Cycling
-
First ride of the year
I did a fairly slow eight miles at a reasonable intensity. Now to get my heart rate under 50 by the end of summer (which will probably take eliminating caffeine, which is time I do that anyway). Caffeine is awareness on credit.
-
Revised photo
-
The rare wise move from the APD
Finally the Atlanta Police department cracks down on the idiotic critical mass rides.
After years of looking the other way, Atlanta police recently cracked down on a monthly bicycle ride through the city streets that includes blocking cars and flouting traffic laws.
At least 10 officers, eight on motorcycles and two in patrol cars, followed more than 300 bicyclists through downtown Atlanta, Little Five Points and Virginia-Highland on June 27 from about 6:30 to 8 p.m. Most of the bicyclists stopped for red lights they normally would have ignored. At least two bicyclists were ticketed for disobeying traffic laws.
…
Highsmith, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech, said Critical Mass would not be the same if the bicyclists followed the rules.“The little bit of disruptiveness and the civil disobedience is a part of raising awareness [about bicycles] in a more conspicuous way,” he said.
The group wants both better infrastructure for bicycles, including bike racks and lanes, and to show drivers that they, too, can hop out of the car and onto a bike.
Now honestly, if the cyclists are lobbying for better infrastructure, how does NOT using the infrastructure that’s already there help matters? Why should anyone pay for more bike lanes when the existing lanes aren’t being used and the people agitating for them are as boorish as possible?
Not that many people will care about this, but it’s been a pet peeve of mine for years…
-
Finally, a problem we can blame on the Mexicans
It’s not a major problem, but from some reason they (Mexicans) bicycle approaching traffic, which is the way it’s done in Mexico, but not in America. This endangers the cyclist as the amount of time between perception and action is dramatically reduced for both parties, which means that they have less time to avoid each other. It’s particularly bad at night. Also the Tullock Effect is reduced as avoidance is not the clear responsibility of either party.
I saw three people doing it yesterday.
-
New Jersey outlaws sale of many bikes
Read this post on Asymmetrical Information. It would seem to outlaw both of quite a few bikes no matter how you read the law.
You would think that not having the wheel fly off is incentive enough to secure it properly, but if someone says “it’s for the children” then it must be a good idea.
-
Quick tab clearing round up
- Meanest quote: they “breed like flies but die in the same way.”
- Joaquin Murietta
- The funniest thing I read on Sunday “A small group of the SOF participated in mass nudity and arson as means of protesting against materialism”. Mass nudity and arson! Probably not at the same time though.
- Why the camera adds 10 pounds.
- Bikes must ride single file on Columns Drive
-
Short 2006 best of list
- Best New Movie – The Departed
- Best Book – Truth Imagined by Eric Hoffer
- Best TV Show – The Shield
- Best Old Movie Seen For the First Time – Tie – The Seventh Seal (Ingmar Bergman) / The Testament of Dr Mabeuse (Fritz Lang) / The Big Sleep (Bogart/Bacall). Only The Big Sleep is in English, where as the other two are probably much better off being subtitled. All three are from the 30s and 40s.
- Best New Gadget – Garmin Street Pilot – I never get lost anymore
- Best New General Interest Site – DamnInteresting.com
- Best Concert – Prince – though to be honest I didn’t see that many in 2006
- Best New Band discovered – Freakwater – I have no idea how I managed to not know about them until this year, they’re perfect for me.
- Biggest physical accomplishment – Biking the entire Silver Comet Trail – 126 miles – in one day with no rest and very few stops for water and such. It did take forever
- Biggest professional accomplishment – staying in business for another year I suppose
- Biggest artistic accomplishment – successfully finishing two whole songs, and actually doing open mic nights
-
Still uploading
Pesky large files. Anyway, here is some lovely reading material for you.
- This is the strangest article you will read this week. By a lot.
- Profanity across languages– the Dutch “May you get the measles” is my favorite
- Deadweight Loss / Excess Burden – if more people understood this, the world would be improved remarkably. Short version, it’s a cost to someone with no benefit to anyone.
- Human Powered Vehicles – a bike that goes over 40 miles per hour
-
Quick Monday rapid fire
- HomeSite meets C#
- Warlords of Afghanistan – not quite a fansite, but I think it’s safe to say the internet is complete.
- Windmills on Amazon
- Google invests in Plug-in Hybrids – Cal Cars curiously unmentioned.
- Martial arts and motion capture
- The quest for 100 mpg cars – doable but not pretty
- A really cool bike steady-cam I’ll probably be building soon.
- I wound up building (so to speak) this camera mount this weekend.
-
Getting a dark monitor tan
I’ve been working for a week solid, and here I am still sitting in front of a screen. On a gorgeous day when I should be riding. Humbug.