Brownian motion

You may recall last year that lil’ ol’ American fiasco that was the Enron situation. In summary, the insider dealing in electricity futures led to an energy crisis on the west coast, with many places suffering from planned ‘brown outs’ where they lost their electricity due to a lack of supply. People at the time blamed mis-management, greed and the impact of a new dealer based market but I believe I have found the real culprit…. leaf blowers.

There is something in the American psyche that loves to use hand held giant hairdryers to push dry leaves ineffectually from one part of their drive to another. It’s probably the same gene that likes hunting and guns, or the one that likes super-sizing. Leaf blowers have got to be the most wasteful, stupid and downright evil creations. How hard is it really to get a brush, sweep the leaves into a pile and then put them in a bag? Not only is it better for your health and the environment, it also cuts down your electric bill and means that the leaves are actually picked up rather than just blown onto your neighbour’s drive where he, in turn, will blow them back onto yours.

In next week’s rant: Why Eminem should be the next president.