No win

Toronto's City Council's acrimonious debate over the fate of the Gardiner Expressway seems one of utter futility. They are about to render a decision. It is the ultimate no win.

At the moment, the whole council seems completely split right down the middle. Both sides really don't know what they are talking about. Personal agendas flow into the scene. The vote took place during the writing.

The Gardiner Expressway was called the mistake by the lake when it was constructed. In high school, one teacher gave us a study in urban planning. His assessment about its construction was that once used it was going to be like an urban planning Heroin. It does what it was designed to do. Once employed it became an addiction hard to kick.

Challenging most logic, if one carefully leafs through the various projects, one finds that they are all valid. Another commonality infused in each advocacy seems laced with the blissful ignorance of winter conditions. A flaw in both sides was in the limited view these people had of the highway. One would naturally think that the highway existed for the sole convenience of the suburban commuter. Another problem is the speed of which it is constructed. The City engineers seem to believe that the structure will eventually become dangerous about the year 2020. For a major project this is not all that far off.

A lot of political capital was expended by each side. The boulevard advocates abandoned cited magical studies and polling reports. They used every euphemism for the word stupid referring to their opponents. They had studies. There were studies supporting a highway teardown, There was an equal number of myths. For many politicians of both sides, if not all, this debate will come to haunt them in the future.

For the observer this debate seemed a real life example of the no win scenario. Truly the Gardiner Expressway debate can be called the Kobayashi Maru of city politics. There were four choices. Keep it. Tear it down. Or merge the highway projects into something called a Hybrid. Each version would work. BUT

No matter the choice, it would be wrong. The people who lost the close vote vowed to continue to vocalize against it. This project isn't really worth the political fight. It was something that had to be dealt with. The losing councillors and over social media vowed to keep up the fight. The whole debate was a red herring argument.

The same people that want to tear down are also in a severe fight to prevent the island airport to expand to  accommodate jet aircraft. They have proven very poor advocates of any position. Here is a proposal that would have a far greater impact on the city than that intersection. Some of the City Mayor's Executive came out for tearing it down completely.

Basically these councillors were voting against the boss. This can only happen so many times without being forced out of their perk laden cushy appointments. Now the airport vote will be another very close vote with many of the same people sitting on the fence. Several key votes are on the Executive Committee. These councillors expended a lot of political capital and may have to hold their votes to support the expansion of the airport.

It is why this was a no win. By fighting this issue so severely, the expansion of the airport will pass because the four votes on the Executive committee will be forced to vote for the expansion. They lost a lot of their political blood on their support of another plan. Many of the councillors also prove themselves to be totally undemocratic vowing to reverse council decision. These same political hacks will not have the same persuasive power because its going to be very difficult after calling other politicians basically thoughtless idiots on this lesser issue.

Regardless, no matter the choice, every choice is wrong. And that is a very rare example of the no win situation.

Solomon's wisdom

How does Amanda Lang get away with it? The ethically challenged Canadian Boredcasting Corpseration (CBC) entered a new low.

Apparently some boob tube yapper puppy got involved with a sideline. Art dealing. Evan Solomon evidently was palsy walsy with a big time art collector, who in turn, wanted to sell some of the junk out of his collection. Solomon set up the contacts with a couple of well known buyers.

Solomon, a golden boy at the mother corpse, and air apparent to the other ethically challenged Peter Mansbridge. For those who don't know, Mansbridge is a news anchor. The linkage is a total insult to the intelligence of all anchors.

Golden boy used his high brow contacts to connect with the art dealer. The art collector and the expired tv personality had a working professional relationship with Solomon in the role of a paid broker.

The fact that Solomon worked as an agent for the collector wasn't known to the buyers. Solomon received a commission. In a latter transaction, more art moved from the collector to the repeat buyer. Solomon managed to find out and wanted a commission for transaction as the seller had originally a secret contract with said mouth piece.

The Solomon wanted a full commission which would have been over a rumored million bucks in Canadian currency. Alas, alas and rather predictably the collector offered a sum one fifth that. Solomon dug his heels in, he wanted more. A miraculous event occurred. Solomon's secret activities were leaked to the venerated ventilated Toronto Star. In turn the CBC found out.

In a sudden tightening of the ethical line in the sand, the CBC fired Solomon. Considering that the Mother Corpse had let Amanda Lang off with a slap on the back, for ethical issues far more serious than Solomon.

In brief review, a CBC reporter filed a report about the Royal Bank of Canada's (RBC) creative use of  the federal government's Temporary Foreign Worker's Program (TFW). The TFW was created to enable companies hire foreign workers to fill out vacancies that Canadians weren't able to do. Its original goal was to enable agriculture to bring in agricultural workers for harvest.  Harper's Federalis then allowed other companies to participate.

The creative part was that RBC, a bank, a bloated creation of greed, brought in temporary foreign workers, had them trained by Canadians for jobs, fired the trainers, then filled these positions with the same far cheaper TFW's. This clear cut egregious evil act was reported by a CBC reporter.

Lang, a major host on CBC's Business Program, attempted to spike or kill the story before it was aired. Lang was fucking a senior RBC executive. She tried everything to stop it even to the point of trash talking the other CBC reporter. Again another media company got a hold of this little tidbit. It hit the fan.

Further she had received speaking fees from some companies. Those companies seemed to be mentioned frequently and favorably on her television program.

The CBC hired a third party to evaluate Lang's activities. That third party, a PR firm, listed the very same companies that dealt with Lang, or screwed Lang, as their business clients. So this PR firm issued a report that Lang did nothing ethically wrong. Bizarrely the CBC accepted this report and kept Lang in their employ.

Compare the level of ethical challenge of Lang with that of Solomon's activities. Consider the fact that the mother corpse decided on Gian Gomeshi's alleged sexual assaults with a heavy swift action. Solomon's activities were severely in a grey area. His activities did not directly impact CBC. Gomeshi's did directly impact. Lang's activities not only effected the CBC it also impaired the journalistic freedom of the corpse.

The CBC seems to have a sexist double standard. If you're a female offender its okay. If you are male you're out the door.

Drop it I tell ya. Drop it buddy

Its a magnificent struggle for lunacy. Some want the Gardiner East section to be removed. Some, like the furious Mayor, want a hybrid. Sort of a highway mule with no fertility.

Like you, I could really care less. But what is distressing from a third party standpoint is that both sides are trotting out the BS. The advocates for the mule give numbers about time increases. Advocates for removal trot out minimal figures.

Worse still is the fanciful project costs. Everyone on every side seems to be giving rather low estimates of their options. Going on history, City history, I'll betcha dollars to donuts* that those are about one third to one quarter of the final real costs of each project.

Reason. That is  particularly complex topography to build anything since it is also at the mouth of a small, albeit definable river mouth. Worse still, they have to work around existing infrastructure maintaining some traffic flow.

In all the arguments, I don't think people seem to regard that section of the highway as part of the entire highway system from Montreal and Ottawa to Windsor, to Sarnia, to Fort Erie.

The debaters seem to argue about six hours out of a 24 hour period. And the removers seem to say, well everyone will have to start earlier without adding the ever so critical point of saying that people will go from work to home even later. The cherry on this little sundae gem is the fact that they are pointing to public transit the same day that the vaunted TTC subway system collapsed because it seems no one has a cell phone. 

