the sky under which we live

Honda FC Sport

2008-11-25T14:31:00.000-08:00

Honda - "The FC Sport emphasizes the design flexibility and potential of Honda's V Flow fuel cell technology - already deployed in the Honda FCX Clarity sedan - and reconfigures it into a lightweight sports car design with an ultra-low center of gravity, powerful electric motor performance and zero-emissions. The design study concept is inspired by supercar levels of performance through low weight and a high-performance, electrically driven fuel cell powertrain."

Electric Concept Cars of the future

2008-07-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

via inhabit, Wallpaper.com, designboom.com

Concept car designs that may become the future for new sustainable vehicles.

Most of these vehicles were designed without a combustion engine in mind by the post-graduate course for The Royal College of Art. Eye catching but most of all a breath of fresh air as we will probably be able to plug them into our homes.

Centralized solar generation in Sahara for EU

2008-07-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

When power generation for cities is considered, it is very seldom that such a discussion ends with "created locally". The plans for the Sahara desert to become the largest solar production region in the world to meet the demand for electricity in Europe is no exception. While commendable, there is a major drawback to such a system. The transmission of the power will lose a percentage roughly 7.4% on its way to Europe through high tension lines that are the standard for electrical transmission long distance.

The idea to use solar to power Europe is phenomenal and should be commended for the leadership the project will demonstrate on a global scale. However, the question in my mind remains, why couldn't the same amount of power be produced locally block by block within a kilometer of where it will be consumed? No doubt the amount of steel and other resources needed to build the infrastructure for a centralization of solar production in the Sahara could be greatly reduced by deploying neighborhood scale power production, storage and resale in Europe.

The referenced story and image via Treehugger.

Solar Energy in the Sahara to Power Europe Gains Support

Buy an eletric car in 2009

2008-07-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

Consider this. It is conceivable to as of 2009: create your own power, sell your own power, power your home from your own power, run your computers from your own power, run your car of power you produce.

Now this may seem like a foreign idea, but that is what is called energy independence.

Read more about companies offering electric vehicles starting next year.

New Energy Paradigm, Al Gore's vision

2008-04-10T12:26:00.000-07:00

Statements in space

2008-03-05T17:48:00.000-08:00

a new system for all product life cycles...

2008-01-28T11:52:00.000-08:00

needs to be created. What if everything that was purchased was part of a larger program specific to its product type that saw the materials reintegrated into some other system? Recycling being part of a system that product manufacturers/distributers were required to create or participate in as part of their license for operating.

a shift of perspective

2008-01-21T11:03:00.000-08:00

I've been taking time to think about where I stand on key issues that affect my life. I've been pursuing cool technology and social initiatives to write about for a few years now. While its been fun, the process has given me an insight into why the world isn't changing the way I'd expect with all of these new developments and how people generally react to change. My personal life has also demonstrated to me one of the major issues that humanity faces in coming to grips with change and a world which increasingly requires focused attention and utmost intelligence.

People are constantly in a position of trying to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads while governments and innovators discuss large scale dreams of national and global proportions. When the challenges of meeting ones financial commitments are raised, I've often seen those with the ability to do something about it suggest volunteer work or internships as a way of expanding opportunities. Humanity still faces a battle of survival as it has since we used to use very basic tools and simple methods to harvest local foods for our families and communities. If you look in other parts of the world people still do this to get by. This is a delicate game where we aspire to much but settle for what the world gives us while the few go about building new systems.

I think the biggest disconnect people have today, is between those that are financially capable of doing something and those that are not. If you are funded to do something innovative but can only seem to say that something should be done, perhaps that money should have been put into a community where people needed an infrastructure upgrade for a new micro-hydro power station so they can stop burning diesel to keep the lights on.

The sickness that I see in the world is not a climate problem. It is a lack of a combination of vision, clarity, action and leadership concerning what holds people in a place where they are unable to change: unable to act differently, unable to change their lifestyle. As a result the environment is polluted, people are poor, and hunger, inequality, and war are maintained. Wealth, not just financial, is not being distributed evenly or fairly neither is the power to act to create change.

If you look to what constitutes a world change and in that process you think about the movie "An Inconvenient Truth", then you like many others are interested in change but may not know much about how to do anything about it. If you think that perhaps you too should go out and make a film, I'd reconsider. If you think you should stop driving your car, I'd reconsider. If you think you should buy solar panels, I'd reconsider. You should go out and come up with a way to solve a real problem by mobilizing your community and collectively do something about it.

Al Gore has made a heavy impact of the global psyche, however the impact he has made is not to do with our understanding of the environment. It is a starkly portrayed ugly truth about humans and the way our societies have been structured. It is as factual an analysis as any newspaper that accounts for the centralized corporatization of globally scaled industry. The knowledge that should be drawn from Gore's inconveniant truth is that he had to lose the American Presidency in order to make an impact. Had he actually been elected, this movie, and his presentation would more than likely have been passed off as rhetoric. If I made a movie, I'd been seen as someone looking to make a point, not someone changing the world, and that is a big difference.

Even though I have a firm stance on the environment, Al Gore's impact has mostly been just that, rhetoric. Gore has become one of the highest paid lecturers while attempting to finance projects that can actually make some sort of difference in the world. Ironically, the greatest difference he could make might be to give his money to people that have to take the jobs in the factories and industries that are creating the very problems he speaks of. And yet, we have yet to see the Gore "employment program" . Despite everything Al Gore says, until he spearheads an initiative that employs American, Mexican, Canadian and any other global citizen to create the cars of the future from sustainable materials sourced locally that don't destroy an ecosystem in the process, I'll continue to see his lecture as an entertaining version of my climatology 101 course I took in University.

My experience these days with the stories in the news and global initiatives to solve one or another social or economic crisis, is that each one gives me the same dull feeling of stagnation and pointlessness. This comes mostly from the fact that many are short sighted and still maintain the same structures and institutions in society that create the problems in the first place. This has led me to a conclusion about power and the class of individuals that maintain it currently. The generations that hold power in Canada are nearly finished in their effective leadership. There will be very little meaningful leadership left from the people that still pursue the concept of an "American Dream" and lifestyle ideology from the early 19th century. This is also the case with American, European, and potentially other world power centers.

When world leaders begin talking about the future and the changes that need to be made to save the future, really what they are saying is that their time of leadership is over. The future is a younger generation with ideas that go beyond our own stomachs and pockets. Unfortunately the younger generations are in no position to take up power and so we continue on the paths that have led us to this juncture in human history. Whats worse is that I think almost everyone knows this. We are at an impasse. The ideas that have driven us to this point are quickly becoming methods of a past that maintains a stranglehold on ways of living that harm people and the environment without a concern for the future. The generation that is almost expected to solve these problems that the previous generations have created is instead looking right back with an un-easy gaze and statement, "I didn't do this!"

Within my own immediate family, I have seen language change in the past five years around this topic. Though I'm sure fewer people are saying it now, "the world is going to hell in a hand-basket and I won't have to deal with it but my grandchildren's-grandchildren will", has become a statement that unifies and defines a whole generation of people. If this statement were about politics, which it is, and a silent and inactive group of voters, which it is, then some people are about to have a very unhappy awakening. What is at stake is the acceptance by a younger generation that until now their lives and those of their decedents, the future, were worthless enough to destroy.

So when you overhear comments about why a younger generation isn't getting into politics, why we aren't voting, we don't seem to be changing systems, and particularly how we seem to be selfish, you may want to answer with one of these boilerplate questions; Why is it that university education is 3 times more expensive and the retirement age was just pushed back? Why hasn't minimum wage been increased to keep people above the poverty line? Why is it that the housing market prevents a large majority of the population from developing equity? Why are cellphone networks charging money for what equates to a public utility? Why is pavement not permeable? Why are cars so expensive and run on gasoline? Where did the fish go? Why can't I drink this water?

I look at strife, and instability in foreign countries and I think very narrowly about the generation that is making this possible. I watch during the summer as the air turns yellow and I breath fumes from inefficient machines that we slave for and I think narrowly about the generations that didn't do anything to stop this. I look at the food I eat and the residential developments in newly clearcut forests and I think narrowly about the generations that continue to think this is a wise decision for economic reasons. I look at the next 30 years and the extension of retirement age, and I think narrowly about the generations that have created a false impression about social security and how their children will be taking care of them and picking them up from golf games.

I havn't blogged in a month because I sit a crossroads and wonder where this is all going. My impression is this: call it what you may, the next 30 years of innovation will be driven not just by guilt, but for the sake of retribution.

And there is a lot to answer for.

The future - RE>C

2007-11-28T10:10:00.000-08:00

I was about to post a discussion I've been working on for a week to do with local food sourcing, but this item has superseded that piece.

Yes it will change our world, and this particular item is quite close to my heart in many ways.

RE>C = Renewable Energy cheaper than Coal

Google has announced an initiative to make solar power cheaper than coal and has invested in a company called Nanosolar. This fits into a pattern that has been developing now for a few years with Google's initial investment in covering their Bay Area Mountain View headquarters with solar panels. It also makes sense from the standpoint of a lecture by Sergey Brin and Larry Page Google's owners in a Ted Talk from February 2004 (at about 2:40) that mentions Google's expansion in to Africa.

If one considers Google's goal to organize the world's information, then considers what parts of the world do not have infrastructure for the internet or the power to support the expansion of Google into these areas, making Google offices and consequently more connections to the internet independently powered and green energy producing would be a precursor to their grand goal. Essentially the result is three fold, Google is able to expand global offices into undeveloped nations and become a guiding force in many societies where the economy is not yet service/knowledge/information based while providing an alternative to coal based electrical production and securing a second monetized service that again changes the world and makes a ton of cash.

Read the press release here.

And of course no good announcement from Google comes without new job openings.

The Future - Open for Business

2007-11-15T15:10:00.000-08:00

Real Sustainability means eating local crops

2007-10-26T10:32:00.000-07:00

While in Mexico I was treated to perhaps the best food I've had. I should clarify this statement however, it wasn't that the recipes or even the meals themselves were that good. In fact, whatever I ordered never seemed to look that appealing on arrival. However, it was the quality of every ingredient that stood out. Each and every ingredient was fresh, organically grown with little fertilizer, and flavorful.
I realized while eating my way through central America, that if you are talking sustainability related to food, then really what is meant is the maintainable and prosperous exploitation of local food crops.

