Monthly Archives: April 2021

With vehicles and transport trucks zooming behind him, Manitoba Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler announced construction ofanew$2.5-million service road off the Perimeter Highway Tuesday,intendedto make a western section of thehighway safer for motorists.

TheManitoba government will work with the RM of Headingley to buildthe new road as part of the province's South Perimeter Safety Plan, developed in 2018to address safety issues at Perimeter Highway intersections that are controlled by stop signs.

"That vehicles would be pulling out cold, or turning right [offor onto] the Perimeter [the fact] we think that this is somehow even acceptable in today's age is surprising,"Schuler said at a news conference,noting the amount of traffic behind him, as well as thesize and speedof the vehicles.

"It is time that we make the Perimeter Highway safer."

The safety plan included closing two direct access roads from Caron Road, which is in the rural municipality of Headingley, to the Perimeter Highway.

One access point has already been closed. The other will close after Rockall Road the new service road has been built, the province said Tuesday.

The RM of Headingley will manage and deliver the project, and will own Rockall Road, from Roblin Boulevard to Wilkes Avenue, once it's built, a news release from the province said.

Rockall Road will give two access points to the South Perimeter via Wilkes and Roblin.

Headingley Mayor John Mausethspoke at Tuesday's announcement, sayingRockall Road will eventually lead to greater economic opportunities for his community once construction is complete.

Read more here:

Province, RM of Headingley working together on new $2.5M Perimeter Highway service road - CBC.ca

It was a horrific and shocking tragedy in which 635 people died, yet it has been largely forgotten by history.

Now Western Isles Lottery is telling the story of the sinking of the SS Norge off Rockall with a new exhibition which will tour the Hebrides.

The disaster took place on June 28 1904. Nearly half of the 795 passengers who were aboard the ship when she left Norway for New York were young mothers with their children.

Many were travelling to join their husbands in America. But tragically, only 45 children and115 adults survived.

At the time, the sinking of the SS Norge was the worst civilian maritime disaster in the Atlantic Ocean.

Now it is the second worst, having been displaced by the Titanic disaster of 1912.

Lessons from the SS Norge tragedy were not learned ahead of the larger disaster. The Norge had 795 passengers on board with only lifeboats for a capacity of 251.

The sinking happened near the uninhabited Rockall, to which the nearest permanently inhabited place is North Uist, 230 miles to the east.

Tony Robson, chairman of Western Isles Lottery said: A detailed mobile exhibition has been prepared by the WI Lottery which will be firstly unveiled in An Lanntair, Stornoway between May 10-16 this year.

It is hoped that the exhibition can tour the Hebrides so that people in the islands can learn about this event, which happened on our door step.

At 7.45 on June 28 the ship hit Helens Reef close to Rockall. Five lifeboats drifted in the Atlantic for up to eight days before, very fortunately, being rescued by passing ships.

One lifeboat, with a one-year-old-girl aboard, had almost reached the Faroe Islands, more than 400 miles from Rockall.

Of the 160 survivors, more than 100 were rescued and treated at the old Lewis Hospital in Stornoway. Sadly eight of the children and one adult died and are buried at Lower Sandwick.

The Western Isles Lottery is also undertaking the restoration of the original grave stone.

The exhibition comprehensively tells the compelling story, from Russians fleeing Tsar Nicolas, to the amazing help and treatment by Stornoway people towards 105 of the Russian, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish survivors.

It has been researched and compiled by Tony Robson.

Janet Paterson, founder of Western Isles Lottery, said: Sincere gratitude is extended to Tony Robson and Per Kristian Sebak of the Bergen Maritime Museum for their research and efforts to bring this exhibition to the Islands.

The project has been funded by the Western Isles Lottery and the Western Isles Development Trust.

Here is the original post:

Exhibition of ship tragedy comes to Hebrides - Press and Journal

Scientists from the Marine Institute, Maynooth University and the National University of Ireland Galway were recently aboard the RV Celtic Explorer, for a 14-day scientific survey studying the shelf and deep water off the west coast of Ireland. This Marine Institutes annual ocean climate survey has been running since 2006 and facilitates long-term physical and biogeochemical observations of the deepwater environment in the South Rockall Trough.

The Rockall Trough is an important region that provides a pathway for the transport of heat and salt from the North-East Atlantic to the Nordic Seas, where waters are subjected to phenomena such as deep convective mixing that creates cold dense water. Water exchange and interactions in the Rockall Trough play a fundamental part in the overall thermohaline circulation in the North-East Atlantic; as large volumes of warm water pass through the Rockall Channel, before flowing into the Nordic Seas with a return of cold dense bottom water outflow spilling into the region. Changes in the regions water properties, such as temperature and salinity, vary on inter-annual and decadal time scales.

