Winter Camping is Spectacular

I just returned from a four day camping trip in Algonquin Park. Let me say that again. I just returned from a camping trip. The date today is January 1st, 2015. That's right, I was winter camping.
Many people thought I was crazy to go camping, in a tent, in the winter. This is actually the second time that I have been winter camping and I can only think of one word to describe it. Spectacular.
The last time I went winter camping was at the beginning of December 2013. It had been cold early that year, but the weather was quite good during my trip. The daytime temperature was around -4 or -5 degrees celsius and the nighttime low was about -11. It had also snowed everyday. Light fluffy snow which with no wind stayed on the trees. It was beautiful.

This year the trip was from December 28th to 31st. The winter had so far been quite mild. But that changed when we arrived in Algonquin Park. The temperatures started at about -8 degrees and went down from there. The first night dropped to -17. The second night went down to -24. The third night warmed up a little and got no lower than -19.
Again, many people will call me crazy, but it was a great trip. The key is being prepared. Dressing properly ensured that I was warm throughout the day. Good boots, snow pants, hat, gloves, and a warm coat are vital. At night you need plenty of firewood. A good fire will keep you warm as you have dinner and wait for bedtime. Most nights, bedtime was quite early, probably just after 9pm. Keep in mind it is dark by 5pm. Then I would climb into my tent.
To sleep well you need to be bundled up really good. I had an air filled thermarest type matt under me to keep me off the cold ground. Then I got inside a fleece sleeping bag insert which was inside my sleeping bag (which is rated to -12, but I think that means it will keep you alive not comfortable). Then I wrapped myself in two comforters. I was toasty warm.

What impressed me most about this trip over last trip was the extreme cold. There are a lot of logistical things that you need to consider when it is that cold versus when camping when it's warm. Also the way nature reacts to the extreme cold was amazing.

First, the logistics. I have already mentioned that you need to dress warm and bring good bedding. Setting up the tent was a challenge. First, you have to shovel away as much snow as you can from where you are going to put your tent. get it as close to actual ground as you can. And remember that the ground is frozen solid. It's important to bring a hammer or something heavy like an axe to hammer the pegs into the ground. That hammer will also come in handy when you need to pry the frozen tent pegs out of the hard ground when you pack up.
What are you going to drink? Water? I brought some water and a couple of bottles of Coke as a treat. Normally I get more water out of whatever lake I am camping on. But wait. It is winter. The lake is frozen! No problem, there is plenty of snow and ice around that you can melt to drink. But how do you melt it? Build a fire each time you want to drink or use a stove each time you want to drink. It was a constant challenge to keep the water in your water bottle as actual liquid. Within thirty minutes to an hour it was starting to freeze up. I only tried to drink one of the bottles of Coke that I brought and that was a thick slush.
Fortunately where we were camping there was a comfort station that was heated and had toilets and drinkable water. But that was a ten minute hike away from where we were camped. So even if we filled our bottles there, it would be starting to freeze shortly after returning to camp.

Food was another challenge. Normally when I go camping I am worried about bringing perishable food because you can't keep it cold. No problem in the winter. I had the opposite problem. Much of the food I brought for breakfasts and lunches froze solid and I couldn't eat it. I brought portions of stew for dinners. That was fine. It froze, but I heated it in a pot anyway. But I still had to boil water first in order to thaw it enough to get it out of the plastic container it was in. I suggest bringing mostly dry foods like cookies, nuts, chocolate, granola etc. at least for lunch and snacks.
Sleeping was interesting. I was warm because I was prepared for that. What I wasn't prepared for was the weather inside my tent. As you breath, you expel moisture. Normally that is just taken up by the air. But not when it is this cold. The entire inside of my tent became covered in frost. At times I could feel it falling like snow onto me. I kept my face under the outer comforter for the most part to keep it warm. That resulted in the top edge of the comforter freezing solid due to the moisture in my breath.

Also, if you bring anything electronic as I did; I brought my camera and I had my phone, find a way to keep it warm. Electronics do not like the cold and screens on phones or cameras can crack if the get too cold. I kept boiling water and putting a hot water bottle in my camera bag with my camera and phone. I had to replace the bottle every eight hours or so. At night, I kept my camera and phone inside my sleeping bag with me.

The most spectacular thing about this trip was nature. Not only was it beautiful, it was also surprising. I was most surprised by the sounds. At night when everything else was quiet it was particularly noticeable. The forest was making all kinds of sounds. There were twigs cracking, and snapping, sounding like a firecracker going off. This was most prominent on the night that it got down to -24. I am guessing that it was moisture inside the wood freezing and then splitting it.

The other sound, which was loud and almost continuous was from the lake. It sounded like someone's stomach rumbling, but very loud. It was a gurgling groaning sound. I can only assume that it was the ice as the lake froze. Since water expands as it turns into ice it creates huge pressure pushing the ice against the shore and itself. When you look at a frozen lake you can often see the pressure cracks. But hearing it was amazing. I suspect the sounds will diminish as the winter goes on and everything settles into the cold.

Normally when I camp I go backcountry camping. I will hike or canoe in. Both times that I have done winter camping it has been at a drive in site simply because there is so much more gear to bring in order to keep warm. We may try hiking in next year. If we do it will mean hauling the gear on sleds. The other option, one I kind of like the idea of, is to rent a yurt. A yurt is a large tent. The ones in Algonquin have heaters inside and bunk beds. This means that you have a place to get warm and to keep your stuff warm, but you can still head out for the day and enjoy the cold and the spectacular beauty that is winter camping.

The Ice Event - A Personal Tale

The Ice Storm (or event as I'm calling it) began Dec 20th and continued through Dec 21st, 2013. The temperature was just right for freezing rain; a degree or two warmer and it would have just been rain; a degree or two colder and we would have had snow.

