Saturday - August 15, 2015
Up North In The UK
Even though this looks like a really cheesy photoshop, it isn’t.
Neither is it a still from the new Steven Moffat episode “Dr. Who meets the giant epiglottis”.
Nope. It’s a real person out for a back-country hike this week. Mid-August. In Scotland.
See, with all this Global Warming, they had a really rancid winter up there. And the snow still hasn’t fully melted. But what’s left behind is tunnels, like the runoff channels under a glacier. Which it almost is I guess.
So it makes for some neat pictures. And a whole lot of cold mud to slog through. But hey, it’s a sure cure for the summer heatwave! If there was any summer heatwave ...
Lots of neat pics, right here.
Posted by Drew458
on 08/15/2015 at 05:38 AM
Filed Under: • Adventure • Climate-Weather •
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Permalink • Monday - September 16, 2013
tough guy
A Fairbanks man punched a grizzly after the bear entered the camping tent he and his girlfriend were sleeping in at Sourdough Creek Campground.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that Jason Lauesen and Liz Pawelko were awakened about 6 a.m. on Labor Day by shaking and the entrance of a bear head, or maybe a paw, into Lauesen’s side of their tent.
At the time, Lauesen didn’t have his glasses on, and doesn’t know what part of the bear he made contact with. But whatever part of the bear entered the tent shredded the inflatable pad he was sleeping on.
After the encounter, the couple found the jacket Lauesen had been using as a pillow soaked in bear saliva that reeked of fish.
Posted by Drew458
on 09/16/2013 at 08:24 AM
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Permalink • Thursday - September 05, 2013
unplanned demolition derby on a bridge. Drew should love this.
100 car pile up, 200 injured this morning.
Reminds me of an olde song.
A foggy day in London town.
Tons of photos and video. Take a look at this mess. And they were stranded all day.
I guess cell phones really prove their worth in these situations as would tablets and Kindle.
Yikes, 30 degrees c. I think (?) that’s about 90 degrees in real temp. terms. I HATE centigrade. 30 tells me beans but hey, 90? Now that I can relate to.
Stranded on the road to nowhere for EIGHT hours: Chaos in Kent as 200 are injured in 100-vehicle pile-up on the Sheppey bridge‘Carnage’ on new Sheppey crossing bridge on A249 in Kent at 7.15am saw cars and lorries crash into each other
Eight people seriously injured and another 200 with minor injuries - but no fatalities after incident this morning
Scene was full of buckled cars, lorries and car transporter amid reports some motorists were driving ‘like idiots’
Stranded motorists forced to sit on Tarmac of closed road for up to eight hours in 30C heat but left area by 3pm
Local Conservative MP reveals he had concerns about design of bridge’s lighting and will talk to the authorities
AA chief says crash may have been caused by ‘stupid driving’ - specifically tailgating and not using fog lights
Police say it’s ‘truly miraculous’ that no one was killed in today’s pile-up, which saw 33 people taken to hospital
Lives probably saved after lorry driver uses truck to block bridge entrance and stop more cars piling into crash
Drivers may have been caught out by irregular nature of fog patches in South East this morning, forecasters say
Institute of Advanced Motorists: ‘Biggest single fog accident’ in British history - and it’s ‘amazing’ nobody diedBy Mark Duell
zillion more pix and video here at the source
Posted by peiper
on 09/05/2013 at 10:24 AM
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Permalink • Sunday - February 10, 2013
gettin down
If the plans hold up, I’ll be here the week before Thanksgiving.
Maybe I should take one of those PADI courses first.
Posted by Drew458
on 02/10/2013 at 11:43 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - January 02, 2013
Spies Wear Rayon
There’s the gal who leads a life of danger.
To everyone she meets she stays a stranger.
With every move she makes, another chance she takes.
Odds are she won’t live to run in ‘16.
Secret agent Hill
Secret agent Hill
They’ve given you a number,
and taken away your pantsuit.
this started to surface the day before yesterday ...
Clinton Injured, US Navy Seal Killed In Secret US Mission To Iran
A new Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the Kremlin today is saying that United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was injured, and a top US Navy Seal Commander killed when their C-12 Huron military passenger and transport aircraft crash landed nearly 3 weeks ago in the Iranian city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border.
Iranian intelligence agents quoted in this GRU report confirm that the C-12 Huron aircraft is still in their possession in Ahvaz, but will only admit that the plane was “forced to land because of technical problems”.
The US Navy Seal member reported killed in this bizarre incident, this report says, was iulencedentified as Commander Job W. Price [photo 3rd right] who as a leader of this highly specialized American Special Forces unit protects high-ranking diplomats traveling in Middle Eastern and Asian combat zones.
