This is rather old but it is new to me, so perhaps to you as well: The Horror of Blimps. I found it quite laugh-out-loud funny.
This second link is not so funny, but written by the same author and should be required reading for anyone who doubts whether waterboarding qualifies as torture: What Waterboarding Feels Like
Both links drifted across my transom courtesy of BoingBoing.net.
This week I surpassed 3500 miles on my bike for the year 2007. The chart below shows my progress throughout the year (the green squiggly line) against various mileage pace lines. When I set my goal of 2500 miles back in April, I had my work cut out for me.
Next year I will see if I can hit 5000 miles. Commuting to work should help me achieve that goal.
2008 will be the year that I bike to work. Or at least partially. By car, my commute is 27 miles, which would be no problem on a bike if I could take the same route. But since bikes and freeways don’t mix, I would have to ride the mean streets of the city, which would likely bring the mileage closer to 50. That coupled with all the stop lights and I’m looking at a 4 hour commute each way by bike. Which would be fine if my workday were an hour long. Priorities, people. Priorities.
I have found a route that looks to be about 20 miles in the car and 10 miles by bike. That seems like a reasonable route to begin with.
Now I need to build up my bike into a monster commute machine: lights, rear rack, and panniers. I should probably get one of those fluorescent safety vests too.
A question I repeatedly raise and never bother to research is whether the batteries in hybrid cars negate their green image. More specifically, what is the environmental cost of manufacturing and disposing of hybrid batteries, and does this cost offset the increased mileage and lower emissions of hybrid cars?
Here is a link to an op-ed that argues that the Toyota Prius does indeed win the environmental debate, at least when compared to a Hummer: Mr. Green on Prius vs. Hummer.
Toward the end of the article, Mr. Green does concede that the conventional gasoline-powered Corolla’s gas mileage is financially competitive with the Prius when the MSRP of the cars are taken into account. While the article does serve to debunk the myth that Hummers trump hybrids on overall environmental impact, it is still unclear whether hybrid cars are more eco-friendly than conventional gas cars of the same vehicle class.
For those who are concerned that the recent dearth of blog entries correlates highly with death, I submit that it also correlates quite nicely with slacking. Hooray for correlation ≠ causation!
A little while ago, I posted about my cycling goals. In fact, I have blogged so sparingly that the post is likely still to be seen on this page. I suppose I have met and/or exceeded those goals: I am now at 3445 miles for the year 2007 and I will likely best 3500 before the year is out. Hooray for the setting and achieving of goals!
I also (somewhat) recently blogged about my new favorite band, Muse. Well, I can assure you that my esteem of Muse has risen since then, to the point where I feel giddy just thinking about Muse. I haven’t felt this way about a band since high school. Hooray for adolescent idolatry in my 30s!
So, with that said, I present to you a big whole mess of YouTube videos where Muse plays music and there is stuff to watch.
Firstly, I embed here the song called “Sing for Absolution,” off of their album “Absolution.” A beautiful song and video.
Next up is “Supermassive Black Hole,” from “Black Holes and Revelations.” This is the song that first turned me on to Muse. I’m a sucker for falsetto against a loud backbeat.
Also from “Black Holes and Revelations” is “Invincible.” Another beautiful song and I absolutely love the guitar solo, I swear he’s channeling Brian May. And could Disneyland please create this ride? I would totally live there.
“Knights of Cydonia” took me a little while to warm up to but has quietly become one of my favorite tracks off of “Black Holes and Revelations.” The video is just plain nutty.
And since there was a hawk in the last video, I’ll put up “Stockholm Syndrome” from “Absolution.” This song features some pretty heavy guitar work but the chorus is goose-bumpingly beautiful. The contrast demonstrates why I like Muse so much: they are able to mesh almost-heavy metal rocking out with gorgeous lyricism without compromising either.
“Hysteria” is another hard rocker from “Absolution.” And here it is!
“Starlight” took me a really long time to appreciate. It opens as kind of a ho-hum sort of pop song but the chorus has a great hook, and the way it drops back to the verse is really cool. At some point after many listens, something switched in my brain and I “got it.” Sort of like learning how pointers work in C code.
Like “Starlight,” I didn’t get “Map of the Problematique” at first. When I saw Muse on Live from Abbey Road, I was actually kind of disappointed that they chose to play this song. Then, like “Starlight,” suddenly I got it. At about 3 minutes in, the song drops back into the verse and by then it’s absolutely rocking.
“Time is Running Out” opens with kind of a Justin Timberlake style of beat but quickly abandons that in favor of something more hard-rocking.
And as a public service to Muse fans, here are “Unintended” and “Bliss:”
