In a study, recently published in the journal Environmental Pollution, Eric Montie, a University of South Florida scientist who did most of his research while a doctoral student at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, found high levels of man-made chemicals in the brains and fluid surrounding the brains of marine mammals.

Montie tested for the presence of 170 chemicals in brain and cerebrospinal fluid he’d collected from the stranded animals. He found exceptionally high levels of both the widely used flame retardant PBDE and a form of PCB.

read full article here

I started my first blog over 5 years ago(and I know some of you still remember it…). One of my favorite plug-ins for that site was a random quote box. Each time visitors refresh the page, a different quote pops up. I recently dug up a document with all these quotes. I think they’re all great, but to read through them like this, I think also reflects a stage in my life and books I was reading. Enjoy.

“people cannot stand too much reality.” ~ Carl Jung

“Depopulation should be the highest priority of foreign policy towards the third world, because the US economy will require large and increasing amounts of minerals from abroad, especially from less developed countries.” ~ Henry Kissinger, 1974

“Those who would give up freedom for safety deserve neither.” B. Franklin

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.” – Victor Hugo

“Evil is what ever distracts” ~ Franz Kafka

“You can be up to your boobies in white satin, with gardenias in your hair and no sugar cane for miles, but you can still be working on a plantation.” Billie Holiday

“The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” — Steve Biko

“Our behavior is a function of our experience. We act according to the way we see things. If our experience is destroyed, our behavior will be destroyed, we have lost our own selves.” ~ R.D. Laing

“Hell is the too-late realization that everything and everyone are interdependent. This realization is our only salvation.” ~ Derrick Jensen

“The most striking difference between ancient and modern sophists is that the ancients were satisfied with a passing victory of argument at the expense of truth, whereas the moderns want a more lasting victory at the expense of reality” ~ Hannah Arendt

“Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable” ~ Franz Kafka

“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends [Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness], it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it…” ~ The Declaration of Independence of the United States Of America

“It’s life that matters, nothing but life—the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery, at all.” ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, affliction, or infamy. We kill when, because it is easier, we countenance, or pretend to approve of the atrophied social, political, educational, and religious institutions, instead of resolutely combating them.” ~ Herman Hesse

“The part of the mind that is dark to us in this culture, that is sleeping in us, that we name unconscious,” is the knowledge that we are inseparable from all other being sin the universe.” ~ Susan Griffin

“The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” ~ Milan Kundera

“Schools are institutions for indoctrination and for imposing obedience. Far from creating independent thinkers, schools have always, throughout history, played an institutional role in systems of control and coercion.” ~Chomsky

“Let the white race perish! They seize your land, they corrupt your women, they trample on your dead! Back! whence they came, upon a trail of blood, they must be driven! Back! back—ay, into the great water whose accursed waves brought them to our shores. Burn their dwellings! Destroy their stock! Slay their wives and children! The red-man owns the country, and the pale-face must never enjoy it! War now! War forever! War upon the living! War upon the dead! Dig their very corpses from the graves! Our country must give no rest to a white man’s bones.” ~ Tecumseh

“When a white man kills an Indian in a fair fight it is called honorable, but when an Indian kills a white man in a fair fight it is called murder. When a white army battles Indians and wins it is called a great victory, but if they lose it is called a massacre and bigger armies are raised. If the Indian flees before the advance of such armies, when he tries to return he finds that white men are living where he lived. If he tries to fight off such armies, he is killed and the land is taken anyway. When an Indian is killed, it is a great loss which leaves a gap in our people and a sorrow in our heart; when a white is killed three or four others step up to take his place and there is no end to it. The white man seeks to conquer nature, to bend it to his will and to use it wastefully until it is all gone and then he simply moves on, leaving the waste behind him and looking for new places to take. The whole white race is a monster who is always hungry and what he eats is land.” ~ Tecumseh’s brother, Chiksika (who is just as cool as Tecumseh)

I headed back out yesterday, but this time didn’t make it as far. The mud from the last few days of raining was ridiculous, and I got a late start anyway. Under the overpass, where the AZ trail begins, I met Zack and Bob, who were splitting a case of beer waiting for the rain to let up so they could head back out to their “spot” in the woods. Zack was a native guy with a baseball hat and a hockey jersey, “I promise I didn’t do a rain dance or nothin,’” he smiled, barely keeping his balance.