Had all the stations were equipped with cell phone service the supervisors could have bypassed. No. Seems out of all the TTC supervisors on staff none have cell phones or use them. They could ask the customers to use those cells to move trains. Nope.

In off peak, night hours a lot of truck traffic flows down and up the DVP/Gardiner Queen Elizabeth corridor. Not all. But about 1/4 of trans-city traffic to Niagara slides down through. Trucks from up north come down the 400, 404 at night and off peak hours, they choose which way to go.

 

Some confused Ryerson puppies on the Star seem to hate the Gardiner for the most trivial reasoning. One columnist even cited how San Francisco should be the model because it no longer has its harbour expressway. The guy skirted around several things. First different geography SFO is on a peninsula. Second SFO is an end point of the ground transport system, Toronto is the major hub of the highway network in the middle of the highway network. Third, the reporter failed to give equal weight to Edmonton, Regina, Calgary, and Winnipeg which all have ring expressways to facilitate commercial traffic. Toronto has a functioning ring highway under several different names unfortunately. (401,DVP,Gardiner, 427)

Removing that section will move that commercial traffic all the way through Toronto and onto the hard pressed Hwy 427. Plus the advocates of the removal seem to believe that if they remove that part of the Gardiner, that removes all the traffic. Its just going to move it onto other streets where their precious TTC operates.

Neither side seems to stand up to the measure of reality. Its now more political than logical.

TTC in total crisis

Emerging from the mists surrounding reality seems that the Toronto Transit Commission entered a serious period of crisis without anyone noticing. This morning's sudden, unexplained total communications breakdown on the critical Subway system points to the parade of problems surrounding today's TTC.

Clearly the Chief General Manager, Andy Byford, lords over this land of disasters. If the subway breakdown was a one off, then that is the way life is. Mark this list, for it is a list, these serious service interruptions continually occur wholly under Byford's apologetic announcements. Up to this point, Byford managed to slide off the problems onto previous managers, administrations and politicians.

He's continually referring to the necessary upgrades of the Subway communications and signal systems. Yet, with every weekend shutdown seems followed by a series of major service interruptions. With each the TTC seems to minimize the effects of each service interruption. Yes 150,000 riders were affected. Beyond that number is the total failure of the TTC or its Chairman to acknowledge the real impact of TTC traffic interruptions.

Each one of those are workers or students especially at the rush hours. Rush hours rarely have shoppers or tourists by traveling by choice. Each person must arrive at work on time and faces an wage decrease due to lateness. Each working rider also faces the reality that an employer regards their tardiness as the responsibility of the worker, not the responsibility of the TTC. Each person faces justified dismissal from their employment. Each person likely has a family relying on their ability for arriving at work in a timely fashion.

Further, each employer hires people to do necessary work when the work must be done. That is why any employer pays people for tasks. Not having those tasks dealt with costs companies including the likely loss of revenue. System wide failures cost all city residents monies whether or not they actually take the TTC.

At the end of this, who remains accountable? Today's TTC planning seems a shambles. Seems, no exists in shambles. There are massive cost overruns and project delays. There are service interruptions. There is flip flopping by the operations managers as they follow the whims of city politicians into a variety of ideas, none of which are followed through on. When a City Council creates, and begins a plan, the following political incarnations cancel, reverse and adversely modify those projects.

Even with the weaknesses of the LRT plans for rapid streetcar corridors in Scarborough, those projects might have been nearing or fully completed had not the retrograde thinking of a group of thuggish politicians representing the opposite end of the city blocked and reversed planning. Those projects had been fully financed. Then they took credit for subways that do not exist using questionable funding profiles that have been proven totally false and inadequate when compared with the reality experienced with the York University subway extension project.

It should be pointed out that swift action came with the YorkU extension cost overruns with the firing of a couple of managers directly responsible for that project. But while these poor people were responsible, they weren't the people accountable. The TTC Board and its Chief General Manager are the people who are accountable. The latter group seems to have Teflon coating when it comes to accountability. The Toronto media seems to buy their excuses hook, line and net fully supporting those people.

The long list of subway failures, of project delays, of cost overruns falls within the tenure period of Andy Byford. Clearly he remains because he appeases the political delusions of the TTC Board. Byford never stood up to the political interference from the Toronto City Council. How does the City fix it? First diminish the political influence on the TTC Board. Second, insist upon the resignation of Andy Byford. Too many adverse events have occurred to smooth over the Chief General Manager's ability to politically survive that list which he is accountable for.

Flame out

Peter MacKay's departure sends shockwaves through Harper's Conservative party. It also signals the final schism between the Progressives and the Conservatives that were merged about 80years ago. It also signals the final victory of the the movement begun by Preston Manning and his Reform Party which sought to usurp the more moderate Conservatives into leaving for other parties. Its brand is now pure. It not only merged with the old Progressive Conservatives

It should be noted that over the past two decades that the Reform Movement begun its serial rebrandings to take over the Conservative trademark, the Liberal Party and yes the New Democratic Party(NDP) have moved far to their version of their right wing. They are internally more Conservative.

Although on opposite sides of the political frame the path of the NDP and Conservatives are almost identical. Both were founded on, or at least in major part the foundation of Western political reform movements.  The NDP were founded on an alliance of the socialist CCF party and dissaffected Big "L" Liberals.

The stumbling Conservative movement in the Dirty Thirties merged with the Conservative half of the Progressive Party movement into the Progressive Conservative(PC). The merger of the Canadian Alliance (rebranded Reform Party) and old PCs in 2003 reflected two sides of the same coin. In each case the mainstream political hounds melded with the reform movements to gain their brand, and after a period of time expelled those reformers.

In the early 1970's, the NDP expelled Jame's Laxar Waffle which was a sub party conclave of upset socialists within that party that were pushing back the internal policy movement away from socialist leanings. Today's NDP is not a socialist organization. It is the Liberal rump that departed with Hazen Argue in the 1960s that dominates that party.

Similarly, although procedurally different the departure of MacKay symbolically defines the departure of the reform movement known as the Progressives, from the Harper ruled Conservatives. Whether this effects the ultimate result in the next October election is open to question. That election is still a long time away in politics. What can be said is that the century old political reform movements of the CCF and Progressives are now dead and buried with few young champions. Torches are not always past, sometimes they just burn out.

Unda Der Vater, Da Deep Dirty Vater

Here's the situation. Aging public works that needs expensive rehabilitation and soon. Toronto's agony seems a lesson best not forgotten. Its all about the Gardiner Expressway. This is a major expressway, built in the 1950's which due to inadequate taxpayer funding regarding ongoing maintenance has aged far faster than the original plan.

Studies state that commuters face a delay of ten minutes on each one way travel during the work week days if the Gardiner disappears. The network of media and political punditicles use the term "Gridlock" to describe the resulting traffic jams. Indeed, one of the biggest vote grabbers for politicians involves the promise of reducing gridlock.

The problem involves the positively obvious fact that there are simply too many automobiles on the city infrastructure. Easily 9 out of 10 rush hour cars carry only a single human. As soon as public works builds a solution such as the Gardiner Expressway, it seems to fill up very fast and just as fast as when there was no solution.