Throughout Saturday the rain continued and the ice accumulated. Layer after layer built up. It looked beautiful but was treacherous for walking and driving. Everyone knew the potential existed for power outages due to trees and power lines falling due to the weight of the accumulated ice. It was just a matter of waiting to see if it would affect us.
For me the power remained on throughout the night on Saturday until about 2 am Sunday morning when it went out.
I was up at dawn and decided to take a walk outside with my camera. Walking was difficult. It was more like skating with boots on. I had to be very careful and tried to avoid walking under trees. Every sixty seconds or so you would see or hear a branch falling. Of course many branches were already on the ground, in the road or on top of people's cars.

It had stopped raining when I first went out but started again while I was walking. It cut short my photographing of the scene. I returned home covered in a thin layer of ice. Fortunately the house was still fairly warm.
The power stayed off until close to 10 am. Then it returned. I thought that we had got off quite easy. Many other people lost it and did not get it back. The only thing I didn't have have cable and internet. That actually did not return until Thursday night. It is amazing how much we rely on things like the internet in our modern world. You don't notice how much you use it until it is gone for five days. So the rest of the day was fine, no cable, no internet but I had power.
I had power until late Sunday night. Then, boom, gone again.

This time it stayed off. The house did get cold, although not too cold if you were snuggled up under a blanket. I was babysitting my five year old niece. We had a good time. I cooked dinner on my camp stove, we listened to music on my ipod (until it ran out of power), and played with toys by candle light. The biggest concern I had was the battery on my phone was dying. I was using that to get updates on the power situation and to keep in contact with people.

The power stated off until Monday morning.
It was nice to have it back on. There were many people just blocks away that went with nothing until Boxing Day (Thursday).
We did loose it again Thursday for a few hours. A birch tree in the neighbour's yard had a broken branch dangling over the hydro wires. I guess once the sheath of ice had worn off the wire and the branch, it started to smoke. The neighbour noticed and asked me what we should do. Since the branch was now starting to burn, I told her to call the 911 and ask for fire. They were on the scene in under two minutes. As they arrived the whole branch was in flames. It was less than a minute after they arrived, as we stood in the backyard watching it burn, that there was an explosion which both put out the fire and took the power out again. Fortunately it wasn't too long before crews came to remove the branch and power was restored.

All in all it made for an interesting and memorable Christmas.

Fear Is The Only Variable - Paranormal Investigation

It is Halloween and it seems that everyone is suddenly interested in all things paranormal, ghostly and supernatural. For many that interest continues year round and for a lucky few, they get to investigate the paranormal.

I have been part of a paranormal investigation group, the Paranormal Researchers Of Ontario or proo(f) for the last two years and had been on a few investigations before that.
Proo(f), the (f) stands for fear, is currently made up of five members. The co-founders, Brad and Katie Mavin, and Paul Silliphant, along with newer member Rob Di Venanzo and skeptic, me, Ben Stacey.

Left to right: Rob Di Venanzo, Ben Stacey, Katie Mavin, Paul Silliphant, Brad Mavin

Wait, what? Skeptic?
Yes, I am a skeptic when it comes to the paranormal. I do not believe in ghosts or spirits or any of those things. So why am I with a paranormal investigation group?
There are multiple answers. First, ghost stories are cool. A good story about ghosts or a haunting can be really scary and enjoyable. Most ghost stories are even better when they are purported to be based on a true story. So why not investigate those "true stories".
Second, and probably more importantly for the group, I think it is very important to have a skeptical viewpoint in a team of investigators. It helps keep objectivity. There are many groups that are made up of only whole hearted believers, or people that want to believe. For a group like that it is too easy to jump to the conclusion that anything that happens on an investigation is paranormal. Just because you hear a bang or a bump, does not mean that it is caused by something supernatural. If you are really interested in discovering if something is paranormal, you absolutely must look at all evidence objectively and skeptically.
Proo(f) is very good at that. Even those who have a strong belief in paranormal activity will question every bit of evidence that we gather.
I also think that as a skeptic, I have to be open to being skeptical about what I believe. If we were to ever get some evidence that we could not explain or debunk, I must at least remain open to other explanations.
Thirdly, I am a film maker have been documenting our investigations and producing web episodes of those investigations. You can see some at http://www.youtube.com/proofcanada
And of course it is a lot of fun.

I should also be clear that, even though I don't believe that anything is paranormal, it is obvious that people have had experiences that they attribute to the paranormal. Also the fear that you feel when walking alone in an empty, dark, supposedly haunted building is real. The emotional responses that some of the members of the team experience are real. Even when we have worked with mediums, I believe that to them, what they are doing is real. I don't for a second doubt that they believe they are doing what they think they are doing. I do doubt that what they are doing is paranormal. And most importantly I trust that no one in the group will ever fake anything. It serves no purpose. And if anything ever was faked it would eventually be discovered.

As I said, the fear is real regardless of whether it is caused by anything paranormal or not. The excitement on an investigation when something strange happens is also real.
So I wanted to share just a few of the experiences we have had as a team that we found to be either scary, emotional or exciting.


The Curse of Valentia

In the hamlet of Valentia, Ontario, there is a horse farm that has had some strange activity. In 1804, at a trading post that was on or near the property, Ogetonicut, of the Ojibway tribe killed the post operator, John Sharpe in a revenge killing for him having murdered his brother Whistling Duck. Ogetonicut was killed while being transported to stand trial when the HMS Speedy sank in a storm. It is rumoured that Ogetonicut may haunt the property.
There is also the story of the "Lantern Lady", a women who lost her husband and infant son in a house fire approximately 150 years ago. She was returning up a laneway from running errands into town when she discovered her house on fire. People claim to see a woman carrying a lantern along this laneway.

At this investigation we had a medium with us. While in the laneway he suddenly sat down and began to channel the "Lantern Lady". Katie questioned him/her. We were unable to verify any of the information that she got while questioning. The interesting thing was what happened as the channelling session came to an end. Upon saying good-bye to the "Lantern Lady", Katie broke down in tears. She was sobbing uncontrollably. She felt the emotions of the woman. She felt that the woman had her arms wrapped around her.

