Serial Dining in Toronto

This sounds perfect. And the oddest thing is, I'm sure that the founder went to the same school as me. God knows it developed eccentrics.

Xmas Break

Sorry, gone till next year.

Moving to Canada, Eh? :: By Dahlia Lithwick & Alex Lithwick

One of the great frustrations of any Canadian is that well-intentioned Americans attempting to introduce other Americans to the real Canada seem to be in command of only about 12 words. Here they are in no particular order: loonies, toonies, snow, Tim Hortons, hockey, poutine, socialized medicine, DeGrassi Junior High, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Labatt, French, and the expression "eh."

But there is so much more to Canada. Just ask any one of the many Canadians who are lurking about in your midst. (We lurk because we love.) There are great reasons, beyond frostbite and pink currency, to seriously consider relocation to the Great White. But still, Canada is still not for everyone. So here's a quiz, for those of you still considering joining the Bush-dodgers relocating to Canada...

More $$ into the Blue Skies :: Slate fray

This post from an anonymous poster in the Slate fray sums up my concerns with SDI - most of which I learned from Way Out There in the Blue (well, and a tiny inkling of common sense).

Well, the SDI system works as it was intended to work.

That is, it provides defense contractors with a two or three decade development and deployment phase to set up a system that will defend against Soviet ICBMs. Or Chinese ICBMs. Or ICBMs from any country loony enough to launch one from its own soil. As long as that soil is far enough away to require a high trajectory and at least 20 minutes or so of flight time required to detect, verify and lock on to the target.

It won't defend against a cheap, makeshift, short range missile launched from a cargo ship sitting 50 miles off New York. Or Florida. Or California. Or... Well, you get the point. We have so many populated areas sitting on so many miles of coastline that an adversary could choose one of the less obvious targets, such as Charleston or Boca Raton, and still kill tens of thousands.

Want to run down some of the other things against which SDI is useless? A dirty bomb. A suitcase bomb. A cargo container bomb. A FedEx bomb. Anthrax. (Remember Anthrax? The administration doesn't, judging by the progress of the investigation into the anthrax attacks.) Poisoning water supplies. Stinger missiles. Suicide truck bombers like Tim McVeigh. The list goes on.

2004 Lists of the Year :: Fimoculous.com

If you're looking for a "Top 10", "Top5" or "Best of" list, this is the place for you.

Trade Rumour

The Raptors would acquire Alonzo Mourning, Eric Williams, Aaron Williams and two first round draft picks in exchange for Carter.
So.
As I see it, the only way this works for the Raps is if the Ewing Theory holds true. Their new roster line-up would look like:
PG - 1. Alston, 2. Palacio.
SG - 1. M. Peterson, L. Murray
SF - 1. J. Rose, E. Williams, M. Bonner,
PF - 1. C. Bosh, D. Marshall, J. Moiso, P. Sow
C - 1. A. Williams, A. Mourning, L. Woods, R. Araujo (ha!)

At best, they're like a low-rent Grizzlies, with Bosh in the Pau Gasol role. Meaning that they now look like a team that maybe gets the 8th spot in the playoffs and lose. Which is arguably better than their current - "wait for Carter to care" strategy.

The other issue with this trade is that Raptors fans would have to trust the current mgmt with the draft picks. Umm, so far, I have to say, that's not looking good for us. Araujo is a project with limited upside, whereas Boston's Jefferson and Allen have looked good as has Philly's Andre Iguodala.

Fred Kaplan :: Must we spend another US$80B before we admit missile defense doesn't work?

What Paul Martin is trying to avoid wasting millions (billions?) on without aggravating the elephant.

Let's say you're buying the most complicated computer system ever devised. It's still in the early stages. The payments are costing a fortune. The software's riddled with bugs. Some software hasn't been written yet. Several scientists doubt the thing will ever work properly. Finally, just this week, you couldn't even get it to switch on.
Now let's say you're the program manager of the Pentagon's missile-defense agency.
But I repeat myself.

The key point being:

A question for the overseers in Congress: Is it time now for a serious look at this program? Missile defense consumed $10.7 billion of this year's military budget—far more than any other weapon system.
About $80 billion has been spent on it since Ronald Reagan stepped up research and development for the mission 20 years ago. Another $80 billion is scheduled to be spent before the decade is out. It may be time to ask: Why?

See here for more.

The Versatile Disc :: 20 Great Outdoor Uses

This is too funny. Since starting to play ultimate, I've brought a frisbee everywhere. High in the Rockies, deep into Algonquin, etc...

The flying disc (FD) is one of the most indispensable tools I have at the campfire kitchen. It's size and shape make it the ideal food prep' and serve tool:
Cutting Board - few things slip off the edge of the FD cutting board. Diced onions don't tumble off the side and the juice from sliced tomatoes doesn't spill over the edge. If the cuts make the surface too frizzy, pretend it's the hull of your rotomolded kayak and shave them away with a throw-away razor.
Serving Tray - Leave those slices of cheese or pieces of fruit right on the FD for a handy serving tray. It works equally well as a serving dish for steamed items, too.
Dinner Plate - There's no better way to eat spaghetti! A buddy of mine turned me on to the versatility of the FD one night when a group of us were kayak camping. We were one dinner plate short and my friend whipped out a Frisbee™ from his pack and said, "Here, use this." Since that meal I have always carried a FD specifically for that purpose. It's great for oatmeal and especially suited for pancakes.
Stove Platform - Muddy ground, sandy soil or even a mantle of snow and ice are no match for the FD's utility as a platform base for your small stove. In fact, if you are filling your stove's fuel tank, place your stove in the concave side of the FD to contain any fuel that might leak during filling.
Wind Block - Those small stoves burn more efficiently when they are not buffeted by the wind or even a
small breeze. Support your FD so its broad side is windward of your stove and you have a great windbreak as needed.
Fan the Fire - Like to create a few glowing embers with a real fire? No problem. In fact, fanning a fire with a FD is like using a bellows to force extra air into the heart of the firey beast. The only drawback to the FD around fire is, of course, its tendency to melt at higher temperatures. Be careful.

