Saying Goodbye To Our Cherry Tree

It was a hot afternoon in August 2020. The doorbell rang. An arborist from the City introduced himself and told us that they were doing an annual pruning and one of his crew thought our tree may need to be removed due to rotting. He showed us that at least three branches had rot problems. He said that he ordinarily just leaves a letter at the door and does not speak to homeowners. We expressed how sad we were to see the tree go. It keeps the air cool around our house in the summer. Trees act as natural air conditioners, and we were aware of this. He said we would have about a week to say goodbye. So I took the image above one day after we finished a family run.

This is a wild cherry tree, very unique for this area for its species and size. Every March it has white blossoms and it produces tiny red black cherries with a large pit inside. I tried eating one once, and it is mostly pit, but the fruit tasted decent.

Only five days later, the tree removal crew arrived. The man with the chainsaw said he was an arborist. He estimated the tree to be around 75 years old, which would mean that this tree pre-dated the development of this entire neighbourhood. My neighbourhood is the least historic in this city, having been developed last! In 1959, the city's first shopping mall opened in my large block. Currently it is being developed into a second downtown-type area, with over a dozen residential towers reaching their fingers into the sky and blotting out the sun and dwarfing the surrounding family single homes.

The green arrow shows the location of the tree in 1958. Before development, this area was once home to the Vancouver Gun Club's rifle range.

Above: Image taken after the crew finished the first day, mostly removing the greenery from the southwest corner of the tree. The next day, the majority of the work was done, leaving nothing but the trunk and treeless branches.

The third and final day. Every day we were heartsick watching the tree being meticulously chopped. I created a time lapse video which you can view here.

I feel sickened with the death of the tree. Every year when we came home from our March vacation, the tree would be there, welcoming us home. The tree sheltered our house as the sun set in the west, keeping our house cool through some hot summers. Our house felt like it was set in the middle of a park.

The City of Vancouver has 22.5% coverage by the tree canopy. For many years, homeowners were removing trees on their private property, leading to a deforestation of the city. The trees helped decrease carbon in the atmosphere and regulate the air temperature, as well as preventing soil erosion. In 2014, the City amended the bylaws to require property owners to obtain a special permit before removing trees from homeowner's property.

Above image: My area, Oakridge, had only 15% canopy cover. There is no shade for pedestrians or runners so it makes the neighbourhood less liveable and decreases the chances for developing the community, meeting your neighbours on your evening walk. The nearby Tisdall Park must serve that purpose, and even then, the canopy cover does not fully cover the walking path.

Image: cross section from the beloved tree. The centre appears to have heart rot, but that will not kill the tree, as the bark and outer layers of the tree can sustain it. The diameter is 30.5 to 31.5 inches, and this is not the base of the tree, but is part of the main trunk.

Wild cherry wood is the most desirable wood for furniture. The grain is straight and it is resistant to rot.

Above images: Top - before. Bottom - after. What my front yard looks like without the tree. Truly shocking.

Goodbye, dear cherry tree. You will be sorely missed.

 

Cat Friendly Plants

To clean the air in my home, I wanted to buy plants. However, I share the house with two cats, who have a tendency to eat my plants.

What to do.

Which plants are best at cleaning the air? From NASA's list:

Back in the late ‘80s, NASA was looking for ways to detoxify the air in its space stations. So it conducted a study to determine the most effective plants for filtering the air of toxic agents and converting carbon dioxide to oxygen. In 1989, their results were published in a clean air study that provided a definitive list of the plants that are most effective at cleaning indoor air. The report also suggested having at least one plant per every hundred square feet of home or office space.

Here is that list:

Dwarf Date Palm *
Boston Fern *
Kimberley Queen Fern ?
Spider Plant *
Chinese Evergreen 
Bamboo Palm *
Weeping Fig
Devil's Ivy
Flamingo Lily
Lilyturf *
Broadleaf Lady Palm ?
Barberton Daisy *
Cornstalk Dracaena
English Ivy
Variegated Snake Plant
Red-Edged Dracaena
Peace Lily
Florist's Chrysanthemum

I checked the list of these plants against the list of toxic and non-toxic (to cats) plant list from the ASPCA. I crossed out those which were toxic and marked non-toxic plants with an asterix (*). Where I was uncertain about the toxicity, I marked those with a question mark (?).