Fast forward to this morning when I was at a local diner for breakfast and had an omelette with peppers, mushrooms, and onions plus wholegrain toast with a few slices of orange topped off with a fresh squeezed orange juice. This meal was partially imported and due to our current lack of data about food supply chain information, will remain a speculation. However, I can guess based on basic economic competitive advantage of food crops and the factors of NAFTA and globalization, that the following products were imported from outside of the lower mainland:

butter

whole-grain bread

orange slices

oranges that were used for the fresh squeezed orange juice

eggs

Food products that were more than likely produced locally within the lower mainland include:

peppers
mushrooms

So to conclude my little forray into this discussion I tracked down a list of all the agricultural products produced in BC. I hope to find out which ones are produced within the lower mainland, and then figure out which ones are in season. Once I have this list, I'll start to look to how to modify my diet to fit a sustainable consumption pattern and look to expand on it by considering what First Nations peoples used for food crops prior to European settlement.

Without a doubt, I think I'll find that outside of fish, Vancouver will no doubt have something that isn't world class, and that would be the nutritional value of its currently produced seasonal food products.

Plants

Apples	Hazelnuts
Apricots	Herbs
Asparagus	Holly
Beans	Honey
Belgian Endive (Witloof)	Kiwifruit
Blueberries	Lettuce
Cabbage	Mushrooms
Canola	Nursery
Carrots	Onions
Cherries	Peaches
Chinese Vegetables	Pears
Christmas Trees	Peas
Corn	Plums
Cranberries	Potatoes
Floriculture	Pumpkin
Forage	Raspberries
Forage Seed (Legume and Grass)	Seed Potatoes
Ginseng	Strawberries
Grains	Turfgrass Sod
Grapes and Wine	Vegetables - Other
Greenhouse Vegetables

Livestock

Beef	Horses
Chickens	Llama and Other Exotic Animals
Dairy - Milk	Ostrich and Emu
Eggs	Ranching
Fallow Deer	Reindeer
Game Birds	Sheep, Lambs and Sheep's Milk
Goats	Turkeys
Hogs

Mobile Phones, Mobile Minds

2007-09-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

Graham Brown-Miller takes a provocative look at using mobile phones in schools. He asks if we can see the world as today’s seven-year-old does.

If you are in the UK be sure to checkout the Handheld Learning Conference 2007.

Atlantic crossing, 1 tank of Diesel

2007-09-07T18:12:00.000-07:00

Every time I'm stuck in a ferry line up at one of the terminals in Vancouver's lower mainland, I ask myself why we don't all have our own vehicles. Inevitably its a cost issue and fuel consumption issue, but perhaps no longer.

Ugo Conti, an Italian-born engineer and oceanographer and his wife Isabella, co-founded Marine Advanced Research, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based firm that built this Wave Adaptive Modular Vessel called the Proteus for about $1.5 million. The vessel which can crosss the Atlantic on a single tank of diesel fuel though it is unknown how big the tank is) measures 100 feet long and 50 feet wide reaching a maximum speed of 30 knots (34.5 mph).

Here is a news piece from MSNBC about the Proteus in New York this week.

Holy Shit

2007-08-31T09:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a news piece on an innovative use of waste, human excrement and other disease causing by-products in Nairobi slums. The article is titled, "How to Clean Up the Slums -- Cook on Garbage" by Barry Moody for Reuters on August 30, 2007. It references a project by the NGO the Umande Trust from Olympic Estate-Kibera Nairobi Kenya in Africa.

The Umande Trust is recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and has many different incredible projects they have developed in the areas of the right to water, water governance, community and waste disposal, community-led technological development and design, and bio-sanitation. See pictures and descriptions here.

Read more about the Umande Trust through UNESCO Nairobi.

Contact the Umanda Trust about their work.

Stay hungry, stay foolish

2007-08-23T22:49:00.000-07:00

The Future - Some of us will stand out more than others

2007-08-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

The future of commerce and reality from a virtual perspective

2007-08-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

Alex Steffen - Sustainability

2007-07-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

"All of the past is but the beginning of a beginning; all that the human mind has accomplished is but the dream before the awakening." - H.G. Wells

The Present - Sustainable Food

2007-07-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

I think it is time for a bit of perspective on where we sit currently.
I recommend you view this slide show in its entirety as it really does put you in a place of knowledge regarding our current state of affairs vis-a-vis global food production.

Given time, who do you think will play the biggest role in changing the global system to solve world hunger? What do you think the world will look like and how must we re-organize society to make this happen? Hope you'll take a moment out of your busy day to discuss this with us in the comment section and possibly point to some other examples that will further educate us on the topic of sustainability and food production. As usual, if its your project, please plug it here, we love that.

Live Earth Update

2007-07-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

I feel its important at this point, while watching Jane Goodall of the Jane Goodall Institute welcome everyone from New York with the greeting call from the African Chimpanzee, that Alicia Keys, more than any other artist I've seen perform today, actually has a voice in the public to address the need for change. So I know its a bit early, but I'd like to personally thank Alicia Keys for being eloquent enough to speak to the message of Live Earth unlike many of her peers.

Ms. Key, an ambassador for the organization Keep a Child Alive Foundation that directs money to supplying AIDS drugs to children in Africa, not only addressed the audience in a welcoming way, but truly spoke to them unlike many of the other acts that have been deemed worthy to grace the stages of Live Earth. Also, for those not glued to the TV set and who may not have the priviledge to watch a rerun, Alicia Keys covered "Mercy Mercy Me: The Ecology" by Marvin Gaye from the album Chronicle. This song has been a staple of many of my playlists for years now and I feel its important for us to recognize what the meaning and impact of that song is. Take the time now, and read the lyrics. Remember this was written 30 years ago.

Oh, mercy mercy me

Oh, things ain't what they used to be

No, no

Where did all the blue sky go?

Poison is the wind that blows

From the north, east, south, and sea

Oh, mercy mercy me

Oh, things ain't what they used to be

No, no

Oil wasted on the oceans and upon our seas

Fish full of mercury

Oh, mercy mercy me

Oh, things ain't what they used to be

No, no

Radiation in the ground and in the sky

Animals and birds who live nearby are dying

Oh, mercy mercy me

Oh, things ain't what they used to be

What about this overcrowded land?

How much more abuse from man can you stand?

My sweet Lord

My sweet Lord

My sweet Lord

I find it glaringly obvious that acts such as Ludacris and Akon, though popular, had very little to say as part of the concert. While their presence may have drawn viewers, I find it unfortunate that neither of them seemed to address the issues at hand. This isn't politics, its about consumer habits. You'd think that rappers, of any of the artists being representative of probably the most consumption based culture, hip hop culture, would jump in both feet first and get behind something like, I don't know, a boutique line of chrome rims from recycled chrome. I guess until you you can make solar panels cool and put them on hummers, these guys are going to keep pitting one side of the audience against the other to see which ones louder. What a wasted opportunity.

Musicecology

2007-07-07T00:56:00.000-07:00

That's me posing a question of Rob Calder of Boompa Records

Hold the phone! The whole Musicology blue sky discussion is available from CBC Radio 3 right here! Everyone should know that Paolo Pietropaolo is possibly the best producer in Canada possibly North America, possibly the world. Consequently, he's won a Peabody Awardfor his piece "The Wire: the impact of Electricity on Music".

So if you follow my blog fairly regularly, as regularly as I post, you'll know there is a bit of an environmental bent to it. Although really, its more of an inquisitive pursuit for business opportunities that are green rather than a stance of environmental superiority. Here's the thing, I speak on this recording. And its about energy systems, and this affects everyone. So give it a listen. And if you really like what I have to say, or you really disagree, or you want to let Paolo know that he should have me in again for an interview, please leave a comment below.

Oh yeah and if you want to see pictures of the bus we are taking across Canada (with my company Organik Productions) check out this link.

Oh yeah. Almost forgot.

Shannon and Rob. Give me a call. Would love to band together on getting a vehicle for Indie Canadian artists to tour sustainably.

Google us.

Turning Green - CBC Radio 3 Podcast

2007-07-06T11:05:00.000-07:00

A little while back, I was part of a round table discussion with other music industry people and enviro folks regarding sustainability in the music industry. There was a lot said. Obviously too much for me to be included in the podcast. I got the cut in the final version. Oh well. Maybe next time. This is a bit of landmark though, episode #111 "Turning Green" of the CBC Radio 3 podcast features music by Organik. Organik is the band that my company Organik Productions Inc. (the band and I) backs for their musical and production endeavors. So for your own interest, and for that of the planet, tune-in. The podcast is available in the podcast section of the CBC Radio 3 website and of course in the iTunes Music Store where so many of our friends are going to activate their iPhones.

Download the podcast here -->

Plastic is now a fuel

2007-07-04T09:50:00.001-07:00

When you consider how many people are thinking of ways of creating ethanol from having new crops of corn planted and intensely farmed (corn is the crop that requires the most water and pesticides to maintain), this method of extracting oil from plastic and rubber by using mcirowave frequencies with a new machine called a Hawk-10 by Global Resource Corporation (GRC) seems like a much better solution (see video). First of all its making fuel from waste, we could go to the North Pacific Gyre and mine it for every last water bottle of plastic and make a ton of money selling it back to global market.

Seen below, an image from the blog The Coffee House: Debating Today's Environment for Tomorrow's Future of the pacific Gyre. Read more about the Gyre here, here, and here

Secondly, with this new method you could take every tire dump in the world and possibly every land fill and also have a field day collecting inputs for a now renewable fuel source. Yes you can, its just dirty. Kinda like Fort McMurray Oil sands dirty without using a half a barrel of oil to fuel the digging machine, two to five barrels of fresh water and 250 cubic feet of natural gas (enough to heat Canadian home for almost 1.5 days) in extracting a single barrel of oil.

But wait, this is waste already not a new resource, so we'd be getting rid of our waste as opposed to creating more.

So... why aren't we doing this on a large scale yet?

I challenge any wealthy and powerful industrialist to look the other way from the opportunity of mining the worlds oceans and landfills as a source for fuel. Its a never ending resource. Humans are always going to make garbage.

Make your own electric bike

2007-06-25T20:22:00.000-07:00

Although its a little long, its worth checking out. Anyone out there own an electric bike? We want to hear from you if you do. How do the bikes you can purchase from the store size up against those you can make yourself?

Cradle to Cradle - William McDonough

2007-06-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

Recently, while out to dinner with the a-team, Raffael brought up a lecturer he had recently seen talk at UBC. His name was William McDonough. I went to University with Raffael and after graduating he has gone on to pursue architecture working on LEED certification for a firm in Vancouver.