Upon the C-12 Huron landing at Ahwaz, however, this report says it encountered “extreme turbulence” causing it to leave the runway where its main landing gear then collapsed causing it to crash.
Within seconds of the C-12 Huron crashing, this report continues, Iranian emergency and security personal responded freeing the victims, including Secretary Clinton who was reportedly unconscious and “bleeding profusely.”
After emergency aid was given, GRU agents stationed in Iran state that another US military flight was dispatched from Bahrain to Ahwaz which evacuated all of those wounded and killed in the crash including Secretary Clinton.
Strangely to note, this report says, is that in the aftermath of this crash, Iran’s main oil company announced today that they were buying the Ahwaz airport with the intention of moving it because, they say, oil was discovered beneath it.
Oh, and I wonder if the Farsi way to spell “extreme turbulence” is M A N P A D S?
Oops ... maybe I shouldn’t be joking around about this ...
A startling Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the Kremlin today states that President Obama was informed by White House medical personal shortly after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s return to the United States that her health prognosis was “grim” as her likelihood of survival was “diminishing by the hour.”
Ordinarily, I’d say that if it was published in Pravda it must be true. But this was from a GRU report. You remember those guys. Like the KGB, only nastier. No reason they’d ever disseminate false information about the West. Nyet!
h/t to Da Bro
Posted by Drew458
on 01/02/2013 at 02:17 PM
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Permalink • Friday - May 25, 2012
On The Edge Of A Milestone African-American Achievement
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The privately bankrolled Dragon capsule approached the International Space Station for a historic docking Friday after sailing through a practice rendezvous the day before.
The unmanned SpaceX Dragon was on track most of the morning to deliver a half-ton of supplies and become the first commercial vessel to visit the space station. But as the capsule drew within 100 feet, flight controllers commanded it to retreat.
The capsule backed off to 230 feet as the SpaceX company worked to resolve a problem with the on-board tracking sensors. Stray reflections from the Japanese part of the space station were interfering with the Dragon’s laser-based sensors, officials said. SpaceX mission controllers quickly fixed the trouble and resumed the docking operation.
On Thursday, the capsule came within 1½ miles of the space station in a practice fly-by. It returned to the neighborhood early Friday so Kuipers and U.S. astronaut Donald Pettit could capture it with a robot arm. First, the capsule went through a series of stop-and-go demonstrations to prove it was under good operating control.
NASA ordered extra checks of the Dragon’s imagers as the capsule drew ever closer to the space station, putting the entire operation slightly behind schedule. Given that the Dragon is a brand new type of vehicle and this is a test flight, the space agency said it wanted to proceed cautiously.
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This is the first time a private company has launched a vessel to the space station, an achievement previously reserved for a small, elite group of government agencies.
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The California-based SpaceX — officially known as Space Exploration Technologies Corp. — is one of several companies vying for the chance to launch Americans from their homeland. That ability ended with NASA’s final shuttle flight last summer. To get to the space station, NASA astronauts must go through Russia, an expensive and embarrassing situation for the U.S. after a half-century of orbital self-sufficiency.SpaceX’s billionaire maestro, Elon Musk, who helped create PayPal, said he can have astronauts riding his Dragon capsules to orbit in three or four years. His Falcon 9 rockets lift off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
latest live blogging updates -
FRIDAY MORNING - Final Approach, Dragon Grapple
Around 2:00 AM Pacific/5:00 AM Eastern NASA will decide if Dragon is GO to move into the approach ellipsoid 1.4 kilometers around the space station. If Dragon is GO, after approximately one hour Dragon will move to a location 250 meters directly below the station. Dragon will then perform a series of maneuvers to show systems are operating as expected. If NASA is satisfied with the results of these many tests, Dragon will be allowed to perform the final approach to the space station.
Sometime around 6:00 AM Pacific/9:00 AM Eastern, astronauts on the space station will grapple Dragon with the space station’s robotic arm and the spacecraft will attach to the station.
Bayou Rocketry Blog has been following the Falcon 9/Dragon story since the beginning, and has some of the story of uber-geek Elon Musk:
It was bad SA television that gave Elon Musk part of his mysterious edge. As a 10-year-old he read whole volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica after emptying the family bookshelves — anything to avoid another episode of ChiPs or Die Man van Intersek.
Avoiding sports and bullies just as keenly, he sat alone in his boy cave at home in Pretoria, reading Jules Verne and playing Space Invaders. Now, 29 years later, Musk is still playing video games alone into the late hours of the night.
