Serge's Jabber

BC Liberals too pig headed to remove the dreaded Carbon tax in economic downturn

Serge — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:17:20 +0000

I’ve always voted for the right side of the spectrum when it comes to BC political parties. This time around the liberals have made a bonehead mistake by sleeping with the enviros on the hated carbon tax. Anybody that lives outside the lower mainland is seething at he idea that all their energy requirements for survival is taxed to the hilt with more to come for the next few years.
Even though some Canadian oil comes from eastern part of this province we already have some of the highest gas prices in the country due to our geography and ,according to the oil companies, our lack of refinery abilities but Mr. Campbell insist on making it even more costly not to mention everything from heating oil to diesel to, believe it or not, firewood.
The only party talking against the carbon tax is the NDP. I wonder whom the citizens outside of the lower mainland and looking to voting for?

Alberta RCMP Charge victim of ATV robery.

Serge — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:56:54 +0000

Police say Brian Knight followed the trio of thieves in his car and rammed the ATV off the road.
View larger image

According to police, this car became damaged after it was allegedly used in a car chase in Tees, Alta. on Thursday, March 26, 2009.

Alberta farmer charged with shooting suspected thief
Updated Thu. Apr. 2 2009 6:01 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

An Alberta farmer who is facing charges after police say he chased and shot at an alleged thief last Thursday has people from across the province rallying to his defence.

Brian Knight was charged with seven offences, including assault and criminal negligence, after police say he took the law into his own hands when he thought someone was stealing his All-Terrain Vehicle.

Since Knight was charged last week, he has become a hot topic in the region, being discussed in print and local talk radio stations. One newspaper published a column that called for charges against Knight to be dropped.

A website has even been set up for people wanting to donate to his legal fund.

According to a police report, Knight saw three people trying to take his ATV in the early hours of March 26, chased them in his car and ran the ATV off the road, crashing his car in process. Police say Knight fired his shotgun at one of the suspects trying to get away.

“We believe the farmer exited his car and discharged two rounds to the suspect with a shotgun,” said acting Sgt. Jim Lank of the RCMP.

The suspected thief was treated in Edmonton for non-life threatening injuries and is still recovering. He has been charged with stealing a quad and a truck. Charges against the other two involved are still pending.

Citizens in the small town of Bashaw, located just north of Red Deer, have come out in support of Knight.

“I don’t agree that somebody can come in, take your stuff and you can’t do anything about it,” said Virginia Stewart, a resident of Bashaw.

A friend of Knight’s, Vern Ferguson, is another one of Knight’s local supporters. He even said he’d do the same, if it happened to him.

But despite the local support, Ferguson doesn’t think Knight will emerge unscathed.

“Brian’s going to be the big loser,” he said. “And that’s not right.”

However, Lank doesn’t feel the same way.

“These are some serious charges that could have ended up in a fatality as well,” he said.

In all, four people, including Knight, were charged after the events on Knight’s farm. Knight will appear in court on April 9.

With a report from CTV Edmonton

I see red every time I hear a story of somebody using force for self-defence or the defence of their property and then the cops charging them. Just whose side are the cops on?
They should have given him a medal and thanked him for doing their work for them.. They police regurgitate that they should be called in these instances. If that was always the case the perpetrators would have time to rape the wife, kill the farmer, play with the dog and have breakfast at the kitchen table and turn out the lights before the cops ever got there. Because the gun laws make the guns unrea

PM GOES ON INTERNATIONAL Media Blitz

Serge — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 19:54:15 +0000

For the longest time Jean Chretien was called Mr. Velcro by the Canadian press because it did not matter what kind of blunder he committed he was given an automatic free pass by the press. At this moment Ignatiev is being treated with the same kid gloves by the media.
The people dare t elect a Conservative government and immediately the press goes on the offensive to discredit the prime minister and hammer the message that he’s too combative or he’s too secretive or I don’t like his eyes.. If you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth. The average citizen does not have the time to do fact checking when it comes to reporting. This story should have been a good news piece as the Prime Minister is making the nation look good in the eyes of the world but instead the reporter leaves us with the impression that somehow Harper is slacking off by not being asked hard question . The Canadian press does not allow any Conservative Prime Ministers a honeymoon period. It’s no wonder that “In Canada, he has this well-defined image,”. It was well crafted by the reporters and columnist of this nation

