In response to Dan Lett’s “High court says plea deals can be broken” in the Winnipeg Free Press, Saturday, June 25, 2011

Dogs and reporters snarl and snap till you face the truth about yourself

Dogs and reporters have one thing in common: it’s their job to snarl and snap at your heels until you face the truth about yourself.

I for one sleep better at night knowing my dog is next to me curled up at my feet, and that a real human being, not a Canadian Press computer algorithm, is listening and watching with my well-being top-of-mind. 

Ignoring the seamy underbelly

The sad truth is, what is left out of news reports shapes the stories as much as what is left in. Getting to the seamy underbelly of an issue is critical for real public understanding of how an issue affects the public. What order information is presented is important too. Because, readers today prefer to scan, rarely get to the bottom line, and, like me, tend to have the attention spans of a miniature poodles. 

Dan Lett’s article “High court says plea deals can be broken” in a June 25^th Winnipeg Free Press article does just that: it leaves out what is essential for the public to make an informed decision about plea bargaining powers in Canada.

Follow the money

Dan fails to “follow the money” and show us the real reason plea-bargaining to convict criminals is paramount to Canada’s justice system. Without this tool, cases would back-up exponentially and fewer convictions for lesser sentences would strangle the flow of evidence from cooperative criminals. Charged citizens would double and triple bunk in cells meant for one, awaiting trial. Our overburdened justice system would go bankrupt. 

When is a deal not a deal?

Based on the Derek Harvey-Zenk case and the Taman inquiry, the Supreme Court of Canada decided Friday that prosecutors can overturn a plea agreement for a lesser charge in the best interest of the justice system. Lett concludes that means fewer criminals will plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence because they and the public will lose faith in the justice system. 

In my opinion, to avoid stiffer sentences, criminals will still opt to plead guilty and take a lesser sentence to skip the lengthy, costly court process by turning “state’s evidence”. 

Lett also seems to suggest that plea bargains are the quick fix of lazy prosecutors conducting investigations, “gentleman’s agreements” that damage the public’s impression of the justice system.

Give the poor hungry dog back his teeth!

Give the hungry dog his teeth

This Supreme Court decision is not about the justice system’s reputation management, but rather about giving back the teeth to a hungry dog.

Prosecutors can still plea bargain and convict criminals in the most timely, sustainable and least resource-intensive way. Now they have a fail safe to break a deal.

 Justice gets legs

This Supreme Court ruling gives the system legs to stand on when new evidence suggests the plea bargain was unfair, allowing prosecutors to drop the plea agreement and proceed with the original charges and trial.

Related articles

• Prosecutors can renege on plea bargain: Supreme Court (cbc.ca)
• Prosecutors can renege on plea deals, Supreme Court rules (theglobeandmail.com)
• Top court: Prosecutors can renege on plea deals (ctv.ca)
• Supreme Court to hear appeal of convicted terrorist Momin Khawaja (theglobeandmail.com)

This week I stumbled upon Paula Caproni’s insight into the essence of communicating effectively by telling powerful stories. Something shifted, something deep in the root of my storytelling toolkit.

Can you picture communication as preparing to welcome guests into your home, into a room full of delectable sights, sounds, smells, tastes and ideas, ready for them to experience what they need?

Create a space for readers to think in

A space for them to think in means providing the basics – food, warmth, a place to sit, respect and a focus for activity. Ambiance can be candles, mood music or a crackling fire. It is for you to create. Most important is attention to the guest. What space did that guest just come from; what baggage does he or she need to put down to fully participate in the experience you create for them? What can you share with them in the story that the guest can take with them out into the world, wrapped in a new strong raincoat with a belly full of nourishing vitals.

Care enough to find a balance

Above all, the message hit home to me: preaching turns listeners off. Now, to add this extra care, to find a balance between offering and giving information, will take effort and the reshaping of old habits. Often my style of relating moves me to provide answers, solutions and prescriptive plans of action. This new way of storytelling has much more respect for the listener and the reader. The world I create in words and pictures needs to have room to grow, move and think. It should not be so complete that there is no room for new things to grow.

What it means is: storytellers…give up some control, leave room for multiple interpretations and the gifts that guests bring to the storytelling – their own experiences. 

Humbly signing off for now, wordbone.

