A neat thing happened this week when Nasa's latest project, the rover "Curiousity" landed on Mars. Nasa named the area where the craft landed after Tess' hometown: Yellowknife. Allegedly, this was because the area where "Curiousity" landed is known for having very old rocks and Yellowknife has the oldest rocks on Earth — 2.7 billion years old to be exact. Yellowknife in Canada is known for being the "jumping off point" for scientists (or anyone else) wishing to explore the planets' rocky elders. Most of the people I met in Asia the past 16 years had no idea where Yellowknife was located, and thus no idea where Tess grew-up. Typically I say to people, "head up to Alaska but veer right into Canada." Now they will know for sure where Yellowknife is located, or be even more confused than ever. Of course the jokes are never ending now. Yellowknifers (as are Canadians such as yours truly) are very proud of the new fame and making jokes such as, "on our mailing addresses we'll now have to put Yellowknife, Canada, Earth" or the postal service might get confused. I have amended Nasa's map of Mars (second image above) for clarification.
Charles. I was very impressed by your "down to earth" approach! Some people take Yellowknife rocks for granite but we who live in the frozen north realize the golden opportunities that exist up here.
Regards and best wishes,
Blake
Posted by: . | August 13, 2012 at 04:56 AM