Over the years, various solutions have been tried or encouraged. The first of these seems the most logical is public transit where instead of one person, one vehicle a larger single vehicle carries close to 100 people. Logic dictates that in doing this, one vehicle reduces one hundred. Or in the case of a subway or mass transit train, two thousand or more people which translates into the potential elimination of 1999 cars. In North America, this strategy has been an ongoing failure. The reason is that public transportation is a popular way to travel as long as its the other guy on the system.

The second major strategy to eliminate "gridlock" has been staggered working hours. This is a brilliant concept on paper. Presently people seem to get to work between 0800 and 0930hrs and depart between 1600 and 1800hrs, this puts a large number of people onto the mass transit beyond its capacity. And its not cost effective to build expensive public transit to the ideal rush hour capacity.

The staggered working hours though defy any reality. The reason one goes to work at such a time aims at being working with employees or other companies at work during that time also. Economic activity depends on efficient co-ordinated immediate contact transactions. Trade and commerce is a human activity. Staggering hours looks good on paper but defies simple humanity. Its a pointless commercial gimmick.

Since people maintain an addictive relationship with their cars, any action weaning them is doomed to failure. Each one of those adults votes. Forced removal from their cars, is a form of political suicide in a democracy. Heavens above witness the lack of willingness of political leaders to sacrifice their well paid careers for the self interest of the community or nation.

That's the basic transportation dilemma confronting Toronto City Council. Ironically though the people want to stay in their cars, as taxpayers they don't want to fund it to the point sufficient to maintain that facility.

Coming to how that effects the Gardiner Expressway. Any option is the best solution. Something does have to be done. Recognize one thing. That Expressway serves mostly people who do not pay city taxes, who live outside the borders of Toronto.

Two unnerving facts emerge from this controversy. First, I believe that all the budget estimates for any version of the project are way too low. History has proved that 4 out of 5 city projects have overrun the original budgets.

Read a number, a project estimate that is given, then automatically double it. If the hybrid solution that the present mayor wants suggests that it is going to cost $900M, its really going to cost $1.8B. The Spadina transit way, the St. Clair transit way, the trackage down Leslie to the new streetcar barns, the York University subway extension, Harbourfront rehabilitation, ... without exception all these projects have been grievously afflicted by gargantuan cost overruns.

The second unsettling facet of all the Gardiner, Don Valley Parkway reconstruction projects do not include the redirection of the mouth of the Don River. The sharp diversion of the Don immediately below the interchange lends to flooding in every heavy rain. Straightening out the flow channel or eliminating the ninety degree dogleg with a curving shape. Without including the redirection of the Don channel then the future designs of the Don Valley Parkway will continue to be flooded every heavy rain. Reconstructing the Gardiner, gives the opportunity to solve the traffic flow and the water flow. Ignoring the Don River problem will prove more costly for both projects if they continue to be segregated.

  

Sunday mourning humor and phone communications

Due to the lack of any comedy shows on Sunday mornings, the Fox News planked some thoughtless, self absorbed fool, to anchor their Sunday morning programming. They are egregiously pro-Republican neo-Conservative. And they highlight just how screwed up modern right wing Conservatives are. Its a feel good program. They are so stupid anything and everything they say makes me look spectacularly intelligent.

Observation
This segment of the political spectrum are gung-ho about applying blanket unfocused electronic surveillance to deter terrorism. The Conservatives are all for the spending of money on trying to do that. It looks good on paper. Just how cost effective it is, can be and should be questioned.

It makes intelligence agencies lazy, however that's a sidebar issue. Every time that there is a large failure of intelligence gathering, there has been a previous period where that particular intelligence service has lived a period wholly dependent on electronic fact gathering. Everything owns some sort of side bar.

Paradoxically, the Conservative types also dive into an Olympic sized pool of liquid apoplexy when they find out that blanket includes them. They are outraged. In the future, Conservatives should change the law determining the coverage of the blanket. Anyone who voted Conservative should be exempt from that blanket coverage because it is an invasion of the privacy of the good.

FA Day two: Withdrawal continues

Day two. No Face Book for two whole days. Handling it rather well. Unfortunately no one else in the group FA (FaceBookies Anonymosity).

The entire compulsion is to write snappy comments. Tweeter sucks. It only allows a maximum 140 characters. What's with that. The brown streak on a run of toilet paper stretches longer than that.

Ol Buddy. He, from the looks of it the only one I got left out of the whole schmozilane sequence of events. Old Buddy relayed by email that yes indeed that CNN had said that FaceBook was selecting those who supported Omar Khadr furiously got turfed from the service.

The excuse was that by supporting Khadr I supported terrorism. Nothing of the kind. I supported strongly the idea that he was shot in the back, imprisoned wrongly because according to the United Nations that poor guy, another Canadian citizen, was at the time a Child Soldier.

Some guy from Detroit, with a fake identity decided to counteract that statement by calling me a moron. So first I told him that it was an internal Canadian issue and Americans weren't welcome and that he was a racist goof.

I was going by his profile picture where he conveyed an image of being a Christian Crusader. Crusaders being positively anti-Islamic. Its very hypocritical to promote the suppression of antisemitism which I encourage, and on the other hand be anti-Islamic. I worked for employers from both cultures and both were okay to work for. Except one. He wanted someone to marry his daughter. There were three of us and the boss kept the one who tried to date his daughter. Really strange.

The reality is so distant from the libelous myths that one group says about another. And the fundamentalist Christians chime in about how ruthless Islam is. They tend. No. Christians forget the brutal regimes of the Inquisition, the suppression of the Cathars, and the massacre of the Templars. There was only one St. Francis of Assisi.

If Khadr was from a well off old world British family Canada and its leadership would fall over themselves to give the poor kid another chance. But his skin is brown, his dad was a jihadist, and he was pressed into Al Qaeda as a child soldier. Regardless, if true I believe that FaceBook is working for the American Government in its campaign to make this one young man the poster boy for all the American problems.

Anyhow, the administrators ignored the fact that the commentator simply called me a moron. Instead I believe, because I was an advocate for the civil rights that Khadr was entitled to, the rights every Canadian citizen is entitled to, some racist prick working for FaceBook in Palo Alto decided to block access to FaceBook and closed my account.

FaceBook dislikes free speech as much as any other bunch of racist hypocrites.

Hooray.

Facebook: the World 'Cordin' to Zuck the F'ck

Four years ago, I almost got knocked off FaceBook. This morning the same thing happened. Some obscure Palo Alto cyber gnome sent me an alert to say that a comment had been deleted. The problem was that I didn't know exactly which.

One sore point was where some Yankee from Detroit weighed in on Khadr. The guys avatar painted him a Christian Crusader. His retort was to simply call me a moron. Okay, but substantiate it.

Here's what I found in all the attacks on Omar Khadr's release. First, without exception they are ignorant people, usually Conservatives or American Republicans and their entire comments involve name calling and catch phrases. Face facts, Americans are a racist culture, white and black inclusive. However they want to apply their racism north of the border and will block off any view that seems effectively anti-American. FaceBook after all serves the USA globally and that's the working reality.

He just called names. I looked at his FaceBook page. One I told him that the Omar Khadr affair was an internal Canadian affair, then I checked his FaceBook Page which carried the Crusader or an anti-islamic shield, I then called him a racist goof. Well perhaps the FaceBook adjudicator, another American racist residing in Palo Alto California, decided to ban or in their lovely phrase "Deactivate your Account." Which they did.


