Issue #905
Including:

From Russ
From Lorne
The Ontarion

Hi All,

Have you ever thought about size, and how things are measured? The more you think about it, the more interesting it gets. The first thing to realize is that all our measuring is relative, not absolute and thats because every measurement we make is based on a relationship to a standard but that standard is arbitrary. Here’s what I mean by that….

Lets start with the universe. Scientists and astronomers have figured out how to make incredibly accurate measurements of sizes and distances of very large and very distant objects. But, they are based on measurements made from within. Based on how far light can travel in a given time, 9.5 trillion km per year. But, a kilometer is an arbitrary distance and a year in this case is an Earth year, the time it takes for this planet to do one full orbit of our local star. For some entity living on a different planet, a year would be something quite different. Even though we know the speed that light can travel, and we have measured the universe to be about 16 billion years old, we can never know if that universe is big, or small, because we have no external reference. We are seeing it from within, basing it on our interpretations, and gauging it against a law of physics.

Here’s an example of a different senario. Lets say we are inside a sphere that could be as small in diameter as a few millionths of a millimeter or as large as the size of our Earth’s orbit or any other arbitrary size. We would have no way of knowing this and all measurements would be relative to whatever we chose as a reference. As long as the sphere was either stationary or in constant motion, we would have no way of measuring that, only acceleration could be measured. We would then come up with a ‘size’ of this internal universe and a ‘size’ for everything within it but we could never know how big of small our internal universe actually was, because there would be no external reference. We are measuring from within, not from outside.

And thats what we have regarding our ‘real’ universe. We are seeing it and measuring it from within. We have no way of knowing if it is large, small, incredibly small, or whatever. Our lives measured against planetary orbits might actually take place in the blink of some external eye, or go on seemingly forever from that external point of view. So, is our world and our universe big or small, no way of knowing, for us it is what it seems to be.

Within this realm of relativistic size and distance we certainly have some interesting situations. As an example, because light can only travel at the fastest speed that the laws of physics permit, that law being the law of space/time, everything we see ‘out there’ in this universe has happened in the past. We can only look back, because distances are so very far and light is so very slow, relatively speaking. Once outside our solar system every single things is years away at that speed of light. So, everything is in the past. We are all familiar with the constellation of Orion. When viewed from the northern hemisphere, that star in the upper left corner, the one that tends to look reddish, is called Betelgeuse. It looks reddish because it is, its a red giant. Its about 497.95 light years away. Therefore, what we see is not how it is now but how it was that many of our years ago. Now here’s the cool part, that red giant is (or was) imminent to go Nova, to collapse in on itself, resulting in the biggest kind of explosion that nature can create. Stars going Nova are where all the heavier elements in the universe are created. Most of the elements on Earth including what our personal atoms are made of come from the results of stars going Nova, from the extreme pressures and temperatures of those events. Now, that star is (or was) about to blow, big time. But, what we are seeing is from almost 498 years ago. It may have blown 497 years ago, or it might not have exploded yet. We can’t know until we see the flash. And we won’t see the flash until the light from the explosion reaches us. It could reach us today, it could be years from now but it has probably already happened and we just can’t know yet. When that light does reach use, it will be visible during daylight conditions, shining the way Venus shines at night. That will be cool.

And another cool thing…. At the speed of light, time does not pass. We all know that, its part of general relativity. The faster something moves, the slower time passes for it. The slower something moves, the faster time passes. Thats the law of space/time. Therefor, time does not pass at all for a photon of light, traveling at the fastest speed physics permits. A light photon that was created at the beginning of the universe has not aged any more than one that just jumped out of your computer screen. Again, cool.

*

And now for something totally different….. there was a PBS country music special series on this past week that covered the subject from the raw beginnings up to the just short of the present. It was incredibly interesting. In the last episode there was a section covering Jonny Cash and Rosanne Cash where they did a song called ‘And I Still Miss Someone”. I thought, hey, I could probably learn that song and then why not try to record it. Its been a very long time since I recorded anything which mean figuring out ‘how’ again but I gave it a try and here it the results. Hope you enjoy it. Just click the link below.

I Still Miss Someone

doug

****

From Russ

Fires

“DEVASTING” Pine River Cheese closure.

“When word spread through Ripley, and North up Highway 21 to Kincardine, and riffled across the breadth of Bruce County that Pine River Cheese and Butter Co-Operative had made the hard decision to close after 134 years in business, well, you can imagine the shock. At least 25 people are out of a job, some having worked at the same place for 30 years plus.

The board of the farmer-owned co-operative made the decision Friday September 13th to cease operations, with production slated to end later this month, and sales expected to wrap up by the end of the year.

The decision to cease operations was due to loss of market share and rising product costs that resulted in low product margins and hampered their ability to remain competitive.

On September 7th 2010 a fire stopped production for over a year. The fire resulted in the erosion of the company’s market share across Ontario, from which it never recovered.

‘There wasn’t any support available, or any free money, to kind of help us through that’, said the CEO, Ulrike Prehn’”

Note: There’s always money for big businesses like the giant motor companies, but not for a small, farmer-owned cheese factory!

The 2010 fire was actually the second to hit the business in the past 10 years. Half the plant burned in its previous location on October 26th, 1981. (The current plant was built in 1983).

