We can make some sense of the extent and pervasiveness of our present environmental problems by considering the ideas of Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian philosopher and media theorist who died in 1980. In describing the effects on ourselves of the things that we invent, he coined the expression “the medium is the message”, which was playfully modified to “the medium is the massage”. He summarized the process by saying, “We invent things, thereafter they invent us.” He also aptly described the effect of instantaneous electronic communication as having created the “global village”.
Continue reading Reality Through the Rear-View MirrorTag Archives: Internet
A New Internet Provider for Cortes: Raincoast Networks
As of September 30th, 2025, Raincoast Networks serves the 347 remaining customers in what was once the Twincomm service area on Cortes Island. Mascon by Telus acquired Twincomm in 2022.
“I come from Savary Island. We provide internet to those who have decided to live off grid and in remote communities and cannot be served well by other telecom providers, majors and things from space, explained Oliver Linsley, owner of Raincoast Networks.
“We’ve been doing this for eight years and we service areas from Howe Sound all the way to Cortes. It has been a wonderful adventure, mainly because I get to meet some fantastic people in places I didn’t even know existed. We’ve helped communities up and down the coast, and that’s where we got our pride from. It’s not from a paycheck (laughs), I can tell you that, but it definitely is from the fact that I can go to someone’s house and they have baked cookies for me. They’re just super happy that we came in a boat and we’ve driven across a whole bunch of crazy oceans and we’re at their house and we’re going to fix it.”
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Loss of Electricity and CityWest Internet During Recent Storm
Close to 400,000 BC Hydro customers, primarily on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland, lost power during the recent windstorms. Gusts of up to 159 km/h were reported on November 19, the first night of the storm. By 4 PM on Friday, November 22, all but about 5,000 customers on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands were back online. Parts of Cortes and Quadra Islands were among the last areas to be restored.
BC Hydro identifies extreme storms like this with climate change and, in their 2023 Climate Change Accountability Report, states:
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The Quadra Project – Social Media
“We invent things, and thereafter they invent us.” This is a fundamental principle in the media theory articulated by Marshall McLuhan, but it is rarely considered because we are usually so enamoured by the ingenuity of our inventions that we fail to consider the ways in which they invent us.
A brilliant essay by Jonathan Haidt, “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid”, in the May 2022 edition of The Atlantic Monthly magazine deserves careful reading and thought. Its insights do much to explain the factious irrationality that has been generated by social media, an adjunct of the internet that was supposed to facilitate and deepen communication, but instead has created angry disputes with irresolvable differences. What went wrong?
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Telus invests $10M to improve connectivity in Haida Gwaii
Editor’s note: The Connected Coast project has just laid 87 kilometres of fibre-optic cable across the seabed of Hecate Strait to bring high-speed connectivity to Haida Gwaii.
By Kaitlyn Bailey, Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
More than $10,000 in Telus-funded upgrades will benefit Queen Charlotte and Skidegate after the company’s June investment in the broadband and cellular services, the telecommunications organization announced on July 4.
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