When we need to work quickly and competently on complex problems with people we don’t know, Meyerson, Weick and Kramer say: use “swift trust”.

With this pseudo trust, medical teams and cockpit crews establish a temporary interdependence that saves lives.  

Without it, people die.

In a less dramatic example, the consequences of operating without “swift trust” are that a temporary group fails to deliver intended outcomes.

Slow ripening of trust still applies in “swift trust”

The slow ripening of traditional trust principles do apply to temporary teams and collaborative projects, even without the benefit of time and incremental collective memory. Among high-performing, successful cross-jurisdictional groups I’ve worked with, I’ve observed that members do behave with a shared collective identity, as well as apply shared values predictably for common goals.

Each member is very clear about individual roles and expectations. Like a tag-team in a marathon race, replacements are brought up to speed about task technical details or progress, but all have been trained to behave and operate within mutually agreed upon and respected values which dictate their actions and predict performance of the group.

Why do teams sometimes fail to deliver?

If "SWIFT TRUST" is missing...we miss the mark.

So then, with good inter-personal trust among working colleagues, why do some temporary or project teams fail to deliver successful, high-performance outcomes? There is a “fools rush in” scenario, where trust is assumed, but where time is rarely taken to articulate and agree on how we will reach goals. In the rush to work quickly, we often miss the mark (and sometimes even misunderstand the scope of the project) and don’t work strategically. Without assessing our resources and how best to apply them, we have often ended up stuck, spinning our wheels, and even damaging the vehicle.

One new member on a team, a change in another’s pressures at home, or the nature of the work or the boss’s expectations affects the mix of team dynamics and ability to perform.

Among critical elements I’ve missed in teams is taking time to:

• assess members special skills and strengths
• honour and respect diverse viewpoints, learning and working styles
• agree on roles and common expectations for individual roles
• set boundaries/scope and responsibilities of the group and individual members
• articulate a standard of operating procedures
• define problem-solving methods
• agree on criteria and process for decision-making and action
• state consequences for inappropriate behaviours beyond ground rules set by team
• invent time-keeping process and work plan

 Without the critical step of creating a co-owned roadmap of how the group will function, the characteristic of “depersonalized trust” exhibited by high-performing teams is lacking. Instead, individuals tuned to vastly different airwaves walk to the beat of their own drummers.

Strong as our weakest link

Some break promises; ignore deadlines, their absence preventing others’ work and burdening the one who must step in fill project gaps to prevent project derailment. Accuracy suffers when one is still brainstorming (sometimes about the wrong concept) while the others are already implementing. Without a moment for establishing “swift trust”, agreement on principles and roles, and group ownership for the process and the deliverables, we do not reach our peak. We waste our precious resources. Forever stuck in first gear, we are as strong as the group’s weakest link.

Signing off for now, wordbone

Related articles

• Swift Trust – Why some Teams don’t Storm (managementpocketbooks.wordpress.com)

Image via Wikipedia

Blurring the lines between who you are today and who you want to be is desirable, like taking a car for a test drive before you commit. If you don’t like who you are, supreme makeover online costs nothing. Or does it?

Experiment and improvise online

Social iteration, the constructing of new selves online, is a self-awareness learning tool through which new kinds of relationships and societies will be built.

Experimenting and improvising: Sherry Turkle argues that the Internet is a gateway of communication to redefine human identity and relationships. Turkle observes that online, “we can converse with people we may never meet face-to-face, take on multiple identities, participate in virtual communities, and form relationships that can be more intense than real ones.”

Only a month ago a colleague shed tears, devastated that an intense cyber-relationship had crashed and burned. Months of shared truths and intimacies cultivated a bond of trust that laid bare her vulnerabilities. One brief text message sent her world spinning. Between sporadic fits of crying, she shared her deeper shame: she’d been seduced by a female playing at being a male lover online. She couldn’t reconcile the paradigm shift that her online lover was another woman, experimenting with a new identity. Perhaps as a woman, the liar even had the insider’s edge at finding my friend’s hot buttons.

What’s the difference between virtual and real?

In the rush to fulfill needs and wants, the head and the human heart cannot easily distinguish between a virtual constructs and reality. Once pheromones and hormones are triggered, feelings spiral, masquerading as genuine emotional engagement. Sometimes, instead of genuine engagement, there is a pseudo engagement.

