McCain camp compares Obama to Spears, Hilton

AURORA, Colo. – John McCain’s presidential campaign on Wednesday released a withering television ad comparing Barack Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton, suggesting the Democratic contender is little more than a vapid but widely recognized media concoction. [...]

Earthquake in Los Angeles

Details coming from the twittersphere:

faroco: Earthquake in Southern California! Glad it happened after Comic-Con, can’t imagine how all those foreigners would have handled it. ;P 2 minutes ago · [...]

The difference between farming and gardening

An interesting post from the Urban Farmer, one of the Vancouver Sun’s blogs.  As a novice gardener I’m pretty easily impressed with my own mild victories in the backyard.  But as Nick Read points out, growing is only half the battle when it comes to producing food for others.

You have to [...]

20,000 Listings. Is this the top???

Paul at North Vancouver Homes has been calling it pretty reliably for as long as I’ve been reading him.  This is his last post.  Sobering news for anyone looking to sell. 

We just hit 20,000 listings in the REBGV and the trend would point to even more homes for sale this fall. [...]

Map of Newspaper layoffs

This map paints a sobering picture for anyone concerned about the state of the news business.  As the layoffs pile up, the coverage of important news stories shrinks and becomes more reliant on bulk news and news wire material.  Hopefully citizen coverage and material from local people will help to compensate for the loss.  Democracy [...]

Greenpeace activists interrupt Syncrude tar sands operation

This came from the Greenpeace website:

Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada — Greenpeace activists entered Syncrude’s Aurora North Tar Sands facility earlier today, erecting a banner that transformed the opening of a tailings pond pipe into the “mouth” of a giant skull, spewing toxic sludge into [...]

CIPPIC opens Bell/Rogers internet throttling investigation

Been throttled lately?

We are interested from hearing from individuals who are subscribers to Bell or Rogers’ high speed internet services who are concerned about alleged internet throttling practices by Bell and Rogers. If you were or are a subscriber and would like to express your concerns, please contact Robert Hester at [...]

Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac: Where’d those names come from?

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been in the news recently as the US financial crisis continues.  I’ve always wondered where those unexplicable names came from and today I decided to find out.  Here’s what Wikipedia had to say:

The Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) (NYSE: FNM), commonly known as Fannie Mae, [...]

Vancouver tightens screws on homeless paper

The Olympics are really exposing some of the darker impulses in Vancouver.  Now there’s an effort to keep a local paper off the streets.  Megaphone, has been distributed in Vancouver for 16 years.

City of Vancouver staff are recommending that city council force Megaphone, Vancouver’s homeless street paper to register as a [...]

Hello Dolly: Hurricane watch issued for parts of Texas, Mexico

We’ll be keeping an eye on this story.  If you see or hear anything please let us know.

MIAMI – A hurricane watch was issued for parts of the Texas and Mexico coasts Monday as Tropical Storm Dolly entered the Gulf of Mexico.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said the [...]