Email: mike -at- mikecampbell dot net
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Reading Brian Greene's "The Fabric of the Cosmos" and |
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Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)
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Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada "Of Interest To Me" April 21, 2005
Saturday, July 31, 2004
As has been the case in the past, the arrival of the Tall Ships at Halifax is accompanied by beautiful, warm weather. The waterfront is hopping. The Campblog sent out its cub reporter this morning to take some pics. Here's the official site, and the CBC coverage site. Not as many A Class ships as there were in 2000 (my photos of that visit are found here), but still a good show.
Here are some of the figureheads, Mike Campbell photos all.
Sailors polish the figurehead of Mexico's 'Cuauhtemoc', named for the last of the Aztec emperors.
The figurehead of the US Coast Guard Ship 'Eagle' is a beauty.
Britannia-esque in form, this figurehead is of the Dutch 'Europa'
I believe this one is from Southhampton's 'Tenacious'
Figurehead of the Romanian tall ship 'Mircea'
You may go ahead and acquire your own figurehead. Check out the Valhalla Collection of Britain's National Maritime Museum. Carol Olsen writes of ships' figureheads from literature.
Instapundit reports that Michael Moore is receiving criticism from unlikely quarters, and links to the Christopher Hitchens piece on Kerry's firehouses comment.
The Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City is one of the classic CP hotels, along with the Banff Springs, Toronto's Royal York (once the city's tallest building) and the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. The Chateau was designed by New York architect Bruce Price for Canadian Pacific Railroad president William Van Horne. It opened in 1893. Mike Campbell photo.
The Campblog recommends EA Sports' 2004 FIFA Soccer game for PS2. Enjoyed it at a friend's place and had to run out and pick it up myself. Excellent play rendering and lots of different teams/leagues/national sides to play. I'll have to suit up as Greenock Morton and try to kick Man.U.'s ass.
I saw some guy on Canada's sci-fi network discussing a possible return to the Moon. The Moon?
The Campblog is not against another moon shot, and the eventual Moon Base Alpha kinda deal. But I was struck though by the comments by the scientist interviewed (didn't catch his name). He claimed that we're running out of oil. We have just another 50 years or so of oil left (Ed: of known reserves, ugh) and that if people think that we're just going to rely on hydrogen fusion for power, we'll need platinum, so we should mine the moon to find the platinum.
What about solar power, Mr. Scientist guy? I understand from my Lomborg reading that solar power is becoming less costly by half each decade and that we should be using it commercially by 2040 or 2050, supplanting non-renewable energy resources. So long, CO2 emisions.
But, the return to the moon advocates are trying to use an economic argument for going there. Why discuss solar power? I don't really think a cost-benefit analysis is going to do it; besides, do we have enough information on lunar geography to estimate mineral/metal reserves? Let's go do it because we can. Let's do it because it would be supercool. Let's go do it because we're a species of explorers and inventors and innovators. Let's go do it because the planet could explode some day and we'll need a handful of humans to survive as the Moon gets thrown across the galaxies. Dammit, do we need another reason??
Later: The Flea supports a moonbase, given certain fashion provisos.
Saturday, July 17, 2004
No Posts
Will be back posting later next week ~ cheers, Dear Reader.
The Winston Review of Blogs, edition 2, is up. Go check it out.
Armageddon. Deaths. Signs of the Apocalypse. Grievous Angels.
It's all there over at Switching to Glide.
Don't forget, the STG Summer Glider Drive is still in full force.
Friday, July 16, 2004
Dear Reader, you will know by now my love of my hometown, Halifax. I have devoted much effort over the years in building an online tour of the city and its history. Aside from the photographical and technical aspects, it took a great deal of research and reading (not onerous, certainly, as it was a personal interest). If you go to my History of Halifax section and click on 'Visitors', you'll see the following:
The city of Halifax, which has a wonderfully unique blend of the historic and the modern, has grown out of its military past into the thriving modern capital of Nova Scotia. The great harbour has seen countless ships come and go over the years, often to the ebb and flow of the tides of war. Here is some info on just some of those who arrived here by sea to the world’s second largest ice-free harbour.
