Random Thoughts: Happy Earth Day!

OK I am a day late

Yes, Earth Day came and went yesterday with nary a post by anyone about saving our Mother Earth. Given the rabid Green movement these days, having an Earth Day seems a little anti-climactic. We have Hybrid cars, Composting Garbage pick ups, and other major steps in the right direction, but we also have the bottled water craze which is pumping out more waste (in empty bottles) than anyone could have imagined. Bottled water if you live in Canada or the U.S. seems a little silly, given tap water is usually just fine (unless you live in Love Canal or places like that), but remember you need to have a metal water bottle (until they realize that solder leaching out of these bottles may cause cancer).

Remember the bad old days of the pull tab on cans (that you threw away)? Those were the days.

My Perspectives

• Interest Rates, What Did I tell You? Not this month but maybe…. So on Tuesday morning, the Bank of Canada made the statement that their key overnight rate was not going to change this month.
• Mortgage Changes Take Effect In 2010 Mortgage Changes were introduced to slow down the booming real estate world hopefully, didn’t work.
• Ash Holes in Europe Although the holes are rather small OK, I just could not resist putting that up as the title for today, given the complete mess Europe’s air travel is now in, thanks to a simple Volcanic eruption.
• Happens When Your Tires Blow Off? At the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, many years ago, during practice, there was a horrific incident where a driver (Sebastien Buemi) had both his front tires blow off while driving down a straight away.
• The Spectre of Denial The denial of science and the birth of alternate science is a worrying issue for our time. Who is right? Science, it is that simple. Your Aunt on facebook, hocking essential oils is not an expert, seriously.
• Random Thoughts: Let the Playoffs Begin! New rules for the NHL playoffs and financial institutions: Get ready for taxes in the springtime with these updates!

From the Blogosphere

What’s new in the financial blog-o-sphere? More of the same old, but remember, Taxes are due, and interest rates are poised to jump a lot in the next few months as well.

• Michael James points out some Income Tax Myths that you might need to think about at this time of year. No the CRA Tax Bunny does not correct your mistakes, either!
• Preet had his own Ash Hole story with his post Iceland’s Smoke Monster (no not a veiled reference to Smoke on the Water by Deep Purple either), pointing out the importance of travel insurance or having enough space on your credit card to get a hotel room, in an emergency.
• The CanadianFinanceBlog points out Low Interest Rates: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, yes low interest rates can be bad as well!
• Larry MacDonald writes about RIM’s advantage in instant messaging and questioning whether RIM is actually at a disadvantage to the iPhone. My only comment is that RIM’s NOC software has had some issues in the past that make this advantage tenuous at times.
• With the new mortgage rules in place, Million Dollar Journey reminds us to Avoid the 5-Year Fixed Mortgage which I agree with somewhat. I locked in with my first mortgage and ended up overpaying by 50% by the end of the term, but remember you need to live with what you are comfortable with in terms of paying for your mortgage.
• The Canadian Couch Potato (or as they are also known Bud THe Money Spud) gives us An Easy Way to Buy the World in terms of stocks at least.
• With Facehole, I mean Facebook giving applications a lot more access to your data LifeHacker points out that you should Delete Facebook Apps that Now Have Greater Access to Your Data. Keep that in mind if you want to keep your privacy.
• Promod at Riscario Insider asks the odd question Are you Saving TOo Much For Retirement?Luckily it is a rhetorical-ish question, since you can never really save too much for your retirement (and Promod should know he is an Actuary).

Enjoy the spring, get some fresh air, and tomorrow an excellent off topic video about de-bunking psychics from Ted.com!