Category: Current Events

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High Crime for High Gas Prices

There has been a couple of crimes lately involving people attempting to steal gasoline around the lower mainland. One was a total gas and dash on the edge of Surrey, almost into Delta. That station attendent was sent to the hospital and the suspect is yet to be found. Of course, this comes on the heels of another incident last year where the attendent was dragged to death trying to stop another person pulling a gas and dash.

Last night was a theft that you would only hear about in the movies. $2,200 worth of diesel lifted from an underground tank in the middle of the night. They are saying that a theft of that porportion would need a 5-10 ton truck just to haul the barrels of fuel away.

It’s incredible, but with gas prices making their way upwards, it’s like people are robbing banks. This could just be the beginning of a trend, and I’d like to not believe that.

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Iowa City is a Smart City

Kiplinger’s Personal Finance has published their list of “50 Smart Places to Live” in the U.S. and listed Iowa City, IA at #10.

…we asked hundreds of you for the criteria you’d use to pick a place to call home. You told us you wanted good value in home prices and a reasonable cost of living — not surprising, considering that choosing a place to live is one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll ever make — combined with a great quality of life. [article]

Iowa City was and still is my choice of places to live when it comes to my home state. The cost of living is getting to be a tad of the nutty side. Rent in the downtown area seems to go up almost every year even with new apartment complexes going up all over the city.

Compared to a lot of larger communities in Iowa, IC has a great arts and music scene for my taste. Rebecca and I were talking about it the other night. I’ll forever cherish my many nights of whiskey and live music at Gabes, but it’s not a place for the faint of heart. Still, there’s a lot more to it than that. I’ve thought to myself quite often that Vancouver is what Iowa City would be like on steroids.

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CBC Radio One Book Club with David Suzuki

During the recording session at the CBC studios in Vancouver, BC with David SuzukiTo follow-up on the previous post about going to this event, it’s really hard to sum up the whole experience. Rebecca posted something yesterday while it was still fresh in our memories, and I probably should have done something similar to give you the best account of the nearly two hours we spent in the same room as David Suzuki[wiki].

He is a remarkable man. He’s more personable than you would think, but there is an obvious sense that he is a very busy man with a lot on his mind and just as much, if not more, to do. Even with the David Suzuki Foundation, he pounds the pavement to spread the message of numerous causes in the world. For a man of his age, he is in shape, healthy, and doing what he loves to do.

I left the CBC building in Vancouver feeling very empowered. For what reason, I was really unsure. Suzuki has that effect on you. He doesn’t butter up the situation. There are some serious, evironmental issues in this world that makes me wonder how a guy like this sleeps at night. These issues blow my mind everytime I think about it, but being a victim of popular culture, I’ve conditioned myself to occupy those concerns with other things that pale in comparison. Continue reading “CBC Radio One Book Club with David Suzuki”

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Reading Up On Chernobyl

Every so often, I go through the mess of bookmarks that I have stored up in my browser and bring back some links that I stopped checking a while back.  GlobalSecurity.org is one of those sites that isn’t all that exciting, but is worth a good read to get the gritty details about some of the things going on around the world.

This year is the 20 year anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster[wiki].  Not the greatest thing to observe, but it’s a landmark none the less.  Their information on Chernobyl is a pretty interesting read.  It gives you a better understanding about the whole operation at the plant rather than just the incident itself.  The pictures are very striking as well.

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Tracking the Price At the Pump

I found this interesting website from CNet News that tracks the price of gas across the U.S. and Canada. GasBuddy.com has a tracker that is color coded by county for the states, but I can’t find anything similar for Canada. At the same time, I’m not too sure of how often this is updated, but it seems to have valid information.

As of right now, California and New York seem to be getting slammed the most with prices going around $3.30+ per gallon, the rest of the U.S. not fairing too much less. And the U.S. congress wants to give everyone in the nation a $100 rebate for gas? At this rate, $1000 would be a better amount for everyone. I say save the money and put it into energy alternatives.

Hey, the oil companies seem to be loving this.