The Monkey Business Ilusion

How did you do? I was off by 3 and failed the important parts.

Hawking at Perimeter

Stephen Hawking gave a presentation at Waterloo's Perimeter Institute yesterday, chronicling his life's work in theoretical physics. He has been a leader in joining the physics of the very large (cosmology) and the very small (quantum mechanics). How a black hole leaks off energy is a little beyond my ability to properly articulate, but it fundamentally changed how physicists understand the universe.

Hawking is known for his sense of humor and while his ALS condition make the delivery of jokes somewhat a function of context (and the quality of his text-to-voice computer) the slides shown above are examples: the first showing what he wants on his grave stone and the second a comment about life in the universe while being featured on an episode of the Simpsons.

First self-replicating artificial life

Yesterday the researchers at the Craig Venter Institute announced something extraordinary -- a bacteria cell that was in part designed using a computer without using any pieces of natural DNA. If you happen to have an at-home DNA sequencer and get some of these cells, the designers inserted various watermarks in their new life form as well as an email address to contact - sort of bacterial easter eggs or dog tags.

Venter is frequently sited as a leading researcher in synthetic bio-fuels, was a leader of the human genome project and his Institute operate the Global Ocean Sampling Expedition.

Ahh spring

We had May weather in April, so now we are having April weather in May. That is me in the snowy stern of the green canoe last weekend enjoying a three day paddle with canoe club friends in Algonquin Park. My new 42 pound Souris River canoe made portaging blissfully easy in comparison to every other canoe I have ever carrier. More photos here.

Apathy & Eco-douchebaggery

There is an article in the May 2010 issue of Explore magazine by J.B. Mackinnon (he wrote the 100 Mile Diet with his wife Alisa Smith) in which he credits the phrase eco-douchebag to conservation scientist Jennifer Jaquet and her Guilty Planet blog where she features an image of a warning sign in a Whole Foods supermarket: "Dear Customer: Please be advised that our Bread Slicer is used for both Organic and Conventional items." What would compel a store to post such a sign? An eco-douchbag agitator and a foolish acquiescence to said sorry sack.

The article ends with: The greatest enemy of change is apathy, and at the heart of apathy Stanley Cohen found denial: "Our need to be innocent of a troubling recognition." Our small and imperfect efforts are constant reminders that there are patterns to break, whole stories to rewrite, and while they are never enough, no, never enough, a little practice surely won't hurt.

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Spring on the Magnetawan

Friends from the Waterloo Wellington Canoe Club came up to the cottage for some canoeing. Kevin is an excellent canoeist and made my job in the bow easy, notwithstanding the canoe full of water that resulted on Sunday when I pulled us off line.

Winter in Killarney

The first week of March delivered fantastic winter camping conditions -- I spent four nights alone in the interior of Killarney Provincial Park. It was the first use of my new pulk a (sled connected with poles to a waist harness).

I had intended to follow the La Cloche Silhouette trail but as you can see in the photo, there wasn't a lot of snow, especially on sun exposed sections. I essentially followed a canoe route around a couple lakes and did a couple day hikes. The weather was fantastic! One afternoon I came back from a walk up to Silver Peak and sat on the rock in the background of the photo in bare feet for over half an hour.

2011 Columbia River

The route and schedule has been released for the 2011 Voyageur Brigade down the Columbia River. This event will be similar to the David Thompson Brigade of 2008 where there will be lots of community celebrations of the fur trade and we will paddle 25 foot canoes.

Play nice

This photo sequence is not from a zoo or staged or photoshopped. The three fully fed young cheetahs were photographed for 15 minutes as they licked and petted the baby impala before it rejoined the herd. Of course on some other day it will be a different story ending.

Invasive earthworms

I have been catching up on some reading this week. An article in Scientific American (March 2009) might be interesting to those who fish or garden. The article's author has a copy at:
www.michaeltennesen.com/pdfs/sciam_worms_tennesen.pdf

Essentially it explains that after the last ice age the forests around the Great Lakes developed without earthworms. And now that people are moving earthworms around as fish bait, in vehicle mud and in compost it has been discovered that certain non-native worms (such as the "night crawler") eat up the dead leafs which are needed for new trees to grow. The article says, "As a result, some northern hardwood forests that once had a lush understory now have but a single species of native herb and virtually no tree seedlings."

Needless to say, it is impossible to eradicate worms so if you fish with worms, you now need to know if the species is foreign or native, or at the very least, don't let any escape. The article also points out that the idea of a community compost sounded like a good idea but now it is just a highly effective way to disperse the problematic critters.
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