text:
Results 1 to 12 of 12
Thread: Five-Spot
- Join Date
- Feb 2006
- Location
- Posts
- 58
Just scored my very first round in 5-spots. Ended up shooting a 282 24x I was pretty happy! 68lbs is way to heavy of draw when shooting 60 arrows!!! Towards the end I dropped one arrow, barely hit the target and scored a big fat 0!!! Much improvement needed, just wanted to share my experience.
Total Hunting setup--Tribute,cobra sidewinder lx,rip-cord drop away rest, s-coil, tru-fire release, Gold-tip 5575 xt hunter 375gr
Last edited by BowTech81; 03-16-2006 at 12:43 AM.
Congrats on A good score your first time out. It will go up from there.
Danny08 Constitution 50# 29"
08 Allegiance 70#
07 Guardian 77#
FBSA Member
Well done....the five spots will have you concentrating a little harder...No room for error beyond the 4 ring..
- Join Date
- Feb 2006
- Location
- Central Iowa
- Posts
- 37
Awesome, I am in the same boat. I shot my first indoor tourney last weekend. It just happened to be the ISAA indoor championships, boy, what a learning experience. It wasn't my arms that got tired, it was my brain!!! About half way through when we switched targets, I completely let my routine go out the window without realizing it until I had a couple of 4's and i also scored a big fat 0! I was really pretty nervous before the shoot- pacing around the house . But once i got there i don't think i have ever met a group of people that were more inviting . This is a pretty sweet sport that brings all kinds together. Let us know when you get your first 300
Nice Job
Way to go good score BowTech81. 68# is a little high for indoor spots. Just keep concentrating on the X. Again congrats
- Join Date
- Feb 2006
- Location
- Maryland
- Posts
- 532
I hate to be the guy who throws cold water, but --
It is not unusual for a good 3D shooter or bowhunter to come indoors and shoot pretty good. However, indoor is a mentally grueling game and these guys usually don't last too long with the higher scores. The guys that shoot 55 X and above are shooting hundreds of arrows a week and it is more for mental discipline that for physical. It's hard to avoid some form of target panic when you are shooting that much. Also, most will have a bow that with a draw weight in the 35 to 50 lb range to reduce shoulder and elbow injurys. The mass weight on these bows is about double that of your bow. This is to make it more stable on the target.
There is nothing wrong with your set-up. You can have some success and a lot of fun shooting indoor with it, but it won't take you to the top of the heap indoors. Your shoulders and elbows will give out before you get there.
I hope that I am not discouraging you. Indoor shooting is my passion. I'm not as good as I will be down the road. I'm suffering through an elbow injury that has lasted several months. Like you I started with a hunting rig, but quickly saw the need for a more specialized bow. I will be shooting in my state indoor championship on the first weekend in April. Since I think that I stand a chance to win, it's very appropriate that the first day is April Fools Day
Good luck,
I dont know if I totally agree w/ you about useing specialized equipment for shooting indoors, I have been shooting my Switchback in two different indoor leagues this winter and I think I am farring pretty well in the one league there are some of the best shooters in the area, they WILL NOT catch me in the points. And these guys are shooting full target set up hoyt protechs w/xt 3000 limbs (long axle to axle), stabilizer that never end, scopes, lights etc. Not saying that Hoyts cant get the job done, I could probably shoot this good w/just about any bow on the market today. The lowest score I have posted in the two leagues is a 294, that day I felt like crap and had every distraction one could have, people coming in the range talking as I was about to release, things falling off of shelves, in the next room. The Indoor game is 100% mental. But I do have a reason for buying that new (to me) Black-Cherry Icon. The main reason for getting the new bow was i think it looks pretty cool The other is the fear of injuring my shoulders or neck. Seen to many people do this. And know what they go thru now, everyday of there lives. Pain.I cut things up and split them down!
- Join Date
- Feb 2006
- Location
- Posts
- 58
I'll keep shooting and see how it fairs. For me right now, archery is about hunting during season, and shooting spots and 3d in the off season to be sharp for the next hunt. If I can go out and slam a few arrows in an X now and again LifeIsGood!! Gotta Love It!!!!!06 Tribute
Cobra Sidewinder LX
Rip-cord drop-away
Tru-fire hurricane
Gold-tip XT Hunter
Originally Posted by BOWMAN
- Join Date
- Feb 2006
- Location
- Maryland
- Posts
- 532
You make a good point. Just having the equipment doesn't mean that you can use it. (there's a good dirty joke in there, but Chris probably won't let me post it)
To me the main point of a specialized target bow is to have one that I can shoot hundreds of practice arrows without injury. I'm going through PT for elbow tendonitis and it's no fun. You don't need a Proelite or Apex to shoot good. The guys in the shoot-off in Vegas could beat most of us with the most un-target-like bow available.
Your Switchback is not a good example of a non-target bow. It may be short, but one was used to shoot some target records in Europe last year. It seems to the balance, smoothness and other factors that make a good target bow. Mathews hit a home run on that design.
As always, it's not the equipment, it's the shooter.
You know me, pretty is my middle name.....uh never mind that I said that last partI cut things up and split them down!
I agree with Allen
I suppose that on a good day of any shooter yah,It can be done with a hunting rig.I just know I have no intention on shooting a 300 round consistently even with my 3d rig.
I believe most are using a longer axle to axle bow with a spring steel/blade launcher rest,atleast a 5x with a dot or ring in the scope,a long weighted stabilizer,arrows the largest in diameter you can get 2613's/30x's,set at 45-55lbs...or even less.
my two cents worth...
I agree, drop the poundage, whether it is 3D or Spots. I usually recommend around 63lbs. If your going to stay at around 70 lbs, in 10 yrs, let me know where to send the card for your surgery.
Shooting alot of 3D's helped me with my Indoor game. In 3D I always say; The tougher the shot, the better I like it. Outdoors you end up shooting in so many various positions, you learn to aim and hold steady. This helped me with my spots, the last 300 round I shot was 296 with 36x, I may be off by 2 or 3 x's. This while shooting fingers bowhunter style.
I still believe your form is the most important part in how you shoot. When we tune a bow, we tune it for forgiveness, not for the bow, but for you. The bow will do exactly what you tell it to do, whether it's tuned or not. By tuning the bow, we make it more forgiving for the way you shoot. Shop tune, Paper tune and a verticle/Horizontal tune can make alot of difference in the bows forgiveness and your accuracy.
If your form isn't what it needs to be, get someone to help you...and that doesn't always mean another hunting buddy. Where do you want to be, and what do you need to do to get there?
Thanks for listening,
NBEF Instructor
South Dakota - Iowa
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text:
Great White Shark
Photograph by David Doubilet
This close-up of a great white shark's mouth shows its rows of sharp teeth. When a shark loses a tooth, a replacement moves forward to replace it.
Great White Shark
Photograph by Brian J. Skerry
Great whites are torpedo-shaped with powerful tails that can propel them through the water at up to 15 miles (24 kilometers) per hour.
Hammerhead Shark
Photograph by Brian J. Skerry
Hammerheads are aggressive hunters, feeding on smaller fish, octopuses, squid, and crustaceans. They do not actively seek out human prey, but are very defensive and will attack when provoked.
Galápagos Shark
Photograph by Wolcott Henry
Female Galápagos sharks are often seen with deep mating scars caused by males biting their gills, fins, and flanks in a dominance display.
Basking Shark
Photograph by Nick Caloyianis
The mouthy basking shark is a filter-feeder. It is the second-largest shark, after the whale shark, reaching lengths up to 33 feet (10 meters).
Nurse Shark
Photograph courtesy Dr. Mathew Gilligan/NOAA
Nurse sharks prefer to dwell near the sea floor in the warm, shallow waters of the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans.
Sand Tiger Sharks
Photograph by David Doubilet
Despite their rows of ragged teeth and vicious appearance, sand tiger sharks are actually rather docile, usually attacking humans only in self-defense.
Tiger Shark
Photograph by Bill Curtsinger
So called because of the tiger-like stripes on juveniles, the tiger shark is, like its terrestrial namesake, a voracious hunter.
Whale Shark
Photograph by Brian J. Skerry
Gentle giants, whale sharks filter-feed, swimming with their wide mouths open, collecting plankton and small fish.
Bull Shark
Photograph by Brian J. Skerry
Among the most likely sharks to attack humans, bull sharks favor shallow coastal waters—the same places humans prefer to swim.
Shark Features
All About Sharks
Sharks have prowled Earth's seas, essentially unchanged, for 400 million years. Learn more about these vital predators with facts, photos, video, and more.
"Flying" Shark Lands in Boat
South African marine researchers lured a half-ton great white shark closer than anticipated—straight out of the water and into their vessel.
Nurse Shark
Explore the underwater world of this bottom-dwelling shark. Learn why humans have little to fear, and much to learn, from nurse sharks.
Sand Tiger Shark
Find out why this shark is not nearly as fierce as its protruding teeth might suggest. See how surface air breathing sets them apart from their relatives.
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Shark Expert
Samuel H. Gruber, Biologist
A longtime shark researcher and advocate, Dr. Gruber runs the Bimini Shark Lab in the Bahamas.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|Sport, 45'
|YDS: 5.12c French: 7b+ Ewbanks: 27 UIAA: IX- ZA: 27 British: E6 6b [details]
|Ed Strang or Jean DeLataillade?, bolted by Luke Laeser
|Page Views:
|Submitted By:
|Shirtless Mike on Oct 31, 2006
|Comments on Beastmaster
|Add Comment
|Show which comments —
By Shirtless Mike
From: Denver, CO
Oct 31, 2006
|Would be a 4 star route if clipping the 4th bolt wasn't just as hard as the crux. Be careful if you skip it because of the large boulder not far away.
By Laeserguns
Sep 2, 2010
|Super fun route if you don't fall while clipping and you have an excellent and attentive belayer. Bolted by Luke Laeser, although I'm pretty sure Peter Graham drilled the anchor holes. At the time Peter and I were bolting everything as fast as possible... and since I didn't have a job at the time I went to the Dungeon almost every day for a year or so... I don't recall who actually made the first ascent but I'd guess Ed or Jean.
By Eric Whitbeck
Aug 28, 2012
|Why not move the bolt and make a four star route?
By George Perkins
From: The Dungeon, NM
Aug 28, 2012
rating: 5.12d 7c 28 IX 28 E6 6b
I think the 4th bolt is in the ideal place if you clip it off the 1st jug after the crux; if it was much lower you would probably just clip it off the same holds used to clip the 3rd bolt, which is at waist level at that time and takes minimal effort. The best beta through this section is to do the crux move left first, bump the left to the jug, and clip off that, which seems reasonable once you get past thinking about the boulder behind you to the right. It's sort of tempting to try to clip off the undercling or sidepull-pinch before the crux, but that's hard- don't do that. I've fallen off the crux a lot of times, and the boulder doesn't seem too close any more. It was definitely scary for a while. (If anyone's heard of someone hitting it hard let me know, please say so.) I've also skipped that bolt entirely, which was scarier in retrospect.
My opinion is this climb is really good, I'm pretty psyched about it. Starting to work on this climb inspired me to start to learn how to climb steep routes. (edited)
By Eric Whitbeck
Aug 29, 2012
|If George is projecting it and it is one of the harder lines he has tried than it is probably fine. My comment stems from the fact that DTP, a pretty strong lad, and the FA mentioned the problem of clipping. We have enough wacky routes in NM that if it is really a classic 12+ then it makes sense to make it as good as possible. Maybe DTP can chime in on if he thinks moving the bolt would solve the problem. I hope to try this route saturday and will post if it seems sketchy or not.
By Shirtless Mike
From: Denver, CO
Aug 29, 2012
Back when I did this route I was unwilling to do the crux without having the 4th bolt clipped. That boulder just seemed too close. I clipped from the left hand undercling and it was hard, harder than the crux for me, As George mentions this is not a great idea. Now I know a few people who have waited until the jug after the crux. So I think there are three places from which to clip the bolt.
1. From jug after the crux (kinda scary but no ones hit yet that I know of).
2. From the last good hold on the rail system before entering the crux. (Requires a double draw.) If I was to do this route again this would be my strategy.
3. From the undercling or sidepull crux holds (probably the worst idea)
The bolt is probably in a good location for clipping from the jug, and could be lowered a little to clip from the last good hold on the rail easier.
I'd say leave it where it is, so you have the option of clipping above or below the crux.
I should add that the bolt placement isn't bad, it's just a sustained section of the climb where any clip is going to be hard, and a boulder nearby so you don't want to take a big fall.
By djkyote
Aug 30, 2012
|+1 for the double draw clipped before going into the crux. I'm not sure moving the bolt lower would be a good idea: you may fall close to the adjacent boulder when working the crux.
By Eric Whitbeck
Sep 1, 2012
|I think it is a funky route and is fine being funky. The crux jug is a bit crumbly. Is the norm to lower in and place the draws? The double draw worked fine but I hung it on rap otherwise I agree with dtp or I guess you could do the crux without clipping and clip off the jug. That would be fun.
By djkyote
Oct 15, 2012
|Thanks to whoever replaced the sketchy bolts at the anchor and replaced the carabiners.
By J tot
From: Tempe, AZ
Aug 26, 2014
|It is far easier to pull the crux and clip the 4th bolt from the jug to the left of it. The fall is clean as long as you have an attentive belayer.