So here is a short list with the best non-toxic cleaning plants and images to help you with your shopping:

Dwarf Date Palm *
Boston Fern *
Kimberley Queen Fern ?
Spider Plant *
Bamboo Palm *
Lilyturf *
Broadleaf Lady Palm ?
Barberton Daisy *

Happy cat friendly plant shopping!

Broccoli Sprouts as Medicine: Sulforaphane

I've been having issues with my left knee for a year now. When I twist it or run on it, it feels sore. Before my MRI results came back, someone suggested it may be due to arthritis. Well, turns out I had a torn meniscus. This did not stop me from researching cures for arthritis.

Why Sulforaphane?

There are myriad benefits to eating sulforaphane. Some of my favourite benefits are the prevention or delay of:

1. arthritis;
2. Alzheimer's;
3. cancer; and
4. diabetes.

Broccoli Sprouts vs Mature Broccoli

I started researching the role of broccoli to reduce arthritic symptoms and came across broccoli sprouts as a much more potent source of sulforaphane, which is the salient component of broccoli. Three day old broccoli sprouts contain 10 to 100 times the amount of sulforaphane of mature broccoli.

One ounce (28 g) of broccoli sprouts has 10 times the amount of glucosinolates as half a cup of mature broccoli. So your jar of broccoli sprouts is equivalent to eating 50 cups of mature broccoli!

How much broccoli sprouts should you eat daily?

According to Dr. Rhonda Patrick:

1 g of broccoli sprouts has 0.425 mg of sulforaphane.

Studies have shown beneficial effects of sprouts on inflammation, cancer biomarkers, or a reduction of triglycerides with a dose of 40 to 60 mg/day of sulforaphane, or 100-140 g of broccoli sprouts.

Each 1L jar of broccoli sprouts, grown from two tablespoons of broccoli seeds, produces 280 g of broccoli sprouts or around 90-120 mg of sulforaphane. I did not get as high a yield as Dr. Patrick. I was only able to produce 160 g of broccoli sprouts per jar.

Of course, the longer you grow the sprouts, the heavier they become. I weighed them at the four day mark.

In other words, each jar contains sufficient sprouts for two people per day, or about one tablespoon of broccoli seeds per person.

One tablespoon of broccoli seeds produces about one cup of broccoli sprouts.

Increasing bioavailability of sulforaphane

Dr. Rhonda Patrick suggests soaking the sprouts for 10 minutes at 70C to increase the bioavailability of sulforaphane. You must be careful not to overheat the sprouts as this will destroy the myrosinase which is used to create sulforaphane.

How much is too much?

Four cups of sprouts is the limit for toxicity.

Amazon Delivery: Prime Service? Just Not on Sunday or Monday

I ordered some electronics through Amazon.com on a Thursday in the early evening. Since I was leaving the city on Tuesday, I paid an extra $8.99 to have the package delivered with "Two Day Shipping - get it Saturday, Jan. 28."

The next day I received a confirmation email that the package "has shipped. Arriving Saturday, January 28."

Checking with tracking, the original expected delivery time was Saturday at 5:00 pm. This was revised to Saturday before 8:00 pm, so I waited up until that time. It did not come.

When I complained to Amazon, I was told to contact FedEx for an estimated delivery time.

Well, surprise.

I was just told that "FedEx Home Delivery" does not open on Sundays or Mondays. In other words, the earliest I can receive my package is... Tuesday. The day I am leaving the city.

Dear Amazon: 

I am asking you to clearly state that your delivery service does not operate on Sundays or Mondays. So really, the two day service is clearly a TWO OR FIVE day service if your delivery service happens to fall on a Saturday. In other words, if delivery is late, it will not be late by one day, it will be late by three days. 

Your customers can then make informed decisions. Better yet, dump FedEx and find a company that works on Mondays. 

Yours truly,
The Obsessive Researching Mommy

How the BC Liberals are Privatizing Education

Lizanne Foster wrote a post in Facebook. I am posting it here because it needs to be read more widely. She made the following observations:

Despite all the cautionary tales about them from the U.S, we will soon see Charter schools in East Vancouver. They'll be attended by students who have won lotteries. They will be run by those corporations who have long been tantalized by $5 Trillion spent on the "education sector" worldwide. We'll be told that they provide parents with "choice".

The pathway to this inevitability is clear to see.There is no conspiracy.

