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Nanaimo, The Google Capital of the World
eldavojohn writes "Time.com has up a story on Nanaimo, a British Columbia coal mining town of about 78,000 that has had everything conceivable mapped into a Google database. Citizens can track fire trucks real time. The results also include Google Earth data for Nanaimo. 'The Google fire service allows people to avoid accident sites by tuning electronic devices to automatic updates from the city's RSS news feed, says fire captain Dean Ford. Eventually, Nanaimo plans to equip its grass-cutting machines with GPS devices, so residents piqued by the apparent shabbiness of a particular park or grass verge can use Google to find out when last it was groomed by the city's gardening staff. And the city's cemeteries will soon be mapped to allow Internet users to find out who is buried in each plot, says Kristensen. A new multi-million-dollar conference center, opening in June, will have 72 wireless access points to allow out-of-towners to use their laptops to navigate the Google Earth version of the city.'"
Surely with all of that intense technology eldavojohn or Time could have figured out that coal mining stopped back in 1938 in Nanaimo. Since then it is primarily known for being one of the finest examples of really bad urban planning, for at one time having more square feet of shopping mall per capita than any place else on earth, and of course for theNanaimo International Bathtub Race.
To quote Ember Swift: "This is the city that Engineers enter to demonstrate just how not to build a city centre This is the city used as a symbol of haste. "
Three Squirrels
I'll tell you what Nanaimo is the real capital of: Yummyness
JJ
I live about an hour north of Nanaimo, and I just told a bunch of my co-workers about the characterization of Nanaimo as a "coal mining town", which caused a pretty good round of laughter. Vancouver Island coal mining has been nearly dead for about a half a century.
The economy here is doing fairly well, considering that coastal BC seems to be one of the few places in North America where real estate is not plummetting, but I don't think they'll be making any man-made islands soon, especially since we have no shortage of natural ones.
Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
Obscure? Have you never heard of Nanaimo Bars? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanaimo_bar
Tesla was a genius. Edison however was a overrated hack who liked to torture puppies.
When Spitzer prosecuted Grasso (the former NYSE head) for basically conspiring to increase his own salary to an astronomical sum, Spitzer didn't limit his prosecution to the issue about salary. He went after Grasso for sleeping with his own secretary. What does that have to do with Grasso's other alleged sin? Spitzer wasn't just interested in prosecuting corrupt businesses for fraud. He was interested in crushing those businessmen and women in every way possible.
Spitzer also prosecuted prostitution rings.
If you live on Vancouver Island or nearby, and rely on BC Ferries like many of us do, they post real-time GPS images of ferry location and direction. They're highly addictive, since either the ferries are late, or I am. I'm a mac user mostly, so I have a web clip of my spouse's daily commute ferry one touch away.
I think all major transport systems would benefit from this.
Damn those pesky terrorists
I'm not the GP, but I think I can safely say... no. I've never heard of Nanaimo bars.
I'm surprised when people don't know about Nanaimo Bars, they're delicious!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanaimo_bar