Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  Lenny Lombardi and this year's contestants in the Scotiabank CHIN Bikini Contest Pick Up Your Press Passes for  Scotiabank CHIN Picnic Friday July 1 (Canada Day Program Below), July 2 (Bikini Contest) and July 3rd (Caribbean Programming) at the Media Tent. Please visit the media tent pitched just east of the Bandshell Stage.  11.30 - 7pm (and yes, this is not one of my articles, but, because of Tweet problems I had to post this release on my writing blog) Below is the line-up for Friday MEDIA ADVISORY – PHOTO OPPORTUNITIES Scotiabank CHIN International Picnic – Day 1 Canada Day – Friday, July 1 -   HIGHLIGHTS FREE ADMISSION BANDSHELL Stage -   FREE 12:00pm - Canada Day Flag Raising Ceremony and National Anthem presided by Commander Davies Of The Canadian Navy, and Chris Korwin-Kuczynski, Board Director of the Royal Canadian Military Institute in Toronto 12:15pm - Chinese Festival with headliner Kenneth Ma Kwok Ming 3:30pm - South Asian Festival with hea

Auto Road and The Cog let you reach for the top Historic picture of the Cog Railway. Trains continue to climb Mt. Washington. Choose Which Way to   Challenge Mount Washington!     Mount Washington is very high; it is the tallest peak in America's North East. Hiking, running, biking, driving and even taking a Cog Rail ride up the 6,288 ft slope feels like an act of defying the force of gravity. Every spring and summer for the last 150 years world travellers have come to the mountain known as Agiocochook ( Home of the Great Spirit) to do just that. The Mountain is located in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains , in Coos County, New Hampshire . Mount Washington is one of the most prominent peaks in the country.   There are many ways to get to the summit, the two most popular are the Cog and the Auto Road , and there are events throughout the late spring and summer to help motivate people to use them to reach for the top. This is the 150 th anniversary o

William Doyle Marshall tours Scarborough Mas Camps in Toronto's East end. BRING A FLASHLIGHT The Empty Factories of Scarborough are ablaze for just 2 months   Costumes on display in the Blues Carnival Mas Camp, Howden Rd, Scarborough There are  mothballed factories and warehouses in Toronto's east end (Scarborough) that stand empty for most of the year. But in June and July these empty spaces are filled with colour, music and art.  There are 17 Mas Camps up and running in Toronto in preparation for the Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean Carnival ( i.e. Caribana). On Thursday night journalist William Doyle Marshall (CHYR, Indo-Caribbean Journal etc) toured three of the Mas Camps to talk to the Mas men and women running the camps. The Camps are where the costumes that dancer wear while playing mas at the street parade are constructed.  As well the camps are gathering spots where people interested in Carnival can order costumes, volunteer their help and generally Lime (hang-out)

WORLD'S NEWEST (FOR NOW) SHIPWRECK ALREADY HAS VISITORS - KITTIWAKE AN EXCLAIMATION MARK OFF CAYMAN'S SEVEN MILE BEACH By Stephen Weir, Diver Magazine For the dive industry Santa Claus rode into Grand Cayman on December 25 th , not in a sleigh but on board a barely floating 251 ft long WW2 US warship pulled by an ocean going tug. After seven years of planning, the retired USS Kittiwake was scuttled a few days after arriving at Grand Cayman Island. Live on the Internet, the Submarine Rescue vessel (ASR-13) was sunk upright in the sand just north of the famous Seven Mile Beach. The ship was scuttled to take pressure off the reefs of one of the world’s most popular island dive destination. Two months after she went down, the ship (donated by the US Navy) has begun to attract divers and snorkelers in large numbers. “I dived the wreck one month after her sinking,” said Suzy Marfleet, diver concierge with the Reef – a Seven Mile Beach dive operation. “ I have had a very posit

    Sidebar to Cayman sinking story by Stephen Weir Tale of the tape The World’s newest diveable artificial reef – this month Ex-USS Kittiwake ASR 13 - Chanticleer Class Submarine Rescue Ship ASR Built by: Savannah Machinery and Foundry Co of Savannah, Georgia, USA Keel Laid: 5th January 1945 Launched: 10th July 1945 Commissioned: 16th July 1945 Decommissioned: 30th September 1994 Displacement: 2290 TONS Dimensions: 251 ft Length - 42 Ft Beam - 15 ft Draft Machinery: Diesel Electric Propulsion - 1 Shaft - 3000 BHP for 15 Kts Complement: 85 Officers and Sailors See the Diver Magazine Feature Article: http://stephenweirarticles.blogspot.com/2011/05/down-she-went-divers-and-snorkelers.html   Factoid information & Courtney Platt photograph  courtesy of Cayman Island Tourism

For Divers: sunken warships of the new century – size matters The Biggies: Coast Guard cutter, Spar , sunk near Morehead City, North Carolina. 180ft long. 2004 HTMS Khram rocket landing ship, (Formerly the USS LSM 469,) 203 ft 2003 at Pattaya, Thailand   HTMS KUT - photo from Dive Neptune HTMS Kut landing ship (formerly named "USS EXNO" (LSM 333) 203ft sunk off the coast of Thailand at Pattaya 2006. HMNZS Wellington , New Zealand frigate. 340 ft. Sunk near the city of Wellington 2005 HMCS Nipigon , 366 ft Canadian destroyer sunk in the St Lawrence River near Rimouski 2003. HMS Scylla . British Frigate 371 ft sunk in 2004 Cornwall, UK Australian Guided Missile Destroyer City of Brisbane . 440 ft. Sunk for divers 2005 off the coast of Queensland USS Vandenberg, US Air Force missile tracker 524-ft sunk off the Florida Keys 2009 (pictured below in Key West just before she was sank - photo from Key West Tourism Assocation). Destroyer USS Arthur W Radford to be sunk n

New Hampshire has a downloadable itinerary for starstruck visitors. See where the movies we love to watch were made. Article in Spring Issue:  Maple Gazette By Stephen Weir T he New Hampshire Division of Travel &; Tourism Development understands that many North Americans are fascinated by films made by Hollywood.  Not just the big name stars, but also, the locations of where memorable films and TV shows were made. The State has recently put together a downloadable six page Filmed in New Hampshire Itinerary .   www.visitnh.gov/planning-and-travel-tools/itineraries/culture-itineraries.aspx    Get your motor running, Heading out the Highway. Look for Adventure! This colourful, interesting Itinerary takes film lovers on a giant road trip that begins in Keene with Robin Williams in his 1995 blockbuster fantasy movie Jumanji and ends in Claremont  where the entire comedy Live Free or Die , was made.   In all the Filmed In New Hampshire booklet takes visitors to 15 different