nicomachus.net

Hmmm. Should I get a recumbent or an upright bike? If the ZWEISTIL makes it into production, you won’t have to choose. The bike demonstrated in the following video is an entrant in this year’s James Dyson award competition.

From the website…

The James Dyson Award is an international design award that celebrates, encourages and inspires the next generation of design engineers. It’s run by the James Dyson Foundation, James Dyson’s charitable trust, as part of its mission to inspire young people about design engineering.

The winner of the James Dyson Award 2008 was Michael Chen, from Middlesex University in the UK, who designed Reactiv, a cycling jacket that communicates a cyclist’s intentions to other road users.

I got a call last week from my mom who wanted advice about bikes. Be still my beating heart! My folks, riding bikes!

Over the weekend, I received this cell phone pic… a new Trek Pure (lime green) for my mom and Trek Navigator for my dad. They’ve already ridden around the neighborhood several times and to a café for breakfast over the weekend.

One of nicomedia‘s newest clients is Kenneth Lewis for US Senate, Inc. Kenneth Lewis is a Triangle-based lawyer who’s running for the US Senate. For this Democratic contender for the Senate seat currently held by Burr, my company is consulting on best practices in search engine optimization and helping the campaign reach into new media markets. (If any of my fellow bloggers would like to get in touch with Kenneth for a story or interview, send me an email.)

In less than a month’s time, the campaign has already raised more than $100,000, and looks on pace to raise more than $1 million by the end of the year. A July press release announced that

the Kenneth Lewis for U.S. Senate Campaign today filed its first campaign finance report with the Federal Election Commission showing over $100,000 raised in the first 21 days of operation.

Kenneth Lewis said, “As a member of Barack Obama’s North Carolina Finance Committee, I know how difficult raising political contributions in an economic downturn can be.  I have also seen a campaign overcome these hurdles with a compelling candidate and an equally compelling message of change.  I am humbled by the early support I have received both across North Carolina and across the country.”

I met Lewis’ wife and his precocious daughter Evan at Camp Wellstone in June, and Holly convinced me that Kenneth stands a strong chance of unseating Burr. North Carolina is already showing a more progressive face in national politics: North Carolina’s electoral votes went to Barack Obama, and Tar Heel voters unseated the former chair of the Republican Party, Elizabeth Dole, in the last election. Kenneth’s business savvy and experience leading finance operations for the Obama campaign in NC will be welcome help to the national and statewide efforts to retread the economy.

Now that Google’s done mapping and photographing all the important streets in the world, they’re turning their attention to the auto-free zones.

Now Google Maps is expanding to biking and hiking trails. A Google employee on a tricycle rides around to snap the same wide-area views.

“Much of the world is inaccessible to the car,” says Daniel Ratner, a Google senior engineer who designed the trike. “We want to get access to places people find important.” — USA Today

View Larger Map

Google Maps Bike Paths and Hiking Trails, coming soon to a place off the beaten path near you. How long before the Google Tricycle rides the ATT I wonder…

My friend Eric reminded me of this commercial, which aired during the 2002 Winter Olympics.

A beautiful score (by Jonathan Elias) and talented editing seamlessly link the various activities together as sport. The overall effect of the piece is that it really captures the variety and accessibility of sports, and I think this is one of the most moving ads I’ve ever seen.

By request, here’s my presentation from WordCampRDU 2009.

It takes more than a day to build a rock wall. You don’t want to finish each day’s work with a smooth edge, otherwise the final result will be a series of adjacent rock walls rather than one integrated wall. So at the end of each day, you leave rugged “toothing stones” for two reasons. It marks where you will pick up when you continue your work the next day. It also creates the uneven surface to which tomorrow’s section will bond, linking today’s work and tomorrow’s.

My presentation concludes with three toothing stones: themes, plugins, and widgets. I was tasked with giving a 45 minute introduction to WordPress, so rather than try to cover everything WordPress is capable of, I chose to lay groundwork for a greater understanding. I hope the conference participants were (are) able to gain a foothold in the WordPress universe.

WordPress 101 makes the most sense when viewed in conjunction with the other presentations given today at WordCamp, and the toothing stones help make the learning experience more whole.

