Juggling Dynamite

I have to preface this clip by saying that the Questrade ad that leads it is one of the most sexist, predatory, revolting things I have seen. Typical of suck-in-the-retail-trader-platforms, but still…a particularly heinous example of why the financial sales machine is so damaging.  Encouraging people to try and win a downpayment for a home with online trading is everything that is wrong in a nutshell.  In case a different ad plays when you watch the segment, here is a direct link to the Questrade propaganda I am referring to. Also, see Robinhood, Three Friends, and the Fortune that Got Away.

Doug Hoyes, licensed insolvency trustee at Hoyes, Michalos & Associates, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the repercussions for consumers should the Bank of Canada raise rates higher than expected. He also notes spending could be tempered for some time as the hardship remains ahead of businesses and consumers. Here is a direct video link.

The future of travel is in underground tubes and rocketships that go up and back down while the earth does the spinning work for us.  None of these modes of transportation use petrochemicals for fuel.  For an excellent update, see Is Elon Musk About to Make the Aviation Industry Obsolete?

What makes methane such a good choice for carbon-neutral fuel, is that you don’t need a vast and complex bio/synthetic fuel factory (like you do to make bio jet-fuel), just syphon the gas coming out of the sewers, cow slurry or food-waste processing plants, and you have rocket fuel! Less infrastructure, less pollution and more accessible and easy to produce carbon-neutral rocket fuel.

The planned obsolescence profit model is long since affordable.  New extended producer-responsibility with increased taxes and prosecution of offenders must better connect products and services to the environmental and health costs inflicted.  The answer isn’t to resist change or hide the fallout of our choices, the answer is more personal responsibility and wiser resource utilization.  Apps may be free, but our bits and bytes are anything but.

What we don’t see — because it is so carefully hidden from the public eye — is the ecological impact of our social media usage and the wasteful consumption loop we’re trapped in, as we’re pushed to constantly upgrade our devices and turn simple electronics and appliances into “smart” machines. *This episode originally aired on November 13, 2020. Here is a direct audio link.