IT versus global climate change #green

Link: IT versus global climate change

From the article:

With a carbon cap-and-trade system on the horizon and the effects of climate change being felt, IT has a chance to shine READ ...
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Hasta La Vista, Baby: Arnold May Close 220 California State Parks #green

Link: Hasta La Vista, Baby: Arnold May Close 220 California State Parks

From the article:

Photo via Fog City Journal

Anyone even idly following California politics knows what mess the state is in at the moment--Arnol...
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The 10 Best U.S. Cities to Live and Work [Living]

Link: The 10 Best U.S. Cities to Live and Work [Living]

From the article:

Personal finance site Kiplinger has released their annual list of the best cities in the United States to live and work. The key...
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What's Up At DavidCo: Latest news about GTD and the David Allen Company

Link: What's Up At DavidCo: Latest news about GTD and the David Allen Company

From the article:

David Allen Company updates are now posted regularly to the GTD Times blog.
...
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Larry King's Backside Heckled by Joy Behar

Link: Larry King's Backside Heckled by Joy Behar

From the article:

At least the Twitterati's woes were entertaining today: The mayor of San Francisco talked about butts; Paul Carr named Julia Al...
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@torontostar seems to be stoking the flames of some Bike vs. Car action. #toronto

It's summer! So it is of course time for another "Bike Vs. Car" debate circuit. These debates rage on in any major urban center, but it's starting to look like The Toronto Star is kicking it up a notch with their current "MEAN STREETS" 4-part article series

[ Part 1 ]
[ Part 2 ]

So far I like the exposure the series is giving to the issues at hand, but I do have trouble with it. Tess seems to be positioning commuters against each other, and it is presenting the urban engineering questions Toronto faces as a "war".

That's a little heavy handed! I've never felt at war with people who are going in the same direction that I am going during my commute. I have as many troubles with other people on bikes (road salmon!) and pedestrians as I do with people in cars and trucks.

Of course when a motor vehicle makes a mistake, or if I make a mistake that puts me up against a motor vehicle, the "law of tonnage" cited in Part-1 comes into play.

Also part-1 includes a cycling safety video that has some good tips, but the cyclist demonstrating, Yvonne Bambrick, isn't wearing a helmet (dun dun DUN!) As we know, helmets are the bizomb. Wear one if you value thinking with your brain.

Part of my view that bicycle advocacy shouldn't be a "war" stems from experience. Cyclists can be highly unpredictable when viewed from a car which adds to tensions. Nobody in their right mind actually wants to hit a cyclist, outside the realm of fantasy, so the cars that pass a cyclist are often just as nervous about creaming me as I am about getting pizza'd.

I can stem a lot of these tensions and interactions myself, and you can too. Here's what I usually do to make vehicles, pedestrians, and other cyclists more comfortable with my presence on the road.

1. I signal my intentions
   Not with those goofy "official" hand signals you're taught during most bike safety courses. In my opinion the practicality of those signals is of little use, and can cause more confusion than help. If you're wondering why, just look at them and imagine their use in busy traffic. Instead I just point, directly, and a little down, and aggressively, where I'm going. It always works.


2. I wave, at everybody
   Not like some smiling idiot, mind you. But if a taxi waits for me to pass before entering traffic, he gets a hand up and a head-nod. If a pedestrian sees me and doesn't bolt across the street in front of me, they get a hand up and a head-nod. Basically everyone who doesn't kill me gets a nod. It's about acknowledgement. I've found that this will defuse almost any driver. All they want to know is that you know that they made room for you. It increases fellowship and good will. It's so easy. I haven't had a confrontation with a driver since adopting this policy and it feels great to do.


3. Let it slide
   Yeah, so... someone wasn't looking, and they revved out into traffic in front of you, or they got too close. Are you still alive? Still on your bike? Ok, move on. Having it out with someone who wasn't paying attention (or worse, was paying attention) accomplishes nothing positive. At best it makes them feel foolish and messes up their day over something minor, at worst it verifies every dumb stereotype about cyclists they may harbor and we get more Toronto Star trend-pieces to chew on in the summer ;) So just move on. Same goes for Honky McHonk that can't wait for you to get out of "the way". Hell, I even wave and nod at those people as they pass, without smirking.


4. I don't assume shoulds
   Yeah, the car at the 4-way stop should give you right of way. The truck passing you should give you lots of room when suddenly turning right. Lots of shoulds. A "should" often doesn't work out in practice even if it's the law. So unless you are certain a vehicle or pedestrian sees you and intends to let you by, don't assume your legal right will protect you from what they'll actually do.


5. Finally, you're not at war
   Everybody is going in the same direction.

Yves Behar's supercharged motorcycle design

Very cool. I'm not the biggest fan of consumer electric cars, but personal transportation devices like electric bikes get a pass (for efficiency!)

But this? This is awesome.

Compressed Air Energy Storage - How viable is it? #green

Link: Compressed Air Energy Storage - How viable is it?

From the article:

Energy Storage - Compressed Air


One of the most critical aspects of the implementation of renewable
electricity is the abil...
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BB Video - Diving into Space: Miles O'Brien in NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab

Link: BB Video - Diving into Space: Miles O'Brien in NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab

From the article:

...
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Bring Your Questions For New York Congressman Anthony Weiner

Link: Bring Your Questions For New York Congressman Anthony Weiner

From the article:

New York Congressman Anthony Weiner takes your questions.