text:
Hi guys and gals,
i work on time on a project management portal for creative. It is currently in the pre beta phase, an advertising agency is currently testing this page as well. Participate if you have interest you can test it if you want.http://steps.mediahive.de
The register is complete free while the beta period.
Feature: - staff and customer management - big right system - video up-/download - video encoding (h.264/webm/ogv) - Filetransfer and many more
i hope we see us on mediahive respectfully yours Matthias
I think in order to get some more sign ups (even though it is free) you should maybe post some features and screen shots of what is inside the application.
TutelageSystems said
I think in order to get some more sign ups (even though it is free) you should maybe post some features and screen shots of what is inside the application.
@preussner: würde gerne mehr dazu erfahren, is das jetzt ein filehosting service oder was genau?
p.s: the whole "main" page is totally blank too or is it just me?
Thank you for your interest.
@TutelageSystems & Creattive
This portal is a combination of project management, file hosting and a videoplatform
in simple steps to align small video productions with customers
@contrastblack before login is not much on the page, that's right. I feel the first line to the what happens after the login and since content can be as still change some things, I have not yet built the info pages. Since it is a pre beta version, I'm still far away from a official publication. The pages will not stay that way, of course.
@xstortionist the first steps are to add a new project or you can work on an other project (when you are derek, then i have addet to my test project "ReGame") and you are right, I still have a whole many many work on this websiteFeatures:
- user management
- video- / filesharing
- to share and collaborate with anyone you want
i have german and english on mediahive, which language do you need?
wow, many thanks, but right now I'm on a long way to a official release of this site


text:
Photo by Ron Anton Rocz
By the 1760's, Charles Town, nearly one hundred years old, was a thriving port in America. At this time South Carolina was still a royal colony and traded a great deal with England. As the shipping industry in Charles Town expanded, it became apparent that a large exchange and customs house would be needed to accommodate these activities.
Construction of the Exchange began in 1767 and was completed in 1771. On the main level was the open arcade trading floor, made of purbeck stone from England. On the second story were city and customs offices and the Great Hall, an elegant assembly room. The ground level cellars were first used for storing goods.
When constructed, the building fronted directly on the water (see detail of a contemporary cityscape below). Over the centuries landfill has been added, pushing the harbor back two blocks to the east. With its striking Palladian architecture, the Exchange dominated the harbor. It became the social, political, and economic hub of the bustling 18th century port--the South's largest. Up to 300 ships could be seen at anchor in the harbor, running the gamut from large sailing vessels, to plantation barges, to Native American canoes. Each merchant ship entering the harbor had to send a representative to the Customs House to pay the required duties. These commercial activities centered on the major exports of the era-- rice and indigo.
Charleston's Exchange Building is considered one of the three most historically significant colonial buildings in the United States. Because of its role in the American Revolution, the Exchange is sometimes called "The Independence Hall of South Carolina."
The Great Hall
In the Great Hall of the Exchange in 1773, citizens of Charles Town met to protest the Tea Act. While tea in Boston was being dumped into the harbor, in Charles Town it was seized, stored in the cellar of the Exchange Building, and later sold to help fund the patriot cause.
In the same hall in 1774, South Carolina's delegates to the Continental Congress were elected, the group responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence. Charles Town produced four signers of the Declaration of Independence: Arthur Middleton, Thomas Lynch, Jr., Thomas Heyward, Jr., and Edward Rutledge.
On March 28, 1776, South Carolina declared independence from Great Britain from the steps of the Exchange.
After a forty-two day siege in 1780, British troops marched into Charles Town and occupied the city until late 1782. They took over the Exchange and imprisoned leading citizens in the dungeon, requiring an oath of loyalty to the King be signed by patriots in exchange for release. Colonel Isaac Hayne, for violation of parole, spent the final days before his execution in the small room off the Great Hall, now named in his honor.
On May 23, 1788, over 220 men crowded into the Great Hall and with a vote of 149 ayes and 73 noes, made South Carolina the eighth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
In 1791, President George Washington made a tour of the South which included a one-week stay in Charleston. During this week, two banquets, a concert, and a magnificent ball in the Great Hall were held in his honor.
The Great Hall was restored in 1981 to its 1771 appearance by using the original blueprints drawn in 1767 by William Rigby Naylor. As in early times, the Great Hall continues to be a popular location for meetings and social gatherings.
Provost Dungeon
The vaulted ceiling of the dungeon is constructed upon the groin and arch principle of architecture in which two simple arches cross at right angles, joining the semi-supporting column. The center of each arch is one brick thick and over each arch is a six to eight inch layer of sand in which the purbeck stone of the first floor is set.
Entering the Provost Dungeon, one stands at Charles Town's original wall of 1680-1718. By 1701, Charles Town was surrounded by fortified walls for protection against pirates, hostile Native Americans, Spanish invaders, and wild animals. It was the only British walled city in North America.
Archaeological excavations under the dungeon floor have exposed the Half-Moon Battery, a semicircular fortification projecting from the seawall. Behind this wall stood the Court of Guard, holding a Council Chamber and jail. It was in this council building in 1718 that the pirate Stede Bonnet and his crew were held, after capture by Colonel William Rhett, until their hanging at White Point Gardens. Bonnet was just one of the pirates who plundered the harbor of prosperous Charles Town. The most infamous pirate, Blackbeard (Edward Teach), terrorized the harbor, seized ships and kidnapped Samuel Wragg, a member of the Governor's Council. Blackbeard held Wragg and his four year old son for a ransom of medical supplies. Col. Rhett gave chase and pursued Blackbeard north up the Carolina coast. The pirate was finally cornered and killed in the Cape Fear region of North Carolina.
In 1767, the top of the seawall was lowered and the Court of Guard demolished, allowing for the construction of the Exchange upon this site.
During the British occupation of 1780-1782, three signers of the Declaration of Independence (Arthur Middleton, Edward Rutledge, and Thomas Heyward, Jr.) were imprisoned in the Provost Dungeon alongside common criminals. In the dungeon's northeast corner, General William Moultrie secretly stored 10,000 lbs of gunpowder in a secret chamber created by bricking in a false exterior wall. Although the British occupied the building for two and a half years, they never discovered the secret chamber or General Moultrie's gunpowder.
The Exchange Building was rescued from demolition and is owned today by the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The DAR membership has furnished two rooms on the main level, the Rebecca Motte Room and the South Carolina State Society NSDAR Room, with artifacts and paintings from South Carolina's colonial era.
Acknowledgements Reproduction of "View of Charleston" by Thomas Leitch courtesy Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, Winston-Salem, NC.
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text:
Andrew Sorensen, 27th president, dies
Andrew A. Sorensen, the 27th president of the University of South Carolina, died Sunday (April 17).
Andrew A. Sorensen
Dr. Sorensen, 72, was Carolina's president from 2002-08 and was distinguished professor and distinguished professor emeritus in the School of Medicine until last fall when he left to become senior development officer at Ohio State University.
President Harris Pastides said the university community was deeply saddened by Sorensen's death and that higher education had lost a nationally respected leader.
"All of us at Carolina are deeply saddened by the loss of Andrew Sorensen." Pastides said. "As a nationally respected leader in American higher education, Andrew left his mark across our nation, and his contributions to our university were many and important.
"He will be remembered as the father of Innovista, as a bridge builder to the African American community and to the University Hill neighborhood, where he and Donna lived for two years while the President's House on the Horseshoe was undergoing much needed renovation.
"He was a gifted professor, an accomplished administrator and ebullient public servant who brought intellect, judgment, passion and wit to his every calling. He never stopped growing, inspiring others and winning friends. His loss is a deeply personal one for Patricia and me and for all of the staff, faculty, trustees and students who knew him. How fortunate we are to have had this wonderful man in our lives."