Other presenters include:

• Andy Beal
• Chris Gatewood
• Glen Ansley
• Lew Ayotte
• Brett Bumeter
• Angela Connor
• Jason Keath
• Wayne Sutton
• Alan Knox
• Beth Morgan
• Shayne Sanderson
• Hal Goodtree
• Matt Mullenweg

WordCamp RDU is tomorrow, Saturday, June 13th. See you there.

And, I’ve already upgraded nicomachus.net (and all the other WordPress sites I manage) to WordPress 2.8. If you haven’t upgraded yours yet, take a look at what’s new.

In preparation for the 2009 Bull Moon Ride, Durham Habitat for Humanity is hosting a potluck dinner and a chance to view a classic cycling film. Roxanne Hall and Peter Anlyan send out this note to the Durham cycling community…

Breaking Away (IMDB page at link)

Oscar winner for Best writing, Best actress and Best director
See this link for Breaking  Away
Presented by Durham Habitat

Wednesday: June 17th 2009
Gathering & Pot Luck: 6:00 pm
Movie: 7:30 pm
Rigsbee Hall
208 Rigsbee Ave. Durham NC 27701

Please spread the word

Habitat Bull Moon Ride
Sat., July 18, 2009
8:31 p.m.
To register and for additional information visit www.durhamhabitat.org.

Read more about the Bull Moon Ride.

No, not the penile Tour de France, the penal Tour de France. Nearly 200 inmates in French prisons will participate this year in the inaugural bicycle tour of the French countryside, designed and run only for prison inmates.

The 194 inmates, escorted by 124 prison guards and sports instructors, will set off from Lille and cycle about 2,400km (1,500 miles), ending up in Paris. They will have to cycle in a pack, will not be ranked and, for obvious reasons, breakaway sprints will not be allowed. — BBC

Why ride? The hope is that inmates will learn such values as teamwork, self-esteem, and dedication.

A May article in Reuters ran under the title “What could possibly go wrong?“

from Manky Maxblack's photostream

The uncomfortable truth about the everyday meeting place for automobiles and bicycles is that we both share the same width of road, despite a significant discrepancy in power, weight, and protection from the environment. The very same feat of civil engineering that makes road biking so pleasant (smooth pavement) facilitates distracted drivers continuing the culturally acceptable bad habit of driving too fast.

If bike meets car, the bike usually loses.

The Annual Ride of Silence is a memorial event encouraging “cyclists of all abilities and levels of experience” to honor and remember cyclists who have been injured or killed on public roads. In recent years, phenomena called Ghost Bikes have appeared at the site of deadly bike/auto accidents.  “Small and somber memorials for bicyclists who are killed or hit on the street,” Ghost Bikes are like striped bike lanes in that, by serving as a visual reminder of the responsibility to share the road, they create the expectation that bicyclists will be on the road, even if they are not there right now.

This Saturday (June 6th, 2009) in Durham is a free, all-abilities cycling event to promote bicycle safety and remember someone who was the victim of our cultural unwillingness to slow down. The 12-mile Ride for Clive is at once a memorial ride for Clive Sweeney and a celebration of Clive’s life and love of cycling. Whether you knew Clive or not, all are welcome.

Sweeney was killed in an unfortunate meeting of car and bicycle, of inattentive driver and dedicated cyclist. To say he was killed by  “wreckless driving,” as WRAL writes,  is insensitive.  To call it a bike accident is to miss the point. His “bike didn’t kill him,” said one commenter on the durhambikeandped listserv, “Clive was killed by a reckless person driving a weapon.”

The route for Saturday’s Ride for Clive follows the American Tobacco Trail, the focus of the ride is safety, and the spirit is sure to be positive.

• 8AM registration
• 8:30AM safety tips
• 9AM ride

Before his untimely death, McKinney (advertising firm in Durham) interviewed Clive talking about himself and his passions in life. If you would like to know more, you can watch the video here.

Read more about both the ride and about Clive Sweeney at http://rideforclive.com/

UPDATE: Forgot to mention that the good folks at Bull City Cycling are behind this, organizing and planning the ride.