A couple of months ago, I noted that I should be posting more selfies...

Note to self: if @SteveMartinToGo is posting helmet selfies, then I must increase my own production capacity. http://t.co/kWft8mjtiN
— Joseph Morris (@joeschmo1of3) June 9, 2013

However, they were supposed to be helmet selfies. Um, how about one where I should have been wearing a helmet, and you see the loopy aftermath?


Well, at least you can see the helmet tan on my forehead...

"The eyes seem to follow you around the room!"
"Yeah, if you were bumblebee on meth..."

Good news (for me). Clone Wars cancelled!

Disney is cleaning house. They're probably finding a way to change it up and broadcast on their own channels.

I really don't care since I stopped watching this show 2 years ago after they botched the political system of Mandalore (kind of important, since the clones think of themselves as Mandalorians), rewrote the whole concept of the Dathomiri Night Sisters (extremely important, since Dathomir is the planet Han Solo won in Sabacc tournament to give to Princess Leia as an engagement present and where rancors are from), and flat out ignored the reasons for civil war between the Mon Calamari and Quarrens (also important for Admiral Akbar's back story). Three strikes and I was done with the show.

Fast Pedestrians or Slow Cars?

In a nice interview with British psychologist Ian Walker, John Sutton of the Psychologist asks some good questions about how cyclists are treated in Britain and how the infrastructure leaves them the odd group out:

Should town planners treat cyclists as fast pedestrians and accommodate them that way (e.g. put them on pavements, expect them to yield priority at every side road) or should they treat cyclists as slower vehicles and accommodate them that way (e.g. create cycle lanes at the sides of roads)? All these solutions have problems, but most critically, there’s no way that one solution will fit everybody as people cycle for different reasons. Some of the work we’ve done at Bath lately, most notably by my PhD student Gregory Thomas, shows that some people really value fresh air and exercise such that, if they were unable to cycle, they would walk. Others are cycling for speed and, if for some reason had to change mode, would drive. Because people are doing the same behaviour with different motivations, you can’t expect them all to accept the same infrastructure provision – the person who just wants exercise might tolerate stopping at every sidestreet but the person who wants to get to work quickly will not.

One interesting point is how drivers can look at cyclists right before they turn in front of them, but still not "see" them. I've definitely noticed this behavior for cars approaching an intersection where I have the right of way, and I have to adjust my line so as not to get poked when they jut out past the stop line to look around, and also to put myself in the same place a car would actually cross their line of sight. Most cyclists are drivers, but not all drivers are cyclists, so some awareness on cyclists' perspective of road conditions would definitely help drivers' attention to, and some patience for cyclists on the side of the road.

Here in Pasadena, cyclists are getting stuck in that fast pedestrian mode when they now have many stop lights at intersections which are controlled by induction loops. Unless some amount of metal can close that circuit, the light will never change. For us on carbon bikes, we have to hit the crosswalk button, wait for a car to stop, or break the law and cross on the red. That third is not really an option, though, because I have not seen any of these induction loop controlled intersections without a crosswalk button.

Finally, a fun point: in the interview, Ian Walker talks about his work at Bath University showing how close cars get to cyclists wearing helmets or not, and how much space they give women versus men. I wrote about this study six years ago here. I wore long hair for many years, but I don't know how visible my ponytail was to passing cars. Now that my hair is short again, I'll make a mental note to check how close cars are getting to me.

Tour Tidbit du Jour - 7/1/2012

The leaders of the different classifications in the Tour de France get to wear different colored jerseys on the very next race day, so you'll see a yellow jersey, a green jersey, a polka-dot jersey, and a white jersey somewhere in the peloton. The most combative rider, chosen by a jury for style or aggressive riding, gets to wear a red bib number (other stage races may hand out a jersey for this designation as well). There's also the team classification, where the best three riders' time for each team for each stage are added up, and the shortest cumulative time from day to day determines the best team. That team gets to wear yellow bib numbers. With how well Team Sky did in the prologue, they get to be the first team wear the yellow numbers.

However, it's pretty hard to pick out the team prize leaders from watching television when the peloton is all scrunched up. So this year, the Tour organizers, ASO, came up with a solution to all that, as Team Sky explained in a tweet:

For people asking about the yellow helmets. It's a new rule brought in this year by the ASO to mark out the team prize leaders #TDF12
— Team Sky (@TeamSky) July 1, 2012

So how do they look? Team Sky tweeted a picture of the riders milling about before the race:

The team and our new helmets ready to roll out. What do you think? #TDF12 twitter.com/TeamSky/status…
— Team Sky (@TeamSky) July 1, 2012

You can see Mick Rogers in the background with his yellow bib numbers and his yellow helmet. It will be interesting to see how the other teams have done up their helmets, or whether pure block yellow was the official mandate from ASO.

SchmoBike 25,000!

Sometime this morning, my bike odometer hit 25,000 miles. Back in 2008, after owning the bike for 4 years, I hit 10,000 miles. Four years later, I've put on another 15,000 miles. Not bad. The only parts on the bike that are original are 1) the frame, 2) the wheel set, 3) the handlebars, 4) the seat post, and 5) the brake set. That's also not so bad, since the frame and wheels are most of the cost of a brand new bike.

Ronde van Vlaanderen

Yes, fools, brave, tough, hard, brash fools all.

I've never seen the Tour of Flanders live. I've seen it prepackaged long after I've read the headlines of the winner have flashed across the various cycling news sites I like. I've followed the the live chats from these sites, furiously hitting renew, refresh, reload buttons to be disappointed that those darn reporters have not typed out those hard to spell names in the 20 seconds I patiently afforded them to give me an update on whether some guy got dropped by some other guy coming out of the flat corners in the last 20 kms as they put their heads down against the winds. But this Sunday...

Pikachu Bicycle Helmet Cover!

Only in Japan, during a mamachari (mommy bicycle) relay race, will you see Pokemon cycling accessories:

Video here, via blog post from The Truth About Cars here.

Helmety Theft

I'm taking advantage of the free wifi at my hotel in Chico, (although for free broadband it's not very broad...) so I may as well post a Helmety Goodness Friday entry. So, let's talk about something the Empire, as in Empire Market, especially despises: shoplifting. Our favorite Day Shift Manager Chad walks us through his especially unforgiving tactics in discouraging, and disposing of, shoplifters. All too easy...

"You don't know; a shoplifter is a powerful enemy!"

Helmety Hackers

You know, most computer hackers are after data they can use, be it financial, industrial, military, or national security. But when it's Red vs. Blue, the antagonism runs so deep, that the two sides only want to use the data for the other side's eradication. In fact, the Reds are so spiteful, they even want to erase any mention of the Blues from public records. This raises an existential dilemma, however: do the Blues really exist if a search engine says "no records found"? I'll answer that by saying that a falling tree does make a sound when no one is around to hear it.


"What it means is what it's always meant: we rule, they suck."

Helmety Bailout

Now that the credit crunch bailout was passed by Congress, we've seen just how reassuring the government's actions have been to the stock market. Unfortunately, it wasn't just NOT reassuring, but also a big portion of the opposite of reassuring, since not only did the DOW drop about 1200 points in three days, but the rest of the world's stock markets plunged too. Meanwhile, the Blues in Red vs. Blue had the housing market collapse hit close to home, and their misfortune and poor judgment have affected the Reds as well. Hey, we're all in this together right? But will anyone learn not to loan money to people who can't afford to pay them back? Hmmm, we'll see...

"Hey Luigi, look at thisa helmet I found. Ima big space warrior! Pew, pew, pew!"

Helmety Ice Cream!

It may be Fall now, but in around here, it's still hot enough to welcome the corny music blaring from a refrigerated van offering sweet frozen goods. Popsicle power, indeed. In Quake Territories, it looks like it's always hot enough for the kiddies to start yelling, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for... Stroyent?"

"Captain, I'm a vege- geh!"

Helmety Dress Code

You may wonder: what qualifies something as "helmety goodness" anyway? Is it just the helmet? Or does someone's face need to be obscured, so that dialog must be simulated with mere head-bobbing? Well, we here at Helmety Goodness Fridays are all about inclusiveness, so I guess just the helmet is okay. Others may not be as forgiving as I...

"Should the employee have some sort of disfiguring injury, it is important that the injury be discretely covered."

