Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Top 10 Canada Adventures
(not in order!)
- whale watching in a Zodiac. From Victoria Inner Harbour and along the south coast of Vancouver Island. The exhiliration of the boat trip alone made it worth it, but the orca were quite sublime. We found ourselves in the path of the pod as it headed west and one or two surfaced right next to the boat!
- White water rafting at Whistler. Breathless fun, made all the more exciting when mum went overboard!
- Valdes (wilderness island). Swimming, shooting, eating. An amazing cabin (and company!) And a fabulous, getting-lost adventure in the forest. Scrambling over logging 'remains' and tree-bridges through mazes of dead-fall and finding our way home again.. no trouble!
- Caving at Horne Lake. A $5 bargain. Unguided, dark, and surprisingly challenging. Scrambling over muddy rocks deep in the ground..wahey!
- Peak chair at Whistler. Civilised but fun! Steep near-vertical climb up the cliff, view of the glacier, snow at the top.
- Wading the Green River on horseback. Water up to the saddle and our knees pulled up, horses struggling against the current. Felt like we were in a Western disaster movie!
- Clambering over the rocks from Botanical Beach to Botany Bay. Juan de Fuca trail. Heavy damp fog made it all the more mysterious. Exploring the island at Botany Bay and trying not to fall in the sea.
- Steam-powered saw mill at Port Alberni. Could have watched all day! Amazing.
- Miller family reunion at Parksville. 32 people. Photos of everyone, Granma lifted in a chair.
- Mini golf. 3 times? 4? Brendan was addicted and dragged us kicking and screaming...
(I have a good number more pictures but unfortunately they're still in Canada..long story!)
- whale watching in a Zodiac. From Victoria Inner Harbour and along the south coast of Vancouver Island. The exhiliration of the boat trip alone made it worth it, but the orca were quite sublime. We found ourselves in the path of the pod as it headed west and one or two surfaced right next to the boat!- White water rafting at Whistler. Breathless fun, made all the more exciting when mum went overboard!
- Valdes (wilderness island). Swimming, shooting, eating. An amazing cabin (and company!) And a fabulous, getting-lost adventure in the forest. Scrambling over logging 'remains' and tree-bridges through mazes of dead-fall and finding our way home again.. no trouble!
- Caving at Horne Lake. A $5 bargain. Unguided, dark, and surprisingly challenging. Scrambling over muddy rocks deep in the ground..wahey!- Peak chair at Whistler. Civilised but fun! Steep near-vertical climb up the cliff, view of the glacier, snow at the top.
- Wading the Green River on horseback. Water up to the saddle and our knees pulled up, horses struggling against the current. Felt like we were in a Western disaster movie!
- Clambering over the rocks from Botanical Beach to Botany Bay. Juan de Fuca trail. Heavy damp fog made it all the more mysterious. Exploring the island at Botany Bay and trying not to fall in the sea.
- Steam-powered saw mill at Port Alberni. Could have watched all day! Amazing.
- Miller family reunion at Parksville. 32 people. Photos of everyone, Granma lifted in a chair.
- Mini golf. 3 times? 4? Brendan was addicted and dragged us kicking and screaming...
(I have a good number more pictures but unfortunately they're still in Canada..long story!)
Monday, August 29, 2005
Weekend wanderings
2 days, 420 miles, 3 cities, 4 highly secret locations, 7 friends, 2 farm vehicles, 3 dogs, 2 'detours' and almost 9 hrs in the car....a most excellent weekend!
Saturday morning, after a slightly hurried start, I made my way to my friend Caroline's farm in Suffolk. The A12 is not the fastest road in the world and this was the longest section of my trip by far. Lovely to be back in round bale land...highlights were rides in the combine harvester and the tractor (didn't drive it this time though!).
Then onwards to Cambridge and Susie's house. Time to quiz (and congratulate!) Jon on his engagement to Anastasia..and generally catch up with the Cambridge gossip.
Sunday morning found me on my way to Lincolnshire, to lunch with some old friends of the family, Judy and Roland. I caught up with Judy, read Roland's sermon (and managed to say the right things), had a yummy lunch, acquired an excellent painting and was off again, this time to York.
Stopped by to see Sherv's new house, the main challenge being to find it! Then, it was time to call an end to my wanderings and get back on the A1..homeward bound. Arrived at the Bonnington's just before 8 for a lovely evening catching up with Durham folks and a late game of Catan.
