The Beaver Pond and the City

I live beside an old beaver pond within the city limits. With new enlightened management of the city it was zoned a wetland and no development is allowed without bureaucratic approval. Of course the beaver were allowed to do their thing and beavers being beavers went to work and made tremendous modifications to the landscape. Everyone lived happily until the beavers insisted on expanding and started blocking off the culverts that allowed their stream to flow under the nearby road thus forming another new pond.

Proposed new expansion to the Beaver Pond

Late Autumn, Muskrat tests the ice in the Beaver Pond

The city bureaucrats put up with this nuisance for several years sending work crews to dismantle the beavers constructions periodically despite the no development bylaws. Then one day a really clever bureaucrat had Fishers (Nasty big weasel) introduced to the area. Suddenly no more beaver and no more expensive work crews.

Beaver Pond in Winter

One day shortly after the Fisher had removed the Beavers, my clan of 17 cute little Bunnie Rabbits disappeared from their compound, all in one night. Now the city bylaws allow me to take whatever action needed to protect my livestock, but I balked at the idea of actually having to dispose of a pissed off Fisher. Meddling with nature also seemed to be a loosing proposition.

Degenerated Beaver Pond filled with weeds

With the passing of the years the beaver pond has degenerated into a weed filled mess that really doesn’t benefit the wild life or the passing eye. The owner of the land then volunteered to make some improvements to this mess and the ever helpful bureaucrats sent over several skilled environmentalists to assist in the planning. The resulting plan called for seven man made pools to be constructed to some very ridged specification that would have impoverished a millionaire. Fortunately the skilled environmentalists eventually figured out that the water flow from the beaver dam had to go some where and that some where was to a near by lake and now the department of fisheries had to be consulted who put the kibosh on the whole idea.

Early Spring at the Beaver Pond

This last spring a new Beaver was seen effecting repairs to the old dam and I eagerly waited for him to get around to cleaning up the swamp. A week later he was gone. Maybe I should reactivate my feud with the fisher and we could go back to the old days of a respectable beaver pond and work crews making extra cash on overtime.

The Pond is still in use, last of Seven nests

Here is another interesting little bureaucratic tidbit that sort of illustrates the difficulties of government. Our area has been classified as a “No Firearm discharge area”. Seems kind of reasonable until you pause to think what you’re going to do when a Wolf or a Bear decides to make off with your four year old child who is playing in the front yard. I checked with the bureaucrats and they had the gall to actually say that I would not be allowed to shoot the wolf or bear but would have to tackle the situation with my bare hands or call 911 and wait while the kid was dismembered by the hungry carnivore while the cops came rushing to my aid. We actually had a chance to check on the cop response time the last time a bear decided to mess with my barbecue. The cops never showed up.

Well back to the Fisher he was one of the reasons for getting the cute little Bunnie rabbits in the first place. With those rabbits (can’t be a pet, had to be livestock) holding down the homestead I am now legally allowed to blast anything that comes near, not that I intend to.

Down stream Source of new Beavers

All I can say is man’s meddling has no end and no predictable outcome despite bureaucratic objections to the contrary.

Future Photography Technology

A Coyote left me a message yesterday morning on my front steps. It’s the object on the far right hand side of the picture below. At the time I couldn’t quite translate what it was the Coyote was trying to say. They seem to communicate in some foreign language using sensors a little different than we are accustomed to.

The Future of Camera Technology

This morning watching the dawn of the new day from the front steps, the aroma of fresh coffee mixed with the Coyote’s message and it suddenly became clear. I haven’t yet figured out how to send this aroma over the net so you can experience the Coyote’s message first hand. Instead I thought I would try and make a visual translation for web release. I brought down my camera and a couple of items to illustrate.

On the right we have an aphorism for the state of Photo technology compared with what we are capable of producing (shown in the center background). The left foreground shows what future technology could deliver.

The first thing that comes through very distinctly is that we are perfectly capable of capturing and presenting visual imagery in three dimensions along with 3D sound. This could be stills or video or both. The binoculars above also imply that the rendering device could easily be built into the capturing device providing a What I See Is What I Get (WISIWIG) and in 3D. Today we haven’t even transformed our cameras into the WISIWIG model, let alone provide 3D. To provide this capability the display must be HIFI with sufficient resolution and dynamic range (Not hard nor expensive to deliver in a small package, its the big displays viewable in sunlight that are a problem). Of course it probably wouldn’t be hard to also deliver the optical path for those die hard traditionalist. Note the superior compact form factor and ergonomics of the binoculars. Why we even have a place to park our nose.

Of course our existing technology would also allow us to integrate with the video/audio sensor and display/speakers, a wireless transceiver (Phone and wireless internet), Position sensor (GPS), proper range finder (Laser), and a computer to bring it all together providing us with all the mobile applications we could ever dream of.

There is no doubt that this could all be done in today’s technology and probably for a price less than the combine prices of existing gizmos that replicate these capabilities. It’s mind boggling how perceptive those Coyotes can be.

On the near left we have an example of a shrunken form factor demonstrating how this technology could be implemented in the future.

How long will the bean counters in charge of our technology companies hold us back?

Here are some earlier related posts:

What is a Good Camera.

Viewfinders.

Point and Shoot Already.

Point and Shoot with RGB Histogram.

First Fall Colors

Mother Nature is picking on the little ones again. A little frost eight days ago has some of the smaller plants getting a jump on autumn. Almost like the retail stores getting ready for Christmas. It will be some time yet before the big guys make a move. The forest is still green but if you look in the small places there’s color to be had. Grandiose views of brilliant color seems to associated with the season. On the other hand there seems to more variety with the little people.

We’ve received the signal it’s time to start winterizing the house. First up is mouse proofing the house. In no time at all the little buggers are going to start looking for somewhere warm to hide out.

Green growing, Red changing, Brown seeding

Almost like a tree

The Bees have slowed down

Alone against the forest

Snared by a buddy