Mock Turtle

Re the link to the new beekeeping site:

You might find this interesting — David Yassky, an up-and-coming Brooklyn city councillor, has taken up the crusade to legalize urban beekeeping.  Apparently there are quite a few underground (or more precisely rooftop) apiculturists operating in the shadows of the city.  Two links below — the second is to a local TV news story:

http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/6/32_6_bm_beekeepers.html
 
http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/politics/93978/the-big-apple-hides-many-secret-beehives/Default.aspx?ap=1&Flash

P.S. I tried to post this comment on the site itself, but that was apparently beyond my technical capabilities…

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HT to Val Dodge’s blog:

I first saw Beyond the Orchard apple slices in the local Sobeys in early January, but didn’t see it again until mid-March. They’ve been in stock steadily since then, so presumably people are buying them. This package­­­­—a plastic box containing five individual sealed wrappers—contains just 285 grams of sliced apples, equivalent to about one and a half regular-sized apples. Each package contains seven very small apple wedges that together represent about one quarter of an apple.

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Months of smug, rah-rah, our market’s different from every other area with a housing boom in the world coverage are followed inevitably by:

Scotiabank:

[T]here is growing evidence of overvaluation in home prices in some parts of the country — a precursor to a period of softening conditions… the further domestic home prices climb above underlying economic fundamentals, the greater the risk of an eventual correction.

RBC:

the portion of before-tax income going towards home ownership costs suffered one of its largest and most broadly based quarterly deteriorations in the current housing cycle stretching back to the mid-1990s.

Don’t worry too much, though, because the magic of new 30-, 35-, 40-year mortgage options will keep those buyers coming without any price erosion. Right? And Canadians are so prudent with their finances, unlike those spendthrifts next door, right? Well… Toronto is a world-class city…

…research done by CIBC World Markets suggests that Torontonians are more inclined than most of the rest of the country to use their homes as automated banking machines, or ABMs, from which they can draw cash

Household debt ratios, which show the amount of debts compared to assets, are higher in Toronto than in any other city except Montreal, economist Benjamin Tal said.

And the borrowing activity has fuelled much of Toronto’s consumer strength, he added.

“We estimate that at least one-third of this money goes toward spending. Clearly, credit has been important in supporting spending, no question about it.”

Let’s remember, though, that Toronto’s still the economic star of Eastern Canada. The dollar has battered the local economy, and we underperform every city west of Windsor, but:

“The strong Canadian dollar and weak U.S. demand (for manufactured goods) has dampened Toronto’s outlook,” the [Conference Board] report states. However, strong employment outside the manufacturing sector has kept the city’s growth from falling further.

Industries such as financial services, now facing new challenges, and, well, housing itself, which has apparently so far “muted the impact” of the decline in manufacturing and export-oriented jobs. To recap: the Toronto housing market continues to be hot because the local economy is being kept afloat by the housing market. Does that sound sustainable to you?

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Today’s announcement on phasing out incandescent light bulbs by 2012 is supposed to be good news. But once again, today’s announcement overlooks one of the biggest and fastest-growing causes of peak demand during our not-all-that-hot, not-all-that-long summers: air conditioning.

More homes in Ontario have air conditioning than anywhere else in the country — although the city in Canada with the most days of temperatures above 30 degrees is in BC. There is a greater proportion of homes with air conditioning in Ontario than in Sydney, Australia.

Nationally, the average percentage of homes with air conditioners was 44% in 2005, up from 36% just four years earlier. Is that because the temperatures have risen dramatically over the last few years?Well, no. The hottest day in Toronto in the last five years was in fact in the scorching summer of 2002. The hottest days with humidex in June, July, and August were in 1957, 1995 and 1955 respectively. The average number of days with temperatures over 30 degrees tops out at 5.7 for July.

What’s wrong with air conditioning? Well, it’s unnecessary in our climate for 95% of the year. It wastes a great deal of energy. It adds to our smog problem. It makes us forget how to be comfortable outside in warm weather by not allowing our bodies to adjust to pleasant, warm temperatures. And yet, according to the provincial government:

Air conditioners can put an enormous strain on our power supplies. They’re the reason the risk of power shortages is greatest in the summer. If you have an air conditioner, it can account for as much as half of your energy use on hot summer days.

Can’t live without it?

Let’s be honest – most of us wouldn’t give up our air conditioner. That’s okay; you don’t have to feel guilty.

Why not?

Personally, I think Hydro Quebec has the right idea. I hope Ontario hydro authorities are paying attention.

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…it’s their parents we should be worried about:

The young man had been wheeled into Najma Ahmed’s emergency room with a bloody, penetrating wound to the chest. Whatever was inside had pierced his left lung dangerously close to the heart. His sternum was also fractured.

“It looked like a bullet wound,” said Dr. Ahmed, assistant trauma director at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. But it wasn’t a bullet. It was a nail. It turns out that the man and a buddy had been playing around with a nail gun, and a 2½-inch stud had been fired accidentally into his torso.

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I have visited a few stores in search of ginkgo nuts （银杏有没有？）to no avail.

I found a place that sells the tress. Apparently they smell so the females are not popular as ornamentals. Very interesting tree.

http://www.grimonut.com/section2.htm#ginkgo

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Yes, I know this is from a knitting blog, but it has nothing to do with knitting. The lady hired someone to refinish her bedroom floor and drama ensues.

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Global warming’s impact on your garden
from Slate Magazine by Constance Casey

Lilac bushes in New England have pretty steadily been blooming earlier every year for the past 30 years. One way some gardeners have begun to think about shorter winters is to say, “Hey, great, I live in Ohio [or wherever, north of the Mason-Dixon Line] and now I can grow some camellias, maybe a fig tree.” This is, frankly, nuts. Be careful what you wish for. Kudzu is creeping north, poison ivy is growing more toxic on its diet of extra carbon dioxide, and allergy season lasts longer.

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Well, at least we were home at the time.  Friday morning we were procrastinating over breakfast & the newspaper when there was a crashing noise from downstairs followed by the sound of water rushing through the pipes.  We ran to the basement to see water gushing through one of the potlight fixtures in the basement bedroom, shortly thereafter joined by two of the others.  A few minutes later we had the mains turned off but an almighty mess on our hands.  And we spent the rest of the day arranging and supervising an emergency plumber effort, followed by much of the weekend drying out the carpets (via rented carpet cleaner and borrowed dehumidifier).  The bedroom now has some very unsightly holes in the ceiling, and the pipes leading to the back bathroom now have shutoff valves (which are shut off).

Seems the renovator who created that back bathroom forgot about insulation for a portion of the wall.  The pipes were separated from the outside brick by about 3 inches of open air.

Obviously we’d have to call this a minor disaster, but at the same time we were immediately conscious of how lucky we were.  Half an hour later, or if we’d been more prompt in leaving for work, and that water would have been gushing for the entire day.  *shudder*

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