The Wheel Deal?

The ZENN mortar car is a small electric vehicle that is 100% electric. Ian Clifford, a very smart business man has created this company after realizing the smog in the air one day, sitting in traffic in his SUV. The big hype to these cars is that they are really efficient, but the Canadian government is not allowing them to drive legally on Canadian roads. The bigger Hype is the Ultra Capacitor that EEStor Inc. has claimed to come out with and this is what will give ZENN its big break. This Ultra Capacitor is said to have a charge time of 5 minutes, is 300 lbs, and most importantly can make an electric car go 400km on a single charge. This sceptical item has been kept very secretive, and no one actually knows if it works. Clifford has invested almost $4 million in EEStor, and coming from a camera background knows exactly the capabilities of this item is. The basics of this capacitor is that it has the charge time of a capacitor and the discharge time of a battery, not tom mention it can be charged over a million times without deterring, and is way more environmentally friendly because it uses something that miners use to bore hole with as a lubricant. Barium titanate is this special substance that is hopefully going to replace lithium. Clifford says his goal is to have 1 million electric vehicles out on the roads, and only then will he of accomplished his goal.

I have heard of the ZENN car for a while now and as far as I am concerned there are two main issues for this situation, one is that the Canadian government isn't willing to let these very efficient vehicles on the roads because they are too small and can't travel at high enough speeds. This is no the way to a "greener" world by disallowing these very "green" vehicles onto the roads. I think that this law should be changed as soon as possible, and our society to accept them for being the slower, greener vehicle. Even though the typical mileage of these cars is about 30 - 50mi per charge, it is still enough to get from point A to point B. The other issue is that the makers of the Ultra Capacitor aren't releasing anything and are keeping it TOP secret. To me this is a bit over the top, and I think that it might be that there isn't one, when they say that there is. And even to me the specs of this capacitor is a bit out of reach. It's explainable but a bit controversial. I mean how much electricity could you store and put through your home wires in 5 min, to me being able to run 400 km on a 5 minute charge is sceptical but remarkable and unbelievable if they do pull it off.

Reference:

The Wheel Deal

By: Andrew Nikiforuk
Canadian business

March 30th 2009

LCBO Freebees

An ongoing problem in LCBO locations all across Ontario is that distilleries and breweries are offering freebees such as sporting event tickets, concerts and other entertainment for the store to put their product on the shelves. The Ontario liquor board has been allowing there employees to accept these for years. Employees report that they get at least one freebee a month, others as much as once a week. The board has not reported any face value of these freebees, nor made any estimates. Agencies said that these freebees are good for a company to improve their employee satisfaction and to promote a positive business relationship. A total 268 suppliers were reported to been giving away freebees to the employees. Ontario MPP's are also prohibiting these tickets from entering employees hands under the Members' Integrity Act.

I think that these tickets should be still available to the employees. Think about it, if you aren't paying anything and your employees are getting free tickets from another company why wouldn't you want this happening. It’s a good thing as far as I am concerned, the employees are getting rewarded with out the LCBO paying for anything. This also improves the relation between these businesses because they both benefit. The LCBO has allowed this to happen for years and I do not see a valid reason to stop this from happening. I think that this is not a logical decision, there are not many negatives, if any, and there are so many things on why this is a good thing for the LCBO.

Reference:

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090511/LCBO_freebies_090511/20090511/?hub=TorontoNewHome

Balsillie offers $212.5 million for Coyotes

On Tuesday Jim Balsillie offered 212.5 million to the phoenix Coyotes to move to a location somewhere in southern Ontario. The Coyotes general manager Jerry Moyes who has now filed for bankruptcy. The only way that Balsillie will buy the franchise is if he can move it to Canada, there have been other offers but Balsillie's offer is by far the highest, mostly because he wants to move the team north of the boarder. He also said that he would give 17 million USD to keep the Coyotes in operation until he can take over. The NHL board of governors is questionable about this and even more is commissioner Gary Bettman who has shot down Balsillie down twice already, first with the Pittsburgh penguins, second with the Nashville predators.

I think that this is a great thing, first, why should Phoenix even have a team, I don’t think that they ever can fill a arena until it's sold out unless they are in the sanely cup final. Southern Ontario needs a team, Toronto can fill the ACC even with a team that is not eve close to making the playoffs. Intern this will enable more fans, more opportunities to see the games. I think that the commissioner is not doing the right thing, there are plenty of fans in the Hamilton area and there will be a huge area there to make money with a new NHL franchise. I don't see what the conflict is because clearly Phoenix is not making any money if they are filing for bankruptcy.

