Silvery Moon over the Wyoming Range

"The full moon slips behind the Wyoming Range as the sun rises, painting the sky with pastel hues Monday morning."

[via E-mail from Janel]

"Stick It to the Man by keeping your dimes firmly in your hand-knitted Guatemalan rucksack"

There was the attempted boycott of spending money on inagauration day.

A response from the Urban Legend busting snopes.com.

And a funny and brilliant "with friends like these" -esqe post on the Shovelware blog regarding this "protest". (and this is where I got the title for this post)

Takeaway quote:

Too long have the censorious, humor-impaired wings of the left—the Dworkinite penis-is-a-weapon paleoconservative wing of feminism; the beige, Organization Man policy wonks; the excruciatingly earnest shoot-your-TV neo-Luddites—been the left's public face. We need an Xtreme Makeover. More profoundly, we need to stop embracing the politics of denial and withdrawal. Show me a sharp-tongued left-wing critique, built on notions of social justice and economic democracy that resonate with the common man yet, at the same time, embraces the Coneyesque cheap thrills and vulgarian pleasures of junk culture, and I'll show you a battleplan for handing the right's self-appointed morals czars their heads. But it's not NOMDD, whose rearguard action is the thin bleat of a bugle blowing retreat: Forward, into the past!

Libertarian Road Design (In Europe, the land of the free)

Road design? He calls it a revolution

"Who has the right of way?" he asked rhetorically. "I don't care. People here have to find their own way, negotiate for themselves, use their own brains."

Geologist Love Beer

At Michigan State all of the geology grad students go to the same bar every Friday. And at Miami's Geology Field Station there's a bar less than a mile away. That bar is in the middle of nowhere so it must be the Geologists and oil field workers who keep it going.

Dr. Maltman from the University of Wales at Aberystwyth discussed the role of Beer and Geology at the GSA conference in Denver. It appears this discussion was taken from his article in Geology Today titled ‘Wine, beer and whisky: the role of geology’ . Most newspaper articles about the presentation at the GSA conference discussed the strong connection between beer and the rocks the groundwater flows through and discounted the concept of terroir in wine.

However, this may be because the effects of terroir have not been fully investigated. But there is no doubt that groundwater and hence geology has a tremendous impact on beer. And the difference can be as subtle as noticing a difference of taste between Guinness brewed in London and Guinness brewed in Dublin. Along these lines some brewers are reviving "geologic brewing methods".

Hail Dolphins

And so it begins... It appears dolphins have begun their subterfuge to control the human race. First they show up where you least expect them, and now they are acting like our "friends". Be afraid...

Slow Cooker Jambalaya

Colleen's Slow Cooker Jambalaya

If there were a Santa Claus I'd ask for this.

Subaru developing diesel boxer engine.

Sweet mother of God what is the holdup? - I hope this comes to the U.S. soon.

2004 Music

Rolling Stone's top albums of 2004

December Witch

November Witches now seem to be happening in December:

DEEP LOW PRESSURE WILL PRODUCE STRONG ONSHORE WINDS ALONG THE LAKE
MICHIGAN SHORELINE TODAY. THESE STRONG WINDS WILL PRODUCE WAVES OF
15 TO 20 FEET...LEADING TO SIGNIFICANT BEACH EROSION...DAMAGE TO
UNPROTECTED VESSELS AND STRUCTURES...AND HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS ON
DOCKS...PIERS AND BREAKWATERS.

The climate is changing. Grand Traverse Bay has not frozen over more often than not in the last 10 years, and in fact, there have been more unfrozen winters in the last 10 than in all of 1850-1993. But it could be worse. We're still in an Ice Age and if the climate were not warming then it would be cooling. In fact, the climate was much warmer 1000 years ago when wine was grown in England. The thing to remember is that the Earth and the climate are never static.

Surviving Rabies

I heard a story on All Things Considered this afternoon about a Wisconsin girl who survived a rabies infection. In 1970 Dr. Stechschulte, who would later be my pediatrician, helped six year old Matthew Winkler survive rabies, and this even though the rabies vaccine failed. Until this Wisconsin girl this incident in 1970 had been the only known instance of a person surviving rabies.

Edmund Fitzgerald November 10, 1975

Edmund Fitzgerald November 10, 1975

The Land of the Free...

The Senate has taken up in committee a real lovely piece of work. If you don't want to become a criminal because you skipped a television commercial or shared music on your iPod then let your Senator know what you think.

Biodiesel is hitting the Mainstream

MSNBC - Jeep's biodiesel potentialis shown off

Just say No to Paperless Voting

Wired News: Researchers: Florida Vote Fishy

Takeaway quote:

"The researchers examined numerous variables that might have affected the vote outcome. These included the number of voters, their median income, racial and age makeup and the change in voter turnout between the 2000 and 2004 elections. Using this information, they examined election results for the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates in the state in 1996, 2000 and 2004 to see how support for those candidates and parties measured over eight years in Florida's 67 counties.

They discovered that in the 15 counties using touch-screen voting systems, the number of votes granted to Bush exceeded the number of votes Bush should have received -- given all of the other variables -- while the number of votes that Bush received in counties using other types of voting equipment lined up perfectly with what the variables would have predicted for those counties.

The total number of excessive votes ranged between 130,000 and 260,000, depending on what kind of problem caused the excess votes. The counties most affected by the anomaly were heavily Democratic.

Sociology professor Michael Hout, who chairs the university's graduate Sociology and Demography group, said the chance for such a discrepancy to occur was less than 1 in 1,000."

[Via Slashdot]

Pop or Soda

I love linguistic and human migration studies such as this. On The Pop vs. Soda Page you can see what areas of the country say "Soda", "Pop", or just call every soft drink "Coke". An even better map with county-by-county statistics.

Clay's Simpson's Songs Wav Page

This page has most, if not all, of The Simpson's songs including Homer's ode to Max Power ("He has a name that you'd love to touch / but you musn't touch")

2005 Subaru Outback only vehicle to gets 5 star NHTSA crash rating in every category

But why doesn't Subaru have a diesel model? Until Fuji Heavy Industries releases a diesel Suby they won't be getting any more of my money.

[Via: AutoBlog]

Tree-destroying beetle discovered in Petoskey

[Via: the Record-Eagle]

Northern Snakehead found in Lake Michigan

The Chicago Sun Times reprots that a northern snakehead was caught in downtown Chicago at Burnham Harbor.

[Via GLIN Daily News]

Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam - Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument