For those of you who haven't been following along, there are some new airline rules going into affect regarding delays that force aircrafts to sit on the tarmac. There have been many documented cases of passengers being stuck on the tarmac for extended lengths of time, often without any food or water, while waiting for clearance to depart. A recent example involves Virgin America and a plane that was on the tarmac (loaded with passengers) for nearly 4 and a half hours. The solution to this problem, in the eyes of the FAA, is the impose fines on the ...

This is actually kind of a sore spot, so I thought that I would touch upon it. The New York Times recently announced that they were going to start charging for content in 2011. Strangely enough, most people who grew up in the Internet age seem to think that everything, including premium content, should be free of charge. I personally don't believe that's the case, and would even go so far to say that having an economy based on content generated at the expense of advertising dollars is an extremely bad thing. But at the ...

So, this is actually a timely story, given my recent efforts to purchase more local food. The British Columbia Centre for Disease Control has recently shut down a local Chilliwack company that produces raw (i.e. unpasteurized) milk due to contamination with faecal matter. I won't argue whether or not that faecal matter is of concern, since I don't know the levels that were found or how they relate. The owner of the business is obviously upset with the government interference: But Home on the Range owner Alice Jongerden said the health agency has never contacted them with concerns, or ...

For the most part, I don't really keep up with celebrity gossip, and can't remember the last time I paid any notice to any of those garbage magazines in the super markets. When I was down in Punta Cana, I caught something one day about Tiger Woods but didn't really understand what had happened. Jump ahead a few days later, and the TV was full of information about his alleged affairs. Nobody is perfect, and everyone slips up from time to time. That said, when two people step up to that alter and proclaim their love for each ...

I posted a photo of a cruise ship this morning surrounded by the mountains: I was just reading the news though, and apparently that very same ship ended up killing a baby whale: What appears to be a baby minke or fin whale has been impaled and killed on a cruise ship that docked in Vancouver Saturday morning. The whale, about 20 metres long, was wrapped around the bow of the ship in full view of tourists at Canada Place. A worker from the cruise ship, who didn’t want to be named, said he was not sure when the whale had been hit. ...

British Columbia just announced that they are going to be switching to a harmonized sales tax model in July of next year. Basically, instead of having a provincial sales tax (PST) of 7%, and a goods and services tax (GST) of 5%, they are going to have one combined tax, a harmonized sales tax (HST) of 12%. I'm no economist, but that seems like a pretty bad idea. Here's a quote from the official release: This is the single biggest thing we can do to improve B.C.’s economy,” said Premier Gordon Campbell. “This is an essential step to make our ...

I wrote an article last year about a girl named Megan who committed suicide after a boy named Josh on MySpace told her that the world would be better off without her. The tragic element of that tale is that there was never a boy named Josh - it was always a fake person, invented by a friend of Megan's and Lori Drew, that girl's mother. The two of them together gained Megan's confidence on MySpace, and then proceeded to toss insults at her, eventually leading directly to Megan wrapping some rope around her neck and ...

I just heard this on the news, and it's the kind of thing that makes my blood boil. The Hastings Racetrack is being forced to close for a month during the Olympics due to security concerns by VANOC. Lots of employees will be out of work, and some may even lose their jobs. Given the Olympics are supposed to help the economy, it's rather ironic that VANOC is forcing some people out of work. Shouldn't the rights of the individual business owners be respected, regardless of what VANOC wants?

I just read this article which talks about how the executives at Ford are willing to cut their salaries to $1 if they receive money from the federal government. Wow, that's nice of them. Notably absent in that entire article is a mention of executive bonuses. Bonuses and dividends are typically taxed as investments instead of income, and usually result in a smaller tax burden. In Canada, the tax rate on dividends is roughly half of what it is in regular income, so that's the preferred method of making money. So if they reduce their ...

This is one of the most tragic things I've read in a very long time. Shoppers at a WalMart were so eager to get through the doors for today's sale that they literally stomped one of the workers there to death. Even while he was down, people still trampled past him, with nobody stopping to help him up or make sure he was ok. Another worker also hit the ground, as did a pregnant lady. I really have to question what type of world we live in where something like that can happen. It's one thing at ...