You can watch what happened here:



The Haunted Museum

Our investigation at the Scugog Shores Museum gave us two really interesting pieces of evidence. The first was also an emotional response. The church has a room at the back known as the weeping room or the moaning room. During funerals, that is where the casket would be for people to say good-bye to the deceased. People report hearing crying and moaning from that area of the church.
We had one of the museum interpreters, Rosie, with us. While conducting an investigation in the moaning room Rosie suddenly began to cry.

Watch here:



Afterwards, Rosie was fine and we continued to investigate the room. This time we were using two tools. The first is a spirit box which scans through the white noise between radio stations in the hope that spirits may be able to communicate through it. The other tool was an app called the "Ghost Radar". It has a large database of words and the idea is that a spirit can draw from these words to communicate. Nothing happened with the spirit box, but the "Ghost Radar" did give us a couple of interesting responses. The first was the word "husband". Interesting because there were likely many widows saying good-bye to their husbands in this room.
The second was the name, "Lee". This is interesting for two reasons. Joseph lee was a circuit minister in the area and could very well have preached at this church. And, the Lee House, Joseph Lee's actual house is part of the museum.

Watch here:


The Asylum

This is my favourite place. It is an abandoned former mental institution. If any place looks like it should be haunted, this is the place. It is dark, creepy and falling apart. We have investigated this place on three occasions.

In one room, Paul, who is quite sensitive to spirits, although not a medium, felt the presence of a young boy. Meanwhile the medium who accompanied us was sensing a different spirit. Paul left the room and we asked if he was okay. He said, "no". I followed him into the hall where he began pacing, trying to get the spirit to leave him alone. He asked for help from the medium. The medium, not realizing that it was a different spirit with Paul wasn't able to immediately help. It wasn't until we got outside and Paul became more forceful with the spirit that he was left alone.

The kitchen area of the Asylum is reported to have a lot of activity. Upon walking into the kitchen, the team's K2 meters (the sense electromagnetic fields) started to go crazy. I should point out that there is no power in the building so they could not have been influenced by bad wiring. What I found most interesting was that the audio on the video camera was also receiving interference and it was in sync with the meters spiking. So we had a bunch of unexplained things happening then suddenly some real world fear. Coyotes. A large pack of coyotes began howling very close by and it was getting closer. The building has many walls down so being inside would not offer any protection. We quietly moved on.

Watch here:


Finally, here is a good example of why it is important to be skeptical of all evidence. On our third visit we were accompanied by a TV crew, We had a host, producer and camera guy. At one point we left the host alone in a room for a few minutes to conduct a solo vigil. She was scared, as I would be. In fact at one point I had to walk back through the building alone to get extra batteries for my flashlight. I don't mind admitting it was scary and I felt like running. Anyway, she did fine.
It was after that that the producer discovered a voice message on his phone from an unknown caller. The message was the sound of screaming and moaning. Then the host checked her phone and also had a message. Hers was even creepier. She was scared by it. Genuinely scared.
Now as paranormal investigators, what do we think? Well, it was creepy and made for a good story, but that is not evidence of paranormal activity. What was it then? There are people that say spirits can leave messages of voice mail or answering machines. Could it really be that? Our first thought was that it was a prank. In fact the host also thought so, she thought we might have played a prank on her. We didn't. We wouldn't. When she realized that none of us had her cell number she was even more scared.
If it was a prank, who could or would have done it? The most likely culprit would be one of her co-hosts. One is a total skeptic and often makes fun of her for believing in such things.
Over the next week we tried to figure out who may have done it. I questioned her co-host and he denied it. He even offered some other possible suspects.
At this point we looked a this piece of evidence as something cool and creepy but not likely paranormal.

Watch here:


A few days later, her co-host admitted on air that he did prank her. She seemed a little annoyed at this.
Much of the team were also upset that a prank was pulled.


This represents one of the big problems with anything paranormal. Those that believe or want to believe tend to be very eager to accept any evidence as proof of the paranormal without question. They get upset when someone tries to debunk that evidence or if that evidence is proved false.

Proo(f) always questions the evidence. Whether it is an anomaly on video, an EVP (electronic voice phenomena), a photo or like in this case, a voice mail, we question it. We look for the real world and more likely explanation first. We suspected it was a prank and it turned out that it was. I think it is a great example of doing a paranormal investigation right, that we questioned the evidence and made no conclusion one way or the other until we had proof.



Be sure to check out www.proofcanada.com

The Conjuring - Great Film - Lousy Audience

Saw The Conjuring. A very well made, very scary movie. See it!

 However, try to see it with a small audience or at least an older audience. I have never in my life been to a film with a worse audience. The vast majority of the audience were under 20. I have questions for all of you under 20 years old.
Since when is it okay to text and keep checking your phone throughout the movie? Did you not see ...the public service announcement at the beginning asking you to have respect for the other viewers and turn off your phone?
Who taught you that is was okay to talk through the whole movie? I don't mean a little whisper here and there, I mean talk, normal voice, making "clever" comments or just talking about things unrelated to what's on screen! Did you really think that this would not annoy the people around you?
Oh, and after the film I went to use the toilet. It seems that people under 20 are not yet potty trained. WTF?
I would really love someone under 20 to respond to this and explain how any of those things are okay. It boggles my mind. If you are the future of humanity then god help us! And I don't even believe in god.

Anyway, The Conjuring, great movie. Watch it in the quiet of your own home when it comes out on bluray.

A Long Awaited Journey - The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.




WARNING: This review may contain spoilers.

I was delighted that we got to see Bilbo write that line in the start of the Red Book. Yes, I am a fan of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books. I have read each probably twenty to thirty times over the years. I know them well. But just because I love the source material it doesn't automatically follow that I will love the films. In adapting any book to film there are many ways that it can be screwed up. When Peter Jackson made the Lord of the Rings films I was both excited and worried at what the result would be. However, he did a fantastic job (although not perfect. There are a few things that I would have done differently). I was much less worried about The Hobbit.

