C7

Candice Mac Lean
Telegraph-Journal

QUISPAMSIS - A Grand Manan fishing boat has been used to carry casualties to and from mainland Haiti to an island hospital since a disastrous earthquake swept over the country.

Enlarge Photo

Matthew Sherwood/Telegraph-Journal archive

Bob Colpitts, left, and Randy Chaisson, with Kings Valley Wesleyan Church, aboard the fishing Boat now known as Breezy Sea. The Grand Manan boat has been carrying casualities to hospital.

The boat arrived in the Haitian village Anse à Galets in December after making a month-long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean from Saint John. The journey was organized as part of a Kings Valley Wesleyan Church mission to provide aid to locals in need of medical care.

The boat's purpose was to secure safe transportation to the church-owned hospital in the village, located on Gonâve Island, but after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake pummeled the nation on Jan. 12, the boat became part of the massive relief effort sweeping the country.

"The last we heard was it was taking casualties from Port-au-Prince over to our hospital," said church member Randy Chaisson. "As far as I know they were making a direct crossing right from Port-au-Prince, which would be approximately 32 kilometres."

Chaisson, who has been part of four previous group trips to the country, worked tirelessly on sending the local fishing boat to Haiti for almost nine months before a Saint John delivery skipper offered to do the job.

The fishing boat, called Briz sou Lanme a (Breezy Sea), replaced a 50-year-old wooden-plank boat made by Haitians with a hand-stitched sail, hand-woven rope and worn-out motors, Chaisson said.

Skipper Bob Colpitts arrived with the boat in December, about a month before the earthquake struck and killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Chaisson has been in contact with a church member in Haiti who emails updates every week or so, he said.

"We just got word that the population of the village where the hospital is has doubled," Chaisson said, noting that about 27,000 people have flooded the small community on top of the approximately 25,000 locals. "There would be quite a bit of chaos there right now. Food and water would be critical."

Chaisson said he's heard that Haitians are travelling from Port-au-Prince to the small village to get medical help or to bury loved ones.

He said the last update indicated the boat was transporting people to the hospital for help.

He said he can't imagine the fuel used to power the boat has lasted this long and added it's likely the vessel is out of commission for now.

"Right now they're probably having a hard time just keeping the hospital up and running."

Chaisson said the hospital survived the earthquake but suffered structural damage inside. He said a Scottish charity organization has committed $1.3 million to renovate the hospital.

Since the disaster struck, Chaisson has been considering a trip to the devastated country to volunteer his time and help. He said logistically a mission has been difficult to plan.

An orphanage known to the church, run by a Haitian woman, Chaisson said, is one of the reasons he is desperate to get to Haiti.

He said the woman's home was destroyed in the wreck and she is sleeping at the orphanage, where she takes care of about 17 mentally and physically challenged children.

"These kids are truly forgotten about," he said. "We know the poor ones are going to suffer."

Chaisson said there is a long, exhaustive list of tasks to accomplish in the village, but added a safe and secure boat for transporting people to the hospital was an important one to accomplish.

"We know the population will increase in the village, but without the boat we couldn't supply the hospital," he said. "It's a key ingredient to keep us going."

To learn more about the mission, call the Kings Valley Wesleyan Church at 847-5343.

This is a photo I shot of this little boat as it was leaving Saint John on November 22, 2009. At first we saw it passing through the Reversing Falls, and then I took this picture from Sea Street. It looked so tiny and I've often thought about it ... if they made it to Haiti, and of course, even moreso now after the big earth quake.

Now I know...

When is one more gadget just too many?

Story user rating:

JOCELYN NOVECK
Published: Jan 29, 2010

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the new iPad during an event in San Francisco, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

NEW YORK (AP) - Kira Marchenese works in online communications, and so she arrived on a business trip to New York earlier this week equipped with all the gadgets you might expect: personal smart phone, work smart phone, laptop, iPod touch.

Problem is, her hotel room didn't have enough outlets to keep the darned devices charged. "I unplugged the lamp and still couldn't do it," she noted ruefully. "At least half the things I'm carrying right now are just dead hunks of metal."

And so, though communications is her world, Marchenese has no plans to rush out and buy the iPad, Apple's new tablet device unveiled with much fanfare on Wednesday. She just doesn't see the need for yet another gadget.

Nor does Ray Bowman, a self-described "techno-junkie" who lives on a farm in Kentucky, raising sheep some 60 miles from the two nearest Apple stores.

Bowman spent Wednesday eagerly following the news of Apple CEO Steve Jobs' presentation, via Twitter, Facebook and wherever else he could find it. "I can't wait to see what this puppy is capable of," he enthused beforehand.

And yet by Thursday, he'd decided not to jump in, even though he still plans to swing by the Louisville store when the iPad is in, just to examine it in his own hands.

"I've seen the hype and the afterhype," said Bowman, 58, executive director of an agriculture-oriented nonprofit organization. "I'll stick with my netbook. Right now, I can't see making the switch."

Marchenese and Bowman use at least seven devices between them. Are they indicative of a cultural tipping point, a sense of general gadget overload? Steve Jones, a historian of communication technology, has seen signs of it, and believes it's at least partially connected to the state of the economy.

"I think we're at the point where we're getting a little more mileage out of our old gadgets, being a little more budget-conscious," says Jones, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"There's a significantly growing culture of people tweaking their old technology to keep it useful," Jones says. "For some, it's actually a point of status now to get more mileage out of their gadgets."

How many gadgets do we own, anyway? The average teen has 3.5, according to figures compiled in September by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project and provided to The Associated Press. Adults between 18 and 29 averaged nearly four gadgets, those between 30 and 64 just under three.

Seen from another vantage point, the average household owns about 24 electronic gadgets, according to the Consumer Electronics Association - a figure that includes TVs, mobile phones, computers, and home receivers.