The Disappearing Car Door

Serge — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 05:06:13 +0000

I got an e-mail from my sister toady that gave a link to a site promoting a disappearing car door. I know that a lot of you have seen this but its new to me,

For the most part, car door technology hasn’t changed all that much since the first cars were designed. Consisting of two hinges and a latch, car doors open outwards. There’s nothing really wrong with this design and that’s probably why it’s been in use for so long. However, if there are opportunities to improve upon the design, why not?
Rather then opening outward, in the Disappearing Car Door concept, the door drops downward into a pocket on the underside of the car. Some of the advantages of this technology include fewer dings on the door, more space for those with special needs and the fact that you cannot be “parked in” by another car that is parked to close. Of course, you can’t forget the coolness of this technology. As for practicality, I’m still undecided.

The idea of a door that folds down beneath the car is interesting, but what if you live in an area where salt is the road solution for all weather conditions — what happens when your exhaust pipe rusts out and is dangling beneath the car, and the door hits it? What if the battery dies — how do you get into the car so you can open the hood to jump-start it? What exactly does this cost? Carmakers go to great lengths to limit the cost of producing their products. For your swing-down door, I’m thinking you’d need a pretty heavy-duty motor and complex linkage, lots of steel to strengthen it (since the B-pillar is gone), and lots of time and labor to ensure it’s aligned correctly. Like I said before the jury is still out on this one.
Take a look at the video which further details the Retractable Car Door.

Disappearing Car Door

Disappearing Automatic Car Door

Compressed air the real alternative energy car

Serge — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:24:30 +0000

I know that many of you probably got this e-mail at the height of the gas prices this summer.

With fuel prices touching nearly $150 per barrel, it was time we heard of some breakthrough that would try to think out of the box and get away from the limited range electric car. India’s largest automaker Tata Motors is set to start producing the world’s first commercial air-powered vehicle, the car that runs on air, compressed air to be specific. The Air Car uses compressed air, as opposed to the gas-and-oxygen explosions of internal-combustion models, to push its engine’s pistons. The Air Car, called the MiniCAT could cost around $8177 US in India and would have a range of around 300 km between refuels. The cost of a refill would be about $2 US.

When I looked it over I thought that this would be a brilliant move forward in alternative energy vehicles.
I knew that this could work because of my previous work history in underground mining. A lot of the equipment from jackleg drills, mucking machines to massive diamond drills are used underground and powered by compressed air. These are not manby pamby weak-kneed toys but industrial powerhouses.

Years ago as an underground miner I remember clearing hundreds of tons of rock and ore by using a mucking machine to load underground trains. These were run on compressed air being pumped via airlines from the surface. The compressed air acted as the propellant used to activate the machines pistons. This worked similarly to a gas engine that would use an internal explosion to force the pistons. The great advantage of compressed in the limited underground environment was that instead of producing a noxious exhaust like internal combustion engines emit, the air motors exhausts cold air that could in turn be breathed safely by the miners. No carbon emissions. I have first hand knowledge that this technology works.

I remember a story overheard as young on how an inventor had produced the prototype for the 100-mile to the gallon carburetor. I thought this was a great advance in automotive technology. I asked when the inventor was going to release this product. What I was told is that the oil/automotive companies had quashed the amazing product by paying millions to silence the inventor. It would have cut to deeply into their profits. This is one of many Urban Legends that I would hear throughout my adult life.
What I’m afraid of now is that the automotive giants or the oil companies could actually kill this innovative product. Think about it. A really competitive product that doesn’t use any gas or electricity. I can see why the oil companies would be terrified but with the Big Three screaming for bailouts why are they not at the forefront of this technology. Why did it need a brave investor from India to back the research for this product?
If were serious about ending our dependence on a single major fuel source ( OIL) or depending on weak and limited range replacements ( electric cars) this is the first real alternative I have come across. I will be keeping a very close eye on this technology and will cross my fingers that it will succeed.

