Christopher Mackay's Blog

Over the last few weeks I’ve encountered a number of trucks on the Trans-Canada Highway between Salisbury and Aulac, New Brunswick, carrying parts for what I assume is a General Electric windmill — or series of windmills — being assembled somewhere east of here (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland & Labrador).

A couple of days ago I saw a large turbine, the same colour as the blades in these shots, with a large GE logo on the side (I couldn’t get a shot of that, unfortunately).

These things are impressively large when seen up-close. Don’t assume that the trailers are the normal size that you’re used to seeing: these things are long, and have three or four sets of wheels, not the usual pair.

Update (Sept 17, 2008, 7:30 am): Richard Levangie, of AnythingButConservative.com, has alerted me to the fact that the original CBC.ca story [http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/story/2008/09/16/williams-elections-cnd.html] had an incorrect URL. Premier Danny Williams’ site is at AnythingButConservative.ca, not AnythingButConservative.com.

Vote Anything BUT Conservative — an interesting new site from Progressive Conservative Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams.

Stephen Harper’s actions raise important questions of trust. Of integrity. Of character.

There are other reasons, besides Harper’s credibility, to vote Anything But Conservative, such as their backwards, socially-conservative stance on no-brainer issues like gay marriage, their treatment of MPs like Bill Casey who vote their conscience, or their draconian copyright bill, C-61, but Williams has a clear message.

These Conservatives are certainly not “Progressive” Conservatives. Their agenda is regressive.

And now the Conservatives are seeking a mandate and a majority government to continue to implement an agenda that is not fully revealed.

The real question is whether “anything” will end up splitting the vote on the left, leaving room for Harper to come up with a majority.

VIDEO: Are Plastic Water Bottles Safe? : DivineCaroline: “Are Plastic Water Bottles Safe?”

I threw out three expensive water bottles late last year — models which the manufacturer has since replaced with bottles featuring a different plastic — and switched to metal bottles by SIGG.

The thing that annoys me most about this sort of threat — however small it may be — is that manufacturers are automatically given a pass until something is proven, at someone else’s great expense, to be harmful.

Don’t look for this to change soon. And kudos to NBC for showing some of their sponsors’ products in this piece: I’ll bet someone took some heat for that.

YouTube – ZENN on the Rick Mercer Report: Zero Emissions, No Noise. Of course, there are emissions, they come from the power plant, not the car’s tailpipe (it doesn’t have one).

According to Who Killed The Electric Car?, though, even coal-fired power plants are radically more efficient than gasoline-powered cars, so it’s still a major net-benefit (6 fewer tonnes of carbon emissions a year per car, according to the president of Zenn).

5min – How Evolution Happens – Video: an interesting visualization of hundreds of millions of years of evolution.

(Via Digg.)

Gwynne Dyer (channelling Prof. Boris Worm of Dalhousie University):

A major human food source — the principal source of protein for one-fifth of the human race — is going to collapse in the next generation unless drastic measures are taken. The world’s fishing fleet needs to be reduced by at least two-thirds, bottom-trawling must be banned outright, and widespread fishing moratoriums for endangered species and even for whole areas need to be imposed for periods of five or even ten years.

Unfortunately, the minimum measures needed to prevent ecocide in the oceans would cause major short-term disruption and throw millions out of work, so they probably won’t be taken. It will be much easier politically to ignore what is happening now and let the collapse happen later, on somebody else’s watch.

And governments worry about terrorism.