New Media

Neanderthals Still Running Amok In Vancouver

jnarvey — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:06:41 +0000

I’ll be checking out the Neanderthal Arts Festival again this week. It’s into it’s second week, so there are new shows to see and much fun to be had. Details:

Neanderthals In Fort Mac and Countries Shaped Like Stars

Neanderthal Arts Festival

The Neanderthal Arts Festival showcases cutting-edge theatre from across Canada and BC. The Festival also includes the Walking Fish Showcase for emerging theatre artists and a range of other initiatives and events.

The action takes place at The Cultch, 1895 Venables Street.

Tickets available through the Cultch website

For more information visit the Neanderthal Arts Festival website

Week 2: July 28 – August 1

Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show by Architect Theatre
Produced by Architect Theatre; Venue: The Cultch Historic Theatre

Every Canadian experiences the benefits of oil, but many know very little about life at its source. Behind every barrel, every economic projection or environmental scandal, there are people. Who are the people at the northern tip of Alberta’s Highway 63? At the heart of the world’s largest energy project, theatre creators from across Canada use a blend of verbatim and improvisation to bring the front lines of the oil sands to Vancouver.

Countries Shaped Like Stars by Emily Pearlman & Nicolas Di Gaetano
Produced by Mi Casa Theatre, Venue: The Cultch Rehearsal Hall

The courtship of Gwendolyn Magnificent and Bartholomew Spectacular is a tale of love best heard through a tin-can telephone. With performer-operated lights, water glasses, whirly winds and a mandolin, they create the sounds and images of a landscape forever altered by regret.

The Hanging Judge by Andrey Summer
Spectral Theatre Society; Venue: The Cultch Historic Theatre

In a cemetery outside 17th Century London, two trolls meet by the discarded corpse of a hanged judge. The mangier troll, Blemish, has brought a bag with him inside which is a bound man. Blemish would like to eat this man, but the other troll – Chantecler – has just returned from France, where Napoleon has ushered in an era of enlightenment. And Chantecler has learned.

Walking Fish Showcase: July 31, August 1
Returning for its eighth season the Walking Fish Showcase, will featuring its strongest line up yet of emerging, young theatre artists. An eclectic evening of adventurous, risk-taking theatre, the line up this year includes:
• Red by Jordan Hall, directed by Renee Iaci;
• SeaofSouls.com by Melanie Wickes, directed by Jeff Gladstone;
• The Assembly Line by Paulo Ries Ribeiro, directed by Nathan Medd
• The Woods at Tender Creek by Lenore Rowntree co-directed by Ella Simon & Evan Frayne
• The Anarchist Banker, devised and created by The Ensemble, co-directors: Nicole DeLauriers & Ryan Swansen, choreography by Edmond Kilpatrick.

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Confusion To Our Enemies!

jnarvey — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:51:51 +0000

More provocation and political hit-and-runs from the Ministry of Truth.

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When Democracy Meets Technology and Camp

jnarvey — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:37:04 +0000

When I’m not ruminating on conspiracies in central Asia, I can often be found at local tech events in Vancouver enjoying the company of fellow entrepreneurial-minded geeks. My roundup in Techvibes from DemoCamp last week, where tech start-up people got to tell other tech start-up people why they’re awesome. Highlight of the evening:

Honourable mention must go to Ed Levinson from Analusis, mostly because he was just so darn entertaining, in the tradition of manic street preachers. (Sadly, Ed didn’t actually get to pitch his idea. It went like this):

“My fellow entrepreneurs and developers, I know how you feel. I see the darkness in your soul and I sense the loneliness you have at the end of the night when your friends and family are out at the movies and you’re stuck at home doing the books or writing code. And you’re thinking, ‘they’re getting to see Inception! I should get to see inception! I’m going to download that movie…’

Sadly, Ed got pulled away at that point. He’d hit the 30-second mark. But I could tell that most of the people in the room wanted to hear more and I will be in touch with Ed to find out precisely what this entrepreneurial mentor was driving at.

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Save Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Sign The Petition

jnarvey — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 03:25:47 +0000

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani may be executed by Iran at any moment. The following is a letter from her children, Faride and Sajjad Mohammadi e Ashtiani. Please sign this petition to help save this innocent woman.

Plea to the world by Sakineh’s Children
Do not allow our nightmare become a reality, Protest against our mother’s stoning! Today we stretch out our hands to the people of the whole world. It is now five years that we have lived in fear and in horror, deprived of motherly love. Is the world so cruel that it can watch this catastrophe and do nothing about it?

We are Sakine Mohammadi e Ashtiani’s children, Fasride and Sajjad Mohamamadi e Ashtiani. Since our childhood we have been acquainted with the pain of knowing that our mother is imprisoned and awaiting a catastrophe. To tell the truth, the term “stoning” is so horrific that we try never to use it. We instead say our mother is in danger, she might be killed, and she deserves everyone’s help.

Today, when nearly all options have reached dead-ends, and our mother’s lawyer says that she is in a dangerous situation, we resort to you. We resort to the people of the world, no matter who you are and where in the world you live. We resort to you, people of Iran, all of you who have experienced the pain and anguish of the horror of losing a loved one.

Please help our mother return home!

We especially stretch our hand out to the Iranians living abroad. Help to prevent this nightmare from becoming reality. Save our mother. We are unable to explain the anguish of every moment, every second of our lives. Words are unable to articulate our fear…

Help to save our mother. Write to and ask officials to free her. Tell them that she doesn’t have a civil complainant and has not done any wrong. Our mother should not be killed. Is there any one hearing this and rushing to our assistance?

