Minimum Minutes, Maximum Birds, Feb 27th

Dan Kennelly – opened the meeting talking about an article from an industry blog he follows that addresses the difference in the way the US protects its industries. It gleans from the “origin story” of trade protections, meaning the first time this protection was enshrined into law. It then moves to the present day. Seems like not a lot has changed despite cries of foul play worldwide over what’s perceived as Trump’s “nationalism”. From the look of it, he’s just more explicit about “America First”; it’s ALWAYS been the official doctrine. It would seem it’s just been couched in different diplomatic language depending on the time and administration. From Dan:

Blog Article from Dan Kennelly Mar 2, 2020 – Time Will Tell

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George Doherty – added a book to some readings lists ( mine included – I took a break from writing the minutes to go grab it at Indigo. This helps explain why the minutes are delayed… ). It’s called The Body: A Guide For Occupants and it’s written by the amazing Bill Bryson. You can check it out on Indigo if the description below intrigues you. The link is https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-body-a-guide-for/9780385685740-item.html?ikwid=The+Body&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=0#algoliaQueryId=575acb79f6305338faa9c0fb68500f4e. 

JD MacDonald – has noticed a bit of a trend lately: how specific some clients are when they request parts AND how fast they expect to have them. (* Thank you Amazon! ????* ) An example: a female client was very precise with a faucet she wanted. Naturally, she wanted it yesterday . When JD explained that after a LOT of research he’d found a supplier in Alabama who could have it here in 6 weeks, SHE “ made clear ” that six weeks wasn’t an option.

They call that an impasse.

JD solved the problem by finding another option she accepted ( no word on how graciously ).

Another note from JD: He and Phyllis were recently at the new Keg in Market Mall. Nothing but good things to say, including fantastic ambiance and the staff was good.

Sean Baylis – started in with a one-word summary of the past week on the market: tough. The Covid-19 virus is to blame. Sean then immediately went to Warren Buffet’s take on times like this: the best time to buy is when there’s fear in the market. Markets are down 10% or more compared to the usual state of things at this time of year. It’s to the point that many central banks are ready to interfere with stimulus including the Fed in the States

An interesting tangential note: 10-year bonds are at their lowest point in history. BUT, people are scared enough to lock their money in at under 2% and sit.

Stock tip: Gilead Sciences – They are apparently honing in on a cure for the virus. Their stock is apparently undervalued. The story is in this Baron article: https://www.barrons.com/articles/gilead-sciences-could-have-a-coronavirus-cure-biotech-stock-51582920128.

Meanwhile, by pure coincidence, a research team in Israel says a vaccine for the virus’s worst effects could actually be weeks away: https://www.sfgate.com/science/article/COVID-19-coronavirus-vaccine-Israel-15093659.php.

Then: ’tis the season for TFSA and RRSP contributions. Deadline just passing by the time you read this…

Brett Bain – has had his around-the-world goggles on the past while and doesn’t like what he sees. He brought up his upbringing by Baptists in Scotland ( do they make Catholic Calvinists look good? ). Naturally, the biblical-scale plague of locusts in Africa, the pestilence around the world (COVID-19 virus), wars, famine in half the third world, the conclusion is that the end times are near ????.

OK, tongue firmly planted in cheek there, but, it is a bit scary to watch protests escalating, and no one to lead people out of trouble.

Andy Lockhart – at that point chimed in with a winning, pointed observation about our fearless “leader” following from a hereditary chiefs article in the national post. Trudeau is a hereditary chief. Heaven help us!

Brett…good news about the apocalypse; they’ve altered the 4 horsemen, and they’re not at all as threatening. Here are the 4 horsemen of procrastination.

Dwayne Vinck –  recently visited a friend in hospital and came away with a sad story that contained some well-worn advice: If it sounds too good to be true…..

The friend recounted to Dwayne how he received a call from “a guy” who wanted to know if he wanted to buy palladium metal options. So he invested $10k. The investment appreciated so Dwayne’s friend called to sell them. Well, buddy at the other end is now demanding $12k to get rid of them. So, Dwayne, mindful that his friend is in the hospital with a terminal condition, probed gently to find out how his friend found the “guy”. “Oh, he found me…” was the response.

So for Dwayne, unfortunately, accustomed to seeing this sort of thing that was red flag #1. So Dwayne went digging.

