No government in history - a Word to the Wise.

No government in history
with a monetary system
ever intended to pay off all its debt.

Canadian oil moving south by train, competing with XL pipeline. Cue outrage.

Highlights from the Kansas City Star:

Choo choo trains of yesteryear have become “tremendously nimble competitors.” and "changed the competitive landscape forever", especially for thick Canadian oil sands product. Within two years CN and CP rail capacity will be abreast of the 830,000 barrels per day projected for the XL pipeline. North American oil train shipping ramped up from 10,000 carloads five years ago to 400,000 last year and 600-800,000 projected by 2016.  (This also means Canadian oil is getting a better price. By the way, most of the XL is already built from Cushing ND, south. Just the Canadian leg is blockaded by politicians and environmentalists.)

The little engine that could

The thick oil doesn't have to be diluted by a third and then undiluted at the other end to get through the pipeline, especially if the oil is kept warm in the tankers.  The tankers carry loads both ways but the pipelines are just one or the other.  The tankers can go to many more destinations including the east and west coast and barge destinations but pipelines cannot. Train capacity can be stepped up quickly in small increments with fewer approvals.    (If you Google "oil trains" you will only find links to outrage and danger flags.  Even in that area, there are gains:  New tankers have thicker walls and oil sands oil, being thicker, is less flammable.)

"Railroads have defied skeptics and are in it for the long haul".

Footnote:  Some oil prices are climbing because the backlog at Cushing ND is declining and that oil is being moved to market at world prices.   There was a big dollar discount for it until recently.  Another contribution to this is the Seaway pipeline that Enbridge bought and reversed to flow north to south.

"These barrels are no longer landlocked, so they're tracking the global price rather than that landlocked lower price they were seeing for the last couple of years,"

Graphene nano box is a hydrogen suitcase that opens and shuts on demand.

The ultimate hydrogen power pack has been invented.  A one-atom-thick graphene surface has nine hinged panels that fold when goosed by an electric charge.  The panels fold with overlaps into a six-sided leak-proof cube brim-full of trapped hydrogen. The 3-D animation at the link is beautiful.  The University of Maryland research by mechanical engineers Shuze Zhu and Teng Li points the way to amazingly light and long-lasting fuel cells.   h/t to Instapundit linking to phys.org

From the animation: (Click on the link above, not the fake "start" symbol below.)

Watch millions of Londoners going to and from work in sixty second animation.

The animation is based on scanned transit passes for the City of London for 3.1 million people.  The dynamic map is like a living crystal driven by solar energy (time of day).  Story found at zipcar.com

GPS Tracking all airplanes all the time everywhere in the world.

Flightradar24 is updating a world map every few seconds with the position and direction of all known aircraft aloft in the world.  Zoom on the world map to see your area.  You can check how far out your plane is while you wait.  The "About" page explains that Europe has almost 100% coverage and North America is increasing rapidly as more and more planes add the public GPS link.   Hat tip to smalldeadanimals.  Planes update by the second although some (in orange) have a 5 minute display delay.  Soon all planes will have this GPS satellite update as radar is replaced.

Here's the live display centred on Buffalo NY.
and two snapshots:

Truckers strike at Port of Vancouver: You are misinformed if you get all your news in one place.

From one site (CBC)you learn that container truckers' average pay is only $15.59/hour because of long waits and rates that have been pegged for eight years at the Port of Vancouver.  That seems ridiculous for a guy with a hundred thousand invested in his truck.

From a second site (CTV) you learn that great harm is being done to the Canadian economy and that the PM says it's not acceptable to have small numbers of people blocking important trade.

From a third:  The Seattle Times expects ships to be diverted to Puget Sound  and permanent market share loss for Vancouver, quoting a Port of Vancouver spokesman:

"What they're (truckers) doing is putting at risk their market share," he said. "If they thought it was competitive before, it's only going to get worse." Negotiations collapsed Thursday as Bob Simpson of Team Transport Services, which represents about 40 employers, asserted that demands by the truckers amount to an average 30 percent rate increase, plus 30 percent more in other monetary demands.

From a fourth, myself:  These truckers are mostly Sikhs and that has a bearing.  We paid an extra $1200 to get a Super B truckload of lumber delivered to our truss plant two weeks ago, double the going rate.  The lumber was two weeks overdue because no trucks could be found in the interior of BC.  One mill even refused new orders until trucks would come to clear out the mill yard.  No change is expected for 4 to 6 weeks.  Just like the drivers you see in the Port of Vancouver pictures,  most of the lumber truck drivers are Sikhs and, quite reasonably, they don't like to drive on poor winter roads.  The last delivery problem we had was because of the Diwali festival long weekend in November when Sikhs headed home to celebrate.  Can you find a single story highlighting the Sikh angle on this strike?

