if we turn off latent power sources

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Apparently, if we all pulled the plugs, rather than turn off the electronic devices, we would save phenomenal amounts of electric power.

Standby power is the culprit.

$11B could be saved in north america each year.

This article, from the National Post about a week ago, cites a few rather startling statistics:

1. Standby power uses approx 10% of electricity in north america

2. 4B power supplies are sold each year in north america

3. in 1999, residential phantom power consumed more electricity in California than all refrigeration.

4. California then decreed all new power sources must draw less than .5W in standby mode.

5. Most new devices in California only draw .1W in standby mode ... and the cost to change devices was absorbed by manufacturing without increasing prices!

6. All except California have not moved to enable similar laws...in ten years in north america.

7. if these changes were made in Ontario, the two new nuclear plants ($26B to taxpayers) may not be required.

8. World-wide, standby power consumes more than 480 TWh a year - equal to all the nuclear power plants in France, China and India (87).

Wouldn't it be something if we (world-wide) could reduce standby in all devices to .1W?

We could start by asking store what the standby power is and not buying anything with more than .1W.

Market Performance - June 30th

In the Star, for end of June. There have been a few that have done well this year and I wish I had a crystal ball (or insider information). Looking carefully at the attached, some of the best funds appear to be:

- MacKenzie Alternate Strategies

- Fidelity China Series B and A

- CI Global Science & Tech Corporate Class

- TD Science & Technology I and A

Except for Fidelity China A & B, their 3-yr records are very poor.

Here are a few I checked stats on since the first of 2009. They are looking quite attractive and I will research further before getting back in some of these finds ... in the next month.

Do you know of any others that are looking good for the remainder of 2009?

Tour de France 2009

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Tour de France in July. The most popular road bike racing of the year.

It began July 4th and finishes July 26th ... 3,500 KMs.

Stage 7 (Fri July 10th) has been completed and Lance Armstrong is now third but very close. His Astana team-mate Alberto Contador, is two seconds ahead of Lance. The difficulty will be to find a way to beat his team-mate ... doesn't often happen ... without alienating or discouraging their American team. It is an unusual situation, a team with two leaders. But Astana is a highly respected team with, arguably, the best riders of any team.

Lance may have to out-muscle his team-mate on a hill climb (Monday or Tuesday) or do it in the last time trial (stage 18, July 23rd) ... or wait for the last (and toughest) hill climb in last competitive stage, July 25th.

It may be a very exciting finish!

It is available on OLN (Bell's 211) but you can watch it live (early in the AM) on various Internet live video feeds. Here is the one I have been using.

Harper is at it again

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As reported in the Star today, it is very important to have government auditors, to ensure mistruths and exaggerations (we would call them 'lies' ... but MPs are not allowed to use the word) are corrected.

The problem is Kevin Page (parliamentary budget officer) will probably not have the job much longer.

Here is another example of miscommunication by the Conservatives.

For 2009, the Conservatives indicated 7.5% unemployment (approx 160,000 jobs lost). Page says 8.7% (approx 530,000 jobs lost).

For 2010, the Conservatives indicated 7.7% unemployment (converts to about 200,000 jobs lost) and Page says 8.7% and could go as high as 9.4% (8.7% is approx 700,000 jobs lost). This is a significant difference in lost jobs!

As you can see in the attached, there is significant difference between Page's budget projections and those of Flaherty.

A short while ago, the Conservatives (the name is a misnomer) predicted a $33B deficit for 2009-10. which would improve to a $700M surplus by 2013-14.

Page is indicating a $49B deficit for 2009-10 and a $17B DEFICIT by 2013-14 !

The Conservatives site indicates Harper is a leader of competence and vision! If he is, he should consider using Page's figures from now on ... or change the name of their party and drop the competence and vision reference from their site.

The near future doesn't appear to be a good time for market investments.

Bell TV - better than Rogers

09.7.5: Two years ago, I moved everything from Bell to Rogers (poor Bell service and better Rogers pricing).

We just moved our TV from Rogers back to Bell, as the Rogers promo (free PVR for 24 months finished) and Bell had the same and better pricing. I now have one PVR and two std receivers vs one PVR and one std receiver. However, I must remain a customer for two years.

The only problem is getting used to remote control changes and finding channel preferences. Once you build your favourites, it is much easier.

After long chat sessions and searching of the bell.ca website, I located:
. the alphabetic list of channels that includes the associated channel number
. the numeric listing
. the channel what's on when site

You can search and check more easily than on the remote control. You can also check just your channels.
BTW, Rogers doesn't have a search function on their remote control.

I am very pleased with the HD quality (better than what I saw on Rogers) and the Personal Video Recorder (PVR) works almost as easily as Rogers.

Like Rogers, you can set up your account on the Bell website and easily make programming changes. I did find it quite easy and quick to call Bell for programming changes.

Pls share your comments on Rogers vs Bell.

Not a nice place to be

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Dead last in the G8 group. How ignominious!

The real problem is we are now worse than the USA ... and I thought only India and China would EVER be worse than the USA.

We should be leader in CO2 reductions. Once again, Canada is a

follower. "Canada's emissions are continuing to sky-rocket, now 26% above 1990 levels.".

I can hardly wait for the next election!

Either the Liberals or the lowly NDP will jump on this and use it as a platform.

Some people may be a little confused and associate green with Dion but I hope that has passed. A few days ago, I noticed in the Star how the Liberals are gaining a lot of new members (and funding) after Dion left. Amazing how a party can decide on a leader (who is very logical and has excellent ideas) that doesn't fit ... and then decide on a leader with NO experience ... and attract new members!

Some of you may remember this: "if there is hope it lies in the proles".