About a Phone (part 1)

"  The site doesn’t scale to mobile. Unfortunately with over 50% of internet users moving to phones and tablets, google feels like it is priority number 1 to have a website built for mobile.  "

from a recent e-mail - name withheld


Well, maybe not.
And from the look of it, certainly not those seriously interested in the Wareham Forge (or reading this right now, for that matter).

First Statistic : Population of Canada
December 2017 = 36.7 million (1)

Reported number of ‘mobile device internet users’ (so smart phones and tablets)
December 2017 = 24.4 million
December 2018 = 25.7 million (2)

Something to watch here.
1) The number of ‘subscriptions’ is reported at over 30 million.
Other reports indicated that Canada has one of the highest mobile device ownership world wide. But indicated at roughly ‘3 out of 4 people’. Which would put the number of ‘unique owners’ at closer to 27.5 million.
2) A good percentage of these would actually own more than one device - but would count twice here. (I own both a cell phone and a tablet, for example.)
3) A significant number of those would children or teens. The teens clearly show as major users, and warp some of the numbers as this goes along.

But just what are those ‘users’ actually doing?
By the data at Statista.com :

• text message / e-mail
• watching videos
• finding locations (maps)
• games
• mobile banking

https://www.statista.com/statistics/686890/canada-leading-mobile-activities/

You can see general information searching on the internet does not even make up one of the top five uses. (Appears to be less than 1/3 of 'user time')

Ok - and quite importantly here - just what machines are Canadians using to actually ‘surf the web’?
As it turns out, still primarily using actual computer screens :
January 2018 = 55%

https://www.statista.com/statistics/505773/canada-online-traffic-device-share/

The table indicates that only 33 % of unique users are using the internet on small smart phone screens.

Combine that with the reduced fraction (not indicated, but obviously some amount less than 38%) who would be attempting general internet searches.
That makes at best roughly 1/3 of 1/3 of all web site views =
11 % of all viewers.


A double check off my own main web site portals. Stats for operating systems accessing :
’Hammered Out Bits’ - my blog / month of December (2018)

• Android = 14%
• iPhone = 4%

‘the Wareham Forge - main web site / month of December

• Google Android = 3.8% (3)

full site on an iPad mini *

full site on an iPhone *

Now, I had created a separate ‘mobile’ version of the Wareham Forge web site (about a year ago) :

• (should) automatically load when a mobile device is used
• sized to fit the smaller iPhone screen
• stripped to single images and limited text
• links back to the main web site if viewers want any details

view direct at www.warehamforge.ca/mobile

mobile version on iPad mini *

mobile version on iPhone *

Over the entire Wareham Forge web site however / month of December :
Total page views = 24,908
‘Mobile’ page views = 646 (2.5%)
These two sets of numbers seem to work against each other. I may be incorrect on either end :

• Android operating system may not just be on phones ?
• Some mobile users may not be moved to the special mobile versions as intended.

Over the past year especially, from younger (less than 30 year old) people specifically, I have had many suggest I should re-work the entire Wareham Forge web site (!!) so it views 'easier' on those tiny smart phone screens.

(Next : 'Viewing the Universe through a Tiny Hole' )


* Made with use of the Mobile Phone Emulator (by COWEMO)
I made an attempt to match these images to the actual sizes of the devices indicated. I suspect the size of these images will be altered by your own viewing screen.

• iPhone : continues to increase in size, older ones = 13 cm (diagonal)
• iPad mini : (mine is iPad 2) = 20 cm (diagonal)

These also show the vertical arrangement, which is what the mobile site version of the Wareham Forge was designed for. The images used there actually are a size that fills a horizontal view on the iPhone screen.

1) Statistics Canada
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/12-581-x/2018000/pop-eng.htm
An estimate of the current (end December 2018) = 37.1 million
http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/canada-population/

2) Statista
https://www.statista.com/topics/3529/mobile-usage-in-canada/

3) The separate statistics sheets for these two sites record and track different information.
The main Wareham Forge site does not track  macOSi  individually

Missing in Action?

Readers:

Sorry about the lack of materials over the last month.
I had a booth set up at the International Congress for Medieval Studies in early May, then courses and a couple of in school / lecture sessions over the following week.
Right now I am engaged in what I hope (after 18 months marked by constant packing and loading) is my last moving adventure.

