Muslim Racist?

Nope. Just a guy with an honest opinion.

Apparently vid was made back in May of this year, but I just found it and thought that I would like to share the message.

vid from liveleak. thanks.

'08 Tour de France

The course for the 2008 Tour de France has just be published. One interesting change this year is that time bonus' have been scrapped. This should create more equal finish times. Which will probably lead to frequent changes of the yellow jersey (overall leader). I nabbed this image of the route from velonews (who got it from letour.com)

Here is the basic schedule:

• Saturday, July 5 Stage 1, Brest to Plumelec (195km)
  
• Sunday, July 6: Stage 2, Auray to St. Brieuc (165km)
  
• Monday, July 7: Stage 3, St. Malo to Nantes (195km)
  
• Tuesday, July 8: Stage 4: Cholet TT (29km)
  
• Wednesday, July 9: Stage 5, Cholet to Châteauroux (230km)
  
• Thursday, July 10: Stage 6, Aigurande to Super-Besse (195km)
  
• Friday, July 11: Stage 7, Brioude to Aurillac (158km)
  
• Saturday, July 12: Stage 8, Figeac to Toulouse (174km)
  
• Sunday, July 13: Stage 9, Toulouse to Bagnères-de-Bigorre (222km)
  
• Monday, July 14: Stage10, Pau to Hautacam (154km)
  
• Tuesday, July 15: Rest day at Pau
  
• Wednesday, July 16: Stage 11, Lannemezan to Foix (166km)
  
• Thursday, July 17: Stage 12, Lavelanet to Narbonne (168km)
  
• Friday, July 18: Stage 13, Narbonne to Nîmes (182km)
  
• Saturday, July 19: Stage 14, Nîmes to Digne-les-Bains (182km)
  
• Sunday, July 20: Stage 15, Digne-les-Bains to Prato Nevoso (216km)
  
• Monday, July 21: Rest day at Cuneo
  
• Tuesday, July 22: Stage 16, Cuneo to Jausiers (157km)
  
• Wednesday, July 23: Stage 17, Embrun to L'Alpe d'Huez (210km)
  
• Thursday, July 24: Stage 18, Bourg d'Oisans to St. Étienne (197km)
  
• Friday, July 25: Stage 19, Roanne to Montluçon (163km)
  
• Saturday, July 26: Stage 20, Cérilly to St. Amand-Montrond TT (53km)
  
• Sunday, July 27: Stage 21, Étampes to Paris (Champs-Élysées) (143km)

Total distance: 3,554km -2,208 miles

If you are new to the sport the best days/stages to watch will be Stage 9, Stage 17 and Stage 21.

More info available: Here, Here, Here.

Mushroom Identification

It was unusually warm this past weekend (upper 60's-lower 70's). I was in the yard with wife and we came across this mushroom. I know that its a 'stinkhorn' because well...it looks like a...a ah...well, penis. It smelled, had a sticky coat and had flies all over it. It was about 4 inches tall. The stem was hollow. It was spongy.


I was just wondering if anyone out there knows which type of stinkhorn this is?

WoGE #61

Well it looks like I was first to identify Where on Google Earth #60 at the blog of Ron Schott.
Yeah for me. It also means that the responsibility of WoGE #61 falls to me. I chose this image because it looks gnarly and I would like to do a little hiking there. Though I doubt Ill ever get any closer than Google Earth can take me.

Here ya go. I tried to use a similar scale as the WoGE 60. Send comments if there are issues.
Schott Rule in effect. (Post time 09:45-EST, 10-16-07)

Blog Action Day: My Post

Today is blog action day. The topic is the environment. I am a trained geologist working in the environmental field. I suspect every blog-hole in cyberspace will write some shit about global warming. It doesn't matter if they actually know anything or not, there is enough information out there that any monkey with a brain can pull something together. I would like my post to focus on small changes that I have done and have produced big benefits.

• Driving slower.
  
• driving only 5 mph slower can increase your vehicles fuel use by ~5 gallons per mile. (of course every car is different).

• Second Car
• If you have a gas guzzler, and so many people do, buy a second car.
  
• A small 3-4 cylinder POS for 800$. Use it in place of the GasPig as often as possible and you will save more money in gasoline than you paid for the car in 6 months. You may even like it.
  

• Remove Stupid Shit
• That fuckin' stupid air foil from your trunk. Its robbing you of at least 1 GPM.
• Your kayak rack. Great I get it, you have a boat. Now quit being lazy and take that shit off. 1 GPM.
• Fuckin' cargo racks...on SUVs... THAT ARE EMPTY inside. With one driver. Put the crap inside the car.
  

• Maintenance. You've all seen these before: tire air pressure, air filter, fuel filter etc.... I won't get in to that.

• Ride a Bicycle to Work.

• Do you live less than 7 miles from you workplace? A this distance or less, you can pedal to work in about 30 minutes. Your health will increase and you don't even need a gym membership. I will not further extol the virtues of cycle-commuting. The benefits are huge, quit being such a pussy and do it.
• Walk to Work.
• Two miles or less should be easy enough for most. Try it
• Electricity Use.
• My dad was right! Turn off the lights when you leave the room the power bill will drop. Unplug items not being used. The biggest thing to any reader of this blog would be to unplug battery chargers (cell phone, ipod etc.) They draw power even when a device is not connected.
  
• Home Heating.
• Dial back the thermostat to 65 deg. F. Put on sweater.
• Use a wood stove (carbon neutral)
• Better Home Design
• Acceptance of Wind Turbines
• Solar Panels for every roof in America: tied to a common grid; providing power for all.
  

Where am I going with this post? Shit I don't know...I am writing it while at work so my thoughts are not as well formed as they need to be.

Plus there are so many things one can do to reduce the personal load on the ecosystem. It requires thinking and action.

Enough Talk... DO!

Northern Maine Woods

I took a camping/ hunting scouting trip into a remote region of the Maine woods this past weekend. The Seboomook Region to be specific. While out one day searching for deer signs we came across this slate outcrop----->

45o 53.833N

69o 44.353W

Within the outcrop were some slight kinking, as can be seen in this photo and some pyrite clasts (pods). The pyrite I found occurred within the same bed indicating that chemical differences in sedimentary deposition were in play. But that is usually the case, no? Unfortunately I forgot my brunton back at camp, a stupid error on my part, so I was unable to log structural data like strike and dip of the bedding, trend/plunge of the kinking etc.

This region of geology is far enough away from the real tectonic action that little metamorphism has occurred. We explored along the east end of the lake. The interesting thing is that I found slate in an area that is mapped as sandstone with medium bedding. While that was true for where our camp site was located, a direction south east of out camp (roughly the #2 on the MGS figure to the left) is where I found the slate. Then again this figure to the left is just a generalized map.

I wanted to go check out the pillow lava at the west end of the lake but by the time that idea came around I was half way though an 18-pack of budweiser and lost my motivation to drive the woods roads. Next trip.

The Maine Geological Survey has this page with a really good description of the area geology.

Useless Commuting Statistics

Yarmouth, Maine Par-n-Ride to Downtown Portland, ME.

• Distance: 14.25 miles
  
• Average Speed: 16.7 mph
• Ride Time: 50 min. 56 seconds

Weather: cloudy, cool but dry. 50 deg F.