Saturday, August 31, 2019

Welcome to tomorrow!


A friend sent me this and I thought it was thought provoking. I hope you enjoy reading it:

Auto repair shops will go away. A gasoline engine has 20,000 individual parts. An electrical motor has 20.

Electric cars are sold with lifetime guarantees and are only repaired by dealers. It takes only 10 minutes to remove and replace an electric motor. Faulty electric motors are not repaired in the dealership but are sent to a regional repair shop that repairs them with robots. 

Your electric motor malfunction light goes on, so you drive up to what looks like a Jiffy-auto wash, and your car is towed through while you have a cup of coffee and out comes your car with a new electric motor!

Gas stations will go away. Parking meters will be replaced by meters that dispense electricity.  Companies will install electrical recharging stations; in fact, they've already started. You can find them at select Dunkin Donuts locations.

Most (the smart) major auto manufacturers have already designated money to start building new plants that only build electric cars.

Coal industries will go away. Gasoline/oil companies will go away.  Drilling for oil will stop. So say goodbye to OPEC!

Homes will produce and store more electrical energy during the day and then they use and will sell it back to the grid. The grid stores it and dispenses it to industries that are high electricity users. Has anybody seen the Tesla roof?

A baby of today will only see personal cars in museums.

The FUTURE is approaching faster than most of us can handle.

In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide. Within just a few years, their business model disappeared and they went bankrupt. Who would  have thought of that ever happening?

What happened to Kodak will happen in a lot of industries in the next  5-10 years and, most people don't see it coming. Did you think in 1998 that 3 years later, you would never take pictures on film again? With today's smart phones, who even has a camera these days?

Yet digital cameras were invented in 1975. The first ones only had 10,000 pixels, but followed Moore's law.  So as with all exponential technologies, it was a disappointment for a time, before it became way superior and became mainstream in only a few short years. It will now happen again (but much faster) with Artificial Intelligence, health, autonomous and electric cars, education, 3D printing, agriculture and jobs. Forget the book, "Future Shock," welcome to the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Software has disrupted and will continue to disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years.

UBER is just a software tool, they don't own any cars, and are now  the biggest taxi company in the world!  Ask any taxi driver if they saw that coming.

Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don't own any properties. Ask Hilton Hotels if they saw that coming.

Artificial Intelligence: Computers become exponentially better in understanding the world.

This year, a computer beat the best Go-player in the world, 10 years earlier than expected.

In the USA, young lawyers already don't get jobs. Because of IBM's Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for right now, the basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans. So, if you study law, stop immediately. There will be 90% fewer lawyers in the future, (what a thought!) only omniscient specialists will remain.

Watson already helps nurses diagnosing cancer, its 4 times more accurate than human nurses.

Facebook now has a pattern recognition software that can recognize faces better than humans. In 2030, computers will become more intelligent than humans.

Autonomous cars: In 2018 the first self-driving cars are already here. In the next 2 years, the entire industry will start to be disrupted. You won't want to own a car anymore as you will  all a car with your phone, it will show up at your location and drive you to your destination. You  will not need to park it you will only pay for the driven distance and you can be productive while driving.

The very young children of today will never get a driver's license and will never own a car.

This will change our cities, because we will need 90-95% fewer cars. We can transform former parking spaces into parks.

1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide including distracted drunk driving. We now have one accident every 60,000 miles; with autonomous driving that will drop to 1 accident in 6 million miles. That will save a million lives plus worldwide
each year.

Most traditional car companies will doubtless become bankrupt. Traditional car companies will try the evolutionary approach and just build a better car, while tech companies (Tesla, Apple, Google) will do the revolutionary approach and build a computer on wheels.

Look at what Volvo is doing right now; no more internal combustions engines in their vehicles starting this year with the 2019 models, using all electric or hybrid only, with the  intent of phasing out hybrid models.

Many engineers from Volkswagen and Audi; are completely terrified of Tesla and so they should be. Look at all the companies offering all electric vehicles. That was unheard of, only a few years ago.

