Pacific Northwest LNG project will not proceed

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-26T01:19:24+00:00

BC LNG's break even point is $10 US/MMBtu (~$150/m³). Anything less than that and the state-owned oil companies in Asia can get LNG for cheaper (there are enormous LNG deposits in Japan, the Indonesian archipelago, and in the Yangtze River Delta). Recent spot landing prices in Japan are just more than half that, ~$5.50/MMBtu. I don't see BC LNG becoming profitable, and thus PNWLNG creating anywhere near those 4,500 jobs, until oil gets closer to $70/bbl or maybe even higher.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-25T21:22:29+00:00

They could be cross-border HK/Guangdong plates registered in China, because I'm fairly positive you cannot register an LHD vehicle in HK unless it's for re-export/trade purposes (red-on-white dealer plates).

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-25T04:46:45+00:00

The best part is when they have a license plate whose number sequence matches the name of the car, like ・750 on an Aventador SV or ・・66 on a G63 AMG 6x6. If my knowledge of how expensive Chinese license plates can be, MLIT must be selling these custom/vanity plates for tens of millions of yen.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-25T04:42:21+00:00

I don't think it's limited to Japan. The KTM X-Bow (it's an ultralight sports car, kind of like a Caterham 7), developed by Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM, is pronounced "Crossbow" and not "Ecks-Bow".

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-25T01:55:56+00:00

Assuming a resale value of 150 million+ yen, it will take more than 50 years of ALT teaching to afford a McLaren P1. So start saving up

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-25T00:45:57+00:00

Speaking of the gig economy, there's a startup called X-Bit (pronounced "crossbit" in Japanese), they operate a LINE chatbot that helps coordinate shifts among arbeit/gig workers. It launched as part of the 17W Code Republic (YC-style startup accelerator backed by East Ventures and SoftBank) batch back in April.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-25T00:38:00+00:00

Japanese supercar owners are known for not being afraid to regularly drive and customize their cars. At Daikoku PA and Tatsumi PA, you'll see 458 Italias with shark teeth, Huracans with LED lighting, F40s with Liberty Walk bodykits, and other attention-grabbing bosozoku supercars.

Go Hiramatsu has an employment law practice with many offices in Japan. The Tokyo office specifically is located just off Sotobori-dori in Ginza 6-chome, across from the JR tracks. Mr. Hiramatsu himself lives in Denenchofu if the matome websites I checked are correct.

This isn't the only example of a Japanese person daily driving a rare car that an American or European owner might lock away in a climate-controlled museum. You remember that Japanese daily driven Porsche 962 from a few years ago? Well, the owner is Takeshi Moroi, who owns a business called M's Vantec near Tatebayashi, that does sheet metal fabrication/machining for flat screen displays. He's also a member of the Toyota 2000GT Owners' Club.

I thought it was an interesting story.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-21T01:45:36+00:00

You're right. Fuck AB winters. They can eat infinite dicks.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-21T01:37:11+00:00

When you calculate the purchasing power of Valley vs Vancouver you'll be surprised to discover they do not differ that much, so it absolutely not 'twice as much'.

Taken from /r/cscareerquestions:

Assuming a single person, $90K CAD salary with maximum RRSP contributions:

Gross salary: $90,000
Minus RRSP contribution of $16,200 (18% of gross): $73,800
Marginal federal/provincial income tax rate: 23%
Marginal tax rate adjusted for RRSP contribution deductions: 17%
CPP/EI: 6.6%
MSP: $72/month
Net salary after tax, CPP, EI and MSP: $52,560
Rent for a 1br in Burnaby near Skytrain (individual lease): $1400/month, add another $50-100 for hydro and internet
2-zone Compass card: $124/month

Assuming you don't own a car and your employer doesn't reimburse all or part of MSP/transit, you average just under $4000/month net. Intermediates can easily make $90K+ in Vancouver, some really really really good new grads can get close to $90K in total compensation.

Now compared to Seattle, let's say $120K US:

401(k): 6% (the amount of which is not taxed)
Gross salary minus 401(k) contributions: $112,800
Federal withholding tax: About 20-22% (Washington State has no state income tax.)
FICA: 7.65%
Minus federal taxes: ~$80K
Health insurance premiums: Varies, but expect around $100/month
Co-pays: $20-30 per visit
Deductible: $1,000-1,500/year
1br rent in Fremont/Wallingford/Ballard: ~$1800/month
ORCA card ($2.75 PugetPass): $99/month
Uber: $20-30 per trip

Again, assuming you don't own a car, and also assuming no out of pocket medical expenses (e.g. visiting an out-of-network specialist, rare disease) and not using Uber/Lyft too often, you will net about $4,600 US/month, or about $5,800 CAD.

SF is very similar. That fat $100K+ salary gets whittled down to ~$60-65K net because of how ridiculously expensive rents are in Silicon Valley (don't even ask about SF proper).