But FaceBook censorship is the biggest bully of all. It deletes or criticizes comments according to charges from someone or anyone with no ample effort to request a defense from the accused. For one thing I don't know if I am out of line. Without referring to the actual comment, its hard to define whether a person exceeded some limit. Americans take offence very easily. Its a very low bar.

However their bar allowing comments against Islamic people, or anyone with Liberal affiliation seems very high. Conservatives can call people names and make racist comments without fear on FaceBook. About three years ago I complained about a Conservative American making a racist comment on a topic that was definitely not according to the Conservative world that Zuckerboy is trying to instill but the only reply was that this wasn't racist, nor offensive. It was a really bad judgement.

But here is the second problem, I am not sure. Here's why. About six months before the last federal election, a couple hundred of Conservative volunteers and sometimes paid cyber operatives activate phony FaceBook accounts and begin trashing anything that isn't Conservative. The last time I ran afoul of the Facebook censor, in fact everytime, was when I took after those phony critics.  With practice, over the years I've got quite good at coming back at their blatant lies and slanderous nicknames. For every Lieberals they puked up, I countered with a Con-Troll. Yes I invented that nickname.

Here is the problem, Liberal thinking peoples don't gang up like the Conservative bullies do. Over time they have learned to gang up on other posters that defend their positions opposite of their conservative views. If a person proves effective they gang up to complain about that person and have them banned despite the fact that most of their identities are phony. FaceBook never cancels those phony accounts. Any Liberal accounts they ban or deactivate without a second thought.

So going into the next election remember one thing... FaceBook permits Con-Trolls not their liberal critics. Anything that goes through FaceBook should be considered with a severe conservative bias.

That is the problem, FaceBook doesn't quite tell you. Its a feudal empire with Zuck the F'ck as emperor. Any judgement they render is always done by secret deliberation. So you can't tell whether one went over a line or this is just another political gambit by the Conservative Party cyber hitmen secreted over the internet.

Breaking up is tough

Spring ice breaking on the Great Lakes that is.

The Canadian Coast Guard Service (CCGS) may not send the Radisson up the creek (St. Lawrence). Last year it was an add-on. Other than saving costs, According to the CCGS, the ice conditions in the St. Lawrence are worse below Quebec.  If you followed the weather the eastern seaboard suffered a very bad winter with record amounts of snow. The Magdelens and Newfoundland are still islands in the ice. The Straits of Belle Isle accumulates pressure ice ridges.

... Up until a week ago most of the cargo traffic moved through north passage around Anticosti Island not around the Gaspé. Then they move through the thin ice and passed very close by Port Aux Basque. This is to avoid the ice ridges in the southern 2/3 of the Gulf. Terry Fox was dispatched to assist the ferry transiting the Straits of Belle Isle from NL to Labrador/N.Shr,PQ. According to several sources in addition the ferry was blocked for at least a week, and the assigned CCGS breaker at that station was too light.

... There is the spring seal hunt. And the mouth of every tributary has to be cleared of ice to reduce spring flooding. The ice clearing responsibility of ice clearing goes from the Cabot/Belle Isle Straits to Port Colborne.

... Every winter at least one ice breaker spends the winter undergoing major repairs, preventive maintenance, and equipment upgrades. Last year It was Louis St. Laurent in dry dock maintenance as well as CCGH Mamilosa underwent major overhaul. After the Gulf, St.Lawrence below Montreal is cleared and nav aids are set. The Coast Guard vessels undergo a lesser overhaul and re-supply in preparation to enter the Arctic via the entire east coast of Labrador.

... After that they are sent into the Canadian Arctic to conduct ice breaking to allow the cargo vessels reach Arctic communities. And since May to October is the most active time for the fleet conducting SAR, Sovereignty, remote sensor maintenance, assisting exploration companies, and research projects throughout the Arctic. The Franklin Search project was assisted by the Louis St. Laurent for instance.

... And here is the kicker, with the exception of Nanticoke, Canadians can reroute their material via the railways to Montreal/Sorel. Basically, Canadian business can sustain a prolonged winter economically since the river Ports of Montreal, Sorel, Trois Riviere, Quebec and Halifax.

... Seeing that the Canadian economy is about 1/10th the size of the American, it isn't that dependent on moving material by ship. Not too many people Canadian or American are aware of that. Clearing the bulk cargo back log out of the ports Duluth and Marquette took longer than clearing the winter inventory out of the Thunder Bay granaries.

... Last year CCGS Martha L.Black and CCGH Sipu Muin began clearing the Seaway at, and above just about this time last March. The Sipu Muin is a hovercraft which keeps the ice moving along the Lachine rapids up to the Beauharnois Locks and mouth of the Ottawa (flood prevention) you were wondering. The icebreakers should be starting on that project sometime this week.

... I remember reading a blurb on the Boat Nerd site that the US Corpse of Engineering and USCGS seemed optimistic. It isn't the ice coverage its because the ice isn't as thick as last year, and the region didn't see a warming trend until the last week of March. The ice is melting at a better rate than last year.

... The burning question is that, with the CCGS Des Groseilliers at the maintenance facility will the Radisson be sent again up to at least as far as Buffalo Harbor.? I was under the impression that last year the CCGS sent only one extra icebreaker which was the sister ship Radisson which looked really cool cruising up the St. Lawrence like this was not a problem.

... And my last question? Why do I find this stuff fascinating?

Creation myth - BORING!

