fell-swoop

Internets Lead To Robot Repair

2008-05-16T19:45:00.002-05:00

Friday night, tired after a long week.

Watching a bit of live TV (no DVR to skip commercials) and stumble across this ad for a Lexus SUV.

While I find SUV's abhorrent, I was completely entranced by the music in the background. It sounds exactly like something by Imogen Heap.

Turns out (after 30 seconds of googling and finding a website dedicated to music in commercials
that the source isn't a band at all, per se. It's actually several guys that used to make big loot in the rollicking world of advertising, that have started their own company dedicated solely to making music for commercials.

Very clever name and website as well. The place is called Robot Repair, and apparently they are going to release an album of music longer than 30 seconds later this year.

Hmm.

Meat From The Lab.

2008-04-22T13:01:00.005-05:00

Wow. I've been talking about this for years, how technology will eventually seriously complicate the vegetarian/non-vegetarian divide once meat can be grown without hurting animals.

Most of the time when I bring this up, carnivorous folks I'm talking with recoil with nasty looks on their faces at the prospect of eating meat from clean lab vats; this reaction doesn't seem to jibe well with the reality of the meat they are eating now, which even if it comes from an animal that lived a happy, free-range life (doubtful) it still went through some nasty $#|t as it was forced off this mortal coil. Not true with in vitro meat!

So, progress has been made, and we are all zooming along towards a slaughterhouse-free mcnugget.

Mmm-Mmm. With a name like "invitromeat" it's *got* to be good.

V1 Cruise Missle Remains Found in London

2007-07-29T11:48:00.000-05:00

In the news today, a WW2-era V1 proto-cruise missile (which for some reason the mainstream media likes to call a bomb, totally missing the unbelievable innovation of these horrific things) was unearthed during excavation for a new building in London.

Here is the link to the news story--> http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/07/28/britain.wwii.bomb.reut/index.html

This of course led me to re-peep the information on V1's, of which there is plenty on the net.

But what I really wanted to find was a sample of what one of these things sounded like. They were derisively nicknamed "doodlebugs" by those that were targeted; apparently the Brits had a habit of giving pejorative nicknames to scary things so as to take the edge of the terror.

The name referenced the strange sound V1s made: they had a primitive jet engine(!) that made a very distinct sound in flight, which was so loud it could be heard up to 10 miles away.

When the internal guidance system (!) sensed that the thing had flown far enough (measured by revolutions in the tiny nose-mounded anemometer thingy) it pitched the missile into a power dive. The force of the dive cut off fuel to the engine, and 15 seconds later the device and its very large payload hit the ground in a shallow dive (rather than dropping straight in like a conventional bomb) spreading death and destruction up to 1,800 feet away from the impact zone.

So people on the ground in England could totally hear these things flying over, and grew to know they had 15 seconds to hide once the weird sounds stopped.

That's pretty $#(*$ing terrifying.

Here's what they sounded like--> sound plays when after the page loads. Recording is very loud/distorted, so be careful. The sample actually has a flyover sound, and the engine cutting out, and the explosion. Amazing.

Lots of info there too.

The Wikki entry is fantastic too--> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-1_flying_bomb

Shooting Marbles at 16,000 mph

2007-03-15T15:52:00.000-05:00

This is how I want my tax dollars spent, along with bike paths.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/14mar_marbles.htm?list27315

You sir: kindly be a proper gentleman, and take your feet off the sofa.

2007-03-07T21:00:00.000-05:00

Kindly.

Personally I do enjoy thoroughly using the word, but only in the context of replacing the prevailing "very much" when giving thanks. Which apparently puts me in the company of Jed from The Beverly Hillbillies.

I found the following observation, and the thread about usage of kindly it comes from, very entertaining. (link at bottom) The "Speech Is Getting Shorter" theory also explains why the Civil War love letters in K. Burns' film seem so deeply foreign: its because we're on our way back to monosyllabic grunts!

It seems like most of the people in the thread think of kindly in the sense of prefacing a demand for something. In the quote below [numbers added] I love #5, as it sounds like a black-and-white detective movie to me, and #8 is totally something to shoot for (after I get my monocle.)

Based on the speech-is-getting-shorter theory I'd say 'please' will prevail because it's one syllable but in descending order of likelihood you'll hear:
Take your feet off the sofa.
Please take your feet off the sofa.
Take your feet of the sofa, thanks.
Kindly take your feet off the sofa.
I'll thank you to take your feet off the sofa.
Thanks in advance for taking your feet off the sofa.
I would appreciate it if you would take your feet off the sofa.
You sir: kindly be a proper gentleman, and take your feet off the sofa.

http://ask.metafilter.com/29934/Kindly-answer-my-question-about-the-word-kindly

Arctic Doomsday Seed Bank

2007-02-10T14:18:00.000-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/02/09/climate.deep.freeze.reut/index.html

Work starts on Arctic seed vault

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Deep inside the Arctic Circle work is about to begin on a giant frozen Noah's Ark for food crops to provide a last bastion in the battle against global warming.

And within a year the first seeds of what will eventually be home for samples of all 1.5 million distinct varieties of agricultural crops worldwide will be tucked safely inside the vaults deep in a mountain on the archipelago of Svalbard.

There, at the end of a tunnel 120 meters into the side of a mountain, 80 meters above estimated sea levels even if all polar ice melts, and 18 degrees Celsius below freezing, they will stay like a bank security deposit.

"It will be the best freezer in the world by several orders of magnitude. The seeds will be safe there for decades," said Cary Fowler of the Food and Agricultural Organization's Global Crop Diversity Trust.

"Svalbard is a safety backup -- and we hope we never have to use it."

The Norwegian government is footing the $5 million construction bill and the Global Crop Diversity Trust is providing the estimated $125,000 a year running costs.

"We are going back to the older varieties because that is where you find the largest genetic diversity ... and diversity is protection," Fowler told Reuters in London.

Svalbard will not find and sort the seeds. That is being left to the various seed banks around the world in the front line of the battle to protect biodiversity.

The function of the Arctic Noah's Ark will be to hold samples of all the food crop varieties in case disaster strikes any of the banks -- like the typhoon that wiped out the Philippines agri crop gene bank in October.

It will also ensure a pristine source of research material for the world's botanists struggling to create crop varieties that will be able to withstand the massive changes in rainfall patterns and temperature that may come with global warming.

The scientists from around the world predict that global average temperatures will rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius this century due to human activities, putting millions at risk from rising sea levels, floods, famines and storms.

"Current crops are adapted to the current climate. Start changing that and you change everything," Fowler said. "Plant breeders will have to be designing totally new varieties."

"We already have a water crisis with agriculture and climate change will make it worse. It is not a simply matter of migrating crops northwards. Everything changes -- sunlight, temperature, insects, diseases, pollinators," he added.

He said the Svalbard seed collection would not include modern hybrid varieties because by and large they had genetic diversity bred out of them.

But it would also not rule out genetically modified organisms on the simple grounds that it would be virtually impossible to screen them out and in any case they would never amount to more than a tiny fraction of the total.

The vaults on the remote archipelago 1,500 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle should have been dug and lined with meter-thick concrete by October ready for systems installation and a formal opening early in 2008.

Within two years they should be holding the vast majority of the world's food crop varieties in splendid, frozen and permanent isolation.

I am relieved. The "Vendaface" machine WAS real.

2006-12-01T12:34:00.000-05:00

For years I have been mentioning to people that there used to be this machine backstage for the first couple of seasons of the Muppet Show that would painfully re-arrange the muppets faces.

Nobody else I know seems to remember this machine.

Well, after some serious googling, I found it.

The VENDAFACE!

http://www.muppetcentral.com/guides/episodes/tms/season1/21_twiggy.shtml

How To Make Jihadis

2006-07-21T18:42:00.000-05:00

Wow. Click here for the best use of quicktime VR that I've ever seen.

Humans and Motorized Vehicles Around The Globe

2006-07-20T14:05:00.000-05:00

For the past several months I've really been enjoying the website "The Truth about Cars."

It is unlike any other car-journalism I've encountered in its attitude and approach, making mainstream auto-writers look like the mouth-breathing, short-bus riding, never-heard-of-cynicism losers you might have always suspected them to be.

