Montreal is giving a sneak preview of its self-serve bicycle rental program, with the possibility of getting a test-drive today in honour of Car-Free Day. The bicycle service, called BIXI, will have its official launch in spring 2009. Here is the promotional information from the web site:

Official launch of the Bixi Bike Squad
September 22, 2008 during the “in town without my car” day
Corner of Union and Sainte-Catherine, from (9:30 am to 3:30 pm)

From September 22 to October 22 2008
Check out the BIXI Bike Squad in the streets of Montréal

They’re young, they’re fun, they’re very approachable…and they’ve got the answers to all your questions.

Come and meet our Bixi Bike Squad, on patrol in the streets of Montréal from September 22 to October 22, 2008 to present prototypes of stations and bikes to the population. The squad will be doing a blitz in the boroughs where the first stations will be located: Ville-Marie, Plateau-Mont-Royal and Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie.

Check out the fabulous all-new bike with your own eyes. Try out the pay station and the bike docks. Take the time to give us your opinion and get a surprise gift!

The squad will be officially launched on the (day). During the day on September 22, take advantage of this special occasion to get in the saddle of the Bixi bike for a test drive – on launch day only.

~ BIXI web site

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

I have been hard at work creating some e-books for homeschoolers to use, and would very much love to have feedback from a few parents.

For the time being, they are mostly children’s classics from authors like Beatrix Potter, Thornton Burgess, Edith Nesbit & Charles Kingsley. I am trying to work on books that are difficult to find in a printer-ready format. I am also including some books that were the inspiration for movies released over the last year or so. Later there will be novel and unit studies, including a book of Canadian artists for parents who are following an art appreciation program and would like to be able to include some Canadian content. Informational books for parents are in the works too!

All the books are formatted for reading on-screen or in hard copy. Large print editions are already available for some of the books, so if anyone has a child with a visual impairment or who needs/prefers larger print for any other reason, please let me know so I can get these to you. The books come with little extras, such as a biography of the author, copywork, or information about the degree of readability (i.e. what grade level your child needs to read at, in order to read the book independently.)

The e-books I am producing will eventually be offered for sale, however I am looking for a handful of parents who would like to read the books and use them with their children at home. Once you’ve had a chance to use the book(s) I need your feedback on things like fonts, lay-outs and other formatting issues, and also on the content of the books. Any suggestions you make will be taken into consideration as I prepare the first edition for sale to the general public. Suggestions for other types of materials would be appreciated, as well!

Beta testers will be provided one or more books each, free of charge, for their review. Once any changes have been made and the final product is ready, testers will receive a free copy of each book they helped evaluate.

If you would like to help out & receive free e-books, please email me at freehold2@yahoo.ca and be sure to write “Beta Test” in the subject line. Please include the age(s) of your child(ren) in the message body (please mention any special needs or reading levels that are significantly higher/lower than average, so I can select the best product for you to test drive.) You may also request your first book be from a specific category: storybooks, novels, nature study/science.

Thank you in advance for your help,
Ruby
Freehold2 Editions

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

The folks who brought us CurrClick, my absolute favourite homeschool curriculum & supply store, have branched out to create a new store called EcoBrain. As the name suggests, this is a place to buy e-books about the environment and related issues. There are some books for kids, but this is a store for grown ups too.

Here’s a little more detail from their “about” page:

EcoBrain: Our Story

EcoBrain was started by two families living across the continent from each other - one in Canada and one in the US - who were both passionate about learning to live green and setting an earth-friendly example for their children.

Both families also have publishing backgrounds. They love books, but they are also familiar with the environmental costs as well as the actual production costs absorbed by the publisher. So how can people learn more about the environment from the experts while helping reduce waste and costs? By selling books and other media in a digital format!

EcoBrain knows it isn’t always easy to get published. And the costs can be staggering. But by publishing in an eBook format, new publishers can produce and publish their material much more quickly, cheaply and profitably. Publishers who are going green can and should be rewarded for their efforts by earning more, while reducing both their own costs and environmental costs as well. EcoBrain makes it possible for publishers to get the green word out in a cost effective and environmentally friendly manner!

The two families are proud of how EcoBrain has come together and how its conception has helped their children learn about new ways to help the environment. EcoBrain is becoming the green community destination and resource and continues to be a great success not only for publishers and authors, but for the environment. And that is how it should be.

Best wishes from EcoBrain.

Kids environmental materials, including unit studies and study guides, are available. There are also weekly free downloads just like at CurrClick. Check it out!

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

If you are a regular at CurrClick or you’ve been reading my posts about them, you’ll know they regularly give away free ebooks. So me announcing another giveaway at CurrClick (formerly HomeSchool eStore) isn’t at all unusual.

This time it’s a bit different, however. CurrClick is running a contest in which your homeschoolers are encouraged to create a video promoting the environmental benefits of using ebooks instead of hard copy texts. The best video will win its creator an iPod!

Here are all the details:

You could win an iPod Touch by participating in our Earth Day CurrClickCommercial Contest, running April 7th through April 20th!

