Pic of Snapping Turtle Killed By Car

This poor snapping turtle was hit by a car. It cracked the shell. If you click on the photo to get a larger image, you can see the crack as a white line near the front of the shell. When I found this guy, the flies were already at the crack.

Snapping turtles live to be over 40 years old. They cannot retract into their shell because they are so big. As a result, they can reach anywhere when you try to pick them up. If you think that you are clear of the head, they can open a big gash on your hands with the claws on their feet.

Obviously by the size, this guy was pretty old. Its a shame that he had to die by being hit by a car.

I didn't mean for this picture to be shown as the dead turtle pushing up daisies, but that's just part of the irony of life.

Unusual Traffic Sign

I like the unusual and unexpected. This is a traffic sign that I have never seen before.

You can sort of surmise that this is an upscale area.

Somehow, this sign reminds me of a new Tru TV episode "When Helicopters and Automobiles Collide".

Cosmological Cabbage Book Review -- Traffic

One of the books that I got for Christmas, is a book called "Traffic Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us). The book is written by Tom Vanderbilt, and it was on the New York Times Bestseller List.

I immediately jumped into the book because the first chapter was on late mergers. When you have two lanes of traffic merging into one, and drivers are warned about it in advance, two behaviours are observed. Some drivers immediately get into lane that continues, and other drivers drive all the way up to the merge point and merge at the last minute into traffic.

Many a time, these late mergers are seen as queue jumpers and butting in line. However Vanderbilt contends that it is the most efficient way of merging and cites scientific studies to prove it. I discovered that late merging worked for me when I had a daily commute on a four lane highway in Canada several years ago. It was good to discover that my own conclusions were validated by the book.

However after the first chapter, the book became a real slog to read. I have not yet finished it. It becomes rather pedantic and starts citing all sorts of esoteric and arcane traffic studies and behaviours, but it does not put them into readable prose. It is a tough read.

I will update this report when I finish the book, but right now, it looks like that day is far off.