Bike to Work Day, 2007

the web, without the ads

I just learned of a Firefox Plugin that cleans up the look, feel, and experience of the web. Adblock plus blocks those annoying advertisements that show up on just about every .com website.

Check out the difference between loading the NYTimes before and after installing the ad blocker.

con_ads.jpg
before

sin_ads.jpg
after

Much better. Enjoy it…

Carnival of the Philosophers

Plato, the person whom many philosophers still admire as the quintessential thinker, conveyed all his thoughts on the emerging discipline philosophy through a character appearing in dialogues. That character, Socrates, lived a fairly marginalized life. He did not teach in a school; he taught in the streets of Athens. He did not engage is very esoteric discussions; there is some practical, real world concern at the heart of each of Plato’s dialogues. And Socrates challenged everyone with whom he conversed to think through their beliefs.

Historians of philosophy tell us that Plato’s emphases on dialectic, skepticism, and reason are the key features of philosophy, but I have always believed that the public relevance and practicality of Plato’s concerns ought to be emphasized as well. So, this week, I present to you a carnival of philosophical inquiries into practical issues.

Gualtiero Piccinini presents Simulation Theory and Robotics posted at Brains. The Leonardo character looks an awful lot like one of the pre-water Gremlins, if you ask me.

aristotle.jpgDavid Hunter presents two pieces on the ethics of killing. Killing me softly with his political theory: Social Change, Suicide and Political Theory appears at the International Network for Ethical Issues in Resource Allocation and Killing people in Research: Would you approve? appears at Philosophy and Bioethics.

At a time when war goes largely unquestioned and unexamined, Shaheen Lakhan submitted a refreshing piece by guest writer Frank MacHovec asking whether war is a psychosis?. It’s over at GNIF Brain Blogger.

Enigman asks whether philosophical materialism amounts to an unjustified conception of a god in A Mysterious Subject.

Thad Guy submitted his comic entry Denying Causation, and I invite you to look at his other question-raising strips as well.

Philosophers throughout history have weighed in on how students ought to be educated, but Michele Loi wonders what kind of parents Humeans, Kantians and Aristotelians would be.

The self-proclaimed self-consciously pretentious Adam presents his Personal Foundation for Discussion over at Sophistpundit.

In his post Freedom in Physicalism, Bryan Norwood invites us to attempt to figure out with him what the experience of freedom within physicalism might look like. It’s posted on his blog Movement of Existence.

We have two entries from the Florida Student Philosophy blog this week. First, Jennifer Lawson presents Examples for Teaching Intro. Next, Quincy Faircloth asks what makes the difference between mere sexual interest and perversion.

Avery Archer takes on the daunting (and sometimes futile) task of arguing with fundamentalists in The Philosopher vs. the Biblical Fundamentalist.

Richard Chappell revisits and reexamines Socrates claim that the unexamined life is not worth living over at Philosophy, et cetera.

Finally, over at On Philosophy, Peter asks whether laws concerning file sharing are just.

Thank you for all your thoughtful entries, and I hope you enjoy the Carnival. Common Sense Philosophy is hosting the June 4th Carnival, so send your submissions that way.

A final note: I received many more entries than those which appear here. I took editorial liberties, including only those entries I thought were on topic (the topic was posted well in advance), those that are philosophical rather than didactic (i.e. I did not include self-help prescriptions), and those I could understand.

another foggy morning


Trust


Centre


the future of downtown Durham

Drive your Bike to Work


or, why I don’t talk of “driving” my bike. I like to ride mine.

Drive your Bike to Work day, a humorous new site poking fun at VC advocates’ insistence on calling cyclists drivers (visit bikeforums.net if you don’t know what Vehicular Cycling is), just in time for next week.

BIKE TO WORK week, next week

From Dale McKeel, Durham’s new bike/ped coordinator…

BIKE TO WORK WEEK IS MAY 14 TO 18

Free Events Planned in Durham!

Pledge and Win a Bicycle!

btww.jpgWhat: Celebrate National Bike to Work Week at local events sponsored by the Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission (www.bikewalkdurham.org).

When: On Thursday, May 17, from 5 to 7 p.m. the group is hosting a “Cyclists After-Work Get Together” at Tyler’s Restaurant & Taproom at the American Tobacco Campus, 324 Blackwell St., Durham. There will be free food and prizes while they last.

On Friday, May 18, from 7:30 to 10 a.m. there will be a “Bike to Work Breakfast” at Mad Hatter’s Cafe and Bake Shop, 1802 W. Main St., with free coffee, food, and prizes. The Bicycle Chain of Durham will be on hand to conduct free basic bicycle check-ups and safety inspections.

Win a Bicycle! By pledging to ride your bike to work at least one day during Bike to Work Week, you could win a new commuter bicycle from The Bicycle Chain! To pledge, go to gotriangle.org/Bike_Walk/Pledge.html

Contact: For more information, contact Dale McKeel, Durham Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, at 560-4366 or Dale.McKeel@durhamnc.gov. For information on other Bike to Work events in the Triangle, visit www.gotriangle.org.