Today I saw a creationist blog letter to the Deaditor of the Windsor Star. It makes me angry. Very angry that better knowing people sit around accepting what these Dinosaurs spew out in favor of an already discredited Creation theory. Dinosaurs.. Wait, in their fantasy world Dinosaur are just a magical invention. What is very disturbing is that these people claim to be Christians.
... A fact. The foundation of evolution theory is Genetics. The field of Genetics was essentially discovered, founded and defined by an Augustinian Monk. You can't get more Christian than that. And the Roman Catholic Church so notorious for being ultraconservative when it comes to change. They threatened Restoration scientists with ex-communication. They still refuse to allow for married priests or ordaining women on premises best described as cockamamie. Yet. Yet the Roman Catholic Church, the Pope even have acknowledged the established fact of Evolution. The Bible simply a wonderful guide to the spirit. 
... Without giving the full 5000 pagedescription of Law vs. Theory. A theory is a framework around whichscientific facts accumulate to a solution. A law is a framework bywhich all paths of study agree on the theory. Those in denial fail tounderstand that.
... For instance, Newton postulated atheory of Motion which over time was thoroughly studied to the pointwhere all studies substantiated the scientifically assembled factsand they all agreed conclusively. Then after further debates tochallenge the solutions, everyone agrees. That can be called a Law.Hence the Laws of Motion.
... Evolution is a scientificallyproven fact. Get over it. So why is it still called a Theory? Firstand foremost there still a lot of those who swear by the bible asabsolute truth and dogmatically adhere to a mythical framework ofearth's life called creation. Some have engaged in sophistry bytwisting selective facts to fit their universal construct. In otherwords, they write the conclusion then cherry pick facts to supporttheir argument while ignoring the established facts that don't. Sodesperate they are they call it intelligent design to substantiatethe existence of a mythical tribal god(s).
... A plurality of Americans stillbelieve in the creation myth rationalizing the belief by saying itsin the Bible. Crazy. Unfortunately, especially in the USA thesepeople have money. Universities need money and donations so theyalways create a program to teach creationist imaginations. So nouniversity, no group of universities are going to stand up and agreethat yes Darwin's Theory should be now defined as a Law. Its cynical.Yet the money keeps coming in.
... Scientifically proven, evolution isan established fact. Apart from the financial considerations why isEvolution still a scientific theory. The existence, the frameworkDarwin provided, is supported by every credible observation. The onlyblock that remains is ascertaining and defining the mechanisms ofevolution.
... Years of observation drives theconclusion that three camps exist putting forward the method thatdrives evolution. There is of course Darwinian Evolution which isbasically accepted by most people. Most people outside the United States that is.
Law vs. Theory. A theory is a framework around whichscientific facts accumulate to a solution. A law is a framework bywhich all paths of study agree on the theory. Those in denial fail tounderstand that.
... For instance, Newton postulated atheory of Motion which over time was thoroughly studied to the pointwhere all studies substantiated the scientifically assembled factsand they all agreed conclusively. Then after further debates tochallenge the solutions, everyone agrees. That can be called a Law.Hence the Laws of Motion.
... Evolution is a scientificallyproven fact. Get over it. So why is it still called a Theory? Firstand foremost there still a lot of those who swear by the bible asabsolute truth and dogmatically adhere to a mythical framework ofearth's life called creation. Some have engaged in sophistry bytwisting selective facts to fit their universal construct. In otherwords, they write the conclusion then cherry pick facts to supporttheir argument while ignoring the established facts that don't. Sodesperate they are they call it intelligent design to substantiatethe existence of a mythical tribal god(s).
... A plurality of Americans stillbelieve in the creation myth rationalizing the belief by saying itsin the Bible. Crazy. Unfortunately, especially in the USA thesepeople have money. Universities need money and donations so theyalways create a program to teach creationist imaginations. So nouniversity, no group of universities are going to stand up and agreethat yes Darwin's Theory should be now defined as a Law. Its cynical.Yet the money keeps coming in.
... Scientifically proven, evolution isan established fact. Apart from the financial considerations why isEvolution still a scientific theory. The existence, the frameworkDarwin provided, is supported by every credible observation. The onlyblock that remains is ascertaining and defining the mechanisms ofevolution. Its sort of looking at a car. The car is there. But justhow is it powered? Without knowing that you can't conclusively saythat it is a car.
... Years of observation drives theconclusion that three camps exist putting forward the method thatdrives evolution. There is of course Darwinian Evolution which isbasically the prime framework. Darwin observed that the environment(food,climate,existing species) plays a key role in evolution.Generations develop traits to suit the environment.
... There is also Lamarck's Theory ofEvolution which holds that one generation passes on traits based uponits environment and events. Common traits develop and are passed downthrough generations. Those traits that aren't needed eventuallydisappear.
... The third is the Chaos Evolutionwhich few humans like. Life began by total accident from mergingvectors, lightening, water , temperature, chemicals necessary tocreate RNA/DNA sequences. Further the manner of species developmentis more random. Every generation develops random abnormalitiesdeveloped by the environment or carried by viruses or shared DNAespecially between microbes.
... All three concepts probably can bemerged because there are natural examples of each. For instanceMollusks, some fish, insects have to pass on some memory experiencefrom one generation to another. They have to or Cuttlefish, Octopus,Salmon wouldn't evolve into different species especially if thespecies migrates. Darwin's framework for evolution works for the restof species. Meteor impacts, volcanic eruptions, tsunami, tornadoes,hurricanes, fire, landslides ... and so on, cause chaotic evolutionwhere nascent species or species at a location gets wiped out andneighboring survival species fill in the environmental niche. AgainChaos holds to a more random mutations in a generations get passed onby chance if environmentally compatible.
... And yes each variation ofevolutionary theory carries major implications for the human race.For instance, in journeying across the deep voids of space instead ofcryogenics prolonging crews life span, a capsule containing stemcells, surrounding a group of core DNA which contains cells from eachorgan plus a group of precursor nerve cells that carry imprintedmemories for the individual cells. Basically human seeds.
... Instead of massive vessels carryinga compatible environment traveling near light speed journeying overto a planet with favorable environmental factors that fits thecriteria for our planets life form (s). The challenge of a large craft like this are enormous.
... The small vessels can go further, have better survivability resist radiation. They reach a favorable planet and for lack of a betterword, hatch. The hominid form that is generated by the vesselsprogram is compatible with the new planet but carries all thememories and skills necessary to build a human colony. The size ofeach ship would be about the size of a go-cart.
... So this would mean little or nowater, oxygen, food for the journey, perhaps a starter packet ofsupplies. As a result, the resources needed to create one huge spacevessel to go to one destination, hundreds of these vessels could becreated to go in squadrons to many destinations.
... In the Darwinian Evolutionframework, scientists can mathematically extrapolate the presence offavorable life forms and planets throughout the universe. In Chaostheory, the chance of encountering another life forms is very remote.There may be many planets with favorable environments but Earthmathematically may be the only source of life that humans will everencounter. This applies to the Milky Way Galaxy. The Chaos theoryargues with the premise that the Darwinian context for life'sgeneration of life is not in the hundreds of chances but tens ofBillions to one.
... To conclude this. People who haveconfined themselves to the Book of Genesis really have robbedthemselves of embracing the exciting dynamic story of evolution. Theyare locked in a room of their own making. Evolution is not theory.Evolution is a fact. Its called a theory not quite a Law.
... King James really needed betterwriters. In comparison to the Evolution Theory (s), the Book ofGenesis, is really Blah, Boring and Bogus.

Daylight fight, brains left in total darkness.

The lazy whiners are at it again. No switching back and forth from standard to daylight. We should stay on one time. These people aren't deep thinkers. Hell they aren't even shallow thinkers. Their brains are mirror glass. They only see the entire world in their own narrow self interest which is giving up a single hour of standard time which benefits all.
... It matters little else. I was alive and aware of the introduction of Daylight Time. The prime reason that Ontario goes to Daylight time is not to save money, or catch daylight or grow crops. It has everything to banking, finance, and corporate management.
... By rights, Toronto would definitely benefit by changing to Central Standard, and staying there. But that means, that there would be only six working hours of exposure to interact with the banking, and finance of New York. One single hour in standard time equal two unproductive working hours. So Ontario, or most of Ontario changed to the Eastern Standard Time Zone. New York went daylight. Ontario must match it.
... There was a powerful behind the scenes push by Ontario finance, business and industry in the early sixties to get the province to keep in step with New York. Notably, the motive was to allow the TSE(TSX) to match exactly the opening hours of the NYSE.
... A specific example. I grew up in a pulp mill town on the north shore of Lake Superior. And most of the pulp mills province wide interacted with New York on everything from decisions, banking, transfers and global sales. The management was so happy when the town adopted Daylight savings. They could match fully the open hours of their clients/senior executives. A couple of years later daylight savings became law because those communities in Ontario that matched American Eastern Standard time benefited economically.
... As a result, time matching to New York has helped Ontario economically. As long as New York goes Daylight Savings Ontario goes Daylight Savings. If New York decides otherwise. Then Ontario will otherwise too. For purely financial reasons it must match. Its millions upon millions of dollars at peril, if Ontario goes its own way.