Where’s the fantasy police?

Unfortunately, online there is no fantasy police. Each of us must choose “safe”, credible websites for information and for relationships, calling upon our social networks to advise us occasionally. Too often, empowered by sheer numbers of members sharing personal information or exhibiting certain behaviours online, we assume it must be safe. The reality is that the digital medium is still in its infancy and we lack litmus tests like visual and audio clues to uncover the dissonance between the message and the man.

Role-play risks

In a job, game, role play or relationship, the more deeply invested we are, the more we are willing to risk and put ourselves on the line…and, the more we have to lose. Without due diligence and critical thinking, an expert virtual  “snake oil salesman” can influence our engagement. In the process, our capacity for real-time real-feeling in real-space can atrophy.

For now many of my colleagues say, “it’s online, it’s a blast, it sure feels real.” Soon, will they say, “it feels so much better than real life?” The powerful elixir – the emotional hit of connecting with your source communities online throughout the day feeds me, allows me to express who I am and want to be, usually without consequences. Why should I care about this real moment, the people in the room with me?

Something new is being born

My advice? Just because it’s (he’s, they’re, I’m) online, doesn’t make it real, doesn’t make it true. To those who need virtual communities to feel real and to get you through everyday, is something essentially human dying? The optimist in me says, perhaps something new is being born.

Signing off for now, wordbone

Related articles

• Is Reality Broken? Is Virtuality Broken? The Costs and Benefits of Online vs. Offline (gumption.typepad.com)
• What does ‘friend’ mean now? (boston.com)

Kendo students at University of Winnipeg clash ancient Samurai swords in a thousand-year tradition

What discipline do you choose to practice that wakes you up to self-awareness?

This evening I teetered on a narrow wooden bench hugging a cold cement wall in the basement of the Duckworth Centre at the University of Winnipeg to watch students practice the art of the Japanese Samurai swordsman at my first Kendo Tournament.

Primordial cries and guttural grunts ripped through the clashing of bamboo swords – crackling like splinting bone.

Dark-winged, heavy-robed students spun ‘round mid-air, taunted by the spirited cajoling of benched fighters.

In the cacophony, something new exploded.

From the visceral violence, measured and restrained, bruised and battered they scaled new heights of performance and explored unknown depths of human character.

In 1975 the All Japan Kendo Federation (AJKF) crafted “The Concept and Purpose of Kendo”, a way to discipline human character through application of the principles of katana, capturing the ancient forms of samurai swordplay for generations to come all in over 50 countries across the world.

To mold the mind and body.
To cultivate a vigorous spirit,
And through correct and rigid training,
To strive for improvement in the art of Kendo.
To hold in esteem human courtesy and honour.
To associate with others with sincerity.
And to forever pursue the cultivation of oneself.
Thus will one be able:
To love one’s country and society;
To contribute to the development of culture;
And to promote peace and prosperity among all people.

Since days of the samurai in Japan a thousand years ago, sword fencing, aka Kendo, together with horse riding and archery, evolved under the influence of Zen Buddhism, a treasure-house for mind, body and spirit.

Choose your practice

Whatever your practice, commit. Then, turn on an unquenchable wellspring of energy – a magic elixir to push through exhaustion, melt-away frustrations and wash clean the daily injustices of living human. I did.

Signing off for now, wordbone

e.Related Articles

• Slashing Samurai: A Culture Savored (nytimes.com)

A couple of public relations students and I did some digging in the muddy, flood-infested Manitoba backwaters. We came across some hidden bones we thought deserved a spotlight.

We got angry, and we got inspired…to create a public service announcement about the plight of our fellow citizens, the Indigenous First Peoples of Canada. The Water is a Human Right PSA is an early version of a class assignment we submitted last week. Tell us what you think…but better yet, sign the online petition at www.manitobachiefs.com. 

Water is a basic human right according to many international treaties, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. But in Canada, running water is not available to Indigenous People living in northern Manitoba. Four Reserves and about half the population there have no running water and inadequate sewage disposal.

Contaminated water spreads disease

Indigenous people of the Island Lake region have less clean water than people living in refugee camps overseas. Many homes in Red Sucker Lake, Wasagamach, St. Theresa Point, and Garden Hill do not have indoor plumbing and rely on water hauled from community taps, and the use of outhouses or latrine buckets. Water shortages are common and sources are often contaminated, contributing to the spread of disease.

