Just another Tuesday

It's the eve of the 2012 election, as well as the 407th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, and I have a few thoughts to share. Nothing very amazing but I've taken a lot more interest in this election than in most previous elections. Why is that? Two reasons -- and both relate to the Supreme Court. The first and most obvious is the composition of the nine justices. Because the appointments are for life, the vacancies can't be easily predicted. With twelve years of Republican administrations, the number of democratic seats has dwindled to historically low levels. What's that you say? The court is supposed to be non-partisan? Tell that to Al Gore.

The second reason has everything to do with the decision that the court made recently which essentially allows corporations and individuals to give as much money for political purposes as they like. What that means of course is that enormous sums of money are being spent by both sides this time around. Given that there is no legal requirement for all of this spending to promote the truth, we are being barraged by scaremongering and misinformation on behalf of the "establishment" represented by the richest 1% of the population and their representatives. For these people, it is very fortunate that there are at least 40% of the population that are extremely gullible and love to believe in conspiracy theories. There was a hilarious series of interviews at a recent political rally in Ohio where the attendees were asked about their various concerns. One woman was very concerned about possible losses of freedom that might ensue if the incumbent wins. Needless to say, she couldn't actually name or otherwise identify any of these freedoms at risk. Another woman was concerned about Obama's religion (and that of his father, as if that is of any concern to us). He's a follower of the Rev. Wright, he's a muslim and an atheist. When asked which of those she believed he was, she simply said "all of them." The level of ignorance is staggering.

I could go on and on.

But the one thing that I was shocked to hear is split right down the middl, is the belief (or disbelief) in anthropogenic global warming. Ten years ago, largely thanks to Al Gore, a substantial majority of the population believed in AGW. But so much money has been put in on the other side now (money, I should point out that could be better spent trying to figure out what to do about the problem), that approximately half the population now believes that global warming is a hoax. And this despite a devastating series of hurricanes in recent years that surely even the backwoods boys have heard about.

While of course looking at just one aspect of climate doesn't prove anything, I am still convinced that the vast majority of specialist climate scientists, almost all of whom are of the same opinion, are right. These are the people who have the expertise, the data, and the networking to look at every aspect of the issue. Thank goodness there are still such people who are willing to speak up.

I feel strongly that the opponents of the mainstream view, and who are politically or financially motivated (actually those are the same thing), are actually evil. When we should be listening to our scientists and planning for the future of our children and grandchildren. we are instead, like Nero, prevaricating.

Over the years I have come to realize that there are three essential differences between the Democrats and the Republicans:

• long-term view versus short-term;
• distribution of wealth (and correspondingly maximizing GDP) versus concentration of wealth;
• hope (and open information) versus fear (and censorship).

Everything else derives from these three. I dare say that you could make a good case for combining these into just one.

Just think about the way the internet is viewed by democrats and republicans. The former have embraced the new medium, the latter want to control it, by making information companies liable for anything posted on their sites. In this way, the internet is to conservatives as the printing press was to the Catholic church. Another obvious example is the politicizing of evolution. Only countries ruled by religious fanatics are fearful of the theory of evolution.

Heaven help us if the wrong guy gets elected tomorrow. The future of our 236-year-old experiment in democracy will then be in serious jeopardy. And I will probably have to delete this post!

A deaf mutt

Daddy is a pure white mix of who knows what kind of dog who also happens to be deaf.  But it in no way spoils his fun as he's a huge fan of playing, people and pooches.  He's a lovely, friendly, playful dog.  On Sunday, we will be handing him over to his adopters who live in New Jersey.  Here's the story, taken from the PetFinder web site:

Daddy is a 10 month old Mix with silky soft (not wire), white hair and a story that will make you smile. A few weeks ago, a rescue worker was called and told by a woman that she had been watching a momma dog with small pups out alone in a field for several days. She said the momma was making shelter for the babies at night and bringing them food, but after several days, the good samaritian was very sure no one was coming back for these dogs. The rescue workers arrived and the dog was, obviously protective of the babies, but after some coaxing, they got the "mamma" to come to them. It was then that they found out that "Momma" was the "DADDY". In all our experience, we have never seen a Daddy dog stick by tiny puppies: feed them, protect them, love them. But, this guy did it all on his own. We may never know what happened to the mom, but somehow at just 3 weeks old....Daddy managed to keep all his little pups alive. I think of it as a tribute to all the good daddies in the world! Daddy is sweet and kind, he aims to please and gets along well with other dogs. He has experience with children as young as 2 years old and seem to adore them. His favorite things are to get hugs and be petted. He also does not mind car rides. There is one thing....after Daddy and his pups were rescued, he was brought to the vet where it was discovered that he is completely deaf. Daddy gets around just fine and can learn to follow hand signals. He sometimes startles when people come up on him unexpectedly, but he has never been aggressive...just surprised! Other than not being able to hear, Daddy shows no health problems and is ready to live a good, long life. Daddy is currently 45lbs.
Isn't it a great story?  Anyway, we have him for just this week.  He really is a super dog.  I believe his puppies are all spoken for too.  We wonder if he misses them or worries about them at all.  Below (left) is a photo that makes his coat look a bit creamy.  Below (right) he's in the field looking after the puppies.  He might have bits of Airedale and poodle as described in his profile, but I doubt it.



Supposedly, there is a correlation between a whte coat and deafness, although I wasn't able to establish the strength of that correlation. He isn't albino, although he does seem to exhibit partial albinism.  His irises are hazel but his eyelids and exposed bits of skin are all very pink.  He's got some blotches around his "undercarriage", so there's definitely pigment there.  He's a bit underweight but he's a good eater (including counter surfing if he can get away with it) so we expect him to catch up pretty quickly.  And he's extremely smart and trainable, with an excellent sense of smell.

Meanwhile, I went to see Philip Glass' opera Satyagraha ("truth force" in Sanskrit), the name by which Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent protest is known.  It's incredibly moving emotionally, which is amazing given that there are so few words that are actually translated.  The action is very slow and contemplative.  And of course the music is endlessly repetitive -- but I actually like that.  It really works.  Look up Satyagraha on YouTube if you're interested in seeing excerpts from it.

Last week we were in Seattle for the NABCs.  We had a super time, although the bridge was not quite as successful as we would have liked.  However, Kathy made life master (!) and we had a nice party for her -- that was a lot of fun.

A most sacrilegious murder

I've had murder on my mind quite a bit lately.  In the academic sense, of course, although I did dream I had murdered someone (unknown to me) a few nights ago.  That wasn't very pleasant.

But I've been listening to John Grisham's The Innocent Man and it is a harrowing true tale of injustice resulting from a murder which occurred in Oklahoma in 1982.  Two men were convicted of the rape and murder of a young woman, despite there being no physical evidence against them.  The little forensic evidence available did more to eliminate them from than to link them to the crime.  Nevertheless, it was used along with some other fabricated testimony to get a conviction.  One of them was 5 days from execution when a federal judge finally put a stop to all the nonsense (Oklahoma has the highest per-capita execution rate in the United States).  Soon after that, DNA evidence was analyzed which not only cleared them of all wrongdoing, but actually pointed the finger quite directly at another person who just happened to have been the last person seen with the victim, but whom the police had never considered a suspect.  The weird thing is that after their release the entire town, and especially the police and prosecutors, still believed them to be guilty.

The murder that I've been entertained by tonight was that of King Duncan inter alia by the dastardly Macbeth -- in this case in Verdi's masterpiece.  This was the Boston Lyric Opera at its finest.  I cannot remember such a good production of theirs, although I admit I don't go to many of them.  I went with Will to the Shubert Theater in Boston and we had a really pleasant evening of dinner, followed by a pre-performance lecture, followed by the opera.  The lecture, by Dr. Elizabeth Seitz, concentrated on the role of Lady Macbeth, demonstrating how her vocal part starts as confident and determined, passes through tentative, questioning, and ends rather sadly in the famous sleep-walking scene as completely unhinged.

The singers were outstandingly good.  Most of my recent opera outings have been either to the Met itself or to its HD broadcasts at local movie theaters.  While the Met talent may be more experienced and robust, there is a huge benefit as an audience member to being so much closer to the stage, which is really only practical at a smaller theater such as the Shubert.  And while, many rave about the HD broadcasts, they leave me a little cold.  There is nothing like live opera. 

While Macbeth (Daniel Sutin) and Lady Macbeth (Carter Scott) who between them carry most of the solo work (the opera also relies heavily on its chorus) were predictably excellent, I was actually very impressed Banquo (Darren Stokes) and, especially, Macduff (Richard Crawley) who have relatively minor roles.

