Tsunami reflections from a Hawaii boy

Having grown up in Hawaii I remember well the monthly civil defense warning drills. I remember gathering in the school yard of my elementary school and being dismissed to return home as the result of a tsunami warning and I'm pretty sure it was in May 1960 following the earthquake that had hit Chile and generated a tsunami which caused extensive damage and loss of life in Hilo. I don't think our family, which lived literally right next door to the school, left the area as we were on relatively high ground to begin with.

On a round-island trip to the Big Island of Hawaii in the 1970s I remember hearing about the 1964 tsunami generated by an Alaska earthquake that also damaged Hilo and visiting areas on the Big Island that had been devastated by another Alaskan earthquake-driven tsunami in 1946.

Most of today I've spent glued to the TV and the Internet monitoring what's going on in Hawaii.

My heart goes out to Chile and those affected by the 8.8 earthquake

My heart goes out to Chile and all those affected by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake early Saturday morning in Chile. I'm particularly concerned about Hawaii and the possibility of tsunami damage there.

A modest proposal: ban any and everything worldwide, including words, that violates the International Olympic Committee brand value

As a result of yet another news story about the Canadian Olympic Committee's (COC) pressure tactics against a small business owner in Vancouver that I blogged about in What, no flames allowed at the Vancouver Winter Olympics?, I've come up with a modest proposal.

I propose that any and everything that violates the International Olympic Committee's brand value be henceforth and irrevocably banned worldwide. This would include not just existing registered trade marks such as Toasterz and Eaterz, the very trademarks that the COC objected to, but also more famous ones such as the Calgary Flames name and logo, Ronson’s Lighter Fuel logo and any pizza joint worldwide that uses the word Olympic in its names, as well as words such as torch for flashlight in Great Britain and the Olympic Mountains in Washington State.

Since an Olympic event is held every two years, with the next one after the Vancouver Winter Olympics being the London Summer Olympics in 2012, and the IOC has demonstrated over the years that it is like the UN of the sports world, why don't we just avoid all the legal hassle of doing battle with them, bite the Olympic, er, sporting bullet, and take the opportunity to stretch our creative muscles.

Lunch at Spinnakers brew pub

Had a most enjoyable and overly long, not that I'm complaining, lunch at Spinnakers brew pub in Victoria West on the waterfront. My dining companion was one of Canada's leading railway historians.

Royal BC Museum joins the sociable world of Facebook

The Royal BC Museum has launched itself into the sociable world of Facebook. A YouTube channel was started in September 2008. Could a blog be next?

How about a new nickname for Vancouver?

[polldaddy poll=2748944]

Google Buzz for Information Today Newsbreaks published

Update for February 22, 2010

My short article on Google Buzz was published today as one of the Information Today Newsbreaks titled "Google Gets Stung by Its Own Buzz."

Original post: February 21, 2010

Google Buzz was launched by Google on February 9, 2010 and immediately generated a hornet's nest of buzzing, angered Gmail customers backed by a dark cloud of consumer privacy protection organizations. Who can resist these metaphors and puns? I was asked to write up the controversy surrounding Google Buzz for an Information Today Newsbreak that should appear on Monday, February 22, 2010. I completed and submitted it on time. This is my second Newsbreak in seven years almost to the day that I've written on Google, the first back in 2003 was on its purchase of Pyra Labs, the creators of Blogger and Blogspot.com. The title of that piece also had the word buzz in it: "Blooglelicious—the Buzz about Google Buying Pyra Labs."

Lost and not claimed, lots of mobility aids at the 2010 Winter Olympics

A bizarre report in the Times-Colonist (online, February 20, 2010; hardcopy, February 21, 2010) that lots of mobility aids, including artificial limbs, have been left behind by 2010 Winter Olympics visitors using Greater Vancouver's public transit system operated by Translink.

As Todd Coyne wrote,

TransLink’s lost property storage centre has a whole area devoted to the dozens of crutches, canes, walkers and artificial limbs left by those who apparently boarded transit needing mobility aids and then somehow waltzed off without them.

If you've recently been part of the Olympic crowds in the Lower Mainland and can't find something you might have left behind on the Translink system, here's their Lost and Found contact information.

Vancouver 2010 medal winnings widget (not really)

View the vancouver2010.com medals' table.

WordPress.com doesn't allow HTML widgets, so when I tried to insert this widget it got converted into a straight link.

