http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/Billboards+warn+Americans+travel+dirty+Alberta/3276898/story.html
From my perspective Americans can whine and complain and print banner ads and bill boards all they like the but fact of the matter is we Canadians in particular we Albertans did not get them into the mess that they are currently dealing with.
Obama and the White House might be shocked that the US federal court overturned a six-month drilling moratorium but it's not that surprising.
It seems the political posturing missed a very important detail... , the US oil industry is on the brink of collapse.
It's not just America's oil supply and energy security that's in danger, it's not just BP oil and the spill and the subsequently stupid drilling ban, it's the entire gulf economy that's hanging by a thread and it won't take much more to toss it over the cliff.
Truth is thousands and thousands of rig workers were effectively laid off in the 33 rigs operating in the Gulf stopped drilling.
There's a very real possibility that lost wages alone are running $330 million per month.
If you look at the BP 100 million-dollar compensation fund it looks rather paltry.
That's not the end of it. Each rig job supports jobs for four additional jobs for trucks, supply ships, operator service industries, telephones etc.
This work stoppage is huge.
If the drilling ban became permanent which it won't of course, the consequences could be dire and just like the towns that died out in the upper Midwest after the demise of the auto plants the steel mills the entire Gulf Coast in deep water drilling which is so crucial to the US economy could just... fade... away.
At best, we could call this economy fragile.
Recently the Chinese stepped forward to call this economy no longer a AAA credit risk but now a AA credit risk placing the United States of America number 13 on the list of viable creditors on this planet.
If in fact the Gulf accounts for 30% of all the oil produced in the US and should the Gulf be put off-limits that shortfall has to be made up somewhere.
Viable options are few and far between.
Russia may be a friend now but history tells us they're fond of turning off the taps and screwing customers present and past and will most likely do so again should the opportunity present.
The Middle East is hardly America's best friend and royalty structures there leave a hell a lot to be desired.
In Venezuela Hugo Chavez nationalized 11 oil rigs belonging to the US. -- how lovely!
Now, let's consider option number two, our friendly neighbour to the north, the little country that already plays a big role in US energy market. Truth is one of every six barrels of oil consumed daily in the United States comes from Alberta Canada and oil sands have taken a pretty controversial hit by uninformed and ill-informed and had been presented as if there are like broken landscapes wreaking carbon emissions. I humbly ask compared to what?
They can whine and belly ache all they want but the oil sands are going to change and change very soon. They are cost effective and they're becoming increasingly green. Steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) pumps steam into the ground to liquify bitumen and stiff crude oil and makes it thin enough to be pulled out of the ground. No giant holes no toxic pale plummes just two horizontal pipes one above the other puffing away efficiently. There's no question that the Gulf oil spill has become a game changer.
If the US court allows a somewhat watered-down version of the drilling ban that have occurred and will drive the price of US oil stocks to unheard-of low levels pushing the US ever closer to a financial collapse.
In the end, only two real options are left in the hands of the US - the oil sands of Canada or rethinking the drilling ban.
So I say respectfully to Americans who choose to ban the import of the very product that will keep your financial ship afloat, fire away!
The very best you could expect from this unjustified and unneighbourly behavior might be to find yourself without a supplier for the lifeblood of the American economy.
It might seem at this point in time there no are purchasers for this oil sand product but all over the world there is a demand for oil and, as might be expected, the contracts that will be set out will be long-term and might very well preclude a change of heart from our American friends.
So be very sure of who you boycott and the reasons for doing so.
Make sure you have your facts straight and your ducks all in a row.
This is not your fathers’ planet.
http://ge.geglobalresearch.com/blog/alberta-oil-sands-are-going-green/
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/business/More+bitumen+fewer+emissions/3221396/story.html
Kootenay lake near Nakusp
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Nutraceuticals -- what are they?
This is a relatively new term for me and I was curious enough to research a bit of the background as to how this term came about.
Definition is at Wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutraceutical
According to one report, it's the consumer that's driving growth in nutraceuticals. In the last 10 years people have become more concerned for their health and are increasingly inclined to self medicate. Health providers too are keen to shift some of the burden of health care costs on individuals and recognize that functional foods may provide alternatives for medication.
