Tag: insurance

Derecho Aftermath

Derecho
~ Loreeebee ~ 5 Comments

Ten days later, residents of Ontario and Quebec are still dealing with the aftermath of the derecho that hit here recently. Originally no one knew what to call it; however experts soon weighed in to label it a derecho. Google says that’s pronounced dr·ay·chow.

What is a Derecho?

The dictionary describes the phenomena as follows:

a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds.

Oxford Dictionary

My brother, currently living the good life in Mexico, pointed out that derecho means “straightforward” in Spanish. Both descriptions make sense as the distinct path spread across Ontario and Quebec from the Toronto region heading northeast, wreaking havoc on its way. Winds were clocked at up to 132 km (82 miles) per hour.

I am still shaking my head in awe at the fact that plastic chairs on our cottage deck were untouched while three trees crashed to the ground all around the same deck. Unbelievable! Big Bird didn’t even bat an eyelash, while we were hiding out in the basement in shock.

derecho
Derecho

Dealing with the Aftermath

Downed hydro wires, poles, and transmission towers as well as magnificent, mature trees ripped out by their roots or split in two (or more) are still being repaired and cleaned up. We have now reached the first day of June on the calendar. Many people just regained their electricity within the past few days while others, including our cottage, are still out. Over 900,000 homes were without power at some point. We have been keeping an eye on the (very convenient) Hydro One Storm Centre site for updates in the rural areas of Ontario so we know when to head back to the cottage to begin the massive cleanup.

One of the advantages of our (Ottawa) suburb of Kanata is that most hydro wires are buried underground. So, while we lost lots of trees, the streets and neighbourhoods within the heart of Ottawa were strewn with hydro wires, poles (last count is 200), and transmission towers.

Insurance Coverage

The Insurance Bureau of Canada advises those policyholders affected to be sure to:

document storm damage to their homes, belongings and automobiles using video and pictures. It has also prescribed that policyholders should keep the receipts if they are having a crew help with the cleanup or remediation of their properties.

IBC

In the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

Ten victims of the storm paid the ultimate price with their lives when they were unable to get out of the way of falling trees. Many of us were warned to take cover from severe thunderstorms just before the derecho hit. That was helpful if you were close to your cell phone or TV and close enough to a shelter from the storm.

Sadly, not everyone was. My heart aches for the victims as well as their families and friends.

Our cleanup pales in comparison. For that fact I am grateful!

Rampant Vandalism at Queen’s Homecoming

rampant vandalism
~ Loreeebee ~ 2 Comments

Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario celebrated homecoming this past weekend.  The problem is the celebrations get out of hand each year when idiots resort to vandalizing anything they get their hands on.  This year our car was one of the unfortunate targets of this rampant vandalism.

Our son had taken the car to Kingston for the weekend to spend time with some of his high school buddies that currently attend Queen’s.  We had instructed him to park the car in his friend’s driveway when he got there and leave it parked for the weekend (ie no drinking and driving).  He did what we told him to, sort of.  There was no parking spot available in the driveway when he arrived on Friday, so he parked on the street. When he went to check on the car Saturday, he was dismayed to see that it had been a victim of the rampant vandalism.  The roof was caved in, front and back hoods dented, brake light on the spoiler kicked in, almost every inch of the car covered in scratches and beer stains, as well as the Toyota emblem torn off the front.

It saddens and sickens me that these so-called intelligent students resort to this disgustingly destructive behaviour.  How and why do they feel this rampant vandalism is acceptable?  How do they get away with it?  To all the people standing around watching (apparently there were lots of pictures and a video posted on social media) it happen, WTF were you thinking?

I realize the car in question is old (2003) with lots of mileage.  We planned to keep the car for our youngest son to drive (he’s 21 now) while he still lives at home. The costs to repair the vandalism will most likely be higher than what the car is worth.  Then the insurance deductible will eat up the measly amount we will receive as compensation, but that’s not the point.  The car is our possession, it is incomprehensible how some idiotic kids can damage other peoples’ property with no remorse.

I can promise you any pictures I find of our damaged car on social media will be forwarded to the police to supplement the original report.  Hopefully, authorities will find the culprits that thought this was funny and penalize these idiots accordingly. I am hoping the power of social media will bite them in the butt.

If you recognize any of these students, please let me know!

rampant vandalism

The speed of change, food for thought

~ Loreeebee ~ 1 Comment

The speed of change as predicted here is food for thought, interesting and scary at the same time!