Chief Scientist on the research survey, Dr Caroline Cusack of the Marine Institute said, Scientific data collected on this survey allows the assessment of interannual variability of physical and biogeochemical conditions that impact shelf and deep waters. This variability can have a range of impacts on ocean ecosystems, ocean circulation and weather patterns. The survey contributes to activities of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea and provides support to the Convention for the protection of the marine environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR Convention), the Marine Strategy Framework Directive focused on protecting ocean health, and climate change assessments.

This year, Maynooth University scientists from the A4 project (Aigin, Aerid, agus athr Atlantaigh = Oceans, Climate, and Atlantic Change) joined the survey to work with the Marine Institute oceanographic and climate services team. The A4 project, supported by Marine Institute funding, studies how changes in the Atlantic impact Ireland and northwestern Europe through changes in ocean circulation and sea level and is developing predictive capacity for these regions. Recent research by the A4 project found that the Gulf Stream System, also known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is at its weakest in over a millennium.

Scientists from the National University of Ireland, Galway were also on board the RV Celtic Explorer working with Marine Institute chemists to collect supporting chemistry information. The NUI Galway scientists are currently working on the Marine Institute funded VOCAB project (Ocean Acidification and Biogeochemistry: Variability and Vulnerability) to enhance knowledge on the vulnerability of selected marine ecosystems in Irish waters to ocean acidification. NUI Galway scientists also collected samples relevant to the JPI Climate and JPI Oceans CE2COAST project which aims to downscale global climate models to regional and local scales to provide information on the impacts of climate change tailored to local needs.

Mick Gillooly, Director of Ocean Climate and Information Services at the Marine Institute said, Collaborative oceanographic research is very important to help inform Irelands response to climate change and underlines the importance of researching marine impacts of climate change, which could have a significant societal impact on Ireland. The Marine Institutes annual climate survey, with scientific experts from collaborating research groups, enables us to generate a long-term time series of key oceanographic data to further increase our knowledge about our changing ocean climate.

This year, 51 stations were occupied with 301 depths sampled. At each station, scientists profile the full water column and collect measurements of temperature, salinity and oxygen. Water samples are collected at targeted depths and analysed on board to determine the salinity, dissolved oxygen, inorganic nutrients and carbon content (DIC/TA). The RV Celtic Explorers advanced underway data acquisition system gathers information on temperature, salinity, fluorescence, and pCO2 in surface waters. This year, the Marine Institute also had a laboratory on board equipped with state-of-the-art analysers, enabling near real-time reporting of nutrients, oxygen and salinity.

The annual ocean climate survey supports a number of Marine Institute ocean observation programmes. The Irish Marine Data Buoy Observation Network, managed by the Marine Institute in collaboration with Met ireann, is a network of five offshore weather observing marine buoys around Ireland. The M6 Data Buoy, located hundreds of kilometres to the west of Ireland in the South Rockall Trough, was a station sampled during this scientific survey.

A Marine Institute glider, an underwater autonomous vehicle, was also deployed near the M6 Data Buoy during this survey. The glider can reach depths of 1,000 metres and collects oceanographic data on conductivity, temperature, depth, fluorescence, turbidity and dissolved oxygen. Since its deployment, the glider has travelled more than 350 kilometres collecting additional oceanographic data for the scientists involved.

Scientists also deployed two Argo Floats, which measure temperature, salinity and depth with one Argo Float also taking measurements of the water oxygen content. Argo Floats are autonomous instruments that remain at sea for a period of three to five years which provide high-quality temperature and salinity depth profiles while ascending and descending to and from the surface from a depth of 2,000 metres, as it drifts through the ocean. There are currently about 4,000 Argo Floats in the world's oceans. As part of Irelands participation in the Euro-Argo ERIC Programme, the Marine Institute deploys three Argo Floats each year.

The track and data from current Irish Argo Floats can be viewed here

The annual ocean climate survey, the A4 project and VOCAB (Ocean Acidification and Biogeochemistry: variability, trends and vulnerability) are supported by the Marine Institute under the Marine Research Programme funded by the Irish Government.

