Re: Canadian Political Foment
Crisis! Polls indicate a rejection of Mr. Mulcair by the majority of Canadians.
The current meta narrative is a fairy tale. The 5th Estate's story goes like this: 1) Mr. Harper is the devil, and his cronies the demons of hell.. Therefore anything goes to send him back there. 2) Mr. Harper puts out attack ads, but won't give us a story (Because he knows the 5th estate believes point #1). 3) "The medium is the message." The story--what ever it is becomes the truth. Spin be damned so long as it accomplishes the defeat of point #1. 4) Journalists project their own insecurities. The authority of their written word is undermined by a Prime-minister who won't dance to their tune. Clearly Canadians are having a crisis of faith in the political system of the pundits assertions, so the unconscious reflex is to create a crisis of faith in the government of Canada. If they can make Canadians believers it would assuage one's guilty conscience. It is called transference to project one's belief one's anxiety onto others. This compulsion is indicative of the anxiety of the scribal class. 5) Mr. Mulcair is the saviour of the left: Hearken ye one and all for this man is unblemished and perfect! He is the man to save us from proposition #1!
Of this there are believers and sceptics.
It is disconcerting after all the efforts of the media to convert Canadians into leftists. The polls show Canadians don't buy the narrative. So what ever could be the problem? Surely not their glowing reviews of Mr. Mulcair.
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
Canada withdraws from UN desertification treaty.
Alethia
Ah the UN, smell the air, breath deeply... Aren't you glad we are a part of the UN?
Don't you love how they spend our money? How accountable they are? Anyone remember how that 14 Billion was spent after Tsunamis wiped out 200,000 people? 'Remember how it was supposed to help the areas devastated rebuild? Nation after nation as they dug out from the disaster reported seeing not one thin dime. Where did the money go? Ah but it is the UN, they are not accountable to its donors...
The story behind the story? Canada read the script of this "scientific meeting" that uses Canada as a bully-pulpit. The sheep in this country forget that China's CO2 input *grows* by more than the entire Canadian Carbon Foot Print. Why should Canada fund this sort of "science"?
Who is behind these attacks? Who is targeting Canada? It certainly wouldn't be the OPEC countries who's taps will be impacted when North America achieves self-sustaining energy dependence. You know that block of 16 or so nations that appointed Portugal to a seat on the security counsel? I am just glad Canada has a memory, and proud it has the gonads to finally say enough is enough.
Don't you love how they spend our money? How accountable they are? Anyone remember how that 14 Billion was spent after Tsunamis wiped out 200,000 people? 'Remember how it was supposed to help the areas devastated rebuild? Nation after nation as they dug out from the disaster reported seeing not one thin dime. Where did the money go? Ah but it is the UN, they are not accountable to its donors...
The story behind the story? Canada read the script of this "scientific meeting" that uses Canada as a bully-pulpit. The sheep in this country forget that China's CO2 input *grows* by more than the entire Canadian Carbon Foot Print. Why should Canada fund this sort of "science"?
Who is behind these attacks? Who is targeting Canada? It certainly wouldn't be the OPEC countries who's taps will be impacted when North America achieves self-sustaining energy dependence. You know that block of 16 or so nations that appointed Portugal to a seat on the security counsel? I am just glad Canada has a memory, and proud it has the gonads to finally say enough is enough.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
On vegetarianism and PETA.:
https://www.facebook.com/bill.graham.98434
https://www.facebook.com/bill.graham.98434
Antoinette Louw Is this the man who always tease me about PETA? Wonderful! If you find easy ones, please share. I usually only omit the meat out of other recipes. Look at Allrecipes.com
Bill Graham I'm still not a PETA supporter! However, I *am* seeing the wisdom of a plant based diet...
John G. Hartung The secret: discover dishes that originally were vegetarian so you don't have the problem of simulating the meat flavor.
John's Basic Ratatouille
Olive oil...See More
Trisha Rutter Reimer A chili with lots of different beans and yams or sweet potatoes chopped in! Soooo yum!- Trisha Rutter Reimer How about a chick pea "salad"? About a can of rinsed chick peas, a couple of beets boiled and diced on top, some feta cheese sprinkled over, some greek spice mix (you can buy a bottle of "Greek seasoning") sprinkled over, maybe some slivered almonds, too.
