resistance to persistence

This afternoon I went for a walk to grab some lunch and happened across this funny looking post on the sidewalk. It looked like a giant lollypop. After a quick inspection, it turns out it’s a “gum drop-off”. Drop-off makes it sound like it’ll be recycled. Is this a Willy Wonka scheme to make all the chewed gum into fresh new gum?

mmm…freshly chewed gum for free

From envyrobubble.com…

It all began with a casual stroll, shopping downtown. We weren’t trying to change the world, we were just two moms with a weakness for beautiful shoes. But then: splat! We stopped in our tracks only to discover the bottoms of our Manolo Blahniks covered in gooey gum.

That got us thinking. Why were people throwing gum on the sidewalk? And why wasn’t there a place to dispose of it in an environmentally responsible way?

We did our homework and realized a public gum container would have to be designed specifically for gum, so we gave it a unique shape. It had to get attention and raise awareness of responsible gum disposal, so we covered it with a fun, eye-catching spiral design and made it scream bubble gum pink. Then we joined forces with a leading recycler to ensure that the gum collected became something useful: fertilizer.

Interesting. I’d like to know how much gum it takes to make some useful fertilizer. Is there really a business in this? By the time you manufacture, pay materials, installation, pay someone to collect all the gum from the bins, is the recycling company paying enough to make a profit? Or is this a non-profit company simply out to save the sidewalks and the cost of another pair of Manolo Blahniks? Either way, I’m in full support of getting more gum off the streets. I’m just not sure we need specialized bins to do so - a garbage can would suffice. I know where one gum-happy artist will be hanging around now - I like his form of gum recycling much better.

Have you spotted any of these around Toronto? Any other cities? Leave me a comment.

motorola KRZR - review soon

The Motorola KRZR is coming soon. Stay tuned.

Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon

this saturday, the “Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon” exposition opens at the Art Gallery of Ontario. I’ve been invited to a preview opening event this week. I really appreciate being invited to events like this. I’ll post some notes from the show later in the week.

Be sure to check out the exhibit before it closes on May 20, 2007.

in researching solutions to improving on-camera flash, i’ve read about lots of options. i’m interested in gary fong’s lightsphere. but a cheap alternative comes from the standard use of a bounce card.

a better bounce card.com shows a slightly better bounce card. you can make a simple version with a regular piece of paper and an elastic. if you want to get elaborate, there’s some foam-like paper that is even better and allows for even more adjustment. i purchased the foam paper for less than a dollar at Walmart. i could do with some nicer elastics once i find them. check out a better bounce card.com and learn how to make your own.

a useful, but not fancy solution to bouncing light

a few weeks ago, J and I were invited to our godson’s birthday party at Reptilia north of Toronto. I was expecting a couple snakes and lizards. what i wasn’t expecting was alligators, pythons and the largest crocodile in canada (4m long, 1000lbs). you can even pay to see the python eat a goat! there’s a video on their website of it. it’s sick, watching the python inhale a goat. definitely worth a visit, especially while it’s cold and wintery out. probably not a great place to take a date though.

here’s a few shots i took while at Reptilia

stretching out a long snake

the large crocodile

check out those teeth

gators on a log

below are some of my photos posted to flickr which have been flagged as peoples favorites. are any of these photos your favorites?

get your own pictobrowser by selecting ‘info’

monday night i attended toronto democamp 12. i was at democamp 2, a year ago but couldn’t never make the others since they were on tuesday and i had conflicts with other activities. this one was on a monday so i made sure to make it. even through a snowstorm, the turnout was huge and packed No Regrets restaurant in King West, the tech hub of Toronto. thankfully, we arrived early, got a great table in the center and settled back for an evening of tech demos. i won’t give the rundown on each presentation, but i snapped a few photos, so they should count as 13,000 words of explanation for the night.

in general, good presentations, i’d like to see a few more demos, but the updates from past presenters showed how successful some have been ($3M acquistion for bubbleshare!) and how much press and recognition people are getting thanks to democamp. i’ll definitely try to be a regular at more of these events.

View the larger photos at flickr.com by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Photos from Toronto Democamp 12