"March"ing Forward

Well it's the beginning of March and last month was a good step forward. Lots of people came visit my humble blog. Although I didn't update my blog as often as I have been doing in previous months, mostly because I was working on my other blog Majik's World which needed my attention. Also long hours at work left me mentally drained. But this is a new month and I will try and find more time to update this blog.

As for what March will bring to this blog as of now I am not sure. Last night while I was out with some friends the topic of a recent spike in the price of gas came up, so I may have some more on that topic. I've also been switching between Starbucks and Tim Horton's for my morning coffee, so I may have another comparison to write, the words still haven't come to me yet. Plus I am moving my home office into the basement this month so I will inevitably be busy this month.

Recently I've been making an attempt to reciprocate your card drops. Some days it is hard, usually those days when I get over 100 drops in a day, and I have Entrecard on my other blog as well so you may only get one of my two Entrecards a day, but it does double up the amount of drops I make in a day. I hope you will keep coming back to see what I'm up to and drop you card along the way. Until the next start of the month post, Peace and Thanks for visiting!

What's In the Water?

Today I read an article about the C.D.C. suppressing a report on pollution in the great lakes area. I must say that I am a little concerned about this. Really makes me wonder, what's in the water? I don't live very far from one of the great lakes and most of our tap water is purified near the lake, but with the news of a report on pollution in the great lakes I am concerned. Any one else in the great lakes area should be concerned as well.

If there is any health risks derived from chemicals in the great lakes, then we need to know. I don't know if they are afraid of widespread panic or just the astronomical cost of cleaning up the lakes. Either way people in those areas need to know the results of the study. If you were in a high risk area don't you deserve to know about the potential health risks in the area? I certainly want to know the health risks.

There have been people trying to get the study into the public eye. Two Canadians, Mike Gilbertson and Herb Gray are both trying to get the Centers for Disease Control to release the study. This could affect millions of people in the great lakes area both Canadian and American. What do you think, should they release the results of the study as soon as possible? Why do you think they are delaying the release of the study?

Image: Wiki Media Commons
News Story: CDC suppressing U.S. report on Great Lakes health risks, experts charge

Not Your Average News

Today I was checking out my favourite source for news and came across a story that really is out of the norm. The story was about a man's body being found in an irrigation ditch in Alberta, what's unusual about the story is that the man had been decapitated. This kind of thing does not happen here in Canada very often, in fact this is the first time I heard about something even remotely like this here in Canada.

What is our country coming to? Granted that our population has grown a little bit and some crime rates have gone up, I've heard about a few different murders in the past couple of months, but a decapitation? What kind of a person would cut someone's head off? I've watched a few informative television programs that explain that decapitation is not as easy as it looks.

Back to the news article, police are having some trouble identifying the body. This story broke last Friday, at the time police were still looking for the head. They say the person was the product of a high level of violence. But seriously this is not an average story.

The R.C.M.P. are not releasing any information, it is too soon to know any motives or even the cause of death. There were multiple abrasions and injuries on the body, it's too soon to know of the head was severed before or after death. After reading this story, I feel better knowing that I have some distance between me and the place this unidentified body was found. None the less this is a tragedy; lets hope the police can find the person who did this.

Image source: Dirk Ingo Franke
News Story: Unidentified body found in Alberta ditch was decapitated

A Tight Squeeze

Last night on my drive home, I heard a report about the price of gasoline going up today. I don't know if all the publicity was such a good thing, but here in Canada, higher prices are more news worthy than before. Ever since our Canadian dollar soared to trade above par with the American greenback, a lot of Canadians have been complaining to suppliers and retailers about prices being too high. This is good, but what exactly does that mean? Well after hearing about the rise in gasoline prices, I knew there would be some kind of report the next day telling us that we have to pay higher prices. This has been done to death lately and all this complaining about high prices is not going any where in terms of the price of gas.

The inlayed photo on this post is a graph of U.S. average gas prices from 1974 to 2000. As you can see, the price of gas through out the years has been on a steady climb. Here in Canada we have been doing a lot of complaining about the price of gas in social circles, but not very much in the media. We do have to use the media wisely if we are going to see any change. But in terms of gas prices, I think it is time for all of those alternative fuels that everyone has been talking about to make more of a debut than just hear say and research reports. Granted the change between gasoline and alternative fuels will be hard, but no change that is worth making is with out sacrifices.

One of the reasons for delaying our cross over to alternative fuels from gasoline and crude oil products is the enormous cost of the infrastructure needed to complete the change. I may not be an expert, but wouldn't switching to a form of ethanol instead of gasoline be a little cheaper. We could use the same infrastructure we have for gasoline and begin selling alternative fuels on a much larger scale then we are currently. Some countries frown on this, especially ones that have rich oil reserves but the time for a change is now.

Burning fossil fuels have put our planet in grave danger and we need to start using alternative fuels before its too late. I'm sure that the cost of alternative fuels maybe high right now, but unless you start producing them, more cost effective ways of producing them are merely theories. Everybody is being squeezed by the high cost of fossil fuels and the only way to change that is to change our way of thinking. We definitely need to switch to another fuel source that is renewable and clean before we end up poisoning our world beyond the point of no return. Well that's my opinion, what's yours?

Image source: Wiki Media Commons
Inspiration for this rant:
Canadian pump prices soar
And an empty wallet after filling up at a gas station!

Need To Sell A Product Online?

I'm going to take a brief break from my normal style of posts to tell you about an interesting website. What I'm talking about is a shopping cart software website. If you have a product you want to sell online and need some e-commerce software, this is the website you've been looking for. I've been working on a product to sell online myself and just as soon as my product is ready to be sold the first place I am going to stop will be at this website.

I'm sure some of you out there are wondering why you would want to choose this website to help you sell your product online. Well one of the biggest reason's I would choose this website is because of their "Search Engine Optimized Structure." As a blogger I can appreciate the need for Search Engine Optimization. Also their software is easy and affordable. I can't forget that you also can customize your shopping cart template.

I hope you all can appreciate this website and will make a stop on the information highway to take a look at this shopping cart software. All of their shopping cart software is hosted on their "ultra fast web servers" and have good technical support. Before you go somewhere else to find some e-commerce solutions, make sure you stop by ashop and see what they are offering before you decide which software to use.

Another Nation Added to the United Nations Roll Call

I have to admit, I'm addicted to current events; especially when the news is about a fledgling democratic state. I read today on my favourite news network's website that Kosovo is following in the footsteps of its neighbour, Montenegro and declaring its independence from Serbia. Of course there are a couple of objectors to the diplomatic move, like Serbia and Russia. Russia even called for an emergency session of the United Nations over the matter. There are few things that can be done to stop the state of Kosovo from becoming its own sovereign state, considering the European Union and the United States are supporting the move.

Whether or not this move for independance will bring more stability to area is not really known. Ambassadors from Europe and the U.S. are asking all parties involved not to resort to violence which tells me that there are a lot of people unhappy about Kosovo becoming a sovereign and democratic state. This just seems to be the nature of change in today's world, people make moves to become independent of large conglomerates and other people's first instinct is to panic. I guess that's just human nature, but really, change is good.

With all of the unrest in the world, a change towards a democratic independent state is good news. As to how it would affect the average Canadian, well let's just say we will have another competitor for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Of course there will be an effort from Kosovo to get Canada to acknowledge them as an independent state, but that really doesn't affect the average Canadian. I'm sure that the Canadian government would be willing to support Kosovo's independence. Well that's my opinion, what do you think about Kosovo becoming independent?

Image Source: Wiki Commons
News Story: Kosovo declares independence