New Media

If it wasn’t a hoax, these people ought to be sterilized and pelted with beanbags. If it was a hoax, maybe just the beanbag treatment.

See the full story here. What a couple of sick mofos.

Vancouver’s UBC Museum of Anthropology got robbed this week (Bloomberg.com). Presumably, the jerks who stole Bill Reid’s gold artwork at least know enough not to melt the stuff down, as the gold will lose probably 90 per cent of its value if it’s made into a lump of cold bullion. To the rich, selfish, obsessed collector who ruined the party for everyone by hiring goons to steal the work of one of Canada’s greatest artists: get bent.

In tribute to the people who work at the museum and the spirit of Bill Reid, I’ve posted the latest Currents video of my own tour of the UBC Museum of Anthropology. No voice-over this time, but please enjoy the scenery.

Vancouver’s tech scene has been humming with activity and geeky professionals like myself have been running around like crazy people trying to keep up with everything from Techvibes LPV4 gala to the VIDFEST conference (Superstar Vancouver bloggers Miss604 and Hummingbird604 have done a great job keeping everyone updated).

The tech start-up scene is running full-tilt with smart people plugging their latest Web 2.0 inventions. From my perspective, one of the more interesting and potentially game-changing start-ups I’ve seen recently is Fundfindr.com.

Investors need to find hot companies that can turn their money into even more money. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs are always looking for investment to turn their ideas into successful ventures. Web 2.0 tools really ought to make it easier for these two groups to find each other.

Enter Fundfindr.com, a very cool Vancouver-based tech start-up, (not to be confused with Funfinder.com, even if funds generally allow people to have more fun). At fundfindr.com, users can pitch their business idea on video. Investors can check out the pitches and follow up by checking the profiles of participating companies. It’s sort of like the CBC’s Dragon’s Den, 24 hours/7 days a week. There’s lots of other great stuff here, including snippets of video with useful tips for business owners and investors. Very cool.

The people at Fundfindr will be taping pitches at their Gastown office on Tuesday, if anyone is looking to immediately add a new social media marketing component to their search for capital — or capital ideas for investing their capital.

As the owner of a Vancouver-based copywriting business and a Web 2.0 geek, this gets my two thumbs up. Now I have to get started practicing my pitch…

Canadians are fighting the good fight against fascists and terrorists. It’s a cause very much in keeping with Canada’s heritage, for those who remember the fight against the fascists in Spain (and of course our much more vigorous national efforts in fighting the Nazis). This week in the National Post, BC writer Terry Glavin has laid out the case once more for why Canada needs to be involved in Afghanistan.

Quite a few good people have joined the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee (CASC) to show their support for the Afghan people. They come from all walks of life, as Glavin notes in his article.

Among the 130 or so members of the Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee –a new group that it would be fair to describe as unapologetically “pro-troops” — there are Muslims, Jews, Christians and atheists. There are feminists, campus activists and academics. There are gay-rights veterans, writers and trade unionists.

Our more prominent members include former Progressive Conservative cabinet ministers John Fraser and Flora MacDonald, and a former Liberal Cabinet minister, Iona Campagnolo, who was also, until quite recently, British Columbia’s lieutenant-governor. We have poets and novelists, too.

Good people have joined our cause, but in the coming year, we would like our group to engage the Canadian public more and get behind some essential rebuilding and social support projects in Afghanistan. To do that, we’ll need even more help. Check out the CASC website to learn more about us. It only takes two minutes to join CASC and pledge solidarity with Afghanistan as it strives to rise up again.

BC residents have raised $1.7 million to help survivors of the earthquakes in China (World News Network). It’s good to see people around the world coming together in a time of crisis.

If you would like to donate to Chinese earthquake relief efforts, visit the website of the Canadian Red Cross.