Roadwolf's Blog

Near the end of the Into The Universe series with Stephen Hawking, he states that there is a force called Dark Energy which pushes space apart.  This is apparently the cause of the big bang, but no one can really figure out how this Dark Energy triggered the big bang, nor can they really prove it exists.  What I find really entertaining is the fact that Hawking himself stated in the same show that gravity is a very powerful and underestimated force (paraphrasing).

It is my belief that the Big Bang was actually a huge black hole, which reached the point of failure.  The point at which it could not hold any more.  It is very possible that a chemical reaction occurred, similar to how stars form.  Black holes behave differently depending on how large, or small they are.  So what about a super massive black hole?  Well, we cant really say how it would react, but chances are, there is a limit to how dense matter can get.

After running many simulations of gravity, I have found that if you leave them long enough, while many particles appear to have been sling shotted far away from a focal center point, they will always eventually find their way back.  Unless of course they run into something else.  Does the force of gravity have limits?  Likely not.  Galaxies millions of light years away from each other do effect each other through their gravities interacting.  I imagine the same holds true to galaxies and stars billions of light years away.  I imagine that the force of gravity will diminish just as visible light would diminish at such distances, but that gravity is still there, pulling on the objects and slowing its outward speed down ever so slightly.

Eventually, it is possible that star systems will end up in a deep freeze type scenario, where we find ourselves far away from other galaxies, seemingly on our own in the universe…  But eventually we should be sucked back into the great crunch.  We may wobble around it a bit, and perhaps form an elliptical orbit around it for many billions of years before we are eventually sucked into a massive black hole.  But I do believe that the universe will eventually collapse into itself again – only to eventually grow too dense again, compress all the particles back into hydrogen atoms, and start over again with another big bang.

This is almost like the war between the Elements and the Forces of Nature, the dominant force in this case being Gravity.

I understand that there are studies which have found that things are moving away from each other in the universe, and things are gaining speed as they move away, but keep in mind this is all a matter of perspective from where we sit here on earth.  It is also possible for galaxies to propel themselves by the many star systems sling shotting around inside the galaxy, thus shifting the balance of gravity, and causing the whole galaxy to speed up.

Eventually however, I think all the galaxies will eventually turn into huge black holes, and the black holes of the former galaxies would eventually gravitate towards each other and merge.  I estimate it would take a trillion years or so in order for the universe to collapse into it self again, re-condense the atoms to the simplest form, Hydrogen, and start the process all over again.

It is possible that there are other universes out there.   Perhaps there were star systems very close to the big bang when it occurred, but the blast obliterated them, or the force of the shock wave sent them flying further out into space then we can see.  Since most stars would of been formed long after the original blast occurred, it is possible that the stars nearest the big bang, were pushed away or destroyed long before the first stars in our universe came into being.  Thus we might not be able to look that far back in time by looking into space.

Either way it is an intriguing thought.  If someone wants to debate these theories with me, I would welcome the debate.  I am interested in hearing the points which support this Dark Energy theory.

Tags: Nature by Roadwolf
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I believe I have written about this before, however I think I need to re-hash this.

I heard some unknown scientist today talking on NPR about how President Obama should be using this Oil Spill in the Gulf to condem the oil industry and say hey, this may be a disaster, but it is also a similar disaster to use the same oil to pollute the air in our cars.

Well I wouldn’t expect Mr. Obama to say that, because it is utter garbage.  Okay, so maybe if we didn’t demand so much on oil, this spill may not have happened.  But saying that refined gasoline will pollute the earth as much as the crude oil is, is absurd.  Saying that would make Mr. Obama look like an uneducated puppet, which he is not.

I don’t know what they promote in this unknown scientists ‘college’ in Vermont, but I do not imagine it is a well known place of study.

It is well known that global warming is natural, and only slightly influenced by human activities.  A single volcano like the one in Europe that erupted earlier this year, puts out more carbons into the atmosphere then we do in a year.   And volcanoes are erupting every day.  The earth is unstable,  its temperature is never constant.  It is influenced by the Sun, by the Moon, by the internal workings of our planet.  Our influence has very little effect in the long run.