Insurance companies will have massive trouble because, without accidents, the costs will become cheaper. Their car insurance business model will disappear.

Real estate will change. Because if you can work while you commute, people will move farther away to live in a more beautiful or affordable neighborhood.

Electric cars will become mainstream about 2030. Cities will be less noisy because all new cars will run on electricity.

Cities will have much cleaner air as well. (Can we start in Los Angeles, please?)

Electricity will become incredibly cheap and clean.

Solar production has been on an exponential curve for 30 years, but you can now see the burgeoning impact.

And it's just getting ramped up.

Fossil energy companies are desperately trying to limit access to the grid to prevent  competition from home solar installations, but that simply cannot continue - technology will take care of that strategy.

Health:

The Tricorder X price will be announced this year. There are companies who will build a medical device (called the "Tricorder" from Star Trek) that works with your phone, which takes your retina scan, your blood sample and you breath into it.  It then analyzes 54 bio-markers that will identify nearly any Disease. There are dozens of phone apps out there right now forhealth purposes.

WELCOME TO TOMORROW - it actually arrived a few years ago.

Author Source: Benjamin Franklin 4th Generation



Friday, August 30, 2019

Eating in the fifties

In the fifties, we ate together as a family.  My dad was a fireman and when he was on night's, we ate at 4:30, when he was on days, we ate at 6:30.  On his days off it was somewhere in between.  We rarely ate out and it was an event when my dad brought home take out Chinese food.

Pasta had not been invented. It was macaroni or spaghetti.
Curry was a surname.
Taco? Never saw one till I was 25.
Pizza? Sounds like a leaning tower somewhere.
Bananas and oranges only appeared at Christmas time.
All chips were plain.
Oil was for lubricating, fat was for cooking.
Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and never green.
Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.
Chickens didn't have fingers in those days.
None of us had ever heard of yogurt.
Healthy food consisted of anything edible!
Cooking outside was called camping.
Seaweed was not a recognized food.
"Kebab" was not even a word, never mind a food.
Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as being white gold.
Prunes were medicinal and stewed.
Surprisingly Muesli was readily available. It was called cattle feed.
Pineapples came in chunks or were round with a hole in the middle, in a tin; We had only seen a picture of a real one.
Water came out of the tap. If someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than gasoline for it, they would have become a laughing stock.

There were three things that we never ever had on/at our table in the fifties..............
ELBOWS, HATS AND CELL PHONES!

Thursday, August 29, 2019

A great day for a long walk on a long pier

Nancy and I went to White Rock today for a nice walk.  We knew the pier was open but didn't know East Beach is now open also.  We've both been away and our walks earlier were always at Crescent Beach.  The weather here is hot and gorgeous!  We left at 8 AM so we could miss the hot sun.   I've never seen so many people at White Rock so early.  Like us, they were seeing the repaired pier and walking before 10 AM when parking rates are in effect.

The upgrades at East Beach were awesome!  Lots of picnic tables for those fabulous take out fish and chips.
These huge rocks will stop damage from future storms .

A lot of smaller rocks
The storm was on December 20, 2018.  The cleanup of East Beach took a long time.  They finished West Beach clean up quickly so the walks were nice but all of East Beach was blocked off until the end of July.  We walked the entire beach and the new pier!  I didn't take pictures of the new pier as I've posted them before.  7,500 steps if you do the entire walk.  Beautiful day and nice to walk the entire beach once again.

Good for White Rock!  Hopefully all the restaurants will be busy again.
We met my friend Linda Lightfoot.  She took this picture of Nancy and I as the Burlington Northern train was coming!
She moved to South Surrey from Vancouver and really enjoys the area!

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Interesting


Questions with no apparent answers:
1 If poison expires, is it more poisonous or is it no longer poisonous?

2 Which letter is silent in the word "Scent," the S or the C.

3. Do twins ever realize that one of them is unplanned?

4. Why is the letter W, in English, called double U? Shouldn't it be called double V?

5. Maybe oxygen is slowly killing you and It just takes 75-100 years to fully work.

6. Every time you clean something, you just make something else dirty.

7. The word "swims" upside-down is still "swims"

8. 100 years ago everyone owned a horse and only the rich had cars.

