“Your imagination … creating a reality” – James Cameron: Before Avatar … a curious boy

TED Talk,

James Cameron’s big-budget (and even bigger-grossing) films create unreal worlds all their own. In this personal talk, he reveals his childhood fascination with the fantastic — from reading science fiction to deep-sea diving — and how it ultimately drove the success of his blockbuster hits “Aliens,” “The Terminator,” “Titanic” and “Avatar.”

[HT Matt]

Happy Retirement Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger !

Via AP “Miracle on the Hudson’ pilot Sullenberger retires“,

Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger has flown his final flight.

The pilot who landed a US Airways plane safely on the Hudson River last January said Wednesday he is retiring after 30 years and plans to spend some of his time pressing for more flight safety.

“My message going forward is that I want to remind everyone in the aviation industry – especially those who manage aviation companies and those who regulate aviation – that we owe it to our passengers to keep learning how to do it better,” he said at a news conference shortly after his last flight landed at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

To me, Captain Sully is a hero and he has shown us the gold standard of excellent in being great at a job one does. If you are doing something for a living (regardless of what it may be), why not be the best you can?

See my two previous blog entry about the captain here and here.

UseMyBank Trademark Opposed? – CBC Dragons’ Den

I am a big fan of CBC Dragons’ Den but passive viewing is not my thing. And when the story is interesting, I like to dig deeper and, over the years, I’ve interviewed Dragons, Dragons’ Den entrepreneurs and conducted followup interviews with the pitching entrepreneurs.

Tonight, after spending sometime (half an hour) of time to research, I was unable to find much external & independent information about UseMyBank (a Season 5, episode 6 pitch) to understand and appreciate their claims of profits on TV and their business.

Anyway, I “naturally” (it is naturally to me) turned to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office to do a trademark database search. (note: the patent search link is on the same CIPO page)

To my surprise, I found that UseMyBank‘s Trademark application (from an online search of “usemybank” or application number 1253705) is currently “opposed” by none other than Bank of Montreal. So I naturally wonder if BMO is doing any business with UseMyBank while BMO is trying to take down its trademark? How about other members of the big 5 banks?

Again, since the business name has been “Used in CANADA since December 12, 2002″ (according to the trademark application), and the business has been a success according to the pitch on TV, I am a little surprised for the lack of external & independently verifiable information of it as a business. Any big city Canadian newspapers or magazines available online will help me a lot but I found none.

May be someone can help me here. I am, to say the least, confused about UseMyBank as a business. Can anyone send me links to some external & independent sources of information re UseMyBank?

Note: You can download and read the Trademarks Regulations (current to Feb 2010) here. Of interest are rules 35 – 42.

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Mar 4th, 2010, 7:42am Update: Please see followup comments here.

Jan 13th, 2011 Update: Just watched Use My Bank (Brian Crozier & Joseph Iuso) pitched for the second time (season 5, episode 11) on Dragons Den. I can’t say I enjoyed watching their pitch at all because they pitched their business with information (the stacks of business details on paper) only the Dragons got to read and analyze. Seeing Brian & joseph rejecting the $1million for 51% without knowing more about what their business is at now is neither meaningful nor interesting.

Advance screening of “Last Train Home” in Calgary (7pm, March 3rd, Eau Claire)

Sundance sensation “Last Train Home“, an emotionally engaging and visually beautiful debut film from Chinese-Canadian director Lixin Fan, is having an advance screening tonight in Calgary (7pm, March 3rd, Eau Claire) arranged by Calgary International Film Festival.

“Last Train Home“ will have its wide release in Calgary later this month on March 19th at the Globe Theatre. I will post my review of the film before the wide release. This is a great film, go and enjoy it.

Here is a trailer of the film for the famous SXSW,

Bearing witness: 1) Gay rights section nixed for immigrants’ guide & 2) Rights & Democracy dissidents fired

Bearing witness:

- From CBC News, “Gay rights section nixed for immigrants’ guide“

- From CBC News, “Rights & Democracy dissidents fired” (with video)

William Shatner to receive Lifetime Achievement Award at Banff

From Banff World TV Festival,

William Shatner to be honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award

Best known as Captain Kirk from the original Star Trek, William Shatner will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2010 Banff World Television Festival. With a career spanning more than 5 decades, Shatner has leveraged his fame to build enduring properties as a director, producer, author, recording artist, screenwriter and spokesperson.

A brand unto himself, Shatner’s next project is the recently announced Sh*t My Dad Says, based on the popular Twitter account that’s infamous for quotes like “A parent’s only as good as their dumbest kid. If one wins a Nobel Prize but the other gets robbed by a hooker, you failed.”

This reporter is excited and look forward to bring you some report when Captain Kirk attend Banff in June.

