Old Leather Jacket
When I was 19 or so I got it in my head that I wanted a leather concert jacket. It was this biker type jacket that actually had zipper removable sleeves. I'm just trying to think why someone would cut the sleeves off their leather jacket. Well, The Who were coming to the Astro Dome that year. The jacket went on sale and I ordered the official tour jacket. $200. I got my parents to put it on their American Express Card. My dad said "wait till the bill comes in to give me the money." He has always been a fair man. I got the jacket and loved it. I'm waring it as I type. It is freezing in here. When the bill came in, the company had double billed us. My parents contested the charge via American Express. The company apparently double billed everyone, because they went out of business. My parents never ended up paying the bill. I never even went to the concert.
On a different note; Recently, Cynthia and I helped Katelyn put a blog together. She has recently given it up and gotten on with her life. Well she just turned fifteen. Which means my jacket is older than she is. I bought it in the Spring. She was born in the Fall. Yee-gads, I'm old.

Pedestrian Points
I've ridden with several people who say things like "The chick pushing the baby carriage is worth double points." I have said stupid things like that myself. The simple fact is that people behind the wheel of a car feel a superiority to those walking down the street. Our cities, particularly Houston, are designed for cars, not pedestrians. Someone is paying attention. Some cities are trying to make a difference. I say the change needs to come in those who drive, not those who walk.

A private study released Thursday concluded that sprawling, newer cities in the South and West tend to be built with wide, high-speed roads that are especially dangerous for walking. "So much of our transportation system is designed for cars and only cars," said Anne Canby, president of the Surface Transportation Policy Project, which issued the report. The group advocates balanced transportation. ...  "Wide roads, speeding traffic and a lack of crosswalks or sidewalks can make walking a deadly activity," the report said. "There simply are not enough pedestrian facilities." ...  "It's changing the culture so the person in the SUV on the cell phone knows that it's their responsibility to stop and respect the pedestrians," Yahoo News (AP)

It is just like everything else. It takes a huge stack of bodies before any one pays attention. Tobacco kills more people than guns. Drunk drivers kill more people than died in some wars. One child stubbys a toe on a slide in Kentucky and they are all band.

Ornethopter

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a nutty professor and his flying machine. This is straight out of one of those old Disney flicks from the fifties.

"It feels like going over a speed bump every second. It is a little like being on a vibra-bed," DeLaurier said. "I don't think the ornithopter will have any practical advantages for commercial vehicles." Nonetheless, microplanes with flapping wings could prove to be of interest to the military, because such a vehicle can achieve lift quickly. Ornithopter drones can also hover. SRI International and the University of Toronto a few years ago created a hovering plane called the Mentor for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency project. CNet News