Today everyone has cars and only the rich own horses.

Six great confusions still unresolved.

1 At a movie theatre, which arm rest is yours?

2. If people evolve from monkeys, why are monkeys still around?

3. Why is there a 'D' in fridge, but not in refrigerator?

4. Who knew what time it was when the first clock was made?

Vagaries of English Language!
Ever wonder why the word funeral starts with FUN?

Why isn't a Fireman called a Water-man?

How come Lipstick doesn't do what it says?

If money doesn't grow on trees, how come Banks have Branches?

If a Vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a Humanitarian eat?

How do you get off a non-stop Flight?

Why are goods sent by ship called CARGO and those sent by truck SHIPMENT?

Why do we put cups in the dishwasher and the dishes in the Cupboard?

Why do doctors 'practice' medicine? Are they having practice at the cost of the patients?

Why is it called 'Rush Hour' when traffic moves at its slowest then?

How come Noses run and Feet smell?

Why do they call it a TV 'set' when there is only one?

What are you vacating when you go on a vacation.

If you replace "W" with "T" in "What, Where and When",

you get the answer to each of them.

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

White Rock Pier re-opens today!!!!

White Rock Pier; 1,542 feet
After the December storm at low tide
Canada’s longest pier will be welcoming visitors again today starting at 11 a.m. There’s still some work needed to complete all the repairs.

The 104-year-old pier was severed in half after the winds up to 91 kilometers an hour last December, sent boats striking into it. Money from the province, a fundraising campaign, and insurance went into the restoration.

White Rock Mayor Darryl Walker says he’s delighted. “They’re going to find parts of the old pier, which are going to be the first pieces the stop on the northern end of the pier right by the promenade, then you’ll run into the new piece, which will feel very different, I understand much stronger, much firmer,” Walker says. “The end of the pier, except for a few upgrades that needed to be done, is still the old pier.”

It was scheduled to open Labour Day weekend but it's ahead of schedule and under budget!  Way to go White Rock!
Nice picture taken at high tide during the start of the restoration.
I wonder if they will allow boats to moor at the end of the repaired pier?

Monday, August 26, 2019

Happy Monday

Last night we were meeting Janice and Jim at Donna's and going to a great local restaurant in Donna's neighbourhood for dinner.  We left Surrey early so I could talk to Donna about her upcoming trip to Scotland.  However, Highway 99 came to a grinding halt before the Oak Street Bridge!   We were only delayed about twenty minutes, and that made us five minutes late.  When we arrived, Janice and Jim hadn't arrived.  They were stuck in their apartment parking garage as the gate wouldn't open.

Change of plans, Donna packed up her lovely dessert and we drove to Janice and Jim's at UBC.  We went to the University Golf Club for a lovely dinner.  After dinner we went back to Janice and Jim's apartment for fresh peaches and home made brownies!   I don't normally eat dessert, but this was too good to pass up.  Donna is a fabulous baker and the brownies were cut in small pieces and delicious!

Jim had Prime Rib!

Donna and I had chili

Janice and Jim live at UBC in a penthouse apartment.
The view is amazing!

I can't stop looking at the water, mountains and planes leaving YVR!

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Airport charging stations!

I didn't use one last trip, but I have before!

Those oh-so-handy USB power charging stations in the airport may come with a cost you can’t see. Cybercriminals can modify those USB connections to install malware on your phone or download data without your knowledge.

“Plugging into a public USB port is kind of like finding a toothbrush on the side of the road and deciding to stick it in your mouth. You have no idea where that thing has been,” says Caleb Barlow, Vice President of X-Force Threat Intelligence at IBM Security. “And remember that that USB port can pass data.”

It’s much safer to bring your regular charger along and plug it into a wall outlet or, alternatively, bring a portable power bank to recharge your phone when you’re low on bars.

