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Trans-Canada Road Trip – Ontario South and East
We drove into Ontario and the first thing we noticed was the singing road, for about the first hour of the drive in on the highway it was a very loud "singing" of the tyres and the road. It was not so great though and we were very relieved when it was over. We spent about two weeks crossing through Ontario and that was doing it pretty quick. It is a massive Provence with a lot to see. In this post I will talk about our first week, Ontario the east and the south. From the Quebec boarder to Niagara Falls, bordering with the US.
Our first destination when we hit Ontario was to head to Ottawa. Here we came into the city and visited the museum of nature. It was super interesting, mostly all about animals (which is way more interesting for us 🙂 ). They also had a special exhibit on dinosaurs as well as their usual dinosaur exhibit so we learnt a lot about the planet and everything that has lived on it. We got to see some of the bones of Wendiceritops, the new dinosaur found last year in the US.
From the Museum we went to the downtown to find the famous eight step canal. We found the area, a lot of closed roads and crazieness around so we didn't stop. We found out later that it was like that due to a new sink hole which had just opened up… Something that would have been awesome to try and get a look at, though with all the fences around wouldn't have seen much anyway. After this we wanted to get out of the city and into the less hectic country side. We went south toward Kingston making our way through the more scenic route, along the Rideau river and around the Rideau Lakes. This is the series of lakes and rivers which connect Ottawa and Kingston with a series of locks.
We didn't make it as far as Kingston, we stopped around one of the lakes at the Mull Pond Conservation Area. It was a beautiful looking spot with some nice walks which we unfortunately couldn't go on due to recent pesticide use, they were closed for the week. We got there later in the evening and we decided to stay in the car park overnight. There were not signs saying no overnight parking so we figured it would be ok… and it was 🙂 The evening was beautiful and clear with a lovely sunset then bright with so many stars. We even got to see fire flies, we watched then for ages flying around outside the car. It was beautiful.
The next day we were off to see the beautiful old town of Kingston. This used to be Ontario's first capital city before it was moved to Ottawa. The buildings in the town are all beautifully preserved and everything has a very quaint, calm feeling to it. We went to the lake Ontario park to sit and have out lunch and watch all the black squirrels play out amongst the grass and trees.
After this we went to visit the prison museum. This was located in the prison wardens quarters across the road from the old Kingston prison. It is donation funded and run by volunteers. It was super interesting, all the staff were incredibly helpful and knowledgable. One of whom used to work in the Kingston prison so she had lots of exciting things to tell us. The rooms were themed in different ways, such as punishment, weapons, crafts, cells, and many more. This maximum security prison which is no longer in use ( as of 2013) is actually older than Canada itself. It was originally opened by Americans as a place to send their prisoners. There is another company which has now opened a tour of the actual prison, this was starting the week after we were there.
We had an exciting afternoon in store for us after visiting Kingston, we were off to visit a blog friend of mine Hilda and her husband Hector in Tamworth. She is the author of the blog Along the Grape Vine. A fantastic blog incorporating gardening and food. They had been kind enough to offer us a place to stay on our journey. We actually stayed with them for three nights and used their place as a base to explore some of the area's of Ontario around them.
On arrival the sun was shining, the flowers were out in the garden and we were greeted with big friendly smiles followed by some wine and cheese. It was just exactly what we needed after a few days on the road… or just at any time 🙂 Through out our stay with them we learnt a lot about both Hilda and Hector, both incredibly fascinating people especially as they had worked in foreign affairs. They had both travel a lot them selves so we had some great stories to share, we learnt some great things about gardening and plants and most importantly we just enjoyed some lovely company.
On the second night we were there some of their friends and past colleagues came to stay also. It was like being in another world for us. Some of their stories are like things we would only know of to happen in movies or on TV. We loved it, just listening to their stories and talking about life.
