Canadian Geographic articles from March 2002

Canadian Geographic archives from March 2002

The view from space. (Lectures).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... What does the leatherback turtle have in common with the latest in space technology? The soft-shelled sea turtle (ABOVE), which has existed for at least 100 million years, is threatened with extinction on both the Pacific and the Atlantic...

Nature's universe. (Tours).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Michael Chen rides the Toronto subway to school every day, but it just doesn't feel right now that he's been to one of the most remote places on Earth. "Life in the city is strange," he says while describing his two-week trip to the...

The main event. (Geography Challenge).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... A Thunderous Cheer erupts from the capacity crowd as the competitors take their places. The introduction of each contestant brings yet another chorus of stomping feet, chanting voices and waving banners. Sound like a geography contest to...

Back to the future. (Expedition).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... George Back was a 23-year-old midshipman when he joined John Franklin's first expedition down the Coppermine River to the Arctic Ocean in 1819.A skilled artist, Back filled two sketchbooks during the journey. One of his watercolours portrays...

New on the net. (Websites).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Geography on the internet just got a little better, with the facelift of two old sites and the launch of a brand-new site for kids. The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS) and the Canadian Council for Geographic Education (CCGE) have...

Reaching for the stars. (Editor's Notebook).(Sidney van den Bergh )(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Three-year-olds are tactile explorers; they learn by touch. At age three, Sidney van den Bergh recalls wanting to grasp the moon. The fact that he couldn't gave him his first sense of distance and space. Van den Bergh (BELow) is now 72 and...

Gzowski geographic.(Peter Gzowski)(Obituary)
March 1, 2002... It was only natural that Peter Gzowski should have been awarded The Royal Canadian Geographical Society's Gold Medal in 1997, given the remarkable similarity in the aims and accomplishments of Gzowski and the Society. Gzowski, in his...

Reverberations.
March 1, 2002... Amber waves of grain I grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan and am among the first generation of my family to live off the farm. My father has worked the land for well over half a century and has always stayed true to his belief that cereal...

Ringing in spring. (Climate).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Thawing Ice on the Yukon River (ABOVE) is such an important harbinger of spring for the citizens of Dawson that they spend three days in March celebrating it at a carnival they call "Thaw-digras." Along with the party is a 106-year-old...

Labour ways. (History).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... When striking workers paraded through Vancouver streets to protest working conditions at White Lunch restaurants -- so named for their racist serving and hiring policies in the 1930s -- public support swelled, and customers refused to cross...

Mistaken identity. (Animal Behaviour).(garter snakes)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Male Red-sided garter snakes are shedding more than their skin near Inwood, Man. Herpetologists have found that they are also shedding their identity in the name of survival. Typically groggy and slow-moving when emerging from hibernation...

A gathering of the planets. (Celestial Almanac).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... For the first time in 62 years, the cosmic clockwork of planetary orbits will congregate all five of the planets visible to the naked eye into a sliver of the evening sky. The monthlong alignment of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter...

Diamonds: Canada's best friend? (Mining).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... When it comes to Canadian diamonds, the Northwest Territories seems to have cornered the market. Not only did the Ekati mine -- Canada's first diamond mine -- produce $454 million worth of the gems in 2000, but the nearby Diavik mine is slated...

Telltale sands. (Forensics).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... In 1997, gold destined for a Barrie, Ont., processing plant disappeared en route from a mining company in Africa. When the cargo was opened after several international stopovers, the gold had been replaced by bags of sand, worthless except for...

Hop on the bus. (Transportation).(public transportation awareness campaign)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... For the first time, Canadians and Americans are together being encouraged to grab the bus, train or whatever mode of public transit services their city. The Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA) and the American Public Transportation...

Jasper: Take two. (Photography).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Morrison Parsons Bridgland spent the summer of 1915 carting a camera up and down the peaks around Jasper, Alta., snapping photos of the national park. Using his images and a theodolite, he created the first topographic map of the area. More...

Great Lakes takeover. (Wildlife Management).(chinook salmon introduction)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... While Chinook Salmon on the West Coast (RIGHT) struggle to recover from years of overfishing, a population of the fish introduced to the Great Lakes may be doing too well for its own good. With too many salmon and too few prey, what was once...

Neptune Network. (Oceanography).(sea floor activity)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Project Neptune is so ambitious, it seems to have sprung from the fertile mind of Jules Verne. Scientists plan to surround a tectonic plate nearly the size of Great Britain with a network of 30 unmanned deep-sea observatories to help understand...