In a word, I would call The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey, excellent.

I did see the film twice. The first time in 3D, the second time in HFR 3D. Lets talk about the technology first. Peter Jackson chose to shoot The Hobbit in 3D at a high frame rate (HFR) of 48 frames per second. This is different than films we are used to seeing which are shot in 24 frames per second. The idea behind shooting at a higher frame rate is to produce crisper, sharper, more lifelike images. At 24fps there is much more motion blur in each frame and strobing can occur when the camera is moved about quickly. You get much less motion blur and strobing at 48fps.
There have been many reviews both good and bad about HFR.
It certainly does produce spectacularly real images. Even the Warner Brothers logo (the first thing you see on screen) looks like it is physically there in the theatre with you. Some people have complained that it makes it look like you are watching a high quaity video. I disagree. It does look different than what we are used to seeing. One effect that I did notice and others have talked about is that occassionally some fast motion looks like it is sped up. It is not, but it appears that way. I'm not sure what the physiology is that would cause that effect, but it is interesting. Another thing to note is that, as with any new technology, the film makers will need to adjust some of their techniques. I found that the HFR made camera movements more noticeable. So camera operators will have to be more careful when they shoot.
Ultimately whether you like the look or not will be a personal preference. My feeling is that it will take some getting used to. We are used to seeing movies at 24fps. But I liked it and think it will be here to stay.
By the way, 24fps was never some magic number that gave the best look for films. It was simply the lowest frame rate (so less film could be used) that you could sync sound to when sound was added to pictures. They could have chosen any other number but it was 24.

Now, the film itself.

With The Lord of the Rings, I had many issues with how some of it was adapted to film (although still loved the movies). I have far fewer issues with how at least this first part of The Hobbit has been adapted to the screen.
It starts with Bilbo Baggins (Ian Holm) writing the first lines of The Red Book of Westmarch (the book that in the Middle Earth universe tells the tale of The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings). "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit". What a wonderful beginning.
We are then treated to the story of Thorin Oakenshield, son of Thráin, son of Thrór, King Under the Mountain and the coming of the dragon Smaug to Erebor, the Lonely Mountain. It is an action packed prologue in which we get to see the amazing dwarf city in the mountain and are teased with quick firey images of Smaug.
We then get into the real story 60 years before the events of the Lord of the Rings. Bilbo (Martin Freeman) meets Gandalf who is seeking someone to share in an adventure. Bilbo wants nothing to do with adventures but he is visited by the thirteen dwarves of Thorin Oakenshield's company and suddenly finds himself involved in one.
The scenes in Bag End with the dwarves are nice. There are even two songs. The book is full of songs.
Once on the road the adventure begins. Most of the scenes from the book are there. We have the meeting of the trolls. This scene is a little different than the book but the heart of it is the same. We go to Rivendel, climb the mountain passes where the company barely escapes a battle between stone giants, then the company is caught by the goblins (orcs) and Bilbo is separated from them.
The scenes with Bilbo and Gollum are amoung the best in the film. They are funny, but you are aware of the peril that Bilbo is in. The game of riddles is fantastic. The ultimate point where Bilbo has the chance to kill Gollum but doesn't ("It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand" - Gandalf - LOTR) is quite emotional. You did feel pity for Gollum.
The film ends after the Eagles rescue the company from the fir trees. The company is left high atop a rock where they get a long didtance glimpse of the Lonely Mountain. And then we (big spoiler) get our first real look at Smaug. He stirs from his sleep and opens an eye.

There are many things that have been added that were not in The Hobbit, but have been taken from the appendices of the Lord of the Rings. These are events that actually occured during the time of The Hobbit and tie it in with the Lord of the Rings. I think they add to the enjoyment of the film. Some of the highlights are Radagast the Brown entering Dol Guldur or the council between Gandalf, Elrond, Galadriel and Saruman.

By the way, Cate Blanchett's entrance in the film is stunning.

Some people have complained that the film is too long. I disagree. I like that they have taken the time to tell the story. Too many films are rushed. People also complained that the Lord of the Rings had too many "endings". This of course is nonsense. LOTR could have done well with more material and time added.

The few issues I have with The Hobbit are more about Peter Jackson's style than anything else. He seems to like the over the top action sequences. At times I found that I really had to suspend my disbelief to buy that anyone could have survived a fall for instance. They also seem to ignore the geography of Middle Earth or the time passage in order to conveniently move the story along.

Overall, it is a fantastic film. Martin Freeman is Bilbo Baggins. You can't really imagine anyone else as the Hobbit. The thirteen dwarves are a challenge to get to know (in the book it is the same), but a few, Thorin, of course, Balin and Bofur have so far been developed quite well. I found it particularly satisfying to get to know Balin. It makes the scene in the Lord of the Rings where they find Balin's tomb in Moria more impactful.

Now we have to wait for part two. I will be interested to see how far that will take us. I suspect probably up to the destruction of Lake Town which would leave the battle of five armies and the journey home for part three.

 

The Transit of Venus

Venus passed between the Earth and the Sun today, June 5th, 2012. This is called the Transit of Venus. If you missed it, you will not be able to see it unless you live for another 105 years. The next Transit of Venus will be in 2117.

So if you missed it, I got some photos for you.




Update:

Now NASA has released its footage from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Naturally it puts my photos to shame. It is incredible to see the Sun in such detail. Enjoy.

Annular Solar Eclipse May 2012

For those in the right place on the planet, an annular solar eclipse was visible on May 20th, 2012. The lucky ones witnessed a "ring of fire". This is where the moon has almost completely covered the sun leaving only a firey ring visible around the edge. This is different from a total eclipse in which the entire suns surface is covered. In the case of an annular eclipse, this does not happen because the moon happens to be at its furthest point away from the Earth in its orbit thus making it appear slightly smaller.