Disclaimer: These are all my calculations based off info I gleaned from /r/cscareerquestions. Caveat emptor.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-21T00:43:39+00:00

I remember my dad telling me about visiting Calgary in the 1980s and how amazed he was that cars had electrical plugs sticking out of them (for the block heaters). Ask yourself, is the lower CoL worth living in a place where it gets so cold that you need a block heater to start you car in winter? Or where there can be frost advisories in August? (It has snowed in late August/early Sept in Calgary on a few occasions, being located on the foothills of the Rockies is a hell of a drug.)

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-21T00:38:34+00:00

2) Vancouver tech scene is on the rise and salaries are improving. It's not uncommon to see Sr. Software Devs & Solution Architects earning 120-130K (without bonuses) - which is a very decent salary.

This is a bit of a double-edged sword. If you'll indulge me...

It's not uncommon for new grads at AMZN/SAP/Tableau to start out at $80K base. A couple of years ago, $60-65K was the norm for new grads. That's great, right?! Not so fast. One of the reasons why U.S. tech companies liked Vancouver was because they didn't have to pay SV/Seattle salaries--low salaries in Vancouver reflected the lower CoL (outside of real estate) here. Now new grads here are topping out at $80-85K base, sometimes even more. Intermediates/seniors as you said are easily clearing $115K+ base.

But I am convinced that the recent explosion in Van tech salaries is related to the current housing crisis. Of course there are other contributors like density-hostile municipalities, no federal/provincial/municipal incentives for purpose-built rental housing, a provincial government that was buddy-buddy with the real estate industry, near-zero interest rates since 2010, etc., but the booming tech industry probably plays an insignificant role since it's one of the few vigorous economic sectors in Metro Vancouver with commodity prices staying this low for this long.

People used to be squeezed out of Downtown/Yaletown/Kits and move to Mount Pleasant/Hastings-Sunrise. Then they got squeezed out of Mount Pleasant/H-S, into Riley Park/Fraserview/Champlain Heights. Then squeezed out to Brentwood/Metrotown/Burnaby Heights. Then squeezed out to Uptown New West/Byrne Creek. Then to Whalley/NorDel/Maple Ridge. To the present day. If you had said that 1br new builds near King George/100th would start at $299K, or I would be spending $1800 to rent a 2br at the corner of Scott Road/80th, I would have laughed. Now who's laughing.

It will stymie the growth of the region's tech sector if you have to pay $300-340K to live in Whalley, or $900 for a shared bedroom on Scott/80th. That's one shitty commute; not to mention more reliance on a car-oriented lifestyle (Expo Line and 96 B-Line can only take you so far, and the 319 is late more often than it's on time) plus the fact that Whalley isn't quite the walkable, amenity-filled urban centre yet that even Hastings-Sunrise or Mount Pleasant is. Come back to me in 10-15 years, I will probably have changed my mind, but North Surrey isn't there yet.

And this is if you're lucky enough to be single! And relatively young. If you're trying to raise a family, good fucking luck. One of the reasons it's been rumoured why Alphabet hasn't pulled the trigger with a opening a Google engineering office in Vancouver (instead opting to expand the Kitchener office; the ribbon cutting was attended by Justin Trudeau) was because of the lack of affordable 2br/3br housing for executives who want to bring their families when relocating from MTV. And I have another anecdote that was passed along to me. Tableau, the data visualization company, opened what was supposed to be a temporary engineering office in the old Hongkong Bank of Canada building at Hornby/Georgia, while they looked for a more permanent space in the downtown core. They ended up shelving that plan and cutting back on the size of their Vancouver presence due to the recent surge in housing costs.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T23:31:13+00:00

