February 2001 Edition
CARDS
A recent study conducted for the Interac Association found that 42 per cent of Canadians used debit cards most often as a means of payment, compared to 35 per cent of respondents who used cash.
GLASS
Recycled glass uses only two-thirds the energy needed to manufacture glass from scratch. This means for every soft drink bottle that is recycled, enough energy is saved to run a TV set for an hour and a half.
TOURISM
North America's first "ice hotel" opened in Quebec in January. Entrepreneurs are mimicking the Swedish concept. It is 10,760 square feet and built out of 4,750 tons of snow and ice. Although the cost is more than $100 a night, about 1,000 people have already made reservations.
ACQUISITIONS
Britain led the world in cross-border acquisitions accounting for 30% of the total of $767 billion in 1999, according to figures from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. America remained top of the league for cash flowing in, with purchasers spending $293 billion. Regionally, Europe accounted for 73 per cent of all merger and acquisition activity.
POLICE
Twice as many women were police officers as of June 2000 compared with a decade previously, according to a new report. In 1990, there were 3,573 female police officers, representing just over 6 per cent of all officers. By June last year, there were 7,658 female police officers, accounting for almost 14 per cent of the total. B.C. had the highest proportion of female police officers at almost 18 per cent, followed by Ontario at almost 15 per cent. The Atlantic provinces continued to have the lowest proportion of female officers at around 10 per cent.
POTATOES
Potatoes remained the vegetable of choice for consumers in 1999. Each individual ate on average 77.0 kg of potatoes either in fresh form or as processed products such as french fries, potato chips, instant or frozen mashed potatoes. This sharp 18.5% jump in consumption from 1990 was due in large part to the expanding popularity of french fries
CHARTERS
More than 1.7 million passengers travelled on domestic and international air charter flights in the first quarter of 2000, up 6% from the first quarter of 1999. Domestic charter passengers increased by 11% in the first quarter; just over 270,000 passengers travelled on charter flights within Canada. The number of international charter passengers reached 1.5 million, up 5% compared with the first quarter of 1999.
TRADE
Canada is moving to expand trade ties with Central American countries, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Canada exported goods worth C$212-million to the four countries while importing commodities worth C$251-million in 1999. There is significant potential for Canadian companies in several priority export sectors, including telecommunications equipment, environmental equipment and services, foodstuffs, automotive parts and construction materials.
DISASTERS
Major catastrophes, including widespread flooding and the mass killing of a doomsday cult, claimed 17,000 lives in 2000 and caused losses totalling US$57-billion. The biggest single loss of life came from flooding in India and Bangladesh when 1,200 people died. Flooding was responsible for four of the top five disasters. The number of fatalities from manmade disasters was almost 9,000. Of the US$57-billion in damages, insurers will have to pay out US$16.5-billion. In 1999, disasters were responsible for the deaths of 105,000 people at a cost of US$150-billion.
TRENDS
Increasingly, campaigners are demanding that countries impose restrictions on advertising aimed at children. In Europe, legislation to curb marketing to children is spreading. In Greece, toy advertising on TV is banned between 7am and 10pm. Italy, Poland, Belgium and Ireland are all debating the issue. Sweden, where TV advertising aimed at children under 12 has been illegal since 1991, aims to use it's six months as President of the EU to make Europe's rules even more stringent. In the U.S., Senator Hilary Clinton plans to introduce a bill to stop "unfair" advertising to children, especially those under five.
HATS
China is going to help the U.S. army with the 3.7 million berets it needs. One U.S. company can only provide one third of the $24 million order. China is supplying 309,000; the rest come from South Africa, Romania, Sri Lanka, India, and Canada.
GROWTH
According to The Economist, world output grew by an estimated 4.9 per cent in 2000, its fastest pace for 16 years. America led the way: its GDP surged by more than 5 per cent, well ahead of growth in Japan and the Euro area. As the year ended, there were increasing fears about a "hard landing" for the American economy. It is estimated that growth will slow in 2001 to around 3.4 per cent. Growth will be fastest in the Middle East and North Africa.
LIBRARIES
A group of libraries around the world is developing a free online reference service to answer research questions from the public. A web site, expected to be available by June, will help direct a query to the appropriate library. That could produce answers, for example, from a library in Australia if the question concerns the history of Aborigines.
PUMPKINS
They have been grown in the U.S. for over 5,000 years. Pumpkins are indigenous to the Western Hemisphere and were completely unknown in Europe before the time of Columbus. The nutritional value of pumpkin seeds improves with age. The seeds are among the few foods that increase in nutritional value as they decompose.
