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Taking advantage of the KRAZY! show at the Vancouver Art Gallery, a massive selection of local artists, big and small, along with tables and tables of dealers are going to be gathering this Sunday , August 24th. And you’re invited! Between 11Am and 5PM you can come meet the artists and peruse the swag for the way too reasonable price of free!

The list is way too long, but you can find out who all will be there at the official website! Regular rates still apply if you want to check out the KRAZY exhibit.

Photo from http://flickr.com/photos/rog45/2220328952/

West Vancouver police have launched a new interactive website designed to increase the flow of information between the force and residents.The site, which was launched on Friday, includes reviews of cold-case murder investigations, mug shots of wanted criminals and electronic feedback forms so people can comment on their experiences with police and civilian staff.

The 44,000 residents of West Vancouver can also sign up for “E-Policing” to receive electronic newsletters about crime activities, trends and prevention via e-mail, police said.

“This was our way of connecting more so than we ever have in the past with the larger community,” West Vancouver Police Chief Kash Heed said of the website, which he estimates cost the force less than $10,000.

“It’s not about just seeing a police officer on the streets, it’s connecting from a BlackBerry or a laptop.”

About 900 people are already being e-mailed lists of crime statistics through the city’s block watch program, but now the same information will be presented graphically using new mapping software, Cpl. Fred Harding, a spokesman for the force, said.

And in a month or so, Google Earth is expected to be integrated into the mailings so residents can see crime statistics coordinated with satellite images of West Vancouver, Harding said.

“When Kash Heed took over last year, this department was in the dark ages in many ways,” Harding said.

“Our old website was stale, and the way we communicate through our website is vital to how we look and how we operate.”

The revamped site was modelled partly after the Los Angeles police department’s, which also includes the E-Policing model, Harding said.

West Vancouver police have also begun posting jobs for both policing and civilian positions on the website, along with information on how to apply, in hopes of attracting “the very best candidates” in every possible way, Harding said.

A similar move by Vancouver police early this year resulted in “a dramatic increase in applications,” said Howard Chow, a recruiter for Vancouver’s force.

The website can be found at www.wvpd.ca

from http://www.canada.com/vancouversun

photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/vancouvergo/2452935703/

A Vancouver woman is among five finalists for a contest seeking the world’s greenest person.Emily Jubenvill, 22, is the Canadian finalist of the contest sponsored by website 3rdwhale.com. The website’s founder, Simon Fraser University professor Boyd Cohen, said Jubenvill’s passion for community gardens may have given her the edge over other entrants.

The average transportation required for food to reach the dinner plate, and the fact that much of it is heavily pesticide or fertilizer intensive, are among the most problematic issues the world must address in the coming years, Cohen said.

“Community gardens are going to be a big part of the solution, and she’s proactive about doing that,” he said.

Six hundred entries from around the world were whittled down to the five finalists, following two rounds of online voting. The next round will select the winner, who will have a pod of Arctic beluga whales adopted in their name.

Jubenvill, who works for a bioenergy company in North Vancouver, said she’s pleased she tried a different approach than other the entrants.

“I got an email forward around Earth Day, and thought it’d be pretty cool to see how I fared against the other eco-concious Vancouverites,” she said.

“But I found (the entries) were kinda boring to read, with the same format, same information. I said, ‘Well, that’s lame. I’m going to make a movie.’ ”

Her short YouTube video about her lifestyle, which includes maxims such as buying locally, avoiding harmful chemicals and composting, clearly struck a chord with voters.

Cohen said the common thread among finalists is their willingness to apply their passion for sustainability to their careers and personal lives.

He said he wants the contest to make stars out of people who are going above and beyond to live a green lifestyle, likening it to an “American Idol for green people.”

The winner will be announced on Sept. 16.

from http://canadianpress.google.com

The Martin Mars aircraft were originally conceived as U.S. military bombers for long-range missions. Now they’re being used in British Columbia as bombers of a different sort - dropping water on forest fires.Coulson Flying Tankers operates two of the massive flying boats that were purchased from the U.S. navy more than 45 years ago.

Their main base of operations is on Sproat Lake near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island.

“A steady stream of aircraft buffs, tourists and the curious from around the world visit the facility to see the Mars, fill their photo and video albums, purchase Mars memorabilia and enjoy the surroundings,” the company says.

Coulson Flying Tankers is open to the public daily from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. until Sept. 1.

This year for the first time the company is offering guided tours on one of the aircraft, the Philippine Mars. The cost is $10.

The other plane, Hawaii Mars, is under contract with the B.C. Forest Service until September and may be called away any time.

Two other Mars aircraft were destroyed - one in 1961 while on firefighting operations, another the following year by a hurricane.

A visitors centre presents video documentaries and a photo gallery illustrating the history of the Martin Mars aircraft. There is also a gift shop.

