Roses by Leila Meacham

Not so long ago, I finished reading Roses by Leila Meacham --- the first book of hers I have read. I guess that if the tale was from Iceland or Norway we would call it a saga. It’s a multi-generational story about inter-connected Texas families. I have read other books of its style, but this was one of the best. I rank it up there almost with Diane Pearson’s Csardas and The Tontine by Thomas Costain.  

If you like losing yourself in another world where nobody is all good or all bad and where are the occurrences of uncontrived surprises, you might like the book.  

Globalism vs. Nationalism: Which Side Will Climate Change Favor?

My early years were spent in a world of national borders that were jealously guarded. Free trade was not the norm. Visas were required in many situations in which they no longer are. This was from a trend that perhaps began with the Peace of Westphalia. Then multi-national corporations went on the ascendant and we saw corporate budgets that were larger than that of most nations. National barriers broke down in the interest of global trade. The New World Order became an appellate for the phenomenon.

At the same time, I noticed a tendency towards decentralization --- the Swissification of the world. Even decades ago, it was more common for a Swiss resident to know the name of their mayor than of their president. We saw Yugoslavia break up into several nations. We saw the Quebec referenda. Of course, if Quebec separatists had managed to pull off the extrication of their province from Canada, Canada would not have survived any better than partitioned Pakistan did when India separating its two parts (which are now Bangladesh and Pakistan). We saw the USSR (do young people today even know what that term means?) break up into many nations. Today we see the extremes of walls between nations: the one Hungary has erected the length of its border with Serbia, the 700 kilometer wall between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and the developing wall between the USA and Mexico. These are high tech walls with motion detectors and modern responses.

So we have had the two conflicting forces of nationalism and globalism. A struggle of power interests. It seems to me that climate change has the potential to affect the struggle. I don’t doubt that climate is changing, although I do doubt that man has much to do with it. He has polluted his planet, but I do not think he has caused his climate. Nevertheless, climate is changing. In some cases, the effects will be extreme, either because of accelerating global warming, or because of a quick reversal into a new ice age as solar activity shifts. I anticipate mass migrations as coastlines or frost lines change and as agricultural zones shift. National borders will be tested as perhaps never before. Will they harden (along with hearts)? Or will they soften? I suspect the former, typified by the antecedent Voyage of the Damned.

The twentieth century had its two world wars, but they were not the first ones. The nineteenth century’s Napoleonic Wars was a time of world war.  The Seven Years War of the eighteenth century was a world war. The seventeenth had The Thirty Years War.  I think it unlikely that the present century will escape a large scale war. What will be its consequences?  What weapons will be used?  Will is coincide with new epidemics? We could be in for a rough ride. People who are adaptable and who have learned that happiness is not a function of circumstances but of response to the circumstances will fare the best it seems to me.

Recording SR&ED Work

A year ago, I commented at https://gordon-feil-sred.blogspot.com/2019/01/building-your-sr-claim.html on what it is that CRA wants to see in an SRED claim. Part of the post was about records to be kept. The current post is to clarify the issue of records. CRA doesn't think there is a requisite systematic investigation if records are deficient. They want to see the work documented: what was done and what it cost. Here are some things to keep in mind:

1. The documents are to be contemporaneous with the work. This means they are docs that were created in conjunction with the work, not afterward. They want the documents dated and specifically related to the work performed. They would like them signed also, but I recognize that many records are electronic. If you can affix an electronic signature or initials when you create the document, that would be good.

2. CRA provides the following list of documents that would be useful in establishing what work was done:

Project planning documents
Records of resources allocated to the project, timesheets
Design of experiments
Design documents, computer-aided design (CAD) and technical drawings
Project records, laboratory notebooks
Design, system architecture, and source code (software development)
Records of trial runs
Project progress reports
Minutes of project meetings
Test protocols, test data, test results
Analysis of test results, conclusions
Final project report or professional publications
Photographs and videos
Prototypes, samples
Scrap, scrap records
Contracts
Others

3. In addition, it is important to keep time records to establish how much labor was spent on each SRED project.

ACM Asks for Responsiveness from SRED Program

I think it is symptomatic and reflective of the current landscape in the assessment of SRED claims that the Association of Equipment Manufacturers has made a formal representation to the Minister of Finance in hopes of it being considered before the federal Budget is presented. The points of the submission are reported as being that CRA does not contain the expertise to assess innovation in equipment manufacturing and that filing a claim is cumbersome and expensive, two circumstances that tend to dissuade potential claimants from bothering with the SR&ED program. 

The ACM is not a lone voice in the effort to improve the SRED program. Maybe the addition of one more voice will make some difference.