MyWestworld

Totally Concerned with Length

Posted on 12. Feb, 2009 by Kerry Banks.

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I was just reading about how the Nile River may not be the world’s longest river, a geographical fact we all had hammered into our heads in grade school. The Nile has been measured at 6,693 kilometres (4,160 miles), making it slightly longer than the Amazon, which is 6,436 kilometres (4,000 miles) long. But researchers in Brazil are now reporting that the Amazon is actually longer. [...]

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Space Odyssey

Posted on 08. Feb, 2009 by Kerry Banks.

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The countdown has begun. Some day soon, perhaps within a year, Virgin Galactic, the private space tourism company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, will rocket its first paying customers into sub-orbital space. The narrow-nosed spacecraft, with cushioned, reclining seats for six passengers and portholes for easy viewing, is attached to a larger plane for takeoff and then detaches at 50,000 [...]

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Meeting the Hmong

Posted on 06. Feb, 2009 by Kerry Banks.

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The black-haired tribesman in the tasselled skullcap was intent on selling me his wooden crossbow. “Special deal for you. Only 600 baht,” he announced, brandishing the weapon in my face. When I failed to display the expected enthusiasm, he increased the advertising pressure. “Kill squirrel! Kill bird! Kill anything!” It was certainly not your ordinary sales pitch, [...]

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Stand Back! It’s a Breast Pump!

Posted on 03. Feb, 2009 by Kerry Banks.

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My blood began to do a slow boil when I read earlier this month about how Vancouver-Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan was denied boarding at Vancouver’s airport enroute to Kamloops for a caucus meeting because her breast pump was deemed a security threat. Airport officials found it suspicious she had the pump but not her [...]