A look at traffic in Saigon.

This is the most amazing video I've seen on the net in a long time.

From a hardcore 2 wheeled vehicle loving perspective, the sheer numbers of them is dizzing enough.

But it is the glaring fact that the whole concept of personal space and it's group-in-motion corollary, traffic flow has evolved in a completely different manner that had me laughing out loud in suprise.

Think "school of noxious fume emitting fish" or "sudden death everywhere".

Just when you think it can't get any better, the camera pans down to some vietnam vet that the US maimed 30 years ago, paddling his hand-powered tricycle against the flow in the foreground.

tell me it's a small world after watching this video.

I know you think driving in england or japan would be a challenge, but you could deal with the whole mirror opposite thang.

well, check out driving in the 'nam.

off the frickin' hizzle, man.

The Information We Really Need

(Thanks to a link from bostongraf)


CURRENT U.S. TERROR ALERT LEVEL:

Slate.com: The Gas Crunch We Really Need...

5 clams a gallon. For a long time.

I say tax the crap out of it, and build bikepaths to ease congestion and help with all the fatties here in america.

Anyhoo, here's a link to the article.

This is the magic book folks want available to students in public school.

Here is a link to "Of Pandas and People" as it is listed/reviewed on Amazon.

The reader's reviews are excellent and devastating to this pile of humid dung

click here to learn more about stupid crap pretending to be science.

Meter Maid Wants Fat Daughter Taught Magic in School

What are you looking at?

What are you looking at?

It's jee-sus-ah. Ah Jeee-sus-ah! Can I get a witness? Can I get a hand-CLAP?

The devil wants you to know-ah

The devil, he wants you to KNOW-AH.

He wants you to know about evolution-ah.

He wants you to think we came from lowly slime-ah. He wants you to think we're a bunch of hairless apes-ah.





This here blog is gonna stay on top of this case, because magic is back, folks, and science is on the run.Its been 150 years since Darwin and by gar, all that contemplation of a universe that doesn't require magic is too difficult and depressing= to contemplate.

The complexity of life, is just too....complex. Obviously there's magic involved.

Let us pray. "Dear God, deliver us from science in our schools. My daughter needs to be taught not observation, logic, and scientific thinking, but faith, respect for authority, and non-verifiable magical thinking, that she may have the strength to ticket cars and empty coins for a living, liketh I do."


click here for article...or click on the images of it here--->.

The Latest Evidence of Widespread Retardation in America:

Stupid Christians rehashing "Creationism" as "Intelligent Design" are on the march all over the united states...and much of the American public is behind the movment, wanting this magic crap presented alongside evolution in public schools.

This makes me want to puke.

Oooh! Oooh! More good(ish) news on impending doom for SUVs..

This is from CNN.com/money:

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - In 1981, the last time gas prices breached $3, adjusted for inflation, the average car got 21 miles to the gallon.

Jump ahead 24 years, a period when there have been huge advances in automotive fuel-efficiency, and the average passenger vehicle on the road gets...21 miles to the gallon.

In fact, however, vehicles have gotten considerably more fuel-efficient, according to a recent EPA report. It's just that car buyers have wanted other things from that efficiency rather than simply to travel farther on a gallon of gas.

For the same 21 miles per gallon, America drivers today are buying bigger, faster vehicles with a lot more power. Light trucks, a category that includes SUVs and minivans, now account for 50 percent of passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. That's more than double their share in 1981.

Could $3 gas change all that? There already are several signs that it is.

* Large SUV sales are 11.2 percent lower than they were at this time last year, according to AutoData.
* In the "beige book" released Wednesday, the Federal Reserve reported a shift to vehicles that use less gas.
* General Motors has indicated that it is extending its "Employee Price" incentives to
* These days, more consumers are saying that they are looking at gas mileage in making vehicle choices. In a recent poll by Kelley Blue Book and Harris Interactive, 59 percent of current vehicle shoppers said gas prices have either changed their minds or strongly influenced
* Meanwhile, according to Kelley Blue Book, resale values of used large SUVs are dropping.