A "ring of fire" would be spectacular to see. Unfortunately from my location near Toronto, Canada we did not see that. Those watching would see a small section carved out of the sun right at sunset. And for those that were not watching, I did the watching for you.

Watch the video:

Supermoon 2012

The night of May 5th, 2012 saw a Supermoon. A supermoon is when the moon is at its closest point to Earth in its orbit while at the same time being a full moon. The last time this occurred was March 19th, 2011.

Read my blog from then: Supermoon March 19th, 2011

Here are photos from tonight's Supermoon.

"The Cabin in the Woods" Review

WARNING: This review is full of spoilers. In order to really explain what I liked and why I thought the film worked it is necessary to refer to specific plot points. Do not read this unless you have seen the film.

I went to this film knowing very little about it other than that people had said that it was good and was not what you might expect. I think that was the best way to go see this film. If you haven't seen "The Cabin in the Woods" yet, please stop reading now and see it before you know too much about it.

"The Cabin in the Woods" is directed by Drew Goddard and written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard. It stars Kristen Connolly as Dana, the smart and sexually inexperienced girl, Chris Hemsworth as Curt, the athletic jock, Anna Hutchison as the slutty girl, Jules, Fran Kranz as the pot smoking Marty, and Jesse Williams as Holden, the guy that they are trying to set up Dana with. As the tag line for the film says, "Five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods. Bad things happen."

It was important for the film makers to set the tone for this film right from the start. The film takes the stereotypes of the horror, thriller genres and stands them on their heads. If they didn't set it up right the audience could easily be lost or be confused as to what film they were watching. The set up starts right as the main titles role. The credits appear with menacing music and bloody graphics until BAMM! Suddenly we are in a conversation between two middle aged engineer types talking gossip and work. At this point you are not sure what to think. That scene ends with a cheesy title card for the film. Still not sure what to think.

The film then settles into what appears to be a typical set up for a typical horror, thriller. We are introduced to each of the characters. To me each seemed almost too stereotypical at first, but I believe this was intentional. We have the strong, athletic guy, the hot girl, the smart girl, the pot smoking hippy and Scooby Doo. In fact they all get into an RV (the Mystery Machine) and head up to the cabin.

As they leave we get the first real hint as to what is going on. A man with an earpiece reports that the group has left and is on their way. He is reporting to the very engineer types, played brilliantly by Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford, that we met at the beginning of the film. They are in some sort of control room. They are joined by Amy Acker.

Our gang of five stop for gas on the way and meet a strange and creepy guy who warns them of the dangers ahead. Of course they ignore him and continue on their way. In a particularly funny scene, he is revealed to be on the payroll for the organization.

So, if you have seen the film you will know that what is really happening is that some organization, we really don't know exactly who, is in charge of making sacrifices to some ancient evil force to keep the world safe and that our five young people are to be among those sacrificed. Pretty cool. What was so well done was the way that this was revealed to us. They never gave away too much too early. So while you might be able to guess a little of what was really going on, you never got the full picture until the very end.

Some of the hints that were dropped were really cool. We would see images of other sacrifices around the world on the control room monitors. My favourite was the Japanese school room with a "Ring" like ghost attacking the school girls.

The film did a great job of playing out the typical slasher type thriller scenes in the cabin and mixing it with the humour of the scenes in the control room. There were some genuinely funny moments like the team betting on what creatures would attack the young folks in the cabin.

Most horror films employ a bit of humour mixed with the horror, but this film did it remarkably well.

One moment that really stood out for me was the first death. Jules and Curt go out into the woods. They are hot for each other. This is all being watched by the group in the control room. When it seems like the two are not going to get it on, the control room releases pheromones and adds some mood lighting to encourage them. They are a success when they are able to get boobies exposed.
We are taken from scenes of people joking, to sexual tension, to joking around , to sexual tension, then the killer zombies appear and cut of Jules head.

Normally in a thriller the kills are expected and anticipated, but by cutting between the sex, and the casual joking around of the observers, to the kill, and then back to observers joking, we are not sure how to feel. For me I found Jules death had more impact because it felt wrong to be laughing at it.

Once the surviving duo of Dana and Marty, figure out what is going on and enter the control centre, we are treated to almost every monster and nightmare you can imagine. The cameo appearance of  Sigourney Weaver was a treat. When the tables are turned on the controllers it is very satisfying. However it is hard to imagine how our heroes will survive and in fact we are left believing that they don't.

I did find myself genuinely caring for the characters. They had been drawn as broad stereotypes (this is really because they were being chemically controlled by the organization to be such) but ended up being likable. I even felt for the guys in the control room when they met their demise, especially for Bradley Whitford's character who got taken out by a merman.

"The Cabin in the Woods" was all in all a really good film.

Cold Algonquin Spring

I have just returned from a four day canoe trip in one of my favourite places in the world, Algonquin Park.

Spring is an interesting time to go. The weather can be extremely variable, especially in early spring, which is what we discovered on this trip. When we booked the trip, the long range forecast showed that it would be a comfortable temperature with sun and perhaps a little bit of cloud. As it got closer that changed. We arrived in the park to a light snow and a temperature of -5 degrees. Some might call us crazy, but we got into the canoe and off we went. This is our trip.

photo: (There is a thin layer of ice on the water directly in front of the canoe)


The two of us on this trip are myself and a friend that I used to work with, Tim. We arrived at Algonquin Park just after 10:00am. There was a light snow in the air and it was cold. Not to worry we would soon be warm from paddling the canoe, if we could first get it through the thin layer of ice between us and the creek.

This is a really nice part of the park to canoe. Our start point was right on the edge of Highway 60 just west of the main visitor centre. We put in into Sunday Creek. This is the same creek that flows through the Spruce Boardwalk Trail (which is in fact on the other side of the highway). Sunday Creek meanders through a marshy area on its way to Norway Lake. That part of the trip is not very long, maybe 30 - 40 minutes. There are a few beaver dams across the creek. They were all fairly easy to push the canoe over going downstream.

