Sad To Hear

A hiker fell to his death in Zion National Park.

ST. GEORGE — A 55-year-old man died Friday after falling about 20 feet while on a hike with friends at Zion National Park.

The man fell around 3 p.m. on an unnamed canyon trail near state Route 9, about two miles west of the park's east entrance, according to park officials. A visitor to the park who reported the fall told officials the man had fallen about 20 feet and landed mainly on his head.

My condolences to his friends and family.

Update: the hiker has been identified.

Craig B. Forster, a professor behind many environmental initiatives at the University of Utah, fell to his death Friday in Zion National Park.

Forster, 56, was hiking with his wife and three friends Friday when he scrambled up an unnamed canyon near Highway 9 and he fell about 20 feet.

First Death

In this years war on Christmas. By the conspicuous consumption of wealth faction.

NEW YORK – Police were reviewing video from surveillance cameras in an attempt to identify who trampled to death a Wal-Mart worker after a crowd of post-Thanksgiving shoppers burst through the doors at a suburban store and knocked him down.

Criminal charges were possible, but identifying individual shoppers in Friday's video may prove difficult, said Detective Lt. Michael Fleming, a Nassau County police spokesman.

Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers stepped over him and became irate when officials said the store was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said.

At least four other people, including a woman who was eight months pregnant, were taken to hospitals for observation or minor injuries. The store in Valley Stream on Long Island closed for several hours before reopening.

Icebergs

Icebergs at Breidamerkurlón, originally uploaded by arnitr.

Scientists are figuring out the details of global warming.

OSLO (Reuters) - U.S. scientists have figured out how icebergs break off Antarctica and Greenland, a finding that may help predict rising sea levels as the climate warms.

Writing in Friday's edition of the journal Science, they said icebergs formed fast when parent ice sheets spread out quickly over the sea.[...]

"For iceberg calving, the important variable -- the one that accounts for the largest portion of when the iceberg breaks -- is the rate at which ice shelves spread," the study said.

A fast spread means cracks form throughout the shelf and make it crack up. A slower spread means that deep cracks do not form as fast and the ice sticks together.

"The problem of when things break is a really hard problem because there is so much variability," lead author Richard Alley, of Pennsylvania State University, said.

Alice's Restaurant

Happy Thanksgiving!

Time To Brine

The bird.

Buzz

England is having trouble with bees.

LONDON (Reuters) - Where in the United States, fruit farmers pay to have bees trucked thousands of miles to pollinate their crops and in parts of China, humans with feather dusters have taken on the task, in Britain most bees go nature's way.

Britons have a deep nostalgia for home-grown honey and its associations with an ordered rural lifestyle. But here, too, the honey bee population is dwindling, and with winter under way faces a tough fight for survival.

Besides warnings the country will run out of English honey by Christmas, there is a threat to growers of fruits such as apples and pears.

Goblin State Park

Goblins in Goblin State Park, originally uploaded by tony tarry.

A hiker is missing near Utah's Goblin State Park.

UTAH — Authorities found the vehicle Monday afternoon of a New Castle woman who went missing during a hiking trip to Moab, Utah, on Nov. 16.

Rose Backhaus, 54, was last seen checking out of the La Quinta Inn around 8 a.m. in Moab Nov. 16. Friends, family and a co-worker said it was extremely unusual that she didn’t return home Sunday night or to work early Monday morning as planned.

Emery County Sheriff’s Capt. Kyle Ekker said Backhaus’ Ford Explorer was found in the Goblin Valley area south of Green River.

“We’re in the middle of a search. We’re trying to get a helicopter up,” Ekker said around 4 p.m. Monday.

Lets hope she gets home for Thanksgiving.

Time To Go

George Walker Bush it is time to go. More and more people are going to be calling for his head. In Japan, the would be asking him to commit suicide, the honorable thing for a Samurai to do. Of course, Bush has no honor. Here is James Baker, who worked extra hard to get Bush selected by the Supreme Court.

"What we're seeing out there today is a lack of confidence," Baker told NBC News' "Meet the Press." "And the president-elect and, as a matter of fact, the current president have to face this problem over the next 60 days."

