Join us on Saturday, March 23 at 8:30pm to 9:30pm local time on Tim Hortons oval tracks nationwide!
The Objective: To see how many circuits drivers can complete, ordering one Timbit at a time, within the one hour period allotted. The entry that collects the most Timbits in that hour shall be declared the winner.
| NOTICE: Contestants who order more than one Timbit per circuit will be in violation of contest rules, and shall be disqualified |  |
Readers without a Tim Hortons within driving distance may qualify for the alternate Hour Of Power Award; simply share your Human Achievement Hour story in the comments.
If I’m suitably impressed, I’ll send out some books.
I won’t be doing the Tim Hortons bit but I’ve got other plans. I’ve got a couple loads of laundry ready to go, a load of dishes in the dishwasher, roast beef in the oven, plugged in the camper and will fire the furnace and fridge. In the shop I’ll light up the furnace, plug in the dormant deep freeze and spark up the 220 arc welder and burn a few pounds of rods. Oh yes…and every socket gets a 100w bulb…
Do I get disqualified if I enter with a hybrid?
Hybrids do qualify, as the technology is unlikely to pay for itself.
We have the Christmas lights ready to shine brightly!
I wouldn’t dignify the “earth hour” crap by recognizing it with any protest style action. Then again those who in the past who have spoken in favour of earth hour to me will never do so again:-))))
This is a grat contest to run on earthday. Now if we could only convice Tims to go back to making the timbits in store instead of from that frozen Ontario dough.
At our place, we make it a competition between the fireplace/electric heaters and the air conditioner. If the A/C unit loses, it means it probably has to be recharged.
We also make sure that the timing is right with regards to laundry so that the washer and dryer are going at the same time.
Then, of course, it’s a good idea to put the oven on the self-cleaning cycle at least once a year…
It’s not really a protest. Just a good time to do some regular household maintenance.
Bjorn Lomborg has it figured out.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/project_syndicate/2013/03/earth_hour_is_all_wrong_we_need_more_electricity_not_less.html
I’ll be on an airplane at that time. But I will pick up a pack of timbits in YVR before I depart…
Certainly, the Earth Hour is an elitist, “feel-good”, hypocritical groupthink display.
But driving in circles through Tim Hortons is an arrogant childish misuse of the products of human ingenuity and achievement.
Are sirens and flashing lights allowed?
Warning – Be careful of the slippery trigger finger from the icing.
I’m gonna start at 7:30. I love my timbits.
I will spend an hour drinking(I will leave the lights on at home) and annoying people like P.S.,it should be fun.
Certainly, the Earth Hour is an elitist, “feel-good”, hypocritical groupthink display.
But driving in circles through Tim Hortons is an arrogant childish misuse of the products of human ingenuity and achievement.
So what’s your point?
Gaia needs her dreads lopped off.
Two Stihl chainsaws waiting on the balcony; an 028 AV and 026 ready to belch out filmy blue rich 2 stroke oil gas mixture for the first time this year.
RRRRRRRRRrrrrrrooooommmmrrRRRooooomrrroooomRRrrroooommWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Conveniently located half way between U of T and CBC HQ.
Oven Cleaning Day again so soon? Oh dear, I haven’t shopped or baked or decorated yet. Gotta run…
“driving in circles through Tim Hortons is an arrogant childish misuse of the products of human ingenuity and achievement”
And advocating the waste of billions of dollars in pursuit of some “green” and “sustainable” future is sound planning and allocation of resources.
Snort!
Of for… there are enough intersections and traffic lanes blocked by idiots who just HAVE to have their coffee and don’t give a damn about safety without this moronic game adding to problems on our rutted, ice-covered streets.
What a stupid, stupid idea.
All the lights will be shining. Unfortunately my wife took down the Christmas lights while I was at work…dog blankets need to be washed on “heavy” setting…and need to be really really dry and warm for the doggies…timed dry will be at least 50 minutes. Maybe longer. Or twice…
>> What a stupid, stupid idea.
