What's It All About, eh?

Cape Breton evokes deep memories and strong emotions for me as well as a deep appreciation for the beauty of my adopted island. My hopes are that you too might find the photos evocative - maybe a view you've not enjoyed before, or an 'Oh I've been there', or if from away that you may be encouraged to visit this fair isle so that you might come to love and breathe Cape Breton as I do. One word about place names that I use - some are completely local usage while others are from maps of Cape Breton that I've purchased over the years. I frequently post travel and other photos that are of interest to me - and hopefully you.

On the right hand side bar find my take on Single Malt whiskey - from how to best enjoy this noble drink to reviews (in a most non-professional manner) of ones that I have tried and liked - or not. Also musings, mine and others, on life in general.

Photographs are roughly 98%+ my own and copy-righted. For the occasional photo that is borrowed, credit is given where possible - recently I have started posting unusual net photographs that seem unique. Feel free to borrow any of my photos for non-commercial use, otherwise contact me. Starting late in 2013 I have tried to be consistent in identifying my photographs using ©smck on all out of camera photos I personally captured - (I often do minor computer changes such as 'crop' or 'shadow' etc but usually nothing major), and using
©norvellhimself on all photos that I have played around with in case it might not be obvious. Lately I have dropped the ©smck and have watermarked them with the blog name.

COMMENTS are appreciated as feedback is the driving energy of blogging - And if you like this site please pass it along to a friend. Thanks!

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In A Sunburnt Land



In May of 1993, at 11:03 p.m. of the 28th, seismographs all over the Pacific region recorded a very large scale disturbance in the Great Victorian Desert of Western Australia.  The recordings didn’t present the profile for either earthquakes nor mining explosions – and they were showing that the blast was more than 170 times more powerful than any mining explosion ever known in that region of the world.  In fact the shock was more consistent with a large meteorite strike than anything.  Such a strike would have made a crater with a circumference of many hundreds of feet but no such crater could be found.  The general world could have cared less and so seemingly did Australia, for a day or so later the news was dead and life carried on.

Meanwhile in Japan a doomsday cult called Aum Shinrikyo had come into being and in 1995 gained notoriety when it released great quantities of the nerve gas Sarin into the Tokyo subway system killing at least 12 people.  The ensuing investigation into their background found that the Aum Shinrikyo cult owned half a million acres of desert property in western Australia very near the site of the mystery event of 1993.  There, authorities found a laboratory of unusual sophistication and focus, and evidence that the cult members there had been mining uranium.  It also emerged that Aum Shinrikyo had recruited into its’ ranks two former Soviet nuclear engineers – and since the cults avowed aim was the destruction of the world it seems quite credible that the desert event may have been the background work for blowing up Tokyo.

This was the subject of a 1997 news story in the C section of The New York Times – but surprisingly nowhere else, not even in Australia. If any agency has ever taken steps to measure radiation around the mystery site it has never been publicly reported.

This information is contained in the book ‘IN A SUNBURNED LAND’ by Bill Bryson ©2000

My Country
I love a sunburnt country
A land of sweeping plains
of rugged mountain ranges
of droughts and flooding rains 
Dorothea MacKellar

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