Humm

So now we have Climate Gate which some have reported as being the worst scientific scandal of the last 100 years. http://http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/6679082/Climate-change-this-is-the-worst-scientific-scandal-of-our-generation.html
The question is will there be any response? Will anyone really see this scandal for what it is?
The vast majority of news outlets have been silent on these enormously damaging revelations showing lucidly the non objective nature of their leanings. http://http://newsbusters.org/blogs/julia-seymour/2009/12/02/12-days-climategate-network-news-programs-are-still-ignoring-scandal

So if there was ever a news story of the century this is it ..but the public is getting very little reporting on it. Fox News, which the Obama administration has attempted to smear as a non news organization basically for its right leaning criticism of Obama, has been the only organization that has outed the story to any depth.
Thankfully Fox has the highest ratings and greatest following of watchers, but the fact that it with few others stands alone in the emphasis it is giving the issue, is a sad commentary on the left leaning group think that is going on.
I have aquired the Fox news network on my cable basically to have a fully rounded picture of the news. I must say I am not that thrilled about the level of their commentary nor the acume of the Fox news reporters, but they are willing to speak on topics that others simply will not touch.
However inspite their following they are vastly out numberred by the collective of the other left leaning news media, the CBC included.
I wonder if anything but a bunch of poo pooing no big deal push offs will come from the scientific and left leaning news media communities over this issue and cap and trade will proceed as if nothing has changed.
My bet is it will. There is way too much money and political interest at stake.

One More Rant

I am increasingly getting the picture that what is going on with the media is blatant spin doctoring ..everywhere. I am unfortunately becoming rather jaded but not without cause. Take for instance the reporting on the presidential candidates.
Its transparently obvious that the media in general are supporting Oboma (sp?) for president, especially CNN. (a recent poll of media people showed a 67% bias towards Oboma)
Now I actually do not care if a news media outlet comes out and declares its bias towards a presidential candidate or its bias on anything. I can appreciate that kind of honesty, but this pretense of objectivity kills me. Who do they think they are trying to kid ??
humm ..
I could brush this stuff off if I believed everyone was smart enough to get the lie of objectivity, but clearly they are not and the media outlets must know it or they would have given up on the game long ago as ineffective, and detrimental to their cause.
The fact of the matter is it is working. People are en masse buying into the agenda of the media- no where more evident than in the craziness about global warming. Even though the data shows the planet has not warmed in 10 years we are still being flooded with dire warnings of impending doom if we somehow all don't start "reducing our carbon foot print "
It has been estimated that if all the wild eyed predictions of global warming are true and everyone everywhere bought the story line and did everything possible to stop the warming trend predicted,their efforts would amount to a fraction of a degree (2/10ths or less) in temperature change cooler. That "benefit" would come at huge global cost materially and yes in potentially tens of millions of lives.
No I am not arguing the case for " big oil" or that we should not be concerned about the environment. I am simply arguing for honesty and sanity.
An example of open lying and exaggeration to support a bias was seen this year in the dire predictions of global warming causing the north pole to be ice free!!
Check out this blog which I found interesting ..as it expresses what I am feeling ...( there I showed you my bias!!)
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977398506&nav=Namespace
Here is another one :

February 22, 2008 (LPAC)--Scaring people and drumming up convenient lies on man-made global warming are the means used by Al Gore to pursue deindustrialization and genocide. However, the plan has developed a hole through which people can see the truth. It came out in the form of a report issued by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), that reveals that almost all the ice allegedly lost in the Arctic has come back. The report shows that ice levels which had shrunk from 5 million square miles in January 2007 to just 1.5 million square miles in October, are almost back to their original levels.
Moreover, a Feb. 18 report in the London Daily Express showed that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than usual. The Daily Express recalls the photograph of polar bears clinging on to a melting iceberg, which has been widely hailed as proof of the need to fight climate change and has been used by former VP Al Gore during his "Inconvenient Truth" lectures about mankind's alleged impact on the global climate, and points out that Gore fails to mention that the photograph was taken in the month of August when melting is normal. Or, that the polar bear population has soared in recent years. Reading the NOAA report, one columnist pointed out: If global warming gets any worse, we'll all freeze to death.
Gore's blatant lies were exposed long back by the EIR. Express notes, scientists are saying the northern Hemisphere has endured its coldest winter in decades, adding that snow cover across the area is at its greatest since 1966. In its Sept. 28, 2007 issue, EIR analyst Greg Murphy pointed out that because the current interglacial period has lasted more than the 10,000-year average, it is expected that a new ice age is in the making. "We don't know exactly when ice will once again advance to cover a good part of the Northern Hemisphere," but an ice age is coming.
For more on the coming ice age: Solar Cycles, Not CO2, Determine Climate

Shootin' For the Moon

Ya so I am tired of changing lenses in the field with my DSLR so I have begun a search for the best point and shoot I can find. To that end I wanderred down to London Drugs and picked up a camera I have been waiting to arive, the new Fugi S100sf.
Its considerred a bridge camera -something that bridges the gap between DSLR's and point and shoots. It has a 28-400mm zoom lense on it which actuates exactly like a real DSLR lenses would. I liked the feel of this camera, its big and strongly built - something needed for me !! Its menu system is dead easy to work with, and the EVF and the LCD at the back are both excellent. Shot times are fine as well.

There is much to like about this camera, but the proof of the pudding is in the image quality. I was hoping it would be very good. Turns out after taking a couple hundred shots, the image quality goes from good to almost great to nearly horrible.

