The image below shows the extent of the radiation cloud from Chernobyl on April 27, 1986, shortly after the explosion. A radioactive fire burned for 10 days, causing 190 tons of toxic materials to be expelled into the atmosphere.
Image from WorldProcessor.com
I have been accepted to attend a month long Cambridge CELTA course beginning May 23 in Montreal. Related to TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages), and as part of the University of Cambridge, this certificate is widely recognized around the world.
The pre-course task involves completing a series of English language exercises. There are questions on parts of speech, the tense system, vocabulary, pronunciation, and more. Needless to say, I have been brushing up on my grammar skills!
The actual course involves instruction in the morning, and then supervised teaching practice in the afternoon. The "real-life" teaching sessions are critiqued by the instructors. In this way, I will be able to immediately receive feedback after putting into practice what I am learning.
Here is a 40 second humorous video clip in regard to English language miscommunication (Thanks Ben!):
German Coastguard (~2.5 MB)
Now that's an expedition!
"42,000 kilometers by foot, oar, ski and bicycle - The first human powered circumnavigation of the earth."
"In June 2004 a team departed from Canada on what is undoubtedly the world’s most grueling race: To be the first to travel around the planet (land and ocean) entirely by human power."
"Colin and Julie will be returning to Vancouver on Saturday, May 20."
This afternoon I had the opportunity to fly by helicopter out to a potential harvesting area with a couple of guys from our woodlands department. We spent over 1.5 hours in the air and also landed once at the site. Having never been in a helicopter before, I was glad for the experience. I also enjoyed the opportunity to see some of the field work required to procure wood for the mill.
-> More photos of the flight Update: Additional photos added!
In May 2004, I was in northern Afghanistan. Here is a glimpse of the local culture as viewed through my digital camera.
Photo by Scott T.
Elisapie is a girl's name in the Inuit language. A couple of weeks ago a missionary friend flew to Cochrane with a 6-month old Inuit girl she is looking after. From a town called Puvirnituq in the far north of Quebec, Elisapie was born north of the 55th parallel.
Welcome to everyone from across the country who found my posts about the Cochrane Tembec fire through web searches!
Various news sources are now reporting around 2M CDN worth of wood chips and lumber was lost in Sunday night's fire at the Tembec mill in Cochrane, Ontario.
Here are some links to various reports on the fire:
For the past few months I have been regularly using the new Windows Live site. A completely customizable site from Microsoft, Live.com allows the user to create pages containing personalized content such as e-mail, weather, news, and blog feeds.
For example: for my login, I have four tabs configured: Main, World News, Tech News, Blogs. Under Main, I have my e-mail, a calendar, and weather info. The two news tabs are self-explanatory. Under Blogs I have feeds from various blogs I look at regularly. With one glance, from one site, I can see who has added new posts to their blogs! Quite handy...
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Monday morning we watched the water bomber do a few final runs over the site of Sunday evening's fire. Driving out to the lake a few minutes from town, we were also able to see the plane skim the surface of the water to refill its tanks. Using a method called "water scooping", the plane needs a mere 12 seconds, while touching the water for only 1350 feet, to load 1621-US gallons of water. This is incredible, considering the water is collected through just two ports, each 3 inches high and 5 inches wide! (see photo below).
The plane made its last run to the drop site while we were at the lake. On the way home we stopped by the airport where the plane, followed by the "bird dog", landed. Our friend Herb, a missionary pilot in the north, was with us. As we stood watching the water bomber refueling, the pilot came over and asked if we'd like to see the plane close-up. Of course, we said yes! He took us inside the plane, and explained the water bombing process.
What an amazing piece of machinery, simply packed with technology! I'm glad I had the privilege of taking an impromptu tour of the Bombardier 415 water bomber, owned by the Ontario Government.
Here is link to Bombardier's official site with some video clips of the plane in action.
Update: CBC's interview with Cochrane's Mayor: Audio Clip (455 kb - 3:53min)
By this morning the fire was basically out and the plume of dark smoke present last night was gone. However, the water bomber made a number of additional runs this morning to douse remaining hotspots. Still now, at 12:30pm, a helicopter with a water bucket is still dropping water on pinpointed locations.
So, the danger appears to be over. No word yet on the cost of this fire. As far as I know, no people were injured and no buildings were damaged. The fire burnt a large area of piled wood chips, as well as a number of stacks of 2x4s from the nearby Tembec sawmill.
I've posted more images here on my photo journal.
Also, here is a video (4.6 MB) I recorded of the water bomber last evening.
cochrane tembec fire
