I have some friends that need this site: crackberry.com
Heard it on CBC this morning – bunch of fine blokes from Winnipeg put this together. Pay specific attention to their 13 step program for addicts.
But what about addict wannabes? (man, I so need a blackberry… and by ‘need’ I mean would like one ‘cuz then I would look so cool… like smoking does for teenagers)
CIBC revenue were up 21% and they had *profits* of 770 million in first quarter of this year. Now, I am not against companies making money, but how do they do it? And how do they thank me, the little guy with a bank account. The answer to both is fees. Yep they increased my fees again. Thanks.
So what am I going to do? Well move to the no fee President’s Choice Financial… which is owned by CIBC… which has no services and thus makes them enormous profits. Grrrr.
Plan B – I have this nice sock…
After the tiff with blogger, I went out looking for something new and found wordpress. I ported my entire blog over there, played around with it a bit and like what I see. But I am still not sure. Any thoughts or great internet?
I would need to do some graphical updates of course. But it is pretty much there. WordPress is also an opensource blogging application (wordpress.org) that you can run on your own server – I like opensource. They make money by selling extras – like more space if you need it. I am a bit nervous about that. I wouldn’t want to have to *pay* for something I use every day and get a lot of enjoyment and value out of – pffft – that is so un-internet.
anyway, check it out: adamsworld.wordpress.com
I am not moving yet, just playing the field a bit. I think blogger and I got into a bit too serious a relationship before we were really ready. We need to be sure we are right for each other before we make that long term commitment.
The Pew Global Image Survey just came out. I am not sure how important this survey is, but it is interesting to me. This survey basically asks 17000 people from around the world a series of questions about the image of a country. It focuses mostly on the US, and other countries opinions of the US, but it also rates countries in terms of their image.
And wouldn’t you know it, Canada is on top, barely beating out the British. The US – yeah, they didn’t fare so well.
It looks like the US image is on a bit of an upswing, but man, they have been slammed by other nations, and a lot of it comes down to unilateral actions. My favorite part is to see how the US views themselves and how others view them. Ie:
Does US foreign policy consider other nations?
US – 67% yes
Others – around the 30% mark
I also love how the re-election of W is seen almost universally (and highest in Canada) as a bad thing for their image.
Canadians seem to lead the pack with our specific bad feelings towards Americans. We agree that they are hardworking and inventive, but also violent and rude. However, we also have fairly high general opinion of Americans… we are so weird.
58% of Americans think they are not religious enough. People in Turkey, Pakistan, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Jordan agree with them, but people in France, Germany, Britain, Netherlands, Spain, Canada etc disagree. Interesting split.
The survey says “Canadians stand out for their nearly universal belief (94%) that other nations have a positive view of Canada.” And I am not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Because, according to the survey, it is generally true, and I guess the fact that we all know it is a good thing?
So I seem to be on a bit of a kick recently – verging on crusade. I am sick of people making stupid choices – environmentally speaking (well I guess I am anti-stupid most of the time) – when good choices are so easy and available.
For example. I am currently consulting at a large company. They use paper (shocking). Lots and lots of paper. Reams, scads if you will. “If it its worth reading, it is worth printing” seems to be their mantra. Their printers do print duplex, which is good, but the extra 2 clicks it takes to choose that option when printing seems to be far to taxing for most people. Not only that. But they simply *love* powerpoint. So they have these huge presentations, with 6 words on a page that they print out 1 up, single sided. Arggg! Not only that, but I checked out their paper:
8.5 x 11 is XEROX brand Business 4200 – Recycled content = 0%
8.5 x 15 is Weyehaeuser Husky Xerocopy 1212 – Recycled content = 0%
The Weyehaeuse paper is at least available in 30% recycled paper, XEROX doesn’t even mention it on their website.
I found a US website called the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) that actually has lots of practical things you can do around your office an at home to make smarter choices.
As an example, we should never use paper that has less than 30% recycled paper in it and hopefully has some percent content of post-consumer recycled paper.
Another example is toilet paper and napkins etc. They have a list of good and bad products. Did you know the Kleenex, Charmin, Scott and others have 0% recycled content? Ie: trees are being cut down so you can blow your nose and wipe your bum. Nice.
So make better choices. Get your companies to make better choices.
I am all about legislation too. Follow the lead of Australia and others – legislate the use of better products, even if they cost more. Companies respond to their bottom line. Their return on investment. Cashola. And this works until we run out of natural resources. Sure that will be in several generations, but it is a bit late to say “oh, the trees are gone and the water is bad, and the ice is melted and temperature is +50 in Churchill in December, maybe I will ask for30% recycled paper. It’ll make a difference now, it won’t then.
Even if we aren’t in an environmental crisis, even if you believe that everything is just tickity-boo, it is still the righ thing to do. A smaller footprint, less impact is smart, and right.
Google and I have been in the the honeymoon phase of our relationship for quite some time now. And our honeymoon has lasted longer than many. First it was just Google searching, but then we explored new facets of our relationship with GMail and Blogger blogging. And then Google gave me the world with Google earth. I remember that day as if it was yesterday. I remember the excitement as I zoomed in on our house for the first time, and flew over to the Eiffel tower. *sigh* Good times, good times.
Well Google and I have just had our first fight.
I went into blogger, as I always do, to do my sorta-daily blog post and I found this note:
“This blog has been locked by Blogger’s spam-prevention robots. You will not be able to publish your posts, but you will be able to save them as drafts… Blogs engaged in this behavior are called spam blogs, and can be recognized by their irrelevant, repetitive, or nonsensical text, along with a large number of links, usually all pointing to a single site…. You won’t be able to publish posts to your blog until one of our humans reviews it and verifies that it is not a spam blog…. If we don’t hear from you, though, we will remove your blog from Blog*Spot within a few weeks.”
