Is Globalive Wireless controlled by non-Canadians?

Q. Is Globalive Wireless controlled by non-Canadians?

A. You only have to walk through our main office at Queen's Quay in Toronto or our other offices in North Vancouver, Kanata, Calgary or Edmonton to see a Canadian team building a new Canadian wireless company. In March 2009, both Industry Canada and the Justice Department carefully reviewed our structure and granted us licences to compete against the incumbent carriers (TELUS, Rogers and Bell). They ruled that we were fully compliant with Canadian ownership and control rules, applying the same test as the CRTC did a few months later.

Q. Why did the CRTC decide to hold a public hearing?

A. In April 2009 TELUS asked the CRTC to hold a public hearing to effectively review the Industry Canada and Justice Department decision. To everyone’s surprise the CRTC agreed, and for the first time in its history, it held such a public review. It is nice to be first but we weren't so happy about this one.

Q. What did the CRTC decide?

A. The CRTC agreed with the government of Canada that Globalive met the objective legal requirements of Canadian ownership and control. However, it differed from the Government in its subjective interpretation of “control in fact” of our business and raised four questions about our structure all of which go well beyond the legal requirements of Canadian ownership and control requirements. We respect the CRTC’s right to form a subjective opinion on the facts. But we respectfully disagree with that opinion.

via WIND | No Choice for Canadians This Christmas?.

amazing water filter turns filthy water drinkable

Too much of the world lacks access to clean drinking water. Engineer Michael Pritchard did something about it — inventing the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds. An amazing demo from TEDGlobal 2009.

With cutting-edge nanotech, Michael Pritchard’s Lifesaver water-purification bottle could revolutionize water-delivery systems in disaster-stricken areas around the globe.

via Michael Pritchard’s water filter turns filthy water drinkable | Video on TED.com.

49 % Rate U.S. Health Care System Good or Excellent

Forty-nine percent (49%) of voters nationwide now rate the U.S. health care system as good or excellent. That marks a steady increase from 44% at the beginning of October, 35% in May and 29% a year-and-a-half ago.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 27% now say the U.S. health care system is poor.

It is interesting to note that confidence in the system has improved as the debate over health care reform has moved to center stage. The latest polling shows that only 38% favor the health care legislation currently working its way through Congress.

via Those Who Rate U.S. Health Care System Good or Excellent Up To 49% – Rasmussen Reports™.

Paul Romer’s radical idea: Charter cities

How can a struggling country break out of poverty if it's trapped in a system of bad rules? Economist Paul Romer unveils a bold idea: “charter cities,” city-scale administrative zones governed by a coalition of nations. (Could Guantánamo Bay become the next Hong Kong?)

Paul Romer is developing a radical new model of growth and governance, which calls for the establishment of city-scale special administrative zones.

via Paul Romer’s radical idea: Charter cities | Video on TED.com.

Petrobank, Baytex try new oil extraction technique – The Globe and Mail

A Calgary company is using a counter-intuitive process – burning oil to extract it – in an experiment that aims to revolutionize heavy-oil production around the world.

Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd. (PBG-T49.41-0.59-1.18%) , which piloted the technology in the Athabasca oil sands, is now applying it to a Saskatchewan petroleum reservoir in a joint venture with Baytex Energy Trust. (BTE.UN-T27.63-0.33-1.18%) The technology uses a slow-moving wave of underground combustion to heat reservoirs to temperatures as high as 600 degrees, hot enough to melt the heavy oil from the rock in which it is locked.

Heavy oil is a massive global resource; in Saskatchewan alone, some 20 billion barrels of heavy crude have yet to be recovered, in part because current technologies can't get it.

Producers currently use a cold flow technique that uses suction to pump heavy oil from the earth. But, “you only get about 6 to 10 per cent of the oil out [that way], so you've got 90 per cent of the oil still in the reservoir with no way to get it out. And this is the way to get it out,” said Chris Bloomer, Petrobank's senior vice-president and chief operating officer for heavy oil.

via Petrobank, Baytex try new oil extraction technique – The Globe and Mail.

Petrobank Begins Air Injection At Its Kerrobert THAI Heavy Oil Project

THAI stands for Toe-to-Heel-Air-Injection and is a revolutionary new process for in situ combustion that uses a two-well pairing of a vertical air injection well and a horizontal production well to extract and partially upgrade heavy oil within the reservoir. Heavy oil remains a major untapped resource, with vast accumulations around the world, and THAI is the leading edge technology to efficiently and economically produce that energy.

