Jeers: to going backwards on energy efficiency. For years, energy efficiency has been part of the selling point for everything from cars to refrigerators. But advances in internet technology — and the huge data farms that storage and shift information — are apparently going to eat up incredible amounts of power to support our near insatiable demand for fast data transfer. Some estimates are that data centres worldwide will gobble a massive 651 terawatt hours of power next year to enable everything from 5G systems to internet streaming to smart home features. Among the biggest potential data-eaters? Autonomous vehicles, which will need to be transmitting and receiving data. If your new smart fridge is going to require more overall power than your old fridge, tell us again why you want it?
Cheers: to a return to normal. Holidays are grand, but can they ever throw a wrench into any work that has to stay on a schedule. The work still has to get done, regardless, and that means added stress to all those who don’t have time off. Special shout-out to the sanitation and snow workers, especially those who doubled up on routes and worked extra hours to clear snow and empty those rapidly-filling big black bins.
Cheers: to the tit-for-tat hashtag battles. There’s a new Twitter element in the world of weather reporting: on the hashtag #nlwx, the weather forecasters are starting to get chippy with their critics. After every yes-storm-no-storm, people pile on to the forecasters, and lately, several of the forecasters have been firing back online, pointing out the difficulties in accurately forecasting major weather events, particularly ones several days in the future. By last Friday, there was already a hearty back and forth about what today’s weather would bring, with one meteorologist suggesting, “Sorry, I guess I need to dumb this down a bit. If this ‘storm’ tracks close enough to Eastern Newfoundland Sunday/Monday, we will see STORMY conditions over land areas where people live. Regardless, it will be a storm in the North Atlantic. We good? Awesome. Peace out!” Careful, folks: it’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye of the storm.
Jeers: to a dangerous rising number of cases. Now Alberta has had its first case of vaping-associated lung illness, meaning at least 15 Canadians have become seriously ill from the process. The cases have cropped up in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and British Columbia, and have raised issues about vaping products and the fact that many of the products seem to be targeting teenagers and young adults, both through marketing efforts and through specific “flavours” aimed at a younger market. The federal government has promised action, but new rules about marketing and selling the products have not yet arrived, and may not for months. It’s time to move forward.