text:
Inkblot: Drop, Splat, and Squish Your Way to Creativity
Reading Level: Grades 3 - 6
Inkblots: a messy, awesome project with fascinating techniques for such a seemingly random piece of art - and they aren't just used for Rorschach tests, either! After reading this, I want to buy gallons of India Ink and rolls of parchment!
Check availability of this book
YS Locations:
YS Reviewers:
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text:
T-Mobile Is Creeping Into Verizon's Rear-View
Increased competition in the U.S. wireless industry has yet to put even a blemish on industry leader Verizon Wireless – but it's getting closer.
The nation's largest carrier by subscribers said Tuesday it added 1.57 million of the most lucrative contract customers in the last three months of the year, besting resurgent rival T-Mobile, which said this month it added 869,000.
But a closer look at the data shows T-Mobile is adding nearly as many new phone subscribers as Verizon. Of Verizon's 1.57 million additions, 824,000 were phone customers (the rest bought plans for devices like tablets). That's just 24,000 more phone customers than T-Mobile signed up.
Where Verizon showed more mettle is in tablets: The carrier added 675,000 tablets and other Internet enabled devices, while T-Mobile added just 69,000, even though in October it began selling tablets with 200 megabytes of free data.
Overall, Verizon still maintains serious distance. It ended the year with 96.8 million contract customers, which includes phones and other devices such as tablets, while T-Mobile had just 22.3 million.
Profits are growing in Verizon's wireless segment, and its churn – the percentage of customers leaving the carrier – continued hovering below 1%. That's especially notable because the fourth quarter is usually when customer defections spike.
"We will continue to do what we do best, which is we add customers and we are profitable," Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said during a call with analysts Tuesday.
Still, Shammo acknowledged the carrier must stay on its toes. T-Mobile said this month it would pay as much as $650 to customers that switch to T-Mobile. "Competitors do new things, and we'll assess that, and we'll respond accordingly," he said in an interview.
Craig Moffett, a senior analyst at MoffettNathanson LLC, said it is only a matter of time before Verizon "will feel the pain" either in growth or margins.
"For this to be sustained will require that Verizon continues to stay out of the ugly food fight going on below, and around, them," Moffett wrote in a research note Tuesday. "They are wearing a clean white shirt. It will be a challenge to keep it from getting dirty."
The Saturday after T-Mobile announced it would pay early termination fees, the carrier saw a huge influx of new customers, according to Comlinkdata, a telecommunications research firm, which tracks real time switching data. That Saturday was the largest influx of customers T-Mobile had seen in all of 2013.
The only carrier that took in more customers in a single day since the beginning of 2013 was – who else – Verizon on four different occasions, according Comlinkdata.
T-Mobile declined to comment.
AT&T and Sprint report their fourth quarter results in a few weeks. Next month, T-Mobile will also release a fuller picture of its fourth-quarter earnings.


text:
Jul 14, 2004
A human-caused wildfire blazed through Kings Canyon, just west of Carson City. It quickly blackened 300 acres and approached homes. Over 250 firefighters began fighting the fire but shifting winds and warm temperatures thwarted initial containment efforts. As the fire worsened, 1,700 more firefighters arrived to help. The fire ultimately burnt over 7,500 acres and 26 buildings and caused sudden evacuations.


text:
What do you do when you're in a marrying frame of mind and have more money than God? You design a lavish multi-million-dollar nuptials ceremony that would make the royal family green with envy.
Certainly that's what Sean Parker dreamed up when he retrofitted an old-growth redwood forest in the heart of Big Sur for a $5 milllion+ fantasy wedding to singer Alexandra Lenas earlier this month.
[ Cash in on your IT stories! Send your IT tales to email@example.com. If we publish it, we'll keep you anonymous and send you a $50 American Express gift cheque. | For a humorous take on the tech industry's shenanigans, subscribe to Robert X. Cringely's Notes from the Underground newsletter. | Get the latest insight on the tech news that matters from InfoWorld's Tech Watch blog. ]
Parker, whose primary talent seems to be amazingly good timing, parlayed his early interest in Napster and Facebook into a fortune estimated in the billions, and by god he was determined to do more with it than merely snort cocaine off the torsos of Stanford coeds. (FYI, Parker says that scene in "The Social Network" was "complete fiction.")
Lavish weddings are not unique in the world of high-tech insta-billionaires. When Bill married Melinda, he famously rented every helicopter on the island of Kauai so that the media couldn't zoom in on the ceremony from above. Sergey Brin married Anne Wojcicki on a private island in the Bahamas. Larry Page did him one better by renting two private islands in the British Isles for his wedding.
A whole new level of excess
But Parker upped the ante. He set out to create an enchanted forest inside an actual forest, one that resembled "Lothlórien, the mythical home of Galadriel in Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings.'" He brought in tractors to clear land, built fake stone bridges with a fake pond underneath, and erected a fake ruined castle. He managed to get it done despite not obtaining a single permit from the apparently "mysterious" California Coastal Commission, whom he later paid $2.5 million in penalties.
For all of that, Parker got soundly spanked by the media. Gee, what a surprise.
Yesterday, Parker posted a nearly 10,000-word rebuttal on TechCrunch. If his purpose was to convince the world he wasn't just another spoiled self-obsessed technocrat with the prose style of a lovesick adolescent, he didn't quite make it. Parker wrote:
After the ceremony many of us felt as though we never wanted to leave that forest, and indeed many guests remained there until the sun came up the next morning. We lay on the flower-strewn pathway, looking up at the redwood canopy above. The fog rolling in from the ocean enveloped us, imbuing the moment with a feeling of supernatural bliss....
We awoke that morning to a media backlash of epic proportions, a firestorm of press attacking our wedding with the most vitriolic language we'd ever seen in print. At the same time, a mob of Internet trolls, eco-zealots, and other angry folk from every corner of the Internet unleashed a fury of vulgar insults, flooding our email and Facebook pages.
These reactions were so extreme, so maniacal, so deeply drenched in expletives, they seemed wasted on us; this was the sort of angry invective normally reserved for genocidal dictators.
Poor Sean Parker. Like Pol Pot and Augusto Pinochet, he just can't get no respect.


description: Sure, love can break your heart. But if you're a male praying mantis, it can literally eat you alive. During mating, the female bites off his head... and then devours his corpse for nourishment.

is_us_only: false

title: World's Weirdest: Deadly Praying Mantis Love

allowUserEmbed: True

credit: National Geographic

transcript:
This preying mantis has been superbly engineered for speed and power...and has a voracious appetite for other insects.
A little too voracious, if you ask this male.
Autumn is in the air and he's feeling frisky.
But time is not on his side.
He must mate before the killing winter arrives.
This is his best chance.
A well-fed female is a well-mannered one.
He latches on to her shapely thorax-and cautiously inserts sperm into her abdomen.
The female waits patiently...or is it hungrily?
He has all the time to wonder.
Mating can last for hours.
But not this time.
She devours his head.
This doesn't stop their affair.
If anything, his dying spasms increase the amount of sperm delivered.
When the female has had enough, she breaks things off...and dumps him.
A harsh fate? Not necessarily.
Unlike thousands of other mantises who died early, he got to breed.  In the game of life, that's a resounding victory.
Munching on his carcass provides her with additional nourishment she can use when she lays her eggs...up to 200 of them. They'll stay here over the winter and hatch in the spring.