1995 Milton Friedman, a neoliberal economist, suggests that schools should be privatized.

1998 The Fraser Institute begins its ranking of schools

2002 BC Liberals begin removing $336 million from education funding each year

2003 Minister of Education, Christy Clark, cancels class size and composition agreements. She also amends the School Act to remove government commitments to school buses. She cancels rules around catchment areas. (This is when the exodus from East Vancouver to West Vancouver schools began, fuelled by Fraser Institute School Rankings)

2003 BC Liberals pass legislation that makes it possible for school districts to be run like a business. Districts are encouraged to "sell" BC curriculum in China, Japan, Taiwan. A few still run schools there.

2005 - 2014 Teachers' strikes draw the public's attention to the defunding of schools, the learning conditions of students, especially those with special needs. The defunding continues.

2015 With all school districts in desperate need of funds despite having cut all "low hanging fruit", the BC Liberal government demands an extra $54Million from school districts.

2016 Government announces that they only really wanted $29million after all. Schools get to keep $25million.

Funding-by-photo-op fiscal policy results in a tiny fraction of school district needs being met.

School districts announce multiple school closures.

2017 Increase in the spin about the merits of High Tech High.

2020 High Tech High arrives in East Vancouver

The same pattern will unfold in other areas of the province. Charter schools are more likely to pop up in traditional NDP territory, with publicly-funded private schools will continue to exist in traditional BC Liberal areas.

Yesterday the Vancouver School Board (VSB) announced a list of schools in Vancouver that are on the chopping block. The closure of some 200 schools across BC since 2005 is due mostly to the declining education budget. The VSB will see the loss of elementary Band and Strings as well as many valuable programs. Education as a percentage of the provincial budget has dropped from 23% to 13% from 2002 to 2015.

This makes no sense as the Clark government has reported a surplus of $400 million. Why does the BC Liberal government continue to make cuts to public education with a surplus, while simultaneously increasing funding to private schools? This year alone the BC Liberals increased funding to private schools by $30 million from the previous $311 million, which is nearly a 10% increase. It was certainly not due to enrollment, which only increased by 1.3% last year. Public schools are reporting an increase in enrollment for the first time in 20 years. Why would the BC Liberals be hell bent on stripping even more funding from public schools?

What can you do about chronic underfunding of public schools? The non-partisan grassroots group of concerned parents Families Against Cuts to Education has created an email tool which will send a letter to Premier Clark, the Minister of Education, the Minister of Finance, your MLA, and the Opposition. Let the BC Liberals know that public education needs sustainable, adequate, and predictable funding.

Frayed, Broken MacBook Pro Magsafe 60W Adapter Blues

Thinking of buying a MacBook Pro? Is it worth it? Well, it's sort of like buying a luxury car, with the exorbitant bills to fix it if something goes wrong.

And something did indeed go wrong with mine.

I bought my MacBook Pro in January 2013. My adapter cable casing broke and frayed at the end close to the square transformer. I figured this out while I was charging my Macbook Pro and I smelled something burning. The break point was not subject to unusual strain. I've only taken the Macbook on the road a handful of times.

Selling adapters that have a tendency to fray and break at a cost ranging from $69 to $99 is robbery. Apple knows that these cables break frequently (with any given "genius" witnessing five of these breakages a day), and yet when the customer returns with a cable for out of warranty service, the charge for the replacement cable makes a tidy profit for Apple.

Someone has even capitalized on the inherent tendency to fray with creating a special protective overlay!!! The "frayfix." WHY, I ask, why is that necessary? Why doesn't Apple build that kind of strength into the cable in the first place?! Where is the stress relief? It's not like I haven't already paid a 100% premium to buy this computing power in the Apple version vs. PC, that they had insufficient money to build some quality into the adapter cable.

For previous versions of this type of cable there was a successful class action lawsuit in the U.S.

The "genius" insisted that I surrender my frayed adapter for "recycling" when selling me a new adapter for $69. He said that I would have to pay the full price of $99 for the adapter plus cord if I did not surrender my frayed adapter. So this image is all I have left. As far as I know, $69 is more than a fair price for just the adapter and not even the cord connecting to the electrical outlet. You can buy clone adapter+cords on eBay or Amazon starting at $17 for the adapter PLUS the cord.

I wanted to keep my old adapter and cord to fix it and use at home. Now I can't. Apple can re-use the parts in refurbished computers, generating further profit. I, on the other hand, paid an inflated price for an adapter that certainly results in yet more profit for Apple. This reeks of profiteering on Apple's own faulty products!

And... there is only a 90 day warranty on the new cable. That sure shows confidence in your product, Apple.