These days it is in a basement man cave in a leased mansion in Bel Air, California, where Musk, who sold his online payment system PayPal for R11bn in 2002, is plotting the future of the human race.
Sixteen months ago, the SA expat accomplished something only ever achieved by the governments of the US, Russia and China. He sent a spacecraft into orbit and then recovered it.
This Monday, he plans to change space flight forever, becoming the first entrepreneur to dock his own orbiter, Dragon, with the International Space Station.
And it literally is his spacecraft. Beyond founding his private SpaceX company in 2002, Musk likes to remind people that he is also the self-taught “chief designer” of the Falcon launch rockets and their Dragon capsules.
CrunchBase provides more info about Musk:
Elon Musk (born June 28,1971) is an entrepreneur and a co-founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and Space Exploration Technologies. He is chairman/CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and chairman of SolarCity.
Musk was born and grew up in South Africa, the son of a South African engineer and a Canadian-born mother who has worked as a New York City dietitian and modeled for fun. His father inspired his love of technology and Musk bought his first computer at age 10 and taught himself how to program; by the age of 12 he sold his first commercial software, a space game called Blaster.
He immigrated to Canada in June 1989 at age 17. He left Canada in 1992 after getting a scholarship to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned an undergraduate degree in economics and stayed on another year to finish a second bachelor’s degree in physics. Musk then considered three areas he wanted to get into that were “important problems,” as he said later. “One was the Internet, one was clean energy, and one was space.
In 1995, Musk moved to California to enroll in a graduate program in high energy physics at Stanford, in which he stayed exactly two days before dropping out to start Zip2, which provided online content publishing software for news organizations. In 1999, Compaq’s AltaVista division acquired Zip2 for US$307 million in cash and US$34 million in stock options.
Genius, entrepreneur, billionaire, super geek, Silicon Valley legend, and maybe even the real Iron Man. Perhaps the greatest success story to come out of Africa in the 21st century, if not the 20th as well. A genuine African-American success story, one of almost literally stellar magnitude. You would think he’d be an inspiration to everyone, everywhere, and a real hero within the community.
Elon Musk and one of his privately owned rocket ships
Oh. OH. Um, never mind.
UPDATE: GOTCHA!
Earlier this morning, the SpaceX Dragon capsule was successfully captured by the International Space Station Expedition 31 crew, making SpaceX the first commercial company to send a spacecraft to the ISS. The station’s robotic arm captured the Dragon at 9:56 a.m. ET after a journey that took three days, six hours, 11 minutes, and 23 seconds.
Dragon was later securely bolted to the Harmony module of the ISS at 12:02 p.m. ET.
Michael Suffredini, manager of the ISS program office, said he has talked many times about historic events and “this rates right at the top.”
“Having a contractor, relatively independent of NASA, design on its own a spacecraft that [they] tested and flew ... has been remarkable,” Suffredini said. “The spacecraft performed nearly flawlessly.”
Holly Ridings, NASA’s lead flight director for the SpaceX demo flight, added that it was a “really great day in space.”
Posted by Drew458
on 05/25/2012 at 08:52 AM
Filed Under: • Adventure • Africa • Space • Success Stories •
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Permalink • Monday - April 16, 2012
NIB Treasure Trove Found
Holy cow, it’s the mother lode. Not just some shot up wrecks found in the jungle, but straight from the factory aircraft still in their crates. And to a collector, nothing beats NIB: New In the Box, never opened, never played with. We’re talking dozens of millions of dollars here folks.
The extraordinary plans to dig up the lost squadron were revealed this weekend as David Cameron visits the country.
Now, David Cundall, 62, of Sandtoft, near Scunthorpe, has spoken about his quest to recover the Spitfires and get them airborne.
Mr Cundall has spent £130,000 of his own money, visited Burma 12 times, persuaded the country’s notoriously secretive regime to trust him, and all the time sought testimony from a dwindling band of Far East veterans in order to locate the Spitfires.
Yet his treasure hunt was sparked by little more than a throwaway remark from a group of US veterans, made 15 years ago to his friend and fellow aviation archaeologist Jim Pearce.
Mr Cundall said: “The veterans had served in a construction battalion. They told Jim: ‘We’ve done some pretty silly things in our time, but the silliest was burying Spitfires.’
Mr Cundall realised that the Spitfires would have been buried in their transport crates. Before burial, the aeroplanes would have been waxed, wrapped in greased paper and their joints tarred, to protect them against decay. There seemed to be a chance that somewhere in Burma, there lay Spitfires that could be restored to flying condition.
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... finally, he found the Spitfires, at a location that is being kept a closely guarded secret. Mr Cundall said: “We sent a borehole down and used a camera to look at the crates. They seemed to be in good condition.”
