Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Happy Meal

I am pretty sure that the food being sold through that drive through is more harmful to children/ society in general than the drugs.

http://www.abc2news.com/news/local/story/McDonalds-drugs-Edgewater/f7YalKera0OEdJKRY8EUHQ.cspx

" ba ba ba ba ba ... I'm lovn' it "

found via Baltimore Crime

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Amsterdamize TV

I just saw this on Amesterdamize TV. I made reference to it earlier. Some good stuff.


Friday, February 20, 2009

MASH ... I am sorry.


I was wrong.

MASH is tuff as nails.

Don't count out your fixed gear brethren ... definitely not these fixed gear brethren.

picture via MASH blog

every once in a while there is some good news

NY Officer Famous for Shoving Cyclist During Critical Mass Has Been Fired

Via Urban Velo

Saturday, February 14, 2009

"The Starbucks Problem"

A fellow worker in Minnesota writing about the possibilities of a wider revitalized labor movement, based on rank and file solidarity. Thanks to the ever impressive wikileaks we can now hear the adversaries of workers talk clearly about their rabid resistance to any force that could check their power.

http://tcsbuxunion.com/2009/02/13/the-starbucks-problem/

Friday, February 13, 2009

MASH to ride Tour of California

... I still can't decided if this is a joke or not.

MASH SF to ride fixed in Tour of California

... maybe they are planning on being some sort of low-tech first wave of foot soldier in the war against The Govenor of Califorinia, Shimano electronic shifting, and skynet. I hear people have seen Christian Bale riding a fixie.

I think they underestimate how brutal a pro tour stage race is going to be. If the had a team in full skin suits, with new carbon wunderbikes ... I doubt they would finish stage one. Seeing as they are riding tight jeans, and steel fixed gears, I doubt they will finish the first climb.

I have visions of a MASH domestique working his heart out to bring a water bottle to their number one guy ... so he can fill his bong without stopping.

on a lighter note about the looming Apocalypse

Shimano is going to be unveiling its new Dure Ace electronic shifting at this years tour of California.

Which makes it official:

at 10 am Febuary 14 Skynet will become self aware.



I am pretty sure this is a picture of the Governor of California at last year's race.

I think we also now know why Christian Bale is so irritible ... he is going to be busy trying to shoot the derailleurs of of lance's new black and yellow live strong Trek. Funded by the Kasak state ... just like Borat.

closely following bosses hoard their gold, to the detriment of society as a whole

Again ... more good news from the BRAIN

Turns out REI is firing people and blaming our new depression. (we should really spend some time and figure out a name for this depression ... I can't believe they decided to call the last one "great" because it seems for everything I gather like it sucked real bad.)

REI is a cooperative, but it is a consumer cooperative as opposed to the Baltimore Bicycle Works which is a worker cooperative. Being a worker cooperative gives people more control over their workplace because decisions are made democratically and because positions of authority and responsibility are accountable to all of the people who own shares of the business.

A consumer cooperative gives the patrons of a store deals in exchange for their membership. Not a bad thing in the least, but it is ultimately a business model for a regular old hierarchical corporation.

If the workers at REI got to vote on the direction of their company, I doubt they would vote to loose their jobs while simultaneously opening up new stores. Yet that is what they are going to do.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Old letter to the editor about bike industry

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49810-2004Dec8.html

"150,000 members"

I saw this article at this blog after doing google searches for bicycle worker stuff.

"Getting back to the late 19th century, workers began to use this new tool for political purposes as well as transportation. Activists pedaled to workers who lived further away from town centers, allowing for greater inclusion in union meetings and other worker organizations. The Workers Cycling Federation was a political organization that distributed flyers and literature at public events. With over 150,000 members by 1913, the Federation “had a chain of bicycle shops, a bicycle factory, and a bi-weekly newspaper called The Worker-Cyclists, all owned collectively and run co-operatively.” The Socialist Wheelmen’s Club joined the fight for workers’ rights by distributing political literature between Boston and New York.

