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-   -   Exchange rate (https://britishexpats.com/forum/canada-56/exchange-rate-442788/)

TheBear Jan 23rd 2009 7:03 am

Re: Exchange rate
 
The UK does have a great pharma industry, and our biotech development is second to none...we are way ahead of the yanks because of Bush and his embrio stuff. But these are not labour intensive, and manufacturing is not what it used to be.

One of the problems the future world faces is that as Oil runs out, and our lack of a viable alternative becomes obvious, the cost of everything will go up as everything requires Oil in some point of the process. As has been said many times, countries that are energy rich, will for a while at least, be rich in every way. Then, once we meet the demand left by diminshing Oil supplies with stuff such as Algal Oil, these economies will fall into decline. There will IMO be a 10-15 year period where Canada will be one of the richest countries, then, unless it invests the proceeds wisely, instead of pissing it up the wall like we have here, it will fall behind again. That may be the time to move back here and change your loonies into pounds :)

Alan2005 Jan 23rd 2009 7:46 am

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by TheBear (Post 7205555)
The UK does have a great pharma industry, and our biotech development is second to none...we are way ahead of the yanks because of Bush and his embrio stuff. But these are not labour intensive, and manufacturing is not what it used to be.

One of the problems the future world faces is that as Oil runs out, and our lack of a viable alternative becomes obvious, the cost of everything will go up as everything requires Oil in some point of the process. As has been said many times, countries that are energy rich, will for a while at least, be rich in every way. Then, once we meet the demand left by diminshing Oil supplies with stuff such as Algal Oil, these economies will fall into decline. There will IMO be a 10-15 year period where Canada will be one of the richest countries, then, unless it invests the proceeds wisely, instead of pissing it up the wall like we have here, it will fall behind again. That may be the time to move back here and change your loonies into pounds :)

Yes - energy is going to be everything. Slight OT, but in my more depressed moments I expect that the last 10 years are as good as it gets and that we will see a major conflict over resources in our lifetimes without some big technology breakthrough (renewables are great, but so far their isn't one that has a fast enough energy conversion rate to be replace oil on the scale that it's used)

dexdaw Jan 23rd 2009 8:43 pm

Re: Exchange rate
 
Wow, 1.67 today. It was just touching 2.4 when we first started our SW application. Admittedly it was 4 years ago now. 31% down on when we started. And house prices have fallen around 15% from their ridiculous highs. Add it all together and were approaching a halving in value. It puts a whole new perspective on moving now.

TheBear Jan 23rd 2009 8:46 pm

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by Alan2005 (Post 7205738)
Yes - energy is going to be everything. Slight OT, but in my more depressed moments I expect that the last 10 years are as good as it gets and that we will see a major conflict over resources in our lifetimes without some big technology breakthrough (renewables are great, but so far their isn't one that has a fast enough energy conversion rate to be replace oil on the scale that it's used)

Algal Oil is the replacement. It is virtually carbon neutral. It doesn't require using vast tracts of arable land, all you need is some land (can be grown vertically in sheets in a car park!)), water, and sunshine (and of course CO2, which we have plenty of!). The conversion rate is 10-50 times better than other biofuels. The product is chemically identical to light sweet crude and can be converted into diesel or kerosene. Scale up will happen quickly, but maybe not quickly enough. The speed at which this and other technologies are scaled up, and problems with diseases etc are overcome, will determine the extent of decline in our living standards/number of people starving in subsistance communities.

I do agree that the past couple of decades have been the best we have had so far, and maybe for the next couple of decades we will look back and think that they were the best ever...but there is a time coming when we will have solved our energy problems once and for all and have learned to use the sun's energy, either directly through solar etc, or indirectly through algae etc to meet all our energy needs without damaging our environment. We will also have made medical advances that make current therapies look very primitive. I believe that in the next 4-5 decades we will find ways to significantly slow the ageing process, and that humans, who can afford it, will have life expectancies well into the hundreds, with a high quality of life...provided that various mentally ill groups of people, for example Muslims who imitate Mohamad, learn that they must share this world with everyone else, not convert it, and that we have imposed strict allowances on offspring. Then life will be truly amazing, perhaps the way it was meant to be. I believe some of us alive now will see these days, and enjoy them long past the point that we ever expected to.

deanjp32 Jan 23rd 2009 11:22 pm

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by TheBear (Post 7207367)
Algal Oil is the replacement. It is virtually carbon neutral. It doesn't require using vast tracts of arable land, all you need is some land (can be grown vertically in sheets in a car park!)), water, and sunshine (and of course CO2, which we have plenty of!). The conversion rate is 10-50 times better than other biofuels. The product is chemically identical to light sweet crude and can be converted into diesel or kerosene. Scale up will happen quickly, but maybe not quickly enough. The speed at which this and other technologies are scaled up, and problems with diseases etc are overcome, will determine the extent of decline in our living standards/number of people starving in subsistance communities.