With the ever burgeoning government regulatory bodies popping up like dandelions is becoming increasingly difficult for beneficial products to reach the market without incurring huge costs in order to substantiate any health benefits.
Conducting studies to syndicate health claim applications in the European Union costs in excess of $7 million dollars per product.
Without question, those costs are similar if not higher here in North America where we have 2 bureaucracies doing the same task independently of each other and without any reciprocity whatsoever.
It should come as no surprise that getting a $1.50 a 1/2 pint of blueberries freeze-dried crumbled and encapsulated into a pill drives the cost of this beneficial fruit up to the $25-$30 level.
Partly because of our belief in folklore, most Westerners have a strong attraction to any "potion" that can be manufactured in pill or capsule form. Most recently new health claims are popping up in the form of soft drinks, green teas, strange berries, even gum and the list goes on.
If their benefits could be considered cumulative one could consider living a healthy life for 1000 years just like Methuselah.
As always, there has been keen interest by charlatans, pseudo-health practitioners, snake oil salesman, and of late, both the food and the drug industry.
I'm not in a position to say that what they are encapsulating, bottling and selling does not have a health benefit but I must question why those benefits are not clearly identified in the "public domain" by these bureaucracies who claim to administrate them.
Unless of course this is just another tax grab by greedy government. It seems, increasingly, that big government thinks it knows what's best for you.
What was designed as a "Service" has become a "Regulatory body" with the full force of the law behind it. I believe that with that should come responsibility. They are on the lawn, how much longer till they are in our gardeesn?
Definition is at Wiki here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutraceutical
According to one report, it's the consumer that's driving growth in nutraceuticals. In the last 10 years people have become more concerned for their health and are increasingly inclined to self medicate. Health providers too are keen to shift some of the burden of health care costs on individuals and recognize that functional foods may provide alternatives for medication.
With the ever burgeoning government regulatory bodies popping up like dandelions is becoming increasingly difficult for beneficial products to reach the market without incurring huge costs in order to substantiate any health benefits.
Conducting studies to syndicate health claim applications in the European Union costs in excess of $7 million dollars per product.
Without question, those costs are similar if not higher here in North America where we have 2 bureaucracies doing the same task independently of each other and without any reciprocity whatsoever.
It should come as no surprise that getting a $1.50 a 1/2 pint of blueberries freeze-dried crumbled and encapsulated into a pill drives the cost of this beneficial fruit up to the $25-$30 level.
Partly because of our belief in folklore, most Westerners have a strong attraction to any "potion" that can be manufactured in pill or capsule form. Most recently new health claims are popping up in the form of soft drinks, green teas, strange berries, even gum and the list goes on.
If their benefits could be considered cumulative one could consider living a healthy life for 1000 years just like Methuselah.
As always, there has been keen interest by charlatans, pseudo-health practitioners, snake oil salesman, and of late, both the food and the drug industry.
I'm not in a position to say that what they are encapsulating, bottling and selling does not have a health benefit but I must question why those benefits are not clearly identified in the "public domain" by these bureaucracies who claim to administrate them.
Unless of course this is just another tax grab by greedy government. It seems, increasingly, that big government thinks it knows what's best for you.
What was designed as a "Service" has become a "Regulatory body" with the full force of the law behind it. I believe that with that should come responsibility. They are on the lawn, how much longer till they are in our gardeesn?
Friday, July 2, 2010
"Parent blaming" and it's just rewards
If you feel that your childhood wasn't up to your standards its probably time you got over it.
Dwelling on this is pathetic and pointless and, for the rest of us innocent bystanders, it's very annoying.
I grow weary of all this whining and complaining at all this anger and victim mentality and your inability see that your current attitude is your biggest problem.
I'm also sick of blaming your bad behavior on your parents.
The thing standing between you and success right now is you, not your parents, not your history, not your education, just you. To harbour the fact that they have sabotaged your life and are somehow responsible for your current stupid behaviors and less than desirable outcomes reeks of denial, immaturity and delusion.
We, all of course, do understand that your childhood and parts of it didn't measure up to your high standards.
Is it even remotely possible that you could wrap your head around the fact that much of life doesn't meet with anyone's high standards? Perhaps your parents lives were affected by the same problems that you seem to be complaining of except they buried their problems in work and an effort to try and make a decent home, put food on the table, and even provide the odd holiday while you judged them.
