Category Archives: Videos

Music Video – Lighthouse by Westlife

 This song is by Westlife (Facebook link), a group that has been in the charts since 1998. It is from their final album “Greatest Hits” . The Irish group has said they will be splitting up after their final 2012 tour.

The album contains some older songs and four new ones including this one called “Lighthouse”. It is the band’s second compilation of greatest hits, following the 2002 release of “Unbreakable.” 

http://youtu.be/6yCHe-hOAqI Continue reading Music Video – Lighthouse by Westlife

Music Video – So Said the Lighthouse Keeper

 

 A very interesting and haunting song by Klaatu. 

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So Said the Lighthouse Keeper by Klaatu

“I am the very loneliest of all creatures in the universe
Indeed I am an epitaph to man
For having witnessed mass destruction like you’ve never dreamed and worse
I fear I shall bear witness once again.”

So said the lighthouse keeper
As he struggled up the spiral stairs
Which led him to the laser flare which spanned the cosmic void
Where keeping constant vigil
He’d forewarn this gallant guard of guards
Beware all ships the space graveyard and its stones of asteroids

“For though my race was thought immune
Themselves they did consume
So be warned or be mourned tomorrow
And from your deafness do desist
And pray take heed of this
For your present course can only end in sorrow…”

So said the lighthouse keeper
As he wiped a teardrop from his nose
Upon which his spectacles rose and gazed out to the stars
And like a portrait still he stared
And sighing to himself declared
“I must invent the perfect prayer
Not yours, not mine, but ours

Which in the name of charity
Might lead us to eternal peace
The ultimate philosophy
Some simple, single phrase.” The old and much encumbered man
Then came to rest with head in hand
He thought
and thought
and thought away
His last remaining day – lyrics

[media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN9kLcdikIE&fb_source=message” width=”400″ height=”300″]

The Great Pacific Running Shoe Search

Hansa Carrier
Hansa Carrier

In late [27th] May of 1990, the container vessel Hansa Carrier encountered a severe storm in the north Pacific Ocean (approx. 48°N, 161°W) on its passage from Korea to the United States.

During the storm, a large wave washed twenty-one (21) forty foot (40 ft.) shipping containers overboard. See this video of damaged cargo ships and cargo being lost.

[media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HFARxn73dk” width=”400″ height=”300″]

Fully-loaded container ship
Fully-loaded container ship

Five of these 20-metre containers held a shipment of approximately 80,000 Nike® shoes ranging from children’s shoes to large hiking boots. It has been estimated that four of the five containers opened into the stormy waters, releasing over 60,000 shoes into the north Pacific Ocean.

 

Running Shoe
This one looks a bit rough

That winter of 1990, hundreds of these shoes washed ashore on the beaches of the Queen Charlotte Islands , western Vancouver Island , Washington  and Oregon.

After hearing of the accident, oceanic scientist Curtis C. Ebbesmeyer seized the opportunity and established links with beachcombers and formed a network of people reporting the landfall of the contents of this spill.

Where the shoes were found

When Oregon newspapers began running the story, the Associated Press picked it up, and the word spread. The publicity resulted in many additional reports of the finding of Nike shoes on Pacific beaches. Dubious about some of the reported finds, Ebbesmeyer decided to confine his study to only those shoes found in groups of 100 or more. Even with this restriction, he accounted for approximately 1300 shoes from the more than 60,000 released. 

Despite a year in the ocean, much of the footwear was in fine shape and wearable after a washing. Unfortunately, the shoes were not tied to one another so that matching pairs did not always reach the beach together.

“I remember this very well as I could never find a matching pair!” – retlkpr

Each shoe, however, had an identifying serial number, and with information obtained from the manufacturer, Ebbesmeyer was able to determine that the shoes were indeed from the Hansa Carrier.

