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It's only a week away from Interbike and the ensuing flood of crazy, new products from the bike industry. Pez posted an Interbike preview with pictures. I kinda wish I was going again this year... |
Pacific Northwest (Washington and Oregon) Seismicity Press Release: |
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When George Bush ran for presidency in 2000, The Lone Star Iconoclast (a Republican newspaper in Bush's hometown of Crawford, Texas) endorsed him. In their own words, "The publishers of The Iconoclast endorsed Bush four years ago, based on the things he promised". But after four years in office, his hometown newspaper wants him out. Not only that, but for 2004 they are endorsing Kerry instead of Bush. It's an interesting read, especially for current Bush supporters. It goes without saying that anti-Bush folks would vote against him, but it's interesting to see the converts (especially when they're from Bush's hometown). |
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Found this article ("Survey Says: Cell Phones Left Out") that discusses the increasing inaccuracy of polling and survey organizations, such as Gallup. I'm generally against polls and surveys, but I recognize that our society uses them in many ways (even if they're used to do all kinds of sneaky, tactical marketing and product placement). Most polls take place over the telephone, but only over traditional land-lines. With more and more people opting for cell-phone-only life, the statistics and poll results are growing less and less representative of the actual population. Today, 3% of the U.S. population use a cell phone as their only phone, and over the next 5 years it may grow to 15%. Those numbers may sound small, but for a country of ~300 million people, 3% would amount to 9 million people, and 15% would be 45 million. That's gonna translate into a fairly huge discrepancy, and will usher in snapshots of society that are even more skewed and weird than they already are. |
She's a smoker. She's pregnant. She thinks nearby jackhammer noises are harmful to her baby, but not cigarettes. She's still smoking. Anyone out there tried to get in touch with Mrs. Williamson? Perhaps to mention something about how smoking during pregnancy can screw up the baby? Update Dec. 16, 2005: follow-up post here. |
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I was on Friendster a little while ago, and noticed a collection of "Popular Searches" that people were running through the Friendster system. An amusing slice of social interest.
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Even though it's clearly biased** towards the new Park Spoke Tension Meter, Cyclingnews' article "Balancing wheel tension with the TM-1 Spoke Tension Meter" is an informative and interesting read (assuming you're into reading about wheel building and/or wheel maintenance). ** I'm not trying to knock Park at all, they make good tools. However, just about every bike shop crew or individual I know uses the Wheelsmith Tensiometer. |
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This is pretty interesting. "Dogs 'sniff out' bladder cancer" says that dogs have been proven to smell cancer in humans. Dogs can be trained to sniff out bladder cancer, the first controlled experiments published claim. There have been anecdotal reports of dogs spotting cancer in their owners, but now researchers say they have proved this phenomenon scientifically. The scientists at Amersham Hospital, Buckinghamshire, ultimately hope to build a tool that is as good at discerning these smells as dogs' noses. Their findings appear in the British Medical Journal. |
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I've been curious about the differences between The Sims and the newly-released Sims 2, and this Wired article (" Face Lift of the Original") answers them pretty well. |
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Nice. "World 'wants Kerry as president'". A new poll in 35 countries suggests that people around the world would prefer Democratic challenger John Kerry as US president over George W Bush. Global research company GlobeScan Inc and the University of Maryland found clear leads for Mr Kerry among those polled in 30 of the countries. Only Filipino, Polish and Nigerian respondents clearly backed Mr Bush. Most said Mr Bush's foreign policy had made them feel worse about the US since his election in 2000. So what are the numbers? Listed below are several of the countries who most strongly opposed the re-election of Bush.
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Damn, this is so disappointing. I hope that after the dust settles, he is shown to be innocent of any illegal activity. More details from cyclingnews tidbits: The Vuelta a España has been rocked this morning by news that Tyler Hamilton has returned two positive blood tests that showed evidence of a homologous blood transfusion. One test was performed at the Athens Olympics and another at the Vuelta on September 13. Both tests showed evidence of a "mixed red blood cell population, an indication of a homologous blood transfusion," Phonak's press officer Georges Lüchinger was quoted by AP as saying. The results of the counter-analyses are not yet known, but are expected today (Tuesday). Update: here's video footage of Tyler at a press conference on 9/21. I've read elsewhere that he's already losing sponsorship deals, based on nothing more than what is widely accepted as "suggestive evidence" (ie, not proof). Another update: here's more information about the test for blood doping, how it works, and how reliable it is (basically, it says that the test is totally accuratem, and therefore implies that Tyler is guilty of blood doping). |
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From "The Secret Behind the iPod's Scrollwheel": There are many reasons to like the iPod, but to me, the most compelling one is the scrollwheel. There's never been anything better for negotiating the prodigious amounts of music that we're lucky enough to be able to fit into our pockets these days. The scrollwheel has been through three iterations. The first one actually rotated; then there was the touch-sensitive one; and finally there's the clickable one found on the iPod Mini and fourth-generation iPod. I'd always assumed that this bit of design genius sprung from Apple's R&D labs, but, in fact, I discovered that a company called Synaptics, which primarily makes touchpads for laptops, actually designed this little piece of navigational heaven, in accordance with Apple's stringent design requirements. |
