Andrewwhyte

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Everything posted by Andrewwhyte

  1. Why do you keep comparing the attack on New York with the invasion of Iraq? Why don't you compare Iraq to Pearl Harbour or the Alamo? The comparisons are just as relevant.
  2. News to me. Is that a military thing?
  3. The truth is with the cost of maintenance over a twelve year period, the FXC is no longer a cheaper alternative. There are DZs that have not yet replaced their 12000s with electronic AADs, but the billevery year for half the fleet to go back to Cali is a constant incentive.
  4. That all depends on how bad the water shortage gets in the next fifty years or so.
  5. Currently not for sale at any price. It is a very emotional issue up here. The feeling is that what is an economic issue when we are talking about water for crops and industry would become a defense issue once American citizens start drinking it and depending on it for their lives. Would the US invade Canada to secure water to support ranchers in Wyoming? Unlikely. Would they invade to end a dispute that threatened the lives of thousands of people in the Los Angeles basin during the dry season? Unquestionably, yes they would. There are no inter-provincial water transfers and intra-provincial transfers across watersheds are treated with grave distrust. They are currently building a 24" pipeline between the town to my west and the village to my east due to dry conditions to the east. This will move a very small amount of water from the Athabasca-MacKenzie system (Beaufort sea) to the North Saskachewan system (Hudson's Bay). The environmental ground work was enormous even though virtually none of the water will ever get to the river.
  6. I thought it was a wildlife refuge. Do you favour opening up Yosemite and Yellowstone to mineral exploration/exploitation as well? If not is it because ANWR is a lot further away than other parks/reserves? These questions are not just directed at Kelpdiver.
  7. There is no doubt that Canada benefits from its asymmetrical position in Norad and Nato. To say we need no defense however, is false. During the cold war that was probably true, however it is not reasonable to think that the US would defend our interests in the Arctic. A few years ago we sent our navy out to defend our fishing interests against Spain. Would the Americans done that for us? No. Our participation rate in NA defense has a very real effect upon all other aspects of our relationship with US. Co-dependence is the greatest contributor to good relations there is. If Canada decreased it's participation rate it would cause headaches in the pentagon. If Canada decreases it's international commitments it will cause problems at the state department. Politicians always claim that trade and defence issues are not linked between us. Everyone understands that that is complete bullshit. If you would ask Canadians what our number one defensive risk is I think you would find a large contingint for "protecting our fresh water supplies from the Americans." Could we stop a determined attack from the Americans? No, no one on the planet can. Can we make it very expensive? perhaps. National defense has more functions than protection from invasion.
  8. Umm, Canada is not the next largest first world country after the US. Canada is the next largest country after Russia.
  9. not that there is anything wrong with that... No, that is it's function.
  10. Now THERE'S a good idea for a movie script.
  11. Opening up ANWR and domestic offshore drilling will do little to the price of oil, but it will do lots for the US current account deficit. That sadly is not much of a hot button issue for voters these (or any) days. Politicians who delve into financial technicals don't sell as well as platitudes and baby kissing. The truth remains that improving energy efficiency is still the most powerful tool to be applied to the problem. The concept that you need to open up other sources while you 'transition' is only marginally useful, as we have seen all to well in the inter Gulf war period. If the price is brought down all 'transitioning' comes to a complete halt; in true capitalistic fashion price is the principle agent of behavior change.
  12. The EMPLOYMENT RATE and the UNEMPLOYMENT RATE are not compliments, as one would tend to think they are. The employment rate is the number of people with a job/ the number of people. The unemployment rate is the number of people with out a job/ the number of people who want one. For example is a stay at home mom unemployed, or is she not participating in the job market? What about that guy who just won the powerball lotto, Is he unemployed or just retired at age 31? Is the local drug dealer unemployed, or employed in the black market? these people are captured in the LABOR MARKET PARTICIPATION RATE. As usual the statistics do not lie. However they are more complex than the simplistic way they are portrayed in the media.
  13. Except of course the capital that fled the country would get off Scot free (is that an ethnic slur?). All mobile capital would quickly follow suit.
  14. It is not horrible. He was old. It was a life well lived.
  15. "Iraq owes us so we should take their oil at below market rates." That part ought to go over well.
  16. And don't bother trying to enter the US until you can get a pardon. whats the story there!? The Americans have taken the stanse that all criminal convicts are personas non gratas. They do not know you are a convict, but if you attempt to enter, they will know when they query your name. From that point on you will have to apply for an expensive waiver which you may or may not get. On the other hand, if you stay away until you request and receive a pardon from your government, the yanks will never know it happened. Speak to your lawyer about what the time frame and procedures are for pardons for non violent, first time offenses in your country. Canadian DZs are full of people who have never jumped in the states due to indiscretions twenty years ago. There are also plenty of people who jumped through the whoops before they went to the border and have no problems.
  17. And don't bother trying to enter the US until you can get a pardon.
  18. The chin strap on the Z1 is not useless, it works great for securing the helmet to the chest strap for take off if you choose not to wear on the ride to altitude Serves the same purpose as a hockey helmet chin strap.
  19. Very strange. I set the elastic tension when I bought mine nine or ten years ago and haven't adjusted it since. I just put it on and go.
  20. I do think that the intensity of resentment against the US has increased under Bush. There is always a level of dislike for the US here in Canada, particularly on the political left. It grown enormously over the last five years or so.
  21. Yup. I have been in a situation a few times lately where I would have done tandems, but someone else on the staff was not comfortable. My decision was to stand us all down. (I hope the DZO does not read this lol) It is important to recognize how powerful peer pressure is in marginal conditions.
  22. Have you thought about downsizing yet? It's time.
  23. and your point? Increase the supply and the demand will soak it up, negating any downward pressure. The only way you'll decrease prices is with a significant decrease in the demand. That depends on how much you increase the supply by. The demand for food has grown incessantly for the last three hundred years, yet the price has more or less continuously declined. Why? because the supply has swamped demand. Maybe these microbes will hit a 'tipping point' where the energy you get from it will more than pay to desalinate water and ship it from the coast to the desert. How much bio-mass can we produce in the world's deserts if that is the case?