I have included a link for a beaver web cam again. They put a web cam in a beaver lodge last year and it was not very successful. They now have a camera for very low light and have devised protection so that the beavers won't pile mud over the camera.
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| Photo by Judy Boyd |
This camera is located at a place called Ellis Bird Farm. A brother and sister farmed the land until the 1970's. They were bought out by a petro chemical company that constructed a large petro chemical plant. The Ellis's had developed a system for successful blue bird houses and were largely responsible for bringing back blue birds to this area. They also had houses for purple martins. Of course, they fed birds all winter.
Since this couple had single handedly helped the birds, one of the stipulations in the sale of their farmland was to leave part of the land for the birds. The company funded a board to organize and manage the area.
This has been a very successful venture as the birds have been well looked after and studied. It has been made into a sanctuary and facilities have been built to accommodate visitors and has become a tourist site.
So because of the importance of the site I like to put this link on my blog. I hope that those of you who like web cams will get some pleasure out of this one.
I find it challenging to even think of an answer for the question I have asked in the title. There are so many things to consider. What might the future hold that would influence the use and storage of all things written and saved today.
There is a tremendous increase in writing volume today compared to any time in our history. In the 1950's when I was a little kid I would write two or three letters a year to my friends and maybe one to my Grandma. Today I write a blog that is nearing 400 posts. If conditions had remained as 1950 I would have written very little.
Today there are thousands of blogs and the common man and woman are able to write an exponential amount because of the use of computer technology. If one browses blogs for a few minutes you can find an endless variety of well written blogs which would never have been written before this time. Some blogs are made up of endless beautiful photographs which record our life. Digital cameras and computers have made it possible for almost anybody to take photos and post them for all to see .
About 700 AD the quill pen and powdered ink was invented. A very limited amount of writing could be done. I would think that only a fraction of this writing would have survived. The common man did not write. The primitive printing press was invented about 1500. This not only allowed for more writing but more readers. The first fountain pens were developed in about 900. This allowed more people to write and more writing survived. In the 1930's the ball point was developed and refined in the 1940's so pilots could use it during the war instead of fountain pens which did not do well with great altitude changes. Even with these developments few people wrote and little was kept.
My Dad was born in 1912. I do not know of any of his writing that has survived. We did find a letter he had written to our Mom before they were married. My brother found this letter in a stove where Dad was disposing of papers. Dad had just filled the stove but had not lit a fire. I'm not sure if this letter survives.
I do not have an answer for the question I asked in the title. I can only assume that by the exponential increase in writing we will leave a vast amount of information about how we lived a this time. Archaeologists should not have to dig carefully around in the soil to find small bits of garbage to see how we lived.
Today Albertans vote for 89 Members of the Legislature (MLA) who will serve for the next four years. As far as I know there are five parties organized for this election. There could be one or two more that are very small and running only a few candidates.
Albertans tend to keep the same party in power for long periods of time and then change them abruptly. The Social Credit Party was in power from 1935 to 1971. Today only one or two Social Credit candidates ran for election so the party is basically just an organization. The Progressive Conservatives (PC) have been in power from 1971 to 2012. During all these years the opposition was very small for most terms so the ruling party had a huge majority. The last few years a split in the PC party has been taking place. A party called the Wild Rose, which was organized about three years, ago is challenging the PC party for the majority. So this election campaign has been hot and heavy with the two conservative right wing parties fighting it out. For a change the results of the election are not a foregone conclusion and it will be a close race.
Albertans seem to always want to vote for a winner no matter what the party may be. They seem to size up who may win and everybody votes for that party.
I have never got on the band wagon. I usually vote New Democrat (ND). I like to vote for policy rather than candidates. The Nds are a social democrat party that puts people issues first . That means that their emphasis is on health, education, seniors, children. They also have a business tax schedule that has lower tax rate for small business and a higher tax rate for large business. Some people may accuse the party of being a socialist group which is not so. It can be described as left of center. Now this party may not be perfect but I'm sure others suffer the same judgement.
These days parties tend to bash each other rather than present their policies. Worse than that, parties try to promote wedge issues which enable them to get a majority easier. Sometimes parties misrepresent their policies or misrepresent other party's policies to the point of lying.
So this evening will be interesting as we await the counting of the ballots to see if the old party is thrown out and how many seats the other parties get.
I accidentally found an article in a newspaper on the research and development of robots in agriculture. Now I don't know where I've been hiding the last few years, but I was very surprise that the development of robots in agriculture has progressed as far as it has. I'm well aware of GPS used on farms. However, there still must be an operator for the equipment. Someone has to adjust equipment on the go and and monitor for any problems.
A hundred years ago agriculture was a very labor intensive industry. That was almost one hundred years after the reaper had been invented. Fruit farming and vegetable farming are still highly labor intensive. So that's where most of the research on robots has been centered. A number of robots have been developed to pick fruit and prune trees. Most of his work is done now by laborers who must hand pick the fruit.
