Monthly Archives: July 2007

Sicko Inspires Audience to Fight Injustices

After watching Sicko, an entire audience broke into conversation and grouped together to make their country better. If that’s not good enough, get this – it happened in Texas!

The talk gradually centered around a core of 10 or 12 strangers in a cluster while the rest of us stood around them listening intently to this thing that seemed to be happening out of nowhere. The black gentleman engaged by my redneck in the restroom shouted for everyone’s attention. The conversation stopped instantly as all eyes in this group of 30 or 40 people were now on him. “If we just see this and do nothing about it,” he said, “then what’s the point? Something has to change.” There was silence, then the redneck’s wife started calling for email addresses. Suddenly everyone was scribbling down everyone else’s email, promising to get together and do something… though no one seemed to know quite what.

Via boingboing.

The Question You’ve All Been Secretly Asking

Vortextual
Q: Why, oh why does the shower curtin blow in when I’m in the shower?

A: A vortex.

To do the calculation, I drafted a model of a typical shower and divided the shower area into 50,000 minuscule cells. The tub, the showerhead, the curtain rod and the room outside of the shower were all included. I ran the modified Fluent software for two weeks on my home computer in the evening and on weekends (when my wife wasn’t using the computer). The simulation revealed 30 seconds of actual shower time.

Greener Apple, Nokia Greenest

from Greenpeace
Greenpeace has released their fourth Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics. Apple has been working kinda hard to improve their previously dismal rating, whereas Nokia continues to hover in the top two places. You can see how all the companies rank.

The electronics ranking guide has been our answer to getting the electronics industry to face up to the problem of e-waste. We want manufacturers to take responsibility for the unprotected child labourers who scavenge the mountains of cast-off gadgets created by our gizmo-loving ways.

We’ve been happily surprised at how quickly many corporations have risen to the competitive challenge. It’s especially rewarding to see more than a few CEOs openly vying for the top green spot, and challenging their competitors to adopt industry-wide policies to reduce the problem of e-waste.

I need to get a new cellphone this week because my Motorola (ranked 6th) died, thanks to Greenpeace I know I should get a Nokia.

SiCKO

I just watched Michael Moore’s new movie Sicko last night and let me tell you – it’s amazing! Sure, the movie is upsetting at points because you feel for all the poor people who suffer due to the American health care system. Granted, that isn’t good, but what is good is that Moore continuously reminds us that change is possible!

He shows us how the Canadian, English, Cuban, and French health care systems provide universal care for their citizens, and how great those systems are in comparison to the for-profit USA system. Being a Canadian, I was reminded about how good we have it in Canada, and makes me want to sign up on this site. Watch this movie, and get inspired to make a healthy change for this world.

Watch the movie below:

If the video above no longer works, just try this search. On a more cinematic note, this is Moore’s best film since Roger and Me (I found his last two lackluster).