real-social-connections-reduce-all-time-high-student-stress

Most Popular Course In Yale University’s History Teaches Students How To Reduce Stress Through Real Social Interactions

Yale Professor Julia Santos teaches the most popular class in Yale University history on how to reduce stress through routine real, physical social interaction.  Social Media give today’s students the impression of interaction but it is so cursory as to only cause increase angst because students end up unnecessarily comparing Read more…

cost of growing pot indoor vs outdoor

Cost To Grow Cannabis Inside vs Outside & Why The Canadian Government Wants It Grown Outside

The Canadian Federal Government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has legalized recreational cannabis (pot) as of October 17th, 2018.  As a result of this legalization, cannabis companies have been massively expanding their traditional indoor facilities to meet the expected new demand.  Indoor hydroponic facilities offer very good security protections but Read more…

sex-lies-loneliness-dating-modern-world

VIDEO: Sex Lies & Loneliness – Dating in the Modern World

Joanna Coles on CNN’s “GPS with Fareed Zakaria” explains that people are transitioning from the classical method of meeting potential mates to an electronic process.  She explains that there are serious positives to using apps to find potential spouses including:

  1. Drawing from a much larger pool
  2. Eliminating the effort required rule out a potential mate if there are characteristics you will not tolerate (i.e. Like Trump vs Hate Trump or Meat Eater vs Vegetarian)
  3. Reducing the frustration of not finding someone compatible in a bar or other social setting

But there are also enormous negatives that have larger consequences for society at large like:

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VIDEO: How The African Population Explosion Creates Opportunities

In “The West” we don’t often discuss or even consider Africa.  However, over the next 20 years the population of Africa is going to double and we will all be paying attention to that.  Without doubt Africa’s population explosion will lead to two things:

  1. Increased demand for goods and services
  2. Increased workforce to provide those goods and services

What is in question is:

  1. Will the governments of the Africa continue to stabilize?
  2. Will the rule of law continue to expand and allow individuals and companies to prosper on a playing field level enough to attract foreign talent and capital?
  3. Will African infrastructure continue to improve or will investments stop causing the existing infrastructure to decay?
  4. Will governments be able to educate their populations so that they are useful participants in a modern economy?
  5. Will African farmers produce enough food to sustain their population?

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ian-bremmer-on-the-money-eurasia-group-russia-marshall-plan

Why Russia Turned Out So Differently From Germany & Japan

After World War 2 the US (and West in general) supported its former enemies.  Rebuilding cities, legal systems, and economies on a massive scale.  Germany and Japan were the primary beneficiaries of that financial aid and guidance and today those two countries are large stable entities that improve the West’s standard of living by providing both solid trading partners and political allies.

Some argue that those countries now take “our” jobs when in fact the evidence is clear that those countries have expanded the global economy for all.   It is true that the US, Canada and the UK have a smaller slice of the global economic pie in 2018 compared to1950, but the pie is many times larger, so the net benefit to those countries is irrefutable.

The rebuilding (not reconstruction) plan was named after then US Secretary of State George Marshall.  Today the Marshall Plan is touted as the cure all for every failing state, from Afghanistan to Mozambique but, as this New Yorker article explains, for a Marshal Plan had a lot more to do with reassurance and a lot less to do with money than most people think.

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US and Canadian Crime Rates Are Way Down Thanks To Engagement

If you live in the United States or Canada and you feel less safe than you did 20 years ago, you are likely either in one of the very few geographic bubbles (like Chicago or rural Alberta) or you are a victim of politicians and social media trying to manipulate your natural fears.  The fact is that crime, violent and otherwise is waaaay down.

Canadian Crime Statistics

Below are the Canadian statistics and they roughly concur with the US crime statistics in that crime peaked near the year 1990 and then declined between 30 to 80% in all categories and in nearly all regions.  This despite the fact that it is more likely a citizen will report a crime today than they would have 30 years ago.

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Strathmore MLA Derek Fildebrandt Claims Jason Kenney Told Him He Cannot Run Against a Women

The video below shows Derek Fildebrandt at the Strathmore on Monday April 23rd, claiming that UCP leader Jason Kenney told him he could not run against a female UCP member:

…What Jason (Kenney) said to me. It’s not about me challenging other incumbents. It was only about me challenging female incumbents… And he said I could run against any other men…  I don’t think it serves women well to have effectively affirmative action in politics…

It should be noted that Mr. Fildebrandt is accused of many politically unsettling problems including:

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trans-mountain-pipeline-logo

Does Alberta Have Both The Legal Authority & The Gumption To Block Oil Shipments To BC?

In a word, yes.

1 – Does Alberta Have the Legal Authority To Block Oil Shipments to British Columbia?

As explained in the video below,  ALL oil and gas products in Alberta used to be COMPLETELY controlled by the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission (APMC) which still exists today.  There has been no legal impediments to that process put in place since the APMC was formed in 1973, so yes the Province of Alberta can legally block petroleum shipments to BC.

2 – Would Albertans and Alberta Companies Support Blocking Oil Shipments to British Columbia?

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kinder-morgan-trans-mountain-pipeline-map

Twinning the Kinder-Morgan Trans Mountain Pipeline Is Now Too Big To Fail

Should the Province of Alberta buy the Trans Mountain Pipeline from Kinder-Morgan if they want to walk away from the project?  That question was posed to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley today and she responded with an emphatic ‘Yes!’.

It has become abundantly clear, whether you are for or opposed to this particular pipeline or not, that having the relatively simple twinning of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline fail to be built would signify the end of even medium scale infrastructure projects in Canada.

There will always be interest groups and affected people that have some legitimate claim against a large project.  The standard for projects should not be keeping everyone happy.  The standard for infrastructure projects MUST be if they are in the national interest.  That national interest contains a giant list important factors including:

  • environmental concerns
  • affected citizens needs and wants
  • global competitiveness concerns
  • financial concerns
  • public safety

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sad-mark-zuckerberg-facebook

Facebook’s Problems Just Keep Getting Bigger

Below is a list of current serious Facebook legal issues:

  1. The Canadian Federal Government and the Province of BC agreed to join the separate investigations into Facebook user data being sent to AggegateIQ (part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal)
  2. Facebook just admitted they did know about the Russian meddling in the 2016 US Presidential election, in 2016
  3. Facebook has temporarily walked away from a major project to use their data in Hospitals to improve patient outcomes
  4. Facebook has just shut down AggegateIQ ‘s account for improving receiving data from Cambridge Analytica
  5. Facebook apologized to a notable Myanmar group because Mark Zuckerberg’s claims of how Facebook is effectively responding to hate speech and used Myanmar as an example.  The groups involve claim that Facebook was actually quite slow to respond and that they cleaned up their own mess.
  6. Brazil fined Facebook $33M for not turning over WhatsApp data (that Facebook is almost certainly unable to turn over because the information is encrypted)
  7. The US Government is requiring Mark Zuckerberg to appear in front of the
    1. US House of Representatives Committee on April 11th
    2. US Senate Committee on April 10th

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