Bill Murray's Blog, page 148

Two New Things to Read

One's on the web, the other's a book.

Enjoy Where is Cuba Going? by John Jeremiah Sullivan, in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine. It's long and meandering, in a good way. Sullivan is as flummoxed by the Florida Cuban community and the embargo as everybody else is, except the Florida Cuban community and anybody who has to navigate through them toward election.

Just one thing - he writes:

"Barack Obama was going to open things up, and he did tinker with the

rules regarding travel, but no...

Maritime Canada - Wednesday HDRs

There's been a little time to process some of the photos we brought back from Nova Scotia. Here are five: 1. The waterfront at Halifax. 2. The lighthouse at Peggy's Cove. 3. Boat, Peggy's Cove. 4 & 5 are two treatments of another boat at Peggy's Cove.

All processed in Photomatix and Photoshop using Nik Software. Click 'em to make them bigger. The texture in photo number five comes from SkeletalMess with thanks. More HDRs here.

Friday Photo Quiz #161

The skyline of this country's capital, and largest city. The city's population alone is just over two million, yet the entire country receives a total of only some 1,100,000 visitors a year.

Can you name the city? The country? What's that body of water out there?

The answer is after the jump.

And

the answer is

............................................................... it's Havana, capital of Cuba, and the Caribbean Sea. Here's a short story about our visit to Cuba.

There are more ph...

Forgotten History: Halifax

Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Halifax has one hard luck history. Part of it is other peoples’ hard luck. But that only helps so much.

Fourteen years ago this month Swissair flight 111 fell into Margaret's Bay, just outside town, killing all 229 people aboard. The Halifax military bases responded. There are two memorials out on the bay.

After the crash, Ian Shaw, a Swiss national who last saw his daughter Stephanie when he drove her to the Geneva airport, moved from Switzerland to the tourist village...

Industrial Montreal - Wednesday HDRs

After a week in Quebec and Nova Scotia, it's fun to play with some fresh photos. As usual, industrial stuff and machinery lend themselves well to the HDR treatment, so that's where we start. From the top, a big view of the Viterra agri-products facility along the St. Lawrence River outside Montreal and then a closer view of two cranes you can see in the long shot. Then two shots of the Jacques Cartier bridge, opened in 1930, connecting Ile de Montreal to the shore. The bottom photo is looking...

Friday Photo Quiz #160

Beautiful downtown __________.

Hmmm.... That boat suggests this may be a city in Asia. No more clues, though. Can you name the city? The country? For extra credit, how about that river? The answer is after the jump.

And a good weekend to all from CS&W & Earthphotos.com.

And the answer is

............................................................... that's the Chao Praya River as it cuts through Bangkok, Thailand.

There are more photos from Thailand in the Thailand Gal...

Froday Photo Quiz #160

Beautiful downtown __________.

Hmmm.... That boat suggests this may be a city in Asia. No more clues, though. Can you name the city? The country? For extra credit, how about that river? The answer is after the jump.

And a good weekend to all from CS&W & Earthphotos.com.

And the answer is

............................................................... that's the Chao Praya River as it cuts through Bangkok, Thailand.

There are more photos from Thailand in the Thailand Gal...

Fruits of Labor - Wednesday HDRs

Both Labor Day in the U.S. (the first Monday in September) and the International Worker's Day (or May Day, May 1st) seem to have sprung up almost simultaneously in the 1880s. The U.S. Department of Labor says that the first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday,

September 5, 1882.

The movement in Canada may have been a little out in front of the U.S.:

"Labor unions existed in Canada in the early 1800s but legislation was adopted to make it illegal for workers to form unions.... At the...

Maritime Canada Roadtrip

This is a single photo of the building adjacent to the harbour ferry in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The bottom is a reflection in glass and the top is an open terrace looking across to Halifax.

We've spent the week in Montreal, then on The Ocean train down through Quebec and New Brunswick to here in Nova Scotia. Back next week with more photos and comment.

Isolation

Going to be away from CS&W for much of next week, doing some work to fill in the Canada Gallery at EarthPhotos.com. The photos that are there now, from Pacific Canada, date back several years. We'reoff to take a look at the Atlantic side of the country. Still, there should be some short posts about anything interesting we encounter along the way.

In the meantime, enjoy two stories about really isolated places: First, where's the most isolated island in the world?

St. Helena was isolated e...