A Little Balance

This story is just bad ass. No better way to descibe it.

One of the cyclists they passed was called Leonard, 6ft 6in tall and carrying 150lbs of potatoes. A couple of minutes after Boyer and the team passed him, Leonard reappeared at their side, keeping pace, "cranking away", as Boyer put it. The coach found Leonard the next day and invited him to a trial.

Jesus Christ on a Bike

Not a good day for news. Especially in the bike world (the regular world has it's share of bad news every day, but I like my diversions to, well, divert me from the regular world).

The Tour of California is moving to May. So it will be running against the Giro. So long ToC, it was fun while it lasted. I'm really glad I got to go to some stages this year and see Lance, Thor, Boonen, et al. Probably won't happen again.

Christian Pfannberger withdraws from Giro for a positive test. Nice job asshole. I guess it's time to work on your communication skills (as in "Do you want fries with that?")

But in the regular world.

This crap in Egypt is simultaneously sad and infuriating. It doesn't even make bad sense. If H1N1 was called the "Camel Flu" would they round up and kill all the camels? Without question, Humans do some inanely stupid things, but this is a drunk fat naked guy jumping up and down in the snow with "Stupid" painted on his chest with roofing tar.

Maybe it's just to keep people from noticing that they're building Nukes.

Obama v Putin; round 1

Fuck it, I'm going to get a haircut (just as soon as I grow it out).

Thank you Maine, and well done. Maybe Cali will be joining you in the 21st century sometime soon.

Are You F&^%*^% Kidding Me!?!?!?!??!

How stupid does stupid get?

This Stupid!

Egypt orders slaughter of all pigs over swine flu

It started here.

Oh Ohio

Could have been anywhere, but it wasn't:

Police say a 14-year-old girl was dancing topless at an Akron strip club when they raided the bar.

The World on A Monday

Furthering last week's post about Texas Secession:




Krugman at the top of his game, again.
What else did the right oppose recently? I just want enough information to take cover.

It's tough that you can't choose what your 15 minutes of fame is based on. Right Maine Republican Susan Collins?


Idiots with guns:

Most of the focus will be placed on the Taliban aspect of this story. But really, stupid people with guns are just stupid people with guns. You could replace Pakistan with Rwanda, Darfur, Arkansas or Indonesia and replace the crime of adultery with being (Black, Gay, Homeless, Intellectual, Attractive, etc). I'm sure this will be picked up as further anti-Taliban propaganda, but it's more complex than that... Oh shit, I'm not an intellectual, put that down, AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Fair warning, this is bad, if you're not sure if you want to watch it, don't!
(this applies to you E)




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Bike Racing:

Andy Schleck closed out the Ardennes with his win at LBL. Bring on the Giro!

The joy's of crits. I guess I'm glad I missed this one.

The Real Purpose of Street Cleaning

This article got me all riled up this morning.

It's pretty common knowledge that the street sweeping program exists to generate revenue from parking tickets. If the "city officials" didn't see this coming, then they are less aware then they are given credit for.

The article points out that the MTA will be looking at a $3.8 million shortfall of lost revenue- from decreases in parking tickets alone!. Given that this coincides with a 26% reduction, that means the city receives roughly $15 million a year in parking tickets- just from street sweeping (assuming the article is correct). Clearly, San Francisco parking tickets are big business.

Ever try to fight a ticket? It's damn near impossible. The amount of people that have stories about getting BS tickets, and just paying them because it's too hard to contest them, is staggering (based on my informal verbal study of the matter).



I tried once (I got a ticket near USF. I was parked in a 2 hour zone for all of 15 minutes and got a ticket for exceeding the 2 hours). I sent in a letter saying I wasn't there and had receipts and witnesses to prove I wasn't there when they said I was... appeal denied. I could give up a day of work to sit in court all day to talk to a judge, but it's easier to pay the $40 (at the time) ticket.

Satan's Minions (aka meter maids) can do whatever the hell they want. The are beyond reproach. In some ways they're worse than the TSA, way more authority than purpose. They can do whatever they want and get away with it. Given the job requirements (GED?) it's no wonder that the allure of unchecked power attracts the kind of people that do this. (OK, most of the are probably no more evil than your average government beaurocrat, but others- I'm looking at you conservatory bike dude- are a blight on humanity)

Uh oh, this is turning into a parking rant.

The point is, the city plans on parking ticket revenue, it likes it. Is the curb paint wearing out? Good, harder to interpret= more tickets. Street cleaning signs obscured or missing? Good if people can't tell they shouldn't park there, they will = more tickets.

All of this to generate funds for the MTA, perhaps the worst tranpsortation authority in the nation.

Now if they were using that money to build bike lanes, then they'd be on to something.