From Norway Lake we followed another small section of river to Fork Lake. This portion had a slightly larger beaver dam. We made it over going down but knew that it would require getting out on the way back.

Once on Fork Lake we looked for our campsite. We had a choice of two. One was on the north west shore and the other was on a small island. From a distance we could see that the island looked rather sparse as far as trees. This would make it difficult to find wood for the campfire. On the plus side, there would be more sun. We were closer to the site on the north west shore so we chose to take a closer look at that first. Up a steep bank was the site. There was not really any good place to put the tents and it was clear that this would be in shade from mid-afternoon on. There was, however a big pile of would left behind by whoever had that site before. That would be ours.

We paddled over to the island. It was very nice despite there being some snow on the ground in the shaded areas. This is where we would stay for the next four days. We unloaded, then took a trip back to the other site to claim the wood. The wood, we knew, would not be enough. Like I said, it was cold. If it got above zero that first day we were lucky, so we knew that we would be needing a fire to keep warm from evening into night. So the search was on for more wood.

photo: (snow on the ground as we arrived at the island)

We canoed to a couple of portage points in our search for wood. There were plenty of dead trees and branches so we made daily trips to collect wood. And boy did we need it.

photo: (Tim and wood in the canoe)

I should mention, that I had unfortunately caught a cold earlier in the week and was not completely over it. Now the cold weather wasn't helping. The night of April 27th the forecast said that the temperature dropped to -10 degrees. I believe it! We had a good fire going from late afternoon onwards just trying to keep warm.I took a rock from the fire to heat my tent. That really works well for a couple of hours.

photo: (a nice warm fire)

photo: (a hot rock sitting atop a cold rock in my tent)


So the first night was fine to start off. The hot rock made my tent warm and the two bottles I filled with hot water also kept me warm for a few hours. Then it got really cold. I have a mummy bag that I believe is rated to about -12 degrees. Not quite sure what that means. It certainly doesn't mean that you will be comfortable in -10 degrees. Perhaps it just means that you won't freeze to death, I don't know. I also will be getting rid of the mummy bag and getting a conventional bag. To keep warm, I had it completely done up, only my face showing out of the top. Now you can't really move inside a mummy bag and it is a little difficult to get out of. Anyway, at some point in the night, I think around 2am, I woke to a cough. I realized that I couldn't breath at all through my nose. Combine that with the cough and the constricted movement of the mummy bag, I suddenly felt extremely claustrophobic. I felt like I couldn't breath. It was not nice. Despite the cold, I got out of my sleeping bag, put on my shoes and went outside for a few minutes.

I highly recommend going outside when it is pitch dark in the deep of the night when the sky is clear. The stars are stunning. Hopefully, in most cases it will not be so cold.

photo: (from previous trip to Norway Lake)

I had had thoughts that night about never being warm again. I pictured four days with no reprieve from the cold. But the next day was a little warmer, and sitting in the sun, out of the wind brought the warmth back.

The great thing about canoeing to a site and staying there, rather than moving each night, is that you can just relax and enjoy nature. While we did have to get wood every day, we also got to explore a little. We followed one of the portage routes along a stream with rapids and a small waterfall.

photo: (waterfall)

And we were able to just sit back and watch the days go by.



The second day some other people arrived at the site on the northwest shore of the lake. We felt bad for a second that we had taken the pile of wood from there, but then we got over it. The second night, being a little warmer, I stayed up to take some photos.

photo: (starry sky and campfire at the other campsite)

photo: (moon veiled by thin clouds at night)

photo: (canoe in the moonlight)


Getting back to nature is amazing. It is a good experience to be at the mercy of weather. I mean really at its mercy, not just inconvenienced as you go to and from your warm home to work or shopping. Out there, we had to deal with unexpected cold and with wind. We had to find ways to stay warm. It literally could be deadly if we were not prepared. But we also had calm and comfortable moments. And all of it is beautiful.

As with every trip, you look forward to going home, but are sad to leave.

Watch as we make the one and a half hour canoe trip from our little island back to the highway in just under a minute.

"If I Wanted America to Fail"

I recently watched a video entitled, "If I Wanted America to Fail". The video is produced by FreeMarketAmerica.org . I came across it through a link posted on twitter by Sarah Palin. As you can imagine this video is four minute and thirty-nine second piece of right wing propaganda.

Unfortunately we now live in a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to get a straight story from people. The media (of all stripes) tends to report opinion rather than facts. They will have a pundit on from one side giving their view and then a pundit from the other side giving an opposing view. Then they typically wrap up the story with neither side agreeing and the viewer wondering what is the actual truth. I do put a lot of blame on journalists for this. It should be their job to research and report the facts. It's fine to have differing views on, but please, when somebody is talking out of their ass call them on it!

Back to the video. Click the link to watch it http://youtu.be/CZ-4gnNz0vc

The video makes a lot of claims that are either untrue or designed simply to put fear into the hearts of people. Fear of the evil liberals and progressives. By the way, I really don't think that most conservatives actually know the meaning of those words.

It starts out making the statement that if you wanted America to fail, "to suffer, not prosper, to despair, not dream. I'd start with energy." The rest of the video goes on to say that the only way for America to prosper is to use its cheap and abundant energy while showing oil rigs and coal production. It complains that politicians (obviously aimed at the Obama administration) want to make people feel guilty about using energy.

It then continues with the phony argument that schools had been teaching kids that an ice age was coming decades ago and now we have to worry about global warming. Of course if there is a cold spell, the name changes to climate change.

They make references to Al Gore preaching green technology while still using a lot of energy himself.

Then they talk about the free market being the be all and end all for prosperity.They attack regulations as evil things that must be removed or there will be no prosperity.

It ridicules efforts to protect endangered species. They call the environmental movement an economic suicide pact.


Wow!

