Excerptcize

Archive for February, 2010

The flame screams out "Let me free!" photo courtesy of Steven Johnson

Today is certainly a big day for Canada at these games as the Womens hockey team will go for gold later this afternoon. Womens curling semifinals have just finished, the men will play later today, three Canadian men will jump in the aerials final tonight and Joanie Rochette will skate in the final flight in the ladies individual figure skating competition. Three more days of competition remain after today that are sure to also contain many Olympic highlights. As we near the end of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games, the retrospective analysis has begun.

In a piece in yesterdays Vancouver Sun, Jeff Lee notes the surprise of VANOC officials over the exuberant outpouring of national pride from Canadians and their enthusiastic support of the games. It’s nice that they’ve been pleasantly surprised, but it’s important to note that their surprise is at least partially a function of the huge amount of negative (often inaccurate or misleading) press coverage the games have received, both before and during their execution. As someone who is generally pro-Olympics and has put some effort into push back against false arguments from Olympic detractors, I may have spent more time than most listening to negative press. But if the organizing committee, by default the games biggest cheerleaders, were apprehensive that Canadians wouldn’t get behind winning gold medals at home and Olympic hockey, I think it’s fair to say that the negative stories had reached a saturation point.

Something else Lee noted that  illustrates this story very specifically is the handling of the Olympic Cauldron. Fearing all the press about protesters, VANOC felt the need to hide the cauldron behind a chainlink fence extremely far back from the Cauldron with a large phalanx of police officers milling about, both within the enclosed area (along with the lucky few who due to volunteering or knowing the right people are able to have an unobstructed view) and outside. VANOC CEO John Furlong said they were blown away by the desire of the people to see the flame. I say that’s baloney. The flame is an enduring symbol and being drawn to fire has to be one of the oldest human instincts around. I think VANOC had higher expectations of the numbers of protesters and demonstrations that would occur based on the media narrative and needlessly increased security based on that. The enormous outcry from the public about the cauldron forced VANOC to act, although their fix, installing a plexiglass section in the fence and constructing an elevated viewing platform is still wanting. Paul Sullivan writing in the Metro had a much better idea last week suggesting completely removing the fence, putting up a velvet rope and staffing as many serge clad mounties as needed to provide security directly around the flame. Let VANOC’s shortsightedness due to media distortions serve as a lesson to future hosts (I’m looking at you London.)

• In Response To Paul Sullivan's '5 Reasons' Against The Vancouver Games [/caption] In an editorial comment from Wednesday's Metro Vancouver, Paul Sullivan outlined his five reasons to not 'Believe' in the Olympic Games. While I can appreciate the jab at CTV, the Canadian broadcaster for the...
• There's Gold In Them There Hills! [/caption] A lot of Canadians (myself included) were predicting that the gold medal drought on home soil would end on the first full day of competition by Jennifer Heil in womens freestyle skiing competition. That...

• Why refinancing can be a bad idea! With interest rates at their lowest in history (or at least in a really long time), a lot of people are contemplating the idea of...
• Check Out The Rewards Of Building Your Own Internet Home Biz The internet business is constantly expanding. There are of course numerous benefits of starting a home based business that appeal to just about all of...

I am a newer resident of Vancouver, and was only 10 years old when the Vancouver Canucks lost game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in ’94 and rioting erupted throughout the streets. I don’t have any direct memories of that event, but it is easy to feel the remembrance of that shameful incident this city collectively has as we inch closer to the one of the most anticipated hockey games this country has ever seen; Canada’s mens hockey team wraps up Olympic round robin play this afternoon at 4:30PT/7:30ET when they face the United States of America. I feel that it is no accident this particular game was scheduled for a Sunday, as opposed to a Friday or Saturday; liquor stores close earlier and I presume officials are also hoping that many revelers will remember to go to work Monday morning and restrain their intake of celebratory libations (a futile hope in my mind).

