Simultaneously Impressive and Chilling: North Korean Military March

Make sure you go full screen and 720p HD – excellent camera work (shot with Canon DSLRs)! This is a “re-mix” of this original footage.

The Triumph of Coal Marketing: Putting Things in Perspective

Is that a shocking graphic or what? If you can’t quite make out the word on the far left, it’s “Nuclear”. This chart compares the number of deaths generating nuclear, oil, and coal-based power on a per-watt basis. Seth Goodin shared this and I found it quite profound. I’ve been a proponent of nuclear power for a few years now, and this chart only further drives home the truth. Coal, and oil, are destructive, messy, finite energy sources and we need to move toward nuclear power to generate our electricity. Yes, the problems with the nuclear power plants in Japan are scary, but the hard reality is that even when incredible disasters occur like the 8.9 earthquake and the resulting tsunami, modern nuclear power plants are still fairly safe. There were some lessons that were learned in Japan – such as placing the back-up power generators underground, along with their fuel supply – that will help ensure nuclear power is safer for everyone in the future.

Oh YouTube: You Attract Such Gems

I’ve seen a lot of stupid comments on my YouTube videos, but this one really made my day (here’s the video it was from). I know I talk fast, and that might be challenging for some, but my actual use of the language? Apparently my spoken English is so poor, this fellow from Portland, Oragon, USA, just couldn’t make out what I was saying. 😉

Finally, Something Nice Happens on Chatroulette

I didn’t get the full context right from the start – basically, it looks like the singers ask the name of the woman they’re chatting with, then sing their catchy song using that name. You can tell their aren’t native English speakers because they pronounce it “Deeeana” in the song, but I doubt the woman on the other end cared – she was clearly thrilled with a bunch of strangers singing her a song.

Why I Wish Domains Cost $100 Again

Anyone that remembers registering a domain in the ’90s from Network Solutions – I think they were basically the only game in town back then – will recall paying $100 for a standard .com domain. Now you can get the same thing for $10 or less from a variety of sources. When you paid $100 for a domain, unless you were a wealthy person, you’d only sit on a few domains that weren’t being used. Paying $100 a year for something you’re not using was a waste. Now that domains are $10, people sit on domains for years and years, never using them, and not feeling compelled to either because the domains are so cheap. If you’re someone looking to launch a new Web site, it’s extremely difficult to get a domain name for your new project because of domain squatters.

I say this myself as someone who has a few different un-used domains (MMA Thoughts.com, Photography Thoughts.com), but I’d be willing to pay $100 a year for those domains if it would force some of these squatters off their domains – I looked up one domain earlier today that was registered back in 2000 and still has nothing on it. If you can’t get your Web site launched in 11 years, guess what, it’s time to give up…

Bell vs. Teksavvy: Bandwidth in Canada

I have to admit that I’ve made an about face on this issue: earlier in the year I was arguing that bandwidth caps weren’t a big deal, because most people never went over them, but since then I’ve done some research on the bandwidth caps in place and am appalled at the trend I’ve seen: bandwidth caps at one of the major ISPs in my part of Canada have either stayed the same, or gone up moderately, while prices have either stayed the same or gone up. This isn’t the typical trend we’re used to with technology, where prices go down over time and the functionality/performance goes up. I’m all for companies making money, but there’s something very wrong with the current state of competition in Internet access in Canada – we have among the slowest and most expensive Internet access in the world, and that needs to change.

If you’re in Canada, stand up and make your voice heard.

American Idol & Self-Delusion

I’ll be transparent: the above tweet had been ratting around in my head for a few weeks and I think it’s pretty damn clever (yes, I know that’s egotistical, but there it is). I’ve been watching American Idol this season thinking as a parent…wondering how the parents of some of those tone-deaf, completely awful singers could live with themselves as they lied to their kids and told them to “Just go for it!”. Does loving your kids mean lying to them? I don’t think it does. It’s definitely something I want to write more about in the future…in fact, I’ve adding parenting as a new category for this blog, and this is the inaugural post.

Avenue Commercial Communicates About Concrete Equities

Since I still get emails every week or two asking for information about what happened to the Concrete Equities investments, I thought I’d share this piece of communication that came out in October of 2010. In a nutshell, Avenue Commercial has taken over as property managers for the five Calgary properties (Millrise Deer Valley, Castleridge, MEG Place, CEP, Lavalin). If you have an investment in something other than those five properties, you should contact Ernst & Young’s Calgary office at 403-290-4100 to inquire about the status of your investment.

The PDF below has some of the background information, but as of mid-February, no specifics have been given out about where each property is at in terms of financials and revenue. I’m not aware of any payments having been sent out to any investors yet; when I inquired earlier this month about the status of things, I was told there would be an AGM in the first week of March. No date, no location as of yet.

“To Our Valued Investors; For those of you I have yet to meet, I would like to introduce myself.  I am Steven Butt, the President and Founder of Avenue Commercial and feel honored to be the person for whom nearly 100% of you voted in favor for as the new General Partner. Over the past 18 months, I have had the pleasure of meeting, speaking and hearing the concerns of many investors as we together have fought through many significant challenges to salvage your valued investments. Now, after many emotional town hall meetings, court sessions, receivers meetings and countless hours of work on the part of our in house team, our legal team and your steering committee, we have exited many of the court proceedings and the future of your investment at last appears much brighter. As most of you know, we suffered through extensive damage from a cash flow perspective as the court process initiated by Concrete Equities cost the Limited Partners in excess of 3 million dollars and we are coming out of restructuring with numerous smaller creditors and over 3 million dollars in debt  payable to the Strategic group.  These are not paltry obligations and it will take some time to retire our trailing debts but with hard work and a structured payment plan, we can and will shed these obligations over time.”

Avenue Commercial Investors Update Oct 2010

Avenue Commercial’s contact information: 403-802-6766 / www.avenuecommercial.com