I don't like bikes. I also don't like biking. And, truth be told, I am also not that fond of most cyclists either. If you've ever been to Amsterdam you might understand why.
However, here is a bike that I do like:

Yep, it's a mobile cafe that you drive pedal powered through the city. Or the countryside I guess, if you're into that sort of thing.
They are so popular here in Amsterdam that the police had to restrict the areas they are allowed to go, with the driver ususally being drunk and other people in traffic being a little distracted and all that.

Maybe this is a way to improve the image of the Tour de France?

Google Maps is a useful tool for planning all sorts of trips but their 'directions' function was limited to regular traffic (cars or motorcycles) only. Now Google has released their (BETA of course) version of directions for walking.

Here's what I'm doing today:

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Wrestling is fake of course but this is so funny...

Wrestlers Need A Chair And Fans Deliver - Watch more free videos

This story I found as part of a text file that was called "CIA Book of Dirty Tricks". It seems to have been circulating around for some years and resembles the style and tone of works like the "Anarchist Cookbook" or some of the text files inspired on that infamous work. I very much doubt it was written by the CIA and I'm also not sure if the story actually happened but it is an amusing read anyway.

I did not write this story and I do not know who Tim Carroll is or whether or not he sucks in any way.

Tim Carroll was tossed out of his apartment by the landlady because one of Tim's many lady friends stayed over for the whole entire evening. This upset the old biddy who owned the building, and being a staunch, God-fearing charter member of the DAR, she cancelled his lease and ordered him to leave the building.

Displeased with the arbitrary and unilateral treatment and the upheaval caused by her dubious moral judgement, Tim didn't get angry; he got even.

He had a trusted friend place a large sign in a hallway window of the landlady's apartment building. The seventh-floor window faced a busy business street, and the sign was quite visible to many hundreds of people.

The sign read: TIM CARROLL SUCKS.

The landlady didn't see the sign, so two days later, Tim's friend positioned another sign, this time in a sixth-floor-hall window.

The second sign read: TIM CARROLL IS A FAG.

The landlady saw both signs and removed them. Two days later, she got a letter from Tim, with a picture enclosed showing her building with the signs easily visible. The letter was Tim's complaint about personal slander and harassment. He asked her please to desist.

Sometime early the next morning, in time for rush-hour morning traffic, a new sign went up in the window:

TIM CARROLL BLOWS DEAD BEARS.

At 8:30 A.M., the unsuspecting landlady received a call from an attorney friend of Tim's, citing the original slander and warning the woman against further incidents. Shaken, she swore her innocence. Ten minutes after hanging up, he called back, sounding furious because Tim had just called him about the latest sign. Flabbergasted, the old lady swore she would remove it and loudly proclaim her innocence.

Another sign went up that afternoon in time for rush-hour the other way:

TIM CARROLL IS A FLAMING HETEROSEXUAL.

The landlady got the lawyer's call just after dark, when the sign was no longer visible. She was almost in tears because of his threats to sue. She begged to just talk to Tim, to tell him none of this was her doing. The attorney told her that he had advised his client to have no further discussions with her.

The next day's sign read: FOR A GOOD LAY, CALL TIM CARROLL.

That evening, a new sign went up. The landlady, frantic, according to Tim's friend who was putting up the signs, got to it fifteen minutes after it went up. The attorney called her five minutes after she go back to her own apartment.

Tim related, "You might feel almost sorry for the old lady, except that she had told me earlier that she was going to keep my security deposit and that I would have to forfeit the month's rent I had paid in advance because I had violated the morality clause in my lease.
The was no such clause.
I found out she had done this same thing to two other guys a year before and some guys before that. She also tossed out a couple because they weren't married. She'd come into your room when you were gone and snoop, too. That bugged me."

No signs went up for the next three days, although the woman checked the windows every twenty minutes or so. On the fourth day, hundreds of passers-by, accustomed to the signs weren't disappointed.

The new sign read: TIM CARROLL'S WHOREHOUSE.

Although it took her an hour to discover and remove it, the lawyer friend of Tim's didn't call until the next morning, when a new sign was in the window:

WHOREHOUSE UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT.
The landlady's telephone number was listed.

