Keep Watching Those Skies- Summertime Perseid Meteor Shower Close To Its Peak

Jeff Rose- Jeka photography

Between baseball on the radio, the occasional thunderstorms, road trips, county fairs and fireworks, there's a lot for me to love about this time of year.

But I'd have to say that one of the most underrated events of summertime is actually the Perseid meteor shower, which usually slashes luminescent stitches across the night sky in mid-August. The peak for this year's meteor shower will be Monday, Aug 12th. All one needs to take advantage of the nocturnal light show is about an hour or so of spare time to gaze skyward in a fairly sparsely populated location.

This is nothing new- the Perseids have been observed by mankind for nearly 2000 years. The display is said to be caused by debris from the passing Swift-Tuttle comet breaking off and burning up high in the earth's atmosphere as the comet makes its way through our solar system. Many of these meteors are bright enough to be visible to the naked eye as they streak across the sky.

Lack of ambient lighting is key, which is why skywatchers highly recommend that anybody in densely populated urban centers head out to a state or National Park for less light and more open terrain. The National Parks out in the Western USA are ideal and are expecting an increase in visitors, with plenty of wide open spaces and miles away from many population centers.

The Perseids actually began a couple of weeks ago in mid-July and will continue for several days past Monday. I actually went for a fairly short 2 mile hike this weekend and literally lost track of how many shooting stars I saw while scanning the skies on the hike.

Moonlight will also be a minimal factor, as the moon will be at a waxing crescent (and setting relatively early) when the Perseids is at its peak.

More than 1100 Injured After Meteor Explodes Over Russian City of Chelyabinsk

If you're convinced the end times are upon us soon, what happened in Russia on Friday morning is unlikely to change your mind.

The Siberian industrial city of Chelyabinsk was rocked by the shockwave from a firey meteor that exploded more than 20 miles above the surface on Friday. The explosion was strong enough to shatter windows and set off car alarms throughout the Chelyabinsk, Tumen, Sverdlovsk and Kurgan regions of Russia.

Dashboard cameras are pretty big in Russia [the practice stems from Russian motorists wishing to protect themselves against insurance scams, road rage and corrput cops shaking them down- NANESB!] and a number of them caught dramatic footbage of the fiery meteor as it fell to earth. Amateur and CCTV video from throughout the Urals also recorded the loud explosion as glass shattered and car alarms were set off.



There were no reports of fatalities, but around 1100 people were treated for cuts from flying glass as many residents in and around Chelyabinsk went to their windows to get a closer look at the bright light streaking across the sky. Along with damage to windows throughout the region, a Zinc plant on the outskirts of Chelyabinsk sustained heavy damage, with the roof and one of the walls on their warehouses collapsing. Since the temperature in Siberia is still well below zero, residents are scrambling to find anything they can use to cover up the damaged windows.

The explosion came within hours of an asteroid known as 2012 DA14 having a record near-miss with earth- the 130 ton asteroid came closer to the earth's atmosphere than most geosynchronous sattelites, according to scientists. However, the Russian meteorite and 2012 DA14 are apparently unrelated- the exploding meteorite over Siberia reportedly caught astronomers off guard.

Siberia apparently has this tendency to get smacked around by meteorites and other space debris. This would be the third significant meteorite event in Siberia since 1908. In June of that year, a comet or meteorite exploded an estimated 3-6 miled above the remote Siberian wilderness, flattening trees in an 800 square mile area. In 1947, a meteorite weighing about 70 tons impacted in the Skihote-Alin mountain range west of the Russian pacific seaport of Vladivostok.

Happy World Pasta Day!

I seem to be a touch late in learning about this one, let alone verifying it for myself, but as it turns out October 25th is World Pasta Day. I know- right?  Up until this week, I hadn't even heard of such a day.

Naturally, different restaurants will have different ways of marking the occasion [or forget about it altogether- NANESB!] but I thought Buca di Beppo's promotion was worthy of some attention.

For today, Buca Di Beppo is not only giving away an order of spaghetti whenever somebody orders an entree, but they also send you out the door with a 1 lb package of Rummo pasta- along with whatever you couldn't finish.

Buca has roughly 85 locations in 25 states, the UK and Mexico. The restaurant was started in 1993 and the name loosely translantes to 'Joe's Basement', specializing in dishes from Southern Italy.

