December 2006
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December 29th, 2006
Rising Seas Claim Island of Lohachara - Former Home of 10,000 People
"As the seas continue to swell, they will swallow whole island nations, from the Maldives to the Marshall Islands, inundate vast areas of countries from Bangladesh to Egypt, and submerge parts of scores of coastal cities."
Arctic Ice Shelf Collapses
"the largest breakup of its kind in the Canadian Arctic in 30 years."
Bears Stop Hibernating
"Bears appear to have stopped hibernating in Spain's northern mountains, according to Spanish scientists who blame climate change for the behavior."
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December 26th, 2006
You Can Reduce Poverty in the Developing World
I want to tell all of you about a website where anyone with a credit card can make a real difference in the life of someone in a poor country. The site is called "Kiva" (Kiva is a Swahili word that means unity) and it is in the business of financing small, interest-free "micro-credit" loans to entrepreneurs in poor countries. Kiva finds people in the developing world who wish to start or upgrade small businesses. Normally these people would be unable to raise the relatively small amounts of money required to make such investments. The Kiva site helps to connect these entrepreneurs to you and I. Kiva posts profiles of people applying for loans, some of them as small as $75 US. The profiles give information about the entrepreneur and what they need the money for. You can pick and choose where your money goes. You can sponsor one business, or small pieces of many. The minimum donation is just $5 US. Kiva gives a hand up, not a hand out. Your donation is not a gift, but a loan that will dramatically improve the quality of someone else's life. You can look at it as a no-risk investment in reducing poverty. You have nothing to lose. The people you are helping are proud; they will insist on paying you back. Kiva's rate of repayment is about 99%! You will get your money back. Kiva will manage all of this through a Paypal account. I encourage everyone who can afford it to check out Kiva's site, and make a real difference in the world today.
Visit Kiva's Website
Change a life
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December 22nd, 2006
Turkmenbashi Dies
War in Somalia
US Won't Admit Mistake on Arar
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December 15th, 2006
Ban Ki-Moon Sworn in as UN Secretary General
Sun Unleashes Major Solar Flare
Another Major Storm Hammers BC
Death of the Dollar
AL Jazeera Feature About the Coming Collapse - youtube video
Al Jazeera Video - 10 minutes
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December 14th, 2006
Look After Your Pennies...
I saw a news story today that suggests to me that the US economy is in real trouble. The US Mint has passed a law stating that it is now illegal to melt pennies and nickels. This law makes sense. Coin production is expensive; the mint doesn't want to have to replace existing coins taken out of circulation. On the surface this story doesn't seem all that significant. However, if we look into why the law was passed, there is something important to consider. If the mint felt the need to pass a law prohibiting the melting of coins, that must mean that it had been or may become a fairly widespread practice. Who has been melting US money? Why would anyone do that? The real story here is the continued weakening of the US Dollar. It is clear that commodity prices have risen, but perhaps that is mostly because commodity prices are measured in US Dollars. Every time the US Dollar drops, things like oil and gold (and the Canadian Dollar) appear to rise, even if they haven't really appreciated in value. I don't have the data to support the following, but I would bet that if you looked at commodity prices measured in Euros, British Pounds or Swiss Francs over the last decade, the rise in prices hasn't been quite so steep. I am not an economist, nor am I a math major, but I did a little research and ran a few numbers out of curiosity. These figures are not exact. Since 1982, the make-up of a US Penny has been approximately 98% zinc and 2% copper. (Before 1982, there was slightly more copper in each penny. That makes the old ones slightly heavier) Given this difference in weights between pre and post 1982 pennies, it takes, on average, between 140 and 180 pennies to make one pound of weight. I have averaged this number out at 160 pennies per pound. If 160 pennies makes a pound, and the pennies are about 98% zinc, then you need to melt about 165 pennies to get one pound of zinc. (One pound of zinc currently trades at about $2.01 US) This means that excluding labour and energy costs, for every 165 pennies (or $1.65) melted, one could collect $2.01 worth of zinc for an average profit of about 36 cents, or 18%. Complete this exercise on a massive scale and you start to yield pounds of copper. One pound of copper currently trades at about $3.08 US. I haven't crunched the numbers on nickels, but I assume that since their melting has also been outlawed, a similar profit margin can be yielded through their liquidation. As the US Dollar continues to slide, (and China continues to grow) commodity prices will only rise. The money to be made by destroying US currency would only continue to grow. The sad news for my American friends is that metals like zinc and copper are worth more if they aren't stamped "E Pluribus Unum." This is a warning sign for the US economy. The US Dollar is losing value, making those who hold it less likely to want to keep it. I wrote about this in May in an article entitled "The Empire is Crumbling." Again, I am not an economist. Still I suggest that despite the apparent strength of the US Stock Market, there are ominous signs below the surface. The US economy may be much weaker than it appears. If your savings are invested in it, be sure to look after your pennies.
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December 11th, 2006
Hail Santa
The Sacred Feast of Plastic Crap That You Don't Need
Originally Posted November 26th, 2005
The madness has begun. I don't know how it goes in the rest of the "Christian" world, but North Americans are about to be inundated with a month of consumption. American Thanksgiving was Thursday, that led to "Black Friday" and the official start of the Shopping Season. Spend Spend Spend! Here is your chance to make up for a year of disappointing your friends and family by trying to buy their love. Since entertainment companies own the media, (and stand to profit by shaming people into buying what their parent companies sell) reporters acted as cheerleaders on Friday morning. Correspondents were stationed at big box stores across the US, capturing embarrassing footage of porcine consumers trampling each other in a race to the pile of DVD's. These "reports" were little more than thinly disguised commercials for Wal Mart and the like. They interviewed executive types who were thrilled to talk about the great deals that their stores offered. They challenged viewers to get out there and consume, for the love of the economy, do your patriotic duty and buy crap now! In North America, Christmas has very little to do with Christ. It is a (month long) holiday that celebrates our culture of consumption, nothing more. I would suggest that the very survival of our exploitative (not to mention unsustainable) economic system is entirely dependent upon Christmas spending. Why is the day after US Thanksgiving called "Black Friday?" It is the day that the retailers are expected to break even. In the last month of the year, there are tremendous cultural pressures urging us all to spend lots of money. The beast needs to feast before the end of the fiscal year. What does this have to do with Christianity? Though the gift-giving tradition may originate with Oriental Kings following their astrologer's advice and making a pilgrimage to Palestine, Santa Claus is nothing more than the bastard child of Coca Cola. Would the Christ want us to celebrate its birthday by going into debt? Our culture tells us that we must be sure to match or outspend everyone else so as not to seem cheap or uncaring. If they spend hundreds of dollars, we must do the same. Its a classic race to the bottom, inspired more by pride and guilt than by love. Is this what the Christ would have wanted? We've really missed the point of Christmas. There's nothing wrong with gift giving, but it has spiralled out of control. I challenge Christians to tone it down this year, give the gift of time rather than money. In the end, it will be much more appreciated. If you do intend to spend money, why not give it to the Red Cross, they need it more than Sony does. Let us reclaim Christmas from the retailers. Let us once again make it about spending quality time with family. Jesus was not a fan of merchants in the temple. The Beatles were right, you can't buy me love.
Americans Celebrate "Black Friday"
Youtube Video
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December 7th, 2006
Project Psiphon : Defeating Internet Censorship
The world of ideas is now open to anyone with an Internet connection. Students at the University of Toronto have developed a computer program designed to circumvent government imposed Internet censorship. With it, they have developed a great tool for the promotion of freedom of speech and information. People who live under even the most repressive of regimes may now bypass government control of the Internet. They may now freely seek out or publish whatever information they choose. The computer program that will allow them to do this is called "Psiphon." Do you have friends or family in any of the following countries? Belarus, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam. If so, they live in a country that Reporters Without Borders calls an "Internet Blackhole". The governments of these countries extensively censor the Internet. Firewalls have been built to prevent certain pages from being viewed. Usually the banned pages contain information about dissident or opposition groups. Often they are about corrupt or criminal activities of the government itself. The blocking of these sites keeps populations uninformed. Those who would seek change have been unable to communicate, unable to organize. That is about to change. Here is a simplified explanation of how Psiphon works. "You" = a resident of a country where the Internet is not censored. "Your friend" = a resident of a country where Internet censorship is pervasive. You download Psiphon, then contact your friend. Psiphon administrators will direct your friend to a temporary website where they can download the program. Psiphon forms a link between your computer and your friend's. Through this link, (and your IP address) your friend may view any sites that are available to you. The government of your friend's country will think that their firewalls are working, and will be unable to detect what the your friend is viewing, or publishing.
Download Psiphon
A word of warning, the person linking to you through Psiphon could have access to files on your computer, so make sure you only link up with someone you trust. Also, it is reasonable to think that the governments of "blacklisted" countries may one day be able to crack Psiphon, so keep your eye out for updates to the program, and advise your friends to use it with caution.
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December 4th, 2006
Stephane Dion
On Saturday, the Liberal Party of Canada picked Stephane Dion as their new leader, and I couldn't be happier. Though I would have supported whoever it was (except Iraq war booster Ignatieff) that won the leadership, Dion was my first choice from the start. He is the real deal. Dion is an honest man with plenty of integrity. He is not a typical slick and sleazy politician. He is smart, tough, and most importantly, he understands that climate change and sustainable development are THE issues facing not just Canada, but the whole world. There are many significant things about the selection of Dion as leader. Among them are his commitment to social justice, his desire to correct Canada's foreign policy, and most importantly, his emphasis on solving the environmental crisis. Dion has a record of fighting the good fight. He was tough on Quebec separatists following the 1995 referendum. He will be equally tough on Stephen Harper. Stephane Dion will win the next election. His sustainable development approach will draw significant support away from the NDP and the Green Party. He will also be very popular in the province of Quebec; his issues are THE issues facing all of us. In contrast, earlier today, the Conservative Party tabled legislation banning prison tattoos. Did this issue concern you? Did it concern you more than the fact that on our current course, Vancouver and Halifax will be underwater 20 years from now? The grown-ups have arrived in Ottawa. The self-serving establishment insiders who brought you the corruption of the sponsorship scandal have been all but purged from party leadership. There is a new bunch in town. For the first time in years, people who represent the grassroots of the Liberal Party are in power. Integrity is coming to Ottawa. Canadians are going to love it. Now a few words to my readers from different places. To my friends in Europe: Canadians are embarrassed about Canada's environmental record. Under Conservative leadership, we have abandoned our commitments and principals. This will not be how we act in the future. Stephane Dion will bring Canada back into the fold: we will become a leader in developing green technology. To my friends in the Muslim world: Stephane Dion will step away from George Bush and his corrupt policies. Under his leadership, the Canadians in Afghanistan will work to broker peace, to help the people rather than going on the offensive to hunt so-called insurgents, an exercise that always results in the death of civilians. To my friends in the United States: The election of Dion is comparable to Al Gore being nominated as the Democratic candidate for 2008. A very different Canada is on the horizon. I don't imagine that St?phane Dion would be a great friend of George Bush. That could be quite entertaining for you. Finally, to the people close to Dion himself: (I know that some of you drop by this site occasionally) I want Stephane to be my Prime Minister. I know that my endorsement and support doesn't mean much, it may even be detrimental given some of the positions I have taken on important issues. However, if I can be useful to you in any way in helping Stephane to win the next election, please let me know. I am at your service.