Opinion

Alta States is all about celebrating the many — and varied — voices of the Whistler community (in its broadest definition). So in this very first column of 2008, I’ve decided to step back and let some of them speak to you directly. Listen well.

On July 24 last year Whistler council announced its priorities to the end of its present term, in November 2008.

It’s hard being a technology writer on a budget, writing for a small-town newspaper that doesn’t get sent samples of all the latest gadgets for testing.

Away with the manger The manger in Pemberton provided quite the topic for discussion in December.

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympics finished 2007 with a flurry of announcements and good-news headlines. And VANOC deserves hearty congratulations for many of its accomplishments.

A solution for all This letter was addressed to the mayor and council. A copy was forwarded to Pique for publication.

She was The Bond Girl. A long-legged acrobatic skier from England who’d learned her stuff on a plastic-covered slope in Southampton (with a whopping vertical drop of 110 metres), Julia Snell was a sophisticated young athlete with a promising future.

If for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us; please get out of the way.

It’s been a big year for technology, no question.

The earth is loaded with rare and precious materials, from tiny grains of radioactive isotopes to pouches of hand-picked saffron — pound for pound one of the most expensive spice and dyes on the planet, with prices varying from $1,000 to $10,000 for