CBC posts bogus independent report

• The CBC as a whole must be considered when reading its Lang review, claims she met their journalist standards. These standards must be very low indeed. Its standing back and taking a look at the whole forest. This is not the CBC that it once was. The CBC shouldn't serve just Toronto. Its meant to provide communications throughout the Dominion. It did at one time.
  ... The corporate critter literally morphed from what was an organization built on neutral integrity and a pandering tax guzzling monster with no connection to its audience. It morphed from character and creed to one where it tries to please everyone in the cultural mosaic.
  ... The corporate danger lies in the tendency to hire, who they are, not what they have done and how they do it. The CBC also has pervasive problems with nepotism, especially in Toronto. After 1976, mother corp. promoted one of their mainstream journalists from the ordinary to the idol status solely based on sexual favors. This little tidbit according to several drunk CBC techs whacking back shots at Hurricane's and Soupy's. And peculiarly enough, in Edmonton which was a fountain of information if one drank at the techie hangout at the old Strathcona on Whyte Ave.
  ... The CBC has changed drastically. When the CBC declared that upon review Lang's behaviour was within their journalistic standards it was as true a statement ever made. In the old CBC, the producers of that period would have not fired Lang but they would certainly converse and establish the parameters. If you date or contract a service within a sector of topics that every journalist does in private activity, then they should not cover anything related to those entities.
  ... And for those truly dedicated people who read this far, the tidbit. Thirty years ago, I was a free lance photo journalist. I must say I wasn't bad at it. As you know few people including the Star don't do their homework when commenting. I do.
  ... The reward. CBC can be accused of clearly fixing the Lang Review. The company commissioned to do the review, Cormex Research. presently lists as its clients, Sun Life, RBC Bank and Manulife the very same clients that Lang contracted or associated with in the accusations. To confirm this I urge you all to go to this page immediately since I rather suspect that this lazy company forgot to change their visible client list. Brag before brains.
  
  http://cormex.com/Clients.aspx

Sniping from the wings

Some Americans get in such a hissy fit over almost nothing. The big movie of this week is "American Sniper". Michael Moore got severely criticized for calling snipers cowards. The social media critics went apoplectic.

This is understandable. Moore's uncle, serving in World War II was killed by a sniper. That is an important aspect to consider. Secondly the mindset about the killer craft is different in the modern world than it was 70 years ago in the actual war.

 That aspect comes from my own father who belonged to the Royal Canadian Engineers Regiment. It was shown in training that he was also an exceptional shot. As such, the Canadian Army inflicted a set of  cross rifles on his sleeve. In the Canadian combat units at that time, especially in the engineer units, there weren't that many specialized snipers.

I mean he was a really good shot. He owned a Fabrique Nationale. .270 Win bolt action. Apparently, he went hunting a couple of times, knocking the heads off some partridge. Its way too easy to say than to make that shot.

Normally, when a combat squad went into action if the unit ran into a situation where a good shooter was needed to function as a sniper then the corporal or sargeant would tap the best shot on the shoulder and tell him that he volunteered. Some guys did take to the job. But most riflemen didn't like the job for a couple of reasons, always happy to go back to the regular group.

There were enormous downsides to being the sniper. First, you were out there on the edge with no support if things went wrong. Second, its a lonely job. Third, if caught snipers, despite wearing uniforms, usually suffered swift summary execution as if they were spies.

A prime reason that snipers were killed immediately belied the attitude of the day that these people were evil cowards. Snipers usually weren't prisoners, nor did they take prisoners.

The Old Man did relate an important bit of information not shown in today's cinematic fantasies. During the sniper's course which cross rifles shooters attended the soldier experienced in sniper tactics, revealed one startling fact. Snipers don't normally shoot to kill.

This lecturer  outlined why snipers on both sides weren't encouraged to kill outright. Basically, it had everything to do with the old phrase, "Dead men don't tell tales."

If a sniper killed a target, the man would simply fall down and die, his buddies move in, spend a moment, then move on. One enemy soldier taken from the field. Instead, snipers on both sides preferred to target the bottom of the spine. The result would be a severely wounded screaming man not likely to die anytime soon. Plus the genitals usually were collateral damage. One or two soldiers usually came to attend the casualty. After preliminary first aid by another specialist soldier known usually as a corpsman the casualty, two soldiers carried the moaning human through the positions into the rear area.

So wounding a human took three men out of the field of combat. Plus the tactic worked on the morale of the victim's unit. In addition medical resources would be used on the casualty. This meant that trucks otherwise carrying ammunition wound up carrying noncombat resources. Killing a guy did nothing but provide a momentary sadness. Wounding a guy drains the support resources, wrecks morale and makes problems for the enemy long after the war ends.

Then one can understand why Moore would mention that snipers were cowardly. My father was a designated sniper and he considered it rather a dirty cowardly job. In times since, snipers have been glorified as courageous. A large part of this sea change has been the entertainment and media  fantasies that emerged around this job. Its a very dirty job. Regular soldiers regard snipers, even their own snipers as rather out there.

Keep in mind that Moore grew up within a group of people, at a time when that opinion about snipers existed commonly shared.

Mouthy bugger

A couple of days ago a very smart young lady was frustrated about someone putting words in her mouth. Understandable. Yet, remember one thing about that sort of thing. No one remembers the ventriloquist. People always remember the name of the dummy.