If you insist on using public USB ports, Barlow recommends investing $10 for something called a Juice-Jack Defender. “It's a little dongle you can put in front of your charging cord that basically blocks any data from passing down the cord. It only passes the voltage,” says Barlow.


Friday, August 23, 2019

Lyft comes to Vancouver!

I was ecstatic to hear Lyft is finally coming to Vancouver.  We are one of the few cities that hasn't got ride sharing!

When Cheryl and I landed at the Burbank Airport in July, we went to the cab stand to get a cab to take us to our hotel.  She said "Marriott" and gave the address.  The cab driver did not speak English.  His supervisor came over, they conversed in Spanish and off we went.  I immediately put in the hotel address to make sure he was driving us to the right hotel!  He did and didn't speak to us. 

I needed a cab in LA after Let's Make A Deal taped and asked someone for a taxi phone number.  He said "no one uses taxi's, they are expensive".  Call Uber or Lyft.  I told him I didn't have the app and he said "I prefer Lyft".  I quickly added the app and requested a taxi!

The app picks up your location by GPS so I didn't need to input the address.  The destination was Burbank Airport, I typed in BUR and up it came!  It gave me the option of Shared, Private or Luxury.  I put in "Private", two people and my app said "Trevor, in a Red Chevrolet, License # and said it would arrive in 3 minutes!!!  Up drove Trevor with a Lyft sign in his front window, he said "are you Linda" and we got into an immaculate car.  I knew before I got in the car what the price would be.  He was very cheerful and we had a wonderful experience.

On Monday at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal as we exited, I opened the app.  Again it picked up my location, I put in the hotel address and it said "7 Minutes, Burim, driving a Black Nissan Rogue will pick you up"!  I watched the map and could see him driving to the cruise terminal on the map.  I watched him stop at lights and in seven minutes he arrived.  Immaculate cab.  A great conversationalist.  He drove Lyft to make extra money as living in New York is so expensive.  He did his marketing job in the afternoon.

lyft


AUGUST 19, 2019 AT 9:12 A.M.
Thanks for riding with Burim!
  Photo of Burim
Lyft fare (9.70mi, 44m 37s)
US$46.12
New York Sales Tax
US$4.09
Black Car Fund Surcharge
US$1.15
Congestion Surcharge
US$2.75
Tip
US$10.82



MasterCard *9793
US$64.93
 Ride Map

Pickup  9:12 a.m.

248 Pioneer St, New York, NY
Drop-off  9:57 a.m.

171 W 49th St, New York, NY


This and every ride is carbon neutral







All of this information is on my phone, but they sent me a confirmation email too!

It was $64.30 US, before tip to travel from our hotel to Newark Airport on Wednesday. 12 years ago I took a cab from the same airport in to the same hotel at midnight and it was US$110.00 tip was extra.

The reason I am giving you all the information is, our city, in it's wonderment is not allowing Lyft to pick up at Canada Place while ships are in town!!!   The wait for a taxi has been more than two hours.  I read the cruise boards and visitors complain.  Lyft and Uber had a nice pick up place, close to the terminal in Brooklyn.  It was covered with benches to sit and wait!  At Canada Place, the line snakes within the terminal.  You stand and slowly get to the front of the queue.  You are stuck with whatever taxi comes up.  If you are 6'5", the back seat of a Prius doesn't have enough legroom! 

Welcome to Vancouver, Lyft and I hope the city reconsiders the refusal to let ride sharing at Canada Place as this is a tourist destination and people who wait a long time for a taxi when they arrive at Canada Place are not happy!

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Parenting done right!

We arrived home yesterday.  Great flight from Newark to Seattle then a 20 minute connection in Seattle to Vancouver.  We ran between Terminal N and Terminal C and got there in time.  There was a 10 minute delay in departing and our luggage made it!

It's nice to be home!  We both had a wonderful trip.  Lexie said to her dad, "favourite places, Quebec City and New York City, but I like New York City the most!

I'm still on Eastern time and watching the 5 AM local news.  I applaud these parents!


