The bigger bicycle picture

Now, although I am the one of the people least qualified to make this suggestion, having just bought a (13 y.o., s/h) CAR (gasp!), something which I haven't owned for about 8 months, and a new CRANKSET (bigger gasp!!) I'm about to mention the "t" word.

What if, instead of getting into bigging ourselves up about our new Christmas-acquired consumer durables (mea culpa), we send the cost of our next (next two, half-dozen, dozen?) envisaged bicycle (or otherwise leisure)-related purchase(s) to the

International Bicycle Fund

<www.ibike.org/>

which helps people in the poorest countries find, fund, fix and use bikes as their means of transport. No doubt this will include the areas affected by the tsunami, if not now, then in a few months when people are a bit more settled again, and roads have been cleared, and people need to get their means of subsistence and livelihood happening again. Not only will this directly help, but it'll get these countries along the way to reducing the growth of car use, and set the transport system upon more of an equal footing, with bikes being recognised as useful, and not just a shameful, poor people's means of transport. Regrettably, it often is, especially when car usage is rising in the train of slightly increasing prosperity (World Bank 'development' loan money, tourism, IMF "structural adjustment" funding temporarily raising the bar for the select few, for everyone else to aspire to? Pardon my slightly hazy geopolitics).

They do good work in Africa and South America as well, and are affiliated with several sustainable development organisations as well.

There seems to be a fair bit of immediate aid available and dollars going to water tanks, plastic sheeting, medical supplies right now, but what about in a couple of months, when people have mostly forgotten about muddy, salt-ruined fields and coastal villages full of poor people, when the aircraft carriers have gone home, or back to Iraq? How do they get to their work then? How do they carry water from the only remaining clear well for miles? Where do they get petrol from? I'd want to ride a bike if I was there, and I'd like people who were left with nothing to have that chance and utility as well.

M "trying to practise what he preaches" H

 

But there are _heaps_ of bicycles in the third world. What would be even better is a coordinated campaign of torching North Shore four wheel drives. Sure, there'd be some pollutants go into the air from the torching, but the net environmental impact would have to be better than not torching them...

Regards,

Suzy (having pyromaniacal thoughts)

 

Shame on you. Torching the rich people's toys! Could we not just turn them into something useful, like bike racks? (the toys, not the people).

On second thought, maybe the people could be turned into bike racks!! (Did you see the Malvern Star advert that did just that?)

cheers,
SteveA

 

On Thu, 06 Jan 2005 11:10:10 +1100, suzyj wrote:

> But there are _heaps_ of bicycles in the third world. What would be
> even better is a coordinated campaign of torching North Shore four
> wheel drives. Sure, there'd be some pollutants go into the air from
> the torching, but the net environmental impact would have to be better
> than not torching them...

Master.
If I follow you, will you teach me your ways!

 

I think the causal chain, between incapacitating vehicles of an inordinate size, and helping people find work and transport when they've got nothing at all is rather a long one. Much as I applaud the sentiment, dropping a molotov down the snorkel (no, I HAVEN'T been reading the Earth First! manual) of some bloated wank-mobile
(BTW, can any Spanish-speakers on the list confirm whether "Pajero" means 'onanist' ? (there's another big word for you, Hip ) is only going to have the effect of making some overpaid lackey of the corporatist hegemony (but I did watch "The Corporation" on SBS last week - it's on again tonight) that passes for our government more narky than usual, and he'll just up bank fees, or write more obscure and crippling legislation, or slap a premium on your legal/medical/insurance/plumbing bill. He may even drive his OTHER fatarse car more aggressively than usual, and splatter poor li'l you or I against the pavement.

So 4WDs for idiots should be banned, but what about my Suby? It's only a little one.

But it burns more petrol than the Mini, I've noticed that.

M "using a credit-card for humanitarian purposes: contradiction in terms?" H

p.s. I noticed they were using a Porsche Cayenne as lead car in the Bay Series Crits, but only for B Grade. Some of the roads they were riding over, perhaps they thought it was appropriate . . . ?

 

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 at 22:13 GMT, mfhor (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> (BTW, can any Spanish-speakers on the list confirm whether "Pajero"
> means 'onanist' ? (there's another big word for you, Hip ) is only

"you bloody onanist!" doesn't quite roll of the tongue the same way as
"you bloody wanker!".

--
TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
"Application encountered an error while failing. Error recovered
successfully, proceeding to fail"

 

TimC wrote:
>
> On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 at 22:13 GMT, mfhor (aka Bruce)
> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> > (BTW, can any Spanish-speakers on the list confirm whether "Pajero"
> > means 'onanist' ? (there's another big word for you, Hip ) is only
>
> "you bloody onanist!" doesn't quite roll of the tongue the same way as
> "you bloody wanker!".
>
> --
> TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
> "Application encountered an error while failing. Error recovered
> successfully, proceeding to fail"

Hey, my laboratory has a whacking room, I bet yours doesn't have a
whacking room.