Thus, the bicycle had a prominent place in workers’ lives both then and now. Class issues still divide bicyclists, with “lycras” and racers sometimes pitted against messengers and commuters. Bicycling is still often thought of as transportation for the poor, and it often is! Cars are very expensive to own and maintain, putting them out of reach for many low-income folks. I’ve heard of die-hard bike commuters renting cars to go to job interviews because they were worried about the negative image of bicycle commuting.

Being poor in America (or anywhere) is tough, but the bicycle has definitely helped to make transportation more affordable for the working classes throughout the past century."

source: Biketivism and Technology: Historical Reflections and Appropriations. Zack Furness.

interesting stuff.

Friday, February 6, 2009

The Trap

I have just finished the documentary The Trap by Adam Curtis.

I suggest it highly to people who care about freedom.

If you don't want to spend money on it, it is available on the website

www.freedocumentaries.com


If you have more than three hours to kill ... I also suggest checking out his other recent works:
The Power of Nightmares

The Century of the Self


Mr. Curtis has a very convincing argument to make in all of the films. They are all generally centered on the idea that the power elite in Britain and the United States are imposing (and have imposed) a flawed ideology on the people they govern with disastrous results.

He is also narrates his films, and his British accent adds substantially to his gravitas.


Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Canadian bike shop bosses shell out to train workers

I just got this article forwarded to me from mi amigo Kevin.

Wheels turning to train jobless as bike mechanics


It is interesting to me for a couple of different reasons.

One, it means that the people that own bike shops in Toronto, Canada are organized to a point that they understand common needs for their industry. They are combining to meet those needs, in a manner that places long term profits ahead of short term profits. I have never seen anything like this from the retail bicycle shops in Baltimore.

Two, it means that the retail segment of the bicycle industry in Toronto is experiencing significant growth to the point where the bosses are not just hiring new workers, they are paying to train workers to do the job.

Three, is a question of the nature of these jobs. What is their pay? Is the work full or part time ... or is it seasonal? What are the conditions? Will these workers be able to maintain a life of dignity with the wages they are paid for their work?

It reminds me a of a quote I found when doing research on unionization in the early American bicycle industry (though the quote is in reference to the English bicycle industry).

Text not available
The Economic Journal The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Economic Society By British Economic Association, Royal Economic Society (Great Britain), JSTOR (Organization), Ingenta (Firm)

I think this program will be a good thing. Give people training in an industry, especially one that is growing. Give them jobs. This is what we need to be doing especially now.

The only thing is that we need to be defending and improving these jobs. We need to make sure that work is dignified, reliable, high paying, and not subject to the whims of the bosses.

Obama is being unfair to the poor CEO's

I saw this on the Huffington post and I had to share.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a9O1h4.cb0Kg&refer=us

... these people don't know what they sound like to the rest of us, do they?

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Bikes I Dig

I am going to start a segment here on our blog called “bikes I dig”.


So here goes our first segment of bikes I dig.


photo via CleverChimp

This is a Surly Big Dummy equiped with a NuVinci continuously variable transmission rear hub.

The Big Dummy is a long wheel based cargo bike. It is like a fully loaded touring bike on steroids.

The NuVinci hub is one of the most interesting designs I have seen on a bicycle component ever. Really interesting. I only barely understand how it works and it makes me want one real bad. I am thinking about putting it on my steel peugot.

Check the video.



I hope there are alot more bikes that look like this in the future.

Monday, February 2, 2009

This is lame

The bosses that run the banks in this country are really starting to irritate me.

CPSC delays enforcing lead regulation, Trek lawyers rejoice

Just off of the presses of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News (otherwise known as "The BRAIN") is a story about the CPSC, lead, and stuff that kids are going to be handling.

A little back story.

(from the CPSC website)

CPSC Overview

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from thousands of types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction. The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard or can injure children. The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products - such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals - contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

So ... these are the people that make sure that you don't get asbestos toothpaste and chromium teddy bears.

So congress got this law passed last year that said that manufacturers who were putting lead into children's toys (which includes bicycles and helmets) needed to stop. Well, no, that would be crazy. What it really says is that these bosses need to reduce the amount of lead they were putting in their products that they were selling to kids to 600 parts per million.

But what is all the fuss, what did a little lead ever do to a kid?

