World's Slowest Crash

I have been wondering about what history will talk about when they look back at 2008.

I think that they will talk about how greed and stupidity finally caught up to everyone, even those that didn't benefit from the aforementioned. It has been a strange year, We have had failing banks, people losing their homes, stocks dropping everyday - wiping out peoples savings.
All in all not a great year.

One of the frustrating things is the worlds slowest market crash... We don't have people jumping off buildings because it has been a happening so slow and so steady that people don't feel the pain in quite the same way...

We are kind of in the 1929 scenario but it is being played out in slow motion...

All in all I don't think 2009 is going to be that cheerful but there are some things that may turn things around for 2010. First and foremost the change in power will directly impact the outlook in the U.S. I believe that the new president will inject new energy into the U.S. economy but it will take some time to see things to turn around.

In Canada the mess we are going through in Canada will, in the end, have a positive result. This political crisis will get people more involved and interested in the direction Canada is moving in. Again change won't happen overnight but it will happen, to the benefit of Canadians..

-BillC

Rememberances

Today is my Dad's birthday... He passed away a couple of years ago. Halloween has always been a special time to me because it was his birthday...

I miss my time with him... I feel sad today

Harvest

I grew up on a farm near a small prairie town in Saskatchewan Canada. I am now in a big city that while O.K. it doesn't have same impact in the fall as my early life on the farm.

I find the city just gets grey in the fall, the leaves change, but they are quickly shuttled into their orange or clear bags and end their life sitting lonely by the curb awaiting the recycling truck to haul them off to their final resting place... The city is then just grey, even in the winter and the city is blanketed its white blanket of snow it still "feels" grey...

Perhaps it is my warm remembrances of youth but this is what I miss...

The smell of the newly harvested grain in the air. It is hard to explain if you have never lived on the prairies. There is a comfort to that smell, it is unique, it is life...

The striped fields of grain drying in the sun. It is beautiful thing to behold, give me the fall harvest colours on the prairies to the mountains any day. The mountains never change, the prairies are painted new colours almost every day...

The days of the huge prairie moon. This is a secret of the prairies, nowhere will you see the moon explode over the horizon like the the prairies. I remember many times being in awe of its shear size and colour. Imagine a moon that is so big and so orange that it seems to swallow the sky, you can lose yourself in its magnificence...

The sky and the fields below being alive with geese and ducks... I remember fields being white with snow geese and the whole field seeming to take off when the geese moved to their next feeding place, the sounds of geese honking and ducks quacking on their yearly voyage south are the songs of the prairie fall...

The wonderful late fall days that are clear and warm and without wind, days which which you hold on to, cherish, since you know it won't be long until the familiar nip in the air beckons the coming winter...

The northern lights dancing on a clear night. How can you explain their dance unless you have laid under the stars and experienced them for yourself. Their beauty is saved for the souls that can witness them in person, no photograph can capture their life...

The melancholy days awaiting winter's approach...

Future Electric

I have been thinking a lot about the future of transportation and I really think it will come down to electricity... There are challenges to overcome but in the long run it is the only way...

If one thinks about it generally, a vehicle is used to commute to work, to school, or just general running around things like, getting groceries, taking the kids to activities, etc... These trips are usually in the 50-100km range. With intelligent design a car should be able to achieve this...

Car companies are finally embracing the technology partly because the battery technology is catching up to where it needs to be. The hybrids are leading the way to a point but their design is backwards... Today they are primarily a gas powered vehicle with electric assist, they need to move to a design that is 100% electric with a small generator to keep the batteries charged.

I want a vehicle that allows me to not use any fuel, other than electricity to commute... Not only is it less expensive day-to-day, it is has less impact on the environment. There will those that say an electric car still has a large carbon footprint but I disagree, I can generate my own electricity via solar or wind which has very little carbon footprint. I cannot make my own fuel easily but I can go off the shelf to generate electricity. The batteries are an issue but all manufacturers should be tasked to recycle the batteries as part of the manufacturing cycle.

Now will an electric car save me money, especially if I want to create my own electricity, absolutely not. That really isn't the point... Take Los Angeles for example, imagine if all the homes were equipped with solar panels and the cars were electric, do you think they would have much of a smog problem?

Give me a Tesla roadster or a Chevy Volt (with better range). The future is on the horizon hopefully it will be here soon...

-BillC

Do squirrels give offerings?

Do squirrels give offerings?

I give squirrels sunflower seeds, both shelled and unshelled... When I do that small clusters of pine cones keep showing up... I move the pine cones and they show up again.

I'm thinking that the squirrel give offerings to the big fat god (me) so that the food keeps coming back...

Nice to be god sometimes I guess...

-BillC

Future Thoughts

I was watching some silly show about the end of the world stuff and predictions, the latest being Dec 21, 2012 (last date of the Mayan Calendar), now I don't believe in this stuff at all I think anyone can predict the future by watching the events unfold around them... So I will give some of my completely unqualified predictions... I won't be hazy about them so they can't be taken one way or another, which is common with prediction... I would say that at least one will be correct, but does this make me some sort of soothsayer? Nope

So here goes:

• Stephen Harper will be re-elected Prime Minister of Canada but will lose a seat from his already slim minority government
• Stephane Dion will step down as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada after the loss
• Barack Obama will win the presidency of the United States of America by a large margin after a slow start
• There will be an attempt on Barack Obama's life in the second year of his presidency, the attempt will fail
• The US will still be in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2012
• Canada will still be in Afghanistan in 2011. This will bring down the Harper government
• Next year will be a very rocky time for the US (and the rest of the world because of it) economically
• 2010 will bring prosperity back to the US economy
• The Mars lander will find signs of life on Mars (very simple forms of life)
• There will be an incident on the space station that will cause an evacuation but we will be able to return there.
• There will be increasing unrest in China that may destabilize the government causing a move towards democracy for their very first time.
• Australia will leave the commonwealth
• England will move back to a conservative government
• Electric vehicles with fuel engines only to charge the batteries will become common, eclipsing the current mode of transportation
• Newspapers will disappear within 5 years being replaced by e-ink tablets that wirelessly get the news.
• Solar power will become more efficient and their use will become far more ubiquitous
• Virtual office workplaces will become common in 5 years
• Within ten years we will be "officially" contacted by life from outside of the solar system
• Within ten years the need for oil will diminish to a point where it causes hardship to some of the OPEC countries

Well that is it for now... I'll continue to give the future some thought and will update my blog...