Good point. My wife is stuck at home alone all day and I don't think it's doing her emotional state any good. I'm working in a dark windowless room in an empty, totally deserted building, which isn't doing my emotional state any good, though I at least get out of the house. A (short!) trip to an island in south BC at this gorgeous time of year might be just the thing to lift both our spirits.
-Gnobuddy
The UK Pound is up 1% against most major currencies. The Stock market is up 2%.
Market Data - BBC News
Oh, Happy Days. Hope we live to get the benefits. It affects my pension. Follow the money.
Market Data - BBC News
Oh, Happy Days. Hope we live to get the benefits. It affects my pension. Follow the money.
Yowsa. I saw $1.02/litre on a sign a few days ago, didn't realise it had actually dropped below a buck. Take a photo to preserve that sight for posterity!
I drove through a tiny, tiny, snow-shower on the way to work this morning. Tiny little snowflakes, floating gently down, for only about a 500-metre length of 64 Ave in Surrey, just east of King George Blvd. Weird! (But it lifted my spirits instantly, due to the sheer silliness of a microscopically small snow-shower that barely spanned a couple of city blocks.)
I do remember snow in April in several local cities a few years ago - I can't recall which year exactly, though.
-Gnobuddy
This was a heavy snow on the north end of the Port Mann bridge at about 9:45 this morning. By the time I got to Gaglardi Way, the skies were clearing and the roads were dry. I think Coquitlam and PoCo probably got the most.
EDIT: Looks like it got coverage:
It is snowing in Metro Vancouver right now (VIDEOS & PHOTOS) - Vancouver Is Awesome
EDIT: Looks like it got coverage:
It is snowing in Metro Vancouver right now (VIDEOS & PHOTOS) - Vancouver Is Awesome
At least we don’t have to buy gas in quarts just to be able to afford 10 of em!
What’s the big difference in price....is it all tax?
Edit....wow!
“ Tax isn't the only reason gas is so expensive in B.C., but a big piece of what you pay at the pump goes to Victoria and Ottawa.
Here's a list of all the taxes you pay on a litre of gas in B.C.:
Provincial motor fuel tax (Metro Vancouver) — 1.75 cents
Provincial motor fuel tax (everywhere else in B.C.) — 7.75 cents.
B.C.'s carbon tax — 8.89 cents.
The B.C. Transportation Finance Authority tax — 6.75 cents.
TransLink tax (If you live in Metro Vancouver) — 17 cents, increasing to 18.5 cents on July 1.
Transit tax (If you live in Victoria) — 5.5 cents.
Federal excise tax — 10 cents.
Finally, pay the five per cent Goods and Services Tax on top of the total price.
When you add it all up, you're paying more than 60 cents a litre in tax if you live in Metro Vancouver.“
Sorry, I suppose that didn’t lighten your mood any.
What’s the big difference in price....is it all tax?
Edit....wow!
“ Tax isn't the only reason gas is so expensive in B.C., but a big piece of what you pay at the pump goes to Victoria and Ottawa.
Here's a list of all the taxes you pay on a litre of gas in B.C.:
Provincial motor fuel tax (Metro Vancouver) — 1.75 cents
Provincial motor fuel tax (everywhere else in B.C.) — 7.75 cents.
B.C.'s carbon tax — 8.89 cents.
The B.C. Transportation Finance Authority tax — 6.75 cents.
TransLink tax (If you live in Metro Vancouver) — 17 cents, increasing to 18.5 cents on July 1.
Transit tax (If you live in Victoria) — 5.5 cents.
Federal excise tax — 10 cents.
Finally, pay the five per cent Goods and Services Tax on top of the total price.
When you add it all up, you're paying more than 60 cents a litre in tax if you live in Metro Vancouver.“
Sorry, I suppose that didn’t lighten your mood any.
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Thanks for that bit of research Bob.
That's not too surprising. When the country is this big and our tax base is 1/10 of yours, the gov't has to get the money somehow. Same with alcohol, tobacco and other such items. It's expensive to live here for sure. But hey, three months of good weather and nine months of hockey season, what's not to like?
That's not too surprising. When the country is this big and our tax base is 1/10 of yours, the gov't has to get the money somehow. Same with alcohol, tobacco and other such items. It's expensive to live here for sure. But hey, three months of good weather and nine months of hockey season, what's not to like?
