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A 13 year old boy saved a village from starvation with a bicycle dynamo. What can we learn from him?

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2 minute read

Windmills harness the wind to create rotational energy, and has been since the 9th century in Persia. We have also been using waterwheels to harness rotational energy, since the 3rd or 4th century.
There are horizontal, vertical, undershot, overshot and many other variations created in the last 1,000 or 1,800 years or so.
Recently I watched on Netflix a show called; “The boy who harnessed the wind”. Basically a 13 year old boy takes his dad’s bicycle, replaces the pedals with bamboo wind vanes, hangs it upside down high in the air so the wind would rotate the back tire.
There is a dynamo available that rubs against the back tire to power your headlight, but this 13 year old boy used the dynamo to charge a car battery, in order to run a 12v water pump to irrigate a few acres of gardens to feed a starving village.
This 13 year old met resistance all along the way but in the end a used bicycle dynamo and a bicycle saved the villagers in a time of drought and famine. A dynamo is an electrical generator that creates direct current using a commutator.
If you go on you tube you can see people creating power with such things as plastic spoons glued to these little dynamo generators. It just takes vision.
In 2026, 7 years from now, we will be pumping tens of millions of gallons of treated wastewater into the river everyday. Why not harness at least some of it.
The province gave the city over $49 million to plan, design and update the wastewater treatment plant as it prepares to treat the wastewater from surrounding communities. Why not think about it?
There are advances in technology daily, Could we not adjust or adapt our plans, even if we built a small one that gave us a small positive return on our investment. How about inviting the private sector in to harness the water flow to create green energy on the open market? I am just asking.

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International

Kazakhstan joins Abraham Accords, Trump says more nations lining up for peace

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MXM logo MxM News

Kazakhstan is officially joining the Abraham Accords, becoming the first nation to do so during President Trump’s second term — and signaling a renewed push for peace and stability across the Middle East and Central Asia. Trump made the announcement Thursday on Truth Social, writing, “I just held a great call between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of Israel, and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, of Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is the first Country of my Second Term to join the Abraham Accords, the first of many.” He continued, “This is a major step forward in building bridges across the World. Today, more Nations are lining up to embrace Peace and Prosperity through my Abraham Accords. We will soon announce a Signing Ceremony to make it official, and there are many more Countries trying to join this club of STRENGTH. So much more to come in uniting Countries for Stability and Growth — Real progress, real results. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS!”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed the announcement, calling Trump “the world’s ultimate negotiator.” Rubio said in a post that “the American people have the ultimate advocate and champion for peace in @realDonaldTrump,” adding that Kazakhstan’s entry “builds on President Trump’s unmatched record of delivering results.” The move represents a significant diplomatic step for Kazakhstan, a Muslim-majority nation that has long sought to balance relations between Russia, China, and the West while maintaining economic ties with Israel and the United States.

According to senior adviser Steve Witkoff, the agreement could be just the start of another wave of normalization. Witkoff told Breitbart News there is “big energy” behind four to six additional countries joining “in the next couple of months,” pointing to Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Armenia, and Azerbaijan as likely candidates. Former Arkansas Governor and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee similarly suggested during a Breitbart Founders Club Roundtable that Saudi Arabia remains the most consequential prospective addition. Huckabee highlighted the United Arab Emirates’ economic transformation since joining the Accords as an example of the tangible benefits for participating nations.

Rubio has also met with Syrian interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who expressed interest in lifting sanctions to attract foreign investment. While al-Sharaa acknowledged that joining the Abraham Accords may not yet be realistic for Syria given tensions with Israel, he signaled openness to long-term normalization under the right conditions.

Trump, who returned to office in January, vowed throughout his campaign and transition to expand the Abraham Accords beyond their original signatories — Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan — and hinted earlier this year at progress with Saudi Arabia. “They’ll join in their own time,” he told business leaders at the 2025 Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is scheduled to visit Washington on November 18, while al-Sharaa is expected to arrive next week for meetings at the White House.

The original Abraham Accords, signed in September 2020, reshaped diplomatic relations in the Middle East under Trump’s first term. With Kazakhstan now on board and more nations signaling interest, Trump’s second-term foreign policy is again centering on a message of peace through strength — and a vision of an American-led era of regional cooperation grounded in security, prosperity, and faith.

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Business

Carney’s Deficit Numbers Deserve Scrutiny After Trudeau’s Forecasting Failures

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From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy

By Conrad Eder

Frontier Centre for Public Policy study reveals a decade of inflated Liberal forecasts—a track record that casts a long shadow over Carney’s first budget

The Frontier Centre for Public Policy has released a major new study revealing that the Trudeau government’s federal budget forecasts from 2016 to 2025 were consistently inaccurate and biased — a record that casts serious doubt on the projections in Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget.

Carney’s 2025–26 federal budget forecasts a $78.3-billion deficit — twice the size projected last year and four times what was forecast in Budget 2022. But if recent history is any guide, Canadians have good reason to question whether even this ballooning deficit reflects fiscal reality.

The 4,000-word study, Measuring Federal Budgetary Balance Forecasting Accuracy and Bias, by Frontier Centre policy analyst Conrad Eder, finds that forecast accuracy collapsed after the Trudeau government took office:

  • Current-year forecasts were off by an average of $22.9 billion, or one per cent of GDP.
  • Four-year forecasts missed the mark by an average of $94.4 billion, or four per cent of GDP.
  • Long-term projections consistently overstated Canada’s fiscal health, showing a clear optimism bias.

Eder’s analysis shows that every three- and four-year forecast under Trudeau predicted a stronger financial position than what actually occurred, masking the true scale of deficits and debt accumulation. The study concludes that this reflects a systemic optimism bias, likely rooted in political incentives: short-term optics with no regard to long-term consequences.

“With Prime Minister Carney now setting Canada’s fiscal direction, it’s critical to assess his projections in light of this track record,” said Eder. “The pattern of bias and inaccuracy under previous Liberal governments gives reason to doubt the credibility of claims that deficits will shrink over time. Canadians deserve fiscal forecasts that are credible and transparent — not political messaging disguised as economic planning.”

The study warns that persistent optimism bias erodes fiscal accountability, weakens public trust and limits citizens’ ability to hold government to account — a threat to both economic sustainability and democratic transparency.

Click here to download the full study.

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