The planes, with a 61-metre wingspan and a 27,250-litre payload, are described as “the world’s largest flying boats ever flown operationally.”

The two aircraft “have operated on hundreds of fires, saving untold thousands of acres of valuable forest lands, delivering foam or water exactly where and when it is needed,” the company says.

from http://canadianpress.google.com/

On the web:

www.martinmars.com

Initially, the series was to be filmed in southern California, but it creator, Chris Carter, found forests and an atmosphere in Vancouver that gave it the look it needed.

Virtually anyone with a passing recollection of the TV series will recall how Duchovny created a flap by complaining about Vancouver’s incessant rain on a TV talk show in 1997.

The show packed up and left Vancouver for Los Angeles the following year, for a variety of reasons. Although there was sadness over its departure, The X-Files left behind a legacy. It put Vancouver on the map as a place to shoot science-fiction shows. And it left behind crews who knew how to bring dark, alien worlds to life.

The sizable crew that worked on the show gave it a trademark look, and a number of B.C. crew members won Emmy Awards, including art directors Gary Allen, Shirley Inget and Graeme Murray and sound mixer Michael Williamson.

The success of the The X-Files and two other Vancouver-made shows of that era, The Outer Limits and Poltergeist: The Legacy, brought other paranormal-themed or outright science fiction series here, including Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Andromeda, Millennium, Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, Eureka, Kyle-XY and Flash Gordon.

Vancouver seems to know how to create a dark, brooding, otherworldly presence. As a result, the U.S. sci-fi cable network, owned by Time Warner, has been a steady buyer of shows and movies made here.

Despite whatever reservations he may once have had, Duchovny was back, along with Anderson and Carter, to shoot the second X-Files movie. (The first debuted in 1998.)

Judging by a post-production “thank-you hug” for local media, Vancouver is still the unnamed star. After shooting on the second film wrapped, Carter said: “The city has definitely been one of the secrets of our success . and it’s just one of the reasons why we came back.”

It’s a stand-alone feature, not a continuation of either the TV series or the earlier film. However, co-writer Frank Spotnitz has said that it is “true to everything that’s come before.”

Will Carter be as successful in reaching into the shadows of the human mind as he was in the TV show, which had one of the best runs in series television since I Love Lucy? Moviegoers will have to decide.   

Six years have passed in the lives of Mulder and Scully, but the intrepid investigators are still consumed by a desire for truth - and maybe even for each other.

And Duchovny, Anderson and Carter were all back, just like old times, to shoot a film based on a series that put Vancouver on the map in the sci-fi film world.

read more http://www.canada.com

Photo from http://flickr.com/photos/jurek_durczak/2329221019/

Two Victoria women are one step closer to opening a co-operative brothel in the city, whose profits would help fund programs for addicted and impoverished prostitutes.Last year, Jody Paterson, former executive director of Prostitutes Empowerment Education and Resource Society, and Lauren Casey, a former sex-trade worker and a past director of PEERS, announced their plans to open a brothel that would offer employees all the benefits of a modern workplace, including wages, medical leave, vacation pay and workers’ compensation.

Last month, they opened what they are calling “an escort agency with a difference.”

“This is the beginning,” said Paterson. “We don’t have an indoor venue yet. What we have is a group of independent workers with a centralized administrator centre.”

In her column in the Victoria Times Colonist, Paterson says her aim is to develop a fair and benevolent workplace for adult sex workers. The goal of the new escort agency - Victoria Independent Providers - is to donate a share of profits to services and support for disadvantaged prostitutes on city streets.

Moving past the social issues and concentrating purely on the business has been fascinating, said Paterson.

“How does it work? And who are the customers? And what do the customers worry about? What do the workers worry about? It’s a world you never get a chance to see if you’re living in the mainstream world,” said Paterson. “We’re trying to be different. How do you run it so it’s a really good place to work and yet makes money?”

VIP, like other escort agencies in Victoria, is legal and has a business licence. All the women are licensed under the city’s escort laws. But the business is still developing its policies based on the real challenges of the people involved, said Paterson.

“We’re trying to be a fair employer and as legit as the laws allow us to be. We’re trying to be a good, discreet, clean and safe business.”

VIP has weekly staff meetings to discuss different issues such as income tax or sexually transmitted diseases. The escorts range in age from 22 to 30.

The new agency doesn’t want to bring anyone into the sex industry who wants in for the wrong reasons, said Paterson. “We hope to have adult people who are fully certain they want to work in this industry.”

The next challenge is to find investors who can contribute about $40,000 to rent commercial space and buy furniture to set up the brothel.

“But I don’t have any expectations,” said Paterson. “I want to test the model. I would like to see if we can actually create a better workplace within current laws right now, rather than have to wait 100 years to change the laws. And I’m starting to see, yes we can.”

From http://www.canada.com