Mr Cundall explained that in August 1945 the Mark XIV aeroplanes, which used Rolls-Royce Griffon engines instead of the Merlins of earlier models, were put in crates and transported from the factory in Castle Bromwich, in the West Midlands, to Burma.
Once they arrived at the RAF base, however, the Spitfires were deemed surplus to requirements. The war was in its final months and fighting was by now increasingly focused on ‘island-hopping’ to clear the Japanese of their remaining strongholds in the Pacific. Land-based Spitfires, as opposed to carrier-based Seafires, did not have the required range.
The order was given to bury 12 Spitfires while they were still in their transport crates. Then two weeks later, the first atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The Japanese surrendered on September 2 1945.
The packing crates were protected by beams of teak. In addition to the 20 airplanes found, there are strong rumors of another 60 in several other burial spots. Considering that there are only about 35 air-worthy Spitfires in the word today, this is a treasure trove beyond fantasy. And the story gets better.
Spitfires buried in Burma during war to be returned to UK
Twenty iconic Spitfire aircraft buried in Burma during the Second World War are to be repatriated to Britain after an intervention by David Cameron. The Prime Minister secured a historic deal that will see the fighter aircraft dug up and shipped back to the UK almost 67 years after they were hidden more than 40-feet below ground amid fears of a Japanese occupation.
The gesture came as Mr Cameron became the first Western leader to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy campaigner held under house arrest for 22 years by the military regime, and invited her to visit London in her first trip abroad for 24 years.
[ Mr. Cundall relates more of his treasure hunt story: ] He eventually met one eyewitness who drew maps and an outline of where the aircraft were buried and took him out to the scene.
“Unfortunately, he got his north, south, east and west muddled up and we were searching at the wrong end of the runway,” he said. “We also realised that we were not searching deep enough as they had filled in all of these bomb craters which were 20-feet to start with. “I hired another machine in the UK that went down to 40-feet and after going back surveying the land many times, I eventually found them. “I have been in touch with British officials in Burma and in London and was told that David Cameron would negotiate on my behalf to make the recovery happen.”
Mr Cundall said sanctions preventing the removal of military tools from Burma were due to be lifted at midnight last night (FRI). A team from the UK is already in place and is expecting to begin the excavation, estimated to cost around £500,000, imminently. It is being funded by the Chichester-based Boultbee Flight Acadamy.
Mr Cundall said the government had promised him it would be making no claim on the aircraft, of which 21,000 were originally produced, and that he would be entitled to a share in them.
“It’s been a financial nightmare but hopefully I’ll get my money back,” he said. “I’m hoping the discovery will generate some jobs. They will need to be stripped down and re-riveted but it must be done. My dream is to have a flying squadron at air shows.”
Beyond fantastic. But why stop with one squadron Mr. Cundall? Why not make it two or three?
Broken Wings is a documentary film project currently in production in Melbourne, Australia. It follows the incredible legend that possibly as many as twelve brand new Spitfires still in their original packing crates are buried somewhere in southern Queensland. This documentary will explore the story from a range of perspectives and set out to discover whether in fact the aircraft do exist… and with a bit of luck, find them.
35 Spits flying now, another 20, and then another 60, and then another 12 or more? Can you imagine a flight of 150 Spitfires over London in the 21st Century? The English would lose their marbles and simply melt on the spot. So would I.
h/t to Peiper, who is too busy dealing with his life situation to post today. Get well soon Mrs. D!
Posted by Drew458
on 04/16/2012 at 07:12 AM
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Permalink • Wednesday - November 23, 2011
Up, up, and awaaaay! Um, nope.
We were comparing airline stories at bowling league last night (we lost 2-5 against the 1st place team, widening their lead to 16). Our teammate Bob took his wife down to Panama last week for their anniversary and was on this flight. He said it was pretty frightening but the passengers were quite calm, at least until just before landing when the pilot came on the PA to tell everyone to brace for impact. Then they landed reasonably smoothly. Good job Continental!
A Continental Airlines Boeing 737-900, registration N53442 performing flight CO-1022 from Panama City (Panama) to Newark,NJ (USA) with 176 people on board, was in the initial climb out of Panama when the left hand engine (CFM56) ingested a bird and repeatedly surged. The crew shut the engine down and returned to Panama City’s Tocumen Airport for a safe landing on runway 03R.
Panama’s Civil Aviation Authority [at first erroneously] reported the aircraft [as a different one that] was headed for Houston,TX (USA), however, this flight reached Houston on schedule.
Continental Airlines confirmed their flight 1022 returned to Panama due to necessary maintenance.