(the image in this post is from a coworker that went to Amsterdam recently and shared this photo with moi as she heard I was into the small car thang. I have no idea what kind of car it is, but it looks like it may be battery powered, and makes a Smart car look pretty huge. )

fabulous car I've never seen -of-the-day

The Bertone Bat.

Click here for all kinds of sweet design---> http://www.bertone.it/en/scheda_50_bat5_en.htm

Concise political truths...

From today's Salon.com "War Room" column, regarding the impending piece-of-cake confirmation hearings for a very conservative chief justice that is going to be ruling towards the right for the next 30 years....

But even before Katrina hit New Orleans and Chief Justice William Rehnquist died, Roberts' confirmation was a foregone conclusion. The Republicans in the Senate are united behind him, and the Democrats don't have the votes to defeat his nomination or even maintain a filibuster of it. So for all the talk today about the rights Roberts will or won't protect and the questions Roberts will or won't answer, the confirmation process he faces will ultimately be about as meaningful as the one Brown (1) managed to avoid.

Elections have consequences, the Republicans like to say. The people of New Orleans have learned that over the last couple of weeks. The Democrats are getting a reminder today.

(1) [just sacked FEMA pony-show running idiot shoe-in crony (-.ed)]

------------------------------------
Joke of the day:

"What does Bush think about Roe v. Wade?"
"He doesn't care how those folks get out of New Orleans."

One problem with SMART cars....lions like the way they taste.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/4155674.stm

Staff at Knowsley Safari Park are monitoring smaller vehicles, including Smart cars and Mini Coopers, after the lions started paying special interest. David Ross, park manager, told the BBC News website that a group of lionesses chased after one Smart car after being confused by its compact appearance. "With Smart cars and sometimes Mini Coopers the lions definitely raise an eyebrow. It sparks their interest because of their size."

free software that you need

I may be the last person around that didn't already hook up with this software, but it is so excellent I had to put it on this here blog:

the best free photo organizing/viewing software I've experienced

crazy excellent mapping software

Smart Car with Suzuki GSXR-1000 engine. Hotness

truly drool worthy.

http://thekneeslider.com/archives/2005/06/08/smart-car-plus-gsxr-equals-smartuki-a-very-smart-car/

motoing up to maine

I rode up to the coast of maine last weekend. The round trip distance was a bit under 600 miles, including a stupid navigational error on my part. I don't know if I'll ever stop getting 95, 93, and 128 mixed up. Lets just say I got to see lovely manchester NH before I found 101 east that let me cut get back to the coast (porstmouth) and be on my way north again. I think I missed a toll thanks to my 50 mile detour.

The rest of the ride up was pretty sweet. The ride back down was going excellently until I got into southern maine, where the beaches are. Then it was literally jammed up all the way from there back into massachusetts, with only a few brief respites along the way. Every toll plaza was backed up for miles, and it was backed up for most of the exits....oh it sucked mightily. I was in traffic for easily an extra 1.5 hours.

No speeding tickets...excellent. Lets just say that at no point in the entire trip was I passed by anyone or anthing. And the VFR got 45mpg on the highway at those speeds. At one point I got 216 miles out of 1 tank!

I'm looking to be at the 5000 mile mark on the VFR at my 1 year anniversary with it, and while I do look forward to the day that it is paid off, I am delighted to say I'm more enamored with the bike 1 year in than when I got it.

In other news, impending chronological milestones have caused loved ones to purchase me a bit of moto gear I've been jonesing for but just haven't had the discretionary loot to make happen: a pair of aerostitch's "triple digit raincovers" to aid in the hardcore gear department. As the ever-excellent aerostitch catalog says: "The three digit design keeps your hands warmer, provides good finger control for clutch and brake levers, and lets you be polite to Vulcans (always)."
With these robstercraw babies I'll be able to keep my mits nice and cozy even when it rains chats and chiens.

