mr. roger’s neighborhood

Rogers wireless wants to keep the iphone out of Canada. The phone can
access any wireless network, and Rogers, who boasted record high profits
in the last quarter, wants to keep it that way. Rogers has the
monopoly in Canada since buying out Fido. As the only GSM provider, Rogers is
free to charge Canadians as much as it wants. Canada is ranked
highest in cellphone charges, in a tie with Uganda, the difference
being Uganda has a very underdeveloped cell phone network, while
Canadian consumers are just being gouged by a greedy telecom corporation.
Rogers will stall the iphone’s release as much as it can,
and when the new phone is available it will be with much higher
fees than americans pay.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aLxH_nXqRmlw&refer=canada

http://earwaks.com/news/2466/rogers-to-carry-apple-iphone.html

the real green

With Green being today’s buzzword, every corporation
claims reducing emissions is part of their agenda, but
Edmonton’s own Earth Water is leading through example, determined
to show us all the way to a new socially conscious economy.
Earth Water donates all of its net profits to charity, and now has
started selling its water in a biodegradable corn starch based bottle.
Hopefully, other corporations will follow this example of ethical
practice in business. Earth Water is the vision of Edmontonian and
entrepreneur Kori Chilibeck, who was inspired to create the company
while backpacking through some of the world’s poorest nations.

Here’s an interview with the man himself and his corporate philosophy:
http://www.citytv.com/edmonton/yourcity_35962.aspx

http://www.uofaweb.ualberta.ca/polisci/news.cfm?story=38203

http://www.vueweekly.com/articles/default.aspx?i=2488

http://www.edmontonians.com/Index_August06.htm

emissions trading – the latest scam

Emissions trading is just the latest way corporations can capitalize
on our guilt, by charging a fee to “offset” tons of CO2 emissions by
planting a few trees. What sounds like a good deed is yet another cash grab.
Many airlines, for example, are now letting customers pay a voluntary
emission fee. The extra money suposedly goes to carbon offsetting
businesses, usually tree planting outfits.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2007-03-14-airline-carbon-offsets_N.htm

So far, this is an unregulated business. Anyone can set up a kiosk selling
emission offsets, and we don’t really have a clue how the money is actually
spent. This is just a way to make consumers feel good while continuing
their polluting behavior unchanged, instead of reducing emissions
or changing consumers behavior – what we should be doing. We could just
as easily plant a tree or do something for the environment on our own, if
we really cared we wouldn’t just be throwing a handful of money at someone
to do our penance for us

hbo pays back evil for good

The series Carnivale was a real throwback to the old style of good
characters and storytelling. Creator Daniel Knauf has brought us a
really addicting story that once it grabs your attention, doesn’t let go
and we are fascinated by the characters. The opening title sequence
alone was like a beautiful art film, anyone could see a lot of love
went into the making of that series.

How did HBO pay Knauf back for being the artist that he is and
offering his best work? Executives decided they no longer were
interested in his story and not only canceled the series but are
now working desperately to prevent him from continuing the series
on his own for the legions of fans who’d like to see the rest of his
tale. HBO refuses to allow him to continue Carnivale even in graphic
novel form. What a way to repay him for all the viewers his series
brought to HBO and the ratings, and profits, etc. HBO doesn’t deserve
our respect for treating artists so badly. HBO doesn’t have to continue
making a series they don’t want to, but if they’re going to throw it
away at least release the rights so Knauf can continue the story on
his own instead of being petty and cheap about ideas they didn’t
even create in the first place

GUILTY!!!!!!

The verdict is in, Friday the 13th of July 2007
was indeed a very unlucky day for Conrad Black. He is now a
convicted criminal. Soon, David Radler may have a golf buddy
in the minimum security prison where he was sentenced to
reside for the next three years. Black also faces several
civil suits against him, including one by his former company,
Hollinger International. It appears, Black will become
very familiar with courtrooms in the coming months.

tales of corporate crime

Conrad Black is on trial for fraud, just the latest in a long line
of crooked CEOs helping themselves to shareholders money on top
of rewarding themselves by increasing their already inflated salaries.
We don’t have to think back too far to remember Enron, or Worldcom.
Mr. Black helped himself to the funds of a public corporation, using
it as his own personal expense account. If you or I did this, we’d
already be in prison. Why should there be another standard for
a greedy CEO? I’m sure there’s room down the hall from Paris
Hilton, if they’d feel too lonely without someone else from their
“class”. These crooks are busy swindling little people – the
stockholders. Just like the G8, these vultures are doing their
best to keep the world poor, and not just in North America. The
Black Hand of multinational corporations is working against the
good of the people in other parts of the world as well.

American firm Bearing Point drafted the most recent oil law in the Iraqi
constitution. Would you as citizens want a foreign corporation making
your country’s laws? Read more about it here:
http://democracyrising.us/content/view/483/151/

ethanol vs. the price of tortillas

Green is the latest trendy buzzword these days, business is working to
keep up with the new trend, capitalize on a growing and expanding new market.
With E85 ethanol grwoing closer on the horizon, corn commodity prices have
risen steeply. In many parts of latin america, many poor people are already
feeling the effects as the price of tortillas has already increased. The price
of a corn tortilla increased 14% last year. While most north americans eat
few corn based products, and corn is mainly used in animal feed products,
the poor of latin america rely on the corn tortilla as they have for centuries.