Nothing like your airliner shaking like a paint mixer while watching a 10 foot fireball coming out of one engine to liven up a long boring flight!
The Boeing 737-900 had just left Panama City when the bird was sucked into the engine, causing the pilot to radio the control tower for help. The aircraft carrying 176 passengers returned safely to Tocumen International Airport. VIDEO
The pilot was able to shut down the engine and get the plane back to the airport. A passenger on the plane wrote on a messageboard today, “Finally landed in Newark at 12:30 am this morning via Miami. It was a very scary experience. We took a Buzzard into the left engine when climbing after takeoff. This made an awful noise. Sort of like a truck backfire but bigger and did not stop. There was an air Wisconsin pilot in uniform, who was a passenger on the plane. He was the one who walked up the isle and looked out the bulkhead window to see the engine on fire. Pilots and CO flight staff were calm and helpful. The flight attendant in coach was terrific and prepped us for emergency landing. Noise and vibration had us all scared. We did not land for about 20 long minutes. We were out over the water when the noise started. Landing was fine but we burnt the brakes and wheels. We sat on the runway for almost one hour before departing to a bus. It was calm on the plane but once in the terminal, people were crying and hugging.”
Posted by Drew458
on 11/23/2011 at 09:30 AM
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Permalink • Friday - November 12, 2010
plane launced into space ….. and it’s made of paper … now that’s some kinda plane.
There has been a spot of trouble in the last few days with regard to so called students creating havoc and vandalism because of the raise in college tuitions.
Which this post isn’t about. I only bring it up to ask ....
Why can’t we have more folks like these and less like the slugs and slime that ran riot this week?
Always fascinated by people’s ingenuity. Especially on something like this. Hey, I bet if some govt. agency were doing this with a paper plane, the cost would have been in the billions. So many more hands to grease when dealing with govts. and committees.
Paper aeroplane launched into space captures breathtaking images
British space enthusiasts have made history by launching a paper aeroplane into space which captured a series of breathtaking images on its glide back to earth.By Murray Wardrop
The team crafted the aeroplane from sheets and straws of paper, fitted it with a camera and attached it to a helium weather balloon to lift it into the atmosphere.
After drifting 17 miles into space, the balloon exploded, allowing the 3ft wingspan aircraft to soar back to earth while taking pictures of its descent.
Code-named Operation PARIS (Paper Aircraft Released Into Space), the project saw the aeroplane take off from a remote area 50 miles west of Madrid, Spain on October 28.
Steve Daniels, Lester Haines and John Oates, who designed the plane, monitored its flight during its 90-minute ascent to 90,000ft using a GPS navigation system.
After the expanding helium caused the balloon to burst, they then tracked it as it glided downwards for another 90 minutes.
Remarkably, it landed only 100 miles from its release point in an area of woodland and was intact, save one small hole in its wing.
Mr Daniels, 42, an IT consultant from Paignton, Devon, said the team of amateur space explorers embarked on the project ‘’for a laugh’’ but ended up spending around £8,000.
The married father-of-two said: ‘’Somebody launched a bit of cheese out of a balloon, which we thought was bit stupid.
‘’We thought we could do something more technical than that. It seems really silly but it was brilliant fun.
‘’Nobody had ever done it before, so we were worried about what could go wrong. It was a little bit stressful.’’
The three enthusiasts got together after discussing the project on the IT website The Register and were sponsored by Peer One Networking.
Mr Oates, 39, from London, added: “We wanted a daft project but we were amazed by how successful it was. We are absolutely delighted.
“I never thought we would find the plane at all. It could have ended up anywhere and I thought it would be smashed to pieces.
“To find it intact in such a wild area was amazing. There was a small hole in the wing, but otherwise it was fine.”
GO HERE FOR THE VIDEO FROM THE BBC
Posted by peiper
on 11/12/2010 at 08:14 AM
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Permalink • Sunday - August 22, 2010
A YOUNG GIRL AND THE SEA …. SHE’S GONNA SEE LOTS OF IT
I don’t suppose anyone but me cares a lot but ....
This lovely and brave young girl has set sail. She left secretly yesterday from Gibraltar .... I wish her well. I’d have never thought of doing that when I was that age or 20 or any other age. I’m sure there will be ships on the lookout and there must be a support flotilla. Something. Still. Gutsy kid and I hope she makes it in great shape.
MIDDELBURG, Netherlands – The new cushions, sunshade and bright red sail are in place. And now 14-year-old Laura Dekker has the go-ahead she needs.