And don't get me started on the The Boston Globes long time car guy "Royal Turd (Ford)" who finds glove-box dimensions and whether his retarded-sea-cow wife likes the color more salient to a car review than purchase price or driving impressions. This site is the antidote to all that.

Recently TTAC has added comments-functionality to its posts, and it is from a nice ranting discussion on hybrids that the link I'm about to drop on ye comes from.

Essentially, one of the main dudes (Jeremy Clarkson) on the UK's "5th Gear" car-television show set out to travel the world and see how different cultures interact with motorized vehicles, resulting in a combination of sociology and vroom vroom. Everywhere from Iceland to Cuba to Vietnam. Fabulous. Its called MotoWorld.

Here is a link to all the episodes in google video format. Better click quick before they get taken down.

Future of Warefare Blog

2006-07-20T13:42:00.000-05:00

Whoa. My google-homepage timer-applet tells me I have 60 days/1400 hours until I have to go back to school again for the fall. That's short time for lots of reading/learning/chilling/aggresive relaxation.

On the sit-on-the-couch-and-read-all-day tip, here's a blog I found that is so full of worth-reading goodness you'll now find it linked to on my link list. Its about the future of warfare, but also covers all kinds of interesting mass psychology/international relations type stuff. Fab.

Here is a link to a good place to start within the blog.

Here is the slate.com article that introduced me to the blog.

SMART cars in USA by 2008.....ah, finally? (wtf)

2006-06-27T15:18:00.000-05:00

Okay, so now it seems that Benzo is going to finally import the SMART to the USA in 2008, roughly a million years after they started selling them in Europe, and several years after they began selling them to our kinder, gentler neighbors to the north.

If you've been following this obsessively like me (doubtful) then you know that 3 years ago or so, Benzo was thinking that the USA would only start buying SMART if they sold a weak-ass SUV here, call the Four-Four. What an stupid f*$(#ing idea that was...the only people that are going to buy these things hate on SUVs with a serious passion. Geez.

Well, they appear to have pulled their collective head out of their germanic buttocks and realized that they should sell the original, tiny, fabulous four-two model here.

So, after gloming on some extra safety(?) and emissions equipment, they're hurtling towards importing them to the USA as of...2008. Hold your breath.

Oh, the tiny things don't have an estimated $$ here yet, but they are $12,000 in Europe, and $15,000 in Canada, so they'll probably be waaay too expensive in the USA.

Better late than never!!

Worth Millions of Words....

2006-06-14T14:35:00.000-05:00

sweet. so sweet.

http://www.jalopnik.com/cars/news/potrero-hill-claims-excursion-limo-hosers-180198.php

Sweet 8mm video of a future that wasn't

2006-06-08T11:38:00.000-05:00

Check out these babies, on the Isle of Man no less.

Looks like the view out the window from Space 1999. Little pod cars.

Note: has no sound. Please insert your own "Jetson" car noises.

http://www.microcarmuseum.com/video/peel-trident.html

Smart Cars....Canada has them. WTF.

2006-05-24T22:13:00.000-05:00

Will Mercedes Please Grow A Pair and Bring the Smart Car to the US?

Here's a nice preachy, condescending, and entirely accurate editorial reminding us all to chalk up several more points for Canada.

More Excellent News about SUVs Starting to Die Off

2006-05-05T10:15:00.000-05:00

First,

I am a loser for not keeping up with this blog. Plain and simple. Can't say I'm not suprised, but wow, no posts for well over a month. Lame-o.

Now, back to my obsession: The Complete Annihilation Of SUVs Forever.

This gas crunch, which I have been yearning for for years now, is really starting to hit SUV sales bigtime. It worked a bit last year, but the fact that we're into our 2nd season of painful pump prices is sticking it to SUV drivers in the sensitive-bits. Yessssss....

Yes. Airships Gonna Make A Comeback!

2006-02-23T14:11:00.000-05:00

I love airships. I'm sorry I missed their heyday. Every time I look at the Empire State Building, it fills me with retro-futuristic glee to think that they originally intended the top of it to be a place to land dirigibles.

Well, the whole hindenburg thing put the kibosh on the slow-boat-in-the-air thang, but it looks like with super modern tech, they are a-comin' back. Granted, they are pie in the sky at the moment, but if this plan works out, we'll all be able to cruise at the speed of a redlined lamborghini and swim in a pool as we look out at the mountains below.