Sticky Situation- Theives Steal $30 Million Worth of Maple Syrup From Little-Known 'Strategic Reserve' in Canada

All that syrup and not a pancake or waffle in sight!

Think of it as 'The Brinks of Breakfast'. Thieves had made off with an estimated C$30 million worth of maple syrup from a little-known strategic reserve in eastern Quebec on Thursday.

The shortfall of the sticky amber liquid was discovered during a routine inventory check at the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers warehouse in rural St Louis-du-Blanford, Quebec- a small town along the Trans Canada Highway on the south shore of the St Lawrence River between Quebec City and Montreal. The facility reportedly stores some 10 million pounds of maple syrup- some early estimates claimed that at least one third of the reserve's inventory had been stolen.

Quebec produces about 75% of the world's maple syrup. The facility holds about a fifth of the province's total quantity of unsold supply, stored each year to protect producers' from the ups and downs of global supply and demand.

The federation says it currently sells one pound of Quebec's maple syrup to distributors and food processors for C$2.86, though it can retail for much more at home and abroad.

Though strategic reserves are typically used to cushion petroleum markets, Quebec has kept a supply of unsold syrup for more than a decade, to be drawn on if supply of the quintessential Canadian staple falls because of poor yields, or higher-than-expected demand. From February to about mid-April, about 7,400 Quebec farmers tap their maple trees and boil sap in mostly small-scale so-called sugar shacks. They evaporate the goop into several closely regulated grades of syrup—extra light, light, medium and dark.

But sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate, causing shortages. Quebec syrup makers started squirreling away a cushion in 2000. They had to tap the reserves each year from 2005 to 2008. In 2008 and 2009, Quebec ran the reserve dry. Since then, producers have been slowly building it back up, and it now holds about 50 million pounds, up from 37 million pounds last year

The strategic reserve can also be used in times of reduced demand for the product. Canada surpassed the USA as the world's leading maple syrup producer sometime around WWII. In recent years, Japan has become a significant importer of maple syrup from Canada, offsetting a decline of exports to the USA since 2010. Canadians themselves are thought to account for 10% of the domestically produced syrup. Earlier this year, a warmer than usual winter had adversely affected the syrup harvest in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime provinces.

On the US side of the border, Vermont is the biggest producer of syrup, followed by New York and Maine. The late winter/early spring gathering of maple sap is so iconic in the Green Mountain state that it was featured on the Vermont state quarter when it was minted in 2001. Some in the Quebec Maple syrup producers' association think that the vast quantites of amber sap could be in the USA or Europe by now.

Investigators haven't announced any new leads or suspects since news of the heist broke. It is worth pointing out that cargo theft by organized crime and well coordinated bandits throughout the USA and Canada is on the rise. Besides consumer electronics, entire truckloads of beef, tomatoes and even Alaskan king crab have been known to disappear. It wouldn't be that farfetched for robbers to help themselves to the sticky amber goods before it could even hit the road. While a multimillion dollar maple syrup heist sounds like some sort of Mackenzie brothers-meets-Die-Hard skit, it's not as though all that syrup has serial numbers and could be easily traced.

Another possibility being bandied about by industry insiders is that this could have been an inside job, either with somebody at the warehouse providing details to the theives beforehand or- and this is a little more complex and farfetched- arranged by somebody in the Maple Syrup Producers Association themselves. The Montreal Gazette notes that all maple syrup inventories are insured leaving open the possibility that somebody arranged for the theft to relieve the association of excess inventory while collecting on the insurance- and this could be on top of taking a percentage of the off-the-books sale of the boosted syrup that might've been agreed to in advance.

Catch Of the Day- Soccer Ball and Volleyball Washed Ashore on Alaskan Beach May Be First Salvageable Debris From 2011 Tsunami

Japanese Beach Volleyball star Miwa Asao- probably NOT the rightful owner of the volleyball that washed ashore in Alaska this month, but worth a look nonetheless.

Remember that derelict Japanese fishing vessel that was washed out to sea during the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that the US Coast Guard sank off the Alaskan coast earlier this month? Many experts predicted it would be the first of many items to show up off the western coast of the USA and Canada after a substantial debris field made up of boats, buoys, vehicles and battered structures began forming in the Pacific Ocean after the catastrophic disaster that struck north-eastern Japan.

Turns out they were right, although not all of the items showing up in the waters off of Alaska and British Columbia are the size of the Ryou Un Maru.

An Alaska man beachcoming on Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska southeast of the Kenai Peninsula found a soccer ball with Japanese script on it back in March.

Dave and Yumi Baxter displaying their Catch of the Day

David Baxter, a radar technician, told the AP by e-mail that when he first saw the ball, he immediately thought it might've come from the tsunami zone.

Baxter's wife, who is Japanese, was able to translate some of the messages written on the ball and with the help of a Japanese reporter was able to identify the soccer ball's owner as 16 year old Misaki Murakami.

Murakami, from the town of Rikuzentakata, is surprised and thankful the soccer ball has been found more than 3,000 miles away.

“It was a big surprise. I’ve never imagined that my ball has reached Alaska,” Murakami told public broadcaster NHK. “I’ve lost everything in the tsunami. So I’m delighted,” he said. “I really want to say thank you for finding the ball.”
He was particularly glad because all furniture and sentimental items in his home had been washed away in the March 11, 2011, tsunami.

The ball, which also had messages of encouragement written on it, was given to him in 2005, when Murakami was in third grade, as a goodbye gift when he transferred to another school.

Two weeks later, Baxter said had discovered a volleyball washed ashore on the same island. NHK reproted that the owner been tenatively identified as a 19 year old girl from Iwate perfecture.

The Baxters say they plan on travelling to Japan in May to return the balls to their rightful owners, although they said they were reluctant to visit Murakami directly, claiming they didn't want to raise too much of a commotion.

Although both the Ryou Un Maru and a number of basketball-sized buoys thought to be from Japanese oyster farms have turned up on shore or off the Alaskan coast, the NOAA belives this is the first instance of debris from the Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami showing up in American waters and being returned to the rightful owners in Japan.

Utah School Board Nixes 'Cougar' Mascot For High School Slated to Open In 2013

One possible interpretation of 'Cougar'

A school board in Salt Lake City is reportedly backing away from selecting Cougars as a mascot out of concerns could be construed as offensive to women.

DRAPER, UT– One Utah school district believes a cougar mascot would be insensitive to women.

The Canyons School District overrode the students top choice of a cougar mascot for their high school that is to be completed in 2013.

Would-be Corner Canyon High School students chose the Cougars as their mascot — a name principal Mary Bailey said carries an ugly connotation that is disrespectful to women.

The school board, which consists of six men and one woman, thought the Charger would be more appropriate, which was on the ballot but failed to appeal to students as the cougar had.

ANOTHER possible interpretation of 'Cougar'

Cougars- Scientific name Puma Concolor- [Thanks for coming back after your blackout, Wikipedia- NANESB!] are large wildcats native to Western states such as Utah and elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain Region. The phrase 'cougar' in recent years has been applied to mature women who attract the attention of (or primarily seek the company of) younger men.

May or may not be a cougar, but at least plays one on TV

Aside from both the actual wildcats and 40-something actresses Courtney Cox and Demi Moore, the Cougars are the mascot for Brigham Young university's athletic programs. BYU's mascot considerably predates the application of the phrase 'cougar' to mature women and likely factored into the student voting for the new school's mascot.

Attack of the Cobalt Crustaceans! Electric Blue Lobster Pulled From Scottish Waters

An azure lobster pulled from the waters off the east coast of Scotland has found a home at the London Aquarium after being purchased from a fish market.

The buyer, Rex Goldsmith, said he paid market price for the pastel lobster at a London fish market, but rather than cook it, he contacted researchers from the Natural History Museum who confirmed that it was a European Lobster but developed the darker blue tone due to a rare genetic variant. The European lobsters are fairly common and can be found in the Atlantic waters anywhere from the UK and Norway to the Azores and Morocco. However, they are normally a much darker shade of blue- almost indistinguishable from grey or light black.

In 2009, a cobalt-blue lobster was caught off the coast of New Hampshire before being turned over to the New England Aquarium. Researches at the New England aquarium attributed the odd hue to an antioxidant known as astaxanthin that bonded with the lobster's shell.

The Blogosphere is All A-Twitter With the News.

