MyWestworld

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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Baseball’s Valhalla

Posted on 07. Jan, 2009 by Kerry Banks.

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A few years ago my brother and I made a pilgrimage to Cooperstown, New York, to see what is arguably North American’s most famous sports shrine–the National Baseball Hall of Fame. It was early summer and we drove down from Toronto, a seven-hour, sun-baked trip through a rural landscape of green rolling hills, cornfields and [...]

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The Hotel Memorabilia

Posted on 29. Aug, 2008 by Kerry Banks.

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Travellers motoring along the Trans-Canada Highway west of Revelstoke, B.C., are often astonished to see a large complex of red-roofed buildings suddenly appear like a scene from the Mediterranean. The 200-room hotel, called Three Valley Lake Chateau, is the creation of Gordon Bell, a hard-driving visionary, who made an indelible impression on every one he encountered. [...]

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Stairway to Heaven

Posted on 26. Aug, 2008 by Kerry Banks.

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At 3:30 a.m., I am rudely jolted from my sleep by a door-thumping wake-up call. Through the walls of my room I can hear the whinnying of horses–the Tenggerese guides have arrived. After donning several layers of clothing, I step out into the Javanese night. Although we are only 800 kilometres south of the equator, the [...]