...and others...

mental break factor

You are 26% geek

You are a geek liaison, which means you go both ways. You can hang out with normal people or you can hang out with geeks which means you often have geeks as friends and/or have a job where you have to mediate between geeks and normal people. This is an important role and one of which you should be proud. In fact, you can make a good deal of money as a translator. Normal: Tell our geek we need him to work this weekend. You [to Geek]: We need more than that, Scotty. You'll have to stay until you can squeeze more outta them engines! Geek [to You]: I'm givin' her all she's got, Captain, but we need more dilithium crystals! You [to Normal]: He wants to know if he gets overtime.

Take the Polygeek Quiz at Thudfactor.com

The Bell Curve

Thoughts on the impact of statistical analysis on medicine. As Gawande points out, every other business is constantly driving towards these kinds of improvements. Six Sigma, ISO 9001/2, CMM, ITIL, are aimed at making business processes standardized as the first step in improving it. If it can't be measured, it can't be improved.

It used to be assumed that differences among hospitals or doctors in a particular specialty were insignificant. If you plotted a graph showing the results of all the centers treating cystic fibrosis—or any other disease, for that matter—people expected that the curve would look something like a shark fin, with most places clustered around the very best outcomes. But the evidence has begun to indicate otherwise. What you tend to find is a bell curve: a handful of teams with disturbingly poor outcomes for their patients, a handful with remarkably good results, and a great undistinguished middle.

Apparently, in order to fix medicine, we need to do two things: measure ourselves and be more open about what [we] are doing. This meant routinely comparing the performance of doctors and hospitals, looking at everything from complication rates to how often a drug ordered for a patient is delivered
correctly and on time. And, Berwick insisted, hospitals should give patients total access to the information. “‘No secrets’ is the new rule in my escape fire, ”We are used to thinking that a doctor’s ability depends mainly on science and skill. The lesson from Minneapolis is that these may be the easiest parts of care. Even doctors with great knowledge and technical skill can have mediocre results; more nebulous factors like aggressiveness and consistency and ingenuity can matter enormously.

Once we acknowledge that, no matter how much we improve our average, the bell curve isn’t going away, we’re left with all sorts of questions. Will being in the bottom half be used against doctors in lawsuits? Will we be expected to tell our patients how we score? Will our patients leave us? Will those at the bottom be paid less than those at the top? The answer to all these questions is likely yes.

LiveStrong (or possibly not) :: Wristbands a patient risk

Several area hospitals are putting the brakes on Lance Armstrong's cancer organization fundraising bracelets. It's not cold-hearted backlash, but rather a safety precaution. Patients wear colored bracelets to identify safety needs, said Lisa Johnson, vice president of patient services for Morton Plant Mease Health Care. Yellow stands for "do not resuscitate." "We wouldn't want to mistake a Lance Armstrong bracelet and not resuscitate someone we're supposed to."

A $15M novella paid for by me and you

Thanks to John Barber's Saturday column in the globe for this link. Now his column (and the other Globe worthies) are now out of circulation, I'll quote some of the highlights:

This "executive summary" of the whole MFP scam cost more
than $2M to produce. It is... a blazing indictment with every loose detail
obtained over years of evasive testimony nailed tight into place, every
ridiculous alibi demolished by rifle shots of hard facts and and the clear,
obvious truth about a complicated scam set out in the brightest light (like the
denouement of a good detective novel, only true).

And Mr. Barber is good enough to highlight the damning indictment of the two best known individuals in the whole sad story, ex-hairdresser-turned-IT salesman (and also Tie Domi's brother) Dash Domi and former City of Toronto Treasurer and 2003 mayoral candidate, Tom Jakobek.

i) Jakobek and Domi had an inappropriate and otherwise inexplicable relationship
ii) Jakobek and Domi repeatedly denied or minimized their relationship
iii) Domi and Jakobek went to extraordinary lengths to deny or minimize the extent of their relationship:
a). Jakobek recalled only a handful of conversations with Domi; the evidence proved over 100 cellular telephone conversations; ...
iii) ...Domi and Jakobek both relied on family members to provide alibis for their suspicious banking transactions between November 1 and 3, 1999. Both alibis shared remarkably similar fundamental elements. Both men relied on:
a. the purported repayment of long-standing imprecise family debts, which had never been documented;
b. family members to fill obvious gaps in their own stories;
c. family members’ willingness to handle thousands of dollars of cash;
d. family members having thousands of dollars in cash in their homes;
e. spontaneous, extraordinarily generous gifts of money from less wealthy to more wealthy family members that were apparently treated as if it was pocket change; and
f. incredibly tight-knit, loyal, and protective family members.

There's lots more - including an $11M dollar Oracle contract signed with no business or presentation to management. There's Wanda Liczyk's affair with a consultant of record, followed by her 'close friendship' with Dash Domi. Really, it's like a soap opera - only acted out by real people and not actors.

Recapping PM the PM's First Anniversary :: Inkless Wells

A caustic put-down of the big guy by a columnist who was way ahead of the curve in understanding his limitations (umm, here's the shorthand: usual critique of the guy — that he's indecisive, disingenuous, stunningly naive, yet had managed to knife a winning leader and endanger his own party for no other reason than to park his heinie in the big chair):

"Each of those years will look like the one we've been through. Making history? Fixing health care for a generation? Why even bother rebutting any of it? History's entry for Paul Martin will resemble the entry for Earth in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: 'Mostly Harmless.'"

Cool personal technology

An mp3 player that updates you on your speed while you jog...

Obesity due to chronic sleep deprivation

Two new studies, published today, show that too little sleep can lead to higher levels of a hormone that triggers appetite, and lower levels of a hormone that tells your body it's full and has enough fuel.

The result: The less you sleep, the more you eat -- and the more weight you gain.

In the paper, published in the medical journal Public Library of Science Medicine, researchers speculate that sleep loss has an impact on several hormones related to appetite and food intake. They said two such hormones -- ghrelin and leptin -- are thought to play a role in the interaction between short sleep-duration and high body-mass index (an approximation of body fat based on height and weight).

Ghrelin, which is primarily produced by the stomach, triggers appetite in humans: The more ghrelin you have, the more you want to eat.

Leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells, tells the body that its energy stocks are low and that there is a need to consume more calories. Low leptin levels are a signal for starvation and increased appetite.

Dr. Taheri and his colleagues found that people who normally slept for five hours nightly produced 14.9 per cent more ghrelin than those who slept for eight hours. They also produced 15.5 per cent less leptin. The results held regardless of gender, eating patterns or exercise habits.

