]]>There needs to be primal recognition and acknowledgement starting at the highest levels of authority on down that bicycists have a very fundamental right to use the roads and that the way they use roads is in fact more tied to actual physiologic considerations which in my opinion should always trump things like algorithms related to traffic signaling. A person on a bicycle is a breathing being whose muscles, heart, lungs, etc. are activating on a totally different level than a person sitting on their ass behind a steering wheel, and this should be understood and respected to a deep level if we are going to begin to heal.
Today I was reading about new proposed and already enacted laws at the city-level to protect vulnerable road users. Its interesting too because I just wrote yesterday about violent weakness in which I drew a distinction between weakness and vulnerability, which are almost complete opposites. Vulnerability can be a sign of great strength. Weakness is often violent and what often masquerades as strong in the world is in fact weak.
I believe that if bicyclists are truly to be respected and not abused, there needs to be a fundamental recognition that as bicyclists their entire bodies and minds are activated and engaged with the environment in a totally different way than how those in motor vehicles are.
This difference needs to be well understood and respected. The way a bicyclist is activated, the way they breathe, the way they exert, the way the pause or rest between exertion, the way they relate to everything is fundamentally different and completely valid and in fact vastly more valid and more healthy than any other way.
Encouraging people to walk or ride their bicycles lessens traffic congestion, improves public health, and improves air quality. A key deterrent to bicycling or walking is that people feel unsafe while doing so. This ordinance will increase safety across all communities.
–Third District Supervisor Shirlee Zane
The proposed ordinance is intended to discourage the harassment of bicyclists and pedestrians by prohibiting:
- Physically assaulting or attempting to physically assault a bicyclist or pedestrian;
- Intentionally injuring, attempting to injure, or threatening to physically injure, either by words, vehicle or other object, a bicyclist or pedestrian;
- Intentionally distracting or attempting to distract a bicyclist;
- Intentionally forcing or attempting to force a bicyclist or pedestrian off a street for purposes unrelated to public safety.
]]>Three-foot bill is back!
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has once again introduced the bill requiring motorists to give three feet when passing, or at least slow down and pass carefully if they can’t. It still includes a provision permitting the motorist to cross the double-yellow line if necessary. We are working with his office to craft language that may satisfy the governor’s inexplicable concerns about liability without eliminating any remaining value to the bill.
— CA Bicycle Coalition CalBike Report, 4/4/13
1. The act of reversing the correct order of characters in a sequence, as when typing
a word with letters reversed or recalling a number from memory with digits reversed.
“Sorry, I dyslexed the phone number! That should be 482-3751 not 482-3715.”
]]>Here is what I think is happening:
1. The Obama administration has put unprecedented pressure on China, which has hundreds of billions of dollars invested in the US Treasury.
2. China has been incensed and is furious with the treatment it received.
3. The Obama administration has intensified its pressure against China to include not just economic factors but geopolitical ones such as territorial and resource ones.
4. China has become further enraged.
5. Just at this time, there was a major leadership change in China. This was a highly significant event and a very critical point which either could have turned things for the better or for worse. It is clearly evident now that it has been for the worse.
6. China is amassing troops and weapons near its border with North Korea in preparation to defend it in the even that it is attacked by the US in retaliation for strikes against it or against South Korea. (highly unreported)
7. The true reality of what is happening is that China is threatening nuclear attack against the United States. This is the consequence of the actions by the US which enraged China.
Obviously we don’t know the whole story. But it seems rather apparent to me that this is what is happening. It fits too closely and the mainstream version of what is happening which we are supposed to believe simply doesn’t make sense.
Unfortunately most Americans may never actually know the real reasons why there might be a nuclear strike (or strikes) against their country or why, quite suddenly and unexpectedly America might find itself embroiled in a very serious war against China (with which it is highly likely Russia would ally itself).
What is happening right now is World War III without any bombs, as of yet, having gone off.
We may never know why it is happening but I can make some guesses.
One has to consider what sorts of actions the US could have taken to infuriate China. It does not seem likely that China just started becoming beligerent without provocation.
It could be economic moves by the US of which I am not really an expert. But it stands to reason that the potential exists when China has literally hundreds of billions of dollars invested in the US government and the US government, among other things, decides to start printing mass amounts of money in its “quantitive easing” which basically devalues China’s investment.
It could be that the American government has made China play by one set of economic and competitive rules only to have had the rules abruptly changed at the last minute, having been shortchanged. Again, I am not an expert, but I do know given the level of trade and economic involvement and investment between the two countries that there exist possibilities whereby the US may have stiffed China on a massive scale.
Another thing: in the media we are being pumped headline after headline about territorial plays by China. But we are also not fully aware of the extent to which the US controls territory and maritime resources around the globe. Again, I’m not an expert, but I’m guessing that the amount of control the US has over global territory might be highly disporportionate vs. the control China has. If the US controls territories and resources around the globe China might be thinking “Why the hell shouldn’t we have control over some of the islands around the coast of our mainland?”
I’m not defending any side nor making any political statements with this analysis but want to point out that there probably exist many possibilities why China might be infuriated with America and could be now threatening a nuclear strike against it via the proxy North Korea.
One other thing I will mention, and this makes me sad: America has exported the manufacture of almost everything it consumes from small trinkets and keychains to massive cranes and steel beams for bridges from China. China manufactures them. To produce them China’s carbon footprint goes way up to fuel the factories and make the materials for all these products. This leads to pollution and degradation of quality of health, environment, etc.
At the same time, to fuel all the factories, it also mines enormous amounts of coal. Thousands of miners have died in China in tragic mine accidents, to provide coal to power the factories which make all this stuff.