Now let's take a look at some of these points. The cheap and abundant energy that they refer to is oil, natural gas and coal. All fossil fuels. These are people that have very little scientific knowledge if they don't believe that burning fossil fuels pumps tons of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere. I think that it may be worse than that. They may actually be smart enough to know the truth but willfully ignore it because it is more profitable in the short term or too inconvenient to make the necessary changes.

For those that truly don't believe that climate change is real try this little experiment. Take two large jars (the bigger the better). Put a thermometer in both. Fill one with plain old air and the other with carbon dioxide (CO2), or if you have access to it, use methane (another greenhouse gas). Now put the jars out in the sun. Take a look at the thermometers. The one with the greenhouse gas inside will be at a significantly higher temperature. The greenhouse gases trap heat. That is precisely what is happening in our atmosphere.

Now I know very few of you will try the experiment for yourself, so that is why there are scientists that work on these things every day. They build models that make predictions, then they make observations that will either confirm or deny their predictions. The prediction that the world will get warmer with more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has been proven, that's right, proven by observation.

If you can't accept peer reviewed science then you should not be driving a car or reading this on your computer. It is the same scientific method that has given us all the technology that we use and rely on today.

In regards to America only prospering if it uses its cheap abundant energy, this is folly. There would likely be short term profit and prosperity for those in those industries but the long term cost of climate change would dwarf that. The video implies that green energy is expensive. It is more expensive at the moment. That is why we need to develop those technologies faster so that they become more efficient economically. India is doing wonders promoting the use of solar and the prices have dropped to be competitive with other forms of energy in that country.
http://ecowatch.org/2012/ambitious-solar-program-in-india-driving-prices-to-impressive-lows/

Think about how much more prosperous America would be if it had developed good reliable clean energy in the forms of solar or wind or a myriad of other techniques. These are sources that will never be depleted. Oil, natural gas and coal are finite. Granted there is plenty of coal to last a long time, but then again we come to the fact that we are burning it. We are putting CO2 that was captured out of the atmosphere millions and years ago back into the atmosphere. If we burn a tree (still not good) but that is newly captured carbon that can be captured again by new trees. What we are doing when we burn fossil fuels is putting greenhouse gases that have been out of circulation back into the cycle. The only possible result is an increase in temperature or climate change.

The attack on Al Gore in unfounded. It is true that he uses a good amount of energy. We all do. It is the only way we can live our modern lifestyle. All the more reason for us to develop clean energy so we can still have that lifestyle without the negative consequences of burning fossil fuels. These are not limited to greenhouse gases. Over 2.4million people die every year from causes directly attributable to air pollution.





The video attacks regulations. Regulations are put in place for a good reason. To stop people or companies from doing things that harm others or the environment. News for you; we all live in the same environment! Obviously regulations should be well thought out and efficiently enforced but to say that they should be done away with so that profit can be made is short sighted and dangerous. The free market is good. Capitalism is good, but unbridled capitalism is as bad or worse than any other 'ism you wish to mention.

Protecting other species is of the utmost importance. When species go extinct it is a clear sign that something is wrong. Again, we live in the same environment as they do. Always better to ere on the side if caution than steamroll ahead with no regard to other species. Teddy Roosevelt, a conservative, created the National Park system.

Calling the environmental movement a suicide pact is ridiculous. Not doing what we can to protect the environment is sure suicide. Believing anything else is willful ignorance.

I have included some links to recent articles that show the effects of neglecting the environment. I strongly encourage you to read them. Maybe you will learn something. Having an open mind and accepting actual evidence is far more important that rigidly and blindly sticking to an ideology.

The Global Cooling Myth
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2005/01/the-global-cooling-myth/

Global Warming Has Driven Europe's Mountain Plants to Migrate 2.7m Upwards in 7 Years
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/page/275046_Global_Warming_Has_Driven_Euro

Antarctica Ice Melting Caused By Warm Water From Below, Study Claims
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/25/antarctica-ice-melting-study_n_1453179.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

State of Flux Images of Change
http://climate.nasa.gov/sof/#Icemelt_Alaska13.jpg

Fracking in Ohio
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/hhenderson/fracking_in_ohio.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+switchboard_all+%28Switchboard%3A+Blogs+from+NRDC%27s+Environmental+Experts%29

Oh, and for those interested, here are the definitions of liberal and progressive.

Liberal:

a. Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.

b. Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

Progressive:

1. Moving forward; advancing.

2. Proceeding in steps; continuing steadily by increments: progressive change.

3. Promoting or favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods: a progressive politician; progressive business leadership.

from TheFreeDictionary.com

Titanic - 100 Years

On April 14th, 1912 at 11:40pm the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg. At 2:20am on April 15th Titanic sank beneath the water claiming the lives of 1,517 people.

The story of the Titanic is one that has captivated people for 100 years. But why. It was far from the worst maritime disaster. It was just before the start of WWI in which millions lost their lives. It is one of those stories that if it was fiction would seem to good.

Titanic was the second of the Olympic class ships to be built. Olympic and Titanic were essentially the same size although Titanic was heavier, thus making it the largest ship in the world at that time. It was also one of the most technologically advanced ships with water tight compartments and remotely operated water tight doors. Many considered her unsinkable.

Titanic was also the height of luxury. It had restaurants, libraries, a gym and a swimming pool. The passenger list included some of the richest people in the world and high society.

The fact that this was Titanic's maiden voyage also adds to the story.

Titanic departed Southampton on April 10th, 1912. It picked up more passengers in Cherbourg, France then began it's trans-Atlantic crossing. Four days later tragedy struck.

The night of April 14, 1912 was clear and calm. There was no moon but the stars were described as brilliant. Lookouts said that the horizon was soft. It is very possible that the temperatures on that night led to some mirage lensing of the horizon making it difficult to see and almost impossible to see an iceberg.

Because the night was "clear" the Titanic was running fast. When they saw the iceberg there was very little time to react. The ship took a glancing blow on it's starboard side. Water began flooding into the ship. Five of the first water tight compartments were taking on water. The ship could stay afloat with the first four compartment flooded but not five. Additionally, as the bow went down the water began to overflow each of the water tight compartments. The ship would sink.