Being a big fan of Ted Talks, I was happily surprised to find that William had done a presentation. My reaction was similar to Raffael's, this man knows the future and the present state of affairs. Its worth the watch, if only to understand why not to buy rubber duckies.

Now this is progress...update

2007-06-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

Fig. 19. Henry Ford swinging an axe at his 1941 car to demonstrate the toughness of the plastic trunk door made of soybean and hemp. (From the collections of Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village.)

Big thanks to weatweebee for pointing me to this document on the industrial use of hemp. The link they sent me was to Perdue University's article "Hemp: A New Crop with New Uses for North America" by Ernest Small and David Marcus. I recommend you read up on all the working examples of hemp as an alternative to many of the products I mentioned in my previous post about plastics.

I encourage everyone to leave your comments about your experiences, horror stories, and moments of inspiration from plastic. Do you have a story about a way to not use plastic or why perhaps it is a positive thing to keep using plastic instead of a non petroleum based polymer. We want to hear all about it.

The Future - Cellphone companies will be like the record labels of the past. Why?

2007-06-15T14:22:00.001-07:00

Their services are over-valued and they screw customers.

Now this is progress...

2007-06-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

Ever since I heard about Henry Ford building one of his first vehicles from a hemp resin and Diesel making his first engine to run off an organic oil like bio-diesels of today, I've been waiting for someone in academia or a corporation (albeit a better chance the former) to discover a material of this magnitude.

What magnitude you say?

Read the headline from Treehugger, "Wine and Biodiesel Byproducts Combine to Make 'Green' Polymer"

Apparently producing bio-diesel creates a lot of glycerine and producing wine creates a lot of tartaric acid. They are both waste by products of a process that our societies undertake on a regular basis. When combined together with some woodchips and sawdust it becomes moldable as it is a very hard substance initially. Put it in the oven and it vaporizes completely. Undergraduate engineering students from Oregon State University have patented the material which can be used building and insulation material along with being an ash free alternative for heating.

This means a few things.

1 - An alternative to plastic for a bunch of different applications.
2 - An alternative for building insulation
3 - An alternative for cement, maybe steel, and possibly wood
4 - An alternative heating solution to wood

The best part about it?

This is all being done from relatively none intensive environmentally friendly industrial activity in the first place by using the waste by-products. Potentially this could be scaled to use all of the waste by-product from both industry as there is a constant demand for the products that can be made from the polymer.

This makes our re-use of about 3-5% of all our recycled plastics in paint, carpets and upholstery sound like claims by the Canadian and US governments that they are meeting green-house gas emission targets.

Systems

2007-06-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

Your thoughts please.

Graduation and friends

2007-06-06T13:46:00.000-07:00

Kyle and Heidi at Brian's place.

Last night I headed out to celebrate with Brian and Raffael, Heidi and Kyle the graduation from SFU of the last members of our circle. It was great. I have great friends and these people really keep me sane in a bunch of different ways. Brian is a pilot, Raffael is working at architecture, Heidi is in GIS and Kyle moonlights as a GIS specialist while actually being an extreme sports machine. Check out Kyle's website for his recent bike ride across Canada and his upcoming trip up Mt. McKinley. Guy has legs like tree trunks.

Hopefully I'll get some pics of the convocation. Rumour has it there will be quite some party on the Geography department balcony going on as this is posted.

Congratulations guys!

Here's to a successful jump into real life.

Thank you Rae and Medea

2007-06-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

After the Google Developer Day 2007 had passed and I went to visit Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK : Women for Peace. I met Medea at the Social Change Institute on Cortes Island last weekend. I'd heard of some of the actions here organization had been taking but not the name of her organization. Being a big supporter of ending the occupation and aggretion against Iraq by the Bush administration, I offered to help out any way I could. So going down for the conference gave me the opportunity to drop in and meet Rea and Medea and help a bit with their website backend. Here is a picture of myself and the very tall Medea Benjamin in CODEPINK HQ.

It was fun. Learned a lot about the scale of the efforts in the US to stop the war and realized that residents of the US are banding together to change things in the face of aggression by their own government. The courage it takes to stand against an empire and the militarized society they have is something to be commended.

Later that evening, Rea showed me graffiti murals in the Mission District. San Francisco is a cultural mecca in my opinion.

The next morning Rea invited me out to join her on a surfing trip. My first time. I'm hooked.

Google Developer Day 2007 - San Jose, post 2

2007-05-31T23:10:00.000-07:00

Met up with Michael Jones and Bent Hagemark around mid-day for the presentation on Google Earth. It was good to cross paths with them again. It was also great to see Michael get excited at the new features and see the passion is still there to take Google Earth and Google somewhere incredible in the future.

Here is a video of two new features available in the next version of Google Earth.

Met some cool folks at the party on Google campus later in the evening. Will talk about that more some other time.

Google Developer Day 2007 - San Jose, post 1

2007-05-31T09:10:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I'm here at the conference and hoping Stefan Geens of Ogle Earth responds to my emails so I can post to his blog. In the meantime, I'm sitting on the couch talking with Robin Ziegler of the Google Earth team about all things Google. Here's Robin sending me an email about a great new blog from Spain about Google Earth.

Seeing as there is wireless I will be making several posts today about the ongoings of the conference. You can find pictures that I take at this blog but you may also be able to find pics on Picasa, flickr and photobucket by searching for tags "GDD07".

If you are looking for up to date information from Where 2.0 and another perspective on the conference, check out Frank Taylor's (image below- Hi Frank!)Google Earth Blog.

Desolation Sound

2007-05-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

Spent this weekend at Hollyhock participating in the Social Change Institute. Had the opportunity to head out to Desolation Sound for some sight seeing. Had some fun with the camera. About to head out the door to fly down to San Jose for the Google Geo Developer Day as part of Where 2.0. Will be guest blogging for Ogle Earth. Here is hoping my laptop isn't confiscated at the border.

Tim Horton's in Second Life

2007-05-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know I've been working on building a place to hang out with other Canadians in Second Life now for a while.

It seems to have got some press the other day.

The response has been overwhelming. I never thought people would be so in love with the idea. Come visit us and check out what chatting with random virtual people and a lot of hours building 3d architecture can do. Also, if you see the mountie, be sure to ask him when he is going to get serious and get himself a horse. Just kidding.

Apparently we streamed the hockey game on site and in game last night. People really are making a home for us. Currently, our little project which has quickly become overwhelmingly supported by residents is being dubbed the unofficial Canadian embassy.

I can't begin to express how cool it is to be having this happen.

3D campus model of Simon Fraser University

2007-03-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

So a while back, some of my more devout readers might remember how I'd been talking about building and then posting a 3D campus model of Simon Fraser University. I had been hesitating like mad as any good geographer would because after building and then saying I would post it, I found out the model could be made more accurate. This is perhaps the worst thing to find out for a part perfectionist like myself and part geographer. Anyways months later, its come down to an art show, "Permeable Borders Cartographical Illusions" where the Burnaby Mountain Trail Map I made with Kyle Skidmore, Raffael Merola, and Brian Payne will be displayed.

Why does this relate to the model?

This was the project that started my work on the 3D campus in the first place. So the map is going on display and we are posting the campus model to coincide with the opening. Uncanny coincidence isn't it?

So to all my friends, enemies, and families come join me on March 28th at the show, or at least drop into the gallery in the next month to see what all the fuss was about.

You'll find the campus map posted to on the Google Earth Community here March 28th.

I'll be posting pictures from the gallery showing of me with big smiles and hopefully some of my team mates. Oh yeah and this posting is not only to tell you about the gallery show, and the 3D campus, but also to announce I'm starting a team to enter the 3D campus contest started by Google with a June 1st deadline. If you are an SFU student and are into learning Sketchup and photo-textured, contact me by leaving a comment. Students that already know how to use Sketchup have an advantage as well as those that know how to use photoshop and have their own camera, but really its about attitudes and values that will get you on the team. So get on it. The prize is a trip to the Googleplex to meet some wicked people.

the 8th Annual LaFontaine-Baldwin Symposium

2007-02-06T10:36:00.000-08:00

Every now and then I get to do someting exciting. This is one of those times. Recently I got to meet Adrienne Clarkson and John Ralston Saul as part of a my work with PLAN Institute.

Yesterday I launched the YouTube page for the Institute of Canadian Citizenship to promote the 8th Annual LaFontaine-baldwin Symposium. If you are in Vancouver for March 2nd and 3rd, you should get your ticket through TicketMaster.ca today, they are only $10 and you'll get to see the wonderful Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. I'll be there as well as many other well known well respected Canadians, and unknown hard working Canadians that make their contribution on a daily basis.

So watch the clip, you can leave your comment or answer to Mrs. Clarksons question. She will be reading your answers and commenting about them during her speech. This is an opportunity to voice your opinion on topics that shape our country. I hoe you'll take a moment and make your mark.

Control the shape of the Earth

2007-01-15T19:39:00.000-08:00

Every so often we get to try out some really cool web apps. For me this is definetly January's web app of the month. Heard of this through James Fee's Blog or Planet Geospatial (you can now register by email, do it, you know you want to). So if your into geography, bathimatry, geology, biology, ecology, or just ending a whole bunch of word with a "y", head on over to Terra where you can check out Landcraft.

In other news, I'm about to release a second episode of Bits n Pieces to YouTube, check out the first episode and subscribe to get informed of when the next ones are posted. Bits n Pieces(different link) is a short format video series I produce with my production company Organik Productions. Its a fairly open format, mostly documentary, and is a combination of short clips of day to day and misadventures that I go through with the other guys in the company. I'm also out to bring knowledge and information to an audience in the same format. So basically its a short format open plot documentary action adventure web series. Try and file that on a shelf in your video store... oh wait we can get movies from Apple now, forget late fees. Check it out make sure to subscribe. As a rumour, I've already made 8 episodes from the past 6 months and only released one so far.

Electric Cars and Dark Matter

2007-01-07T20:30:00.000-08:00

Image found at this spot

Been a while since I posted, so happy new year, this post is going to be pretty much a news round up because... hell a lot of progress is being made towards a future that I want to be part of. Seems the future is fast approaching. Apple will be releasing a new pocket sized piece of hardware soon that will be a hybrid cell phone and computer. Apple also seems to be moving towards making their devices locationaly aware. GM has created a concept electric vehicle called the Volt, about freaking time. Lastly Hubble was used to map dark matter in 3D. Now that is a huge development if I say so.

