more bikes and brews

After the post about the Errol Morris commercial for Miller, some folks pointed out even more beer companies using bikes to sell their brews.

The New Belgium Brewery in Colorado produces a Fat Tire Ale, and they have a whole series of commercials to go along with it. My favorite is the longer one entitled Anthem. Thanks to Jack for pointing out this site.

There’s apparently quite a history of beer companies using bikes to sell their beers. Check out Bicycle Beer Labels for an alphabetized collection of brews that at one time have used bikes in their advertising.

And, the local (North Carolina) favorite, Cottonwood Endo IPA…

what she needs is a single speed


Today’s Rhymes with Orange…

“George Bush doesn’t care about black people”

In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Albert Camus argued that artists bear a moral responsibility to engage politics with their art. He challenges artists to “create dangerously” and use creation as a medium for social criticism.

There is some honest, heartfelt, critical music coming out of Katrina’s aftermath.

The Legendary K.O.’s “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” — a politicized remix of Kanye West’s “Golddigger”

Public Enemy’s “Hell No We Ain’t Alright”

free iPod?

Getting a free iPod sound too good to be true?

Wired Magazine recently conducted a study of the FreeiPods.com program and concluded that it’s more or less legit. You have to jump through some hoops and sign up for at least one fee-based service, but anything you sign up for:

1) you can cancel with no strings attached before you’re charged more than $0.99,

and 2) this company is certified by TRUSTe not to sell or share your personal information.

So, if you’re willing to jump through some hoops, it sounds like you might actually be able to get a free iPod. Anyone tried this yet?

Column: Outings introduce kids to dirty fun

Phillip Barron
The Herald Sun
September 22, 2005

DURHAM — This July, my nephew visited from Canada. Matt, 15, is a skilled athlete – a hockey star, a track phenom, a confident snowboarder – and like most teenagers, difficult to impress. As often as he’s heard me talk about mountain biking, though, I realized this summer that he’d never ridden singletrack.

I took him for a spin around the trails at Lake Crabtree County Park, and by the fifth mile he was hooked. I could see it in his face. He confessed later on that he’d never experienced anything like it before. I was excited to introduce something meaningful to his life.

Mountain biking can teach riders young and old an appreciation of the natural environment, responsibility for the trails, and a lifetime of active, healthy habits.

These are just a few of the reasons why Congress, for the second year in a row, has designated the first Saturday in October “Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day.”

North Carolina and Colorado senators and representatives co-sponsored a joint resolution (SR 195) to support the International Mountain Bike Association’s youth-oriented outreach effort.

At 10AM, Saturday October 1st, the Triangle Off-Road Cyclists (TORC) are sponsoring events at three local favorite trail systems.

Volunteers will be on-site at Lake Crabtree County Park in Raleigh, Legend Park in Clayton, and Little River Regional Park in Durham.

Get there early for a skills-building session, where experienced mountain bikers reveal the secret techniques of log-crossing, bunny-hopping, and hill-climbing. Once you’ve got your skill-set built up, ride leaders will be available to show you the way through the woods.

In their petition to Congress, IMBA cites heightened levels of childhood obesity as one of its reasons for reaching out to kids. In a July press-release, IMBA states its belief that mountain biking builds self-confidence and offers kids and adults “an adrenaline-packed adventure while giving them an effective workout.”

IMBA reports that in 2004, thousands of kids participated in more than 100 events nationwide and in several other countries. The international organization expects even greater numbers of participants this year.

At the TORC events, kids age 14 and under need to be accompanied by an adult, and the parks require all riders to wear helmets.

If you need to come up with a set of wheels for the weekend, the Bicycle Chain’s Durham and Chapel Hill stores rent mountain bikes for $25-35 a day. The stores also allow you to use up to $50 of rentals as credit toward the purchase of a bike.

Aside from a bike and helmet, bring lots of water and an adventurous spirit.

So c’mon out and bring a kid with you for some good, clean fun in the dirt. Whether you’re in elementary school or just a kid at heart, “Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day” will be a fun, active outdoor event.

North Carolina needs a moratorium on executions

The Common Sense Foundation has a new public service announcement on the need for a moratorium on executions in North Carolina. At the heart of the increasingly popular moratorium effort is the fact that at least four innocent people have been sentenced to death in this state.

A moratorium is simply a pause on executions, during which time an investigative commission can examine the state’s death penalty to determine what problems it has and whether or not the problems can be fixed.

The elected local governments of thirty-five (35) cities and more than 150 prominent Republicans and Democrats in North Carolina support the call for a moratorium.

If you’d like to support the Common Sense Foundation’s moratorium efforts and see this PSA run on television, please visit their website and make a tax-deductible donation.

Sierra Club’s “Bike Against Bad Air”

–my comments at the public hearing –

Good morning. Thank you for setting aside time in your schedules to listen to the public on this issue.

I’m dressed a little differently than the rest of you because I just biked here. Several other riders and I started in Durham this morning to ride here and show our commitment to clean air in North Carolina ? as part of the Sierra Club of North Carolina’s ?Bike Against Bad Air.?

I’m not a policy expert, nor am I a scientist. So, I won’t speak to the specific nature of either the causes of the problems or the solutions.

I am, however, a North Carolina resident and someone who cares deeply about the natural environment of this state. It’s no accident that I do. I’ve been spending vacation time in the mountains of North Carolina since I was very young.

I grew up camping and hiking in the mountains of Pisgah National Forest. In high school, I started mountain biking, rock climbing, and backpacking through the Nantahala National Forest as well as Pisgah. The challenges unique to being in the mountains helped shape my values of respect and care for the natural environment.

