1 billion dollars exchanged hands via bitcoin today.

More and more main media outlets are realising the fragility of the IMF now that the central banks are starting to own over 50% of their countries debt. Politicians like to spend and the federal debt of Canadians is over 98% of their GDP

 Then we need to add provincial debt, which Alberta has the lowest (10% of GDP), but it is climbing quickly with the NDP in power. Last, but not least, is personal debt which is approximately  160% So whether we look at public or private debt we are getting to the point where bankruptcy should be declared.

Why I am running for County Council

Arthur and Judy Amendt

I had been contemplating running for Council for sometime, so with the resignation of Brock Smith now is quite appropriate.

~~~My History~~~

After college I did some work in construction but realized my passion was in the computer technology field.  Fixing / playing with the latest and greatest equipment consumed a lot of my time.  In the early 90's I purchased my first rental property and have been doing property management since then. In 1993, when my mother died and my father was seriously injured in a car accident, I was left to manage the farm West of Hythe. Juggling between Amendt Computers, property management and farming has been rewarding and life teaching. All of these skills I feel are easily transferable to the work of a Councillor.

~~~My Passion~~~

I enjoy studying the latest happenings in the financial and technical world. Being an Open Source advocate has enriched my understanding of the crypto-currency space and being on the Community Futures of Grande Prairie Board has increased my understanding of the entrepreneurial / business world.

If elected my focus as a Councillor would be:
To maintain and keep your taxes low
To keep your roads maintained - every rate payer deserves year round, easy access in and out of their primary residence. 
To listen to your concerns

I would like to serve the County of Grande Prairie residents - wanting to enhance all our lives.
My website

Can Facebook control all your communication?

Yesterday my wife left her painting supplies at Angelia's painting class so she needed a easy way to let Angela know this.  She didn't have Angelia's number so what should she do? -- turn to social media of course. Luckily Angelia uses Hangouts even though she has a group page on Facebook. If Angelia had only been using Facebook this is what could have happened.
Judy would have had to install the Facebook message app in order to text Angelia. The text may or may not have gone through, but let us look at the consequences of installing the Facebook messaging app. During the install process the app ask for permission to see all the info in your contacts app.  Most people just click OK OK OK because they want to get the message to Angelia; but if you do that, Facebook now knows all the people you know, at least those you had contact info for. Angelia might be ok with Judy messaging her, but are all of Judy's other contacts in her contact app willing to let Facebook have that information?  Everybody knows that Facebook keeps "shadow profiles" of the people you know who are not on Facebook and this is how they fulfill that database.
You might ask why does Facebook allow this? They would respond by saying "You are the person who clicked OK OK OK"
You could go outside Google's Play store by getting the app file, but most of those people get me to help them like they do with Tubemate (which allows you to download videos so you can watch videos when you don't have internet-- this app you can't get from Google play store).
So why don't people care about their's and their friend's contacts lists privacy? Probably, people  don't know what Facebook is up to or they don't mind ratting on their friends who want to remain private.
Can this be true? Look at what Mark Zuckerburg told his investors." 1. Facebook wants to be the middle-man in all personal communication. 2. Facebook wants to make all personal communication public over time." This is why your Facebook privacy settings change over time. Look at the bottom right text on the above image. "Facebook may automatically add additional capabilities to each group" -- or to put this in English "Facebook can change your privacy settings whenever they want."  This is a lot different then Google's Mantra, "Do no harm." For the best social experience join me on Mastodon.