Toronto Electricians and Electrical Contractors

Don’t Make the Register of Copyrights into a Presidential Pawn H.R. 1695 Would Turn an Essential, Non-political Job Into a Partisan Appointee If we’ve learned one thing from this year in American politics, it’s that presidential appointments can be a messy affair. Debates over appointees can become extremely polarized. It’s not surprising: it’s in the President’s best interests to choose a head of the Department of Justice or Education who will loyally carry out the administration’s agenda in those offices. But there’s one office that simply should not be politicized in that way: the Copyright Office. Unfortunately, some lawmakers are looking to turn the Register of Copyrights into a political appointee. The Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act (H.R. 1695) passed the House of Representatives last year, and now, the Senate is looking to take the bill up. Under H.R. 1695, the Register of Copyrights would become a presidential appointee, just like the directors o...

Before us lies a great opportunity — for the economy, for the health of our cities and businesses, and much more. While the innovations of the Industrial Revolution introduced many of the practices that we now know contribute to climate change, the innovations of the digital revolution are delivering the solutions needed to create a more sustainable world. Dependence on finite resources created the problem; digitization and data are providing the answer. We are truly living in a world of data . The digital revolution helps answering several of the major sustainability challenges, dispelling some of the lingering myths regarding sustainability and business growth. Myth #1: Business growth must come at an environmental cost. Economic growth can be decoupled from environmental impact. This requires the adoption of business models based on a circular economy , which goes beyond the traditional 3 R’s (reduce, recycle, reuse) to embrace a 5 R approach: repair, reuse, refurbish, remanufa...

FOSTA Case Update: Court Dismisses Lawsuit Without Ruling on Whether the Statute is Unconstitutional A federal court considering a challenge to the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017, or FOSTA , dismissed the case on Monday. EFF and partner law firms filed a lawsuit in June against the Justice Department on behalf of two human rights organizations, a digital library, an activist for sex workers, and a certified massage therapist to block enforcement of FOSTA. Unfortunately, a federal court sided with the government and dismissed Woodhull Freedom Foundation et al. v. United States. The court did not reach the merits of any of the constitutional issues, but instead found that none of the plaintiffs had standing to challenge the law’s legality. We’re disappointed and believe the decision is wrong. For example, the court failed to apply the standing principles that are usually applied in First Amendment cases in which the plaintiffs’ speech is chi...

Remove the Drone Shoot-Down and Biometric Surveillance Sections From the FAA Act Congress should not broadly authorize federal agencies to destroy and wiretap private drones, or give its implied endorsement to biometric screening of domestic travelers and U.S. citizens. Congress definitely should not sneak these invasive provisions into a last-minute, must-pass, thousand-page bill . Yet Congress is poised to do so. Please join EFF in saying “ no .” TAKE ACTION To keep the Federal Aviation Administration functioning, Congress must pass a reauthorization bill by September 30th. But the current bill has been stuffed with last-minute provisions that would strip people of their constitutional rights. In the FAA Reauthorization Act, Congress attached the Preventing Emerging Threats Act , with slightly modified language. But the new provisions do nothing to protect private drone operators—flown by journalists, businesses, and hobbyists—from unprovoked, warrantless take-downs and snoop...

Austin Energy, the eighth largest community-owned utility in the U.S., serves more than a million residents in and around the capital city of Texas. The utility’s mission is to convert “big data” into useful information, provide more reliable customer service, and improve energy efficiency, in part by creating a safer, stronger, more resilient power grid. Austin Energy chose an EcoStruxure solution, including ADMS to deal with their data dilemma. Defending against severe weather conditions The Texas-based utility needed to better manage the effects of severe weather, which is the number one cause of power outages, costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars a year in lost output and wages, spoiled inventory, delayed production, inconvenience, and damage to grid infrastructure. Smart grid technology that can withstand the impact of severe weather conditions and increase resilience can improve the overall effectiveness of grid operations, leading to greater efficiencies in energy use...

The Internet of Things (IoT) is opening up opportunities in all sorts of areas, including in facility operations. A case in point is tools for managing smaller buildings. While building management systems (BMSs) have long been available for managing large buildings and critical facilities, IoT technology makes it feasible and cost-effective to bring similar cloud-based functionality to small and medium-sized buildings as well – creating lots of opportunities for the service providers who maintain them. As this previous post explains, it starts with improving the efficiency of building maintenance teams, helping them more easily track and complete scheduled maintenance jobs, as well as issue reports. Smaller buildings can benefit from IoT intelligence But these sorts of cloud-based operation and maintenance tools are also a boon to operations teams whose primary function is to repair various building assets when things go wrong and get them back online as quickly as possible. Tools...

Written by Guest Blogger, Tina Mylon , Senior Vice President Talent and Diversity As the fall season kicks into gear, I was again reminded of our tagline for Schneider Electric’s global family leave policy – ‘manage your unique life and work’ – and how increasingly relevant it is in today’s global, diverse and every-changing world. Our employees come from all walks of life—from over 100 countries, from 5 generations, from all genders and backgrounds. And our Diversity and Inclusion ambition is to value and support all our ‘unique’ lives and to create a place where we have equal opportunities for everyone everywhere. No matter where a person comes from, they should have an equal chance for success and growth at SE. When we launched our Global Family Leave Policy in September 2017 , we were grateful for the positive feedback from our employees and the external world. From the beginning, the policy aimed to be as inclusive as possible to support the various leave needs of employe...