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Mountain Names
Posted on 9 October, 2012 by Lauren Wheeler
As a public historian working outside of academia I often get contracts that are vaguely in my area general area of expertise — western Canada — but not the odd corners of history that are where I like to spend my time — mountains, visuality, and environmentalism. This is great because I am constantly learning about things I previously had nothing more than a cursory knowledge of and occasionally I pick up interesting tidbits about topics I though I knew very, very well.
Last week I came across a piece of information while reading up on the history of the Chinese in Alberta that went counter to the everything I knew about a peak in Canmore. The peak is called "Ha Ling Peak", it is located to the southeast of Whiteman's Pass on the edge of the Grassi Massive, and until 1997 it was called "Chinaman's Peak".
The racist original name of this mountain comes from a story about a Chinese resident of Canmore winning a bet with some of the miners that he could climb the peak in under 6 hours. There are variations on the story but the basics are as follows: the man was a cook at the Oskaloosa Hotel and made a $25 bet with a group of miners that he could make it to the top of the peak on Whiteman's Pass and back to the hotel in 6 hours. He returned to the hotel within the allotted time but the miners did not believe he reached the summit so after doubling the bet he made the trek again with a big white flag so the miners could look up at the peak with binoculars and see it at the summit. Once again he was back to the hotel in 6 hours and after the peak was viewed through binoculars he received the $50 on the table. This great feat led the community to christen the mountain "Chinaman's Peak" in commemoration of the accomplishment. The urban legend when I was growing up was that the flag was still at the summit of the mountain but no one whose made it to the top, including myself, has reported any proof of this.
In the mid-1990s the Calgary Chinese community began a petition to rid the peak of its offensive name. The reason for the push was two-fold; "Chinaman" carried too many negative racists connotations, and the name of the Chinese man was not a mystery so the peak should bear the proper name of the man it was called after. People of Canmore are not always welcoming of change so there was some backlash from long-term locals about changing the name but most accepted the group had a point: Why were we using an offensive name for a mountain when we could use something else? So "Chinaman's Peak" became "Ha Ling Peak". Certain locals and wannabe locals take pride is using the old name as proof of their deep knowledge of the town and its surroundings — honestly, the locals only use the old name around other locals and when habit causes the old name to come out instead of the new one.
Since the renaming of the mountain it was not questioned that the man's name was Ha Ling. The guide books recount his story along with the directions for getting to the jump-off parking lot and how many switch backs to expect. Never had I heard another name associated with this peak until last week while reading the only comprehensive history of Chinese in Alberta. In Mooncakes over Gold Mountain, the name of the Chinese man is given as Lee Poon not Ha Ling. I was confused and surprised. The story of Ha Ling Peak is well known in Canmore so how could someone get the man's name wrong in a book based on a master's thesis!
The most obvious explanation is in the endnotes of Mooncakes over Gold Mountain. The story is taken from a local history of the Crowsnest Pass not the local history of Canmore. Both are coal mining areas and miners often moved between them as work demanded so it is likely names in stories were changed as the story travelled south along the Rockies.
Why the name of the Chinese man who climbed the mountain is different in two parts of Alberta is, however, unimportant. The important part of the story of the name change is that it returns a name to its rightful place and erases a racial slur from the landscape of the Bow Valley. It shows a willingness to change and correct past insensitivities, to embrace the multicultural past of a town that is still overwhelmingly white.
I have written about Ha Ling Peak before in the context of when it is appropriate to rename a landmark or place for the purpose of being politically correct. Today, I want to highlight that renaming it is not always about political correctness or even getting the name right. It is about honouring the ordinary people whose stories we tell decades later. Ha Ling, or Lee Poon, probably did not stay in Canmore very long but in the time he was there he made a mark on the local memory. He climbed a steep mountain that is essentially a scramble once you are above the tree line. His name needed to be returned to the peak to remedy the racism of the early 20th century that lingered on the Bow Valley in the name of a mountain.
Near the summit.
Posted in Environment, Public History | Leave a comment
YEG…I think I heart you…
Edmonton there is something I have to say, I don't want to love you but I kind of, sort of think that I do. I feel no pride when the Oilers or the Eskimos win a game. If something notable happens in the city I have no urge to brag to my out-of-town friend and family; but I will brag when you are the coldest place in Canada, occasionally the coldest place on earth.
The best words to describe you are 'meh' and 'grey'. Sure the River Valley is nice in the summer and a veritable symphony of colour in the autumn and festival season has something to do every week for 3 straight months. But from mid-October to mid-April the sky and the city are the same shade as the flannel suits loved and loathed by depressed businessmen the world over. Your roads are weird, your potholes could swallow a Smart Car, traffic circles seem to appear out of nowhere, road work seems to never end and when it finally does you seem to have some sort of mental block when it come to clearing the snow. Your international claim to fame is an enormous shopping mall; a mecca of conspicuous consumption and late-twentieth century suburban sprawl. The sum of these parts inspires one to take advantage of every opportunity to leave, even if the destination is somewhere as small as the hamlet of Radway.
But here is the thing Edmonton, the thing that is so tough to admit that even after 4 years residing within your municipal limits I can only say it after recounting a sampling of your shortcomings. Edmonton, I think I love you.
Somehow, and against my better judgment and staunch attempts to prevent it, you got under my skin Edmonton. You softened my defenses with perfect Indian Summers that made me sad to leave for the frost and flurries of my hometown in the mountains at Thanksgiving. Slowly, you showed me that when the sky and the city are the desolate grey of the long, cold, winter there is still colour hiding in the corners and under the covers. The creativity of your inhabitants in the face of your shortcomings seduced me. Their music made your bleak streets sing. Their art made your grey a rainbow and your dingiest bits shine. They embraced all the culture you had to offer and their curiosity and love of discovering something new could not be quashed by weeks of -30C or record snowfall. They created new communities through food one would be hard pressed to find done as well in this countries other major cities – where else do you get traditional Mexican with a touch of Alberta duck, burgers inspired by the theatre, poutine influenced by the humble perogie, cinnamon buns that know no equal, a latte topped with maple bacon, and great steak tartar (made better when it is 1/2 price).
There are still things about you, Edmonton, I cannot say I love. When it snows for 30 days straight and blue sky becomes a distant memory, I long for the Chinooks of my childhood – would even welcome the migraines they bring. Your municipal politics are often farcical with a billionaire bully regularly trying to push dorky council in the mud to take its lunch money. Your leading university has a building that looks like a giant stick of butter! Yet, when I walk down Jasper Ave and see the "I (hear) YEG" stencils on the sidewalk it makes me smile. The strangely apocalyptic orange-pink glow cast by the fluorescent accents on the Whyte Ave streetlights in the winter is unique to your never-ending winter.
You see Edmonton, you are kind of like the annoying little brother of everyone's best friend. At first you are such a pain in the rear end that one cannot get away from you fast enough, then after a while you stop throwing rocks at your sibling and their friends and show that you are actually kind of cool.
Edmonton, I love you. There I said it without any qualifications or hesitations or attempts to avoid the inevitable. Are you happy now?
(PS. Still can't bring myself to cheer for your sports teams to win but have been known to wear their colours – borrowed from someone else.)
Posted in Environment | Leave a comment
Reviving a Canadian Hero
Posted on 28 August, 2012 by Lauren Wheeler
*This was written for Active History and can also be found on the Sam Steele Collection site.
Portrait, Samuel Benfield Steele, 1891. Bruce Peel Special Collections Library, University of Alberta (2008.1.2.1.6.1.8).
Sam Steele was the Forrest Gump of Canadian History. He was involved in some way with the Fenian Raids, the Long March West, the 1870 Riel Uprising, the establishment of the North-West Mounted Police, the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the 1885 Northwest Uprising, the Klondike Gold Rush, the Second Boer War, the First World War, the Spanish Flu epidemic, and the Winnipeg General Strike. None of the first five Prime Ministers could make claims to have experienced that many of the key events of the country's first fifty years! Today Steele is a relatively unknown figure of Canadian history. Aficionados of RCMP history know of him and there are corners of the country where his life is celebrated – like Fort Steele, BC, Fort Macleod, Alberta, and Dawson City, Yukon. If you walked up to the average person on the street and asked "Who was Sam Steele?" they would probably give you a blank look and respond "Sam who?"
For those who remember the Heritage Minutes of the mid-1990s, Sam Steele is the stern-faced Mountie who responds to an American prospector, pointing a pair of pistols at him, with "In that case I'll be lenient, we'll keep this gambling gear and you'll be back in the United States by sundown." At the end of the Heritage Minute, the prospector, with two Mounties escorting him back to the US, states "I coulda shot that guy right there. Who was he anyway?" The response: "Superintendent Sam Steele, North-West Mounted Police."
