corn

“Cornfields! Cornfields!
there’s so many cornfields
they use all the corn in the cornfields
to make corn syrup for coca cola

People keep saying what’s the big deal
but I’m so concerned with the cornfields
the starving of the world get a raw deal
when they waste all of the vegetables on cherry soda”

cheese on bread

Complete Streets

Ever found yourself walking down a five-lane road with no sidewalk? Been forced into a close call with traffic while biking through a busy intersection? Or watched your kids cross a street with no crosswalks to catch their school bus?

Those frightening experiences are all too common. But it doesn’t have to be that way, as anyone who’s ever strolled down a tree-lined sidewalk or ridden on a well-designed bike lane can attest.

We have a chance right now to get Congress to change those old road-building habits and make sure our streets are safe and inviting for everyone who uses them – not just those driving cars.

Make sure your representatives and senators become co-sponsors of “complete streets” legislation.

One-third of Americans either can’t drive or choose not to. Yet, most communities around the country are laced with roads that are inhospitable, at best, to people traveling by foot, bicycle, or public transportation. For older Americans, children, and people with disabilities, these kinds of streets are especially dangerous.

Complete streets dramatically change the fabric of a community, making it possible for children to walk and bike to school safely, giving seniors more security traveling to appointments, and providing everyone with safer, greener and more convenient ways of getting around without their cars – a smart option, considering almost half of all our trips are under three miles.

Local governments are already leading the way. More than 80 state and local governments have passed ordinances mandating that new road construction provide a full menu of transportation options to meet the needs of everyone using the road. Now we need Congress to take the next step.

This week, Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa and Congresswoman Doris Matsui of Sacramento introduced legislation into Congress that would require all state and metropolitan transportation authorities to adopt and begin implementing complete streets policies within two years.

But they won’t be able to make complete streets into law without more co-sponsors on Capitol Hill.

Ask your representative and senators to become co-sponsors of this bold national complete streets initiative.

Complete streets are cost-effective, allow people to fight climate change by leaving their cars at home, improve safety for everyone using the road, and encourage active lifestyles that will reap benefits for a generation. We must change the status quo and make our streets safe and accessible for everyone, and that change can start with this complete streets legislation. Thank you for your support of our campaign.

Sincerely,

Ilana Preuss
Outreach and Field Director
Transportation for America

a handful of things i’m interested in

singing. making music.

reading

martial arts.

woodworking / carpentry / building

advertising / propoganda

photography

biking

trees

you

P.S.

Humanure is awesome!

Dear Universe,

It seems I haven’t had much to blog about lately, so here’s a link instead, brought to you by the links sidebar:  Metafilter

Show your love

http://daviswiki.org/Bike_Church/Action

Save the Bike Church

http://www.petitiononline.com/SaveDBC/petition.html

The Davis Bike Church is a volunteer-run bicycle cooperative and
toolshare that has served our community for the past five years by
keeping people on their bicycles and out of their cars. We believe in
bicycling as a primary form of transportation, and repair and reuse of
materials. Through sharing bicycle parts, tools, and knowledge, we
have become an integral part of Davis.

The Church helps hundreds of people every month. Every Wednesday and
Saturday, people come by the dozens to exchange parts and bike
know-how. Volunteers guide cyclists of all stripes through
maintenance through various procedures as intensive as building a
bike from scratch, or as simple as oiling a chain. Outside of normal
operating hours, our volunteers are serving the community in variety
of ways. We have participated in multiple ‘Bike to School’ days with local
schools. In conjunction with the University, we built a pedal-powered
laptop station, and have received grants from the UC Davis
Sustainability Advisory Committee to build infrastructure and obtain
solar energy to power the Church. Volunteers have started other
important bike programs in Davis such as the Davis Bicycles! advocacy
group, the Velolution radio show, and built pedal-powered ambulances
to serve communities in Africa. We support local bike shops by
keeping people on their bikes and showing them how to recognize when
they need parts and maintenance. We were voted the #1 bike shop in
Davis by the Davis Wiki in 2008. Above all, we are a collective of
volunteers dedicated to teaching the art of the wrench.