Kids, ages 7-18, are welcome to participate.

http://www.currclick.com/

Earth Day is fast approaching! Help us celebrate and spread the word about the environmental benefits of eBooks by producing your own commercial and posting it on YouTube. Simply e-mail us the link to your video, along with the names and ages of the children appearing in the video, by April 20th. The 3 winning videos will be posted, Monday April 22nd on CurrClick. Then, our members will be invited to vote for their favorite video! The winner with the most votes will win an 8GB iPod Touch (worth $299 in value) and $25 in site credit. The winner with the second most votes will win a 1GB iPod Shuffle (worth $49 in value) and $20 in site credit. The winner with the 3rd most votes will win an iTunes Gift Card worth $25 and $20 in site credit. Prizes will be mailed out to the winners by May 1st, 2008.

Contest Rules:

1. Videos may include multiple children. But please remember that only one prize will be given out to the top three winners. The first names and ages of all participating children must be included with the submission.

2. Feel free to encourage your co-ops friends and family members to vote for your video. (Voting runs April 22nd-28th.) Voters are only allowed 5 votes per account. You must be a CurrClick member in order participate in the voting process.

3. Submissions should be sent to staley@currclick.com by 9:00 pm, Central Standard time on Sunday, April 19th, 2008 and must include a link to the YouTube video submission. CurrClick will not be responsible for missing or broken links.

4. Only one submission per child, please. Individual family members are welcome to create and submit additional videos.

5. Children, ages 7-18 are welcome to participate.

6. Parents are encouraged to help their children with the research, design, production and creation of the video. However, parents may not appear in the video and should encourage their children to do as much of the work as they are capable of doing on their own.

7. Videos can be funny or serious, but all videos must contain information about how eBooks can help the environment. Helpful links include:

1. http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/print.htm
2. http://environment.about.com/od/recycling/a/harry_potter.htm
3. http://www.conservatree.com/learn/EnviroIssues/TreeStats.shtml

It is further useful to note that eBooks do not need to be delivered from overseas printing presses and distribution centers (using fossil fuels) and that they use very little energy to create.

8. All videos must be named with the prefix of “CurrClick,” a dash and then the name of your video on YouTube. This way, members, CurrClick employees and contestants can easily find and watch all the submissions on YouTube.

9. By entering this contest, you agree to keep your video live on YouTube until May of 2009. In addition, you agree to allow CurrClick to use your video for possible future promotions.

10. Videos must not last longer than 5 minutes. Videos lasting longer than 5 minutes may be disqualified.

Best of luck to everyone! And check back soon for the next free CurrClick download.

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

I’ve just heard from Louis-Olivier Batty, who works in public relations at Hydro-Quebec. He wanted my readers to know that the utility did, indeed, support Earth Hour 2008. He provided me a copy of the press release which was sent out on Friday. Here it is, in French. I’ve had to strip the formatting and images to get it to display properly for you here. The text is untouched, however.

Pour diffusion immédiate
Montréal, le vendredi 28 mars 2008

Hydro-Québec appuie l’initiative planétaire de l’Heure de la Terre

Le samedi 29 mars 2008 entre 20 h et 21 h, Hydro-Québec éteindra symboliquement le logo de son siège social pour soutenir l’événement « Heure de la Terre » (Earth Hour).

La société d’État contrôle déjà l’utilisation de l’éclairage dans ses bureaux de façon à réduire sa consommation d’énergie.

Dans la plupart des édifices d’Hydro-Québec, l’éclairage est programmé pour s’éteindre vers 19 h ou 20 h, sauf si un employé doit travailler au-delà de ces heures, la lumière s’éteint automatiquement deux heures plus tard. Il faut noter que 15% de l’éclairage dans les édifices de l’entreprise doit rester allumé en tout temps pour des raisons de sécurité.

Au siège social d’Hydro-Québec à Montréal, a part les quelques étages où il y a de l’activité en permanence, l’éclairage est programmé pour s’éteindre à 21 h. En adoptant cette procédure, l’économie d’électricité réalisée représente environ 730 000 kWh annuellement.

Louis-Olivier Batty
Conseiller stratégique - Affaires publiques
Téléphone : 514 289-2211 poste 3671
Courriel : batty.louis-olivier@hydro.qc.ca

www.hydroquebec.com

I’m not going to translate the whole thing here for you, but essentially it explains that Hydro-Quebec has regular energy saving measures in place that include turning off unnecessary lights in the evening, and that as a result 730,000 kWh per year are saved at head office each year. The press release also announced that Hydro-Quebec was planning to turn off its rooftop “Q” logo in support of Earth Hour.

As you can see the information went out pretty much at the last minute, and even though it was posted to the web site you would have had to know where to look to find it. And of course it was not a bilingual notice, so you’d have to read French to understand it. Louis-Olivier pledged to work at getting the information out sooner next year. I do hope they make an even bigger step by holding a bilingual press conference and - dare we ask - maybe becoming an official sponsor for Earth Hour 2009?

It’s definitely a step in the right direction, though! And hearing from Louis-Olivier helps to bring out the human side of the multi-billion dollar utility. I encourage my readers to give Hydro-Quebec a pat on the back. Let them know you’re pleased with the efforts they are already making, and let them know how they can improve their participation in Earth Hour next year. You can contact Louis-Olivier Batty at (514) 289-2211 ext. 3671, or email him at batty.louis-olivier@hydro.qc.ca.

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks! Logo courtesy Hydro-Quebec.