Speaking of mapping, I've noticed that northern Manitoba has suddenly been producing a lot of traffic to my site. Whoever you are please leave a comment as I would love to give a big global welcome and post a satellite photo of your town. More to come soon, anyone heard of Second Life yet? You will.

The Future - Green Buildings, Miami

2006-12-11T21:31:00.000-08:00

Sweet. Found this beautiful piece of art and tech over at Inhabit under the Architecture section of blogs I follow <---shameless plug, use the drop down menus. Besides being somewhere I'd like to live, this place stands out for me because it reminds me of the fact that we don't need to build completely self sufficient buildings yet. We just need to start making buildings that use alternative self-sufficiency the majority of the time. Learning to rely on solar, wind, and hydro isn't that hard and lots of people do it. So ask your city planners why they want to build those ugly highrises relying on natural gas for heating instead of geothermal? Ask your architect why he wants to rely on electricity from coal-burning energy plants instead of solar panels? After all, its not as if we don't know what the alternative will be....

Weekend Update

2006-11-26T16:47:00.000-08:00

On the mention by my brother, who's traveling in South East Asia, of not having much personal content as of late, I thought I'd give a snapshot into my weekend. After working pretty solidly on the United Rugby Women's Calendar 2007(pics to come) for the past couple weeks, in my spare time and when not feeling sick, I took a weekend to check out some art around town. Dropped by the homes of D, Dustin and Nick of (ôr-gan'ik) fame and found this beauty of a pic. From their twenty first floor window, I saw these three houses right smack in the middle of about 8 high rises. They served as a juxtaposition to the frenzied pace of development in Vancouver yesterday afternoon as I stared south at the urban skyline. Yesterday, I felt like those houses, caught in the middle of things.

After grabbing this pick, me and Alfonso Arnold of Blue Lava fame took off to go to the East Side Culture Crawl. Alfonso has been asking me lately to work with him on building a webspace for his network of people, and so while snaking through the maze of a building that 1000 Parker is, we started to hash out details and discuss how things might go down. I picked up some wicked christmas cards, and saw a night table I'd like to buy from Straight Line Designs <--you want to check this out!) Alfonso thinks he and Lynne will pickup the to scale Airstream doggy house.1000 Parker was a really impressive place and I'll have to get back there to meet some of the severly talented artists that house their works there. What stood out most for me was work by sculptur David Robinson. Not just intelligent, his work struck a chord with my mathematical mind, being equal parts engineering and physics while also acheiving an artistic intrigue with his use of materials, human form and fear of height to engage an audience.

Here is one of his pieces called Binary Vision.

Vancouver has been snowed on all weekend. Had to pass upa sky vacation with Kyle but hoping to d some back country this season. Maybe get some first lines. And some pictures.

The Future - Human Genetics

2006-11-23T00:13:00.000-08:00

The "book of life" has been opened in what is being called the biggest leap in basic principle human genetics. These principles were established in the 19th century by the "father" of Mendelian genetics Gregor Mendel, and by Jim Watson and Francis Crick, who discovered the DNA double helix in 1953.

Excerpt here from The Independent.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Genetic breakthrough that reveals the differences between humans

Scientists hail genetic discovery that will change human understanding

By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 23 November 2006
Scientists have discovered a dramatic variation in the genetic make-up of humans that could lead to a fundamental reappraisal of what causes incurable diseases and could provide a greater understanding of mankind.

The discovery has astonished scientists studying the human genome - the genetic recipe of man. Until now it was believed the variation between people was due largely to differences in the sequences of the individual "letters" of the genome.

It now appears much of the variation is explained instead by people having multiple copies of some key genes that make up the human genome.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Read the rest of the article here.

The Future - Earth's immune system

2006-11-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

Thinking about how the world works on an ecological level and how humans fit into such a picture, it occurs to me a few things. If Earth is considered an ecological unit, a living organism, it must react within the same rules and confines of a natural system that can be measured healthy by an active immune system. The presence of humans on Earth like any virus, cancer, or disease impact negatively the health of Earth parasitically with our continued existence and propogation. If like any natural biological system Earth has an immune system, then weather systems and environmental variations are the antibodies that fight against humans and their tax on the planet. It is therefore the case, that humanity needs to consider its actions and impacts under a completely different model.

Just as with any biological system if a virus, disease, or cancer ravages the host and destroys all functions, the host dies killing the parasite. Unless humanity decides it is in its best interest to impact Earth functions in a positive symbiotic manner, we need to consider that very soon, our long-term impact will be the destruction of natural systems that sustain Earth. With it will go the parasite, in all its endless devouring, with rot, pestilence, and disease following death just like any decaying carcass.

The Future - Removing arsenic from water with rust

2006-11-11T15:05:00.000-08:00

Originally posted on New Scentist Tech.

I'm going to have to add a link to these guys because they've put out articles on new water technology three times this week. This one is how arsenic can be removed from water to make it potable, arsenic contaminated water is a big problem in developing countries.

There's nothing like a new site with progressive values.

Smell that?

Its the cleaner air of the future.

19:00 09 November 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Zeeya Merali

A new recipe for "nanorust" could give developing nations a cheap tool for removing arsenic from drinking water.

Arsenic contamination is linked to bladder cancer and is a big problem in many places, especially in Bangladesh and the neighbouring Indian state of West Bengal.

Chemists know that arsenic binds particularly well to iron oxides, including rust, but practical techniques for doing this have been slow and laborious.

Vicki Colvin and colleagues at Rice University in Houston, Texas, realised that the efficiency of this process could be improved by reducing the size of the iron oxide particles employed. This is because a given weight of smaller particles has more surface area available for binding than the same weight of larger particles.

"One kilogram of nanorust has the same surface area as a football field," says Colvin. "Basically, you can treat a whole lot more arsenic with less material."

Lining up

The team added nanoscale iron oxide to contaminated water, where it clumped together with the arsenic. They then magnetised the nanoparticles with an electromagnet and pulled them out. "We only needed a surprisingly weak magnetic field," says Colvin. "In fact, we could pull then out with just a hand-held magnet, making this a very practical method."

They believe that only a small field was needed because the magnetised nanoparticles line up to form a single giant magnet and drag each other along.

At the moment, the high cost of making nanoparticles means the trick is too expensive to be used widely. In principle, however, the nanoparticles are easy to make: the team created them by dissolving large pieces of rust in heated oleic acid, which can be found in ordinary olive oil.

"The temperatures needed are accessible in a frying pan," Colvin adds. "So we are now trying to develop a production method using ingredients and equipment that are available in poorer nations."

Journal reference: Science (vol 314, p 964)

The Future - Wave Powered Desalination

2006-11-08T10:11:00.000-08:00

Scientists appear to be meeting the water crisis head on with new inventions for purifying and desalinating water. Here is the latest passive and green system to create potable drinking water for the masses. With record rainfall being set in British Columbia by the Pineapple Express, one wouldn't suspect there would be a lack of drinking water. However, global patterns of rainfall are changing to reflect more extreme variations of long term drought and sudden short term torrential rainfall. These types of patterns do not allow for sustainable agriculture or the recharging of water catchment basins that drinking water is typical drawn from. While countries in the middle east discuss the use of nuclear energy to power desalination plants, the method seen here would provide a non nuclear, less environmentally intensive technology with the same results.

A scale model of the 'desalination duck' is being tested in the laboratory (Image: IMechE)

original article found New Scientist Tech
Wave-powered 'ducks' could purify seawater

14:43 07 November 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Tom Simonite

Ocean waves could provide an energy-efficient way to desalinate seawater, say UK researchers. While conventional purification plants have high energy demands, the rocking motion of floating buoys could be used to drive a pump system for desalination.

Stephen Salter at Edinburgh University, UK, first designed a device to generate electricity from wave power in the 1970s. It was dubbed the 'Edinburgh Duck' because buoyant cylinders on one side resembled a beak, while the other, tethered end bobbed up and down as it rode the waves.

Salter and colleagues are now working on a version that purifies seawater by driving a pump with its rocking motion. This would avoid the high energy demands of conventional desalination plants, and could be installed in arid countries with good access to seawater, such as Australia and Israel.

"I visited India just after they had missed two monsoons and water was becoming a worry," Salter told New Scientist. "I thought that using wave power for desalination would be a neat idea."

Pressure changes

The "desalinating ducks" convert wave energy into pressure changes that aid the collection of pure water as steam from seawater. By lowering air pressure, the system can draw steam from water at lower temperatures.

The hollow core of each duck is half-filled with freshwater, to avoid corrosion and act as ballast, with the air above divided by a central section. To start working, the ballast water must be pre-heated to about 100°C but the whole system is insulated so that it only gradually loses heat and only needs to be refilled about once a month.

The central section contains a heat exchanger that both heats seawater and collects the steam produced.

As the duck rocks on the waves the ballast water acts like a piston - increasing the air pressure on one side of the central partition and reducing it on the other. The low pressure helps draw steam out of seawater inside the partition.

This steam is then condensed and the purified water is pumped ashore through the two legs that tether the duck to the seabed. The more concentrated seawater left behind collects in the bottom of the central section and can be dumped back into the sea.

Scale models

Scale models are currently being tested in wave tanks although these pump air rather than water. The final versions will be around 10 metres in diameter and 20 metres long. "One unit should be able to produce around 2000 cubic metres a day," says Salter. "That's enough to supply water for more than 20,000 people."

Pressure-driven desalination systems, powered by electricity, are currently used in remote parts of Africa and the Middle East. Hilal Nidal, who researches clean water technologies at Nottingham University, UK, says: "I don't think a wave-powered version could compete with established desalination plants that can be orders of magnitude bigger."

These plants drive water through membranes that filter out salt, but their efficiency is limited because they can become clogged (see Desalination may be best hope to slake world's thirst). Nidal and colleagues are researching ways to solve this problem using nanotechnology. "Already the cost of fresh water is down to around 40 US cents per cubic metre," he says. "The next-generation membranes should make that even lower."

Journal reference: Journal of Engineering for the Maritime Environment (DOI: 10.1243/14750902JEME53)

The Future - Rural Canada's labour force

2006-10-31T00:01:00.000-08:00

I've just finished watching a special on rural newfoundland titled "Timestamp Fishery The Death of a Dream" broadcast on Global. It details the shift to E.I. from fisheries and the emphasis on the ability and the right for citizens to stay in their communities. The local community and the previouspremier Roger Grimes of Nova Scotia(thank you to Bryan Henry for pointing out the current premier is Rodney MacDonald) feel that government should be creating jobs in their area, to replace those that were illiminated when the fish plant shut down after a fisheries moratorium was imposed when the fish populations were reduced. If the next generation from the community had taken up fishing, it would have been 100 years of fishing in the town. A commercial cod fishery was opened up on July 3, 2006, but the son of the last fisherman from the town drawn by a higher income moved to Fort McMurray to work in the oil sands.