- Bill Graham Emmett, watch "Food,Inc" and "Forks over Knives" and you may start rethinking what you eat...I'm not totally there yet - and I still have fast food too often (but aiming to eliminate that AND Pop); I am, however, seeking to change my intake for health's sake...
- Trisha Rutter Reimer Bill Graham you still gotta get your hands on "Fresh". You will see how you still can eat a "reasonable" amount of meat that is raised well (when animal husbandry is done right, it will benefit the soil and the animal the way God intended. And then as a result, benefitting humankind on many different levels!).
Owen Abrey May I jump in? Let vegetables and vegetable eating have their place. However, no matter how we might want to deny it, man was not made a herbivore, man is an omnivore. To think we can make the world a better place by denying what we are at a scientific and biological level is displaying the unreal self if there ever was one: A vain and futile pursuit that wastes energy that might otherwise really make the world a better place. So many substitutes for the primary cause.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Male Emasculation by Smart phone?
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/are-smartphones-emasculating-so-says-googles-co-founder-no-less/article9146743/comments/?ord=0
Another case can be made from the perspective of male and female brains. Females have a genetic disposition to multi-task. Men are more likely distracted to problem-solve what the smart phone presents to them. This distraction impacts the male-female interactions that would otherwise take place. I wonder if there could be measurably less testosterone in western populations, if not directly, then certainly because of the rise of obesity our lack of physical activity produces.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/are-smartphones-emasculating-so-says-googles-co-founder-no-less/article9146743/comments/?ord=0
Another case can be made from the perspective of male and female brains. Females have a genetic disposition to multi-task. Men are more likely distracted to problem-solve what the smart phone presents to them. This distraction impacts the male-female interactions that would otherwise take place. I wonder if there could be measurably less testosterone in western populations, if not directly, then certainly because of the rise of obesity our lack of physical activity produces.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
A debate betweem Ruby Carat and myself about the appropriatness of fiction on a site dedicated to fact.
Greg & Ruby,
While this almost certainly may cause an offence, I wish to request that poetry and other arts not be attached to this web site. It goes to credibility. Why would a site dedicated to the serious science around LENR put a poem on the site? Is there no other scientific informaton that could be displayed? Why put a poem on the site, does the serious question of LENR need to be deflected into an irrelevant box? Science by its own nature is not to be muddied by emotion. To so undermines the credibility of the site. It looks silly. If you want to do a website dedicated to the arts or environmental heart strumming, create a different web site and post it there. This is nothing short of an embarrassment. How can I refer a serious scientist to this web site when to do so is to out and out convey a message of subjectivity so blatant as to disqualify any other actually meaningful scientific, dispassionate, rational discipline? Please stop this nonsense, it is a waste of energy, a deflection of purpose, a departure from logic, and a loss of objectivity.
:) I am glad it piques you. However, you and I are trained to think like Hegelians: Thesis and Anti-thesis are mixed up together to create synthesis. That is not paradox. Paradox takes the poles and brings them together in tension. The tension rather than a blurring the poles is the truth I refer to: an idea of Kierkegaard who said "Truth is often found in the tension of the Paradox". In this sort of situation, science at the poles is a purely rational, empiriclal objective. This is the ideal of empiricism as identified by David Hume and Emmanuel Kant. Not something muddied up by the Hegelian sythesis. You cannot have paradox without a clearly defined thesis and antithesis. Are we not looking to show the world we have a disciplined science? The third way detaches from both thesis and antithesis and becomes phase-changed into something different than either side of the dilemma. Hence the third way, that is neither one pole or the other--nor a synthesis thereof arises. It is unique as water is unique between ice and vapour. It is neither ice nor water, but exists in its own state. Liquid H2O is extremely rare in the universe, not common like we may think because we live here. Liquid water has no ice and no steam. Rossi has largely been set aside because he has blurred fact with fiction on more than one occasion. His fact isn't exactly fact anymore. We must be careful that the rest of LENR is not seen in the same light. Good impeccable science is our great hope of this. With Dr. Haggelstien's rigour where measurements are counted by angstroms, his accuracy and precision that win him an audience. Not winnowing minnows. Winnowing minnows? Seriously? Someone liked the rhyme then went back to justify it. This is a blurring of fact and fiction. If we are content with blurring, how can we distinguish between fact or fiction in the end? No, publishing minnows that can winnow is illustrative of my contention. If you don't accept the definition of science but on a whim can mix in some fiction, the product is not fact, and the goal of synthesis is really an illusion: Sythesis is another word for fiction instead.
