Random Politicians, Earth Hour and the Nothern Lights.

Random Politicians
Why randomly selected politicians would improve democracy


I skim read over this article and found myself agreeing with it. Random allocation of people into governments I think would be an excellent way to ensure that the general population is being represented fairly after all is this not a principle on which good representative statistics lie? Governments suffer from misrepresentation on the basis of a severe self selection bias. The kind of people I would vote for would not be interested in politics. Of course I'm unsure how the idea would be put into practice because I'm sure people would oppose the idea of being made a member of a government and having to put their lives on hold for a while. But perhaps if the term was short and there was some great incentive it could work? I really don't know. But the idea to me seems to make a lot of sense.

Earth Hour
Why I won't be turning off any lights for Earth Hour

I really enjoy articles like this simply because I have a tendency to oppose popular ideas that seem a bit "bandwagonish" with no obvious long term effects.  I have never bothered participating in Earth Hour and like the article points out it just seemed like a quick feel good fix.  Instead of sitting for an hour in the dark perhaps people could spend an hour thinking of ways they could make permanent changes in their lifestyle, home or at work that would be of a greater benefit to the environment and then commit to implementing that change?

On the flip side of the argument here's an argument for Earth Hour

http://www.granvilleonline.ca/gr/blogs/home-economics/2010/03/26/why-participate-earth-hour 


The reasons sound ok but a little weak.

"The dimmed lights also make it safer for birds."
Safer for birds? In an hour? I'm sure any birds in an area that's brightly lit most of the time would be accustomed to the level of lighting at night if that was their permanent home area. The sudden outage of lights then lights coming on an hour later once they've adjusted to it being really dark would most likely disturb them more than anything.

"It gives me an opportunity to see just how addicted I am to the Internet. I discovered an hour with no computer access felt much, much longer when I had no music or anything else to fill in the gaps. "
People should be able to tell if they spend too much time online...and of course the hour felt longer. It's indicative of being bored out of your mind (which leads me to conclude earth hour is a terribly dull activity:P)


"Cities reduce their power load quite significantly and save money, even if only for an hour."

I'll just quote the first article I posted for this one
"Second, the hour itself doesn't have any real impact. Utilities don't cut their power production for such a short and slight drop in demand, so no energy is really saved"

"Earth hour isn’t a hollow gesture; our participation sends a message to local and federal leaders that we care and are prepared to make sacrifices and cut back."
Or you could work on putting forward long term permanent ideas to these local and federal leaders?


"Dimmed city lights improve our view of the night sky, making it a great night for stargazing."
Once again....not really a reason I'd want to spend an hour in the dark for. Don't get me wrong. Stars are wonderful. Just not a good enough reason for Earth Hour in my opinion.


"It was a grass roots movement that came from the ground up, and it swept the world; how awesome are we? "
Hardly a solid reason to be doing something. It would make you feel good but that's about it.


All in all I am sure I could achieve much more in an hour with an electrically run item (Uni work etc) and then find a way to offset that usage in a more permanent way. 


Finally

I'll finish by linking this which I think is beautiful and one of the things I'd love to see before I die
http://vimeo.com/21294655