David Byrne is worrying about the government. The musician and writer designed 11 bike racks to be placed in neighborhoods around Manhattan. The DOT apparently has the authority to put these things in place, but if they're going to stay for more than a year and be considered 'permanent fixtures,' the city's Design Commission gets final say. That year expired last week, and Byrne wrote a testy blog post about the Commission's decision. Seems the city accepted the 9 racks that had already been placed, but as a political move, they denied installing the last two. The decision to require that the last two racks get tossed in the trash, Byrne says, is because the Design Commission was angry that they were passed over on the DOT's original decision to install the racks. Why is this important? Well, one of the bike racks that will never be installed was based on a brand of the cheap liquor Thunderbird. Such a shame.
The local Memphis Fox affiliate has run the most baffling news report I've ever read about a cyclist. A man was arrested at 4:30am on a Sunday for shooting at a suspected crackhead riding a bike. It sounds like the drunken man and his brother were watching a VHS copy of Boondock Saints, and they decided to go on a vigilante mission of their own. They loaded up their truck with an expandable baton, some brass knuckles, and a .45 with a box of ammo. The most interesting point in the article is that the Fox people seem to take for granted that the guy on a bike was indeed a crackhead. I'm not sure how you determine the drug consumption of a guy riding by on a bike at 4:30am, but all the Natural Light Ice these two were drinking must have given them a 5th, maybe even a 6th sense.
It's news like this that makes me consider the possibility that the universe operates with some checks and balances. That there's a great cosmic force in the universe that is employed solely in righting itself. I'm talking, of course, about the news that the house that set the record for the most-expensive home sale in Summit County at $8.28 million exploded last night. Sadly, it seems that it was a fairly localized, internal explosion. I certainly hope that no one was injured in the home when unventilated lacquer being sprayed as part of a remodeling project caught fire and blew the hell up. Really, the first thing you have to do after spending over $8 million on a home is remodel. Fortunately for the owners, sprinklers in the house were required by building codes since the home is over 6,000sq ft. The damage was limited to one blown out window and one burned out room. Hayduke lives!
Greg LeMond and Trek settled the terms of their bizarre lawsuit that started over two years ago. LeMond had put Trek in the awkward position of distributing and marketing LeMond bikes while simultaneously supporting Lance Armstrong. The arrangement wouldn't have been awkward if LeMond hadn't answered an Italian reporter's questions with troubling stories about Armstrong's supposed relationship to a doctor that had been accused of supplying other cyclists with performance enhancing drugs. Trek and LeMond settled out of court, and Trek agreed to pay $200,000 to 1in6.org, a charity that helps victims of sexual abuse. LeMond will also retain the rights to his namesake brand of bikes.
My take? LeMond won big. His angle on Armstrong doping was utter nonsense. If Armstrong was going to dope--and I'm not saying he did--there's no way that he would have reached out to a questionable Italian doc for help. The guy is sponsored by a massive pharmaceutical company. I'm sure they could cook up a winning, undetectable cocktail if they threw a few million dollars at the problem.
You have to hand it to the snowboard maker Bataleon for at least acknowledging the obvious in this case. They don't pretend like their 'green' product is going to save the world. They at least acknowledge that snowboarding is not a green activity. Filling cars with gas, driving to the mountain, running chairlifts, and riding on manmade snow are all easy targets for opponents of global warming. Bataleon looks at snowboarding, shrugs its shoulders, and says, "Well, the least we can do is make a 'green' board." An even greener option would be to offer a splitboard so that people can skin for turns instead of ridingman made snow and gas-powered lifts, but I don't think one would work with their convex base. Instead we'll just ask people to throw away their old snowboards to buy this green version.
Man, I love Chris Davenport's life. Attempts to ski all Colorado's 14ers in one season, doesn't make it, still skis them all in one year, makes giant coffee table book about it, moves on to next adventure, then the next, then plans ski siege of peaks in Antarctica. Films that, makes movie. The movie, Australis: An Antarctic Ski Odyssey, looks phenomenal. Given the setting and what these mutants are doing, I'm not sure how they could go wrong.