It shouldn't be surprising, then, that consumers are getting harder to convince with each new gadget that comes along.

"The last decade was defined by mass adoption," says Shawn DuBravac, the association's director of research. "We loaded up on gadgets. The next decade will be defined by refinement, and a refocus on usability and functionality."

Debby Abbott sees it both ways. "I'm a techno-geek," confesses the 48-year-old college administrator, who also followed Apple's presentation on Wednesday, and pronounced herself "salivating" over the iPad.

Make no mistake, Abbott says: She plans to own it. Well, eventually. First, she wants to wait for the second generation, when the kinks have been worked out and the price, now $499 and up, may be lower.

She's also decided to wait until her 8 1/2-year-old iBook finally crashes - something she expects (and maybe hopes) to happen soon. Finally, she's awaiting this year's income tax refund.

"I'm frightened that I want this," says Abbott, who works at Harper College in Palatine, Ill. "With the monthly fee for my iPhone, and the monthly for this, it's getting to the point where the average person can't afford this stuff."

For others, it's also a matter of scarcity, not of money but time - time to set up and really learn how the things work.

"Every new device is an investment in time," says Marchenese, 36. "The whole power of the device is that you can set up all these apps - but that doesn't happen by itself. And if you're not going to make the most of it, why have it?"

That's all part of a general feeling of conflict many have about their devices, says Lee Rainie, director of Pew's Internet project. A December 2007 study, he says, showed that "Lots of people have conflicted views about their gadgets. On the one hand they can be expensive and time-consuming ... on the other hand they help people navigate their social and information worlds and can make life easier or more exciting."

And it's the excitement that takes over when a cool new toy emerges, says Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California.

"Yes, we are really deviced out, tired out, overburdened," Cole says. "And all that goes out the window when a must-have device appears. We still fall for this stuff."

Matt Scatchell seems to have already fallen hard for the iPad.

The high school senior in Avon, Conn., was in school Wednesday but received constant text alerts of the Apple presentation on his cell phone, via a Web site for Apple enthusiasts. He scoured them even as he traveled with his hockey team to a game. Nothing surprising for someone who waited 13 hours on line to buy an iPhone - for someone else. (He had sold his spot in line on Craigslist.)

"I was getting more and more excited as the press conference went on," Scatchell says. "I think the iPad is excellent. Apple has the most efficient touch screen around."

But youth's impetuosity has not carried the day. He, too, is not ready to buy the device.

"Most kids my age aren't pragmatic enough," says Scatchell, who obviously is. "I want to see if I can really use this. I don't want to get carried away just 'cause it's the next cool thing."

"Funny how Brits can't talk about sarcasm without gushing about how Americans are intellectually incapable of understanding it.

Instead of using a SarcMark at the end of a sentence, perhaps we can put a small Union Jack symbol at the beginning of the sentence, so Americans will know to just skip the sentence entirely and not risk stubbing their brains on high end wit?

Actually the irony of this SarcMark symbol is beautiful: In the 1700s, Great Britain taxed the American Colonies on tea. In 2010, the US taxes Great Britain on Sarcasm.

That'll be $1.99, Your Majesty."

Jeff, it's not sarcasm Americans don't get, it's irony. Clearly your statement "In the 1700s, Great Britain taxed the American Colonies on tea. In 2010, the US taxes Great Britain on Sarcasm." illustrates this beautifully. There is no irony in that situation, it's not even coincidental.

But then, I am assuming that you are American. You could just be a thick Brit.

One of my favorite parts of designing is getting to play with color. There are a large variety of free tools on the internet for creating color schemes or just discovering new and interesting colors to work with. If you're looking for inspiration or just some free tools, here's a list of the sites we use most often at DotConcepts.

Color Schemes and Palettes

• Color Combos - Test your palettes and check complementary colors for any color in your scheme or check out their color scheme library.
• Color Hunter - Browse or create color schemes from images. Can use either online or uploaded images. Search their library by tag or hex code for more schemes.
• Color Scheme Designer - Pick a color and create a variety of different schemes from monochromatic to accented analogic. Light and dark page examples show your color scheme on a layout.
• Colour Lovers - I can't get enough of this site; from trends to individual colors to these top color schemes, its an endless resource for all things color.
• Color Match Remix - A basic color matching tool with a dynamic preview. Other than being limited by allowing only a base color change, its a quick way to see what colors you might be missing from your palette.
• Colorjack - A fantastic resource overall; this particular view shows the most used color schemes. Their "Spy" view lets you see what color schemes people have created recently. There are many other useful tools here as well.
• ColorSchemer Palettes - User created schemes sorted by highest rated; they can be imported into the ColorSchemer Studio (commercial software).
• - A great reference for aspects of color theory, application and other color concepts.
• Liquidsoft - Tutorial on Color Theory - An introduction to color theory. For a more in depth discussion, see Wikipedia's article on color theory
• Pantone's Color Trends - The latest trends and color reports from Pantone.
• Sherwin Williams Color Trends 2010 - This years color forecast from Sherwin Williams and archives from previous years.
• Wikipedia's List of Colors - Sorted by name and together in shade, its all the color names Wikipedia has an article on (just in case you ever need to know what color Wenge really is).

Are we missing your favorite color resource? Leave us a comment here so we can review it and possibly add it to the list.

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from designmoo.com on Sun, 01/17/2010 - 01:39

This was featured in designmoo.com! Here is the link to vote it up and promote it: http://www.designmoo.com/node/19536

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Your story was featured in TheWebBlend.com! Here is the link to vote it up and promote it: http://thewebblend.com/WebDesign/Color_Tools_for_Web_Designers

I'm posting this to keep track of all the links. I like this kind of stuff