Morning Brew: July 23, 2008

So I wonder if anyone was actually caught burying beer on the beach last night, as the 2008 Celebration of Light kicks off this evening. With previous festivals costing the city millions, there's no way to celebrate the fact that we aren't quite ready to give up our modern indulgences like four nights of explosive pyrotechnics. I say bring back Benson & Hedges at least... or get one of the gangs to sponsor it?

Costly fuel is breeding a new generation of 'hypermilers', drivers who'll do just about anything to save fuel... even slow down (to the chagrin of many on the highway). The practice is "snowballing", and three of the most popular hypermiling techniques are "Driving With Load," "The Pulse And Glide" and the "Face Out." Somebody get me a car, stat. I also had a good laugh at this article form the Calgary Sun: hypermilers can be a hyperdanger. Thinking about that newspaper reminds me why I moved to Van. Oh and the white supremacists help too.

Here's some British Columbian fuel-saving minus the sexual innuendo: using our own crap to fuel the furnace. We're harnessing our fecal matter in a few other ways already... but if this catches on in Metro Van fast enough, it'd be a little easier to shrug off those "Olympics are driven by a pile of shit" comments.

And while The Man scrambles, learn what you can do over at One Day, a Vancouver initiative with a new website that gives you all kinds of info on the steps you can take to reduce your own energy consumption. Tangentially related: The Urge To End It All - one to print off/bookmark.

Is that H&M, or HIV? Either way, I see a lot of it.

Winnipeg Man Dies After Being Tasered By Police

An Abbostford man was arrested after he crawled into a store ceiling and went fishing for liquor. I always said fishing was just another excuse to get drunk, but cmon'.

Submit photos of your dogs for an upcoming show at the Yaletown Gallery. Yes, this is what our gallery space begs for.

Speaking of dogs, another one was shot dead by an RCMP officer on Sunday. Here's a list of other recent Mountie dog killings. At least they haven't tried the taser yet, I suppose.

Vancouverism: Regeneration of a City. According to the Guardian, Vancouver is a "model of regeneration". What's Vancouverism? I did have a sarcastic video lined up, but I'm just gonna stay outta' this one.

New to me: the toilet box, helping mall shoppers avoid theft. Just makes me feel saner for not having spent enough time in Pacific Center over the last year to warrant a bathroom break.

One Hydro vault exploded while another set fire this week in Toronto. World's resources be fightin' back. Golgothan uprising in the near future?

The police will be showing 'zero tolerance' at Pemberton. Nowadays, I've also got basically zero tolerance for alcohol -- not to mention Coldplay, DJ Shadow, camping, Death Cab for Cutie, Coldplay, Interpol, inebriated shirtless men, the Crystal Method, etc... And the bastards won't even let me bring in the ammo for my potato gun or my stuffed Chris Martin Voodoo doll. I'll be staying at home and checking out Shearwater's afternoon performance at Zulu on Saturday, at least. We do have a few BR writers who are on their way up, though... expect some coverage in the near future.

Surveillance Center: a screensaver for OSX and Windows that shows live images of over 400 surveillance cameras worldwide: "A haunting live soap opera."

Or you could just have these pictures of Mike Tyson's abandoned mansion on rotation and create the soap opera in your mind.

photo by sp_clarke of the BR flickr group