Canada, a nation among the wealthiest in the world, cannot meet its daycare needs. The problem has grown to crisis proportions in the country’s largest cities. In Toronto there are only enough daycare spaces for about one in five of the city’s children.[1] In downtown
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Left Over: More Layoffs/Less Service? Happy Holidays!
Canada Post to phase out urban home mail delivery Up to 8,000 jobs will be cut, while cost of stamps is going up CBC News Posted: Dec 11, 2013 9:37 AM ET Last Updated: Dec 11, 2013 11:53 AM ET There is something the Feds find irresistible about throwing out some
Continue readingThings Are Good: Urban Highways Should Be Torn Down; Replaced By Useful Space
Car-dominated infrastructure is clearly bad for local communities, transit, the environment (local and global), and the economy. So why do so many places refuse to tear down crumbling urban highways? The addiction to the car is a powerful one in many parts of the world and we need to curb
Continue readingPostArctica: I Am Voting For Seaz (Sterling Downey, Projet Montreal)
I have had the incredible good luck of meeting an interesting diversity of Montrealers since I started this blog in 2005 and there is no way I could discuss that in a single blog post, such is the regard I hold these people in, let alone the talents and accomplishments
Continue readingPostArctica: Montreal Needs Projet Montreal
Saw this article earlier and it just brought up a whole slew of issues as to the wrong directions Montreal has been going in for a few generations. There you have a very interesting building right on the Lachine Canal that no one has been interested in for decades. While
Continue readingopenalex: ecoHackMTL: Totally Awesome!
Almost 100 participants, 12 projects, 4 specially proposed challenges, 6 newly released data sets and lots of happy faces at the end of the day. A huge thank-you to everyone who came out for the inaugural ecoHack in Montréal last weekend! écoHackMTL set out to bring together programmers, community activists,
Continue readingopenalex: ecoHackMTL: Totally Awesome!
Almost 100 participants, 12 projects, 4 specially proposed challenges, 6 newly released data sets and lots of happy faces at the end of the day.
A huge thank-you to everyone who came out for the inaugural ecoHack in Montréal last weekend!
écoHackMTL set out to bring together programmers, community activists, and urban environmentalists to design digital tools that allow for deeper citizen engagement with urban spaces and urban sustainability.
It grew out of the fact that the amazing energy of the hackathon and opendata scenes had yet to be effectively applied to building greener cities. (Not just in Montreal, but anywhere.)
Last Saturday’s day long hackathon was a first attempt at bringing urban sustainability into the digital age. It was also the culmination of 6 months spent hosting little events around the city to build bridges between developers, environmentalists, planners, and anyone else who was interested in building a greener city.
It was fun, but time consuming work. Developers learned about urban sustainability. Environmental advocates and activists learned about programming and data. And everyone went away with enough of a shared language to collaborate on some amazing projects.
Check out ecohackmtl.sparkboard.com to see the prototypes that came out of the day. While you are there you can also vote for your favourites. If you are in Montreal, stay tuned for the details of our November 14 wrap-party where we will announce the winners of the “Participants Choice” and “Public Choice” awards.
I’d also like to send out a heartfelt thank-you to all to the volunteers and advisory committee members who made the event possible. The City of Montreal was supportive from very early on and released a dozen new datasets for the day of the event. And Siemens Canada our principal sponsor.
Continue readingopenalex: ecoHackMTL: Totally Awesome!
Almost 100 participants, 12 projects, 4 specially proposed challenges, 6 newly released data sets and lots of happy faces at the end of the day. A huge thank-you to everyone who came out for the inaugural ecoHack in Montréal last weekend! écoHackMTL set out to bring together programmers, community activists,
Continue readingPostArctica: Lucas Samaras
Was going through some old camera equipment and came across some Polaroid SX-70 cameras and other stuff and thought of Lucas Samaras and his extensive Polaroid work. Much of the work involves scratching, rubbing, or otherwise manipulating the film just after exposure while the emulsion is still wet and soft.
Continue readingThings Are Good: London Starts Planting Green Walls for Flood Prevention
Earlier this year, Toronto suffered some severe flooding and city planner Jennifer Keesmat composed this great tweet: Suddenly spending $ to maintain all of that not-so-sexy infrastructure and to plan for climate change seems wildly appealing. #TOflood — jennifer keesmaat (@jen_keesmaat) July 9, 2013 One of those programs she is
Continue readingPostArctica: Postcards from the Future – Francesco Romoli
Reblogged from ⓔMORFES: Postcards from the Future by Italian digital artist Francesco Romoli. ABOUT PROJECT What we call chaos is just patterns we haven’t recognized. What we call random is just patterns we can’t decipher. What we can’t understand we call nonsense. What we can’t read we call gibberish. There
Continue readingPostArctica: Everybody Street.
Reblogged from greyproductionblog: “Everybody Street” illuminates the lives and work of New York’s iconic street photographers and the incomparable city that has inspired them for decades. The documentary pays tribute to the spirit of street photography through a cinematic exploration of New York City, and captures the visceral rush, singular
Continue readingThings Are Good: Better Urban Design Can Increase Happiness and Sexiness
Obesity is a growing problem in North America and it looks like this health issue will continue to grow. There are many contributing factors to what’s referred to as an obesity epidemic, and some designers think that we can curb at least one contributing factor: poor urban planning. Not coincidentally,
Continue readingThings Are Good: Monocle Looks at the Best Urban Farm Projects
Monocle recently took a look at some of the world’s best urban farming projects. Monocle’s favourite cities combine small-scale neighbourhoods with green spaces, but not all cities were built with the right foundations for future growth and sustainability. We champion four urban innovators who see potential in derelict spaces and
Continue readingPostArctica: Methane and the risk of runaway global warming
Reblogged from uknowispeaksense: Research was published this week showing the financial cost of methane being released from Earth’s permafrosts. But the risks go beyond financial – Earth’s history shows that releasing these stores could set off a series of events with calamitous consequences. The sediments and bottom water beneath the
Continue readingPostArctica: Song of the Kauri: a Documentary Feature Film from the Heart of New Zealand
Reblogged from Sustainability Studies: The Honolulu Museum of Art featured a film this month, Song of the Kauri, directed by Mathurin Molgat. The film, a part of the Aotearoa Film Festival, is about the ancient native Kauri tree of Aotearoa (New Zealand), it’s sustainability, and how it is used to craft
Continue readingPostArctica: How six women did something incredible to save the Arctic
Reblogged from Montreal Girls: Very inspiring!
Continue readingPostArctica: North Pole Web Camera 2 Adrift in Large, Expanding Melt Pool
Reblogged from robertscribbler: (Image source: APL) Last week, a melt puddle began to form near APL’s Camera 2. The pool extended in the near camera field from left to right just beyond the black and white markers. It covered just more than half the field of view and was represented
Continue readingPostArctica: Hundreds of centuries-old trees chopped down to make room for the Pope’s visit in Brazil ~ Daily Mail
Reblogged from Stop Making Sense: The Daily Mail Authorities in Brazil have denounced church leaders as criminals for chopping down more than 300 centuries-old trees in a national park – so pilgrims can celebrate mass during the Pope’s visit to Rio de Janeiro. Pope Francis will make his first international
Continue readingPostArctica: PDBF Teams Up With Greenpeace to Clean Up the Philippine Seas
Reblogged from charly's blogsite: Kudos to the Philippine Dragon Boat Federation for supporting a noble cause!! The PDBF recently joined hands with Greenpeace in a charity program aptly called “Paddles Up” at the Manila Bay. The twin objectives of the activity were: to promote awareness for the need to clean
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