I believe I understand why you feel you must publish this. It is to present some sort of holistic approach. But this is surely not the appropriate forum. Please reconsider this seriously. It makes what we do the laughing stock of science when there is no other discipline that needs credibility more. This is not a hate message. I don't hate your poems, art etc. I just don't see this as an appropriate forum.
Regards,
Owen Abrey
________________________
A Third Way
Rather than get hung up on the horns of a dilemma...seek truth in the tension of the paradox.
Ironic don't you think:
___________
http://coldfusionnow.org/
This is a letter to the website almost certainly to be censored. So I am publishing it here. It needs to be published.
Greg & Ruby Carat,
Please don't censor this from the forums, it is a critique offered with no ill intent. We want the site to be transparent about LENR. We welcome critique of serious scientists. Why should this topic be treated any differently?
While this almost certainly may cause an offense, I wish to request that poetry and other arts not be attached to this web site. It goes to credibilty. Why would a site dedicated to the serious science around LENR put a poem on the site? Is there no other scientific informaton that could be displayed? Why put a poem on the site, does the serious question of LENR need to be deflected into an area that is irrelevant to it? Science by its own nature is not to be muddied by emotion. To so undermines the credibility of the message. It looks silly. If you want to do a website dedicated to the arts or environmental heart strumming, create a different web site and post it there link to it if you must. This is nothing short of an embarrassment. How can I refer a serious scientist to this web site when to do so is to out and out conveys a message of subjectivity so blatant as to disqualify any other actually meaningful scientific, dispassionate, rational information? Science is called a discipline for good reason. This sort of thing is inappropriate. How many science text books have a poem section?
Please stop this nonsense, it is a waste of energy, a deflection of purpose, a departure from logic, and purveys a loss of objectivity.
I believe I understand why you feel you must publish this. It is to present some sort of holistic approach. But this is surely not the appropriate forum. Why intorduce some subjective opinion that a viewer would disagree with out of hand? Do we not contend with enough disagreement before the facts? Please reconsider this seriously. It makes what we do the laughing stock of science when there is no other discipline that needs credibility more. This is not a hate message. I don't hate your poems, art etc. I just don't see this as an appropriate forum.
Regards,
Owen Abrey
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
On Interactive Brokers
I am the resident Interactive Brokers Cheerleader. Voted #1 in the
world by Baron's Magazine, IB kicks butt over TD and Questrade. I have
had experience with all three. Consider this, brokers fee contract less
than 2.00. 2.50 per currency trade, traded directly on the spot
market. .0005 /share trades. Trade easily on every market in the
world. 24 hour/day support. They have offices all around the world.
So ie when Singapore's trading, very good english speaking chinese
brokers assist you, The customer support is 2nd to none. I have a
friend with the TD this summer wanted to trade less than 50 contracts.
TD informed him it would cost him over 300.00 in fees!--unless he had
50,000 in a TD account. On top of that he cannot make covered calls or
spreads. It really is pathetic. Questrade is good if you want to buy
and hold 1000 shares of x. But they kill daytrading and any sort of
frequency trading is doomed by the fee structure.
I am open to learning about any Canadian brokerages. But my experience hasn't found anything that can come close to IB.
Drawbacks: IB's platform is massive. I can't say for sure it is larger than Think or Swim, but it as at least as big. If you can imagine doing something with securities and forex, IB can probably be made to do it, whether it might be contingency trading, or futures options on Forex. Therefore, IB's platform has a very large learning curve. It isn't insurmountable, because they have a video library that is equally extraordinary. They have a special team for new clients moving their positions into IB, to make sure your questions are adequately cared for.