On our first day we decided to venture north a little into the Bon Echo Provincial Park. This is home to some of Ontario's beautiful cliffs. The Bon Echo cliffs are beautiful, falling straight down into the lake below. One of the things that make them so famous is the ancient drawings on the sides. These drawings are visible if you were to climb them or to take a kayak our and go exploring. We didn't do that, we just did some walking around so we just got the beauty of the cliffs. We also did a few other walks which we were in the park. A short wildlife walk and then a longer walk around the Bon Echo lake side. This was called the shield trail, however we dubbed it the mosquito trail. We basically ran the whole thing swatting mosquitos as we went. We did still manage to stop a few times to enjoy the beautiful view, then quickly move on.
We made our way back to Tamworth where we were to spend the afternoon/evening sitting outside in the sunshine on their deck and enjoy a delicious BBQ with their friends. It was good way to relax after a few nice walks.
The next day we were heading south to 'the County'. Prince Edward County. This is a little island sitting just out on lake Ontario. We took the ferry across onto the county. A free short ferry service which runs every 15 minutes over the summer and half hour year round. It took us onto the county close by the lake on the mountain. This small lake is a strange phenomenon where it is sitting above the level of lake Ontario. I know it might not sound strange to some and until I saw it I was somewhat a disbeliever too, especially after living in Iceland which is littered with crater lakes sitting on the tops of mountains. This was what I was originally imagining. However it is not anything like this, it is only a few hundred meters away from the shoreline of lake ontario, you can see both lakes easily from many angles. The mountain is not really much of a mountain either, more a small hill but somehow there is this nice lake sitting on it looking out over lake Ontario. I can't really explain it other than if you pass by go and see it.
We had some lunch by the lake on the mountain then went to explore the eastern side of the county. The things to do there are visit wineries and eat dome delicious food. The little island id dotted with lots of fantastic wineries, restaurants, a few cheeseries and a famous ice-cream parlour. We visited the cheeseries, where at one we could try some of the delicious famous ice-cream too. We brought a cheese from each cheeserie and a bottle of red wine to bring back and enjoy in the afternoon sun with Hilda and Hector. We only had an afternoon there so didn't get to do everything but if you are there for longer there are also some fantastic beaches and sand dunes to visit once you are full and happy. The Island itself is just beautiful and on a day with bright blue sky and sun shining you wouldn't really think you were in Canada, it has more of a european feel to it, guess it's all the grape vines everywhere :).
We could have stayed with Hilda and Hector for ages but after three nights we decided it was time to get a move on or we would be there for weeks. We had had a good much enjoyed few days break from big cities and felt ready to venture into Toronto. The heart of Ontario. This is a huge city with massive multilane highways. Fortunately we were turning off before it got too crazy. Our first destination in the big city was the Scarborough bluffs. A beautiful little wilderness area right on the edge of Toronto's heart. The bluffs/ sheer cliffs look out across lake Ontario and the beautiful clear blue water. We stopped up at the top first where you can look out in some places but unfortunately there are not many good views unless you cross over the fence and walk out as many people do. After having lived in Iceland we have definitely learnt to respect the signs so as much as we wanted to cross over and look out on the edge we figured there was a reason we were not supposed to.
From the top cliffs you can walk down or drive down to the lower part at bluffers park. This is where the large marina is and a few nice beaches at each end. We walked around then spent the afternoon just relaxing out at the park at the far end. We enjoyed our dinner there on the picnic tables then went back up the top where we stayed for the night. It was not the best choice of places to stay though, surprisingly on a Wednesday night people were coming and going all through out the evening, even at 4am. At one point when I woke up in the early hours I started thinking that if anyone had seen our car there the night before and then again in the morning, they could have though that we had fallen down the cliffs in the night and called out the rescue team of something. Far fetched I know but when you are half asleep it is amazing what the brain will come up with. However, we woke up early and got out from our little house at the same time another car pulled up, some more fellow 'carpers'. We stopped and talked with them for awhile, sharing stories, enjoying a coffee and watching the deer wake up and walk along the long grass. As this happened a few of the fire department arrived and waited a bit out near where we were. A little bit after that another two cars of police and paramedics arrives…. the rescue team. By this point my early morning thoughts were all coming back to me! They got out all their gear, abseiling and climbing equipment, rescue beds and everything else… they were off for a training exercise.
