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Archive for June, 2005

Welcome to the World of Water Inc. – doc.

Sunday, June 5th, 2005

ECO-THRILLER: New novel hints at a frightening future

Mike Gillespie
Province

Varda Burstyn would like to make light of it but, in truth, there’s just too much of an ecological mess out there to inject much levity.

Burstyn, who has been championing the environment, and getting under the establishment’s skin, for more years than she cares to reveal, is talking about water — specifically Water Inc. (Penguin, $37), her novel.

Now creating ripples on two continents and expected to wash ashore later this year in Spain, Korea and Portugal, Burstyn’s book, which shapes a very real world water crisis into an eco-thriller, could well be a tsunami-in-waiting for wanton water-wasters the world over.

Water Inc. is selling so briskly in Canada, Britain and the U.S. that it’s about to go into its second printing. And it’s starting to consume a lot of Burstyn’s time.

A story about big business-government collusion and a megaproject to pipe water from the Quebec wilderness into drought-stricken parts of the U.S., the novel is becoming a lightning rod for everything that’s wretched about the way we treat our biosphere.

While there’s still as much water on the planet today as there was four billion years ago, it’s what we’re doing with it and to it that gets Burstyn’s goat. As a one-time vice-chair of Greenpeace Canada, she’s made the environment her business for 35 years. And, increasingly, she’s appalled.

Burstyn says the novel is designed as a wake-up call for anyone who doesn’t realize the planet has a water problem — a big one.

Water, and fisheries, have just been identified in a four-year study by 1,300 of the world’s scientists as the most degraded and overused ecosystems in the biosphere. Fresh water supplies, in fact, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reported in April, “are now so degraded that they are well beyond levels that can sustain existing demands, let alone provide for future needs.”

Add to that the reports from disparate parts of the world: Half the planet’s population lives in countries where water tables are falling and wells are going dry; a third of the world’s population will be seriously short of water by 2025; the UN says water will be one of the major problems of the 21st century and warns there could be water wars within a decade.

Water Inc. is the first in a trilogy that Burstyn will use to flag public interest in the politics and economics of the environment.

Water Inc. has already been likened to stories by techno-thriller writer Michael Crichton, whose novels Jurassic Park, Timeline, State of Fear and Andromeda Strain, among others, have earned him the title “king of catastrophe.”

But Burstyn prefers to call her novel “an antidote” to Crichton’s work. Which may be so. Water Inc. will scare the pants off anyone worried about where their next drink of water will come from — but it’s told to them from a non-technological point of view.

Ironically, even as she was finishing her book, President George W. Bush was threatening to pre-empt it as a piece of fiction, telling world journalists of hopes to pipe water from the Canadian north to relieve drought-stricken midwestern and southern states.

And that’s exactly what Water Inc. envisions: A powerful consortium of businessmen in cahoots with a Quebec cabinet minister to destabilize that province and strike a deal to pipe its water from the north into the U.S. The consortium is headed by corporate visionary William Greele, a billionaire who easily forms a cabal of business leaders.

A Seattle aerospace engineer gets wind of the planned pipeline and a cast of conservationists is quickly assembled to block the pipeline.

This “replumbing of the planet” is already being seen in Quebec, Burstyn says. Just a week ago, the Quebec government gave unanimous approval to the development of public-private partnerships, which could lead to the privatizing of water.

“People are waking up one morning to find a bottling company has arrived and is just sucking the stuff out of the ground.”

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Scoping out soundproofing – doc.

Sunday, June 5th, 2005

CODE: Building may not have any special treatment

Dianne Rinehart
Province

TORONTO — New-home advertisements that promise granite kitchen counters, hardwood floors, and step-up Jacuzzi bathtubs may be enticing, but asking questions about the soundproofing materials and construction techniques used in your potential new home may be a better investment in happiness.

“You walk into a place, it’s three bedrooms and it’s near a good school,” says Toronto architect Paul Raff of Paul Raff Studio, “and you think: ‘This is it!'”

And you don’t ask questions about soundproofing — out of sight, out of mind, Raff says.

“It’s invisible. But it has a huge impact on quality of life.”

Consumers may also feel they are protected — in new buildings at least — by the building code. But, experts agree, that is not the case.

Building to the code is “the worst building you can legally build,” says Rob Stevens, a partner with HGC Engineering, which consults on sound transmission for builders and condominium corporations.

“It’s not a blueprint for an excellent building. It’s the minimum requirement.”

Or, as John Straube, a professor in the civil engineering department at the University of Waterloo, puts it: “Codes are the worst building you can make without going to jail.”

Canada’s building code addresses soundproofing by requiring the construction components deliver a 50 Sound Transmission Class (STC) in lab tests, while most European codes, where people have lived closely together for centuries, are set higher.

