Trails riding

Does not actually involve any trails, oddly enough. Mostly it is the use of a modified mountain bike to ride over anything in the urban landscape. I just was passed this by a friend, check it out.

Danny MacAskill April 2009

Some there there

A good friend of mine sent me this article about how the Oakland food scene is taking off. SF'ers read it and weep into your overpriced mixed micro-greens.

Forget Brooks, I want to be Jeff Goldberg

A brilliant distillation of the forces weighing on the current Prime Minister of Israel

Israel’s Fears, Amalek’s Arsenal

Bike Rumours

What do you get if you crossed Engadget with Bicycling? Bike Rumor, a high volume blog about the bike industry. So, if you ever wondered hey, "when is the Hand Made Bike Show in 2010?" then this is your blog.

Visitors

I have been using Google analytics to track my blog visitors and thus far I have hits from 19 different states and one other country (Israel). Help me get to 50, take trips and read me from there. Better still, send me your frequent flier points and I will read me from there.

I want David Brooks Job!

Wow, the life of a NYT columnist is grueling. Travel the world, read books, read magazines- oh my! No, really David Brooks has hit his stride. Since the hire of Ross Douthat as the resident "conservative" David has been freed from commenting on politics in any meaningful way (which is good since he has a man-crush on Obama)

In any event, since the NYT is unlikely to call me up and offer me a writing gig, let me reccomend a reading gig. The Atlantic has an interesting story on a long term study conducted on students at Harvard in the 40's. Its worth reading if only for the insight it sheds on two subjects 1) we are rarely as fortunate as we seem 2) happiness has yet to be successfully quatified. So go enjoy yourself.

They're repainting my childhood news program

How big a nerd am I? Funny you should ask. Big enough the the old MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour was part of my daily diet (supplemented by a weekly dose of the Sunday NYT- love the Week in Review section). Anyhow they are planning a make-over for the show as revealed at the NYT today.

Most interesting factoid? That the web site reader and the program viewer groups have almost no overlap. My take, most of the viewers are not young enough to surf the web (except for all of the ones who have been set up on Facebook by their kids).

Music to my ears

The NYT has an interesting rundown on some of the efforts to build car free communities. My brother lives in one of the new planned communities that were built in the last few years. While there is still plenty of room for cars (he has a garage) the community is planned with a central green corridor that leads to the shopping center. While it makes it easier to get to the store and there is rapid bus service to the airport, he still has to drive to work.

A club to love

This just in from the NYT, guys who take their burgers seriously. Seriously, if I had the time and the Plavix I would start up a SF chapter. Turkey Burgers Don’t Count

A wee bit of pragmatism?

Khaled Meshal has granted the NYT an interview. It is, apparently, the first time in a year that he has spoken to the American press. He used this opportunity to point out a few things. First, the Hamas would stop firing rockets at Israel. Second that Hamas would be happy to have a state in the '67 boundaries (meaning Egyptian Gaza and the Jordanian West Bank). Also Hamas would not recognize Israel, but would be open to a 10 year truce.

For an organization that has been hell bent on the destruction of Israel for the last 30 years, that comes as a refreshing bit of pragmatism. But why? Could it be that Hamas feels like it might get left out in the cold if Obama manages to court the Syrians? Or what happens if the Iranians decide to get friendly (or less hostile) with the new administration? Could Hamas, the least important of Iran's clients get kicked to the curb? If so, how could Hamas forestall such a development? By doing a little outreach on its own? Of course with the current downturn the economies of Iran and Syria might not have as much room for foreign largess as they used to when oil (I know Syria doesn't have any) was $147 a barrel.

Another possible explanation is that Hamas is shrewdly playing off the fact that the new Israeli government is shaping up to be even more rejectionist than Hamas. Is Meshal trying to demonstrate to Obama that Hamas is the more rational and reasonable party to the conflict? It seems a tall order from the people who perfected the art of suicide bombing. However, when you get placed in a line up with Avigdor "Yvette" Lieberman you might have a chance.

Most interesting to me was this line "After all, the firing is a method, not a goal." Methods and goals? Is the leader of Hamas reading management theory? Is Covey available in Arabic?