The nervousness of Olympic officials was put on display before Sunday as a jittery Vancouver Police Department made a request to the BC Liquor Control and Licensing Branch to order the closing of liquor stores city wide at 7pm as opposed to the typical time of 11pm. The order affected both public and private stores, but did not extend to off rack sales at pubs and bars. This measure was apparently in response to the events of Friday night in downtown Vancouver. The particulars of those ‘events’ are another matter. I was downtown on Robson and Granville on Friday night. It was busy. There were plenty of people in the streets. Many of those folks were drunk. As far as I know from my own anecdotal gatherings, as well as what I can find in published news reports there was no inciting event that turned the large, festive and yes, intoxicated crowd disruptive or violent. They simply remained a large, festive and drunken crowd; and that’s it. I am sure that there would have been some individual isolated incidents of assaults of varying natures, but that is par for the course for a weekend night on Granville Street. More notable to me is what appears to be an extremely low level of unfortunate events given the massive influx of people celebrating in the city.

There is no doubt that the police have been lenient in terms of enforcing public intoxication laws. I think they are to be commended for this. It is a good thing for police to be able to exercise their powers with a certain amount of discretion. If the police are becoming concerned that they levels of public intoxication are approaching levels that are becoming dangerous then why would they not begin to enforce intoxication laws just a bit more than the stance they have previously taken? Did we not spend an obscene level of money on security for reasons just like this? For his part, convicted drunk driver Gordon Campbell told CTV News the early store closures were necessary, saying:

“There’s a huge number of people downtown and we have to make sure everything goes well for everyone [...] I think an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

• In Response To Paul Sullivan's '5 Reasons' Against The Vancouver Games [/caption] In an editorial comment from Wednesday's Metro Vancouver, Paul Sullivan outlined his five reasons to not 'Believe' in the Olympic Games. While I can appreciate the jab at CTV, the Canadian broadcaster for the...
• Does The IOC Have A Learning Deficiency? [/caption] Towards the end of last week, in an incredibly tone deaf move, the International Olympic Committee sent word to the Australian Olympic team that the large banner the team had suspended outside their rooms...

• Appreciating Video Game Collectibles Everyone was young once- And when you were young, you probably played video games. Throughout history, we have amassed quite a collection of video game...
• Law Enforcement Badges and Memorabilia Different people have different interests when it comes to collecting memorabilia and other collectibles. For example, some people collect law enforcement badges and other law...

With one run remaining in the womens skeleton, Great Britain’s Amy Williams is ahead of Canada’s Melissa Hollingsworth by 0.54 seconds. This is an extremely large lead in a gravity sport such as the skeleton. I’m hoping that if Williams is able to hold on for the gold, the British press can stop taking a shit on the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. I’ve been to busy and engaged with the city of Vancouver and the fabulous party that has been going on that is the games to follow much of the media response to the games so far, but I have still been hearing peripherally that Fleet Street’s knives are out. The only way possible to be covering these games thus far in a completely negative light would be if one went in with the intention to do so. Paul Sullivan had a nice piece in this morning’s Metro Vancouver noting that the US media has certainly changed their tune since American domination of the medal count has become the normal day to day story. Great Britain’s medal drought will soon be over. One hopes that will also be the case for the negative coverage for the sake of negative coverage from the British press.

Update: Amy Williams of Great Britain laid down an excellent 54 second flat fourth run in the womens final run of the skeleton just now to capture the gold medal. Kerstin Szymkowiak of Germany had a fabulous final run to jump into 2nd place to claim the silver, with Anja Huber, also of Germany finishing in the bronze medal position. Canada’s Melissa Hollingsworth had an amazing start to her final run, but had a few sketchy turns. She still managed to place 5th in an extremely strong womens field. The final two runs in the mens skeleton are up next. CTV’s Olympic webpage will have the coverage live in HD, where Canada’s Jon Montgomery currently sits in second place after two runs 0.26 seconds behind Martins Dukurs of Latvia.

Update II: After the third run Canada’s Jon Montgomery sits in second 0.18 seconds behind Latvia’s Martins Dukurs in the mens skeleton. CTV will broadcast the final run live or you can watch in almost real time at CTV’s webpage.

• Olympics and all that Thursday evening saw a divided panel come together for a public forum on security and civil liberties during the 2010 Olympics at the SFU Harbour Centre.  The forum was organized by the Impact on Communities...
• Stephen Harper: Tactician Extraordinaire [/caption] Amidst reflecting on the year gone by, looking forward to the coming one and forming resolutions that will more often than not be forgotten by February, the end of 2009 also brought the opportunity...

• MonaVie Gaming Google to "Combat Negativity" and "Manage what People See on the Internet" Someone emailed my friend Amthrax a letter that MonaVie recently sent out to its distributors about online reputation management. The gist of it is that...
• My Wordless Wednesday: The American Revolutionary War - "We Must Remember Them" The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783), also known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen...

