Making Canada more like Palo Alto

I wrote in my g+ that Palo Alto is a social nightmare.  It is a gated town, without actual gates.  The boundary road delineates a factor of 10 in property values, and a factor of 10 in quality of life.  Just crossing a few metres to get gas scares the hell out you in the daytime.

Inside this 'Reservation for the Rich', it's a paradise where rent per person (multi-shared) is $1000 a month.  All the locals vote down any proposal to increase the density, so it is probably the highest priced accommodation per square foot of actual land in the world.

Yet, it continues to generate the income to support this un-reality.  That's because there is a wild-west gold-rush fusion of money and brains.  You go to a party and you feel it.  Big money and big brains in the same breath.

So, how can the rest of world emulate this, without the road-crossing death scenes?

In Canada, we have bright technical people, but stupid money.  Palo Alto is full of Toronto engineers.  My son is starting a start-up.  Getting money thrown at him is the easiest part.  In Toronto, if you want to get a government grant you have to hook up with the local bagman-maffie person, and the thing needs a photo-op for ministers.  There is no hope.

I see some hope for devices, with Kickstarter, but this comes nowhere close to the PA brains-money fusion.

Stanford Guy

Had a week in Cal., doing this stuff.

Poor Old California

I'm off to visit the son.  Expect a big earthquake this week.  Extrapolating on my pattern of one, I am lucky since I never wake up for the quake.  Thus, it has to be a 6, any bigger and I'd wake up.  :)

Get Nepal Working Again

Get Nepal working again with shipping container houses certified by The Fish.  They should be welded onto deep screw piles, and it's good to have a basement in the mountains for boulders.  They can have this sign:

There is a one in a million chance that we will experience a great earthquake while you are here.  This is the place to survive it.  It has been certified by The Wacky Harold.  You will notice that everything is fastened down.  When the earthquake wakes you up by throwing you out of bed, please proceed to our basement where we have all the supplies necessary.

You can't have naked tourists running out screaming in the night.  Also the floors should be soft in the bedrooms.  :)