Education and Evidence

It is possible that this map explains a lot. I had no idea of the low proportions of tertiary educated people in so much of the USA. I know you don’t have to go to college to be smart, but a lot of smart people do go to college, and education does affect how we think, especially how critically we think.

Critical thinking involves evaluating information, identifying assumptions, and solving problems objectively, requiring skills like analysis, inference, and communication to form sound judgments and make informed decisions. (Google AI)

The thing is that the less critical people are, the more susceptible we are to succumb to the Dunning-Kruger Effect. For example: someone might think that they know all about climate change based on one YouTube video by someone without credentials. I am sure that one could think of many more examples. 

In theory at least, critical thinkers will be less dogmatic about their opinions and also more likely to change their minds in light of new evidence. Evidence from reliable sources is key.

Like Crazy Baboons

When March came in like a lion, we took solace from the old refrain: "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb." However, after that beginning, much of March remained leonine, and this is how it looked on Saturday morning in the last weekend of the month. Not lamb-like at all. Roar.

When I looked out the window, I saw that the driveway guys had already done one pass, but that they would have to return for a second, clearing which would include removing that ridiculous bank of heavy snow left behind by the ever-so-thoughtful city plow. This they did in due course.

That ↑ was Saturday. It is now 6am, Sunday morning. When I awoke at 5:30, I looked out my window, except I could only look at my window and not out because it was covered in ice. Thankfully, the power is still on, but the current weather report predicts that the freezing rain will last for another 8 hours, so I'll finish this up soon and get it posted. 

Whatever happens, we'll manage. Fortunately, Danica, who works parttime in Perth, a half hour rural drive away, was able to switch shifts with someone who lives close to work. On the other hand, the last that I heard, Jonathan was still expected to show up at work. His work, you may remember, is to deliver groceries to cars in the parking lot. It is difficult to picture cars driving to the store for pickup today, but that is all that I can report for now.

When I look at the forecast, it sure seems that winter is not done with us yet, for I see snow off and on in the long range forecast until April 10th. I think we can drop the March Lion metaphor for something like, "March comes in like a pack of crazed baboons who wreak havoc well into April."

Whitewater

After I took the big scene photos seen in yesterday's post, I turned my attention to little vignettes. I thought to capture water flowing around or by stable objects such as boulders and riverbanks, but the results were so-so.

Here they are the first two despite my reservations, both converted to b&w.

They ↑ were taken from the trail bridge. We then made our way over to the little bridge, where the river is extremely fast-flowing and it great volume, not little vignettes. It was truly whitewater over there. but I mainly shot from beside the bridge and not on it. Once again, not thrilled with the outcomes, I put different filters on these in edit looking for a satisfactory result.

It turns out that the next photo of just the fast-flowing water is my favourite, more that the previous flowing-by-things photos, above. I guess it pays to try different shots. Aside from the waves, I appreciate the colours that were captured.

Back to the bigger and higher trail bridge. While I was taking some of the other photos, Sue had spotted this ever-changing cascade by one of the bridge supports  The cascade kept changing from sparse to full and in between. The first photo shows a half-full cascade, the second is full. It kept changing, I like these as well, for the colour is pleasant to my eyes, and I don't mind how the misty whitewater to the right is overexposed and free of texture.

So, it turned out that the photos that I most wanted to take were my least favourites ones and vice versa.

I know that the next section will be almost meaningless to most of you, but Mulewings, Roentare and Spare Parts might like to read it.

I should say that the whole shoot was a bit of a struggle to remember how to work the camera as well as I would have liked. For one thing, I haven't used the camera much lately, and beyond that I seldom use a tripod, but it was needed to achieve relatively slow shutters speeds of around 1/5th of a second. That's about the speed I needed to get the blurry motion that I wanted. Secondly, I was using a variable neutral density filter to allow me to use a slow shutter because it was actually fairly bright out, and that was just one other almost unfamiliar thing to contend with, especially in changing light, depending on where I was pointing the camera. Third thing, and this really bugged me, was forgetting to attach my tripod collar to the lens, so I had to put the actual camera in the holder and that tends to unbalance things when you are using a long lens. In this case I was using a 100-400mm lens. Although, I used the full 400mm zoom in yesterday's post, the longest reach in this series was 325mm in the very first photo. The cascade photos were taken at 258mm. The one of just the whitewater was the least zoomed, at 181mm.

Whitewater in both Directions

I left you yesterday with a post about spring flooding, and I mentioned that the river changed just a little farther downstream from the park. Hoping to capture some of that, we headed to the trail bridge yesterday. The former railway bridge looks westward to the main bridge, but it you turn east you can se the little, one-lane bridge that doesn't get too much traffic.

Looking west, upriver, there is a significant little waterfall with town hall in the background.

