Morning Brew: July 4, Rise of the Citizen Journalist?

One of the city's most important journalists, Frances Bula, has resigned from the Vancouver Sun. I blame that 'cute German immigrant who switched to Molson' article I vented about on Wednesday. Or maybe it was this recent reader poll: what would you like to see demolished pre-Olympics? Anyway, excited for whatever comes next. From Bula, that is... lets try and keep "Olympic demolition" metaphorical, at least until the riots. Oh, but some good news - looks like the downtown homeless will avoid a pre-olympic sweep.

Harper has upped his lawsuit against the liberals by $1 Million for 'misappropriation of personality'. Ummmm... I guess now he's definitely too lame to take my vote for most mediocre Canadian. I really like this random but wonderful blog post I found while searching for 'Harper + idiot'. Oh, and he's gonna pay for this lawsuit himself, right?

Bob Russell has a good editorial up on why the carbon tax isn't really about the environment, how Campbell botched it big time, and why the opponents still need to shut up.

The Vancouver police crack down on biking without a helmet. Nobody in bike-mad Amsterdam wears one, but c'mon, we all know you drive safer stoned. Here in Vancouver, you may be blitzed behind the one-speed... but the self absorbed dude behind the SUV probably isn't. To be honest, I can't really understand not wearing one. Aside: anyone know what the fine looks like for riding completely naked? [NSFW]

Looks like we may be swapping one overpriced Swedish meatball (too cold?) for another, as Sundin could join the Canucks while Naslund leaves for New York...

A recent study of the 'scientific' variety has declared that tripping on 'shrooms can be a positive experience. The nonist nails it on the willful ignorance of this kind of research. Reminds me of this onion classic.

Downtown Eastside demographics. Yep, they're "poor, sick, and aboriginal, and they think their housing sucks." Oh, and they do drugs.

30,000 Atlantic Salmon escape from a farm north of Campbell River. Learn about the danger fish farms pose to wild Pacific salmon stocks over at Save Our Salmon.

Do we need a new Canadian canon? Five experts pick their top ten Canadian novels. I can't pinpoint the problem (still too busy trying to figure what it "means to be Canadian"), but studying Canlit in academia always left a bad taste in my mouth. Regardless, Beautiful Losers should be on every list.

15 'young' Canadian artists have been named finalists in the RBC Painting Competition, including five from Vancouver. From the Aesthetic Poetic: ten classic Canadian artworks.

Shit, Collective Soul are still together?! That one takes me back to sixth grade... and definitely not in a good way. Go listen to this brilliant song by the virtually unknown Quinn Walker on repeat to cleanse those ears.

Sean was going off about his emo collection yesterday. Which gives me an excuse to link to this 'graphical' music blog: emo + beer = busted career. If you're an Animal Collective fan, he nails it on the new, unreleased material; pretty mindblowing stuff.

Oh yeah... and it's the fourth of July. Let's all take a moment to celebrate the land of opportunity.

photo by a certain Sean Orr, of the BR flickr pool