Other robots have been developed to operate on grain farms. Seeders have been developed to sow crops. Harvesters have been developed to harvest grain crops.
Most robots are in a prototype stage. the next hurdle is to be able to mass produce them. In order to mass produce they need a market. The market will develop if they can persuade farmers to buy these machines. The machines have to be able to cost effective for the agricultural industry.
So I ask myself where I've been the last ten years when all this has been going on? Obviously under some very large toadstool!
We've had vague knowledge a way back in our head that someday we might not have any cash in circulation as we have today. I recently listened to a documentary and was surprised at how soon it may be that we do not have cash in circulation any longer.
In my last post I wrote about the penny being discarded in our cash. Many comments were on the sentimental value of the penny. However all commenters could see the practical reasons for getting rid of the penny. Other comments could look ahead to the loss of the nickel
It was a few days after these comments that I discovered the reality of a whole country without cash. This may be coming sooner than we think. Most of us have cell phones and are connected to the Internet.
There is now technology developed that would allow us to do business with out cash. We would have a chip on our cell phone. This chip would communicate with the chip in our bank card which is in our pocket. We would simply key in the price of the total of the items we are purchasing and away we go. The Canadian mint is assessing one system now.
Sweden is much further advanced in going cashless. They have a cashless system in place. However, cash is still in circulation. About 90% of Swedes go cashless. There are a few people for whatever reasons still want to use cash.
One must look behind and wonder when we started using cash. What did we use before cash?
So I guess quite soon we will be able to say, "Have chip. Will shop."
A month ago the Canadian government abolished the penny! That's right . No more pennies for Canada.
The penny cost 1.6 cents to produce so to cut out the penny would save the government money. Now what could I buy for a penny? I couldn't come up with an answer. In fact, what could I buy for 2,3,or 4 cents. I don't think we've been able to buy anything for a penny for a long time. The penny now has been used to set a neat sounding price like $4.99. So you come home every day and empty your pockets and the penny jar gets fuller each week. So I don't think the penny will be missed for monetary purposes.
The government stopped making pennies on the day of the announcement. Pennies will be accepted in business for some limited time. Fund raisers have been quick to latch onto a good idea. Many penny jars have been set up for various charities to raise money. I noticed that the jars all had tons of pennies.
Now one of the things not considered in doing away with the penny is the place it has in our language. Many sayings have been generated around the penny. The word penny is of British origin. Americans have chosen to use the term cent. Sayings that may die are: Penny or your thoughts; Shiny as a new penny; Cost a pretty penny; A penny saved is a penny earned; In for a penny; A bad penny always turns up; Penny ante; See a penny, pick it up, all day long you will have good luck. I would think these sayings would disappear over time. When the penny has been gone for several generations the use of these terms in our language will probably disappear.
So a sad good bye to the penny which was sort of the work horse in our money system. How soon will it be before we discard the nickel?
Since this week is the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, there has been much discussion on the news.
The sinking of the Titanic was a major disaster in several ways. Over 1500 people lost their lives. A major vessel was lost on it's first voyage. A comedy of errors occurred which led to the disaster.
Over the last 100 years the Titanic sinking has provided the reason for many books to be written. People are still fascinated with the sinking. Many heroic tales have been told of how people survived and died. It was horrendous for all as they thought they were on an extremely modern and safe ship. Within the last 10 years a major movie was made. Many newspaper articles and interviews have occurred on the topic. This week I heard several documentaries. One documentary was on the band that played on the ship and how it played to almost the last minute. The band members got off the ship but because they were in the water they soon perished from hypothermia.
Recent technology has enabled us to go down to the Titanic and look around. Again more was learned to explain what happened. Treasure seekers have been able to access the wreck. There is controversy regarding the ethics of taking things from the wreck. Salvagers assure us that the things the have were picked up from the ocean floor and not taken from the ship as the ship is considered a grave site.
Survivors provided eye witness accounts of events. The last Titanic survivor died only a few years ago. Families are still able to name members who were lost in the disaster.
Many investigations have taken place as to why the Titanic sank. There is till some dispute as to what actually happened. The investigations have led to many rules to improve navigation and safety. The basic building of ships was changed so that the bulkheads would prevent water from moving from one compartment to another. The type of steel used to build ships was changed because of the Titanic sinking.
It's difficult to consider the technology of the time. They did not have radar or sonar. They only had Morse code for a radio system. Visual sailing was all they had. They knew that this area could have icebergs but they continued on. Other ships in the area stopped for the night.
I think that today we have benefited from the Titanic disaster by having more reliable engineering practices. Laws have been enacted to enforce safety regulations. Life boat space and life jackets must be provided for all people on a ship.
We have all benefited from this great tragedy. 100 years have provided us with much information. I'm sure there is still more to learn. We also must remember this tragedy.