There is a lesson here in basic earning levels and opportunities for manual labour and sustaining rural maritime communities.

A vision of the future that creates this opportunity in such a way that does not damage environment, animal populations, and local culture needs to be established. Furthermore, such communities that can be identified in Canada meeting similar criteria for the creation of such kind of work, need be part of a grand vision for the future of this country. Where there are people willing to work in their own communities in this way, industry for developing a nation of remote locations will be vital in the maintenance of community economic development.

The type of work for these communitiies must be in harmony with the Canada we wish to build. With an emphasis on key technologies, demographic trends, and climate change a vision of evolved labour, research, and resource production can be employed as methods in creating a future that sustains harmonious balance with ecological process in the region.

If the next and future generation of Canadians are drawn to employment in the unsustainable maintenance of the petroleum industry, not only will communities see the loss of their kin in order to support unsustainable lifestyles, all citizens of Canada and Earth will be at a loss. For it is social relationships for which we work to finance, and the one commodity that cannot be produced.

The Future - Wave Energy, Portugal

2006-10-20T15:19:00.000-07:00

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PLAN Institute's Cross Canada Reaching Out Tour

2006-10-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

PLAN Institute's Reaching Out Tour visits communities across Canada with a feature film showcase and future-planning workshops to help families find peace of mind. Find out more.

I have created a Google Earth file that details the tour dates, publicity, and media documents as well as registration information. I'm not sure if this has been done before, but I'd like to think I'm the first in the social sector to be using Google Earth to raise awareness in Canada surrounding a national initiative. Please comment on my work. Download tour information for Google Earth.

A little background information, a generation of people with disabilities face a future in which they will outlive their parents. This is the first time where the quality of life that families can expect for their relatives will not be their direct responsability. The future will be different, the time to start planning for that future has arrived.

If you or a family member have a disability, a highly recommend that you attend one of the tour dates. Check out the Google Earth file or visit planinstitute.ca.

Changing the world!

2006-10-16T11:43:00.000-07:00

From digital inspiration.

Coal is not an alternative green energy

2006-10-15T11:19:00.000-07:00

Download the Google Earth file of the National Memorial for the Mountains by clicking here

ilovemountains.org

Weighing in on R and D

2006-09-20T12:56:00.000-07:00

I have been receiving many questions as of late about my lack of posts. I wanted to address that issue by saying I made a rule to myself that I wouldn't post again until I had my model of Simon Fraser University finished. However since moving and starting a new job in the past month, I have been having less time to do this and I have been frustrated by the lack of progress. So I've changed my mind.

I wanted to let anyone that reads this blog know that I will be posting on the progress of my work and posting screen caps to share the development of SFU layer. The reasons for this effort are two fold; first to create a discussion around the creation of state of the art 3D and rich content for Google Earth and secondly to weigh in on features of Google Earth being implemented in 3D and rich content that provide greater function for the user and the development of virtual worlds at large. At least this way, it will allow anyone from the GIS and geospatial communities to way in on my work.

In the timespan that I've been working on the model of Simon Fraser University, almost a year now, there are several factors that have affected the relevancy and currency of my work beyond the limitations of work hours to commit to r&d. The first being the development of new photomapping technics that allow for high resolution elevation data to be created from aerial photos(example 1, example 2), as addressed by Dr. Andrew Hudson-Smith of CASA who maintains the Digitally Distributed Environments blog. The most recent addition of time mapping in kml allowing an animation of sorts of progressional data. Greater accuracy of the spatial representation in Google Earth based on improvements in the projection methods between versions 3 and 4 of GE. Texture mapping has also presented a further alternative to very basic color mapping of 3D models by the Google Earth engine.

These changes have prevented new features that could potentially be included in the functionality of the SFU model. The biggest question now, is just how many of these features need to be included in the model to make it useful, and in the longer term, how to update the content once it has been posted to the Google Earth community without creating a bigger problem of version control as I update the content.

Any suggestions on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Geospatial Virtual Environments - Dr. Nick Hedley, Spatial Interface Research Lab, Simon Fraser University, Augmented Reality

2006-08-15T23:26:00.000-07:00

I received an excited phone call this morning from Dr. Nick Hedley director of Simon Fraser University's Spatial Interface Research Lab. Nick told me how he was in today's Vancouver Sun. You can check out the article here. I really appreciated it, as I have a similar opinion of GIS and the need for greater flexibility in the role of geographers and information tools outside of standard software applications. I was even more excited by this picture as the AR model Dr. Hedley used was one that we collaborated on during my undergrad work in his lab. The model seen above includes a scaled down version of the 3D Simon Fraser University I displayed at SFU's 40th Anniversay Open House and that I am preparing to post to the Google Earth Community in the coming weeks.

With a technologically-sophisticated generation of students, "it is no longer acceptable for us to talk about traditional cartography or GIS [geographical information systems," Hedley said. "If we're training our students in a way that's sophisticated, in a fluid manner, they come out of the program with very, very powerful tools."

As a specialist in geographic visualization and spatial cognition, Hedley developed an augmented reality tool designed to give students the ability to test their hypotheses and interact with the geography they're studying in a virtual environment. - Vancouver Sun, Aug 17th 2006

Nick has worked on some high profile projects before most recently a collaborative exhibit for the Boston Museum of Fine Arts on the Science of Star Wars currently touring the United States. If there are any students interested in this field, Dr. Hedley's classes are challenging and attract creative and talented students with a variety of backgrounds most commonly computer science, engineering and geography. I always liked his classes due to the cutting edge nature of the information and techniques being taught and being surrounded by terribly bright classmates. Here is a syllabus for one of his courses quickly growing in popularity entitled Geospatial Virtual Environments.

Parties

2006-08-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

At a bunch this weekend. Loren had his annual summer BBQ where the sangria made sure everyone was merry.

Here is Katie and Loren in a groupshot with Laura on iChat from London. Laura was the highlight of a previous year's bbq when she had too much sangria and went skinny dipping. No swimming this year but definately lots of talk about Steve's up coming video game Sin's of a Solar Empirethat has been in the works for what seems like forever (I wanna be a tester!) and cultural absurdities like Chav.

Congratulations to Graham and Stephanie who were married this Saturday at Burnaby Mountain Park by a justice of the peace and had their reception at the Diamond Club afterwards. Hopefully Loren will post some photos soon of the happy couple.

Here is a picture of John who is moving to Kingston to go to school. John is a party animal and fellow geographer who minutes after this photo was taken was tackle by his best friend in the gorilla suit. John's a trooper. We'll be going out to dinner before he leaves to send him and Catherine off properly. Good luck in Kingston, can't wait to come visit.

Georeferencing membership databases

2006-08-09T15:33:00.000-07:00

With my new job at the PLAN Institute doing marketing and communications, I have had access to a reasonably sized membership database and been able to create several visualizations with Google Earth to support decision making related to planning around the "Reaching Out" Tour film tour that includes public screening of the film The Ties That Bind by the National Film Board of Canada being planned for October and November of 2006 across Canada.

I would like to expand on the data sets to include organizational relationships between individuals and by disparate forms of ability. According to Statistics Canada there are roughly 3.6 million people considered disabled in Canada however the census data collected on these individuals cannot be mapped or georeferenced. Is there anyone in the geospatial community working in this field or maintaining a database of social relationships that I might use as a model for creating membership surveys?

Long Weekend

2006-08-07T23:41:00.000-07:00

Had one crazy long weekend in Kelowna BC at the Rock n Ride festival. Filmed material for the Bit n PIeces Podcast found on organiktheband.com which I've been working on for the past couple weeks, its just about ready for launch but you can check it out and let me know what you think.

Big thanks to Davina and Debra for the hospitality, John and Patsy for giving us the opportunity to play the show, and of course the promoters of the event. The Bluff has to be one of Canada's prize outdoor venues.

I had a lot of fun, Lucas tore open his hand during the 3rd song in the set on a broken drumstick. Thanks to the St. John's Ambulance guys for patching him up.

Check out the GE placemarks of the venue.

The follow-up to the follow-up

2006-08-01T23:26:00.000-07:00

Interestingly enough Stefan Geens at Ogle Earth pointed out that "Adena Schutzberg at All Points Blog appears to have a DigitalGlobe representative confirming the exclusive deal between Google Earth and DigitalGlobe for web publishing of DigitalGlobe data."

This would explain why Michael Jones of Google Earth had mentioned something about having up to date satellite images of Lebanon at the GeoWeb conference last week(previosu post).

This is initially based on news posted by James Fee of James Fee GIS Blog. Also to be found through the links under the Follow Blogs section of this site. James has a great blog, if you havn't checked it out do so now. Love the new layout and use of space James.

GeoWeb 2006 follow-up

2006-07-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the image used in the keynote address Friday at GeoWeb 2006 Vancouver. It is Harat, Beirut an image available on the main website of Digital Globe taken July 22nd, 2006.

I have georeferenced the image and made the kml using the link to this image available through the Google Community. Here is the image overlay of the Beirut Airport also from Digital Globe.

Hopefully we'll see more of this set soon.

GeoWeb 2006 - Day 5, Keynote Address and Panorama

2006-07-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Michael Jones giving the keynote address at GeoWeb 2006 in the Morris J Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Simon Fraser University. Seen here, Michael has up on screen new Digital Globe images showing Lebanon.

The morning kicked off to an interesting start. In a room full of GIS professionals, I ended up solving a display problem with the Macbook Pro attached to the projector. Sweet. Here is a panorama for Google Earth inside the hall while Gary Lang from Autodesk was speaking. Michael opens with before and after satellite photos of Lebanon and a discussion of remote awareness and communication. Here are the major headings of his presentations, I missed some, sorry.

Google's missions is to organize the worlds information and make it universally accessible and useful

- 30,000 Developer Sites in first 12 months using Google Maps employing API
- 51,700,000 Mentions in first 12 months independent mentions of Google Map API
- 129,299 Blog Posts in first 12 months mentioning Google Maps
- 1000,000,000 installs in first 12 months (GE)
- 67cm resolution satellite photos for 30% of earth's population
- The real world built by the 100,000,000 millions of users

Google Earth/Local/Maps Mission
To geographically organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful

Understanding "Universal"
A spectrum of users personal, one user, to universal, billions of users

Expert to Expert
Expert to User
User to User

Creating the Future

Google Maps and Mobile Maps
- Indexed, organized location-related infromation
- Search tools for exploring local results
- Public version

Google Transit
- Public transit routing

Google Maps API
- Dynamic visualization of search results
- Flexible
...

