Wednesday 25 March 2015

Still another excuse - Maple Syrup stolen!

I am deeply indebted to Claudia for raising bail in Germany for my release here in Ontario.
If there are problems, please write and I'll do my best to explain.

Wenn es Schwierigkeiten mit deinem - oder auch meinem Verständnis gibt, bitte schreib mir und
ich versuche es zu erklaren. Ich werde kurze Wörter benutzen!

In $18 Million Theft, Victim Was a Canadian Maple Syrup Cartel
By IAN AUSTEN
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/business/arrests-made-in-maple-syrup-theft-from-quebec-warehouse.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121220&_r=0
The police in Quebec arrested three men in connection with the theft of
six million pounds of syrup from Canada's
global strategic maple syrup reserve.

**************************************************************************************
Bill:  I told you it cost more than gasoline! I didn't know we had a 90-day reserve.
-and of course, since I returned, this has been put under stress. Even my dentist,
I think he owns shares in the reserves warehouse, has questioned me. My "hearing"
is  sccheduled for Fri Jan 4.
***************************************************************************************


 OTTAWA — It was an inside job of sorts. Thieves with access to a warehouse and a
careful plan loaded up trucks and, over time, made off with $18 million of a valuable
commodity.

Francis Vachon for the Globe and Mail.

Drums of maple syrup in the global strategic reserve in Quebec.

The question is what was more unusual: that the commodity in question was maple syrup,
or that it came from something called the global strategic maple syrup reserve, run
by what amounts to a Canadian cartel.

On Tuesday, the police in Quebec arrested three men in connection with the theft from
the warehouse, which is southwest of Quebec City. The authorities are searching for
five others suspected of being involved, and law enforcement agencies in other parts
of Canada and the United States are trying to recover some of the stolen syrup.

Both the size and the international scope of the theft underscore Quebec’s outsize
position in the maple syrup industry.

Depending on the year, the province can produce more than three-quarters of the
world’s supply. And its marketing organization appears to have taken some tips from
the producers of another valuable liquid commodity when it comes to exploiting market
dominance.

“It’s like OPEC,” said Simon Trépanier, acting general manager of the Federation of
Quebec Maple Syrup Producers. “We’re not producing all the maple syrup in the world.
But by producing 70 to 78 percent, we have the ability to adjust the quantity that
is in the marketplace.”

Since 1999, Quebec’s maple syrup industry has used a marketing system found in other
Canadian agricultural sectors, particularly dairy and poultry.

Put simply, the supply management system sets strict quotas for producers and, in the
case of maple syrup, requires them to sell their product through the federation.

The sap that becomes maple syrup after being boiled down often flows for only a short
period each spring. Weather changes can introduce wild fluctuations in how much emerges
from sugar maple trees.

To maintain stable and high prices, the federation stockpiles every drop its members
produce beyond their quota. During bad seasons, it dips into that supply.

“In the States you have the strategic oil reserve,” Mr. Trépanier said, continuing
his petroleum analogy. “Mother Nature is not generous every year, so we have our own
global strategic reserve.”

Mr. Trépanier estimates that the reserve now holds 46 million pounds of syrup.

The spring of 2011 produced so much maple syrup that the federation added a third rented
warehouse, in an industrial park alongside a busy highway in Saint-Louis-de-Blandford,
to accommodate the overflow. The surplus was pasteurized and packed into 16,000 drums,
each holding 54 gallons, and left to rest except for inspections twice a year.

Lt. Guy Lapointe of the Sûreté du Québec, the police force that led the investigation,
said that the thieves rented another portion of the warehouse for an unrelated business.
That enabled them to drive large trucks into the building.

“They were basically inside guys,” Lieutenant Lapointe said. “The leader wasn’t with the
federation, but he had access to the warehouse that would not attract any suspicion.”

When no one else was around, Lieutenant Lapointe said, the thieves gradually began
emptying syrup barrels. Some Quebec news reports indicated that they also filled some
barrels with water to disguise the theft.