Things I found out:
- How Jon proposed
- Straw bales in Lincolnshire are square, not round
- The secret location of Sherv's cottage
- A combine harvester is a rather splendid piece of machinery
- Judy paints some excellent watercolour pictures
Saturday morning, after a slightly hurried start, I made my way to my friend Caroline's farm in Suffolk. The A12 is not the fastest road in the world and this was the longest section of my trip by far. Lovely to be back in round bale land...highlights were rides in the combine harvester and the tractor (didn't drive it this time though!).
Then onwards to Cambridge and Susie's house. Time to quiz (and congratulate!) Jon on his engagement to Anastasia..and generally catch up with the Cambridge gossip.
Sunday morning found me on my way to Lincolnshire, to lunch with some old friends of the family, Judy and Roland. I caught up with Judy, read Roland's sermon (and managed to say the right things), had a yummy lunch, acquired an excellent painting and was off again, this time to York.
Stopped by to see Sherv's new house, the main challenge being to find it! Then, it was time to call an end to my wanderings and get back on the A1..homeward bound. Arrived at the Bonnington's just before 8 for a lovely evening catching up with Durham folks and a late game of Catan.
Things I found out:
- How Jon proposed
- Straw bales in Lincolnshire are square, not round
- The secret location of Sherv's cottage
- A combine harvester is a rather splendid piece of machinery
- Judy paints some excellent watercolour pictures
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Magic Number 1
And now for a bit of maths...
(I continue to be fascinated with the strange results of probability theory..see the Monty Hall problem)
Did you know... if you take any large set of numerical data from randomly selected statistics (importantly, not 'pure' random numbers) then the number 1 will appear as a leading digit about 30% of the time.
The man who first brought this to light was called Dr. Frank Benford, and thus this strange result is called 'Benford's Law'. It is used in accounting to detect fraud, because, for a non-fraudulent set of accounts, running all the figures through a computer will give the result above - the number 1 appears as the leading digit (e.g. 13.00, 1.15, 1602.38) 30% of the time. A result that is significantly different from this and it's time to call in the auditors!
Check out this page for a fuller description. A nice demonstration of why this is the case can be found at the bottom of the page.
(I continue to be fascinated with the strange results of probability theory..see the Monty Hall problem)
Did you know... if you take any large set of numerical data from randomly selected statistics (importantly, not 'pure' random numbers) then the number 1 will appear as a leading digit about 30% of the time.
The man who first brought this to light was called Dr. Frank Benford, and thus this strange result is called 'Benford's Law'. It is used in accounting to detect fraud, because, for a non-fraudulent set of accounts, running all the figures through a computer will give the result above - the number 1 appears as the leading digit (e.g. 13.00, 1.15, 1602.38) 30% of the time. A result that is significantly different from this and it's time to call in the auditors!
Check out this page for a fuller description. A nice demonstration of why this is the case can be found at the bottom of the page.
Freedom and Uncertainty
We were having a discussion last night at dinner about freedom and uncertainty in the universe. I was reflecting on what the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (HUP) implies about the universe as created by God.
For those unfamiliar with Heisenberg’s theory, it’s this:
“The more precisely the position [of a particle, e.g. electron] is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa.”
In other words, you cannot know both a particle’s position and its movement at the same time. In the quantum world, you must speak in probabilities. For example, as this website helpfully explains:
I can only say that an atom will be at some location with a 99 % probability, and that there will be a 1 % probability it will be somewhere else (in fact, there will be a small but finite probability that it can even be found across the Universe).
Heisenberg was primarily concerned with measurement. His principle implied that previously certain Classical ‘realities’, such as speed, direction, mass, position, were meaningless in the new quantum world and he argued that some aspects come into existence only as they are measured. ("The 'path' comes into existence only when we observe it.") In this way, the uncertainty at the heart of the quantum world is not a result of our poor measurement technique, but an integral part of the universe itself.
This had massive implications, not least for Newton’s idea of causality. In simple terms, the classical view was that if the position and momentum of every particle in the universe could be determined, then you could predict the path of each based on the forces acting on it, i.e. predict the future. Of course, to Newton, only God could possibly have the observational and computational power to accomplish this. But, as Heisenberg pointed out: "In the sharp formulation of the law of causality—‘if we know the present exactly, we can calculate the future’-it is not the conclusion that is wrong but the premise." Essentially, what he’s saying is that it’s impossible to know the present exactly (but the limit is not on the knowing, but on the ‘exactly’).