Royal BC Museum unveils rezoning plan

Late this afternoon (February 17, 2010) I attended a reception at the Royal BC Museum at which the chair of the board, Donald Hayes, and CEO Pauline Rafferty unveiled plans to begin the long process of site redevelopment, the first step of which is to have the land use rezoned to a more appropriate context. Museum representatives will initiate this process almost immediately. The Museum will seek a Comprehensive zoning designation, a big step up from the current R-2 Two Family Dwelling zoning (duplex housing), the same non-conforming zoning, ironically, that applies to the block on which the British Columbia Parliament Buildings are situated. I also noticed in a model showing the kind of massing that could eventually be built that the Netherlands Centennial Carillon had been moved several meters west of its current position. When I asked the CEO about this, she confirmed that because the Carillon is seismically unstable, it would have to be moved, but she did not know if it was physically possible. Some of the artwork that was presented also shows two different treatments for the northwest corner of Belleville and Government streets. In one drawing there's something described as a "Public Plaza" and in another street-level view that public plaza space is gone. In both cases the much beloved, at least by staff, Native Plant Garden will be moved to a new location in Thunderbird Park.

The plan is ambitious and bold and the Museum leaders hope the public will back its vision.

Update for February 18, 2010: The Times-Colonist published an article about the plan on February 18, 2010. According to the article, "Open houses are set for March 6 and 7, noon to 3 p.m. at the Royal B.C. Museum." Information about the Museum's plans are available on its site. The Museum wants to hear from you about its plans!

Since the BC Archives building, where I spent most of my working life, will be demolished, don't look for this kind of view in the future: BC Archives snowed in, January 2005.

Digging for answers: take the RBCM hole poll

[polldaddy poll=2716432]

Any information you might have on Victoria photographer Gus A. Maves (1882-1942)?

I am researching Victoria photographer Gus A. Maves (1882-1942). Maves was originally from Toronto, Ontario. He was most active in Victoria between the 1920s and 1930s. He specialized in scenic landscapes for postcards and industrial photography such as homes (exteriors and interiors), gardens and agricultural activities. His wife Margaret did the coloring of his photographs and also "transformations" to turn a photograph into a piece of art. His BC work is preserved by the BC Archives, Royal BC Museum.

If you know of any examples of his work outside the BC Archives or have any information about him you can share, please contact me via the e-mail address on my contact page.

Red rock tapes could stay here (more info)

Update for February 13, 2010:

Red Robinson provided his reasons in a lengthy letter to the Times-Colonist editor on February 13 to my question about whether he had contacted the BC Archives or the Library and Archives Canada about acquiring the interviews he gave to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He said that organization will put them online, yet in the original Times-Colonist article it was stated that "A couple of years ago, he had them digitized." Since the interviews are already in a digital format and he was willing to relinquish them for full public consumption, he could have had the digitized interviews uploaded to probably the world's largest online repository of free, historic audio material, the Internet Archive's Audio Archive.

Mr. Robinson mentioned the Jack Cullen and Dal Richards collections. If he had checked the BC Archives Web site he would have discovered that they have some of their work already, along with many other examples from BC radio broadcasters (producers and stations) and musicians.

Original post of February 11, 2010:

My letter to the editor of the Times-Colonist newspaper appeared in the February 10, 2010 issue and online. It's my reaction to its story from February 6 about Vancouver rock and roll DJ Red Robinson donating his interviews with music industry personalities to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

Take the medal-counting poll for Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

[polldaddy poll=2688159]

My Newsbreak article on SAP AG's 12sprints (now known as StreamWork) is online at InformationToday.com

Update for April 26, 2010: SAP has branded its beta 12sprints product as StreamWork. If you had an account on the beta version, it is still accessible through the basic, free version of StreamWork at https://streamwork.com/.

My Newsbreak article on SAP AG's 12sprints collaborative decision-making Web application is now online at InformationToday.com.

Attending OCLC WebJunction online conference

I'm attending a two-day OCLC WebJunction online conference on technology essentials for libraries. The conference is being broadcast through Cisco's WebEx platform. The conference sessions will be archived at http://webjunction.org/conferences. The Twitter hashtag is #wjconf. I'll post this as well on my Ten Thousand Year Blog and you'll see tweets from that source.

Business cards are coming

I worked up a double-sided business card design on the Staples Web site and submitted an order. This is what the front and back look like:





The Hawaiian on the back was inspired by the Hawaii State motto and I used it in the print edition of my self-published Camera Workers (1985). It means The life of the land is preserved by the photographers. The actual motto means The life of the land is preserved in righteousness.

DJ Red Robinson interviews heading south to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Ohio, USA

I was very surprised to read in the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper on February 6, 2010 this remark by Vancouver rock and roll dj Red Robinson:

"There is no repository for my stuff, or Bruce Allen's, or Bryan Adams', or anybody," Robinson said. "It's a disgrace." So he decided to give [his stuff] to the Rock Hall.

First of all, though I obviously can't speak for those institutions, I would love to know if he had approached the Library and Archives Canada or even the Royal BC Museum which houses the BC Archives. Mr. Robinson might be surprised to know that legendary rocker Randy Bachman's archival records (described under the title "Randy Bachman fonds") are preserved by the Library and Archives Canada and constitute a relatively large body of multiple media material. That institution also preserves the Gino Empry fonds, an individual with performing arts credentials somewhat comparable to Bruce Allen's.