...
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What's Up At DavidCo: Latest news about GTD and the David Allen Company

Link: What's Up At DavidCo: Latest news about GTD and the David Allen Company

From the article:

David Allen Company updates are now posted regularly to the GTD Times blog.
...
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Modular, Sporty, Flexible Steintrikes from Bike Revolution #green

Link: Modular, Sporty, Flexible Steintrikes from Bike Revolution

From the article:

Image: author

Steintrike Mungo Takes the Stairs
Apologies for the unfocused photo, but when a Mungo flashes past you down the ...
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Celtx: Powerful Free App for Script Writing, Pre-Production, and Collaboration

Link: Celtx: Powerful Free App for Script Writing, Pre-Production, and Collaboration

From the article:

celtx - Integrated Media Pre-Production

QPR - CryingStore - “Cold Tulips” by merlinmann (Celtx - Project Central)...
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The bike helmet debate gets (more) personal

I've been on a bicycle since I was about 5 years old, so I've survived about 29 years of urban bicycling in Toronto's Metro area without "needing" a helmet.  Great statistic right?  

But it only takes one crash!  So here's what happened; 

On Friday the 1st I was biking home on Queen street west, which has street-car tracks.  I passed a cyclist, crossing over the tracks.  On my way back over to the right side my front wheel slipped on the track itself and I dumped my bike at full speed.  

As a result I slid far enough to shave about 25% of the skin off my lower right leg which sucked, but if I wasn't wearing the helmet I would have sustained the following head injuries; 

• Slamming my right temple off of the asphalt repeatedly


• Sliding the distance on my face so that it would match my leg


• Finally cracking the top of my bare skull on the underside of the parked minivan that stopped my slide... hard. 

[caption id="attachment_4405" align="alignnone" width="225" caption="Helmet Burn"][/caption]

I hit the van and the ground so hard that my head still sustained injuries, bruising, and a sort of helmet burn from the impact.  

If I didn't have that helmet on, I would probably have landed in the hospital, or the basement of a hospital awaiting identification.

The implications hit home extra hard.  Before this accident I have been on the fence in the helmet debate.  In the past I've donned it to calm my wife's worries about my bicycle commuting, occasionally leaving it behind if I was just going around the block.  I feel like an idiot, in retrospect.  

If you're anti-helmet because you think a helmet looks embarrassing or geeky, just think how dumb you might feel convulsing and peeing yourself in front of a crowd for 8 minutes while they wait for the ambulance to take you away. 

I had no control over this accident as it was in progress.  Any thoughts of "falling right" were proven foolhardy.  This accident was caused by a slippery surface and speed.  The tracks didn't help, and neither did my full-tilt peddling, but asking for the "perfect ride" all the time is just as fanciful as thinking I was also, somehow, a Ninja.  

This accident could have been avoided; if I just didn't bike at all.  Not acceptable!  I'll bike, I'll get ready to take my lumps, but I won't take the chance of riding without a helmet.  It's too simple a protection, for too important a piece of equipment.

tl;dr Helmets are cheap and the payoff is excellent when you need it.  Wear one if you're smart.

A commenter, Mike, on this post at Treehugger, also summed it up nicely; 

Anyone who's casual about whether or not you should wear a bike helmet hasn't had the unique sensation of your head hitting the pavement after going over your handlebars, that's for sure. I literally cracked a piece of my helmet out that time. My head was the only part of me that didn't hurt. If I wasn't wearing a helmet, the impact may not have killed me, but it would likely have knocked me out, and left me at risk for getting run over in the middle of the road.

Since I now have to replace my bike helmet, I'm thinking about hitting MEC and picking up one of these on Monday when I can finally start riding again (below).  It's not a conventional MTB style helmet but my bike isn't conventional either. 



Update: I'm not getting a Bern, Jean advised that I would look (more) like a lightbulb.  I agree.  AND, and I found out that on thursday food critic Toby Young got into a bike accident as well.

There’s a simple moral to this story: If you’re going to cycle in Central London, wear a helmet. If I’d been wearing one I probably could have got back on my bike and cycled home. It wasn’t my fault -- I mean, it really, really wasn’t my fault -- but I still feel like an arse. I called the number given to me by the guy who knocked me off and, needless to say, it’s false.

And now would be a good time to mention that some prick also performed a hit-and-run on Jonny5 from ZeroPerGallon.

It's been a bad week for cyclists.

Year of the helmet, people!

Weekend Energy Listening: Wind Power with Paul Gipe #green

Link: Weekend Energy Listening: Wind Power with Paul Gipe

From the article:

The World Wind Energy Conference is just around the corner and happens to be in my home town. I was flipping through the confere...
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On Thumbs, Stars, and Little Men

Link: On Thumbs, Stars, and Little Men

From the article:

Robert Christgau: CG 70s: The Grades

I love Christgau’s original (pre-1990) explanation of how he grades the records ...
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Neat: Air powered motorbike (via @TEDchris)

Via @TEDChris.  I thought it looks like a novel use of compression; no batteries, and no emissions.  But I always wonder how much energy it takes to compress air to the level that it's usable as a motivating force.

Nuclear go-ahead faces legal battle #green

Link: Nuclear go-ahead faces legal battle

From the article:

A legal challenge to the imminent government decision in favour of a new generation of nuclear power stations is inevitable, acc...
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