Beer Summit

Ok so Obama has asked the cop and the professor over for a beer. He wants to deal with this but not make too big a deal out of it either, diffuse the situation and shit.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32210408/ns/politics-white_house/

(this is my first attempt bloggin from my phone and I'm not sure how to make links pretty, hopefully they don't try to make me learn HTML at this point)

But I have one major major concern here. The cop asked for blue moon, a tasty brew, the harvard bloke wants red stripe, horray beer! And the leader of the free world is going to sip on bud light.... BUD FUCKING LIGHT!! Seriously? Ok I'm sure it's a calculated move like everything he does, he probably had advisors telling him what would be the exact right beer so as not to look pretentious, it had to be an American beer obviously. He probably just said what's the best selling beer in the country and figured that would be a good pick to look like an average Joe, but as I've said many times you're the fucking president you are by deffinition the elite, pretty much as high up there as you can get without Simon clapping for you, you don't need to pretend to be average Joe. Yeah it worked for the last guy but it's probably best not to look at him for ideas on how to be prez. He should have had an Arrogant Bastard Ale then wrote a note to the company saying, I am worthy.

Oh and yeah he should have had an American beer, I almost forgot bud isn't American anymore, I think some Belgian company makes that swill now. I realize he can't show up with ahold bottle of Sam Adams utopia and not catch shit, although a regular Sam would be a good choice. Then again maybe he just doesn't like beer so he got water instead, or bud light which is close enough.

As for the meeting itself, meh. It makes sense, just try to get that little mess behind us so he can get back to letting the repubs and bitch ass dems fuck up any chance for useful change in health care.

I want the dems to grow a pair, they got a real mandate during the election but still all they can
talk about is bipartisan bullshit, personally I think it's so they can keep blaming the rebups, and that's the issue they are still in the mindset of avoiding blame for fuck ups instead of wanting credit for a job well done. They need to stand up and say ok here is our plan, yall on the othe side of the isle are welcome to join us working out the details but if you don't like the basic plan that's fine, whine and bitch but stay outta the way. Yeah go cry to ORielly and his little impersonator (not Colbert, the other one the shitty one) about how making sure everyone can see a doctor is evil socialism. Instead they just water shit down until the repubs are sorta ok with it, and the "blue dogs" who are actually the bigger problem here. Where's the other side in this debate? All I hear is how it's socialist, where are the rest of the comentators screaming cause it's not social enough? I want single payer national healthcare! Fuck the insurance companies, they've fucked us long enough.


UPDATE: lots of people have rambled bullshit about this, the only reason I did is because I don't care for Bud Light and i think his choice was a political move, i just think it's sad that politics have gotten to the point where the President can't even drink a beer without thinking about how it will look to the people. Of course there is the chance that he just likes Bud Light, my dad does, it's not terrible beer its just dull beer.

"How is American beer like sex in a canoe?"
"It's Fucking close to water!"
- Andrew, someone I knew when I flew. He was a character...

Plz don't steal mah phone

this could suck....

Stickers

I'm not sure why but I want to slap stickers on my bike, the single speed not the TCR. Environmental stickers seem appropriate, but then again I also like being confrontational about my world view so there are some others I like too. But there's also the issue that it's a bike so there's not a ton of room. I could probably fit a full size bumper sticker on the downtube but anywhere else would need to be smaller.

In no particular order here's a few I like.
Two Hands
Fascism

Oh good site here.... and they're bike sized
Welfare vs Military
TV Transmitters
Meat

And a Pin,
Programing?

Are Helmets Useful?

It's come up a few times and from what I can tell the basic answer is, meh. Even wikipedia's entry seems pretty ambivalent about their use. There are a few problems. It's almost impossible to build a helmet thats going to provide serious protection while still allowing enough ventilation so you don't overheat your noggin. Another problem is the testing method which makes it so the only way a helmet will pass is if the foam is very hard, which means that your head deforms before the foam. If the foam doesn't deform then it defeats the point of a helmet. From what I read it seems like a helmet is quite good for preventing scrapes and even serious skin damage. The problem is they don't seem to be effective at preventing life threatening injuries. Plus they actually increase the risk of rotational injuries. You don't want your brain to twist inside of your head, its very bad.

To be honest though I'm biased. I hate wearing a helmet, it's uncomfortable and goofy looking. I do my best to ride safely which I think provides far far more security than any lil chunk of foam and plastic can provide.

