Some thoughts on the LOST season premiere. . .

1.) That Juliet is such a great practical joker! When I die, I am going to wait until the last minute, then pull my family members close to me and tell them "I have to tell you something! It's REALLY REALLY REALLY important. . ." and then die right then. Man I'll be chuckling all the way to oblivion!  


2.) I know that guy is a U.S. Marshall and all so he's rough and tough. . . but still. . . don't pick stuff up off the floor of the airport bathroom. That's just gross. Even Kate knew not to do that!  


3.) So, let me get this straight. The leader of the temple Others can speak English just fine, but chooses not to and instead has his version of Mr. Smithers on hand to repeat every dang thing he says. What kind of a total jerk of a leader has the ability to speak English, and yet, during an emergency (like oh, say, a murderous smoke monster on its way to kill everybody) STILL shouts out his defense orders in another language while his English-speaking subordinates have to wait for Smithers to repeat it? No wonder the Others lost that war in Yugoslavia.  


4.) Can anyone explain to me why a hydrogen bomb would have enough energy to disintegrate an entire island, and all the land beneath the island down 100+ feet below the ocean surface. . . and still not be able to damage that foot statue? What is that thing made of, anyway? (Also, was that the Dharma shark down there?)  


5.) Apparently, the most secure way to send someone a message is to write it down on a paper note, roll it up, then build a giant wooden egyptian ankh around it. Slap that puppy in a guitar case, and it's good to go! Jacob clearly never went to junior high school. Can you imagine him trying to pass a secret note in class? Teacher: "Jacob! are you passing a note?!" Jacob: (holding a giant wooden ankh behind his back) "No. . .".  


6.) It's nice to know that the enigmatic rules of time-travel and parallel-universe-hopping at least take convenience into account. Jack et al. time-jumped when the H-bomb went off because it would have changed their histories. But what a pain it would have been if that Volkswagon bus hadn't time-jumped with them!  


7.) Oh, Charlie. How dumb are you? I've never taken heroin in my life, but even I know you're not supposed to try to inhale it until AFTER you take it out of the plastic baggie. I thought the way you died in the underwater station was dumb (with the door you could have opened OUT into the non-water-filled moon pool room), but this death would have been even dumber. Headline: "ex-Rockstar dies in airplane lavatory somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. Choked on plastic baggie full of heroin." . . . come to think of it, that's actually kind of awesome.

The latest new Vision for Space Exploration

The Obama administration released its plan for NASA's budget in the coming year today, and with it comes an attempt to largely change the goals for NASA's manned spaceflight program. I like the most of the plans for increasing funding for Earth and Planetary sciences, as well as Heliophysics and extending the operational life of the International Space Station. But I am highly skeptical that the plans for giving up on the Constellation program in favor of giving some seed money to small start-up space companies are a good thing.


I'm all for stimulating spaceflight innovation in the private sector, but not at the expense of the existing NASA plans for continued human spaceflight. I would much rather they continue the Constellation program and tack on some additional money to NASA's budget to be used for this X-prize-like private stimulus. Obama's current proposal means we just stop putting people into space using the tried-and-true methods we've been using for the past 49 years, and say "Here's some seed money, private sector. Reinvent the wheel for us while we sit on the sidelines and wait." I'd love to see the private sector come up with a cheaper method of getting people into space. . . but let them do it in parallel and demonstrate that it outclasses what NASA is already using. Yes, this would come down to increasing NASA's budget, but as we both know that ought to happen anyway.  


Also, since we are extending the life of the ISS (a good thing), shouldn't we consider extending the life of the Shuttle program as well? The whole idea back in the '60's and '70's was to have a space station and a "shuttle" to ferry people and cargo to/from it. Now that we actually have both in operation, how does it make sense for the U.S. to announce a continued commitment to the ISS, but WITHOUT the ability to ferry either cargo or crew to/from the station at all? Bush's reasoning for cancelling the shuttle program was that we could free up money to use on human spaceflight outside of LEO, and it wouldn't be that big a deal because the ISS would only be around a few more years after the shuttle was retired. Obama is basically proposing we extend the life of the ISS without having the most useful tool for servicing it.  


I predict this will only serve to lengthen the amount of time that the U.S. is without the ability to put people into space. Then, at some point, as India, China, and Russia are all able to launch humans into space, the American people will get restless and start to wonder why again did we just give up doing that? Congress will get spurred into action, and the next President will have his or her own new vision for space exploration that essentially returns to the idea of NASA creating and operating (through a big company like Boeing or Lockheed) its own manned spacecraft.  


