Erik's News Feed: April 2008

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Indebted America keeps packing on the plastic

Well the good news about the sub-prime market crash is that the Americans are still going into debt. The USA consumers have 1 trillion dollars in debt on their credit cards. Which is quite amazing. I am sure that most of the people in debt can never pay it off. 8 thousand families go into foreclosure every day, that is also an amazing amount.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/reportsfromabroad/macdonald/20080407.html

Google and Yahoo to share web ads

Well it looks like Yahoo is going to give Microsoft the fight of its life. Microsoft really want to buy Yahoo, but Yahoo is going to make Microsoft pay for it. Either lots off money or a publicity battle which both would be interesting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7339864.stm

Falling stocks push oil to $112

Well it looks like it will be an expensive driving season this summer. Oil price is on a rise but OPEC is not going to be producing more, does that mean that they have no more to give. One day we will look back at these days and talk about how cheap the oil was...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7339337.stm

Siberia's black market logging

Well it looks like other boreal forests are under threat, not just Canada's.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/crossing_continents/7338623.stm

UW Plant Operations Sustainability Initiatives

Well according to their website the University of Waterloo supports public transportation on campus. In fact the university does not make it all that easy to take public transit. There is no one bus stop on campus where you can catch all the buses that come to campus. If you want to transfer buses you have to walk. What I learned in one of my classes this year was that UW refused GRT to build a transit terminal on campus. I do not think that 'public transit is accommodated and encouraged', i think it is just barely accommodated or tolerated.

http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infopo/SustainabilityInitiatives.htm#Trans

$5 coin? 'Ridiculous'

Well it looks like the mint will not be putting a 5 dollar coin in place shortly. The mood may be different after they take the penny out of circulation. Then there would be less coins in our pockets. The federal government did same 487 million dollars when they took the one dollar bill out of circulation. So may be we should get rid of the 5 dollar bill.

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2005/08/22/no_five_dollar_coin_20080822.html

Pound falls to all-time euro low

I wonder how low the Pound has to fall before the UK decides to change to the Euro. I know that that is not the only reason why they have not switched but it could influence the decision.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7338792.stm

EU assembly moots Olympics ceremony boycott

Well it looks like the EU Parliament has sent a world a message about how they want their leaders to deal with China. This is the type of boycott that I support, political leaders taking a political stance and not affecting the athletes. The vote was a massive majority as well 580 to 24, 45 people did not vote. Almost 90% of the vote if you include the abstentions as against.

http://in.reuters.com/article/worldOfSport/idINIndia-32970920080410?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=0

Monday, April 7, 2008

Long history of Olympics protests

Who knew that there have been protests at the Olympics since 1908, which has been a long time. It all started with Ireland and the USA. The USA appears to be one of the major players in wreaking the Olympics. It appears that we have forgotten that the Olympics are filled with protests, the last 4 have not been affected.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7334362.stm

Olympic protests spread to Paris

Mr. Rogge, IOC President, condemned the attempts to disrupt the torch relay, saying violent protests, "for whatever reason," are "not compatible with the values of the torch relay or the Olympic Games". I would agree with the protests not being compatible with the Olympic games but I would disagree with the torch relay. The relay is political, the protests are just making it more political. China did not pick random locations for the relay, they pick places based on political reasons.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7334545.stm

Raise your hands and step away from the hedgehog

Well I never would have thought to use a hedgehog as a weapon, but I guess it works. Well the hedgehog died, but it is an not a native animal so I guess it is positive in a way...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10502292

Fifth of NZers polled say nuclear power viable

New Zealand is one of the most anti-nuclear countries in the world. They will not even allow nuclear powered ships to enter their ports or their waters. This has caused their relationship with the mighty USA to have bumpy patches. What also was interesting about this survey is that 71% of NZers would support a wind farm in their back yard.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10502473

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Montenegro president re-elected

It appears that the first presidential elections of Montenegro have gone without incidence and the president was reelected. The positive news is that there were 22 percentage points of people voting in this election than the last. The percentage of people who voted was still only at 66%, but that is better than North America.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/97C97903-0F86-4459-8C93-17A50FA8045F.htm

Solar System's 'look-alike' found

They have found a solar system with some of the same properties as the earth solar system. This is an interesting find because most of the planets found so far have been very large and very close to their suns. This could allow us to find another earth out there. But as Calvin says ' the Proof that intellegent life exists out there is that it has not contacted us' (Calvin and Hobbes).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7333155.stm

Canada wins laugher in women's hockey

Well it looks like the Canadian women's hockey team is playing well. I just think that the title of the article could be a little more tactful. There is not controversy about our athletes over in China playing right now, why is there so much more issue with the Olympics.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/story/2008/04/06/canada-china-hockeyworlds.html

Are Peter Brown's comments on Asian immigrants 'racist'?

My answer would be yes. He said that they should reduce the amount of immigration because there are too many Asians. How can that not be racist? In my view it is straight forward, but what ever. I am just glad he is not going to be the next Prime Minister.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10501783

From Maid to Minister

I wish that I had the strength to be like Marina Silva. She has done so much in her life and had so many obstacles. She learned how to read and right in 15 days, which is just amazing. And she has been fighting for environmental rights for most of her life. At the same time she does not get very much attention by the foreign media.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/D9C60E9F-6536-4FDE-8658-304D4B8931E7.htm

Clashes along Olympic torch route

Well it looks like this will be a very interesting Olympic torch relay. I hope that nobody gets hurt or it becomes too political. The Olympic games themselves are not political but everything else attached to them is, to say that the Olympic torch relay is not political is completely wrong. To compete and do your best at the Olympics is not a political action.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7332942.stm

French Muslim war graves defaced

It is sad that this has happened. What is worse is that this is the second time that this has happened in 2 years. If you notice from the pictures of the site, you can tell which religion the person is from the shape of the grave stone, Canadian graves are not the same.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7333344.stm

Saturday, April 5, 2008

The Olympic torch's shadowy past

Did you know that the torch carrying ceremony was started by Nazi Germany to show off their superior race? Well it is not quite the same this year, but China's government is trying to use it to prove that they are good leaders.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7330949.stm

Botswana's New President

Well Botswana got a new president and did anybody notice

http://www.kansascity.com/news/world/story/554223.html

Mayor Presses for $8 Fee for Drivers to Enter Parts of Manhattan

Well it looks like New York could be following the example of London. Which could mean the Montreal is about to follow. Charge people for driving in places where they do not have to and reduce the congestion.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/nyregion/03congest.html?_r=1&em&ex=1207368000&en=daa1cc42554b9c19&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin

Traffic tie-ups

This whole news article forgot one fact, people do not have to drive. There are a lot of programs trying to make cars drive across cities better, but what if all of the people took public transit instead. There would be a lot less cars and less traffic, i think that would be cheaper than trying to make all the cars of the world automated.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/hightech/traffic.html

B.C. introduces carbon cap-and-trade legislation

The system might not be perfect but at least they are trying to do something. Interesting that the right wing government of BC is doing the most towards environmental issues in Canada.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/04/04/bc-cap-trade-legislation.html

Canada mulls immigrant 'quality'

Well it looks like the points system is out. It has been working well for many years but apparently it is time to change to a system where the minister of immigration can choose who they want to come into the country. (this was not even on CBC's website)

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/398044BA-2234-4138-A0AF-7E54C494D7B9.htm

Erik's News Feed