A Dutch court ruled Tuesday the girl who was born on a yacht in the South Pacific is ready to embark on her dream of becoming the youngest person to sail solo around the world – meaning she could set sail in two weeks in a ketch named Guppy.
“I was so happy I almost jumped into the water,” the teen gushed, after hearing the court’s decision.
The above was a blurb in another paper in the Netherlands a month ago.
All I have here is the caption to her photo and I can’t get into the Times where the pix was run. Doesn’t matter. Those interested will search, this is the bare bones. Not much more to add to it unless we get into navigation and maps etc.
Posted by peiper
on 08/22/2010 at 01:10 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - August 19, 2010
DAS BOOT …….. H/T Drew for the inspiration … th th th that’s all folks …
Drew posted some lovely boats I enjoyed seeing. They also qualify as eye candy.
Well, I’m not trying to upstage friend Drew BUT .... this was in the paper and I admit while I am attracted to the canoe these folks have, I kinda like the lady a lot too. OK, I think she’s really pretty and maybe even prettier then the boat. But they go together you see.
What a catch she was for this guy. Read on and see the link for more.
What a catch! Humble British fisherman lands billionaire Canadian boss’s daughter and returns on bride’s £100m superyacht
By Luke Salkeld
Before he left his home town, he worked on a little old boat taking holidaymakers on trips to catch mackerel.Guy Barnett returned in style aboard a £100million superyacht.
The 35-year-old sailed into Dartmouth on the 247ft Northern Star and invited old friends to celebrate his best catch yet.
Mr Barnett, who left Devon to work as a deck hand for a Canadian billionaire, ended up marrying the boss’s daughter and heiress.
He and his bride, the former Sarah Risley, are honeymooning on board the six-deck yacht, which was chartered by her father John as part of their wedding present.
The couple hosted lunch for 30 guests in Dartmouth harbour, followed by an evening party when another 50 arrived on board.
It is eight years since Mr Barnett went to work for 62-year-old Mr Risley, owner of the largest fishing fleet in North America and known as the ‘Rockefeller of the North’.
And hey folks .... how’s this for a dining room ....
The couple then flew to Europe for the wedding celebration on the Northern Star, which is based in Gibraltar and costs £533,000 a week to charter.
Father of the bride John Risley, 62, a native of Nova Scotia, started his career with a small lobster shop in 1976 and went on to become the founder and director of Clearwater Seafoods.
The firm operates a large fleet of vessels and processing plants throughout Eastern Canada.
Mr Risley’s empire also includes a telecommunications firm which operates in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as a fisheries research and development business.
So we bid fair well to the happy couple with good wishes for the future and the hope that an unbreakable prenuptial agreement is in place. Failing that, then daddy has excellent mafia connections.
Click on the happy couple to see more at the source.
Posted by peiper
on 08/19/2010 at 03:55 PM
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Permalink • Thursday - July 08, 2010
True Spirit
True grit and bloody stubbornness pays off with some help from Mother Nature
Scores of sailors from across the country have made the long journey into the Outback to take part in the event in the middle of the Simpson Desert.
A monsoon in Queensland in February, during which six inches of rain fell in one day, with some towns recording their average annual rainfall in just 24 hours, has sent flows of water rushing into a series of inland lakes and rivers in remote South Australia.
The influx of water has been so large and sustained that, for the first time in more than 20 years, some of the desert lakes are now deep enough to sail on.
More than 200 sailors from around the country have converged on Lake Killamperpunna, 520 miles north of Adelaide, with catamarans, trimarans, speedboats and even water skis.
Normally a parched dust bowl, the lake has not been sailed on since 1989 but thanks to the rains, which have transformed the desert into lush wetlands teeming with plants and bird life, the water is up to 9ft deep in places and perfect for sailing.
Bob Backway, commodore of the Lake Eyre Sailing Club, said conditions were “beautiful” for the three-day regatta. The LESC was formed in 2000 but has never had enough water to host a regatta – until now.
“To think that just a month-and-a-half ago this area was just bone dry,” he said.
“[Now] you’re sailing on this beautiful lake that looks like it’s been there forever but hasn’t had water this depth in it for 20 years, it’s just ... out of this world.”
Mr Backway said yacht owners had travelled from across Australia to take advantage of the rare opportunity for “desert boating”.
In keeping with the Club’s fun approach to yachting in the outback events will be laid back - no strict racing rules. Participants may even choose to design their own events - the emphasis is on enjoying the rare privilege of sailing in the desert.
A bush camping area on the edge of the Lake Killamperpunna will be supplied with firewood for use in approved fireplaces, and there will be Cooper Creek water for washing.
