misc notes

busy lately.
things i've been wanting to post but haven't gotten around to:
-stephane dion's announcement of shifting the taxebase to polluters: awesome. in fact, i'm pretty sure i blogged FOR exactly that a long time ago.
-city of ottawa and garbage gasification: glad to see there are people raising a stink about the destruction of garbage to extract energy. my best guess is that it only recovers about 5% of the energy that was invested in the production of that garbage. would make a whole lot more sense to divert and reuse it to save 100% energy required, wouldn't it? (ok, maybe 90% to account for the handling and redistribution - but still, way worth it)
-bottled water: a freshwater specialist observed that canadians buying drinking water in a bottle is like eqyptians buying sand in a bucket. time to reverse that unjustified waste of resources (making plastic bottles, distributing water) and source of pollution (where do most of those bottles end up? you got it, in the trash, mostly - the rest collect in hedges, in ravines, etc. oh and a few lucky ones are also collected for recycling). see www.insidethebottle.org
-shade: never noticed how much (a) the house was poorly insulated and (b) trees just outside the house provided so much shade, until I cut them down (were too big too close). Now i'm looking for awnings and such to block the sun on the southwest wall.

there's a number of other things meandering in my brain but I think they're mired in my subconscious at the moment. stay tuned, maybe they'll surface again next time I have a few minutes to post (in a week or so, maybe!).