Faride and Sajjad Mohammadi e Ashtiani

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No Whites Need Apply

jnarvey — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:32:18 +0000

Now I know why all my applications to the federal civil service were turned down years ago. I should have ticked the box marked “non-white Latin American” or perhaps “Japanese”.

My civil rights have been violated. I demand justice. And it looks like it’s on the way thanks to the Conservatives “throwing their base some red meat”.

“We have perhaps the most multicultural, inclusive, egalitarian society on the planet. It’s time to end state-sanctioned racism against pale-faces in the form of affirmative action.” Discuss.

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About That Israel Lobby

jnarvey — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:11:59 +0000

An excellent series in The Propagandist on why most Israel lobby critics really ought to spend far more time doing some personal soul searching rather than ganging up on the marketing people for the Middle East’s only Western democracy.

When one boils it down to the bare essentials: the Lobby is interested in presenting Israel in a positive light, of course. It recognizes that the honest and effective means of doing this is not by presenting Palestinians as evil, but to show the honest views of all parties with a vested interest in the region.

The anti-Israel gang of activists (I’d call them pro-Palestinian, but what have they ever done for the Palestinians they claim to represent?) strive to show Israel, as a place of intolerance, racism and illegitimacy. And I’ll give this to them: their propaganda methods are effective…

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Keep Our Roads Safe

jnarvey — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:05:36 +0000

As my loyal readers know, I like few thinks more than a cold pint on a hot day. But if I ever saw a sideways-stumbling friend of mine about to get behind the wheel of their car, I’d give them a karate chop to the throat and liberate their car keys. And I’d expect the same courtesy from my colleague if I ever tried to do the same thing.

On that note, I’m pleased to offer this public service announcement:

Impaired driving can strike anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Come out and Walk in support of keeping our roads safe.

Bring your friends, family, and your co-workers to the annual MADD Metro Vancouver 5km signature walk, Strides for Change!

Every step taken and pledge made will help raise funds and awareness for MADD Metro Vancouver’s programs and services that will serve to keep our children and communities safer.

When: Sunday, September 12, 2010
Registration: 10:00 am, Walk begins: 11:00 am
Where: Central Park, Burnaby (near picnic area)
What: A 5km non-competitive walk/wheelchair event
Why: To raise awareness & to enhance the health & safety of our communities!

A memorial wall will be there for family and friends to
remember those loved ones injured or killed by
an impaired driver.

www.madd.ca/vancouver for more information

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Climate Change Skeptics STILL Make Me Want To Puke

jnarvey — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 21:20:12 +0000

As a bit of a follow-up to the article about climate change skeptics I published a few days ago on this blog. As far as I’m concerned, the weird vitriol that resulted in the comments section pretty much proves the point that climate change skeptics are thick-headed reactionaries.

One of the most far-out conspiracy theories mentioned by my critics was that the green revolution was somehow the result of a Soviet plot to undermine the West through carbon taxes or cap and trade programs.

The funny thing is that the very evening I posted that article, I attended a business networking event in downtown Vancouver with representatives from clean tech companies.

The people I met there were the very definition of entrepreneurial — not one Russian accented apparatchik in sight. Though the green technology that they offered was cutting edge, many of them were already profitable or in the process of winning contracts worth millions of dollars (and if some of these technologies start getting exported, as is the plan, we’ll be looking at billions). These firms employ skilled professionals and executives who are earning big bucks and doing award-winning work.

This business reality is diametrically at odds with the view of climate change skeptics.

They still look at the green movement as something that is going to be a net drain on our economy. It’s weird, because most of them are rational enough to recognize the value of what these companies are offering.

Some would certainly see the theoretical appeal of an electric vehicle with excellent range that you never have to fill up. They would see that a company with technology that can lower energy use and utility costs by 15 to 20 per cent is good, too. Hell, they can see the value of a longer-lasting lightbulb.

The skeptics see these, but they cannot see the big picture. Our country has hemorrhaged good-paying manufacturing jobs. China, India and other rapid-growth countries are increasingly eating our lunch. Now, here we are at the start of a technological revolution that can help us start actually building industries again and selling stuff besides oil, lumber and copper.

And what do the skeptics say? “Thanks, but no thanks. We’ll stick to the way we’re already doing things. Things are going just swimmingly.”

Some theorize that climate change skeptics could be persuaded about the need to make significant changes to the way we work and live, if only they would listen to the vast preponderance of scientific studies on the issue. I don’t think so.

I think the main problem is that the skeptics are not, by and large, entrepreneurial. They know little to nothing of running a business. And they wouldn’t see an opportunity if it was delivered to them on the back of a polar bear.

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Are You Getting Enough Propaganda In Your Breakfast Cereal?

jnarvey — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 20:33:58 +0000

Some recommended reads from The Propagandist, for underground conservatives and brass-knuckles progressives alike.

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Why Do Terrorists Keep Coming To Canada?

jnarvey — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:37:08 +0000

Because we let them.

A ship suspected of being connected to the Tamil Tigers and carrying as many as 300 migrants has weighed anchor and set a course for Canada, according to reports in the Sri Lankan media.

But why do they think they can come here and we’ll just let them in? The precedent couldn’t be clearer:

Last October, for instance, 76 Tamil refugees landed in British Columbia in another ship believed to be connected to the Tigers. The migrants have been freed while their claims are processed, which could take several years.

Hell, if I were in there position, I’d do the exact same thing. So long as this is how our border controls work, we can expect a continuing inflow of dead-enders, terrorists and assorted weirdos cutting in line ahead of legitimate immigrants and refugees.

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