Tom McMahon

How Would You Like To Be Stuck In Traffic Next To A Gigantic Vat of Molten Aluminum with the Spout Pointing Right at You?

How Would You Like To Be Stuck In Traffic Next To A Gigantic Vat of Molten Aluminum with the Spout Pointing Right at You?

That's exactly what happened to my UltraGlobalMegaCorp buddy Dave Hinz, who took this photo.

Sulfur Block in Alberta

Sulfur Block in Alberta

From Gord McKenna:

When prices are low, liquid elemental sulfur is poured into large blocks to solidify (sulfur freezes at about 115C) on the prairie landscape for long term storage. Later, when prices are higher, it is remelted, prilled, and shipped to market (often to China). This block is near Cremona , Alberta, Canada. There are a couple dozen such blocks in Western Canada, mostly in the Rocky Mountain foothills, close to sour gas production facilities. The facility is operated by Shell Canada and stores sulfur from the Caroline Gas Plant to the west. The vertical wall here is about 25ft tall.

Arizona Giant Centipede

Arizona Giant Centipede

An excerpt from The Firefly Forest:

The bold orange or red and black colors of an Arizona Giant Centipede are a form of aposematic (warning) coloration meant to scare away potential predators. Along with their venom and universal warning colors, Arizona Giant Centipedes have another defense against predation, a posterior pseudohead similar in color and appearance to their actual head. The pseudohead even has what appears to be orange antennae like the real head, but these posterior "antennae" are actually modified legs. Arizona Giant Centipedes can move quickly either forward or backward, and if a predator mistakenly grabs the more expendable headlike tail, the centipede can rapidly bend around and attack it with its venomous front legs. In the above photo, the centipede's true head is the one higher up on the wall.

YouTube Video: World Air Traffic in a 24 Hour Period

YouTube Video: World Air Traffic in a 24 Hour Period

The blurb:

The yellow dots are aircraft.

It is a 24 hour observation of all of the large aircraft flights in the world, condensed down to about 2 minutes. You can tell it was summer time in the north by the sun's footprint over the planet. You could see that it didn't quite set in the extreme north and it didn't quite rise in the extreme south.

Notice that as evening approaches, the traffic is predominantly from the US to Europe and when daylight comes, the traffic switches and it is predominantly from Europe to the US.

From Bill Granger

Idaho Drivers and The Tallest Building in Salt Lake City, Utah

From The Best Page in the Universe:

Idaho is possibly the only state in the union that actively makes its residents become sh*tty drivers because of how uninteresting it is. There aren't any "skyscrapers" in Idaho, so when they get bored, they drive down to Utah to gawk at ours. The only problem is, there aren't any skyscrapers in Utah either. Here's a comparison chart to show the tallest building in Salt Lake City (the largest city in Utah), to some landmarks in real cities:

I've p*ssed higher than the tallest building in Utah. So you can imagine how bored you'd have to be to come here.

Snow On Mount Diablo

Snow On Mount Diablo

World-famous travel photographer David Sanger:

Snow in the San Francisco Bay area is a rare occurrence; every few years there’s a dusting at the higher elevations. With a forecasted freeze with snow levels down to 1000 feet, I planned an early morning outing to Antioch, hoping the skies would then be clear. Green grass in the foreground and a scattering of Spring wildflowers provide color and contrast to the glistening snow on the peak.

Weird Festivals and Strange Celebrations

Weird Festivals and Strange Celebrations

Another great photo collection from Dark Roasted Blend

How To Make Flying Safer

How To Make Flying Safer

How To Board An Airplane

From Bill Geist's Zeitgeist:

We've already issued Air Law 5 about the goofs that insist on attempting to carry on luggage as big as small pony. And Air Law 7 about the people who rush to the gate to board, regardless of their section, in order to secure overhead bin space for said pony.

Virgin America's brilliant solution: Board First Class first. Then, people needing assistance (though not with their pony)...then people without carry-on luggage. Leaving the people with ponies to duke it out for space after everyone else has been seated, thus ensuring that the boarding process moves smoothly right up til the end.

And, what an incentive to pay the $20 fee to check luggage! An easier time in boarding. Now, for some, that is a benefit that might just be worth the fee that other airlines have imposed with no additional benefit.

Minimum Maintenance Roads

Minimum Maintenance Roads

From The Spokesrider:

Last week in Iowa and southern Minnesota, we saw a lot of road signs that seem to be a new feature of the last several years. It seems that as the countryside gets depopulated, it is no longer necessary to maintain all of the section-line roads. There are no longer any children living on them who need to get to school in winter, etc. So they’re now designated as “Minimum maintenance roads.” Some of the signs also say something about winter, or about traveling at your own risk.

This designation was established in Minnesota in 1985 (PDF file):

. . . attempting to designate a road receiving even moderate amounts of traffic could jeopardize the designation and the protections it offers. Even if a road is only occasionally used, a town board should be very hesitant to designate a road as minimum-maintenance if there are homes on the road. Because school buses and postal carriers often refuse to travel on minimum-maintenance roads, designating a road minimum-maintenance could significantly impact homeowners on the road. Also, the lower level of maintenance on these roads could raise concerns over access by emergency vehicles. These concerns should lead any board considering designating a road with homes or other structures on it to proceed with caution and in cooperation with the owners on the road.

Don't miss this great photo of a North Dakota Minimum Maintenance Road in winter.

For the adventurous mountain biker these could be kinda fun:

We headed south out of Maskell and I simply couldn’t remember how far that I had to go before turning, but I did remember it was a dirt road. We probably weren’t even a mile out of town when I seen a sign that said “Minimum Maintenance Road”: “Hey Charlie, we need to turn here!” Well, a perfectly quiet road turned interesting quickly. First we had to chase three cows back into their field. The humor of that quickly faded as our dirt road became a dirt path with grass in the middle. Shortly thereafter it became a grass path that farmers use, then basically "grass". We wound around to the point of not seeing much in the way of a path at all. “Minimum Maintenance Road” suddenly became “wandering across the open range”. The fear of not being totally sure that I could backtrack where we just came from kept us driving forward.