Drift bottle
Drift bottle

The accident turned into a scientific gold mine. With information on the locations where the shoes were found, Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Jim Ingraham were able to use the spill to test and calibrate their ocean current model. In the past when researchers have released a multitude of drift bottles1 to provide data for testing models, only about one or two percent of the drift bottles are typically recovered. Thus, the accidental release of approximately 61,000 shoes and the recovery of approximately 1600 shoes (2.6%) provided data as good as any pre-planned study. 

Ebbesmeyer and Ingraham used the OSCURS (Ocean Surface Currents Simulation) computer simulation model to determine where and how the shoes may have drifted after the containers were swept overboard.

The model suggested that the main landfall would have been around the northern tip of Vancouver Island and the central coast of British Columbia approximately 249 days after the spill.

The first reports of shoe landfalls came from Vancouver Island and Washington approximately 220 days after the spill. A large number of shoes were recovered in the Queen Charlotte Islands and northern Oregon suggesting that when the shoes neared the North American coast some were diverted north and others south by coastal currents. 

In the summer of 1992 (two years after the incident), shoes were reported arriving at the northern end of the Island of Hawaii. After reaching North America these shoes may have continued southward along the California coast and then been pushed off the coast by currents moving westward to Hawaii. 

The rest of the story is on the website of Keith C. Heidorn (aka the Weather Doctor).

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This also happened with rubber ducks (aka friendly floatees)!

where-rubber-ducks-made-landfall-after-being-dumped-in-pacific-ocean

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FOOTNOTES:

1 See the story by Jeannie Nielsen about finding, and getting paid for the Drift bottles.

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Check the Wikipedia article on the Hansa Carrier and other incidents of a similar nature. 

And if you are interested, this is where the other 57,000+ shoes probably ended up!

This is a never-ending story. as more and more stuff is dumped into the ocean every year. See the story on the Japanese Tsunami debris.

Take a look here for what you can beachcomb in the next few years – more Nike® shoes, Lego, etc.

 

Music Video – Roots – And No One’s In The Lighthouse!

 This song is from the album Undun by the Roots. It is called Lighthouse. The words to the chorus are interesting. Imagine lying in the ocean and seeing a lighthouse nearby and no one sees you because it is unmanned! Imagine the feeling of fear! Think automation? Unmanning lighthouses?

No one’s in the lighthouse
You’re face down in the ocean
And no one’s in the lighthouse
And it seems like you just screamed
It’s no one there to hear the sound
And it may feel like there’s no one there
That cares if you drown
Face down in the ocean

 

The rest of the lyrics can be found here. The video below is just the song as it is sung by the group. I think you must hear it a couple of times to get the meaning of the song. I know I did.

[media url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vP24wNuRXs” width=”400″ height=”300″]

[private]

Lighthouse by Roots

[Hook: Dice Raw]
No one’s in the lighthouse
You’re face down in the ocean
And no one’s in the lighthouse
And it seems like you just screamed
It’s no one there to hear the sound
And it may feel like there’s no one there
That cares if you drown
Face down in the ocean

[Verse 2: Black Thought]
After the love is lost
Friendship dissolves
And even blood is lost
Where did it begin
The way we did each other wrong
Troubled water neither one of us could swim across
I stopped holding my breath
Now I am better off
There without a trace
And you in my head
All the halted motion of a rebel without a pause
What it do is done till you dead and gone
The grim reaper telling me to swim deeper
Where the people go to lo and behold the soul keeper
I’m not even breaking out in a sweat
Or cold fever but
I’m never paying up on my debt or tolls either
I’ll leave the memories here I won’t need them
If I stop thinking and lie, now that’s freedom
Your body’s part of the Maritime museum
Face down in the past is where I’m being
Lyrics provided by http://www.kovideo.net/
Source – http://www.kovideo.net/lighthouse-lyrics-roots-1266459.html

[Hook: Dice Raw]
And no one’s in the lighthouse
You’re face down in the ocean
And no one’s in the lighthouse
And it seems like you just screamed
It’s no one there to hear the sound
And it may feel like there’s no one there
That cares if you drown
Face down in the ocean

[Outro: Dice Raw]
If you can’t swizzim then ya bound to drizzown
Passing out life jackets bout to go didown
Get down with the captain or go down with the ship
Before the dark abyss I’m gon’ hit you wit’ dis
(Repeat)

[/private]

Travel – Australian Lighthouses

Shine a Light on Australia's lighthouses.