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Last month, our friends at The Pearl Golf Course in Ocean Isle Beach hosted the Tournament Golf Association of America's 2011 Myrtle Beach Classic. And we are happy to announce the event was extremely successful! According to Steve Moses, the Tournament Golf Association of America tour's Chief Operating Officer, "The service received was excellent and both courses were in great shape. If you're planning a trip to the area, you must stop at The Pearl."
The Pearl's Michael Borton said, "We are always excited to have the TGAA Tour at our facility. The TGAA team was first class and we love having the opportunity to host their group each year. We thank them for their continued support of our courses. They are always welcome at The Pearl, and I hope they consider The Pearl their home course away from home!"
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The Royal Visit to the Battlefields of France, July 1917 - 2
The Film
Running Time
06 min 50 s
Topical Film Company
Visit of King George V and Queen Mary to France 3-14 July 1917.
The Queen inspects aircraft with Brigadier-General Sir Hugh Trenchard, commander of the Royal Flying Corps, and goes on to meet briefly with Sir Douglas Haig, and later to visit an American hospital. The King visits an Royal Naval Air Service base. The Queen visits a Casualty Clearing Station and the Tank Corps central stores and tank park. The King and Prince arrive at Tramecourt Château and are joined by the Queen, together with the King and Queen of Belgium.
The film is less tedious than the simple list of Royal visits might suggest, and contains a few good and interesting moments, but these only serve to highlight a vast bulk of routine.
Pieces of History
Army Nurses
Denyse Baillargeon
Associate Professor, History Department, Université de Montréal
A total of 3,141 nurses worked in the Canadian army, 2,504 of them overseas—over a third of all Canadian registered nurses. Some were posted to British or Canadian hospitals in England, but at least a thousand served in France and Belgium; some were even sent to the Mediterranean or Russia. Unlike nurses from the other allied countries, who were in auxiliary corps, Canadian nurses were full members of the Canadian Army Medical Corps and thus held military rank. Margaret Macdonald, appointed matron-in-chief at the start of the war, was also the first woman of the British Empire to hold the rank of major.
From the outset, the military authorities had planned to keep the nurses in stationary hospitals, 250-bed units with 16 nurses, and in the general hospitals farther from the front, which had between 500 and 1,000 beds served by a team of 72 nurses. In practice, however, it soon became apparent that these medical professionals were also needed in the most advanced posts, called casualty clearing stations, because the wounded soldiers taken there often required emergency surgery impossible to do without the help of nurses. Many nurses thus found themselves very close to the front lines, working in tents or huts with minimal hygiene.
Although farther from the theatre of operations, the stationary hospitals and general hospitals still did not have all the facilities that nurses were accustomed to. Established in big houses, ruined monasteries, unused schools or hastily built shelters, these hospitals were far from an ideal environment. The nurses had to tend patients while slogging through mud, surrounded by rats or, on the Mediterranean front, flies, while being careful to use as little water as possible.
The nurses' work followed the rhythm of the battles, each bringing a massive influx of wounded. Working around the stretchers lined up on the ground, the nurses had to take care of hundreds of soldiers brought in by train or ambulance. Bullets, bayonets, shells and shrapnel caused extremely serious wounds that bled profusely and often necessitated amputation, the only way to get rid of gangrene. Amputation was also the fate of men who suffered frostbite from their time in the muddy trenches, while on the Mediterranean front, dysentery laid many low. Gas, first used extensively in the First World War, attacked the eyes and lungs. The nurse placed the lung patient in an oxygen tent, but that did not always work as hoped. Nurses were just as powerless to help those suffering from psychological problems, termed shell shock, whose numbers grew as the war intensified. On the other hand, they were perfectly capable of taking care of soldiers with tuberculosis or other common ailments, like the flu. Due to the high mortality rate of the wounded, such cases actually made up the bulk of their work. Towards the end of the hostilities, when the Spanish flu started to spread, they were called upon to tend to soldiers with influenza.
Life at the front had its quieter moments, though, and nurses took advantage of them. Between two deliveries of casualties, they could do their jobs more calmly, befriending the soldiers they tended often over long weeks. They also gave themselves small treats. When not on duty, they could go to dances, receptions and concerts also attended by soldiers, officers or even civilians. They also took part in sports or games and went cycling near their hospitals. Nurses stationed in England took tea with members of the British and Canadian army or with nurses from other hospitals, and played golf and tennis. On leave, some even travelled to Scotland or the south of France.
Army nurses were the only women to go to the front during the First World War. Thirty-nine lost their lives, twenty-one in battles on the continent or at sea, and eighteen as a result of illness. Seven others died in Canada while serving in army hospitals. Over 500 of them were decorated, including matron Ethel Ridley, named Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and Vivien Tremaine, who was awarded the Royal Victorian Order for caring for King George V, who was hurt when he fell off his horse while reviewing Canadian troops. These military honours acknowledged their courage and the esteem in which they were held. This acknowledgment also extended beyond the military sphere, however, for the involvement of nurses in the war greatly contributed to making medical and hospital authorities more aware of the importance of their role. By the end of the First World War, nurses had gained a professional status that could never again be questioned.
Selected Bibliography
Allard, Genevičve, «Des anges blancs sur le front : l'expérience de guerre des infirmičres militaires canadiennes pendant la Premičre guerre mondiale», Bulletin d'histoire politique, 8, nos 2-3 (hivers-printemps 2000): 119-132.
---, «Les anges blancs sur le front. Les infirmičres militaires canadiennes durant la Premičre Guerre mondiale», [MA (Histoire), Université Laval], 1997.
Allemang, Margaret M. Canadian Nursing Sisters of World War 1, Oral History Program. Toronto: Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, 1977-1980.
Nicholson, G.W. L. Canada's Nursing Sisters. Toronto: A.M. Hakkert, 1975.
Strong-Boag, Veronica. "Making a Difference : The History of Canada's Nurses." Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin canadien d'histoire de la médecine, 8, 2 (1991) : 231-248.
Battlefield Medicine
Bill Rawling
Historian, Department of National Defence
On the battlefield, stretcher bearers, who were selected from the infantry or detached from a Field Ambulance unit, determined if the soldier needed to be treated, required immediate evacuation, or a combination of the two. The same process was repeated at the Regimental Aid Post (which was part of an infantry battalion at the front), at the Advanced Dressing Station (a section of a Field Ambulance), the Main Dressing Station (another section of the Field Ambulance), the Casualty Clearing Station, and the various forms of hospital near the front or well behind it, in England or even Canada.
The need for triage was not limited to times when the Canadian Corps was fighting battles—far from it—for disease had caused more casualties than combat since time immemorial. Even after such developments as vaccination in the 18th century and the studies of germs in the 19th, the sick were still plentiful among Canadian soldiers. Many conditions still forced tens of thousands to seek treatment. Among them were influenza, with some 65,000 ill in 1918-19; gonorrhea with over 45,000 ill in the course of the war; tonsillitis and sore throat with about 20,000 ill; syphilis with approximately 18,000; trench fever (caused by a bacterium transmitted by fleas), though non fatal, struck 18,000; myalgia (muscle pain) made some 15,000 sick, as did intestinal disease.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF), however, was free of the kinds of epidemic diseases that had caused such ravages in the Crimea, the Spanish-American War and South Africa.
Near the end of the conflict the medical corps did find itself in the midst of one of the great pandemics of human history, the influenza scourge of 1918–19. Killing millions, it can be compared to the plague of Justinian in the 6th century or the Black Death in the 14th. Though 30–50,000 Canadians would succumb to the disease, the great majority were on the home front and not members of the expeditionary force. According to official history, 3825 of those who went overseas died of disease, 776 of influenza.
The CEF still had a problem on its hands, as the illness "flooded the rest station and camps with sick" in the summer of 1918, and "The ailment was peculiar in that, while exhibiting the symptoms of influenza, it ran its course in a week or eight days. It spread rapidly and necessitated the promulgation of extensive and stringent precautionary orders to prevent its spread. All public places such as Unit Entertainments, YMCA Cinema Shows, Estaminets [small French cafés serving alcohol] &c were closed for a time. In the latter places it was permitted to serve drinks at tables outside the buildings."1
Treating Wounds
Such illness was in addition to the medical challenges posed by the weapons of war and by the very ground being fought over. The conflict on the Western Front took place mainly on farmland that had been well-fertilized with manure, and its accompanying bacteria, for decades or centuries. The result, according to Canada's official medical historian of the conflict, was that nearly all wounds were infected. Sulpha drugs would not become available until the 1930s, and antibiotics would have to await another world war before coming into use, so infection was a serious challenge that could only be met by irrigating wounds with available chemicals and convalescence that could last months.
Another danger of wounds on the battlefield was shock due to blood loss, which could be fatal. The simple solution, first attempted in 1916, was to replace the patient's blood with blood drawn from a donor; chemical preservatives and refrigeration allowed for the life-giving fluid to be stored for a period of time, and such blood was being transfused by the end of 1917. One practitioner was Norman Guiou, who recalled in April 1918:
We had our first opportunity to do several transfusions. The dressing station was set up in a Nissen hut, the stretchers were supported on trestles. There were a number of seriously wounded... One lad was brought in on a blood-soaked stretcher, with a shattered humerus - his upper arm swathed in copious blood-soaked dressings. A flicker of pulse was present. He was pale, "starey-eyed", and tossed about and pulled his wound tag off... We bled a donor about 750cc while the chaplain talked to him. If there is a dramatic procedure in medicine it is the blood transfusion. Color came into that lad's cheeks. He raised himself on his good elbow, drank tea, and ate some YMCA fancy biscuits, then was on to the casualty clearing station.2
Psychological Injuries
One final challenge is worthy of mention here, that of psychological injury. According to medical historian Tom Brown, the condition was "the storm centre of military medicine" at that time. Symptoms could include uncontrollable weeping, trembling, paralysis, deafness and other manifestations without known physical causes. At first it was called shell shock, as it was thought that it resulted from the shock wave of an exploding shell damaging the brain, but by the middle part of the war the condition was thought to be purely psychological in nature. The patient could be diagnosed as suffering from hysteria or neurasthenia and could receive shock
treatment, talk therapy or simple rest in a hospital out of earshot of artillery. Most of the Canadian soldiers who suffered from such injuries were sent to No 3 Canadian Stationary Hospital in France, which specialized in such care.
Hospitals serve as examples of just how complex the treatment of sick and wounded soldiers had become by the First World War. Institutions specialized in ear and eye conditions, rheumatism, psychological injury, tuberculosis, orthopaedics, and venereal disease, in addition to general, stationary and convalescent hospitals. In an industrialized war, hospitals could become battlefield targets. Many nursing sisters and patients were killed when a hospital was bombed in 1918. They were among the 504 medical practitioners killed on the battlefield serving with Canadian units; another 127 succumbed to disease.
1Library and Archives Canada, RG 9, III, v.4715, 107-20, Passchendaele to Gouy-en-Artois, June 1918
2Norman Guiou, Transfusion: A Canadian Surgeon's Story in War and Peace (Yarmouth, 1985), 34-35.
Selected Bibliography
McPhail, Andrew. Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War 1914-19: The Medical Services. Ottawa: Department of National Defense, 1925.
Nicholson, G.W.L. Canada's Nursing Sisters. Toronto: S. Stevens, 1975.
---. Seventy Years of Service: A History of the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. Ottawa: Borealis Press, 1977.
Rawling, Bill. Death their Enemy : Canadian Medical Practitioners and War. Ottawa: B. Rawling, 2001.
Canada's Mounted Troops
Major Michael R. McNorgan
Instructor, Royal Military College, Kingston
At the beginning of the First World War, horsed cavalry was still an army's principal mobile arm. However, after the onset of static trench warfare on the Western Front in late 1914 – with thick barbed wire barriers and large numbers of machine guns protecting defensive works – the battlefield utility of cavalry was greatly diminished. Cavalry was nonetheless retained in large numbers because of the perennial hope of breaking through the enemy's line and rolling up his defences from the rear. Thus, for virtually every major offensive operation during the war, cavalry divisions were kept in reserve.
Canada contributed two distinct groups of cavalry during the War – the Canadian Cavalry Brigade and an independent cavalry regiment known as the Canadian Light Horse.
Canadian Cavalry Brigade
This Canadian Cavalry Brigade was formed in England in the autumn of 1915, consisting of permanent force units, the Royal Canadian Dragoons and Lord Strathcona's Horse, along with the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. In early 1916, The Fort Garry Horse, a militia regiment from Winnipeg, was added, along with a Cavalry Brigade Machine Gun Squadron equipped with Vickers machine guns. The Canadian Cavalry Brigade served as part of a British cavalry division for the remainder of the war. Its first mounted action was at the Somme in the summer of 1916. When cavalry units were not needed as reserves for an offensive operation, they were often employed dismounted to occupy quiet sectors of the front.
The Brigade again saw mounted action in March 1917 when tasked to pursue an unexpected German withdrawal to a new defensive position called the Hindenburg Line. During this pursuit, Lieutenant Harvey of Lord Strathcona's Horse earned the brigade's first Victoria Cross for valour during the liberation of a French village. By the time of the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917 – best known as the first major tank offensive of the war – the Canadian cavalry was judged to be among the best brigades in the British Cavalry Corps, and it was tasked to serve in the lead of a large cavalry exploitation force. During this operation, a single Canadian squadron was the only cavalry to penetrate German lines, and Lieutenant Strachan of The Fort Garry Horse was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry.
The Brigade served with great distinction during the German's March 1918 offensive toward Amiens, riding from place to place assisting in slowing the relentless enemy advance. Its final action in this operation took place at Moreuil Wood, where Lieutenant Flowerdew of Lord Strathcona's Horse won a posthumous Victoria Cross for leading a gallant cavalry charge against German machine guns. After the war, Marshal Foch, the Allied supreme commander, credited the Canadians with halting the German offensive at Moreuil and preventing the separation of the French and British armies. Later in that final year of the war, the Canadian Cavalry Brigade was in action during the great Canadian Corps victory over the Germans at Amiens in August, and it played an important part in following up the German retreat in the last two months of the war.
Canadian Light Horse
Until May 1916, three of the four infantry divisions of the Canadian Corps maintained their own independent cavalry squadron of some 150 all ranks . These squadrons – from the 19th Alberta Dragoons, the 1st Hussars and the 16th Light Horse – were then amalgamated into an ad hoc regiment that reported directly to Canadian Corps Headquarters. In early 1917, this unit was named the Canadian Light Horse.
The Canadian Light Horse first saw action as a mounted unit in the consolidation of the ground captured in the attack on Vimy Ridge in April 1917. The CLH played a major role in the fighting at Iwuy on October 10, 1918, where the last ever swords-drawn charge by Canadian cavalry took place. During the pursuit of the Germans in the final month of the war, CLH squadrons were always well out in front as a scouting force, ensuring that the Canadian divisions would not be surprised by German lay-back patrols. When the war ended for the Canadians in Mons Belgium on November 11, 1918, the Canadian Light Horse was already well beyond the city.
Modern armoured fighting vehicles – tanks and armoured cars – owe their development in part to the stalemate created on the Western Front by the deadly combination of machine guns and thick belts of barbed wire protecting trench lines, along with massive artillery bombardments that could be brought down with great accuracy on an attacking force. The problem of how an attacking force could be strengthened to overcome well-defended trenches had been studied by British scientists since late 1914. They came up with the idea of a 'land ship' – a tracked vehicle protected by armour plate, large enough that it could carry guns or machine guns, drive over belts of barbed wire, and crossover trenches. This highly secret vehicle was given the code name 'tank'.
Tanks were first introduced in limited numbers during the battle of the Somme in mid-September 1916, and the Canadian Corps was given seven (these models were called the Mark I) for its attack on the village of Courcellette. But these early versions were mechanical nightmares; almost all broke down before they got anywhere close to the German lines. Still, scientists kept improving their tank designs. Finally, in November 1917, tanks were used in large numbers in a successful offensive at Cambrai: the era of mechanized warfare had been born. Tanks then played major roles in the Battle of Amiens in August 1918, in the breaking of the Hindenburg Line in September, and in the pursuit of the retreating Germans in October and November 1918.
Early in 1918 many thought the war might well last into 1919, and the Canadian Army agreed to raise tank units. The 1st Canadian Tank Battalion was recruited from university students, and in June 1918 it was sent to England to begin training at the British Tank School. Despite the general aversion to volunteering at this stage in the war, a 2nd Battalion was also quickly raised. The 1st Tank Battalion had just completed its training and was preparing to leave for the front when the Armistice was declared on November 11, 1918. Thus, while no Canadian tank unit saw action in the war, many Canadians did serve in British tank battalions, and in a number of instances displayed their nationalism by painting maple leafs prominently on their vehicles.
In 1914, Canada created the world's first armoured unit. The driving force behind this achievement was Raymond Brutinel, a wealthy engineer originally from France, who had the idea that lightly armoured vehicles designed to carry machine guns would be especially useful. He offered to raise the funds for the vehicles, a suggestion which was readily accepted by the government. Brutinel designed the vehicles, had them built, purchased the machine guns, and recruited the soldiers, all within two months. His new unit was given the name 'Automobile Machine Gun Brigade No. 1'. In the next few months three other mobile machine gun units were raised, all paid for by private subscription – the Eaton Battery, the Borden Battery and the Yukon Battery. All four units found their way to France where, in 1915, they were amalgamated under Brutinel's command as the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade.
Brutinel's Motors came into their own in the last year of the war, when the stalemate of trench warfare had been broken. This highly mobile force played an especially important role in stemming the onslaught of the Germans' March 1918 offensive, and a second similar brigade was formed. The Motors were a valuable part of a composite formation of cavalry, armoured cars and cyclists, termed 'The Independent Force', during the Battle of Amiens in August 1918. Between September and November this force led the Canadian Corps from one victory to another during the pursuit to Valenciennes and finally to Mons on November 11, when the war ended.
At the beginning of the war, each Canadian division had its own company of cyclists – troops equipped with sturdy bicycles whose tasks included field security and aspects of military intelligence. In the static conditions on the Western Front, they were not very useful, so they tended to be used as guards or labourers. In May 1916 the four companies were amalgamated as The Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion. In 1918, the battalion was included in Brigadier-General Brutinel's 'Independent Force', and there they served valiantly at Amiens and in the Pursuit to Mons as a form of mounted infantry – riding to the scene of action, dismounting and then fighting as infantry.
Selected Bibliography
Ellis, W.D., ed. Saga of the Cyclists in the Great War 1914-1918. Toronto: Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion Association, 1965.
Lynch, Alex. Dad, the Motors and the Fifth Army Show: The German Offensive, March 1918. Kingston, ON: Lawrence Publications, 1978.
---. The Glory of Their Times : 1st Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade, March 1918. Kingston, ON: Lawrence Publications, 2001.
Marteinson, John and Michael R. McNorgan. The Royal Canadian Armoured Corps: An Illustrated History. Toronto: Robin Brass Studio, 2000.
Mitchell, G.D., Brian Reid and W. Simcock. RCHA - Right of the Line : An Anecdotal History of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery from 1871. Ottawa: RCHA History Committee, 1986.
Wallace, J.F. Dragons of Steel: Canadian Armour in Two World Wars. Burnstown, ON: General Store Publishing, 1995.
Williams, S.H. Stand to Your Horses : Through the First World War, 1914-1918 with the Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians). Winnipeg: Lord Strathcona's Horse (Royal Canadians) Regimental Society, 1999 (1961).
The First Air War
Hugh A. Halliday
Historian and author
During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) experts noted that smokeless powder, rifled artillery, machine guns and barbed wire had turned battlefields into vast wastelands where armies hid from their opponent's shells. Cavalry—the traditional form of reconnaissance—could not manoeuvre . Ten years later, aircraft made stalemate even more certain. In August 1914 aerial reconnaissance enabled the Allies to counter-attack against German armies invading France. Thereafter, with few exceptions, aerial observers forecast an enemy's offensive and thus assured its failure (or success, at appalling cost).
The power of aerial observation went further. With armies driven into complex trench systems, artillery came to the fore as the deadliest weapon of the war. The great guns of the Western Front were the primary killing machines of what had become industrialized warfare—65 percent of all deaths and wounds were attributable to artillery fire, which delivered awesome weights of shell and shrapnel.
Days before his death by artillery fire, an American soldier wrote, "This is a cowering war—pygmy man huddles in little holes and caves, praying to escape the blows of the blind giant who pounds the ground with blind hammers." But the hammers were not blind. Their targets were mapped by men in aircraft and balloons, their fire was directed from aircraft and balloons. The aerial observer was the most important airman of the war; his role today has been assumed by others, including the aerial spy satellite.
The courage of these men defies imagination. Balloon observers ascended under gas bags filled with flammable hydrogen, vulnerable to fighter aircraft determined to shoot them down. The men in the balloons at least had parachutes, if time permitted them to escape. For most of the war, pilots and airplane crews had no such equipment; fire in the air was the most dreaded fate of all, and many men carried pistols to shoot themselves rather than suffer agonizing deaths. In June 1918 German aircrews were issued parachutes; even these failed to deploy about 25 percent of the time.
Given the importance of aerial reconnaissance and artillery direction, it is puzzling to find so much attention being devoted to fighter pilots, these "knights of the air." Fighter pilots and tactics evolved from 1915 onwards, but their task was always secondary to that of the observation crews. It was a fighter pilot's job to shoot down enemy observation aircraft and protect his own observation aircraft. Nevertheless, propagandists trying to divert attention from the awful slaughter on the ground fastened upon the fighter pilots as men engaged in single combat, man-to-man, with the high-scoring "ace" as the centrepiece of the narrative. Never mind that the fighter pilot's objective was (preferably) to surprise an opponent and shoot him in the back. Chivalry there might be—a decent burial for a fallen enemy, a toast with a captured foe—but in the heat of battle there could be only one rule: kill or be killed. At the heart of everything else, that was a fighter pilot's job description. It is a measure of the propagandist's success that, 90 years later, the public knows more about the First World War fighter pilots than the men they were actually protecting.
Airplanes were used for many other tasks—anti-submarine patrols, trench strafing, communications and bombing. Indeed, aircraft performed almost every task in the First World War that they would later execute in the Second World War. The one exception was the aerial delivery of soldiers. Even so, aircraft were used to place spies behind enemy lines and drop supplies to isolated troops. Nevertheless, in most roles the airplanes of 1914-1918 only hinted at what was to come. Only one submarine was sunk by aircraft during the First World War; at least 400 submarines on all sides were destroyed by aircraft during the Second World War. Aerial bombing between 1914 and 1918 inflicted only modest devastation (although its psychological impact was very great at the outset); the bombing campaigns of the Second World War were horrific both in physical impact and subsequent moral outrage.
Aircraft affected the conduct of the war, and war influenced the technological development of aircraft. For example, engines increased from an average of 80 horsepower (1914) to 350 horsepower (1918), while speeds of 110 km/h had risen to about 200 km/h. Yet if the war had not taken place, it is conceivable that commercial incentives might have produced similar results. The first four-engine airliner had flown in Russia in 1913. Might not development have taken place along civilian lines ? Five years later, France and Britain initiated civilian air transport services using modified bombers that carried fewer passengers than their Russian predecessors of 1913.
