27. April, 2002 - all over the map today

• Yesterday's Critical Mass ride seemed to go pretty well. I didn't get to ride, since I'd screwed up a knee on Thursday (my right knee is now about an inch wider than the left), but Keith Prussing, Jim and Phyllis Kahn sent emails about the ride. Apparently Rep. Kahn believes that not wearing a helmet is a sign of low self-esteem (personally, I don't think helmets are much help, and the Bicycle Helmet FAQ seems to bear that out). Jim's comments: I'm just writing to share the experience I had today.
  
  I joined the Critical Mass bike ride (last Friday of every month. 5:00. Loring Park).
  
  Last month they had 60 riders and were attacked by the police. A 16 year old woman was pepper sprayed, beaten, and thrown in a squad car. You get the idea.
  
  This month, the cops clearly had been told to lay off. There were (I believe this is an actual count - that is someone stopped and tried to count every bike) 244 bicyclists.
  
  I can only say that it was exhilarating. Right up there with the experience I had during the Honduras demonstration on Lake and Hennepin in '98.
  
  With that many bicyclists it's not hard to take over whatever street you choose. On top of that, most of the public (cars and pedestrians) were overwhelmingly in favor of the ride. Probably the most fun, for me, was when the group decided to ride on the lower portion of the Washington Ave Bridge. The ride was rather spread out at that point and I was near the tail end. A group of us decided to catch up and I have to say there's something euphoric about doing 27 MPH (I have a speedometer) in a place you're normally not allowed to ride.
  
  Obviously, it was a lot of fun.
  
  The word I got from people familiar with these rides is that, as far as the police reaction, next month will probably be ok - but usually two months after any publicity they crack down again.
  
  Maybe I'll see some of you at 5:00 on 5/31?
  
  Trust me, it's worth it.
  
  Oh, and all told we did about 20 miles. Loring Park - Dinkytown - The West Bank - Up Franklin - Over to Lyn Lake - to Uptown - back to Franklin - ending at the Seward Co-Op.
  
  Oh, and per Indymedia there were over 300 riders today. I don't doubt that, but it's not what I heard from the person who stopped and tried to count all the bikes. There weren't any other stories about the ride, since things went pretty smoothly.
• Happy Fun Pundit: French Protest Selves - an exclusive report on the protests that followed Le Pen's victory in the primary. [instapundit] There's also The Eurosnots learn nothing. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to be weeping with laughter at the scenes of France's snot-nosed political elite huffily denouncing Sunday's result as an insult to the honour of the Republic. The fact that Le Pen did second best in the presidential primary has led to the French going out and protesting themselves. Are they going to surrender to themselves next? There's a word for what the French are going through: conniption. There's also a word for what I'm feeling: schadenfreude. As for Le Pen, he's in favor of protectionism, the minimum wage, and subsidies for French agriculture and industry (Le Car!). For a supposed right winger, he looks pretty socialist to me (but then so does George W. Bush).
• Warning: Evil Cheez!
  Look at the package on the left. Okay, it says imitation fairly clearly, but this stuff is nothing like cheese. The ingredient list: water, modified food starch, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, maltodextrin, whey, sodium caseinate, salt, enzyme-modified cheese, guar gum, sodium hexametaphosphate, sorbic acid, lactic acid, artificial color. You're to the fifth ingredient before you hit anything dairy. And the worst part is that it doesn't taste right, feel right, or even melt right. When it finally started to melt, I found myself wondering if I'd left the plastic-wrap on. Eww. I threw the remaining 15 slices away. It definitely wasn't a Near The Cheese kind of experience.
• How To Stuff a Wild Enron. Over-regulation killed Enron by making the accounting shenanigans they were pulling worthwhile. Our regulatory bodies strive to create honest dealings, fair trades, and a situation in which no one has an advantage over anyone else. But human beings aren't honest. It's a pretty good argument against regulation. I like it.
• I got a renewal notice for one of my domains from Verisign the other day. Thing is, it doesn't expire until 2006, and isn't registered with them in the first place. Here are some more Network Solutions Horror Stories. I'm not alone in thinking they're sleazy bastards, it would appear. [doc]
• TiVo Begins 3.0 Software Rollout. I don't have a list of the new features, but if it'll bring my old TiVo closer to the 2.0 boxes, that's probably a good thing. [librarian]
• Oral History Techniques: How to Organize and Conduct Oral History Interviews. Sounds useful for talking to the old folks in the family while researching some genealogy.

Copyright 2008, Dave Polaschek. Last updated on Wed, 01 May 2002 23:00:58.