Air Car! Runs on compressed air!

Air Car by Guy Negre on CNN

The Big Three Bailout

Serge — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:05:30 +0000

Hello everyone. After a three-month absence I’m back.
They say nothing kills a blog faster than not keeping a schedule. If this blog had any readers it would have suffered dramatically but I don’t think anyone noticed that I wasn’t there for a while. Anyway here I am and today I’m going to broach the proposed Automakers government bailout and other tidbits.
Seems like Canadian interests in Detroit and Washington are considering a bailout of the Big Three automakers. Most polls that I have seen in recent days indicate that the public are not enamoured of using their tax dollars to bailout private companies.
Most workers in the States make an average of $15/hour and government would want taxpayers to subsidize the companies whose autoworkers make $75 dollar/hour. Doesn’t seem quite fair does it.
Now the automakers are claiming that failing to help them survive the current financial crisis would hurt average families and deal a “catastrophic” blow to the economy of both Canada and the US.
They say that if one automaker is allowed to go bankrupt, the entire sector would crumble because they share the same suppliers, resulting in millions of lost jobs and diminished government tax revenue.
If you think about it this is throwing money at companies that have failed to fix their businesses over the years and will only delay their bankruptcy. They have claimed that they have lost billions of dollars and eliminated 500,000 U.S. jobs over the past 15 years. These were in the good years of massive prosperity in North America. Do you think that maybe there is something wrong with their business plan? All this is happening while the unions in Canada are unwilling to budge from their positions in the hope of helping their own employers.
Remember the $75/hour jobs. I think they might have a little manoeuvring room and lend a hand instead of letting taxpayers take all the risk in bailing them out.
What’s really curious is that government is ready to throw bucketfuls of money at the automakers but did not offer the forest industry a sou for their bailouts.
The forest industry in Canada is larger that both the automakers and the arrow space industry combined. When their industry started to fail several years ago they knew that they had to adapt or go out of business. The BC NDP government in the 90’s actually tried a $400 million dollar bailout of Skeena Cellulose. It failed miserably leaving the taxpayers of the province holding the bag. Several years and thousand of job losses later the industry id now lean and mean. They may not be selling many 2X4’s but they are ready to take on the world when the time comes.
Instead of asking for handouts now would be time for the automobile industry to cull the deadwood start being innovative and start looking at he future not as a black hole but an opportunity to produce better more affordable products that taxpayers are genuinely happy to buy.

Were finally there , Gold, Silver and Bronze in one night

Serge — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 15:32:17 +0000

It took 9 excrutiating days of hand wringing but like the daffodils in spring , theres more to come.

Day 7 and still not one medal

Serge — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:18:17 +0000

I could never quite put my finger on it but a recent letter to the editor of The National Post makes a lot of sense in explaining our lack of medals.
Last year Australia received $190 million and have an accumulated 20 medals as of this writing. According to the people that blame it on just lack of funds, Canada’s $150 million in training funds so far has not produced any medals. If you followed their logic we should have about 3/4 of Australians medal count or 15. According to the disappointed athletes interviewed after an event, many of them bested their Canadian records back home. If we were only competing against our own we would be gold holders at all these events.
We’re at the world Olympics. Canadian bests do not count if everyone else is beating the crap out of us.
I think we should review our psychological training in this country. Our athletes work harder than anyone else in the world yet they don’t seem to come out with the fire in the belly that the medal-winning athletes are approaching these games with.
I feel for the Canadian athletes that have trained and put their hearts and souls for these competitions but I also feel for the rest of the country who are having a hard time finding the pride needed to watch these games.

