VancouverIAM: Canucks Looking Good at Holiday Break, Innovative Idea Makes Use of Pine Beetle Infestation

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This is a selection of recent popular blog articles from VancouverIAM where you will find the best blogs from Vancouver, BC as well as video uploads, social networking, rumors, and blog authoring

Recent UNBC Grad Makes Innovative Use of Pine Beetle Infested Trees

Recently in The Tyee blog, Rob Annandale reported on Sorin Pasca’s inspiring way to make the most out of our provinces’ mountain pine beetle infestation... concrete made from dead trees. Pasca, a recent graduate of the University of Northern British Columbia, has shown that “pine concrete is far more water resistant than drywall or gypsum board, and because it can be moulded rather than pressed, [one] can make just about anything with it.” Pasca isn’t sure if people would be willing to put concrete slabs in their homes, “But in this case, you have half wood, half cement so it's a little bit friendlier.”

According to Pasca, “lodgepole pine is probably the best-suited species in North America, and specimens killed by the mountain pine beetle are better yet, probably because they've lost a lot of their sugars and resin.” Annandale points out in his post that there is no shortage of these trees around Prince George. “Roughly half the province's mature pines are already dead and current estimates put the toll at 80 per cent by 2013.” There is a window of opportunity for salvaging beetle-killed pines before the wood “becomes too cracked and degraded for commercial use.” Economies in the Interior are booming “as activity is ramped up to allow harvesting before the end of the dead trees' shelf lives.”

Could Micro Houses be the Answer to Homelessness?

A recent post from Jody Paterson of A Closer Look features a story about Roland Lapierre, a Gorge boatman looking to solve the homelessness issue. Lapierre was “briefly famous for the graceful one-man raft he built and lived on for a year in the Gorge” and is “back on land” after being nabbed from the water by the City of Victoria. His latest plan is to have street people build themselves “little 64-square-feet cabins big enough to house one person” using donated material. He wants to find “willing property owners willing to let the cabins be set up on their land in exchange for a tax break.”

“It’d be a lot better than living on the street,” says Lapierre, referring people to a book called A Little House of My Own: 47 Grand Designs for 47 Tiny Houses to inspire them. “His favourite is the Cube House, a tiny, perfect cabin complete with bed, miniature kitchen, chemical toilet, and teeny-weeny balcony.” He has a detailed plan that involves the street people building the houses, “thereby disproving the notion that they ‘aren’t willing to do anything to help themselves.’ Then the little houses will be loaded onto half-ton trucks and taken to whatever properties are available.” It will take a “social contract” as well, notes the post, so that the residents will be respectful and clean up after themselves.

Canuck’s Holiday Standings Better than Last Year

Over at Canucks Hockey Blog, a recent post compares last year’s Canucks to the 2007 Canucks. “At the Christmas break last year, the Canucks were a game under .500… they couldn't score and there were far too many defensive breakdowns.” They entered the holiday break last year with 35 points. Their “good effort” just wasn’t enough. This year, however, “they are already ahead of last year's pace.”

The post points out that after Sunday’s loss to the Colorado Avalanche, the Canucks “are seven games over .500 and have 44 points.” In addition, they're “tied for first in the Northwest Division,” although “only three points ahead of fourth place Calgary.” Last year we were 32-8-6 after the holidays and “they may need to play close to the same pace just to keep up.” This is the reality of playing in a strong division “where four of the five teams currently hold playoff spots and the fifth isn't really that far behind.”

Elected Board Member Denied Access to Carnegie Centre by the City

A recent post from the Downtown Eastside Enquirer asks why the Vancouver City Council has not addressed low-income residents’ requests to lift “the barring of William "Bill" Simpson from the City-operated Carnegie Centre at Main and Hastings.” Almost a year ago, “the homeless man was barred from the Learning Center on the third floor… for daring to blog on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer,” although he was not the actual blogger.

“In June 2007, two weeks after Simpson was elected by low income people to the Carnegie Board of Directors, he was barred again -- this time from the entire Carnegie Centre.” When asked if he could enter the building to attend board meetings, he was denied. The letter Simpson received that stated he had been barred was on City of Vancouver letterhead and it “accused Simpson of operating a website which ‘features links’ to the Downtown Eastside Enquirer.” Our blogger asserts in the post that denying his entrance into the building “denies representation to voters.”

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