The lens works well when at its telephoto maximum, but seems to fall apart trying to capture wide angle scenery shots. Macro is good but not great. Color is good to very very good, but again, if you go wide angle and try forest shots ..the camera looses its mind and coughs up off shots which even with the dynamic range bumped up 400%, seem to be limited in tone. Like all digi cams it loves to blow highlights and this it does very well.
Note the blown highlights,wierd coloring plus garish purple fringing in this shot in sections (this was not even a full wide angle shot for the camera)






Wide angle shots of anything in the sun can produce lots of purple and green fringing. All shots shot at the 11 meg setting show up as rather sketchy on magnification. This really is a 6 meg cam bumped up.

The 6 meg setting and lower provides a better image, but nothing saves the lens at the wide angle end of things. It barrel distorts all over the place and detail gets lost . Click on the shot below to see what I mean.





Here's and example of the cam at its better telephoto end, pulling in this swan at the 400mm.







Not bad but the camera consistently got the surrounding pond enviroment color all wrong and the resolution was not great. The white blow outs everywhere bugged me.

The color in this shot below is not bad but not right either. I messed with the color and contrast but it still is off. The darker areas turn up black more often than not. Perhaps I can change this but so far have not been able to.




Well I think I will have to work a bit longer with the cam and see where I might be limiting it but I think the purple fringing and barrel distortion are deal breakers and the cam will in the end be going back.

My problem is I see too much in each photo and have way high expectations.This Fugi is actually a great camera for the average person as it will capture shots from close to far at a level most would be very happy with. Since the average shooter has little need to blow up their shots past a 5X7, or at best 8X10, 99% of what I have just complained about will never be seen, and I think the Fuji guys know that well.

I guess I am shooting for the moon hoping a point and shoot will do everything super well. I had a C8080 Olympus bridge digi cam that did deliver the moon (I broke it !) Speaking to professional photogrphers I am told that there are digi cams that are excellent shooters, so I shall keep looking for that all in one solution .

I really do not want to lug lenses everywhere. Changing lenses makes field shooting so cumbersome. You can't just swing around and zoom in on that thing way off or drop down and take a macro shot. You have to change lenses if you want anything of quality in your pictures. The average DSLR all in one zooms, and consumer grade primes, are often not all that great image quality wise.

Hummm I have work to do ..but this stuff is fun to research out !! I still hope to get the moon with ice cream on top for cheeeeeeeeeeeeep!!! This Fuji does come oh so tantalizingly close !!!
I have a few more days to play with it. Maybe I will find a way to make it work for me !!

Yoooooot Fun Times

Last week we loaded up the youth from the two Calvary Chapels on the Island and some from Richmond and headed over to Thetis Island for a few days at the Capernwray camp http://www.capernwray.ca/. The staff were awesome, the site wonderful, and the food ..well let's say you will never get anything close to what the camp offerred for the pittance they charge. The kids loved mealtimes !!

The Calvary pastors from the Island did the teaching sessions with the kids.

It seems from what I can gather the approach taken with youth in most other situations is to keep the teaching sessions light and short (especially with kids new to Christianity ) and only a few through the day with lots of fun activities to break things up.

This camp was pretty much the exact opposite. There were lots of fun things to do that the camp people put on for our kids but the teaching sessions and devotionals+worship were numerous, deep and long.

To take 20 teenagers (14-19 yrs old) and ask them to do four 1-2hr teaching/devotional+worship sessions a day seems to be asking for revolt ..especially if the kids involved are not really Biblically literate and the topics invloved are not snappy and "fun".

I must say I was blown away by the kids response ..some of whom had been Christians for only a few months. They listened intently through every session, there was no fooling around and no one had to drag them to the chapel for each session. They listened, they sang, and they prayed together- often with tears.

After the retreat was over I asked one of the guys (who had just become a Christian) how he had liked the camp. He said it was too short and next time we needed to do it for two weeks!

I asked another guy who has only just started coming to our church what he liked the most . He said the teaching sessions . I was kind of taken aback and said " But they were often very long !" His immediate response was . "Ya but I liked them."

Every one of the kids from our church came back enormously changed and all wanting to sign up for next year. They have expressed a desire to go to other retreats like the one they had just enjoyed so a three day trek up Mt Washington is in the works ..and yes more long teaching sessions between the fun times.

There seems to be all kinds of expert opinions on how the "youth " are to ministerred to. If people are looking for a formula here is one that works.

Take old and younger people to be the teachers, focus on teaching only the Bible, add in lots of worship+group prayer times, add in fun activities and awesome food ..and voila ..you have excited and happy yoooooot!!

Oh ya and you must have an ingredient that comes only by prayer . The working of the Holy Spirit . Without Him nothing happens that is truly lasting or important.

War is Plain Sad

While this focuses on American troupes it served as an important reminder that there are Canadians serving over seas right now that I rarely think of .

http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1

Interesting

Found this an interesting read prior to looking at Gore's movie. Heres a quote from the article :

"...Michael Crichton (best known for his novels but also a graduate of Harvard Medical School and a former postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies) warned his audience of the dangers of "consensus science" in a 2003 speech,

"Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled. Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

"Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus.

"Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus."

You can find the rest of the article here : http://sitewave.net/news/s49p1835.htm

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Welp went to see this flick with a friend last night. I went expecting a movie with great visuals and a lame to totally unbelievable and boring plot line. Pirates 3 and Captain Sparrow, played half drunk with strangely effeminate and non pirateeee mannerisms by Johnny Depp, did not disappoint. Loved the visuals. Great CG scenes. The story line was hopeless and impossible to get into with any degree of seriousness, the humor fell flat more often than not, and the acting was very lame in spots.
If you like visual effects -Go. If you want an engaging plot or a good comedy ..save your coin.
5/10