A second, unrelated study, published in today's edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine, also found a link between sleep and hunger hormones. Researchers at the University of Chicago took 12 healthy young men and allowed them to sleep only four hours nightly. The result, after only two nights of sleep deprivation, was a 28-per-cent increase in ghrelin and an 18-per-cent drop in leptin. In addition, participants reported not only being hungrier, but craving calorie-dense, high-carbohydrate foods such as chips and cookies.

Personality Plus

Outlining the shortcomings of personality tests. . . or no more Myers-Briggs Inventory...

Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s

Well, here's some DVD renting possibilities for ya!

Just strike it

Asterisks are in. If Barry cheated (which technically he didn't, because baseball is indifferent to 'roids, HGH, etc.) and people want to discount his records, then who's the new home run king (remembering of course, that chicks dig the long ball :)

Harmon Killebrew, Frank Robinson and Ted Kluszewski.

Huh?

Frankly, I'd love to see accurate testing in the NFL more than any other league in the world. more thoughts later.

God's favorite basketball team :: Slate

The Ontario kicker ::
"Harry Sheehy, Athletes in Action's all-time leading scorer, says Northern crowds were the toughest to inspire. When AIA played Ontario's Laurentian University, the school's French-Canadian explorer mascot keeled over just as Sheehy wrapped up his halftime testimonial. It wasn't because of the power of his message -- Sheehy could smell the mascot's boozy breath from half court."

Friday interlude

Oh, what do you think of this? I stopped by the St L market to pick up some cheeses for the dinner, and I headed to the bank machine next to the Harveys, across the street from the market first. A guy in his late 30s-early 40s, reasonably well dressed, came up to me and apologetically asked me for $1.75 b/c he'd ordered a combo and didn't have enough to pay for it. I flipped him some change from my pocket,and turned the corner to wait in line for the ATM. He walks back into the Harveys. I move ahead in line, start to key in my numbers. I hear a voice behind me, asking someone else in the line for the ATM, "I'm so sorry - I just ordered a combo and it turns out, I don't have enough cash to pay for it - could I trouble you for $2?" The guy he asks fumbles around in his coat pocket and gives him some cash. I'm slightly irked, but don't do anything. The burger-bum (as I shall now dub him) walks back into the Harveys. I cross the street slowly to the market, and get stranded on the island in the middle of Front St. for a minute or so. As I go to jaywalk south to the front door, who should be walking relatively near me? Burger bum. So I say aloud, "That's a nice scam you've got there." He looks startled, and doubles his speed and walks off along Front, while I go into the market and try to track down some raw milk cheeses.

Questions:
1. Is it bad form for him to use deception to beg for money?
2. Is it unethical?3. Is it ethical for me to judge him?
4. For me to judge other vagrants who ask for $$?
5. Why did it/does it irk me?

Weekend recap

Friday: left work and went by the St. Lawrence market to pick up some cheeses for D&C's xmas get-together. I went to Olympic, but Alex's Cheeses is just as good if not better. The cheeses were good, all from Quebec. D&C's was ok - I DD'ed. Quick oddity - as I drove home, someone in the backseat still had a beer, and popped it open as a traveler. People still do that? Not terribly cool - esp. at xmas, with the RIDE program in effect, and when you're getting a free lift from someone you don't know that well. Odd. And lame.

Saturday - some frantic cleaning. Food purchases. Bought a frame for the gift picture from the K's from months ago. Met kf to see Closer. Huh. Interesting film. Very theatrical - not in a "Birdcage" kind of way, but driven by staged, one-to-one conversations that are filled with pointed articulations of emotions. Of course, as the primary emotions in the film are guilt and jealousy, it has a corrosive edge to it. Not a fun film, but v well made, written and acted - as a series of setpieces around the emotional fallout from sexual affairs.

A couple of issues :: the ending was unsatisfactory; the relationship between Julia Roberts' character and Jude Law's character is thin and under-developed.

Sunday - hosted the book club (hence the earlier discussion on eggs benedict). The book under scrutiny was TC Boyle's Drop City.

100 Notable Books of the Year :: The New York Times

Perfect for the holidays!

Film Fest picks return - Stander & Primer

This is pretty funny - in two years, I've seen two films at the TIFF. This one, which will appeal to anyone who liked Memento or here, and Stander, a cop-gone-wrong story made interesting by its setting in 1970s apartheid-era Johannesburg. Anyway, I would recommend both movies - for different reasons - but that's not what struck me. Both films are opening in Toronto on the same day!?! What are the odds?

CBC.ca :: Test Your Greatest Canadian knowledge

OK, so I'm a geek. 20:20.

Red sands of PEI 

Eggs Benedict New York: What Is Eggs Benedict?

The most comprehensive Eggs Benedict site on the net.

Includes this with details:
An eggs Benedict brunch increases the risk for alcoholism, cancer, cardiovascular disease, overweight, salmonellosis, and ulcers. For the exact composition of eggs Benedict, see this site's nutrition analysis.

Artistic commentary on the Pacers-Pistons fiasco.  

Parody or infringement?

Either way, it makes fun of AOL, which is always good times...

Freaky

Have you ever thought, "If only my car had a tail?" No? Me neither. However, this guy did and then acted on it. Wow. That's, umm, disturbing...

This was tonnes of fun. Raised $3000 or so and 7 garbage bags of clothes for the homeless, through 8 hours of indoor ultimate (no pulls, switch on the fly rules). It was great fun for the first three games, then it turned into a struggle with your body as sleep-deprivation, cramps and exhaustion slowly took over. Our Team Orange won - woo hoo - go Clementines :) 

C&M watching the sun set 

The view from campsite 5 in Frontenac park, Nov. 13.  

When Your Co-Worker is Away

Ah, dare to dream. I particularly like the last image.

John Ashcroft's retirement card 

Let them sing it for you :: Erik Bunger

Brilliant - some guy has collected a vocabulary of words clipped from popular songs, so you can hear phrases as sung by a combination of everyone from Chris Isaac to Freddie Mercury - and then email it to friends...

Not that we're saying anything, but... :: essays & effluvia:

A map comparing the pre-Civil War Free vs. Slave States...

Sunset, August 2004 

I Can't Believe It Worked :: dennis.ca

Messing with manual settings on a D70 during the Northern Lights

Sarah McLachlan - World On Fire

It's like a middle-school educational film, only with a good soundtrack. The teacher of my OAC GWI (World Issues) class, Dave West, would have been delighted...