Here is the text of a recent CNN.com article:

The flying luxury hotel of tomorrow

Cruise ship will sail through the air, not the water

This is not a Blimp. It's a sort of flying Queen Mary 2 that could change the way you think about air travel. It's the Aeroscraft, and when it's completed, it will ferry pampered passengers across continents and oceans as they stroll leisurely about the one-acre cabin or relax in their well-appointed staterooms.

Unlike its dirigible ancestors, the Aeroscraft is not lighter than air. Its 14 million cubic feet of helium hoist only two thirds of the craft's weight.

The rigid and surprisingly aerodynamic body -- driven by huge rearward propellers -- generates enough additional lift to keep the behemoth and its 400-ton payload aloft while cruising.

During takeoff and landing, six turbofan jet engines push the ship up or ease its descent.

This two-football-fields-long concept airship is the brainchild of Igor Pasternak, whose privately-funded California firm, Worldwide Aeros Corporation, is in the early stages of developing a prototype and expects to have one completed by 2010.

Pasternak says several cruise ship companies have expressed interest in the project, and for good reason: The craft would have a range of several thousand miles and, with an estimated top speed of 174 miles per hour, could traverse the continental U.S. in about 18 hours.

During the flight, passengers would peer at national landmarks just 8,000 feet below or, if they weren't captivated by the view, the cavernous interior would easily accommodate such amenities as luxury staterooms, restaurants, even a casino.

To minimize noise, the aft-mounted propellers will be electric, powered by a renewable source such as hydrogen fuel cells. A sophisticated buoyancy-management system will serve the same purpose as trim on an airplane, allowing for precise adjustments in flight dynamics to compensate for outside conditions and passenger movement.

The automated system will draw outside air into compartments throughout the ship and compress it to manage onboard weight.

The company envisions a cargo-carrying version that could deliver a store's worth of merchandise from a centralized distribution center straight to a Wal-Mart parking lot or, because the helium-filled craft will float, a year's worth of supplies to an offshore oil rig.

"You can land on the snow, you can land on the water," Pasternak says. "It's a new vision of what can be done in the air."

The Future Is Now: Robotic Camel Jockeys

2006-02-05T17:08:00.000-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/05/kuwait.robot.reut/index.html

150 MPH on a rocket powered bicycle.

2005-12-22T09:13:00.000-05:00

All Hail.

Perhaps The Best Doppler Effect of 2005

Others Begin To Realize That Hummer Suck!!!

2005-11-23T12:09:00.000-05:00

Mu-ha, mu-ha-ha-haaaaa.

Look at all these sh!tbarges lined up and ownerless. Now to recycle them into bicycles or mopeds or something.

Apparently, there were so many non-sold units that the dealer was leasing out parking lot space somewhere else to hide them from the public eye.

click link below for someone else's blog on hidden hummer caches:

http://themessthatgreenspanmade.blogspot.com/2005/11/hummer-overfloweth.html

I'm BAAAAAAAAAAcccck

2005-11-23T12:07:00.000-05:00

Whew!

Man, I had no computer to blog upon for over a month there.

After 16 calls to H.P tech support, they ended up supplying me with an 80 gig drive to replace the 40 gig drive that failed me (after 1.5 months of ownership) the week before I had midterms and really needed all my notes.

Anyhoo, all my 3 or 4 occasional readers, I'm back, and this time it's for keeps. Provided my computer-touch-of-death phase has abated for a while.

Vote Zod in 2008

2005-10-17T09:24:00.000-05:00

Sorry, the computer I was using to replace the computer I had that crashed, crashed. So I have nothing to work with at the moment.

IN the meantime...KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!!

http://www.zod2008.com/

A look at traffic in Saigon.

2005-09-29T21:56:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-28T08:45:00.000-05:00

(Thanks to a link from bostongraf)

CURRENT U.S. TERROR ALERT LEVEL:

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

2005-09-28T08:36:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-09-26T12:28:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-26T09:16:00.000-05:00

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:

2005-09-25T14:18:00.000-05:00

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..

2005-09-21T11:01:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-19T12:31:00.000-05:00

The Bertone Bat.

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

Concise political truths...

