrong Liwanag/a litre of light)
I just ran across a wonderful innovationthat seems to have been around for a few years but just now seems to be garnering widespread attention. The innovation seems to be the brainchild either the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or of Mr. Illac Diaz of the Philippines. It is as brilliant in its simplicity as it is as a light bulb. I am going to leave the description of the “bulbs” and how they are used to the foundation (and to two interesting YouTube videos (describing the why and how). One of the linked videos below describes this as an idea out of MIT and that makes sense because that institution seems to focus on a lot of simple projects to help the poor (see my earlier blog about solar powered water desalinators that were developed by MIT folks).
Continue reading “Solar light bulbs for pennies (Isang Litrong Liwanag/a litre of light)”
Solar Thermal – What to do when the power goes out!
I spent 6 months living in Kathmandu back in the 90s. It was commonplace for the power to go off each evening for 2 or more hours and to cope with the outages everyone had battery backups and gas-powered generators.
But over here in Canada we have never needed battery backups or generators to keep things running. The electrical system is far more reliable here than it was in Nepal in the 90s. That being said, we do still get the occasional power outages but for the most part they are little more than an inconvenience. The same cannot be said for solar thermal systems when the power goes out. Continue reading “Solar Thermal – What to do when the power goes out!”
City of Ottawa – Help for Folks Installing Solar Thermal
The City of Ottawa has a nice new web page that acknowledges the existence of solar energy, and in particular solar domestic hot water (SDHW). The site, which can be found on ottawa.ca gives information about two different types of SDHW systems: a CSA approved factory packaged system and not factory packaged system. Both types of installation […]
Ottawa is back to recycling all hard plastics
The newspaper reports that the City of Ottawa is, once again, recycling all hard plastics. You may remember that some time in the Chiarelli administration Ottawa decided to save some money by taking a money losing, but successful, program of plastic recycling and scrap (literally) everything except recycling of number 1 and 2 plastics. There’s […]
Failsafe systems for solar hot water
As I mentioned in earlier blog entries, my system has a number of failsafe features to maintain system heat and pressure within tolerable boundaries. In the summer, the system dumps excess heat into the swimming pool, and in the winter it dumps the excess heat into a radiant water heater in the basement. This spring […]
Power Surges and Drops – Causing Electrical Problems?
I don’t know if you have noticed it too, but there seems to be a lot more power outages and surges these days. I’m not talking about the 20 day variety like the one that hit us during the ice storm, but rather the one and two second ones that seem to come in bunches […]
Forever Plastic: Basic Tip for Recycling Plastic – Doc Zone | CBC-TV
Given the interest in solid waste policy in the City of Ottawa at the moment, now might be a great time for you to brush up on some recycling facts. CBC has a page and a video with some interesting information that might inform and entertain you. Forever Plastic: Basic Tip for Recycling Plastic – […]
City of Ottawa – Residential Solid Waste Service Level Review
The City of Ottawa is currently conducting a review of residental solid waste service levels and this is your chance to have a say before the service levels change (or your tax bill does). The solid waste review has its own web page on the city’s site. City of Ottawa – Residential Solid Waste Service Level Review. […]
The Story of Stuff Project – or why did I need this do-dad again?
Want an interesting way to explain to kids how consumer demand is created? Want to get some interesting facts about bottled water? What to know what cap-and-trade really means and whether it is a good thing or not? Want to know what all our electronic toys cost the planet? Why not mosey over to the […]
Undergrads bring energy education to Ghana
In another piece from MIT press, here is a story about how some MIT undergrads brought alternate energy education to schools in Ghana. Now if we could only get the education here in Canada… Undergrads bring energy education to Ghana.
OpenEI Blog: Solar-powered desalinisation
I just ran across this interesting post about a small (1000 gallon per day) and smaller (80 gallon per day) solar-powered desalinization unit that could be deployed quickly and cheaply in disaster zones where potable water is hard to come by and electrical power even harder to come by. You can read more about it here: […]
How do you decide which green technology to use to light your home.
One thing that has always bothered me about being an environmentalist is that there is never enough good information available to the consumer allowing them to make intelligent decisions. Case in point … what kind of lightbulbs to use in the house to reduce the total carbon footprint and to be generally green.
For years now, we have been asked to consider moving to compact fluorescent lightbulbs because they last longer and they are far more efficient than the incandescent bulbs we have used for the last hundred years or so. Continue reading “How do you decide which green technology to use to light your home.”
Public transportation woes in Ottawa
OC Transpo doesn’t have enough drivers or busses to make the public transit system work and the busses we do have aren’t large enough to meet demand. We need to address this issue in the short, medium and long terms. The municipal vision for a light rail system is a start because it gives us a glimpse of the long-term vision, but it leaves us with a broken system for the next 20 years. Further, even this long-term vision needs better documentation and communication. Continue reading “Public transportation woes in Ottawa”
300 Years of Fossil Fuels in (About) 300 Seconds « Fighting for Hope’s Blog
Got 5 minutes? Spend it watching the worlds’s energy history at the “Fighting for Hope’s” blog. Show it to your kids and to their teachers. 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in (About) 300 Seconds « Fighting for Hope’s Blog.
So, what solar equipment do I need to buy (part 1)?
Solar system components
When you start to think about a solar system, you have to remember that the industry is relatively new in Canada. It has been used in Europe for decades, but its penetration on this side of the Atlantic has been marginal until recently. That means that you have to be conscious that some of the product on the market may not have been certified for use in Canada. The components that were installed in our house and that I will be speaking about below were all CSA approved and the “non-packaged” installation proposal that prepared was certified as compliant with the Ontario Building Code by a professional engineer.
The solar collectors we use in our house are the CAREarth Vacuum Tube Solar Collector SJ Series Heat Pipe Technology. Continue reading “So, what solar equipment do I need to buy (part 1)?”
But, it’s always cloudy and cold here! What good is solar heat here?
It is a sad fact, but if you don’t get any sun, you don’t get any solar heat. But even the grayest areas of the country get a significant amount of sun. Thermomax, a is a Canadian company that uses European technology to provide solar hot water products. Its web site has done a great job […]
What are we doing to the planet? Watch the film “Home” to find out!
This is a bit of a departure from my past two posts, but I just saw this film and wanted to share the experience…
Ever wondered what makes the planet tick? Ever wonder whether humanity is really having an effect on the planet and how it works? Do you have children or grand children? Want to see some amazing photography and hear some thoughtful commentary on these subjects? Got a spare 90 minute?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, treat yourself to a breathtaking, if at times depressing experience and watch the film “Home (the movie)“. Continue reading “What are we doing to the planet? Watch the film “Home” to find out!”
Gourken's Brain Dump (more of a trickle actually) 