Go virtually anywhere. (A La Carte).(digital topographical map of Earth)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Armchair exploring is about to get a lot more interesting. A Canadian company is creating an interactive three-dimensional map of the world that will allow anyone with a personal computer to "fly" to any destination in seconds. Virtual...

Cosmic Kaleidoscope: From the highest point in the Pacific basin, Canada's premier telescope captures stunning images of deep space.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... On the barren summit of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano on the main island of Hawaii, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) has been helping astronomers seek out the secrets of space and time for more than two decades. At 4,205 metres...

Grace under water: A thick-skinned beast reveals its inner beauty.
March 1, 2002... The best way to photograph walruses in the water, apparently, is to get into the water with them. But it's a risky business. When Paul Nicklen (BELOW) proposed to do this, his Inuit friends, who know walruses better than anyone, advised against...

Spring fevers: The end of winter may set the hearts of poets aflame, but in Canada, spring stirs more practical passions -- like the urge to organize a garage sale.(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... "I'm a very urban person," Diane Pacom, a professor of sociology at the University of Ottawa, said last fall as winter slipped its icy veils around the capital. A teacher of culture and social thought, Pacom is in the business of gauging subtle...

Island muse: Einar and Muriel Neilson's home on Bowen Island B.C., once served as a refuge for Canadian writers and artists. Islanders hope to preserve the couple's cultural legacy.
March 1, 2002... Malcolm Lowry was drunk and alone in a hotel room on Vancouver's skid row. For six years, the transplanted English man had been riding the explosive success of his novel Under the Volcano, which came to be ranked as one of the great works of...

A cartographic tour of the deep. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... REFERENCE WORLD ATLAS OF THE OCEANS Edited by Manfred Leier Key Porter Books 264 pp., $75 hardcover Among the major scientific achievements of the 20th century were humanity's bold steps to explore the Earth's final frontier --...

The ties that bind hunter and prey. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Arctic SACRED HUNT A Portrait of the Relationship Between Seals and Inuit By David F. Pelly Greystone Books 127 pp., $34.95 hardcover The seal hunt is so widely viewed as profane, it seems a fool's errand to suggest...

Hard luck on the Western frontier. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... History Alec Ross IN SEARCH OF THE WESTERN SEA Selected Journals of La Verendrye Edited by Denis Combet Great Plains Publications/Les Editions du Ble 192 pp., $45 hardcover Pioneers in uncharted territory must...

A fanciful flight to recovery. (Reviews).(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... NATURE THE SNOW GEESE A Story of Home By William Fiennes Random House Canada 263 pp., $34.95 hardcover The migratory urge of birds is a mysterious and compelling thing. Millions of them travel thousands of kilometres from...

Deadly Frontiers. (Briefly Noted).
March 1, 2002... Disaster and Rescue on Canada's Atlantic Seaboard By Dean Beeby Goose Lane Editions, 215 pp., $18.95 softcover Dean Beeby presents a thoughtful look at search-and-rescue operations on Canada's rugged East Coast. At times, the accounts of...

David Blackwood. (Briefly Noted).
March 1, 2002... Master Printmaker By William Gough Douglas & McIntyre 178 pp., $65 hardcover Internationally renowned printmaker David Blackwood's emotive, ethereal prints are collected here in a stunning volume. Blackwood's works...

Castles of the North. (Briefly Noted).
March 1, 2002... Canada's Grand Hotels Edited by Barbara Chisholm Lynx Images Inc. 296 pp., hardcover, with a 70-minute video, $59.95 This historical book and video package from Lynx Images offers intimate portraits of Canada's palatial hotels,...

Grasshopper fan. (On the Horizon).(entomologist Dan Johnson)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... From a distance, he could be mistaken for a child chasing butterflies, but 48-year-old Dan Johnson (ABOVE) is the country's leading expert on the ecology and control of grasshoppers and is an inspiration to entomologists everywhere. A research...

Return of the mushers. (Mosaic).(dogsled race in northern Quebec)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Midway through the 400-kilometre Ivakkak 2001 dogsled race, Junior May of Kuujjuaq (ABOVE) hits a comfortable stride with his dog team. Ivakkak, which means "a steady trot," or "good momentum," is a 10-day event open to Inuit mushers from...

Nighthawks in transit. (In Habitat).(overnight bus travel)(Brief Article)
March 1, 2002... Every Night, thousands of Canadians climb aboard packed buses for long-distance trips in the pitch-dark. We say we take the overnight bus to avoid driving through the Rockies in a snowstorm or hitting deer on the highway to Flin Flon or wasting...