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Clan Maxwell Society
of Canada News Page
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Coming Soon! IRC Clan Chat Nights!
[posted July 2, 2008]
Since the members of Clan Maxwell Canada are so spread out, and
frequently unable to attend centralized meetings, such as the AGM, I
thought it might be fun to utilize one of the old technologies of the
internet-- IRC-- or Internet Relay Chat. For those of you unfamiliar
with IRC please see the following article at Wikipedia:
Internet
Relay Chat
To use IRC you will need a program to chat. I recommend the following.
If you are a Firefox browser user the extension:
Chatzilla
A good freeware program is:
IceChat
And for those you like a full-featured shareware I recommend this one,
which I have been using for years:
mIRC
I still haven't decided which network I will set the chat night up on
but I am hoping to have things in place by the end of the month for our
first chat night. I may post a theme or topic for each night, but I
think the first will just be an open forum for discussion to see how it
goes. After that, we may have nights where we invite our American cousins
from www.clanmaxwellusa.com for joint chats, or even have guest
speakers, such as genealogists or historians join us in the chat. I
would love to hear your feedback at Webmaster .
Adding new 'How to Join' Page and New
Pictures of the Spencerville Games. [posted June 27, 2008]
As
requested by users in the guest book, I will be adding a 'How to Join
the Clan Maxwell Society of Canada' button on the main page. This will
include two different downloadable membership applications- one
in Word format, and one in text format.
Coming soon! Pictures of the Veteran's Memorial Highland Games at
Spencerville June 21, 2008. Check back soon.
William Pollock steps down as President
[Dec 9, 2007]
Because of other commitments William Pollock has had to step
down
from the President's position. Jacqueline Rowan has offered to serve as
Interim President until an election can be held
Newletters on Dec 6/2007
Newsletters are now starting to be posted in the Members Only
area.
If you do not have your password and username yet please email me.
Music Links on Nov 11/2006
I've started to populate the Music Link page finally!
New Stone Mountain Games 2006 report in
Member's Reports!
Check out the new report on the trip to Stone Mountain
Highland Games by Jackie and Merv Rowan
Members Only Area 2006/10/17
If you are a member of Clan Maxwell Society and want access to
the Member's Only area please email me for the userid and password.
Your webmaster, Stephen Maxwell
Maxwell
Year 2006 - Celebrating the Man Who Changed Everything!
Greetings to all Maxwells
Tomorrow is June 1st - that gives you 13 more days to think of an
appropriate way to celebrate the 175th birthday of the brilliant
Scottish mathematician, James Clerk Maxwell. (Incidentally, the Edgars
are part of Clan Maxwell.) See http://www.maxwellyear2006.org/.
This year is designated "Maxwell Year 2006 - Celebrating the
Man Who Changed Everything!" He was born June 13, 1831.
Maxwell used Faraday's information about the behaviour of
magnetism and completed the necessary math to show that electricity and
magnetism were but different manifestations of the same thing -
electromagnetism (in this remarkable phrase, he describes light as part
of the same manifestation "/We can scarcely avoid the conclusion that
light consists in the transverse undulations of the same medium which
is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena.").
Apart from his discoveries of electromagnetism, he early on
had accurately described the particulate nature of Saturn's rings,
using logic to show that nothing else could allow the stability of the
long-lived rings, and he theorized that gaseous temperatures and heat
involved only molecular movement (kinetic theory of gases). These are
but a few of his many achievements.
Maxwell was a contemporary of Faraday, Airy, Thompson (Lord
Kelvin), Boltzmann, Riemann, Tait, Helmholtz, and Cavendish, among
others.
He graduated with a degree in mathematics from Trinity
College, Cambridge and spent much of his life in Edinburgh, but he also
held the chair of Natural Philosophy at King's College, London,
travelled frequently to Cambridge, and had an immense interest in what
made things "go."
JCMT in Hawaii is named in his honour - it is the largest
sub-millimetre array in the world at 15 metres, probing the Solar
System, interstellar gas and dust, and distant galaxies.
http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/JCMT/
He was and still is considered the greatest 19th-century
physicist, leading to a 20th-century understanding of our Universe.
Einstein considered him a hero, having paintings of Maxwell and Faraday
on his study wall.
James Clerk Maxwell died on November 5, 1879 in Cambridge.
Text courtesy of James Edgar.
Posted September 18, 2006
New Guestbook installed and move to new server is completed
A new guestbook has been installed that does away with all
those annoying popups and ads. As I learn more about the new software I
may be able to tweak it to look more like the site. The move to the new
website host went well. No glitches that I have found. Let me know what
you think of the improvements in the sidebar menu, and features on the
website. Coming soon will be the monthly newsletters, a live chat
feature, and many more improvements as I think of them.
Posted September 17, 2006
Site has been moved to new server
The site has now been moved to a new server with more space,
more services and more scripts.
Slainte: Your Webmaster, Stephen Maxwell
Posted September 2, 2006
An Invitation to a Cattle Reiving Enactment- Fun event for
all 'Reiving' Clans, like the MAXWELLS!
Hello All, Clan Cameron - Ontario Branch wishes to invite
representation from all Clans to participate in a "CATTLE REIVING
ENACTMENT" to take
place on the Bruce Trail in Waterdown Saturday September 23rd. Starting
at 11:00 am. Friends of the Clan, children, dogs and any Landless Men'
will be very welcome. The idea is to maintain our 'Reiving' skills so
dearly earned in the 'Old' days, and have some fun and social
intercourse with the Clans represented in Ontario. The trek is
approximately 8 kilometres and is a typically beautiful section of the
Bruce. We will register and start at the North Wentworth Community
Centre [west of Clappison's Corners] and finish 3 or 4 hours later at
the Royal Coachman Pub in Waterdown for some appropriate refreshment. -
An entry requirement will be a 'Wee Coo', (perhaps a plush toy or ???)
which the Clan must shepherd from one end to the other. [trading,
theft, bribery and general skulduggery are possible]. The eventual
'Champion Clan' will have answered a series of skill testing questions
at the hands of various 'Sheriff's Men' and other 'Ruffians'! As well
demonstration of some historic skill may be required. Water is a
requirement, lunch is usually a plus and sturdy shoes a good idea.
Weather permitting, clan regalia would be appropriate, though certainly
not a requirement. For anyone not up to the 8 kilometre distance, we
have established a second starting point on Snake Road which will be
about 4 kilometres from our goal at Smokey Hollow. And if you don't
wish to walk at all, we have openings for volunteer 'Excise Persons',
'Sheriffs', Ruffians' and 'Revenuers', who will man the check points
and safe houses for the trek. You may even 'start' at Smokey Hollow,
and wait for the arrival of 'Your' Clan. [From here its about 700
meters to the Pub]. You must RSVP that you are coming with an
approximate number of participants [contact details below], we will
meet and register at the Community center with maps, instructions and
all the details for the 'Winning' of our re-enactment. Presentations
will be made at the Pub! Questions cheerfully answered any time.
Slainte: Glenn Goldstraw
President Ontario Branch
Clan Cameron Association
Box 2757 101 Markham St.
St. Marys ON N4X 1A5
519-284-0416
glenn.goldstraw@sympatico.ca
PS: If you have any ideas or suggestions for the day, please
let me know!
Background
graphic from a painting courtesty of Andrew Spratt, Custodian,Dirleton
Castle,East Lothian, Scotland. -