Some ideas are more equal than others

PZ posted a fantastic comedian that I need to link to, enjoy!

T-Shirts

Just some random ass shirts that I found amusing. They aren't T-shirt hell amusing, but some of these I'd actually wear... some
Friends actually let friends do lots of stupid things. It's true ya know.
Horray for sarcasm.
Shirt from the future.
Life is like a box of terrible analogies.
Honk if your about to run me over.
The Internet was closed
Psychic Career
Only way I fight
The Communist Party
Spoiler Alert
Goldilocks
Stop destroying our planet
Emo Poems

Great Pic of Cool Places

The Most Alien Landscapes on Earth, which means none of them are actually alien, but some are pretty freakin cool.

Need a laugh?

The editors at Vanity Fair decided to take a look at Palin's resignation, school style. Ya know with a red pen. It's pretty funny, others are getting a kick out of her tweets.

Heroes

The term hero gets thrown around pretty flippantly in my opinion. For one thing victim of a tragedy is NOT synonymous with hero. This may offend some folks but when has that ever stopped me before? For example an office worker who died in the WTC trying to get out is a victim, the Police and Firemen who ran into that same building putting their own lives on the line to save others, those are clearly hero's or at least attempted hero's. Being a hero means putting your own safety aside in order to help someone else. Not every soldier is a hero, thats why they have medals for the exceptional ones. Like I said some people might take offense to this idea that just being in a certain uniform doesn't automatically make you a hero, to me it is offensive to the real heroes when people who haven't earned it are referred to as heroes.

Why do I bring this up? Because here are some real heros they saw a tragedy unfolding and they ran to see what they could do to help rather than running away.

If I could go anywhere right now....

It might just have to be here...
Come on who doesn't want to have breakfast with a Giraffe? Check out the link it actually sounds like a really cool family, and now you can stay with them at the worlds only giraffe hotel.

another pic of my bike... bikes

They're taking over! Lets see, in the foreground without the wheels is my baby. I was cleaning it and decided to take some pics. Behind that is my Bowery, my single speed beast that I tear around town on. Behind that is the tank, it easily weighs more than the other two combined, it's my dads old Schwinn super sport. Barely noticeable is my old Trek 800 mountain bike off to the right without wheels. I also had a POS huffy beach cruiser but I gave that to a friend.

Oh and I was reminded of something very important last week. If you are leaning hard into a corner, DON'T PEDAL! If you do the inside pedal can strike the ground lifting at least your rear tire off the ground at which point you're pretty much fucked. The problem for me is I'm still used to cars where you want to power out of the turn. Which does leave me wondering how one turns quickly on a fixie? The gray bike has the option of being a fixed gear meaning that if the rear wheel is turning then so are your feet, I tried it once and didn't care for it but maybe I'll try it again, its supposed to be good in slick conditions because you can tell the instant you lose traction.

Retesting Drivers

This subject came up at the time of the last kid getting hit by a car on a bike because the driver was 81 years old. But it wasn't talked about much because the police said age was not a factor it was a blind corner and there was nothing she could have done. I was recently reminded why retesting drivers is a good idea at any age.

I met a very cute woman who has gone partially blind in one eye. She warned her passenger, my friend, that she isn't a very good driver, especially at night. There was a little bit of driving on the sidewalk involved with there commute. This isn't just an age thing, this woman is probably younger than me or about the same age. She is a very nice person from the one time I met her but her ability to drive safely has changed. She had a tumor removed from her brain in the the process lost considerable amounts of vision in one eye. Not trying to say anything bad about this wonderful person I'm just using her as an example of why retesting drivers is not just an age issue and should not be thought of as one. People change and just because they knew the rules when they were 16 doesn't meant they are still capable of driving in a safe manner. Plus anyone who claims age discrimination is forgetting that we already discriminate based on age when it comes to driving, but apparently age discrimination is only acceptable when discriminating against those who can't vote, which is also age discrimination.

I need one of these

I'm in no rush to get a biking jersey, they seem really handy as they have pockets on the back so you can grab stuff you might want while riding snacks and what not. The problem with them is they are meant to be rather tight fitting and at this point my torso does not need to be shown off for the world. Plus they are freaking expensive as a cheap one is $45 and can easily cost double that. Next year I plan on having a body that I don't mind people seeing, the idea that I could really do that still amazes me but that is the goal. So I'm screwing around and saw some beer jersey's, now that seems fitting. I figure you have immediately lower expectations from other riders if you're wearing a beer jersey. Unfortunately they didn't have many brands of beer I like and most of them looked like normal jerseys which is exactly the look I'd like to avoid.

