The Joy of Trump

Vancouver Island Eyes on the World






Thursday, December 9, 2010

Nanaimo, British Columbia

A Vancouver Island, beach front cottage complete with sleigh rides, cookie decorating and a fireplace. Starting at $140 per night.


Speedlite Portraits?

Nanaimo (Canada 2006 Census population 78,692) is a city on Vancouver Island in British Columbia,Canada. It has been dubbed the "Bathtub Racing Capital of the World" and "Harbour City". Nanaimo is also sometimes referred to as the "Hub City" because of its central location on Vancouver Island and due to the layout of the downtown streets which form a "hub" pattern. It is also fondly known as the "Hub, Tub, and Pub City" because of its association with the bathtub racing and the numerous "watering holes" in Old Nanaimo. It is the location of the headquarters of the Regional District of Nanaimo.
History

The first Europeans to find Nanaimo Bay were those of the 1791 Spanish voyage of Juan Carrasco, under the command of Francisco de Eliza. They gave it the name Bocas de Winthuysen.

Nanaimo began as a trading post in the early 19th century; in 1849 the Snuneymuxw chief Ki-et-sa-kun ("Coal Tyee") informed the Hudson's Bay Company of the presence of coal in the area, and in 1853 the company built a fort known as the Nanaimo Bastion (still preserved). Subsequently the town was chiefly known for the export of coal.

Robert Dunsmuir helped establish coal mines in the Nanaimo harbour area as an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, and later mined in Nanaimo as one of the first independent miners. In 1869 Dunmuir discovered coal several miles North of Nanaimo at Wellington, and subsequently created the company Dunsmuir and Diggle Ltd so he could acquire crown land and finance the startup of what became the Wellington Colliery. With the success of Dunsmuir and Diggle and the Wellington Colliery, Dunsmuir expanded his operations to include steam railways. Dunsmuir sold Wellington Coal through its Departure Bay docks, while competing Nanaimo coal was sold by the Vancouver Coal Company through the Nanaimo docks.


Source
Description above from the Wikipedia article Nanaimo, British Columbia, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors here. Community Pages are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, anyone associated with the topic.


Monday, December 6, 2010

Jared Diamond

Jared Diamond is the author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and the current New York Times' best selling "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed." This lecture examines the factors that caused great civilizations of the past to collapse and what we can learn from their fates. Series: "Voices" [4/2005] [Humanities] [Show ID: 9390]






Jared Diamond: Why societies collapse

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Aaron Huey: America's native prisoners of war | Video on TED.com

Aaron Huey: America's native prisoners of war | Video on TED.com



Cat Laine: Engineering a better life for all | Video on TED.com

Cat Laine: Engineering a better life for all | Video on TED.com




At the BIF innovation summit, Cat Laine draws on the Greek myth of Tantalus to explain the frustration developing countries face. She shows how
we might help communities rich in human capital, but poor in resources and infrastructure, with cleverly engineered solutions.





Cat Lainé

Deputy Director, Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group

Deputy Director, Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group, describes the simply genius of empowering people to change their communities.

TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 15:21

Hans Rosling: The good news of the decade? | Video on TED.com

Hans Rosling: The good news of the decade? | Video on TED.com



Hans Rosling reframes 10 years of UN data with his spectacular visuals, lighting up an astonishing -- mostly unreported
-- piece of front-page-worthy good news: We're winning the war against child mortality. Along the way, he debunks
one flawed approach to stats that blots out such vital stories.


Melinda French Gates: What nonprofits can learn from Coca-Cola | Video on TED.com

Melinda French Gates: What nonprofits can learn from Coca-Cola | Video on TED.com


t TEDxChange, Melinda Gates makes a provocative case for nonprofits taking a cue from corporations such as Coca-Cola,
whose plugged-in, global network of marketers and distributors ensures that every remote village wants -- and can get -- a Coke.
Why shouldn't this work for condoms, sanitation, vaccinations too?