Eventually the earth will not support human life anymore.  Not because of anything we have done (unless it is nuclear war), but because a cosmic event will happen which may change the world as we know it.   These events are bound to happen every few hundred thousand years.  Be it a super-volcano like the one under Yellowstone, which could wipe out all of Western North America., or a comet, or meteoroid.

So all you Global Warming freaks who thing that just because our planet has warmed up by 1 degree – that it is a global emergency; go suck on a lemon.  Sure, being green is good!  I fully support the move for clean energy, and nuclear energy.  But do not panic over it.  Also, Green energy will have its side effects as well…  Everything has side effects.  Solar Cells will reflect / block the suns energy from reaching the ground, and thusly effect the ground under them.   Wind turbines cause issues for birds, and may also un-naturally slow down prevailing winds slightly enough to alter local weather patterns.

Just some food for thought.

Tags: Nature, News by Roadwolf
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So we have been feeding birds on our roof lately. And noticed something I never noticed before.  Growing up in the Suburbs of Toronto, most of the Starlings in the area were of the black variety.  Similar to this photo.  However I noticed some brown starlings on my roof, fighting with the black ones for chunks of bread.  I then got confused – Whats with the different colours?   So I looked it up.

Unlike the Black Toronto Grey Squirrels, this doesn’t appear to be a regional mutation.  As it turns out, the black starlings come from Africa…  The brown speckled starlings come from Europe…   This brought a whole new light to the bird world, and opened up the door for a lot of potentially politically incorrect jokes, and monty python references directed towards the starlings.

For one, I noticed that the European Starlings generally only congragated in groups of no more then 2 or 3.  They would be enjoying a meal on my roof, when a gang of 10 to 15 African Starlings fly in and scare them away…   I lul’ed.

My sources for this information were Wikipedia.  You can read about them here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starling

Just to be clear, I am not trying to be racist.  Just some light hearted saterical humor.

Tags: Nature by Roadwolf
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I just read a recent issue of National Geographic about the Yellowstone Supervolcano.  I am actually very surprised about how large an erruption would be.  This map shows the extent of the pyroclastic cloud which occured 640,000 years ago.  As you can see, an event of this magnatude would likely wipe out most of the western US.

The cauldra is only 5 to 7 miles below the surface, and is being fed by a giant lava plume which extends as deep as 400 miles into the earth.  As the plume vents gasses, the gasses rise and create more pressure in the cauldra.  This causes the land to rise, small earthquakes and eventually a large erruption.

It should be noted, that a large erruption from Yellowstone would cause doomsday like effects.  We would likely be quickly forced into a nuclear winter and several plant and animal species would likely become extinct (to the horror of those animal lovers, I imagine, but hey, can’t save em all).  The loss of the western portion of the USA would not be as significant when you tally in the loss of life after the erruption.

Now in this day and age, I am sure we would be able to brave such a situation out.  We have technology and knowlege.  Heck, we have people living in space, and in the antartic year round now – I am sure we could survive the cooler weather.  The only problem might be a high concentration of acidic gasses in the air.

Anyhow, I thought of an idea about this, which I figured I would share.

So basically there are gasses which are trying to escape…   And there is heat which has to be disipated.  Well how about tap into that heat to generate power?  And at the same time we can tap into the Cauldra with vents, and control how much venting the cauldra does.  I am sure we have the technology to preform this task.  Obviously there are risks…  what if puncturing the cauldra with vents causes an erruption?   And how to prevent laval from coming up the vent pipes?  And how to prevent the vent pipes from melting?

I doubt any such attempts to releave the gas pressure will actually happen however, likewise I doubt any attempts to harness the steam and use it to generate power, will likely ever go through.  Mainly because it is a national park – and that would likely piss the environmentalists off.

But think of it this way.   If we pump water down there and then collect the steam from said water, we could help cool the cauldra (wishful thinking, I know) while we generate power.

