Weekend Update

I made it through another week full of experiences, some usual some new, but all I'm thankful for. Saturday I did nothing which is normal, I usually reserve my Saturdays purely for relaxation. However, at about 10:30 there was a knock on my door and I was met by two nicely dressed individuals; Jehovah’s Witnesses! We had a nice debate for a little while and rather than talking about theology which can be like sword fighting with wet spaghetti noodles, I centered the discussion on philosophy, and philosophical implications of science. Maybe I'll post a transcript of the talk later.
Sunday, today, I went to Galbraith. It was raining, but warm enough to remain comfortable; so I rode a couple trails I hadn't visited for a while, pictures in the links below.

My new bike will be here Wednesday, 10 days after ordering it. If you can indulge me for a moment and turn off your rational minds I would like to propose a new physical law about the universe:

"The amount of time it takes an item to ship is inversely proportional to how bad you want it." In other words, the more you want something the longer it will take to ship to you. Argh! But, once the bike comes I'll post a full account with pictures explaining each detail.

I read finished reading Carl Sagan's "Pale Blue Dot" recently and I almost do not want to say anything about it for fear of utterly diminishing the values held therein. Essentially the book is a call for humanity to recognize our exploratory heritage and head for the stars. The book is eloquent, moving, and should be read by everyone. Sagan's warnings about the fragility of our planet's ecosystems are absolutely moving, and even more so when I think about humanity is doing to our ability to live on earth. I'm now reading his book "Cosmos" and will report on it later.
Sabrina and I have been watching Dr. Sagan's 15 part series "Cosmos" on DVD. I cannot reccomend any of Sagan's work enough. It is such a shame that a mind so valuable as his is no longer with us.
As is becoming somewhat of a tradition, I present the weekend in pictures: 2-25-2007

A few car related statistics to think about:

-Cars produce one quarter of the world's man-made greenhouse gas emissions [1].
-Globally road accidents cost 1.2 million lives and 50 million serious injuries per year [2], and massive indirect cost to our lives and health systems from lack of exercise and air pollution.
-The world motor vehicle population of is predicted to rise from 640 million in 1996 to 1.1 billion in 2020 [3].
[1] World Resources Institute, (2004). In many western countries the proportion is higher.
[2] "World report on road traffic injury prevention", World Health Organisation, Geneva, (2004)
[3] "Climate Change 2001: Mitigation" UN IPCC, working group III, Norway (2001).