Reference:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/05/05/spphoenixbalsillie.html

$4.5 Billion for Chrysler

Today the judge that is handling the Chrysler bankruptcy case is giving the company $4.5 billion. Fiat, the owner of Ferrari and Maserati has agreed to buy Chrysler's assets to stay in business. The biggest obstacle that is keeping Chrysler out of this recession is that the company's lenders currently hold almost $7 billion of the companies debt. This has come after the Ontario government said that they would own 2% of the company for a price of $3.8 Billion. The liberals are very confidant the seat at the boardroom table and the 2% share will make sure that the plants in Brampton and Windsor will stay open. When Ontario is doing this Washington is pumping in an 8% share in the company which is equal to $13 billion dollars.

Chrysler and all the other auto makers are not doing that well at the moment and right now I think it would be a good idea to give some of these companies bailout money. One of the big three automakers is going to be gone at the end of this depression and at the moment I do not know which one it is going to be, but it will either be Chrysler or GM because Ford is doing really well. While all this is blamed on the depression Audi, the German car company, has reported that there sales have jumped 14% since september last year. So maybe it's not the recession, it's just that people are realising that people can get more for less with these imported cars. Because I know for a fact that even 2 years ago there were not as many German and European cars on the road as there are today.

Reference:

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090504/Chrysler_Bailout_090504/20090504?hub=World

H1N1: Swine Flu

The H1N1 virus is a new strand of the influenza virus. It started in México and has now made it to Canada with a total of 116 people that have contracted the virus in Canada. More commonly known as the Swine Flu, originated in Mexico and has spread all across the world. Over 1,000 people have been confirmed that they have the virus and 26 people have died from it. WHO (World Health Organisation) Has increased the pandemic alert to a 5 which means that a pandemic is inevitable and there is talk og it being raised to a level 6. There has been some drastic movements during the phase of this flu, including that Egypt ordered that all the pigs in it's country be slaughtered immediately. The swine flu isn't stopping anytime soon, the number of cases will continue to rise.

The swine flu to me was a bit over rated at first, I understand that over 1000 people in the world have it, but this is in a world with almost 7 billion people, that’s only 0.00000014% of the entire population, which isn't very much. I think that it is true to be said that this virus will start to spread very rapidly and I hope that I don't get it. Our school is taking precautions by putting a bottle of hand sanitizer and a sign that says: "please wash your hands upon entering and exiting the building". After doing this short blog I know more about this strand of influenza and that it is quite a serious matter and that more people will start dying. The fact that I didn't mention above is that it will take 6 months before a vaccine will be devolved since the virus has been identified, so I don’t think that there is a prevention but there are ways to get better, but if you have it your are immediately hospitalized and will eventually get better.

Reference:

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090504/ont_h1n1_090504/20090504/?hub=TorontoNewHome

Pirates In Somalia

Richard Philips became a popular name 2 months ago when he was captured by Somali pirates and was taken hostage in a lifeboat. The situation in Somalia is getting worse and worse and there are no naval ships in that part of the world to give each ship that goes through that area the protection that it needs. Philips was kept hostage for five days in the life boat until U.S. navy seals snipers shot and killed the three pirates with three bullets. This was the order that president Obama gave to the commander in charge on the navel warship that was handling the situation. A 65 year old Canadian from aurora was on the ship when it was hijacked, this story mad many headlines in American press during the time of this incident.

This issue has to be resolved sooner than later, weather it be that the Somali government has to do something about it or the pirates have to be taken into custody. Obviously this issue won't go away as soon as is should and the pirates are taking more hostages as the days progress. Last year I heard a speech about this topic, and when I heard this story it was interesting that something would actually. Philips family suffered terribly through this incident and it should be prevented from happening again. These pirates are selfless and the bigger question is where are they getting their money from, sure they are making a lot of money through ransom but there has to be more than just right, it just doesn't add up.

Reference:

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090502/sabga_pirates_090502/20090502/?site_codename=Toronto

School Finder

A new website was unveiled from the ministry of education. This site was meant for the new immigrants to Ontario the opportunity to decide where they wasn’t to live according to the demographics in the schools. For instance on the sit you can find information about the wealth of the people in that area, what race they are, and generally what the community is like. This site has had some controversy saying that now parents have the ease to access the information even easier than before and they can say that they don't want their child going to a school that has lower income levels and higher immigration rates. The Conservatives and the NDP do not agree with this decision that the liberals have made. The bottom line is that the website makes it easier for people to find out what is happening to an area and will make them go to the better schools and might, even overcrowd them.

I think that the government should not make this information this readily available to the general public. I think that this decision could lead to some schools being overcrowded and that some parents might not use the site for what it is suppose to be used for. Instead the parents might not put there child where they belong, but in the school where the demographic base is wealthy and a good learning environment instead of where the child would feel more comfortable. I don’t agree that this information should be this accessible, this information can be accessed before the website came out and all people have to do is look for it. I think that this privilege will be heavily abused by at least 50% of parents.

Reference:

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090406/edu_website_090406/20090406/?site_codename=Toronto