No fucking way! You guys are not nearly impressed enough.

Dunno how familiar everyone is with trilobites, but they "were" one of the earliest species of life on earth first showed up over 500 million years ago and lived for nearly 300 million years before going extinct. Or did they?

In my geography class we spent a weekend in Death Valley in piles of shale searching for trilobite fossils (if you got a whole body you get extra credit) and we spent much of the semester discussing them. During that whole time I continually imagined what they might have "really" looked like, then I come onto this "video shift" site where, lo and behold, there's a fricken video of one just strutting around town like it's shit doesn't stink!!! It's not just a funny looking bug, but a living fossil, and it blows my mind! Not once did my professor ever mention they have living relatives. And are they direct descendants meaning they didn't really go extinct??? WTF!

(Disclaimer: For any biblical creationists, replace each "million" above with "hundred." Kthx.)

"Mt Whitney, is 14495 ft above sea level, and Death Valley, a burning, desolate wasteland, with no signs of life, whatsoever."

trust me, you can't get there by bike (realistically anyhow). i did try it once, the number of hills and etc are killer and you drop to just a few mph. -- Besides which a lot of the route is on 60 mph roads and many of the corners are blind. One of the local homes used to have a sign outside saying "welcome to death valley" (till the local council told them to remove it) due to the statistics of the last bunch of cyclists that decided to try it. I wouldnt want to do it in summer, let alone in winter in the dark.

I agree, climate change sucks, the bus is meant to give better exercise and etc etc, but we get out way more than before so my exercise is actually higher and enjoyment of life is certainly better due to the freedom to travel when / where you want.

when you have a car busses look like the real answer, but when you fully rely on them day in / day out they suck hard. Still i guess european cars get like 45 miles to the gallon which might be higher than a US car ? (dunno, is it?)

i didnt really want to get into a specific example of someone's daily route and such, but for me it really *is* the best answer, for now anyhow. The point was to say that public transport in the form of busses is lacking and always will be lacking in its current forms.

like i said though, i do agree that a better form of transport than the car is needed, and soon. But busses isn't it. At least for out of city communting.

If you ever go to Death Valley, you can go a little further and find the "Racetrack." It is a dry lakebed, above the valley floor on the Northeast side of the Park. Four-wheel drive is recommended, although not entirely necessary.

When you arrive at the Racetrack, you will notice something startling. On the surface of the lake bed are trails left by rocks that have inexplicably moved across the lake. They look like this:

http://www.pictureninja.com/pages/united-states/california/racetrack-rocks.jpg

In this viddy I found on Youtube, we see an explanation given, for the first time, as to how these rocks are able to move without human assistance.

Weirdest spot on earth.

Sc