Around the Mountains: Bandwidth to Whistler grows by factor of 100

WHISTLER, B.C. — Whistler will be connected with Vancouver with one of the most advanced fiber-optic networks in Canada when the Winter Olympics are held in February. With this new information highway, the Olympics for the first time will be broadcasted in high-definition television. But what will this much wider — 100 times the capacity of the previous fiber-optic cable — have for Whistler once the Olympics are over? Pique Newsmagazine declares that high-tech firms are sure to take notice.

Whistler already has a few high-tech firms, including Paradata, which developed credit-card transaction authorization and other financial services. Shannon Susko, who founded the company in 1996, said the expanded capacity, with its built-in redundancy, will be a huge draw to high-tech companies and start-ups.

“Whistler is on the verge of becoming one of the most wired towns on Earth, way out of proportion for its size and designation as a destination resort,” concludes the newspaper.

Are wind energy and tourism compatible?

BELLEVUE, Idaho — Hold on, says Betsy Barrymore Stoll. She applauds renewable energy — but not in the form of windmills in her backyard.

“A wind turbine is not an attractive piece of machinery and is not quiet, regardless of what the manufacturer claims,” she writes in a letter published in the Idaho Mountain Express, a newspaper distributed in the Ketchum/Sun Valley area.

“Our tourist economy is based on visitors who come to the Wood River Valley for its scenic beauty. If we allow our commissioners to make it legal to install these huge wind turbines in our scenic corridor, we are setting ourselves up for further economic impact in our tourism sector.”

Banff proposes to step up green-building regulations

BANFF, Alberta — Town planners in Banff propose to regulate the types of windows, insulation and water fixtures installed in new or redeveloped buildings to ensure that they result in less energy use. The proposed requirements for insulation in walls, for example, would bump up the heat-retention by at least 20 percent.

The Rocky Mountain Outlook quotes at least one builder who says that he already does use the improved techniques and fixtures and objects to government mandates. Town planners tell the newspaper that while at least some builders profess to higher environmental standards in building, their practices fall short.