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As if Hurricane Wilma has not done enough damage, now she is going to flood New England States in the Northeastern United States. It is amazing the flooding it has already caused in Mexico, Belize, Cuba, Grand Cayman Islands, Florida and the Eastern Seaboard. And Wilma is no longer any innocent Hurricane, as she has killed so many, we may not know the total death toll until some of the mud and debris is cleared from mudslides and massive flooding.

A Tropical Storm which grows that fast into the most powerful Category five hurricane ever known obviously has the power to keep on going. Indeed, not only had she set records this record breaking Hurricane Season, but she also keeps growing. It is as if Super Hurricane Wilma cannot be stopped or slowed by any other storm system now. The most interesting thing is the wobbling and “S-Curve tracking” that we have seen in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico prior to her devastating torrential rain crossing of the giant Sand Bar we call the Great Submerged State of Florida, with flooding torrential rains.

Wilma has enjoyed free reign in the North Western Hemisphere and she is proof positive that the 2005 Tropical Hurricane Season will go down as the most intense Hurricane Season in the last 150 years. Super Storms are here to stay and either we figure out how to kill them or prepare to defend ourselves with a stronger barrier. Meanwhile in New England they are already wickedly wet and cannot handle anymore water as the people Feel the Fear as they wait for Wilma. You’re next God’s Speed.

Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

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Located at the western end of the Stanegate, the Roman roadway that crossed northern England, the Cumbrian city of Carlisle has long been valued for its strategic value. In 1092, some 500 years after the Romans abandoned the post, the Normans established themselves at the site, which had been in Scottish hands since 1068. Recognizing the potency of the location - Scotland is a mere 10 miles away and the site stands on a bluff overlooking the River Eden - Carlisle was deemed the ideal place to erect a castle.

In the Middle Ages, Carlisle became a key forward outpost for England’s monarchs during their long struggle against the Scots when the castle changed hands repeatedly from the 12th to the 18th century.. The Scottish King David I first took the castle in 1136, but lost it to Henry II. Alexander, King of the Scots, took it again in 1216 but lost it to Edward I of England who later staged his invasion of southern Scotland from the castle. Bonnie Prince Charlie was the last Scot to successfully take the castle, in a six day battle, but soon thereafter lost it again to the Duke of Cumberland.

Later, the castle became a depot for arms and ammunition and a barracks for the military, which remained there throughout the Second World War. Even though extensive modifications over the centuries have transformed the original stronghold into a powerful artillery fortress, the layout of the castle remains true to its medieval origins. A masonry cross-wall and ditch separate the site into inner and outer baileys and a stone curtain wall frames the entire complex.

A bailey is an enclosed courtyard, typically surrounded by a wooden fence, earthen or stone wall and overlooked by the motte. A castle could have more than one bailey, sometimes an inner surrounded by a lesser wall and an outer surrounded by a strong wall. The motte was a mound built in the center of the bailey with very thick walls (the last wall of defense), as great a height as was practicable in the form of a tower and in it was built the castle keep, itself the living quarters, etc.

A single gateway breached the wall’s southern side, so visitors from the city could enter the castle. All in all, Carlisle is an outstanding example of a stone-enclosure castle. As early as the 12th century, Henry I began strengthening Carlisle Castle in stone and enclosing the city with masonry walls. He probably started work on the castle’s oldest surviving structure, the Great Keep, in about 1122, but it was his successors who actually completed the massive stone rectangle. In its heyday the keep stood over 65 feet high. During the 18th century Jacobite Rising - an abortive attempt to place Bonnie Prince Charlie on the British throne - a first floor chamber served as a prison. Jacobite prisoners licked the stones of their cells, which were reputedly a source of moisture, to quench their thirst.

Besides the Great Keep, the inner guardhouse (known as the Captain’s Tower), remnants of the royal apartments and other domestic buildings survive from the medieval period. Queen Mary” Tower, named for its most famous prisoner, Mary, Queen of Scots, dates to the 14th century. It now holds the museum of the King’s Own Royal Border Regiment.

During the 1540s, Henry VIII initiated the first of several major modernization projects to refit the castle for artillery. Over the course of the next 350 years, the ongoing presence of the army and the castle’s continued use as a military depot and armory forced further alterations to the structure, as weapons technology evolved and the fortifications decayed.

Today the castle no longer fears the impact of battle and aging on its battlements. The sturdy red walls, which starkly contrast with the green fields at their base, stand as an everlasting reminder of the turmoil that plagued the borderland between England and Scotland. Nowadays Carlisle Castle is managed by English Heritage and is open for visitors throughout the year.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Tourism

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Over the last few weeks or so, it has been all over the English national papers how a drought has taken hold of England. It has covered all the front pages; yet, the supposed drought only actually affected a few regions in the very South East of England. The fact that it covered the pages of the national newspapers is ridiculous, the shortage which was minor at best which involved a few hose pipe bans is hardly something that should result in the scare mongering that took place in the papers! Guess what sure enough, we get a week of rain to top the reservoirs back up, “panic” over. There have always been dry periods as well as wet periods; it always has been that way!

The papers blame “global warming”, whether global warming actually exists is another question which I shall discuss in another article. Good reading regarding global warming is Michael Crichton’s ‘State of Fear’ which presents the facts as they are, although like any source of presented information, there is bias! That is another issue that I have with the English media, it is all biased, and often incorrect or irrelevant. How the world would and could improve given proper fair unbiased media coverage, if only!

Why do the media make such huge issues out of such minor problems, people are dying daily in Iraq, thousands are dying daily from Aids. Why can’t the English media realise that the world is larger than the southeast of England, it is a sorry and often depressing situation that we are more concerned about a slight drought in the south east of England than the poverty and tragedy of other areas of the globe which is happening day in day out throughout the world! It is a sorry state of affairs, but what can one person do to change this, very little!

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