Preznit giv me turkee

Preznit giv me turkee

Try the Train

Via Shorpy.

Fix and flip

While I wait for various notworks to come back up so I can get some looser W-2 stuff done, I thought I'd post this long but interesting article about righting a capsized car carrier.

I feel this tattoo is pretty self-explanatory — I mean, where else would a George W. Bush tattoo go?

BUSH STOMP! at ModBlog

Edgar sightings

Dust to Dust

Tree growing in rotting paper, Detroit Public Schools book depository.

Info and more pictures

Just a few sketches

These are supposedly futurist sketches drawn in 1929. However they lack the grandiose vision of such things, and several of them are clearly drawings of real objects that didn't exist until the 1930s or later: Hoover Dam, Shasta Dam, Grand Coulee Dam, the Oakland Bay Bridge, a P-38, a B-17, and UN Headquarters.

However, some of the drawings have a fanciful quality to them.

Others have a touch of Gotham City.

Others are just very well executed drawings of everyday stuff.

Chilly Kitty

Looks like it's time to turn the heat up.

More vintage bike porn

I came across this beautifully restored vintage Dursley Pedersen. Aside from the unusual frame design I like the overbuilt fork "crown" and the brass bottom bracket shell with oil port. That must've been tough to braze.





The whole design is rather baroque, quite unlike the spare pragmatic elegance of the Rene Herse tourer I posted earlier. Surprisingly such things are still produced.

By the Wayside

Vintage bike porn

Via an old bookmark, I rediscovered this 1950 Rene Herse touring bike. All of the equpiment is original including the racks, fenders, pump, and light. You can't walk into a shop today and buy something set up like that.



This bike must predate the advice to carry at least 50% of a touring load on the front wheel. A rack mounted to the cantilever posts like that probably can't carry much weight.



Instead of having a return spring, the Cyclo rear derailleur is operated by a pull-pull cable like Positron (remember those? I didn't think so). It rotates on a helical post which causes it to move in and out. The large spring extending forward from the upper pulley controls chain tension. Apparently these units are very reliable and shift well by the standards of their time, but only cope with a narrow range of rear gears. I'm not sure what the C shaped braze-on over the derailleur mount is for.



The hand-operated front derailleur looks pretty crude but shifts over a wider range than most modern ones will handle well. Note the nicely finished cotterless cranks, which would've been very unusual at the time. Most bikes sold in the US still had cottered cranks 20 years later.



I'm puzzled by the headlight. The bike doesn't have a generator hub or any provision for a bottle generator and wiring. The owner could always mount a clamp-on bottle generator and sort out the wiring themselves, but it seems like an odd thing to leave off of such an otherwise complete package.

It's geared too narrow for my needs, it probably shifts a lot worse than modern equipment, and replacement parts are just about impossible to find, but I want one anyway.

Burma: A Global Roar

Dear friends,

Burma's generals have brought their brutal iron hand down on peaceful monks and protesters -- but in response, a massive global outcry is gathering pace. The roar of global public opinion is being heard in hundreds of protests outside Chinese and Burmese embassies, people round the world wearing the monks' color red, and on the internet-- where our petition has exploded to over 200,000 signers in just 72 hours.

People power can win this. Burma's powerful sponsor China can halt the crackdown, if it believes that its international reputation and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing depend on it. To convince the Chinese government and other key countries, Avaaz is launching a major global and Asian ad campaign on Wednesday, including full page ads in the Financial Times and other newspapers, that will deliver our message and the number of signers. We need 1 million voices to be the global roar that will get China's attention. If every one of us forwards this email to just 20 friends*, we'll reach our target in the next 72 hours. Please sign the petition at the link below -if you haven't already- and forward this email to everyone you care about:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/t.php?cl=21222727

The pressure is working - already, there are signs of splits in the Burmese Army, as some soldiers refuse to attack their own people. The brutal top General, Than Shwe, has reportedly moved his family out of the country – he must fear his rule may crumble.

The Burmese people are showing incredible courage in the face of horror. We're broadcasting updates on our effort over the radio into Burma itself – telling the people that growing numbers of us stand with them. Let's do everything we can to help them – we have hours, not days, to do it. Please sign the petition and forward this email to at least 20 friends right now. Scroll down our petition page for details of times and events to join in the massive wave of demonstrations happening around the world at Burmese and Chinese embassies.

With hope and determination, Ricken, Paul, Pascal, Graziela, Galit, Ben, Milena and the whole Avaaz Team

*Or, in this case, repost this on your blog.