We cut some tracks shortly after all the crew arrived making our way out to the Toronto Zoo for John's birthday. The day was beautiful and it was the perfect way to celebrate. We got there early and spent the entire day there just enjoying all the animals. One of the highlights was the grizzly bears, when we were down to see them the big male was up and playing in his pool. First he was swimming around and bobbing for food then he was playing with his toys, trying to sink the giant ball and throwing the logs around making massive splashes. It was so amazing to watch!!!
In the afternoon we decided to head to a campground where we could relax, enjoy some delicious wine which Hilda and Hector had given John for a lovely present and just be in a place where we knew we were allowed for the evening. It was a nice way to end the day for John's birthday.
Our next day was the hard one, heading into Toronto, being the biggest city in Ontario, and Canada for that matter, we knew we were in for a 'treat'. We were heading first into the Royal Ontario Museum. A crazy looking building from the outside and even somewhat confusing on the inside too. Filled with exhibits of ancient history, natural history, geology and dinosaurs we had a lot to see. They had a feature exhibit on tattoo's too which was very interesting. This history of tattoo's and how they have developed around the world. We spent the while day there and eventually had to leave as it was about 3pm and we were wanting to head out to Niagara falls that evening. Being a Friday and the biggest city we wanted to get out before that 5 o'clock traffic.
So we made our way back to the car and didn't see any of the other things we were hoping to pass by like the Casa Loma, the Absolute towers and the CN tower, but we were not too bothered. We made our way our or the centre city and south, with traffic and road works it took us about 4 hours to make it to Niagara, at least double the time it should have if the roads were clear. So we were very happy we decided to leave a bit before the crazy Friday 5pm rush. Though the trip was long and slow the sun was out and the drive was beautiful in some parts, especially as you got farther from the city.
We made it out to Niagara falls just as the sun was going down, there were not too many people around so we had a beautiful view of the falls being lit up with the glow of the setting sun. On Friday and Sunday evenings at 10 PM they do a fireworks display over the falls on the Canadian side. With live music playing in the evening too this is a great little spot. We stayed around for the fireworks. We also noted that the Ontario /Canadian side of the falls was the far better side to see them from rather than the American side as the water fell from the States into Canada. They are just huge, actually consisting of two different falls, planting down into a gorge below. My recommendations for a time to visit would be early morning or late evening, even though the path along the river side is very long and there are many places you can see out from it can be crazy busy with people during the day and also when the fireworks were going off, we were just luck to get a spot to see as the fireworks started. Also don't bother about the town at Niagara Falls, you will most likely have to drive through it and then you will understand, it is a weird crazy place just full of casino's, bars and ridiculous places! But definitely visit the falls, they are awesome!
From here we went to the nearest Walmart to try out our first night at Walmart camping…..
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Lovely post, and thanks for your kind words. You were courageous to find you way to the ROM right in the centre of TO, but presume it was well worth it. I see you finally got to use your table and chairs. I knew they would come in handy! Look forward to learning about the western part of the province which is pretty foreign to me.


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CSRA College Night
DOE Savannah River Regional Science Bowl
Innovative Teaching Mini-Grants Program
"Future City" Competition
Savannah River Regional Science & Engineering Fair
Science & Technology Enrichment Program (STEP)
Traveling Science Demonstration Program
SRS Home
Mini Grants Program
is a competitive program for CSRA schools to provide
grants to classroom teachers for innovative ideas to enhance
elementary and middle school science and math curricula. Cash
grants of $500, $750 and $1000 are awarded to allow classroom
teachers to purchase equipment, supplies and resources to
enhance their students' performance in mathematics and science.
Elementary and middle school teachers in the seven-county
area (Aiken, Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell and Edgefield Counties
in South Carolina and Columbia and Richmond Counties in Georgia)
are invited to submit an application for one of three categories.
• DOE-EM • DOE-SR • NNSA • ARRA • FSSR • SRNL • SREL • SRNS • SRR • MOX Services • Centerra–SRS • Parsons

subset: commoncrawl


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Aloe vera juice has numerous health benefits. Click Here to read "20 Health Benefits of Aloe Vera Juice"
2 tablespoon aloe vera gel
1 cup of water
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)
- Wash Aloe Vera leaf under running water to remove mud and dirt.