While Titanic had more lifeboats than were required by law, there were still only enough for half of the people on board. Many of those lifeboats were not even fully loaded when they left the ship. Almost all of the survivors were the people in those lifeboats. Only 13 of the people that went into the water survived. The water was cold and most succumb to hypothermia within minutes. Of course many actually went down with the ship to a watery grave at the bottom of the ocean.

It took just over two and a half hours for Titanic to sink. It was almost another two hours until RMS Carpathia arrived to pick up survivors. Only 710 people survived.

It is an amazing story of technology, nature and human tragedy.

A few other interesting facts:

The ship the Californian was close enough to Titanic to have been able to assist in rescuing people but did not come to its aid. They likely saw the Titanic but did not realize that that is what they were looking at.


Stewardess and nurse, Violet Jessop survived the sinking of Titanic and her sister ship Britannic as well as being on board the Olympic when it collided with a navy ship.


In James Cameron's movie, Titanic, the ship strikes the iceberg at the 1 hour 40 minute mark. If you are going to see the rerelease 3D version in a theatre tonight (April 12, 2012) and you go to a 10pm showing, the on screen ship will hit the iceberg at the same time that the actual Titanic did 100 years ago.

War On Stay At Home Moms... I Think Not

Two days ago during a discussion on CNN about why the presumed Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney doesn't connect with women, Hilary Rosen made the following comments:

On the economy, I think that Mitt Romney's right that ultimately women care more about the economic well being of their family and the like. But he doesn't connect on that issue either. What you have is Mitt Romney running around the country saying, "well you know my wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues and when I listen to my wife, that's what I'm hearing."

Guess what, his wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing in terms of how do we feed our kids, how do we send them to school and why we worry about their future. So I think it's, yes it's about these positions and yes, I think there will be a war of words about the positions, but there's something much more fundamental about Mitt Romney. He seems so old fashioned when it comes to women and I think that comes across and I think that's going to hurt him over the long term. He just doesn't really see us as equal.

Video




Almost immediately after this piece aired, a firestorm of responses lit up, first on social media and then in TV, radio and print. People accused Hilary Rosen of attacking stay at home moms, that she doesn't think that raising children is work and that "liberals" and "progressives" hate the fact that some women make the choice to stay home and raise their kids.

Now before I go any further, I want to make it clear that I have the utmost respect for parents, mothers and fathers. Raising kids is not easy. I don't imagine it was easy for my parents and I know it isn't easy for my brother and his girlfriend who are raising a daughter and son. I don't have kids of my own, but am very involved with my niece and in the past worked at a childcare centre. So I know it is hard work. And worth it.

What got me so angry over this issue is the willful ignorance displayed by those attacking Hilary Rosen (who by the way has adopted twins). If you read or listen to what she said, she is in no way attacking stay at home moms. Any reasonable person would understand what she is saying in the context that she said it.

Unfortunately, in this insane partisan world and with the United States in campaign mode (when isn't it?), reasonable and intelligent people seem hard to find.

The attacks came fast and furious. Some of the first that I saw came from conservative blogger and political commentator, Michelle Malkin @michellemalkin . This woman spews the most vile hateful things at people she doesn't agree with. Here are a few of her tweets on the subject:

Wow @hilaryr doesn't know when to stop digging. Just put down the shovel. #waronconservativewomen

Funny, we never hear @hilaryr caviling about 1%ers @NancyPelosi @ariannahuff & THeinzKerry pretending to identify w/working moms' struggles

Just posted-- The Left’s war on conservative women: We’re damned if we do stay home, and damned if we don’t http://is.gd/rSg7cB

.@AnnDRomney joins Twitter to respond to radical feminist attack; @HilaryR digs in, @DavidAxelrod flees http://is.gd/NMXOoI

Her tirade continued for the next two days and likely beyond.

As you can see from the last tweet I posted, Ann Romney (wife of Mitt Romney) joined twitter that night to respond.

This is what she said:

 

 

I made a choice to stay home and raise five boys. Believe me, it was hard work.

And like I said, I agree, it is hard work. However, she is not responding to some radical feminist attack. There was no attack on the fact that she is a mother.

 

 

The point was clearly, that for Mitt to look to his wife to tell him what is important to the average American woman, that is ridiculous. Neither he nor Ann have ever had to worry about money. Ann says that she made the "choice" to stay home. Good for her. The problem is that most American women (or men for that matter) do not have the luxury of being able to make that choice. Most probably would if they could. Unfortunately they have to work just to make ends meet while at the same time raising their kids.

 

 

Hilary Rosen was also hit upon be people on the left. They were mostly just trying to distance themselves from any controversy. Those trying to distance themselves included both President Obama and Michelle Obama. The thing is, there should have been no controversy to distance ones self from!

 

 

A couple more points.

 

 

Hilary was criticised for implying that raising kids isn't work. She did not say that. She used the word "work" in the way that everybody typically does to describe being employed, running a business or any other thing that gives you an income. We all know and agree that raising kids is work but not in the sense that was meant in her comments.

 

 

Others have criticised Hilary for attacking the wife of a candidate. Family should be off limits they say. I whole heartedly agree, except if a family member is actively involved in such a campaign or used to justify a position that a candidate has. In that case they are fair game.

 

 

This whole thing is as others have put it, faux outrage. I am outraged at the deliberate way people have chosen to misrepresent Hilary's comments. It is a sad state for humanity when there is such ignorance and worse willful ignorance out there.

 

 

Hilary did apologize for her comments. This is what she said on twitter:

 

 

I deeply apologize again to work-in-home moms, Mrs Romney & the POTUS. Not going on #MTP this weekend. I'm going to be a mom who stays home

 

 

She shouldn't have. She said nothing wrong. Perhaps she is the bigger person for doing it.