Start spreading the news- now you can follow me on Twitter as I bitch, snark and somehow remain even LESS productive than usual! Simply look for the Twitter handle Fenway_Nation and watch the irreverent 140 character or less goodness flow like water over Niagara Falls.

Actually- can I let you in on a little secret? I've actually been on Twitter for a few months now- since at least when Osama Bin Laden was alive and watching porn in his Pakistani compound and Fukushima-Daiichi was a nondescript, fully functional nuclear power plant in northern Japan. In fact, there's a little sidebar that contains my 10 most recent messages on Twitter off to the left- that's been there for awhile as well.

"So why bother following you?" you may be asking. Fair question; even if you don't like what I'm saying, Twitter requires that I keep it pretty short and sweet. But probably the most compelling argument is so that you can follow the same people that are following me or that I'm following. There's alot of good ones- many of them part of my blogroll or online communities like Correspondence Committee or Table 9.


This also is a very flimsy pretext to toss out some more eye candy in the form of yet another vintage Gil Elvgren piece. This one is from 1955 and is called Well Built (not to be confused with a later piece titled A Well Bult R-R-R-R-Roof) and features what could very well be the forebears to the Twitter logo.

Since many of Elvgren's pieces also served as templates for advertisements, the companies name, logo and phone number would often be displayed where you see the blueprints draped across the sawhorse.

Bay State Brewers Hit With Untenable '50% Local' Rule by Commonwealth

Massachusetts- Harshing the mellow of Oktoberfest 2011 before it even gets started.

Small breweries in the Bay State were shocked and dismayed to learn last week that the Massachusetts alcohol commission announced a new rule mandating 'farmer-brewers' in the Commonwealth must grow at least 50% of their beer's hops and grains themselves or contract with an in-state farm for such a purpose.

According to Massachusetts Brewers Association president Rob Martin, the new mandate is unsustainable. Martin, who also owns the Ipswich Ale Brewery said that while he buys pumpkins and blueberries locally for for seasonal ales and gives spent grains to a cattle farmer for free, it would be impossible to find enough local hops and grains to produce his beer.

Grains used to make beer need to be malted first, and there is currently only one malting facility in Massachusetts. Andrea Stanley, who owns Valley Malt in Hadley with her husband, says that her business is running at capacity and the new "50 percent" rule would not be sustainable.

The regulation change came as a shock to many in the craft beer industry. Jeremy Goldberg of Cape Ann Brewing in Gloucester called the decision an "arbitrary rules change." He, like many, use the license as a way to produce, pour, and distribute beer on site. Without the farmer-brewer license, brewers would need to acquire separate licenses from the state to manufacture and distribute their own beer.

The alcohol commission says that small breweries who have trouble meeting its criteria for farmer-brewer licenses are "on notice" that they will face scrutiny when their licenses come up for renewal. Those brewers who fall short "are welcome to apply for a manufacturer's license," the commission says.

The new rule will affect at least 24 breweries across Massachusetts. Martin says the Brewers Association will challenge the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission on the ruling.

Back After Some Technical Difficulties That I Had No Part in Either Creating (or Solving)

Seems as though there was some sort of technical problems with Blogger the other day where one could view the pages on any given blogger or blogspot page, but visitors could not post comments and blogmasters couldn't log in to update, edit or add new posts. After some independent tinkering, I think I managed to isolate the source of the recent problems with Blogger, as shown here:
Still, reliable sources who also maintained their blogs on blogger were telling me that posts were disappearing and they had been unable to log in since yesterday afternoon.

But what better way to offset my cluelessness than to throw down some vintage eye candy featuring a girl who looks like she knows what she's doing.

This one comes from the late George Petty and was part of the Ridge tool company's (aka Rigid) 1956 calendar. According to the Pin Up Files, one critic opined 'When you touch the wrist of a Petty girl, you almost expect to feel a pulse'.

Wrenches and lugnits are one thing, but imagine being the artist comissioned to draw up similar ads for software or IT services.

Yeah....tough sell.

Dark Knight Kids in The Hall?

Ever get that feeling of deja-vu? Of course, in this epoch of sequels, remakes and movies based on TV series, that's not so unusual.

However, when I saw the opening bank robbery scene in Christopher Nolan's 2008 The Dark Night, I had a feeling that I had seen this somewhere before.