Knowing the next cable is likely to fray, you can wrap a pen spring around the base of the cable.

So, keep in mind that if you buy an Apple product, you agree to pay another $100 down the road to keep using it if you plan to have it more than two years.

Update: October 29, 2017.

This week by cable broke again, despite my winding a pen spring around the base of the cable. It broke in precisely the same spot. If I hold it in a certain position, it can still charge.

After putting electrical tape on the joint, I put a bubble tea straw over the joint and used scotch tape to keep it in place.

Underfunding Public Education in B.C.: MYTH OR FACT?

I am excited to announce that this will be the laziest post that has ever been published on the Obsessive Researching Mommy Blog to date!

This is my humorous way of saying that I would like to thank Kim Hancock for the following facts and sources to cite when someone, like a Minister of Education, says to you something outrageous such as “there’s nothing to be gained by perpetuating a myth that our public education system is underfunded and broken."

I did not do this research. I wanted to file it away on this page so I can retrieve it later, and because I love you, dear reader, I am making it available to you too.

I was SO lazy that I even borrowed the picture and the contents for the caption from a tumblr blog called Fix BC Ed which you should all go and visit after you are done getting outraged from reading the statistics below.

• BC falls behind in K-12 funding as a % of GDP
• Total expenditures in public elementary and secondary schools as a percentage of the GDP BC as a percentage of GDP 3.3% Canadian average 3.6%
• Source: Statistics Canada (2010)
• BC falls further behind Canada in per student funding (operating expenditures per FTE student)
• 2010-2011 ($988.00 below the national average)
• Source: Statistics Canada (2013)
• Most provinces hired more teachers
• BC lost 3.7% lowest in Canada – PEI hired the most 14.7%
• Source: Statistics Canada (2013)
• BC has the worst student–educator ratio in Canada
• BC average in 2011 16.8 students per teacher
• Canadian average 13.8 students per teacher 
• Source: Statistics Canada (2010)
• If our BC funding met the national average we would have: 
• - 6,600 more teachers in our classrooms this year
• - On average four more teachers per school 
• - $568 million more in the education budget
• Since the contract strips of Christy Clark when she was Education Minister
• Loss of
• 286 librarians
• 120 counselors
• 770 special education teachers
• 342 English Language Learner Teachers
• 11 Aboriginal Education teachers
• Source: BC Ministry of Education Staff by Year and Program Code 2002, 2012
• Increase in classes with four or more designated student with special needs
• 2007 9,559
• 2012 12,651
• Source: BC Ministry of Education Overview of Class Size and Composition in BC Schools
• BC is last or next to last in Canada in the following key measures
• Operating expenditures 12th
• Operating expenditures per student 13th
• Total expenditures 12th
• Total expenditures per student 12th
• Total expenditures per capita 12th
• Source: Statistics Canada (2013)
• BC spends much less that the national average on our public school children:
• Between 2008 and 2012 Board Operating Expenditures on public schools increased by 13.8% in Canada and only 3.4% in BC – if funding in BC had been at the Canadian average there would be an additional $493 Million in education funding this year
• Source: Statistics Canada (2010)
• BC far behind expenditures of other Western Provinces
• Board operating Expenditures for public schools – increased 24.7% in Alberta, 22.1% in Saskatchewan, 15.7% in Manitoba and 3.4% in BC
• Source: Statistics Canada (2010)
• Education funding not keeping up with inflation 
• According to the Conference Board of Canada BC caps education (K-12 and post secondary) spending increases to 0.6% per year between now and 2017 estimates BC needs to increase education spending by 2.7 % per year or 1.6 billion over three years to maintain inflation adjusted funding per student
• Source: Vancouver Sun August 7, 2014
• Downloaded costs are increasing what School Districts need to pay
• General inflation on supplies and services
• Increased Medical Services Premiums
• Increased BC Hydro Rates
• Unfunded salary increments for employees moving up on grid
• Increases to employer contributions for payroll benefits, health / dental benefits and employee pension plans
• 3.5% salary increase for support staff (2013-2014)
• Totalling 192.7 million in cost pressures in 2014-2015 (source: BC Association of School Business Officials)
• Source: Ministry of Education Estimates 2014-2015
• The public is saying to spend more on K-12 and post secondary and if necessary raise taxes to do so:
• What did the public say about increased funding to public education
• 71% chose to increase revenue through taxes
• 72% selected K-12 and post secondary education as a first priority
• Source: Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services