Google Maps

Web Location Intelligence
- Business listings
- Navigation services
- Reviews and opinions
- Ratinfs and discussion

Global Resource
- International coverage
- Local knowledge

Mentioned the challenges of bringing Google Maps to the world. Language barriers, local knowledge.

The Power Tools

Carl F. Gauss in a letter to Heinrich Schumacher (1780-1850) May 15th, 1843

Google Maps API

redefines "Mapping Sites"
- Personal and commercial versions
- Smoothly interactive
- Map+Imagery
- Fun to user

Global Resource
- International coverage
- Developer API

Google Maps API for Enterprise

Google Earth

Integrated Google Search
Seamless global navigation
3D driving directions
My Places for saving searches and user annotations

Three parts
- Web Search
- Community
- Data

Google Earth Product Family

Persnoal Google Earth
- Google Earth free for personal
- Google Earth Plus adds features
- Streamed access to Earth Database

Professional Google Earth
- Google Earth Pro
- Available modules: Printing, GIS, import
...

Google Earth Community

Sharing Descriptions
- >560,000 members
- New post every second
- Lively, informed discussion

Sharing Services
- Serving Network Links
....

Google SketchUp Creates Worlds

Change in Emergency Respsonse

Change in Science Publication

Geospatial Publishing
Research
....

GeoWeb 2006 - Day 1 and 2

2006-07-26T10:43:00.000-07:00

Apologies to James Fee first of all for the delay of this post.

I've attended three workshops at GeoWeb 2006. So far it is a showcase of different applications, datasets, and schemas from different companies and corporations including Galdos Systems, Adobe, LizardTech, Oracle, Google, Microsoft, and Autodesk. Starting today and for the rest of the week, there are white paper presentations and talks by numerous industry professionals.

Both Monday and Tuesday of this week, I was fortunate enough to attend the workshops by Michael Ashbridge on KML and Google Earth, Doug Ricket on Google Maps API and mashups as well as Nathan Crews of Autodesk introducing everyone to LandXML. There were definitely a few highlights, talking to Google Earth's CTO Michael Jones about what developments we can expect and going for drinks with Michael Ashbridge(GE), Bent Hagemark(GE), and Tim Martin of the UK's Ordinance Survey at Granville Island. By far the best moment was working with the Google Maps API while Mr Jones and Mr Hagemark checked OGLE Earth and Google Earth Blog loading the new content into GE. The mentality on development is that users are developing the way the application is being used and should be used in the future. So if you have an idea about where you think GE should be headed make sure to let them know. I was even able to show them my models of SFU and discuss the registration issues I had with 3D buildings when I upgraded to GE 4 and the Sketchup buyout, they said my work was inspiring (thank you very much) and they look forward to seeing more.

From a technical standpoint here is what the GE team thought users should be checking out. Regions are a big thing right now, any and every large data set can be employing them allowing the division of images and 3D models into variable resolutions for a viewable area speeding up the streaming process. Network links were also a topic discussed a lot by Michael A. and Bent. So make sure to check out the KML 2.1 documentation for methods of implementing both in an efficient manner. Even Doug Ricket mentioned accessing external xml datasets with the Google Maps API demonstrating how the process might function. There seemed to be an ongoing theme of centralizing datasets and lite client apps and scripts surrounding all things Google.

I'll be attending the conference again on Friday to catch the keynote address by Michael Jones and sit in on presentations that involve GIS in disaster and response. I'll try to get some photos.

My first sports car...

2006-07-21T12:14:00.000-07:00

would definetly be the Tesla Roadster. Running on ion-lithium batteries (read: laptop batteries), this ingenious vehicle picks up where the General Motors EV1 left off. I'll be saving my pennies though, in order to buy one the company contacts you. I take that as being a clear indication I'll need a cool million to purchase and then maintain the car. What's a million these days?

A house.

Source: http://www.teslamotors.com/

Future Methods of Visualization?

2006-07-19T21:13:00.000-07:00

New methods of visualizing data in the future could soon include real time access to all sorts of 3D information. I've been seeing an increase in the number of sites mentioning Google Earth network links that could potentially enable real-time access through wms and dynamic databases.

Click on the picture to check out the movie - Source: Nasa Earth Observatory

I'm going to be volunteering at the GeoWeb 2006 conference and will find out for sure what the future holds. If this projection holds weight just imagine being able to get real time traffic data, weather patterns and countless other data types directly from Google Earth or Nasa World Wind. Now all I need is GE in my car. Anyone heard of Google been integrated into a car yet?

Booking my ticket today!

2006-07-16T14:15:00.000-07:00

Air Torture is the premiere airline transporting detainees to select torture chambers around the world. Organizations such as Amnesty International like to call our business "outsourcing torture" because we deliver all our customers to countries where torture is routinely practiced - but our partners at the U.S. government have come up with a much better name: "extraordinary rendition."

What's the rule?

2006-07-14T01:41:00.000-07:00

I met Steve Schnur today at SOCAN's Vancouver symposium for Film & Television that also featured Michael Giacchino and Randy Edelman, both very well known and critically acclaimed film and television composer.

The first words out of Steve's mouth were "you are the spitting image of Adrian Grenier from Entourage on HBO!"

You compare.

Not the first time I have been compared to the guy. Back in high school when the Britney Spears music video for "You Drive Me Crazy" first came out, class mates were stunned then as well at his resemblance to me. That's right. He resembles me. Unless someone is distinguished by the academy, which somehow a Britney Spears music video does not do, an actor resembles you. Its a rule I'm instituting this very moment so change all your pop culture references. Until there is an Oscar in their hands or some other form of credible recognition, an actor in a television show isn't that much different than you except their meals come from a table labeled "craft services".

So Steve, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, thanks for the complement and can you hook me up if you know of any casting calls? I had the lead role in my high school musical of Cole Porter's "Anything Goes" and I'd like to break into film acting.

Italy heads to victory

2006-07-09T14:44:00.000-07:00

The Joker

2006-07-07T17:40:00.000-07:00

The missing card from the deck...

Things change

2006-07-05T00:09:00.000-07:00

Correcting common place sayings one by one.

War is Over

2006-06-30T18:13:00.000-07:00

War is an antiquated term meaning a "state of armed conflict between differing nations". The contemporary meaning of the term war should be redifined to mean" armed conflict by the United States for economic purposes other than peace, democracy and global stability". What do you think the definition of war should be considering the actions of the United States over the past decade?

In an effort to bring awareness to common place words that we use perhaps without thinking of their true meanings, I have designed a series of shirts I will be releasing through my webstore for the next few weeks starting today.

This summer a visible shift in thinking is occuring as movies such as The U.S. vs. John Lennon, America: Freedom to Fascism, Road to Guantanamo, The War Tapes, An Inconveniant Truth, and even Who Killed the Electric Car are released. Help spread a message to the world about topics almost forgotten like oppression, fascism, authoritarian rule and the loss of personal freedoms to government.

Welcome, Welcome Labrador Newfoundland!

2006-06-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the secod installment of Global Welcoming. This week I've seen some new traffic from maritime eastern Canada. Sick. Having known a few folks from Labrador I can say this as a fact: you havn't lived until you've had elk jerky and elk steaks. When I was living in PEI and working at Thirsty's Roadhouse in Green Gables a friend of mine would tell me about big game hunting and life on the island. Pretty hard living. To all of those visiting from the furthest eastern reaches of Canada I'd like to extend a welcome, welcome! If you live or have visited Labrador, send me some pictures, I've never been able to visit but have always heard how beautiful the landscape can be.

So this begs the question, where in Labrador are these readers coming from?

Back home, find me a job

2006-06-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

Campbell River is a rough town with one really great night club. The Voodoo Lounge is a gem at the northern tip of Vancouver Island that is one of the best rooms I've ever mixed in. The sound was incredible, the setup was incredible. So many details were taken care of and so much care was put into designing the place, from the stage green room, to the acoustically tuned dancefloor. The gig at the Voodoo marked the end of a short but gruelling tour for (ôr-gan'ik) and I that had some really big ups, getting an in studio recording and track played on the Zone 91.3fm, and downs, having the windows smashed out of the truck in Campbell River. In all the tour could be marked a success. I am just waiting on receiving the footage that I'll be editing together into aa podcastt to launch the (ôr-gan'ik) website hopefully by this weekend.

So the tour is finished, and its back to the real world. I am looking for work in graphic design, television and music production, GIS, map making, PR, or advertising. I narrowed down what my interests were and short listed a few companies. I'm hoping to get secure work for once as the past few years of doing freelance have been very draining. While I can support myself in doing so, the constant pace is starting to show at the corner of my eyes and I have yet to have my own gallery show or book to show for it. If you know of a company looking for a multi-talented individual that can work in group baseenvironmentsts and is self-motivated please let them know I am available. I have a portfolio ready and my resume on hand. I have performed as an outspoken spokesperson for the arts particularly film and music on a municipal level and in the media, while also producing and supporting the production of culture products bCanadianan artists. I would love to put together advertising campaigns that employ multi-media and love working with people. My keen sense of timing and attention to detail blends well with an eye for design and ability to fid creative solutions for problems faced on a daily basis. My ability to write is only limited by my experience, as I have yet to write a professional grant, however I am able to learn quickly and have the ability to analyze and reconstruct literal and conceptual frameworks with a strong grasp of writing mechanics.

I am also hopeful that my work will include travel as I am much attuned to moving quickly and frequently iachievingng goals... but enough of my hopes for career. There are better things to discuss.

Best wishes to the lovely Miss Estima of the Spadina Monologues, I hope you get better and can finish your thesis on time. I have a podcast coming your way that I hope you'll find time to comment on.

Many thanks and lots of lurv to Laura Rooke for coming halfway around the world to my graduation. Hope you can get the melatonin fast enough to help you kick the insomnia. You need a blog. You know it. We all now it. Period. Get one.

And finally, congrats need to go to Colin Pearson, a friend of mine that I used to have a band with called Four Months Gone (scroll down). He won the opportunity of a lifetime opening up for Matt Good in Prince George. Colin has been doing creative writing for radio and composing music sporadically and will have an album "Torches and Pitchforks" available soon.