German kites over Oz :: Earthflyer

Thanks to All Things Christie...

Camping in Frontenac Provincial Park with Craig, Meghan, Paul, Shawn, Lachlan, Joanne and Mike. A little bit chilly at night... 

O Canada, we plead to cede to thee::Philadelphia Daily News

"You don't like our "values," red-staters, you've got your wish - we're outta here.

But remember, the next time you want to see a Broadway show, visit wine country, Hawaii or the birthplace of liberty, don't just bring your Visa card, bring your visa.

You're in Canada now. And we're tightening our borders."

Remembrance Day ceremonies :: City of Toronto

I'm going to be here:

Toronto Old City Hall
Cenotaph
Queen & Bay Sts.
10:30 a.m.

...and I encourage everyone and anyone to attend wherever's closest to them. Here's the Ottawa one for instance:

Red vs Blue? Nope, it's a sea of purple :: Election result maps

Maps are cool...

Gear specials :: MEC

WooHoo! A Serratus Ibex 90 is $200 off! I gotta get me a fourth backpack.

tonight's the last night...

The library comment about a third of the way through cracks me up every time.

A Little Slice of Heaven :: MEC

Just in time for Xmas, it's the MEC Online Wish List. . .

What the rest of the world thought 

Asulkan Range, 2002 

Eminem's Mosh :: Guerrilla News Network

Obviously it didn't work, but a compelling video, and a huge step forward for someone I usually consider misogynous and homophobic (although I do still have half a dozen mp3's - my bad)...

A flashback from 1973 

It's that time of year again - ritual squash mutilation... 

Ebert vs Black

From an email exchange of Roger Ebert and Conrad Black:

"In the light of these facts, and the many kindnesses David Radler and I showered on you, your proletarian posturing on behalf of those threatening to strike the Sun-Times and your base ingratitude are very tiresome."

"Dear Conrad,
One of the things I have always admired about you, and that sets you aside from the general run of proprietors, is that you so articulately and amusingly say exactly what is on your mind."

The Republican Outline for Election Day :: Tilting at Windmills

Alarmingly credible post on the consequences of Republican skullduggery and election day malfeasance. It seems very 19th century - like a return to rotten boroughs and vote-payments. There was an interesting series of passages in a book by David Liss I read over the summer - A Spectacle of Corruption of Paper - about the manipulation of voters in 1720s England that mirror this. Depressing really, especially when you think of the UN sending teams of election officials (mostly Americans) to other countries to inspect and certify their elections. Makes you wonder about whether the US would pass muster.

Slate.com had a thorough article on the failure of electronic voting machines, as well as the Nation and a host of blogs.

Jules Verne's nursery :: The Star

Inco grows 50,000 subterranean seedlings a season of red pine and jack pine more than a kilometre down the 2.3-kilometre mine shaft... After three months of germination, the 5-inch pellets and seedlings are then brought up to the surface and planted on and around Inco property to fulfill its obligation to re-claim the barren land after years of wear and tear from mining, smelting and refining. Another 200,000 seedlings are also grown annually in the greenhouse operated year-round at Copper Cliff.

...It turns out that a steamy mine is a perfect environment for tree growing. For starters there's a constant humidity and geothermal heat of 25C year-round. "The underground nursery works because there is an ambient rock temperature, it's warm and you don't have to heat a greenhouse in cold weather in Sudbury. And it makes good sense because the facility is available so there's no added cost at Creighton," explains Taylor.

Fertilizer, electricity and water are pumped in at minimal cost compared to the expense of heating a regular greenhouse through the sub-zero winters, he says. The underground forest of baby trees is Y-shaped and fairly narrow at 10 feet wide and 600 feet long with fertilizer and water storage tanks at the wide end. It needs 2,000 litres of both water and fertilizer per day, so the tanks are on timers. To get things going it requires 30 1,000-watt light bulbs to give it the artificial effect of sunlight, which stay on 24 hours a day the first week, then 18 on and 6 off for three weeks and then 12 on and off — just like outdoors — the rest of the time.

Believe :: The Gadflyer

The piece speaks for itself - of course, I'm not American, so it doesn't effect me.

Cartoon Tennis Heroes!

That certainly calls for a Bam! Ka-Pow! BOOM!

A useful push service :: maisonneuve's MediaScout

If you're interested in Canadian news or rather a Canadian-centric view of the world news, sign up for MediaScout - a very useful service that collects and analyzes the top headlines from the big 6 news sources and evaluates their differing spins on major issues of the day.

Toronto Outdoor Rink Open Schedule

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

So parent's church is sending a container of items for a Grenada Relief Project (after Hurricane Ivan hit the island this autumn, about two-thirds of Grenada's 90,000 people have been left without shelter). See: http://www.grenadaemergency.com/photo.html orhttp://www.spiceisland.info/ or http://www.hvuc.ca/#grenada for details.
Among the items requested are:
* Cotton shirts - short sleeves, cotton tee or golf shirts
* Jeans - outgrown, used.
* Shoes - athletic styles. * All sizes welcome.
My parents thought that it was likely I could donate some of this. When they mentioned it, I figured that most of my sports playing friends have excess T-shirts lying around (hell, I still have some ofsaa '92 shirts in my closet) - so I emailed / phoned around, and collected roughly three carloads of used clothes.

Anyway, so having running around the city for a couple days, people donated roughly three carloads of clothing. Which is great.

What isn't so great is that my car was broken into as someone thought the fullbags and boxes contained something valuable. That said, they didn't consider the used clothes to be too valuable, so they dumped them all on the sidewalk, meaning that the donations will still end up going to Grenada, but still... Anyway, it turns out that most of the window repair places are closed on weekends (which seems asinine to me, but what do I know about business practices?) and the repair will be >$100 - or roughly $100 more than the thief obtained from their "smash and grab." Jackass.

Why the US Spends so Much on Drugs :: The New Yorker

Or - who's really to blame? The drug companies, the doctors, the HMOs, the patients, patent law or our perceptions?

Best QA ever? :: collision detection

And see here for more details. Alas, I'm posting from work again.

View from the Track and Tower hiking trail in Algonquin, Oct. 2004 

collision detection: Whales can't sue

This is one of the best blogs on the net - and here's why - an article about whales suing GWB and Donald Rumsfield.

Awesome, although apparently dismissed.

How to Disappear

Cool article.