The production was overall brilliant -- extremely imaginative designs, costumes, choreography.  Perhaps the most stunning aspect was the corpses hanging over the stage at the battles that begin and end the story.

The orchestra was excellent too, directed by (Englishman) David Angus.  Although I'd never previously seen the opera, I was already very familiar with the music from recordings and I was not disappointed in the orchestra.  I even know the 2nd clarinet, Karen Heninger, from gigs we've done together.  And, I was quite surprised to find that there was an instrument in the orchestra that I'd never seen before: the Cimbasso, a kind of tuba that looks a bit like a trombone.

I would heartily recommend this production to anyone who can get to it.  And I happen to think that Macbeth is actually one of Verdi's most entertaining operas.  The Verdi of 1846 was not quite so smooth as the when he wrote the big three from six or seven years later: Rigoletto/Trovatore/Traviata.  And definitely not as polished as the later operas of twenty or thirty years more experience.  But Macbeth is refreshing, invigorating and very direct.  The music is somewhat dark as befits its subject (plenty of bassoon and trombone stuff) but full of good tunes, with marvellous choral writing.

My personal interest in "the Scottish play" goes back almost as far as I can remember.  It was the first Shakespeare play that I learned and studied.  I think I can still do "Is this a dagger that I see before me?"  I've even been orienteering in the grounds of Cawdor castle (not very far from where the photograph at the top of the page was taken).  No doubt the real Macbeth got a bum rap at the hands of the bard, as did Richard III of England, but today his actual life signifies nothing. Yet the message of the play resonates whenever we hear of corruption and greed among the rich and powerful.

Perhaps Shakespeare's wisest line from the play, which applies to many aspects of life (take note, followers of famous people, and prosecutors and defenders of suspects in crime), is this: [Duncan]: "There's no art to find the mind's construction in the face.  He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust."

Robin's Rural Red Ride

Having been a BMW owner for the last 15 years or so, I had to struggle with myself not to buy another one.  They're wonderful cars to drive and the first 60,000 miles are true Fahrvergnügen. Then, as soon as the free maintenance and bumper-to-bumper warranty expire, little messages start to travel around the wires deciding which part gets to fail first. And of course the parts, which don't fit any other make of car and presumably have to be imported from Germany, are expensive.  And then there is the labor.  It's not just any old Joe Mechanic who can service such a beautiful machine.  No, these guys wear suits!

So, with some reluctance on my part, we went looking for a less costly alternative, probably Japanese but still maybe made here in the USA.  I don't spend a lot of time driving so a nice reliable car and, moreover, one that performs well in the snow and not too much of a gas guzzler, would be nice.  After quite a few test drives and much research on consumer reports, we hit upon the all-wheel drive Subaru Legacy.  And to cut a long story short, we bought 2012 model: a very pleasant shade of red.  I had traded in the BMW and was really very sad to leave it behind.  But I love the new Legacy!  I really do.  Not only have I actually visited the original Subaru (Fuji Heavy Industries) in Japan, but the Legacy is actually made here in Indiana.

The car is well-endowed, with navigation system, 3.6 litre 6-cylinder horizontally aligned engine , leather seats, all mod cons.  Even the gas mileage is decent (better than I was getting with the bimmer).  The audio has blue-tooth connectivity so that, theoretically, I can play stuff from my iPhone on the speakers.  I definitely can make phone calls hands-free through the speakers, although the voice recognition to make it truly hands-free either doesn't work, or is too hard for me to figure out.  I've since learned that there are some deliberate policy decisions which prevent certain things happening together, like voice recognition while the map is visible.  Or something like that.

The real Achilles heel of the car is the navigation system.  First, the good news.  It has the best voice that I've ever heard in a navigation system.  Really nicely done.  But after that things start going downhill a little.  The only time I've bought a factory-installed navigation system was in one of the BMWs, back in around 2000.  There were some minor problems, mainly with the accuracy of the maps, and little things like choosing non-optimum routes.  I figured that the state-of-the-art would really have improved in 12 years.