This German author offers a peek into the future . . .
By Udo Gollub at Messe Berlin, Germany
Speed Of Change
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.
What happened to Kodak will happen in a lot of industries in the next 10 year – and most people don’t see it coming. Did you think in 1998 that 3 years later you would never take pictures on paper film again?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 long time, before it became way superior and got mainstream in only a few short years.
It will now happen with Artificial Intelligence, health, autonomous and electric cars, education, 3D printing, agriculture and jobs.
Welcome to the 4th Industrial Revolution –
Welcome to the Exponential Age.
 Software will 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.  Airbnb is now the biggest hotel company in the world, although they don’t own any properties.
 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.
 Lawyers: In the US, young lawyers already don’t get jobs. Because of IBM Watson, you can get legal advice (so far for more or less basic stuff) within seconds, with 90% accuracy compared with 70% accuracy when done by humans.  So if you study law, recognize that there will be 90% less lawyers in the future, with only specialists remaining. IBM Watson already helps nurses diagnose cancer, 4 time more accurately 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 will appear publicly. Around 2020, the complete industry will start to be disrupted. You don’t want to own a car anymore.  You will call 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 only pay for the driven distance and can be productive while driving. Our young kids will never get a driver’s license and will never own a car.
 It will change the cities, because we will need 90-95% less cars for that. We can transform former parking space into parks. 1.2 million people die each year in car accidents worldwide. We now have one accident every 100,000 km, with autonomous driving that will drop to one accident in 10 million km.
 We will save a million lives each year.
 Most car companies might become bankrupt.
 Traditional car companies 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. I spoke to a lot of engineers from Volkswagen and Audi; they are terrified of Tesla.
Insurance Companies: will have massive trouble because without accidents, insurance will become 100x 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 neighborhood.
 Electric Cars: will become mainstream by 2020. Cities will be less noisy because most cars will be electric.  The need for fossil fuels will drop dramatically.
 Electricity: will become incredibly cheap and clean: Solar production has been on an exponential curve for 30 years, but you can only now see the impact. Last year, more solar energy was installed worldwide than fossil fuels. The price for solar will drop so much that all coal companies will be out of business by 2025. With cheap electricity comes cheap and abundant water.
 Desalination now only needs 2kWh per cubic meter.
 We don’t have scarce water in most places, we only have scarce drinking water. Imagine what will be possible if we can have as much clean water as we want, at almost no cost.
 Health: The Tricorder X price will be announced this year. There will be companies who will build a medical device (called the “Tricorder” from Star Trek) that works with your phone. It scans your retina, your blood sample and you breathe into it. It then analyses 54 biomarkers that will identify nearly any disease.  It will be so cheap, that in a few years everyone on this planet will have access to world class medicine, almost free.
 3D Printing: The price of the cheapest 3D printer came down from $18,000 to $400 within 10 years. At the same time, it became 100 times faster.  All major shoe companies have started 3D printing of shoes.  Spare airplane parts are already 3D printed at remote airports.
 The space station now has a printer that eliminates the need for the large amount of spare parts they used in the past. At the end of this year, new smartphones will have 3D scanning possibilities. You can then 3D scan your feet and print your perfect shoe at home.  In China, they have already 3D printed a complete 6-storey office building.  By 2027, 10% of everything that’s being produced will be 3D printed.
 Business opportunities: If you think of a niche you want, ask yourself: “in the future, do you think we will have that?” If the answer is yes, say to yourself, “How can I make this happen sooner?” If it doesn’t work with your phone, forget the idea.
And any idea designed for success in the 20th century is doomed to failure in the 21st Century.
 Work: 70-80% of jobs will disappear in the next 20 years. There will be a lot of new jobs, but it is not clear if there will be enough new jobs in such a short time.
 Agriculture: There will be a $100 agricultural robot in the future.Farmers in 3rd world countries can then become managers of their fields instead of working all day on their fields. Hydroponics will need much less water. The first petri dish produced Veal is now available and will be cheaper than cow produced Veal in 2018. Right now, 30% of all agricultural surfaces are used for cows. Imagine if we don’t need that space anymore. There are several startups which will bring insect protein to the market shortly. They contain more protein than meat. It will be labeled as an “alternative protein source” because most people still reject the idea of eating insects.
 Truth or Lies: There is an app called “moodies” which can already tell us the mood we are in.
 By 2020 there will be apps that can tell by our facial expressions if we are lying.
 Imagine a political debate where it’s being displayed, if they are telling the truth or not.
 Longevity: Right now, the average life span increases by 3 months per year. Four years ago, the life span used to be 79 years, now it’s 80 years. The increase itself is increasing and by 2036, there will be more than a year in longevity increase per year. So we all might live for a long, long time, probably over a 100 years.
 Education: The cheapest smartphones are already costing $10 in Africa and Asia. By 2020, 70% of all humans will own a smartphone.This means, everyone has the same access to world class education