modern life vs. human nature

Photos courtesy of ChrisGO

I was just reading a relatively new magazine called Urbanvelo and came across a story that I wanted to share.

The story had some helpful tips on riding in the city.  The tips were mainly intended to help you avoid getting hit by, crushed, side-swiped, doored and/or completely run over by cars.  It’s good to realize that it can be quite dangerous to ride your bike on the street if you are not really aware that cars are bigger and drivers are less aware than you. Why? Quite simply, they have a ton of metal between them and anything else on the street so they’re not too worried about an injury beyond spilling hot coffee on their private parts.  However, as I mentioned in a early post I stick to the sidewalks on my bike because I would rather have a pedestrian snarl at me than an ambulance pick my mangled carcass off the street.

Anyway, a good tip was 1)Always keep some fingers on the brakes. Of course, it becomes easier to brake even if you only have two fingers on the lever.  Trying to find your brakes while trying to avoid riding into an open door or a car that just edged out a little too far can be distracting and potentially painful.  I moved my brakes closer to my hands so that I can ride with hands firmly on the grip and one finger on the brakes.  Although the only real obstacles I’m avoiding these days are dogs chasing birds and runners with their heads down.

Though I am not paying attention to their order I think that 2)Always look where you are going- constantly! is a combination of their top 2 tips.  I have had an especially amusing time with construction projects where they remove the warning signs and I end up with a flat tire because of the 6 inch gap between the road and the sidewalk.

Here are the condensed versions of a few others:

*Chill out in the rain. Don’t rip around corners on angles or you might slip out. Really watch out for cars because it’s harder for them to see you.

* In general don’t assume a car will stop when it brakes, turn where its signal indicates, stop at stop signs or red lights or do anything remotely as it should. Humans drive these things and we are all mistake-making animals in charge of giant fast moving machines. You just never know.  Also try to make eye contact with the driver whenever possible.

Otherwise, riding your bike is a fantastic way to experience any city if you are prepared and ready to have a good time. The fresh air, exercise and ease of parking is enough to make me an avid biker but the best part of all is this strange feeling that you are more a part of what is going on in your surroundings when you are on a bike. That feeling is hard to describe but it comes pretty close to aaaaaahhahahhhhmmmmm!

enjoy,

Just came across this…

I found it on the Swobo site: How to avoid the bummer life

I recently had a discussion with a friend about manners and the slow decay of polite behaviour in public. He suggested that people are less likely to hold open doors for others, say thank you, please or other such polite acts of a well mannered society.  So in an effort to stop the erosion of manners in our civilized country I thought I might try help people who live in Canada.  There should also be tips for visitors to our vast nation so if you have any suggestions I would love to hear them.

Before I get started I have to eliminate Canada’s biggest pet peeve; being referred to as American. I think this first one overrides almost every other Canadian issue because it has a lot to do with the subtle differences between Canadians and Americans. Not that Canadians don’t like Americans, it is that Canadians have different social norms than Americans.

So for people of Canada and those visiting, the number one rule of manners in Canada is:

1)Do not assume Canadians are like Americans.

Though Canada is next door to the USA, Canadians do not like to be considered Americans for a number of reasons. The history of the country is that Canadians take care of each other because Canada has a less hospitable climate then that of it’s southern neighbor.  With a large country and so few people the government acts as an important part of joining people together whether it be by rail(VIA), air(Air Canada), telecommunications(Bell-not anymore-thank you) or entertainment(CBC). Canadians see governement and taxation as a necessary way to create an organized and cohesive society; one that couldn’t be so if it was left up to the private sector.  Plus, a good number of Canada’s founding citizens have drizzled across the border from the US throughout history because they wanted a slightly different way of living. There are not a lot of Canadians in the world and they are spread out across a vast nation so they value the glue that binds them, even if it is hockey, the CBC, universal healthcare, beer drinking and snowboarding.  Special note: Canada won the first Olympic Snowboarding Gold medal and our athlete Ross Rebagliatti was then almost stripped of the medal because they found traces of a marijuana in his system. Sweet! Why? Because even though he was an Olympic athlete he still couldn’t miss that killer party dude! Very Canadian!

Oops lost track.

Next, Canada did not go to war against England.  Canada is a commonwealth country with the Queen’s face still on the currency.  Unlike America, Canada is a “semi-socialist” democracy and Canadians are “ok” with a certain level of taxation so that they can live in an organized and safe society.

What does this mean?

It means that generally Canadians are a kinder, gentler and more quite people than their politically powerful neighbor.  Without the military and economic might of 300 million Canadians assume less about themselves and try to be understanding toward each other just in case they need a hand shovelling out the drveway after the latest blizzard.

It also means that NOT all Canadians like football or baseball (although they invented basketball) so they don’t necessarily like it when someone says “let’s put on the game”.  I am going to go out on a limb her eand suggest that a television set or 6 or ten of them at a bar/restaurant other than a shitty local sports pub, is the worst thing to hit the bar scene since wine coolers.

It also means that even though Canada has been invaded by American consumerism in almost every area of life Canadians still want to politely maintain their distance from the eccentricities of the American way of life. No buffets, No Nascar less Walmart and less drive thru please!

What it doesn’t mean is that Canadians don’t like Americans. They love America!  They view America as the crazy neighbor that has all the good parties…as long as they can get out before the cops show up.

Enjoy!

This was just sent to me from my friends at Adbusters.  God bless them for seeing the humor and opportunity in this latest economic crisis.  Of course, Adbusters has been publishing the wrongs of North American society for years and they generally come off as a little negative.(the truth hurts!)

In this case, I laughed out loud when I saw this spoof cover of the Economist because it makes a few things very apparent; mainly that humans really can’t understand the global or even local economy because it is natural and fallible.(just like humans)  Any one philosophy of the market, human relations or even religion is never absolutely right because we are all different.  It’s seems apparent that multiple economic theories can and must work together in order for us to have a healthy, flowing economy that involves more than one nation.

Global economies… global communication… global religions…global citizenship and global survival means working together…kind of like a team…hhhmmm..novel idea; team work. It is something that Bush and Cheney don’t understand. It is also something that greedy people don’t understand. They don’t understand that it is us and us…not us vs. them.  As Bush tried to say once at the wrong time and for the wrong reason…if you fuck someone over again and again…over time you are going get fucked over yourself.  You can call it justice, karma, revolution or even market adjustment but it comes down to irresponsible behaviour on the part of mortgage brokers, regulators, banks and the US government.  The only problem with this is that a lot of people were duped. a lot of people jumped onto the greed wagon so they could get more money for retirement or for bigger houses with bigger tvs.  Now there is a general panic among those fearful of financial failure.  Of course, the easy way out of this mess is to let it all go.  Maybe go for a bike ride and take in nature.  After all, it’s only zero’s.

Enjoy.