But I would totally rock this (next year - not sure what size yet)
Or if I felt like being less offensive, hey it happens occasionally, then this is also a good one. Actually I like their beer better.Either one, or both would make a great christmas present.

Speaks for its self

I didn't have the sound on cause PZ warned me to turn it down at work, and I'm at work, actually it was already muted... not that you care. Now watch some evolution.

If that seemed slow it was roughly 800 million years a minute.

UPDATE: that should be 800,000 years not 800 million, Thank you Riker for pointing that out. So yeah its about 3.5 million years of evolution not 3.5 billion years. Sorry for the brain fart.

Another Bike Incident

14 year old airlifted to hospital after being hit by a car. That sucks kid. Hope he's doing alright. Hate to say it but thats why you're supposed to ride with traffic and not against it. The report says that the 81 year old driver never had a chance of avoiding the cyclist because of a blind curve. I do have a hard time believing that reaction time couldn't be a contributing factor, but either way it was still the fault of the kid on the bike.

I'm starting to think that I should wear my helmet more often. Then again I don't ride the wrong way down the street, and at the speeds I'm usually going if I hit a car head on a helmet isn't going to do shit, unless I wear a motorcycle helmet which would probably weigh about the same as my bike. That said there has been one incident (I try not to call them accidents, they may not be intentional but they are still someones fault) where a guy on his bike was minding his own business going down a busy four lane 40mph road that I've traveled myself a few times when someone turned into a gas station and hit him. Guess shit can happen to anyone.

Gettin in shape

I've always been in some sort of shape, now I'm just looking for it to be more renaissance and less modern art, something a bit less free form.

So here are a few links for training stuff, the first is about VO2max which is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use for a sustained period of time. This number they said is pretty much set by genetics, if you're totally unfit you can increase it maybe 15-20% an athlete can only hope to increase it by 3-5% The one you can really do something about is Lactate Threshold the subject of the second article.

I'm contemplating my first group ride. The local bike shop (Kingsbury's Cyclery - slightly more info) is the meeting point for twice weekly rides. Tuesday's and Thursday's, I was warned to avoid Tuesday because they are far more competitive and will leave me in their dust. I haven't seen the Thursday crew but they are supposed to be more relaxed. I'm not sure if this means I'll be able to keep up but I think I might try. Wish me luck, I might need it, especially if they go after the hills. I hate hills.

0.2 seconds behind

Not bad Lance, not bad.

I really do have a one track mind. For a few years I was into politics, that made me realize how much religion fucks with the political process, that got me into the science vs religion battle, which got me into science. All of these issues have been given plenty of play here at QR, there has also always been a healthy dose of personal catharsis via writing here what I often can't say in life. I just seem to get focused on something and I get really into it for a while, some of these last longer than others. The paintball thing didn't last very long, probably because my marker (AKA - gun) didn't last very long. Now I'm focused on biking. I'm really loving it, and with all the stuff thats been going on with my personal life I wasn't able to ride much and when I did hop back on my bike I noticed how much lung endurance I had lost in that short period of time. I'm really hoping this isn't a fad, for quite a while I've been trying to lose weight and it's going quite well. I've gone from a peak of 273lbs to 211 today. My goal used to be to break 200 and call that good enough. I just didn't want to be fat anymore, but thats no longer my goal, now I want to actually get in shape. I even bought my first pair of Lycra shorts yesterday, and while I know I'm going to get teased they do make for a much more comfortable ride. My upper body is still very squishy but my legs are looking pretty decent so I'm honestly not that embarrassed with the skin tight shorts. Anyway at least for the moment my mind is stuck in biking mode, although I am talking to a lady but thats far to early to be concerned with. Plus as I get in shape my confidence is increasing and thats really what I've been lacking when trying to approach the fairer sex. Shit I've spent so long slowly writing this that the next stage of the tour is probably over and now my headline is silly. Guess I should just post this already.

Bike Stuff

Basically I just wanted to post a pic of my bike to use on a forum.
Plus there's a bunch of crazy people riding really fast all over France right now. Those dudes are good.

Grandpa

My Grandpa has passed away. I had a whole thing written about him but then my computer froze and I'm heading out. He was great and he will be missed.