I do agree that the past couple of decades have been the best we have had so far, and maybe for the next couple of decades we will look back and think that they were the best ever...but there is a time coming when we will have solved our energy problems once and for all and have learned to use the sun's energy, either directly through solar etc, or indirectly through algae etc to meet all our energy needs without damaging our environment. We will also have made medical advances that make current therapies look very primitive. I believe that in the next 4-5 decades we will find ways to significantly slow the ageing process, and that humans, who can afford it, will have life expectancies well into the hundreds, with a high quality of life...provided that various mentally ill groups of people, for example Muslims who imitate Mohamad, learn that they must share this world with everyone else, not convert it, and that we have imposed strict allowances on offspring. Then life will be truly amazing, perhaps the way it was meant to be. I believe some of us alive now will see these days, and enjoy them long past the point that we ever expected to.

Wow what great thoughts, i hope your right about it all not that us oldies will see it of course (37) :eek:

Thanks
:thumbsup:

Alan2005 Jan 24th 2009 3:26 am

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by TheBear (Post 7207367)
Algal Oil is the replacement. It is virtually carbon neutral. It doesn't require using vast tracts of arable land, all you need is some land (can be grown vertically in sheets in a car park!)), water, and sunshine (and of course CO2, which we have plenty of!). The conversion rate is 10-50 times better than other biofuels. The product is chemically identical to light sweet crude and can be converted into diesel or kerosene. Scale up will happen quickly, but maybe not quickly enough. The speed at which this and other technologies are scaled up, and problems with diseases etc are overcome, will determine the extent of decline in our living standards/number of people starving in subsistance communities.

I do agree that the past couple of decades have been the best we have had so far, and maybe for the next couple of decades we will look back and think that they were the best ever...but there is a time coming when we will have solved our energy problems once and for all and have learned to use the sun's energy, either directly through solar etc, or indirectly through algae etc to meet all our energy needs without damaging our environment. We will also have made medical advances that make current therapies look very primitive. I believe that in the next 4-5 decades we will find ways to significantly slow the ageing process, and that humans, who can afford it, will have life expectancies well into the hundreds, with a high quality of life...provided that various mentally ill groups of people, for example Muslims who imitate Mohamad, learn that they must share this world with everyone else, not convert it, and that we have imposed strict allowances on offspring. Then life will be truly amazing, perhaps the way it was meant to be. I believe some of us alive now will see these days, and enjoy them long past the point that we ever expected to.

Gosh - i like your future better than my mad-max type scenario.

I do take issue with you calling all religious people mentally ill - that just isn't the case. Some of them are just liars :p

nooka Jan 24th 2009 4:14 am

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by TheBear (Post 7207367)
Algal Oil is the replacement. It is virtually carbon neutral. It doesn't require using vast tracts of arable land, all you need is some land (can be grown vertically in sheets in a car park!)), water, and sunshine (and of course CO2, which we have plenty of!). The conversion rate is 10-50 times better than other biofuels. The product is chemically identical to light sweet crude and can be converted into diesel or kerosene. Scale up will happen quickly, but maybe not quickly enough. The speed at which this and other technologies are scaled up, and problems with diseases etc are overcome, will determine the extent of decline in our living standards/number of people starving in subsistance communities.

I do agree that the past couple of decades have been the best we have had so far, and maybe for the next couple of decades we will look back and think that they were the best ever...but there is a time coming when we will have solved our energy problems once and for all and have learned to use the sun's energy, either directly through solar etc, or indirectly through algae etc to meet all our energy needs without damaging our environment. We will also have made medical advances that make current therapies look very primitive. I believe that in the next 4-5 decades we will find ways to significantly slow the ageing process, and that humans, who can afford it, will have life expectancies well into the hundreds, with a high quality of life...provided that various mentally ill groups of people, for example Muslims who imitate Mohamad, learn that they must share this world with everyone else, not convert it, and that we have imposed strict allowances on offspring. Then life will be truly amazing, perhaps the way it was meant to be. I believe some of us alive now will see these days, and enjoy them long past the point that we ever expected to.

Interesting thoughts. Pity about the religious bigotry.

Danny B Jan 24th 2009 4:19 am

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by chumley (Post 7092604)
i track it several times a day and have done so for 18 months its never gone as low as 1.71:huh:

when was this??

good luck all scary stuff all this

It has now :blink:

TheBear Jan 24th 2009 4:59 am

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by nooka (Post 7208341)
Interesting thoughts. Pity about the religious bigotry.

