Found 22 posts tagged as "Current Affairs"
Creepy story of the week: a billionaire tycoon has adopted his girlfriend as his daughter. Yes, you read that correctly. And, no, this is not one of those crazy TLC shows. Rather, it’s a move prompted by finances (but still really creepy).
I watch a ton of television. Like, way too much. I’d estimate that the tube is on in my house at least forty hours a week. While I actively watch many shows, the television is also my background noise. As somebody who lives alone, I like to hear something in my apartment and I’m much more of a TV person than a music person. It’s on while I clean, while I surf the net, and while I eat. It’s sometimes even on when I work, though I might turn it down a bit and choose something incredibly boring (like golf or an infomercial) so that I’m not tempted to actually pay attention.
As if I needed any more incentive to watch TV, a new app just debuted with the intent of paying people to watch television.
It wasn’t until, due to health reasons, I had to stop drinking coffee for four months that I really noticed just how much Canadians love their java. No joke; I got weekly invites out for – not tea, but coffee. Every morning, my Twitter feed was filled was happy tweets posted by people who were clearly enjoying a nice hot cup of coffee. It nearly drove me crazy! I’m not going to lie, of all the things I was asked to give up – and there were many, many things – coffee was without a doubt the most difficult. I’ve only recently been allowed to return to a semi-normal diet and, you guessed it, coffee was the first to return. Man, I missed it.
Canadian coffee consumption
The Canadian Coffee Association reports that 63 per cent of adult Canadians drink coffee on a daily basis. On average, Canadians consume more than 40 million cups of coffee per day. That’s an average of about 2.6 cups per person. Obviously, some will drink more than others, and some will drink none at all.
By volume, the Beverage Marketing Corporation says that coffee accounted for 16 per cent of all non-alcoholic beverage sales in 2008. According to Stats Canada, “Coffee competes with a variety of other non-alcoholic beverages including tea, soft drinks, energy drinks, milk and dairy beverages, fruit juices, bottled water, sports drinks, vegetable juices, soya beverages, hot chocolate, and low alcohol wine coolers and ciders.” In fact, in 2008, coffee and tea sales totaled $1.5 billion.
First the government decides to roll out new polymer bank notes, and now they have decided to make some changes to our coins as well. In an effort to save taxpayer money, the Government of Canada is set to release loonies and toonies made of steel, replacing production of current coins, which use nickel. The move received final cabinet approval last month.
So what does this mean, exactly, in terms of saving? According to this Globe & Mail article, the new coins are set save Canadians $16 million annually. These modernized loonies and toonies will be lighter, cheaper to produce and ship, and harder to counterfeit. I wasn’t aware that the counterfeiting of coins was a problem, but I guess you learn something new everyday!
by Roop Gill
Charles Shepard, a Brandon, Manitoba resident withdrew 12 of the new plastic $100 bills from a local bank. When he received the bills, he noticed two of them already had cracks in them and started tearing even more when he handled them.
This was surprising given that these new polymer bills have been billed as nearly indestructible. According to the Bank of Canada, the new bills are supposed to last two-and-a-half times longer than the old paper ones.
When Shepard got home, he decided to put the new bills to the test.
According to Better Business Bureau’s data, moving companies are number 7 on Canada’s top-ten most complained about industries, and it’s no wonder. Homeowners have experienced all sorts of trouble from a slew of different companies, but Natasha Mitchell’s story probably takes the cake.
A while ago, I posted about a woman who tried to pay for her groceries in $32 worth of change. And now, I present to you a man who attempted to pay for his purchases with a far higher denomination – a $1,000,000 bill. As you might suspect, he was unsuccessful in his endeavor.
On November 17, 2011, Michael Anthony Fuller walked into a Walmart in North Carolina and went shopping. He gathered a vacuum cleaner and a microwave oven before heading to the cash. The cashier totaled his purchases at $476, and Fuller handed her a $1,000,000 bill. No, seriously.
Business Insider has posted a chart that shows which country has the best-paid 19-year olds. Canada placed fourth on the chart, not far behind Finland and Luxembourg. Norway, however, beat Canada by approximately $1,700 (U.S.) per month. It’s no wonder then that Norway scores high on the global quality of life ranking system – but not higher than Canada.
Best-paid 19-year olds
Coming in at number one, Norway’s 19-year olds have an average monthly income of $3,600. Luxembourg is second at $2,400 per month, and Finland places third at $1,900 per month. Canada’s 19-year olds, who place fourth overall, rake in a cool $1,900 a month. Not bad.
Generally, late-night infomercial personalities are annoying. I left the TV on one sleepless night not too long ago. I figured that I might be able to drift off to this horrible woman selling really ugly bras that covered half of each model’s torso. It didn’t work. Keep in mind that I’m a male – and, hence, do not wear a bra – and a homosexual, so ogling the ladies is not the reason I kept the television on. The woman on my TV was far too irritating, and the bras were far too ugly, for me to even close my eyes. It was like a train wreck I couldn’t pull myself away from.
Late-night infomercial personalities might be annoying, but they are normally pretty good at what they are there to do, which is get people to buy completely useless products. And there’s nothing wrong with that – unless you’re Kevin Trudeau, one infomercial “star” who broke the law with his late-night scams. Trudeau was just sentenced to pay $37.6 million in fines after ignoring a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) order to stop making infomercials.
When you work in customer service, it’s pounded into your brain that the customer is always right. You’re taught to apologize to any customer who feels slighted, even if there has been no wrongdoing by the company or employee. Often, you do whatever you can to make sure the person leaves the situation happy.
I’ve received many recovery coupons for free drinks because of poor service at Starbucks. Just last week, my brother scored a free meal at Jack Astor’s because his order came to the table after the rest of us – 16 people celebrating his birthday – had completely finished eating. The waitress also brought him a shot of tequila. And when Shopper’s Drug Mart had a sign advertising a sale that didn’t exist a few months back, the manager was sure to give me the deal anyway (before promptly pulling down the sign). Despite the errors, I left all of these places satisfied.
This rule gets slightly twisted when a large sum of money is involved – say, $57 million. You see, an Austrian casino is trying to back out of paying a massive jackpot by claiming that the win only occurred because of a machine error. The casino is not buying the “our mistake, our problem” model, and the case is headed to court.
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