Alexandre Bilodeau of Rosemere, Que. skis to second place in dual moguls competition at the Canada Post Freestyle National Championships at Cypress Mountain in West Vancouver, Sunday, March 29. 2009. Photo by Mike Ridewood/Canadian Freestyle Ski Association

A lot of Canadians (myself included) were predicting that the gold medal drought on home soil would end on the first full day of competition by Jennifer Heil in womens freestyle skiing competition. That was not to be, as the American skier Hannah Kearney was just that much better, edging Jen out for the gold. Heil is still a champion, she has WON an Olympic silver medal to go with her gold from Torino and all Canadians should be very proud of her.

Day 3 brought another great chance for Canada’s gold medal drought to end with four Canadians in the mens freestyle final, including Alexandre Bilodeau, who was expected to challenge for the top of the podium. The reigning mens champion from Torino, Dale Begg-Smith had skied before Bilodeau, laying down an excellent run, but it was not flawless and there was room for Bilodeau to surpass him. Alexandre started off in spectacular fashion, laying down a nearly perfect double twisting backflip before launching himself through the middle section of moguls with  barely controlled reckless abandon. Holding form throughout, Alex was set up huge iron cross backflip. Crossing the finish line, Alexandre and the rest of Canada knew that his run was good enough to put him in first place. Anxious moments passed, but finally the judges scores were posted and they concurred with the entirety of Canadian national opinion; Bilodeau was in first place with one competitor left.

I watched the competition on Robson St. in downtown Vancouver with my brother, his girlfriend and one of my dearest friends, packed together with hundreds (thousands?) of other excited Canadians. When the scores were posted for the final skier and it was a done deal that not only was Canada’s first gold of the games secured, but also a long drought of not winning at home was over, the crowd lost itself. Decades worth of pent up frustration were released into the beautiful Vancouver night sky (no rain either!) Alexandre appears to be nothing but an exemplary young man and all of Canada is extremely proud of his accomplishment. In both post race interviews I saw with Bilodeau, he was quick to note that his gold is only the first of many to come for Canada at these games as the Canadian team is extremely strong. I could not agree with him more. Make sure to tune in this afternoon to the mens snowboard cross, where Canada entertains further medal hopes.

CTV does not allow for embedded videos, but you can watch Alexandre’s gold medal run in great streaming quality here.

• Oh Yeah, That Whole Senate Thing [/caption] In my haste to post on the prorogation of parliament, I completely forgot to mention one of the more tangible reasons for Mr. Harper to do so; Senate appointments. As I understand it, (mostly...
• Looking Forward, Looking Back [/caption] Today is certainly a big day for Canada at these games as the Womens hockey team will go for gold later this afternoon. Womens curling semifinals have just finished, the men will play later...

• List of Companies in the S&P/TSX Composite Index Want to see what companies there are to invest in up in Canada? There are 203 companies currently listed in the TSX Composite Index.  Approximately...
• 3 Things You Should Know About Canadian Coin Collecting Coin collecting is something which happens all over the world and has happened all throughout time. It is no surprise there are people who enjoy...

Jennifer Heil of Canada jumps off the ramp to take first place during the finals Women's Moguls at Sauze d'Oulx, Italy, 2006. (AP / Peter Dejong)

In just over an hour the womens mogul competition’s final round will begin. At the conclusion of the event Canada stands an extremely strong chance of winning it’s first Olympic gold medal, both of these games and on home soil. Should that be the case, it would most likely be from Jennifer Heil claiming first place. Jen is the reigning Olympic champion, as well as being currently ranked first in the World Cup standings. Jen is an amazing athelete and accomplished young woman. She currently lives in Montreal where she is an economics student.

Canada has two other women competing in the final round who are both medal threats. After the qualifying round Kristi Richards was in fourth place, with Chloe Dafour-Lapointe sitting in ninth. The qualifying round merely sets the start order for the finals, so it is a brand new competition, and there are even multiple podium places possible for Canada. Should Heil (or one of the other Canadian ladies) win gold, look for a party tonight in Vancouver that will be talked about many years from now. Go Canada Go!!

