Bermuda Home

Longtail Approaches Nest

2005-04-05T11:48:00.000-07:00

Longtail Approaches Nest
Originally uploaded by garethbda.

Longtails Arrive in Bermuda

2005-04-03T03:30:00.000-07:00

The longtail is the recognized harbinger of Spring in Bermuda and its return is eagerly anticpated by many. The first sightings of the magnificent lontail (white-tailed tropicbird) off the cliff faces is always recorded prominently in the local newspaper, The Royal Gazette.

Living on Harrington Sound, the birds always take a little longer to appear. This year, March 16th, was my first glimpse of a pair. The weather had been so bad with strong winds coming in day after day that one wonders whether this may have kept them out at sea.

Their arrival is only the first excitement of the season ; now comes the hope that once again this year, they will choose one of the man-made igloos at the bottom of the garden in which to nest & produce their solitary chick.

The nests are now in their 4th year & after attracting a pair almost immediately after having placed them in the cliff, they remained vacant for the next 2 years. Last year, 2004, was going the same way as the previous two; June 20th arrived and no inhabitants or for that matter much interest shown by the approx 16 birds seen off the cliffs. On June 26th , you notice I know the exact date, I decided to take one last look into the three nests. This was no peek but a final desperate acknowledgement that another season had passed with no bird. Imagine if you can, the excitement when there, sitting snugly in the first nest was an adult longtail. I can only assume that he was sitting on an egg as he/she remained there day & night , it seemed, for the next 30 or so days.

Whitney Middle School

2005-02-13T13:08:00.000-08:00

Whitney Middle School
Originally uploaded by garethbda.

This is the original Tucker Building, situated on Middle Rd. in Smiths Parish, Bermuda. It is a wonderful old building first opened in 1883. The tower and the bell were added in the early 1900's but the bell actually dates back to 1773. It originally adorned the stables of William Pitt in UK.
The story of the building is fascinating. Started in 1880 by the parishioners of the parish, the building had reached the wall plate.A very strong strong hurricane completely destroyed the building before the roof could be constructed. The parishioners did nothing for a few years but eventually were offered very generous funding by Mr. & Mrs. William Whitney. The school was finally finished & opened in 1883 and named the Whitney Institute after its very generous benefactor.

Whitney Middle School built 1883

2005-02-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

Whitney Middle School
Originally uploaded by garethbda.

Trial blog of the school to see if it goes through. This was accomplished through flickr.com - if indeed it works.

Wikipedia in NY Times

2005-02-12T16:41:00.000-08:00

I found this article about the wiki sites in the New York Times. In addition to Wikipedia there is now a wikinews site. This is an interesting concept but I am not convinced that it can work very well. You don't know the credibility of the source. Can you make up your own news without any concern for truth or substance? Why not " Freddie Evans of Bermuda, knighted by the queen in the New Year Honours' list ". I wonder if that would be corrected.

" YOU may, in the course of reading this article, spot a factual error that made it to press. A certain bit of grammar may makes you bristle, or you may think the writing is biased. But by now the ink has dried; all you can do is send an e-mail message or a letter of complaint.

If this article had been published on Wikinews, a Web site begun recently, there would be something more you could do: change it, fix it, expand it or delete it.

Wikinews (www.wikinews.org) is an experiment in collaborative news gathering and reporting, and the latest in a collection of Wikis (pronounced WIK-eez or WEEK-eez) under the umbrella of Wikimedia, which cultivates free and open information resources written by its users.

The largest Wiki project, Wikipedia, has been online for four years and contains more than 450,000 articles, all written and open to revision by its more than 150,000 users. By comparison, Wikinews is a newborn, having opened its doors to interested news writers and reporters in December."

Whitney, Blogs, RSS Feeds, Flikr's, Wikis & More

2005-02-10T15:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the old fashioned use of pen & paper, I am able to remember quite a bit of the absorbing workshop on Monday. This is not everything but it is something and I encourage you to add what you understood or recorded so that a those who have the courage can make that first tentative step into the world of the interactive web & blogs.
Initially , I was going to put these notes into an e-mail but realised that I was playing it safe. I understand e-mails - I am far less sure about blogs etc.
Unfortunately, this uncertainty led to my first attempt - a complete account- being lost in my efforts to edit some of the text. This time I am saving as draft - now. Clicked on obvious bottom and voila - simple & saved.
The following is a simple record of my notes. Some words , some phrarses & some in sentences. Here goes.

Words
Digital notebook, digital paper.
Children are digital natives
Adults are digital immigrants.
A very good educational search engine - "Teoma"
Greensborough101.com. I don't know what this is but I found it in my notes.

A Blogg
An interactive, on-line record or log of your writing , thoughts, pictures etc.
Creat one at "Blogger.com"
Create username & password.
Read the log at http://address.blogspot.com eg http://bermudahome.blogspot.com
Address for this one - bermudahome

RSS
Real Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary
Permits subscription to web logs, newspapers etc & brings the content or information to your home computer's mail box (the aggregator) without actually visiting the site (the feed).
The BBC for example has over 60 RSS feeds varying from Africa to gardens to sport.
Once set up, these feeds are delivered automatically

Mail box = Aggregator
Internet site = Feed
Set up mailbox & feeds at Bloglines.com
Try it. Remember

Log on to above site
Click "My Feeds"
Open new window - Press Control + N. Search for feeds in this window.
Click XLM button in left corner ( usually?)
Highlight URL address, click copy.
Back to Bloglines window
Under bloglines click Add
Paste address into space.

I think this is correct.
RSS guide for educators can be found on Will's site at "weblogg-ed.com"
For those of us who need it in our hand, this can be printed.

Wikipedia
An open source encyclopaedia created by the general public which allows text to be entered & edited by anyone.
Collaborative creation of knowledge.
Go to 'wikipedia.com" and check out Whitney or anything which interests you.
Try adding something to the site.

Flikr.com
A site which allows you to share your photographs with everyone else or a limited group of people.
I have posted one photograph but I must learn how to reduce the size of the photo before attempting again as it took up 20% of my free space. It will not be too difficult.

Furl.com
I have this written down but have no more info on to what it refers.
Any ideas.

In the comment section of this blog, please add anything that you remember or any thoughts you may have for developing any of this for use in school. There must be a multitude of ways that students can be involved.
I have only spoken to a few staff - Clarence & Wendy & Joanne - but they seem very excited.
Please, try posting your thoughts & comments.

Better than Cricket?

2005-02-07T07:07:00.000-08:00

Can anything be better or more exciting than cricket? That's a tall order but living in Bermuda, if not better, is, still a truly wonderful experience.You experience the wonders of blue sky and sun almost every single day but to balance that you have to accept the winter blows & occasional hurricane force winds.