“Big retailers, mostly supermarkets, have kept tortilla prices steady at
around 55 cents a kilogram, or about 2 pounds, but in Mexico City,
some shops are selling them for 90 cents a kilogram.
For low-income Mexicans, who earn about $18 a day on average,
the increasing prices have hit hard. According to the government,
about half of the country’s 107 million citizens live in poverty.
“When there isn’t enough money to buy meat, you do without,” said
Bonifacia Ysidro as she wrapped an embroidered towel around a
foot-high stack of tortillas to cart home.”

Tortillas, she added, “you can’t do without.”

from: http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/164391

She’s just too humble to say, people are starving so we can
buy gas for our guzzlers. Corn is a poor choice for making
alcohol anyway, cane sugar would be much better and cheaper

See also:

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/18173/

http://www.nhpr.org/node/12689

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N02299550.htm

do you want RF ID tags hidden in your clothing?

http://www.spychips.com/press-releases/levis-secret-testing.html

http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/342/C7689/

http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/murmurs/archives/2006/20060502_rfid.html

i think most people would say no to the above question, we have very
little privacy in today’s world as it is. Jean maker Levi’s announces it
is in trials of permanently embedded RF ID tags in it’s jeans. i think this
is taking the ” nobody else is gonna fit in my jeans ” slogan too far.
While it may be an attempt to stop the Russian black market traffic
in jeans, it can all too easily be used as yet another way to track
people and strip away their freedom.

Levi’s is putting their best spin on this to make it look innnocent,
but if other clothing makers follow suit we’ll all be finding radio
frequency tags sown into the hems of our garments. Isn’t it
already more than enough that these clothing giants make us
pay excessive prices to wear their clothes with huge brand logos
all over them – make us pay to advertise for them, without
having them monitor us everywhere we go? Anyone with an
RF iD reader could track the movements of the “jeans” along
with whoever is inside them. When a corporation like Wal Mart
who lacks even a basic grasp of morality puts this technology
into effect it’ll be scary indeed for us consumers.

Has levi’s stopped putting thse chips in, or are they just keeping
quiet about going further? What happens when insurance
companies start getting the idea of reading RF ID chips in
your car to see if you’re a good driver or not?

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_H_rfid20.1d758c47.html

Big Sugar

Obesity increasing at an alarming rate, with, of course, rising
diabetes rates not far behind. Everything we eat is unnecessarily
loaded with sugar. The human body is just not designed to
process such vast amounts of refined white sugar. In the old
days, when humans were hunter / gatherers the only calories
were probably taken in from eating berries and starches, or maybe
a small amount of honey, not half a dozen cans of sugared syrop
( what a can of cola really is) per day on top of a lot of sugar
loaded foods.

Before 1900, the average person consumed 5 lbs of sugar
each year, now we are consuming 2-3 lbs per week, with
distastrous effects on our health, especially our immune
system.

Many scientists, and nutritionists also predict that in 100 years
from now, everyone will be obese

http://www.healingdaily.com/detoxification-diet/sugar.htm

Here are the sugar contents of some common foods:
taken from :
http://www.cspinet.org/reports/sugar/popsugar.html

USDA recommends that the average person
eat no more than 10 teaspoons of sugar per day)

FOOD TSP “% Daily Value”

Snickers bar, 2.1 oz. 5¾ 58

TastyKake Honey Bun, 3¼ oz. 6 60

Lowfat fruit-flavored yogurt, 8 oz. 7 70

Entenmann’s Chocolate Fudge Cake, 3 oz. 8½ 85

Burger King Cini-minis w/icing,* 4.7 oz. 9Ґ 95

Pepsi, 12 oz. 10¼ 103

Pancake syrup, ¼ cup 10¼ 103

Hostess Lemon Fruit Pie, 4½ oz. 11½ 115

McDonald’s Vanilla Shake,* 20 oz. 12 120

Cinnabon,* 7½ oz. 12¼ 123

Sunkist Orange Soda, 12 oz. 13 130

McDonald’s McFlurry with Butterfingers,* 10 oz. 13¾ 138

Strawberry Passion Awareness Fruitopia, 20 oz. 17¾ 178

Dairy Queen Mr. Misty Slush,* 32 oz. 28 280

Sources: Manufacturers, USDA, CSPI analyses and/or estimates.

Center for Science in the Public Interest, August, 1999

US housing sales slump

Sales of American homes are down the lowest in six years,
is this is sign of the weakening of the US economy?
Lennar, one of the major builders in America says
earnings are down 73%. The US economy has been
propped up by construction, could this be an
indication of the future?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aL6nFoONg7qU&refer=home

http://money.cnn.com/2006/08/24/news/economy/newhomes/index.htm

Meanwhile, in Canada, T shirt maker Gildan announced
that it will move it’s production to Central America and
the Carribean to save 25 cents per shirt in production
costs. 1800 jobs in North America will be lost. Two
hard hits for the working woman/man, only the latest
in a long line of plant closures and layoffs in the last
3 months.
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2007/03/27/gildancuts.html