Cree on the move and GOOGLE Maps

Cree "Idle No More" walkers trek to Ottawa

   On January 16th, 2013 (a national day of action for INM) six Cree men under the age of 20 (with an experienced guide) left from Whapmagoostui (Great Whale) on Hudson Bay in minus 50 degree weather.

   They are walking an estimated 1500 km (even Google Maps can not calculate the actual distance, but it is like Winnipeg to Ottawa) along traditional Cree/Algonquin/Mohawk trading routes to Ottawa. They are snowshoeing through the wilderness and are camping along the way.

   They are expected to arrive at Victoria Island Monday, March 25th, for a welcoming ceremony between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. and then walk to Parliament Hill.
    Theirs is not a "walk in the park". They have a vision and a manifesto and they are putting their feet where their mouths are.                               

GOOGLE MAPS IQALUIT

Residents of Iqaluit may see pedestrians carrying some strange-looking equipment on their backs until Sunday. 

They’re members of a team working for Google Maps to photograph the city for Google Street View.

Google missed a big chance to add to the Internet sites of unusual street views when they didn't have one of the Cree INM walkers wear a "trekker" on their hike. Oh right - 69 days of snow might make a boring video.

GOOGLE SHOWS US MOUNTAIN VIEWS

      "Google Maps is the first place most internet users look to for views of the world that might be otherwise unreachable. Google is expanding that service, with detailed views from the tops of mountains. Most of us will never be able to climb any of the world's tallest peaks, but with Google Maps Street View, at least we can see what it would be like if we did.

Google's team captured the images using a simple tripod and a digital camera with a fish-eye lens. The team cataloged their adventures while taking the photos on Google's Lat-Long blog. This offers a little more insight into what it took for the team to capture these impressive photos.
                                                               - quoted from Gizmag.com
SOME INNOVATIVE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT (or not)

1) The National Hockey League is testing a heated skate blade that cuts more smoothly through the ice than traditional blades, helping skaters go even faster. As with the science behind their ill-advised "uniform system," the science underlying the new skates — called Thermablades — is solid. Skating is possible because a thin, friction-reducing layer of water forms between blade and ice; heat generated by the battery-powered Thermablades makes that lubricant layer thicker.

But just because something is possible, should it be done?

2) Snow Skates? skates for "skating" on packed snow or ice.


 














 
3)  Childbirth teaching apparel for a user to demonstrate birth techniques. The pants have a doll-containing portion; and at least one side abdominal opening allowing access to the doll-containing portion; and a crotch between the leg portions where the leg portions meet the abdominal portion; the crotch having a secondary opening radially expandable to simulate a human vagina.  A user can insert a doll simulating a human baby into the doll-containing portion; via one of the side abdominal openings; and push the doll through the secondary opening to simulate childbirth.

4)  The ORIGAMI condom   is the first non-rolled, injection- molded, engineered, silicone condom. It comes in male, female and "other" types. Can be installed in 2.8 seconds (so they say). 
     Best you click on the link and read about it if you are interested.


5) After 35 years in space there is evidence Voyager 1 spacecraft may have has become the first vehicle to venture beyond the heliosphere (the magnetic bubble created by the Sun)  or maybe not.

*****************************