Not only that, but I could've sworn that it somehow involved bank robbers shooting their cohorts during the robbery to demonstrate their seriousness (or cunning) was being played for laughs.


Then it hit me- this skit from the 1993 season of Kids in the Hall.


The crux of the skit seemed to be the man with the list (Kevin McDonald) and his cluelessness about the dire situation he suddenly found himself in as much as the robber's (David Foley) ability to casually gun down his acomplices mid-crime to demonstrate a fairly unimportant point.

I'm not saying Nolan actually plaigerized the Canadian comedy troupe's skit line by line. Rather it almost seems like somebody challenged Nolan to incorporate a scene with a similar premise for Dark Knight, only to play it straight (and embellish it by having it be a mob bank complete with mafioso on the premesis).

Granted i'm nowhere near as well versed in matters of pop culture as some of the visitors to this blog, but what do you think? Am I imagining things?

UPDATE: Thanks to Pi Guy for showing me a (literally) side-by-side comparison of the two:

YouTube Doubler

Grounded Mexicana Stewardesses Raise Funds by Debuting Sultry Calendar

Aeromozas Mexicana Facebook

Flight attendants from a bankrupt Mexican airline have chipped in to produce a calendar featuring themselves clad in bikinis or skimpy versions of airline uniforms.

After 89 years in business, Mexicana Airlines suspended service in August of this year after competition from newer low-cost regional carriers, disputes with labor unions and a US$125 million debt caused it to file for a Comercia Concurso (the equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy). Negotiations are underway to resume limited service and bring back about 30% of the Mexicana employees next month.

10-year Mexicana veteran Coral Perez came up with the idea of the calendar in the hopes that the publicity would help revive the grounded carrier (one of the world's oldest international airlines) and cover their expenses since Mexicana ceased operations at the end of August. She and nine other former co-workers posed for pictures and planned to release about 1000 copies of the Calendar. The first run had sold out even before they were released last week, prompting the 'aeromozas' (flight attendants) to release a 2nd edition of 3000 additional calendars.

The high-flying Latina calendar girls have even set up their own Facebook page (in Spanish) as well.

"We're not models, we don't have perfect bodies, but we want to keep going," said Rozy Arcos, one of the stewardesses who presented the calendar late Thursday.

Despite Sra. Arcos' insistence that she wasn't a model with a perfect body, I wasn't exactly cringing and averting my eyes upon first glance at the calendar.

I'll let you be the judge, however.

[Hat tip: Wyatt Earp]

The Lonely Planet Blonde Guide To Latvia

Well....this could modify my future travel plans somewhat.

From the country that brought us the Blonde Parade comes word that a gender imbalance that skews 8% towards the women has left the Baltic former Soviet republic of Latvia short of men.

While more boys are born in Latvia than girls, the balance shifts dramatically in adulthood.

A high early male mortality rate means that there are 8% more women than men in the country

In the busy entry hall of the University of Latvia, Riga, the gender imbalance is visible.

According to sociologist and lecturer Baiba Bela, there are 50% more women enrolled there than men.

She says this means that women often find it harder to find a partner with an equal level of education.

And by the time women want to settle down, men are dying younger and are four times more likely to commit suicide.

"The first time the gender imbalance appears is between 30 and 40," Baiba explains.

"In this age group the mortality for men is three times higher than the same age group for women."

"Car driving, alcoholism and accidents in the workplace are mainly riskier for men than for women," she adds.

Among the under-30s, there are almost 9,000 more men than women. But between the ages of 30-39, there are almost 3,000 more women than men.

A couple of facts about Latvia- it covers roughly 25,000 square miles and is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, the Baltic sea to the west and Russia and Belarus to the east. The unit of currency is the Lat and although it is supposed to be integrated into the Euro-zone, the economic crisis of the last two years have put those plans off until at least sometime in 2012. Latvia's official language, unsurprisingly, is Latvian. Citizens of the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK, New Zealand and most EU countries do not require visas for stays of up to 90 days.

Included among Latvia's exports, mezzo-soprano opera singer Elina Garanca (appropriately enough, the blonde in the duet):

On a 100% completely unrelated note, my passport expired nearly three years ago, yet I somehow feel the driving need to get a new one as soon as possible.

Start Spreading the News.

