I really frosts my cookies how some products put out by the corporate philosophy of built-in obsolescence are really just on a short path between the supply depot and the local dump.  Precious resources are being wastefully expended to provide a very short term of use.  DVD players are especially unfriendly to our ecology or at least to our sustainable lifestyle.  I know that the materials going into DVD players are next to being junk to start with and that’s part of the reason they fail so quickly.

I’ve recently seen cell phone repair companies springing up both online and in brick and mortar shops.  That is a healthy sign that at least some consumer electronic products are becoming more sustainability of resources sound.  I wish that others like DVD players could or would follow the same track as cell phone repair.

I wish we people would demand that our pathetic governments stand up to corporate crap and force better environmental practices.  If a product is not repairable when a part fails, then the product should be manufactured from garbage.  For example, if a DVD player can’t be expected to last for more than a couple of short years, then DVD player manufacturers should have to use recycled material to make them with.  I would really like to see a dump-to-dump philosophy in place.  Having to make their shoddy wares from recycled raw materials might convince manufactures to turn out products that can be repaired instead of just tossed away.

I say good on the cell phone industry.  You’ve made a start by having made some cell phone repair possible and economical.  Now we need to keep the environmentally sound trend continue by asking other electronics sectors to step into line.

I was reading about the Toronto condo bubble and something struck me about the Toronto median income for apartment renters.  The average income for households of renters has dropped over the past years.  The median income for renters is lower than it was twenty years ago.  Obviously the prices have of services and commodities have skyrocketed over the same period so for the Toronto average income for renters to have actually dropped over the same time frame means that the Toronto median income it truly a mean income because it’s nothing short of mean and heartless for society to allow the rich to get so much richer while they are driving the downtrodden farter and farther down.

The late great George Carlin said ‘think of how stupid the average American is and then realize that half are even dumber than that.’  The same applies to the Toronto average income for rental property households.  Look at how the Toronto median income has dropped and then realize that half are in even worse financial straights.

What is the answer to why the Toronto average income has dropped instead of gone up?  I don’t know.  I’m just posing the question regarding median income versus a Toronto average income for renters that is just downright mean.

Perhaps I’m guilty of over-thinking sometimes but I started wondering if a bride’s choice of wedding dresses was to make a statement.  I know a bride will choose a wedding gown that flatters her figure but does the selection run to an even deeper rationale?  For instance, why will a girl engaged to be married look at wedding dress reviews in a bridal magazine to see what famous person wore which wedding gown.

I remember when Princess Diana got married.  (God, am I really that old?)  Info on the wedding dress the future Princess of Wales had selected was held tight like it was a vital state secret.  The British royal family was deathly afraid that someone would leak the wedding dress particulars and suddenly brides all the world over would be copying Diana’s style before her to steal Di’s nuptial thunder.

The same top secrecy surrounded the bridal gown that J’lo would wear in her aborted wedding to Ben Affleck.  I think I recall similar controversy regarding what Wedding frock Angelina Jollie would be attired in for her waltz up the aisle with Brad Pitt but by then I’d already given up on noticing what the rich and famous were doing.  I suppose I should’ve given the matter of wedding dress selection my attention then and written this article two decades ago.  But I didn’t so let’s now jump one generation ahead to now when Princess Diana’s son William married Kate.

I imagine the ultra-confidential secret of what bridal dress Kate would be donning for her royal marriage was as tightly held or maybe the secrecy surrounding the wedding dress was held to an even higher level of national security.  I know the bridal magazines are still as prominently displayed on bookseller’s racks and girls still seem to want to make an impact with their choice of wedding gowns.

So what really is my point here?  Damn, I’ve even got myself wondering that right now.  I don’t know if I actually have much of a moral to express.  This bit on wedding dresses is more to simply illustrate an opinion.

At all the weddings I’ve ever attended, the bride has looked splendid in her wedding dress but I say that even if the bride was wearing a white plastic garbage bag as a bridal gown with holes torn out for her arms and legs she would’ve still been radiant because all brides are on their special day.  It’s never the wedding dress that makes the bride but rather that the bride makes the bridal gown shine.

If only more soon to be wed girls realized that a famous designer wedding dress label wasn’t nearly as important as a blushing bride attired in her own wedding day charm and inner beauty.  I’m reminded of a Star Trek Next Generation Episode where Commander Ryker was marrying the Deanna Troi.  Her unique heritage called for both the bride and groom to be fully unclothed when wed.  Seeing that bride walk down the aisle without a bridal dress at all would probably prove my point if she were a real person and not a fictional character.

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And all the security expenses could’ve been spared because a stellar bride like Princess Kate, or Princess Diana before her, would’ve been stunning even in a white flour sack as a bridal dress and even if 10,000 brides around the world on the weekend previous had worn exactly the same wedding dress.

When deciding on what outdoor playground equipment to buy, whether it is made of recycled plastic or not, there are several important points to consider.  These would be price and durability, eco-friendliness, whether the outdoor play apparatus is intrinsically safe to use and of course the fun factor should also be noted.

Price and Durability – I’ve put these two playground equipment specifications together because one is really dependent on the other.  Metal deteriorates unless periodically painted with a rust inhibitor and wood will also deteriorate from the effects of time and weather unless it receives frequent service and paint.  Now let’s look at outdoor playground made from recycled plastic.  Those old milk cartons will last almost forever in a landfill so the plastic will certainly stand up to the elements.

Eco-Friendliness – It’s pretty obvious that recycled plastic play apparatus holds the clear advantage here.  Used plastic milk bottles melted and formed into sturdy play equipment beats non-biodegradable milk bottles taking up space for eternity in a landfill.  Steel production is heavy industry that intensively consumes resources and energy.  Wood comes from cutting down trees that will take half a century to grow up again.  The grandchildren of the kids playing on the park equipment will be climbing the trees planted to replace those used to make the play equipment.

Intrinsic Safety – Kids will play rough on play equipment whether it’s made of wood, metal or plastic.  They will fall: hopefully they will fall onto safety playground surfacing rubber.  On recycled plastic playground equipment they won’t get a wood splinter and a sharp metal edge isn’t there to slice into skin.  In frosty winter, there won’t be any curious tongues frozen painfully to the metal posts if you buy a recycled plastic play set.

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Fun Factor – I just threw this in as a red herring.  Kids will have fun even if the playground equipment was just an old tire hanging from a rope.  Base your play apparatus choices on the others I noted and let the kids be kids on it.