Conclusion? I love IB. I don't know any TSU students that I have referred that are unhappy with them. I, and they do get a perk for every referral so that is a disclaimer. It could appear I am pro IB just because of the perk. I don't believe so but in the name of transparency I give that to you. If it is ok with you that a fellow TSU student gets a small benefit, then find someone who is an IB client to get you a referral invitation. (If you can't find anyone else, I would be happy to do that for you... :) ).
I am open to learning about any Canadian brokerages. But my experience hasn't found anything that can come close to IB.
Drawbacks: IB's platform is massive. I can't say for sure it is larger than Think or Swim, but it as at least as big. If you can imagine doing something with securities and forex, IB can probably be made to do it, whether it might be contingency trading, or futures options on Forex. Therefore, IB's platform has a very large learning curve. It isn't insurmountable, because they have a video library that is equally extraordinary. They have a special team for new clients moving their positions into IB, to make sure your questions are adequately cared for.
Conclusion? I love IB. I don't know any TSU students that I have referred that are unhappy with them. I, and they do get a perk for every referral so that is a disclaimer. It could appear I am pro IB just because of the perk. I don't believe so but in the name of transparency I give that to you. If it is ok with you that a fellow TSU student gets a small benefit, then find someone who is an IB client to get you a referral invitation. (If you can't find anyone else, I would be happy to do that for you... :) ).
I am floating this to effect discourse on some of the ideas
we have all accepted to be true. None of these are supposed to subvert
any of the TSU ideas or concepts, but is a place to think outside of
the box.
For example: "The Gold Standard system of banking is better, is real, or superior to the current system".
What about that? Maxims like: "The Central Bank's printing of money neccesarily causes inflation"; or "Inflation should be kept low or close to zero"; "Who benefits in times of deflation?" how much water do those assumptions really hold?
Let me begin by asking a few questions of what we take as "given":
1) Gold is the "real" currency because an ounce of gold is worth an ounce of gold. As the price of gold rises, fiat currencies become worth less.
Response: ok, but by the same logic a dollar is worth a dollar. So whether we work for gold or we work for cash, the value is not the gold and is not the cash, but it is the perceived value for which we **work**. The value is the indentured servitude of the unwashed masses. (ok that was a bit hystrionic) So long as a miner will dig for gold, his time is worth the gold he mines. Overly simplistic? The gold standard is that. The gold miner becomes the money maker. *(in this scenario the simplistic given is that every miner works for himself.) Once the gold is out of the ground, it can circulate. Therefore since gold is the base, the economy can only expand in a real way if that country produces more gold, and it is in direct relation to the amount of gold in circulation.
Implications: on a global basis the various currencies are valued according to the perceived value agreed to by all. In a real way wealth creation occurs on the forex market, to the extend that the people who work in those economies are willing to accept value for their work. So if a phone maker pays its workers $10.00/phone from raw material to wholesale, the real value of that phone is 10.00 Until it is sold at wholesale to retailers where the value becomes multiplied. A retailer might have a cost of 100.00/phone to stock, market and sell each phone it buys for 500.00 wholesle. It sells it for 200.00. 800.00 might be the exorbinant price a 3 year contract pays out before interest. So what happens to the value of that phone? A 10.00 phone becomes 800.00 in your market boutique. I am asking that we look at this a bit differently in the hope of catching this... Pretend with me that the 10.00 per phone becomes 10.00/week take home pay in China. 40.00 per month. And then pretend the 800.00 phone represents one week's work in North America. What is the real value of the phone?