2005-09-12T19:35:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-09-08T21:06:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-06T10:36:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-06T08:22:00.000-05:00

truly drool worthy.

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

motoing up to maine

2005-09-05T00:04:00.000-05:00

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.

2005-09-04T22:07:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-04T20:48:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-02T01:55:00.000-05:00

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!!!)

2005-09-02T01:48:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-02T01:36:00.000-05:00

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

2005-09-01T22:39:00.000-05:00

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.

Get Your War On

2005-08-25T11:46:00.000-05:00

The best political cartoon out there.

salman rushdie on religion/islam/church&state

2005-08-19T20:19:00.000-05:00

"I remember a big opinion poll taken by The New York Times in which people were asked whether they would accept as a presidential candidate a woman, a Jew, an African American, a homosexual, and an atheist. In four of those five measures, the result was resoundingly yes, by a gigantic majority, but for an atheist it was no better than 50-50. Somebody who overtly professes not to have religion can’t get elected dog catcher in this country. That’s a problem, because it creates a political discourse full of sanctimony. Hypocrisy sanctified by religion."

http://www.reason.com/0508/fe.sd.the.shtml

Art in NYC

2005-08-19T00:37:00.000-05:00

This is going to take a while, because seeing art was one of the main missions of this trek. But I'll post this colorful bit of giant cartoon elephant dung to tide y'all over for now.

oh, allright, and this eyball made of out of wax and magic markers.

NYC Vehicles

2005-08-19T00:11:00.000-05:00

okay, NYC vehicles.

First up, we have this off-the-hizzle beater RV. Who needs an expensive manhattan apartment when you can chill in whatever borough you feel like with all the early 80's style anyone could hope for. Diggety.

What's more, as it gol-darn should be, there are a blessed number of motorized two wheeled vehicles, including lots of scooters and crazy mad max ratbike motorcycles.

I have included a wee montage of this ducati monster which typified this breed of badass moto, just oozing mystique and urban savoir-faire. Notice the M-16 sticker, the gothic lettered moto gang sticker (is that "satan's boobies" or "satan's doobies"? Either way, rock on) and the velcro-attachment for the liscense plate, which can then easily be removed and taken away by this particular superhero, so that he/she can't get parking tickets. Brill.

As one would expect, there are some strange foriegn hoopdies scattered about, including old microbusses, yugos, and this citroen I came accross. Style points for the rust pattern, the new york over french plate configuration, and of course the fabulous uni-spoke design of the steering wheel.

I

Observed Graff on NYC Streets

2005-08-18T23:24:00.000-05:00

In addition to your regulah, ho-hum, run-of-the-mill tagging, I found a hearteningly large amount of political/philosophical/aesthetically pleasing grafiti.

lots of stickers too.

I should have done a better job documenting what I saw, but hey, it was eleventy-million degrees out.

Plus-mo, there were plenty of excellent t-shirts for sale (even "onesies" for politically active NYC tikes)

Hot, Hot Big Apple Action

2005-08-18T20:50:00.000-05:00

NYC in mid-august. JB kept saying it felt like having a gigantic hairdryer pointed at you, but I feel that really did the incredibly high humidity an injustice. No hairdryer is that humid. Nay, it was more like the phrase I've heard recently "it's like being in someone's crotch" but I would have to add that that someone would have to have a fever, and be under blankets.

Regardless, despite being there at literally the most disgusting weather moments of the year, JB and I were still completely gobsmacked as usual by gotham.

I would like to thank the lady whose hand appears in this photo, without whose generosity the NYC trip would not have happened. You see, the view at right is from this fine lady's pop's apartment, which we got to bless for nuttin. Miraculous.

No, I Am Not Done Blogging.

2005-08-18T19:37:00.000-05:00

FACING THE BLOG.

Must remain interesting.

Must not fall asleep on the couch watching television.

Must have discipline to keep posting.

I'm definitely going for the public shame factor, as I've never been able to keep a journal for more than 30 seconds without lapsing for months at a time.

Now when I fail to keep this, folks who shall remain nameless until I figure out what they want me to call them in this blog will give me sh_t, and I thank you, _______ for that.

