Earth orbiter will try to determine whether gravity does indeed bend time, space

Tom Spears
Sun

Canadian and U.S. scientists will spend the next year testing whether Einstein was right or wrong in thinking that Earth — and other heavenly bodies — bend space and time with their gravity.

Today NASA plans to launch the experiment that astrophysicists have been planning since 1958. They’ll send a three-tonne Thermos bottle of liquid helium into Earth’s orbit, where it will fly at twice the altitude of most space shuttles.

Monday’s planned launch was postponed because of high winds.

Watching the magnetic field of the spinning gyroscopes inside the probe will test whether space and time actually curve under Earth’s gravity. It’s the latest in nearly a century of experiments to test different aspects of Einstein’s revolutionary theory of relativity.

So far, these tests have found he was bang on.

The current understanding of gravity works well enough to predict movements in the solar system, says Michael Bietenholz, a York University astronomer involved in the new Gravity Probe B project.

But the solar system isn’t that big. The universe is so much larger that even the tiniest flaw in the theory would cause errors on a huge scale.

“It would be nice to send spaceships a billion light years away to make measurements, but we can’t,” he said. “The alternative is to try and measure very, very precisely, close to Earth to see if the theory holds up . . . . If it doesn’t agree then that’s a sign that the theory is wrong and we need a different picture.”

Most of the betting is that Einstein’s theory was right, he adds, “because it has stood up very well so far.”

Gravity B contains four gyroscopes, each a sphere of quartz the size of a tennis ball, coated with a superconductor metal and able to spin 10,000 times a minute. They are probably as close to round as anything ever made.

As these spin they produce a magnetic field, which shows scientists on Earth the exact axis of the spin. If the axis shifts, they believe, this will show where space and time are bending under the influence of Earth’s gravity.

As well, the international science group led by Stanford University hopes to find evidence of “frame dragging.” This means that Earth’s rotation makes time and space rotate with it — as theory says time and space swirl around the dense centre of a black hole.

These effects “are fairly obscure by layman’s standards. But it’s our theory of gravity, which is fundamental to our understanding of the universe,” Bietenholz said.

But all this depends on the ability of the satellite and its gyroscopes to point themselves in exactly the right direction. And Canada‘s role is to give the satellite something to aim at, like a ballerina who focuses on one spot in the room to keep her turns precise.

Einstein proposed general relativity — that space and time are affected by gravity — in 1915. But he became a worldwide celebrity four years later, when the solar eclipse of November 1919 gave scientists a chance to test his revolutionary ideas.

When the sun disappeared behind the moon, observers were able to chart the position of distant stars on the far side of the sun.

Their positions appeared just a tiny bit out of place — because their light was being bent by gravity as it passed close to our sun.

As in 1919, today’s test of Einstein has to focus on a distant star.

A star called IM Pegasi (in the constellation Pegasus) will be a reference point for the satellite, just as stars serve for navigation on Earth.

The problem is that stars move, and even a slow motion across the sky will confuse the satellite.

So a team at York University will “fix” the star, plotting its exact location as it travels so that the satellite can compare space near Earth with the fixed star. If the picture wobbles, that will show where space and time are bending around Earth.

Launching the experiment and running it for 16 months will cost $700 million US.

The much smaller Gravity A probe flew for just two hours in 1976.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

Sun

VANCOUVER – Hastings Mill Store, the only building that was built before Vancouver‘s Great Fire of June 13th, 1886 that is still standing, endures as an important part of Vancouver‘s heritage.

Vancouver‘s first store and post office has been operated by its owners, the Native Daughters of B.C. Post No. 1, since 1930, when it was barged to its current site on Alma Road. Filled with artifacts of Vancouver‘s history, the museum provides a look at Vancouver‘s past.

You can be a part of preserving and sharing this vital part of Vancouver‘s history if you are a woman born in B.C. who’s over 18.

If you are interested in applying or want more information about Hastings Mill, please phone 604-986-0863.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

Sun

The Pantages Theatre was built in 1907-8 by show-biz legend Alexander Pantages, and is the oldest survivor of a chain of 70 vaudeville houses that stretched across North America.

Pantages Theatres were known for their opulence and several have been restored in recent years, including the Pantages Playhouse in Winnipeg (built in 1914), the Pantages in Toronto (1920) and the Pantages at Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles (1930). The Hollywood Pantages was the original home of the Academy Awards.