Good men but not into St. Patrick's day.

Thanks to Mark Twain for help with the headline.
“If you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed. If you read the newspaper, you're mis-informed.”

Pi Pie

Pi Pie, created at Delft University of Technology, applied physics, seismics and acoustics.

Delicious and decidedly European, in honour of "pi" day.  The first 28 significant figures are iced into the top.  March 14th.  Why not?

More at Astrobob

You have to pay to find out if you're legal. CSA and the Building Code.

The BC Building Code 2012 governs all construction in the province.  It costs hundreds of dollars to find out if you are in compliance.  That's because BC pays the Canadian Standard Association for permission to print CSA specs.  This was publicized recently at restorecsa.com  "Ontario P:ays for Permission to Print Provincial Law", asking the question, "Does a private corporation own public law". (h/t smalldeadanimals).      

This is wrong in every way.  Power is arbitrary if the rules aren't clear and available to everyone subject to them.

Stop making fun of Shiny Pony

The Ban Bossy movement appeared in the States, apparently as battlespace preparation for Hilary to run in 2016.   Canada is ready for the Ban Shiny Pony movement.  Stop mocking this lovely toy favoured by young women honing skills for the adult world.

My beloved little pony
You can comb its lovely hair.
The video shows how.

Spy Olympics: America is #4 and China the top dog.

Strategy Page rates them:
#4  US
#3  Russia
#2  Israel
#1  China

Read the rest here.
US is ahead in data collection but not cyber attacks and penetration of other security agencies?

"Experts point to China as the undisputed leader in global cyber warfare. China is believed to have hacked the Australian intelligence apparatus, Indian government networks and departments within the Canadian government. The U.S. suspects China of both sabotage and espionage of American defense networks, private corporations, industrial organizations, research facilities and industrial assets"

US #4

.

Costco hearing aids - professional and the best deal. See photo with prices.

This is my second time to pick up a set of hearing aids from Costco.  People are still surprised to hear that Costco sells them.  Most don't know there are trained audiologists and technicians in every store that handles them. The photo with prices is from their display case in one BC store.  Everything is up front and open with prices clearly marked. I believe the Kirkland unit is a re-branding of ReSound.  You will need to make an appointment for up to an hour and a half. Testing includes the standard pitch-and-volume test done with an earphone and then re-done with direct-to-bone transmission, followed by discrimination with different background "white noises" that hiss or sound like traffic, followed by discrimination between various consonants at the same volume level and quizzing about your comfort levels for sound.  Prepay if you like their recommendation and pick it up two weeks later.    See link to "Why Costco rules in hearing aids as well as gummy bears" in Business Week.

Europe channels Sarah Palin: Drill Baby, Drill

Instapundit slyly points out that Europe sounds like Sarah Palin. Europe is pushing the States to up its energy exports so they can be independent of Russia's gas.  Obama doesn't want to hear what Sarah was saying but may have to.  A reminder: Once Obama releases gas export permits, the US is far ahead of the rest of the world.  (Most of the world except for Canada, that is.)  Read this:

"America remains the sole state to capitalize on its shale oil and gas resources.... The shale revolution was more than just the result of applying the dual techniques of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal well drilling to underground hydrocarbon reservoirs. Rather, the US energy revolution was the product of a mature oil and gas drilling industry, replete with robust supply chains. The boom depended on a unique set of mineral rights that provided landowners with a financial incentive to invite drillers on to their land, on a deep pool of capital, and on a variety of small wildcatting firms willing to take on the risk of drilling exploratory wells. . . .

Despite having some of the thicker—and therefore easier to drill—shale in Europe, faulted stratigraphy, stunted support infrastructure, and a byzantine regulatory environment are preventing Britain from imitating America’s shale success."

Trudeau fils or Harper (rinse and repeat)?

I admire Stephen Harper but like Beethoven too.  Ludwig won't be our next PM and Stephen is no shoo-in either. Justin will have the edge for likeability, the change vote and lost liberals looking for a home. Stephen has the edge for character, policy and experience.  Justin will do better in a boxing match while Stephen tickles the ivories with panache. Does it matter?  20% of the electorate swings in a fortnight over cancer, faked expenses or a rumoured affair.