- Dry it with an absorbent cloth
- Cut down the edges to remove the thorny parts and to open up the leaf.
- Cut and open aloe vera leaf from the middle section.
- Squeeze out the entire gel from the leaf with a knife or a spoon and store in a bowl.
- Add the gel, honey, lemon juice (optional) in a cup of water and blend.


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George Solomon's March Column
George Winkel's letter published in the March 4 "Free-for-All" page in The Washington Post complained about the inclusion an anti-President Trump line in a February 19 sports story about San Antonio Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich.
"It was the Sports section for gosh sake. Can't The Post at least keep politics out of the Sports section?" asked Winkel.
To Mr. Winkel, I would respond, with all due respect, that sportswriters, columnists, bloggers and Tweeters, are quick and often encouraged by their supervisors to offer their views and politics and issues outside the lines.
Simply put, the days of politics and hard news such as statements of protests, drug abuse, criminal acts and the like remaining off the sports pages, sports magazines and websites are over.
Sports as an controversy-free island of tranquility disappeared decades ago, if it ever was. The controversy over whether or not the U.S. should have participated in the 1936 Berlin Olympics has been going on for more than 70 years, as was President Roosevelt's decision to keep Major League Baseball going during World War II despite hundreds of players away in service.
Then there was Richard Nixon saying he only read The Washington Post for Shirley Povich and avoided the front page.
But Povich tended to be among the most liberal, progressive sports columnists of his era. He pushed hard, through his columns (as did Sam Lacy, Wendell Smith and Lester Rodney) for Major League Baseball to integrate long before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
Povich also criticized and prodded Washington Redskins' owner George Preston Marshall constantly for years until Marshall finally signed his first African American player in 1962. The Redskins, under Marshall, were the last team in the National Football League to integrate.
Povich, who worked for The Washington Post for 75 years until he died in 1998 at the age of 92, also worked for equal treatment in coverage opportunities and working conditions for African Americans.
Povich, of course, had strong allies in Jimmy Cannon of the New York Post, Dick Young of the New York Daily News, as well as Smith, Lacy and other black sportswriters.
But for most of the 20th century, the majority of the most widely-read sports columnists were generally conservative-leaning white men who tended to write about familiar topics such as baseball, college football, boxing, horse racing and golf. A swing home from spring training, with a stop at the Masters, a big fight and the Kentucky Derby, was not an unusual spring for a big-time columnist.
You'd be shocked how many major columnists avoided a 1947 sit-down with Jackie Robinson or his many antagonists.
The late Red Smith, perhaps the best known and most respected sports columnist (New York Herald Tribune and New York Times) of the last century, was liberal in his thinking. But for the most part, he kept those beliefs out of his columns, until later in his career when he began to take more liberal public positions. Those included advocating the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics (which it did) and siding with player unions against management. Ironically, one of the few times in his career, Smith had a column killed (by The Times) urging the U.S to boycott the 1980 games.
Other notables of the day, including Furman Bisher of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Blackie Sherrod of Dallas Morning News and John Carmichael of the Chicago Tribune, were generally conservative and mostly defended the status quo.
Young, an early supporter of Robinson and equal rights for black sportswriters, moved to the right, poking at the growing number of liberals entering sportswriting in the 1960′s. He would not appreciate the leanings of today's sports columnists, many of whom openly oppose President Trump's agenda and the president's view of the media and the Redskins' name while supporting Colin Kaepernick's position last season with regards to the national anthem.
Bryan Curtis, writing in The Ringer, noted, "Today's sports writing is basically a liberal profession, practiced by liberals who enforce an unapologetically liberal code,"
To which, Michael Brendan Dougherty, in TheWeek.com, responded: "He's (Curtis) right. You can see it in the way sportswriters police a consensus against the Washington Redskins' name, or for on-field political activism. They tweet against President Trump, and for undocumented immigrants. They pile on populist loudmouths like former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, and may even be punishing him for his politics with their Hall of Fame ballots. They proudly admit that they are at a remove from their readers."