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VeloNews posted excerpts from this interview with Filip Meirhaeghe ("Meirhaeghe speaks"), one of most famous mountain bikers in the world. In part, his fame comes from having won plenty of huge races, such as last year's Cross Country World Championships, but right now he's most notably famous for his positive EPO test (one of the most performance-enhancing drugs on the banned substances list). He tested positive in July, then immediately announced his retirement, and has basically gone into hiding since then. Part of me feels bad for him, because it's a huge devastation to go from being on top of the world to being busted as a liar and a cheater, but at the same time he deserves every punishment thrown at him for doing what he did (and he knows it). |
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... for $160 million in cash to join in the world of online music sales -- "Yahoo Flexes Its Music Muscle" |
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So apparently it is fast becoming general knowledge that Kryptonite bike locks, formerly known for being uber-secure, can be opened in 20 seconds with a ball point pen. Don't get me wrong, I don't think people should use this info to start stealing bikes - having your bike stolen sucks hard (I've had several thieves steal bikes of mine over the years, using all manner of theft techniques, which is why I no longer lock my bike up in public). But Kryptonite lock owners beware - your bike is not as safe as you once thought, so you might do well to take other security precautions. Here's a video of some dude opening a $90 Kryptonite EV lock using a Bic pallpoint pen. I tried opening two different models of Kryptonite U-locks with cylindrical keys, but could not open either one. But for any nonbelievers out there... REI (big outdoors store, all over the U.S.) has officially stopped carrying all Kryptonite products that use cylindrical keys (I saw the notice myself). |
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Here is a site chock full of flash animations. I have no idea what any of it is about. The Lair of the Crab of Ineffable Wisdom |
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Interesting article at the New York Times about working under pressure: "Cracking Under the Pressure? It's Just the Opposite, for Some" |
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I'm in a ranting mood. Today, amidst a general discussion in the office about whole grain breads, a few co-workers and I were graced by a brief rant by another co-worker who said that the cost of buying wheat bread at $2.00 per loaf was too expensive compared to buying white bread at $0.60 per loaf. He said that for his four kids, the additional price to purchase wheat bread was just too expensive, and that we didn't know what we were talking about because nobody with four kids would buy wheat bread for their families. It is simply too expensive. I find it amusing that, maybe 6 months ago, this same person bought a brand new Chevrolet Avalanche truck. According to fueleconomy.gov, the various Avalanche models get between 14 and 20 mpg, which means that in addition to the car payment he makes every month, he's paying more for gasoline cost than he would for something smaller, like a Honda Civic (26 to 31 mpg). Following the numbers, he could see an improvement of bewteen 6 and 17 mpg by driving a Civic. Even though I attempted (in vain) to point out that it was simply a choice on his part to not buy healthier bread for his children, and instead pay more for other things (like more gasoline for his truck), he refused to acknowledge that he had a choice. So what's my point? This guy is a middle- to upper-class, educated, intelligent white male who has the means to both understand and embrace a healthier lifestyle, yet he refuses to do so. If somebody like him cannot accept that he makes unhealthy choices in life, how is it possible for lower-income, less educated, less intelligent people to do any better? |
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John Taylor Gatto wrote The Underground History of American Education, which shows his inside view of the U.S. education system based on his 30 years experience. I haven't read the book yet, only excerpts, but it seems to pretty much support my position on education in our country: our schools don't really educate anybody, and the problems cannot be fixed. Most of the smart people I know consider their time in public schools to be a waste (in terms of learning). Social benefits definitely exist, but how can you say our education system actually works when hundreds of thousands of high school graduates cannot perform enough basic math to balance their checkbooks? After nine years of research and a half-million dollar investment, The Oxford Village Press and a tax-exempt foundation dedicated to school reform, The Odysseus Group, announce the availability of an exclusive "Author's Pre-publication Edition" of a long-awaited bombshell: The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher's Intimate Investigation Into The Problem Of Modern Schooling. The entire text is available online here. Here's a nice excerpt from the prologue: If I demanded you give up your television to an anonymous, itinerant repairman who needed work you’d think I was crazy; if I came with a policeman who forced you to pay that repairman even after he broke your set, you would be outraged. Why are you so docile when you give up your child to a government agent called a schoolteacher? |
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Forbes published an article ("Prozac Nation? Is the Party Over?") about antidepressants (Zoloft, Paxil, etc.) and our obsession with using mood-altering drugs to make people (both adults and children) happy. The problem is that we've got kids growing up in homes where parents are barely around, the kid's best friend is the television or PlayStation, and the adults are busting their asses at work to achieve the American Dream. Not suprisingly, a lot of people are unhappy in life, and can't see enough of the big picture to go about changing things to make themselves happier day to day. So what do you do if you're unhappy? Go see a doctor, and eat some pills. And after a little while, you'll start having other, newer problems in life that are caused by the antidepressants you've been taking to make your life better. Seems kinda circular and pointless. I wish people would just turn off their fricking televisions for a change and interact with their family and friends, or go outside and ride a bike or swim in a pool. This isn't rocket science; people are social animals, so go be social. It's disappointing that the solution to every problem in America is to find a new pill. |
Segway across America at 10 MPH |