A second sign was placed on the sixth-floor window underneath:

TIM CARROLL COULDN'T BEAT THE COMPETITION.

In his best tones, the attorney explained that enough was enough and that on behalf of his client, Mr. Carroll, he would be filing an action. The woman was distraught. He told her to have her attorney present for a meeting at three the following afternoon. He asked her who attorney was and said the meeting should be in his office. Tim and his attorney postponed this meeting several times, then told the woman that since she had stopped putting up the signs, they would hold the suit in limbo for the time.

Reportedly, she monitored the halls and windows of that building regularly for five months. But more importantly, she also left her tenants to their own moral lives.

Oh, well, here goes our last reader. What is a hobby? It's an activity that one spends ridiculous amounts of time and money on, to achieve something that no one else will ever care about as much as you do. Still and all, there must be some payoff for it, because most people in the free world seem to have one.

I have a hobby, and I joined a loosely-arranged group of like minded hobbyists who fool around with classic (not necessarily old) bikes. I'm not totally alone in this pursuit, so I don't feel too embarassed about writing a public post on the subject.

I've gone through many thousands of dollars and hours getting the perfect (for me) bike. Having grown older in the process, I find that comfort and style are much more important than speed, and today's subject is getting comfortable (and you might think stylish) handlebars. Cotton bar tape as made in France and Japan is just about the nicest material to get a grip on, but without any padding underneath, it's hard and uncomfortable for me on long rides. Purists will stay with straight cotton wrap, but I've been doing something for many years that I like much better. First I found a brand of thin foam weatherstripping to wrap under the cotton, but it's been hard to find recently.

So in my annual maintenance/upgrade cycle, I tried putting conventional (fake) cork wrap under the cotton. I won't tell all the details, because they're tedious, but you first lay down the layer of cheap fake cork as usual, but don't finish it off with tape. Instead, carefully and slowly wrap your French cotton tape over the base layer. Make it tight, and don't be surprised if this is rather difficult: it's an irregular surface, with compound curves (I make it even worse by using specially curvy handlebars....Nitto Randonneurs that I got from Rivendell Bicycle Works, then flared out a little more by an unapproved process.). When the cotton tape is all in place, if you want a retro/classic look, finish the ends with hemp twine. It will look something like this, but in your own style, of course.

Bare cotton feels really nice, but it will wear out and get smudged if you don't protect it. The best stuff to use is Zinzer's Bullseye Shellac, 3 thinned (with denatured alcohol, or as the confused clerk called it "teenagers alcohol") coats for me, more for other people. This leaves the cloth feeling more "toothy" and tough, cleanable later with a soapy washrag if you ride with dirty hands. The shellac also holds the hemp twine together so it's less likely to break or unravel. This makes a fatter than usual grip surface, with a little shock-absorbency, which will last a long time, and even look nice if you use your own taste in "bike decorating".

Lots of people do similar jobs on their bikes (you know who you are--put your photo link in the comments!), and because this it completely hand-work, everybody's is different. This is not a bad hobby. It gets you outside, and look what I found out in the yard while I was puttering around!

P.S. All-black tape also looks very smart and classy, and of course feels the same.

Tent!

Meindl boots!

Torrent of rain...

Call Of Duty 4.

George W. Bush, a man who is funny without having a sense of humour, managed to shock the world leaders at the G-8 summit with the words: 'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter'.

The Telegraph writes:
"He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock."

Classy, George.

I like Chinese sausages in general, especially Ren Chang (膶腸) (made with duck liver) but I remember one type that was sold in the local supermarket that had the same effect as a boomerang curry.
Don't ask for details, please.

Combine that with Google adwords which are run by a complicated algorithm that tries to match ads with the text it sees on a webpage.
To find a matching ad it has to rely on the keywords the advertisers give it. Sam's post about sausages in combination with the word China has a somehow remarkable result.
A sample:

Which makes me wonder, since the websites are all business or import/export related; does the sausage trade go to or from China? Is there a huge market for Chinese sausages or for American/European sausages in China?