Steele was a quintessential hero and the embodiment of Victorian masculinity at a time when Canada was striving to create a country from sea-to-sea and trying to emerge from the shadow of Great Britain. His life parallels the major events of opening and settlement of the West, and his distinguished career with the NWMP and the military ensure his reputation was well known. It is this reputation that led men from all corners of the country, and the US, to apply to serve in South Africa under Steele as the first contingent of the Lord Strathcona's Horse. Of the 2,000 men who applied in 1900, only 500 were accepted for service. Nineteen years later when Steele's funeral procession wove through the streets of Winnipeg, it brought the Winnipeg General Strike to a halt as workers paused in silent respect of his life and legacy. There are few people whose passing could produce the a similar effect today.
Lord and Lady Strathcona group portrait with Steele (centre) and Officers of Lord Strathcona's Horse
What is striking about the story of Sam Steele is that he went from national hero to relative obscurity in less than a century. This decline presents an interesting opportunity to revive Steele's legacy, not as a hero but as a means of conveying the first fifty years of Canadian history to the public. The potential of the repatriated Steele collection to teach Canadian history through an individual is clear in how the University of Alberta Libraries have designed their digital and physical exhibitions of the collection.
Small sample of the Sir Sam Steele Collection
The website for the Sam Steele collection breaks Steele's life and the collection into six sections: the Red River Expedition (1867), the Northwest Mounted Police and the March West (1873), Sam and Marie (1890), the Yukon and the Klondike Gold Rush (1898), the Boer War and the South Africa Constabulary (1899), and World War I (1914). Each section corresponds with a notable period in Steele's professional and private life and, as the titles indicate, each is a significant event in Canadian history. The correlations are reiterated in the 100-foot long timeline that is a central feature of the Sam Steele: Journey of a Canadian Hero exhibit currently on display at the Enterprise Square Gallery in downtown Edmonton, Alberta. The top of the timeline gives the key events of Steele's life and the bottom give major events in Canadian history to clearly show when, and how often, these two lines intersect. The rich collection of documents and photographs that is the Sam Steele Collection provides the evidence necessary to connect these two timelines and create a narrative of the past.
Through these parallel timelines, Steele becomes a tool for telling the story of Canada's first fifty years in a way that gives it a human face. Because Steele is no longer a well-known figure, means when people encounter his life as a means of conveying Canada's history it is without many of the preconceptions that come with historical figures like Louis Riel or Sir John A Macdonald. This does not remove all political bias from the events – Steele's advancement in the NWMP was often blocked by virtue of his Conservative political affiliations at times when the Liberals were in power – but it avoids the overt politicization of Canadian history that comes with many of the better-known individuals. I would also challenge Canadian historians to find another person who was involved in as many significant events and has a rich archival collection comparative to Sam Steele.
Posted in Canada, Public History, Research, Shameless Promotion | Tagged Bruce Peel Special Collections, Canada, Nationalism, public history, Research, Sam Steele, UAlberta | Leave a comment
Pollution and the Tar Sands: The Same Old Story.
Posted on 17 July, 2012 by Lauren Wheeler
All weekend in Alberta the news covered the provincial and federal Environment Ministers toured new pollution monitoring stations in the Oil/Tar Sands. It reminded me of the consistent sense of deja vu that comes with studying the early environmental movement in Alberta and of a recent presentation I gave at the Directions West conference at the University of Alberta. Below is a portion of that presentation about pollution monitoring, court cases, and environmentalism in Alberta in the 1970s.
November 1, 1976 STOP announced charges had been laid against Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd in Fort McMurray for violating the emissions regulations of the provincial Clean Air Act. For months, researchers with the Environmental Counsel worked on the legal aspects of the challenge and harnessed the experience and expertise of the Toronto based group CELA (Canadian Environmental Law Association). Lucien Royer, chief researcher for STOP, and other group members spent the time working with university scientists to collect and analyze air samples from GCOS and compare it with projections for SO2 emissions of expanded tar sands development and literature on the damage done to humans and the environment by air pollution. The sample, taken on May 26, 1977, and analysis became the central evidence for the civil action while the legal research and consultation ensured the correct portions of the Clean Air Act and appropriate precedent were cited. The specific charge against GCOS was for "permitting without lawful excuse the emission into the ambient air contaminants of greater density than that permitted by the regulations enacted under The Clean Air Act, S.A, 1971, C. 16."[1] This part of the Clean Air Act was targeted because after careful review, STOP determined it to be one of the weakest points in the legislation and intended to use the case to highlight this.
On September 28, 1977 Justice McClung dismissed the Crown's appeal of the original decision on their challenge to the Clean Air Act.[2] The judge accepted evidence of emissions exceeding the permissible levels emitted from the main process flare stack, but also accepted GCOS evidence the emission was deliberate and done as an emergency measure after a steam leak in one of the pressure vessels used in the extraction process. This counter evidence sunk STOP's case because GCOS was able to argue, and twice convince a judge, the day STOP collected their evidence the steam leak threatened the safety of employees and the excess levels of hydrocarbons their analysis showed was an exception rather than a rule. In the appeal, an attempt was made to overturn the original decision by citing the lack of a smokeless flare tip – which would eliminate excess smoke emission during a flare – which was necessary under the version of the Clean Air Act in effect in 1976. However, the court found the detail extraneous to a consideration of legal liability because the environmental safe guards GCOS required to meet were those of the Clean Air Act when their license was issued, not the updated version.
Most would see this verdict as a failure on the part of STOP to achieve political change regarding air pollution at the tar sands. It is difficult to see the dismissal of charges followed by the dismissal of the appeal any other way. However, STOP undertook the cases knowing they would lose; in fact, losing was their aim. The sideways logic of success through failure is well explained in a March 1977 article from the Prairie Star. The article gave the history of the case as it connected to research STOP conducted to preempt avoidable environmental damage from pollution they foresaw accompanying the 1978 the opening of Syncrude's first plant. STOP wished to "test Alberta's virgin environmental laws in an actual trial situation" so that "the statutes would have to be 'tightened up' before Syncrude could be forced to reduce its sulphur dioxide emissions."[3] Obviously to do this STOP needed to use evidence from an existing operation and selected GCOS to serve this purpose. For months STOP lobbied and wrote letter to the government to convince them action was necessary. Eventually the province agreed and this led to the court case of November 1, 1976 – based largely on the work done by STOP.
STOP's public interpretation of the case was as a success because it helped them prove a point about the Clean Air Act and other environmental legislation. The court case, constant lobbying, endless letter writing campaigns, working with Notley and the NDP, was all to prove "the environmental laws of Alberta, as presently drafted, are like Swiss cheese."[4] Once the dismissal of charges against GCOS came in, STOP believed it would finally lead to action from the government to create tougher pollution regulation and force companies to adhere to the most recent version of environmental legislation.
The hope STOP had for changes to the environmental legislation quickly turned to frustration as a second court case they were involved with led to more dismissed charges. This case was again against GCOS but focused on the Clean Water Act and pollution to the Athabasca River from tailings ponds. The evidence for this case were samples take from a drainage dyke, the interface pipe that discharged liquid into the river, and downstream and upstream of the dyked area. In a laboratory, fish were introduced to the four samples and their health carefully observed to show no mortality in the upstream and downstream samples but some in the dyke and interface samples. The judge, McClung who also proceeded over the Clean Air Act challenge, followed a precedent set in British Columbia and dismissed the charges because he could not find proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the GCOS pollution caused the fish to die. This was based on the assertion "there was no evidence that any species the 'frequented' the river was deleteriously affected." The species used in the laboratory, Brook Stickleback or Rainbow Trout, do not frequent the river so could not be accepted as bioassays. This judgment was a blow to any attempt to show holes in the Clean Water Act similar to those proven to be in the Clean Air Act and there is little in the STOP records about the issues of water pollution in the tar sands after the decision on January 10, 1978.
Immediately following the first court challenge, STOP was hopeful the Alberta government would finally take suggested changes to environmental legislation seriously and create stricter limits and better enforcement. It appeared their years of work had finally made tangible political change as the government set about reviewing existing legislation. In the summer of 1978 a report release jointly by the Alberta Government and Environment Canada concluded there was technology available two years earlier, when Syncrude applied for their license, that if the Clean Air Act had made mandatory would have reduced the company's SO2 emissions by 58 to 78 long tons a day. STOP's newsletter hailed this as validation of the work they did and vindication for attempts by Syncrude and the government to dismiss their reports: "We were told we didn't know what we were talking about. Syncrude said we were 'Crazies' and the provincial government called us 'Headline Grabbers'. Well…now its out!!! History has vindicated us again."[5] The clincher for STOP was the finding Syncrude could install the necessary technology without a drastic redesign of the plant – which they and the government had used as a reason not to force the use of the technology. The write-up in the group's newsletter attracted the attention of Environment Minister David Russell, who wrote to STOP to say "that if Syncrude violates Alberta SO2 standards that he will require the company to take 'appropriate action to comply with the regulations'."[6] However, STOP was not gullible enough to accept the line and reminded members of previous statements from the Minister to the same effect and that GCOS was in the news again for violating SO2 emissions regulations. STOP, at this point, had nearly a decade of experience working with the government and knew, as numerous articles and presentations attest, when it came to the environment immediate economic gain always won out. Louise Swift, former president summed up the need for skepticism in light of the continued violations from GCOS thus; "Should we really expect the public to believe that the treatment will be any different for Syncrude?"[7] By November 1978, STOP had set up a tar sands taskforce to review Syncrude's SO2 emissions and was looking for volunteer help as Syncrude and government arguments against the implication of emissions reducing technologies became less and less convincing.[8]
[1] J. McClung, R v. Great Canadian Oil Sands Ltd. [1977] A.J. No 700, 9 A.R. 86, Alberta District Court Judicial District of Edmonton, September 28, 1977, paragraph 1.
[2] STOP did not initiate the appeal of the original decision. As Royer noted in the April 7, 1977 (page 5) issue of The Gateway "It is not STOP that is initiating the 'appeal'. The Crown is doing this. It is one thing to say STOP pressed to have the law suits launched in the first place, but it is quiet another thing to give us credit for the appeals."
[3] –, "A Victory for STOP," Prairie Star, March 23, 1977.
[4] Idib.
[5] STOP Newsletter, July 1978, 1.
[6] STOP Newletter, September 1978, 2
[8] STOP newsletter, November 1978, 3.
Posted in Canada, Environment, Environmentalism | Tagged Activism, Canada, conservation, court cases, Environment, Environmentalism, Natural Resources, oil sands, Pollution, STOP, tar sands | Leave a comment
Oil and Environment in Alberta – Or When a Spill Hits Close to Home
Posted on 8 June, 2012 by Lauren Wheeler
Last night (June 8) a pipeline running along a tributary of the Red Deer River spilt crude oil contaminating the surrounding environment. As Sean Kheraj noted earlier this week, this is not the first spill in recent memory and it will not be the last. Alberta is also not the only place with oil pipelines that leak — though it might get the most publicity for various political/social reasons. Residents of Sundre and the surrounding area are angry the spill happened and many are also shocked something like this could happen to them. They and all other Albertans should be angry over the spill, but they should not be shocked. In the race to make as much money as possible off the oil deposits in the province, government after government has disregarded the environment in favour of development, industry, and economic growth. This latest spill is a reminder of the skewed approach to resource development that dominates the Alberta economy. It is also a reminder of how sad the state of environmental protection is in the province in spite of decades of citizens pushing for better protection of the environment.
As news of the spill spreads and news outlets decide how best to spin the story, I am working on a short paper/presentation about a pair of court cases from the late 1970s that attempted to bring about changes to the provincial Clean Air and Clean Water acts by illustrating how many loop-holes there were for industry to pollute without suffering repercussions. I don't want to give away the whole story since in a couple weeks this will be presented at a conference, but the people behind the case (STOP and friends) knew a win was unlikely. They continued to pursue the case because it was through the failure of the courts to penalize industry for excessive pollution that they would succeed in showing some of the massive failings of the anti-pollution legislation.
Leaving aside the idea of success through failure, the cases are an interesting reminder of what citizens of Alberta have fought against for decades in the quest to ensure they had a healthy environment to live in and the fallacy that underlies a great deal of anti-pollution and environmental protection legislation. These pieces of legislation are too often handicapped by the demands of industry, but are presented to the public in a way that hides how these considerations will negatively impact their lives. In the case of the pipelines spills that keep happening residents are ensured they are protected but often the continued monitoring of the pipelines an independent body is overlooked or abandoned in the name of efficiency and economics. As a result the pipelines deteriorate and eventually there is a spill that contaminates and environment; threatening the livelihoods of the people living on the land and the health of humans and non-humans in the environment. Pipelines spills should never be a surprise. But they should make everyone angry that the governments that we elect to act in our best interest disregard this trust often enough that our lives and health are put at risk.
This most recent spill also hit very close to home. When my great grandfather came to Canada from Scotland, he settled in Sundre. He owned the general store and lumber yard — John Macleod and Co. His wife, Ethel, was a nurse and made amazing donuts that got people out of their house on the coldest of winter days. My Poppy grew up fishing on the Red Deer River as did his sister and their cousins. The family even did a pack-trip to the origins of the Red Deer River when my Poppy was a teenager (the photographs are fantastic). My mum and her brothers grew-up down stream from Sundre but did their fair share of fishing around Sundre and every fish I've ever caught came from the Red Deer River. My much younger cousins play in that river every Canada Day during the Macleod Family Reunion. It saddens me to think this year they might not be able to play or fish in that river because of the neglect of the infrastructure keeping pollutants out of the environment.
It saddens me that when these spills happen the journalists decry the oil based Alberta economy or our societies addiction to oil (the thing that drive the oil economy) until another story happens. Then they forget. The people living along the Red Deer River will spend years, decades even, watching the water and waiting for all the oil to finally be cleaned from the environment. All that time their children will not be able to play and fish in the waters they once did, their livestock will not be able to drink as freely as they once did, and they will be on the look out for the various poisonings that come from a crude oil spill (even a small and quickly contained one). And while the people along the Red Deer River — and in all the other parts of Alberta effected by pipeline spills in the past decade — wait for the environment to recover, the journalists will forget and the rest of the world will forget. When it happens to those who forgot, they will be just as surprised as the people in the Sundre area are today. They will ask "how could this happen". And the answer will remain the same.
Posted in Environment | Tagged Alberta, Environment, Macleod family, oil spill, Pollution, Sun, Sundre | 3 Comments
Of Monsters and Men.
Digression Alert! This post is only tangentially about environmental history, or Canadian history. It is, however, all about MUSIC THAT ROCKS.
On Thursday May 24th "Of Monsters and Men" finally made it to Vancouver to play a show originally scheduled for March 25th. Seeing the show required two road trips from Edmonton to Vancouver — approximately 5000km in total. The show was worth everyone of those kilometres.
For those who have not heard about "Of Monsters and Men" here is the basic information you need:
1) They are Icelandic. 5 guys and 1 girl.
2) Their music is infectious.
3) The lyrics are about monsters, often in forests. This is interesting since Iceland does not have "forests" like in Canada. Icelandic forests are odd squares of trees on the sides of mountains because the natural forests were cut down centuries ago (totally managed to get a little #envhist in there!).
4) Of Monsters and Men are AWESOME. If you are having a bad day turn on any one of their songs and you will be smiling and dancing in no time.
Now, on to the concert. The opener was underwhelming. The sound was turned up way to high and the lead singer didn't have a particularly good voice. Unfortunate since the original opener was an Icelandic singer called Lay Low and she has a very nice voice.
Due to the previously cancelled concert, there was some trepidation until the band took the stage. They proceeded to play nearly every song off their album and had the packed house at The Venue clapping, singing, and dancing along from the first bars onwards. The big single, Little Talks, was hidden in the middle of the set — after Dirty Paws, King and Lionheart, Mountain Sounds, and Slow and Steady (not in that order) — and got the loudest applause from the crowd. The latter half of the set included Love, Love, Love and Six Weeks. The two song encore finished with Yellow Light and provided one of the most comical moments of the night as Ragnar "Raggi" Þórhallsson asked for yellow lights to go with the song only to have the sound guy turn on blue lights. It took a while, and a restart of the song, to get the yellow lights up and running. The only negative part of the show came from the audience not the band, as during their quietest song, Slow and Steady, those in the audience without concert etiquette carried on conversations loud enough for more than one peeved fan to tell the nearest group to kindly shut-up.
I really could go on at length about the show and this band. I picked up their album in Iceland last fall and listened to many, many times while driving around the country and since returning to Canada. My expectations were very high going into the show and those were more than exceeded. Of Monsters and Men have the kind of energy that is just as infectious recorded as it is live. Their comfort on stage and with the audience, during and after the show, is a testament to the vibrant Icelandic music scene that is so much deeper than Sigur Ros and Bjork.
So I leave you with Little Talks (the song quoted next to this post) and hope it brightens your day.
-LW
Posted in Research | Tagged Iceland, Music, not sigur ros, of monsters and men, review, Vancouver | 2 Comments
Public History Gets an App!
A great group of graduate students and staff at my alma mater, Carleton University, made an app for the entire length of the Rideau Canal.
It is called "The Rideau Canal App" and it is free at the iTunes store. If you live in Ottawa and walk along the Canal, like I did every day going to campus, or like to boat on the Canal in the summer, or just think history is cool and want a fancy FREE app to show that off to other people then download it ASAP.
Still not sold? Check out Jim Opp promoting the app for the CTV Ottawa morning show.
PS. There is going to be an increase in the public history content on the blog for the duration of the summer since I am a public historian again (more on that later).
PPS. Most of that public history stuff will be about Sam Steele. He is on twitter now and you should follow him @SirSamSteele.
Posted in Environment | Tagged app, CCPH, public history, Rideau Canal, Sam Steele | 1 Comment
Titanic EnvHist?
Posted on 15 April, 2012 by Lauren Wheeler
For the past week news sources have promoted the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking. The commemoration focused on the people and the events of the night; the tales of survival and the grief of the loss of life. There is some reflection on the fallacy of the belief any ship could be unsinkable but there is a huge opportunity presented by this anniversary for historians to rethink the place of the Titanic and the factors that led to its demise.
Let's first go over the basics of the story of the Titanic's rise and fall to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Built in a Belfast shipyard, even before completion it was touted as unsinkable, a great feat of engineering and the triumph of human ingenuity over nature. Then nature took it down in the form of an iceberg in the night.
Much of the popular and public history interpretations fixate on whether or not the ship could have avoided collision if the iceberg was noticed earlier. The heavy death toll was a combination of reluctance to admit mistake by the captain, an insufficient number of lifeboats, and the speed and way the ship went down. This places the demise of the ship solidly in the hands of humans and overlooks the non-human factors that were central to the ships sinking — the nature of the North Atlantic in mid-April, the meteorological conditions at play, the dominant understandings of the world based on the science available in 1912, and the belief that humans could bend nature to their will (one egotistical belief we are still working against).
Think of what an environmental history could tell us about the sinking of the Titanic and the ocean transportation in general at the beginning of the twentieth century. Instead of the story perpetuated by James Cameron, we could have a story of nature at a time when society was undergoing a huge transformation that situated it in a longue durée understanding of transportation and ocean conditions in the North Atlantic. Taking it further, an investigation of the wreck could shed light on how human tragedy creates new ecosystems that rewrite human history as part of ocean life.
Now I'm not about to encourage people to go and watch Titanic 3-D and look for the environment in the movie — I wish I could say I've never seen that movie but I was 12 when it came out — but I would encourage people to think about the ship and its demise differently the next time they encounter a commemoration of it.
Posted in Environment, Opinion, Public History | Tagged commemoration, envhist, Environment, Historiography, public history, Reflection, Titanic | 3 Comments
ASEH 2012: Madison Wisconsin and Digital History
Posted on 3 April, 2012 by Lauren Wheeler
Early on Thursday morning environmental historians from across the United States, Canada, and Europe converged on Madison, Wisconsin for the annual ASEH meeting. Madison is not an easy, or cheap, place to get to and it seemed like everyone had a story about the round-about route they took to get to the conference. A quintet from Toronto spent 13 hours in a rented van; those from Vancouver routed through Minneapolis and Dallas; others flew into Chicago and bused it into Madison. It was worth the effort, Madison is one cool city with friendly people, heritage architecture, ongoing protests (Recall Walker), good food, and great beer. It is also full of Badgers. But enough about the city and on to the ASEH!
ASEH Phoenix was all about sustainability. From Cronon's plenary address to the field trips and sessions and networking discussion, sustainability was the key term of the conference – fitting since a city in the middle of a desert should be thinking and acting in a sustainable way. At Madison the recurring topics were digital history and Rachel Carson.
As any environmental historian will happily tell you, the year 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of Silent Spring's publication. The 2002 printing of Carson's work features the by-line "The book that launched the environmental movement" so it should be no surprise that environmental historians are interested in tracing the impact of Carson and her book as a means of commemoration. At the Jenny Price's plenary address "Stop Saving the Planet, Already!–and Other Tips from Rachel Carson for 21st-Century Environmentalists" offered an alternative reading and lessons from Carson's work that was the topic of many conversations the following morning. There were also a number of panels focusing on Carson with her name popping up in a number of the papers about environmentalism in the 1960s and 1970s. Even the all Canadian panel on the environmental movement got in on the Silent Spring celebration with Mark McLaughlin of the University of New Brunswick presenting on the connections Carson made with New Brunswick scientists and foresters for the chapter titled "The River of Death."
Rachel Carson is an interesting and popular subject for environmental historians.
Protesting at the State Building
What really stood out this year among the younger generations at ASEH was the perforated of social media into the proceedings. In most sessions you could find someone – usually a graduate student – with a smart phone or iPad out checking Twitter. We were not being rude I promise. We were sending out 140 character messages to all the people who couldn't make it to the conference, or couldn't be in two panels at once, so they could follow in real time what was happening. To filter our tweets from the herd, we used the established hashtag for environmental history, #envhist, in combination with #ASEH2012. There were about 5 people consistently tweeting with that number ballooning to double digits by the third day as word got around what was going on — which you can see in this post from Finn Arne Jorgensen.
The digital history went beyond live tweeting, with four panels devoted specifically to new forms of historical communication the electronic age has created. Sean Kheraj led a session for the graduate workshop about the value of twitter and blogging to promoting yourself and your work. The monster panel on DH brought together 8 scholars working with digital media to engage the public, communicate with collegues, promote their work, and even as the basis of their studies. The stand out projects from the panel were Jessica van Horssen's graphic novel on Asbestos, Quebec, an excellent video portal about climate change at Climate Wisconsin, and the new site Ant, Spider, Bee for the exploring the digital environmental humanities.
One of the interesting ongoing discussions about digital history that came up is getting online contributions recognized by hiring and tenure committees. Consider the various digital media publications that NiCHE members are involved with: Jess van Horssen published a graphic novel online that is used across the country in high schools and university courses; Sean Kheraj maintains a monthly podcast called Nature's Pasts; NiCHE produces a group blog called The Otter; the video podcast I do with Sean Kheraj called EHTV: Environmental History Television; and now an environmental history app that brings all he EH news directly to you. There are also numerous academic blogs kept by graduate students and established scholars, a number of which are linked to from the side bar of this site.
All of these projects increase the visibility of environmental history and of the scholars behind them but they are not recognized as contributions to knowledge in the same way peer-reviewed articles are. It is early in the incorporation of digital media into environmental history but this is an issue that needs to be addressed by institutions so the work of new scholars in non-traditional areas can be appreciated and its value to the individual, the institution they are affiliated with, and the field they work in can be fostered.
I am one of those new scholars who engages with the diverse outlets for knowledge networking offered by all things digital and have found it to be very rewarding. I recognize not everyone is comfortable with Twitter or willing to open themselves up to the criticisms that can come with keeping a blog or interested in doing more writing than they already do. It is the individuals prerogative to become an active contributor to the digital side of environmental history but everyone can follow it and engage with the discussions it facilitates. Download the EH app designed by Jim Clifford and Sean Kheraj if you have an iPhone, iTouch, or iPad. It brings all the #envhist news directly to you! I also encourage anyone who can't make it to a conference or is in a place with a small environmental history population to at least follow the most active environmental historians on twitter, maybe even join yourself…
Posted in Environment, Grad School, Public History, Research | Tagged ASEH, digital environmental history, digital humanities, Environment, Environmentalism, Graduate Students, networking | 7 Comments
FOUND! The Gateway Sept 1970-March 1971
Posted on 21 March, 2012 by Lauren Wheeler
Found the missing year! The helpful people at the University of Alberta Archives and in the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library tracked down The Gateway run for the 1970/1971 academic year. The newspaper continued to publish and report on the activities of students, it just wasn't digitized so the archives is sending the hard copies to me.
One of the odd things about the University of Alberta Library and Archives relationship is the student newspaper is not part of the Library collection (I discovered this when looking for the microfilm rolls in the stacks during the first attempt to find the missing year). The Gateway in both microfilm and hard copy are held by the Archives, but the university stopped microfilming the paper after the 1969/1970 academic year. As odd as this practice is – most other universities hold their student newspapers in microfilm form as part of their newspaper collection – it is not unheard of. When doing preliminary research at the University of Victoria I had to go to the archives to access any of The Martlet issues from the 1970s onwards.
It is a great relief to have found the missing issues and as soon as I return from a week in Madison Wisconsin for the annual ASEH conference reading through them will be the first thing I do.
Now to finish a presentation about air pollution and Edmonton and UAlberta and the tar sands…
Posted in Canada, Environmentalism, Grad School, Research | Tagged Activism, Archives, ASEH, Canada, dissertation, Environmentalism, Research, University | Leave a comment


A group of European scientists is researching something fascinating: whether we can more easily overcome social anxiety and social disabilities that accompany some mental health issues with robots designed to be our mirrors.
The project is called AlterEgo. The idea is that we are most comfortable interacting with someone who looks just like us–the theory of similarity. The team is testing virtual avatar and a humanoid robot to see which forms of similarity we respond best to: looks, behavior, or movement.
In the second, 16 people were split into pairs and shown a ball mounted on a horizontal string, then asked to move the ball back and forth along the string in three scenarios: on their own, out of view of their partner; copying their partner's movements (the members of each pair switched off being leader and follower); and during a "collaborative round," in which they mirrored one another's movements, with no leader and no follower. Throughout these exercises, the researchers tracked the pairs' progress to see how well they synchronized their motions. Overall, they found, the pairs that performed best were the ones where the partners had similar motor signatures.
If researchers are able to pin down just what we respond to, they hope to be able to help people with social anxiety slowly move from a completely comfortable interaction of perfect similarity to a more realistic encounter with more differences.
If the project pans out, you could find yourself easily interacting with a stranger before you know it, even if the only person you feel comfortable talking to is yourself.


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Here's a look at back-to-schools plans unveiled by central Pa. school districts
Updated: Aug. 06, 2020, 11:03 a.m. | Published: Jul. 20, 2020, 5:15 a.m.
Parked school buses are lined up at the storage area in Zelienople, Pa. in this March 30, 2020 file photo. How to transport students while allowing for social distancing is just one of the issues confronting school districts. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)AP
By Hannah Kanik | hkanik@pennlive.com
A number of school districts in Dauphin and Cumberland counties have announced their plans for the fall semester, while others are planning to unveil their plans in the coming weeks.
Here's a quick look at what plans are available. PennLive will update this list as more districts make public their plans.
All districts have received the same guidance from the state Department of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so many of the plans are similar, but there are differences as each district tries to address its own, unique needs amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic.
One overwhelming theme across them all is the need to be flexible with plans as the situation changes. Nearly all districts have proposed a "phased" or "tiered" return to classes that gives it the flexibility of offering in-person education, online learning or a hybrid of the two. Districts say it may be necessary to move between the options during the course of the school year.
Shippensburg Area School District plans to start the school year with remote learning for grades 4 through 12 and with a hybrid plan for Kindergarten through third grade. The district also pushed back the first day of school to Sept. 8.
"Please know that providing face-to-face instruction for all grades, while continuing our focus on safety and health, remains our ultimate goal," according to the district website. "Our strategy is to reevaluate this framework at the end of September."
Kindergarten through third grade students will be divided into two groups: A and B. Each group will come to class two days a week — A on Monday and Thursday and B on Tuesday and Friday. They will be taught remotely on the days not physically on campus.
A completely online instruction option is available for families that prefer not to send their children to school.
The Big Spring School District board voted to approve the mandated health and safety plan, a staying open plan specific to Big Spring, and a motion to push the first day of school back to Sept. 8 at its meeting July 27.
Like other districts, Big Spring proposed a tiered system that will allow it to respond to changes in prompted by changes in the prevalence of COVID-19 and guidelines from the state. The district opted to ease into in-person instruction by opening under tier 2, which balances in-person learning with online instruction for all students through alternating days or weeks to ensure social distancing.
"There are no guarantees that we may not slide back as we begin to formally reopen," Superintendent Richard Fry said in a video message to the district. "Our team is continuing to plan and evaluate the COVID-19 situation."
Carlisle Area School District voted to approve its health and safety plan at its board meeting July 16. The district prepared a tiered plan, and will determine what phase it will be in in the weeks before school starts.
Tier one would be online instruction, while tier two would bring half of the student body into the schools for in-person instruction on "A" days, while the remaining students would attend school on "B" days. Both groups would have online instruction on "C" days and the days they are not in-person.
Families will be notified which group their student is a part of sometime in late July, according to the district's plan.
The third and fourth tiers would provide in-person classes five days a week, though the third tier has stricter social distancing requirements, while the fourth tier uses "basic health precautions."
The district approved its health and safety plan at its July 13 meeting and announced the first day of school will be Aug. 26. The board approved an alternate calendar at its June 15 meeting that would push back the first day of school to Sept. 8 if needed.
The health and safety plan outlines a "Scaffold Reopening" meaning some students will be learning in person and others will be online. According to the plan, the students will be divided by grade level, though it's unclear which levels are in-person, and which are online.
The district also is making efforts to reduce the number of students in a given space by staggering lunchtimes for students and holding classes outside or in the gym. If social distancing is not an option, students will be required to wear masks.
The district school board voted to approve the district's health and safety plan at its July 13 meeting. The school will open under a "scaffolded reopening," meaning some students will learn in person, while others learn online.
Under the scaffolded reopen, elementary school classes will be capped at 20 students per class. Middle and high school students will alternate between in-person classes and online learning on an A/B schedule.
Staff and "older students" will be required to wear masks or face shields throughout the day, according to the plan.
The reopening plan was presented to the district school board at its June 23 meeting. The district is prepared with a phased reopening that allows it to offer in-person instruction, all online-instruction or a hybrid of the two.
Superintendent Mark Leidy said the district pushed back its start date to Sept. 8 and has not finalized which phase will be in place when school begins.
Schools will have hand washing stations installed and will stagger class release times to limit the number of students in a hallway at a given time, according to the plan.
The district presented its latest draft of the Health and Safety Plan at a work session Aug. 3. That plan slates classes to start in a hybrid model with students coming to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Students and families will have the option to be hybrid learners or remote learners during this time.
This framework still needs to be approved by the school board at its Aug. 10 meeting. Superintendent Patrica Craig also announced her retirement at the work session — the board will outline next steps for finding her replacement at the Aug. 10 meeting.
The district sent a survey to families to get a sense of how many students would return to in-person classes if they were offered, and how many are more comfortable with online classes.
The East Pennsboro Area School District voted to approve its reopening plan, although it's unclear whether the district will start with in-person classes five days a week or start with its hybrid plan that would offer a mix of in-person and online instruction.
The return to school plan outlines three phases of school instruction: the red phase, in which instruction is completely online; the yellow phase, which offers in-person instruction 2 days a week for each student; and a green phase, which allows for in-person instruction five days a week.
The plan was presented to the board on July 14.
The West Shore School District board announced it will start the school year with online classes and evaluate bringing students back to campus in mid-Sept.
The district announced its phased return to campus plan at its school board meeting July 16. Under phase one, students will learn remotely for the first four weeks of school — Aug. 25 to Sept. 18 — and a decision to return to in-person classes or stay online will be made by Sept. 10, according to the plan outlined on the district's website.
In phase two, the district will bring in a "segment of the student population," with a focus on elementary school and high needs special education students. More students will return to in-person instruction as the weeks progress.
The district released a more detailed look at what distance learning will look like in the fall in both the hybrid and fully remote options. Superintendent Todd Stoltz asked parents to fill out a survey after reviewing it.
The third phase will bring all students back to in-person instruction in line with state and federal health guidelines. More information on the third phase will be released in the coming weeks.
The district plans to start with 100% online instruction this fall, with a phased plan to bring students back to campus once it's safe to do so.
Superintendent Chris Celmer made the district plans public in a video message to the school community last week. The district's Health and Safety Plan will be up for school board approval at its next meeting Aug. 10.
Harrisburg Virtual Learning Academy, a completely online option, will be available for families who opt out of in-person instruction.
The first day of school was pushed back to Aug. 31 to allow for additional staff training.
Families will have the option to send their students to in-person classes four days a week, attend online classes or sign up for Hanna Cyber Academy in the Susquehanna Township School District.
The school board voted to approve the health and safety plan at its virtual meeting July 14.
In-person classes would run Monday through Thursday, leaving Friday for deep sanitation at the schools and online learning for students.
One online option, known as the "hybrid" would include live learning over zoom so students could stay at home. The second online option would be completely self-paced through Hanna Cyber Academy.
Central Dauphin School District plans to be back in the classroom with in-person instruction five days a week by Aug. 24. It was one of the first in the area to announce its reopening plans.
The district's plan says masks are recommended, but not required, when in the green and yellow phases. Schools will post social distancing signs around its campuses, stagger bell schedules to reduce the number of students in hallways, and host some classes in gyms and multipurpose rooms to allow students space to spread out.
The Halifax Area School District announced its plan to go back to school in-person five days a week. The Health and Safety Plan will be up for approval from the board on Aug. 11.
Students will be required to wear masks or face shields at school and classrooms will be ventilated with outdoor air as often as possible.
The district approved plans to reopen fully to in-person classes five days a week at its July 14 school board meeting.
Students and parents are responsible for at-home wellness checks before going to school. When in the yellow phase, recess will be staggered throughout the day to reduce the number of students. Once in the green phase, the district will go back to its usual playtime.
The district school board approved its reopening plan on July 14. The school plans to open five days a week at the start of the school year. It plans to pivot to a hybrid instruction or move to online instruction if the county is placed in the red phase by the state Department of Health.
The hybrid option will operate on an A/B schedule to reduce the number of students on campus at a given time.
The district's school board voted to approve its health and safety plan for reopening at its July 20 meeting.
The district plans to start the school year off in a hybrid model where students will come to school two days a week and will learn online the other three. Students with a last name starting with the letters A through K will come to classes Monday and Wednesday and students whose last names start with the letters L through Z will come Tuesday and Thursday. Exceptions will be made for siblings with different last names.
The first day of school was pushed back a week to Aug. 31 to allow for extra staff training. Face masks are recommended, but not required on campus, and social distancing will be enforced at a distance of three feet, Shultz said.
Derry Township School District board voted to send its students back to in-person classes five days a week at its July 27 board meeting.
The board approved the health and safety plan that outlines the new social distancing protocol and sanitation efforts from the district and pushed the first day of school back to Aug. 31. The district said it prioritized creating a strong online platform for students who do not want to return to classes.
The school board approved the district's reopening plan at its July 21 meeting. The district recommends pushing back the first day of school to Aug. 31 to allow for additional staff training and said students will be required to wear masks on campus.
Elementary school students will return to in-person classes five days a week, while students in grades 6 through 12 will return to in-person classes two days a week through a hybrid model. Students will be divided into two groups, A and B, to reduce the number of students on campus, according to the plan.
Online options will be available for families who do not want their kids to attend in-person classes.
The school district plans to provide face-to-face instruction four days a week and will offer an online option for students who do not want to return to the classroom. The first day of school has been pushed back from Aug. 24 to Aug. 31 and will not affect the other dates in the school calendar.
Daily temperature checks, staggered drop off and pick up times and required face coverings are in store for students who choose to attend in-person classes, according to a video message from Superintendent Travis Waters.
Laptops will be provided to students who choose the online learning option.
The district's plan was approved at its July 15 school board meeting, although parent input is still being collected.
The school district is preparing a plan that would allow for three scenarios: In-person instruction, distance learning, or a hybrid of the two. As of June 15, a letter to parents said the district did not yet know which option would be in place for the start of school and asked parents to fill out a survey.
The survey responses are scheduled to be discussed at the district's school board meeting at 6 p.m., June 25.
The Greenwood School District is planning to open Aug. 26 with full in-person instruction, according to its website, but said it is developing alternate instruction models in case they are needed, including expanding their remote learning from the spring to more closely reflect a "normal" day of school, and developing a hybrid alternative that allows for alternate days of instruction.
The district is also expanding its relationship with the Capital Online Learning Association, through the Capital Area Intermediate Unit, for families that would prefer a full-time cyber school option.
Face masks and social distancing requirements will be in place, with the use of face masks expected in common areas, such as hallways, where social distancing is not possible.
The school board is expected to vote whether to approve the district's health and safety plan for reopening at its July 29 meeting.
The district announced its plans to reopen five days a week with in-person instruction at its Aug. 4 meeting. Added social distancing and sanitation efforts will be implemented and students will be required to wear masks in common spaces like hallways where social distancing is not possible.
Administrators are prepared to move to a hybrid option that splits the student body into two groups — A and B — if the state of the virus worsens in the area.
The district is planning for several educational options for the 20/21 school year, which will begin Aug. 24. . It plans to offer in-person learning when the county is in the yellow or green phases of coronavirus mitigation, and distance learning if the county is placed in the red phase by the state Department of Health. The district also offers a cyber academy program for parents who prefer their child to continue distance learning.
The district's health and safety plan for reopening, details requirements for social distancing, wearing masks, changes to the use of the cafeteria and common spaces, daily temperature checks, and more, has been approved by the school board.
Elizabethtown Area School District board approved its Health and Safety Plan for returning to classes in the fall at its July 14 meeting.
The district plans to offer in-person classes with online options for those who feel more comfortable staying home.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Palmarès

Giocatore

Competizioni nazionali

Metz: 1987-1988

Allenatore

Competizioni nazionali

Metz: 2013-2014

Collegamenti esterni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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F1 GP of Mexico 2018, an interesting race with many movements on the track, but with a bad ending for Fernando Alonso
Countryside Auto
F1 Grand Prix of Mexico 2018: Race Results
The GP of Mexico of F1 2018 has been moved on track, with an exit in which Max Verstappen has managed to go very well and pass to his teammate (again bad luck with new abandonment), in addition to Lewis Hamilton also went well and got between both Red Bull about to make a sandwich to finish positioning second after the first meters of the first round. However, the Mercedes have suffered with the tires and in fact Lewis has had a mini excursion out of the track due to the problems with the wheels. It has not been easy for them ... But despite this, Vettel has not won and Hamilton has been 4th so Lewis Hamilton is World Champion 2018 .
During the start we have seen that Esteban Ocon also played with some cars after the first corners, something that has once again hurt Fernando Alonso . Lance Stroll has already taken him ahead in two of the last outings and now it has been a piece of the car of Esteban Ocon which has hit against McLaren, however Ocon has not been guilty this time directly. Alonso's car looked bad, with a piece of Force India's front wing under his car, just behind the rear tire, on the side of the t-tray, and finally we saw the image we did not want to see, Alonso parking the car and leaving, with the points close and following without adding in the last races. Something bad for McLaren and its constructors' championship and also for the driver himself, who I think does not deserve to say goodbye to F1 ...
Sincerely, among the MCL33 that have already abandoned and focused in 2019 making tests to understand what it happens to him and not to repeat errors, the Renault engine that is being left behind, the problems of reliability that have suffered, and all the crashes accidents to the driving of Fernando Alonso that is being found, is not being the end that deserves a champion of F1 in what most likely is his last year in F1. I guess the only thing that comforts him is knowing that he has few races like that and that out of F1 he expects a very competitive car like the Toyota and we will see if any Indy in the 500 miles or something in the NASCAR, etc.
As for the Haas , I insist, they have an incredibly good car and after the renovation of the riders it seems that even the car has vanished. They already have some races that do not enter Q3 and the performance that we see in the race is outside the points or accessing the last places of the Top 10, something that should be much easier for them. The one who has given the pleasant surprise here has been Renault, which has shown quite competitive with both cars in Q3 and points today.I hope that there Fernando Alonso can have a better race and the car behaves well on that track, although I doubt it ... And after the Brazilian GP, just missing the final appointment at the Abu Dhabi GP where Fernando will have that party or final surprise ... By the way, just after the Brazilian GP the Spanish pilto will fly away at 6 o'clock in Shanghai, which is the last (November 18) WEC world championship in 2018 ...
01.03.2020 Author: www.countrysideauto-austin.com
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text:
Dorset's top 12 spooky places
October 15, 2021 November 8, 2022 by Tess of the Vale, posted in history, Kids, seasonal, Walking
A selection of tales and mysteries about tragedy and despair. The lives of people that have left their everlasting mark on the landscape, now hidden amongst brambles, whispered in the wind or sparkling in the shadows. From country houses to isolated beaches, lonely roads to hidden earthworks, the county of Dorset is full of ruins and remains of life gone by. Every bump, crossroads, woodland or river has some story to tell…
I struggled with keeping it to 12, there are so many more including the Saxons at Badbury Rings, the Romans at Compton Valence, the prisoners in Dorchester and the smugglers of Chettle (walk coming soon!).
And, of course, there's the many big black cats…
Where do you dare to go?!
Number 12 – Durdle Door
Famous for its Portland limestone arch, the popular beach has been known to play host to those from the spiritual world too. Sailors have reported seeing girls dancing on the pebbles and in the water, below the natural arch. Some have even heard screams. Once all the girls enter the water, they disappear. It is suggested that these young ladies may have been maidservants at the nearby Lulworth Castle, the Castle that suffered a devastating fire in 1929. It is thought that maybe the girls were running for their lives; only meet their fate in the sea, here at Durdle Door.
Number 11 – Maiden Castle
As the largest Hillfort in the country, even Europe, it is no surprise that it was the site of one of the bloodiest battles between our Iron Age locals and the invading Romans. On a few occasions, visitors to the site have noticed a large Roman Army in the centre of the earthworks, marching as if ready to attack. Those that have seen this ghostly apparition have remained fearful, whereas people they were with saw nothing!
The Romans were prominent in the county and other similar apparitions have been seen at Eggardon Hill, The old Roman Road between Dorchester and Sherborne (A352), The Priests Way, near Langton Matravers and Puddletown Forest. At Thorncombe Wood a solider was seen hovering in the forest, it was later discovered that he was on the old route of the Roman road between Dorchester and Badbury Rings; his feet standing on the height the road would have been during the 1st century AD.
Number 10 – Clouds Hill
One of Dorset's most famous residents, Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence aka Lawrence of Arabia, made this little place his home. He was sadly killed in 1935 whist driving home on his beloved motorbike. There is much controversy surrounding his death, whether it be accidental or a premeditated murder. A black car was seen near the scene but never found. Occasionally the distinctive sound of his Brough Superior motorbike echoes in the surrounding heathland only for it to come to a sudden stop. Before he was killed, he wrote about Clouds Hill, describing it as an earthy paradise that he would never leave; and he seems to have stayed, as his ghostly Arab dressed figure often graces the windows of the house.
Number 9 – Lulworth Castle
In addition to its role as Number 12 in spooky places of Dorset, the castle is also home to its own residential ghost – the Grey Lady. Very little is known about her, other than the story that she haunted the castle for centuries, usually found in the bedrooms or corridors. When the fire struck in 1929, she herself screamed for help, waving from the top floor. When the firemen tried to reach her they realised there was no floor, and then the screaming stopped.
Number 8 – Trent
High on the hill to the east of the village of Trent sits a large pond, claiming to be bottomless. Trent Barrow is an ancient earthwork, the pond lying deep in its centre, buried within woodland. The legend claims that a coach and horses, travelling at full speed towards the village of Trent, fell into the water. It sank quickly, disappearing under the surface never to be seen again. However, the sounds of hooves can be heard galloping along nearby Ham Lane and on into the trees, only to fade as it reaches the water.
The barrow is on private land but a new permissive path was introduced in 2022, limited to the summer months due to tree safety!
Number 7 – Wool
Keeping with the theme of coaches and horses, Wool has its own version. Just outside the village is Woolbridge Manor, the house that was the ancestral home of the Turberville family (Thomas Hardy's inspiration for 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' and the house itself adapted into Wellbridge Manor, becoming the scene of literary tragedy). On a full moon an apparition of a coach and its full set of horses appear on the medieval bridge that crosses the River Frome. It apparently carried John Turberville and his soon to be wife Anne Howard as they eloped in the middle of the night. However, it can only be seen by those with Turberville blood, if not, you'll just be wondering what knocked you over!
Number 6 – Corfe Castle
Corfe and the castle have been occupied for centuries. William the Conqueror built the first defensive building and throughout its life saw little but war. During the Civil War the castle was owned by the Bankes family (who also owned Kingston Lacy). As a Royalist family they successfully defended the castle from the relentless attacks of the Parliamentarian forces. That was until 1645 when one of their own betrayed them, allowing the enemy within the walls providing the ability to fight from the inside out, and successfully so.
Since the destruction of the castle, a headless woman in white has haunted the ruins and village, thought to have been the lady that betrayed the Bankes. Many times she has been seen, glowing white, only appearing when the sun has gone down, and to those who do see her, she casts over a shiver of darkness.
However, she is not alone, the cries of a weeping child have been heard on nights where the air is calm and still and the moon is full. Also the sounds of a phantom galloping horse echo within the surrounding slopes.
Number 5 – Tyneham
The village of Tyneham was abandoned in 1943, during World War II, by request of the government as it was required for armed forces training. The houses are now derelict, lying in ruins but the church and school still stand with school books left open on desks. The phone box is said to occasionally ring, despite no-one being on the other end and voices, with no apparent source have been heard echoing around the crumbling walls. Some visitors have even reported having stones thrown at them.
During the 18th century a milkmaid lived at nearby Baltington Farm, her heart was broken as her intended had left for London. She sadly committed suicide. The traditional method to deal with these situations was to bury the dead at a crossroads as it was deemed suitable for restless souls. However, Tyneham had no such place and so instead she was buried on the hillside. With the fear that she may become a vampire, the villagers struck a steak through her heart, before covering the body at Maiden's Grave Gate.
Number 4 – Athelhampton
This 15th century Tudor manor is home to a number of ghosts and not all human. Sir William Martin built the house and it was his family that kept apes as pets, even adopting them into their coat of arms. One of their pets was trapped on a secret staircase where it perished and today its scratching can be heard as it tries to escape.
There are many more ghosts associated with the house too including a lady in white, a black priest, a man name Cooper who likes hanging out in the wine cellar and a pair of dualists who fight until one gets injured and then they disappear.
Number 3 – Knowlton
The 12th century Knowlton Church is surrounded by ancient Neolithic earthworks, associated with prehistoric rituals. This is a complete rarity to have these two worlds collide. To the east of the church, in line with the summer solstice, are a collection of Yew trees, the Celtic entrance to the underworld.
The church has had a number of reported sightings from different people but recording the same apparitions. A ghostly face often appears in the ruined window of the church tower. A nun has been seen weeping outside while a mysterious cloaked figure just disappears into thin air. Swirling white mists have appeared while ethereal voices seem to accompany them, the sound fading as the mist disappears.
The complete isolation of this site and incredible wide open skies, especially at night, not only makes this place feel spooky but also magic.
Number 2 – Sandford Orcas
This haunted manor house is set in the hidden depths of North West Dorset. Nestled down winding country lanes and in the high, yet, deep and narrow valleys of tributaries to the River Yeo. This back of beyond, gnarly oak dominated scenery adds to its already mystical aura. The house itself has been called the most haunted in England, claiming to have 14 ghosts in total. The tales were encouraged by a previous owner in attempt to gain a few visitors! These include a farmer who committed suicide in the house's hall, an aggressive footman who has thrown visitors to the floor with an icy grip, a little girl that stands at the top of a staircase and a wicked priest.
However, the saddest story is of one young boy who grew up in the house. He was sent off to join the navy where he killed a man. He was judged insane and sent back to Sandford Orcas, locked up a room where died, aged 27. He was buried in a secret passageway behind the great chamber. Occasionally his screams can be heard, pleading to be released.
Number 1 – Eastbury House
High up in the narrow valley of the small river Tarrant, deep in the medieval hunting ground of Cranborne Chase, is the shadowy village of Tarrant Gunville. On its eastern slopes is the estate of Eastbury, once one of the biggest and most impressive houses in the country. Now all that remains is its east wing, stables and entrance gates, all of which have been slowly cocooned by the intricate landscape design returning to nature.
In the late 18th century, the estate manager was William Doggett. Known for his underhand and violent manner, he was an untrustworthy character who took advantage of his position. With the Earl at the time frequently abroad, it was easy for him to sell off the building's material and treasures, as the house was slowly being demolished, pocketing the cash for himself. When the Earl returned unannounced, William knew there was no escape from his actions and shot himself in the library. The blood stain covered the wall and, despite the many housemaids efforts, it never washed off.
It was said that his restless soul haunted the remaining corridors of the house, often appearing with his face covered in blood. Villagers experienced strange apparitions, being awoken in the night, with strange marks appearing on their necks and arms as well as hearing faint wails and screams on the whistling wind.
Around 50 years later, the village church went through some renovation. This required moving Doggett's coffin and, unfortunately, the lid fell off. Horrified, the villagers discovered that his body had not decayed at all. They became convinced that it had been him causing the disturbances in the night. Arising from his coffin and drinking their blood, feasting as they slept. Terrified, they drove a stake through his heart quashing any future chance of a vampire rising.
Despite their efforts, he apparently still roams the landscape, hidden in the surrounding woodland. At midnight, a phantom coach and horses stops at the entrance gates to Eastbury House. Doggett appears, wearing his token bridges and yellow ribbon. He steps in and the carriage takes him up to the house. Silence descends, the temperature drops and a shot is fired.
Today the decorative landscape has been left to grow, taking back what was once its own. Bent iron railings circle the northern boundary and crumbling walls edge its southern and western boundary. The surrounding woodland conceals stones, bricks and earthworks, while an ancient Neolithic long barrow and Bronze Age burial mounds merge into the trees. A Roman road cuts straight through the estate, passing the isolated Zareba Clump, a dark wooded cluster of heavy yews, tall beeches and hallowed oaks, claimed to contain a silver table, possibly treasure from the house. But, it is rumoured to be aggressively guarded by Doggett's spirit!
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Tagged Adventure, adventures in Dorset, Archaeology, athelhampton, barrows, Bike ride, bridge, castle, church, Clouds Hill, coast, Corfe Castle, country house, countryside, Dorset, Dorset adventure, Dorset walks, durdle door, earthworks, Eastbury House, Escape, Exploring, forest, Fort, Freedom, Geography, ghosts, Halloween, haunted, haunted house, Hill fort, Hillfort, Investigate, Iron Age, Isle of Purbeck, Jurassic coast, Knowlton, landscape, Legends, Maiden Castle, medieval, Murder, mystery, Nature, North Dorset, river, Roman, Roman road, Romans, ruin, Sandford Orcas, scary, sea, secrets, spirits, spooks, Tarrant Gunville, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy, Trent, Trent barrow, Tyneham, Views, walk, war, Well being, wood, wool, wool bridge, WWII
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text:
Good life at the end of the earth
Chile of Patagonia
MANIHUALES
THE CARRETERA AUSTRAL
RIO BAKER
RIO COCHRANE
LAKE JUNCOS
THE RIO WITH NO NAME
THE RIVER NIREHUAO
The Bomberos Inn, located in the center of Coyhaique, is only a stone's throw from the lodge where we have just dropped off our luggage; our guides have reserved a table, knowing that after our long flight, we would highly appreciate a juicy beef steak and a cool mug of beer.
The photos of the salmon caught in the nearby Rio Simpson, which are hanging on the walls, make us feel the atmosphere that we have been dreaming of for some days.
The memories of a previous travel to Chile and the stories narrated by the guides on the new itinerary that we are going to face, inflame our enthusiasm so much that we forget our absolute need for restorative sleep.The next morning, after a short journey, we go down the Manihuales on two boats; it is a mighty, valley floor river which is certainly rich in big trout, but it is a very hot day and there is absolutely no activity in the water.
Only fishing with streamers enables you to catch very good-sized rainbow trout and 100 Tortelli catches a huge one just while the camera is off. However, casting such heavy baits requires an effort that is not rewarded as it should. To make up for it, we couldn't find a better day for taking photos of landscapes at sunset with extraordinary light conditions, accompanied by a warm wind.
After a short breakfast we rush to load the pickups, ready to face 350 km on the Carretera Austral. A lot of people have written about this endless strip of gravel: travelers, writers, artists, dreamers, globe-trotters…… Even if you abandon yourself to your most lively imagination, nothing can impress you so much as going along it.
The Lake General Carrera is lashed by a tense wind which lifts waves higher than one meter. We have a short break in the sole restaurant, surrounded by a small built-up area of wooden houses, a tiny village, the name of which says it all: Puerto Tranquilo. Before resuming our journey we treat ourselves to a quick lunch and then continue southward.
We have travelled for almost six hours, and the Lake Bertrand is nearly around the corner. At last we arrive at the lodge: it is very beautiful, completely built in wood on stilts on the bank of the famous Rio Baker; outside the lodges, furnished with very good taste, there is a patio with a big basin and an abundant provision of wood for the fireplace and to heat water.
The Rio Baker is huge, a mountain of blue water which flows impetuously, alternating foaming waves that welter and then calm down in mild flat surfaces, so it makes you feel uncomfortable just thinking of fishing in it. The urge to try prevails and, in spite of the exhaustion due to the long journey, we mount the rods and unroll the tails.
In the small inlets the trout swim just under the surface, but they are not very collaborative, perhaps because they feel that the weather is changing again! Indeed, it is going to rain and a frozen wind is going to drive us to the restaurant to enjoy the heat of a very big fireplace, where a dish of excellent meat and good Chilean wine will help us make better plans for tomorrow.
In spite of the very bad forecast, when we wake up we find an almost clear sky and no wind at all. So we prepare the equipment on the boats and go down the river which seems bigger and bigger. We have never seen such a wide and deep stretch of water. Aside from the water whirlpools the trout appear motionless: they are waiting for the prey that they will catch like lightning as soon as it touches the surface of the water.
The rainbow trout are the worst ones, combative and very fast, certainly funnier and more challenging to fight, whereas the brown trout are the most beautiful ones, more elegant and even bigger. Fishing with streamers is profitable, too and certainly more suitable for catching specimens over 50, which are rather common.
The day after, the wind and rain accompany us for the 40 km that divide us from the Cochrane; the road is the same leading to Villa O'Higgins, where the Carretera Austral ends up. From there, if you wish to go further south, you have to cross the Ruta 40 in Argentina, then again in El Calafate, Puerto Natales and finally Puntas Arenas. You are already in the Tierra del Fuego, at the bottom of the world. There is nothing else further south.
The Rio is very deep, surrounded by trees and bushes bent till the surface of the water; on the bottom the submerged trunks are an exceptional shelter for the trout, that we try to drive out by casting heavy streamers to be retrieved very fast. While Brave and I go down the river, Aladino and Lancillotto go up.
Fishing immediately turns out to be very difficult, as the bait often gets stuck in the submerged trunks. However, we manage to catch some nice rainbow trout. Then in a meander of the river delimited by a whirling current, Brave's tail tenses up splitting the water. He promptly lifts the rod and starts a quick fight with a huge fish which doesn't seem to surrender until a good five minutes of tug of war, after which it finally lets itself be netted by our gillie.
It is a gigantic trout, not particularly slender but really beautiful and colored. Satisfaction makes you hungry and the wide meadow a bit further is the best restaurant of the area. Meanwhile the wind has become stronger and the first drops are coming. So we decide to go back. Our mates are radiant as they have caught enormous trout, and Lancillotto has certainly made the record of the travel with his showcase "trophy."
On the following morning the weather is changeable: 10 minutes of sun and 5 minutes of rain. But nothing jeopardizes our departure on the boat on Lake Bertrand and, after some minutes of slow navigation towards the bank which is most protected from the wind, we are already fishing. First cast, first perch!
It is a fish originating from Chile and it is the only fish present in these areas before the introduction of the trout. It stops raining and the sun makes the air a bit milder; however, the best catches are with the streamer and it is much more difficult with the dry fly. Where the lake finishes and the Rio Baker begins, we get off the boat and wade-fish: the biggest fish are just in the point where the water starts flowing faster. Rainbow trout of over half a meter which fight with the current in their favor are a good test for the resistance of the leaders, which are never strong enough.
It is always too early to head for the boat, prepare the luggage and go back along the Carretera, but the journey is long and we have to hurry up so as not to arrive too late. It is six hours of dirt road where speed doesn't exceed 50 km/hour, with holes, jumps and dust almost everywhere, apart from those short stretches where the ash of a volcano which erupted several years ago makes the ground more compact and smoother. Just a while after dinner time we are in Coyhaique's lodge, where our well-deserved rest will give us new energy for the following day.
The Lake Juncos is about a two-hour drive on a rigorously dirt road which, for a long stretch, runs through a thick wood on the top of which the trees thin out, thus making way for the Moon Valley, an almost unreal landscape rising from the passage of a huge glacier which, flowing slowly millions of years ago, created a myriad of panettone-shaped mountains with almost identical size and height. When we get to the Lake, the sun is shining, but it is still very windy.
We walk along the banks of the lake among high blades of grass coming out of the water, which thin out every now and then, thus leaving some space for the small canals where trout of half a meter hide in 30 cm of water!
The first fishing hour is totally spent among rushes and water rivulets, in search for very dark enormous brown trout with shining red dots. Then we go up the stream (the name of which is not a name, as it is called, "river with no name").
The pools of the stream, which are never larger than 3-4 meters, are under the little falls where the trout make tremendous jumps to reach the hole upstream, as if they are running salmon.
We hardly climb, often helping ourselves with hands and feet and with the stock of the rod tightly between the teeth, but the big and wild trout we catch reward us enough for the hard walk of three hours.
The River Nirehuao is to the left of the Moon Valley, with the Pacific Ocean downstream, the Andes at the back and Argentine beyond that. The wind is reckless and it is even difficult to cast heavy tails. Nevertheless, luck wants to bestow the last extraordinary day on us and, with the passing of time, everything calms down; put a grasshopper on and fish next to the bank, Diego tells us, and here are the first nice catches and the few more which will ensue for almost all day. The trout are good-sized for sure, 40 cm and perhaps more on the average, but not comparable to those of yesterday at Juncos Lake.
Towards the end of the day, when the wind seems to give me the best chance, here is the cherry on top, as we say: on the opposite bank a strange whirl in the water creates a small indentation in the point where the river bends on the left, just beyond the main current. The bank, which is a bit less than one meter, is almost perpendicular and the long grass blades are so bent that they touch the surface.
Diego, next to me, without saying a word, winks his eye. I kneel down and unroll the tail slowly. There is a bit more than 12 meters and just one possibility. I check the binding, look behind my shoulders to make sure that there is enough space for the cast and I wink to the gillie, who replies with a smile.
I begin to twirl the tail and the grasshopper leans on a tussock and falls into the water, drops for a bit less than one meter, then it is swallowed by a wave and a scream of joy.
It is not easy to let it through the current, but Diego's experience helps me and after some minutes of hard fight I manage to force it as far as the landing net: beautiful, gorgeous, big and bad. I end up here and lay down my arms in the last hour. I then follow "brother Brave" and Diego in the hunting and I feel like a gillie for some time, while a strong wind is rising up again and black clouds are coming from the Ocean. Everything ends up the way it began: a toast at the Bomberos restaurant, then again on the flight towards home. Chile is, every time, more extraordinary.
Emilio Arbizzi


text:
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1984	More
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1984
Press release: The 1984 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Bruce Merrifield
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Robert Bruce Merrifield
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1984 was awarded to Robert Bruce Merrifield "for his development of methodology for chemical synthesis on a solid matrix."
MLA style: The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1984. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2020. Wed. 29 Jan 2020. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1984/summary/>


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