Praising Obama's appointment of "some extraordinarily capable people," Baker said that "something very useful might even come out of the two of them (Obama and Bush) sitting down together and addressing ... (the) stability of our financial system."

As Maha says how much money did he loose in the stock market? Co-presidents? Not going to happen. Anything Bush can do to make Obama's job harder he will. Bush does not care about America. He cares only for himself.

Even Little Tommy Friedman is getting into the act. Remember Tommy had so much patience for Bush's great and glorious war in Iraq, always asking for just six more months, that the term Friedman unit* was coined. But, I guess lossing 3.6 billion in just two months will do that to you.

*Term coined by economics professor Dr Duncan Black. Also Known as the blogger and DFH Atrios.

Scott Williamson and Tattoo Joe Kisner

Scott and Joe ste the speed record for an unsupported hike on the Pacific Crest Trail. Just under 72 days. It is an amazing feet. You will not catch me hiking an average of 37 miles a day. Nope not going to try. The Sierra Sun has a surprisingly good article about their hike this summer.

TRUCKEE — After another long day’s hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, Truckee’s Scott Williamson sat down next to a High Sierra creek in the darkness and began to fill his water bag.

Minutes passed as he scooped water from the snowmelt-driven rivulet when the tall, wiry, long-distance hiker looked down to see he was pouring each cup over his maps and guidebook pages — not into a container.

“With the lack of sleep I had minor hallucinations and altered perception,” Williamson said. “A lot of the hike seems like a blur now.”

37 mile days will do that to you. Scott who has hiked the trail since 1992 has seen some changes.

With 11 trips on the Pacific Crest Trail over the last two decades and more than 40,000 miles of Pacific Crest Trail in his legs, Scott Williamson has witnessed some changes in the west.

Fire has stripped many of the shade-bearing trees in the first 700 miles of trail in Southern California, Williamson said.

Likewise pine forests are retreating to higher altitudes, Williamson said.

“My first hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in 1992 there used to be some reliable streams. They’re no longer reliable,” he said. “And the last few years every summer hikers are running a gauntlet of fire.”

Smog has found its way into the High Sierras, Williamson said.
“There has been a little magic lost,” he said.

Yum!

meat face, originally uploaded by tombland.

Too funny not to post. I guess it is some kind of bologna product. Mystery pork pieces ground with fat and made into a smiley face. What could be more yummy?

Ford Begging On Both Sides Of The Atlantic

How bad off is the auto industry?

The head of Ford Germany said the European Union should make around 40 billion euros (50 billion dollars) in loans available to the continent's ailing auto sector, in an interview with the Bild newspaper published Friday.

Bernhard Mattes said such assistance would not be state aid but was "in order to allow all European carmakers the possibility to meet EU requirements on fuel efficiency and emissions, etc., more quickly."

Those rich republicans are so dependent on government welfare. They should be embarrassed but of course they are not.

Sad To Hear

A California man fell to his death Sunday.

A Glendale man died Sunday, a day after falling 50 feet while hiking in Los Padres National Forest near Gorman, authorities said.

The Ventura County Sheriff's Department's Air Squad 9 rescue helicopter was called about 2:30 p.m. Saturday to the Trail Canyon area near the Hungry Valley State Vehicular Recreation Area, according to a statement from the department.

Hugh Blanchard, 79, and his friends were found at the base of a waterfall near the Castaic Mine. Blanchard was unconscious, according to the release.

My condolences to his friends and family.

Back On The Trail

Lion King Is back on the trail after his side trip to Hollywood.

Oil Companies To Exploit Global Warming

With the polar ice cap melting, oil companies are planing on ways to get oil and gas from under the arctic ocean.

I'm convinced, based on models and observations, the trend is one of accelerated ice loss, and we're probably looking at a scenario, even with the best efforts to mitigate (global warming), that we'll continue to see loss," said Richard Spinrad , director of research for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

Already, shipping already has increased within the Arctic Circle to serve the oil and gas industry.