Two youths face criminal charges of mischief after two teenagers were caught on Aug. 12 breaking windows and causing about $6,500 in damage to the rail cars used for the McLean Mill train tours.

When the boy’s parents learned about the accusations, they say they wanted to make things right.

“To own up to their actions and take responsibility,” one of the mother’s told CHEK News Wednesday as her child picked up glass nearby. “And I hope everybody else in the community is just as forgiving as the volunteers here.”

The boys and the mother we spoke to can’t be identified because the boys are youths and still face criminal charges.

Volunteers at the Industrial Heritage Society say they’re impressed that the boys came to make amends.

“And they both work really hard. I’m really pleased with both of them for coming down here and volunteering their time,” said Walker.

“They owned up to it and said we want to make this good and I’ll bring the kids down here and they’ll be here as long as you need them and have work for them to do so that was pretty nice,” said society president Peter Geddes.

One of the teens is also donating six months of his allowance to help pay for the broken windows.

The community has also responding to an appeal to the glass replacement.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Last day NYC

Yesterday was out last day in New York!  We started the day to going on a Circle Cruise to the Statue of Liberty.  This cruise only circled the island, we didn't stop.  Lexie really wanted to walk around but the lineups were over two hours each way and we didn't want to ruin our day.  After the cruise we went to the 9/11 memorial and walked Battery Park.  It's only 30C today and the humidity is much better.

Open air boat and an incredible day!

Jersey City

Ellis Island



Lower Manhattan

42nd Street

Court House - shown many times on Blue Bloods.
Two TV stations were there, not sure who they are covering.

9/11 Memorial

Reflecting pools

This is quite the barricade.  Lots of NYPD around, not sure why the blockade
 There was also a huge police presence at the Staten Island Ferry.  We just walked by but something was going on.

Battery Park

Keeping cool on a hot day.  You can see the Statue of Liberty in the background

Memorial to WWII servicemen
Facing the Statue of Liberty across New York harbor, the East Coast Memorial is located at the southern end of Battery Park. This memorial honors the 4,601 missing American servicemen who lost their lives in the Atlantic Ocean while engaged in combat during World War II. Designed by the architectural firm of Gehron and Seltzer, the monument consists of a large, paved plaza punctuated by eight massive 19-foot tall gray granite pylons (four each on the southern and northern sides) onto which are inscribed the names, rank, organization and state of each of the deceased.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

New York City - Day 1

We docked early yesterday in Brooklyn.  After we disembarked at 8:30, I ordered a Lyft to our hotel.  We are staying at Radio City Apartments at Times Square.  We are half a block away from the Hop On Hop Off bus and purchased a two day pass.
This screenshot was taken at 3:29PM!
33C/91.4F but it feels like 39C 102.2F!

There was no rain.  On our Night Tour with perfect blue skies we felt raindrops.  That was the humidity in the air.  It was unbearable in the afternoon.  Lexie wanted to walk through Central Park.  We walked for about 20 minutes and I got over heated.  We flagged down a pedicab driver who took us on a 30 minute tour for $3.00 a minute.  What a great idea!  At night it was pleasant on the night tour of the Hop On Hop Off bus.  

Today we plan on seeing Battery Park, The Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center Memorial for sure.  Hopefully it will be a bit cooler.
Grand Central Station

Central Park

There are a few gorgeous lakes

I loved the dog statue

The fountain shown on the TV show "Friends"

Times Square



This picture was taken at dusk on the Manhattan Bridge, looking at the Brooklyn Bridge

It's a little blurry but the bus was moving fast over the Manhattan Bridge

The Night Tour is my favorite!

This is down the street from our hotel

The views are amazing

Lexie loved the architecture

There is no way you can get this building in one shot!

New York Library
If the pictures are blurry, I apologize as most were taken on a moving bus!

Starting to plan next year's vacation

With the Canadian Dollar/US Dollar exchange rate at 1.40 before the credit card surcharge, we've decided to stay in Canada next year.  W...