Stannous Flouride's Book of Truthiness

I was loaned a bike by one of my host family and after checking out the route over the weekend, decided to bike there today.
It’s about 6km and I left home at 8 a.m., allowing plenty of time. Which was good because about 1/3 of the way there I had a tire blow. ( not go flat, it blew)
Fortunately, it was across the street from a bike shop so I locked it in.front, messaged that I’d be late, and took the bus. (still made it w/20 min. to spare)
After work I stopped by, got the tire replaced, the rear derailleur fixed, had the brakes and shocks adjusted, and bought the basket and bottle holder, and new gloves to go with my hat.

I visited 3 haciendas and 2 cenote on Saturday. 1st the cenote swim.

It’s almost as if I disappeared!

Today at  BiciRuta I met someone from Slow Food Merida and was reminded of this poem I wrote back in 1997 for Arthur Bierman, who started Slow Food San Francisco years before jilly-come-lately Alice Waters even knew about it. It may be the best poem I’ve ever written. It is designed to be recited aloud.

 TEMPUS STATO

I am in the Sorbeteria Colon eating guanabana sorbet in the midst of a weekly event called BiciRuta.
They close off half of Merida’s main (or at least ritziest) thoroughfares to cars and various vendors set up their arts ARGHH BRAINFREEZE!!
& crafts. Most of them appear to be homemade but not all and there are many foods as well.
I borrowed a bike but of the dozen or so parked near by, mine is the only one with a lock.
I have seen that quite a lot around here bikes just parked on the street, not locked.

(that brain freeze was real)

My first Youtube videp was of some Wearable critters: http://youtu.be/5SkpAKBBSww that I spotted on the street in Merida

Despite being served plate after plate of delicious and beautifully presented food, I have resisted becoming one of THOSE people who insist on taking pictures of their every meal before tasting it.
But sitting in a lovely plaza eating helado de Chile served with a toasted crepe and Mexican Manchego cheese and listening to Tony Bennet singing about where he left his heart is a moment I wish you all could share.

This beautiful building is the Corte Suprema del Justice.
Among its decorations are a trio of exaggerated monkeys and a pair of humans laughing manically.
We have the same thing in the USA. We just dress ours in black robes and hide them inside.

It turns out that our Big Brother at the NSA has managed to embed a non-wipable malware into all computer and phone data firmware that makes them vulnerable even when not connected to a network.

Though focusing on rivals Iran, Russia, and China, they have plenty of energy left to spy on ‘Murricans and all of our ‘friends’.

And it has been going on for the better part of two decades.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/17/1364910/-Breaking-Kaspersky-Exposes-NSA-s-Worldwide-Backdoor-Hacking-of-Virtually-All-Hard-Drive-Firmware?detail=email

Fibrils Flower on the Sun 
Image Credit & Copyright: Big Bear Solar Obs., NJIT, Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination)

Explanation: When does the Sun look like a flower? In a specific color of red light emitted by hydrogen, as featured here, some regions of the solar chromosphere may resemble a rose. The color-inverted image was taken in 2014 October and shows active solar region 2177. The petals dominating the frame are actually magnetically confined tubes of hot plasma called fibrils, some of which extend longer the diameter of the Earth. In the central region many of these fibrils are seen end-on, while the surrounding regions are typically populated with curved fibrils. When seen over the Sun’s edge, these huge plasma tubes are called spicules, and when they occur in passive regions they are termed mottles. Sunspot region 2177 survived for several more days before the complex and tumultuous magnetic field poking through the Sun’s surface evolved yet again.

Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)

NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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