Bailouts

So it occurred to me this morning that the huge financial mess we’re in was caused by the reduction of regulations allowing for unchecked growth and irresponsible lending. Years later all of these practices, essentially the theft of money from our future selves, came back to haunt us in a big way.

Am I the only one who sees a parallel between the economy and the environment? In both cases there was a great deal of irresponsibility in management of resources, huge consumption, massive waste, and groups of people warning of potential catastrophe.

So my question is, how are we going to foot the bill for the upcoming environmental bailout (possibly a literal one for some) that we’re going to need.

Reality Meets Fiction in Social Media

How crazy is this? Fans of Sage’s Blue Peach audioplay series may be surprised to see fiction meeting reality as both Max Frappier and Scott Pappin are now campaigning online at twitter for the Toronto-Buxton riding seat. The best part is that their respective idols, Stephen Harper and Jack Layton stepped up to the plate and almost immediately followed them. If you’re on twitter, you should show your support for them as well.

And if you haven’t already listened to Blue Peach, you’re missing out and need to remedy that. The episode guide is here and the second season will be coming soon.

6 Random Things

Daniele Rossi tagged me for this one though I’ve seen it floating around the blogosphere a bit lately. It’s a fun meme.

Anyway, here are 6 random things about me:

1) While I lean fairly far to the left, politically speaking, now, I was raised in a relatively conservative family. Highlights (lowlights?) of my conservatism include: owning a “Oliver North for President” t-shirt, gathering names of students in my school to give to my dad (an Army recruiter) when the school refused to give the information to them.

2) While I no longer own a car, haven’t owned one in over four years, when I *have* owned a car, fuel economy was not something I really considered as much as I should. Our last car, a 1991 Mercedes 420 SEL got 15MPG and only took super unleaded. One of my first cars, a 1968 Chevelle got about 10 mpg. It is sad to say but it didn’t even occur to me that my car choice might affect anything other than my pocketbook. That said, when we lived in Albuquerque back in 2002-2003, we also owned a diesel Mercedes that we ran on 20% Biodiesel. We eventually gave this car to some friends of ours.

3) I’m a pretty good mimic of certain men’s voices (singing or speaking). I’m usually too embarrassed to show anyone, though.

4) When I was 24 and Sage was 22 we used to do home visits to judge the suitability of homes for cats pending adoption at a no-kill animal shelter. In retrospect I can sort of see how people twice our age might be a bit affronted that *we* were judging *them*. We eventually stopped doing it as had we kept up with it we’d have lost faith in the human race.

5) I once bagged Jameson Parker’s groceries.

6) There are four degrees of separation between me and George W Bush.

I think everyone who could be tagged has been. If not, and you’d like to be, consider yourself tagged. Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on the blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Good and Bad Bollards

There’s been a lot of complaint about a staggered double-set of bollards added near the entrance to Toronto’s Boulevard Club on the Lakeshore trail. The idea is to slow cyclists down enough to be able to have time to sufficiently react to motorists making rapid left-turns from Lakeshore Blvd. in to the driveway. I haven’t experienced the bollards myself (I don’t get down that way often) but I tend to agree that they look like they are designed to take out cyclists. Have a look here.

While in Quebec City, though, I’ve seen several what I would consider good uses of bollards.

Here, they are used to separate pedestrian traffic from bicycle/rollerblade traffic. I’d love to see these on the Don Trail.

And here they are used to separate motorized from nonmotorized traffic. And while it doesn’t *prevent* parking in the bike lanes, it does make it more difficult. I should note that in 5 months here I have yet to observe anyone parking in on-street bike lanes. I’m sure it happens but to nowhere near the extent it does in Toronto.

Now granted, the Quebec City cycling infrastructure “closes” in October (though there are year-round cyclists here as well) but so far I’ve been extremely impressed not only with the high-quality infrastructure they have (less than Toronto by gross numbers but as compared to the city’s size) but the drivers themselves. Sure, we have the same percentage of idiots on the roads here. And like in Toronto, they take all kinds of transport, cars, trucks, bikes, skateboards, feet. However, I have yet to encounter, in the nearly six months I’ve been here, a single angry motorist. I find that fascinating. Any idea where it comes from? It can’t just be population, can it?