In Saskatchewan alone, there is an estimated 20 billion barrels of heavy oil resource which has not been recovered to date using conventional technology. Furthermore, Petrobank says THAI is more environmentally sustainable and efficient than other thermal heavy oil production technologies — it extracts more of the resource while using practically no natural gas or water in the process.

—- THAI is an evolutionary in-situ combustion technology for the recovery of bitumen and heavy oil that integrates existing proven technologies and provides the opportunity to create a step change in the development of heavy oil resources globally. —-

via New Technology Magazine – Petrobank Begins Air Injection At Its Kerrobert THAI Heavy Oil Project.

The Deadbeat Stimulus

I’ve written about this in the past in conceptual terms but never put it into an analysis. The true stealth stimulus plan in America is letting so many of its people live “rent free” as they sit in defaulted homes not making a mortgage payment. This “cost savings” allows them to shop and spend, and otherwise support the American consumption society. While it is hard to keep track of all the stimuli, try to think back to the Bush spring 2008 stimulus. (that was about 37 stimuli ago) That goosed GDP quite well for two quarters. But we now have a quasi permanent stimulus plan that goes on quarter, after quarter, year after year…. and its equivalent to have a permanent Bush level stimulus (using very conservative figures).

Let’s look at this from a more analytical eye … (see link below for all the details)

Annualized that is just under $160 Billion a year of “stimulus” to the US economy via deadbeats; i.e. the Bush 2008 rebate happening quarter after quarter, year after year. Again, I contened the real number is higher than that as property taxes are not included. If I increase the monthly payment “avoided” by $250 (to account for property taxes) we get very close to $200B of extra money flowing through the US economy that should be going to pay for a roof over one’s head.

via The Truth Behind the U.S Government’s Stealth Stimulus Plan — Seeking Alpha.

repeal of the Bush tax cuts in 2010, a year ahead of schedule?

Once the Bush tax cuts expire, high earners will see their personal income taxes rise from 35% to 39.6%. (And probably go up from there. The House health care bill includes an additional 5.4% surtax on gross income for high-income individuals.) In addition, the estate tax will return. And long-term capital gains tax rates, now at 15%, will be boosted to as much as 28%.

via It’s Almost Too Late to Escape Pelosi’s New Year’s Eve Tax Trap.

Greece tests the limit of sovereign debt

Greece is disturbingly close to a debt compound spiral. It is the first developed country on either side of the Atlantic to push unfunded welfare largesse to the limits of market tolerance.

Euro membership blocks every plausible way out of the crisis, other than EU beggary. This is what happens when a facile political elite signs up to a currency union for reasons of prestige or to snatch windfall gains without understanding the terms of its Faustian contract.

via Greece tests the limit of sovereign debt as it grinds towards slump – Telegraph.

Hugh Hendry: The US Economy Has Reached Zero Hour

In his latest fund letter, hardcore deflationist Hugh Hendry describes the entire reflation-based rally as a FAKE, and says the US has reached its “zero hour.” (via MarketFolly)

…The surprise might concern the role that rising leverage has played in boosting GDP and in anchoring investors’ expectations to an unrealistic level of nominal GDP. Over the last decade, each marginal dollar of debt has generated less and less marginal income. We knew that there would be a “zero-hour” for the economy when the creation of new debt would not contribute to GDP growth. The government’s reaction to last year’s demand shock has been to increase its own leverage. But, with the economy operating at its zero-hour, we believe this incremental leverage will actually have a negative impact. That is to say, the public sector will fail in its attempt to bring the economy back to its previous level of nominal GDP. In this scenario, the outcome will disappoint the market’s expectations, which are rampantly bullish as evidenced by this year’s dramatic re-pricing of risk assets.

This zero-hour for America has perhaps arrived sooner than many had anticipated. It was heralded by the Japanese experience. Japan is the bogeyman that confronts all academic thinkers, regardless of creed, from Krugman to Ferguson, as well as all who would choose to intervene in the workings of the economy. In a debate I had with Mr. Ferguson in London last month, he claimed that Japan was an extreme outlier and could be ignored. Really?

via Hugh Hendry: The US Economy Has Reached Zero Hour.