T

 

So does that mean <Beavis and Butthead snigger> that's where you go to, like, whack off? heh whack heheheh heh whack heh heh </Beavis and Butthead snigger>

You're not in IVF are you?

M "je n'aime pas le "whacking-off" dans le velo, ou la bicyclette" H

 

mfhor wrote:
>
> TimC Wrote:
> > On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 at 22:13 GMT, mfhor (aka Bruce)
> > was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> > > (BTW, can any Spanish-speakers on the list confirm whether "Pajero"
> > > means 'onanist' ? (there's another big word for you, Hip ) is only
> >
> > "you bloody onanist!" doesn't quite roll of the tongue the same way as
> > "you bloody wanker!".
> >
> > --
> > TimC -- http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/staff/tconnors/
> > "Application encountered an error while failing. Error recovered
> > successfully, proceeding to fail"
> So does that mean <Beavis and Butthead snigger> that's where you go
> to, like, whack off? heh whack heheheh heh whack heh heh </Beavis and
> Butthead snigger>
>
> You're not in IVF are you?
>
> M "je n'aime pas le "whacking-off" dans le velo, ou la bicyclette" H
>
> --
> mfhor

Actually, interceptive timing. Target moves along the track. You whack
it with a bat that moves along another track. Wanna be a test subject?

T

 

"Tamyka Bell" <[email protected]
> Actually, interceptive timing. Target moves along the track. You whack
> it with a bat that moves along another track. Wanna be a test subject?

Whacker or whackee mfhor, your call..

hippy

 

Hmm, she's never met me, yet she want to hit me. Either my personality comes across on the internet as more toxic than the average (please don't answer that and bruise my already fragile ego), or there's some strange convoluted UST (no, not Mavic wheels) happening here . . .

I'll go with hippy - lets draw straws. Yeah, again. That was fun! Again!

M "was taught what 'sado-masochist' meant by his Yr 10 physics teacher - hence ongoing distrust of physicists (1)" H

(1) in a completely hypothetical situation, I hasten to add!

 

"mfhor" <[email protected]
> M "was taught what 'sado-masochist' meant by his Yr 10 physics teacher
> - hence ongoing distrust of physicists (1)" H

Physics teachers are obviously sadists so you must've
picked physics as an elective subject then?

Speaking of S&M...
http://www.sandmbikes.com/

hippy

 

relying on the bicycle as a means of transport is what the developed western world can learn from the [arh-hem] third world.

 

mfhor wrote:
>
> Tamyka Bell Wrote:

> > Actually, interceptive timing. Target moves along the track. You whack
> > it with a bat that moves along another track. Wanna be a test subject?
> >
> > T
> Hmm, she's never met me, yet she want to hit me. Either my personality
> comes across on the internet as more toxic than the average (please
> don't answer that and bruise my already fragile ego), or there's some
> strange convoluted UST (no, not Mavic wheels) happening here . . .

Hey, I didn't ask if you wanted to be a test TARGET, I asked if you
wanted to be a test SUBJECT, so that you get to hit things... But hey,
if you're into that... ;-P

> I'll go with hippy - lets draw straws. Yeah, again. That was fun!
> Again!
>
> M "was taught what 'sado-masochist' meant by his Yr 10 physics teacher
> - hence ongoing distrust of physicists (1)" H
>
> (1) in a completely hypothetical situation, I hasten to add!
<snip>

It is perfectly natural to have a distrust of physicists. We make bombs.
*maniacal laughter*

T

 

"Tamyka Bell" <[email protected]
> It is perfectly natural to have a distrust of physicists. We make bombs.
> *maniacal laughter*

It'd be "bongs" in brissie though wouldn't it?

hippy

 

hippy wrote:
>
> "Tamyka Bell" <[email protected]
> > It is perfectly natural to have a distrust of physicists. We make bombs.
> > *maniacal laughter*
>
> It'd be "bongs" in brissie though wouldn't it?
>
> hippy


PAIN (the physics student association of the uni of qld) may have
posessed a bong at one time that was professionally made... I can assure
you this was only for demonstrating the expansion of gas as liquid
nitrogen vaporised at room temperature...

T

 

"Tamyka Bell" <[email protected]
> hippy wrote:
> >
> > "Tamyka Bell" <[email protected]
> > > It is perfectly natural to have a distrust of physicists. We make
bombs.
> > > *maniacal laughter*
> >
> > It'd be "bongs" in brissie though wouldn't it?
>
>
> PAIN (the physics student association of the uni of qld)

Obviously not english students:
PAIN and TPSAOTUOQ? ;-)

> posessed a bong at one time that was professionally made... I can assure
> you this was only for demonstrating the expansion of gas as liquid
> nitrogen vaporised at room temperature...

So, is that good gear or what? ;-)

hippy