Laptops in Vancouver  sells cheap, refurbished laptops at wholesale prices.  I've never used them so can't endorse them, but it looks like a potential winner!  (and mac users, if you look on the bottom right, you'll see a steal on a widescreen macbook).

Was a Dell laptop one of the ones that was stolen?  With an "iron maiden" (!) sticker on it (possibly added later)?   If so, I may have seen it a couple days ago .... this guy in Crabb Park (and note well:  I have a lot of compassion for the homeless/addicts, so don't want to reinforce any stereotypes here!!) was sitting in the little lodge-place on an office chair covered in plastic, using the electricity there (for concerts, usually)  doing a bunch of stuff on the laptop.   If he's just some poor guy between jobs, with his own computer, all the more power to him.  If it sounds like a laptop that disappeared from Workspace, I have some identifying details about the guy.

Was a Dell laptop one of the ones that was stolen?  With an "iron maiden" (!) sticker on it (possibly added later)?   If so, I may have seen it a couple days ago .... this guy in Crabb Park (and note well:  I have a lot of compassion for the homeless/addicts, so don't want to reinforce any stereotypes here!!) was sitting in the little lodge-place on an office chair covered in plastic, using the electricity there (for concerts, usually)  doing a bunch of stuff on the laptop.   If he's just some poor guy between jobs, with his own computer, all the more power to him.  If it sounds like a laptop that disappeared from Workspace, I have some identifying details about the guy.

Stats Can gave us the evidence to prove our suspicions (and not about those wretched workspace imac thieves):  5% of Canadians have 25% of the wealth.  To be in the top 5% you need to earn $89K or more, compared to the US where you'd have to earn $165K.   But before you feel bitter - that same 5% contributed 36% of the taxes CRA received.

In case you haven't heard, google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin keep their jet in Google's backyard, thanks to a deal they struck with NASA, who operates an exclusively federal runway on Moffett field.   Yup, for a price, NASA moved their jets over ...

I wonder:  would a highly successful money-coaching company founder (ahem, with a seminar series for single parents commencing in 2 weeks) park her plane in her backyard?  If Greg Kerfoot can convince the Vancouver port authority to give public waterfront to his stadium, perhaps I have reason to hope ...

steve jobs, placating early adopters of iphone, when new ones come out at $200 less  http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/

Word on the street has Costco blowing out the last gen ipods: 2gb nanos $50, 4gb $100, 30gb video $150 and 80gb $225. Going fast though  - this news flash brought to you courtesy of retrocactus.

Just when I was completely satisfied by workspace (is fangirl a word?) they made me swoon even further.  I'm pretty passionate about my gastown neighbourhood - I think if we wanted, we could model a way for those of us with money, and those of us without, to co-exist with care and respect.  

Apparently last weekend, Workspace put some cash together, bought some pizza, and gave it away to the souls congregating at pigeon park -one of Vancouver's most hard-core areas of the addicted, homeless, mentally ill and marginalized.

Workspace, you make me swoon.

I'm a money coach, not an economist, but my armchair take is that B.C. is going to feel the effects of the B.C. forestry industry's current woes. 

Forestry still accounts for 40% of our exports, but they face the following tough challenges:

1. US housing crunch = plummeting demand for lumber, and the forestry industry isn't really diversified across the globe.
2. Rising energy costs = harder to turn a profit
3. Pine Beetle has destroyed a decade's worth of timber
4. Our rising dollar = exports in general are less attractive.
   

So apparently HSBC offered graduate students in the UK interest-free lines of credit ... then changed their policy.  Whamo - a bunch of grad students are feeling the pain.  Students + feeling ripped off + Facebook = pr nightmare for HSBC.

3600 students have joined the anti-HSBC group and it's growing by the hour. A live protest event is being organized via facebook on Sept. 8th.

If anyone hears how HSBC handles this, let me know!