Have you thought about the environment lately?

As oil is spilling into the Gulf from the latest offshore drilling accident, BP (British Petroleum) executives were busy meeting with Canadian politicians concerning future off shore drilling in Northern Canada. They are asking that certain safety/environmental regulations be dropped to save costs. One of the regulations they want dropped is the requirement to drill relief wells at the same time as the construction of the rig. Had there been a relief well constructed on the Horizon rig, the huge environmental disaster caused by the rig's demise may not have occured. It seems oil companies may know how to drill anywhere, but they sure don't know what to do when something goes wrong - guess it costs too much to figure that out!!

Furthermore, the BP rep (Drinkwater) offered no answers on the safety of drilling in the Arctic and declined to answer any technical questions. (I say sorry BP, the regulations stand.) Unfortunately, I wonder if the government can be trusted to make the right decision. In general oil companies and government do not have a good track record when it comes to environmental concerns. So what can we do - its time to make some NOISE!!!!

Reports on BP meets Canada's Government

Canada Grills BP on Arctic Plans Video Report: by Global Report

Interesting Stats on Effect of Oil Spill on Land --WOW!!

by the way in case you don't know...........Canada is still soliciting bids for exploration licenses in the Beaufort Sea and the Mackenzie River delta in the Northwest Territories. The locations up for grabs include a parcel of land roughly 200 kilometres offshore, to the west of existing leases owned by BP and Imperial Oil. (full article)

Something to think about - our consumption of oil and gas.



And......let's not forget about the environmental disaster created at the Athabasca Oil Sands in Alberta (same oil companies and government acceptance of "relaxed" regulations)

Google yourself

When is the last time you googled yourself? If you have posted information on the internet over the years, google and other search engines can find it. A few weeks ago I was involved with some job interviews and used google to find more background information about applicants.
Whatever information you have shared on the web will influence potential employers. It makes sense to reconsider posting something that may be a poor reflection of your character at some point in the future. You many not be aware of this but you probably already have an online portfolio of sorts that can be gathered together through search engines by anyone out there.
We know that the web has an archival history even though some sites or information may have been removed. (Way Back Machine can find web pages that are no longer active.) As digital citizens we need to recognize that we have a web presence the moment we share something. When you post to a public network it is open for the world to see.
Just as an experiment, try googling yourself to see what sort of web presence you have. What does your digital footprint look like? Will Richardson suggested at the May IT Summit conference in Saskatoon that we need to teach young people about their digital footprints and what it means to have a web presence. The future for our children and grandchildren involves realities we haven't imagined. Part of the reality will be what our children and grandchildren create. What their footprint will look like is hard to say, but one thing for certain is that it will be different from the network and connections we currently have access to.

Craig Venter unveils "synthetic life"

Craig Venter and team make a historic announcement: they've created the first fully functioning, reproducing cell controlled by synthetic DNA. He explains how they did it and why the achievement marks the beginning of a new era for science.

The BIGGEST LOSER!

Yes, I am the biggest LOSER! However that means I won the $200 cash prize for losing the biggest percentage of body fat. I owe it all to quitting three bad habits. I managed to knock down two out of three bad habits over the past 51 days. These bad habits lowered my initiative and drive to eat healthy and be active. I can definitely see the results and the one bad habit I partially resumed is going to be avoided again because I find that it is not "paying off." Also logically I can see the solid results of dropping these bad habits and this makes it easier to not start them again. Now I am going to work on developing three good habits. I don't know why but I feel hopeful that all good things come in 3's so we will see what happens. I will be looking at the idea of CHANGE in our online assembly and see how humans can effectively change their habits and thinking to make positive changes in their lives....stay tuned.

New Hubble pictures suggest Milky Way fell together

New infrared images of the Milky Way globular cluster 47 Tucanae (this one recorded at a wavelength of 1.6 micrometers), reveal that both the cluster and the Milky Way's central bulge are 11 billion to 12 billion years old and may have formed simultaneously with the Milky Way’s halo.H. Richer, NASA, ESA

Who do you read?

There are many blogs that you can follow on a daily basis.

• Gardening: Northern Exposure Gardening (La Ronge)
• Sports: NHL.com
• Education: Top 100 Education Blogs

You can find a blog on anything that you're interested in. Expose yourself to passionate bloggers who may be experts in their field.

Google Wave is coming.....

Something of interest came up on my tweetdeck this morning. I followed up on the links and found that it is not available to everyone yet, but the beta-testing is going on as we speak.
I think Google Wave will really be worth a look. There are so many interesting ways it might be used to connect people. We have been using Google Docs to collaborate on documents and archive them in a common space. Google Wave takes this into another dimension. I am asking myself how it will be different from many of the social networking tools. Google Wave might be really useful for learning networks.