(Or; What Not To Do When Home With Three Small Children) Take electric stainless steel kettle (recently purchased for ludicrous amount of money). Place on gas element. Turn on the fire and leave the room. Return to find kettle aflame (very aflame) — very smelly burning rubber, black smoke. Enlist two walking small children to open all doors and windows (whilst remaining ever so calm) in an attempt to not have fog horn smoke detector/alarm system go off and subsequently wake up one non-walking child and summon 20 firefighters. Try to blow out spectacular kettle fire while making wish (Think: Should I bother with baking soda? Wonder: Where did Stuart…

New babies understand the art of torture. Sleep deprivation has a subtle yet profound long-term effect that eventually affects the judgement of the subject, even making him/her the victim of his/her own errors. That’s why all new parents ignore the following advice at their peril: It’s really not a good idea to apply cooking oil spray to the BBQ grill after it is lit. Don’t try to save time by pulling on a t-shirt while running up stairs. Burp before bounce. Picnic note: Animals love spit-up. Keep the kid out of reach of cats and seagulls. Gas while changing the diaper is a universal warning sign. Be prepared to engage…

The New Yorker magazine reports this week that while the US Military is considering bolstering its numbers by a return to the draft, the benefits package alone is attracting enough new recruits for now. Among other perks of serving Uncle Sam is free cosmetic surgery for soldiers and their families. Women wanting breast emlargement surgery, however, must provide their own implants. Meanwhile, in Canada, The Globe and Mail reported yesterday that our ageing population has resulted in 100,000 drivers with dementia. The number is expected to skyrocket over the next ten years. Just another good reason to sell the car and take the bus.

A video peek into the birth of baby Simon, June 15, 2004! High resolution. Lower resolution.

One lightbulb. Bright idea. Sometimes a solution to a problem is so simple, it seems it can’t possibly be true. The problem is air pollution. The public health department of the City of Toronto reported this week that 1700 people died in the city last year because of complications from air pollution. 6000 more were admitted to hospital for the same reason. The cost to taxpayers is in the billions of dollars. The matter of why the media is not declaring a national crisis over ?r?pollution (as they have with SARS and West Nile) is another story entirely. And it seems like an insurmountable problem. Not so. Change one light…

“Walden; Or, Life in the Woods,” by Henry David Thoreau, is 150 years old this week. And Thoreau himself would be 187 years old today (July 12). Find out more about the original Walden by visiting the Walden Society Web site. A great set of links about Thoreau. But not everyone is happy. Someone tried to hand out free copies of Walden at a Walden Pond and was told to leave due to copyright infringement. Thoreau would say, “Break the Law.” Thanks to Tom at Iconise for sending this link. Henry David Thoreau was an unsettled mystic. A bit of a loner (hence the cabin in the woods), but far…

Growing boy meets replanted clearcut. New video of Jasper at Walden Cabin, May 6, 2004. Low resolution Higher resolution

Last night on CBC’s The National there was a story about off-shore oil resources in Nova Scotia. There’s an on-going fight between the federal and provincial governments over who will get the revenues from the millions of barrels of crude oil being pumped from hundreds of metres below the ocean floor off the Nova Scotia coast. While the reporter told the story, the TV showed the massive rigs on the water with tall steel frame towers aflame at the tips with surplus gas. It occurred to me to wonder how we got to the place where we fuel our society with rotten compressed plant matter. It doesn’t make a lot…

Last night on CBC’s The National there was a story about off-shore oil resources in Nova Scotia. There’s an on-going fight between the federal and provincial governments over who will get the revenues from the millions of barrels of crude oil being pumped from hundreds of metres below the ocean floor off the Nova Scotia coast. While the reporter told the story, the TV showed the massive rigs on the water with tall steel frame towers aflame at the tips with surplus gas. It occurred to me to wonder how we got to the place where we fuel our society with rotten compressed plant matter. It doesn’t make a lot…

Suzy and I are looking for a car. It makes me sick. There’s no worse investment, and few industries more driven (excuse the pun) by vanity over function. And the worst thing is, I would LOVE to have an SUV, for the power and comfort and the tent-trailer tow potential, even though SUV drivers are killing the planet (like guns, it’s not the object that does the damage, but the user). My neighbour Barb drives a minivan but covets a Hummer, mostly so she can have Bite Me written on the back. We really like Barb. So, being compelled to shop for a car under these circumstances, with this kind…