Both the UN and 63% of Manitobans say CLEAN WATER IS A UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHT. In a Free Press/Probe poll in September 2010, 63 per cent of Manitobans surveyed said, given the health risks, the Province should help the federal government fund drinking water upgrades.

Even the Pope agrees!

Even Pope Benedict in Rome’s Vatican agreed on March 23rd, to support the battle for clean drinking water when he met with Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief David Harper. Harper highlights the plight of First Nations members in communities such as Garden Hill, 500 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, where many residents haul buckets from the nearby lake for their drinking and bath water. 

Ontario fixed the same problem in 1992 under former NDP premier Bob Rae, through the Canada-Ontario Retrofit Agreement. Reserve homes there were brought up to standards closer to those enjoyed by other Canadians, with better electrical wiring, running water and indoor fixtures such as bathtubs, sinks and toilets. Ontario retrofitted 3,800 homes on 35 Reserves, at a cost to the Province of $60 million. The Ontario Agreement was unusual because funding for programs and capital projects on reserves is a federal responsibility.

Conservative government of Canada abstains from UN water rights vote

So, why did Harper’s government (Prime Minister Harper until May 2^nd) side-step this responsibility, abstaining from voting at the UN for the declaration of water rights? Why would any good Canadian oppose such a resolution?

Why are there no monies earmarked for water in Minister Flaherty’s failed Conservative budget?  “We’re disappointed,” said Ron Evans, Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. “I’m very disappointed that there is nothing there for water and waste-water treatment.” 

If you agree that First Nations people living in Canada, including vulnerable elders and children, have a right to clean drinking water and safe sewage removal, sign the online petition at www.manitobachiefs.com and then follow on Facebook.  

Or, pick up a prepaid postcard addressed to the Prime Minister of Canada at the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs office, 2nd floor, 275 Portage Ave., Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Signing off for now, wordbone

Related Links

http://www.manitobachiefs.com/water/index.html   


http://manitoba.mcc.org/programs/aboriginalneighbours

http://www.therecord.com/news/canada/article/506070–manitoba-chief-meets-with-pope-discusses-lack-of-running-water

http://www.cfne.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5293

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/status-quo-budget-sidelines-manitoba-aboriginals-118487469.html

Related Articles

• Manitoba keeps close eye on ‘unprecedented’ flooding (ctv.ca)

Image via Wikipedia

Do not vote.

Don’t waste your time. Why not? Because your vote will not count. Nothing will change.

Canada‘s Prime Minister Stephen Harper can’t govern because elected Parliament representatives refused to pass the Conservative budget. His other minor stumbling blocks include breaking democratic laws about election spending and hiding information in contempt of Parliament. So, about 60% of irritated eligible voters will go to the polls May 2nd.

But not you. You’ve probably never voted anyway.

Besides, the Canadian federal election in May is a done deal…the ruling Conservative Party is ahead in the polls. Nothing you or I can do to change that, right? YOU can’t be influenced to do anything you want to do, so why bother. Politicians are mostly liars, oops, lawyers, hungry for personal gain, ready to break election promises to stay in power.

Broken laws

So what if Harper’s Conservatives shut down the democratic Parliament twice, broke election spending laws and hide information about immigration and security changes and election attack ad strategies drafted by top U.S. political advisers.

So what if Canada’s reputation as a leading peacekeeper in the world took a hit last week when Harper had Canadian CF 18’s bomb Libyans. Maybe now increased defense spending will infect Canadians as the top priority issue like Ipsos Reid tells us it does among Americans. Then Canada will be able to defend our sovereignty in the Arctic Circle, protecting a few Inuit and big Alberta oil drilling operations in their efforts to pipe precious resources to our energy starved cousins in the United States.

Even political playing field

Besides, Conservative leadership is good for the economy, say Ontario citizens, right? So what if Canadian democracy took a nose-dive under Harper dictatorship. If Harper and the Conservatives bent the rules a few times, Harper gets points for being a creative entrepreneur. It’s an accepted Canadian pastime, kind of like squeezing past a red light, or checking my Facebook in class. Canada rewards the entrepreneurial spirit. It’s an even playing field in the political sandbox! The Conservatives are playing better than the Liberals, the New Democratic, the Green and Quebecois Parties right now. Except that there is no even playing field among Canada’s political parties.