The web site the guy gave his friend looked pretty sophisticated on the surface, but it was a trap. The second red flag for Dwayne was that in his experience, the business the “guy” purported to be in is a pretty high-touch business. A lot of individualized services, attention to individual investors, that sorta thing. As a result, on most LEGITIMATE sites, there’s a LOT of contact information and ways to reach staff. After looking around the site Dwayne couldn’t find a US or Canadian address and only a single toll-free number. When you google the address on a scam site, like this one, the address will often lead to a train station or the like.

The third red flag came about as Dwayne did more due diligence. He literally copied and pasted some of the text from the web site and found identical sites bilking other investors. His terminally ill friend thought he’d made $80K. Instead, he was out almost $20K.

The tip – resulting from a bit of work after suspecting “if it’s too good to be true…” is do the due diligence. If you can’t, hire someone like Dwayne to do it.

Ross Mikkelsen – had a couple of things. First, there was more info from the Chinese supply chain. One of Ross’s suppliers is not far from Beijing. He explained how 30% of sheet metal workers were back, and about 60% of packing people. Of those groups, 20% are en route (quarantined themselves). 20% off in the wind – perhaps not coming back. Naturally, there’s going to be at least a 2-week lag before these places get back up to speed. That’s just ONE factory.

Despite that, they did get notice of a container having either shipped or arrived for Barbecues Galore.

Ross’s daughter Mira is a type 1 diabetic and has been for 13 years. Ross happened to tumble onto a “U of C big brain guy” who claims to have discovered a new class of drugs that could cure all auto-immune diseases. That includes diabetes and SO many others. Dr. Pere Santamaria is the “big brain” of note and you can read more about the way they’re headed into pre-clinical trials via this article: https://snyder.ucalgary.ca/news/university-calgary-discovery-potential-treatment-autoimmune-diseases-takes-step-forward. It’s pretty heady stuff.

Paul Boucher hopped in at this point to mention an experimental stem cell treatment that has now been used to successfully REVERSE diabetes in mice. That research is taking place next door in BC. You can read more about it here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120627122252.htm.

Ross then segued over to talk about a friend who is a big food processor of frozen food. This stuff has been going on Reefer trains, but the eco-warriors are throwing blankets onto these cars, causing them to heat up and literally tons of food to spoil.

The final note from Ross was regarding an ad they’d put looking for 1 cashier and another jr position (s). They shut down the application stream after 500 applications!!

Tony Fisher – continued the U of C story strolling down another informational avenue by noting that the school and its research has all been sustained with corporate funding. He figures it about 1970-ish that they got started. They’ve clearly accomplished a lot. One innovative note is that doctors working at the school retain the rights to their Intellectual Property (IP) in Calgary.

Incidentally, in speaking to a doctor at the facility, he shared with Tony that he personally agreed with the UCP approach to health care.

Tony also had an eye-opening experience at the grand opening of a new seafood supermarket in the NE called Seafood City. It includes in-house restaurants. It’s 80,000 square feet of seafood, and despite the size, Tony was practically shuffling sideways in there it was so crowded. Easily over 600 people in there when he went. It’s a Filipino outfit and this is its third location in Canada. They have many in the US. Many of the Filipinos on hand for the opening and subsequent days said it was the next best thing to home. You can see some photos and watch a bit of a video to catch a bit of what Tony was feeling at this link from CBC: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/seafood-city-calgary-1.5472927.

Quick addition to Tony’s story on how Calgary doctors get to keep their IP when they develop new things. That harkens back to the good old days of 3M and the invention of Post-it notes. That was a “mistake” from a 3M researcher looking for a super-strong adhesive. Instead, he found a super-weak one that could be reused multiple times. It’s an interesting story and in a nice, tidy Reader’s Digest version at this link: https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/who-invented-sticky-notes.

Mel Gibson ‘s – first contribution was a note that Intact’s stock is showing a little gain. (Sean chimed in to say RBC ikes them).

Then he went on to recount how the bank gave him a call AFTER they froze all of his accounts. It started with an eTransfer made from Mel’s account to an individual whose email address started with “info@”. It just had all the earmarks of a fraudulent act, so FREEZE!. Mel was actually grateful for the bank’s oversight but assured them it was all legit. Things were back to normal after he confirmed that for them.

