Light Rail Etiquette

I’m a big fan of the light rail (RTD) here  in Denver.  Most regulars follow these rules instinctively:

  1. Don’t put your bag on the seat next to you. Lap or floor are the only polite choices.
  2. Don’t sit with your legs crossed. (See also #3)
  3. Don’t slouch so far you leave no room for the person across from you.
  4. Don’t sit on the outside of the seat when no one else is there.  Not only will people step over you to sit on the other side of the seat, but then you’ll be stuck with the less desirable outside seat.

If you do #4 and #1 at the same time, congrats – you’ve won the douchebag award!

All of these rules can be ignored if the train is deserted. Putting your feet up on the seat across from you when someone is sitting there is NEVER OK. It doesn’t matter if they are not sitting directly across from you, this is still an invasion of person space. This only happened once, thankfully, and I was able to restrain my rail rage.

Also, I should say that I am far from blameless – I will sometimes set my bag down on the seat when the train is pretty empty and not move it soon enough, or let my big winter coat take up some of the seat to my right.

Other observations:  people sitting almost never offer their seat to women, (older-looking people do a bit better) and the seats at the end of the light rail cars are not as wide as the standard seats (to allow room for bicycles) so they are not exactly two person seats. This sometimes leads to awkward interactions.

Bonus points for helping tourists out.

Total Lunar Eclipse, Winter Solstice 2010

I drove down about 5 miles south of Lone Tree, where it was decently dark.  After struggling with the camera to get some decent shots (it doesn’t like to focus on dark stuff), I opened the moon roof, blasted the heater, and  relaxed, actually looking at the eclipse.
It was very cool, and even lived up to the hype, I’m glad I went.

Here are some pictures – be sure to click for bigger versions.

Dolphins in the Arctic Sea: There’s Your Sign!

Tonight, I attended the Café Scientifique, held once a month at the Wynkoop Brewery. The speaker Prof. Jaelyn Eberle, from University of Colorado Boulder, spends her summers at nearly 80 degrees north, on Ellsmere Island, looking for fossils.  She specializes in the mammal fossils, among them hippo-like creatures called Coryphodon (said Core RIFF uh Don). The talk was engaging and Prof. Eberle passed around a few fossils as well as some muskox fur, which was cool.

The time period that Prof. Eberle studies is the hottest time period we know of, about 53 million years ago,  so hot that it had forests and liquid water way up north. Hard to believe, but holding mummified wood makes it a lot easier.

Interesting factoids:

  • Somehow, I didn’t know there had been a land bridge in the Atlantic – presumably,  from modern-day Canada to Greenland, Greenland to Iceland, Iceland to the Faroe Islands, and so on.
  • They have experienced 20 degree C weather – about 70 degrees – on their trips.  This is way warmer than usual, even for summer.
  • Last and certainly not least, one of Prof. Eberle’s Inuit contacts said they had seen dolphins.  This is nearly 80 degrees north. Wow.
  • The reason they know the island wasn’t much further south is because of paleomagnetism.  (It was only 2-3 degrees further south, if I recall correctly.)

Disclaimer: this is my recollection (and understanding) of what was said. If there’s anything wrong, it’s my fault. 🙂