• Dr. Stephen T. Colbert, DFA (And Sports Psychologist) [/caption] Stephen Colbert and the Colbert Nation's  sponsorship of the US speed skating team was a story I wrote about when it first came about, but I foolishly haven't been posting on any of the...
• And The Proof Shall Be In The Olympic Pudding This Monday's Metro Vancouver featured a report on an anti-Olympic mural that has been repainted outside a Downtown Eastside art gallery. [/caption] The original removal of this mural in November has been cited by civil...

• Skier Profile: Picabo Street Picabo Street may be best known for her funny name, but she was a serious skier that not only brought home the gold on many...
• How to Increase Gold Coin Values for Profit Coin collecting has been a hobby since the 1800s. The hobby was something which was started by the wealthy as a way to hold on...

Paint stained broken window at Hudsons Bay Company in downtown Vancouver (my picture)

This morning while watching the luge training runs and having breakfast, James Duthie (CTV daytime host) interrupted to tell me they were receiving reports of rioting at the Hudsons Bay Company downtown location, even referencing the ’94 riots that occurred in this city when the Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup riots. Figuring that CTV would not interrupt their broadcast to mention a small protest from only a few score of people (the number of protesters I’ve been expecting) I grabbed my camera and walked on over.

Whatever had been happening had already moved on by the time I reached the HBC building; all that remained were some red paint splashes, a few broken eggs and a handful of smashed display windows. After snapping a few pics I tried to find someone who had been there when the protesters were; the one person I was able to talk to guessed there were between 100 and 200 protesters, which is rather modest, but around what I would have expected. It should of course be noted that this is a secondhand estimate and people in general are terrible at estimating the size of a crowd.

Making my way back to my cold bacon, I passed a group of police, and just as I did a call came through on the radio for any available officers to go to Pender and Cordova Streets. The officers were able to commandeer a cab, but having run out the door without any cash I hopped on the next bus. This did afford me a lovely chance to chat with two extremely sweet elderly ladies, but once again any crowds that had been formed had already been dispersed by a swath of officers in riot gear by the time I had arrived. The only protest sign I could still see was one decrying the noise at night that hosting the games will cause.

Do these protesters not realize that violent and destructive protests do nothing but undermine their positions? Vancouverites as a whole are extremely sympathetic to the urban issues that Olympic protesters say they are advocating for, but have little patience for groups (many who are not residents of the city) resorting to destruction to underline a point (which neglects to account for those protesters who have no point to make and are purely interested in clashing with authorities.) My note to protest leaders; ‘Break Stuff’ is a mediocre song from a mediocre band, not a dissenting opinion. Should you continue to make it a plank of your protests, any relevant points you may have to make will be lost.

Police in riot gear congregate on Cordova St. after dispersing Olympic protesters (my photo)

• The Colour Red To Bring Notice To Homelessness During Games [/caption] While it will be easy enough to find red (and white) in Vancouver this February, PIVOT Legal Society is hoping that you notice the colour for a different reason, as they kick off a...
• There's Gold In Them There Hills! [/caption] A lot of Canadians (myself included) were predicting that the gold medal drought on home soil would end on the first full day of competition by Jennifer Heil in womens freestyle skiing competition. That...

• Weight Lost: 46 Pounds in 6 Weeks aka Over 7lbs this Week! After 6 weeks on the medically assisted weightless program JumpStart medicine with Dr. Sean Bourke, I have lost 46 pounds in 45 days (just over a pound...
• Tea Parties vs. G20 Protests - Hypocrisy of the Left Sunday Paper - September 27th, 2009 by Kimberly Morin Comparing the Tea Parties to the G20 protests - the violence, destruction and hypocrisy of the...

Students at W. Earle Miller Public School

In an editorial comment from Wednesday’s Metro Vancouver, Paul Sullivan outlined his five reasons to not ‘Believe’ in the Olympic Games. While I can appreciate the jab at CTV, the Canadian broadcaster for the games, I find little else to agree with in his reasons. Lets take his points one by one.

Number 5: Sullivan says “The Olympic mascots are endangered or non-existent species [...] Somehow this says it all.” I have no idea what this says. Yes, the Olympic mascots are hybrids of endangered and mythical creatures. The animals that are threatened or endangered have not reached that point because of the Olympics. To my mind, all this says is that VANOC is conscientious of the amazing wildlife that BC is privy too. What does highlighting that fact say? If anything it brings further needed attention to animal populations under threat.