Mel added a “ sci-fi-as-real-life ” scenario to our breakfast with the news that Liability insurance is starting to change with AI and robotic applications. For example in some places, it’s robots that serve the coffee. If the robot spills….who’s liable? This notion of where the ultimate liability lies behind a machine error will likely get tested with autonomous vehicles first.

Dave Hicks – was on course last week. He talked with quite a few fellow contractors. There’s a lot of doom and gloom among them. There’s a lot of maintenance work, but not a lot of new construction work which is where the bigger money is.

Hixi Electric is busy, thankfully. Even so, he is noting some desperation out there. Hixi quoted on a breakfast place and Dave was privy to one of the other estimates. It looked likely to set up the company bidding for a $100k loss on a $150k job. As it turns out, it’s for a development that is being steered by a friend of Michael McLennan’s, so Michael offered to throw a red flag up to prevent his friend’s development from being screwed inadvertently or otherwise.

You never know what you’ll get by mentioning some of these things in a Birds meeting!

Hixi continues to be busy in the mountains.

Andy Lockhart – started by reminding us he’d been whining recently about the interminable process of registering SAWS for charitable status via CRA. After toiling another 25 to 30 hours, that whole thing is off to the lawyers to finish up.

Andy continued with the story of a recent hearing test at the hands of Ian Campbell’s company Calgary Hearing Aid and Audiology. Andy’s discovered that his ability to hear “bacteria fornicating” when in a quiet room, no longer extends to noisy environments. Hearing aid required. So Andy left the down payment on Ian’s new forthcoming BMW.

Ian Campbell – started with thanks to Andy for his “ testimonial “. ????.

He then went on to explain the BM…I mean, the hearing loss problem.

Sometimes for mild and moderate hearing loss, the solution is more expensive because the technology is more sophisticated, delivering more nuanced and specific assistance.

He also added an interesting observation: the brain can actually “forget” certain sounds if you wait too long to address a hearing loss, no matter how small. So…don’t wait.

Michael McLennan – told us about In-Q-Tel, a venture capital company. They stand between startups, the market, and the CIA. Seriously. The blurb on them is:

Among the many companies they’ve given a hand up to are MarkForged – Michael’s primary 3D printing manufacturer.

Don Doolan – talked about some good friends who are planning on heading out for a bucket list trip to Europe. The wife is beside herself about the news out of Italy in particular. She’s wondering about trip cancellation in light of the COVID-19 infections there. She was essentially told by the insurance companies that until Canada declares any of the countries on their itinerary a no-go…..”have a nice trip!”.

Andy noted that some cruise companies, in particular, are being more reasonable and allowing passengers to re-schedule for a year down the road.

Brad Pachal – turned to George Doherty to ask what the heck kind of adhesive they use on prescription bottles. He recounted trying to take a label off of a prescription bottle. When he couldn’t, he thought…hey maybe I could get some of this “never-let-go” adhesive for my woodwork. ????

Brad also had a series of experiences that inspired a bit of reflection recently. He got a call at about 4AM one day last week. It was his son – about to head to the hospital.

The FIRST baby was born at 5 (*just in time delivery), Baby number 2 came into the world 25 minutes later. The twins weighed 3.6 and 3.8 lbs. Pretty common and in good shape, but they’ll be in there for a few weeks. Mom had a tough time though. She’s in for a lot of healing. The first twin was born naturally, but the second had to be C-sectioned out.

Brad was struck, not for the first time, at the simultaneous, or near-simultaneous arrival of life, and the exit, on the other hand of another person.

The first time the birth-exit experience happened for him was when his mom was dying of brain cancer. Now, it’s the mutual friend he and Dwayne have in the hospital who is on his way.

The introspection led to the observation that life is fragile. Treasure it, and take nothing for granted.

Paul Boucher added a quick note on the protesters in the lower mainland in particular in the past week – who are likely representative of a lot of the people who’ve highjacked the Wet’suwet’en moment to promote their own agenda. Turns out the organizers and leaders of a couple of the protests aren’t even from Canada. See this link for a bit of GLobal TV video – but only if your blood pressure is stable: https://globalnews.ca/news/6601384/who-are-the-wetsuweten-protesters/