Chile’s strategy to fighting Global Warming

Chile's government wants men in the South American country to take off their ties to help fight global warming, hoping the campaign will save on air conditioning as summer starts in the southern hemisphere.


"Let's all take our ties off this summer to save energy," Economy Minister Pablo Longueira says in television spots airing around the country.


In the commercial, he undoes the knot of his pink and white tie and whips it off with gusto, unbuttoning the top of his shirt and smiling. A tie-less energy minister and other senior government officials also appear in the TV spot.


I often find it hard to argue with simple solutions, and it really doesn’t get any simpler than this. From a problem solving and budgeting perspective it seems like the ideal solution- low cost (for all parties) and easy to both implement and enforce.

I can already hear Chile’s 3rd Nobel Prize knockin’…

Kids call it as they see it!

This morning I was watching a news segment about the well-known North Korean dictator who passed away only a few days ago when my son interrupted me:

Son: What are you watching?
Me: Kim Jong Il
Son: Yeah? What happened to him?
Me: He died
Son: Died? You jut said he was ill! Which is it?

The (im)balance of Water

I had a discussion with a recently divorced friend of mine the other day. I made the statement that the 21^st century has certainly started without any traces of balance- we spend the first decade in severe drought only to enter the second decade with an overabundance of water and severe flooding. Is the weather god making up for the shortages from the first decade?

He was quiet for a second and said that he knew this to be true- he was married in 1999, had a ‘playful’ life until they entered the year 2000 and the ‘fun’ dried up due to pregnancy. The ‘drought’ got progressively worse during the following 9 years or so until they finally got divorced.

By sheer coincidence he ran into his ex-wife on a New Year’s eve party and they haven’t stopped the rainmaking since. Has the weather god got something to do with this too? (if she does, have her call me!)

To make matters ‘worse’(?), this sudden flooding has resulted in him receiving a written warning at work for being late three consecutive days and for being too tired during work hours.

When it rains it really pours!!!