Hopefully, those entering the sportswriting and sports broadcasting professions, do so with an open mind, knowing their readers and viewers appreciate thoughtful commentary. Push a cause, if you will, but respect the readers and viewers. And know what you talk about.


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Wikipedia Commissars Declare People's Cube Non-Site
The Commissars of the Glorious People Republic of Biased Editing at Wikipedia have declared that the People's Cube is a non-site and have deleted its page.
Despite the People's Cube commitment to sharing progressive ideas to move society forward, it fell afoul of changing revolutionary currents in the vanguard of the dictatorship of the digital proletariat. The People's Cube is now a non-site. Mention of it on Wikipedia might very well lead to a cyber-gulag. Or at the very least laboring in the salt mines of Sonic the Hedgehog articles which, despite running several million words, are far more notable than the counterrevolutionaries of The People's Cube.
The official excuse for the deletion was lack of notability. Which is to say that progressives had never heard of it and once they had heard of it, they decided that they didn't like it and wanted it gone.
Here's a typical exchange
Here's a link to a conversation between Rush and Oleg: [2]. Here's Michelle Malkin effusively praising Oleg and his website: [3]. Here's an interview he did with Rebel media: [4]. And here's a link to a selection of interviews he's done over the past 5 years on the Web, satellite and terrestrial radio, and podcasts. [5] Which you might have noticed if you had taken a cursory glance at his website-you know, the one you're so eager to delete from Wikipedia. Ruthfulbarbarity
… Anyone can claim anything they like about themselves – that's why interviews are generally not accepted… Chrissymad
And so it went.
For those of us in the counter-revolution, the People's Cube is a fantastic satire run by our very own Oleg Atbashian who put his freedom on the line fighting against the left. And you can read some of his writings at Front Page here.
Meanwhile Wikipedia will remain an invaluable search result for lefties looking to control the first search result on Google and students looking for resources to plagiarize their papers from.


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Custom-compiled PHP with xdebug.so on OS X 10.5
Had to screw around a bit today to get xdebug running on my development macbook pro.
I compile my own AMP stack from source, so my setup is a little different than most.
On my laptop, apache and php both live in /apache2, so my php binary is at /apache2/php/bin/php, and php.ini lives in /apache2/php/lib/php.ini
Here's what I did to make xdebug work:
# cd /apache2/php/bin
# pecl install xdebug
Which gave me a shiny new xdebug.so in /apache2/php/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613
Pecl then lied to me, and said I should add "extension=xdebug.so" to my php.ini
That didn't work. I got message like:
PHP Warning: PHP Startup: Unable to load dynamic library './xdebug.so' – (null) in Unknown on line 0
in apache's error_log
What did work was adding the following line to php.ini, and restarting apache:
Now, this directly contradicts what my default php.ini said about not using directory information in the extension line, but fiddling with extension_dir didn't seem to work for some reason.
Anyway, this worked for me.
Worth noting. I still get some junk in apache's error_log that looks like:
"Failed loading xdebug.so: (null)"
but xdebug appears to be functioning properly (I get pretty-printed var_dumps, and the profiler will write cachegrind files just fine)


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Manchester City forward could leave Etihad Stadium if internal dispute is not resolved.
Manchester City's Italian striker Mario Balotelli is to appeal this week to the English Premier League against a club fine imposed for on-field ill discipline, leading to reports his future at the Etihad Stadium could be in doubt.
The 22-year-old failed to overturn the sanction internally and would now take the case to a league tribunal, Britain's domestic Press Association news agency said, without quoting sources.
Balotelli missed 11 domestic and European games last season through suspension.
The forward was instrumental in helping Italy to the final of this year's European championships in Poland and Ukraine, scoring twice in the 2-1 semi-final victory over Germany.
But Balotelli has shown erratic club form and was substituted during defending champions City's recent derby with Manchester United, which they lost 3-2, fuelling speculation about a possible departure during the January transfer window.
Italy coach Cesare Prandelli meanwhile said that Balotelli "really needs to use his head" to succeed with the northwest England club, calling for him to replicate the form that saw him score twice in the Euro 2012 semi-final win against Germany.