Then, on the global stage, the US tries to control global oil resources with its wars in the mideast.
I can only say that the picture doesn’t look pretty and I for one feel terrible that while so many products which I use every day, including the clothes I’m wearing now, the chair I’m sitting on, and the laptop computer I’m typing this on, have all been made in China. And now America is about to have a war with them. That doesn’t seem right.
]]>Yesterday my shipment from Hong Kong arrived of a $39.32 60x90cm softbox which is very good quality and included a speedring mount for my swiss-made strobe light.
I had been looking at different softboxes available and the one I had been thinking about getting previously was over $300. The savings on getting the one I did therefore was substantial.
For a beginning photographer like myself the cost of equipment can be daunting. I almost spent more than double what I would have needed to spend on a strobe light until, after researching it, I realized that in my small studio space I don’t need a high-wattage unit. The one I got is only 100 watts and is more than sufficient working inside here.
It pays to do research on these things. So many people on forums hype up other products and I’m sure they’re good, but this particular strobe I got actually has not been widely discussed in American forums and is more popular in Europe. It also has a built in wireless receiver which is quite amazing.
The quality of the light, compared with my previous hot lights which I switched between tungsten and CFL bulbs, is exceptional.
The only thing about the softbox: the speedring didn’t fit exactly. I had to go to the hardware store today and get some sandpaper and files to file it down a little bit. To fit the Elinchrom light there are two slots on either side with little lips that the bars inside the light slide over. The ring then is supposed to twist in place and be able to lock. Mine wasn’t twisting because there was not quite enough clearance over the lips at the end of the slots.
My guess is that the manufacturer in China probably used another Elinchrom mount speedring as a template to make this one but did not have an actual light to test it on. But they cut the slots close enough to spec that it only took a little elbow grease on my part to get it to fit.
There was also no instruction manual with it. I was looking at the rods and the ring and thinking “What?!”. It seemed like it would not go, but then I realized that the rods can bend forward and everything fit perfectly. I’m so happy! This softbox even has an internal baffle like more expensive ones.
Here’s a link to the seller on eBay with the bargain softboxes. FYI the softbox I got was not listed as having an Elinchrom mount. I had to contact the seller and specifically ask that they had it.
$39.32 plus a couple files, sandpaper, and some elbow grease! In the end, you have to think, what is a softbox? Basically a couple pieces of nylon to diffuse the light. I can see spending some $ for something well made but the difference between $39 and other models is extreme. Chinese companies are starting to cut into the photo equipment market because the price levels are just too extreme and it seems often unnecessary.
]]>I decided to check into sketching apps for Android tablets and found a good reference page at the eminent lifehacker.com listing some top sketching apps.
Watching the way Abe-san creates with only his finger is truly amazing.
]]>Here is the page:
Sugar and Sweetener Guide: Sweetener Values including Calories and Glycemic Index
I was extremely fortuitous – if such can be said about an accident – that there was a policeman right there when it happened who witnessed my being clipped by a car which tried to pass me unsafely.
This was my welcome back to the United States from having spent a year in Germany where I bicycled all the time. I had an old, clunker bicycle and it seemed like I was in the Fahrradwerkstatt three times a week repairing the thing.
The difference between how bicyclists are treated in Germany and here in the US is very stark. Its very sad also. Its another lost war with many, many martyrs and victims including myself. In addition to physical scars, there are the psychologic ones. I’ve been brutally harassed by motorists simply because I was a bicycle on the road, exercising my equal right to use the roadway for transit.
I have experienced motorists who used their vehicles as weapons to physically intimidate and threaten me on my bicycle. And of course there is the honking, the cursing, the insult, and often also the lecherous leering from perverts to top it all off.
Anyhow, I had a meniscal tear in my left knee. Because I was “lucky” and had a police witness and legal help I was able to see a good osteopathic physician. I think that’s the right term. Anyhow, he continually suggested to me that I have arthroscopic surgery yet I resisted and resisted him. My possible financial reward from the case would also be larger if I had the surgery he said.
But no, I did not want to have surgery until I absolutely knew that it would be necessary and that there was no other route to my knee healing. I waited and waited to see how it would heal. The doctor kept pushing me to have surgery. The lawyers kept pushing me because they wanted to settle the case and collect their wad of cash. But I held out as long as possible.
Finally, I noticed that there were days when I had no problems at all with my knee. I knew then that it was definitely in a process of healing. It took about 1 1/2 years to reach that point but it did occur. I ended up having two MRI’s of the knee I think: One early on, to see what was going on with it. And then one over a year later to see if/how it was progressing. I had to insist to get the second MRI. The system is not intended to really do the best treatment as it is to make various people money.
That knee does still trouble me sometimes when running but usually not seriously. But I believe that the body can heal and perhaps it will just take a long time for my body to fully repair itself. I also know that when the body heals from an injury it is stronger than it was before.
Anyhow I just wanted to write about the study that was recently released in which 351 patients with meniscal tears were tracked for outcomes after either physical therapy alone or physical therapy and surgery. The finding was that the outcome for both groups was identical.
]]>Watching this anime series and the main character, Rakka, receives pea soup from the man at a restaurant in a container made from a segment of bamboo. I wonder if such containers actually exist or if it is merely a creation of the artists for this scene? It seems like there would need to be a seal around the lip of the container for it to actually work without leaking although perhaps bamboo itself is sufficiently resilient to be able to seal liquids.
It might be better to keep the cylinder intact, open one end, and place a cap on it à la a thermos. But then again it wouldn’t have quite the same, quaint effect in the animation as does the above design.
]]>