Global Welcoming

2006-06-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

I've been watching everyone that follows my blogging with my useful traffic map. It has been such a cool process to watch the little dots grow and see new ones appear every day. It makes me wonder sometimes how they found my little corner of the internet and what they are doing when they read here. So I came up with a fun little game. Every week I'm going to show pictures of the places where I'm getting traffic so everyone can get to know a little bit more about different countries and get in a little virtual tourism at the same time. If anyone has any suggestions of cool places to check out, flickr links or would like to have their stomping grounds be next, make sure to let me know.

This week, because I've never been there although in the grand scheme of things where have I been, we're going to check out Daegu South Korea.

I've received a bunch of visits from South Korea in the past few weeks. Could it be from here?

Or maybe here?

Perhaps somewhere in this neighborhood?

It had to have been from here. If I was looking for a blog like mine I think I'd have to live in a tall building with its own courtyard. How sweet is that?

Well that starts the first week. Welcome, welcome to Daegu South Korea! Send me some pictures.

Stefan

On tour...

2006-06-10T12:02:00.000-07:00

All things considered, going on tour the week after I graduate seems like a great way to kick things off. Although I'd much rather be at NXNE meeting the likes of the infamous Christine Estima of the Spadina Monologues, a short promo tour stint will have to tide me over. I'll be headed to Vancouver Island Wednesday for four days with (ôr-gan'ik) to do as many meet and greets, interviews and shows as we can. So far the schedule is calling for an interview at 91.3 the Zone fm in Victoria, an interview with Mike Devlin of the Times Columnist, hopefully an interview of some kind at either CFUV or the UVic student newspaper, and a jam session a hostel to close off the night. We'll be playing Steamers Pub on Thursday and driving up to Campbell River on Friday to play the Voodoo Lounge. I've been trying to wrestle some sort of radio interview or on air for Friday in Courtney or Campbell River but so far no luck. Let's hope I can work that out early next week.

Just started up a myspace page. hope to see all your faces soon.

Ingenious

2006-06-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

I'm going to apply for a job in the Spatial Information System lab at SFU. Wish me luck. If I get it, not only will it mean job security, but a whole lot more projects will be able to be funded by yours truly. Bronzin. Make sure to check out my webstore, top right hand corner, and get the original SORETHUMBS t-shirt before its a fad.

Hope you enjoy this little piece of ingenuity.

The way forward

2006-06-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's 40th Anniversary open house for SFU was a big success. Thousands of people showed up on campus and visited the geography department kiosk where I was demonstrating the model of the SFU campus in Google Earth. Many people asked where they could get it so I guess I should announce at this point that I intend to make the model available to the public very soon. I have been asked to demonstrate the model possibly on television in a few weeks and also there may be a radio interview interview with Neil Morrison on 99.3fm the Fox. My hopes are to make the model and map available online by then.

Photos of yesterday will be posted soon.

Before the after...

2006-06-02T21:34:00.000-07:00

In the time that I have been writing this blog, I have developed artistically, professionally and as a person. My work has also seen an evolution and tomorrow for this first time I will have much of the academic side of it up for show. I have been performing most of my life but this weekend is different. This weekend is the big wind down of my bachelors degree at Simon Fraser University. On Saturday SFU will hold its 40th Anniversary Open House with every department and most organizations showcasing their work at kiosks across campus. With this event I will be showcasing the content that I have been creating for Google Earth for the past six months. This will include a virtual campus and tour of SFU and the newer additions of the campus. The Burnaby Mountain Map that I have been working on with Raffael Merola, Kyle Skidmore and Brian Payne will also be available for free but is limitied to 300 copies so if you are attending make sure to come see us and get one quickly. I came through last minute finding the advertisers that allowed us to print the map (small personal victory) and I'd like to personally extend my gratitude to all the UniverCity Cornerstone merchants that helped make this possible.

My past few weeks have been marked by big ups and downs. For 24 hours I was thinking one of my aerial photographs of Simon Fraser had been used in a New York Times article, however this morning I found out that wasn't the case. This was an off chance sort of thing so I wasn't too dissapointed but the experience makes me realize I'd like to make the New York Times sometime soon as a personal landmark. However a request to license some of catalogue came this friday along with the potential for the use of my Google Earth content in a television interview with Norman Hotson of Hotsen Bakker Boniface Haden Architects and Urbanists. I'm excited by the prospect.

At the end of all of my efforts towards my degree I am left with a sense of accomplishment however I am filled with feelings of need, frustration, and impatience for a new reality. I can only hope that things change in a major way, as I am growing tired of my current pace. Talking with Raffael earlier today as we drove to pick up the maps, we discussed plans for the future and how they might play out.

Soon I will convocate, make decisions, life will move on.
I am glad that I can say I am surrounded by good friends and loved ones and fame and fortune seem only a breath away.
How old fashioned.

I'll follow up with pictures tomorrow.

Fast feet and shameless plug

2006-05-26T23:57:00.000-07:00

As a general rule I try to stay well away from myspace movies.
Generally any time spent in that vast wasteland of preteens farting or dancing around on camera is followed by the onset of depression due to severe disapointment with the lack of creativity shown by myspace posters.

This is a rare exception, I think everyone will agree.

Oh yeah, make sure to check out the webstore and pick up one of my custom designed shirts.

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

Original Clothing Designs

2006-05-23T00:04:00.000-07:00

Here is one of my latest designs. So far it has been really popular in Illinois of all places. You can get it in my official cafepress shop The Treasure Chest by following the link in the top right hand corner of the page.

This is a tribue to one of the original block clearing video games that kept kids inside for hours. The game Contra for the original Nintendo had a code you had to put in at the intro screen that gave you 64 lives. I remember distinctly, it was the first game I ever finished and started me off on my gaming addiction.

If you know anyone who likes clothing about pop culture or a gaming fan, they will lose it when they see you wearing this shirt.
Guaranteed coolness factor. Trust me.

Paper Maps, Progress, and Politics

2006-05-19T11:13:00.000-07:00

In an article for the Times Online titled "You, get off my dashboard" Ben Macintyre writes,

"The paper map will soon die, and with it something central to human experience. There is a joy is not knowing exactly where you are. The electronic gizmo takes you from A to Z, but it does not show you the place you never knew about, off at the side of the map, the road less travelled. The joy of exploration lies in not knowing exactly where you are, or where you are going, in trying to match the visual world outside with the one-dimensional world represented by the map. Wherever you go now, the machine has got there first."

Macintyre raises some good points, as those who do not know where they are might well become dependent on satellite navigation systems and gps for navigation in the future. While we are fast approaching a paperless navigation world, my hopes are that a map that I've been working on with some colleagues is well receive and not thought of as an ancient relic.

Since September of last year I have been collaborating with Brian Payne, Raffeal Merola, and Kyle Skidmore to produce a map of Burnaby Mountain. The map follows up on their work creating a website of Burnaby mountain biking and hiking trails that was unexpectedly shut down due to conflict between the City of Burnaby and a professor at SFU. These actions are unfair and contradict the values and character of the institution as a place of higher learning and discourse. However out of adversity comes innovation and their work has contributed greatly to the production of a prototype paper map that will be made available to the public June the 3rd at SFU's 40th Anniversary Open House.

Here is a preview of the cover.

In all likelyhood, the map may also see a Google Earth version for that day. Let's just hope the majority of the visitors to the open house do not yet have Google Maps on their cell phone yet.

The Where?

2006-05-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

Listening to NPR Radio yesterday on iTunes I was struck by the announcers' vague geographical references when stating station id's and locations.

"This is Steve Smith for NPR from the Capital."

The where? The Capital you say? The Capital of who, what, where and why the fuck aren't you more specific about where you and Washington DC are located? Last time I checked, most of the kids and more than likely adoscelents and young adults in the United States were having trouble identifying jurisdictional boundaries like states and countries. If stating your location on national public radio forgoes the usual conventions of geographic name place, no wonder people are having trouble knowing where anything is.

There is a similar situation in Canada, where provinces like Manitoba and Saskatchewan are refered to as western Canada while so obviously being located in the geographic center of the continent. I've even heard people go so far as to say that Ontario, Ontario of all places, is in Western Canada. Now I know that the Canada that is in all the history books is based a great deal on the battle between the French and English, but really, did this event have enough social political and seemingly physical gravity to displace a compass so that the center of Canada is located somewhere between the Ontario and Quebec border? I think not.

Geographical ignorance spreads out-of-mind problems allowing forgetfulness of just how small this world is and how physically close we are to each other. People need to start understanding that their landfills are within their communities and their governments are within their reach.

People need to learn how to tell direction and do it properly. Lest we let our problems exist in imagined fantasy locations in the back of our minds.

The Gloves

2006-05-16T12:17:00.000-07:00

If you havn't seen this page yet you should have.

Atlas Gloves

Basically, this is the direction that computer interfaces are going.
The mouse was nice, the keyboard is a good starting point, but actually being able to fundamentally change the way computers react to us? That is what I call innovation. I'm hoping I can get a hold of a version of this program to demo for the sfu 40th anniversary open house.

If you are in the proximity of Vancouver on June the 3rd, mark your calender and come see what my uni has to offer. Hopefully I'll be at the Geography table showing off a map and content I've made for Google Earth.

SFU Open House

Water Falls

2006-05-13T11:50:00.000-07:00

Got a phone call from jm of the world famous Factory Studios in Vancouver. I'll be doing some graphics for an up and coming young band called N-7 from Duncan so watch here for the product. Known jm for a bit now and he's always got a great story to tell, but this time the story was a nail biter. He went for lunch on an average day and came back after about an hour, but on entering the control room noticed the biggest threat to electronics had infiltrated the studio, water. After a botched plumbing job in the suite above, water was pouring into the machine room destroying all sorts of gear. Thankfully, the water missed the Neve recording console (the recording console designed for Paul Martin by Rupert Neve to record the Beattles, this one in particular was used by Benny Hill) and one of the most valuable mic collections in Canada. The Factory Studios are the same studios where Metallica recorded the Black Album with Bob Rock a few decades back and has been instrumental in kick starting the careers of groups like Billy Talent. This is also the same place Organik have been recording at for the past several years. One of the best popular recording studios out there.

Be sure to check out their website The Factory Studios.com and make friends with them via myspace.

If you are a fan of new music, watch this site. jm has had his finger on the pulse of new trends and new bands since he started the place. Maybe that's why the water missed his board. Now thats an omen.

Alternative Mondays

2006-05-03T17:01:00.000-07:00

It's been a while... here's a show poster I designed for Alternative Mondays at the Voodoo Lounge in Campbell River. If anyone knows how to insert a georss location link for Google Earth in this post, please let me know.