Read the original here:

Health Check for the Atlantic on the Ocean Climate Survey - Afloat

The Rock and Tiana (source: Instagram)The Rock has been trying to convince his two-year-old that hes Maui for the longest time

Toddlers are like adorable little dictators. Instead of ruling countries, they rule our homes, our lives, and our hearts. So imagine The Rock, all beefy and full of modern dudeness, coming up against a dictator in, say, any of The Fast And The Furious films. Hed make quick work of the dictator, right? And hed do it with his trademark charm.Now image The Rock, all beefy and full of the same modern dudeness against the adorable stubbornness of a toddler, namely his daughter Tiana. For months, The Rock tried to convince his sweet girl that hes the voice behind Maui from one of her fave Disney films Moana and finally, after almost a year, she gets it.

The Rock posted a loving birthday tribute to his little girl for her birthday on April 18, 2021. Happy Birthday to my sweetest lil Tia Giana Loving, kind, tenacious and tough (like your mama;) and my greatest joy is being your daddy. I always, got you, the caption reads.

Last April, Johnson posted a video of him singing Youre Welcome to his daughter (using the relatable hashtag #3000timesandcounting), and it was enough to make your ovaries explode in adorableness.

Ladies & gents, my baby Tia finally believes.. oh wait, the caption reads. Never mind. She still refuses to believe the urban legend that her daddy is actually, Maui. At this rate its even pure speculation that her daddy is also The Rock. Ill happily take these Ls and laugh as long as I get my daddy/daughter bond

Then in May, when it felt like the entire world froze as countries tried to get a better handle on the COVID-19 pandemic, Johnson again tried to convince his daughter that hes Maui, that hes the same voice behind the tune she enjoys so much she makes her papa not only listen, but sing to her many, many times a day.

Back then, when The Rock asked little Tiana if she knows hes Maui, the sweetheart answers in a way that only a toddler can: in a matter-of-fact, no-nonsense, I-will-not-entertain-any-more-discussion-in-this-matter, no.

And for the 937th time today she wants daddy to sing along with Maui, The Rock wrote. She has no idea, were the same person. And I have no idea what day it is anymore, but I am sure its one that ends with Y. To all the mama and papa bears out there going thru it we understand. 24hr parenting. Get your sleep and cocktails when you can.

Now that shes finally starting to understand that daddy is Maui from Moana, The Rock wrote in his recent post. She has one very important question Daddy do you know AquaMan?'

But thats a different story.

Here is the original post:

The Rocks Daughter Finally Knows Hes Maui And The Saga Is Complete - Scary Mommy

Be it baggy jeans or the cargo vest, Tori Spelling helped put 90s fashion trends on the map (lookin at you Donna Martin!). And now that the old school styles have suddenly become cool again, the 47-year-old star admittedly loves seeing the iconic styles back in stores.

Ill go to Target with my oldest daughter and shell be like, Oh mom, I have to show you whats in, Spelling tells Us Weekly while promoting the second season of Bigger which premieres on BET+ on April 22.

Even though Spelling invented the current cool-girl clothing trends, she takes a calm and collected approach with her daughter, letting Stella Doreen McDermott show her whats hip and trendy these days. Im like, Oh, okay coll. Show me. How do you wear that? Oh, a crop top and mom jeans? I pretend I dont know.

While Stella takes the lead on shopping trips, Spelling says that she definitely gets some street cred when she shows her daughter old episodes of 90210.

I show her scenes and she says, Mom, how did you own that? That was so long ago. But styles always come back if theyre good styles, she says.

If you ask Us, Spelling can rock all the 90s trends she wore in years past, but the actress spills that her best friend and former costar Jennie Garth sometimes has to bring out her inner fashion police when she tries to bring back old styles.

I get this feeling that we created the styles, its back now and its all cool, Spelling says. But, my best friend, Jennie Garth, tells me all the time, You cant wear that.

Because even though Spelling is the OG that wore this, Garth likes to point out that her BFF is no longer 20-something and that she, cant wear that now.

While crop tops and low rise jeans might not be seeing the light of day any time soon, Spelling has learned how to embrace her body and wardrobe after having children Liam, 14, Stella, 12, Hattie, 9, Finn, 8, and Beau, 4.

Were human. We have feelings, we have insecurities, and you work hard in your journey on this path to get over that, but theres ebbs and flows, she tells Us about her postpartum body.

As someone who was notorious for being, you know, a female that very much wore sexy clothes Donna Martin always had a midriff top on. I was this big my whole life. Its a different embrace, she says, holding up her pinky finger.

Reporting by Sarah Hearon

More:

Tori Spelling Is Thrilled That 90s Fashion Is Back: From Mom Jeans to Crop Tops - Us Weekly