Over time, the thieves helped themselves to six million pounds of syrup. Mr. Trépanier

The police spared no resources. Lieutenant Lapointe said that about 300 people were

Like many thieves, the maple syrup gang was faced with how to unload a large quantity of
a commodity that is not easily moved. But unlike most thieves, Lieutenant Lapointe said,
they found a way to get full price on the open market.

 Because the investigation is continuing, Lieutenant Lapointe declined to describe the
resale process in detail. But he did say that the thieves set themselves up as legitimate
maple syrup dealers in neighboring New Brunswick, a province with an open, if much smaller,
maple syrup industry. From there, they shipped the stolen syrup to buyers in that province
as well as in Ontario, Vermont and New Hampshire.

Whatever the arrangement, it was convincing. Lieutenant Lapointe said investigators
believed that the buyers were unaware of the syrup’s illicit origins.

The police have tracked down about two-thirds of the stolen syrup and are trying to seize
it, particularly a large quantity in the United States, which is the largest buyer of
Quebec’s legitimate production. Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, said the agency was investigating what happened to the syrup after it
slipped across the border.

It may be difficult to prove that syrup is stolen property, however.

“Maple syrup doesn’t have a bar code,” Lieutenant Lapointe said. “There’s no way to tell
it apart.”

Although the stolen syrup was insured, Mr. Trépanier acknowledged that some of the
federation’s 7,400 members were not happy that it allowed six million pounds of syrup to
disappear.

Despite the displeasure of members, though, Pascal Thériault, professor of agriculture at
McGill University in Montreal, said the future of the federation was secure. While the
closed market system restricts the ability of large, commercial syrup producers to expand,
the federation’s voting structure means that it is dominated by part-time producers, many
of whom are also dairy farmers. They have no interest, Mr. Thériault said, in returning
to an open market.

Canada’s supply management systems for other agricultural products, like dairy and poultry,
have been protested unsuccessfully for decades by the United States and other countries
in trade negotiations.

While the latest theft was a record breaker, it was not the first significant maple syrup
theft in the province. In 2006, thieves took about $1.3 million from a stockpile that was
the subject of an ownership dispute. Lieutenant Lapointe said that investigation remained
open.

*****************************************************************************************
Ring Leader suspected to be a recent immigrant to Ontario, with links to EURO ring among
others. He may have been plotting a return of Ontario supremacy in the maple syrup
industry - or - maybe - to return more maple syrup to his friends in Europe. He
sometimes answers to Saint Nicholaus but that is probably an alias since his feet are
cloven! Police have released some photos of the suspect. He is armed but since his arms
seem to always be hugging maple syrup canisters he may be more sticky than dangerous.
*****************************************************************************************

As a Post Script to my "hearing" , I now have hearing aids and I am in the custody of Shaw's Sugar Bush where I work for bottles of "Medium" - wob

Tuesday 24 March 2015

Maple Syrup - another blog!

Yes, I am afraid I have sooooooo many images from Shaw's Sugar Bush that you will have to wait until I have digested the delicious pancakes and sausage. I went out skiing today to try and return to a less spheroidal shape - the tides are pulling me every which way. And as usual I took too many to show you. However, for my friend Jörg who misses the snow and skiing, skating style here are just 2 impressions:



And yesterday was spent with Donald at Carden, Centenial, and Grant's with some interesting encounters:



Weather has been great: yes MINUS a lot but calm and sunny - wob

Thursday 19 March 2015

Aurora and barely not quite Spring

It has been a long time coming but last night even I saw Northern Lights inspite of light - actually quite heavy - light pollution:





I think you can see what Vicki and I also saw but just in case, I cropped it and tweaked it just a little:
For comparison, another image shows very little:
For comparison this is without light pollution  and this is an explanation


Now all that is to explain why I went snowshoeing in shorts today - it or I was balmy!
I thought it was warm +9C but Vicki's weathernet said it was -1C feeling like -3C. So whom do I believe?
wob

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Springtime also for Philae

The ESA blog by Emily announced today that Rosetta will begin listening for signs that Philae is still “alive”. This may be possible and hopeful but realistically maybe still too early. When last seen, (Wed Nov 12 2014) one of Philae's legs looked like this:

Now not quite a week later (Mon 17 Nov), I took this image of the 1:1 Philae model with a friendly bystander for scale:


I do not know which of the 3 leg pods is in the Philae image. Here are some other views of the model
in Göttingen:




There is a neat cartoon of the landing which helps put it into another perspective.Rosetta and Philae were ready! One ought to remember that Rosetta has 11 experiments, all working, all gather data. All 21 experiments on both Rosetta and Philae are described in this fact sheet

Any questions?

wob

Tuesday 10 March 2015

Snow De-fence

Friends are cutting grass and grilling; the flowers are out. That does not bother me. And I do not have to shovel snow either - the best of all worlds (and no mosquitos either). So Yesterday Vicki and I went skiing to see how our home was standing up.

From 1km away on the frozen lakeL

There is a lot of snow at the back door so we just clamp on the skiis and go!

The snow does not quite reach to our unit:

And I do not have to shovel it! (I might have said that; did I mention the grass cutting? wob

Sunday 8 March 2015

Patience is a virtue

Spent a wonderful afternoon with Kathleen's friends, Sharon and Ron, at the Hermitage. On the way home, I decided to give Grants Woods another visit. No luck at first so I started the car to leave when the barred owl flew in and landed on the bird feeder. Vicki and I were scared to move so we photographed through the car window. Then I ventured out side the car:


When the owl did not appeared to be disturbed by me I walked behind the car and into the gazebo seen on the right side of the photo above. It still was not bothered. I think it was looking for animals on the ground beneath the bird feeder:



I took lots more and then returned to the car. The owl took to a nearby tree:
And we packed up to continue when it flew onto a branch above our car:


Wise Old Birds!

Summer Time Today: we all Sprung forward an hour - yes it is snowing

OK, it is snowing but it will stop and we will all get our share of skin cancer so cream up, please.

The sun is still south of the equator so we still have long shadows. However, on Feb 14 the sun
was directly above Comet 67P's bigger lobe, maybe above Imhotep, difficult for me to see.
The oval dark mark is the shadow of Rosetta cast on the comet.






The dimensions of this last image (above) are X (left-right) = 1370metres, Y(up-down) = 1350m





Thursday 5 March 2015

Grants Woods

Heard last night that a barred owl has been seen here. Ckecked and the owl had sat in a tree all day yesterday - but not today. Also the snowy owl was not often in the woods - more on the edge of fields high up in a tree or even on a pole.about 2 km away. Nevertheless I had a good walk.

Did see one object in the woods - green so environmentally friendly!!  ???


Beautiful lighting through the forest:
There was mention of an owl sighting near Bass Lake - the sunset was nice. -14C calm.
Birds of a feather flock together - wob

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Weather outlook: only pictures of Spring this year!

Hi. Have to do some travelling this month so thought I would look at the long term forecast which lead me to this outlook for Spring . There are no groundhogs here anymore! And it is snowing today like it forgot it had done this yesterday - so no need for new images.

Tuesday 3 March 2015

Es schneit - unused German phrase for it is snowing

Nature is so co-operative. Yesterday beautiful snow qualls and today a white-out.
The image looks bad BECAUSE it is snowing. If I filter it, it might appear better but really?
Straight ahead and then off to the right toward Rama:

Now the snow is so thick that I cannot get the snow flakes sharp at all distances. So here is a range from


middle, far and near - just for fun!
And the same toward a house just a little left of the above trees:


So has March come in like a lion?  wob

Monday 2 March 2015

Gusts over 50km/h

It is difficult to see air, air in motion, the wind. Here are just a few attempts from many at noon today.
First a general view from our balcony:
Let us look closer:
The island on the left is Horseshoe, about 6km away:
To the left is the longest sight-line, 15km toward Washago:

To the right:
further, is Rama at 10km with left and right island and peninsula at 2.5 - 2.0km respectively:
I stayed inside and walked that walk on the dreadmill for 65 min before swimming for 15.
Squeaky Clean,
WOB