 

I came across this article that shows the life on an Australian lighthouse starting in 1971. A wee bit different than Canada I must say.

 

 

What got my attention were the requirements for a lighthouse keeper:

The job requirements of a lighthouse keeper were a car licence, an ability to climb to heights and an ability to get along with the other lighthouse keeper . . .

 The article is worth reading to illustrate the differences between Canadian and Australian lights (wildlife, for one), plus, on the page is a reference and a link to an ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) website which is exploring some of Australia’s iconic lighthouses.

This new site is called Shining a Light and is an excellent documentary on some of Australia’s lighthouses. The map above shows the lighthouses mentioned.

There you go – two stories for one price. Enjoy!

A Quick Present for Christmas

I came across this item in a sale flyer that came out today. It is a jigsaw puzzle lighthouse in 3D. It is available in many places in Europe, and possibly in America (Canada and USA), although I did not find it in Amazon.ca or Amazon.com. The finished tower is 8.3 cms (3.25″) wide  by 35.0 cms (13.5″) high.

 The advertising video on the webpage shows it a bit exaggerated I think. To find the videos look to the right of the two small photos on the webpage, and you will find the videos in two blue boxes labelled TV-Spot and Erklärfilm. One of the videos is here – click your mouse on the blue link.

Continue reading A Quick Present for Christmas

Song – Lighthouse by Runrig (with videos)

A friend found this for me, and sent me the links. It is nice song, and the photos are so beautiful that I just had to share it. There are two versions with different photos. I have inserted the lyrics in between the two videos so they are available for both.

The first video has the lyrics embedded over the photos, while the second video has no lyrics visible. Enjoy!

Lighthouse

This world’s not my home
I’m a stranger to the storm
Save me, save me
Where the race is quickest
The tide runs strong Continue reading Song – Lighthouse by Runrig (with videos)

Video – I Want to Marry A Lighthousekeeper

Anyone remember this song? I was on McInnes Island when I first saw the movie “A Clockwork Orange [1971]” and heard the song. We did not have a TV station, but we did have a TV and a cassette player.

http://youtu.be/dKhso6odZpI Continue reading Video – I Want to Marry A Lighthousekeeper

Video – The Lightkeepers

This film on DVD was a new release in 2010. It does not appear to be available in the PAL format for Europe and other countries.

A must see if you love romance and the idea of romance near a lighthouse, then I guess the film is for us. If you have seen it, tell us what you thought of it in comments.

 See the excellent website for this film here. Continue reading Video – The Lightkeepers

Spot the lighthouse?

I came across this website today with an impressive aquarium, with guess what inside? A lighthouse! A unique and beautiful exhibit from Taiwan.

– from the Korean NTD Television website:

Taiwanan Unveils World’s Longest Aquarium

2011-10-01 07:44

An impressive 33-metre-long aquarium went on display in Taipei, Taiwan on Friday at the opening ceremony of an aquarium expo.

The aquarium is believed to be the longest in the world and was built to celebrate Taiwan’s centennial this year. It features scenery and landmarks from around the island and 100 species of domestic cichlid fish.

The tank holds 28 tons of water and is made of tempered glass with an extra explosion-proof layer.

The aquarium has seven sections with nearly 30 modelled landmarks, including the Yehliu Geopark at the north coast, the landmark Taipei 101 building, Taiwan’s highest Jade Mountain, the Taroko National Park, and the Eluanbi Lighthouse down south. Each of the tanks is connected with a curved tank displaying waterfalls.