Turn Off Your Taps if you Want, But There’s a Bigger Leak
photo credit: jasleen_kaur I was interested – although not surprised – to learn that municipailities leak large amounts of their treated water – sometimes as much as 40%. According to the CBC, that amounted to more than 26 billion (said in a Dr. Evil voice) litres of drinking water. Industry-wide, losing 10% of the total [...]
Can You Save the World by Eating Less Meat?
We’ve gone over three weeks with no fast food in our household, and have noticed some dramatic changes. For one, we’re spending less time fighting wicked cravings for Big Macs – whatever they put in that sauce makes you want to indulge. Second, we’re far less interested in sugary drinks and snacks like coke and [...]
How To Stop Your Home’s Electrical Leakage
Standby power, also known as vampire power, phantom load or leaking electricity, is the electricity used by appliances in your home when they are “off”. Even if you turn off all of your lights, unplug your fridge, and turn off your furnace, your electricity meter will continue to spin. photo credit: lisa cee Some key [...]
Obama’s Presidency Has Not Been Apocalypse for Gun Owners
photo credit: Dan4th When it became clear that Democratic candidate Obama stood good chances of winning the presidential election, gun sales surged in the United States. This is despite Obama’s campaign declarations of support for second amendment rights and promises not to impose new restrictions on gun owners. This week the Chicago Tribune published Obama [...]
Man Vs. Zombies
photo credit: izik Gus from Florida has been having a rough time; on December 14, 2009, he woke up and realized to his horror that the world has he knew it had come to an end in a frightening zombie apocalypse. How does Gus cope with his new reality? He Tweets it. @manvszombies is one [...]
Good Riddance 2009
Last year saw a lot of ups and downs. We started off watching the car industry with some disgust, questioning the culture of mediocrity that allowed the situation to spiral out of control. We say: Too big to fall? Too big to exist. Get on top of your credit and take control of your life. [...]
Is CCTV effective or not?
photo credit: dno1967 Funny how we are so willing to give up our privacy for such paltry reasons. Seemingly harmless information like our birth date is pure gold for marketers looking to target our age groups; the same information is useful for thieves looking to forge our identities and opening credit lines in our name. [...]
The East Wants In
photo credit: ccwen7 Trying to identify the exact point where you’ve peaked and begun to decline is easy in hindsight but impossible while you’re living it. There is a lot of talk about the end of the recession, but the actual recovery seems to differ from region to region. Kind of like peak oil, it [...]
Hospitals Save More Lives When They Admit Their Mistakes
photo credit: a.drian Suppose you’ve screwed up, badly. Perhaps the blunder was so grave that someone got hurt, or worse. Do you own up to your actions and take responsibility for the consequences, or do you downplay the significance of what happened or worse, deny it entirely? If your doctor made a mistake, would you [...]
Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize
photo credit: Jack at Wikipedia President Obama had an interesting wake up call this Friday. Just imagine the look of groggy confusion that must have been on his face when Press Secretary Robert Gibbs woke him up just before 6am to tell him he had won the Nobel Prize. The White House had no advance [...]
