critical mass

6:30 pm SE Corner of Courthouse
bring a light, bubbles, music, condoms, salt and vinegar chips.

Schwek

Big Thanks to Todd and Dustin for all the Help we like to call it a Schwek built from my old mountain bike and a bike sara left here when she moved out it will be there Friday night

Christmas Parade

Each year the bicyclists in town have formed a "float" of bikes in the annual Christmas Parade.

All bikes are invited!! Come show Huntsville THIS SATURDAY how great bikes are!

Dress up in red and green, bells and antlers, or whatever!

All: I've signed us up for the Channel 31 Parade happening this Saturday, (meet at 11 AM, at Lot K on Clinton avenue across from the Post Office downtown). I've been to the Safety meeting, and got that box checked.

Balloon Tire Society

Find more photos like this on Balloon Tire Society

Balloon Tire Society is a fun bike ride club for fat tire enthusiast, who like to ride for pleasure.People who want to rebuild and restore antique bikes.Ride them with friends and meet new people.Come show your bikes,join rides in your neighborhood.

we are watching you

Vintage Ride postponed

If you were actually wanting to go on a recreational ride in this weather, nobody else was :-P The vintage/cruiser ride scheduled for this afternoon has been postponed.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BUY NOTHING DAY IS HERE – NO PURCHASE NECESSARY
(November 23 in the USA and Canada, November 24 internationally)

STOP SHOPPING TO GO GREEN: This November, environmentalists, social activists and concerned citizens in as many as 65 countries will hit the streets for a 24-hour consumer fast in celebration of the 15th annual Buy Nothing Day, a global cultural phenomenon that originated in Vancouver, Canada.

Featured in recent years by the likes of CNN, MSNBC, Wired, the BBC, USA Today, The Age and the CBC, the international event has been gaining mainstream momentum as the climate crisis drives average people to seek out greener alternatives to unrestrained consumption.

Timed to coincide with one of the busiest shopping days on the US retail calendar, as well as the unofficial start of the international holiday-shopping season, Buy Nothing Day has taken many shapes, from relaxed family outings, to free, non-commercial street parties, to politically charged public protests. Anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending.

In past years, street activists have proven particularly imaginative in their celebrations, bringing zombie marches, credit-card cut-ups, and shopaholic clinics to malls and public squares in an effort to expose the environmental and social consequences of First World over-consumption.

Kalle Lasn is the co-founder of the Adbusters Media Foundation, the organization responsible for launching Buy Nothing Day as a yearly, global event. He explains that while most participants used to see the day simply as an escape from the marketing mind games and frantic consumerism that have come to characterize modern life, the focus has since shifted in light of the new political mood surrounding climate change.

“So much emphasis,” he notes, “has been placed on buying carbon offsets and compact fluorescent lightbulbs and hybrid cars that we are losing sight of the core cause of our environmental problems: we consume far too much.”

“Buy Nothing Day isn't just about changing your routine for one day. It’s about starting a lasting lifestyle commitment. With over six billion people on the planet, it is the responsibility of the most affluent – the upper 20% that consumes 80% of the world’s resources – to set out on a new path.”


For more information and media interviews contact:

MEDIA LIASON: Lauren Bercovitz
TELEPHONE NUMBER: 604-736-9401
EMAIL: lauren@adbusters.org


Editor’s Notes:

[1] For more information on Adbusters and Buy Nothing Day, visit Adbusters.org.

[2] Buy Nothing Day facts:
* The first BND was launched by Adbusters in Vancouver in September 1992, based on an idea by artist Ted Dave, as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption.
* In 1997, it was moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving – “Black Friday” – which is the one of the nation’s busiest shopping days. Outside of North America, BND is usually celebrated on the following Saturday.
* Despite controversies, Adbusters managed to advertise BND on CNN, but many other major TV networks have declined to air the commercials.
* Though the decentralized nature of the event makes it difficult to pin down participation numbers, thousands of activists have held public events in over 65 nations, including most US states, Canada, the UK, Israel, Germany, New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, Japan, Taiwan, the Netherlands, Norway and India.

[3] Shopping and consumption facts:
* Per capita consumption in the U.S. has risen 45 per cent in the last 20 years.
* Although people today are, on average, four-and-a-half times richer than our great-grandparents were at the turn of the century, Americans report feeling “significantly less well off” than in 1958.
* A recent article in New Scientist featured research suggesting that the more consumer goods you have the more you think you need to make you happy. Happiness through consumption is always out of reach (New Scientist, 4th October 2003, Vol.180, Issue 2415, p44. Available online after registering at www.newscientist.co.uk).


END/

more to think about

bikes, jesus and the mormons get owned

Making the roadways safe for all

Sunday, November 18, 2007
By BRIAN TOONE
For The Times

Rising gas prices are pushing people to look for alternative means of transportation. I believe more people will consider running errands and commuting to work by bicycle as a means to offset rising fuel costs.

Combined with the continued popularity of recreational cycling, the influx of bicycle commuters will mean more and more people riding their bicycles on Alabama roadways. Because secondary roads in Alabama frequently lack shoulders and rarely have dedicated bike lanes, cyclists and motorists must share the same road.

The Huntsville Times should be applauded for noticing this situation and publishing articles that promote the discussion of the relationship between cyclists and motorists. However, the recent commentary by columnist Ricky Thomason "Free-wheeling cyclists must obey the rules of the road" conveys a different message.

read more here

Tall people not need apply

Short bikes...the way of the future!

