Saturday, February 26, 2011

Second earthquake in New Zealand in six months

For the second time in about six months New Zealand was shaken by a major earthquake that caused massive damage to the city of Christchurch.

This past week the city of Christchurch, the largest city on the southern island of New Zealand and the second largest in the country felt an earthquake that measured 6.3 on the Richter scale.

According to CNN news the death toll from the 6.3 magnitutde earthquake that demolished part of Christchurch, New Zealand has climbed to 145.

The death count was initially placed at 65 on the first day and after days of searching for hundreds of others many rescue attempts have been changed to recovery attempts since no one has been found alive for the last 72 hours.

I personally have an interest in this story because I have friends that live in Christchurch that my wife and I spent two weeks with for our 25th anniversary.

Maria Stack and her parents live in a quiet residential section on the southern edge of Christchurch that is nestled up next to coastal hills.

The first earthquake in Christchurch registered a 7.1 in September of 2010 and caused enough damage to their house that it was condemned by the city.

This earthquake occured while we were sleeping and the first news that I heard of it was from Maria's post on Facebook where she assured her friends that she and her family were safe.

Maria posted on her facebook page on February 22: "Hey everyone... me and family are all good. Things are crazy here.... i cant believe this. And to all those we lost today. RIP friends"

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Persian Gulf unrest since Mubarak's exit

Over the past week protests by citizens of the countries of Bahrain, Libya, Iran and Yemen against their governments have been spurred on by the recent exit of President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.

Many of the citizens of countries in the Persian Gulf region have seen the government changes in Tunisia and Egypt as victories by the protestors over oppressive regimes and are giving them hope that they can do the same.

According to the Los Angeles Times on February 14, Street clashes in Iran, Bahrain and Yemen were met by riot police as authorities in the conservative nations sought to squelch demands for greater political freedom, better jobs and an end to corruption.

The BBC News reported on February 19 that at least 15 people were killed and many more wounded as violence has been reported in Benghazi, Libya as troops opened fire on anti-government protestors.

USA Today reported on Friday that after two straight days of protests in Manama, Bahrain thousands of jubilant protestors started to stream back into
Pearl Square
in the city’s center after the government leaders withdrew the tanks and the riot police.

In my opinion the unrest that is occurring is cause for concern by virtually all the democracies in the world because of the uncertainty of how these countries will be governed when the protests are over.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Geocaching at Sluicebox State Park

  There is a state park located about a 45 minute drive East of Great Falls called Sluicboxes State Park that has a multi-stage geocache hidden within its boundaries.
  Danice and I spent several hours hiking the trails in the park one Saturday and used the multi-cache as an excuse to get out and enjoy the outdoors.
  In a multi-cache, the first hide is posted at the website to get the search started.

 The first cache has the coordinates for the second cache posted, and at the second cache the coordinates are posted for the third cache, and so on.
  The final cache of a multi-cache is usually some kind of a point of interest, such as a historical site or in the case of a state park it might be a scenic spot.
  In this particular case, the final cache was located near an old kiln that had been used many years ago.
   It was a nice day for  a hike because of the weather, and we also saw a little wildlife along the way.


Thursday, February 3, 2011

Geocaching as a part of business

   Several years ago the marketing manager of the company that I work for, Pacific Steel & Recycling conceived the idea of using geocaching as a marketing tool.
   Several of Pacific's employees enjoy geocaching as a hobby and helped put together a way of using it as a way of bringing people to our stores.
   Geocaching containers were assembled and some items were purchased to put in them for placement at several of our stores.
   Since it was started, over 12 geocaches have been placed at Pacific Steel & Recycling stores of the 38 stores in the company.
   Many people that visit these caches make comments about how unique it was to find our stores this way.
   There may not be much business brought in by the geocachers, but the way Pacific used geocaching made them remember our company.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Geocaching in Great Falls

    There are over 100 geocaches hidden within the city limits of Great Falls.
    On many Saturdays that my wife and I don't have anything planned, we will take the GPS and drive around town looking for the different things that are hidden by other geocachers.
    On one occasion we took a walk from the box cars on the River's Edge trail out towards Rainbow Dam and found all of the caches that were hidden.
    We found five or six caches that day hidden in places like next to the Black Eagle Dam overlook, the bridge by the Fish and Game building, the bridge over a creek out past Giant Springs, and under the railroad trestle near Rainbow Dam.
    The day was warm and sunny and we had our pet Schnauzer with to walk with us.
    Danice and I have been able to get exercise on these walks and spend a lot of time outdoors, which is where we like to be.