Looking west toward town hall and the little falls

Not shown in the above photo, there is a dam just off to the left. The reason for this dam is somewhat obscure to me, but I know that there was a hydro electric power plant over in that vicinity at one time.

The dam

In the above westward photos, the river has already narrowed from the picture from the park that I showed yesterday. As a result the water flows faster.

However, when I turn around to take a a eastward photo looking toward the little bridge, there is further narrowing of the channel, causing the water to become even more violent.

Water flowing under the Little Back Bridge

After that it widens and calms down somewhat again before it gets to Almonte and to the falls that I have shown you recently.

What I want to do tomorrow, now that I have set the larger scene, is to post some little photos of the rushing water.

Addendum: Sue showed me this photo after I wrote the above. It looks like I was taking one of the two first photos in the post.

Spring Robins and Floods

The weather is discouraging, but that is March being March. The sun crosses the equator, and we have a few nice days. Then, the temperature drops again, and the winds come, and we even get more snow. It's always a letdown, but there are signs — signs apart from the disappearing snow pile, of which by the way, the small core still lingers.

Robins are a sure sign. Sue, for example, used her wonderful telephoto on her phone to capture this robin on our neighbourhood walk.

Then, we had coffee by the park adjacent to the boat launch. Just over two weeks ago, we couldn't see over the snowbank, but it is all gone. The yearly flooding of that low strip between the parking lot and the river has occurred. The river beyond that tree has risen to the same level as the land, and the resulting pond was full of geese and a few ducks.

I wanted to get a photo of all of the fowl in the pond, but had I stepped out of the car for a clear photo, they would have left. So, I did my best through the windshield and then cropped away the hood in the bottom third of the photo.

The river has overflowed the bank near the tree, and the geese search for food in the resultant pond.

Flooding occurs here every spring but sometimes even more so than this year. One year, as we sat in the car, a couple actually launched their canoe from the right right of the photo where the trees abut the edge of the park. They paddled from the pond onto the river and went on their excursion upriver.

Miracle of miracles, I found those pictures from April 2017. First, look at the extent of the pond from all of the flooding: so much more than this year. Then, I have the picture of the couple getting into the canoe, followed by one of the paddling away on the actual river.

While it all looks calm enough in these photos, the high water creates quite a torrent farther downstream. Maybe I will be able to capture capture some pictures, but it was so dull yesterday that I couldn't be bothered to lift my camera —- not even the little phone.

Sue's Day

The birthday came and went. You may recall that there was an early gift of a pretty upscale iPhone, but there had to be something else for Sue on her special day. There is always the gift of a card, and you saw that yesterday, but some other little thing was required.

So . . . come mid-morning, I went out to pick up a little bouquet of three white and three red roses that I ordered last week. I could have had them delivered, but I knew that we'd be going out at some point, so I decided to pick them up to avoid a delivery conflict. Sue took various photos; I chose these two. I would show the whole bouquet, but that download is choosing to give me grief.

Then, it was off to Ottawa for lunch at Swiss Chalet, where the nice server provided a piece of lemon pie after our rotisserie chicken lunch.

Shauna and Dani dropped over after work and school respectively just to say hello. I think we'll see them again on the weekend along with Jonathan who was working today. We had buns and cold cuts available so that they wouldn't have to go home and still fuss with dinner. Poor Lacey was not included.

Of course, there were gifts, which hardly excited Sue at all, as you can plainly see.

! 78 !

The woman with whom I have spent most of mu life is 78 years young today. We don't dine out often, but we often take pictures when we do, so many of the pictures that I have of her are from these outings. Here is the most recent one from you know where.

This year's card: front, followed by inside, which I did sign later, bottom right.

I found the collage that I made 10 years ago for Sue's 68th and thought that I would post it again. It's chronological if you begin at top left and then go clockwise down and back around to bottom left.

More or Less

I honestly don't know what happened to the photos and the rest of the text of the previous post. As you know I am not a stranger to posting photos, but what can I say. And I deleted them from the computer too. But to satisfy myself if not anyone else, I will see what I can scrounge up.

Here are the photos from the past two Mondays.

This is what it looked like today: a little fresh snow but there is only a small remnant of the pile.. The new snow disappeared shortly after we took the photo.

There were other photos of past years, but since none of the material, even the written stuff, got posted in the previous attempt, I won't go hunting them up.

It's a mystery, I tells ya.

Less and More

I taken snow pile photos on the past two Mondays, so I thought that I would check in at least once more.

As you can plainly see, on this Monday, there is both less snow and more snow. To wit: the pile has continued to diminish, but we have received a bit more snow and cannot see the grass again. It is always disappointing when this occurs in late March or even in April, but it always does seem to occur, and sometimes the snowfall can be quite prodigious.