Steps to defend Canadian Parliamentary Democracy

When our Parliamentary is being attacked by prime minister stephen harper, it is our duty as Canadians to defend our Parliamentary Democracy.

Steps:

1) Pay attention to news.

2) Get involved.

3) And go to vote at election time.

4) Have a read of Justin Trudeau’s “Find Some Principles“.

5) And for today, read and follow Kady’s liveblog of this roundtable in Ottawa with special guest professors Daniel Weinstock (read this open letter now signed by 200+ professors) and Peter Russell, as well as Canadians Against Prororuging Parliament Facebook group founder Christopher White (see Chris’ draft version of his prepared text here).

Here is an excerpt from Kady’s liveblog, please read her coverage in full and not simply the excerpt here.

*** 10:32 ***

“Over to Christopher White, who starts out by noting that it’s a little odd to be sitting up there alongside constitutional experts with more than a century of public service; a guy who started a Facebook group. Which prompts gentle laughter from the audience, of course; White does, however, express some contentment that his efforts have highlighted the role of new media. He then goes through some of the big issues that keep being raised on the discussion group — voter turnout, in particular — as well as the need for electoral reform. There’s a disconnect, he notes — and to bridge the gap, we need a citizen assembly – like those that took place in BC and Ontario – rather than simply leaving it to people organizing in libraries. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. He also confesses that, despite obediently watching Heritage minutes and perusing online resources, he’s still a little bit fuzzy on exactly how this place works. He suggests some sort of independently-managed, scrupulopusly nonpartisan website that would explain the basics of parliamentary democracy to everyone, rather than forcing people to sift through the “byzantine” (good word, and appropriate too) government website. Oh, come over here and let me tell you about the outrageous continuing absence of online Hansard back to Confederation.”

*** 10:37 ***

“White is going through his list of suggestions — from supporting smaller parties and independent candidates to reducing the number of cabinet ministers to being *just* supportive of someone like him speaking out against Michael Ignatieff, if (when) he merits it. He also has some words for us — we-the-media, that is — and implores us to be clear when we find ourselves obstructed by PMO and the government. (See? Apparently *someone* does want to hear us kvetch!) He ends with a cheery declaration of his love for Canada, and gets an equally cheery round of applause in response. Jennings assures him that just because he’s here doesn’t mean he can’t criticize the Liberals — including past, present and future leaders — and insists that they actually *welcome* dissent. Just ask the media who cover their endless caucus disputes.”

Mr. White Goes to Ottawa – Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament

As a proud member of the 225,000+ strong Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook group, it is nice to see group creator Mr. Christopher White going to Ottawa to speak at a roundtable about our democratic process.

The following is Chris’ publicly posted introduction and a version of his prepared text for the roundtable. While I may not agree with everything Chris is saying, I feel it is important enough to repost it here for further public discussion. If we are to make democracy in Canada working better again, we have to be able and ready to roll up our selves to start finding better ways to do things.

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Message from Christopher White (click here for full discussion thread “ADMIN UPDATE: My opening statements for March 2nd Ottawa roundtable” in Facebook group)

Hello all,

As some of you know, I am in Ottawa this evening, ready to present at a Liberal sponsored roundtable tomorrow morning (March 2nd). I’ve consulted with many of you and put together these statements to reflect what I think needs to be done to reenage Canadians with our democratic process. I couldn’t include everything, but the morning session will provide ample opportunity to bring up some of the other issues (such as recall legislation, senate reform, etc).

I’ll be tweaking the text a bit, but it should give you the gist of it. Enjoy!
—

I want to start by thanking the moderators for the opportunity to speak today. Before you sits three distinguished professors of political science and law, between them over a centennial of service, and me – the guy who started a Facebook group.

While I joke about it, I know that my presence helps to legitimize the role that new media can play in our politics, to say nothing of the countless hours dedicated by thousands of Canadians across the country over the past two months and the results we’ve seen. I cannot speak for all of them but I can speak from my own conscience, which has served me well up to this point.

I want to talk broadly about the relationship between the government and the people. I’ll start by saying that we are not in a democratic crisis. What we have is a structural democratic deficit and, as with any deficit, we need to make some tough choices that aren’t going to be popular with everyone but will hopefully makes things better in the long run.

Ask any Canadian and the vast majority will say it’s their “duty” to vote and yet the reality is that over the past 25 years, voter turnout has been in declined. In my both homes of Alberta and the Northwest Territories – I’ve got duel citizenship – half of eligible voters didn’t bother to cast a ballot in the 2008 election. This cannot simply be chalked up to apathy and indifference, it’s our collective failure to address the growing disconnect between people and our government.

Our elected Members of Parliament are no longer seen as representing their constituents. They are seen as a separate class,