John Stewart on Crossfire

John Stewart takes Tucker Carlson and the other guy on Crossfire out to the woodshed and kicks their ass on what their role is regarding the public discourse.

What Nash did on summer vacation

Ah, sports interviews. Always amusing. Here's a pro athlete who publicly condemned the Iraq invasion and what do you ask him about?

SI.com: A lot of players seem to chew gum on the court. Do you?
SN: I don't chew gum.
SI.com: Why not?
SN: You don't get to swallow it. It's kind of a waste of time.
SI.com: Solid reasoning.

The Greatest Travesty :: andrewcoyne.com

Usually I find Andrew Coyne annoyingly neo-conservative and condescending, but I think his column today is dead-on - so much so that I can't help but quote from it as he put it better than I could: http://andrewcoyne.com/archives/003948.php

It is a travesty of our past the CBC is offering us: a celebration of ignorance, a salute to mediocrity. Search in vain for our greatest names: for George Brown, the man who, more than any other -- yes, even Macdonald -- was responsible for Confederation; for Champlain and Frontenac and d’Iberville, for Baldwin and La Fontaine, for D’Arcy McGee and George-Étienne Cartier, for Clifford Sifton and C. D. Howe. Apparently there wasn’t room: not if it meant leaving off William Shatner, or “Winnipeg radio personality” Hal Anderson, or Mary Maxwell, wife of the founder of the Bahá’i faith.

I know, I know. We’re trying to make history fresh, get the kids interested. “Forget musty textbooks about the fur trade,” the CBC website burbles, “or droning lectures about the FLQ crisis. The Greatest Canadian makes Canadian history come alive and learning fun.” But what, in fact, are they learning? That Canada, in effect, has no history, that everything happened at the same time, that all achievements are of equal weight and all opinions of equal value.

Canadian history does not need to be made “fun.” The exploration, conquest and development of Canada is one of the greatest stories ever told, a tale of heroism and adventure, full of rude, passionate, and sometimes violent individuals with an extraordinary appetite for life. If, in the service of a particular ideology, it has been reduced to an orderly series of public works projects, that is hardly remedied by turning it into a parody of Canadian Idol.

A final point: How can this be said to represent the nation’s choice of “Greatest Canadian” when it isn’t even being shown in French?

The Minesing Swamp 

Canadian Canoe Routes :: Ferris Buller Technique

Self-explanatory, but entertaining views on escaping the cubicle for canoe.

The Guardian tries to persuade Clark County voters to save the world

What a load of pompous, self-righteous, self-defeating bollocks (if I can borrow the english term). I mean, I personally loathe GW and think he's a moron (faith-based presidency indeed). That said, this sounds like a Simpsons parody - right down to the choice of location (Springfield?!?).

For a quick update on how well this kite is flying, see here. Some choice quotes:

• "Real Americans aren't interested in your pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions."
• "Mind your own business. We don't need weenie-spined Limeys meddling in our
  presidental election. If it wasn't for America, you'd all be speaking German."
• "...if you don't wish to be an American, to live in Ohio, for instance, and
  participate in the American political process, that is too bad. Perhaps there is
  something wrong with you. Perhaps it is your teeth."

but this one sums the project up in a nutshell, and has the added bonus of having a great new phrase:

"I just read a hilarious proposal to involve your readership in the upcoming US
presidential election. At least, I'm hoping that it is genius satire. Nothing
will do more to undermine the Democratic cause in Ohio than having patronising
Brits wander around Clark County telling people how to vote. Just, for a second,
imagine if the Washington Post sent folks from Ohio to do the same in
Oxfordshire. I'm saying this as a Democrat, and as someone who has spent the
last few years in the UK. That is, with all due respect. Please, please, be
rational, and move slowly away from the self-defeating hubris."

The Ad Graveyard :: zeldman.com

Oh dear god - this is atrociously funny. Or not. To see what I mean, check out the Beatles Reunion ad.

My sister's getting pumped for the ski season - first snowfall in Fernie.  

Fall Colours 

City Rinks FAQ

It's feeling wintry these days, so: Common issues with Toronto rinks!

Currently Reading ::

OK, so I signed out the following from the TPL:
Drop City, by TC Boyle
American Ground, by William Langewische
All Over Creation, by Ruth Ozeki

and bought these from Ms. Gerry Schwartz:
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide: by Samantha Power
Middlesex, by Jeffrey Eugenides
Paris, 1919: Six Months That Changed the World by Margaret Macmillan

Give me a couple weeks and I'll report back on them.

The life of a consultant

Jesus, that's brilliant - there's a painfully fine line between satire and depression. This page actually resembles my job description :: Thanks dp for the link.

my 'book accent' is too thick :: breebop

This is very funny and very me - given that reading is an intrinsically solitary practise you end up without context for the new words you see. I tend to guess at their pronunciation and move on. And then get caught when I pull them out for other people's edification later... I think some of the better dictionaries online now have mp3 files with the correct pronunciations, which is a kick-ass improvement on the old-school way of splitting the words and using accents to explain the stress points.

Vote Early, Vote Often :: from tsuredzuregusa

So, the future of the US elections is resting upon Access '97? Geez, why not Filemaker :)

Google preps desktop search application

Interesting - straight up against Longhorn, etc...

Google Desktop Search will let users search for information stored in their PC files, local e-mail inboxes, archived chat sessions and list of Web sites visited. See : http://www.desktop.google.com/ for beta testing...

Currently Reading

A while ago I read Antarctica (after grabbing it from my parents' living room, where it had been left after serving as fodder for airplane reading) and quite liked it. So, picking up some other holds from the TPL, I saw a copy of this and picked it up.

• More on the author

Ontario Fall Colour Report

It's starting to end...

* In the Parry Sound region, the colour is past peak and muted.
* The colour is past peak in the Sudbury area
* The North Bay region has the colours past peak.
* In Algonquin Park, the colours are now well past peak with about 60% leaf fall.