I was too optimistic.  You'd think that getting from our house to Sturbridge and back would pretty easy, right?  Not so fast.  As we were heading down I-290, we ran into a huge traffic jam which we later learned was the result of an accident.  I figured that with the navigation system, it would be easy to get off and go around it.  The manual says, press the "Dest" button and then touch Address, or whatever.  But Address wasn't sensitive (i.e was dark).  Eventually we found that double-clicking the button sometimes made the address on-screen button sensitive.  But then, actually entering the address was incredibly difficult and took several attempts.  By this time, we were pulled over on a side street so I got out my trusty iPhone.  It showed the way with no problem.  Its only drawback is that it doesn't give turn-by-turn directions audibly.  Both systems were in agreement about the first couple of turns.  Then they diverged.  We followed the car system.  It was wrong and we made a u-turn.  Then when we finally were approaching the ticket booths for I-90, the car system told us to go East instead of West (showing a route to the next exit and back).  We ignored it of course but making an error like that could easily cost 15 or 20 minutes.  On the way home, it wanted to take a bizarre out-of-the-way route, avoiding I-90 (no, it's not programmed to avoid tolls or anything like that).  I ignored it. 

One of the hardest things to do with it is to turn the darn thing off!  You'd think it would be incredibly easy to cancel navigation.  But apparently, the designers didn't think we'd want to do that.  You have to turn the whole system off before you can start over.

Fortunately, I didn't buy a GPS system because I need directions.  It's unusual that I do.  But every now and then, I'm going somewhere I haven't been before and so navigation that I don't have to break the law to use would be nice.  I mainly like these systems because I'm a map nut.  I love maps and anyone who loves maps presumably also loves the GPS system.  So, having a few errors doesn't bother me all that much.  It's more of a joke really.

But, if anyone at Subaru is actually reading this, then get off your zabuton and get the bugs out!

Katahdin

Looking towards South Peak and the Knife Edge (to the left)

Last weekend, Kim and I, with two friends Cheryl and Ginger, succeeded in our year-long goal: reach the summit of Katahdin (the "Mount" is superfluous although officially part of its name).  At 5267' (almost a mile high), Katahdin is the highest point in Maine and the 6th highest in New England.  It's also the second most prominent mountain in New England and third most prominent East of the Mississippi.  See my previous blog An Achievable Goal? for an explanation of prominence.

Being from Maine, Kim of course has a special reason to climb Katahdin and it was her goal, established last year, that we were fulfilling.  At the start of the year, I didn't think I would want to go all the way up myself.  But a funny thing happened on the way...  As Kim puts it, I got "summit fever" and became determined to get to the top.

What is it about these mountains that makes us want to climb them.  Mallory famously said of Everest "Because it's there."  And I think there is something in that.  A mountain as tough as Katahdin represents a challenge that we feel, to some extent, compelled to meet.  While there are probably more difficult trails in New Hampshire and elsewhere for that matter, what is unique about Katahdin is that there is no easy trail to the top.  All of the trails are difficult.  This contrasts with, say, Mt. Washington (6288') where there are some trails which are relatively easy.  There's also the auto road and the railroad to the summit!  But, if you want to stand on the summit of Katahdin, you must do it by your own not inconsiderable efforts.

I've written up the details of our hike here, but suffice it to say that our route requires just under 4000' of actual climbing and a total round trip of 11 miles. The hike took us 15 hours all told, including rest stops and a three-hour exodus in the dark. You can also see more photographs here and there is a video here.

Planning for the trip was considerable.  First, there were all of the training hikes, starting back in April and totaling 35000' of climbing and 110 miles for Kim and a little less than that for me.  Then the logistics of the hike itself: it's over six hours driving from our house to the parking area at the trail-head, but of course we needed to stay overnight both before and after the hike.  Then there's the little detail that only Maine residents can reserve parking spaces (there are only 35!) more than two weeks ahead of the day.  When Kim logged in at midnight two weeks ahead, there were three spaces available!  Then of course, there's the worry that the weather will turn out to be bad, or the mountain will be cloaked in clouds affording no views.  We would have rescheduled under those conditions.

So, it is with a great sense of achievement and relief that I write this.  The best time to climb Katahdin is when you're young and fit.  Three of our party are significantly past our sell-by date and that doesn't bode well for fast hiking. But we did it. And we also have a great sense of gratitude, especially to Percival Baxter, for whom the State Park containing Katahdin is named.  He was Governor of Maine 1921-25 and spent his life and fortune buying up the land around Katahdin.  Then he donated it all to the state together with an endowment to pay for its upkeep, requiring that it remain a wilderness in perpetuity.

