There is no evidence that we found that fracking fluids can migrate
Les Routledge
Questioning the Well Being Index
A dollar goes a lot further today in inflation adjusted terms than it did 20 years ago.
Gas Hydrofracking News
Using propane as a working fluid may be attractive in some circumstances.
Peak Oil Delayed Again
It’s enough oil to turn Argentina into an energy-exporting nation.
Featured News
Sustaining a Pariah State: Pakistan’s Ignominious Alliance in Afghanistan
The United Nations (UN) was born out of an idea for creating a society of nations, a global community, a brotherhood of nations built on a set of higher ideals. These ideals would give rise to a global village with accountability to each other, including social...
The Endemic Path is the Way Out
The Alberta premier’s plan to treat the coronavirus as endemic was the way out of the COVID crisis. That he is once again adopting restrictions for the province, for the fourth time, does not negate the endemic approach. But his declaration, paraphrasing President...
USA Housing Policy Tilts Toward Renting
This does not mean our goal is for all Americans to be homeowners.
If Telco and Cable Companies were Banks…
...would the government prohibit them from distributing the signals of their broadcasting companies over their own networks? A little over a year after publicly warning banks to stop using their websites to sell insurance, the federal government has proposed new...
Geist on Caps and UBB
Third, while Bell claims that network congestion is to blame for usage-based billing, there is ample reason for skepticism about these claims. It should be noted that there is no particular reason for Internet congestion to occur on the Bell network due to the independent ISP’s customers, since their access to the Internet comes after they have been connected to the independent ISP. Ottawa Citizen
Michael Geist has written several interesting articles about Usage Based Billing and Bandwidth caps. The article in the Ottawa Citizen is one example and more can be found here.
Next Time Will Be Different
The U.S. has grown into a hostile place where special interest groups and protectionism rule. Financial Post Once the housing market recovers in the US, they may want to think twice about challenging Canadian lumber industry practices and attempting to place duties...
Captive Customer, Captive Supplier – Captive Government?
The discussion and debate related to usage-based billing of broadband communications essentially comes down to one problem. Residential customers in Canada for the most part are captive customer of one, two or three alternative service providers due to the nature of their connection from the residence to the network.
What most people forget is those connections, whether they be twisted pair copper cables or coaxial CATV cables, were deployed under a regulated monopoly regime mandated and enforced by public policy. When deregulation and competition was introduced into those sectors, the process did not include un-bundling that last mile link so that open and vigorous competition could emerge for the demand of residential customers.
Eminent Domain
“It’s artificially manufactured blight,” Mr. Bae said
Water Retention
Upstream water retention is an idea worth thinking about.
More Discussion of UBB and Caps
Following are two quotes from two different “Bell” companies
“At Verizon, we don’t have bandwidth usage caps,” Kevin Laverty, a spokesman for the U.S. telecom giant says. The company is not experiencing capacity issues, “therefore, usage caps aren’t required at this time.” Financial Post
“It’s network congestion and the need to properly manage traffic,” he says in defence of Bell’s practices. “We needed to tackle the issue through pricing.” Financial Post
School Lunch Bags – Follow Up
Previously, David posted an article about the flap in Quebec on socially-appropriate school lunch containers.
The feature in today’s National Post got me thinking about my own use of plastic bags and how that related to environmental sustainability.
Back in the dark ages of disco when I was in school, I recall that I re-used both paper lunch bags and plastic sandwich bags all the time. My parents, who had grown up in the depression, instilled in me an ethic not to throw away things that could be reused. As a result, those paper and plastic lunch bags usually lasted at least a week (and yes, the plastic bag was washed and disinfected before being reused). While that practice did carry some teasing from for schoolmates, it was one that made sense to me at the time.