New Orleans Superintendent of Police P. Edwin Compass III, as interviewed in the new york times: "If I put you out on the street and made you get into gun battles all day with no place to urinate and no place to defecate, I don't think you would be too happy either."

Hey World! Come look at our wretched poor people! We've got refugees!

Fox / Right Wing Treatment of Hurricane Katrina

Man, hurricane Katrina. The Fox News Channel tells me it's not really so bad. I feel so much better! KILLER AMERICAN ZOMBIE NETWORK FOX WANTS YOU TO KNOW THE TRUTH.

Loaded Race and Class Issue of the Day:

MSNBC was also the only network to show a segment of a press briefing in which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was asked about whether the slow federal respone to the storm had anything to do with the race of its victims. "You've spoken very eloquently around the world about growing up as an African-American in the South," a reporter asked. "Are you concerned now that at least the impression is going to exist in this country and abroad that some of the relief has been affected by the race and class of the people most affected?"

Rice professed disbelief that racism could exist in America. "That Americans would somehow in a color-affected way decide who to help and who not to help, I just don't believe it," she said. "Americans are generous to each other."

one more for tonight.....SMART CARS

A company is now going to be selling smart cars in the USA!

oh man. they are mad expensive compared to in europe.

oh. my. goodness. (Hallelujah!!!)

American car buyers seen at a tipping point

Surging gas prices driving consumers away from gas-guzzling vehicles

("Its about f_cking time, .")

American drivers have remained relatively unmoved by rising gas prices in recent years. In 2004, Hurricane Ivan tore through underwater oil pipelines in the Gulf, cutting output from oil refineries and driving gasoline prices above $2 a gallon. Yet consumers continued to buy gas-guzzlers, responding to Detroit’s incentive programs...while SUV owners may have been willing to pay $50 to fill a 20-gallon gas tank when a gallon cost $2.50, at $3 a gallon a fill-up costs a SUV owner $60, and as the cost edges closer to $100 it will start to make smaller cars look more attractive.

“With every major shift in gas prices over the last year we have not seen a major shift in consumer buying practices, but there’s definitely a breaking point where people will consider smaller vehicles, and $60 for a tank of gas is where we think people will sit up and take notice,"

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9142893/

growing meat in vats

the future.

mmm-mmm good. And the cows get to live!

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15849954-23109,00.html

Censoring myself--an SUV rant

Wow,

There's some serious lord-of-the-flys shizzle going down in New Orleans. There are all sorts of nasty truths on display. Makes one think that when a larger grade terrorist attack happens in the US the federal government is not really able to respond....at least not for a while. For a while, you are on your own and it's some Hobbes-ish man v. man action. Hairless apes.

The resulting spike in gas prices is sparking quite a bit of discussion about conservation, consumption, and the whole cars/suv debate.

The giant, longterm crush americans have had on sport utility vehicles embodies a tremendous amount of what I can't f__king stand. I think that something that takes up that much visual and physical space, endanders other vehicles due to it's size and shape, and generally consumes resources in a wildly excessive fashion (from the energy required to fabricate their enormous bulk to the gas they consume and emissions they spew.)

I understand that in certain situations a four wheel drive truck is the right tool for the job. Think of how many people drove suburbans, pickups and vans back in the 1980s. I bet most of those horse-trailering, boat towing, snow plowing etc. folks will continue to need giant vehicles, and they'll just have to deal with how much it costs to run them (although I would assume they would all become turbodiesels)

For the teeming masses that bought SUVs because they wanted a giant intimidating vehicle, or to not have to shovel snow a few times a year, or because everyone else is doing it....it seems judgement day is near. I am experiencing pretty giagantic schadenfreude as I ride by gas stations and watch the numbers rise. It makes me giddy, really. I would love to hear people bitching about gas prices nowadays as they fill up the tank of their escalade. I want to hear them thinking abot selling it. Ooooh yeah. G.M. and Weight Watchers would very much like for you to not own a shovel, and just use your SUV to blast your way out the driveway.