The Outspokin’ Cyclist: New Durham cabs are pedal-powered

Phillip Barron
The Herald Sun

On a recent Sunday, while I was dropping off some donated wheels and frames at the Durham Bike Co-op, two of Durham’s newest taxi cabs stopped by for repairs. MarcDreyfors parked his cab on the sidewalk, jacked up the front end to remove the front wheel, and brought the wheel inside the Co-op for aligning. After a few minutes in the truing stand, his wheel was straight, and he popped the front wheel back on his pedal-powered taxi cab.

Pedicab1.jpgphotos by Marc Dreyfors

A pedicab, as it is known, is basically a giant tricycle. It looks like a regular bicycle in the front (with one wheel, handlebars, and a seat above the pedals for the driver), but the rear expands to a convertible, padded two- or three-person seat stretching across the back end’s stabilizing pair of wheels. The pedals power a two-wheel drivetrain, geared like a mountain bike with 21 speeds. The rear of the cab has brake lights, turn signals, and all the benefits of riding a bike without any of the work –that is, if you’re the passenger.

Riding in the back you feel the wind in your hair, the connection with the street, and without the sweat or muscle burn.

Rickshaws — more commonly used to ferry sightseeing tourists around cities of the Far East, west Africa, or Manhattan — will soon be shuttling folks around the Bull City.

“Greenway Transit is the merger of our green transportation business and Greenway Pedicabs, which opened in Chapel Hill in 2006,” says Marc Dreyfors, owner of the business. For shuttling people around the Triangle, Greenway Transit offers a 6 passenger minivan that runs on ethanol and 12, 15, and 34 passenger buses running on bio-diesel. But modeled on the success of their pedicabs program in Chapel Hill, Greenway Transit’s pedicabs will take to the streets of Durham in May.

I have said before in this column that Durham’s hot spots of commercial activity are like islands — Ninth St, Brightleaf, Five Points, American Tobacco — and that the areas between can be difficult for pedestrians to navigate.

Throughout the summer, Greenway Transit’s pedicabs will provide an alternative mode of transit between Durham’s islands. Dreyfours expects to run shuttles between Ninth St and Duke’s campuses, between the Durham Bulls Athletic Park and Durham’s downtown core, and between downtown Durham and Brightleaf.

Just imagine it; from dinner at Xiloa on Ninth St you could take a bicycle-based taxi to a Bulls game, from a Full Frame session to Amelia for coffee, or from The Federal home safely.

Thirteen year old Mike lives near Greenway Transit’s industrial facility near the intersection of Alston and Angier Avenues. Curious how someone could make fuel from vegetable oil, he started hanging around the business to learn about biodiesel. Dreyfors perceived Mike’s mechanical inclination right away and started teaching Mike what he didn’t already know about bike repairs.

At Durham’s Earth Day event, Mike drove a pedicab around the festival’s parking lot demonstrating the pedicab concept and helping get the word out.

“He came back to me at the end of the day asking what he should do with the money he made,” says Dreyfors. “I told him he could keep it.”

“Riding people around Earth Day was fun,” says Mike. “I carried six people. Kids were pretty amazed by it, telling their moms they wanted to ride.”

Dreyfors echoes Mike’s observation. From the driver’s seat of a pedicab, Dreyfors sees people break into smiles and wave when he rides by. “We need to get back to the sense of neighborhood, sense of community, and [the pedicabs] do that,” he adds.

While we’re talking, Dreyfors hands Mike a multi-tool so that the young apprentice can adjust the handlebars of the two-person pedicab. Later, Mike takes me for a spin down the sidewalk. He says the hardest thing about driving a pedicab is remembering that it’s wider than a regular bike. “You have to be careful about the sides.”

After a short trip, we switch places. While I pedal Mike back to the Co-op, he says “it’s cool; it’s like being chauffeured.” But the best part about driving a pedicab is the attention, Mike says. “People just sit and stare,” when they see the pedicab driving down the road, he adds.

“You can make some pretty good money on the weekend shifts,” says Dreyfors.

Though the details of the incentive structure for drivers are still being worked out, Dreyfors says driving a pedicab can be “a good part-time job; you set your own hours and, after an initial buy-in, you keep what you make.” He tells the story of a UNC student and pedicab driver in Chapel Hill who, because the student is willing to work the late shift (i.e. 12AM — 3AM), can make more than $125 in one night.

Anyone who wants to learn how to work a pedicab shift, rent the pedicabs for an event (a wedding or party), or learn more about the company can reach Greenway Transit at 957-1505 and find them on the web at http://www.greenwayrides.com

Pedicab2.jpg

capere journal

capere.jpgA little closer to home, some local (Durham) educators are starting up a new journal — Capere.

Capere’s mission is to charter and facilitate a spirit of collaboration and innovation among educators through challenging and rewarding dialogue in a local educator operated print journal.

They too are looking for submissions. Contact them through the site.

these green times

thesegreentimes.jpgThese Green Times is a new online publication with an environmental focus. Friend Bob Schildgen (better known as the Sierra Club’s Mr. Green) is an early contributor. They’re looking for submissions, so all you environmental writers out there, send them something.

Check them out…