Foreign Wages

Wages are different all over the world, ranging from ridiculously low to outrageously high. When you travel or live in places with relatively low wages should you stick with the going rate or should you pay more (if you are willing and can afford it)? In some situations problems can occur when someone pays more for a service than they have to.  One individual may be happy paying the going rate but, when someone else pays more for the same service it can lead to higher expectations in salary from the service provider. This could (over time) lead to an imbalance in the local economy. For better or for worse is the amount you pay your employee any one's business other than your own?

Copyrights

When you write something or take a picture and share it with a few friends there it no dispute as to who created/owns that piece of work. When you share something with the whole world, especially on the Internet keeping track of who is copying things can be almost impossible. There are protective measures you can take like placing a watermark on an image or video. This still quite often does not stop people from using your content without your consent and/or claiming it as their own work. When someone copies a piece of work they should assume that the work was created by someone. That person should also try to find out what the restrictions of use are for the work. Quite often all that is needed is an acknowledgement of the creator. I think that people feel that they will not be noticed for coping, but that's not the point! The point is to respect the work and the person(s) who created the work by following their terms.

Just Captivity

Squirrel Monkeys

Is it right to keep animals in captivity when it’s for the greater good? Are their specific circumstances that would make this acceptable? I came across a recent and interesting situation, Squirrel Monkeys that were originally taken from the wild and were illegally sold, then rescued. These monkeys have lost their ability to protect themselves and fend for themselves so they cannot survive alone in the forest. Currently these  Squirrel Monkeys are kept captive and protected in a large fenced in area of natural forest in the Dominican Republic. The monkeys are happy and healthy and are begin used for educational tours and to raise money for a free health and dental clinic. The clinic is accessed by local impoverished people that would otherwise have no access to health care of any kind. Without this unusual clinic many of these people would suffer and some might even die. This is a very good example of a situation where people are essentially meeting the needs of the captive Squirrel Monkeys as best they can, profiting and using the profits to help many impoverished local people. The clinic usually runs once a week, meeting the health needs of around 150 people.

It's all relative

We have all bean there, and probably multiple times a day, waiting for something to load. As computer speeds increase so do our expectations.  It seems, every time a new generation of computers and other devices come out we all seem to be just as amazed as we were initially with the last one. In turn we are eventually just as frustrated with this new device as we where with the old one. On the Internet now we have many bandwidths demanding sites with lots of flash, photos and even HD videos.  Is this rapid rise in speed good for humanity? If or when the speed peaks how well will we handle it? 

Our Dependence on Modern Technology

Recently I went through the experience of having my smart phone breakdown. Between delays and repairs I had to part with my android for close to six weeks. Initially it felt as though I had lost my thumbs.  After the first week  I stopped constantly reaching towards my pocket looking for an answer, or trying to communicate. I had begun to adjust to life without.  This experience made me realize just how dependent I and many others are on today's technology. Is it smart that we have become so dependent on something that can potentially disappear overnight?

Privatization of the City

Toronto's garbage strike of 2009.

This would not have happened with private business.

Canadian cities are run by the elected municipal government. It has been like this for a long time. Most of the services that are provided by the cities are also run by the cities.  These city run services can be expensive.  Cities usually run at a deficit.  Projects are often completed late and over budget.  What if cities were to hire a private business to run a project or department?  They would save money! Businesses tend to run more efficiently in order to survive. This would then lead to a more balanced budget and allow the city to provide better services to it's people.

Can we live without oil?

Car tires, fuel and asphalt - our reliance on oil.

There are millions of different things in our daily lives that are made from oil. Chances are you are holding something right now that is made from oil. It is a fact that eventually we will run out of the gooey gold, but the real immediate concern is production. When major natural disasters occur in areas rich in oil or in areas that consume large amounts of oil (such as Japan), almost everything stops in terms of oil production/refinement and consumption. We are so dependent on oil that if we were to have an immediate  and immense enough shortage it would be all round chaos. Almost everything in our day to day lives would be greatly effected. Most things that we use today come from oil, with a major shortage all of these things would become much more expensive. Should we be so reliant on just one substance for so much in our lives?

What are we eating?