Taking Care of Helmety Business

For the current incarnation of Red vs. Blue, a new character was introduced: Agent Washington. His job is probably the most bad-ass in the RvB universe, recovering the AI units which are the main villains in the story. And, he does his job without any backup. So, you can imagine, battle scenarios which may seem a little daunting to other Spartan units are just little hiccups on the road to completing his assignment. Yeah, he's just that good.

"Okay. Now can we go?"

Helmety Veto

It's often been said that the vice president of the United States of America has only two jobs: breaking a tie vote in the Senate, and to inquire on the health of the president. So really, that one vote can be really important, especially for a lone senator, and even more especially when that vote counts to override a presidential veto. However, veto power in Halo 3 is based on simple majority voting, but is no less important, particularly when you have to stop the mad, power-hungry demands of an ultra specific custom game.

"He hasn't said anything in a while; I don't think he's there."

Helmety Elections

In case you've been living in a cave, let me remind you that there's an election going on. And the difference in numbers between red and blue has never been closer. It really might come down to just one vote. Oh, wait. You think I've been talking about the American Presidential election? No, no, no. When I talk about red versus blue, I really mean Red vs. Blue. Hmm, they may have something to say about voting in elections too...

"That cat has an excellent foreign policy plan."

Missed Helmety Photo Op

I've posted a couple of pictures related to the Cool Breeze Century, where I rode the metric century (62 miles, but the route was only 58). Usually at these large organized rides, there's an official photographer, and his/her position will be marked on the route with a warning sign. Well, I say "usually," because we didn't get our warning sign, so I didn't even know when my picture was taken. And, also unfortunately, at the place where the photog was, some other dude carrying a camera crossed the road right in front of my little paceline, so we were concerned about that guy, who was on the other side of the road than the designated picture taker. Great. All five seconds of this happy exchange can be seen in the pictures below.

Going,	going,	gone!

I'm the dude in the green jersey in the middle, and you can see the random dude we latched on to pointing out the road hazard. My bike buddy Micah is right behind me. So, no awesome bike pose for me. Wah!

Helmety Language Barrier

As a fan of anime, I'm all about the subtitles. Sometimes, it's a little hard to follow the words along with the action on the screen, but that's what pause and rewind buttons are for (as opposed to pause, rewind, and super-slo-mo...). But usually subtitles add to cross cultural understanding, not detract from it. I guess it doesn't matter to Sarge very much, since he only hears what he wants to, no matter what language is spoken.

"Menos hablando, yendose."

Helmety Loneliness

Sarge, of the Red Team, is one of my favorite characters from the Red vs. Blue machinima series. A natural leader, he always knows how to tell someone what to do. And if he doesn't have anyone to order around, apparently, he also knows how to make some minions. It's easy if you know how to work with cardboard, duct tape, and broomsticks...

"I see them out there with their glowsticks and their tribal drumbeats."

Helmety Achievements

I don't own an Xbox 360, although since they lowered the price, I'm seriously considering purchasing one. However, one thing Microsoft added to keep the addiction level high, er, uh, I mean, the replayability of the console games was to add "achievements" to all their games through Xbox Live. This idea is similar to the medals Halo 2 handed out for certain things you did in the game, like a one-shot sniper kill without using the scope, except every game has them now, for redeemable "gold" in the Xbox Marketplace. And this gold business is like the tickets you used to get for high scores in Skeeball. Thank you, Microsoft, for reminding me of my Chuck E. Cheese experiences. Of course, the Red vs. Blue guys have their own opinions on these achievement thingies. Just so you know, the video seems to end early, but just fast forward to the last ten seconds. For you achievement whores, it's so totally worth it. For the rest of us, meh.

BLEEP BLOOP

Helmety Product Demonstration

A few weeks back, we saw a couple of different commercial genres trying to sell human-based stroyent (no accident that it reminds one of soylent green; it is made of people, somehow...). We had prescription drug testimonial and a gimmicky "as seen on TV" appliance, but we didn't have the product demonstration lab, complete with overly stimulated audience. Well, here you go. I guess the voice actors had to go with referencing that Aussie hand waver, only because trying to shoot for the ubiquitous Billy May would have required graphic intensive "beard enhancement."

"Order now, and receive this handsome, commemorative plate!"