Ok, easy easy, I know there are a million and one holes in this. I would be interested if anyone has done any actual analysis of this in the real market. I would guess, that there is a disparity of value around the world, that directly effects the value of the currencies as traded, and aids it's dynamism, momentum and volitility. I could get off on various other implications, like why would a peasant in India feel rich with 40.00/month (hypotheical figure)? The wealth they create is by the sweat of their brow, and goes with the goods produced into the global market place. The cost of the wealth is the indentured servitude, but the value of the wealth comes through the market place. So, (and here is a leap I don't know if you can follow, but I make it only for brevity,) in fiat currencies, the creation of wealth has moved out of the gold mines of the world, into the meta values of Forex. Is there a book that takes this tack I don't know about? The creation of the value of money has now moved out of the hands of individual governments who may strike the coinage, out of even the Central Banks, into the multi trillion dollar trade of the Forex market. Consider this: The entire US debt is only 4 days worth of currency trade. No central bank, maybe with the loan exception of the US Fed can afford to effect value of their currency. Japan is attempting to devalue its currency, in times past Canada has attempted to do the same, inevitably it cost that country far more because the ebb and the flow of the currency markets are so vast and untameable, it remeains to be seen if even the US Fed can withstand it.
For example: "The Gold Standard system of banking is better, is real, or superior to the current system".
What about that? Maxims like: "The Central Bank's printing of money neccesarily causes inflation"; or "Inflation should be kept low or close to zero"; "Who benefits in times of deflation?" how much water do those assumptions really hold?
Let me begin by asking a few questions of what we take as "given":
1) Gold is the "real" currency because an ounce of gold is worth an ounce of gold. As the price of gold rises, fiat currencies become worth less.
Response: ok, but by the same logic a dollar is worth a dollar. So whether we work for gold or we work for cash, the value is not the gold and is not the cash, but it is the perceived value for which we **work**. The value is the indentured servitude of the unwashed masses. (ok that was a bit hystrionic) So long as a miner will dig for gold, his time is worth the gold he mines. Overly simplistic? The gold standard is that. The gold miner becomes the money maker. *(in this scenario the simplistic given is that every miner works for himself.) Once the gold is out of the ground, it can circulate. Therefore since gold is the base, the economy can only expand in a real way if that country produces more gold, and it is in direct relation to the amount of gold in circulation.
Implications: on a global basis the various currencies are valued according to the perceived value agreed to by all. In a real way wealth creation occurs on the forex market, to the extend that the people who work in those economies are willing to accept value for their work. So if a phone maker pays its workers $10.00/phone from raw material to wholesale, the real value of that phone is 10.00 Until it is sold at wholesale to retailers where the value becomes multiplied. A retailer might have a cost of 100.00/phone to stock, market and sell each phone it buys for 500.00 wholesle. It sells it for 200.00. 800.00 might be the exorbinant price a 3 year contract pays out before interest. So what happens to the value of that phone? A 10.00 phone becomes 800.00 in your market boutique. I am asking that we look at this a bit differently in the hope of catching this... Pretend with me that the 10.00 per phone becomes 10.00/week take home pay in China. 40.00 per month. And then pretend the 800.00 phone represents one week's work in North America. What is the real value of the phone?
Ok, easy easy, I know there are a million and one holes in this. I would be interested if anyone has done any actual analysis of this in the real market. I would guess, that there is a disparity of value around the world, that directly effects the value of the currencies as traded, and aids it's dynamism, momentum and volitility. I could get off on various other implications, like why would a peasant in India feel rich with 40.00/month (hypotheical figure)? The wealth they create is by the sweat of their brow, and goes with the goods produced into the global market place. The cost of the wealth is the indentured servitude, but the value of the wealth comes through the market place. So, (and here is a leap I don't know if you can follow, but I make it only for brevity,) in fiat currencies, the creation of wealth has moved out of the gold mines of the world, into the meta values of Forex. Is there a book that takes this tack I don't know about? The creation of the value of money has now moved out of the hands of individual governments who may strike the coinage, out of even the Central Banks, into the multi trillion dollar trade of the Forex market. Consider this: The entire US debt is only 4 days worth of currency trade. No central bank, maybe with the loan exception of the US Fed can afford to effect value of their currency. Japan is attempting to devalue its currency, in times past Canada has attempted to do the same, inevitably it cost that country far more because the ebb and the flow of the currency markets are so vast and untameable, it remeains to be seen if even the US Fed can withstand it.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Arctic stories...