Pantages built his Vancouver theatre in the heart of the city’s then commercial and entertainment district. There were 10 theatres on Hastings near Main just after the turn of the last century, including the Rex, the Regal, the National, the Columbia, the Empire, the Majestic, the Province, the Princess, the Crystal, the Empress and the Pantages.

The opening night program on Jan. 7, 1908, included Wallace, “the untamable lion”; vaudevillians Bunth and Rudd; the Rusticana Trio, “Italian street singers”; comedians Mr. and Mrs. Chick; B.B. Vincent, a “pleasing baritone,” and musicians Davey and Everson.

Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy are said to have graced the Pantages stage.

In 1917 Pantages built a second, grander theatre at 20 West Hastings and sold his original theatre. It was converted to a movie house in the late 1920s, and in the early 1930s survived a fire in the projectionist’s booth. In 1933, someone threw a bomb into the theatre during a labour meeting, damaging the lobby.

Alexander Pantages recruited some of his family members to move to Vancouver to run his theatres, and the Vancouver branch is still thriving. One of his cousins, Peter, started the New Year’s Polar Bear Swim in 1920, and Pantages family members are still involved in the event.

The theatre has been closed since 1994. It last operated as the Sung Sing, a Chinese-language theatre, but has had several names over its lifetime — the Pantages, Royal, State, Queen, Avon and City Nights.

The interior of the theatre is a bit rough, with some water damage from a leaky roof and lots of peeling paint. All the seats have been removed. But the grandeur of the vaudeville palace is easy to see in the soaring proscenium arch that frames a stage and the ornate golden decorative work on the walls.

The building was sold in 1999 to the Pantages Preservation Society, a non-profit group headed by video and music producers Dana Barnaby and Shayne Wilson. They couldn’t come up with the money to restore it, and it sat empty until it was once again listed for sale.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

HISTORY I Yip Sang was involved in recruiting many of the labourers who helped build the railway

John Mackie
Sun

The Wing Sang building was built in 1889 by Yip Sang, a Chinatown merchant who had a long and prosperous association with the Canadian Pacific Railway — he was involved in recruiting many of 6,000 to 7,000 Chinese labourers who helped build it.

After the railway was completed Yip built an empire out of an import-export business, the Wing Sang Company. His building was the unofficial bank of Chinatown, where workers could send money to relatives in China and book passage on steamships to the homeland.

The original two-storey brick building was added to in 1901 and 1912, so it extends over four lots and includes a three-storey building in the front, a six-storey building in the back and 40,000 square feet of space. The rear building was built to house Yip’s large family — he had four wives and 23 children. One of his sons, Dock Yip, was the first Chinese-Canadian lawyer in Canada. Another, Quene, was a soccer star.

The Wing Sang building houses all sorts of historical quirks. The main floor of the 1889 building is a few steps below street level because it was built before the street was paved. The second floor now has a door to nowhere, but originally it could be opened and goods hoisted into the warehouse upstairs.

You enter the back building via an alley just to the west of the building, or through an elevated walkway that connects the third floor of the front building to the fourth floor of the one behind. But you can’t see the rear building from the street, because there is a small wooden facade blocking off the alley.

The front building is in remarkable shape, with upper floors that could be straight out of 1889: Floor-to-ceiling wainscotting, century-old linoleum and even a blackboard where Yip Sang’s children studied their lessons. But someone has stolen the fir flooring in the second storey because the old wood is now worth a small fortune. The back building has been vacant since 1975 when the city brought in bylaws that would have required the Yip family to spend a prohibitive amount of money on upgrades. Pigeons have infested every square inch of the place.

The Yip family sold the building in 2001.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

HERITAGE I The former Pantages is the oldest theatre in Western Canada

John Mackie
Sun

Two of Vancouver‘s most significant heritage buildings are being sold and may be restored to their former glory.

Condo king Bob Rennie has purchased the Wing Sang building at 51 East Pender, the oldest building in Chinatown, while Edmonton developer Worthington Properties is negotiating to purchase the former Pantages Theatre at 150 East Hastings. It’s the oldest theatre in western Canada.

The Wing Sang building dates to 1889, when Vancouver was only three years old. It was built by Chinatown patriarch Yip Sang.