The question I asked is, since the uncertainty principle seems to be part of the very fabric of the universe and an integral characteristic of quantum particles, is the universe ‘uncertain’ even to God? In the same way as He’s given us freedom, has He built a similar freedom into the physical universe?
Dad is reading Greg Boyd’s ‘Satan and the Problem of Evil’ and was similarly reflecting on what it meant for humans (and angels) to have real freedom, and the necessary uncertainty built into that.
Thoughts anyone?
(Quotes are taken from this website where you can also read more about Heisenberg)
For those unfamiliar with Heisenberg’s theory, it’s this:
“The more precisely the position [of a particle, e.g. electron] is determined, the less precisely the momentum is known in this instant, and vice versa.”
In other words, you cannot know both a particle’s position and its movement at the same time. In the quantum world, you must speak in probabilities. For example, as this website helpfully explains:
I can only say that an atom will be at some location with a 99 % probability, and that there will be a 1 % probability it will be somewhere else (in fact, there will be a small but finite probability that it can even be found across the Universe).
Heisenberg was primarily concerned with measurement. His principle implied that previously certain Classical ‘realities’, such as speed, direction, mass, position, were meaningless in the new quantum world and he argued that some aspects come into existence only as they are measured. ("The 'path' comes into existence only when we observe it.") In this way, the uncertainty at the heart of the quantum world is not a result of our poor measurement technique, but an integral part of the universe itself.
This had massive implications, not least for Newton’s idea of causality. In simple terms, the classical view was that if the position and momentum of every particle in the universe could be determined, then you could predict the path of each based on the forces acting on it, i.e. predict the future. Of course, to Newton, only God could possibly have the observational and computational power to accomplish this. But, as Heisenberg pointed out: "In the sharp formulation of the law of causality—‘if we know the present exactly, we can calculate the future’-it is not the conclusion that is wrong but the premise." Essentially, what he’s saying is that it’s impossible to know the present exactly (but the limit is not on the knowing, but on the ‘exactly’).
The question I asked is, since the uncertainty principle seems to be part of the very fabric of the universe and an integral characteristic of quantum particles, is the universe ‘uncertain’ even to God? In the same way as He’s given us freedom, has He built a similar freedom into the physical universe?
Dad is reading Greg Boyd’s ‘Satan and the Problem of Evil’ and was similarly reflecting on what it meant for humans (and angels) to have real freedom, and the necessary uncertainty built into that.
Thoughts anyone?
(Quotes are taken from this website where you can also read more about Heisenberg)
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Photo tasters
One of the many waterfalls we stopped to visit. Brendan never misses an opportunity to get rid of his shirt...
For a while there the mini/crazy golf bug struck us hard. (I told them to make 'serious golfer' poses... not quite what I meant!)
A rather ominous thick sea fog makes its way towards us...
Granma surveys her crazy brood.
Another day, another lake, and another opportunity to strip off and go swimming!
For a while there the mini/crazy golf bug struck us hard. (I told them to make 'serious golfer' poses... not quite what I meant!)
A rather ominous thick sea fog makes its way towards us...
Granma surveys her crazy brood.
Another day, another lake, and another opportunity to strip off and go swimming!
Home at last
Wow, strange to be back in grey ol' London after such a trip. Just got back this morning after a killer longhaul flight..i'm so stiff! I was just glad to make it through passport control - my hair colour has seen a little change..
It's been a fab month and had some great adventures. But the best bit was definitely connecting with family. Ours is getting bigger each year and it's great to meet so many people that you have this shared connection with.
I'm thinking of putting some of the photos together with a mini account of the trip on a website when i get back to Durham. But for now, i'll put up one or two. Hard to know where to start! Plus you might want to check some of the photos on BJ's Garden blog.
Hope people are well and you've all had fab summers!
It's been a fab month and had some great adventures. But the best bit was definitely connecting with family. Ours is getting bigger each year and it's great to meet so many people that you have this shared connection with.
I'm thinking of putting some of the photos together with a mini account of the trip on a website when i get back to Durham. But for now, i'll put up one or two. Hard to know where to start! Plus you might want to check some of the photos on BJ's Garden blog.
Hope people are well and you've all had fab summers!
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Family Fun
I'm planning a fuller Canada story and photos when I get back but here's a look at the Miller clan...
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