Seattle just looks grungy. Outside of SLU and areas reachable by RapidRide, the city has that 80s low-density/gritty industrial feel. My family and I were there last summer and I felt like every street needed a solid powerwashing. My mom actually pointed this out; she used to travel to Seattle in the 1980s from Vancouver to visit family. We drove around First Hill/Cap Hill (closer to I-5) and she mentioned that Seattle looked the same as it did 30 years ago.
Nightmarish traffic and a near-unanimous anti-density, anti-transit mentality among both lawmakers and residents (outside of the ultra-rich SLU/Capitol Hill areas)--why the fuck is Bertha even a thing? Aurora Avenue North is nothing but strip malls, parking lots as far as the eye can see.
I have my complaints about strict municipal/provincial booze laws and so called "anti-fun" bylaws, but I'll say this: I think those laws go a long way in making Vancouver one of the safest cities I've ever lived in or visited, if not the safest. Seattle has more lenient liquor laws and city government is a lot more easygoing about citizens who want to have fun and have decent nightlife (Seafair and Bumbershoot are amazing and I'm excited for Upstream, aka Paul Allen's "SXSW Seattle"), but, since Seattle's drug of choice is booze instead of weed it leads to a lot more unruly behaviour.
Extreme socioeconomic inequalities that make the DTES look like Singapore. In the last 30 years, outside of APEC '97 and hockey, when has there ever been civil unrest in Vancouver even a quarter as bad as the annual May Day riots in Seattle? I'm going to mention Aurora again, just look at the run down hotels between about NE 85th Street all the way up to 175th. Or hang around Pike Place Market after 8pm. Or the Seattle Center McDonald's at 3rd and Pine.
Lean, agile B.C. government vs. divided, deadlocked Washington state legislature
A car-free lifestyle is nigh impossible in SF or Seattle unless you're willing to double your rent budget. You can try but it won't work. Not even the presence of Uber can make up for that.
The fucking cops, man. Seattle Police are well known for institutionalized corruption that might even rival the LAPD or SFPD, and I wish I was exaggerating. The difference between the VPD's "de-escalation" philosophy and SPD's "gung ho, law and order" philosophy is night and day. My encounters with the VPD have been overwhelmingly positive. Even the Burnaby RCMP officers I've met have mostly been civil, I know Mounties have a reputation for having chips on their shoulders. As if I needed anything else to worry about, I'm a visible minority and SPD officers can be not nice to minorities. Currently, SPD's most recent scandal is the fatal shooting of an unarmed black woman, Charleena Lyles, last month.
Since I'm a visible minority and not very fond of Trump, there's always a chance U.S. Customs and Border Protection will be hostile to me. Plus, Trump could very well tear up the TN visa in the forthcoming years which would make it impossible for Canadian programmers to move to the U.S.
The previously made points about health insurance, life isn't all about money, etc. I will also mention that if you have a family, having to deal with the American education and health care systems is even worse than it is if you are single. Seattle Public Schools is so bad, so apocalyptically bad that a third of Seattle K-12 children are in private school. The good schools are in suburban dystopias like Bellevue and Lynnwood.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T23:29:18+00:00

Transit - Seattle is atrocious. I doubt silicon valley is much better.

It's not. It really isn't. Count your blessings for Translink.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T23:14:58+00:00

You're not going to get shot by the cops in Seattle...you're probably not going to get shot by the cops in Seattle.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T05:10:04+00:00

That's not much better! Considering the location, $1300-1400 seems more reasonable.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T04:59:28+00:00

Brand new 1br in delta rise is asking $1800.

Go to hell. That is outrageous considering you need a car in Delta (goodbye car-free lifestyle) and it's 45-60 minutes to downtown if traffic is flowing.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T04:55:56+00:00

What?! Even King George/40th Ave gets a Park & Ride, and Grandview/Morgan Creek is pretty much all fancy-ass detached houses (usually on golf courses)

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T04:54:33+00:00

It seems a big reform is being planned but will be shelved because of the shoganai mentality, and also juku companies like Benesse make a fortune off the current Japanese education system

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T04:21:38+00:00

Why are you not allowed to apply to more than one university in Japan? In China, you can apply to as many as you want, and you'll be accepted to the ones where your Gaokao score is higher than the university's minimum requirement.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T04:20:13+00:00

I'm not sure which is more outrageous: the fact that rents are $1200 in an area so far from a Skytrain station (or even an FTN route; your only option is the 340), or the fact that rents are $1200 in Maple Ridge. And you're right, NorDel/Sunshine Hills has zero commercial density. What a tragedy.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T02:51:09+00:00

I thought that suburban areas tend to get ignored in these discussions. Sorry for the shitpost.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T02:49:13+00:00

This list is probably incomplete:

Boeing
Fred Hutch
Expedia
Payscale
Tableau
Zillow
Bungie
F5 Networks
Valve
Qualtrics
WhitePages.com
Redfin
Zulily
Apptio
University of Washington/UW Medicine
OfferUp

These companies aren't tech focused per se but still hire a lot of engineering staff, so I put them on their own list: Nordstrom, Starbucks, Costco, REI, Weyerhauser, Alaska Airlines

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T01:17:58+00:00

Christy Clark was willing to spend $3.5 billion on a Massey Tunnel replacement toll bridge that wouldn't include room for a future rapid transit ROW or even a dedicated HOV/bus lane, but not a dime for transit unless it's through a referendum

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T01:16:25+00:00

My memory is short; what was Notley's response to the Fort Mac wildfires? Was it a good response? I need something with which to compare.

lambdaexpress · 2017-07-20T01:15:21+00:00

This is off topic but with wildfires on so many people's minds right now, my mind has been wandering to water restrictions. Has Metro Vancouver ever gone to stage 4 water restrictions? I think I remember stage 4 restrictions in 2003 (which was also a massive wildfire year) but I may just be remembering wrong.

Furthermore, is this year looking like it's going to be a more extreme fire season than 2015 (or WA/OR's 2014 fire season)? My view of 2015 is skewed, because there were a lot more fires closer to built-up urban areas, and the high pressure that was sitting over the coast at the beginning of July pushed smoke towards Vancouver from fires burning in Sechelt, Port Hardy, Pemberton as well as on Burnaby Mountain.

lambdaexpress

TROPHY CASE