CSI Miami: a lunatic has a nuclear bomb. Ryan is sitting behind a computer, Caine is standing behind him.
Caine: Ryan, can you find out the most optimal location and weather condition to detonate a nuclear bomb in downtown Miami with maximal damage?
Ryan types in: “optimal weather condition” onto a computer search engine. Computer comes back with “Blue Lakes Park, 4 p.m.”
Caine: That’s fifteen minutes from now… let’s roll!

I certainly do. Is it annoying when you’re talking to people and they do this sort of thing? It sure is. Should people that constantly asking themselves questions and answer them be in an insane asylum? I don’t see why not.

Wolfsburg, Germany, home of the most advanced car factory in the world. Called ‘Autostadt’, it is a combination of museum, amusement park and good old fashioned car factory. The Autostadt’s primary mission is what’s called car “collection,” where buyers take possession of their new VWs. Up to 40% of European buyers make the trip to Autostadt to receive the keys to their new car in a bonding moment of great ceremony.

Not surprisingly, this process has an architectural component. New cars are stored in two 20-story cylindrical glass towers, each of which has a robotic car lift in the center. At the appropriate moment, the robotic arm plucks the car from one of the honeycomb-like cells and brings it to the ground floor to meet its new owner.

These towers could (should?) be turned into commercial car parkades. Unlike the traditional concrete uglyness that is splattered all over the world, these glass towers look elegant, especially at night, and take up only 20% of the ground space for a comparable amount of cars. But on the other hand, the wait can be pretty long after a hockey game… 10,000 cars, one at a time…

Is recycling paper environmentally sound? I think not: 29 per cent of all recycled paper in North America is currenty sold to–you guessed it–China. Coal burning container ships carry over nine million tonnes of recovered paper fibres across the ocean to China. Chinese plants use mostly coal to provide the energy to make paper, as opposed to cleaner hydro here in Canada. After China has produced the paper, it is increasingly selling the newsprint back to North American companies, again shipping it across the ocean using coal burning container ships.

read more…

I was reading, with interest, the Citizen’s Art Quiz ‘Life is wonderful for Forsyth’ (Ottawa Citizen, Thursday, February 8, and subsequent dog related follow up). I was impressed with Ms. Forsyth’s answers until I laughed out loud reading the sentence: “Lately, I’ve been worried about the polar bears”. I laughed because everything else she mentions in the quiz screams ‘I don’t give a hoot about polar bears’: from eating black cod in New York and loving her blackberry, to having a new gown for every performance in cities across the globe, and vacationing on Anguilla.
Ms. Forsyth, if you were one of those people who believe humans are 90% certain to be responsible for global warming, and the related decline in polar bear population, and claim to be concerned about it lately, would you not do anything in your power to reduce your own greenhouse gas emissions, encourage others to follow your example, and last but not least, abstain from eating eat cod since that takes food out of the polar bears’ food chain?
As I am pretty sure Ms. Forsyth didn’t bike or jog to New York or Calgary, didn’t row to Anguilla, didn’t made sure the black cod in New York was farmed, didn’t do her research on how and where her silk gowns are produced, and didn’t look into the fact the blackberry she loves so much was manufactured in a Kyoto exempt, coal powered polluting factory in China, I’m left wondering if Ms. Forsyth is genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of our polar bears, or if being concerned about them is really just something you say.

The website for Life Cycle is up (http://www.life-cycle.ca) It is a project initiated by my step-son Christopher and his friend Katie. They plan to bike across Canada this summer in support of Cancer research. Going to their website will enable you to read more about their endeavour, donate to their cause, keep updated on the planning stages, and follow them across the country as they blog along the way.

They hope to raise at least $7000, that is a dollar per kilometre. Good luck!

My favourite band