Here it is Radiator Rodeo from elseedub. I didn’t know what the title meant, but it becomes obvious very quickly.
Only one question remains: Why aren’t you working elseedub?
Here it is: “The hottest new winter sport in the west. Vancouver 2010, here we come!”
Two weeks ago The Canadian Press had a story about the LCBO raising their price points on wine. The article, based in part on the board’s annual report, ostensibly points to the boomer market as the reason. This was no surprise to me because I have seen the LCBO-monopoly make product decisions against my preference several times.
Then, Friday of that week, the Globe ran a story about the LCBO changing its plans and also dropping the price floor for new products.
LCBO shifting focus to pricier wine, spirits to meet demand of boomers The CP 13 Jan 2008
Sales of wines priced between $12 and $15 drove up sales $17.6 million, says the LCBO’s most recent annual report, which vows to “trade consumers up beyond the $8 price point for a 750 ml bottle.” Wines priced between $15 to $20 jumped by 15 per cent, accounting for $64 million in sales for 2005-06.
[...]
“A single malt will carry a price tag that might be double or triple that of a blended scotch,” said Layton, adding consumers can thank baby boomers for driving this trend.
The Globe article reported a reversal and had to credit its own columns.
LCBO flips anti-plonk policy TGAM Section L Page 1 18 Jan 2008
In a break with a controversial buying strategy that had placed increasing emphasis on premium brands, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario has dropped the price floor for new product submissions, paving the way for a potential cornucopia of cut-rate quaffers costing as little as 6.95 from such value regions as Portugal, Australia and South Africa.
The about-face comes in the wake of consumer complaints received by the LCBO in recent weeks, many prompted by two columns appearing in The Globe and Mail that revealed an explicit policy by the government agency to promote premium-priced wines at the expense of emerging high value imports.
You can read more pieces of the Globe article, which is now behind a pay wall, at Bernie’s blog who cut and pasted more of it. In 2008, wine is going to get cheaper at the LCBO (good news for under $10 fans!)
If the LCBO was trying to serve higher demand for higher priced wines that doesn’t preclude also offering low-price, high-value wines. Part of what the earlier article describes is the monopoly raising the lowest price, essentially forcing people looking for the least expensive bottle to pay a higher price and give a larger margin.
“Don’t pay attention to those people leaving; some people come for the briefing,” Larry W. Smith told his macro class as we left fifty minutes into the seven o’clock night class.
Hiro, Dave, and I went to the briefing at the beginning of his class.
He was talking about the recent turbulence in securities markets around the globe. It is only week three and earlier in the term than Larry would normally deal with monetary policy, but as he said he is only a “humble servant” of the “matrix master” (the central bankers).
The Federal Reserve Board met on Monday, the evening of a U.S. holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, after global markets had fallen and they wanted to prevent a similar drop in American markets which would reopen on Tuesday. They chose to change the overnight rate by 75 basis points.
“If you want to be the elite of the planet you need to know what a basis point means. . . . Using hundredths of per centage points means you are working with hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said.
The Bank of Canada reduced their rate by 25 basis points.
“The Canadian reductionwas a lot more Canadian,” Larry quipped.
Oshawa is considering licensing rooming houses and restricting the number of rooms to four.
Maclean’s reported that licences would cost $1,000 and that last fall police “raided” student houses searching for copies of leases.
It is crazy to see from Waterloo where lodging houses have been licensed for years, since 1986, and the city is still struggling to balance the wants and needs of residents and students in an inclusive community.
When I was at school I wrote about housing loads. Here are some of my pieces:
Oh, yeah here is an example of a resident complaining sillily (Area resident tells of 23-kegs and sex on the lawn)
I have heard that there are new develpments in Waterloo as they consider new measures. I should look into it.
Steve Jobs just announced a light, thin, solid state ultraportable computer — the MacBook Air.
Apple MacBook Air Looks Absolutely Amazing Gizmodo
In other news, I just bought some shares in Apple this morning.
Well, I should have called and investigated earlier myself, but TGAM wrote about it today.
Homer-Dixon to leave U of T for Balsillie centre TGAM 15 Jan 2008
“He is exactly the kind of senior scholar we are looking for,” said Ken Coates, dean of arts at the University of Waterloo, which runs the new Waterloo school in partnership with Wilfrid Laurier University. “He is wonderfully enthusiastic about what it is we are all about here.”
[...]
Mr. Coates said the hiring of such a widely respected academic is a milestone for the school. “We have the potential to do something quite dramatic here.”
Is Homer-Dixon coming to Waterloo? 1 Jan 2008
Magda posted to her own blog for the first time in 258 days with today’s post (In search of community?).
She quotes some US sports writer’s blog writing about vetigal slang or quirks in journalism like ending stories with “30″ or using the word “graf” for paragraph. When he was firts told to bring “grafs” back from a basketball game he wasn’t sure what kind of data charts, or graphs, his boss wanted.
Personally I despise people using the non-word “graf.” I think it is a stupid thing because it can cause confusion. At least the spelling “lede” avoids confusion with the heteronym lead which could also refer to the metal with a low melting point that used to be used in printing, like in a linotype machine. Now the spelling lede outlived its usefulness just as lead did.
Magda says:
I have conflicted feelings about those details of modern journalism that still hearken to a simpler time, when reporting jobs were around each corner and pages were put together with knives and glue.
I do not have conflicted feeling about knives and glue they are to be used to cleave things apart and together, heh heh. Newspapers, that is news actually, should be put together with knowledge, information and skill out of words and pictures. Maybe that will start happening oneday.
I knew it was going to happen some time, I got spam for the first time on Facebook. It wasn’t just garbage e-mails from someone I don’t know inviting me to attend an event in a city in which I don’t live, but a message trying to get me to click on an URL.
I didn’t just get one; I got two from the same “person.”
This is the first one:
Lois Laplante
Today at 9:33am
i thought id message someone i didnt know on facebook. my name’s Lois
Between You and Lois Laplantehi Ryan, i like you pic, you seem alright. maybe we can chat or something. i don’t thing you can here, but you can check out my other profile at http://snipurl.com/—— my username’s spice_chicksta. Soooo, ya, see you i hope.
This is the second one:
Lois Laplante
Today at 9:38am
hey you, my name’s Lois
Between You and Lois Laplantehiya. im new on facebook, and i couldn’t find any way to chat with you here, Ryan. that sucks cause you seemd cool. if you wanna hit me back, maybe you couldcome see me at the other site i go to, http://snipurl.com/—– my username’s spice_chicksta. so ya, hope to see you.
Anyway, I reported the messages.
Much has been made of errors on Wikipedia entries, much of them maybe by Encyclopedia B from whom pedia probably takes information-interested users.
The thing with pedia entries is that because anyone can edit them, they may have last been edited by someone who was wrong.
Of course Pedians shoot back with, what else, a pedia page that lists Errors in the Encyclopædia Britannica that have been corrected in Wikipedia.
The front page is edited by editors and not just anyone can edit that page, but I found an error there in November.
It referred to Day of the Colombian Woman as being in Columbia, which of course refered to two different Col(o/u)mbias.
Of course, I couldn’t correct it.
This is a picture of our dryer duct.
Clearly the duct clearly doesn’t need to be so long and its long bendiness is hurting our dryer efficiency and thence energy costs. I hang dry my laundry for environmental and clothing preservation reasons, but my associates do use the dryer.
A CMHC page, Are clogged clothes dryer vents a fire hazard?, says:
The risk of dryer vent fires can be limited by ensuring that the dryer vent length (including allowances for elbows, transitions and outdoor hood assemblies) does not exceed the dryer manufacturer’s recommendations.
Hey that’s a good point. I should check the manufacturer’s recommendations.
The Frigidaire dryer FAQ Frigidaire TIps & FAQs says:
•• Exhaust duct is longer and/or has more 90° bends than recommended by the manufacturer.
Refer to the Installation Instructions for maximum length, number of elbows, and specifications for rigid and flexible metal ducts. Install the dryer accordingly. DO NOT use plastic flexible duct or metal foil duct.
Yikes, we have a plastic flexible duct that it specifically warns against as well as three 90° bends and two 180° bends, but what about length. Now, I just need to find the installation instructions for our model and look up how long it should be. It just says Heavy Duty on the front and no model number. Maybe . . . oh, here are the unopened instructions on the floor behind the dryer.
Here’s the page:
It doesn’t seem to list the configuration (seven 90° turns) that we have, but we should be able to do it in two bends and less than 14′ (4.27 metres).
Now we just have to get it fixed.