It's almost unbelievable that it's dropped down to below $1 CAD/litre, if 60% of that is taxes. The refiners must be desperate.
Nobody loves to pay taxes, but I know those taxes come back to help me, my wife, the people around me, and especially, those who are poorer and more vulnerable than me. I'm quite glad of that - glad to be able to help out those who, for one reason or another, need the help.
When I lived in Los Angeles, I used to pay nearly $14,000 USD (yup, fourteen thousand American dollars) per year for medical insurance for just two people, myself and my wife. All that money did no good to anybody but Blue Cross shareholders, who got richer at my expense.
Now, in BC, my taxes pay for my provincial medical care, and help provide care for those poorer than myself. And I pay a lot less than the equivalent of $14,000 USD in taxes here.
Having lived with cheap gas and expensive medical insurance in the USA, and then with expensive gas and cheap medical coverage in Canada, I find the latter system much easier on both my wallet and my conscience.
I understand that this doesn't mean everybody feels the same way I do. It's just a matter of which arrangement suits your own belief system best.
If we want to bitch about costs in BC, we should bitch about auto insurance (ICBC). It costs more than three times as much as it did in Los Angeles, I can't find a good reason why this is the case, and I don't think that money is really being used mostly to help those in need.
-Gnobuddy
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As Cal pointed out, I was a wee bit negative in an earlier post; here's something to compensate for that: A Baby Squirrel Followed A Pit Bull Home And Now They're Best Friends
-Gnobuddy
-Gnobuddy
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We'll never know (especially with a pit-bull!), but scientists have found empathy and ethics in many animals other than humans, and it seems that friendship between animals also exists, and sometimes, inter-species friendships.
Here is a fascinating story of a (wild) crow adopting an abandoned kitten, and even trying to feed it worms: YouTube
A while ago I read a book by Frans de Waal, titled "The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates". Bonobos are a species of ape, (in decades past often mistaken for small-statured chimpanzees) and they are genetically the closest to us humans, i.e. the fifth species of ape.
In the book, there is a small section where de Waal describes what happened when an exhausted little bird flew into a Bonobo enclosure, flopped on the grass, and lay there motionless.
Bonobo society is matriarchal, and the female leader of the pack immediately took an interest in the bird. She picked it up and launched it into the air, only to see it flutter its wings and fall back to the grass. Next she picked up the bird, climbed a tree, and launched it into the air again, apparently reasoning that if she launched it from a greater height, it would be able to fly away.
That didn't work either, and the bird fluttered to the ground again. So, after that, she guarded the bird, waiting for it to recover while fending off any other curious pack members - she seemed to be concerned that one of the others might injure the bird. Eventually, after some time, the bird did recover sufficiently to fly away, and the matriarch bonobo went back to her usual pursuits.
Bonobos, like chimpanzees, like to eat meat from time to time - they are omnivores, not herbivores as was once believed. So here was a bonobo that obviously felt concern over an animal of a different species that would have made a tasty snack for her. Yet, instead of eating it, she went out of her way to try and help this little wounded creature.
In this encounter, the bird was entirely wild. The bonobo was captive in a research colony, and was used to humans, but was by no means a domesticated pet - she was still a wild animal - though I expect a well-fed one.
I know better than to believe in the childish Disney version of wildlife, where every wild creature wants to be your friend. But clearly the "Nature, red in tooth and claw" belief is not entirely accurate, either. There is kindness, fairness, friendship, and love among animals, just as there is among humanity.
-Gnobuddy
We used to have a little chow-mix mutt I rescued from the street, and he would definitely have tried to eat that squirrel. He was a carnivore through and through, but he was also smart and eager to please, and with some work, my wife and I managed to train him to leave our cats alone.Wow! My Jack Russel would have gone totally nuts!
But, as anyone who has had more than one dog in their life knows, dogs can have very different personalities. In my childhood, I knew a dog (on my route home from elementary school) who adopted a stray kitten. On my walk back home from the bus-stop each afternoon, I would often see the dog lying down on her belly at the side of the road, head up, and the little kitten sleeping blissfully between the dog's front paws.
And here's another bit of unusual animal behaviour - I've never heard of a bear who liked things tidy before: Michael Mauro’s Instagram profile post: “WAIT FOR IT…This clip comes from the archives…shot several years ago on the Canon XL1 on a mini DV tape. Came across the footage while…”
-Gnobuddy