Assignment 12-1

On Saturday the 17th of April, like every mid April Saturday the kenduskeag canoe race goes on. It s a tradition here in Bangor, Me. When all the locals dig there canoes out of the back of the shed. Dust themselves off, and in about a day become the most rag tag professional canoeist on this side of the Mississippi.

The event is like the Bangor fair and the Fryburg smashed together on the water edge. The only missing is the friend dough, and the clowns. Other then the ones with the paddles. So the race started out eventful as the crowd gathers at local hot spots along the stream, mostly near bridges, like the famous 6 mile falls, and the finish line.

The races top competitors contains some great white water enthusiast, like Maclean who finished the race in first in 2 hours 19 min and 5 seconds, and Lang who came in second with 2 hours 23 min 46 seconds. Jeff Owen from Orono and Steve Woodward from Cumberland came in third with a two man canoe. Being the first two man vessel to cross the finish line.

The race is also used as publicity stunts to all out hysterical events that involve Obama's, cut out, gumby, a guy dressed like captain Morgan, and the Mohawk twins. These boats please the crowds and bring in the audiences. That and the many tipped over canoes along the way. This race isn't just for professionals but it is for anyone who has a canoe. Some people cant even hold a paddle, which of course the shore is lined with safety just in case someone takes a swim. This race has a total of 889 paddlers in 479 canoes and kayaks entered the race.

The unexpected event during this years race is the unbelievable water flow. The water was questionable by the lowest that some of the veterans have ever seen it. This caused by the quick melting that occurred in February and March. This leaves no snow to melt and fill the rivers at the specific time.

Windmills

Energy is all around us, from what we cook with to flicking on the light switch. We need energy to survive, but at what cost does will it take to have energy. We are burning coal, putting up nuclear power plants and extract to oil to keep up with demand. This process is hurting the world around us, we are killing our only resource, the earth. What solutions do we have to keep our energy demand satisfied without hurting our earth.
One option that has been harness for hundreds of years but never has been fully taken advantage of is wind. Wind is all around us in the State of Maine. Its on our lakes, rivers and mountains, its near our coasts and on the rolling hills. If its so plentiful, why are we having trouble harnessing it.
In the town of Lee, a wind project on Rollins Mountain was planned to go into effect and constructed on Summer of 09. The plan was 31 windmills along the town line of Lee and Lincoln all the way down into Burlington. The purpose of the project was to harness wind energy for the state of Maine therefore leading to a lesser carbon foot print in the state. Carbon footprint mean energy used and carbon release by combustion into the atmosphere. The project was going to bring jobs to the area, which is great because our only industry, has been failing since 80's early 90's. It was the solution to the world and the towns problems, but the project never got off the ground.
The problem was that people don't seem to like windmills all that much, there reason being that they are ugly, loud, and annoying. They state that the windmills aren't natural. Statements like this are made everyday when observing the windmills in areas like Mars Hill or Stetson Mt. I may agree with most of the opinions of the locals but these people realize that even though they are all those things, they are still an necessity and need to be constructed, kind of like telephone poles once were. They are need to support the high demand of energy that we have.

There are a few groups that fight these environmental project because they either cannot get by the reasons obvious annoyance or they have there own beef with the spinning wonders that are saving the planet, its hard to say. Its groups like this that are killing the environment.

Windmills are the best option for the success of the earths cure, the reverse of pollution and in the hard economic time, to get jobs for hurting citizens in rural areas. We need to stop the bull crap and deal with the turbines, just like our great-grandfathers dealt with telephone poles.