We Saw a Chicken …

Author: scruss

  • Standard Offer is Go – March 21

    From OSEA:

    The moment we have all been waiting for has arrived! The Ministry of Energy, the Premier, David Suzuki and OSEA will be announcing the Standard Offer Program on March 21st. We are organizing a celebration and press event in partnership with the Ministry of Energy that will take place at 3 pm at Exhibition Place, Toronto, home to Ontario’s first community wind turbine.

    Please mark this date in your calendar and watch for further notices (via email and at www.ontario-sea.org) on details regarding location, speakers and entertainment.

    This is a celebratory event – please everyone, let us celebrate the positive role the Standard Offer Contract program will play in Ontario for renewables, for community power, for cost effective power, and for our air quality and health!

    Thanks to everyone for their efforts!

    If the province has got this right, we really will see a lot more wind power in Ontario.

  • they’ll let just anyone in these days

    Further to my citizenship test, I have my ceremony on the 18th!

  • second place

    … but not very surprisingly, the Raptors came in second. Again.

    I don’t think we have enough tall Lithuanians on the team.

  • court

    I’m at a Raptors game. Unusually, they seem to be ahead…

  • “Imperfection is an end; perfection is only an aim”

    Ivor Cutler, 1923—2006, mensch; rest in peace.

    Obituary from The Guardian.

  • vawt der hey…?! wind-powered megabin

    eucan wind powered megabin

    Something’s not right with the wind turbines on this megabin. The fact that they weren’t turning in a mild breeze made me worry. A close-up of one of the units is below:

    eucan wind powered megabin: vawt closeup

    (In both cases, clicking the thumbnail will get a full-sized image.)

  • J P Martin Speaks!

    Tony Bannister writes in liontower that James Currey gave him some tapes of J P Martin reading some of his Uncle stories. He hopes to restore the tapes and release a CD.

    Uncle: His Master’s Voice!

  • eulogy for plant

    You were a christmas Poinsettia three years ago. You quickly grew spindly and grew towards the window. You survived repeated failures to water you, and yet you kept growing. You even gave us some red last year.

    You had only a couple of tiny leaves yesterday, and you looked so ill. I had hoped to give you a summer in the garden, so you could die as summer faded. It didn’t happen.

    Goodbye, plant. I shall remember you when I sweep up your crisp dry leaves.

  • We have turbines running at Kingsbridge!

    We have turbines running at Kingsbridge! Here’s the official news release.

    (I had a picture here, but it wsn’t very good. Sorry.)

  • Times & Seasons

    It’s definitely spring, for today I saw:

    • the first geese flying north
    • my first spam in my inbox at EPCOR.

  • Sturmey-Archer Heritage

    Sturmey-Archer Heritage is perhaps the nerdiest bike site I’ve ever seen.

  • heading east

    Well, that’s me heading back east from Edmonton. It was fun to meet the rest of the team at EPCOR.

  • What is a shrove, anyway? What size batteries does it take?

    I hope they still have pancakes at the Chateau Lacombe, for today is their day. Bet they won’t have the one true topping, being sugar and lemon juice.

    Vaguely related Bob The Angry Flower content: The Time Looker-Forward Tube (caution: swerries, pancakes).

  • Shell Linked to Takeover of Vestas

    Could Shell be Linked to a Takeover of Vestas? This could get weird, ‘cos of the whole Boycott Shell thing.

  • In Edmonton, but no thanks to WorstJet

    Edmonton: view from my hotel

    Jet lag, lack of sleep, and a whole day of company orientation isn’t doing much for my clarity of thought right now. What I need is steak and beer.

    Last night’s flight was supposed to get in at 10:30, but what with WestJet‘s faffing around, we got in well after midnight. It was about 1am (or 03:00, Toronto time) before I got settled in the hotel room.

    I’ve never been in a city with trolley buses before. Guess I can’t say that any more. It’s also the furthest west I’ve ever been.
    I wonder if the snow drawing below (as seen from my hotel window) is supposed to be a hometown homage to Bob The Angry Flower?

    hometown homage to Bob?

  • two cheers for sandisk

    SanDisk used to have terrible packaging for their memory cards, but no longer. Now they use a small, simple cardboard box with a PET insert. Not perfect, but much better; no knives required!

  • i’m really sorry …

    We bought a car today. We’ve been car-free for over 10 years, nearly four of them in Canada, too.

    Honda Civic

  • Chicken Payback

    I had the misfortune to have a Swiss Chalet lunch near an argument. It was actually more of a harangue since it was very one-sided, and I was on the verge of getting up to tell the antagonist to shut up.

    I don’t know the relationship, but it was an older guy and a younger woman, possibly his daughter. He was going on and on about how she was cutting work to go to the gym, how she was being paid for working 37.5 hours a week but was only working 35, did she feel good about stealing from the company, it didn’t matter if she got the work dones, she was paid to be there, her a manager too, etc, etc.

    What was particularly pathetic was that he only ever gave her a couple of seconds to answer before launching another tirade. I think she maybe said about 10 words in a fifteen minute period.

    I suspect he thought he was making a good point, but he was just coming across as a complete dork. And he was putting me off my food, too.

  • Photos of Toronto’s WindShare Coop AGM 2006

    Paul Gipe posted pictures of the Toronto’s WindShare Coop AGM 2006.

  • shaving on the go

    Neat eBay find; an unused Gillette Travel razor:

    Gillette Travel Razor

    It is absolutely tiny, and it looks as if it has never been opened, let alone used. The blades are still in their cellophane wrapping, and the razor has its cardboard “blade” in place. I wonder how old it is?
    The case doesn’t look very robust (it’s that cardboard leatherette that falls apart at the slightest use) but I’ll be able to shave in style anywhere in the world.