Prandelli told a news conference in Rome that he backed City manager Roberto Mancini to get the best out of the young player, despite his temperamental nature.
"Roberto is an excellent coach. He wanted Mario in Manchester. He knows what he's doing. We've got an advantage over Roberto. We only have Mario for three or four days and he doesn't have the time to annoy us," the Azzurri manager joked.
Should Manchester City and Mario Balotelli be irreconcilable, it is thought that AC Milan would lead the queue for his signature.
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Warning: King tides will cause flooding in Ballina
BALLINA Shire Council has warned motorists to drive safely over the coming days with king tides causing flooding of some local roads.
Where possible, motorists, motorcyclists, pedestrians and cyclists should avoid affected roadways.
Drivers are also reminded that saltwater can cause damage to vehicles and body work.
Roads likely to be affected by king tides and saltwater flooding include:
- Tamar Street, Ballina
- Riverside Drive, West Ballina
- River Street, West Ballina
- Burns Point Ferry Road, West Ballina
- North Creek Road, North Ballina
- Uralba Road, Uralba
- Old Bangalow Road, Tintenbar
- Tamarind Dr, Cumbalum
For road information visit www.myroadinfo.com.au or telephone Ballina Shire Council on 1300 864 444.


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The older we get, the older our parents get. And the older our parents get, the more health issues they tend to have which means more visits to make to hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. If we're lucky enough to age along with our parents, it's something that we all experience at some point in our lives. One thing you may have noticed, like I have, is the level of overall care when a loved one is being overseen by healthcare professionals for an extended period of time.
Let's say, for instance, an elderly parent breaks a hip and ends up in rehabilitation for several weeks. There are doctors, physician's assistants, nurses, and social workers, among others involved in the process. These people all go about their business doing what was asked of them to see the rehabilitation process through to the end. Here's the challenge: the big picture is often ignored which makes the healthcare journey quite a miserable experience for the patient and their loved ones along the way.
The problem that I have now witnessed three separate times with loved ones is that each healthcare professional works in a silo - very much like what we see with information security controls in businesses today. On paper, it all looks good. The work is completed. The boxes are checked. The end result is achieved and everyone goes about their lives and (hopefully) moves on. The reality is, however, there is no single person there seeing the bigger picture – being the advocate of the patient. Sure, there's the social worker but even they are disengaged much of the time. When this happens, questions go unanswered, request care goes unreceived, pain and suffering is prolonged, and there's no true patient care at the higher levels where it's most important. It's a little bit here and there so that people can go through the motions and to demonstrate that work has been done but it's all often in vain.
This is the very approach to information security that keeps getting so many organizations into trouble. With security, there's no real oversight. There's no real correlation. There's not an overarching effort to see the bigger picture and ensure that all of the moving parts are working for the greater good of the system (or patient). Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged, once said the hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see. Why is the proper care not being received? Why do things get overlooked? Looking beyond healthcare and information security, this challenge is pervasive throughout society. From getting a new home built to getting new landscaping installed and so many other facets of life, it seems that the more people that are involved, the more oversights and errors there tend to be.
I don't think any of this is intentional. It's just a side effect of human interactions. So, do we keep moving into the future knowing that we are checking the boxes on paper but not overseeing the big picture in true spirit? I'm not sure that this challenge can be resolved in terms of healthcare. There are too many moving parts and politicians that want to control it all. However, I think we can make progress in terms of information security. It takes leadership and guts. Most importantly, it takes maturity and humility to realize the problem and then a strong sense of resolve to get started and then seeing it through to the end. If security is not managed with the proper oversight, we're just going to keep getting what we've always gotten and who wants that?
About the Author
Kevin Beaver is an information security consultant, expert witness, writer, and professional speaker with Atlanta-based Principle Logic, LLC. Having over 28 years of experience in the industry and 22 years focusing on security, Kevin specializes in performing independent security assessments of Web applications and network systems. He has written 12 books on information security including Hacking For Dummies and The Practical Guide to HIPAA Privacy and Security Compliance. In addition, he's the creator of the Security On Wheels information security audio books and blog providing security learning for IT professionals on the go. Kevin can be reached at www.principlelogic.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @kevinbeaver.