Not for a Lang time

Oh a deviously wicked complicated world we have. The very attractive looking Amanda Lang treads in the water of scandal and conflicts of interest. I gotta try to explain this without meaning to appear condescending. Its a legitimate question. Having lived in western Canada, I appreciate why this is met with the roll of eyes by most average Canadians.
... In Alberta, (with the exception of Calgary) the major economic focus is oil, cattle and grain farming. In Toronto, and lesser so eastern Canada the major economic focus is finance, insurance, legal and banking (wholesale and retail).
... The majority of business writers and journalists outside of Sun Media do try and maintain a distance between themselves and the subjects or topics of that writing. The fuel for the engine of this economic sector is the investor, whether the investor is large or small.
... To make good choices, the investor depends on impartial, factual, complete information and data. It must be furnished with as little bias as possible. There are legitimate sources, Mike Eppel, and Richard Southern of 680 News.
... Despite the fact that they are associated with Sun Media, the Financial Post is a good source. Other long time sources, Globe and Mail, The Star, The National Post, The New York Times, The Financial Times (UK), The Wall Street Journal and the Northern Miner. You will find these publications at every major Canadian Bank, Financial, Insurance, and Law Office at the Senior Executive and Board office podiums every single morning before six AM. And yes, many senior executives will have at least reviewed most of them before the morning meetings at 10:15.
... The Reuters Wire Service, The Washington Post, The Montreal Gazette, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, The Times (London), The India Times, are secondary but valid sources relating to these business aspects. The more information the better. Outside of meetings, executives and lawyers will spend the vast majority of their working hours reading news sources, reports and expertise books. Their whole job is to reach the correct decision. Billions of investors dollars depend on the ability of these people to research, evaluate and choose the future course based on that data.
... On that list, was the CBC which had developed what appeared to be a reliable business discussion program with the cantankerous Kevin O'Leary and Amanda Lang. The former could more than be expected to be full of greedy bias, but the latter was supposed to be an impartial but progressive Lang. It was a popular format. Regrettably, it also depended on the honesty, grounded, factually enriched opinions of Lang.
... The fact that Lang has been shown to be ethically compromised literally destroys the credibility of the program in the investment community. When the credibility of the program or print publication is compromised then they lose advertisers, they lose the value of the ads, they lose faith. And events such as these can, and often to effect the bottom line in television production but also impacts, investments in financial instruments and stock markets.
... Any tremor in the financial markets of Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver can generate a literal tsunami of bad influences across the country effecting every single Canadian. Some Canadians believe things like this doesn't effect them. The Duffy, Wallin senate scandals have nothing or little impact. The Ghomeshi, Cosby scandals have little effect. A scandal or an exposed scandal in the business sector no matter how small effects loan rates, insurance rates, stock values, pension funds, bank fees, bond issues, tax rates and personal fortunes big or small.
... Let's say that Lang committed no crime. But an ethical lapse  of any sort by a business journalist carries far more direct impact on the reader and nonreaders than any other form of journalism. If a media company exists in that environment to survive it depends on the ethical compass of the individual writers in house and free lance to provide impartial, complete and balanced stories. Many people depend on that information to decide where and how much to invest.
... One problem is that a lot of people believe that all reporters and news stories have the same level of ethical behaviour. This is where the everyday reader/viewer sometimes gets turned around. Journalism inwardly has many divisions. Each division is determined by the style of writing, research and educational level. Loosely these divisions are: General, Investigative, Business, Legal, Science, Medical, Arts, Health, Home, Political, Opinion, Sports, Travel and Entertainment.
... You will see that the first five on the list demand total journalist ethics where any collusion, or payment violates a code where any malfeasance brings the immediate occupational punishment of dismissal. There really is no room for a publisher for if the publication or program bias fails to achieve balance and fairness it can mean that the influential reader leaves because the information displays prejudice. This means a departure of advertising, and the downward spiral descent is much quicker than the immense work needed to climb into credibility.
... The final nine sectors are set in rough descending ethical level in regards to the research, data, writing and publications. So the Medical sector remains at the high end of the moral spectrum and would be higher except this sector includes the major drug companies. You will see that the Entertainment is at the bottom of the ethical ladder. The reason is that if a columnist gives a bad review of a movie or television program the Media distributor will threaten and has pulled the advertising. Ever since the days when smoking ads were banned, media dependency on entertainment ad revenue became far more important as a part of the bottom line.
... The effect on Entertainment journalism ethics has been dramatic. Self censorship is onerous especially when it comes to movies. Honesty and integrity have been sacrificed for at least two decades. Witness the number of celebrities. Each celebrity answer the same questions with: He's a great guy/gal. We all had fun. We were a family. (director/actor) was brilliant. I just love visiting (insert name of hometown).
... This set of answers defies the reality of the human experience. But to a media outlet its all about advertising dollars. Why is the entertainment sector ethically expendable compared to the ridged ethical balance needed for business? If you see a bad movie. That's just a bad night and a couple of bucks down the drain. However if you are trying to decide where to put tens of thousand dollars into retirement or future education trusts you the reader/viewer need truthful, accurate, and balanced information. Lives hang on the balance. Business careers hang in the balance.
... A business publication or program can be and has been successfully sued for passing on bad or corrupt information. No publication has been sued for giving a misdirection to a bad movie.
... Different media outlets also have different degrees of honesty, Fox News, and Sun Media are examples of a lack of ethical standard. Your city Sun newspaper in Canada are not actually accredited news outlets. They basically can write anything they want short of slander and libel. The prime example is that total whack job called Ezra Levant. And these publications and television channels are nothing but proselytizing arms of the present Conservative government. They belong to no Press or Media standards accreditation associations.
... The CBC however is a member of media standards associations. Additionally, the CBC is publicly owned. Like it or not, as a corporate entity, they must live to a much higher ethical standard even above its private sector competitors. That's the reader/viewer expectation. In a business program such as the Exchange, the host must be equal to the task. She and/or he gets a good wage, and notoriety for being above the mire. Lang seems to have failed if the allegations stand up.
... Even if you aren't a direct investor, certainly the stock values, of everything could be effected. Lang isn't being sanctioned for public speaking. Its to whom. No one would get their shirts in a knot if the public speaking engagement was at a college or university, a church town hall, a social group. But she took money for speaking engagements at banks and financial institutions. When you look at the wonderful careers of Senators Wallin and Duffy, they were remunerated by the Conservative Party by way of speaking engagements. Then they tried to double down on the Senate expense account. So as a reliable media source she has suddenly, rightly or wrongly become a severe handicap.
... In response Lang has lashed out trying to deflect the blame onto what she calls haters. Yet Tomlinson in the best journalist traditions has brought up points of conflict which are undeniable. She appears to have tried to spike or suppress a story about the RBC use of Temporary Foreign Workers when the bank was definitely under scrutiny for firing their Canadian workers after the latter had trained them to replace them. She had received monies from RBC for "speeches". She dates an RBC Board member. Its emerged that in other speaking fees she gave favorable reviews to those companies that had hired her for those events. All that is on the record.
... Ignoring the ultimate fate of the producers of the "Q" with Ghomeshi, so far the CBC producers are trying to circle the wagons to protect her reputation. But her problem is that the allegations and information is from a trained investigative reporter in her own company. Compare her stubbornness attitude to that of Leslie Roberts who just got tanked from Glow Balls for a comparatively less damaging conflict of interest. Few people were effected adversely. The only damage being the integrity of the broadcasts.
... So it is a very big deal. The commercial sectors of Toronto/Montreal/Calgary/Vancouver are effected. Pensions, stock values, company valuations are effected. Every Canadian is effected. And you are effected.

Its not a good time to be an old boat

During the last few months, members of various shipping groups were agonizing over the surprising number of ships recently sent to the scrap beach. Stumbling across this article might give in part the reason for the sudden spate of lost ships. The actual story is quite long. Here's the precis.
... Its fairly complicated to people outside of the shipping boardrooms but its actually very simple. There is too many ships chasing a limited amount of cargo. In the case of Algoma and CSL you can suddenly see their motives. They don't want to add to shipping capacity but they need new modern vessels in order to keep their competitive advantage.
... It fully explains the major shipper's strategy. They don't want to sell these older vessels because it simply means that the presence of those ships added to the over all competitive capacity on the water. The greater the amount of shipping capacity the lower the revenue on per cubic metre of cargo space. More shipping capacity the lower the freight rates to the customer. Plus there are fewer buyers in a period like this. Owning a ship might sound great to the ego, but there are only limited opportunities for new business.
... It also explains the Algoma purchase of another company's ships. Simply put they needed to get more shipping revenue then they wanted that fleet's capacity in their corporate structure. They also needed to renew their fleet. But when launching a new ship, They had to eliminate the older cargo capacity by scrapping the older ships. Its the harsh economics of modern cargo ship ownership.
... Capacity the one reason that many owners are pressed into scrapping ships. But why the pressure to acquire new modern ships. There is a time factor directing shipping plans. The present time window makes it an unbelievably good time to re-equip fleets. The caveat barrier is capacity. Rebuild and modernize a fleet but don't expand the existing capacity of shipping overall. Why now?
... Three favourable factors contribute to the time pressures on planning shipping businesses. These reasons propel change. One must appreciate the larger business environment. The most obvious condition is financing. All these new vessels must have financing. Contorting the plans of ship owners are very favourable existing interest rates. At historically low levels the interest rates in Canada will remain unbelievably low until at least the next federal election. After that its unlikely another low interest rate financial environment will exist in the next thousand years. Interest rates remain the second parameter pushing the construction of new ships. Its now or never.
... Algoma, a successful shipping company, pursues an aggressive, expensive, risky policy of complete fleet renewal. Many of the ships in its fleet are still very functional vessels. Under the criteria of ship obsolescence previous to 2010, many of these ships should still have decades of usefulness. Algoma isn't the only shipping company facing the future. Canadian Steamship Lines (CSL) has noticeably been aggressive in revitalizing its fleet. At the very least four new CSL and Algoma vessels enter the Great Lakes trade in the 2015 season.