The First Peoples American Civil War The First European Explorers The Halifax Explosion Duc D'Anville Hitler's War The Founding of Halifax Modern Day Halifax Royal Visitors Tall Ships 2000 pics The First Peoples
The harbour at Halifax, once called Chebucktook or Chebucto, first saw human beings many thousands of years ago, following the retreat of the glaciers of the last Ice Age, with the arrival of the Mi’kmaq, an Algonquian tribe which established itself in the area of Nova Scotia and the Maritime provinces perhaps some eleven thousand years ago. The Mi’kmaq (pron. ‘meegh-mah’) who resided at Halifax came there to hunt and fish during summer, and travelled back along the Nova Scotia waterways to the head of the Minas Basin in the Bay of Fundy for the winter months.
For thousands of years, the Harbour would see no other visitors until the arrival of European fishing and exploration expeditions beginning in the early 15th century. Return to Top of Page
The First European Explorers
Samuel de Champlain arrived at the coast of Acadie (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) in 1604. Although he did not stay at Chebucto (Halifax), he referred to it as "une baie fort saine", or "a good safe bay". A French fishing station was established at Chebucto by 1698, on McNab's Island in the middle of the great harbour. At this time, French missionary Father Peter Thury was at Halifax preaching to the Mi'kmaq. He is the first recorded missionary in this area. He celebrated Easter with the Mi'kmaq to coincide with their ancient spring festival. French botanist Diereville arrived in 1699 to obtain plants for the royal gardens. At his arrival at Chebucto on the ship La Royale Paix, three Mi'kmaq chiefs greeted him in canoes, declared themselves Christians and showed him Father Thury's grave.
etc.
My stuff has been on the internet for over four years.
Now head on over to a website called Take Her Sailing dot com and read an article on Halifax Harbour, "Contributed by Mike and Barb Turney, SV Nelleke". It begins:
The city of Halifax, which has a wonderfully unique blend of the historic and the modern, has grown out of its military past into the thriving modern capital of Nova Scotia. The great harbour has seen countless ships come and go over the years, often to the ebb and flow of the tides of war. Here is some info on just some of those who arrived here by sea to the world’s second largest ice-free harbour.
A SHORT HISTORY
The First Peoples
The harbour at Halifax, once called Chebucktook or Chebucto, first saw human beings many thousands of years ago, following the retreat of the glaciers of the last Ice Age, with the arrival of the Mi’kmaq, an Algonquian tribe which established itself in the area of Nova Scotia and the Maritime provinces perhaps some eleven thousand years ago. The Mi’kmaq (pron. ‘meegh-mah’) who resided at Halifax came there to hunt and fish during summer, and travelled back along the Nova Scotia waterways to the head of the Minas Basin in the Bay of Fundy for the winter months.For thousands of years, the Harbour would see no other visitors until the arrival of European fishing and exploration expeditions beginning in the early 15th century.
The First European Explorers
Samuel de Champlain arrived at the coast of Acadie (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) in 1604. Although he did not stay at Chebucto (Halifax), he referred to it as "une baie fort saine", or "a good safe bay". A French fishing station was established at Chebucto by 1698, on McNab's Island in the middle of the great harbour. At this time, French missionary Father Peter Thury was at Halifax preaching to the Mi'kmaq. He is the first recorded missionary in this area. He celebrated Easter with the Mi'kmaq to coincide with their ancient spring festival. French botanist Diereville arrived in 1699 to obtain plants for the royal gardens. At his arrival at Chebucto on the ship La Royale Paix, three Mi'kmaq chiefs greeted him in canoes, declared themselves Christians and showed him Father Thury's grave.
The TakeHerSailing.com article continues to lift my writing in its entirety -- all 3,150 words of it -- with zero mention of my name or website. The article links to other sections of my Halifax tour (which is how I came across this TakeHerSailing website), but there is no mention of me as the author of the piece or a link to the page from which it is taken; they were merely hyperlinks embedded in my article that they lifted. Oh, it does mention as it's source "Halifax Website" ~ sorry but I'm not impressed. PATHETIC!
You can email them here and express your concerns, as I have done. "Copyright", my ass.
Later: It's cool; I've received satisfaction.
Vast right wing conspiracy member and Ralph Nader supporter Dave Kopel has prepared a pretty exhaustive list of distortions from F9/11. I'll stop posting about that movie; this one pretty much covers all the bases.
The Meatriarchy has announced the first winner of the 'Who Is John Galt? Award'.
Alan can't think of a way to address this story; don't blame him. I'll say at least that it's time for some of that creative sentencing we've been hearing so much about.