But while I was semi-concious on the couch earlier this week, I saw a cool little documentary, "Broken Column " on the Sundance channel's monday "doc day" program. It was about this small city in Norway called Stavanger that let a British artist named Antony Gormley install his heavy human-shaped iron sculptures all over the place, from public squares to inside of people's houses. Not too suprsingly, Norweigian folks take a bit more kindly to modern art and its challenges than a comparible amur'cun town would. And their blissfully pinko gubmint also appears to fund public art quite handsomely as well. Hooray for Norway!

The actual sculptures themselves were not as visually cool (*to me*) as those pictured here...(which come from Antony Gormley's most excellent website, which I recomend you peep--> http://www.antonygormley.com/ ) but instead look more like very large rusty "oscar" trophys but without the wank-bulge. These were arrayed around town in precisely according to the elevation of the site they were installed on....if all the sculptures at all the different elevations were put together, they would form a column.

Here is a link to the Sundance channel's weenie little page on this documentary.

Anyway, I went to NY with the S.O. for 4 days, and the evenings after than I've been too comatose and spanked by the end of my days to post. And other, winey, piss-ant excuses, etc. etc.

The images on this page are from antony gormley's website, and are titled thusly:

CAPACITOR 2001
Mild steel tubes,

BODIES IN SPACE V 2001
Forged ball bearings

The price of oil

2005-08-08T21:52:00.000-05:00

Bush was an oilman.

The price of oil when Bush came into office in January of 2001 was $22.50 a barrel. And
now it's $64.27 a barrel. Which is an increase: +180%.

link

Now don't go getting paranoid.

Speaking of which, f--k the f--king f--kers that okay'd the 4 jet flyover of boston today at 7pm at the start of the red sox game, which believe it or not most people were not aware of, and the tremendous racked from which scared the crap out of everyone and sounded like a big old terrorist attack. That sucked.

Riding the mohawk trail.

2005-08-08T20:03:00.000-05:00

Just following up on the pitifully small amount of recreational riding I have achieved this year.

Here is a link to a website created by a fellow VFR rider from wester Massachusetts that has some deep knowledge of great roads in the foreign-to-Bostonians regions of our fair and tiny state.

Motoing

2005-08-07T17:13:00.000-05:00

I rode out to massmoca last weekend, and this weekend I rode down to Cape Cod.

Route 2 out near North Adams is a fabulous road. I was literally whooping in my helmet with glee.

Not much can be said about riding down to the cape from boston, other than it's stimulating, and takes a long time. (And it's purty once you get there.) There are ways for motorcycles to deal with long backups of SUVs stuffed with inflatable rafts and bicycles at the Bourne Bridge. Mu-haa. Mu-ha-ha-hahaaaaa.

I look forward to adding a northward component to this map in the near future.

this sh--t is ON!!! the iraq war debate meets the gun belt

2005-08-07T16:35:00.000-05:00

I don't reckon how all y'all sicko liberal bluestaters do it, but down Kentucky-way, men are men:
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/news/state/12317968.htm

(pro war guy shoots and kills anti war guy.)

Just to ensure that everything stays the proper shade of grey, the anti-war guy pulled his gun first and threatened "I'm going to blow your f__king head off" to the pro-war guy. Who then shot him in the heart.

Mega Unicycle

2005-08-05T09:33:00.000-05:00

Man, I am just in the worst possible mood.

F---king F--k humidity in the motherf--king face. I'm sick of this crap.

I need days and days off. Preferrably without having my loud-ass siamese cat waking me up at quarter to 6 to be fed.

Everbody and everything is extremely annoying at this moment.

At least I have this image of a futuristic one person vehicle

I don't know a damn thing about it.

The image comes from www.gizmag.com , which I found out about because I finally signed up for NEDOD, which is a mailing list for nerdy new england motorcyclists (New England Denizens of Doom) and sends my gmail account a sh-teload of weird emails in digest form.

Can I ask, at this point in the internet's development, what the point is of maintaining a featureless mail-only list? What is this, 1987? Anyway, I'm off to have a lousy, hot, sticky day.

Spend my tax money on bike paths and....space exploration.

2005-08-02T09:36:00.000-05:00

Nasa is proposing to ditch the shuttle, which has turned out to be a pain in the ass, and is going to go back to good old fashion rockets.