Team Canada at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Qualifying Event

Gas price Baloney

Serge — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:17:48 +0000

According to USA today the average price of gas in the US continues to tumble, almost free falling toward levels not seen in five months. Mike O’Connor, president of the Virginia Petroleum says, “The reason prices are going down so far so fast is that they shouldn’t have been that high in the first place.”
With a barrel of oil falling from a high of $149 a barrel to today’s low of $112.72 why is it that their nationwide average for regular was $3.85 a gallon, that was 10.9 cents lower than a week earlier, That equals to $1.01 cents a liter.
BC prices have hardly shown that dramatic a reduction in price. Even when you figure in our outlandish taxes and the tiny difference in the dollar, the cheapest price per liter of fuel in BC is 1.25.4 in Mission at the Save-On- Foods gas pumps. The most expensive is in the Powel River area where the prices are still in the $1.49 per liter range. When I last looked in Nanaimo we were still paying $1.37 a liter.
The last time the price of a barrel of oil was 112.00 was in mid April of 2008. The price of a litre of fuel in our area was $1.26 that’s a full $.11 cents less than the prices were paying today. When I asked the powers in the oil companies why there is such a discrepancy, their answer was that they have to sell off the high priced reserve oil in their tanks and eliminate that from their inventory before they can pass on the savings.
That my friend is a load of bull. When I asked why they didn’t pass on the saving of the cheaper oil they purchased when the oil was skyrocketing they had no answer and the price at the pump went up almost faster than world market price. They certainly didn’t wait to pass on the savings on these occasions The gas business is one of the only markets where you can have your cake and eat it too.
I think the reason the gas industry in this country is not in any hurry to please the masses is the same reason the telecommunication industries have absolutely no fear of consumer retaliation. No real competition exists in this country. We will have to scream loud enough for enterprising politicians to hear us and run with the ball. Until then I think were stuck with higher prices and the utter arrogance and indifference of the gas companies.

Gas prices for Campbell, CA. August 2, 2008 @ 12:30PM these were reduced by over .10 cents By August 11, 2008.

Beware of the carbon tax.

Serge — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:01:52 +0000

Here in BC we’re already seeing the repercussions of implementing an extra cost on energy. In the northern part of the province the switch from expensive oil furnaces to cheaper traditional wood stoves has seen a revival since the tax was introduced in July.
The carbon released by a wood stove, though certainly natural, is higher that oil burning furnaces. So the purpose of the tax, to reduce carbon emissions, has actually backfired and introduced an unplanned increase in atmospheric carbon.
The provincial Liberals have made the mistake of implementing the carbon tax on the same week as the price of gas rose to $1.49 a litre. During the first week of July the talk show lines were burning with anger from concerned citizens wondering when the ever growing energy carbon tax cost were going to end. We’ve seen the cost of everything from automotive fuel to heating and bread rise dramatically with no end in sight.
Now Mr. Dion has an even more pervasive carbon tax plan to sell to Canadians. He also mentioned that it wont cost anything to implement. If you believe that just remember the gun registry. The federal Liberals under estimated the project, which was meant to cost approximately $119 million, ended up costing over two billion dollars to implement. Documents obtained by the CBC now estimate the program cost at $2 billion. Now guns were a very limited subject. Imagine the cost of implementing a tax on something as pervasive in everyday life as energy. If he ever does introduce his version of the BC carbon fiasco I would suggest Mr. Dion crouch down as low as possible as not to get hit by the coprolite as it hits the fan.
The Liberal party in BC enjoyed a 12 point lead over the NDP before the introduction of the carbon tax. They are now very worried that their approval numbers may approach their rivals. In recent “man on the street” interviews, ordinary people are actually saying that they will not vote in the next provincial election because the two parties are both bowing at the same carbon tax alter. The voters of BC are extremely worried that the government of the day is willing to sacrifice their livelihoods and lifestyle to the politically expedient surrender of the environmentally charged carbon tax.
Mr. Dion thinks he can do better than Mr. Campbell.
Good luck with that Mr. Dion.

BC’s Carbon Tax

BC’s Carbon Tax