Whether or not it was due to war, a radical transformation occurred between 1914 and 1918 that involved the attitudes of aviators themselves. Even among the select circle of 1914 pilots, flying was considered hazardous,, and training methods reflected this. At the time, no aircraft had been designed specifically for training; throughout the war most training aircraft were machines like the RE.7 and Farman Shorthorn, which had been retired from front-line duties to rear echelon tasks. The Curtiss JN-4 broke this pattern.
The most radical change, however, involved the training syllabus itself. Early flying instruction covered the basics of flying but emphasized dangers to be avoided, particularly stalls and spins. By 1916, however, the dynamics of flight controls were more fully understood, and recovery from spins could be practised. New systems of instruction emphasized the theory of flight and explained exactly how manoeuvres could be executed, thus encouraging intelligent aerobatics. Instead of being regarded as a threatening mount, the airplane came to be seen as an even-tempered, reasonable machine. Previously, students had been taught what to avoid; the new methods instilled confidence. By the end of the war, pilots had become enthusiastic about the potential uses of aircraft and convinced of the fundamental safety of their machines. Confident prophets inspire confident converts.
Canada's role in these developments was insignificant in some ways, crucial in others. Before the war the government studiously ignored aviation, and only in 1918 did it take steps to form distinct Canadian air force units. On the other hand, it assisted the British flying services, which recruited in Canada and trained personnel in this country. Thousands of Canadians enlisted in the British flying services, either directly or by transferring from the Canadian Expeditionary Force. No one really knows just how many joined; the lowest estimate (13,160) seems too modest, but the highest guess (22,812) cannot be documented. It is generally believed that, as of 1918, about one-quarter of all members of the Royal Air Force were Canadians. The most famous were aces such as Raymond Collishaw and William Barker, but they included many other fascinating individuals. In 1915, Redford Mulock had been a trooper transferring from the cavalry to the Royal Naval Air Service. As of November 1918, he was a decorated colonel commanding heavy bombers that would have raided Berlin if the war had lasted only two weeks longer.
Selected Bibliography
Chajkowsky, William E. Royal Flying Corps; Borden to Texas to Beamsville. Cheltenham, ON: Boston Mills Press, 1979.
Costello, W. Brian. A Nursery of the Air Force. Carleton Place, ON: Forest Beauty Products, 1979.
Dodds, Ronald. The Brave Young Wings. Stittsville, ON: Canada's Wings, 1980.
Drew, George. Canada's Fighting Airmen. Toronto: Maclean Publishing, 1931.
Ellis, Frank H. Canada's Flying Heritage. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1954.
Fuller, G.A., J.A. Griffin and K.A. Molson. 125 Years of Canadian Aeronautics: A Chronology,1840-1965. Toronto: Canadian Aviation Historical Society, 1983.
Goodspeed, D. J. The Armed Forces of Canada,1867-1967. Ottawa: Canadian Forces Headquarters, 1967.
Greenhous, Brereton. The Making of Billy Bishop. Toronto: Dundern Group, 2002.
Greenhous, Brereton and Hugh A. Halliday. Canada's Air Forces,1914-1999. Montreal: Art Global, 1999.
Halliday , Hugh A. Not in the Face of the Enemy: Canadians Awarded the Air Force Cross and Air Force Medal,1918-1966. Toronto: Robin Brass Studio, 2000.
Jones, Neville. The Origins of Strategic Bombing. London: William Kimber, 1973.
Milberry, Larry. Aviation in Canada. Toronto: Canav Books, 1979.
---. Canada's Air Force at War and Peace. 3 vol. Toronto: Canav Books, 1999 to 2001.
Rimell, Raymond Laurence. Zeppelin! A Battle for Air Supremacy in World War I. Stittsville, ON: Canada's Wings, 1984.
Shores, Christopher, Norman Franks and Russell Guest. Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the British Empire Air Forces, 1915-1920. Stoney Creek, ON: Fortress Publications, 1990.
Sullivan, Alan. Aviation in Canada,1917-1918. Toronto: Rous and Rous, 1919.
Wise, S.F. Canadian Airmen and the First World War. Ottawa: Department of National Defence, 1982.
The following Web site has a section "Honours and Awards" and a subsection dealing with Canadians in the British Flying Services during the First World War: http://www.airforce.ca/.
The Commanders
Patrick H. Brennan
Military Historian
When the Canadian Expeditionary Force began to take shape in the autumn of 1914, the majority of its future commanding officers had been pursuing their business and professional careers only weeks earlier. Even those with some pre-war militia experience were still amateur warriors who would have to learn how to command soldiers while actually fighting a war. Combat would prove a cruel and unforgiving teacher, and the mistakes they made learning how to command would cost men's lives.
Arthur Currie: the first Canadian to command the Canadian Corps
Arthur Currie began the war in command of a brigade of 4000 men. He had earned his appointment on the recommendation of Garnet Hughes, a fellow British Columbia militia officer who happened to be the son of Canada's Minister of Militia and Defence, the erratic, meddling and militarily incompetent Sir Sam Hughes. During the early stages of the war, Hughes personally selected almost every senior officer in the army, and far too many of them were friends and political cronies who proved unfit for their commands and ultimately had to be replaced. Nothing in Currie's background as a school teacher and realtor with a smattering of militia experience made him stand out. Yet he turned out to be a fast learner and superb leader whose military skills quickly blossomed. By 1916 he was recognized as the best of the senior Canadian officers. A year later, he was the obvious choice to be the first Canadian to command the Corps, a responsibility he carried out with distinction through the rest of the war.
As the Canadians desperately struggled to overcome their inexperience, they were fortunate to have the guidance of some very capable British officers such as Lieutenant-General Julian Byng and his chief staff officer, Major-General Percy Radcliffe. First-rate professional soldiers, they identified the most promising Canadian commanders, mentored them, and, when they proved their worth, promoted them to more responsible commands. Consequently, by 1917 the Canadian Corps had assembled a pool of very capable, battle-experienced Canadian commanding officers.
Two of the brigade commanders, Brigadier-Generals James MacBrien and Victor Odlum, were typical of this group. MacBrien was a professional soldier, one of only a handful of such Canadian commanders. After initially serving as a staff officer, Byng gave MacBrien command of the 12th Infantry Brigade in September 1916, just before this untested unit received their first taste of combat.
After serving in the South African War, Odlum had returned to Vancouver where he'd built up a prosperous financial and insurance business. He saw action with the 7th Battalion at Second Ypres, the Canadians' first battle, taking over command of the battalion when Lt. Col. McHarg was killed. Byng promoted him to the command of the 11th Brigade in July 1916 and like MacBrien, he led his brigade until the Armistice. MacBrien's style was studious and reserved, and his forte was training and planning. In contrast, Odlum was a dashing, fearless battlefield commander who had the wounds to prove it. Although they displayed two very different styles of command, both were effective.
Unlike earlier wars, the sheer scale of World War I battles and the breakdown of communications during the fighting actually made it impossible for generals to control the attacks they launched. What they could do, however, was utilize the weeks before an assault to prepare for every possible battlefield contingency – in other words, to emphasize thorough planning and training.
From amateurs to an elite force
By the end of 1916, the British Empire forces were adopting new, more effective fighting tactics. This was particularly true in the Canadian Corps, where Byng, Radcliffe and Currie had inaugurated a highly efficient system of "organized learning." The officers and soldiers doing the fighting now compiled "after battle" reports outlining in detail what had succeeded and what had failed. Whether it was tactics or weaponry, the Corps' commanders placed a premium on figuring out better ways to fight, emphasizing to every officer and soldier how vital absorbing the lessons of the "battlefield classroom" was to the survival and success of them all. Henceforward, something of value learned by one battalion would be speedily adopted by the rest simply by making it part of everyone's training. Lessons now learned in an organized way were applied in an organized way, too. More than any other factor, mastering this "learning curve" was responsible for transforming the Canadian Corps from an enthusiastic mob of amateurs into an elite attack force, the "shock troops" of the British Empire. Officers, and especially senior commanders, had played an indispensable role.
Battalion commanders
One group of commanders shared the dual responsibility of preparing their soldiers and then leading them in battle—the commanding officers of the Corps' 48 infantry battalions. Of the 200-odd men who commanded a Canadian battalion, 22 were killed in action and many more were wounded. Along with the junior officers under them, they were in charge of most of the soldiers' actual training. They also had the critical responsibility of maintaining the health, morale and unit pride of their men, and often organized sports, concerts and other entertainments with this end in mind.
Battalion commanders were the most senior officers their men actually knew and saw regularly, and who shared their daily risks and grim living conditions at the front. As a result, the men looked to them for inspiration and confidence, and a brave and skilful battalion commander could keep his men going under the most appalling conditions. Lieutenant-Colonel Cyrus Peck was one such officer. He'd enlisted in the 16th Battalion in 1914, fought with it at Second Ypres and commanded it from November 1916 until the end of the war. Although the stocky, walrus-moustached Peck was hardly the most military-looking of commanding officers, he was fearless, and none of his soldiers doubted who ran their unit. During the storming of the Drocourt-Quéant Line on September 2, 1918, such leadership won Peck the Victoria Cross. When stiff German resistance blocked his battalion's advance, he exposed himself to heavy artillery and machine-gun fire in order to reconnoitre enemy positions, then re-organized what was left of his men and led them to capture and hold their objective.
Armies are hierarchical organizations, and the quality of command plays an enormous role in their ultimate success. Even the bravest and best-equipped troops will fail in battle if they are asked to execute a flawed plan, or if the officers directing them in the heat of combat make poor decisions. As the war progressed, the best commanders worked their way to the top of the Canadian Corps. Consequently, planning was sound, and Canadian soldiers were prepared for battle using the most effective tactics learned from earlier combat experiences. Once the battle began, brave and skilled leadership by battalion commanders and the junior officers who followed their lead contributed mightily to the chance for victory. By the last two years of the war, the quality of commander in the Canadian Corps was outstanding, as an unbroken string of victories attests.
Selected Bibliography
Brennan, Patrick. "From Amateur to Professional: The Experience of Brigadier General William Antrobus Griesbach." in Canada and the Great War, Briton Busch, ed. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003 : 78-92.
---. "A Still Untold Story of the Canadian Corps: Byng's and Currie's Commanders." Canadian Military History 11, 2 (Spring 2002): 5-16.
Brennan, Patrick and Thomas Leppard. "How the Lessons Were Learned: Senior Commanders and the Moulding of the Canadian Corps after the Somme" in Canada and War: 1000-2000, Yves Tremblay, ed. Ottawa: Canadian War Museum, 2001.
Dancocks, Daniel. Sir Arthur Currie: A Biography. Toronto: Methuen, 1985.
Hyatt, A.M.J. General Sir Arthur Currie: A Military Biography. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1987.
McCulloch, Ian. "'Batty Mac': Portrait of a Brigade Commander of the Great War, 1915-1917." Canadian Military History 7, 4 (Autumn 1998): 11-28.
Swettenham, John. McNaughton, Vol. I: 1887-1939. Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1968.
Tremblay, Yves. "Brutinel: A Unique Kind of Leadership." in Warrior Chiefs. Bernd Horn and Stephen Harris, eds. Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2001.
The Lone Hawk: Ace Billy Bishop
Arthur Bishop
The "Lone Hawk" became a living legend whose exploits brought excitement and glamour to a conflict bogged down by the appalling massacre in the trenches during the Great War, a legend that would later inspire thousands of others to join the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II.
He quickly proved his skill as the ultimate aerial duellist soon after joining a Royal Flying Corps fighter squadron on March 17, 1917. Eight days later, he brought down his first enemy plane. On April 7, he scored a second time, then a week later brought his tally to three. Next day, Easter Sunday, Bishop brought down three enemy planes to qualify him as an ace plus one. During the encounter, he experienced his closest brush with death when a bullet grazed his flying helmet and put a hole in his windscreen1. By this time, he had been awarded the first of his decorations, the Military Cross.
On the last day of that month, by which time his tally had climbed to fourteen victories, he clashed with the notorious Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron," at 15,000 feet over Vitry. The dog-fight between the greatest aces of each side ended in a quick draw, the Lone Hawk getting off a short, exasperated shot at the scarlet Albatross, plunging to earth as if hit, the old ruse, then flattening out and away.
On May 2, a date in which Bishop engaged a total of 23 enemy aircraft, he destroyed a pair of enemy two-seater observation planes and over the next four days brought down three more, to boost his victories to nineteen. Before going on leave to England the next day, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
On his return to France, he shot down three planes in two days, then on June 2 made his historic lone attack on Esnes aerodrome that won him the Victoria Cross. He described it to me in these laconic words:
I'd forgotten that the 'drome would be guarded by machine guns when I planned the raid, and they shredded my wings. Anyway, I managed to shoot down an Albatross trying to take off. I took a shot at a second one but missed. It didn't matter; the pilot turned around in the cockpit and crashed into a tree. Two more tried to take off. I got one of them. The other one fled and I decided to get the hell out of there. On my way home, there were four Huns well above me. I was lucky. They never saw me.
But then nausea set in, he said—he hadn't eaten any breakfast and was afraid he'd pass out. However, he made it safely back to his field.
Before his first tour ended, he ran his score up to 47 and was awarded a bar to his DSO.
On May 27, 1918, Bishop returned to the Western Front as head of his own squadron and in twelve days of flying, shot down an incredible 25 planes, a record never equalled and for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
During the Second World War, Billy Bishop was head of recruiting for the RCAF as Air Marshal. He died in Palm Beach, Florida, in 1956 at age 62.
1On display at the Canadian War Museum
Selected Bibliography
Bishop, Arthur. The Courage of the Early Morning: The Story of Billy Bishop. Paperback ed. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1989 (1967).
Other Materials
"Aces" in WWI
Captain Arthur Roy Brown was born at Carlton Place, Ontario, in 1893, the son of J. M. Brown, a leading grain merchant. He attended school in Carlton Place and in Edmonton, where he starred as a basketball and hockey player. Later he took a business course at Ottawa.
When the Great War broke out, Brown tried to enlist in the Royal Flying Corps, but was turned down. In those early days one first had to have private pilot's licence, so he went to Dayton, Ohio, where he entered the Wright Brothers' Aviation School. He became one of the first persons trained there, flying rickety Wright Model B's, two-seater pusher biplanes with twin chain-driven propellers, hopelessly obsolete even in 1915.
Having completed his course, he enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service as a probationary flight sub-lieutenant and sailed for England on November 22, 1915.
While training at Chingford, Brown was repeatedly ill and in May 1916 he was hospitalized following an air accident. Nevertheless, he survived and was posted to No. 9 Squadron, Royal Naval Air Service, attached to the Royal Flying Corps. On July 17, 1917, he scored the first of his kills. Three German Albatrosses attacked him. Twisting to and fro, he selected one of them and bored in. The enemy aircraft went out of control and crashed. More victories followed.
His Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) was gazetted on November 2, 1917, five days after he and a fellow flier, Lt. Banbury, had sent a German plane flaming from a formation of seven, and three days before he was made a flight commander. By the close of March 1918,while his squadron was engaged in a fierce fight, he made his thirteenth kill. It was not until some time after he had submitted his claim that he learned the identity of his victim: it was no other than the celebrated Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Knight of Germany, who had 80 kills to his credit.
Ill health again caught up with Brown and he had to leave the squadron for hospital. He then went to England to receive a bar to his DSC. For a time he was attached to the Second School of Fighting in a staff position. He wanted, however, to return to the front. Unhappily, battle fatigue clung to him and in July he fainted while flying and crashed. He was so badly injured that for a time the doctors despaired of saving him. He pulled through, but the Armistice found him still recovering from his injuries.
Brown left the service a captain with two DSCs and 13 confirmed kills. Friends who knew of his behind-the-lines patrols put the score at closer to 20.
Back in civilian life, he married and became the father of two daughters and one son. For several years he worked for the Imperial Varnish and Colour Co. Ltd., which specialized in aircraft finishes.
In 1934, he organized General Airways, which operated out of Noranda, Que., and Haileybury, Ontario. But ill health dogged him and a few years later he retired. In January 1943 he accepted the post of advisory editor of Canadian Aviation magazine. He found the work fascinating and he remained with the magazine until a few weeks before his death at fifty years of age, at Stouffville, Ontario.
Wing Commander William G. Barker, VC, DSO and Bar, MC and two Bars
Wing Commander Barker was born in Dauphin, Manitoba, on November 3, 1894. He attended elementary and high schools there and shortly before the outbreak of war moved to Winnipeg.
On December 1, 1914, he enlisted as a trooper in the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles (CMR) at Brandon, Manitoba, and went with his unit to Britain in June 1915 to serve with the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). He took a machine-gun course at Shorncliffe Camp and sailed for France with his regiment in September 1915. His unit, along with a group of infantry and other dismounted cavalry units, formed part of Corps Troops [sic]. These units later became two brigades of the 3rd Canadian Division; the 1st CMR was part of the 8th Brigade.
Barker soon applied for service in the Royal Flying Corps and early in 1916 was sent to No. 9 Squadron, which was equipped with BE2c's; he carried out reconnaissance duties as an observer under training on the Somme Front, but was still a member of his CEF unit.
No. 9 Squadron's record book shows that Trooper W. Barker made a 20-minute test flight in a BE2c on March 6, 1916, and then flew nine other patrols, the last of which was photo reconnaissance on April 1, 1916.
Barker was struck off the strength of the CEF on April 1, 1916, and commissioned in the RFC on either April 1 or 2. Five days later he was sent to No. 4 Squadron RFC, also equipped with BE2c's and based at Baizieux, France. He flew for three months with this squadron as an observer.
On July 7, 1916, still as an observer, Barker joined No. 15 Squadron, RFC, at Marieux, France. It also was equipped with BE2c's although it later acquired BE2d's, BE2e's, and RE8's. On July 20, 1916, Barker's machine was attacked by a Roland Scout over Miraumont but it was driven off by Barker's fire. On August 15 of the same year he drove off another Roland when it attacked him near Achiet le Grand. During November he was recommended for his first decoration, the Military Cross (MC), and the award was announced in the London Gazette in January 1917.
Sometime in late November, Barker was selected for pilot training and sent to the UK. He rejoined No. 15 Squadron as a pilot in February 1917 and much, if not most, of his flying was done on RE8's. He and his observer were mentioned in RFC communiqués for actions of April 25 and May 25, 1917. He was made a flight commander on May 9, 1917, and two days later received a Bar to his MC.
Early in August 1917, Barker was wounded in the head, a shell splinter narrowly missing his right eye. In the middle of the month he was sent to the UK for a tour of instructional duty. He applied for service with a fighter squadron and was posted as a flight commander to No. 28 Squadron, then in England and preparing to fly its Camels to France. By now he had been promoted to captain. His new squadron arrived in St. Omar on October 8, 1917.
On October 20, Barker's squadron took part in an attack on a German airfield. The plan called for aircraft of No. 70 Squadron to bomb and shoot up the German airfield at Rumbeke, at low level. Biplane fighters of No. 23 Squadron were to fly a high patrol during the attack while 19 Camels of No. 28 Squadron were to come in from the rear to attack any German aircraft which might be able to take off from the Rumbeke field. Heavy damage was done by the bombing and strafing and seven enemy scouts were shot down. One of these was an Albatross, described in RFC reports as being "painted green with small black crosses," and which Barker sent down "with both wings off."
Barker was hospitalized following his Victoria Cross (VC) fight of October 27, 1918, and on leaving hospital was commissioned a lieutenant-colonel in the Manitoba Regiment and seconded to the Canadian Air Force overseas. After returning to Canada he became a partner with Billy Bishop in a post-war commercial aviation venture in Toronto. In June 1922, he accepted a commission as a wing commander in the non-permanent Canadian Air Force formed in Canada and he was a member of the permanent RCAF, which came into being in 1924, serving as its first director from April 1, 1924 to May 18, 1924. He resigned his commission in 1926. On March 12, 1930, he took up a commercial Fairchild from Rockcliffe air station, Ottawa, and was killed when the machine crashed on landing.
Air Vice-Marshall Raymond Collishaw, CB, DSO and Bar, OBE (Order of the British Empire), DSC, DFC
Air Vice-Marshall Raymond Collishaw was born at Nanaimo, British Columbia, on November 22, 1893 and received most of his schooling there. At age 15 he joined the Fishery Protection Service, being rated as a cabin boy. He served in several ships engaged in patrol work along the British Columbia coast, rising to first officer. In 1915 he applied for service in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) and briefly attended—at his own expense—the Curtiss flying school in Toronto. In January 1916 he was appointed a probationary flight sub-lieutenant and embarked for England.
He was selected to serve on fighters and after completing his training in England was posted to No. 3 (Naval) Wing, formed to fly long-range bombing attacks on German industrial targets from bases on the Vosges region of north-eastern France. He went out to the Wing's aerodrome at Luxeuil-les-Bains in September 1916 and for the next five months flew escort to the RNAS bombers. Collishaw flew a Sopwith 1 ˝ Strutter while with Three Wing and it was on this machine that he had his first aerial combat with enemy fighters. He was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his escort work.
In late January 1917, Collishaw was posted to No. 3 (Naval) Squadron, then attached to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) on the Somme and equipped with the little Sopwith Pup fighter. He scored his first confirmed aerial victories with this squadron but during the latter part of March suffered severe frostbite and was sent to England to recover.
He returned to France a month later and was posted to No. 10 (Naval) Squadron, also a fighter unit, which had just been equipped with the Sopwith Triplane. With Naval Ten, Collishaw led the famous "B" or "Black" Flight throughout the spring and summer of 1917 and was able to demonstrate his full capabilities as a courageous and skilful fighter pilot. Naval Ten was attached to the RFC on the Ypres front and a grim aerial war of attrition developed with heavy casualties. While with Naval Ten he was credited with sending down 27 German aircraft and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) and the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). Collishaw left the squadron during the first several days of August 1917 for Canadian leave.
He returned to duty in late November and was posted to lead a flight in the Seaplane Defence Squadron, a Sopwith Camel unit situated near Dunkirk. It later became No. 13 (Naval) Squadron. At this time its main duties were providing aerial protection for Royal Navy vessels off the French and Belgian coasts, carrying out fighter sweeps and flying escort for RNAS bombers. In late December he took over command of the unit when its commanding officer was injured in a crash. Promotion to rank of squadron commander followed.
He was then posted back to one of his old squadrons, No. 3 (Naval) – this time as its commanding officer. It was also equipped with Sopwith Camels and was heavily engaged with the enemy, particularly during the great German offensives of March and April 1918 and the Allied victory push that began early in August. It became No. 203 Squadron on creation of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Collishaw was given the rank of major. While leading No. 203, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and a Bar to his DSO.
Collishaw left No. 203 Squadron on October 21, having been selected to fill a senior staff position in the big pilot training scheme that the RAF was operating in Canada but the war ended before he could take up his new appointment. He is generally credited with having shot down 60 enemy machines during his flying in France. Under Collishaw's command, No. 203 Squadron is credited with shooting down some 125 enemy aircraft; fewer than 30 of its own pilots were killed or became prisoners of war.
From 1919 to 1943, Collishaw was responsible for commands in South Russia, Iraq, England, Sudan and Egypt. In the summer of 1943, he retired from the RAF but remained in uniform in Britain until after the war's end, serving as a regional air liaison officer with the civil defence organization. He returned to Canada after the war and made his home in West Vancouver, British Columbia. He died in September 1976 in Vancouver, at age 82.
Adapted with permission from texts provided by the Directorate of History and Heritage, Canadian Department of National Defence.


