Arctic archaeologists have found the ship that forged the final link in the Northwest Passage and was lost in the search for the Franklin expedition.
The HMS Investigator, abandoned in the ice in 1853, is in shallow water in Mercy Bay along the northern coast of Banks Island in Canada's Western Arctic.
"The ship is standing upright in very good condition," Marc-Andre Bernier, Parks Canada's head of underwater archaeology, said Wednesday. "It's standing in about 11 metres of water.
"This is definitely of the utmost importance. This is the ship that sailed the last leg of the Northwest Passage."
On shore, not far from the wreck, are what scientists believe are the graves of three British sailors.
The disappearance of the Franklin expedition — considered the British admiralty's state of the art — provoked widespread public concern. Numerous British and American ships set sail in an attempt to find the HMS Erebus and the Terror, the vessels commanded by Sir John Franklin in his doomed search for the Northwest Passage in 1845.
None ever has.
This is just one of the reasons why Canada should maintain Arctic supremacy. Could you imagine the Russians preserving this remarkable piece of history? Destroying and re-inventing history is their game.
Some history about Lord Franklin here.
Stan Roger's "Northwest Passage".
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Why only eleven years?
A Canadian man who admitted to having sex with young girls in Columbia and Cambodia has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge said Kenneth Klassen committed "serious" and "opportunistic" offences in delivering his sentence on 14 counts of sexual interference and one count of importing child pornography.
Justice Austin Cullen rejected the defence argument that Klassen was just a "customer" in a transaction with sex-trade workers, saying the girls were very young and vulnerable.
The judge also noted the crimes may have never surfaced if police hadn't discovered a package Klassen mailed himself of videos showing him having sex with girls the Crown says were as young as eight.
If the judge had any decency, he would have chained this monster up to a rock in the high Arctic and let the polar bears have a go at him.
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The controversial Arizona immigration law has hit a snag:
A federal judge dealt a serious rebuke to Arizona's toughest-in-the-nation immigration law on Wednesday when she put most of the crackdown on hold just hours before it was to take effect.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton shifts the immigration debate to the courts and sets up a lengthy legal battle that may not be decided until the Supreme Court weighs in. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer said the state will likely appeal the ruling and seek to get the judge's order overturned.
But for now, opponents of the law have prevailed: The provisions that most angered opponents will not take effect, including sections that required officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws.
The judge also delayed parts of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places — a move aimed at day laborers. In addition, the judge blocked officers from making warrantless arrests of suspected illegal immigrants.
"Requiring Arizona law enforcement officials and agencies to determine the immigration status of every person who is arrested burdens lawfully-present aliens because their liberty will be restricted while their status is checked," Bolton, a Clinton appointee, said in her decision.
I don't understand why the rule of law should apply to one group of people and no one else. I can tell you from my experiences crossing the Canada-US border, I've been treated in the coldest manner imaginable by officious border guards who don't recognise how valuable my dollars are to their economy. I've had to present my passport, papers, even leave my vehicle because it was required of me. Why are illegal immigrants- whose slave labour wages go unchecked- completely untouched by this scrutiny? It is a straw man argument that racism is a by-product of this law because anyone entering the US (legally) has to jump through hoops to get in and is treated in the same manner (I know whereof I speak). If the rule of law doesn't apply to one person, forget about applying it to anyone else.
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Surprise, surprise:
U.S. complaints about Russian compliance with the 1991 START nuclear arms control treaty had not been resolved when the pact expired last year, but the disputes never amounted to allegations of cheating, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
Rose Gottemoeller, chief U.S. negotiator of the newly completed follow-on START treaty, said in an interview that the most significant compliance issues were settled before negotiations began.
The Russian state-owned weapons exporter Rosoboronexport yesterday announced it was set to sell short-range Iskander missiles to foreign entities, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
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In closing, please enjoy this dog on a mower.
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