Honestly, I am sure some ‘experts’ have already thought of this idea, but I felt the need to share my own thoughts and ideas, even if they seem very impractical.  Hell, drive a remote controlled tunnel boring machine down into it…  Evacuate the area, and wait.  It may produce a small erruption, but hopfully not as large as the one 640,000 years ago.  And since we manually released the pressure, it would likely be safe for another few hundred thousand years.

Tags: Nature, News by Roadwolf
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Last weekend I went to Letchworth with Kelly.  It was great fun…   I earned a new nick name “The Machine”…

Every time I spend with Kelly is amazing, and it just keeps getting better.   I know I must be careful since I am married.  Alot of the Letchworth weekend was very intimate, so I wont talk about it publically.

Tags: Nature, Polyamory by Roadwolf
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I know that I really shouldn’t be writing about this.  As they say, if you call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye.  But Haycreek Road (I call it Haycreek, as one word, but the real name is Hay Creek Rd.)  is very much part of who I am today.  I believe the first one to discover this road within my circle of friends was Exkalibur.  He apparently drove down the road in his dad’s car, and wrecked the transmission.  Then it was Jeff and I who rode down it in his Jeep. and eventually I brought my Van up to test it on the rugged logging trail.

Now, surely there are elite Jeepers who will say, oh hell, thats nothing.  But for a Van, that is a very difficult place to get to.  Haycreek is basically a mix between a muddy trail, and a rocky trail.  Half the time you are driving in mud, the other half you are driving over bedrock.  The trail roughly follows the hydro lines, and was originally cut out to service them.  However, now that Hydro One uses helicopters to service these lines, the trail has fallen into disrepair.

The trail (or ‘road’) runs through Algonquin Park.  Technically you need a park pass to be able to travel on the trail, as far as I am aware.  It passes through 2 ecological zones.  The north eastern zone closer to Whitney is in the coniferous region of the Canadian Shield.  The Canadian Shield is an ancient mountain range which spanned across Pangaea before the continents broke apart.  Some say it was the first mountain range on earth.  The south western region heads into a mixed forest, dominated by coniferous trees, but with noticibly more deciduous trees.  This portion of the trail also enters into Muskoka cottage country.

Along Haycreek, you will sometimes see trails leading off into other directions.  These trails are old logging trails, and most of them are so overgrown you need a chainsaw to get in.  The active logging roads, you will likely need mud tires to get through, because the logging trucks tear up the ground like crazy.

It seems funny to think of logging in Algonquin.  A while ago, I wrote an article about it.  But I will touch back on that in this article.  In Algonquin Park there are over 800,000 kilometers of logging roads and trails.  Compare that to say, the city of Toronto, with 450,000 kilometers of streets.  Algonquin, while surely almost 10 times larger then Toronto, is still very dense with roads and trails.  This is especially true in northern Algonquin, where logging is more present.  Of course logging in Algonquin is not clear cut logging.  It is selective.  And I am sure there will be those who disagree with it, but I think that the logging program in Algonquin is an example that all logging programs should follow.

Now.  there are a few conflicting reports on the legalities of being on such roads.  As far as I am aware, Haycreek Road is an actual road right of way, and you are allowed to be on it anytime.  Logging trails, not so much.  Logging trails are technically off limits during the work week.  On weekends and holidays however, the general public is allowed on any logging road on government controlled land, unless otherwise posted.

There WAS a map available online, which showed EVERY single logging road in Algonquin.  But sadly, some environmental protection group got ahold of these maps, and used them to try to press their case about how logging was bad.  Now, thanks to those people, the map is not available anymore.  The logging roads are often VERY difficult to navigate, and I wouldn’t suggest trying to drive through them unless you have a GPS which can track where you have been.

That being said, they are VERY fun to camp at.  The unused logging roads have nice clearings every kilometer or so, which you can easily set up camp at.  Of course there are no facilities, but its not camping if you have facilities really…

All in all, worth the drive to check out.  But treat the place with care and respect.

Tags: General, Nature by Roadwolf
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