For us, sitting out on the cottage deck on a Sunday morning with a coffee and a newspaper has been the tradition for three generations. This weekend, we brought our son Jack, the fourth generation, up to the cottage for the first time. There was no coffee for him, and he didn’t read the newspaper (he can’t even talk), but something tells me that as he grows up, he won’t ever partake in this tradition.

In fact, with the immenent death of the newspaper, he may not even have the option. Between social networking, blogs and news sites, the print newspaper could be a thing of the past. Sitting on the deck reading his Laptop, iPod, Kindle or a device not yet concieved, connected to the world via wifi seems more likely.

We had a visit on Saturday morning from our friends at Rogers. We had them update the wiring and install high-speed internet for the cottage. Wifi? At the cottage? Outrageous!… Isn’t it? The purists would argue that the cottage should be an oasis away from the urban jungle, an escape from work and a sacred getaway. It doesn’t need to be.

The cottage is a change of scenery, a great place to get some needed perspective. I do some of my best work at the cottage, specifically because it is a change of scenery. The bottom line is that having an Internet connection up there simply means I’ll go up more often, and for longer periods, with the peace of mind knowing that I’m not going to miss an urgent issue, or an important email. Cellular coverage is spotty at best, so a high-speed line is more stable.

Summer weekends are far too precious, so anything that allows more trips up north is a good thing!

Okay, this Earth Hour thing is a huge amount of hype! (not necessarily in a bad way) The entire issue of the Saturday Star is all about shutting the lights out, and it seems everyone was talking about it today. According to Treehugger, Canada has as many people registered as our friends to the south, despite the 10-fold population difference.

So I went through the house shutting down computers to do my part this evening, and pretty much every one had Windows updates that had been downloaded, but not installed. I usually hibernate or standby machines, rather than do a shutdown. A quick scan to see what was being done, and for the most part I allowed the updates to install as I shut down. I was realizing that some of these machines hadn’t been patched in months. Makes me think that a regular shutdown of all machines might be useful in keeping the patches up to date! We need an Earth Hour once a month!

This afternoon, as I was walking to my car in Downtown Toronto, I walked in front of an old Dodge Caravan waiting to pull out of a parking lot. At that moment, I had the oddest flashback to my childhood, growing up in Bramalea in the 80’s.

I continued walking past the driveway, and the engine of the old, rusted minivan sputtered down the road and around the corner, spewing out a black cloud of exhaust fumes. The smell of acrid smoke, burnt oil and only half-burnt gasoline hung in the air, and you could still hear the rumbling untuned engine as it continued out of sight.

I realized what triggered the association in my mind back to the 80’s. It was certainly not the sight of the minivan; the first minivans didn’t come around until 1990. Rather, it was the smell. Back then, most engines were inefficient, and spewed half-used fuel and oil into the air. It was commonplace to top up your oil as you filled the fuel tank. Most cars didn’t have catalytic converters and used leaded fuel. 30 of these older vehicles pollute as much as a single car produced in 2007.

I climbed into my Hybrid and crawled up the Don Valley Parkway, mostly at low speeds in electric-only mode, thinking that we have really come a long way. Yes we have a long way to go to reduce pollution, stop emitting carbon into the atmosphere, and try to minimize the damage of global warming, but we have certainly moved forward from those days of old.

Let’s continue to push industry, automakers and politicians to continue this work for the next 25 years as we individuals also do our part.

And if you know the guy with the minivan, tell him to get it off the road!

At the opening ceremonies of the Green Living Show this morning, I found myself 20 ft away from the scene where David Suzuki got up in Federal Environment Minister John Baird’s face for not doing enough to lessen the effects of Climate Change. As everyone seemed to be talking about it (CityTV, CTV, The Star), we jumped in to see if we could get 5 minutes with Dr. Suzuki for some quick quotes on the GreenLivingOnline.com website.

Although tired after signing about a million autographs (plus or minus), he agreed to answer a few questions from our Web Editor, and got it posted: Suzuki defines the moment. Five minutes later he was up on the stage talking to a packed audience of about 800 people, with every seat taken, and a couple of hundred people standing in the back.

Tomorrow, more madness at the show as I get to see Al Gore do his Oscar winning presentation, in front of an audience that sold out in 1 hour, and with reports of scalped tickets going for $600. Can’t wait!

Even if you can’t get tix for the Gore presentation, the Green Living show is pretty cool. They’ve got everything from Hybrid (from GM, Nissan, Toyota and Honda) and Other cars (ZipCar, ZENN, Smart), to home efficiency, to Organic foods and clothing, and everything in between!

Okay, this sounds like an ad (and full disclosure if you haven’t seen my other posts, I work for Green Living Online), but it really is a cool show, and the first of its kind in Toronto. It’s open tomorrow and Sunday. Check the Show Site for details.

Today, my latest project launched! Take a peek at Green Living Online, the new site for Green Living Magazine which promotes healthy lifestyles that are good for you, your family and the environment. Our partnership with the Yahoo Lifestyle Section launches in a few weeks.

“Green Living Enterprises promotes sustainable and healthy living in a hip, upbeat and informative manner. We are committed to raising public awareness of the ecological issues, innovations and solutions facing us today.”

It’s been a busy few months in development, and putting together the tools of the site! Hope you enjoy it!

The hurricane season draws to a close this week, as we approach December 1. So what happened?

A year after Katrina, Dennis, Rita and Wilma attacked from the the Atlantic, predictions were calling for “13 to 16 named storms, with eight to 10 becoming hurricanes, of which four to six could become ‘major’ hurricanes of Category 3 strength or higher”.

The actual tally was a much calmer 9 named storms, 5 becoming hurricanes, and only 2 (Gordon and Helene) hitting the Category 3 mark. Read the rest of this entry »

A new plastic solar cell can capture both visible and infrared light and convert it to energy, allowing it to work effectively even on a cloudy day.

This plastic polymer can be sprayed like a paint, or woven into clothing. Researchers say that it is 30% efficient at converting the sun’s rays into energy, compared to typical solar cells which operate at around 6% efficiency.

Thanks Dennis for pointing this one out!

Shell Renewables is organizing a light show in London, England designed to imitate the Northern Lights on the south shore of the Thames.

A stretch of 40 trees will be used to mount lighting, sound and atmospheric equipment, and the entire thing will be powered by a 43-metre Vestas wind turbine. The light show will be different every night, directed by the weather conditions, from temperature to tide levels.

It is designed to showcase and help people visualize how much power can be pulled from the wind.

The Britsh government is currently considering proposals that would promote wind energy by making it more difficult for local councils from rejecting the clean power generators.
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Forcing water through tiny channels has always been difficult because of an electrical effect that takes place. The surface of the channel becomes electrically charged which hinders the flow of charged ions through the channel.

Larry Kostiuk took that lemon and investigating ways of making lemonade. He is attempting to harness that charge to create usable electricity. He and his team have pumped tap water through pourous glass with half a million holes, each just a hundredth of a millimetre wide, and they recorded a current of a few microamps.

Just ramp it up and increase the efficiency, and you have a winner! Lot’s more work to go for his team.
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Two weeks after the massive blackout darkened most of northeast US and Ontario, another large blackout has hit on the other side of the Atlantic. Large areas of London, England are out of power at the moment, stranding subway riders right in the middle of the afternoon rush.
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