Google Earth website contest!

2006-04-14T21:45:00.000-07:00

ALERT! This contest is not endorsed, sponsored, or monitored by Google.

You read right. I'm holding a contest to see who can find the best Google Earth website out there.
There are lots of em so make sure you get creative with search words when searching.

Here are the details:

Objective : Find the best non-Google website featuring Google Earth.
You may submit as many as you like, but make sure to include site title, url and when the page was accessed.
Time is the factor for determinig who gets credit for a link submitted more than once.

Prize : The winner will receive a personalized Google Earth layer with an image of their face anywhere on Earth.
So send in your sites.

Who : Everybody
What : Find cool Google Earth pages, then send via the comments section. Its that easy!
When : Starting Now until July 1st (Canada Day)
Where : meharties.blogspot.com (send to all of your friends)
Why : to put someone's face on the surface of the earth and publish it to the google community

Sites will be judged by contributors to this blog and several other guests to be announced closer to June 1st.

Good hunting.

Like minded bloggers

2006-04-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

Adding to the ranks of blogs we link and read, here is lean back vids vblogging a trip to whistler from seattle.
Make sure to check out their podcast and get a free subscription to their work. Bronzin.

Innovation

2006-04-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

Every now and then I'm taken by the innovation of others. Today is one of those times. Monome

After many phone calls and emails back and forth I've successfully directed a re-edit of the music video for Can I Hit You, a single to be released on Warner Music Canada and Rump Records by the band (ôr-gan'ik). I've had a long learning curve and it feels good to have completed these tasks. At the same time, the label and the band, of which I am interim manager, have been working with a radio tracker from winnipeg and things havn't been going so well. All of this work is administrative, executive and managerial and my creativity is sapped. So this morning I run across this little device for making music differently and I'm taken by how liberating it must be to be on the cusp of something brand new.

I reconsider my position.

Inspirational.

Found this on Future Feeder who found it on pixelsumo

Chimps in space

2006-04-08T01:05:00.000-07:00

Oh hell yes!

2006-04-08T00:41:00.000-07:00

A Car alarm for your mac? iAlertU

Anyone with a new Macbook Pro has to agree, this has got to be one sweet little gadget.

State of the Union

2006-04-03T10:35:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been tied up with a bunch of different projects.
Thought I'd bring everyone up to speed. Been looking for work during the summer. So far, have contacted a bunch of small webdesign companies without much success. Have been working weekends at SkyDive Vancouver. I got involved to learn how to handle parachuting for safety reasons when taking airphotos. I'm editing video, taking photos and learning to pack parachutes.

Been also working almost everyday in the Spatial Interface Research Lab at SFU conducting experiments for a research project by Dr. Nick Hedley. Can't get into too many details as the experiment is still on-going. Enough to say its cool and will post screen caps when most testing is complete.

Last week and in the coming weeks, I've also had a bunch of my work turned into t-shirts. Silk screened and beeeuuutiful. Some of the designs are available in our webstore.

Also have been working towards completing a model of SFU. Can't show a very large model here, or say what it is for. Start the rumour mill.

Tell us what your fantasy summer job is in the comments section and win a prize (re: your own exclusive membership and posting on Graphics, Culture and bad Grammar!!!!)

Front Page!

2006-03-22T00:02:00.000-08:00

When I started taking aerial photos I never thought it would lead to my name being featured in so many different places. I have to thank to Simon Fraser Community Trust and Michael Gellar for putting faith in my work. I took this photo from a helicopter on a beautiful day in September 2005. It has since brought me exposure in several different magazines, been used in bunch of different SFU publications and has found its way on to the front page of sfu.ca and now univercity.ca. If there are any magazines or newspapers out there that would be interested in interviewing me, I'd be delighted to oblige. Last but not least, for anyone out there considering investing in a home, check out the various different developments on top of the world in the middle of the lower mainland at UniverCity. If I could afford to live there I would as every day I'd wake up to views just like the one in the photo I took. It'd be worth every penny.

2006-03-15T11:52:00.000-08:00

International Motorcycling Hijinx

2006-03-14T20:46:00.000-08:00

I have busy lately to the point of not being able to read newspapers. That is a huge change as newspapers are a ritual for me.
One of the reasons this has happened has been the development of mdadventurecamps.com.

After a lot of really late nights, the website for MD Adventure Camps in Wuhan China was finally posted late last night or early this morning depending on your timezone. I designed almost all of it except for some last details that were done by some collaborators in China. I got onto this project completely by accident when I answered an ad in the wanted section of the Peak, the SFU student newspaper, for photoshop lessons in exchange for motorbike lessons. I’ve wanted to bike for years so somehow it led to me doing web and graphic design for the startup company that one Taimur Khan was setting up. I do projects like this from time to time as I feel a connection with other young entrepreneurs and feel that we should support each others efforts, if we can, if they make money. Regardless, I liked the guy's ambition and thought it was worth a shot. I communicated with Taimur and two others from Vancouver via Skype (check it out if you hate your phone bill, free VOIP, cheeyah) starting in January to China where we collaboratively developed the content and site.

Long story short, MD Adventure Camps will have its first run this may! If you want to travel in May or August to China and learn how to ride dirt, street and see Motogp in Shanghai (like Indy but bikes) and party then get registered right away. If you do I'll even do an official Graphics, Culture and bad Grammar interview of you before during and after your trip.

So check out the site, leave your comments (as it still needs some updates) and break open the piggy bank. The camp will be the experience of a lifetime.

2006-03-13T10:06:00.000-08:00

$16 DIY Greenscreen/Bluescreen: "

Jeff writes - 'This Tech Help Guide will explain how to design and assemble blue and greenscreens and backdrops for photos and video, as well as how to easily and inexpensively build a portable frame to support these backdrops out of PVC pipe or metal conduit.' - [via] Link.

Related: A million things to do with PVC - Link.

[Read More]
[Comments]
"

(Via MAKE: Blog.)

2006-03-09T18:31:00.000-08:00

ambient lover's cups: "

a pair of electronically enhanced cups that are wireless connected to each other with sip sensors & LED illumination. the cups will glow & celebrate when the other user (your lover) is drinking. this ambient, physical visualization explores the idea of sharing feelings of drinking between 2 people in different places by using cups as communication interfaces of drinking. see also strawlike interface.

[mit.edu|via dfire.org]

(Via information aesthetics.)

2006-03-07T01:25:00.000-08:00

KATRINA BUSH BULLSHIT…: "

You’ve likely heard about the ‘foreknowledge’ controversy - now scope the damning video.

(Via Broken Saints Blog-a-Plenty.)

2006-03-06T23:14:00.000-08:00

Spore Gameplay Video: The Uncut Version: "

(Via Gaming Steve.)

2006-03-05T17:28:00.000-08:00

Puzzling Alarm Clock: "

By Andrew Liszewski

Waking up is hard to do. Though a normal alarm clock works for most people, there is a select few of us that can ride that snooze button for hours. The Puzzle Alarm Clock makes that a bit harder to do.

The top of the alarm consists of 4 simple puzzle pieces. When the alarm goes off the puzzle pieces are ejected into the air, not unlike the last traumatic moment of the game ‘Perfection’. The only way to silence the alarm is to find all 4 pieces of the puzzle, which are now scattered around your bed, and correctly reassemble them on the top of the clock. While a 4 piece puzzle doesn’t seem that difficult now, I can see it being a challenge immediately after a long night’s sleep.

The Puzzle Alarm Clock will set you back $52 and is available from Bim Bam Banana.

[Puzzle Alarm Clock] VIA [Popgadget]

(Via OhGizmo!.)

Adventure Camp

2006-02-26T04:14:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted anything about work i'm doing at the moment, so here's a teaser. Coming down the pipe in the next few days is a website I designed for motorcycle camps being run in Wuhan China. China you say? That's right. Any of our readers that are motorcycle enthusiasts will know about Moto GP and may even know some China's top riders involved in coaching the camp. In a nutshell, the site is your ticket to ride, learn how to ride, and watch riding. Check back here soon for the official launch date, and make sure to send your comments on the site design.

MD Adventure Camps

2006-02-23T18:17:00.000-08:00

Will Honda Produce the Cheapest Hybrid Yet?: "

A major Japanese daily has reported that Honda Motor Co. may very likely produce a hybrid version of its 5-door Fit subcompact as early as next spring. Though unconfirmed by Honda officials, rumor has it that the Fit could become the world’s most affordable hybrid to date, selling for less than $11,800. The Fit falls into a growing class of smaller cars headed for the States, such as the Toyota Yaris. The Japanese press reports that the Fit hybrid could be released as early as the spring of 2007, and would be sold globally. The move would signal Honda’s commitment to ramping up hybrid production, an issue it is apparently straddling. :: The Boston Globe (thanks to Greg for the tip)

(Via Treehugger.)

2006-02-23T17:54:00.000-08:00

2006-02-23T17:24:00.000-08:00

Next-Gen Media Screws Early HDTV Owners: "

If you were one who bought an HDTV back when they first hit the streets, it appears your TV will be almost useless with the new HD DVD and/or Blu-ray players. The AACS copy-protection rules were released this week and those older HDTVs will be unable to display full resolution because their video connections have no copy protection. The signal older HDTV owners will receive is 960x540, almost half of what they should be getting.

We knew this was going to be the case with HDCP and AACS, but it's worth noting that the inevitable has come to pass.

(Via Gizmodo.)

2006-02-19T22:03:00.000-08:00

South Africa Pioneers New Solar Technology: "

A few days ago an article appeared in the Cape Argus of South Africa, proclaiming a breakthrough in solar power technology. We could not find a great deal of correlating reports, so will simply relay what what we found from just a few sources. Apparently the technology resulted from over 10 years of research, led by Professor Vivian Alberts of the University of Johannesburg. He and his team seem to have developed a flexible, thin, metal alloy that is ‘photo-responsive’. This alloy is said to result in panels with are only 5 micron thick (compared to a human hair at 20 microns, and silicon photovoltaic cells at 350 microns.) Earlier reports (in 2004) indicated the alloy was copper-indium(gallium)-diselenide (CIGS), with another article inferring the panels would have a useful life of about 20 years, with the energy in fabricating them recovered within the first 1-2 years of operation. And that the materials used could all be later recycled to make fresh cells. It is said that a standard family home would need around 30m/sq (‘(about the size of a living room’) of CIGS solar panels to meet all its electricity demands.

(Via Treehugger.)

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