Paddle the Prairies

A month ago I heard about a few groups planning to commemorate the 200th anniversary of David Thompson's cross-Canada trade route later this year. It involves paddling from Rocky Mountain House in Alberta to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Along the way communities are planning to host the paddlers and hold celebration events.

I hope to paddle the entire 66 day route; others will participate for a few days or weeks. If you know someone who likes to paddle or really likes Canadian history, please let me know and maybe they will join the adventure.

Free Rice Update

Two months ago I mentioned the Free Rice folks. Vocabulary testers generated about 4.8 billion grains in November and 7 billion in December and have averaged over 147 million per day this month for a possible total of around 4.6 billion in January.

One source suggests there are 36,590 grains per kilogram, others put the number near 50k. Using the 50k number it would mean they are donating about 3 metric tonnes of rice per day this month. That is a good result.

The site was developed by the folks who made the www.poverty.com site. There is some interesting OECD data about international aid on that site. Canada is in the middle of the pack, but still far behind the UK or the leading country Sweden.

The site is funded by advertising and the food is delivered through the U.N.'s World Food Program. The list of advertisers is much longer than two months ago. Current well-known companies include Orbitz, Fujitsu, American Express, Office Depot and Lego.

Canadian copyright crud coming ?

Canadian MPs might soon attempt to mess with our current copyright act. Stealing music has fueled the fight. Some people think it is OK to copy a friend's CD or trade mp3s. I don't. If I think the music is worth listening to, and if I don't like the price, then I will listen to something else.

If you want to learn more about digital copyrights and freedom to information from a Canadian perspective I recommend the blog of Prof. Michael Geist. He is Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. In May 2006 TVO's Big Ideas published a very good talk he gave on the subject. Youtube also has a few of his talks.

Want to make change happen? Consider doing some letter writing - Geist has a list.

Organic Insulation

Ecovative Design was the most interesting presentation at the RPI-hosted Tech Valley Business Plan competition this past May. Many in the audience thought founders Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre should have won, but nonetheless they are gathering lots of interest from within RPI's Incubator Center and are another great innovation to come out Burt Swersey's Innovator's Studio class in the product, design, and innovation (PDI) curriculum at Rensselaer.

Their Greensulate product will compete against polystyrene sheets (the pink stuff you often see on the outside of new construction homes). It requires no light, heat, or petroleum products, but it does require a volume of space and time to grow. The R value of the insulation is 3 per inch - comparable to blown insulation or polystyrene, but unlike polystyrene, it doesn't burn and generate toxic gas, so it is a firewall too.

Check out Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyr giving a presentation.

Slideshow of trip to Russia

I am working on a video of our trip to Russia last June. So I decided to see how Blogger does with the conversion. The audio comes through well, but the frame size is reduced. But not bad really.