Rennie plans a full heritage restoration of the brick structure, which is actually two buildings spread over three lots. The tentative plan is install his offices and an art gallery in the front building and convert the six-storey building in the rear to loft condos.

“It was an absolutely emotional purchase,” said Rennie, who says he has loved the building for years. “I was just at the front of the line and was willing to buy it with no survey, no seismic, no environmental, I just bought it.”

Rennie plans to team up with one of the developers he has worked with to complete the project.

“It will probably bankrupt me,” said Rennie, who paid $1 million for the building. “I was able to acquire the land, with a mortgage, but I’m not the guy who’s going in with a blank cheque.

“We are going to do it as an art form,” he laughed. “Which doesn’t make development sense.“

Worthington, meanwhile, is negotiating to buy the Pantages and four adjacent properties on East Hastings for an undisclosed amount. The 2004 property assessment for the five properties is $1,258,000, but the purchase price is likely closer to $2 million.

Worthington‘s Marc Williams said the company is exploring possibilities for the site, such as building high-rise housing. If it closes the deal, the Pantages will be restored.

“Certainly no matter what we’re going to do there, we’re going to be working to restore the Pantages,” said Williams.

It won’t be cheap. Williams said it may cost up to $3 million to restore the 1907-8 theatre, which had several names throughout its lifetime, including the Pantages, Royal, State, Queen, Avon, City Nights and Sung-Sing. The 620-seat venue has been closed since 1994.

The key to the Pantages deal is whether Worthington can come up with a plan for the four adjacent properties at 130, 132, 134 and 138 East Hastings. The buildings are small one and two-storey commercial properties which probably date from the early 1900s.

The most significant is 130 East Hastings, which was the home of the Blue Eagle Cafe from 1944 to 2000. The Blue Eagle had one of the city’s most famous neon signs, and elaborate interior tile, which may be from an earlier restaurant. Several were located there in the 1920s and ’30s, including the White Lunch, the Golden Gate Cafe and the New Atlantic Cafe.

Williams couldn’t say whether any facades might be retained in a new development.

“We still have to evaluate exactly what we can do and what would be the best use for the site,” said Williams. His company has worked with heritage properties in Edmonton, and also has done affordable housing projects and regular condos.

Worthington is doing another high-profile conversion in Gastown at the former Koret of California building at 55 East Cordova at Columbia.

The five-storey, 145,000-sq.-ft. structure was built in 1907 for McLennan McFeely and Co., a hardware company. A sixth storey will be added to bring the building to 167,000 sq. ft. during the conversion to commercial live/work studios. The former Canadian Pacific Railway behind the building will become green space.

Williams said 118 units will be available in the $30 million project, ranging in size from 670 to 2,000 sq. ft. They will cost from $200,000 to over $1 million. The lofts go on sale today.

A third historic building at 1 West Pender, at Carrall, has been purchased by investment analyst and Simon Fraser University chancellor Milton Wong for $1.5 million.

It was built in 1901 as the Chinese Freemasons Building, but Wong’s interest in it comes from the fact his father’s business, Modernize Tailors, began there in the early 1900s and remained there 50 years until it moved to 511 Carrall.

Milton Wong was unavailable for comment. But his elder brother Bill — an 82-year-old who still runs Modernize Tailors with his 80-year-old sibling Jack — said the family is pleased with the purchase.

“The family has an attachment to it,” said Bill Wong. “It makes more sense for him to buy the building than anybody else. I’m glad he bought the building. Hopefully he can do something with it.”

Rennie also feels an emotional bond to his new building. He grew up in East Vancouver and was always fascinated with the Wing Sang building, a distinctive structure with a unique second-storey door to nowhere facing the street. It used to be a loading door.

“This is absolutely personal,” he said. “It’s one I’ve always sort of driven by and followed. I was told it was sold, and then in the middle of selling 493 suites [in one day] at Yaletown Park, the realtor phoned and said ‘You have until five o’clock.’ So I met him at Starbucks on Robson at five o’clock and stepped up.”

Rennie believes Chinatown is on the cusp of renewal — “I think that Chinatown is five minutes away from coming back” — and he wants to be part of it.

