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2 - Orono Weekly Times, Wednesday, August 20,2003 ) Subscriptions $29.91 + $2.09 GST = $32.00 per year. Publications Mail Registration No. 09301 • Agreement No. 40012366 Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs. " v Orono Weekly Times 5310 Main Street, P.O. Box 209, Orono, Ontario LOB 1M0 Email: oronotimes@speedline.ca • Phone/Fax 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Nôticè of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such items; Power outage illuminating There was no mistaking what made Orono the "Village With a Difference" last Friday. What a difference a few million mega watts of power make. Orono (the only community in Durham Region to have power restored last Friday after North America suffered the biggest blackout blackout ever late Thursday afternoon), became the centre of the universe universe for a while. Once the word had spread by radio announcers that, the staples of life could be had in Orono, the people came. Gas stations on the north Bound lanes of 115/35 soon plugged up and in the case of the Petro Canada station at Concession 3, lineups backed out onto the highway, causing a dangerous situation. As the OPP officer was waving motorists on up the highway, the gas station attendant was waving them into the station. There was also a steady stream of people using the bank's ATM, which was often lined up the street. Àt the north end of town, it was the IGA and the liquor store that were bustling. The parking lot which on a good day normally has about 20 cars in it, was nearly filled to capacity most of the day. Inside the IGA all three tills were in operation and customers were lined up and down the aisles. It was much the same at the liquor store next door. But it wasn't wine and spirits this blackout gang wanted. They went straight for the beer in the cooler at the back of the store. While power to .Orono; was basically, restored around 9 am Friday; most of Bo wmanville 1 , Newcastle and OshàWa dtênofrgeH back on the grid till 6 o'clopj^hat evepmg. j tJnfortunatç i ly, <the -rnw boom time in Orono meant stores in other locations suffered. Many grocery stores had to throw away meat, produce and dairy case items which had spoiled. The business community is constantly looking for ways to draw people off the highway to shop in Orono. I think we've found it! While the blackout had its trials, it also brought treasured moments. People were driven out of the their homes, because of the heat and lack of air conditioning and in many neighbourhoods, families were sitting together just talking and gazing up at the sky. Just the things people used to do before electricity and all the gad- getiy that we plug into our wall outlets made us an insular society. Our system is still very fragile, and by now we are all aware that the power we once took for granted is gone. We have till now always enjoyed a steady supply of relatively inexpensive electricity, electricity, but now our demand has surpassed the supply. Power--its generation generation and delivery to the electrical outlets in our home, is a system system very few of us understand. We have no problem tracing the milk we pour over our bowl of Cheerios back to the cow in the field, but the delivery of electricity remains a mystery to most. Is there a connection between our inability to see the whole picture and the demands we put on the system? For now, we are all asked to conserve energy where ever .we can till the grids are at one hundred percent capacity. Once that is . accomplished, you can be sure it will remain a hot topic for a long time--and there is still the matter of who to blame. The system is obviously in dire need of upgrading, but what government faced with calling an election, wants to break the news of that major capital capital expense. Meanwhile, we're all waiting to see what the price of the current cap on electricity will cost us when it is removed. The recent blackout has made one thing abundantly clear-- we ... would all be better off with a life less complicated with an abundance abundance of electricity. Letter to the Editor example can frolic on the golf course in these cars. The saying saying "Do as I say, not as I do" is alive and well. So much for conservation and the Kyoto Accord, eh? Yours truly, Rebecca Gingrich Princeton, Ontario Dear Editor, Tonight on Global News and again on CTV news, cameras cameras caught pictures of the Liberal MPs tooling around a golf course in North Bay on their ELECTRIC golf carts. Funny how we are supposed to curtail use of electricity but those who should be setting an According to Thomas Sowell, popular economist and author of "Knowledge and Decisions", "in medieval times, the physical fallacy led to the doctrine that an object had a "just price" based upon objective costs incurred by the producer and not upon the subjective valuation of the consumer.", ... . The 'physical fallacy 1 is, roughly, the idea that only those who deal with things 'physically* with their tactile senses 'actually' do something with whatever it is they're handling. It is an emphasis on less abstract activities--the placing of ingredients into a pot, rather than the recipe itself. It emphasizes the role of physical 'putting-together,' over abstract invention. At core, the physical fallacy assumes that if you can't see it, smell it, taste it, or otherwise deal with it physically, it ain't ; worth anything. Take interest and the role of banks and lending institu- : tions. For a lot of people, they do 'nothing' and, thereby, are making money without doing any sort of work. The function of interest, the making of additional capital out of a set amount of capital (or money on money), is seen as dishonest dishonest or, worse, downright immoral (not that dishonesty is moral...) Lending money, however, is a valuable function important important to us for a number of very good reasons. Not the least of which is the fact that some of us 'know' what to do with a certain sum of money right now. Others amongst us sort of want money, but how much we want it depends upon how much we are willing to give up in the future. That is, after all, the trade-off that we make-more money now, for less money later (assuming borrowing, not earnings. What you earn today is typically less than what you will earn tomorrow). : ; * The function the lender serves is to bid up the Jjrice of current dollars (measured in future payments) until it more closely approximates the value of that money amongst a various sum of individuals. The interest rate will change as people either want more money now, or more of it later. Lenders are people willing to give up immediate satisfaction, for a greater satisfaction later on. It is what we do when we invest either in financial things (stocks, bonds, whatever) or in personal capital (an education, piano mastery and so on). We give up immediate pleasure for JAWORSKI continued peg# 3