Friday as the end of one thing and the beginning of another

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A new movie about immigration, Arizona, and, well, shit blowing up. It’s called Machete. Preview & info here: aintitcool.com.

I cannot believe that is a real movie. As I live in Phoenix, Arizona, and live this immigration idiocy in real time, I don’t see myself sitting down to watch this one any time soon. My goal is to escape this reality, not revel in it.

Writing on the pavement in California is apparently a big deal. Yeah, I was confused too. Old news already, this was relevant a few weeks back. But, I was in school and I was buried in fun (read: it wasn’t fun). So, I’ll post it now.

Road paint threatens Tour of California permits:

[R]ace organizers have pleaded for cooperation from fans in keeping the roads paint-free. According to technical director Chuck Hodge, the tour risks permit losses going forward if the traditional practice of road painting continues.

“It could endanger our permits,” said Hodge.

. . . The race organization first addressed the issue of road paint in 2009 when they offered a similar request. The Lance Armstrong Foundation distributed yellow chalk along the route and Hodge did report that he saw a decrease in the paint at last year’s race. “There has been an improvement and we really need to thank the fans for that,” he said. “We took the initiative really last year to try to make people realize that it is an issue. This is something that could effect the future of the race, believe it or not.”

velonews.competitor.com/2010/05/news/road-paint-threatens-tour-of-california-permits

The state of California is $19.1 billion in the tank, you’ve got a winner of an event that makes it rain for the hotels and restaurants along the race route, and you would actually refuse to grant permits because of some white spray paint on the roadside? We’ll see two things, 1) what happened this year in the way of street painting, and 2) how that affects the permitting going forward next year.

Sink into the sea, already.

My man Santiego sent in this next pic from his phone.

Um, sir, it’s illegal to ride on the sidewalk. And you are going against traffic. Please use the roadway. Thank you. Hey, can I see your immigration papers?

And, then you have this: BMX Treadmill FAIL.

Hey, looked like a good idea at the time. What could go wrong?

The ironic downside to legalized medical marijuana – guys who grew pot as a living when it was illegal don’t make as much money now. Go figure.

California’s pot economy is transforming, and it’s starting to resemble a real commodities market where only big players can compete. It’s a shift that could leave some growers in the dust.

npr.org/templates/story/…

I’m not sure if we have already posted anything about this story, it’s bit long in the tooth by now. This is from the website italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com, which is pretty damn cool.

Carlo from the Netherlands sends this video of a Dutch guy, Joannathan Duinkerke from Goes (National Dutch Champion with a moderate disability), that snuck into the Giro peloton yesterday in the last 3 km of stage 3. Fortunately, he pulled out at the last turn before the finish line. He can be seen coming along right side of the peleton about the 22 second mark on the video.

italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/2010/05/rogue-rider-in-giro-ditalia-stage-3

That is one hell of a poach run.

What the hell is a “bitter clinger”? Oh, it’s code for that crazy talk like, “bury your guns in the lawn so the gov’nt can’t take ’em!” Read it here: miamiherald.com/…palin-wows-nra-convention-in-charlotte.

This one ain’t much fun: Road manslaughter – or just the cost of progress? It is an eleven page pdf about the danger of the automobile. Some bicycle related content. And by “some” I mean the word “bicycle” appears twice. From the paper’s abstract:

Much to the frustration of road safety researchers, practitioners and advocates, road deaths and injuries have not been widely accepted as a major public health threat. Currently, road trauma is one of the biggest killers and causes of serious and disabling injuries in the world. While there has been considerable research on the causes of road injury and ways of mitigating the problem, there is still reluctance to systematically and sufficiently do what can be done to reduce this problem globally.

This paper takes an historical review of the road trauma problem and responses to it. In examining developments in road transport and road injury, it is clear that the main impediment to reducing road deaths and injury has been a misguided preference of economic advancement over public health risk
management.

It is misguided because road trauma has impeded and does still impede the capacity of economies to develop. The challenge for societies now is to look at this false dichotomy — that of road development and motorisation [sic] versus road safety — and begin to make the right choices in favour [sic] of human society advancement through the development and management of safe road-traffic systems.

Seemingly a problem without end. Remember what Patrick McHenry (R-NC) said about the proposal that people ride their bicycles instead of driving in cars? He said it was a 19th century solution to 21st century problem.

You can read more about McHenry’s contempt for the bicycle as a transportation at:
– bikeportland.org/…house-passes-energy-plan-despite-ridicule-over-bike-commuter-benefit.
– drunkcyclist.com/2009/01/28/we-dont-need-no-stinkn-bicycles.
– drunkcyclist.com/2009/02/06/damn-im-getting-old-link-dump-shit.

Take a look at this as well: Do We Tolerate Too Many Traffic Deaths?

This one is a hoot and hopefully will serve to lighten up the tail end of this post: The Big Caption. It is what it says, no more, no less.

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