PlayPump video

I failed to get this video to upload to my Wordpress blog), so I am attempting to send it to this blog and perhaps I can cross-link it. If you haven't read my comments about PlayPump, the short version is that the product costs four times more than the standard pumps used in many countries and somebody is creating a future water problem for a school & village when they remove a fully functional Afridev pump and install a Playpump. The video shows kids having some fun, playing with the pump.

So it seems the BlackBerry video format might be the issue, since Blogspot doesn't seem to want to show it either. Hmmm, this could take some work.

I'm in Malawi

I am in Malawi as part of an Engineers Without Borders placement. The bulk of my updates will be on an alternate blog where you can subscribe to receive an email notification when I post something new.

This map doesn't show Balaka where I am living, but it is east of Ntcheu (which is spelled incorrectly on this map).

I went to an internet cafe to upload some files. Silly me. I plugged my laptop into their network and the fastest internet site in town painted the Google search logo over a period of about 10 seconds. They need some bandwidth over here. My BlackBerry has EDGE connection speed which is better than so called broadband here.

Next summer

Plans are progressing for the 2011 David Thompson Brigade.

The Monkey Business Ilusion

How did you do? I was off by 3 and failed the important parts.

Hawking at Perimeter

Stephen Hawking gave a presentation at Waterloo's Perimeter Institute yesterday, chronicling his life's work in theoretical physics. He has been a leader in joining the physics of the very large (cosmology) and the very small (quantum mechanics). How a black hole leaks off energy is a little beyond my ability to properly articulate, but it fundamentally changed how physicists understand the universe.

Hawking is known for his sense of humor and while his ALS condition make the delivery of jokes somewhat a function of context (and the quality of his text-to-voice computer) the slides shown above are examples: the first showing what he wants on his grave stone and the second a comment about life in the universe while being featured on an episode of the Simpsons.

First self-replicating artificial life

Yesterday the researchers at the Craig Venter Institute announced something extraordinary -- a bacteria cell that was in part designed using a computer without using any pieces of natural DNA. If you happen to have an at-home DNA sequencer and get some of these cells, the designers inserted various watermarks in their new life form as well as an email address to contact - sort of bacterial easter eggs or dog tags.

Venter is frequently sited as a leading researcher in synthetic bio-fuels, was a leader of the human genome project and his Institute operate the Global Ocean Sampling Expedition.

Ahh spring

We had May weather in April, so now we are having April weather in May. That is me in the snowy stern of the green canoe last weekend enjoying a three day paddle with canoe club friends in Algonquin Park. My new 42 pound Souris River canoe made portaging blissfully easy in comparison to every other canoe I have ever carrier. More photos here.

Apathy & Eco-douchebaggery

There is an article in the May 2010 issue of Explore magazine by J.B. Mackinnon (he wrote the 100 Mile Diet with his wife Alisa Smith) in which he credits the phrase eco-douchebag to conservation scientist Jennifer Jaquet and her Guilty Planet blog where she features an image of a warning sign in a Whole Foods supermarket: "Dear Customer: Please be advised that our Bread Slicer is used for both Organic and Conventional items." What would compel a store to post such a sign? An eco-douchbag agitator and a foolish acquiescence to said sorry sack.

The article ends with: The greatest enemy of change is apathy, and at the heart of apathy Stanley Cohen found denial: "Our need to be innocent of a troubling recognition." Our small and imperfect efforts are constant reminders that there are patterns to break, whole stories to rewrite, and while they are never enough, no, never enough, a little practice surely won't hurt.

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Sent from my BlackBerry

Spring on the Magnetawan

Friends from the Waterloo Wellington Canoe Club came up to the cottage for some canoeing. Kevin is an excellent canoeist and made my job in the bow easy, notwithstanding the canoe full of water that resulted on Sunday when I pulled us off line.

Winter in Killarney

The first week of March delivered fantastic winter camping conditions -- I spent four nights alone in the interior of Killarney Provincial Park. It was the first use of my new pulk a (sled connected with poles to a waist harness).

I had intended to follow the La Cloche Silhouette trail but as you can see in the photo, there wasn't a lot of snow, especially on sun exposed sections. I essentially followed a canoe route around a couple lakes and did a couple day hikes. The weather was fantastic! One afternoon I came back from a walk up to Silver Peak and sat on the rock in the background of the photo in bare feet for over half an hour.