Number 4: “The Games will cost at least $6 billion [...] what are we going to do with a $104.9 million toboggan slide?” The first point to note with this claim is the standard tactic of anti-Olympic voices citing the figure of $6 billion as the cost of the games. As I’ve pointed out before, that number includes the construction costs of the Canada Line, the Sea-to-Sky Highway improvements, construction of the Vancouver Convention Centre, improvements to the Port Mann bridge and the construction of the Pitt River bridge. I strongly suspect that most, if not all of these infrastructure projects would have been undertaken were Vancouver not playing host to the games. They certainly are not ‘but for’ the Olympics. I should hope that any Vancouver resident is at a bare minimum proud of the fabulous new Canada Line. At a cost of $1.7 billion the rail line represents almost 30% of the oft quoted $6 billion figure; it is worth every penny and happy to have that argument with Sullivan. It baffles me how people seem to treat the $6 billion as money that is just lost. Do I really need to point out that these are investments? There is a reason that the latest quarterly growth figures from the Conference Board of Canada have BC atop the pack in terms of economic performance. I presume I don’t need to explicitly state why this is. I imagine that with the bobsled track we will see stronger luge, bobsled and skeleton teams in the future, as well as a new yearly World Cup event in Whistler. Wait for it; I expect that will bring a positive economic impact to the community.

• Different Flavours Of Social Conservatism The other day while discussing the prorogation of parliament with my dad, an interesting point came up that is worth mentioning here. I was saying how depressing it can be paying heed to events as...
• Olympic Legacies [/caption] The cauldron in Coal Harbour has been extinguished, the Olympic flag has been lowered and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games have ended. That means  two things; it's time for me to start doing some...

• Designing a Game Room on a Budget Your house will be a lot more fun if it has a great game room. This article tells you how to create one on a...
• Athlete Profile: Seth Wescott Seth Wescott is the current snowboard cross gold medalist, and now in Arosa, Switzerland, he has the fastest runs, winning the SBX World Cup and...

John Robertson of PIVOT Legal Society (photo from The Tyee)

While it will be easy enough to find red (and white) in Vancouver this February, PIVOT Legal Society is hoping that you notice the colour for a different reason, as they kick off a new campaign aimed at highlighting homelessness in the city. I have frequently said that there is much more value in co-opting the Olympic platform to attempt to shine a spotlight on any given issue than directly protesting against the Games. PIVOT’s latest strategy seems be following in that line of thought exactly.

In 2008, a BC Court ruling struck down a Victoria city bylaw that prevented the homeless from erecting tents in city parks for shelter. The court ruling found that if adequate shelter from the elements could not be found (ie. in shelter spaces) then homeless citizens have the right to provide themselves some shelter with tents. In December of 2009 the BC Court of Appeals upheld this ruling. With that right affirmed, PIVOT will be distributing up to 500 red tents amongst members of Vancouver’s homeless population. Not only will they afford some basic protection, erecting the tents will be a very visible case of exercising the rights affirmed by last December’s appeal court ruling. It is no mistake that PIVOT’s latest endeavour coincides with the Olympic games. The city will be flooded with media from around the world. As Canadians we should be ashamed at the idea of removing these people from sight during a big international celebration. Vancouver is an amazing place that I feel is most deserving of all the attention it garners as a livable city. That should not obscure the fact that the city has a significant homeless population. In fact, it calls for a reaction that is completely opposite; one that says not only do we recognize there is a problem, but we are going to work to improve the situation. At the very least, this latest campaign forces the city (and world) to be cognizant of the problem.

• Looking Forward, Looking Back [/caption] Today is certainly a big day for Canada at these games as the Womens hockey team will go for gold later this afternoon. Womens curling semifinals have just finished, the men will play later...
• Building Towards The Big Hockey Game I am a newer resident of Vancouver, and was only 10 years old when the Vancouver Canucks lost game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in '94 and rioting erupted throughout the streets. I don't...

• Italy - top court changes strict fertility rules Image by euthman via Flickr Italy's Constitutional Court relaxed parts of a law on artificial procreation that had imposed strict rules for fertility treatments. The...
• Games, Rules, Design and Dating? WAIT!!! Before you tabletop d20 role-playing game non-fans conclude: “Ah, another uber nerdy D&D treatise that even I‘m too cool for,” then leave this article...

