Newsweek has two stories up now that people might be interested in:
Why the government wants you to drive more discusses the subsidization of automobile culture by the federal government in the States. The writer calculates the the feds spend approximately $100 billion a year on driving related subsidies. What's the best news? The Transportation Department reported that Americans drove 9.6 billion fewer miles in May 2008 than in May 2007, a 3.7 percent drop. The result: rising demand for mass transit and declining revenues for the Federal Highway Trust Fund, which is funded by gas taxes. The Bush administration's counterintuitive policy response, as the New York Times reported, has been for the Highway Trust Fund to borrow funds from the department's mass-transit account.
Yes - President Bush pulled money OUT of mass transit to put into the highway system.
And Pedal vs. Metal is about the growing popularity of cycling causing friction between motorists and cyclists, now that motorists are feeling their superiority on the roads being threatened.
Police in Toronto have recently recovered over 3000 stolen bicycles. An investigation into one notoriously shady bike shop owner has led them to all these bikes, and the "reuniting" process - owners coming in with proof of ownership - has gone very slowly. I personally think that they're going to end up with at least 2500 bikes that they have to get rid of somehow. Traditionally, this would be done via a police auction, but even if they do this, I can't see them selling 2500 bikes. Instead, I think that, in this age of active transportation, the cops should search for a good way to use these bikes, and my solution, despite the problem of annual costs, is for the province of Ontario to take these bikes and then hand them out to cities across the province to start up bike share programs. If municipalities balk at the ongoing costs, up the gasoline tax and give the revenue to the cities to cover the bike share program.
As the price of oil is sliding away from the $145.00 / barrel mark, Business Week has an article about whether or not oil should be cheap. Expensive energy, in many ways, is good. Why? When the price of oil goes up, people will use less, find substitutes, and develop new supplies. Those effects are just basic economics. Things are so painful now, many economists say, because of the past two decades of cheap oil. Prices stayed low in part because they didn't reflect the full cost of extras such as pollution, so there was little incentive to use energy more wisely. If those extras had been counted, the country would be better prepared for both today's soaring prices and the day that global oil production begins to decline.
I wasn't really in love with this year's tour, probably because I was simply too busy to pay much attention, but I loved Sastre's attack on Alpe-d'Huez. Stay quiet for two and a bit weeks, make sure no one is even talking about you, and then, on a 210km day which has three climbs so tough they can't even be categorized using pro cycling's classification system, simply explode on the last climb and gain enough time on everyone else to win the tour. Mountains rock.
To go along with this old classicCampy Batman panel, Macleans magazine here in Canada has given us another example of a Batman comic, which, in 2008, just makes you giggle (if, like me, you have a weakness for juvenile humour).
P.S. - You can click on this image to get a slightly bigger, more readable version (once on the Flickr page, click on the All Sizes link and view the Large version).
P.P.S. - if you look at the big version, at look at the newspaper in the Joker's hands, even the headline is funny... Chortle at the Joker's Boner!
And, from this page, here's why the Dutch are awesome - they even have trailside garbage bins designed for cyclists!
Yeah, you have to love Pablo Neruda (supplier of my subject line up there).
Peak Oil is even becoming a popular topic in academic and college magazines! This article from the Chronicle mentions that within 10 years of the peak, if we are to come anywhere close to the type of living that we have right now, alternative fuels will have to be able to produce as much energy as Saudia Arabia currently produces, by far the world's largest oil producer. The article is mainly about how colleges and universities need to start reassessing their entire business model in preparation for the end of cheap oil.
I'm really loving my Jamis. You know when a bike stops being some bike that you bought, and becomes your best friend, or your brother or something? My Jamis has pretty much reached that point. I'm currently riding it in training for the Orillia triathlon. I'm only doing the cycling portion, in a relay with my brother and a friend. My friend who is swimming has the hardest job - over the last few weeks thousands of carp have been dying in the same body of water that the swim portion of the triathlon is being held in. Hopefully all the triathletes will come out of the water with the proper number of limbs.
Nashbar could really do me a favour by NOT having these amazing sales all the time, just to drive me crazy. As I'm about to blow all my money on a house and wedding, I'd rather they had a few months of "Sorry! We're jacking up all our prices!!" promotions.
This is my cat Owen. Our orange one, Clarence, is cuter, but Owen has more personality. This cereal box was lying on the floor, inspiring him to take a running leap/dive into it, break through the other side, and then propel himself around the floor in the box for a while.
Annalise's cousin Mary came to Orillia a little while back, and using her nifty digital recorder, we made a couple music videos. They're all here on YouTube if you're curious. Being the suckiest, I just did two, but Mary and Annalise have four up there I think.
P.S., we tried, but our videos are quite as good as those from Feist:
