Inspirational and good news.
We’ve covered car sharing programs before on ThingsAreGood and I don’t think this will be the last time we mention them.
The BBC is running a good article on car sharing in the UK. Richard Ghail writes about how carpooling is a great way to meet people, save money and the environment all in one go.
He credits the congestion charge in London reinforces of environmental protection. What’s more, he points out that the economy benefits from less congestion on the road.
The company GreenKnickers is about making your under-clothing organic, sweat-free, and sexy. They spare no expense with making your knickers green – they even use environmentally friendly dyes.
I like how they “support local trade and minimise our knickermiles,” which must keep the transportation cost down. Since they are on the web they feel the need to have a blog dedicated to knickers.
“GreenKnickers are knickers with an ecological and ethical foundation, both in meaning and in material substance. They are designed using the principals of Natural sensuality, humour and communication.”
It’s that time of year again when we care for our fellow humans and we try to make the world a better place. It’s World Car Free Day!
Over in Europe they have Mobility Week, which is far better than just a day without cars. We should all celebrate non-auto transit.
I know in Toronto Yonge St. (a major street) is closed to cars today, and the Sierra Club is behind this. You can easily find out more about Canada Car Free Day. Also in Toronto the group Streets Are For People are encouraging more direct and creative action with tea!
I hope that where you live people have made an effort to stop polluting and live a healthier lifestyle!
Canadian copyright guru Michael Geist has posted 30 Days of DRM: 30 Things You Can Do. It’s Canada-specific but you an adopt what he suggests to your locality.
Some of his suggestions:
Ask each political party where it stands on copyright.
Write to your local school board.
Buy online DRM-free alternatives
Write to Library and Archives Canada to ask that it support the preservation of Canadian heritage
To find out why DRM isn’t good check out what wikipedia has to say. Basically DRM can limit access to important documents and limit what you can do with things you buy.
Google.org has been briefly mentioned here before, but now the New York Times provides more information on the organization. The NYTimes requires registration at their site, but you can use BugMeNot to get around that.
Google.org is for-profit and this provides some pros and cons. They will have more freedom with how to spend their money and can invest where it would like to. The example the NYTimes gives is that Google.org can invest in an electric car company to help the environment, as opposed to just planting more trees. They promise that any profits made from their investments will not go to their parent search company – all profits will be for Google.org.
“The company has said it plans to spend the money over the next 20 years, and the Google board recently approved a more rapid disbursement rate, $175 million over the next two years.
“Poor people can’t wait,†Dr. Brilliant said. “Dying people can’t wait for some 20-year plan. It’s not what we’re doing here.â€
Ventures that grow out of Google.org could be seen to have a competitive edge because they do not need to show a financial profit. But financial returns from a project like the high-mileage car are not necessarily the aim.
“I think how you count profit is the issue here,†said Peter Hero, president of the Community Foundation of Silicon Valley, a charitable foundation with about $1 billion in assets. “Google.org is measuring return on cleaner air and quality of life. Their bottom line isn’t just financial. It’s environmental and social.—