Just recently, I watched a presentation on Urthecast.  It blew me away.  “By developing the first high-definition streaming video platform of Earth, UrtheCast plans to change the way we view the world” and they will.  The global population, web surfers, smartphone users, agriculturists, adults, kids, and in general everyone, will be able to watch live events unfold in real time.  The positive feedback that UrtheCast will receive will be endless.  From serving as an educational tool to providing environmental monitoring services and humanitarian relief organizations with an extra tool in their relief fund; UrtheCast will revolutionize our world.

However, behind all the new advancements UrtheCast is bringing the world; have we gone too far?  UrtheCast will produce “a longitudinal look at various locations (that will be imaged about 16 times/day)“. It’s as if we no longer have a say in our privacy.  The UrtheCast camera will produce high quality images that can make large objects and groups of people recognizable as explained by this video, Orbit of ISS & Cameras.  The only places that we will be rest assured that we aren’t being filmed is under the roofs of our houses or other sheltered areas.  So what about when we are outside?  The ground pixel size is near 1.1 metres.

To ensure our privacy; are we expected to check every single time the UrtheCast will be filming over our region so that we will know to stay indoors then?  As if reality tv wasn’t enough.  It seems that UrtheCast will transform this whole world into one big reality tv show.  I understand the use of UrtheCast for educational purposes and for government data; however I do not fully understand and agree with allowing this data to go public.

The recent vote in Washington State to legalize marijuana will have a devastating impact on BC’s marijuana-growing industry and its economy.  Although the US is not legalizing marijuana on the federal level (it’s stil against the federal law); it is highly unlikely that the federal government will take any action against growing marijuana.  Washington is licensing the growth of marijuana for sale.

This could all have a huge impact on BC’s economy.  It comes as no real surprise that marijuana is “probably the province’s biggest cash crop, estimated to bring in between $6 and $8 billion annually” making it the third or fourth largest money generator in BC.  Canada has the second largest pot market in America, coming in right after Mexico (60%); Canada has about 40% of the total American pot market.  Unfortunately, most states will probably jump on the bandwagon in legalizing marijuana after they see how much tax can be earned from it.

This will only further damage BC’s economy.  So how will the BC government react to all of this?  Will BC be one of the next regions in N. America to legalize marijuana or will we suffer the economic blows?  Even if marijuana is legalized in BC, will this be enough to save our economy considering the US will be more likely to buy marijuana from nearby?

Chris Williamson’s blog post, “A dark day for the world of snacks“, left me feeling a little shell-shocked.  It is shocking that Hostess Brands Inc. is filing for bankruptcy and abandoning its incredibly famous product, the Twinkie.  Luckily for Twinkie-lovers they will not actually have to say goodbye to Twinkies.

Tomorrow, Hostess Brands Inc. will actually be in a New York courtroom to sell its assets and go out of business.  Many other companies have shown interest in bidding on fragments of Hostess.  As for Twinkies, John Pottow, a University of Michigan Law School professor specializing in bankruptcy stated that “there’s a huge amount of goodwill with the commercial brand name.   It’s quite conceivable that they can sell the name and recipe for Twinkies to a company that wants to make them.”  For now, the 500 bakery outlet stores are remaining open for several days in order to sell the last products.

Unfortunately for Twinkie lovers however, unless they are able to stock up on Twinkies before the bakery outlet stores close; there is a high chance that they won’t be reunited with their favorite dessert for a whole year.  Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain will “appoint a company that specializes in liquidation to sell the assets, and the sale probably will take six months to a year to complete“.  Best of luck Twinkie lovers!

With the recent release of the Cohen Report, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) is finding itself in a sticky situation.  Trying to maintain the economic viability of Canada’s fishing industry while ensuring the sustainability of our BC wild salmon; the DFO is stuck at a crossroad.  Currently, an issue that is being highlighted by biologist, Alexandra Morton, scientist, David Suzuki and other marine experts such as Rick Routledge; is the discovery of the ISA virus in BC’s wild salmon. The ISA virus kills the organs of salmon, depletes their immune systems, and often results in the death of the salmon.

In other regions such as Chile, the ISA virus caused 15,000 employees to lose their jobs and caused a $2 billion loss in the fishing industry.  These instances should act as a warning to BC, but why is the Canadian government still allowing this lethal virus to be transferred from farm fish to the wild salmon?  Well ignorantly enough, the DFO has asserted that the ISA virus poses a minimal threat on BC salmon as the number of recorded fatalities from the ISA virus is very low.  Chile, however, experienced a very similar situation in which the ISA virus was originally non-lethal and then suddenly became virulent, killing approximately 70% of the farmed salmon.  I believe that it is imperative that the DFO recognizes the danger of the ISA virus in BC wild salmon and calls for the immediate removal of all open-water salmon farms in BC waters (other sustainable farming practices include closed-containment salmon farms).  If action is not taken quickly, there is a good chance that the BC wild salmon population will cease to exist.

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