The simultaneous less snow and more snow causes me to recall that I once knew a fellow called Les Moore. I digress, but truly, his parents should be punished. Or should I write, PUNished?

Snow Drops 2025

You might remember that the snow drop patch was void of life when I posted on March 11. Yesterday, almost two weeks later, there were two little clumps blooming, but they were pretty closed. I don't mind that because they look droppier closed than open in my opinion. 

I wonder now whether the patch has been hit hard over the winter or whether I am just a little early this year. I did photograph two weeks earlier last years, and there were many flowers and they were quite open, but this was a tough winter, so perhaps it will take another week. Out of interest, I will return to check progress if I think of it, but I think these two photos will suffice for this year.

Rather than use my macro lens this year, I stood back and shot with my telephoto lens and then cropped madly in post. This allowed me shoot while standing, which is easier on the body, and I am satisfied with the results. 

Maple Scanning

In the light of Rumpy's threats and tariffs, we of the Great White North are endeavouring to do what we can to support Canadian companies whenever possible and to express our concomitant disapproval of things American. We are now assisted by a new iPhone app in these very odd times.

I've tried the app a few times, and it seems to work. I pointed, snapped a photo, and soon learned that Beatrice is both a Product of Canada and also Made in Canada, the second generally considered to be more Canadian that the first. I was able to choose this product over a competing American product.

I scanned PC Chocolate Chip Cookies and discovered that they were made in Canada but not a product of Canada, which would mean that at least some ingredients were sourced from elsewhere, but it didn't say where. Whatever the case, however, I once again, left the competing American brand on the shelf.

On the other hand, Lacey's Fancy Feast cat food is an American, Nestle product, and Del Monte tinned peaches are also American. I purchased both because there were no Canadian competitors. and it didn't seem right to starve the cat or not eat fruit.

Philadelphia Cream Cheese was a bit of a conundrum. The app and packaging indicate that it is an American product, but both grocery stores that I went to also showed the maple leaf symbol on the shelf, so I wasn't sure what to do. I bought it anyway, but when I got home, Sue didn't understand why I had bought more cream cheese home. You see, I tend to get cream cheese and sour cream a bit muddled in my head; we needed the latter, not the former. I had to rectify my mistake later.

Does this avoidance of American products, in favour of Canadian ones. have an impact? Frankly, I don't know, but I feel better doing my bit. If millions of shoppers do this, it is bound to mean something.

Charlie Angus and Elbows Up

You have probably heard of Charlie Angus. Since Trump began to threaten Canada and continues to do so, Charlie has become a rallying leader of the resistance. Below is a Bluesky post from this morning — advice for Canadians to stay away from the USA in these chaotic times. People like this Canadian lady have been detained in extremely poor conditions. As ICE agents run amok, it has been happening to Germans and others as well as revealed in this article.

Here is a little more of what Charlie wrote in his latest substack.

A woman dragged away by border guards and chained in an unheated cell for days.

Professors, doctors, and students are forced to give over their phones to be examined for possible "subversive" comments about the government.

People arbitrarily seized and deported despite court rulings that demand fair process.

This is the stuff of a totalitarian nightmare. It's not something you would imagine in a democratic nation. But this is the reality of life in Trump's America.

And this is why I went to Canada's Parliament to issue a travel warning to Canadian citizens: avoid all unnecessary travel to the USA. 

But one thing that he hasn't gotten absolutely correct is Elbows Up. Somewhat oddly, the ladies have it right, but the men don't. 

Charlie in the middle

As I have previously explained it comes from rough hockey play, specifically from former hockey great, Gordie Howe who used his elbows very effectively. You had to be careful jostling for the puck with Gordie.

Mind you, the boys have it right in the sense of being combative and fighting for our space, so I won't take great issue with the details since they have the spirit.

Elbows up has become a rallying cry and is making its way to t-shirts and what have you. This is one design that I have seen, and there are countless others, many of which you can see here.

Sorry, I lost track of the designer

The battle has been enjoined, and in a recent rally, disgruntled Americans waved the Canadian flag in a Spokane meeting as a symbol of protest against the current wannabe totalitarian regime.

The Annual Spring Pilgrimage

Yesterday, we travelled into the hinterland of Lanark County on our annual spring pilgrimage to Wheelers Sugar Camp. Along the way, we observed much brown and grey, for that is what rural Eastern Ontario looks like in March when the snow is mostly gone but the land remains dormant. While the scenery wasn't terrific, it was to be expected, and it will look much better when we make our fall pilgrimage, except it won't feel so much like a pilgrimage in autumn.

We chose yesterday because it was moderately sunny and warm and appeared to predict the best weather for the next two weeks. It is also getting to be near to Sue's birthday, so we consider the outing to be part of the occasion.