As it turned out, the weather was absolutely perfect: cool and dry.  The only problem was that it was slightly too cool -- with patches of ice up on the summit (you can see the ice - rime to be precise - in the photo at the top).  Several trails were actually closed, making our chosen trail much more popular than it otherwise would have been.  But the views, and the feeling of elation at the top, were just incredible.  Unforgettable!

Robin, Ginger, Cheryl and Kim on top of the world

An achievable goal?

Well, I've had quite a problem with blogging this summer.  Some stories were too big to go in the blog, some were too insignificant.  Some I just couldn't describe appropriately.  There are several embryonic drafts in my folder.

Kim and I just got back late last night from our final training hike of 2011 - in preparation for the "biggie": Mt. Katahdin later this month.  Our goal yesterday was Mt. Monroe, a distinct peak on the shoulder of Mt. Washington and, as the name implies, part of the Presidential range.  At 5372', Monroe is the 4th highest mountain in the Northeastern US.  We had planned to summit Monroe then Eisenhower (4760') on our way back down which would have involved an extra 0.8 miles (in addition to the 9+ that we did) and another 300' of climb.  I was too exhausted, though, even for that.  I'm not sure why but the three-week layoff didn't help much.  More detail in my report on EveryTrail.

These hikes have to be planned quite carefully.  We need the right amount of distance and climb to fit into the training schedule.  This final training hike entailed (in practice) about 3650' of elevation gain and about 9 miles round-trip.  Katahdin (5267') will require about 3750' of elevation and more like 11 miles round-trip.  It will also require some scrambling over boulder fields and some challenging sections (but don't worry, we will not be attempting the knife edge).  So Monroe was excellent training for that.  We will also have to start very early in order to have as much light for the descent as possible, now that the days are getting shorter.  We'll probably be on the mountain for 12 hours or more.

So that's twice in as many hikes that I've missed the secondary peak (Kim got the earlier one) but it doesn't help my chances at the "48" club**.  But then I never aspired to belonging to that club anyway.  Kim isn't sure yet - she has 19 now (would have been 20 with Eisenhower) and might want to complete the other 29.

But I think I've adopted a new goal, one slightly less onerous: the eight 5000 footers of New England.  After Katahdin (fingers crossed), I will only have two to "bag": Mt Washington (which at 6288' is hard but probably no harder than Katahdin) and Mt. Adams which was planned for our Presidential range hike seven years ago but which I couldn't manage due to lack of fitness (again it was only 300' to the top but wobbly legs aren't good for climbing mountains).

But these lists of peaks have a big flaw.  They are based on a completely arbitrary value for minimum prominence: 200 ft.  Prominence is defined thus:

The prominence of a peak is the height of the peak’s summit above the lowest contour line encircling it and no higher summit.
It is in some ways a better indication than the actual elevation of the summit to the amount of climb necessary to get to the top.  This is because the starting point for an ascent is often one of the cols (or saddles) around the base of the mountain. When mountains are listed by prominence, many peaks are relegated beyond the practical limits of the list -- all of the Presidential range, for instance.  Of course, listing peaks with no prominence requirements at all would be an impossibility -- the number of peaks approaches infinity as the prominence threshold gets smaller and smaller.

There is an entire web site devoted to lists of prominence throughout the world.  In New Hampshire, for instance, there are 14 peaks with prominence greater than 2000'.  And we've climbed slightly more than half of these: Carter Dome, Lafayette, Kinsman, Moosilauke*, Carrigain*, Osceola*, Kearsage, Monadnock (*I'm taking credit here for some that Kim only has climbed).  There are 12 in Vermont, of which we have climbed only one (Ascutney).  There are 16 in Maine of which we haven't climbed any - yet, although we've been close (Bigelow's Avery Peak - West Peak).   Katahdin will be the biggie: over 4000' of prominence.  And this list makes it more important to climb Massachusetts' own Mt. Greylock: the only mountain in Southern New England with 2000' of prominence. 

I'm even looking at the lists for the British Isles.  I note that Paul and I have climbed #67 Croaghaun with 688m (2257') of prominence (this page has a great photograph) and #112 Cadair Idris (608m, 1994'). which comes just after Ben Loyal (which I would like to climb one day as we didn't have time on our last visit to Sutherland).

So, perhaps a realistic goal is to climb all of the peaks in New Hampshire and Massachusetts with at least 2000' of prominence.  Only seven to go.  Many of the Maine peaks are simply too far out of the way to be practical.

** people who have climbed all 48 of New Hampshire's 4000'-plus mountains.