After five successful years on the property of UC Davis, University
administrators are in the process of evicting the Church from its
location at the Domes. As we are finding a solution to this issue, we need
your support.

You can show your support and solidarity simply by riding your bike,
but in this time of need, we are asking for extra help. We are
collecting letters of support to present to the University, and to
obtain support from the City of Davis should we need to move to a new
location. You can send letters to the Bike Church, c/o Tom Denton, 2
Baggin’s End, Davis CA 95616, or send an email to
bikeministry@ucdavis.edu. You can also sign the online petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/SaveDBC/petition.html.
We will continue holding services Wednesday and Saturday from 12-6pm;
get information and directions at daviswiki.org/bikechurch.

News articles:
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/1380958.html

from The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh

Note: At this point in the story, Burma has passed into the hands of foreigners.

King Mindon was perhaps the wisest, most prudent ruler ever to sit on the throne of Burma.  Appreciative though he was of his son’s gifts, he was equally aware of his limitations.  “If Thebaw ever becomes king,” he once remarked, “the country will pass into the hands of foreigners.”  But of this there seemed to be little possibility.  There were forty-six other princes in Mandalay whose claims to the throne were as good as Thebaw’s.  Most of them far exceeded him in ambition and political ability.

But fate intervened in the familiar guise of a mother-in-law:  Thebaw’s happened to be also his step-mother, the Alenandaw Queen, a senior consort and a wily and ruthless exponent of palace intrigue.  She arranged for Thebaw to marry all three of her daughters simultaneously.  Then she shouldered him past his forty-six rivals and installed him on the throne.  He had no choice but to assent to his accession:  to accept was an easier alternative than to refuse, and less potentially lethal.  But there was a startling new development, something that threw everybody’s calculations off kilter:  Thebaw fell in love with one of his wives, his middle Queen, Supayalat.

Of all the princesses in the palace, Supayalat was by far the fiercest and most willful, the only one who could match her mother in guile and determination.  Of such a woman only indifference could have been expected where it concerned a man of scholarly inclination like Thebaw.  Yet she too, in defiance of the protocols of palace intrigue, fell headlong in love with her husband, the King.  His ineffectual good nature seemed to inspire a maternal ferocity in her.  In order to protect him from her family she stripped her mother of her powers and banished her to a corner of the palace, along with her sisters and co-wives.  Then she set about ridding Thebaw of his rivals.  She ordered the killing of every member of the Royal Family who might ever be considered a threat to her husband.  Seventy-nine princes were slaughtered on her orders, some of them newborn infants, and some too old to walk.  To prevent the spillage of royal blood she had had them wrapped in carpets and bludgeoned to death.  The corpses were thrown into the nearest river.

FREE-RANGE CHICKENS by Simon Rich

“Well, it’s another beautiful day in paradise.”

“How’d we get so lucky?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care.”

“I think I’ll go walk over there for a while. Then I’ll walk back over here.”

“That sounds like a good time. Maybe I’ll do the same.”

“Hey, someone refilled the grain bucket!”

“Is it the same stuff as yesterday?”

“I hope so.”

“Oh, man, it’s the same stuff, all right.”

“It’s so good.”

“I can’t stop eating it.”

“Hey, you know what would go perfectly with this grain? Water.”

“Dude. Look inside the other bucket.”

“This . . . is the greatest day of my life.”

“Drink up, pal.”

“Cheers!”

(Laughs.)

(Laughs.)

“Hey, look, the farmer’s coming.”

“Huh. Guess it’s my turn to go into the thing.”

“Cool. See you later, buddy.”

“See ya.”

Butterfly Attack

On a bike ride to Berryessa on Friday, my knee got ran into

by a white butterfly.  It tickled.