With an STC of 50, you will still hear loud speech, TVs and stereos, says John Humphries, the technical advisor to Toronto‘s Chief Building Official.

And even a few points can make a huge difference in what you can or cannot hear. For example, an STC of 60 would halve the amount of sound you perceive hearing from a 50 STC, virtually the same effect as reducing emissions from a noise source by 10 decibels, Stevens says.

As well, the building code addresses the sound frequencies of voices, not the bass sounds emitted by stereo and TV sound systems — low-frequency sounds that require much more soundproofing than a higher frequency voice.

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Smile you are on a spy camera – doc.

Sunday, June 5th, 2005

SURVEILLANCE GEAR: Monitoring equipment can be hidden almost anywhere now

Elaine O’Connor
Province

CREDIT: Jason Payne, The Province

Spy Zone’s night-vision binoculars offer a SWAT-team level of performance.

Spy gear has come a long way from periscopes and pen cameras. The latest espionage accessories are high-style and high-tech.

Today’s sophisticated spy cameras are no longer limited to buttonholes and duffle bags. Virtually any office or household item can be outfitted with electronic eyes.

Among the most practical are cameras masquerading as working alarm clocks (Spy Zone’s wireless, coloured camera model is $260), pencil sharpeners, TV antennas, smoke detectors, baby monitors, cigarette packs, exit signs, VCRs, plants, cellphones, table lamps, teddy bears and books.

Think you could spot one of these covert appliances? Don’t forget to look up: a replica ceiling sprinkler ($495 US; www.spystuff.com) serves as an aerial Big Brother.

Outdoor monitoring requires heavy-duty hardware such as night-vision goggles. Spy Zone’s Starlight infrared night-vision binoculars offer SWAT-team style performance, amplifying nighttime ambient light to create an image field ($999; www.spyzoneonline.com).

For outdoor, after-dark recording, Purely Security’s Dual Wide Angle Night Vision Wireless Cameras let you switch channels for two different infrared camera views ($215 US). Or create your own after-dark recorder using a night-vision wireless unit the size of a sugar cube ($50 US; both available at www.purelysecurity.com).

No modern-day Mata Hari should embark on a mission without stocking her purse with portable spy goodies: a lipstick-sized camera for powder-room photos ($180 US; www.cctvwholesalers.com), a peephole reverser to see into hotel rooms ($150) and sunglasses with mirrors to check for tails ($15; both www.spycityonline.com).

Don’t forget spy pens and paper: The latest pens write upside down and under water, detect counterfeit bills with special ink or use disappearing ink. Spy paper dissolves when wet (pens $12-$20, paper $10; www.spycityonline.com).

Need to give an anonymous tip? Placed over any phone receiver, the Micro Voice Disguiser ($69.95 US; www.spyworld.com) can even make a woman’s voice sound like a man’s.

Meanwhile, cyber sneaks and computer hackers are having a field day with spyware.

Keystroke loggers allow users to capture and record keystrokes: everything from e-mail and bank passwords to website addresses. This gizmo can wreak havoc on a user at a public internet terminal ($159; www.thespystore.com). Phone jammers can circumvent call display by faking numbers using software such as CIDMAGE ($59.95 US; www.artofhacking.com).

For every spy there’s a counter-spy, and counter-surveillance gear is key to stopping security threats.

Bug detectors will unearth listening devices, wireless cameras, cellphones and taps ($240; www.spyworld.com).

To foil bugs you can’t find, room sound barriers such as the AJ-34 Audio Jammer will generate a masking hiss that desensitizes microphones or recorders ($129 US; www.thespysource.com).

If you want to scramble spy cameras, video detectors will identify oscillation field emissions and sound an alert.

To clear your phone line, telephone tap detectors can pick up line taps and radio-frequency signals from body wires and automatically mute conversations ($350 each; www.spycityonline.com).

MISSION CLASSIFIED

Not every mission is possible. Nor every spy gadget practical.

No one knows this better than the CIA. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of its Directorate of Science and Technology in 2003, it curated an exhibition of its silliest surveillance inventions.

Absurd espionage experiments include a 1970s project to fly a minibug into a room using an actual mechanical insect.

Luckily, scientists realized that a bumblebee robot would fly too erratically before they got too far.

Then they tried a dragonfly spy prototype before researchers discovered the “insectothopter” could be brought down by wind.

They weren’t all failures. The agency successfully used listening devices disguised as tiger droppings in Vietnam and flew pigeons with tiny cameras strapped to their chests above enemy targets.

It also tested a rubber robot catfish named Charlie that was designed to swim undetected in rivers.

His mission is still classified.

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Smile — you’re on a spy camera

Sunday, June 5th, 2005

SURVEILLANCE GEAR: Monitoring equipment can be hidden almost anywhere now

Elaine O’Connor
Province