... Efficiencies appear listed as valid reasons for new ships. Efficient propulsion. Efficient use of fuel. Efficient cargo handling. Efficiency in crew numbers. Certainly, that list contains major considerations. Environmental reasons seem to step up onto the list. Facing domestic pressures, governments apply rules to industries that appear polluting. Environmentally speaking, any present ship under any criteria is by far and away cheaper and causes the least environmental damage per mile than any other mode. Ships make favoured targets.

... Given the list of reasons for new ships, they alone would not effect the long term vision for shipping companies. Interest rates, environment, energy are all concerns but doesn't really effect the bottom line competitive environment. Energy environment is number two reason but the third factor is the big one.

.. The monster looming in the mists of the future is the definite influence of new technology. Those who foresee and embrace new technology own companies like Fujii. Those who don't are Kodak shareholders.
... Technology rules. The future world looms. New advanced shipping designs seem to emphasize the no crew or crew-less ships. That evolutionary event will occur in very short order perhaps in as short as ten years. Certainly, by 2025 crew-less ships could ply the ocean trade routes. Inshore, and Seaway routes will have some crew or tug control since navigation is close quarters. Remote control crewless ships crossing the oceans will be boarded by small pilot crews as the new vessels reach the destination harbor or taken control by local tugs.

... The new ships being built now are capable of being converted to remote control crewless vessels fairly easily since control and operational controls are digital. Their systems are or are capable of interfacing with remote control wireless technology. It is why ships like the Quebecois and the Montrealais went on the scrap list. These ships would be costly and nearly impossible to convert since the majority of the technology within their hulls (outside of navigation radar and GPS systems) are analog. More ships are on the way to the scrap dealers because as the companies engage in assessments of each ship and whether the individual ship can be . Some of those ships heading to scrap will be surprises as time goes on. In a different future those ships would have decades of operational ability. In this future vector, they have none.

... The ships of the smaller companies won't face the same technology threat for other reasons. Yet they remain at threat because the larger firms can move material without much labour cost. This means that the smaller shipping companies can't tender the lower cargo rates that the big ship companies are going to offer. While many small companies will survive moving niche or special cargoes like concrete and aggregate in and out of minor ports, their competitive position visa-a-vis large long term bulk contracts becomes nonexistent. If their ownership embraced any smarts they would invest in tugs to service the crewless ships into, out of ports and through canals.
... Technology, finance, fuel saving, environment promotes new ship construction. The need to maintain the same level of capacity means new ships without adding cargo capacity on trade routes. Regardless, it is not a good time to be an old boat.
... On the following link you will be taken to a page which outlines the technology concept of future ships. They are at present only proposed future designs. Yet, they are functional designs well within the reach of present day technologies. Most of the designs involve smaller crew numbers, or no crew ships.

http://www.marineinsight.com/marine/marine-news/headline/10-major-ship-designs-and-concepts-launched-in-2014/

Cancer hypocrisy

In Canada, it seems that many provincial governments refuse to pay for many of the new life saving cancer drugs. Cancer patients are dying because they can't afford the pills or drugs. Drug companies are making millions off the sales of these cancer killing drugs. This is utter and total betrayal of ... humanity. A massive betrayal of the system that funded much of the research to enable the creation of that drug.
... Millions of dollars has been generated through various cancer fighting charities. People gave their time, ran millions of miles and kilometres to provide that funding. Universities share that data and for what. For greedy self centered drug manufacturers that's who.
... Understandably, governments are loathe to add those new drugs simply because of the price. Not only are these drugs massively overpriced, the political establishment prefers not to say anything. By rights, these misery profiteers who overcharge for these pills should be now returning all the value of the decades of the contributing funding to those Cancer societies to one hundred percent.
... In the nation who hails Terry Fox as its greatest hero, no cancer victim should go untreated because they cannot afford it. Every year massive numbers of Canadians run in hundreds of charity events to generate the massive funding. Canadian society earned the right to have its members treated. No one in all of Canada should be caught financially short of receiving the very best of any life saving medical treatment. The people who donate to cancer research do it to save other people's lives. They are the investors. They want it for their friends, kin and fellow Canadians. Its as simple as that.

Russia and warfare

For all its size and lengthy history, Russia lacks any sophistication when it comes to international diplomacy. Putin, like most of his kinsmen politicians, believe that wars are conducted primarily by guns, tanks and cannon.

... He could solve the Russian economic crisis in the next ten minutes. Simply pull out of Ukrainian territory. Bob's the uncle. Nothing elaborate. Nothing complicated.

... In the larger context, the Russian creeping invasion of Ukraine territory by military means is simply a sideshow. The Russians are fighting with soldiers and arms, the rest of the world is employing economic warfare. That is where his real fight is.

... Russians believe they lost the Cold War. And they did. They are still trying to figure out why. They were fighting the Cold War in hot zones of guerrilla and small civil wars. The reason they lost that war had nothing to do with military prowess. The end result was caused by economic warfare. The frontlines are banks, financial institutions, and stock markets. NATO isn't Russia's biggest threat, .... Russia is.

Stubborn scrap: A New Year's Morality Play

Happy New Year... Reflecting on the past always gives. Never takes. Bad or good, its always interesting.
... Early this morning on December 23rd, the derelict hulk of the American Fortitude will pass by the gauntlet of cameras associated with the Prescott Anchor on the banks of the St. Lawrence. During the time of the ancient mariners, there was the belief that every ship gained a soul. This is still reflected into the last century, when the traditional Chinese Junks received painted eyes on the bows. And this shows when referring to ships as "she" instead of "it".
... On its way to the bone yard of ships in Turkey, the Canadian Miner beached conclusively on Scaterie Island off the coast of Cape Breton, Sept. 2011. Despite the best efforts, at least $12M of taxpayer money, and an optimistic forecast, remnants remain stubbornly insitu according to the last reports.
... In the same vein, and to the chagrin of the self proclaimed best city in the world, the former light cruise yacht, famous restaurant stays stubborn resting at the foot of the longest surveyed street in the world (a total crock by the way). Toronto threatened, cajoled, expelled the original owner, auctioned off the rights. A new owner, obviously short on resources, promised it would be gone, - in 30 days, - by the end of August.
... A couple of days ago ambling down to the foot of the longest spun street, still sits the MV Jadran thumbing its bow at the fretful human race. One could swear it was alive. So in the spirit of the season, a portrait of another stubborn soul.
... Still here, in your face.