I am a bigot (someone intolerant of other people's opinions) when it comes to groups of people who believe that it is OK to kill people who don't convert to their beliefs. This is how Mohamad behaved (he personally murdered a thousand Jews and Christians in his own life), and this is how some of his current day followers choose to behave (not just terrorists, but vast numbers of his followers in Africa and Asia). I think it is a perfectly acceptable thing to say that the world will be a better place if these people learn that they need to share this planet with others from different belief systems. I am extremely tolerant of all peaceful beliefs, but I oppose those that would subdue and suffocate freedom. It is unfortunate that you and people like you feel it necessary to stifle all reasonable debate about this very dangerous topic by calling those who choose to see and speak about the full truth rude and insulting names. I suggest therefore that it is you who is the bigot as you are intolerant of my perfectly reasonable and well founded opinion.

The4BellsLondon Jan 24th 2009 5:00 am

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by TheBear (Post 7208486)
I am a bigot (someone intolerant of other people's opinions) when it comes to groups of people who believe that it is OK to kill people who don't convert to their beliefs. This is how Mohamad behaved (he personally murdered a thousand Jews and Christians in his own life), and this is how some of his current day followers choose to behave (not just terrorists, but vast numbers of his followers in Africa and Asia). I think it is a perfectly acceptable thing to say that the world will be a better place if these people learn that they need to share this planet with others from different belief systems. I am extremely tolerant of all peaceful beliefs, but I oppose those that would subdue and suffocate freedom. It is unfortunate that you and people like you feel it necessary to stifle all reasonable debate about this very dangerous topic by calling those who choose to see and speak about the full truth rude and insulting names. I suggest therefore that it is you who is the bigot as you are intolerant of my perfectly reasonable and well founded opinion.

so what's the rate today ?? :)

seaham gal Jan 24th 2009 5:09 am

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by The4BellsLondon (Post 7208491)
so what's the rate today ?? :)

http://www.xe.com/

$1.67

We're really in trouble as our pensions are paid in UK pounds!

Bainesy36 Jan 24th 2009 5:12 am

Re: Exchange rate
 
$1.71 here - http://www.hifx.com/

nooka Jan 24th 2009 5:20 am

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by TheBear (Post 7208486)
I am a bigot (someone intolerant of other people's opinions) when it comes to groups of people who believe that it is OK to kill people who don't convert to their beliefs. This is how Mohamad behaved (he personally murdered a thousand Jews and Christians in his own life), and this is how some of his current day followers choose to behave (not just terrorists, but vast numbers of his followers in Africa and Asia). I think it is a perfectly acceptable thing to say that the world will be a better place if these people learn that they need to share this planet with others from different belief systems. I am extremely tolerant of all peaceful beliefs, but I oppose those that would subdue and suffocate freedom. It is unfortunate that you and people like you feel it necessary to stifle all reasonable debate about this very dangerous topic by calling those who choose to see and speak about the full truth rude and insulting names. I suggest therefore that it is you who is the bigot as you are intolerant of my perfectly reasonable and well founded opinion.

Saying "I think it is a perfectly acceptable thing to say that the world will be a better place if... ...people learn that they need to share this planet with others from different belief systems. " is "a perfectly reasonable and well founded opinion". Saying that "Muslims who imitate Mohamad" are mentally ill is not. Islam did originally spread by the sword, but then most beliefs have done the same at one time or another, whether founded on religion, cults of personailty or other ideology. Most followers of such beliefs are as mentally healthy as the next person. It is a ridiculously reductionist argument to suggest that if only religious people stopped trying to convert other people by force the world would turn into a lovely place. Most conflict is caused by battles over resources, and history does not suggest that is likely to stop any time soon (indeed it is likely to increase, as reductions in things like water availability increase).

chumley Jan 24th 2009 5:30 am

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by seaham gal (Post 7208510)
http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi

$1.67

We're really in trouble as our pensions are paid in UK pounds!

same here not god is it :eek: urry up chc so we can work :wub:

Alan2005 Jan 24th 2009 5:56 am

Re: Exchange rate
 

Originally Posted by nooka (Post 7208547)
Most followers of such beliefs are as mentally healthy as the next person.\

This is now seriously OT - but i'm gonna run with it.

TheBear is right, he is wrong to single out islam tho. Religion is a crutch to help those that need the threat of punishment by a higher being to justify their own morality. That makes them just a tiny bit mad in my opinion - but you don't care about my opinion anyway so it doesn't matter too much. What matters is when you (not you personally:p) try to convert others via force (as Islam appears from the outside to do) or brainwashing (as all religions do to their kids)

Oh well - it's been an interesting thread.


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