Secondly, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) has a Canadian Music Hall of Fame program, so if folks in the music industry are intent on keeping their archival records in Canada, perhaps they should start working with CARAS towards a physical solution rather than see Canadian recording industry cultural property head south or, worse, destroyed through neglect or willful intent.

Although Canadian cultural property generally excludes material less than 50 years old and created by living persons, there are always exceptions. And the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board even has grants available to help designated public institutions acquire material they might otherwise not be able to afford.

Scotiabank Show Your Colours photo contest entries

I've uploaded six photos so far, all closeups of various flower blossoms, to Scotiabank's Show Your Colours photo contest that's running until April 30, 2010. I also uploaded and created a Flickr set of these same photos, some of which you can also see in the sidebar of my blog here.

Winamp goes remote, share your music with your friends through MyCasting

Winamp, the free/premium audio/video player from AOL, introduced a new, beta feature with version 5.572 called Winamp Remote. Basically, you can use this feature in two ways:

1. Listen to your local PC's Winamp content from any Web browser on any other PC


2. Share your music with your friends through Winamp's MyCasting service

You can also stream your music to your mobile device (a data plan is a basic requirement for this option), or to a TV through a gaming console (Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360) or from within Winamp itself.

Testing 12sprints beta collaborative Web platform from SAP

Update for April 26, 2010: SAP has branded its beta 12sprints product as StreamWork. If you had an account on the beta version, it is still accessible through the basic, free version of StreamWork at https://streamwork.com/.

I am beta testing the collaborative Web platform from SAP with the codename of 12sprints. If you would like an invite to participate in an activity, I can set one up and you can contact me through the e-mail address on my personal blog. Do let me know what kind of activity you'd like to be involved in such as decision-making, online research, project planning, a discussion on a topic or an online meeting.

Travels in America through Live@Lunch program, Royal BC Museum, on February 3, 2010

I went to my first Live@Lunch talk as a retired RBCM employee, usually by a Royal BC Museum staff member, on February 3, 2010. The presentation was by Shelley Reid, the Museum's registrar (the Live@Lunch description mistakenly calls her a Collections Manager), who made a trip last year to Washington, D.C., and several other historic points of interest to her. She gave a great talk well illustrated with photographs she took or gathered off the Web in cases where she couldn't photograph or wished to add some historic context to her own photograph. I almost mentioned that I might have been the only person in the room who had climbed up and down the Washington Memorial when I was eight years old. I particularly remember the climb down and being so glad to get out into the fresh air. The only other places I remember visiting on that trip were the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.

It was great seeing some of my colleagues again and they got to see more of me as I went next door to the Archives to do some research, only an item I'd requested by phone in the morning had gone walkabout, but they did thankfully find it later in the day, holding true to their motto, "It's Around Here Somewhere."

Copy Wars: China P88 vs Apple iPad, Dark Void computer game vs Avatar movie

You may have heard about the Chinese company, Shenzhen Great Loong Brother, that's threatened to sue Apple over some kind of claim that Apple's iPad is a clone of their product, the P88, which apparently has been on sale in China for the past six months. This Wired magazine article points out some of the silliness around the Chinese claim.

James Cameron's movie Avatar has also had its share of accusations of third-party influences, one the most interesting coming from those familiar with ayahuasca, a drug from South America that supposedly gives its users the illusion of being connected with the natural world. In Avatar, the Na'vi people of the planet Pandora achieve this feat through a direct physical connection by plugging the end of their hair braid into not only their Tree of Souls, but also into some animals. This Globe and Mail op-ed piece by Canadian filmmaker Richard Meech compares Avatar's symbiotic connection to the drug-induced, imaginary one of the Amazon "vine of the soul."

Now comes the computer game from Capcom called Dark Void. In Episode 1, Chapter 4, after falling through a long hole in a mountain, the hero (you) end up at the bottom and in a landscape that looks suspiciously like the floating Hallelujah Mountains of Avatar. In the movie the Na'vi use flying beasts to fly around and in Dark Void the heroes use rocket packs.

Calling all Abba fans: get thee to ABBAWORLD in London, England

The ABBAWORLD exhibit at Earls Court in London, England, sounds impressive. It opened to the public on January 29, 2010 and will close at the end of March. The highlight of the exhibit is being able to perform with a holographic representation of the group. The photograph makes them look like cartoon characters. Perhaps if this exhibit is really successful we might see a permanent ABBA Theme Park in England and elsewhere. Lego, another Scandinavian phenom, did it with Legoland, why not ABBA? There's gotta be enough of the foursome to go around.