WATER
In an unclassified report called Global Trends 2015, the U.S. intelligence community concludes that, by 2015, nearly half of the world's population--more than three billion people--will be in countries lacking sufficient water, and that even more genetically modified crops or projects to desalt sea water will not substantially help.
BANKRUPTCIES
A San Francisco-based Webmergers study indicates that at least 210 Internet companies shut their doors during the year 2000, taking down with them some $1.5 billion in investment money. 60 per cent of the closures occurred in the fourth quarter. Most of the companies that failed were e-commerce businesses, which accounted for 109 of the shutdowns. Online content sites made up another 30 of the total, while infrastructure and other online service companies made up the remainder. Webmergers estimates that as many as 15,000 employees lost their jobs as a result of the closings.
KINDNESS
In a final act of corporate kindness, Pets.com tossed a lifeline to Alaska dog mushers faced with the harsh choice of killing their dogs or watching them starve. The San Francisco-based online retailer, which pulled the plug November 7 donated more than 21 tons of dog food to help mushers in Alaska's Interior. The collapse of salmon runs this year left mushers with too little food for their dogs this winter. Villagers use sled dogs to check trap lines, haul water and firewood, and travel between villages.
BIO-FOODS
According to Progressive Grocer, more U.S. foodmakers will likely begin voluntarily labelling products with gene-spliced ingredients to give consumers more information. Labelling is one of the key issues in the battle between U.S. environmentalists and agribusiness over regulation of bio-foods. Many European and Asian nations already require labels on foods containing genetically modified corn, soybeans, tomatoes and other crops. But American industry groups oppose mandatory labelling in the U. S. because of the cost and the worry that consumers may interpret it as a warning that a food is less safe.
Y2K
The Y2K glitch hit Norway's national railroad company a year later than expected. The bug was discovered when none of the company's 16 new airport express trains or 13 high speed Signatur trains would start. The problem was quickly resolved for the moment: The computers were reset to December 1, 2000, and the trains started immediately.
THE ARGENTINE
Argentine supermarket sales rose to $1.134 billion in November 2000, a 1.1 per cent increase over the same month a year ago, according to the Economy Ministry. Compared with October 2000, during which revised figures showed sales at $1.191 billion, November sales slipped 4.8 percent. The Argentine economy contracted 3.2 percent last year and growth - expected below 0.5 percent this year - has so far been sluggish.
FILMS
Film and video distributors and videocassette wholesalers made more sales in Canada and abroad in 1998/99 than ever before, surpassing the $2-billion mark in total revenue. Strong sales of foreign film and video productions in Canada and the continued growth in overseas exports of Canadian productions led to record revenues of $2.1 billion, up 16 per cent from 1997/98. Sales to foreign clients accounted for 56 per cent of all the distribution revenues from Canadian content productions in 1998/99. This compares with only about one-third at the beginning of the 1990s.
MAURITIUS
The government of Mauritius plans to turn the country into a free trade zone for information technology. The country already enjoys the status of a manufacturing free trade zone and has earned the reputation as the Singapore of Africa, attracting more than 9,000 offshore entities aimed in the main at commerce in India and South Africa.
WATERING
Scientists in Scotland have pioneered a genetically modified "super-potato" that glows when it needs water. Plants are injected with a fluorescence gene borrowed from a luminous jellyfish which causes their leaves to glow green when dehydrated. The glow is barely visible to the naked eye but can be detected by using a small hand-held device. The technology could be extended to other varieties of fruit and vegetables.
INDONESIA
The government has decided to reduce import tariffs between zero and 25 per cent on over 1,000 items. The reduction affects a wide range of products including paints, varnish, cosmetics, woven cotton clothes, gold (not coin), platinum, cooking wares, screws, gloves, bed covers, toys, synthetic flowers, watches, electrical devices and many other products. At the same time, the government has imposed new import tariffs of between 20 per cent and 25 per cent on door frames made of steel and several other steel products such as barbed wire.
WALKING
A group of store owners in busy Oxford Street, London, are so fed up with the congestion caused by slow walkers that they have proposed the world's first pedestrian fast lane. One-way fast lanes would be painted on the sidewalk which would have a minimum speed limit of 3 m.p.h., and would be monitored by speed cameras. Anyone caught dawdling would be subject to on-the-spot fines.
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