Australian banner hangs outside the athletes village in Vancouver (Image by the CBC)

Towards the end of last week, in an incredibly tone deaf move, the International Olympic Committee sent word to the Australian Olympic team that the large banner the team had suspended outside their rooms at the athletes village needed to be removed, citing their rules against allowing non-sponsored trademark images to profit from the games. The banner, a cartoon boxing kangaroo on a green background that also features the Southern Cross that is present on the national flag has served as a longtime mascot for the Australian team at both summer and winter games. How the IOC was not able to see that their request was the only possible action they could take that would cause an increase of profits from the sale of the non sanctioned flag is beyond me, but that has nonetheless happened. As of this Sunday the banner was still hanging outside the village and a local flag shop has been fielding numerous calls from city residents looking to purchase the flag in solidarity with the Australian team. Australian team officials have indicated that should they receive an official request in writing from the IOC the banner will be removed. Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts has indicated the city of Surrey would find a prominent place to display the banner should it’s removal from the village come to pass.

• Canada's Flag Bearer: Clara Hughes (Updated) The CBC has a story up indicating that later today, Clara Hughes will be named as Canada's flag bearer in the Opening Ceremonies of the upcoming Winter Games. There could not be a more appropriate...
• A Question For The Thin Blue Line (Updated) I've never been a fan of tasers. Way too many people have already died directly from these devices or were killed in an event that involved their use. They have been adopted very quickly by...

• Thoughts on MLB's Pending Labor Agreement There will be a lot to digest regarding MLB's new labor agreement which sounds like it will be finalized and announced sometime in the next...
• What is the Best Sports Memorabilia? Millions of people are shopping online looking for the best sports memorabilia. The best sports memorabilia can easily span a number of different sports while...

Photo from Mr. Macias' Twitter Account

On Saturday, after undergoing several hours of questioning from Canadian customs officials, Martin Macias Jr., an activist with ties to the Olympic Resistance Network attempting to travel to Vancouver to cover and participate in various anti-Olympic protests and rallies, elected to return to the US instead of remaining in Canadian custody. The above linked to CTV news report does indicate that Macias was the given the choice to remain detained in Canada and await trial for withholding information. Being a working student, this was not an option for Macias and he returned to the States. The ORN reports that Macias has no criminal record that they are aware of.

While the decision to grant entry to the country ultimately lies with Canada Border Services, I am of the opinion that we should only be turning people away with just cause; as of right now there does not appear to be any in the case of Mr. Macias. Personally, I have a much different viewpoint of the Games than the members of the Olympic Resistance Network, but I completely defend their rights to participate in peaceful protest (although other tactics have been espoused by the group), as well as report on it. The city, VANOC and ISU have all been slow in the past when addressing free speech concerns. While this is a slightly different case, in that it involves a US citizen travelling across our border, it still falls into the same broad category, and Canada Border Services joins that group of organizations engaging in poor information management that only serves to make them look bad. With the ORN hosting a two day conference (or ‘convergence’ as they term it) set to begin on February 10th we can be certain that Mr. Macias will not be the only one with a negative Olympic voice attempting to enter the country. One certainly hopes that they will have better luck than Mr. Macias had should there be no overt reason to deny them entry. Border services have currently indicated that the specifics of Macias’s case cannot be discussed due to privacy concerns; with the agency indicating that “Canada’s admissibility requirements will not change for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic games” a better accounting of the reasons for denying entry to Macias are certainly in order.

• Great Britain: Your Gold Medal Is On The Way (Delivered) With one run remaining in the womens skeleton, Great Britain's Amy Williams is ahead of Canada's Melissa Hollingsworth by 0.54 seconds. This is an extremely large lead in a gravity sport such as the skeleton....
• Building Towards The Big Hockey Game I am a newer resident of Vancouver, and was only 10 years old when the Vancouver Canucks lost game 7 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in '94 and rioting erupted throughout the streets. I don't...

• Olympic Memorabilia Sports Memorabilia -> Autographs: Original -> Olympics -> Summer -> Winter When it comes to sporting events, there are few that capture the hearts and...
• Golf as an Olympic Sport? Top golf players are full of enthusiasm as their appointed ambassadors work to have golf included as an Olympic sport. Players are citing that the...

As we’ve moved into the homestretch of final preparations for the Olympic Games, which kick off with the opening ceremonies here in Vancouver on February 12th, the city has been doing a fantastic of installing user friendly information displays that will aid visitors to the city for the games and beyond. At SkyTrain station’s new, detailed yet easy to read transit maps have been put in place. Additionally, a single new typeface has been used for all signs, bringing a coherence to the train system that was previously missing.

