Our Mission : To Provide Personalized & Best Holiday Travel Package Tours to Promote Tourism In Himachal & North India.
Himachal Pradesh is one of the most scenic places in world, also known as Switzerland of India. It is full of hill stations, adventures sports destinations, festivals and celebrations, and wildlife.
Himachal Pradesh Tourism attracts wide range tourist traffic to the hill destinations. Himachal is one of the few places in the whole world with five seasons. Spring, summer, the monsoon, autumn and winter.
Himachal Pradesh is known as Dev Bhumi (The Abode of Gods) as it has more than 2000 temples & holy places.The prominent & famous temples in Himachal Pradesh are Jwalamukhi Devi, Brajeshwari ( Kangra) Devi, Chintpurni Devi and Naina Devi. There are fascinating legends associated with these shrines, the most popular of them being that of King Daksh of Himachal. The story goes that the arrogant king did not invite Lord Shiva, his son-in-law to a 'yagna', and consequently his daughter Sati, utterly humiliated, plunged into the sacrificial fire. Shiva arrived on hearing this, only to find his beloved half burnt. Enraged he carried her charred body and broke into the 'tandava nritya', the awesome dance of death. Her charred remains - tongue, breasts, feet and eyes fell at four places to form the four pilgrimage sites of Jwalamukhi, Brajeshwari, Chintpurni and Naina Devi. This temple circuit is one of the most popular ones in North India. In addition Other famous pilgrimages in Himachal Include "Mani Mahesh Kailash Yatra", Baba BalakNath Siddh peeth, Chamunda Devi temple etc.
In the north of Himachal is state of Jammu & Kashmir.
2. Area of Himachal Pradesh is 55,700 sq kms and population approx. 6 million.
Altitude ranging from 350m to 7000m.
Best Time to Visit - April to October.
Best Time to Visit- All through the Year.
Adventure Options- Trekking to the various Villages on the way to the Pass.
Pin Parbati Pass - At a height of 14000 ft above sea level, Pin Parbati Pass is an ideal and one of the most strenuous trekking trail in Himachal Pradesh. The trek at the pass will take you around some of the best natural attractions. Great Himalayan National Park and Pin Valley National Park can be visited during this trek and if luck favours, tourists can site snow leopards and rare birds like Western Tragopan. The remotely located monasteries are the best places to unwind after a long trek at the Pin Parbati pass.
Adventure Options- 13 Day Trek from Manikar to Manali.
Finish: Luhri (Hindustan-Tibet Road; NH 22).
Lower Himalayas – Shivalik Ranges – Lower Kangra,Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Solan, Sirmaur etc are part of this range.
Satluj River – Originates in the base of Mount Kailash and flows in Tibet for approx. 300kms before entering india. Bhakhra Dam is made on the satluj river in Bilaspur Distt.
Ravi River – Originates in Dhauladhar, Flows through Chamba and Dalhousie and enters Punjab.
Lahaul Valley Himachal Pradesh ( Located in Lahaul Spiti – major Destinations are Keylong, Jispa).
80% of agriculture is done on Terraced fields with high slopes.
Cash crops – potatoes, mushrooms,ginger, tea.
Himachal known as Apple state of India, other fruits include Pears, Peaches, Plums, Cherries, Apricots, walnuts.
Sub tropical zone has trees like Sal, Laburnum with yellow flowers.
Other trees include Pine, Spruce, Cypress,Fir, Horse chestnut.
Guchi (Morel) is a delicacy grows in wild and exported all over the world.
Bhots, Kinners, Lahauls, Gujjars, Gaddis came from Tibet slowly and gradually settled in himachal Pradesh.
During Mahabharat time, Himachal Pradesh consists of many small republics also known as janpads. These Janpad had independent political and cultural units.
Chandragupta – The Mauryan king ( 322BC) allied with Trigartha chief, up to 3 generations including his grandson Ashoka's rule, most of Himachal Pradesh sore allegiance to Mauryan Dynasty.
After fall of Mauryan empire, Kushan emperors were in command of himachal Pradesh till 2ndBC.
After Kushan empire, Guptas took over the reins of Himachal Pradesh.
Between 4thand 7thAD centuries old republics of Andumbara, Trigarta and Kulinda submitted to rulers of Chamba and Bushhar.
Entire Himachal Pradesh came undr the rule of Mughals when Jahangir army defeated Katoch rulers of Himachal. The Mughal rule lasted for 160 years.
After Mughals, Sikhs took over many parts of Himachal Pradesh during 18thcentury.
Sikhs were defeated by Gurkha army led by amar singh thapa. The Kangra fort was held against gurkhas for 4 years, the ruler Raja sansar chand of kangra sough the help of maharaja Ranjeet singh and sikh army succeded in pushing out gurkhas.
After maharaja Ranjeet singh's death in 1839, states of Kangra, Nurpur, Guler, Mandi , kullu, Lahaul, Spiti came under direct control of British.
Other tourist attractions of Dharamsala are St. John'S Church In Wilderness on way to McLeodganj, Chamunda Devi Temple, Maharana Pratap Sagar (Wild Life Sanctuary), Norbulinka Institute, Nurpur Fort, Dall Lake, etc.
A visit to Himachal Pradesh offers a complete range to tourists, From beautiful hill-stations, Holy temples, unique festivals, exotic wildlife, thrilling adventure sports, trekking, breath stealing natural beauty, age old culture and heritage there is much to see and experience that attracts everyone.
The climate of Himachal varies from hot and sub-humid tropical in the southern tracts to cold, alpine and glacial in the northern and eastern mountain ranges with more elevation.The state has areas like Dharamsala that receive very heavy rainfall, as well as those like Lahaul and Spiti that are cold and almost rainless. Broadly Himachal experience three seasons; hot weather season, cold weather season and rainy season. Summer lasts from mid April till the end of June and most parts become very hot (except in alpine zone which experience mild summer) with the average temperature ranging from 28 °C (82 °F) to 32 °C (90 °F). Winter lasts from late November till mid March. Snowfall is common in alpine tracts (generally above 2,200 metres (7,218 ft) i.e. in the Higher and Trans-Himalayan region).
Himachal Pradesh is divided into 12 districts namely, Kangra, Hamirpur, Mandi, Bilaspur, Una, Chamba, Lahul and Spiti, Sirmaur, Kinnaur, Kullu, Solan and Shimla. The state capital is Shimla which was formerly British India's summer capital under the name Simla.
Himachal has small airports in Shimla, Kullu and Kangra. There are scheduled flights from New Delhi to Himachal Pradesh Towns.
Himachal has few stations connected by the train Network. Una Himachal is the Only Broad Gauge railway station to Himachal. ( We are based in Una Himachal) . Una works as a main gateway for Himachal for various travelers, tourists, Pilgrims. Presently there are two main trains terminating in UNA.
Himachal Express/14553 - Arrival time in UNA at 07:50AM ( Every Day).


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Mythologie
Phébus ou Phœbus (du grec ancien ) est le nom latin d'Apollon dans la mythologie romaine. Signifiant , il est le dieu du soleil personnifié, qui avait dirigé Sol étant enfant. Ce terme est utilisé comme épithète d'Apollon, qu'on peut d'ailleurs nommer . Fils de Léto et Jupiter, il est le frère jumeau de Diane.

Figure de style
 Un phébus est une figure de style consistant à obscurcir un propos en travaillant trop la forme.

Patronyme
Usage dynastique (maison de Foix et maison d'Albret):
 Gaston III de Foix-Béarn, dit Fébus (1331 - 1391), comte de Foix, seigneur de Béarn, était un prince médiéval de la Gascogne et du Languedoc et un écrivain.
 François Fébus (1467 - 1483) fut  roi de Navarre (1479-1483).
 André Fébus (1501-1503), prince de Navarre.
 César-Phébus d'Albret (1614-1676), maréchal de France.
Autres :
 Phoebus est un compositeur grec.
 Phœbus de Châteaupers est un personnage de fiction du roman Notre-Dame de Paris écrit par Victor Hugo (1831).

Industrie et économie
 le Cartel Phœbus est un cartel, mis en place dans les années 1920 et 30, spécialisé dans la lampe à incandescence et connu pour être à l'origine de l'obsolescence programmée.
 Phoebus est une famille de réacteurs nucléaires dans le cadre du projet de propulsion nucléaire thermique NERVA.
 Phébus est un réacteur expérimental exploité par le CEA au Centre d'études de Cadarache.
 En service de 1985 à 1999, la ligne laser Phébus du CEA est le précurseur du Laser Mégajoule.
 Éditions Phébus est le nom d'une société d'édition parisienne, reprise en 2005 par le Groupe Libella (Buchet-Chastel, Noir sur Blanc…) dirigé par Vera Michalski.
 Phébus est la marque commerciale de la société versaillaise de transports urbains.
 PHEBUS (Payload for High Energy Burst Spectroscopy) une expérience française de détection de sursaut gamma embarquée à bord du satellite russe Granat.
 , ancien constructeur automobile français.

Biologie
 Le phébus (ou petit apollon) est un papillon appartenant à la famille des Papilionidae.
 Phoebus est un genre de lichen.

Gastronomie
 le phébus est un fromage à pâte pressée  cuite fabriqué à partir de lait de poney.

Homonymie de patronyme

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


If you are even a little bit familiar with me, you know I don't like to cook. I find it to be a very tedious, boring, thankless job that never ends. This is a problem because I do really like to eat, and I don't particularly care for fast food and there's only so much pizza one person can take (It's true! I've reached that limit.). So what's a girl to do? Send her child to cooking camp! Oh yes, I do believe this is one of my top ten best ideas ever. I'm not kidding. I think it's such a good idea, in fact, that I'm trying to figure out a way to cajole the local cooking school into making it a year-round thing, not just one measly little week in summer.
Today, we cried and screamed like toddlers on the inside as we drove to the airport, leaving behind our lovely Nurture Her Nature family vacation. As Ali mentioned last week, we took the girls to Tampa this year, and it was the perfect balance of play and relaxation. I think I speak for Ali as well when I say that if you're considering a family vacation, follow in our footsteps — except plan better for meals. We had to throw out too many groceries, making us both sick at the sight of wasted food. Other than that, perfection.
By Barbara Davis of MomTrustedChoice.
You don't learn how to babyproof windows in your home from anybody. This is one of those things that you've got to figure out yourself. And you can't neglect it because windows can be a major problem when you have a child.


A Fisherman's Tale is an Adventure, Puzzle game developed by Innerspace VR and published by Vertigo Games in 2019 for the Playstation 4.
Playstation VR, Playstation Camera and one Playstation Move controller required.
• Make it to the top of the lighthouse before The Big Storm, with the help of some uncanny sidekicks!
• Toy around with your tiny little model lighthouse, inside a lighthouse, inside a... is that another lighthouse?
• Uncover the truth at the core of an unusually tall Fisherman's Tale, exclusively in VR.


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Tiffany and Nike Collaboration: An Exclusive First Look at the Sneakers and Accessories
Tilda Swinton, Marion Cotillard Play in Chanel's Fanciful Menagerie
Sadie Sink talked about Brendan Fraser's "The Whale" Oscar nomination, while Lucy Boynton dished on her upcoming Marie Antoinette film.
By Rhonda Richford Plus Icon
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Tilda Swinton entered like the friendliest rock star in town, with her signature platinum locks shaved and sideswept, all while wearing a sequined silver bomber, and proceeded to hug and introduce herself to everyone in the front row. Chanel also brought together Marion Cotillard, Sadie Sink, Lucy Boynton, stylist Jenke Ahmed Tailly and Big Bang rapper G-Dragon.
Giant animals moved around the set, some with secret doors that models emerged from midshow, in sequined gowns, gold-flecked tweed and top hats, as if playing fashion magicians. Cotillard gamely stepped inside one of the giant animals to make a grand entrance for the camera.
Just your average Tuesday morning during haute couture week.
Swinton joked about her reputation for "taking risks" with fashion. "One person's risk is a comfort zone for somebody else. I'm just always looking for the play I suppose, looking for some sort of feeling of delight."
Swinton, who lives in the Scottish Highlands when she's not on a film set or at fashion shows, swears she wears Chanel at home mucking about in the mud. "Occasionally there's a big old jersey or a fantastic pair of boots that come out and I will tell you that they last as well. I have a pair that I've had for 15 years and they're still going strong," she said.
"Asteroid City," another collaboration with director Wes Anderson that she wrapped two years ago, is finally set to come out this summer. "I'm looking forward to seeing it as I can barely remember it now," she joked. Her schedule is always packed, with three shoots this year alone and some long-gestating projects finally coming to fruition.
"I always say it's a bit like being a farmer or gardener, you know, you just plant the seeds in the ground. And sometimes some of them take a very long time to come up. Some of them pop up quite quite quickly and then you just have to sort of deal with the schedule," she said. "Some are very, very, very long growing plants, then the garden is always full."
Gardens, and nature, is something that has been on Cotillard's mind lately. The actress recently wrapped an episode of the upcoming Apple TV anthology "Extrapolations" that explores the environmental damage caused by climate change in not-so-far future dystopia.
"We have a tendency to separate ourselves from nature, and that is creating a lot of trouble. I want to be connected. It's not always easy because we live in this society where there's a lot of distractions," she said.
She's recently taken up meditation to quiet her mind and reconnect with both nature and her inner self. It has given her a new perspective, she said.
"Extrapolation" debuts in March, and her episode has a bit of a lighter touch. "It's a comedy, so you can laugh. But I think that sometimes by laughing, you can connect with something and ask yourself, 'Wow, why am I laughing at this? But what if it was actually real?' It's another way to question yourself and what is going on around you. It's a good vessel for understanding."
Sadie Sink, who costars in the "The Whale," was thrilled for lead actor Brendan Fraser's Oscar nomination revealed Tuesday morning. "It's good to see something like that happen to a very genuine, deserving person. And that's Brendan. He's been so supportive and helpful, just to have next to me throughout all of this," she said of the press blitz. "We're all incredibly proud of him. And he's just a light, like, the most pure person in the world."
The "Stranger Things" actress, who started her career on Broadway, said she has to "warm up the vocal chords" for her upcoming musical "O'Dessa."
She's also learning guitar for the role, a "rock opera." The music is "folky and beautiful."
But asked if an album could be in the works, she demurred: "Oh, no way. My brain doesn't work like that. It's nice to do it through a character, but that's not in the cards for me."
"Bohemian Rhapsody" star Boynton just wrapped a musical called "Greatest Hits," as well as movie about the original queen of fashion, Marie Antoinette herself.
She plays the French queen in the upcoming "Chevalier," and none too favorably, she admitted. While there are new revisions to her story, Antoinette has been widely villainized through history, Boynton noted. "I was hesitant to highlight only that, because she was so much more than all of these things; however, in the context of our story, I think she's a useful mouthpiece to highlight some very, very dark aspects."
But the costumes are bright — a powder blue and another pink number hold a special place in Boynton's memories. "It's just having a very different silhouette and space that you can take up when wearing it, very different than shorts on a January day," she joked.
Up-and-coming German star Lilith Stangenberg, who's "Seneca" costarring John Malkovich will premiere at Berlinale, said attending the show was an emotional moment due to the set depicting dancing animals and models with top hats.
It featured raw wood and cardboard animals that moved around playfully, created by artist Xavier Veilhan, to give the set a feeling of a village carnival. It was his third and final collaboration with the brand after a trilogy of fashion shows.
Going toe-to-toe with Malkovich was a masterclass. "I've never experienced such a certain profoundness and presence; he's very instinctual and very much about being a mentor," said Stangenberg.
The Chanel show was a moment of lightness after shooting the "very dark" film, she said. "People think acting is a glamorous profession, but it's not. It's actually so tough. It's more like being in a circus. It's very tough work and the little moments of glamour you experience they are just fun and hopefully full of joy," she said.
British singer Olivia Dean is another up-and-comer who sat in the front row, though it wasn't her first Chanel show. "It's not my first rodeo," she said. She's been on tour around Europe and will be dropping her first single, the love song "UFO." As a songwriter she says she focuses on the lyrics first, about an alien that lands in love. "I just sit at the piano and tinkle and see what comes out."
It's the first song from her debut album, though that title is still under wraps. "I definitely have nerves. I think a debut album is a scary thing. It's like putting your mark in the sign like, 'this is me. This is who I am.' But I've really tried to make it just for me. And so that if people don't like it, I love it. So I'm at peace with that."
"House of the Dragon" star Sonoya Mizuno is just about to head back to set in March. She said unfortunately she doesn't have any jousting or horseback riding scenes. Noting her white leather suit had a bit of an equestrian feel, she said: "Maybe I should ask them to put it in. I'm excited to go back into that world."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


As retailers and brands strive to limit their environmental impact by using materials that are eco-friendly, print buyers are looking for environmental alternatives to oil-based products.
The lens of Mirri lens creates a 3D, reflective spherical effect which can be combined with a range of Celloglas decorative print finishes.
Mirri metal is a range of creative specialist materials, a popular choice across all media.
Mirri for packaging use is available in a variety of finishes, weights and colours.


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RD.COM True Stories
A Deep Sea Diver Went Out on a Routine Job—Then His Air-Supply Cord Snapped 300 Feet Down
Simon HemelrykUpdated: Nov. 24, 2022
It was supposed to be an easy job for a team of men who repair underwater pipelines.
The Sun/News Licensing
Leaving his fiancée to go to work was harder for Chris Lemons than for most people. He is a deep-sea diver, typically away from home for four-week stints several times a year. This time he had a job replacing oil pipes at the bottom of the North Sea more than 120 miles off Aberdeen, in northeast Scotland. As Lemons, 32, got ready to leave that day in September 2012, he gave his fiancée, Morag Martin, the usual reassurances: "Don't worry. It's a carefully controlled environment."
"I'll miss you," said Martin, 39. "But we'll keep in touch all the time."
The couple had met five years earlier at a party. Lemons, a six-foot-four-inch Englishman, was a diver and dive-boat crewman. He was drawn to Martin's gregariousness, while she found him kind and funny. They started dating, and soon Lemons moved in with Martin. They lived frugally while he trained in specialized saturation (SAT) diving, a job that involves maintaining seabed pipes for the oil and gas industry. It has its risks, from decompression sickness to drowning—several SAT divers have died in recent decades around the world. But Martin knew how much it meant to him.
And it paid well, helping the couple plan an exciting future together. Martin had recently become the head teacher at a school in the Scottish Highlands, and they were building a dream house overlooking the sea. Their wedding was set for the following April.
At home, their conversations ranged from "What place settings shall we have at the reception?" to the complexity of house foundations.
They also talked about having children and later moving to France, where Lemons had family. It was a joyful time.
Courtesy Chris Lemons
Chris Lemons in the diving bell.
It's called saturation diving because at the intense pressures found in the deep sea, gas that a diver breathes saturates the body. When the diver surfaces and the pressure drops, this gas can emerge as deadly bubbles in the blood and tissues, causing decompression sickness, or the bends. SAT divers reduce this risk by living full-time in a pressurized chamber in the dive ship.
For the September job, Lemons would be part of a three-man team sharing the SAT chamber with three other teams for a month aboard the 348-foot vessel Topaz. He was delighted to learn he'd be working with Duncan Allcock.
Courtesy of Chris Lemons
Chris Lemons flanked by his fellow divers, Duncan Allcock (left) and David Yuasa.
Allcock, 50, had been diving in the North Sea for 17 years. He worked with Lemons, who had qualified 18 months earlier, on his first few dives, becoming Lemons's unofficial mentor. In a competitive industry with only short-term contracts, Allcock strove to make Lemons look good in front of supervisors, giving him advice and nudging him away from mistakes. "If you're unsure about something, don't worry. I'll talk you through," he'd reassured Lemons. Their third team member would be David Yuasa, whom Lemons knew by his excellent reputation.
For the first days in the chamber, the men chatted about Lemons's house build, his upcoming wedding, and Allcock's son, who'd just started working in diving. Lemons couldn't properly speak to Martin—helium in the chamber made the divers' voices high-pitched and distorted—but they kept connected by e-mail, and Martin sent pictures of her adventures cycling and climbing local mountains.
Just before 9 p.m. on September 18, it was Lemons's team's turn to dive. The three transferred to a diving bell, a smaller vessel for transport to the deep sea. The diving bell was lowered on cables to around 250 feet below the Topaz. Lemons and Yuasa would descend a further 50 feet to replace some pipe on a structure resting on the seabed. The men would be connected to the bell by umbilical cords attached to their diving suits. These two-inch-thick clusters of tubes carried air, communications lines, power for the lamps and cameras on their helmets, and hot water to keep their suits warm—the seawater was just 39 degrees F. At the core was a steel-reinforced rope. Each diver had 165 feet of this lifeline coiled and ready inside the bell. Allcock's job was to feed the line to the divers as needed.
Above water, the wind was about 35 mph and the seas some 13 feet high. Rough, but nothing the Topaz couldn't handle. Instead of fixed propellers, the ship had five thrusters that could each be rotated. A dynamic positioning system kept the ship locked in place by constantly adjusting these, so there was no need for an anchor. The job was routine, Allcock told Lemons as he secured the heavy helmet for his partner. "There's no rush. Take your time." Lemons gave him the thumbs-up. He felt relaxed, focused, and ready to go.
Dropping through the two-and-a-half-foot hole at the bottom of the bell and into the dark ocean was always a magical moment for Lemons. Leaving behind the claustrophobic diving bell, he felt weightless, sediment and fleeting marine life caught in the light of his helmet lamp. He and Yuasa started work within the manifold, a structure 30 feet high and 66 feet long; its pipes and valves managed oil flowing from wells to platforms. Toiling a few feet apart with spanners and other tools, the pair would be underwater for six hours.
The Sun/News Licensing (illustration). dogwoof/floating harbour films (diver)
Up on the ship, dive supervisor Craig Frederick sat before a bank of controls and monitors showing the feeds from the divers' helmet cameras. He followed their progress, giving instructions by intercom for each stage of the job. Meanwhile, in the cramped bell, Allcock sat surrounded by gauges. He monitored his colleagues' oxygen and carbon dioxide levels but had no communication with them.
Lemons had been working for about an hour when he heard a noise from Frederick's control room. An alarm. Perhaps the crew was running a test?
In fact, the Topaz had a major problem. The green light on Frederick's instrument panel was suddenly glowing amber, then red. I've never seen that before, Frederick thought, alarmed. The positioning system had failed. The boat was now drifting and would soon drag the divers with it.
"Leave your tools and get back to the bell," Frederick ordered. It was a highly unusual request, and Lemons and Yuasa started climbing hand-over-hand up their umbilicals toward the top of the structure. In the bell, Allcock didn't know what was happening but followed Frederick's instruction to start hauling in the cords.
Glancing up, Lemons had expected to see the bell's lights, but there was only blackness. Then he felt his umbilical tugging as he reached the top of the manifold and saw that it had looped around a metal outcrop. He struggled to unhitch it, but the knot only pulled tighter. What's going on? he thought.
In the bell, Allcock saw that Lemons's line was suddenly taut. Frederick ordered, "Give Diver 2 more slack."
"I can't!" Allcock replied. Not only was it too tight, the cord was pulling its anchor off the wall, steel struts bending, bolts groaning. It was unthinkable: If the cord broke off, it would leave Lemons adrift and without oxygen. Allcock also knew that in this tiny space, if it came loose, it would knock him through the bottom of the bell into the water. He quickly climbed onto his seat to get out of the way. But there was nothing he could do for Lemons.
As Lemons struggled to free himself, Yuasa tried to get back to help, flailing his arms against the water. He almost made it. The two divers' hands were just a couple of yards apart when Yuasa's cord yanked him away. Lemons saw a look of apology on Yuasa's face as he disappeared into the dark.
Lemons redoubled his frantic attempts to dislodge the cord. He heard it creak ominously, and then the air-supply line broke, followed by the communications feed. Unable to inhale, Lemons instinctively opened the emergency air tank on his back, as he'd done many times in training. Seconds later, there was a noise like a shotgun as the cable snapped. His lifeline had severed completely.
Lemons was thrown backward, sinking slowly, his helmet silent without the intercom, his lights dead, his suit beginning to cool. He knew he had about eight minutes of oxygen.
In the bell, Allcock feverishly pulled up the slack umbilical, hoping Lemons would be at the end of it. His heart sank as the broken hot-water hose came up. Then came the hissing air line. He felt sick. "I've lost my diver!" he shouted to Frederick.
Landing on the soft seabed, Lemons struggled to his feet in total darkness. The ship could track him via a beacon on his suit, but he knew that if he could somehow get himself to the top of the manifold, there was a better chance of rescue before his oxygen ran out. Yet he had no idea where it was. What if he walked the wrong way into the blackness?
He picked a direction almost at random and took cautious steps, feeling only the mud beneath his feet. Suddenly his outstretched hands struck metal. He grasped it in relief and then began struggling up the structure, breathing hard.
Reaching the top, he still couldn't see the bell. Not a speck of light. Where had the Topaz gone? He crawled onto the platform and clung to the metal grille, terrified the current would drag him away. He reckoned he had about five minutes of air left. He knew his chances of surviving this were slim.
Yet the situation was even worse than he realized. The ship was now some 700 feet away. The crew was desperately trying to steer back, but without the positioning system, it took two people to manually coordinate the thrusters. The Topaz was slowly zigzagging against the waves.
The minutes passed, and Lemons's fear turned to grief. This is probably where I die. He'd never see their house finished, never have children. "I'm sorry, Morag!" he called out. His mind fumbled with mundane practicalities. Does she know when the next payment for the building work is due?
He shouted out for Allcock. "Where are you?"
His chest grew tighter as his oxygen dwindled. I hope dying doesn't hurt, he thought. He felt himself slowly slipping into unconsciousness.
Frederick had ordered the Topaz's remotely operated underwater vehicle to go down and look for Lemons. It sent back pictures of him lying on the metal grille. His hands seemed to be twitching. Was he was still alive, or were his limbs just moving in the current? It was 16 minutes since the umbilical had snapped.
By now, Yuasa had made it back to the bell, poised to retrieve Lemons if they could get back in position. Frederick kept him and Allcock updated on the boat's progress, though he massaged the truth to keep their spirits up. "We're nearly there."
Yuasa assumed he'd be recovering a body. Allcock's thoughts were darkening, too, and he wondered how he'd tell Martin that her fiancé wasn't coming home. The wait was agonizing, but he tried to keep hope alive. We've not forgotten you, lad, he said silently. Hang in there.
Attempts by the Topaz's engineers to reengage the positioning system had been futile, so in desperation they shut it down and restarted it. Amazingly, this worked.
More than 25 minutes had passed since Lemons's umbilical snapped.
Dogwoof/Floating Harbour films
Lemons's near-death experience, re-created in the film Last Breath.
Finally, with the ship over the dive site, Yuasa dropped down and found Lemons on his back. He glanced through Lemons's mask; ominously, there was water inside. He clipped Lemons onto a rescue lanyard and began hauling them both up his umbilical cord. Lemons was a big man; it was like trying to carry a giant starfish. By the time he was able to push Lemons's upper body into the bell, another six minutes had passed.
Allcock unclipped Lemons's helmet. His eyes were closed, his bald head as blue as a pair of jeans. Allcock knew there was little chance of surviving that long without oxygen, but with nothing to lose, he kept talking. "You've had an accident. I'm going to give you CPR."
He gave Lemons two breaths. And unbelievably, Lemons suddenly inhaled. His eyes opened. He blinked.
Allcock could have danced a jig. He's back with us! For Frederick, watching via monitor, it was a big moment. "Are you all right?" he asked on the intercom. Lemons gave a weak thumbs-up.
Allcock probed him with questions after flushing his suit with hot water.
"Do you know where you are?"
"You know you've had a broken umbilical?"
Lemons was groggy but, remarkably, seemed himself. Back in the ship's SAT chamber, he got medical attention while Yuasa and Allcock had, as Allcock remembers, "a bit of a hug." Once Lemons was stable, they visited him. There were more hugs.
Over the next three days, as the men depressurized on the Topaz, now docked at Aberdeen, they talked through what had happened over and over. It helped them deal with the shock. All gently teased Lemons about the CPR, saying that "snogging," or making out, isn't usually done on a dive.
How Lemons survived, and without brain damage, remains unclear. The oxygen in divers' gas is about four times richer than normal air, so his body may have been saturated with enough to keep him going. Hypothermia could have put him in shut-down mode, too, sending oxygen to his organs.
When Lemons phoned Martin, she was horrified to hear about her fiancé's near miss and raced across Scotland to meet him as he disembarked from the Topaz. They kissed and hugged for a long time. For a distraction, they went to the movies, but Martin barely saw the film through her tears.
Three weeks later, once Lemons was declared fit, he returned to the North Sea with Yuasa and Allcock to finish the job. "I didn't want to lose my nerve," says Lemons, who is still a SAT diver.
"I'm proud of him," adds Allcock. "Many would have said, 'This is too dangerous. I'm not coming back.' "
The following April, Lemons and Martin got married in an emotional ceremony near their home. Yuasa couldn't be there, but, says Lemons, "at the reception, people were buying Allcock whiskeys all night. And they were telling me, 'I don't even want to speak to you, I just want to hug you.' "
"A band played until 4 a.m. and the place was jumping," recalls Martin. "People knew it was the wedding that almost never was."
Lemons and Martin have since adopted a little girl, Eubh. They finished their house. But their life plans have accelerated. "We're selling the house and moving to France already," says Martin, smiling.
"I've had a glimpse of dying and I'm not scared," says Lemons. "I know I'm lucky to have a second chance. I always had a lust for life, and the accident only made that stronger."
Arnulf Husmo/Getty Images
This Man Was Stranded at Sea for 438 Days. His Survival Story Will Amaze You.
This Passenger Got an Emergency Flying Lesson After His Pilot Passed Out at 10,000 Feet
Unsung Heroes of 9/11: The Boats That Helped 500,000 People Escape Manhattan


text:
The Mail December 21 1998
If it ain't broken ...
The mistake made by the bankers was to present a solution before establishing a problem in the public's mind ("How the banks blew it," Cover, Dec. 7). To Canadians, including thousands of smalland mediumsized businesses, the banks are very big and seem not to lack resources. Their failure to precondition us to the threat of foreign competition from massive financial institutions and the long-term implications was a colossal blunder. Let's hope our politicians and bureaucrats who must respond to the banks' merger plans take a long and rational view of the issue, and not an emotional one.
Guy P. French, Toronto
Hurrah for Peter Godsoe, chairman of Scotiabank! How much profit does it take to keep Canada's bankers happy? Gluttony is the word that springs to mind. Competition is good for the soul, guys. Teaches you tolerance for the little people!
Marion A. Hale, Toronto
should be addressed to:
Maclean's Magazine Letters
777 Bay St.,Toronto, Ont. M5W IA7
E-mail: letters@macleans.ca
Maclean's welcomes readers' views, but letters may
be edited for space and clarity. Please supply name,
address and daytime telephone number.
Submissions may appear in Maclean's electronic sites.
I believe that bank mergers will be good for customers. Just think, we will have lots of local branches open six days a week, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., telephones answered promptly by real people, easy-to-get business loans, credit cards at six-per-cent interest and cheap service charges. And for Christmas, the tooth fairy will bring me a chest of diamonds, a pony, a castle in Spain, and and and ...
Howard Janzen, Calgary
On behalf of many fellow bank employees, I would say that your article "Let's hear it for m-e-r-g-e-r!" was not only insulting, but completely one-sided. The quote that we cringe at, when referring to our support for the merger, is: "But this is no ordinary underdog uprising; rather, it is one bound to please the bosses." This paints a picture of everyday Bank of Montreal employees as brainwashed robots. I am most disappointed that Maclean's took the time to meet with MasterCard employees, but failed to convey our enthusiasm for the proposed merger.
Matt Berry, Assistant manager, Bank of Montreal-MasterCard, Toronto
As a 24-year-old Bank of Montreal employee, I am extremely upset with your feature on banks. The banks are not seeking protection from the U.S. giants, but rather the ability to compete. Your magazine is fully aware of how large U.S. companies can destroy Canadian-owned businesses, otherwise you, as publishers, would not need the help you receive from government. Upper management at no time has said that we will lose our jobs if the merger does not go through. They don't have to. Anyone who has an understanding of business knows that when under attack by the competition, you have to cut back. This is where the job losses will be, not in the merger.
Jason Werstuck, Technical administrator, Bank of Montreal, Toronto
Your banking story made me aware of two things: that my local MP, Sarmite Bulte, had signed the Liberal caucus report opposed to the proposed bank mergers, and that the Bank of Montreal had cancelled $1,500 worth of tickets to a fund-raiser as a result of her decision. My wife and I and a number of friends intend, over the next few years, to
attend as many of Bulte's fund-raisers as we can; and none of us will do business again with the Bank of Montreal.
Aidan Manning, Toronto
As a former journalist who has drifted over to the dark side, I can't tell you how much I appreciated Anthony Wilson-Smith's description of the current state of affairs ("Beyond the Milewski affair," Backstage, Dec. 7). He hit the nail right on the head. There are too many reporters who think, because 100-per-cent objectivity is impossible to achieve, that it's OK to abandon any attempt at it. "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story" is the order of the day. It is chilling to review the litany of media scandals exposed in the past year—including bigname columnists who admit they made up their material. Terry Milewski's nudgenudge, wink-wink relationship with his sources suggests what a lot of people have suspected all along—that reporters often take sides. What will the media do about it? Probably nothing—and that's the tragedy.
Don Whiteley, North Vancouver
Anthony Wilson-Smith raises valid concerns about the amount of attention given to the Terry Milewski/APEC affair. But the suggestion that there are worse situations elsewhere that warrant more coverage and greater debate merely serves to demonstrate a decay of democratic process that we should all be concerned about. Because Milewski's situation is less likely to lead to his death than that of a reporter in Nigeria does not mean that we do not have a problem here. Wilson-Smith implies that journalists have their biases. We all do. We all, also, have a right to express them in a private manner. That is freedom of speech. Journalists must balance their reporting and deal with the facts before them. That is how Milewski should have been judged. The fact that he was taken to task by his employer after his private e-mails became public, and in a process led by government officials whose first duty is to open democratic debate, is a cause for concern. Milewski defended himself in a newspaper column and was suspended even further for speaking out. What irony! Does Wilson-Smith want to see a few journalists hanged before freedom of expression becomes a valid issue?
Don MacAlpine, Nipigon, Ont.
Called for boarding
Serious injuries to hockey players smashed into the boards might be prevented by a simple rule change ("Thugs on ice," Cover, Nov. 9). A few years ago, a member of the original Ottawa Senators in the 1920s, watching today's game, commented when a player was checked "cleanly" into the boards that it would have been called as a penalty in his day. The rule was that bodychecking within one foot of the boards automatically resulted in a two-minute penalty for boarding. I don't go as far back as the old Ottawa player, but I remember that at least until the 1950s, when Rocket Richard, Jean Béliveau and Gordie Howe were playing, the rule was still in effect. The result was that more of the play was out on open ice. Regardless of the NHL, it is crazy to allow young children and teenagers to bash each other into the boards.
Gordon K. Johnson, Mission, B. C.
I gave up watching the game more than 25 years ago, because of the fighting. I take exception, however, to your statement that "hockey has always been a fierce and violent sport." When, as a McGill University student I discovered hockey in the late '30s, I was thrilled. It was such a clean, fast game of skill compared with the football I had tried to watch. Let us hope your article will help inspire a turnaround, or at least encourage people to work towards it.
Forrest Johnson, Victoria
Hockey today is a case of overpaid and unskilled players encouraged and permitted to act in ways that would put the rest of us in jail, with game tickets that are outrageously costly and greedy owners with their atrocious payrolls and the audacity to request tax relief from the public purse. In time, I hope, they will self-destruct and the game will return to the skills of skating, stickhandling and shooting.
Dave Anderson, Victoria
Witt and Orser
After reading your article "Sex sells—to a point" (Sports, Nov. 30), I realized, unfortunately, that we have not come very far. It is now still acceptable for someone with a high profile like Katarina Witt to pose nude in Playboy and not acceptable for Brian Orser to live his life the way he so chooses. Witt has done the sport of figure skating a disgrace, while Brian Orser is human, like the rest of us, with real-life prob-
lems. And to the anonymous tour official who said "the pictures are very tasteful"— would he say the same thing if that was his daughter?
Connie Collette-Cole, Vancouver
A lanis Morissette wants to be known for her spiritual enlightenment, but is compelled to stay in the music industry, which
she says she loathes ("Songs of redemption," Music, Nov. 23). Hey Alanis, would you like a little cheese with that whine? As I recall, many mystics have given away their wealth and abandoned the world. Then again, I could be wrong. I mean after all, Madonna, a beacon for all spiritual wanna-bes, has mastered the kabala and Hindu mysticism in only a year. And look at what a font of truth and understanding she's turned out to be.
Kate Purcell, Welland, Ont.
'Education proposals'
Greg W. Jack, an educational dinosaur, proposes to institute provincewide high-school standards, and to enforce an entrance requirement of 80 per cent for university admission ("University is not a uni-
versal right," The Road Ahead, Nov. 23). Not only is this proposal politically as dead as the dodo, it also has a number of serious, and unconsidered, consequences. First of all, high-school marks are far from perfect predictors of university success, and university marks, as well, are not perfect predictors of occupational success. Second, no contemporary knowledge-based society can afford to let talent go to waste in the name of some arbitrary standard. Jack's proposal would also force us to exclude various groups: mature students, recent immigrants, minorities, late bloomers and others. No high-school diploma or no 80? Thou shalt never enter the gates of king's heaven. Universities are serious institutions with serious problems that require serious, well-documented and well-considered analysis. Jack has not contributed to that debate. I would not have accepted his proposal in a firstyear course.
Walter Schwager, Sudbury, Ont.
Tyrants' rights
The fact that former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet is a tyrant is no excuse for Britain and Spain to practise extraterritorial law ("Pinochet gets bail but little legal relief," World Notes, Nov. 9). The world is crawling with degenerate creeps like Pinochet but until the United Nations can agree to set up an international tribunal with the power to arrest and prosecute all despots and terrorists, no country should have the right to practise extraterritoriality. Britain or Spain, who have skeletons of their own in their closets—Pinochet was a friend and ally of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher—have no
more right to detain the Chilean thug than they would have to arrest the perpetrators of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which we all know they wouldn't dream of doing.
William Bedford, Toronto
Sacrifice remembered
This past summer, my father and I took the trip we had been planning for a lifetime. We travelled to Europe to visit the Canadian battlefields of the First and Second World Wars and find the graves of an uncle at Vimy and a brother in Ortona, Italy ("Keeping faith with the past," Canada Notes, Nov. 23). Never had we felt such pride to be Canadian as when we stood in front of the Vimy memorial—or such frustration that most Canadians are unaware of the existence or the reasons behind this
stark memorial. I am 26 years old and have never felt the brush of war, but I will never forget the sacrifices that were made to allow my peaceful life.
Robert Barter, Campbellford, Ont.
Medical funding
As one who has worked for a large, nonprofit medical organization with a research centre, I am aware that some drug companies try to influence outcomes in order to reap large profits. For that reason, the organization I worked for was careful in accepting funding. I would have thought Toronto's prestigious Hospital for Sick Children (where my children were cared for) would be the same. The one who should be castigated is the hospital administrator, whose attitude seems to indicate that, in his view, dollars take precedence over avoiding damage to patients. I believe Dr. Nancy Olivieri is a dedicated, courageous physician who did the right thing, and ought to be applauded ("Whistleblower," Cover, Nov. 16).
Jean Bradley, Portland, Ore.
Blue Grits, red Tories
Lisa Sansom, in her letter to the editor, blames Reform party Leader Preston Manning for the fragmentation of the political right in Canada ("Irony on the right," Nov. 23). Gee, I hate to rain on her parade, but where was she during the 1980s when the Mulroney Progressive Conservatives swerved so far to the left that you couldn't distinguish them from the Liberals? What is the difference between a blue Liberal and a red Tory anyway? And the fact that Joe Clark and Hugh Segal, both Liberals in blue clothing, were the top contenders for the vacant PC throne proves that the PC party hasn't changed in the 1990s. The leaders and the policies of the federal Conservative party are responsible for the breakup of the political right in Canada. I voted for them for 20 years before 1993, but I'll vote for the Rhino party before I'll ever vote for them again.
Ian Allen, Cranbrook, B. C.
The B.C. economy
Diane Francis's closing sentence, "Good work, boys," fails to credit the role played by the women in the B.C. NDP government ("The B.C. route to economic disaster," Nov. 23). They deserve their share of recognition, as the B.C. road to disaster
could not have been paved without their help. The increasing role of women in the political process was to bring a fresh approach to a failing political system—or so I hoped. Instead, the NDP women are as obedient as any of the boys. This is a shame. If only two of them listened to their conscience and walked away from Clark's rapidly shrinking workers' paradise, then—with Clark's government in a minority—this nightmare would come to a blessedly premature end. Who knows, they might be the only two NDPers to be re-elected when the time comes.
Bill Verbürgt, Courtenay, B. C.
Writing a critique of the NDP using mainly quotations and statistics from the Fraser Institute makes about as much sense (and exhibits the same cavalier attitude towards fairness) as writing a critique of Catholicism using only quotations and statistics from the Orange Lodge of Belfast.
Dan Mooney, Salt Spring Island, B.C.
Lower U.S. taxes
I am a physical therapist who moved to the United States in 1996 to have a working holiday for a year. What I found is significantly higher salaries and lower taxes. I'm currently working 40 to 50 hours per week and making $80,000 (U.S.) per year, with the opportunity to earn more than $100,000. My best year in Canada was $45,000, working approximately 60 hours per week. I put myself through school, paid my student loan off and paid taxes in Canada for more than two years before leaving for the United States ("Graduate defections," The Mail, Nov. 9). We love Canada and miss our country and family, but work the numbers and honestly ask yourself what you would do in my position.
Trevor D. Bardarson, Houma, La.
Despite having worked overseas as an English as a Second Language teacher for seven of the past 10 years, I would love to work in Canada. Unfortunately, the reason many of us in various professions don't is that no one will hire us. I was recently sounded out by a a major Canadian university about a job, and the best it could offer was a 13-week contract. Until things change, I'm afraid I and others will remain overseas. It has nothing to do with taxes. Give me a job and I'll come home.
Darvin Babiuk, Sanaa, Yemen
Your recent articles on college and university education in Canada, as well as the accompanying editorials on the number of graduates who leave the country for greener pastures every year, serve only to underscore a major problem that has plagued our
THE MAIL.
nation for some time. Canada produces a disproportionately large number of the world's talent, yet that talent seems to trickle away to other countries in an ever-increasing flow. There are a variety of reasons for this. Constant government cutbacks have resulted in the climbing cost of a basic degree in the past few years. Young people graduate from school deeply in debt only to find limited job prospects, low wages and a ferocious level of taxation. And there is an ever-freer movement of intellectual capital around the world. As long as Canada's business establishment maintains its vested interest in high unemployment and its attendant low wages, then
the talent is going to go elsewhere. Our young people have to eat as well, and if we don't hire them at home, at wages they can live on, someone else will.
Wayne Vaincourt, Portland, Ore.
Sexual maturity
In your Nov. 9 Passages, you write: "Elected: the first openly gay mayor of a major Canadian city. [Glen] Murray's sexual orientation never became an issue during the race." As a young Canadian, and someone who is not gay but is interested in this country, I am impressed with the voters in Winnipeg. Apparently, and finally, some people in this country have grown up and left this is-
sue where it belongs: in the bedroom, in private and out of the public eye. Maybe our counterparts to the south will take notice, and apply this to President Bill Clinton and realize that what he did with Monica Lewinsky is a private matter. Then they can focus on the real issue, that he lied under oath.
Geannie Jensen, Prince George, B. C.
Pamela's admirers
Your review of Pamela Wallin's autobiography spotlighted her 1995 firing from a CBC news program as if it were the most devastating setback a Canadian journalist has ever endured ("Persevering Pamela," Books, Nov. 16). Hardly. Wallin hosts Maclean's TV every week on rival CTV, as well as her nightly program, Pamela Wallin Live, on CBC Newsworld. You also fail to point out that the Newsworld show is rebroadcast the next afternoon on the waste-not-want-not CBC network, which had, you'll recall, fired her. By the time Allan Fotheringham's column elevated her to Mother Courage ("In search of the real Pamela Wallin," Nov. 23), I wonder how many of her admirers (and I am one) thought to themselves: "Oh, God, not her again." What with the book and the inevitable publicity tour, Wallin risks the much bigger danger faced by a Canadian TV personality who makes good (and doesn't go south): overexposure.
Colin Doyle, Enfield, N.S.
Ï The death penalty
I rT'he death sentence is vicious and S i. immoral, but it is not quite arbi£ trary: often, the chance of its use is increased by discrimination based on class and race. Joseph Stanley Faulder's case is a good example of the former ("Death closing in," World/Special Report, Nov. 30). An example of the latter is the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a journalist and black activist convicted of murdering a police officer, who has been on Pennsylvania's death row for 17 years. Amnesty International, the European Parliament, Nelson Mandela and others have called for a review of his trial, which, like Faulder's, was highly suspect. Nonetheless, on Oct. 30, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously denied his appeal and cleared the way for his eventual execution. We must all express our outrage to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, and help bring an end to the death penalty for Mumia, Faulder and all others.
Jonathan Culp, Vineland Station, Ont.
THE MAIL_
An American view
Some five or six years ago, as an ignorant, if interested, tourist, I barged into the offices of the liberal Party of New Brunswick, demanding intelligent conversation on the future of Canada and what role the New Brunswick Liberals might play therein. At a moment's notice and with characteristic Canadian courtesy, Andy Scott (then a policy planner) gave me an hour of his time and a great many shrewd observations. He struck me as a young man of uncommon good sense and vision: a political partisan to be sure, but one with the greater good of his country always in mind. Now, he has become the victim of a (quasi-American) media feeding frenzy ("Slim pickings," Canada, Dec. 7). Without taking sides in Canadian politics, I regret this. I do hope that this worthy and public-spirited person will be able in future to contribute to the policy of Canada and the good of our continent.
Frederick W. Gerstell, Lawrenceville, N.J.
Future medicare
Michael Decter's thoughtful essay on the needed revolution in Canada's approach to health care is the best discussion of our health-care system that I have read in recent years ("The road to better health," Essays on the 2000 Millennium, Dec. 7). He focused his discussion on the real issues— the changes that must be accommodated, rather than on the shibboleths that you hear from most politicians and many of the selfserving critics of our system. What's more, he has done this with a superb writing style. And the two references to the lessons his children taught him were a delightful touch.
Michael Decter's essay is just another leftwing "pie in the sky" dissertation. Canadian health care is getting much worse, and is not
Remembering when
As a sportswriter for the Toronto Telegram in the late '40s, I covered Toronto Maple Leafs games on the road.
One day on a Leaf layover, I was in the Montreal Forum watching a light workout following which a crew started taking pictures for what was to be a Maclean's cover painted by Franklin Arbuckle. It depicted archrivals Bill Ezinicki and Maurice Richard in the penalty box separated by a penalty timekeeper with an usher in the background and a screaming crowd behind that. While
I watched, they were setting up with stand-ins and one of the crew put a Forum usher's cap on my head, told me where to stand and instructed me to look apprehensive, anticipating a further outbreak of hostilities in the penalty box (this being, of course, in the days when there was only one to accommodate offenders from both teams). It is a pleasant surprise to note that the cover is being used on Maclean's just-published book, Canada on Ice: 50 Years of Great Hockey, and that, after nearly five decades and the addition of several pounds, the usher is vaguely recognizable. So I can tell my grandchildren that I have been on a Maclean's cover twice in the last half century.
Bob Hesketh, Toronto
simply changing. We now have a critical shortage of doctors, nurses and oncology technicians; lineups everywhere, i.e. for emergency departments and long-term care beds; CT scan and MRI waits of up to 10 months. And hospitals are closing everywhere with no real home-care alternatives in place. The bureaucrats and politicians have destroyed a once-great health-care system.
Dr. E. F. Dobkin, Toronto
Adding his mischievous spin to Peter C.
Newman's depiction of the Business Council on National Issues and of my role as its CEO in his book Titans, Allan Fotheringham paints a distasteful picture of a heavyhanded and boastful BCNI claiming credit for some of Canada's most significant public policy achievements of the recent past ("How Ottawa gave big business the keys to power," Dec. 7). Absent Fotheringham's
cheap shots and Newman's coloratura, the facts are these. First, the idea of a BCNI policy coup d'état—a wholesale takeover of Canada's political agenda during the Mulroney/Chrétien prime ministerships—is fanciful in the extreme, the pap usually proferred by a small but highly vocal group of leftist blowhorns. Yes, we have had some influence, but the common sense of the BCNI positions in fighting inflation and soaring deficits and in advocating trade and investment liberalization mercifully found resonance in the body politic, which is where the real credit for Canada's economic revolution lies. Second, at no time have I claimed that a chance encounter with prime ministerdesignate Brian Mulroney on an Ottawa street led to his reversing his anti-free-trade stance. Yes, we did speak briefly about the BCNI's position on free trade—but Mulroney's metamorphosis was undoubtedly influenced by many factors. As for the BCNI spending $20 million in the "largest, most powerful lobby in Canadian history," the assertion is ludicrous. In fact, the BCNI and
the Canadian Alliance for Trade and Job Opportunities combined spent less than $5 million on the campaign! The portrait that appears in Titans has far too much varnish on it for my liking. Pity that Fotheringham did not offer me the courtesy of a call in advance of writing. I would have set him straight. But that would have spoiled his story.
Thomas d'Aquino, President and chief executive, Business Council on National Issues, Ottawa
'Balanced articles'
You state that "the island of Montreal, with almost 2.5 million people, holds about a third of Quebec's population—but fewer than a quarter of the national assembly's seats" ("The patriot game," Cover, Nov. 30). In fact, the island of Montreal has nearly 1.8 million people, about a quarter of the population of Quebec, in line with its national assembly representation. While your coverage of international events is generally unbiased, I am dismayed that almost any article about the independence movement in Quebec is tainted with a federalist bias. And while I understand the strong feelings that Quebecers and Canadians have on the issue of "national unity," a magazine of Maclean's standing should be careful to publish more balanced and accurate articles about Quebec.
Kristopher Kinch, Taipei, Taiwan
Shopping Canadian
In "In search of the hot toy" (Special Report, Dec. 14), you list, among others, the Barbie software and camera, the Microsoft Actimates Interactive series, and the Nintendo computer games. These products are, indeed, hot items this Christmas. But you fail to list Canadian-owned outlets, other than the Bay companies, for these goods. As an 18-year owner/franchisee in Toronto's Eaton Centre, it annoys me to see you leading your list of suggested resellers with large American bigbox operations. Companies such as Toys "R" Us and Wal-Mart are prime examples of U.S. firms that take their revenues and profits south of the border. There are many independent Canadian companies that also offer these items at competitive prices, and these owner/operators work long hours to keep their businesses going and their revenues and profits invested in Canada. I fight like crazy to balance the Canadian dollar's purchasing power against profitability, while I continue to employ 25 of Canada's finest young people. Perhaps a little credit where it is due would help us all.
Baird Heide, Toronto
TREATS FROM TINSELTOWN
December 1998 By Brian D. Johnson
A MAN WITH NINE LIVES
December 1998 By JANE O'HARA
Justice under fire
December 1998 By JOHN DeMONT
HIGH CRIMES?
December 1998 By ANDREW PHILLIPS
Shop around the clock
December 1998 By ROSS LAVER
A NEW EMBRACE


Residents are strongly recommended to regularly monitor the Planning Authority (AVDC) web site to keep abreast of planning proposals arising in the Parish.
A summary of selected, significantly large scale planning applications, considered likely to have significant impact on local infrastructure, can be seen attached to the minutes of Parish Council meetings as they arise.
Under Local Government legislation, Planning Authorities are the final decision makers in granting or refusing planning applications in their area. Whilst the decision of the Planning Authority is final locally, it may be appealed, to the National Government Inspectorate, by land owners/ developers but not by residents, the Planning Authority or by Parish Councils. Our 'Planning Authority' is Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) and Grendon Underwood Parish Council (GUPC) is a 'Planning Consultee' under the legislation for planning applications within Parish boundaries. The legislation puts an obligation onto the Planning Authority to seek the views of local residents, likely to be affected by any development, both directly through the AVDC web site and as expressed by a local legally empowered Consultee, usually the local Parish Council.
Whilst Planning Authorities are obliged to seek and consider the views of local residents, either directly or as expressed by their Consultees, they are under no obligation to approve them, incorporate them or accept them in any way.
How does this work for Grendon Underwood?
Aylesbury Vale District Council/ Planning (the 'Planning Authority') invites Grendon Underwood Parish Council (the 'Planning Consultee') to express local views for each application received - the options given being NO OBJECTIONS, SUPPORTS or OPPOSES (with clear reasons why). The Council normally has 21 days to make a reasoned response. Residents can access all planning applications currently under consideration by AVDC on their web site - link through this web site above - and the Parish Council would encourage all residents to regularly review applications arising in the Parish. Should you feel an application would affect you either positively or negatively, let the Council know using the contact form on this web site. Please note the closing date for responses and let Council know in sufficient time to meet the consultation deadline.
This in no way affects your right to express your views directly to AVDC as well through their web site.
How does the Council deal with an application?
For routine applications with minimal impact on the local community such as single dwelling change of use, extensions, conservatories, access requests etc, Councillors take a view on behalf of residents whilst taking due regard to any resident comment, if received in time, to also include all responses relating to the application as shown on the AVDC web site. This usually happens at a full meeting of Council or, if the closing date for comments is before the next meeting, by email circulation. Residents are encouraged to make representation at these meetings or make direct contact with Councillors if they have any concerns about an application.
For larger applications with a potential to result in significant impact on the local community, its infrastructure, environment or sustainabilty, the Council will apply their Planning Response Policy (available on the Policies page of this web site) and carefully weigh any benefits of the development against any risks to community cohesion or sustainabtlity. The Council may also arrange for a local public meeting if demand is sufficiently high. The outcome of their deliberations is entered onto the agenda for the next full Council meeting for ratification prior to submission to the Planning Authority - for the final decision to be made by them.
As a resident you can make representation directly to both AVDC (link above) and to the Parish Council either by contacting any Parish Councillor directly or by using the contact form on the Councillors page of this web site.
At Parish Council level your views will be considered before any representation is made to the Planning Authority on behalf of local residents.
At AVDC level your views will form part of the overall response from all sources and all interested parties to be balanced before the final decision is made.
The Proposed Submission of the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan for period 2013 to 2033; issued November 2017 (PSVALP 2017) is now under consideration by AVDC for final submision to HMG Inspectorate later in the year and can be seen here.


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About Arnold August, his books and articles. Latest book/Cuba-U.S. Relations: Obama and Beyond.
And others including Prensa Latina.
Para los artículos de Arnold August en español, haga click aquí.
Pour les articles d'Arnold August en français, cliquez ici.


Neste, the world's leading renewable products producer, and Air BP, the international aviation fuel products and services supplier, have entered into an agreement to explore opportunities to increase the supply and availability of sustainable aviation fuel for airline customers.
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Jon Platt, Air BP Chief Executive Officer added: "We are very pleased that through our collaboration with Neste, an industry leader in this space, we will be able to continue to support our customers with their low carbon ambitions. The aviation industry's carbon reduction targets can only be achieved with support from across the entire supply chain and, by bringing our experience and expertise together, we are looking to drive change by promoting and securing the supply of sustainable aviation fuel."
The aviation industry has set ambitious targets to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions from air transportation, including carbon-neutral growth from 2020 and beyond, and a 50 percent reduction of net aviation carbon emissions by 2050. Currently, sustainable aviation fuel offers the only viable alternative to fossil liquid fuels for powering commercial aircraft. Collaborations between forward-thinking companies like Neste and Air BP will be needed to enable the aviation industry to continue to connect the world, but do so with reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
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As the aviation division of BP, Air BP is one of the world's leading suppliers of aviation fuel products and services. We have been investing in the aviation industry for over 90 years and currently supply around six and a half billion gallons of aviation fuel a year. We fuel over 6,000 flights a day, at around 900 locations in more than 50 countries - that's more than four every minute. Our customers include commercial airlines, the military, business and private aircraft owners, airports and airfield operators.
Air BP's services include the design, build and operation of fuelling facilities, technical consultancy and training, supporting customers to meet their lower carbon goals through environmental solutions, the Sterling Card for efficient general aviation refuelling and innovative digital platforms to increase efficiency and reduce risk.


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World Pfeil nach rechts
Barack Obama Pfeil nach rechts
American War on Islamic State ISIS Is Risky and Uncertain
Foto: Pete Souza/ The White House
Photo Gallery: A New War Against the Islamic State
Airstrike Uncertainties Obama's Dangerously Vague New War
Obama has spent much of his term withdrawing the US from quagmires abroad. But now, in the battle against Islamic State extremists, he has a war of his own. His plan of attack, though, is filled with uncertainties and America's ultimate goal remains unclear.
Von Markus Feldenkirchen, Christoph Reuter und Holger Stark
The City of Rabbits. That is the bucolic alias once attached to the Syrian town of Marea. But it is no longer in use. Now, one of the most important frontlines in the war in northern Syria runs through the town. Some 5,000 rebels have established themselves in the potato fields surrounding Marea in an effort to stop Islamic State jihadists from continuing their advance on Aleppo.
Thus far, they have been successful -- thanks largely to assistance from the US. In Marea, an American-supported rebel command center coordinates the rebels' defense. The entire front is divided into sectors, which are each under the control of a single group. They have names like "Defenders of the Faith," "Islamic Front" and "Nureddin Senki Brigade" and are fairly obscure. Even so, they now have satellite images, ammunition for Kalashnikovs and larger caliber weapons, night-vision devices and provisions. A few anti-tank rockets also arrived a few months ago.
All of the materiel was provided to the fighters by the US. The CIA has established a military operations center in the Turkish border town of Reyhanli which it uses to support Syrian rebels. Those given a green rating by the CIA receive both arms and a salary. Those coded yellow receive help but no weapons. Those marked red receive nothing. Nine groups with a total of around 10,000 fighters are now said to be operating north of Aleppo to stop the march of the Islamic State.
Witnesses who have visited the operations center and who work with the US. have described a curious alliance -- the cast of characters ranges from bearded Islamists to defected army officers. The fighters aren't radical. They aren't exactly secular either. Above all, they aren't corrupt; they are disciplined and capable.
Waiting for Air Strikes
"We are holding our lines, but we aren't going to attack," says one of the Syrian rebel commanders who just came to Turkey for two days. The fighters have plenty of arms and ammunition, he said, but also have a fear of the Islamic State and its extreme brutality. "To advance against the Islamic State, we need heavy weaponry, artillery and rocket launchers." He says that the Americans need to provide Syrian fighters with the kind of weapons that the Islamic State has been able to plunder from the Iraqi army. "We are now waiting for US airstrikes," the commander says. "Nothing will happen before that."
On the eve of the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, US President Barack Obama announced that such airstrikes were on the way, in a speech that was designed to demonstrate America's power and determination. Standing in the White House, the president informed his fellow Americans of a war against the Islamic State that could take years to achieve its goals. The appearance marked a complete reversal for Obama. He is now no longer the president who only brings wars to an end; he has now become a war president himself. As Obama announced the operation's aim, he sounded eerily reminiscent of George W. Bush, his predecessor: "We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL," Obama said, using one of the many acronyms used to refer to the Islamic State.
For Obama, there is something almost tragic about this moment. A rapid withdrawal from Iraq was once one of his central campaign promises, and now he is in danger of leaving his successor a country deeply mired in an intransigent conflict not unlike the ones he inherited from Bush.
Unclear Goals
That speech marked the moment Obama gave up on his "lead from behind" doctrine, which imagined a superpower pulling the strings backstage rather leading the charge. The about-face became necessary in part because of the West's earlier hesitation to get involved in the Syrian civil war, a delay which allowed the jihadists to gain strength.
The risks associated with the new operation, which Obama has sought to sell as an anti-terrorism campaign, are immense. And important questions remain unanswered. What, for example, does Obama seek to achieve? Is the US only interested in the destruction of the terror group to prevent it from being able to carry out possible terror strikes in the US? Or is Washington also tempted by regime change in Syria?
The bombs, after all, won't be targeting the cause of the Islamic State's rise -- Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad is leading a destructive war in his effort to cling to power. Attacking the Islamic State helps Assad, but it also, more than anything, helps rebel groups in Syria.
"Nobody knows what our strategy really looks like in Syria," says former CIA analyst Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution. "The strategy in Iraq is clearly a military one, with the Iraqi army as a partner. In Syria, it sounds like a counterterrorism mission like those in Yemen and Somalia." In those places, though, drone attacks have done little to weaken Islamist groups. On the contrary. And experts agree that airstrikes are not enough to destroy a well-organized pseudo-army like the one belonging to the Islamic State.
The Assad Question
It also remains unclear how the US intends to fly bombing raids in Syria without cooperating with Assad's regime. In Iraq, the government explicitly requested American assistance, but Obama has ruled out working together with the Syrian government. Assad maintains effective anti-aircraft systems, though Pollack believes that Assad would not fire at US fighters and drones. "The last thing that Assad wants is an additional fight with the US," he says. But it isn't a certainty.
Russia has been vociferous in its criticism of Obama's plans, with the Foreign Ministry in Moscow saying in a statement that airstrikes would be "an act of aggression" and that such a step, "in absence of a UN Security Council decision, would be ... a gross violation of international law" and would further increase tensions.
Should it come under attack, the US may then feel forced to destroy Syrian airports, fighter jets and anti-aircraft batteries, which would end Syrian control of airspace over large areas now under rebel control. Assad's Syria would shrink to a small strip from Damascus to the coast.
It is more likely that the Assad regime will silently tolerate US airstrikes. Indeed, Western diplomats and intelligence personnel in southern Turkey say that the US has been secretly negotiating with Damascus in recent weeks in the hopes of getting the green light for air raids.
Damascus is eager to win the US as an ally. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has said that any airstrikes must be carefully coordinated -- though there are large differences between Washington and Damascus's notions of who exactly the enemy is.
Rebels Caught in the Middle
When Islamic State fighters began shelling rebel-controlled Marea from three sides in August, the Syrian air force flew several air raids. But their bombs didn't hit the Islamic State. They instead struck exactly the rebels that are receiving support from the US.
Yassir al-Haji, head of the political opposition in Marea, says two girls died in the town late last week, one after being struck by an Islamic State tank shell and the other as a result of a regime airstrike. "Both sides are shooting at us. Assad's air force is flying sorties against us every day. At the same time, more than 1,000 Islamic State fighters are just five kilometers away -- and are not being bombed," Haji says.
The Islamic State was long a useful enemy for the regime in Damascus, with the jihadist group's brutality making Assad look like the lesser of two evils. Indeed, the Syrian air force refrained from attacking Islamist State positions at all until mid-June. In return, the Islamists focused their fight on other opposition groups -- and financed themselves through oil deals with Damascus. Both Assad and the Islamic State were apparently trying to use each other.
Rise of the Islamic State
But suddenly, the Islamic State became much more powerful than expected. The CIA recently estimated that the group may have as many as 30,000 fighters. Since the jihadists began attacking regime positions in the east, the Syrian air force has been attacking them there. But only there.
The Islamic State is like a parasite and has taken advantage of the weaknesses displayed by its hosts, Syria and Iraq. The terror group is not only made up of fanatics, but also of strategists who prefer eye-catching brutalities to staging provocative attacks in the West. Indeed, this dearth of large-scale attacks abroad led many experts to believe until recently that the Islamic State didn't play in the terrorist big leagues. In January, even Barack Obama compared the group to a high-school's second-tier ("JV") basketball team. What they all missed was that the Islamic State had turned al-Qaeda's concept on its head: Instead of starting off with global terror, the Islamic State was first focusing on conquering territory from which to operate.
In early August, though, Islamic State leaders made a crucial mistake that set off a chain reaction: They attacked the Yazidi and Christian communities in northern Iraq. The fate of the minority groups was greeted with international outrage, and led the US to bomb Islamic State positions in Iraq -- a development the jihadists had seemingly not expected.
The terrorists then beheaded two American journalists in an effort to intimidate the United States. This, too, was not a clever move: Since mid-June, popular US approval for military operations against IS has skyrocketed, with almost three quarters of Americans now in favor. Suddenly, the Islamic State is confronted with a significant opponent.
The Islamic State is made vulnerable by the fact that it behaves like an army instead of a terror organization; captured Humvees, artillery pieces and tanks are clearly identifiable military targets. Many of them have been destroyed by the over 150 sorties thus far flown in Iraq by the US. The Islamic State is much more difficult to fight in urban areas and no cities controlled by the group have been retaken yet.
'Enemies of America'
It is still difficult to predict the effect the American air attacks will have in Syria. Much will depend on who exactly they will be targeting. If Washington adheres to its terror list, it will also have to attack the al-Nusra Front, whose leader once pledged his loyalty to al-Qaida. Nusra's fighters are almost all Syrians -- and most are embittered enemies of the Islamic State. "An attack on Nusra would be the biggest favor that Washington could do to the Islamic State," warns one of the most knowledgeable experts on the Syrian opposition. "It would turn many Sunnis into enemies of America."
More than anything, though, the US need local support, given that Obama is reluctant to send ground troops. But the Syrian opposition has been worn down by fighting a two-front war against Assad and the Islamic State and is disillusioned about the West due to its apathy. Thousands of rebels have died while others have fled from the country with their families. The Free Syrian Army has fallen apart, old brigades have been dissolved and new ones have been founded under different names. The rich Syrian exiles that have long financed the opposition are cash-strapped after years of war, leading many fighters to cross over to Nusra or the Islamic State.
If Obama wants to convince the Syrians that he is serious, he will also have to present a political strategy. This would mean abandoning the course it has followed thus far -- that of trying to force both sides to come to a negotiated solution. The secret negotiations in Switzerland earlier this year did succeed in bringing them closer together, but the talks fell apart over one crucial point: Assad's hold on power. A best-case scenario would see Washington's new strategy result in a decisive breakthrough.
'Explicit Pro-American'
But the operation's success will be especially dependent on the "Coalition of the Willing" that Obama is now currently assembling. France's President Francois Hollande declared himself ready this past Friday to attack targets in Iraq from the air. British Prime Minister David Cameron has not fundamentally ruled out military participation in Syria. Only the German government doesn't want to get directly involved in the fight against the Islamic State. "But the last thing that the US wants is a new crusade of the West in the Middle East," says Brookings expert Kenneth Pollack. "The coalition against the Islamic State needs to be regionally anchored."
It is precisely this alliance that Washington has formed in the past weeks -- an alliance that, until recently, nobody would have thought possible: between the Kurds, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. They are to block the Islamic State's flow of money, allow the use of military bases, control borders and provide humanitarian assistance. Even Iran supports the offensive against the Islamic State -- even though it is simultaneously helping Assad. The Saudis, meanwhile, want to topple Assad and destroy the Islamic State -- but doesn't want to support their Shiite archenemies in Iraq. And crucially Turkey, the country through which most Jihadists make their way to Syria and Iraq, is not on-board.
It will soon become clear the degree to which the world is prepared to follow the US. The war in the Middle East will be a central topic at the UN General Assembly in September. Obama will give another keynote address and lead the meeting of the Security Council. Should he receive Security Council backing, it would mark a significant foreign policy success.
His strategy could also help Democrats in seven weeks, when Congressional elections are held. Even Newt Gingrich, a Republican detractor of the president's, was impressed last week. "This speech," he said, "is the most explicit pro-American speech he ever made."
Barack Obama Terrorism Islamic State Iraq Syria Middle East
8 Bilder Photo Gallery: A New War Against the Islamic State
President Barack Obama at a National Security Council meeting in the White House on July 28. On September 11, Obama announced that the United States would be conducting air strikes against the Islamic State. He informed Americans that the war against the group could last years.
Members of the US army assemble bundles of water for a humanitarian airdop over Amirli, Iraq on August 30. The drops were made at the request of the Iraqi government.
Foto: Staff Sgt. Shawn Nickel/ AFP
Iraqis chase after a Red Crescent truck delivering food and other items in a displacement camp in June. The rapid advance by the Islamic State has caught many experts by surprise, and created a new crisis for the region and for President Obama.
Foto: Spencer Platt/ Getty Images
Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad fire in the city of Aleppo. The offensive against the Islamic State puts the United States in a delicate position vis-a-vis the current Syrian government. It remains unclear how the US intends to fly bombing raids in Syria without cooperating with Assad's regime.
Foto: GEORGE OURFALIAN/ REUTERS
Fighters of the Islamic State parading in a street in Raqqa, Syria. The Islamic State was long a useful enemy for the regime in Damascus, with the jihadist group's brutality making Assad look like the lesser of two evils.
Foto: Uncredited/ AP/dpa
Fighters of the Peshmerga, the armed Kurdish group, fire on a position of the Islamic State. Given that Obama does not want to send in any ground troops, the Americans will need local support to successfully fight the Jihadists.
Foto: Antonio Pampliega/ dpa
French President Francois Hollande (center) leaves with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal (second from the right), Bahrani Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa (right) and others after a family photo at the International Conference on Peace and Security in Iraq on September 15, 2014. The conference was held to discuss strategies against the Islamic State.
Foto: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/ AFP
Graphic: US air strikes in Iraq.
Foto: DER SPIEGEL