But!
* The colour is now at peak in the Ottawa area.
* The Brockville, 1000 Island area, the colour is at peak, with some brilliant pockets of red and orange, along the 1000 Island Parkway.The southern * Muskoka and Haliburton regions have the colours at peak.
* The Kawartha Lakes region has advanced to peak colour change. The region is offering brilliant red, orange and yellow at this time. Highways 28, north to Bancroft and 121, north of Fenelon Falls are especially colourful at this time.
* The Barrie, Huronia region across to Collingwood, Blue Mountain area, the colours are at peak. There is simply outstanding colour throughout this area. Ideal viewing locations, in the central region of Ontario, include the Fire Tower Lookout in Dorset, Lions Lookout in Huntsville, the Horseshoe Valley area north east of Barrie, the Ridge Road region east of Barrie taking in the hamlets of Oro Station, Shanty Bay and Hawkestone
* The Owen Sound region, in particular the Inglis Falls and Harrison Park areas and across to the beautiful Beaver Valley, the colour is at peak. The drive into the Beaver Valley from Grey County Road 4, in the south along County Road 13, is outstanding during the fall. Bright orange and red dominate the area.
* The Hockley Valley area across to Caledon is featuring peak colour, with some beautiful pockets of burnt orange and yellow. The Elora Gorge and Fergus area is offering peak colour
* Further into the southwest, the St. Clair Parkway area offers a wonderful mix of trees and a 60% colour change at this time. The area recently experienced its first frost and colours have advanced quickly.

I was leaning towards going up to Singhampton area on the weekend, but this is not encouraging:
Saturday .. Periods of rain. Wind southwest 30 km/h. High 9.
Sunday .. Showers. Windy. Low 3. High 10.

A view from the Centennial Ridges Trail in Algonquin 

Accordion Guy :: Busy

Wickedly hypnotizing...

This Magazine: The Rebel Sell

Fascinating article about consumerism, mass society, etc...

TheStar.com - Device records driving habits

Interesting concept. I think it would suck for me, but be great for my mom - which is likely what the insurers want. And, if it takes off, eventually, my simple refusal to be in the system would increase my rates as an outlier. If the Star kills the link, here's some highlights:

>>Aviva Canada Inc., the largest insurer of Ontario automobiles, will today unveil plans to start a pilot project in 2005 that will test how 5,000 drivers like to have their driving monitored electronically. Those who agree to use a simple device to record their top speed, average speed, mileage, dates and time of travel will automatically receive a 5 per cent discount. Further savings of up to 20 per cent will be offered to motorists who do the least driving at the least risky times of the day and week.

The Armchair Garbageman

Hmm, I'm pretty sure that if I asked around, I could fill a blog with similar anecdotes...

Apparently P's in town tonight - nice... 

Vertigo...Then and Now

Cool concept - kudos to http://archi-texture.blogspot.com/ for finding it. Look at the difference a mature tree makes.

Post VP Debate recap

Ah, which quote to use?

"What good is money if it can't inspire terror in your fellow man?"
or, more hopefully:
"This anonymous clan of slack-jawed troglodytes has cost me the election, and yet if I were to have them killed, I would be the one to go to jail. That's democracy for you."
Smithers: "You are noble and poetic in defeat, sir".

Why we didn't accomplish much on our climbing trip... 

Ontario Fall Colour Report - Tues 12th

Key Highlights:
The colour is now at peak in the Ottawa area.
In the Parry Sound region, the colour is at peak, along highway 124 and along highway 69, north of the town. The colour is now just past peak in the northern Muskoka and northern Haliburton regions. The southern Muskoka and Haliburton regions have the colours at peak. The area is experiencing beautiful pockets of deep red, orange and yellow.
The Barrie, Huronia region across to Collingwood and the Blue Mountain area to Owen Sound and south of Meaford into the Beaver Valley area, the colours are at peak. Ideal viewing locations, in the central region of Ontario, include the Fire Tower Lookout in Dorset, Lions Lookout in Huntsville, the Horseshoe Valley area north east of Barrie, the Ridge Road region east of Barrie taking in the hamlets of Oro Station, Shanty Bay and Hawkestone, as well as the lookouts at Scenic Caves in Collingwood.
The Owen Sound region and in particular the Inglis Falls area and across to the beautiful Beaver Valley, the colour is at peak. The drive into the Beaver Valley from Grey County Road 4, in the south, is outstanding during the fall. There are some nice pockets of bright orange and red in the area. The Hockley Valley area across to Caledon is featuring peak colour, with some nice beautiful pockets of burnt orange and yellow. The Elora Gorge and Fergus area is offering peak colour.

Coping with the lockout... espn's Buccigrossi

"Someone get a camera, microphones, Brett Hull, Jeremy Roenick, Chris Chelios, Matthew Barnaby and Ed Belfour. Stick them in a cottage on a cold Canadian lake and just let them take over. 'Real World: Sarnia.' How good would that be? Imagine what would come out of those pieholes after a six-pack of Blue and a hockey rink-sized pizza. It will get really fun when Roenick and Belfour taunt the rest of the house with the paychecks they will get for being injured. "

Aaron Brown, standing on guard | Inkless Wells

The next time you hear an American (or a wanna-be, or some other wanna-be) preach about Canada's laxness with terrorists, this makes for a fine rebuttal.

Thanksgiving

Flew from Toronto to Freddy on Wednesday night after work. Typical AC flight - the engine wouldn't start, so we left late and they couldn't have the fans on without the power, so the plane was a little warm. The woman in the seat next to me turned out to be a divorce lawyer in Calgary flying home for the holidays - never a good omen.
Anyway I have nothing to say about the rest of the weekend, other than the 1400 km return drive was completed in 12 1/4 hours with the fall colours being outstanding in the Saint John river valley and between Riviere du Loup and La Pocatiere. The rest of the drive, as usual, was monotonous. In fact, I have to say that the TransCanada Hwy between Windsor and Quebec City is fairly bland and boring in general.

G.W. & Crew - Flip Flop

the perfect fall catalogue...

Really Dazed and Confused

Umm, guys, Dazed and Confused came out 10 years ago!!!! How stoned have you been?

The Breakup Style of PowerPoint :: The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

Too funny. Better still than the Tufte NASA analysis. Well, really, that's here or here, with Tufte's over-arching analysis of powerpoint's failures here.

The Caffeine List

I can't decide whether this is useful knowledge or dangerous. Either way, here's some interesting check points:
Coffee, tall (12 oz.) Starbucks 375 mg caffeine
Caffe Latte, short (8 oz.) or tall (12 oz.) 35 mg caffeine
Tea - leaf or bag 50 mg caffeine
Coke - 12 oz or 350 ml serving is 35 mg caffeine.

Scientists find coffee really is addictive

To which I have to say, "No kidding." In fact, if I were a smoker, I could probably sue.