When you pick a piece of fruit up in your local supermarket can you figure out where it comes from? Probibly not, I know I can't. In most cases it is almost impossible to figure this out because in just one batch of produce the sources can vary by hundreds of kilometers. This also makes it incredibley dificult to pinpoint the single yield of one crop should it be infected. This situation gets even worse when you are dealing with liquid products such as milk. If there is a problem with one cow then you have a problem with every ounce of milk that the problem milk comes into contact with. These problems are growing, especially with mass production. Yet the public concern appears minimal.  What can we do to better monitor our food supply?

Tax on green Electricity?

Image from www.debtclock.ca

If you started a solar or wind farm in Canada the government of Canada will pay you somewhere around 60 cents per kilowatt. If you live in Canada and look at your hydro bill you will find that you are paying around 8 cents per kilowatt. This means that the government is giving money away to promote alternative energies. This frankly is not the way to save money with Canada over $558,500,000,000.00 CDN in Federal debt. You might say that they are supporting the future of energy production, but 60 cents? That means that for every kilowatt of “clean” energy you use the government is losing about 52 cents. Although this makes a great opportunity for wind and solar farmers for everybody else it is more like a tax on electricity. This might not be the best use of our tax dollars at this time.

Universes in black holes?

Hubble ultra deep field

 About 10,00 Galaxies 

A smaller area of the sky than a 1 mm-by-1 mm square of paper held 1 meter away!

 

Think of a city, its big and some have millions of people. Now think of Earth and how many cites there are ( about 2,500,000). Now think of how insignificant those cities are compared to the entire solar system. Now consider how many stars there are in the Milky Way (it had been estimated `200 to 400 billion stars). The next step is how many galaxies are there? Estimates very from 100 to 200 billion all the way to 500 billion. Take those mind blowing numbers into consideration when a new theory suggests that for every black hole there is an other entire universe on the other side. It is not yet possible to estimate the number of black holes in our universe but so far we have discovered over 70. According to this theory we could be in a black hole ourselves and that black hole could be in another one. This is certainly something to think about. 

Trusting people

Believe it or not every day you are trusting your life with probably hundreds of people. You might not realize but if you really think about it the guy driving the city bus or the air plane has your life in their hands. This first occurred to me when I was sitting under a crane that was dangling a steel beam directly over me. If, for some reason that beam dropped or the cable holding it snapped I along with about a dozen people would have been probably seriously injured or killed. You also have to consider that you have never met these people you are trusting your life with. This demonstrates how lucky you are every day trusting people.

Progress with War?

Satern V rocket

 

When you think of war you probably don't come up with very positive images. For almost everybody involved with war there are many negatives. Then again if you consider all aspects of a war there are some positives. When you look back in history you will find that without wars we would not have many of our greatest inventions. For example many of the technologies for aircraft  were invented for war by governments and are now in use today by commercial airliners. Also there are some inventions like the Jeep that would not have been even considered if it were not for WWII. The cold war has had the same effect, have a look at space exploration.  We would have been in space much later if it were not for the Space Race. Many things about war are bad and certainly out way the good thing. I think that the next time people consider how horrible the past wars have been they should also recognize everything that wars have done for us.

Why so many?

Lucy

It has been said the there are 50 million stray dogs in the USA alone. If you are getting a dog and want a purebred you might want to consider what your getting and where if came from. Remember that a mutt is referring to just another breed that has been mixed from 2 or more breeds.  This is how all dog breeds were created. Puppy mills only exist because people purchase dogs from non-reputable pet shops and private non-reputable pet dealers. If we as a society stop supporting these mills they will cease to exist. People should consider adoption, rescue centres and reputable breeders. If everybody would simply think before they get a dog than I believe many of the dog shelters in the world would not be needed.

No blue bins here

Fort San Felipe, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

How much of that would you recycle?

Like in many developing countries, the Dominican Republic faces a growing challenge with what to do with their garbage. Currently there is no apparent recycling. Sadly you have to throw all of the potentially recyclable material in to the trash or in some cases on the road and into the street. Recycling can be very profitable and provide jobs. People in developing countries all over the world tend to reuse many things that we would typically throw out and in many cases fix broken items and resell them. With recycling we could go one step further by creating programs that encourage recycling, creating jobs both on the collection side and in post collection manufacturing opportunities from the recycled materials. The recycling model suggests that in order to create a successful business model from recycling – in other words make money - you need to have large quantities of recyclable material available. If you could come up with some sort of system that would attract people to collect these materials (like paying money for bottles, cans, glass and paper) we would certainly see ample supply. Surely, there must be interest in this recycling business opportunity.