“You know, there’s something very satisfying about being part of the restoration of Chinatown. I think what’s going to save it is to have people walking the streets that live and work in the area, and start walking across the street for coffee and actually using the area, rather than just driving there and going home.

“It has to be restored. It’s not whether we should or we shouldn’t, I just think that if we participate in this city, we should be part of the restoration of Chinatown.”

That is music to the ears of Carol Lee, the daughter of real estate tycoon Bob Lee and granddaughter of Chinatown legend Lee Bick. A year ago Lee moved her office to her grandfather’s old headquarters in a 1907 building at 127 East Pender, determined to help Chinatown come back.

“I’m very much committed to the neighbourhood,” said Lee. “This is a long-term process of revitalization. I don’t think anything is going to happen overnight, but it’s great that people are coming down here. I think it’s great Bob bought the building.”

Bill Wong is encouraged by all the real estate action. He also seems happy with the gentrification of nearby Strathcona neighbourhood, which he still calls by its original name, the East End.

“I notice a lot of professional people are buying houses down at the East End there,” he said. “They want to be close to downtown, close to where the action is, to BC Place and Stanley Park.”

But he cautions Chinatown won’t come back overnight.

“It will be very slow, it won’t be fast,” he said. “It’s a gradual process.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

Expert says bank sites aren’t protecting data the way they should

Damian Inwood
Province

Superstore follows rival, purchasing 980 stores across Canada

Chris Sorensen
Sun

TORONTO — American electronics retailer Circuit City Stores Inc., is following its chief rival into Canada with the purchase of InterTAN Inc., owner of the 30-year-old Radio Shack brand.

Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City, which operates 599 electronic superstores in the United States, said Wednesday it is offering $284 million US, or $14 a share, for InterTAN’s 980 retail stores across Canada.

Circuit City‘s move follows market leader Best Buy Co.’s foray into the Canadian market in 2001, when it bought 91 Future Shop locations for $377 million. Best Buy has since pursued a “dual-branding” venture in Canada, adding new stores and operating both brands side-by-side in some markets.

Circuit City, however, which has also bought a privately held music download company for an undisclosed amount, said the company is not planning a similar strategy.

“Our intention is to operate the InterTAN brand stores as they are today,” said company spokesman Bill Cimino. “We want the same folks running them. We think they have a great management team and we think they are a great company, and it’s our intention to let them continue to run their stores as they have been.”

In addition to the Radio Shack stores, InterTAN operates Battery Plus and Rogers Plus outlets in Canada. The Barrie, Ont.-based company posted profits of $7.7 million on sales of $403.1 million in the fiscal year ended in June.

Part of the deal, which has been approved by the boards of both companies, involves the sale of some of InterTAN’s private label products in Circuit City‘s U.S. outlets.

Jim Maddox, InterTAN’s chief financial officer, said those products will be made up of various “gifts and gadgets,” such as flashlights and digital clocks.

“Those are all types of things that we carry that [Circuit City doesn’t] have in their stores today,” Maddox said.

Circuit City is no doubt hoping the InterTAN deal will help it close the gap in market share between itself and Best Buy, whose sales at stores open at least 14 months increased 9.7 per cent in the most recent quarter — mostly at the expense of Circuit City, whose sales rose just one per cent.

The sales gain was the first in five quarters for Circuit City and followed a company decision to close down 19 outlets and cut 900 jobs in February. Profits during the period rose 26 per cent to $89.6 million.

Meanwhile, Best Buy saw its profits in its most recent quarter jump 51 per cent to $469 billion, fuelled in part by strong holiday sales of televisions and digital cameras.

Circuit City, whose stock has doubled in the past year, closed up 60 cents Wednesday to $11.30 US on the New York Stock Exchange.

On the Toronto Stock Exchange, InterTAN’s shares climbed $3.24 to close at $18.24.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

Sun

Peter Wilson
Sun

The idea of filing legal documents online makes some people nervous. After all, it would seem remarkably easy to alter an electronic document.

If you want to be paranoid about it, a few keystrokes and somebody else could own your house. A few more and who knows what could happen.

Not so, says Mark James, the corporate account manager with Adobe Canada, who worked with the Land Titles Branch on the documents for e-filing, which are in Adobe’s PDF format.

For one thing, once the lawyer or notary’s electronic signature is applied to the document, it’s figuratively frozen in time.