Which makes it even better!
I stopped on a deserted road at noon today and laid down a big fat #11 on the asphalt, easily removed 6 months of tread off the all season tires. Limited slip differential FTW!
Currently the laptop, washer, dryer, dishwasher, TV and stereo are all on. NCAA hoops with the sound off and Led Zeppelin rocking the two story home at present. Back in the day we called it stonervision, now we just call it entertainment.
We will have a fire on the deck later on. We have cedar scraps left over from it’s construction plus I get oak scraps from my ophthalmologist and his woodworking hobby. I’ll plug in the IR heater to keep our backsides as warm as our front sides.
I just remembered: there is still gas in the snowblower. I better go burn it off before spring gets here.
Haha, showing up to riot…
Actually, thinking about it a little more, isn’t “earth hour” a Luddite response to a naturally occuring cycle of change? Let’s all live in the 16th century, things must have been better then. Of course that would be without antibiotics, vaccines, etc. All those advances of civilization made possible by the use of fossil fuels and human ingenuity.
While many will be turning off their electricity from a strange guilt tonight, we will be shining our lights to celebrate human achievement. Achievements that allow our children to have double the lifespan our great grandparents had before electricity.
I may be doing some baking this evening, thereby warming the house and filling it with the scent of cookies (which I can consume tomorrow). There’s some laundry, maybe smoothies to make, some TV to watch.
I’ll just sit back and be thankful that I’m not in North Korea.
FYI- Earth Hour this year is from 2030 hrs to 2130 hrs.
AS we live in the Eastern Time zone we’ll begin our celebrations 1 1/2 hrs early in solidarity with our Maritime cousins.
They justify the childishness of earth-hour by referring to the symbolism. Well, the same principle applies to Timmy’s Drive-Thru Marathon. It’s the symbolism: thanks to cheap and abundant energy and modern technology, it is easy and inexpensive to get to a Timmy’s and to go round and round collecting one timbit at a time. It’s a symbol of how cheap and abundant energy makes anything possible.
” What a stupid, stupid idea.”
Au contraire,it has the added benefit of pissing off the liberal arts graduate who is working tonight.
Tonight will be a good time to celebrate the two greatest technological achievements of mankind – high fidelity analogue discrete stereo and metal rock. I’ll be dedicating the first 400 watt tune to the green anal-retentives next door – Pink Floyd’s “brain damage”.
For those like me who hate driving in circles might I suggest another form of the same contest. See how many timbits you can get by driving from store to store before Human Achievement Hour runs out. Letsee there is a store at the local gas station where I can fill up the 100 litre tank on my truck then there is one on Stony Plain Rd and a few blocks over there is another on 170th then up that street there is another on 111 then then down the cross street there is still another on 184th. I wonder if the one in WEM stays open late…..
Out for dinner, then to watch my son’s band play at a local club, 8 people – 6 cars. Of course leaving the lights and the TVs(4 of them) on so the dogs don’t feel lonely. Could always start oven cleaning before leaving just to be sure. And maybe feed the dogs canned beans for dinner for a bit of methane action.
Must do my part to prevent the sale at a cost of Ontario’s excess hydro to New York.
I will not be turning on any lights this Earth Day as a celebration to Mother Gaia.
just kidding. my lights won’t be on because I will be jetting back from Cancun,Mexico tomorrow.
I will prepare my traditional Earth Hour altar consisting of two electric space heaters placed in my old beer fridge. Then I plug them in and see which one wins.
Will be setting up sound equipment and jamming very loud with Buddies. Old Peavy amps draw slightly less than a arch welder and make the lights dim when you hit the overdrive switch.
Can’t make it. Burning a few old tires in the firepit.
Ha! Is it Earth Day? I haven’t seen or heard anything about it til now. You wouldn’t think you could forget such an international event.
You’re in luck – Lenin’s birthday isn’t until next month.