At JSC, in the ISS flight control room, they have several models of Space Station Freedom hanging from the ceiling. Each model looks a little different, and the joke we'd make when giving tours was that "this is the 100th Congress's plan for space station freedom, this is the 101st Congress' plan for space station freedom, this is the 102nd. . .". Just as Bush tried to overhaul the Vision for space exploration 6 years ago, and Obama is doing this now, so it will be overhauled again by the next politician. Sigh.

Tikit Rear Rack Affects Folded Stability

I love my Bike Friday Tikit, but I had noticed that it wasn't very stable when folded. It would tend to lean to the side the front wheel was on, and the only thing keeping it from falling over was the handle bars acting like a tripod leg. This of course wore on the handlebar. It was fine sitting on flat ground, but if it was on a train or a bus, a turn would cause the bike to fall over.

I was a tad dissapointed at this, especially since everything I'd seen online had said that the rear rack made the tikit extremely stable when folded. I chalked it up to the fact that I also had a double-front-rack, which perhaps was making the front wheel side heavier, causing it to lean.

Luckily, the good people at Bike Friday called recently, out of the blue, just to see how I was liking my bike. Yes, seriously. I had heard tales of the great customer support at this smallish Oregon company, but I still wasn't expecting such attention. I mentioned the problem, and the customer service rep called the guy who oversees Tikit production (Tim) over from the other room. I described the problem to him, and took some photos and e-mailed them to him. He told me what he expected was the problem, and later confirmed it when he received my photos: My rear rack had posts that were too tall. This meant that, when folded, the rear wheel was being held too high off the ground, causing the bike to lean to the other side. This is evident in the photos I sent him (also in this post) by looking at how high the rear fender is held by the too-tall rear rack. Tim put another rack with shorter posts in the mail.

I swapped out the rear rack, and now the Tikit is rock-solid-stable when folded!  I sent them back the too-tall rear rack in the same box, as they said they could modify it for future use.

See the comparison photos below:

Before. . .                                                                       . . . and After!

Before. . . . (Note how high the rear rack is over the wheel)

. . . and After!

Note the difference between the two racks (shorter one is the good one;  taller one makes the Tikit less stable when folded).

It's so nice to have a company that provides this kind of support.  I had been willing to live with the annoyance of the leaning rack, but the company called to check on me just because, and now my bike works even better.  So glad I went with this bike, and this company!

Dog on a Tikit!

Success!

I took Lucy on a short (~2 mile round trip) ride to the local park and back, using the milk-crate I attached to my Bike Friday Tikit's double front rack with bungee cords (as shown in a previous post).  Worked like a charm, cost me nothing (since I found the milk crate in a pile of stuff my neighbor was going to put in the recycle bin, and I already had the bungees), and it's easy to attach and remove.  Perfect size for Lucy, who weighs about 17 lbs.  I bet I could fit a slightly bigger dog in there, though.

My point-of-view when stopped at an intersection.  I laid a couple towels down to as a cushion for Lucy to sit on.  You might notice a slight skew comparing the handlebars to the crate.  That is actually due to the handlebars being slightly misaligned, which I hadn't really noticed until this ride.  Took 30 seconds to  re-align them using an Allen wrench.  The crate itself is quite stable with 5 taut bungees holding it in place, and doesn't shift around.

At the park.  I could attach the crate to the rear rack, but I like having the dog up front to interact with, and I'm pretty sure she would get antzy in the back as well.

Attaching a Milk Crate to a Tikit

My Bike Friday Tikit has basically replaced my previous bike, a cheap mountain bike that folds in half. That bike was ok, but it was really cheaply made, and I'm tired of expecting it to break while riding around town. The Tikit is well made and has been a great all-around city bike so far.

One thing my older bike could do that my tikit could not, however, was carry Lucy using a handle-bar mounted pet carrier. The Tikit's handlebar stem is not meant to carry much weight, so I decided not to use the same pet carrier on my little folder. Instead, I've been brainstorming about how to rig something up using the Tikit's double-front rack. That rack is really meant to support panniers, and I do use it to carry my Teeco Detours bag once in a while, but I wanted to use it to support a pet carrier on top.

As fortune would have it, I saw that one of my neighbors had put a milk crate by the recycle bin down in the garage, so I figured it was finders-keepers and snatched it up. A few bungee cords, and it is quite stable on my double-front rack. I put lucy in it and moved around a little, but I haven't taken her for a full-blown ride yet. Perhaps this weekend. I could mount the milk crate on the rear rack as well, but I like to be able to interact with the dog when stopped at an intersection, and I think she likes to be in front anyhow.

I used 5 bungee cords to secure the crate to the rack, as I wanted it to be as stable as possible and not wobble around. Might have been overkill, but it is indeed pretty solid. Don't want the dog falling off the bike!

Pics showing how I attached it below: