Yes, I know it’s a couple of thousand miles from my home, but The Chronicle Herald is reporting that there’s forest fires in two areas of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada right now.
Goat put a message on his Facebook1 profile that said simply
is STILL waiting to hear if his house has burned down…
This Google Map show the approximate area currently affected by the fire.
I hope your house is ok bud, we’ll be thinking of you.
For anyone interested, I’ll update this post when/if I hear anything from Adam.
The Chief Scout is the volunteer Leader of the Scout Movement in the UK. With half-a-million members Scouting is the largest youth movement for girls and boys in the UK, and is part of the largest global peace movement in the world. Scouting is a multi-cultural, multi-faith and growing organisation with an active programme of adventure and fun
Including Peter Duncan there have been nine Chief Scouts, the first was obviously Lord Robert Baden-Powell (aka BP) (Left) who started the Scouting Movement.
Peter has been the Chief Scout since July 2004 and in his time has seen international events such as the International Scout Jamboree 2007 and the Centenary of Scouting. His work as a volunteer has been fantastic and to have someone famous in the role has (in my humble opinion) done no end of good in bringing up the public awareness of Scouting in the UK.
So, who to replace him? I have heard some particularly strange suggestions, such as Richard Hammond (of Top Gear fame), Ellen Macarthur (the blubby, crying sailing woman). My suggestion? Ray Mears. Who better? With his almost legendary bushcraft skills, recent fame with his TV series and books, and his dedication to his craft I think he would be a fantastic boss.
Any other suggestions for a new Chief Scout? I am absolutely certain that Dave will have an opinion…
Well, I watched it all on the NASA TV feed (whilst working on bits and pieces for MITTS). Lots of technical mumbo jumbo that I couldn’t understand but at 00:56 Phoenix landed n the surface of Mars. Mission Control confirmed that the landing was good and they are in contact with Phoenix.
90 days of digging ahead before Phoenix goes to sleep for the Mars winter.
I love RSS feeds. For those readers that don’t know what RSS is it’s Really Simple Syndication and is a great way to pick up the latest information from blogs and websites that are regularly updated. I have an RSS for this blog, Mini Mini MIni has an RSS feed, as do websites such as Lifehacker, BBC News and Donncha.
According to the Twitter updates, Phoenix is 170 million miles from earth and transmissions take 15.3 minutes to reach earth, travelling at the speed of light - 186.000 miles per second.
Clicking through to the NASA TV website, there is a scheduled webcast for 6pm EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) which will broadcast, live, the Phoenix landing on Mars. EDT is 4 hours behind GMT. As the UK is one hour ahead of GMT at the moment, I think, the webcast will begin at 11pm BST. I am going to try and check at 9, 10 and 11 pm as I really want to see this unique event.
Phoenix was launched in August 2007 and has only just arrived. It’s aiming for the North Polar region of Mars and will be travelling at 12,600 mph when it hits the atmosphere. As a comparison, the shuttle is travelling at 17,000 mph when it breaks earth’s atmosphere.
Nerdy excitement ensues…
Update: According to the Phoenix page the lander will touch down on Mars at around 12:45am BST Monday 26 May 2008. Thank gods it’s a bank holiday tomorrow!
Most people (certainly English) will remember the glory that was the Vulcan bomber:
My personal memories stem from childhood, sitting on the beach (or in the sea) at Lee-on-Solent during the HMS Daedelus Air Day and seeing this hoofing great silent beast flying at me from the Isle of Wight. As it got overhead the noise was deafening. Watching the plane pull its nose up, light the afterburner and fly almost vertically up is something I will never forget. The last flight of the Vulcan bomber was XH558. It first entered service (and was the first Vulcan to do so) with the RAF in 1960. The last flight of a Vulcan bomber was the same aircraft, XH558 at RAF Cranfield with the RAF Vulcan Display Flight in 1992. Video of the event:
Including Peter Duncan there have been nine Chief Scouts, the first was obviously 
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