I’m torn… I would turn everything off to participate in earth hour, but I still got my front porch light on for Jack Layton…
Well, I have already stuffed a tire in the burn barrel (one of those useless space-saver spares), and will fill it with more paper trash to burn. Needless to say. all the lights will be on, too. And I will idle some of the vehicles. Already ran the snowblower for several hours today.
Kind of a pointless gesture for me, as I doubt any of the neighbours will be scandalized. But cocking a snook at the enviro-Nazis is always worth the effort.
Umm…red light..?..
I’ve sent an email to the “sustainability” department of Interior Health letting them know that a first step in sustainable medical care is to eliminate watermelon departments like theirs. Given that they plastered “earth hour” crap over their website, I also had a few choice words to say about how I’ll be celebrating Human Achievement Hour. Likely I’ll be hearing about my politically incorrect stance in the near future — it’s at times like this that it’s nice to be irreplaceable.
Will be doing my usual annual stress testing of the house electrical systems with the oven on, workshop electrical heaters on, other electric heaters on max and every light on. Hard to exceed my usual electrical consumption since I’ve now got 8 computers on my home network which are always on as well as 2-3x that number of microprocessor systems that are running. Might even turn on the TV to test it as haven’t had it on in many months and it was last used as a monitor to test out my Beagle Board. My baseline electrical consumption is 2-3 Kilowatts and will see if can triple that for Human Achievement Hour.
To those that are boasting here about burning through energy and things as some kind of symbolic statement: tell us about your own ingenuity by which you have contributed to human achievements. Is there any? So far it sounds that you are the “consumers” and “takers”, rather then “makers”.
I want those damn books!!!!!!!!!! Every light in my house is on. Here are the numbers…
Number of lights= 30X80W (half 60, half 100 W)= 2.4kW in 1 hour.
Wholesale cost of power in ontario= 6.62cents/kWhr. (YES 6.62 compared to the month of March average of 2.88cents/kWhr. WHY???? because those morons in charge actually think we are falling for corporate Earth Hour. http://www.theimo.com/imoweb/siteShared/demand_price.asp?sid=ic (Check for yourself, everyone knows I’m a BS Conservative liar.)= 16cents.
WooHoo… 16cents!!!!!!!! But hang on. The real cost, including line loss, debt reclaient, administration, Bob’s yer uncle, is roughly 5X your wholesale cost making it about 80 cents. Out of pocket.
Should be 7 cents if the Nostradamusessess of Prediction had gotten it right (at 2.88cents) but why quibble. I’ll carry on…..
My two year old daughter decided to observe Human Achievement Hour during the daytime when it’s more practical today. (Really, this wasn’t my idea.)
Sorry, had trouble with catcha. Since have found 6X100W in my basement, didn’t count the 2X200W in the garage and crancked up We Are Familly by Sister Sledge on the 160W (80W average output) speakers for the computer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNAQ8LLptUo
Power= 1.08kW/hr X6.62X5= 36cents. For an hour of Sister Sledge. Compared to sayyyyyyy 1373, how much would a Troubadour cost?
I want those damn books!!!!!
I want those damn books!!! Since the last update I’ve started both vehicles. 5.7L car and 5.3L truck. I’ll figure out the cost later, at idle it should be about $2. Oh, to make sure the neighbours see I’ve put the high beams on to reflect off the garage door!!!! TV is on… don’t have reception but the snow looks nice.
2 more 500W halogen lights… pointing towards the the road. Sausage rolls and curly fries being cooked as a snack. A snack!! As if 1.3 billion people have this opportunity!!!
I want those books!!!
PS… Ontario consumption is STILL well above predicted!!!
Ha! Ontario’s consumption spikes during “earth hour.”
http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/siteShared/demand_price.asp?sid=ic
P.S… me thinks there are far more achievers in here than there would be a stadium full of earth hour worshippers!!!
So you are going clog up the drive through at your local Tim hortons? I don’t see how pissing off a lot of timmy’s drive through customers is going to make your point.