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Sunday, November 22, 2009
David Byrne coming to DC
The Brookings Institute is sponsoring Cities, Bicycles, and the Future of Getting Around, "a conversation about practical and imaginative ways to promote alternative forms of transportation. The event will launch Cities for Cycling, a National Association of City Transportation Officials project to break down barriers to bicycle-friendly street design in municipalities around the United States." The event will be held at the Newseum on December 8 fro 5-7 p.m. David Byrne, formerly of the Talking Heads and author of Bicycle Diaries will be one of the panelists. When on tour, Byrne travels with a folding bike and explores and writes about his adventures. Those writings formed the basis of Bicycle Diaries, a book about travel more than about bikes. Other panelists include Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. Should be a lively discussion. Labels: david byrne (0) comments Friday, November 20, 2009
Recent links
Interview with Cormac McCarthy in the Wall Street Journal. Uncollected stories of JD Salinger for various sources between 1940 and 1965. Drawing is Thinking, a short video of Milton Glaser drawing and talking about drawing. Labels: cormac mccarthy, j.d. salinger, milton glaser (0) comments Sunday, November 15, 2009
Riding is My Ritalin
Good article in Bicycling magazine about the use of exercise instead of drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) entitled Riding is My Ritalin. Thirty years ago studies were conducted that showed the positive effects of using exercise as a treatment for ADHD but those studies never received much publicity. The article notes that the leading ADHD advocacy group has received support from Ciba-Geigy, makers of Ritalin. (0) comments Saturday, November 07, 2009
Cross country trip memories
 In 1999 I left the USGS and took a bicycle trip from San Diego, CA to St. Augustine, FL with 13 other cyclists on an Adventure Cycling trip. We left San Diego on Sept. 19 and arrived in St. Augustine on Nov. 20, nearly 10 years ago. It was a great trip with a friendly, interesting group of people.During the trip we all used reflective safety triangles to increase our visibility on the road. I've used one ever since. It's a small device that sends a clear message: slow vehicle ahead. It's also very reflective. It was used for another purpose on our trip. If we left the established route for a side trip and hadn't told anyone beforehand, we were supposed to leave the triangle in a visible location to let the others know where we were. One day a small group of us decided at the last minute to take a short side trip. I left my triangle tied to a sign post. I think I forgot to pick it up when we rejoined the route, and our leader who was riding sweep didn't see it either. As a result, a new triangle was ordered from Adventure Cycling and we received it a few days later. I mentioned this episode to Art McMundie, a friend of a friend who was going to take the same trip with four other cyclists this year. They completed their trip in in April. Yesterday I received an envelope that contained the triangle pictured above. Art had remembered my story about the long lost triangle and during his trip he spotted the tattered, sun-bleached triangle that is likely the one I left behind 10 years ago. I was floored. Labels: safety triangle, southern tier (0) comments |