Canada's Chinatowns have always been vibrant locales for both residents and visitors. But as with other cultural pockets, they’re in flux. This evolution, as seen through the eyes of those who live there, is the focus of a historical overview, Whose Chinatown?, on view until May 1 at Griffin Art Projects in North Vancouver.

Tiny homes are pretty much commonplace these days. They’re efficient, cheap and ecologically correct. But tiny bars? John Walsh from Galway, Ireland has taken the tiny home concept one step further. He’s built a fleet of four tiny pubs, each one patterned after an Irish cottage and fitted out with the appropriate interior. They look like the real thing complete with flocked wallpaper, padded upholstery and working taps, only smaller.

Dr. Hugh Parsons, chief of surgery at Surrey Memorial Hospital, chafes at being called a miracle worker, but to 67-year-old Don Carter and others like him, BC’s pre-eminent eye surgeon is definitely a hero.“He’s fantastic. I can’t say enough good things about him,” says Don.Fishing is Don’s first love but he’s into beekeeping, as well, so when he banged his head at work in March 2001, he passed it off as an occupational hazard. Complications set in two days later.

"Just taking 'er out to the runway," shouts Gibson's B.C. resident Mike Hendricks. "Yeah. Okay. Wind at ten knots," comes the reply from his flying buddy Sam Jay. It's hard to make out Sam's instructions over the radio chatter and the airplane noise. I'm sitting in the passenger seat of Mike's Cessna as he prepares for takeoff. Except it's not a real cockpit, but rather a home-built replica with $5.000 worth of computer gear and aircraft parts. The windscreen is a 46-inch LED television monitor that offers the pilot's point of view, as well as exterior elevations. The graphics are outstanding.

A 7.9 magnitude earthquake has hit Greater Vancouver and first responders -fire trucks, ambulances and police cars -race down key thoroughfares enroute to the catastrophe. They're called Disaster Response Routes, or DRR's, and you've seen the signs, black and yellow triangles, posted along all the major thoroughfares.

Ann Eynon loves her new digs. Her small one-and-a-half storey house is modern, efficient and close to family. In fact, Ann's grandchildren are no more than six metres away in the "big house"on the other side of the property Ann shares with her daughter and her son-in-law.