Goliath eats David for breakfast

In the political arena, David never smites Goliath, unless Goliath really screws up. Parties not in power never get equal media face-time. Preferred airtime and prime print real estate is dedicated to media conglomerates controlled by Conservative interests years before an election is called.

You can’t be influenced

It doesn’t matter that Conservatives began campaigning using your tax dollars a couple of years ago. The governing Party has you: your attention, your mind and your heart in their back pocket – for years, because they have been spending billions on consolidating their power as the ruling party.

Millions of dollars to promote Conservative Economic Action Plan

For two years, Conservatives have spent millions of dollars advertising the Canadian Economic Action Plan, laying the foundation in people’s minds that their time at bat has created economic prosperity, despite slower economic growth recovery than many other nations. Do you think that now because Conservatives are not permitted to run Action Plan advertising billboards for a month before the election, that two years of advertising imbedded in our collective subconscious has no influence on us as voters?

Millions of dollars for US style personal attack ads against Liberal Leader Ignatieff

And for months, Harper’s conservatives have been influencing voters with millions of dollars in American style personal attack ads against Ignatieff and the Liberals. Created with the help of Obama’s political campaign strategists, these ads have been so successful that the Liberal Party has given up featuring their Leader’s face on the political tour bus. Instead, Liberals will focus on Harper’s track record of abusing the powers of his Office as a Prime Minister – shutting down the democratic process of Parliament twice, breaking spending laws, hiding information about immigration changes and national security strategies drafted by the U.S. advisers.

Contempt for Democracy

Harper’s Conservatives are the first governing party to be found in contempt of the democratic process of Parliament in Canada’s history. What a milestone! What a legacy for Canadians.

Quick to support Libyans and other nations in their fight to overthrow dictatorship in favour of democratic rule, Conservatives turn a blind eye to eroding democracy in our own Canadian backyard.

The systemic use of my tax dollars by the governing Conservative Party to influence voters before an election campaign manipulates my democratic right hear all parties equally and to compare solutions to Canadian issues fairly in prime time.

In my opinion, the Conservative Party is not big on democracy, universal healthcare or social safety nets for students, seniors and vulnerable peoples. But then, neither are you…’cause you don’t vote, right?

Signing off for now, wordbone

Related Articles

• Harper Sets May 2 Canada Election, Warns Against Coalition (businessweek.com)
• Opposition Parties Topple Canadian Government (foxnews.com)
• Canada Harper government toppled (bbc.co.uk)
• Duceppe slams Harper over 2004 coalition letter (cbc.ca)
• LIVE: Canadians to go to polls on May 2 (cbc.ca)

Child trusts Japan Earthquake Victims will live

My friends are scraping their pennies together to support Japanese victims of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdowns. As jet streams and web streams bring nuclear fallout and news of lives lost from the Japanese triple threat east to North America, donations to the Canadian Red Cross flood in.

Hundreds of Japanese and non-Japanese huddled together Sunday in Winnipeg bursting paper-thin screen walls to pay tribute to the resilience of a nation at the Manitoba Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. “A day of mixed emotions,” said Geoff Miki, president of the Manitoba Japanese Canadian Citizens Association, amid children spinning orgami paper tops, rustling fan dances and a heart-stopping song from Juno award winner Keri Latimer.

Latimer bridged the cultural divide when she admitted that with a Japanese mom and Irish dad, “I have problems”, and invited us to a benefit concert she’s organizing with local Canadian musicians at the West End Cultural Centre in April.

The Japanese people perched on the rim of the Ring of Fire, the ominous Pacific Plate earthquake fault line, have survived heavy losses 11 days after the tsunami. The National Police Agency has officially confirmed:

• 9,199 deaths
• 2,722 injured
• 13,786 missing
• 15,000 deaths likely in Miyagi province (Tim Sullivan, Associated Press)
• 100,000 children uprooted from home and families (Save the Children Fund)
• 1,000,000 million without water
• 4,400,000 million without electricity.

What can I do?

Premier Greg Selinger doubled Manitoba’s contribution to aid efforts to $200,000, and Liberal Gerrand, Tory Fletcher and Deputy Mayor Havixbeck expressed their support, but Manitobans can do better! Canadian organizations currently taking donations include the Canadian Red Cross Society, World Vision Canada, Doctors without Borders and Save the Children Canada.