The recent increase has been the result of a spike in commodity prices, not to capitalize on retreating sea ice, said Lawson Brigham , a former Coast Guard captain and climate scientist who made many voyages into the Arctic and around Antarctica .

The pull is strong in a world dependent on petroleum. In July, the U.S. Geological Survey issued the first public estimate of the petroleum resources north of the Arctic Circle . Its findings: 90 billion barrels of oil and 1,670 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Ethanol, Bad!

Farmers are more and more reliant on ethanol production than food production.

Scott Irwin says agriculture’s fortunes are now tethered more to ethanol than food, making crop growers vulnerable to sharp price swings at filling stations rather than the typically slower cost shifts at grocery stores.

“We’re just experiencing the full brunt of this new source of volatility,” said Irwin, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics. “When food prices were the main trigger, recessionary impacts were much less direct and much more gradual. Now, there’s this new connection through energy costs that immediately gets translated to agriculture.”

With fuel prices coming down and the Wall Street credit crunch many ethanol plants may close. There never has been a natural market for ethanol. It is time to end it's subsidies.

Connecticut Regulates Olive Oil, Say It Ain't Soy!

Connecticut becomes the first state in the nation to regulate olive oil.

Luciano V. Sclafani Jr. has imported enough olive oil over the years to know when something is not right. So when he saw an advertisement for a three-liter tin of extra virgin olive oil for $9.99 when the market price was between $25 and $30, he knew something was up.

He purchased the oil, had it analyzed and, sure enough, the "extra virgin olive oil" was actually 90 percent soybean oil and 10 percent pomace oil, a low-grade of olive oil.

Sclafani of Norwalk-based Sclafani Importers alerted the state Department of Consumer Protection and its agents' own analysis determined that not only was the oil not extra virgin olive, but it was also four ounces shy of the labeled weight.

The republicans and their free market friends always say that the market will take care of it's self. It is acceptable to republicans for you and your children to die for corporate profits. Even sensible regulation like requiring olive oil to be olive oil is unacceptable to them. But, Chef are you going a little over the top here. No! No! No! With children allergic to nuts like never before what if the distributer put in peanut, walnut, or hazelnut?

Oh The Humanity!

The classic WKRP Thanksgiving turkey drop. The incompetent Sarah Palin, pardoned a turkey and then gave an interview while they slaughtered turkeys in the background. Her answers were as incomprehensible as ever.

Heresy!

Chef is going to let out his inner heretic. Yes, this thanksgiving I am going to fight for the right not to stuff my turkey. Lindsey at Majikthise has a great list of tips for cooking a turkey. I like this one.

6. What I'm about to say sounds heretical, but stay with me: Don't cook the stuffing inside the turkey. Instead, fill the body cavity with a quartered raw onion, an quartered cored apple, half a lemon, and fresh herbs.

I would use lemon, half and orange, and fresh herbs. Also, I like to give my bird a subcutaneous rub.(Under the Skin) For my rub, I use butter, lemon zest, and garlic powder. If you do not brine your bird add salt to your rub.

If you have relatives that demand cranberry sauce from a can you can always fake them out by making your own and refrigerating it in a can so it has the classic shape. Depending on your recipe you may have to add some pectin to jelly it up.

VW 2.0L TDI Clean Diesel Engine

VW 2.0 l TDI Clean Diesel engine, originally uploaded by beedubz.

VW's Jetta TDI diesel won green car of the year.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A clean-burning diesel sedan, Volkswagen AG's Jetta TDI, won the "Green Car of the Year" award at the Los Angeles auto show on Thursday, the first time a diesel-powered car has taken the industry's top environmental honor.

"This signals that clean diesel has arrived," said Ron Cogan, editor of Green Car Journal, the trade magazine that awards the prize.

Diesel, a conventional combustion approach long favored by Europeans, has been making inroads into the U.S. market as a here-and-now option to make engines run more economically and pollute less.

It gets 41 mpg. Here is a picture. This guy has modified his for corn oil and claims 55 mpg.

Good News

Waxman defeats Dingell for House Energy and Commerce Committee. Good news for the environment. Look at this list of their supporters and see who is owned by oil and coal. Now something can get done about global warming.