It's been a ugly week for drunk bicyclists. A couple years ago it seemed that this would all be behind us since the progressive state of South Dakota legalized cycling and horseback riding while drunk. After all, as South Dakota goes, so with the nation. But, sadly, we still have to report on the drunken debauchery of cyclist run-ins with police. The first was in South Florida earlier this week when a police pulled over a man on a bike for riding without lights. He refused a breathalyzer and was booked on $9000 bail. The second man was stopped in Louisiana for riding at night without lights, and booked on a DUI and carrying an illegal weapon. Sure, he may have had a butcher knife taped to a pool cue, but the important thing here is that he wasn't recklessly endangering anyone's life by getting behind the wheel of a car. What lesson can we take away from this? Always use a bike light.
There are tragedies afoot with this whole climate change thing. We'll miss some of the glaciers in the Alps and in Glacier National Park, and it's too bad all those people's homes will be underwater. But as soon as that damn Antarctic ice sheet melts, there is going to be some sick climbing revealed. Antarctica's roughly 8500-foot tall Gamburtsev Mountains are not the brave new world challenge of Olympus Mons, but you can see some potential from these images from National Geographic. If you're interested in helping climbing progress, fire up your SUV, leave the lights on, and ask your energy company what else you can do to increase your carbon footprint, before the Huber brothers are too old to out up some routes.
We know it's already time to move on to the next disaster, but before we forget Haiti, perhaps we can send them a few tents. This headline from the NY Times seems tailor made for the outdoor industry to step in and offer some assistance. Com'on now boys and girls, please tell us someone is organizing something....
Haiti’s Homeless Need Tents, Aid Groups Say
International aid organizations said they had identified three sites to temporarily resettle the homeless. Brazilian teams have begun clearing a field in the Croix des Bouquets neighborhood for a tent city for some 10,000 people, according to Niurka Piñeiro, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, but it estimates the need at 100,000 tents for families of five, to assist 500,000 people.
Another temporary settlement will be established on Rue de Tabarre for the estimated 4,000 people now camped in squalid conditions on the grounds of the prime minister’s home. A third settlement will be built in the city of Léogâne. And French authorities have said that they will begin efforts to provide water and sanitation to several thousand people crowded in the Champ de Mars plaza downtown.
“Tents, tents, tents,” Ms. Piñeiro said. “That’s the word we want to get out. We need tents.”
Com'on now. Somebody organize this. We nominate Mr. Gear Junkie, Stephen Regenold. He's probably the most well connected of us all. Who seconds it? He might be too busy testing his new jello jacket, but maybe not...
UPDATE:
No sooner did we post this, than we get a link to ex-AAC president Mark Richey and his wife putting together a 2nd shipment of tents for Haiti. Anything else? Bigger or more organized? Gear Junkie, get on it.
If the GearJunkie doesn't step in we'll be happy to figure out how to collect tents. Probably makes sense that people setup ways to collect old tents by city. Hurry up and figure it out Gear Junkie and let us know.
Red Top Mountain State Park and Lodge GA United States Named for the soil's rich red color caused by high iron-ore content, Red Top Mountain, once important for mining offers visitors complete serenity.
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Backpack: Bear Country: Hiking & Bear Encounters Although the risk of an encounter with a bear is low, there are no guarantees of your safety. Minimize your risks by following these guidelines.
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Man, I love Chris Davenport's life. Attempts to ski all Colorado's 14ers in one season, doesn't make it, still skis them all in one year, makes giant coffee table book about it, moves on to next adventure, then the next, then plans ski siege of peaks in Antarctica. Films that, makes movie. The movie, Australis: An Antarctic Ski Odyssey, looks phenomenal. Given the setting and what these mutants are doing, I'm not sure how they could go wrong.
