Joggins - Day four

Joggins fossil beach is a UNESCO world heritage site. Its got one of the greatest concentrations of fossils in the world. You can walk down the beach, and find them every few paces. Its also on the Bay of Fundy. The water level rises and falls 30 feet between low and high tide. We arrived as the tide was going out, and by the time we left at low tide there was far more beach visible.



Cottage on the bluffs.



Shortly after we arrived, the tide still fairly high.



You can see the different high tide marks. The loose rock just below the bluffs was the best place to look for fossil rocks.



Later in the day, the tide nearly at low, there was far more beach.



Like someone took a giant cleaver to the rock.



Can you spot the fossilized tree trunk in the rock?

Maritime Trip Day 3

No pictures from this day on my camera since I lost them to corrupted data. I walked the quarter mile of cottage property from the building down to the beach. The walk itself was miserable. The scenery was beautiful, but the mosquitos, black flies, deer flies and other flying insects that dive bombed my head were maddening. Apparently this is a really bad year here for mosquitos and other flies. Something to do with a lot of rain in June. Its not as bad once it gets hot out, and when there's a breeze. Later we went into Amherst to get those hats with mosquito netting.

Once I climbed down the short slope to the beach, I left most of the insects behind. I was there at high tide, which out here makes a _big_ difference. I'll have some high / low tide comparison pictures posted in the next few days. Later back at the cottage, we all saw a fox outside.

Anyhow, the next trip down to the beach armed with the netting and at a better hour was much nicer. The tide was low and we were able to walk out to the water past stranded jelly fish to see a bunch of small hermit crabs trying to steal food from each other in shallow water. Otherwise this was a day of rest after all the driving of the previous days. Next update may be more interesting.

In the meantime here are a few pictures of the non cookie-cutter houses in Amherst.





More photo's here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Joseph.Slonimsky/AmherstNovaScotia

Maritime Trip Day 2

Having got into Edmunston late, we started late as well, checking out of the hotel at 1pm. We asked Amy for direction to the nearest Subway sandwich place. What Amy failed to mention was that it was in a hospital near our hotel. Asking Amy for further directions to another Subway, we followed them only to run across a third Subway on our way to the second one.

Conveniently for us New Brunswick seems to have built a new 4 lane highway that sped us along towards our destination. We arrived at the cottage after dark. (follow the trip route to see where the cottage is).


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Maritime Trip Day 1

Started a bit late (cough David cough). I took a picture shortly after we got going.



I brought my new GPS unit with us



We stopped in Ontario for a couple rest breaks, but we didn't stop in Quebec until we reached the most northerly part of our trip at riviere-du-loup





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There was a cute waitress at the Boston pizza, who spoke more English than we did French. (which isn't much) Making use of all the French I know, I wanted to say 'voulez vouz parle on anglais avec mois ce souis?

After dinner, it now being midnight, we pressed on (getting lost in Riviere-du-loup) through the hills of south east Quebec until we finally had to stop just across the border in New Brunswick.



Total first day kilometers: Just over 1100.

What I think of Astrology

A link to my photo gallery, recently updated.

Worlds worst roads

Its arguably the worlds worst road. A city of over 200,000 depends on it for their only road link to the rest of civilization. And it looks like this after it rains:


Then there's the worlds most unsafe road. Not surprisingly known as the Hwy of Death. Among other things its one lane wide and has two way traffic. It looks like this:


Lastly there's the worlds worst hiking trail. It leads to this vantage point:


Unfortunately, to get up there you have to get by this:


But this isn't the worst part of the trail. There's an even scarier section by the look of it.

To see it, go to this site. http://www.ssqq.com/ARCHIVE/vinlin27.htm

Peak Oil

Peak Oil is the point where oil production reaches its maximum as mature oil fields stop producing, and fewer and fewer new ones come online.

Russia which is almost tied with Saudi Arabia as the worlds largest oil producer recently claimed they had reached peak oil output.

Coupled with the vast numbers of people in India and China who are entering the middle class, acquiring cars, and using energy, its not surprising that the price of gas is skyrocketing.

But the price of gas won't keep going up, becuase the above formula doesn't take into account producing your own oil from scratch. For example, one company is genetically designing bugs to eat waste and excrete oil. Yes, this is actually possible. read more here.

Doors Open Toronto

Pictures can be found here

Dell's warranty service

My Inspiron 6400 laptop's power supply became wonky the last few weeks, sometimes not being recognized at all by the laptop. I called Dell, and except for the frustrations of actually reaching the right call center within the Dell empire, I think I'm fairly happy with the service. The day after the call my new power supply was already at my door, with a box and prepaid shipping label to send the bad part back.

After my previous frustrations with Dell, this means I might have to consider un-boycotting them for future purchases.

Contemplating a Northern Ontario Road Trip

http://www.urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?t=7004
http://www.urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?p=128519
http://www.urbantoronto.ca/showthread.php?t=7081
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Current_Swing_Bridge

Manufacturing on Demand

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-04/bz_instapreneur

If you read this article..

.. do you think freedom of speech and multiculturalism are clashing?

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_2_cultural_jihadists.html

My website

http://www.gizmoz.ca

Amazing what one person with no particular knowledge of programming can do nowadays. Apart from being handed a template, I've done everything else myself.

Yes, I know there are several issues with the site, but its still in beta and doesn't have a crack team of programmers standing by!

Rally driving on snow through forest

Another Rally Clip from the cockpit

What happens when a telemarketer calls a prank caller..

How the Space Shuttle is Assembled

http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=UBB11&Number=1016238&page=0&fpart=all

HRC

Canada's Human Rights Commission: Freedom of Speech not Canadian.

WTF?

This is what happens when a bureaucracy of left-leaning people is left alone, unsupervised by adults. See story here.

Worlds Oceans Cooling?

Thousands of Buoys float across the worlds oceans sampling temperature.


They are reporting a slight cooling of the worlds oceans over the last five years or so. All the climate models that global warming is based off of must have seen this coming... No? Oh, thats odd, seeing as how those models rely on ocean temperature rising for 80-90% of atmospheric global warming.

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=394939

Do Not Reply

Ever gotten an email with anything@donotreply.com? well, most of us are smart enough to well... not reply. Others aren't so bright.

Where you may ask, do those emails go?

They all end up in Chet Faliszek's email Inbox.

... and then he posts some of the best online.

Traffic Jams

We've all been in highway traffic that inexplicably stops and goes. Now its been modeled in a controlled environment for the first time.

Global Cooling?

A compiled list of all the sources can be seen here. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year's time. For all four sources, it's the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.


Original Article here

Glimpse of the future

Contact lenses with a circuit and light emitting diodes allowing a super-imposed image on the world like a heads up display. See article here.

Broken Windows

I read this article in City Journal a few months ago, and I've wanted to reference it a few times since then. I'd thought of posting it to my blog then, but didn't. It's long and isn't very easy to summarize.

I first heard about the broken windows theory in a story about New York. The idea is that perception matters. Someone living in an area where there are broken windows, graffiti, etc, will be more likely to feel that they can act lawlessly than someone living in a nice orderly neighborhood.

The article I'm linking to has an overview of the worst neighborhood in Los Angeles and the societal and political forces trying to help it. The article stands out becuase of how complete a picture it paints of these forces.