Check back next week (!!) for some commentary on:

DARC at Upper Canada Village

Scottish Late Iron Age Iron Smelt

... and likely some more of the general opinionated commentaries (you should be expecting those by now!)

A Passing - Mef Simpson

MARY FRANC SIMPSON

November 13, 1927 -  July 23, 2013

Published Obituary

What is the measure of a Life?

On one side, you can consider what is left behind.

Mef most certainly leaves a body of visual art. The watercolours and drawings will continue to grace walls in the homes of a great many, for in Mef's case, it is the result of a life time of creativity. Many are calming, some whimsical - all will continue to add pleasure to those who have them.
There is the work she undertook, often massive, in promoting the visual arts in Brandon. Supporting through constant effort (although yes, sometimes joyful) the Art Gallery of South West Manitoba. Of working with and certainly encouraging, sometimes just by being there, a circle of other artists. The bricks and mortar remain, as does the creative influence she had on others.

On another side, you can consider the hole that is left in the lives of others.

Mef remained active in her artistic community to the very end of a long life. So there will be one less person along on gallery trips and painting afternoons. One less set of hands to help organize and make things happen. One less eye to critique, compliment and guide.
There will be a family circle, son and two daughters. Now spread wide from the family seat in Brandon. For them it will be one less voice for needed advise, one empty seat at the table. Two grandchildren, now half grown to adults,  who may come to miss the family stories, now blurred by a generation lost.

That voice is muted now.
A vision remains on canvas and paper, more treasured now that there will be no more additions to that collection.
A larger treasure remains, held as memories by those lucky few who possess them.

Some always Remember

I normally wax philosophical for Remembrance Day. Although I have less 'time on the ground' than some who will read this , I do know my soul understands what my body had not experienced. That balance between the high ideals that drive and in the end preserve you, against the futility and raw terror of the action. All those statements of truths we knew, even young, but never really understood as now perhaps we now do. Of seeing the cycle endlessly repeated of 'Rich old man's war, Poor young man's fight'. Yet another generation of cannon fodder shoved into the meat grinder, only for the benefit of a mere handful of the Powerful. I don't think I have become wiser, but it seems more extreme and more obvious to me every conflict.

And so the Boys come Home. For a while.
We all know, in the darkness of the night, that this is just a pause in the endless cycle. This War will pass, like those before it. Certainly soon to be replaced with another Conflict. Those that sat behind desks will thump their chests and speak of Glory. Broken down veterans with empty eyes will be disreguarded on the street. Civilians will speak of the horrors, never considering the cost others paid for the soft lives they possess. Ever more Citizenship will be equated with Rights - never Responsibility.  Another generation will forget or disreguard the lessons so bloodily bought by the few.

I will raise a glass here, at that agreed upon time.
But this year, darkly...

NO FISHING! in Wareham

and YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT

This sign board was recently placed by the MoE at the side of the small bridge that runs at the NE corner of my property.
I own the ground (pretty much) down to the creek from that bridge along the bank as it runs downstream to the west. The image shows the east side, where the creek is bounded both sides from the bridge as private property.

Some argument might be made about public access to the water course. I sure DO NOT allow anyone on my property for the purposes of fishing.

I have had it with all this....

From the north bridge, roughly SE.

This is how the once clean creek now looks. 

See the choking algae?

*That* is there because the Mennonite farmer who owns the farm just north of the water course on that east side things the Ontario Waste Management Laws just don't apply to him. He spreads his manure right down to the running edge of the creek. He is new to Wareham, and this *never happened* for the 20 years *before* he started farming that field.

Stream bank, NE foot of the bridge

See this?

These are coffee cups, pop cans, beer bottles - and empty plastic worm boxes. 

Pack out your garbage!

Plus tangles of fishing line. 

Do I even have to drone on about the hazards of tangles of nylon fishing line to birds - possibly my cats?

See this?
My cat brought home THREE of these yesterday.
They all were covered in gravel, so had been lifted up from the river bank and tossed on the roadway some place.
Never heard of 'catch and release'?
These were all freshly caught, a couple of hours would be my guess. No, I had not specifically noticed anyone over there yesterday.

See this?
You do read, right?
You do understand English, right?
You do know what ENDANGERED means, right?

Look at this again.
(Colours fade after a couple of hours dead in bright sunlight.)

Looks like an ENDANGERED Red Sided Dace to me.

You had better not let ME catch you fishing off MY bridge.

You ain't gonna like it, not one fucking bit...

its an OPEN PIT MINE

*not* a simple 'gravel quarry'!

What I'm talking about here is the Melancthon Quarry.
The 'Mega Quarry'. The frackin' huge hole that is going to be blasted in just 10 kilometres south of Wareham. The open pit mine that is going to blow up the whole thickness of the Niagara Escarpment limestone that runs under my home area. The huge operation that will force me to dance around road train transports when I try to drive out of here to the east or south.

Both sides of this are resorting to distortions and half truth. The official company web site is perhaps more significant for what it does NOT say, than for what it does...

So - just what is this open pit mine going to look like?

Comparison : Marmora Iron Mine

The image above is a composite of the open pit iron mine outside Marmora Ontario (web site).
Click to open the image up, a better assessment can be had looking at it at the full image size of roughly 8 x 40 inches.

The open pit at Marmora is 75 acres / 30 hectares in size.
Visible depth (above water) estimated at about 100 feet
"Total mine production: 1.3 million tons of iron ore / 3.5 million tons of waste rock."
To keep the hole dry, 666,666 gallons per day need to be pumped out.
Operations stopped in 1979.
The total depth is 540 feet - so most of the pit is under water, now that the mine has been abandoned by the company.

So - how does the the image above compare to what is going to happen at Melancthon?

(Data from the official web site)

The open pits at Melancthon will total 1840 acres / 765 hectares.
Operation depth will average 186 feet / 56 metres (greatest at 261 feet / 80 metres)
Total estimated mine production: 1 billion tonnes
To keep the hole dry, 13,198,154 gallons per day need to be pumped out.

Compare the image of the hole above, with the intended operation in Melancthon:

80 times the size
Twice the visible depth (three times at the deepest)
At least 200 times the material to be removed
Twice the daily amount of water to be pumped

The most rational voice on the side opposing this open pit mine is the North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Task Force.


Some examples of the double speak and vague information being provided by the Highland Companies:

1) They emphasize that 'only 120 acres will be actively quarried at any one time'.
This hardly changes the size of the holes being left behind as they proceed.

2) They emphasize that the 'average depth is 56 metres, with a minimum at 30 and maximum at 80'. Note that '56' is a straight math average. How much of the total excavation depth is actually going to be at that average?

3) They don't actually give the yearly estimate on production. They do emphasize the total aggregate requirements for all of the Golden Horseshoe area - as if this operation was the only one in existence in Ontario. (How have we been managing the requirements to date?)

4) That water needs to be pumped *forever*. Exactly how is this company going to remain accountable for this expense?


My favorite example of the Highland Companies misinformation is this statement:

" Dufferin Country Road 124 is currently designated by MTO as a “truck haul route” and is therefore an appropriate route to transport aggregate."

 The company does not actually give a number for the indicated truck traffic. 
Voices in opposition estimate that one double length 'road train' tractor trailer unit will be required *every 50 seconds* down DCR 124.
This road is closed so often due to white outs from blowing snow that it has permanently mounted barriers placed at either end (brackets the open pit site).
The road that ends in near by Shelburne, and then dumps into Highway 89 then Highway 10? You know, the Highway 10 that runs right through Orangeville and Brampton?

We are being so screwed...

"the people we were - the people we are"

 Check this post by Jim Wright at his Stonekettle Station :

http://www.stonekettle.com/2012/04/people-we-were-people-we-are.html

It side swiped me considerably. I thought it was going one way (and broke my heart) and then suddenly shifted gears and hit me from another direction.

We all have those ancient friends. The ones that for some reasons that truly defy any rational explanation have slipped out of contact. The ones who chance (as much as anything) throws you back together with.
And its like the time and distance have never existed.

To them (and you know who you are) I suggest this piece by Jim.
I suspect Jim is most certainly a kindred spirit, and would fill any empty place at our table well and effortlessly.

Over the years of my own life, I have always valued *consistency* far more than *agreement*. Anyone around me most certainly can hold differing opinions. My interest is most often held by those who disagree, especially those who can offer measured and passionate discussion. What I have never had patience for are those who are inconsistent. If I can figure out how you are going to twitch, usually I can work with you. 'Say what you mean and mean what you say' and you and I will be able to come to some accommodation.

Always remember 'what goes down, comes round'.
*Responsibility* is more important than *Rights*.
Make a choice, but do so with clear eyes, head up - and be prepared to pay the butcher's bill when it comes due.