Check out that big mutha in the middle. The NYT article says it should be ble to carry 100 tons.

Here is a link to the article....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/02/science/space/02nasa.html?hp&ex=1123041600&en=9382d2755684e5f3&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Free German Techno!

2005-08-01T10:25:00.000-05:00

From www.slate.com comes a review of the current state of German Techno.

I've been down with Mouse on Mars since 1994, but I have been woefully ignorant of other good things coming out of that country (except for Kraftwerk back in the day) and this article has set me straight.

I've been listening to this mix by an artist named "Ellen Allien" over and over and over again, and MiniDisked it over the weekend for posterity. She kicks ass.

Check it out before it goes away http://www.ellenallien.de/popup/radio/radio_content.htm

sweeet.

Here is the techno article

http://www.slate.com/id/2123495/

fell-swoop

2005-07-30T14:17:00.000-05:00

It has very recently dawned on me that the best way for me to keep track of my enthusiasms and be able to agitate other people by sharing them is to have a blog.

I want to take this space to acknowledge that everyone else has been blogging forever, that I am a "jonny-come-lately", that I have nothing of interest to say, and that this is probably not a good idea.

There.

Now let's begin.

The other owl picture

2005-07-30T12:11:00.000-05:00

Hoo (hoo) boy.

http://www.owlpages.com/

The angry looking owl on the left would like you to
1.)not mess with him
2.)check out the link to "owlpages"
3.)know that the photo was taken by Photographer Pat Kranz. and can be found on this page, and I hope I'm not violating the spirit of copyright laws by posting this photo, which can be found in it's original form here http://www.owlpages.com/image.php?image=species-Ninox-rufa-6

Kwaito (South African Hip Hop)

2005-07-30T12:07:00.000-05:00

I just heard this program on NPR's "Inside Out" documentary show about the birth of a new genre of urban music from the ghettos of South Africa, called Kwaito.

It started in the early 1990's just after the end of Apartheid.

cool.

http://www.insideout.org/documentaries/kwaito/default.asp

Tiny Fabulous Giant Eyed Creatures, and Orgins of Two Wheeled Flying Lust

2005-07-30T03:23:00.000-05:00

A photo that combines an old obsession with a new one.

Okay, I am obsessed with many things. Since I was a wee lad, I've had a thing for speed.... I remember on family car trips annoying my father by asking him why other cars on the highway were travelling faster than ours...especially if it was the same kind of car. I didn't understand why if we could go that fast we weren't.

Later I was ever-so-uniquely obsessed with sports-cars. In 8th grade I more or less worshipped the Lamborghini Countach. Not unlike discovering that santa claus isn't real, adding to my adolescent lugubriousness was the realization that I'll never be able to afford or insure an exotic car and get from 0-60 in four seconds like the lambo.

The summer I graduated from high school (1991) life finally presented the obvious solution to my dilemma...motorcycles. I've been riding motorized two wheeled vehicles ever since. Last fall I decided to follow through on this quest and purchase my dream vehicle, a Honda VFR-800a "Interceptor".

Enough back story. This photo incorporates that tried-and-true obsession with a new one, owls. I have always dug muppets and various large-eyed animals. Why it took me this long to realize that this particuar creature is more or less a comically-perfect manifestation of all I am programmed to think is cute...a little nugget of distilled excellence provided by the harsh realities of evolution....was just waiting for me to expend useless mental energy upon is all spilt milk.

There is an essay contest on the VFR-specific website that I frequent, and recently this guy in california was on a ride out in the boonies when he saw this creature precariously hanging out on the double-yellow line of a two lane road. The guy immediately pulled over and scooped up the creature (a tiny owl) and brought it to the side of the road. For some fabulous reason the owl was completely tame, so the guy got to take a picture of it sitting in his hand, and then actually pose the owl perching on the throttle of his motorcycle. The owl was then picked up and brought to the edge of the woods, where it flew up into a tree, checked the guy out a bit more, and then flew away.

Needless to say, I was deeply moved by this tale, and the photos of the owl slapped me into the realization that I should have been obsessed with these little creatures for a long time now. Better late than never though.

The photo was taken by a guy who calls himself "alleycatdad" and here is a link to the thread on www.vfrdiscussion.com --> http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13418