It won’t be good for keel boats however - they’ll be off-the-beach sized yachts with appropriate safety gear as required by SA Marine Authority, or trailer sailors. While it’s possible for a two-wheel-drive vehicle to make the journey, most participants are expected to take 4WD’s.
Participants will have to camp, and even caravans have to be handled with care to make the journey. Drinking water will also have to be carried, as they are not recommending drinking the Cooper Creek water.
Shallow draft boats are an absolute must; the depth of the lake is measured in millimeters. Strong backs and waterproof boots are required as well: this lake is subject to the unusual phenomena of wind tides, which can range up to 600mm or more. But since the lake is so shallow, and the land around it is so flat - insanely flat, “undulating” less than 5m per 75km - that 600mm of tide means that the lake can move 1 to 3 kilometers overnight. And that’s a long long push for your little boat across the salt crusted black ooze and mud.
Lake Eyre [nicknamed “the plug hole of Australia"], Australia’s largest salt lake and the world’s 13th largest lake, is located in Northern South Australia. It’s drainage basin, of 1,140,000 square kilometers, covers 15% of the continent extending into the south-east of the Northern Territory and south west and central Queensland.
Lake Eyre North is 144km long North-South and 77km wide. The lowest point, in Lake Eyre North, is 15.2 metres below sea level and its deepest flood (20th century) was in 1974 at 5.7 meters. Lake Eyre South is 64km long East-West and 24km wide and has a maximum depth of 3.7 meters. The two Lakes are joined by the 15km long Goyder Channel through which water has flowed in either direction in recent history. Both lakes have a combined area of 9 690 square kilometers.
Adventurers interested in sailing the blood red lake for several days should bring camping equipment, food, several hundred liters of drinking water and a small pull-behind dingy to carry it. Camping can be done at almost any point around the lake, and it is suggested you bring your own porta-potty as well. The Lake Eyre Yacht Club web page has lots of tips and suggestions, along with information about several of the rather bothersome medical conditions that can result from exposure to, and immersion in, water of such high salinity. Little things like Onion Toe and Sea Ulcers. But the highly saline water seems to cure plantar warts, so it’s not all downside.
And if you stick around long enough, you can attend the Cudimurka Outback Ball, a galah candlelit bi-annual affair held this year in at the old Ghan station there. Thousands attend to dance and drink the night away. That’s assuming that the Kudimudra, the local version of the Chupacabra, doesn’t get you first. Be warned.
Gotta love the Aussies. Tougher than nails and having a grand time doing the improbable.
Posted by Drew458
on 07/08/2010 at 09:38 AM
Filed Under: • Adventure • Fun-Stuff •
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Permalink • Thursday - January 14, 2010
New Champion of a new sport
Most BMEWS readers will recognize the above as the title of Col. Jeff Cooper’s book. Half of you probably own a copy. It’s a book about being a sheepdog not a sheep. It’s a book about learning to use your guns and become a “shottist”. It’s a book about situational awareness. And so many other things. I’m borrowing the title because it boils down almost the entire cowboy ethos into 8 short words. Words which show that being called a “cowboy”, or referencing “cowboy diplomacy” is a great compliment, not the insult various euro-wienies think it is.
There is a sport played with guns called Cowboy Action Shooting. That’s right. A sport. Played. With guns. And bullets!! Actually, it’s a whole series of competitive events, dreamed up by, and organized by, the Single Action Shooting Society. You have to wear cowboy style clothing, use cowboy style firearms, go by a cowboy alias, and you compete in several kinds of cowboy styled shooting, like fast draw, long range buffalo hunting (using a steel buffalo), defending the stagecoach, or robbing the bank. Great fun is had by all.
I don’t do this sport. I’ve got nothing against the costume aspect, or the firearms used. I’m a little let down by their use of extremely low powered ammunition, or even blanks for some events, but safety has to be paramount. And before today, I was only aware of one “mounted” competition, in which the folks fired off shotguns while atop a barrel “horse” up on blocks. That just didn’t sit right with me. How the heck can you be a cowboy, even a modern weekends-only just for fun kind, without an actual honest-to-God horse?
Turns out I was under-informed. There is a competition that requires horses. It’s called Mounted Shooting. It’s a cross between barrel racing and target shooting. Ride your horse around a course and shoot 10 balloons as fast as you can, with a single action six-gun in each hand. The pistols are loaded with black powder blanks, but the blast from each shot is enough to burst a balloon from 10 to 20 feet away. Sounds like great fun, and it’s probably a big hit at rodeos too! (What do I know from rodeos? I live in New Jersey. Around here the only thing ever called a rodeo is a big flea market or used car sale.)