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Three Diamond Inn
Our Inn offers the perfect combination - the ambiance of a bed and breakfast with the amenities of an upscale hotel. We are conveniently located 8 minutes drive from downtown Niagara Falls, making our hotel an ideal destination for business and leisure travelers alike.
We offer our guests exceptional, personalized service. We hope that a stay with us will evoke both luxury and style and leave you wanting to return soon. We know that traveling can be stressful at times and our goal is to make your stay with us a memorable and comfortable one.Pleas note taxes are not included
Availability & RatesTo view availability and prices please select dates and click 'Update Dates'
Hotel Facilities & Policies
- 24 Hour Reception
- 24 Hour Security
- Air Conditioning
- Breakfast Not Included
- Cable TV
- Credit Cards Accepted
- Currency Exchange
- Direct Dial Telephone
- Telephone/Fax Facilities
- Free City Maps
- Free Internet Access
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- Free WiFi
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- Laundry Facilities
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- No Curfew
- Non Smoking
- Outdoor Swimming Pool
- Outdoor Terrace
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- Taxes not included
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Cancellation PolicyThis property has a 1 day cancellation policy. Failure to cancel within this time will result in a cancellation charge equal to the first night of your stay.
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From Toronto take the train to the station in niagra falls, take the city transit bus to our door steps .15 minutes ride.
From the USA cross the rainbow bridge to Niagara Falls and take the city transit to our door 20 minutes ride
8911 Lundys Lane