Up in the Air- Gil Elvgren c. 1965

As some of you might've already known, I'm back, Baby!

IDF = Israeli Dancing Forces

Workin' it in Hebron:



Damn.....they never taught us moves like that at Ft. Benning. I fear that the US Army is falling too far behind in the choreography gap.

The irreverent IDF soldiers on the video seems to have caused a furor both among the Israeli Defence Forces brass and the usual humorless suspects who apparently are still in mourning.

As for the IDF Brass, I wonder what punitive measures they could take? Boot the soldiers out of an Army with universal conscription?

[hat tip: Design Czar over at Correspondence Committee]

New Affiliate Blog Up and Running

And you thought Not Another New England Sports Blog! was poorly done and hastily put together!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you.....

*fanfare*

Dopenhagen!

This is just a little something I put together to monitor various Green and nanny-state shennanigans in the run-up to the UN-Sanctioned browbeating, blackmail and guilt-tripping of industrialized nations that is sure to be the Copenhagen conference.

The title itself comes from this brilliant parody site, that sadly turned out to be neither parody nor brilliant.

Meter Maids Down Under

(seabreeze.com.au)

Say hello to the meter maids of Australia's Gold Coast.

As it turns out, they have very little to do with parking enforcement but are part of a 45-year tradition in Queensland. In Surfers Paradise, the gold bikini and jaunty Outback hat-clad meter maids actually put money into the parking meters for motorists and leave a calling card on the windshield for the local businesses that sponsor them. Reportedly the practice was started by the city itself to alleviate bad publicity stemming from a substantial increase in parking fees in the 1960s, and as time passed along local businesses stepped in and began paying or sponsoring the maids.

The local businesses benefit from their sponsorship and advertising. The tourists and drivers in Surfers Paradise benefit by not getting a parking ticket and....well....if the photo is any indication, all of us guys benefit.

I LOVE a Parade II- Australia Strikes Back!

Within days of nearly 300 bikini-clad South African women setting the completely gratuitous 'World's Largest Bikini Parade' record [that NANESB! wholeheartedly approves of], Australians gathered in Sydney on Nov. 12th in an attempt to break the record.

This attempt- like many sequels- came up short. For starters, the Johannesburg parade was 'women only' while this was a co-ed event. Naturally, this means that people will be showing up in speedos and briefs who we don't want to see in speedos and briefs.

Secondly, attendees and organizers considered this a trial balloon for a second attempt with higher turnout in the not too distant future.

Note to the Aussie's in charge of any subsequent efforts: Less 74-year old blokes in speedos and more women next time around.

I LOVE a Parade!

....and if every parade were like this, wouldn't you?

It was enough to get the attention of the folks at Guinness.

A new Guinness World record has been set in South Africa for the most women to parade around in a bikini, organisers say.

Kellogg’s Special KR’s Sarah Mansfield said 287 bikini clad women descended upon Melrose Arch in Johannesburg on Saturday to help break the record for the “World’s Largest Bikini Parade”.

The figure was later revised to 297 women along the 1.7 kilometer parade route. I didn't even know that 'World's Largest Bikini Parade' was a category in the Guinness Book of World Records, but hey.....you hear me complaining?

And speaking of attractive women in bikinis in Johannesburg, just a reminder that the Miss World pageant takes place later on this month in the same city.

Unfortunate Headline Watch

From CNN:

Canadian folk singer died doing something she loved, mother says

Um.....hell no. I don't care how into nature you are, nobody loves getting mauled by a pack of coyotes.

Having said that, the whole affair of 19 year-old folk singer Taylor Mitchell getting attacked by a pack of coyotes in Nova Scotia's Cape Breton National Park is bizarre enough to start off with. Couple this with a public statement from the mother where she seems to be mourning the offending coyotes as much as she was her own daughter.

"When the decision had been made to kill the pack of coyotes, I clearly heard Taylor's voice say, 'please don't, this is their space.' She wouldn't have wanted their demise, especially as a result of her own. She was passionate about animals, was an environmentalist and was also planning to volunteer at the Toronto Wildlife Centre in the coming months," Emily Mitchell said in a statement Thursday

[Oh, and thanks for the map of Eastern Canada, CNN. My tiny pea-brain wouldn't have been able to locate Nova Scotia without your visual aides- NANESB!]