Now you may have a very good reason to be pissed off at your parents.
I'm just saying let it go anyway and move on.
You can't be the judge of what they deserve and don't deserve.
If what you want is to destroy your own potential and your own enthusiasm ,your own optimism and your hope then become a chronic parent blamer. Hang onto that hurt no matter what. No matter how much you think your parents deserve your anger, vitriol and resentment.
I’m telling you it serves no positive purpose it will hurt you more than them stop being a big, immature, stupid baby and you and only you, are responsible for your current reality – no matter what your parents have or haven’t done to you, or for you.
Even though you may have a very good reason to be eternally pissed at your folks, I’m saying let it go anyway.
The other thing you could do is get on with your life and be careful not to waste your time on parent blaming it will destroy you from the inside out. It's an ugly fact that some people will die angry, bitter,resentful and tortured because they never found a way to let go of the self perpetuated - read that clearly, self perpetuated - misery.
If you're still hanging onto emotional crap from years ago it's you that's the problem.
When you're 20,30,40,50 and you're still thinking of talking and behaving like a teenager it is not the parents but -you- repeat -you- need a really big reality check.
The one thing you can change about the past is how you let it affect you now.
The problem as that parenting is a flawed process. You learned your skill or lack there of from your parents. Most of us add and subtract to the information we have as the situation presents.
Sometimes we do a real good job and sometimes not, this is not a perfect world!
This parental blaming game is a slippery slope of self-pity, self-
destruction and futility that's played by far too many people to their own detriment.
It's a game you're advised to avoid.
For better or worse, parents have limited power to influence their children. That is why they should not be so fast to take all the blame — or credit — for everything that their children become.
Dwelling on this is pathetic and pointless and, for the rest of us innocent bystanders, it's very annoying.
I grow weary of all this whining and complaining at all this anger and victim mentality and your inability see that your current attitude is your biggest problem.
I'm also sick of blaming your bad behavior on your parents.
The thing standing between you and success right now is you, not your parents, not your history, not your education, just you. To harbour the fact that they have sabotaged your life and are somehow responsible for your current stupid behaviors and less than desirable outcomes reeks of denial, immaturity and delusion.
We, all of course, do understand that your childhood and parts of it didn't measure up to your high standards.
Is it even remotely possible that you could wrap your head around the fact that much of life doesn't meet with anyone's high standards? Perhaps your parents lives were affected by the same problems that you seem to be complaining of except they buried their problems in work and an effort to try and make a decent home, put food on the table, and even provide the odd holiday while you judged them.
Now you may have a very good reason to be pissed off at your parents.
I'm just saying let it go anyway and move on.
You can't be the judge of what they deserve and don't deserve.
If what you want is to destroy your own potential and your own enthusiasm ,your own optimism and your hope then become a chronic parent blamer. Hang onto that hurt no matter what. No matter how much you think your parents deserve your anger, vitriol and resentment.
I’m telling you it serves no positive purpose it will hurt you more than them stop being a big, immature, stupid baby and you and only you, are responsible for your current reality – no matter what your parents have or haven’t done to you, or for you.
Even though you may have a very good reason to be eternally pissed at your folks, I’m saying let it go anyway.
The other thing you could do is get on with your life and be careful not to waste your time on parent blaming it will destroy you from the inside out. It's an ugly fact that some people will die angry, bitter,resentful and tortured because they never found a way to let go of the self perpetuated - read that clearly, self perpetuated - misery.
If you're still hanging onto emotional crap from years ago it's you that's the problem.
When you're 20,30,40,50 and you're still thinking of talking and behaving like a teenager it is not the parents but -you- repeat -you- need a really big reality check.
The one thing you can change about the past is how you let it affect you now.
The problem as that parenting is a flawed process. You learned your skill or lack there of from your parents. Most of us add and subtract to the information we have as the situation presents.
Sometimes we do a real good job and sometimes not, this is not a perfect world!
This parental blaming game is a slippery slope of self-pity, self-
destruction and futility that's played by far too many people to their own detriment.
It's a game you're advised to avoid.
For better or worse, parents have limited power to influence their children. That is why they should not be so fast to take all the blame — or credit — for everything that their children become.
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