On the beach, waiting for Frances

From one of my favourite columnists/surreal novelists, a how-to guide for hurricane seasons journalism.

In a hurricane, there's no safe mobile home

Key points:
...you might be interested to know that it obliterated about 18,000 mobile homes across Florida and Louisiana -- more than 8,000 in Miami-Dade County alone, a 97 percent loss.

Before Andrew, the city of Homestead had 1,167 mobile homes. Only nine remained the day after...

A nice shot from my brother's recent vacation through SW USA. Very Ansel Adams-ish.  

Colour Update

Key points include:

Highway 11 south of Temagami to North Bay is offering excellent colour. The colour has advanced to a 60% change in the Sudbury area, with yellow and gold being the dominant colours. Highway 637 to Killarney is a beautiful fall colour route. The North Bay region is approaching peak colour. Bright red and yellow dominate the region. Highways 524 and 534 are beautiful at this time.

There is also some beautiful colour from North Bay, south to Burk’s Falls along highway 11. The Mattawa area has seen the colours advance to a 90% change. In Algonquin Park, the colours are at peak. Dominant colours are red, burgundy, orange and gold.

The Parry Sound region, the colour is very close to peak, along highway 124 and along highway 69, north of the town. The colour is close to peak in the north Muskoka and northern Haliburton regions. The area is experiencing beautiful pockets of deep red, orange and yellow. A tour of the Muskoka region from the Bala (highway 169) area, to Port Carling (highway 118) and into the Bracebridge, around Lake Muskoka, is outstanding at this time. The Kawartha Lakes region is slow to change this year, just a 30% change at this time. The Barrie, Huronia region across to Collingwood and the Blue Mountain region, sees the colour about 50 to 60% turned with peak colour expected this Thanksgiving weekend.

The Owen Sound region and in particular the Inglis Falls area and across to the beautiful Beaver Valley, there is a 50 to 60% colour change at this time. The drive into the Beaver Valley from Grey County Road 4, in the south, is always outstanding during the fall. There are some nice pockets of bright orange and red in the area. The Hockley Valley area and into the Caledon region, is featuring a 30% change, with some nice pockets of burnt orange and yellow. The Elora Gorge and Fergus area has some very nice pockets of colour with the leaves about 50% turned with a nice mix of red, orange and green for contrast.

Quebec viewers - check here: http://www.theweathernetwork.com/features/fallcolour/pages/qc.htm#Abitibi/Témiscamingue

Pro-Am Revolution

http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/000989.html#000989 - more thoughts later.

AI & Tourists

Using modelling agents to predict & alter tourist behaviour in Switzerland. From Collision Detection

Alterable lenses

Exceedingly cool post.
http://www.collisiondetection.net/mt/archives/000992.html#000992. Not so much for the camera phone engineering (although points to them for using an analog solution, rather than tweaking compression ratio's and such), but for bringing up the 3rd world eyeglasses comment. I think it's clever for people to come up with cheap yet robust ideas like that - similar to the flashlight that's powered by shaking or the wind-up radio.

Weekend update

Fri - dinner with si & cm. Simply Thai in BWV. Nice. Missed the TUC internight playoffs. Apparently Mandrew won over Peewee - which makes me think that it wasn't full rosters. I heard Ian Brooks played for Mandrew, which would confirm this suspicion.

Sat - Re-visited dayhikes in Algonquin. Not the original plan - DJ & I left my place at 7:30 am, but DJ wanted to check out cottages under $100K - which they aren't many of, and so we went way out of the way in order to find them - like Bancroft out of the way. Going via Huntsville is roughly 290 km; via Bancroft and Whitney 345 km. As it turned out, we started the centennial ridges trail at 3:15 or so and after taking some pictures of the colours from the ridge drove to Track & Tower, where we marched by several busloads of Asian tourists.
- Missed Mexican food with C&M and S&C. Also missed kareoke with J&C and B&D, who I hear are planning on quitting their jobs and travelling the world as of Xmas - cool.

Sunday - book club (read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) by Mark Haddon. Discussion: autism, parenting, technical writing skills. I think the concensus was that we were somewhat impressed by his ability to try and place him (and therefore us) in the mind of an adolescent autist, we weren't ultimately captured by the book. Another interesting point was how the women of the group didn't like the mother at all - abandoning her child, no matter how she was faring, was seen as the cardinal sin of motherhood.
Sunned for a while, then went Queen west gallery browsing with CM. We started at the Drake, and then just wandered. The highlight was the John Oswald installation - instandstillnessence at the Edward Day Gallery. This looked promising, but was rather disappointing. Then hit a driving range with CM, her friend S and the roomie, who has indeed, improved his golf game substantially since June.

Ig-Nobels

See here for the list of the winners.

Personal fave. Unfortunately, this disproves nearly the last 15 years of my eating habits.

Ontario Fall Colour Report - Update

Highlights:

In Algonquin Park, the colours have advanced quickly over the past few days and the colours will peak this weekend. The region has experienced several evenings of frost over the past week and the colours are very bright at this time. Dominant colours are red, burgundy, orange and gold.

The Parry Sound region, is reporting a 60% change at this time with some nice colour along highway 124 and along highway 69, north of the town. The colour is advancing through the north Muskoka and northern Haliburton regions with a 70% colour change at this time. The area is experiencing beautiful pockets of bright red and orange. The Kawartha Lakes region is slow to change this year, just a 20% change at this time.

And the feedback I had from the roomie was that his trip to Algonquin went super well, with ideal weather and colour. Good to know. Just FYI: they went south from Smoke Lake into Ragged and then back the next morning, but not by the loop b/c of (self-inflicted) time constraints.

So... A dilemma - do I attend the bookclub? We're reading this, which I'm not thinking much of, and the Indian summer is seriously tempting, albeit the weather is indifferent over the next 48 hours or so.

Saturday .. Cloudy. Periods of rain beginning in the morning and ending late in the day then clearing. Wind west 30 km/h gusting to 50. High 19.
Sunday .. Cloudy. 70 percent chance of showers. Low 2. High 17.

We'll see.

The Blue Screen of Death for Dummies

Ah, the evil blue screen of death. Now, my home PC is running a (pirated) version of XP and is remarkably stable for a computer bought in August '99. My work laptop, running Win2K and Notes as the email client? That crashes daily.