The sport is cut up into gender, age, and skill divisions, but they have an overall championship at the end of the season. And the overall champion for 2009 ... is Kenda Lenseigne from Ellensburg, Washington.
One perfect run.
That’s all that separates Kenda Lenseigne from something extraordinary: a world championship.
She waits to enter the arena and can almost hear the tension crackling in the air.
The crowd holds its breath, waiting for her.
It’s October and this cowgirl from Sultan is one run away from beating last year’s reigning world champion in mounted shooting.
Shooting from a horse has been around since the invention of guns.
This particular cowboy skill didn’t become a sport until 15 years ago. That’s when a few modern-day cowpokes found a safe way to combine horseback riding and shooting.
It would come to be known as Cowboy Mounted Shooting and it looks like this: Competitors riding a horse on a timed course lined with 10 balloons, shooting the targets as they go. Two pistols, five shots each.
Jim Rodgers, a dedicated rider from Arizona and the father of the sport, thought up the idea of shooting blanks at balloons. That bit of inspiration made it safe for a cowboy to ride at top speed in an arena around a series of barrels, while rapidly unloading two .45 caliber single-action revolvers.
Rodgers and his friends started putting on competitions and demonstrations at rodeos. Pretty soon there were clips on cable television shows and feature stories in Western Horseman magazine.
The sport caught on quickly, says Brady Carr, one of those riders who discovered the sport in its early years.
He’s now the executive vice president of the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association, a national organization based in Tennessee that oversees and administers the sport. “Raw Horsepower, Hard Ridin’, Straight Shootin’” the association’s Web site boasts. In 2003, the association had 2,000 members. Today, membership is close to 10,000.
The sport is a natural companion to other popular Western events like roping and barrel racing, with a ready-made base of cowboys with the skills to give it a try.
“We laughingly call it ‘cowboy cocaine,’” Carr says. “It’s an adrenaline rush.”
Read the rest of Debra Smith’s well written piece at the Everett, Washington Herald right here, which also has a nice bird’s eye view animated graphic of the event, and then jump over to my pal Mo’s blog (he’s the guy who casts those enormous lead bullets for me) to see the video from the championship.
If you can’t be a 17th century pirate, you might as well be a cowboy. Or at least live by the Cowboy Way. And that’s as good as it gets. Congratulations Kenda!
Posted by Drew458
on 01/14/2010 at 11:37 AM
Filed Under: • Adventure • Guns and Gun Control • Sports •
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Permalink • Friday - November 13, 2009
Batten down the ratchets, all hands man the poop deck. (wherever that is) Man overboard.
Woo-Hoo ,, we are in for it. Already been raining for a couple days and nights. Went to hardware store but nobody has any blueprints on ark building.
Doesn’t matter because I’m not much on tools anyway.
Britain prepares to be battered by weekend of storms, 70mph gales and pouring rain
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 4:19 PM on 13th November 2009The weekend will be washed out by the worst storm of the year so far, with gale-force gusts and heavy rain on its way, forecasters warned today.
Weather experts are advising those planning Saturday shopping trips and days out to postpone them and stay indoors as Britain is buffeted by winds of up to 70mph.
The winds will be strong enough to cause damage, including bringing down trees and branches, say forecasters.
This is in our neck of the woods:
Stephen Davenport, of Meteogroup UK, said that while it will dry up overnight, the rain will begin again in the early hours.
‘It is pretty filthy weather already and it is only going to get worse tomorrow. The real meat of the storm is coming overnight.
‘There will be a gradual build-up, with the peak of the winds being felt in the south west in the early hours before the storm shifts north-eastwards.’
‘This is the strongest storm we have had this year but it is just an autumnal storm, not untypical for this time of year.’
The storm is developing off the west coast of the country and is being fed by the still-warm autumn sea temperatures, he said.
Met Office chief forecaster, Bob Wilderspin, said: ‘We are expecting severe weather over the next few days.’
Untitled-2.jpgHe added that forecasters will be monitoring the situation and updating weather reports so people are advised to keep an eye on forecasts for more information.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk
It’s the wind I think I worry about most. Especially with some very,very large trees in the back. Come to think about, there’s a few in the front over the electric lines. The two new houses on either side of us have underground lines. We’re not so lucky, having been built in the 1920s.
The rain sometimes sounds like thunder. I don’t think that’s the correct word. It’s very noisy and makes a kind of drumming sound. I wouldn’t mind if it were Gene Krupa.
If what I’m hearing now ain’t the “real meat” of this thing, I don’t think I wanna hear it later tonight.
Cheers ....
Posted by peiper
on 11/13/2009 at 01:56 PM
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.
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Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
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