Mysteries of Montreal

Okay, not quite today, but a couple of days ago, but hell, after a hundred years, what's a day or two? On the 18th of November, 1912,  the 'Établissement de detention de Montréal' (Montreal detention centre) opened its doors for the first time, (before firmly closing and locking them again one assumes) for 100 prisoners. Within 6 months, it held 150. The prison is frequently refered to as  Bordeaux prison , and as such it even warrants a mention in the Urban Dictionary . It was then, as it is now, the largest provincial prison in Quebec, it was built to hold 500 prisoners, and now her a capacity of 1,189 inmates (now all male). In 1915, there was a tramway built to connect it to town (as it was originally built to be out of town, although it has now been enveloped by the city). Prison construction in 1910 As a then very modern prison, there was some outrage amongst the general population that prisoners should be treated to such 'outrag...

...an island in the South Pacific is found, then disappears! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20442487 Sandy Island, near New Caledonia, has been shown on Google maps, but scientists looking for it find water depths of 1400m. Maybe they should have looked before the recent spate of earthquakes we had here!

The first "horseless-carriage" to be driven in the streets of Montreal was a Waltham Steam . It was driven by Mr Ucal-Henri Dandurand, on the 21st of November, 1899. His passenger was the then Major of Montreal, Raymond Préfontaine . The car was bought from Massachusetts in the United States for $600, and ran on 6 water reservoirs, with a range of a whopping 24 miles before having to be refilled. It could reach a high speed of 40 mph, but had to be stopped when there was a horse-drawn carriage in view, so as not to scare the horses. By 1903, Mr Dandurand had a total of 4 automobiles, but not everyone approved of such noisy vehicles, and he was often stopped for disrupting the peace.  Mr Ucal-Henri Dandurand and his wife in his first car. ( source ) Mr Dandurand outside his house, with car and chauffeur (1915) ( source ) Links CBC Radio Link (in french). M. Ucal-Henri Dandurand (in french). Maison Durand (in french). Edit 25-11-2014 MTLblog h...

It's been a while since i last tried to PBM/PBP. I've been been both a player in games that are new starts (Angel) and continuation of long running tabletop games (Deadlands). I've also tried running by PBP (Call of Cthulhu). In all permutations, I have never seen a game run to completion. So, I was unsure when I read over on Craig's blog 'The Watch House' that he was running a Primeval PBP, I was both tempted, and wary. A hop over to the RPG.net thread , and all of a sudden I was signed up. I have seen the potential for a Primeval game since I watched the first season, so it came as no surprise to me when the book was finally released. I have yet to get a copy for myself, maybe a pdf will be purchased shortly. The fact that the ever prolific Gareth hanrahan-Ryder has a hand in it only makes this more likely. The game will be a one-shot, based in the UK. Good, because I have yet to watch the new version of the series. Plus it makes it more likely you...

Source Dr. Benjamin Tippett, a physicist at the University of New Brunswick, looks at the short story, 'The Call of Cthulhu' from the viewpoint of Science! In what he calls his 'unified theory of Cthulhu' with his tongue firmly in his cheek. He examines the 'eyewitness accounts' as written in 'The Call of Cthulhu' from a physics point of view. He then states: In proving the Johansen wasn’t crazy I accidentally figure out that cthulhu is probably real, responsible for the island… and I also figure out what he’s doing down there. Of course, as a brave man of science, I can’t go and admit that Cthulhu exists… Link to the pdf of the article 'Possible Bubbles of Spacetime Curvature in the South Pacific' here. Via the Miskatonic Museum .