The death screen isn't as easy to figure out. In fact, there's often no way for anyone except a technician packing professional-grade diagnostic tools to find the culprit. A bug in one program can corrupt data in
the computer's memory, causing an entirely different program to crash later. Bad hardware will also often lead to software errors; when the hardware doesn't send back data as expected, programs will start to fail. "A broad range of conditions can cause a Fatal Exception error," shrugs Microsoft's help documentation. "As a result, troubleshooting a Fatal Exception error can be difficult."

I'm sure if I asked any of my geekier friends, they'd agree and shrug as well, "True dat." Except that the article does point out for prosumers a likely solution (other than buying a grumpy geek beer):

You probably won't be able to figure out what's wrong with your computer by reading the gibberish on the Blue Screen of Death, but you can make an educated guess. A few years ago, Microsoft set up the Windows Error Reporting Service to help find out where crashes come from. After a Windows application—or your whole PC—shuts down, a box pops up asking you to send a confidential error report. Using pattern-matching software to sift through the data from millions of these reports, Microsoft
discovered a surprising statistic. Seventy percent of Windows crashes involve one particular kind of software: device drivers. (I couldn't get stats for the Mac, but, at least anecdotally, device drivers are a major cause of drop-dead crashes.)

So, in conclusion:

...If your computer is crashing regularly, you won't do any harm by looking for new device drivers. (One exception: Don't mess with video drivers unless you know what you're doing—you could end up with an
unusable computer.) Always be sure to save a copy of your current driver before installing a new one (click here for instructions). If your new driver causes more problems than it cures, Windows XP has a Control Panel option to roll back to the previous version, or you can swap it back manually on older versions of Windows. You can always just cross your fingers, search the Web, and try again.

Fishy

Good to see the mandarins at the Ontario health ministry have decided the best way to "save the health care system for a generation" is to start by banning fresh sushi. Seriously. Interestingly, John Allemang of the Globe beat Tanya Talaga & Greg Quill of the Star to this (I would link to Peggy Wente's column, but alas, the Globe's website is no longer worth visiting). So... People are up in outrage.

That said, here's some other thoughts on it:

• The funniest part is how no one will take responsibility for the new mandate. . .Ah, the age-old question, Canadian Sushi - a federal or provincial responsibility?
• http://www.iht.com/articles/513969.html Most Sushi is actually flashfrozen. Who knew?
• From that article: Both Masa and Nobu, considered to be amongst New York's best Japanese restaurants, use fish that has been flash frozen (at -60C). The sushi chef at Nobu can't tell the difference. It's probably worthwhile comparing fish that has been frozen (at -10C) to fish that has been flash frozen (at -60C).

post-movie thoughts

OK, so I watched Wimbledon tonight after playing ultimate (and in lieu of actually completing my work). Given that it's from the same people who created the Hugh Grant bashful romantic comedy factory (Four Weddings, Notting Hill, Love Actually, etc.), I thought there was a reasonable chance that this would work - not to mention that I can't remember the last decent tennis sequence in a movie. Anyway, it's adequate, but indicative of the downward trend for Working Title. Paul Bettany is de rigeur as the bashful Brit and Kirsten Dunst is ok as the freshfaced female star. That said, the tennis sequences were awkward and uncomfortable to watch. My understanding is that they faked them (playing "air tennis" as it were), and then dubbed the ball's movements in afterwards. Problem - both actors' form looked like poor rec level players, and then the rallies were incomprehensible in terms of footwork, positioning, number of shots, shot choices, etc. Oh well, nice try then.

That said, if you're interested in the intersection of art and tennis, I will go with my old standby: David Foster Wallace's essay, Tennis Player Michael Joyce's Professional Artistry as a Paradigm for Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Discipline, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness.

Tangent: the only mainstream sports writer with a focus on tennis is John Wertheim -check out his weekly tennis mailbag at www.cnnsi.com on Monday afternoons. His take on the movie?

Classic pwn consulting

This email pretty much sums up why I decided to do this:

hey, RC has visitors from australia and
wants to take a trip to show them the fall colours. can you please forward me that email you sent out a few days ago regarding the fall colours and where it's good at this time of year?

To which the response was:

Hey,
See http://ontariotravel.net/publications/fallcolourreport.pdf. It's released every Mon and Thurs.
Here's the key highlights:
<>

Just FYI - I was in Algonquin on Sunday and it was pretty much ideal. However, if there's a rainstorm, I suspect that a lot of leaves will simply drop. Depending on who you're taking (i.e. level of athleticism, age, etc.), the Centennial Ridges trail makes for a great day hike, with lots of views. The Ragged Falls looked great on Sundayas well. South of Algonquin, I didn't see much. Maybe by next weekend that will have changed, but as of right now, I didn't think even Dorset was that good.

Two quick thoughts:

1. Indian summer is the best time of the year in southern Ontario - all the upside of summer (good weather, great umm scenery, etc.) with the upside of autumn (good real scenery, not stupidly hot and humid, fewer tourists and kids in the way, etc.).

2. People dump on the gov't all the time (myself included), but how cool is this report? It combines data and guidance and promotions for the tourism industry. Nice. I'm a big fan.

...And that in turn reminded me that my antipodean housemate's parents are apparently arriving in our (under renovation) hovel, and he's decided that they should go canoeing to truly experience Canada. To which, I say "Good call!" however, he has decided to outsource the planning of this to, umm, pwnc. More later.

Weekend recap

Saturday was wasted on the laptop in a fit of work-related productivity, but Sunday saw a last-minute decision to screw work and drive to Algonquin PP to enjoy the fall colours. After getting a park permit at the west gate, opted to try the Centennial Ridges hike as it promised "scenic views" and was rated "strenuous." The park provides you with a very nice map and commentary at the beginning. Given time constraints, I ran the loop, choosing to run it backwards in order to deal with the steepest hill first. As the guide suggests, scenic views... I took my biking backpack, a bottle of water, the SLR and zoom - took a few pictures, but as they're not developed, see here. Left the trailhead at 12:40, back in the car at 2:35.

I would suggest:

• hiking it in the suggested order - the views do in fact get better, and the trail markers only face one way :)
• carrying more than half a litre of water on a sunny, windy 25 degree day while running a 10km with 1000m of elevation change

The fall colours were maybe 40% turned, predominantly red, with even then, there was a lot of brown tinges in the colour pattern. Still lots to go.

Drive time: 3 hours to west gate