• Donate to the Canadian Red Cross.
• Go to the Jazz for Japan fundraiser ($10 a pop) with the George Colligan Trio (UM Jazz king) at Aqua books on March 26^th with proceeds to Iwaki City sponsored by the Japanese Exchange Teachers Alumni Association of Manitoba and Saskachewan.
• And, keep your ear to the ground for news of Keri Latimer’s Concert for Japanese Earthquake Victims at the West End Cultural Centre in April.

Related Links

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Omana from Japan updates the Agency in a video on efforts to control the Fukushima Nuclear Accident (21 March 2011, 15:30 UTC)

The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department is advising Canadians not to travel to Japan. Government of Canada’s Foreign Affairs and International Trade

Satellite image: Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Okuma, Japan (post-earthquake) taken from space.

Keri Latimer, Juno award winning singer, belts out a song for Japanese Earthquake Relief in Winnipeg, Canada

To connect with missing relatives in Japan:

Image via Wikipedia

Polar Bear loses to Global Warming: Billy Connolly booms about Arctic Offshore Oil Drilling Bonanza

I get chills up and down my spine when someone like Scottish comedian Billy Connolly traces the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Circle at Canada’s extreme north and drops a bombshell.

The Scotsman travels by dog sled and fishing trawler from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean by way of the Arctic Ocean, courtesy of global warming, in his travelogue “Journey to the Edge of the World” on National Geographic. While he makes friends and shares laughter, raw seal meat and an igloo, glaciers melt and oil developers circle. A storm is brewing.

Glaciers melt, water levels rise, land floods.

Polar bears don’t give birth if they don’t have ice to hunt seal on. Polar bears are starving. 3000 beluga whales that breed and raise young at the mouth of the Churchill River in Manitoba are in danger.

”Commerce will be booming here soon,” Billy quips. Tomorrow the minerals, gas and oil reserves out of the untapped north will be flooding down through the Hudson’s Bay, Churchill and through the North South Corridor down into the US, Mexico, South America and the world. Wake up call: commerce is here, we just don’t hear about it.

There is a war brewing north of us in the Arctic, over resources. A war not among the tribes and first peoples that lived here for over 12,000 years – I mean a war among Russian, American, Danish and Asian trawlers, oil rigs and miners. Inspite of economic benefits locally in the far north, the people of Inuvik, in a gentle way, have tried to tell their story:

INUVIK, NT (May 19, 2010) Stop Beaufort Sea Ecosystem Offshore Drilling

http://www.irc.inuvialuit.com/publications/releases.html

Have we learned nothing from destroying people and habitats – rainforests and fragile marine ecosystems in the American Atlantic, New Orleans coast, Alaska, Amazon? Have we learned nothing from algae blooms strangling the oxygen and living organisms in Manitoba’s lakes due to farm fertilizers and pesticides draining into one the world’s largest sources of fresh water?

Is it too late for sustainable development in the north?

Do we care? People make ethical decisions about fair trade products every day – like where I choose to buy my coffee. Big companies like Nike have instituted humane measures like dropping child labour because customers demanded it.

So what’s so hard about protecting the continent hidden under ice and water in the Arctic? Fresh water preserved in glaciers and icebergs and other precious resources might save us all from extinction some day.

Today global media lights fires around the world about tsunami cataclysms and the 8.9 category earthquake in Japan, marshalling million of dollars and people to provide humanitarian aid.

One fisherman with empty nets

Why can’t the impending cataclysm in the north take up more valuable real estate in the news blogs or 6 pm sound bites? Just doesn’t make for a sexy photo-op – one lonely fisherman with empty nets on a disappearing ice flow.

If we can bring back ancient breeds of Chinese dogs from the brink of extinction and protect the panda and gorilla, can’t we do the same for the fragile north and its people? Our people. Our earth.

Kudos to Connolly, for cutting a path through the ice and taking us on a Journey to the Edge of the World…don’t miss it, it’s disappearing fast.