Not one of us gets to vote for head of government, not even in ridings from which representatives Trudeau and Harper will advance.  That's decided in a Party meeting we don't attend.  If you want a better leader, change the Party.  Change policy and appointments at the Party level in ridings and in national conventions. Voting in national elections for a representative instead of a leader does less.

Contradiction in Canadian National Character

While we Canadians get huffy when called hewers of wood and drawers of water, we are proud of our ice.
The papers are full of stories about the Great Lakes freezing right over (almost) and Niagara falls being frozen solid (well a few bits).   We're not just a cute face selling wood, ore and water, we have manly virtues that withstand blizzards of the True North.

Example from The Star

CTV News: Niagara Falls freezes again

"Bird brain" may be a scientific compliment

Cells coordinate for cognitive tasks during sleep with 3D pulses dispersing throughout bird brains.  Instead of an "elegant layered mammalian necortex" with 2D waves travelling within the neocortex during sleep, birds have "un-layered seemingly poorly structured nuclear masses of neurons" and a 3D wave dispersal throughout the whole structure.

"They found complex 3D plumes of brain activity propagating through the brain that clearly differed from the two-dimensional activity found in mammals. These findings show that the layered neuronal organization of the neocortex is not required for waves to propagate, and raise the intriguing possibility that the 3D plumes of activity perform computations not found in mammals.

The authors note that during the course of evolution, birds replaced the three-layered cortex present in their reptilian ancestors with nuclear brain structures. "Presumably, there are benefits to the seemingly disorganized, nuclear arrangement of neurons in the avian brain that we are far from understanding".

Plumes in the sleeping avian brain (Science Daily News)reporting on work at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology.

Who you calling bird brain?

Next uncontested arrival.

China and Machiavelli will take a lesson from Russia's de facto re-annexation of the Crimea.  It's time for another uncontested arrival, this time in the Senkaku Islands of the China Sea.. Maybe China is already planning it.

"

"Go for it"

The window of opportunity may end November 2016 when the US gets its shit together.

Superpowers coming to Israel

Netanyahu, speaking to AIPAC, says the superpowers are not just coming to Israel,"they are flocking to Israel - Apple, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Facebook, Yahoo".

What do you think?  Is the fizzling United States a superpower or should it be the above economic giants who influence culture and spending all over the world?  They do this without an army of their own, by offering deals and service.  I like Premier Netanyahu's wit and wish more governments measured their importance by the deals and service they provide and the profit they provide to all their stakeholders.

Time to sell AAPL

Apple CEO Tim Cook angrily told shareholders Friday February 27th 2014:
“If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock."

His duty is to bring the best sustained return on investment possible.  To the extent that Mr Cook does not, Apple has entered decline.  

Nice guy who is wrong

Let him sell his stock to personally fund unprofitable initiatives.  Don't steal from the shareholders.

Nice for him to have spelled it out.

Low information voters hold the winning hand.

They always will.  As long as parliamentary democracy prevails, low information voters will decide who rules.   Despite reading dozens of political stories daily, I'm a low information voter too.  From the federal district of Saanich-Gulf Islands to the East Block, there's more to know than I can take in or anyone else is giving out, for that matter.   Whether dumb, endowed with a doctorate, or both, we are Canadians with a vote.   Campaigns are about persuasion, not about righteousness.  The campaign is won on rhetoric.


"Rhetoric is the art of discourse ... to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences

Reason is the capacity for consciously making sense of things, applying logic, for establishing and verifying facts, and changing or justifying practices"     (Wikipedia)

See you October 19 2015.

In an ideal world, the sizzle sold will match the steak served.

Life on Mars: Bacteria tunnels in the dirt

NASA cut open a Martian meteor and found convincing evidence that bacteria were tunnelling in the glassy dirt.  See picture.   Found in 2000 on the Yamato glacier in the Antarctic, the rock has three dateable events: Formed from lava 1.3 billion years ago, splintered off Mars 12 million years ago and landed on the glacier 50,000 years ago. The curved tunnels and micro-tunnels are consistent with traces left by earthly bacteria in basaltic glasses.    For corroboration, there are also carbon rich nodules which have been found in another Martian meteor, a meteor which was collected right after it's fall was observed.   Source: Science Daily News

A low-level tide of life came and went on Mars before we appeared. That seems to be the scenario. I think life as an outcome is the norm when conditions suit.  It's like seeing a couple kissing and not being too surprised to see babies ten years later.   The potential for DNA devices that walk around and reproduce seems to be baked into the beginnings of the cosmos.  This same week brought the NASA announcement of another 700 planets found in our galaxy.  Stand by for updates.