The words of z

http://www.greengraffiti.nl/pages/Home.html

I always thought most of Europe could use a good pressure washing.

Hopefully this doesn’t fall into the wrong hands, but imagine the possibilities for public art.

http://creativity-online.com/work/view?seed=010f3aea

It’s easy to be cynical in and about the world of advertising. We are at least partially responsible for the rise in consumer culture.

But when powers are used for good, it should be recognized

Here’s a few shots of the process:

http://felipov.this.ro/2007/01/25/green-advertising/

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/20947828/green_tours_main_challenge_the_fans

Why is the concept of the downtown stadium to foreign to the US? Common place across Canada (except for wherever the hell the Ottawa Senators play, which really is the middle of nowhere) and Europe, it seems halfway reasonable to put these places where people live. Where they can be easily accessed by transit or by walking.

In Toronto I can walk to Rogers Centre, Air Canada Centre, Molson Amphitheatre and BMO Field and any smaller venue the bands I like might play.

I guess most Americans live in suburbia.

Alright, I haven’t blogged in a while, but it’s more because nothing interesting has been happening. That, and I’m lazy. Well, mostly lazy.

Anyway, about three times a week I walk through the local industrial area by my house and over the past year or so I’ve been seeing these tiny electric vehicles parked outside an office. They look to be fully functioning city cars, with license plates and insurance and all that good stuff.

Today I finally googled them. Canadian made electric cars. Plug into a normal outlet. 200+ ‘MPG’.

And not for sale in Canada…

http://www.zenncars.com/

Yes, it’s bad to kill things, especially just because you’re afraid of them, but they do deserve to die for the most part, don’t they?

While it’s always a dangerous thing to try to revisit your youth, I think I successfully accomplished it this week.

Iron Maiden hit Toronto on Sunday for their Somewhere Back In Time tour with their Powerslave set and a slightly revised Somewhere In Time set list.

One of the good things about seeing these nostalgia tours is that a lot of bands have been rich for long enough and long past the drink and drugged out days of their youth that they’re in better shape than they were back then and genuinely appreciative of their audiences. Certainly Bruce Dickinson looked better than he did 20 years ago and sounded just as good.

Sure, there was a bit of Spinal Tap about the show, but a lot of fun nonetheless.

And this sure makes a good desktop background:

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Astraeus/Boeing-757-23A/1323950/L/

Beijing has promised the air will be clean and clear for this summer’s Olympic Games.

Am I the only one that finds this a bit troubling?

If I lived in Beijing (a Beijinger?) I’d be pretty pissed that the country is willing to let me live in such terrible pollution for my entire life, bar the 2 weeks of the Olympics. China isn’t even debating the air quality. They’re admitting it’s crap.

Why isn’t the carrot of the Olympics being used to affect necessary change? Already, the world record holder in the marathon, Haile Gebrselassie, is withdrawing and a number of teams are training outside of China. But, the damage that Chinese industry is causing affects us all.

We are losing a significant opportunity to make a real difference. The Olympics can have a huge and lasting impact on a city and country in terms of exposure, infrastructure and tourism. Why hasn’t there been the caveat that China can have the Olympics as long as it meets two conditions: clean up your human rights record and clean up your industry.

For more than two weeks.

They introduced the metric system of time…

They declared guerre nuclaire…

If you get the chance, go see them. You’ll love them, because you can’t help yourself

While I know the internet has about a billion interesting things with, from what I’ve read, a million new interesting things being posted per day, I get stuck visiting the same sites over and over again.

I think it might have something to do with the fact that I’m basically a really boring person.

Adam MacLean sent this along to me this morning. Much better than anything I could do*.

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/

*unless you’re looking for an obscure pair of adidas. this I could probably help you with. Or discuss the relative merits of  Phil Hill vs Mario Andretti, or even just what links them together

Does anyone think about reduce and reuse?

I know that most of the time I don’t. I have a SIGG water bottle on my desk, but I never take it to the gym, relying on those stupid paper cones (why not Dixie cups? whatever happened to Dixie cups?).

Most days I get a salad from Milestones at lunch. That means a big plastic bag and a big plastic container for the salad, plus plastic knife and fork and a napkin and moist towelette…

Can’t they just give me the salad in some Tupperware and I’ll bring it back?

Who started Tupperware anyway? How far ahead of the curve were they? Why isn’t Tupperware absolutely huge now? Maybe Tupperware parties need to be coed. Maybe they get combined with another type of party. Foam and Tupperware sounds like a good mix.

Anyway, before you toss your newspaper into the recycling, try reusing it first. Even if it is just for a paper hat.