- Sarah NangmalikOwen,
I went to the post office to track down the box and they said it is already at your post office and was still there as of 11am this morning. I was going to get back to you as soon as after work but I had my grand kids until half hour ago. - January 7
Owen AbreySarah! I got a cool package today, with Bumper Stickers from the Polar Bears!Quana- Sarah NangmalikGlad you got them now:) In my dialect we say "Qujannamiik" for thank you and "Nakurmiik" in Iqaluit dialect where I am living now. "Quana" is Central arctic dialect that I don't speak but understand:D Enjoy your book, I tried to add in most of the large marine mammals we have up here but may be missing some. I also have a poster that I will probably be sending out to you, the pictures were taken under arctic sea in high arctic Lancaster Sound area...you won't believe what we have up here:).
- January 14
Sarah NangmalikHi Owen, if you have Discovery channel you can watch "Canada's Greatest Know it all" tonight at 10pm my time (eastern) I don't know about your time though. My old childhood classmate is in the group. His name is Abraham (Abe) Qamaniq, we went to school when we were growing up and I know him all my life, he will probably share something about the arctic:) He has been in "Canada's Greatest Know it all" for a while now and he has been telling us that southern people don't know anything about the arctic and it's people so I guess, him being in that group he gets to share about the north and teach southerners at the same time:)- Owen Abreylol, I will see if I can catch a rerun of it Sarah, thank you for the heads up. Hope this finds you well... We are having winter down here at -15 or so. don't laugh! Blessings!
- Tuesday
- Sarah NangmalikWe watched the Discovery channel last night and Many of us in Nunavut were all glued to the TV screen for an hour. He made it but one got eliminated. The Canada's Greatest know it all will be on for the next 8 weeks, every Monday night at 10pm eastern time and we are wondering how long he will be in the team before elimination:)
-15? that is like we can walk around in spring jackets, no hats and no gloves:D When it is -30 we think it is not cold:) we can walk outdoors with no hats for a good stretch of a walk until we put on a hat or put up a hood:) -45 and -48 is normal temp. at this time of year with the wind chill it goes up to -53 or more regularly. Yesterday in one of the communities it was -63 with the wind chill it went up to -93 and that is COLD! In smaller communities where it is flat the normal temp. is - 59 or -60 with the wind chill it goes higher. It has been very cold for the past couple weeks now around Nunavut communities and I checked the weather today and most communities were from -53 and up and the coldest today was -63. It is extremely dry cold so it does not feel that cold, it only stings the face but it is only surface cold on the skin and it is often hard to feel a frost bite unless someone spots them on your face on days like we have been having. In the north we have dry cold where we feel the cold only on our face or hands and when we go in side the cold goes away pretty fast but in the south it is damp cold where it goes right to the bones and makes you shiver and the cold up here is not the same. We watch southern weather forecasts too and when they say it will be extremely weather warning winds up to 60...that is nothing to us:) Winds up here from 60 gusting to 70 is normal winter storm and we walk around and drive around, it only starts to get bad when it is gusting to 70 to 85 and more then I usually stay home because when the winds are picking up with snow falling it is very hard to see and breath to walk outdoors. We often wonder among ourselves with our extreme strong weather winds up here would it be considered hurricane like winds? Anyway, enough of my teaching...you should come up here someday and experience the land yourself:) This month especially the last couple weeks have been extremely high tide over its normal tide in the winter. One of my friends who is a CBC radio host, he said when he was out hunting with a group on the sea ice further down Frobisher Bay, the sea water underneath the ice was building up with so much pressure and they watched the water shooting up into the air really high through the ice cracks and "boom" water was shooting up really high into the sky...he said it was amazing to watch:) we get that when the high tide is strong and builds pressure underneath the sea ice. Did I ever tell you that we have ice lightening too? In mid winter during cold season when it gets really really cold like the type of cold weather we've been having ice lightening is bound to happen too. The hunters say it happens further down the bay where sea level is higher and the ice lightening is like a real lightening but with a slight shade of beautiful light blue and very bright. The ice lightening on large lakes is shade of light floresent green and makes weird loud noise. Anyway...ttyl:)
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