SPAM?! ME?! IRRELEVANT and NONSENSICAL TEXT? Google! NOOOO! I though we had something! I though we understood each other! I trusted your robots! They have never led me astray before. But now… Now I find out what you really think of me. Irrelevant and nonsensical indeed!
I think we may need a break. Maybe some time apart.
I think I may go spend some time back on the internet without you. Maybe visit some old friends like Yahoo. I have been pretty isolated with you since we started our relationship, maybe it is time I branch out and reconnect with some of my other internet friends. I think I have become too dependent on you. You do so much for me and yet, when I need you most, you aren’t always there. Sure you have excuses “I am having system problems”, “I am upgrading”, “I am just trying to protect myself from spam”, “I am just a beta after-all”. Well I am tired of Beta. I need some real commitment. I am not saying it is over, it is just that I haven’t seen this side of you before.
I need to think about ‘us’ for a while…
besides, there is this cute little open-source blog site called wordpress I have been meaning to check out…
Kristine found a website called candyboots.com last night. It contains – among other things – a series of Weight Watcher’s cards from1974, complete with commentary. This is possibly one of the funnies things I have read in a long long time. There is a language warning, but I must confess that I have rarely experienced swearing done so well. I highly recommend that you read the background and then take the tour.
Tell me what you think of the Snack on a Stick.
There is even a flickr group of people who have attempted to make these questionable food products.
After 9/11 governments across the globe struggled to respond to the ‘threat of terrorism’. They did this, mostly, by passing laws that granted themselves, their police forces, army etc new powers. In Canada (as in other places I assume) these were considered “extraordinary powers” and had a time limit on them. For some of our laws that time is now up.
So, what to do?
The Liberals, who brought in most of the legislation, now believe – along with the NDP and Bloq – that the laws have served their purpose and are set to vote against renewing them. The PM, to his credit, as asked for other options and suggestions – however he is also the same PM that accused the liberals of voting against them simply to protect a relative of one of the party members… because we are all in grade 4 apparently.
Regardless, this comes down to a question of individual rights vs societal security. This happens regularly in times of war and crisis: the country/province etc will declare ‘martial law’ or a ‘state of emergency’ or some such thing and suspend normal civil rights – giving vast powers to the ‘authorities’ to get us through the crisis. We all (mostly) agree that this is a good thing. But what about the slow movement from rights to ‘security’. These laws (that are now up for renewal) reduced civil rights with the idea of increasing our security. And when asked – particularly after 9/11 – many of us would agree that it is a tradeoff that we are willing to make. But really is it? Where is that line? I like the idea of being more secure, but not if it means living in a police state. At the same time, criminals can function quite nicely outside the law and there is lots of restrictions etc on police and the judicial system that they exploit to keep doin’ what they do. It is a fine line. I like the idea of being able to lay the smack down on baddies – the problem is when we lay the smack down on the wrong people.
Where is the line for you? How far would you go? GPS tracking on everyone? Or have we already gone too far?
Simplicity
This past weekend was the St. Mary’s Road United Church retreat out at Camp Arnes. It was a great weekend, beautiful weather (except for the needing to drive in it part), good conversation and awesome people. The theme this year was Voluntary Simplicity.
Voluntary Simplicity – from what I have gleaned (now being an expert of course) – is about choices and mindfulness. It is about actively making choices in the way we live and being aware of the impact of those choices. It is about living life with a purpose.
One of the activities that we did that was quite powerful was to take the last purchase we made and to think of things like, what went into making it, where was it made, why was it made, what was involved in getting it to you, how were the workers treated, what is the environmental implications of making it, what happens when you are done with it. Pretty fascinating and powerful discussions, since the answer to most of the questions is “I don’t know”.
One of the natural outcomes of voluntary simplicity (as it appears to me) is environmentalism and sustainable development. Understanding our impacts will necessarily cause us to want to change them. And this isn’t about rejecting society or technology or anything. In fact, it is about embracing our advanced knowledge, understanding, technology etc to live with less impact on the environment and in a healthier way. It does however mean a fundamental shift away from the excessive consumer culture that we are in now.
Anyway, lots to think about.
You can visit the Simplicity Practice and Resource Centre – SPARC website for more info.
“Voluntary simplicity is the deliberate organization of life for a purpose.“
Richard Gregg, “Voluntary Simplicity” (1936)
“Live simply, so that others may simple live.“
Mahatma Gandhi (d. 1948)
Takeout. Love-it, Live-it. Well I do anyway. But man, I get so many styrofoam containers, plastic bags and plastic cutlery it is terrible. I try very hard to at least decline plastic bags – but man, people ridiculously tenacious in their need to give you a bag! No bag means no bag, not some bag, not a smaller bag, not a bag just in case, not a double bag, not any dang bag!!! Seriously! But I digress. So Styrofoam is technically extruded polystyrene thermal insulation. It is recyclable – technically – but isn’t accepted in Winnipeg’s recycling, and it is still made out of fossil fuels. Bad. Why can’t we make bio-degradable packaging instead of just theoretically recyclable?
Enter Happy Planet Productions. This Winnipeg based company does just that. They make food containers and tableware from corn, potatoes, sugar cane and bamboo instead of fossil fuel derivatives like Styrofoam and conventional plastics. How great is that?
UMSU is starting to use this packaging in their campus restaurant, and MNWO Conference will be using this at our AGM this year.
See, small steps, but something can be done.
By the by, Berkley California has banned Styrofoam food packaging entirely. Cool move.