At major street corners around the downtown core new information/map displays have been erected in the past few weeks. Here’s one that is near my place:

The graphic is clean and easy to follow along with. Points of interest and venues are noted as well as transit hubs and pedestrian corridors. My personal favourite piece of information is the circle that is centred on the ‘You Are Here’ mark with the radius of the circle representing 15 minutes of walking time. It’s unfortunate that it has taken the Olympics coming to town, but residents and visitors are benefactors both of these kinds of improvements and I sincerely hope they will be maintained post games.

That being said, some of the simplest signage is the most important. Last night I took a stroll through the Granville St. Entertainment District. This a stretch downtown that has some of Vancouver’s most recognizable music venues, like the Vogue Theatre and The Commodore Ballroom, as well many clubs, bars and eateries. Were I not a resident of the city, I would have had no idea where I was when I crossed both Nelson St. and Smithe St., as there was not a street sign to be found at either of these intersections.  Granville St. has been under reconstruction for many years and is just in the final stages of completion. My hope is that the street signs are one of the last touches still to be put up. It would be a shame if all the great pains the city has gone to present useful and relevant information to those travelling through the city centre were undermined by the lack of adequate street signs on some of Vancouver’s main thoroughfares.

• Change we can believe in? One thing that I've that I've learned in my short time in the blogoshpere is that snark plays. I had hoped to avoid resorting to it as much as possible.  Sadly, my initially positive reaction...
• Olympics and all that Thursday evening saw a divided panel come together for a public forum on security and civil liberties during the 2010 Olympics at the SFU Harbour Centre.  The forum was organized by the Impact on Communities...

• Experience The Historic Inns In Old City St Augustine While there are all types of holiday accommodation in Old City St Augustine, many people choose to stay at one of the many historic Inns...
• First Ever Youth Olympic Games The International Olympic Committee has given their approval on the sports program for the first ever Summer Youth Olympic Games. The Youth Olympic Games will...

I’m sure that I am not the only one, who upon hearing that Danny Williams exact location in the US was unknown, thought to themselves ‘Uh oh! Sex scandal!’ It turns out though, that the firebrand Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador has traveled to the States on the advice of his doctors to undergo a form of heart surgery that cannot be delivered on the Rock. Even though his departure from the island does not appear to be tryst related, controversy has nonetheless ensued. Predictably, in the US much hay has been made about the inadequacies of the Canadian healthcare system, but the same thing is being said about the fact that he had to travel out of province at all. It’s worth remembering that Williams comes from an island province with a total population of just over 500,000. I’ll be callous here and suggest that is a good thing that not every surgical procedure possible can be performed in St. John’s. At this time, the exact nature of the procedure the premier will undergo is not known publicly, but it is some kind of heart surgery. Heart surgery. The fact that every type of heart surgery possible cannot performed in Newfoundland should surprise no one.

A facet to this story that is rather interesting, and one that I have not found any specific details on, is what decision making process was made by Mr. Williams and his doctors to undergo treatment in the US. Did he choose to travel to the US rather than visiting another province for reasons of expediency, or is this particular surgery not available in Canada period? Has Medicare played any role in sending him south, or is it only possible due to his own financial wherewithal? With the brouhaha this surgery has generated, I imagine in the next few days we will be hearing more details about the state of, and manipulations to, Danny William’s heart. There are important issues at play here having to with our healthcare system, but the basic fact of having to leave Newfoundland for heart surgery is not one of them.

• Tough On Crime Stance Continues Apace Recently the Prime Ministers Office has been engaging in some populist pandering as part of the ongoing Conservative  electoral tactic of 'getting tough on crime'.  Last month the hubbub was over reports that convicted child...
• Naive Me The title 'Naive Me' has so much breadth and depth that it would probably make for a good regular feature, but in this particular case I am referencing Abdul Farouk Abdulmutallab's failed attempt to blow...

• Golfer Anthony Kim is Disqualified for Using Broken Club in Shanghai Tournament Anthony Kim is currently the World number 8 golfer. During his first tournament as a European Tour player, his hopes were recently dashed in Shanghai...
• Empower Network - Crashed And Burned Already? Empower Network - We Blew It Up! [/caption] We grew to 10,000 people over night. OVER NIGHT! Okay not over night, like a month :) ...