Duane, who has a shop up at lowe mill generously helped me last night at LifeCycles. in the process we got a little crazy and tested the waters on how small of wheels we could get on a full size frame. This with a little work today is what we came up with. People loved it! Yes those are handlebars for a seat post. I'm getting my acetylene filled soon so i can weld on some "wings".

Jimmm sppagggy

help: be nice

Liz from Minneapolis is going to be in town for xmas and wants to ride with us and needs a bike. can someone help her out? below is her bike from home.

todays word and idea: Xerocracy

Xerocracy (pronounced zee-ROK-ruh-see, in IPA [ziˈɹokɹɘsiː]) is the idea of "rule through photocopying". It is a form of anarchic organization.

The word was coined to describe the organizational principle of Critical Mass, and it is used almost exclusively within that context. The word is intended to combine the ideas of freedom from bureaucracy and freedom to photocopy. Unlike a hierarchical organization, nobody is in charge structurally because everyone is free to make photocopies of their ideas and pass them around.

In such a system, the power to rule defaults to those who have chosen to photocopy their ideas. This power is proportionate to the number of individuals who receive the originator's photocopy and choose it over any other photocopies that they may have received.

The goals of a xerocratic group are not set by a few individuals in charge but are broadly defined by its members. Each person in the group is free to invent his or her own reasons for participating and is free to share those reasons with others. The degree to which an individual's ideas are shared by the group as a whole is dependent on the number of copies of the idea that are distributed, the effectiveness of the distribution of the copies, and the adoption of the ideas contained therein - either over or in addition to other ideas being distributed within the group.

The lack of an identifiable leadership may be itself a desirable trait for an organization. The ability to make anonymous, clandestine photocopies also makes it difficult for law enforcement to identify and punish organizers, since the "leadership" may be hard to trace and may change over time.

Here is how to make a city bicycle friendly and how to get cars under control.

How much space is dedicated to cars? Parking, highways, city streets, junk yards, garages. How many cars only have one person in them? What is more dangerous, a car or a bike? This video shows how Berkeley calmed traffic and made itself a bike friendly city. I have ridden in Berkeley and it is great. You can get everywhere you need to on a bike without feeling like you are in danger. Hopefully, other cities will learn from this video and start making themselves more bike friendly.

Ugh, Holiday season is close at hand...

There used to be one way to get through the maniacal rash consumerism of the holiday season...Santacon. Now we may have another visual aid, no its not Fred Claus (possibly the worst Holiday movie ever)

Its, "what would Jesus buy", the new documentary by filmmaker Rob Van Alkemade and produced by Morgan Spurlock.


Its about Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping choir as they travel the country enlighting people of the empending "shopocalypse!"
See the trailer here.

The movie talks about the environmental devastation from Holiday Waste. Did you know…

• From Thanksgiving to New Years Day, household waste increases by more than 25%.

• The amount of cards sold during the holiday season requires the harvesting of nearly 300,000 trees.

• 38,000 miles of ribbon is thrown out each year, enough to tie a bow around the Earth.

This Friday, the film opens in NYC at Cinema Village.

sunday alley cat pics and results sort of:)

here are the pics and rumor has it that Tyler won

alley cat sunday

sunday is Bill's Cranksgiving Battle Alley Cat Race. Damn thats a long title.
3pm Trailhead
party and food after.
be there!

from Jamie

Missed the ALDOT Public Comment meeting Nov 8?

Don’t worry. You didn’t miss much.

They purposely hold these meetings on the QT, with an itty bitty ad in the public notices section of the paper. Who ever looks at that?

They haven’t written the updated plan yet. They may take our input if enough people provide feedback.

PLEASE don’t give up now.

That’s what they’re counting on.

What we need is a few folks to go to the website and send comments into Mr. Doolin. Copy your state representatives, mayor, the local paper, county commissioner, and planners.

http://www.dot.state.al.us/docs/bureaus/Transportation+Planning/swtp_home.htm

Look through the 2000 plan and suggest policy about non-motorized transportation to encourage, enable and make safer biking and walking as transportation.

http://www.dot.state.al.us/transplanning/

Tell how much the following would help!

Big Bike Routes Signs, shoulders, sidewalks, better signals to cross roads, wider lanes, NO rumble strips.

Better Driver’s Ed that discusses sharing the road with bikes.

(There are more talking points below.)

I’m sure YOU have a few opinions on this!

bike fixin at manna house

Hi, I'm doing it again,

come fix bikes with me this weekend! I will be hangin' at manna house from 3pm to 6pm fixing bikes for xmas. Join me, and assume the position. If anyone comes this time we will figure out food maybe...

knock on the back door or call me, jim, thats jim spagnola at 256-348-5189

peas

Rising Demand for Oil Provokes New Energy Crisis

With oil prices approaching the symbolic threshold of $100 a barrel, the world is headed toward its third energy shock in a generation. But today’s surge is fundamentally different from the previous oil crises, with broad and longer-lasting global implications.

Traders at the New York Mercantile Exchange Thursday, where the price for a barrel of crude oil settled at $95.46.

Just as in the energy crises of the 1970s and ’80s, today’s high prices are causing anxiety and pain for consumers, and igniting wider fears about the impact on the economy.

Unlike past oil shocks, which were caused by sudden interruptions in exports from the Middle East, this time prices have been rising steadily as demand for gasoline grows in developed countries, as hundreds of millions of Chinese and Indians climb out of poverty and as other developing economies grow at a sizzling pace.

“This is the world’s first demand-led energy shock,” said Lawrence Goldstein, an economist at the Energy Policy Research Foundation of Washington.

read more here