Pick #269

Sufjan Stevens - "Casimir Pulaski Day" from Come On, Feel the Illinoise

Black Wednesday

I saw on the news tonight that some crazy people are camping in front of stores to be first in line for Black Friday.  They're skipping their Thanksgiving with families just to save a couple bucks.  At least the weather's not too bad here.  This must be a miserable strategy up north.

Dog Catches Ball with Paws!

This is Purin the Super Beagle.  He does all kinds of cool tricks.  Check out his other vids on YouTube.

Pimp Your Bike Wheels

I just found Hokey Spokes.  They're like Pimp Star for your bike.

Crazy Bikes

Unsanctioned Racing

This is amazing.  Pearl Izumi is the "unofficial shoe of unsanctioned racing."  They have a facebook page where you can create an unsanctioned race and people can sign up.  P.I. will give you some stuff for your race!  Amazing.  I'm thinking about making one.  Maybe put it together for the next tri TT...open it up to everyone!  If you're at all interested in unsanctioned racing, totally check this out!!

Pick #268

Eddie Rabbitt - "I Love a Rainy Night"

Mixed Use Development in Railroad Square

If you haven't seen, there is going to be a mixed use development in Railroad Square.  I think All Saints is going to be super pissed about the coffee shop in there.  I also don't know how well the ingress/egress is going to work with that tiny little stop sign and a traffic light one block south of there.  Some of the floor plans look insanely tiny.

I really like the idea of building using otherwise-rotting shipping containers.  The location is good for students.  I wonder what they mean by "below market" rents and who is going to pay the difference.

As for the site, I'm not sure where the buildings are going to go unless they tear down The Other Side.  There doesn't seem to be enough land between the road and the canal.  I'm looking forward to seeing something start to take shape in that space though.

Crazy Cycling Deals

There are a couple sites that provide really good deals on cycling stuff one item at a time.  The sales usually last for about 30-45 minutes.  The ones that I was introduced to are Bonktown and ChainLove.  I found a sweet pair of MTB shoes for $20 on one of them but they didn't have my size.  Maybe you'll have better luck.

Pick #267

John Michael Montgomery - "Life's a Dance"

Why Are We So Sensitive About Teachers?

Rick Scott just signed a "Teacher Merit" bill into law. It basically requires new teachers (and old ones who opt into the new system) to be evaluated annually with threat of being fired. No more tenure. Teachers are outraged. Name another job that has tenure. Why would you ever make a policy that you cannot fire a teacher? Bad teachers need to go. Let's chop at least the bottom 10% every year.

Admittedly, I don't think that standardized tests should be weighted too heavily in teacher assessment. Peer and student feedback along with maybe video analysis and demonstration of student work should all play in.  We need to bust up some teachers unions and not let them get away with silly demands.

Pick #266

Sr. Trepador - "Dejame entrarte"

I think they sound kind of like Hombres G. Definitely españoles.

Old Swedish Bicycle

This bike was my great grandfather's. It came over from Sweden when he did. My grandmother told me stories about riding around on the back of it when she was a little girl.

It's really amazing to see how similar this bike (from the 1920s if memory serves) is to modern bikes and yet there are some big differences.

Among the differences, not the handle bar grips, the 45° rear facing drop outs, the fold-up front rack, and the angle of the seat tube (if you're in to that sort of thing).

This bike looks really sweet and would be an amazing restoration project. I wonder if the spokes are strong enough to ride on and what size the wheels are. I bet there are some weird sized things that used to be the standard and are now difficult to locate. The single speed aspect (I'm assuming there's a coaster brake because I don't see any other brakes) would make it difficult to ride in Tally but not so bad on the coast.

Student Loan Forgiveness Demands from Occupy Wall Street

It makes no sense for the government to forgive student loans.

First of all, there was an agreement between the creditor and the debtor about how the money would be repaid. The balance sheet cannot be wiped clean. Someone must pay the debt or creditors will stop lending money to students. I do not want the government to pay the debt. They spend too much money already. It's unfair to take tax dollars from someone who did not have a child go to college or who had one go on full ride scholarships and make that person pay for an unknown beneficiary of the government.

Next, from an efficiency standpoint, it doesn't make sense to give money to college graduates. They are going to have higher earning potentials than the less educated of their cohort. Forgiving $50,000 in student loans for an individual might lower their monthly obligations by a couple hundred dollars, but will they spend all of that? If you gave that same money to 50 poor people in the sum of $1,000 each, the poor would spend that money a lot faster and probably on more "needed" stuff than the former students.