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The Texas Transportation Commission is ready to get Texans to work by approving construction and maintenance projects to be funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), often referred to as the Economic Stimulus Bill. TxDOT has been working for months with its local and regional transportation planning officials to identify projects eligible for this funding.
Complete Reports


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|Valley Stream Pastor Named Monsignor
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, NEW YORK, June 8, 2007 — Pope Benedict XVI conferred the papal honor of monsignor on Father Thomas J. Harold, pastor of Holy Name of Mary parish, Valley Stream, N.Y.
Msgr. Harold said he was surprised when the Most Reverend William Murphy, Bishop, Diocese of Rockville Centre, made the announcement. He said the parishioners at Holy Name of Mary parish were "very affirming."
Msgr. Harold was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduated from Chaminade High School, Mineola, N.Y. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in theology from St. John's University, a Master of Arts degree in English from Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y., and a Master of Divinity from the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception, Huntington, N.Y.
He was a Marianist Religious Brother for 15 years and taught English at Chaminade High School from 1976 to 1987.
Ordained into the priesthood May 25, 1991, Msgr. Harold was first assigned to Holy Family parish, Hicksville, N.Y. In 1996, he was appointed Director of the diocesan Vocations Office. In 2000, he was assigned to Holy Name of Mary parish, where he is pastor.
Msgr. Harold said the biggest difference between being a priest and being a pastor is the administrative issues.
"You need to try to be an effective leader and continue to try to be an effective priest," he said.
He said the best part about priesthood is celebrating the Eucharist and Sacraments, as well as "having the privilege of sharing important moments of [parishioners'] lives with them."
He has been on the Board of Admissions for the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception for the past two years.
Msgr. Harold has five brothers and one sister. He is a fan of golf, baseball and dramatic movies.
Editor's Note: Photo Courtesy of The Long Island Catholic/Greg Shemitz
# # #
About The Diocese of Rockville Centre
For more information Contact:


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Man tries to marry porn-filled laptop
(NEWSER) – A Florida judge has tossed out a bizarre motion from a man who claimed he wanted to marry his "porn filled Apple computer." Marc Sevier attempted to intervene in a same-sex marriage case "on behalf of other minority sexual orientation groups," reports the Broward-Palm Beach New Times, which notes that the filing is "obviously an attempt to punk the legal system because he doesn't agree with gay marriage." Sevier claimed that after buying a laptop without porn filters, he became addicted to pornography, "fell in love" with his computer, and preferred "having sex with it over all other persons or things." If gay people "have the right to marry their object of sexual desire, even if they lack corresponding sexual parts," he said, "then I should have the right to marry my preferred sexual object."
Read the full story on Newser.com


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Just got a 2gb usb pen drive from my dad and wanted to use
one of them for BackTrack 3 Beta of coarse.
Well I formatted the usb Fat32 file system and ran the bootinst.sh.
Rebooted my pc and everything is working perfectly . Except for one thing
that I'm guessing has a simple answer. When I reboot, any changes that I've
done, gets lost. I want the usb to act as a real install.
So first thing I did was do some research on my own.
I found out (from the BackTrack wiki) that in order to save changes, you have to run
from the terminal. So I tried, but when I rebooted, everything was still rolled backCode:dir2lzm /mnt/live/memory/changes changes.lzm
to default.
Now, is there a way to make the usb act as a real installation? Maybe use the
"Install Backtrack" as real on the usb pen?
Or maybe I'm simply missing something?
What are my options?


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Keith Urban previews new single
Listen to Keith Urban on iHeartRadio
Keith Urban is giving fans a very brief preview of his next single. The country star played a few seconds of the track in his latest "Urban Chat Video."
Urban doesn't even share the title. But he does say the song has "a little bit of everything in it."
The single is slated to have its debut on country radio stations Monday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. It's from Urban's upcoming album, which is due later this year.
The project is Keith's first studio effort in a few years. The new disc is his follow up to 2010's Get Closer.
Photo Credit Getty Images


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Davenport University 3
Adjunct faculty
With locations throughout Michigan, Davenport University serves more than 11,000 students at 12 campuses. With a long-standing reputation for practical learning, DU encourages students to think creatively and to recognize opportunity in a changing economy. Our students also are instilled with an appreciation for civic responsibility in the communities where they live and work.
Davenport University has exciting opportunities for you to join our nursing team. Immediate openings are available for an adjunct faculty position at our Warren campus for the approaching spring/summer and fall semesters. Davenport nursing adjunct instructors are given the opportunity to share their experiences in areas including med-surg, pediatrics, mental health, and OB with their students. Opportunities exist to teach in a variety of environments such as didactics, labs, and clinical settings.
As an Adjunct Faculty you will have the opportunity to share practical, hands-on experience in the classroom with students while establishing and promoting an effective learning environment for students with diverse interests, abilities, needs and expectations.
Adjunct faculty teach on a contractual basis per semester while demonstrating knowledge in the assigned teaching discipline. They will maintain and demonstrate a high level of professional ethics as they conduct classes in accordance to the established course outlines.
Qualified candidates for these roles must have an MSN, a PhD is preferred. These candidates will have the ability to work effectively with people of diverse backgrounds and promote a positive working environment. While teaching in a professional manner the candidate will demonstrate excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills, both written and oral.
Compensation & Benefits
DU offers Adjunct Faculty a competitive salary that is commensurate with experience. Additionally, Adjunct Faculty and qualified dependents are eligible to participate in our tuition remission program.
How to apply
Interested candidates are encouraged to submit their resume and cover letter by August 13, 2013.
To inquire, please submit resume and cover letter to the attention of Aleta Pillai at firstname.lastname@example.com
Davenport is an Equal Opportunity Employer.