They were really friendly and we talked about homelessness in Flagstaff, living in the woods, and how friendly most people are on that trail. Bob has lived in the woods for the last 7 years! And we’re talking year-round here. Bob is 50 years old, with a grizzly beard. He was happy to have lived through another winter as he described waking up with three feet of snow on his tent.

“What kind of tent do you have?” I asked.
“That’s something I didn’t skimp on. I got a really nice Coleman,” he said smiling, revealing several missing teeth.”
“Seriously? You spend Flagstaff winters up there?” I pointed to the mouth of the wilderness area.
“You bet, and the animals all know me up there. I’ve seen the same three-legged-elk nearly ever morning for the last several years.”

Bob went on about how he packs out his trash every morning around 5:30am, works as a day layborer, grabs some groceries, and heads back to the same spot every evening.

Zack, trying to get a word in, said, “I have to admit. I went to the valley over winter.”

We talked more about the city of Flagstaff and everyone agreed that they are not friendly to homeless people. We talked about the shelters too and both agreed they were inadaquate.

Bob again, “They’re mean in town. When people see me out here, everyone is friendly, but many don’t understand that I live this way by choice. The city doesn’t want me around, and hell, I’d rather be in the forest anyway.”

I hope to run into them again – maybe write a Noise article.

I can’t believe how much it’s been raining the last couple days. Everyone around me has been upset by the weather, but I know in a few weeks, when the sun starts baking this city and the winds start picking up, we’ll long for cool days like this. I happen to love it.

I read in the paper that we should expect a lot of out-of-towners flooding the forest and campgrounds this weekend, so I wanted to ride the uncrowded forests while I had the chance, rain or shine. So late afternoon on Thursday, I took it upon myself to head out on the Arizona Trail, from the south end of town to Fischer Point and back. It started raining right when I left the house, Huxley tied to the front of my bike.

The rain smoothed out previous tracks, and we were the only domesticated animals out there. It continued to rain off and on and we had so much fun! I haven’t been that muddy on my bike in a long time. Huxley got to chase a large heard of elk through the forest; I’m not sure what she would have done if they let her “catch” them. I know it’s a fight or flight response, but when this happens, I often wonder why they don’t just stand their ground, looking down at an animal a tenth of it’s size and say, “what?! What rya gonna do? Eh?”

So the other day, I was riding on the urban trail with girlfriend and dog when, quiet suddenly, I saw one of the more larger garter snakes I’ve seen directly in front of my oversized mountain bike wheel. It was too late for me to turn around it so I lifted the front end, over the snake and shifted my weight to the front braked the front wheel, popping my back wheel up, over the snake again. Now all of this happened in 2 or 3 seconds but it was one of those moments that seemed to go very slow. Time was frozen and I was amazed at how skillful I was able to avoid hurting the snake. I looked back and found the snake safely slithering across the trail.

Yesterday I road the mountain bike to Schultz Pass and from there, I took the Rocky Ridge Trail to Buffalo Park. It’s 4.something miles in total, but the first half is mostly uphill the trail is pretty technical with many large rocks and boulders. I’ve walked this trail a couple times and I always wanted to ride it. It was a bit more challenging than I thought and it took way longer than I figured it would too. I thought it would take an hour and a half, but it took me 45 minutes longer. I really took my time and sometimes jumped off the bike in some sketchy areas. I also ate a huge ass moth that flew straight into the back of my throat; I just had to swallow it and wash it down with water. Once it was down, I thought, “hmm, wasn’t too bad.” It was a great trail though, plan on doing it again. S.W.B.’s (smiles while biking): 14.

It’s supposed to be cloudy and rainy all week (which is weird for May isn’t it?), which makes for some nice chill rides. And I hear Ft. Tuthill is even mountain lion free now.

I’m almost finished with my column for next month, which has two sections bicycle safety 101 and bicycle safety 102, which is safety for experienced riders who will break the rules of the road as they see fit. If any of you would like to share a story or tips on how experienced riders break the rules while ensuring their safety, please send them my way by Wednesday.
kyle@undertheconcrete.org