“Civilization
has advanced from the Stone Age
all the way to the Space Era and
beyond.
Planet after Planet expands through influence throughout the
Universe.
In the future, we'll endure a wide range of dynamic events ~ and
natural disasters.”
(Unknown author)
Frederick
Seitz's Overview of Our Universe Development:
“Darwin recognized that thus, for the civilization of mankind has
passed through four successive stages of evolution, namely those
based on
fire ~ the development of agriculture ~ the development of urban life
~ and use of basic science for
technical advancement ~
every age has been one of discovery.”
The
Hidden Caves of a Rum-Runner
They are one of Hamilton's best kept secrets:
Dark and musty rooms ~ belonging to notorious bootlegger ~
Ben Kerr ~ that housed illicit booze and fuel for fast boats 'to
outrun the feds.'
As
The Spectator's Mark McNeil reveals,
changes in the West Harbour
will provide a rare glimpse into the city's infamous Prohibition
Era.
A large black and white photo (by George Urban) captured my attention
with byline:
Ben Kerr of Hamilton used this boat to transport liquor to the
United States
during the Prohibition nearly a century ago.
A small inset colour photo by John Rennison illustrates:
“Concrete
rooms behind the West Harbour marina building were used
to store gasoline and marine supplies for fast boats running booze
across Lake Ontario”.
Mark
McNeil continues: “For decades, they have sat in obscurity and
musty neglect behind a West Harbour marina building, three
crumbling concrete rooms in the side of a hill,
overgrown by weedtrees and burrs, and littered with junk. They're
known as the 'Rum-runner's
Caves' and
with McDonald Marina closing down ~ and moving out this summer, they
will become more visible than they have been for decades. The city,
eventually plans to turn the caves into some kind of Rum-runners
Heritage Interpretive Feature as
part of a shoreline redesign that will remove docks and boat storage
facilities from the area. What secrets, did these holes in the hill
keep so long ago?
“They
were part of a former marina that boats used to run illegal liquor
into U.S. It's believed that 2 of the caves stored gasoline and
marine supplies.
There
are doors leading into those ~ but the 3rd
room, with a crawl-space entrance
hidden behind a building that no longer stands ~ was clearly a hiding
spot for illicit booze.”
A
Viking settlement, Vinland
was
the name given to part of North America
by Icelandic Norseman, Leif Erikson about the year 1000.
L'Anse
aux Meadows (from
French)
is
an archeological site on the northernmost tip
of
the island of Newfoundland in Canada's province of
Newfoundland and Labrador.
Discovered in 1960, it is the only certain site
of a Norse Viking settlement in North America.
New
~ Found ~ Land
Natural wonder has been discovered by the outside world!
Tourists Flocking to Peru's New-Found 'Rainbow Mountain'
The following are excerpts from Franklin Briceno's writing, published
in The Associated Press:
From
Pitumarca, Peru, he asserts, “Tourists gasp for breath as they
climb for 2 hours to a peak in the Peruvian Andes that stands 16,404
feet (5,000 metres) above sea level. They're dead tired , but
stunned by the magical beauty unfurled before them. Stripes of
turquoise,
lavender
and gold
blanket what has become known as “Rainbow
Mountain,” a
ridge of multi-coloured sediments laid down millions of years ago ~
and pushed up as tetonic plates clashed.
It's
only been within the past 5 years that the natural wonder has been
discovered
by
the outside world, earning it 'must see' status
on Peru's burgeoning backpacker tourist circuit.
The
popularity of Rainbow
Mountain, which
attracts up to 1,000 tourists each day, has provided a much-needed
economic jolt to this remote region populated by struggling alpaca
herders. Enviromentalists, however, fear the tourists could destroy
the treasured landscape,
which is already coveted by international mining companies.
From
the ecological point of view, they are
'killing the goose that lays the golden eggs,'
said Dina Farfan, a Peruvian biologist who has studied threatened
wildlife in the area, just a few hours from the Incan ruins of Machu
Picchu. As proof, he points to a 2.5 mile (4-kilometre) dirt trail
climbed by tourists to reach Rainbow
Mountain
that has been badly eroded in the past 18 months, scarring the
otherwise pristine landscape. A wetland, once populated with
migrating ducks, has also been turned into a parking lot (the size of
5 soccer fields) that fills each morning with vans of mostly European
and American visitors. There are more serious threats, too.
Camino Minerals Corp., a Canadian-based mining company,
has applied for mining rights in the mineral-rich area that includes
the mountain.
(The company did not respond to a request by The Associated Press
for comment on its plan.)
Yet,
the flood of tourists has meant jobs and hard cash for the local
Pampachiri
Indigenous community, which
has struggled with high rates of alcoholism, malnutrition and falling
prices of wool for their prized alpaca. Many have abandonded nomadic
life for dangerous gold-mining jobs in the Amazon.
Now, they charge tourists $3 each to enter their ancestral land,
netting the community roughly $400,000 a year ~ a small fortune that
has triggered
a tax battle with an impoverished, nearby municipality
which has seen no part of the windfall.
The
surge in tourists also comes with a responsibility to be good
stewards of the environment and their new guests and Pampachiri
community
leader, Gabino Huaman who admits he is not sure they are ready to
fully handle it. He states, “ We don't know one word in
English...or First Aid.”
Despite the challenges, roughly 500 villagers have returned in the
last couple of years to take up their ancestral trade of transporting
goods across the Andes. The difference is that now, they are hauling
tourists on horseback. “It's a blessing,” said Isaac Quispe, 25,
who quit his job as a gold-miner after 6 of his camp mates were
murdered. He returned home and bought a horse that last year earned
him $5,200 hauling tourists uphill.
For much of the past decade,a group of shepherds had been quietly
taking small groups of tourists to the mountain as part of a 5-day
hike around the fast-melting Ausangate glacier. Today, the shepherds
manage 4 lodges, made of eucalyptus wood with a capacity for 16
tourists each. Lighted only by candle, the lodges do have hot water :
“We want them to feel the greatest comfort at 16,404 feet.”
Written by Merle Baird-Kerr...May 27, 2018
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