The place is far off the beaten track, but it is well known, so many others had also made their pilgrimage. I had to park in the overflow lot and took this photo when I returned to the the main area.

The boilers were busy and emitted their smoke all the while we were there.
You will see later how well the sap was flowing.

To the left of the above photo, there is a dark object. It is the old shack where boiling once transpired long before the place became what it has become. I seem to take a photo in passing on every visit.

Our reservations were for noon, and there were many people either coming or going by the entrance, but our table was ready, and we made our usual order: the Canadian platter for both of us, consisting of one pancake, one slice of French toast, three of their homemade maple sausages, and all of the maple syrup that anyone could desire.

It's a very big pancake.

We snapped the usual pictures as one does: one of Sue and another silly selfie of me.

Other than that, we've visited so often over the years and taken so many pictures that we didn't do much photography. Although I packed my gear, I didn't use it, and all of the photos are by phone.

I did take one photo of the windows beyond our table. Out in the shady woods snow does remain for the time being.

The sap was really flowing through the tubes to the boilers; Sue got up to take a short video. Note: you can see more sap tubes in the background. Wheeler's is only a family operation but is impressive never the less.

That was it. We drove there, ate, and drove home. It was a good enough outing, and we'll do it again some time. For now though, we retreat a little bit as we settle back into cooler weather for a few weeks.

Four Things and One More

Thing 1: I took this momentous photo in the Tims (Tim Hortons) parking lot while waiting for Nick to appear for our coffee meetup. GCalendar had told me at the last minute that it was Nick's birthday, so I offered to treat him to a coffee. At $2.50, it was a cheap present.

I say that the photo is momentous because it was the first donning of the running shoes since . . . well, I don't know when exactly, but approximately four months ago. The pavement was snowless and dry, so I just threw caution to the wind in my nonchalant devil-may-take-care manner. I am a wild and crazy guy, eh?

By the way, enquiring minds want to know your appellation for what I call running shoes or just runners. If you're American, do you say, sneakers, and if you're British, do you say, trainers?

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Thing 2: Inside, I snapped some portraits of the young, compared-to-me, man, mostly when he was on the phone, which he was only briefly. He got a call from relative in Ukraine, Kviv to be exact. If I recall correctly, Nick was born in Canada, but his parents were very recent immigrants, and I think his slightly older sister was born in Ukraine. Nick has been back several times and can speak the language pretty well.

The call was via Messenger (FB/Meta). It is amazing to me that one can use this app to call freely around the world. Not that I would, of course, for I and mine are not devotees of phone calls, for we text almost exclusively. That is particularly true for Sue and me.

The top photo was processed on the computer, the second in the phone app. Processing is such a choice with all of the filters and sliders available. In this case, I prefer the phone version, for the computer version looks a little dull when I see it again. Of course, I could change either version at will.

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Thing 3: It now behooves me to post more about peameal bacon since it was such a new term to many of you. Bear with me, for I was a teacher, and I have been known to become pedantic at times. The following photo and description are from Wikipedia. What I forgot earlier was that we also call it back bacon up here in the Great White North.

Peameal bacon is a type of unsmoked back bacon. It is made from centre-cut pork loin, trimmed of fat, wet-cured in a salt-and-sugar brine and rolled in cornmeal.[5] It can be sliced and cooked on a grill, griddled or fried; alternately, it can be roasted, then sliced and served.[6] The brining process makes it nearly impossible to overcook.[7] The low fat content keeps it juicy, and the cornmeal gives it a crispy edge.[8]

Cooked peameal bacon has a mild salty-sweet flavour and tastes more like fresh ham (when compared to smoked back bacon or side bacon).[6] The cooked slices have been described as resembling small pork cutlets.[9] It is eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner,[8] served in slices or as an ingredient in a pork dish.[6]

The name 'peameal' comes from the dried yellow peas that were ground into meal and packed around the meat to preserve it in the Victorian era. This has since been replaced by cornmeal, but the original name remains.[6][8] Peameal bacon is rarely found outside of Southern Ontario,[10][11] and is often simply referred to as "back bacon". Similarly, a peameal bacon sandwich is often called "back bacon on a bun".[12][13] 

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Thing 4: Finally, I ask you, what do you think of this idea?

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The Other Thing: Oh  . . .  I forgot to add this. It's just an ad hoc selfie while Sue was taking real photos of geese in the pond. I know that I am a beautiful guy, but I am showing it for the background. Every spring, there is much flooding in the park. The background ponding on this day was due to the recent rain and also the warmth (the temperature did reach 15C for a few days). The water sits there for now because the ground is still frozen. Later, the river may swell and overrun its banks, so there could be even more flooding, but it's only a park. Stay tuned.