More from Connolly and the Journey to the Edge of the World series on National Geographic at itv.com:

“Loafers like me are given a wee window of opportunity to follow some of the most extraordinary men in history on what was once their quest for the holy grail of world exploration. One of the highlights of my trip was the Auyuittuq National Park, Nunavut. The landscape of this national park, carved by the last Ice Age two million years ago, was sensational. Holy Mother of God, I felt like I was in The Lord of the Rings. This was a miraculously wonderful place, so pristine, and yet it only had something like 600 visitors a year.”

The fabled (Northwest) Passage through the Arctic Ocean was sought after for five centuries as a commercial sea route and claimed hundreds of lives of those trying to discover a navigable way through, but now global warming means that for a few weeks in the summer the ice melts and gives Billy a chance to make an extraordinary once-in-a-lifetime journey.

Five centuries from now, will another explorer navigate the same ice and glaciers of the Arctic Circle looking for signs of us? Signing off for now, Wordbone.

Related Articles

• Polar bear swam 426 miles to find ice in Arctic seas (LA Times) (seattlepi.com)
• Polar Bear Spy Cams (mt-soft.com.ar)
• INUVIK, NT (May 19, 2010) Stop Beaufort Sea Ecosystem Offshore Drilling
• http://www.irc.inuvialuit.com/publications/releases.html
  

When it’s a juicy, jamming projection screen for light and sound animation!

Blame it on Meghan and the innocent PO-MO bunny, the icon of Winnipeg’s interactive new media maven. Nothing is sacred…anything that can be transformed, will be transformed.

PO-MO Inc brings it alive! Audience interactive 3D light and sound events

A blast of audience controlled visual animation, timed to audience movement and sound, is the brainchild of animation genius Meghan Athavale and her company PO-MO Inc. Interactive Projections. She puts the audience in the driver’s seat. And, what a ride!

PO-MO Inc. specializes in motion, sound, and cellphone reactive walls and floors, interactive environments, and large-scale outdoor projections on buildings. You take a step, and the room moves with you. You shimmy, and music revs and vibrates to your every movement. Characters come alive, indoors or outdoors, controlled by participants.

Personally, I relish the idea of painting with laser lights. There’s no mess to clean up, no spots to cover with throw rugs. I can see it…my next portrait canvas, painted in 3D…on the Richardson Building at Portage and Main. You can paint on anything: inanimate or alive and kicking…and if it’s not alive, Meghan will make it come alive for you!

Meghan and her crew of developers and artists deliver cutting-edge, unique interactive solutions for any size of project, event or advertising budget. Last year PO-MO transformed the 5 story-Johnston Terminal at the Forks and the Cube in Old Market Square with 3D animation. The crew can map a room or an outdoor festival venue and wire it for sound and motion so the audience interacts with it in real time and space. That’s Second Life scaled up to real human proportions!

The diminutive, rabbit-loving new media maven and I crossed paths as she led reluctant business owners online into virtual communities a couple of years ago. She has no fear…this Dorothy invents her own Yellow Brick Road.

WHO

• PO-MO, short for Post-Modern, is an interactive new media firm that formed in 2009 when animator Meghan Athavale, 35, teamed with her computer-savvy friend Curtis Wachs, 33.
• The bunny in the PO-MO brand logo is real…a rabbit with a genius IQ hiding under her couch.

WHAT

• PO-MO lit up Old market Square in the Exchange at the CUBE stage launch, developing programmable lighting  and sound with Manitoba Electronic Music Exhibition.
• PO-MO rambled around the 2010 Winnipeg Folk festival with OHM, the light and sound reactive dragon mascot.
• Winnipeg’s Santa Claus parade led straight to PO-MO’s live graphics and animations projected on the Johnston Terminal building at The Forks.
• Joe Silva’s awarding music video
• CTV’s lazer tag party

HOW

• Manage your interactive programming campaign from start to finish
• Graphics, development, and UI design for interactive applications
• Concept development and storyboarding
• Multi-platform interactive media development
• Coordination of equipment and software rental or purchase
• Installation for large and small events, including necessary insurance and permits
• Unique content for systems you run, or installations PO-MO runs with you

Want more?

Check out Meghan’s PO-MO animated video on Vimeo called Generating Momentum: Making the Grade, Boys and Girls in the Global Classroom, produced for the Manitoba Council for International Cooperation. It’s a heart-retching revelation raising awareness for nearly 1.5 billion young people in the world barracked from entering the classroom to learn…at http://www.vimeo.com/16458662.

Signing off for now, wordbone