“Once the user signs, it puts a hidden stamp on that document that validates how that document looked at that time. We take a snapshot of that file.”

And, if the document is ever altered, the Adobe Acrobat program, which creates the PDF files, can tell if it’s been changed.

Not only that, but the reader of the document can do a rollback.

“So you can do a comparison as to how that document looked at the time it was signed and how it looks after the alteration.”

Another problem with electronic documents is that time changes technology.

A document created five years ago — because of changes in fonts and printing methods — could look completely different now both on-screen and when printed. Worse yet, if the document contained tables, key data could become misaligned.

With PDF, says James, the format gets locked in.

“So 20 years from now the document will look exactly the same, including the fonts and the graphics.”

If the document is ever sent out for review, said James, you not only know it won’t be altered but comments can be made on it without them becoming part of the document.

As well, said James, with paper documents that are examined they have to be removed from the archives holding them. This is not true of electronic documents where a copy can be made and send out and the original remains in the files.

Another company heavily involved in making e-filing work smoothly and securely in British Columbia is Vancouver‘s MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, which operates the BC OnLine service — over which e-filing is done — in a public/private partnership with the provincial government.

Roland Knight, the COO of MDA’s information products group said that the company has worked closely with the provincial law society to make sure they were happy.

“Number one you have to make sure that the document is coming from the person you think it’s coming from, so there’s an authentication process,” Knight said.

“And you have to make sure the documents are securely transmitted, that there are no errors in transmission that people don’t have the ability to alter the document.

MDA, said Knight, built the BC OnLine system and will be operating it.

“Basically, we’re responsible for accepting the orders and the government has the responsibility for basically maintaining the data base.”

Knight said that MDA, in addition to the e-filing part of the process is working on the e-conveyancing end of things so that eventually all the documents can be prepared electronically, and information passed between banks and lawyers and notaries even before e-filing takes place.

“We’ve done a joint venture with a company called Remote Law and they have software that allows you to basically do e-conveyancing.

“Prior to this one-stop shopping wasn’t there. Now a seamless end-to-end process is possible.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2004

Peter Wilson
Sun

For home buyers — and sellers too — the often heart-pounding closing-day legal runaround is nearing an end. Starting today, lawyers and notaries across British Columbia can file land-registry documents electronically.

What that will mean is that, eventually — as law firms sign on to the service — there will be no need for couriers to speed around the province, racing documents to land-titles office before closing time.

And there will be no more tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth as buyers and sellers worry that properties won’t get registered and, in turn, banks won’t be able to release mortgage money.

So far, only five law firms and one notary firm, all participants in a pilot program, have done this before in B.C. A few more such firms are expected to begin e-filing today.

Coincidentally, e-filing of documents with the provincial corporate registry, using similar methods through the BC OnLine system, began on Wednesday.

What the land registry e-filing change also means, say B.C. land-titles officials, is that no matter where you are in the province — 100 Mile House or Vancouver or Port Hardy — you can have the same service.

And a house sale in Port Hardy is exactly the example Darcy Hammett, director of registry programs standards and policy with the Land Title Branch, likes to use as an example of what can happen with paper filing.

“The documents end up on the lawyer/notary’s desk,” said Hammett. “Then they prepare that transfer on their PC. They print out a copy, and get everybody to execute.

“And then it’s got to get into that courier bag and it’s got to get to the land-titles office on that day. There are panics involved in doing that and a lot of express couriers and sometimes planes.”

Home purchases and land deals have failed, said Hammett, simply because documents didn’t get to a land-titles office by 3 p.m. on closing day.

Documents now available for e-filing include freehold transfer, mortgage, general instrument charge, general instrument release, declaration and electronic payment authorization. Before e-filing, the earliest lawyers and notaries could get registry numbers phoned back to them by the Land Titles Branch was at 11 a.m.

And that sometimes meant trouble, especially in cases where a string of properties was involved, said Hammett. The lawyers have to get the next deal going as soon as they get the registry number for the first property.

“You’ve got all these things pending and the trick is to get all the financials done and the cheques exchanged by the end of the banking day.”

With e-filing — using the Adobe PDF document format and the BC OnLine service jointly operated by MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates and the provincial government — the first numbers can come back as early as 6 a.m.

This gives the lawyers and notaries plenty of time to get the process completed by the end of the day.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004