(from The Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning www.leadsafe.org)

About Lead Poisoning

Lead poisoning is the number one environmental hazard threatening children throughout the United States, affecting an estimated 310,000 children under the age of six. Children under 6 and pregnant women are at the greatest risk for lead poisoning because lead inhibits the proper physical and cognitive development of in children and infants. Even low levels of lead poisoning can cause hyperactivity, aggressive behavior, learning disabilities, lowered IQ, speech delay and hearing impairment. High levels of lead can cause severe mental disabilities, convulsions, coma or even death.

Lead poisoning is completely preventable, yet hundreds of children in Maryland are diagnosed with elevated levels of lead in their blood each year and thousands of children go untested. Because of lead's effect upon a child's brain, thousands of Maryland children fail to reach their full potential and hundreds of communities are prevented from the benefits of the child’s long-term productivity. Studies have shown children who are lead poisoned are more likely to become involved with the juvenile justice system and that lead poisoned children are seven times more likely to drop out of school before graduating. Because of lost wages and the burden on taxpayers caused by anti-social behaviors and increased special education needs, it is estimated that that general public loses millions of dollars each year.

Lead poisoning causes irreversible damage to the brain and nervous system as well as the heart and red blood cells resulting in:

  • Learning disabilities
  • Lowered I.Q.
  • Hyperactivity
  • Attention Deficit Disorder
  • Speech Delay
  • Hearing Loss
  • Slowed or reduced growth
  • Behavioral Problems
  • Violent or Aggressive Behavior

High Level Poisoning can result in: Serve Cognitive Disabilities, Coma and Death.

The harmful effects of lead poisoning are permanent. The ONLY cure is prevention.

Oh .... I guess that is what lead poisoning does.

So this is the story from the Bicycle Retailer and Industry News ... With snippy interjections by yours truely.


CPSC Delays Testing Deadline


BETHESDA, MD (BRAIN)—The Consumer Product Safety Commission on Friday pushed back the testing deadline for lead content in children’s products, spurring a collective sigh of relief from manufacturers in the bicycle and other industries.

*Collective sigh of relief on part of manufacturers spurs collective groan from those not making profit poisoning kids*

The requirement for third-party testing and certification to verify children’s products are meeting a strict new lead limit was scheduled to go into effect on Feb. 10 as part of the Consumer Product Safety Information Act, but will now kick in one year from that date at the earliest.

Manufacturers are still required to meet the new lead limit of 600 parts per million, but won’t have to pay for costly third party testing, an expense that posed a threat to smaller companies.

*costly third party testing = effective third party testing*

Bob Burns, head of the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association’s legislative committee and Trek’s legal counsel, praised the Commission’s decision.

*I guess the great Trek bicycle making corporation was one of those "smaller companies" threatened by the prospect of not poisoning kids*

“We view this move by the CPSC as a very positive sign,” Burns said. “They were handed a poorly-thought-out-knee-jerk-reaction law by Congress and they were given no additional funds to administer that law. The CPSC’s decision to delay the testing requirements shows that they are a practical federal agency that knows how to balance the need to protect consumers with the realities of the world.”

*"Realities of the world" should be read in this instance as a substitute for the words corporate profit.*

The Commission voted 2-0 to delay enforcement of the certification and testing requirements based on “substantial confusion” among manufacturers about the law.

*Nice ... a 2-0 vote by the commission overturns the intention of a law passed by congress ... democracy inaction*

“The Commission has received literally thousands of e-mail, telephone and written inquires as to how to comply, when to comply, what is required in support of the various certifications, what form the required certifications must take and who must issue them,” according an announcement written by Lowell F. Martin, an attorney for the Commission.

The BPSA filed a petition last week asking the Commission to exempt lead contained in steel, aluminum and copper alloys from the law because small bike parts like valve stems and spoke nipples made of those metals exceed the lead limit. That petition is pending.

*The BPSA is the corporate lobby group, the Bicycle Product Supplier Association*

For the latest on the CPSIA read the March 1 issue of Bicycle Retailer & Industry News.

—Nicole Formosa

So, congradulations BPSA, Trek, and all of you other guys who value profit over the wellbeing of our children and society as a whole. You have won the day.