There is likely no one still living who could attest to this; but the VERY first production plant was built on Concession 12, South of Kincardine on the West side off Highway 21. (likely the 1885 building). It also burned, and because the cement floor survived the fire, it was used as a dance hall by the locals AND by the Dickson girls form Waterloo whose parents, Edyth and Fred had a Summer cottage in Point Clark. By a stroke of luck, I married one of those girls in 1953. Barbara and I began ‘courting’ about 1950, and she used to point out the little cement pad they called a ‘dance hall’. The information of the fire that destroyed the first Pine River Cheese factory came from the Dickson’s around about the time Bobbie and I first began smooching on the sandy beach in front of their cottage (named ‘the Sheelin’ (sp?).

We, and now I have/has been purchasing Pine River products for over 68 years (that’s how long we’ve had a cottage in Point Clark), and we, along with the locals and Summer cottagers will miss THE cheese factory, because “it’s always been there!”.

Now where will I be able to buy those “squeaky” cheese curds?

By your old Uncle Russ.

****

From Lorne

The time being.

Having missed a few issues, I have some catching up to do. A birthday party with lots of goings on was held here last Saturday. I was invited and intended to attend, but instead I was confined to a hospital bed for 9 days. Something about weakness, fainting and just plain nothingness. The second ambulance trip left me at the hospital with heart problems. From then on, lots of needles, including one in the stomach

Lorne

****

THE ONTARION REPORT

Hello everyone! And Lorne!

Carole and I sincerely hope you’re doing much better since your surgery and that you recover quickly! I think you’ll be out piling wood in no time or at least splitting it for your winter use! I have no doubt you’ll be back singing within the next week or two or at least singing in the shower to keep the vocal chords tuned up! LOL! Hang in there Lorne and don’t forget to write to the Squid!

When I was up in St Mary’s hospital I was well attended to by all the staff but I’m sure Lorne kept the nurses in particular, hopping!

*

I may have mentioned a while back that I met a neighbour from down the block that has purchased an MGB like ours. Well, I’ve been meeting up with him as I pass his house every morning on my daily walk around the block. Not every day but about every third day or so he happens to either be walking his dog “Whisper” or else at least out in his garage working on his MG and we stop what we’re doing and have a little chat. At first encounter out front of our house, as we talked and introduced ourselves he struck me with his accent to be from England. He kept referring to his homeland as “The UK” so I didn’t ask him which part of the UK he hales from. As it turns out he’s from Cardiff Whales and has been over here in Canada since the mid 70’s. He’s an interesting fellow to talk to indeed and we’ve had a few good talks about life in general as well as many other subjects. He told me that he spent his life designing and selling recycling equipment as and electrical and mechanical engineer. He started his career working for a company in Whales and then was recruited by a company owner in Montreal to do the same for his company here in Canada. After working for that fellow for 16 years and having access to the company helicopter to fly him all over Canada on business he decided to open his own company and spent the rest of his working career building that business. He finally sold the company two years ago and retired.

Although he looks and acts much younger (I thought he was my age or a bit younger) he told me that he is 82 years of age. I never would have guessed his age! Anyway, the other day we got to talking in front of his house as I paused during my walk and he was telling me some of his experiences back in the UK. He said that he and his father used to take trips to the south of Ireland and go fishing in the Gulf Stream off the southern tip of the Republic of Ireland. He said one of their favourite things to do was deep-sea fishing about a kilometer off shore in the Gulf Stream current. He said that particular spot is where the great ship the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U Boat during the first world war and sunk mid stream. He told me that in order to have their baited line for catching fish in the strong current drop deep enough instead of floating on the surface they had to have a 3.5 lb weight on the line. This weight would take their line down the 60 or so fathoms to the bottom of the sea, then they would jig the line up and down to attract the fish. The interesting part of his story was the fact that they were fishing directly over the wreck of the Lusitania. He told me that when they were in position, the captain would shut the engine of the boat off and let the boat drift with the current. This would move them the length of the wrecked ship and they could feel and hear the heavy weight of the steal sinker bouncing off the remaining metal of the ships decaying hull. He said he felt very connected to the history of the Lusitania each time they fished at that place and experienced this phenomenon! What an interesting story I found that to be! I had no idea that the Lusitania had been torpedoed so close to the coast of Ireland! Now I’m interested in reading more about this happening of the First World War. He told me that there is a book published about the whole incident involving the sinking of this great ship and that it’s very interesting reading. I’m not much of a bookworm but I may just look more of these facts up on line and read about it there! He has piqued my interest with his personal story!

History was always one of my favourite subjects in school and I’m surprised we were never taught more about the First World War! Of course we may well have been taught more but I’m sure I would have remembered such an interesting story as the sinking of the great ship! I know that I’ve heard the name “Lusitania” in conjunction with stories about the sinking of the Titanic but with the Titanic being the more famous of the two the Lusitania kind of took a back seat! Oh well, with this in mind, I’ll look into the story of the less famous ship and do some reading!

It’s interesting what one can learn from talking to someone from a different country than one’s own! I’m sure David (that’s his name) has many more interesting stories about the UK if I ever get to sit down with him for a good long talk!

I’ll make a point of doing just that some time and see what we can both come up with!

Talking to him reminds me of the talks I have had with Uncle Russ of Brubacher fame!

So many years and so much history to be reviewed when one takes the time to delve into the minds of older people! I’m one myself but have been very fortunate to have lived in such a peaceful country during such peaceful times! God Bless Canada!

That’s about all I have for this week folks!

Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report!

Bye for now … Greg

PS: Something To Think About>

Charlie Chaplin once said; “The art of acting consists in keeping people from coughing!”