I still visit the mountains as often as I can. But the mountains I visit today are different from the ones I visited as a kid.

The Appalachians are some of the oldest mountains in the world, withstanding the wind and rain for millenia. But thanks to acid rain, the face of the mountains has changed more in the last twenty years than in the last twenty-thousand.

In 1996, I hiked the Appalachian Trail through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At that time, the observation deck at Clingman’s Dome stood among a dying forest. The delicate spruce-fir ecosystem was finally succumbing to years of acid rain attributable to the emissions of outdated power plants in Tennessee and Georgia.

There is simply no reason why power plants in our neighboring and upwind states cannot comply with stricter air-quality standards ? standards that at least match those of North Carolina.

As of 2002, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most polluted National Park in the country. The Smokies suffer from some of the worst acid-deposition in North America. Clouds enshrouding the mountains regularly have acidity levels as high (or as low) as vinegar.

Today, Clingman’s Dome is a spoiled vista. The surrounding forest is a shell of what it used to be. Under normal conditions, one should be able to see for 100 miles. During the summer months, average visibility is a mere 14 miles. Visibility is impaired by the unnatural smoke that mixes with the natural blue haze that originally gave the mountain range its name.

I mountain biked out at the Tsali National Recreation Area twice this summer. Tsali is situated on the southern shores of Lake Fontana, looking across the lake to the Smokies. You can begin to see the same effects of acid rain taking root at Tsali.

You shouldn’t have to risk ozone poisoning to visit a National Park. Since this is an interstate problem, North Carolina can’t force Tennessee or Georgia to clean up their power plants. The EPA, however, can. I hope you will.

Thanks to Christa Wagner of the Sierra Club for organizing this event and to Victor D’Amato for the photos.

this is why we wear helmets

Two nights ago, I endo’d on a trail network I consider easy, over a log I’ve hopped hundreds of times. Came down right on my head.

I’d rather have dents in my helmet than in my head.

Column: Bike Against Bad Air to back tougher clean air rule

Phillip Barron
The Herald Sun
September 8th, 2005

DURHAM — As if North Carolina didn’t already have a hard enough time combating air pollution, a new federal ruling may allow neighboring, upwind states to off-load soot and other particulate pollutants on the Tar Heel State.

In July, Attorney General Roy Cooper filed a lawsuit in federal court and a petition with the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider portions of the agency’s Clean Air Interstate Rule. “While we generally support EPA’s new standards to clean our air,” Cooper explained, “we fear that loopholes in this Rule will give power plants in other states the ability to send additional pollution our way.”

According to the Sierra Club of North Carolina, the petition specifically asks the EPA ?to require emission reductions from power plants in thirteen upwind states in order to reduce their contribution to North Carolina’s fine particle pollution,? a contributor to asthma and other respiratory ailments.

On September 14th at 9 a.m., the EPA is holding a public comment hearing on the CAIR ruling and Cooper’s petition for reconsideration. The hearing will be held at the EPA facility in Research Triangle Park.

The Sierra Club hopes to gather the support of local cyclists who want to say something about it. In order to show support for Cooper’s petition and cleaner air standards, the environmental group is organizing a bike ride from downtown Durham to the EPA hearing, says Beau Memory, NC Sierra Club’s Conservation Campaign Coordinator.

The ?Bike Against Bad Air? begins at 8am at the American Tobacco Trail’s northern trailhead, just across Willard and Blackwell streets from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The planned route to the EPA is less than ten miles ? approximately a third of which follows the greenway, a third follows the new bike lanes on Cornwallis Rd, and the remainder follows Alexander Dr. through RTP.

The plan is for cyclists to ride together and enter the EPA’s campus as a group. A photo ID will be required to enter EPA facilities. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Sierra Club invites the cyclists to return to downtown Durham for lunch at the Mellow Mushroom.

?Getting riders out in the middle of the week will demonstrate North Carolinians’ commitment to clean air,? says Memory. ?We’re lucky to have a great trail system here, and we also want to show people there are cleaner ways to get to work each morning.?

In a July press release, Roy Cooper says that ?out-of-state polluters are interfering with North Carolina’s ability to meet national air quality standards despite the state’s success at cleaning up in-state pollution under it’s Clean Smokestacks law.?

Memory acknowledges that ?North Carolina’s taken a huge leap forward with smokestack legislation.? The point of the ?Bike Against Bad Air? and the public hearing, Memory says, is to convince the EPA that ?unfortunately, air pollution doesn?t stop at state lines. Every day that goes by that our neighbors don’t clean up their pollution means more soot, more smog, and more asthma for North Carolinians.?

RIDE DETAILS
If you’re interested in riding or testifying, you can register with the Sierra Club by emailing bikeagainstbadair@yahoo.com or calling Christa Wagner at (704) 374-1125.

Cyclists should arrive downtown at 8am and be ready to roll by 8:30.

All riders are required to wear a helmet and sign a waiver of liability.
Bring plenty of water, a photo ID, and a bike lock.

we should be ashamed

The last time images like this, images from the United States, hit the international news, the Civil Rights movement of the 50s really picked up momentum. The U.S. was publicly embarassed to have the truth of its racist, classist government policies exposed so clearly and so openly. I can’t help but think that emergency response would be different if the images coming from New Orleans were of white middle class soccer moms.

Change is coming.

In the midst of the chaos, David Gonzalez wrote for the NY Times a moving article on how race and class are factoring into the evacuation. If you don’t have access to the NY Times archives, you can find the article at truthout.org.

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