Do you have a bad roommate stereotype? For me, The Bad Roommate is constantly in a bathrobe that I’m sure belongs to me, has just, without even enjoying it, finished off the leftovers I was counting on, and isn’t sure what they did today, yet certainly created an unfathomable mess in the kitchen. Among other things, the worst part about my Bad Roommate is that they defiantly occupy an essential space in the house and aerate bad vibes while doing so.

Put another way, the Bad Roommate is a kind of angry, bathrobed, vacuum, that ironically doesn’t clean. (My apologies to any roommates, current, or fondly and formerly, who think I’m writing about them. In any case, I kid because I love).

I conjured up this image while reading reports that Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), Canada’s federally-owned and beleaguered nuclear technology company, is set to receive a $200 million bailout from the Harper government. The bailout, disclosed in the Conservative’s supplementary budget estimate, is the second the Crown-Corporation has received this year and makes the grand total of taxpayer subsidies doled out to AECL in 2009 $651 million. According to the document, this additional funding “will be used to address a cash shortfall caused by unexpected technical challenges on CANDU reactor refurbishment contracts.”
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Toronto Bans Water Bottles

The City of Toronto and its mayor, David Miller, have proven that they are serious about taking steps to help reduce the city’s impact on the environment. Will the measures prove to be successful in the end? I believe the recent mandatory $.05 charge for plastic bags will reduce demand— citizens already have more cloth bags than the need. I am more sceptical about the success of the water bottle ban. It lacks the scale of the “grocery bag tax” as it only pertains to municipal grounds. How about a $1.00 “bottled water tax” instead (with a non-toxic water bottle advertising the policy sent to every household in Toronto?).
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