The Sagamore Journal

As most people know, or should, the concept of growing fuel is absolutely ludicrous, especially considering the majority of this fuel theoretically would come from food crops, opening up a huge bag of worms in the areas of land use, water consumption, and an abject increase in the cost of food. That being said, one cannot deny the unsustainable nature of an oil-based world, and the immediate need for solutions to the looming problem. And, despite the fact the biofuels up to this point have been a complete disaster in both concept and implementation, there are good things arising from the movement toward alternative fuels. Here is one good example, a potential major breakthrough in sustainable energy.

Saturday was hot. Long, hot, and painful. It may have been the heat, or a deficiency in my training, or maybe poor hydration in the early period of the race, but at about 45 miles into the bike leg, everything shut down. My legs stopped pumping, cramped up completely; I became dizzy and my lips began to tingle. I managed to find a little shade, and as I watched dozens of riders sail past, I recovered a little bit. A carload of race fans had a bit of water, and I drank a fair amount, but I think it was far too late at this point. I allowed myself to become considerably behind on maintaining my hydration, and as a result, I’m afraid the rest of the race was merely an effort to finish.

Upon reaching the top of the final climb, about half a mile past where I first was forced to stop, I immediately cramped again, worse this time, and nearly fell off my bike. If it weren’t for the aide station at the top of the hill, and the workers there who caught me, I probably would have tipped over in a pile of my own vomit. All the fluids I’d managed to swallow a half mile earlier came up in a torrent of red, and while they tried to massage my stiffened legs back into motion, I again drank almost two whole bottles full of water and HEED (an electrolyte/water mixture made by HammerGel). After another ten to fifteen minutes worth of rest, I was able to get back on my bike once more and continue down the road. Luckily, it was only eight more miles to the end of the bike leg, almost all down hill.

Upon reaching the transition area, the temperature had climbed into the high nineties, and it was getting hotter. I doused my head with a bottle of water, and strapped on my running shoes. My body temp still hadn’t cooled off, but there were thirteen more miles to go, and it was only getting hotter, so I couldn’t linger. Most of the “run” was a walk, and it took me over three hours to complete the course. I had to stop for a considerable period in the first two miles of the race to try to cool off, and I was able to resume my staggered pace. Nearly every aide station along the way had kids with super-soakers, or buckets full of water-drenched sponges, so I was able to cool myself every mile or two. I got to the point where I couldn’t really drink any more, but I was still much too hot. Without any shade my body would just not cool down.

I finally crossed the finish at 7:28:32, sat at the aide station, threw up again, and pretty much failed at all of my goals except one: I finished.

The pace of science never ceases to amaze me. That we have moved from candles and horse drawn carriages to space exploration and nuclear energy in a matter of less than a century is amazing enough, but it seems the potential for discovery and progress continues to explode at exponential rates. This latest article from Popular Science, which admittedly, has more science fiction than science fact on its pages, suggests that the tools for studying quantum realities in a regular old laboratory are getting smaller and more accessible. The concept of a desktop particle accelerator, which would allow scientists to use high-powered lasers to smash particles together in fractions of the distance needed in such monstrosities as the Large Hadron Collider, which recently made the news for the small percent chance that it might open up a black hole that could potentially swallow our solar system. Does this mean that we are on the verge of a black hole revolution? In a few years time will any adjunct professor at a community college be able to shred the confines of our quantum reality and tear the fabric of space itself? Let’s hope so.

For decades, opiate addicted pill-poppers have needed to worry about the potentially damaging side effects of their habit. Acetaminophen, one of the primary ingredients in such prescription analgesics as Vicodin and Percocet and over-the-counter medications like Tylenol, has long been known to be extremely toxic to the liver, if taken in exorbitant doses or for prolonged periods of time. This drug, while effective at alleviating pain, does not have any hallucinogenic or other fun properties when taken to excess, as can the aforementioned opioid narcotics, and may casual users of these pills don’t seem to realize how much liver-killing acetaminophen is actually in many of the recreational drugs they happily swallow or snort by the handful. New regulations would limit the amount of acetaminophen in prescription and non-prescription pain-killers, protecting future drug addicts from the severely harshed buzz of terminal hepatic failure.

Chemicals in, Chemicals out