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Trevor Blake: The Cyclists [LINK-ZUM]

A google search for "portland bike fight" will reveal a species of tension in my fair city. I know this tension personally, having relied on bike / bus / foot since 1992 yet now my preferred means of transportation is being besmirched by others. It seems that Portland is far from the only city where this tension is happening, and I am far from the only person who doesn't care for it. What can be done about The Cyclists?

Labels: portland, transportation, trevorblake

Trevor Blake: Steamagineer [LINK-ZUM]

An enraged steamagineer gives the business to a robot president. Public domain, as has been most of my work for more that twenty years. The difference between this idea / image and most of my work is that the option exists to purchase it on a mug or t-shirt.

Labels: art, commerce, fight, transportation, trevorblake

Kevin Kelly: The Unclear Origins of Oil [LINK-ZUM]

Crude oil is almost $140 per barrel. By now you'd think we would know where it comes from. No one really knows. The conventional wisdom is that oil descends from algae from eons ago. Lots and lots of algae. Unimaginable mounds of dead algae in quantities no longer found on this planet, pressed, and cooked into hydrocarbon liquids. Thus: fossil fuel. Others, notably the Russians, have an alternative theory that oil comes from non-biological carbon compounds deep in this planet, like the methane oceans we find on other planets. [...] An emerging third theory is that bacteria living within rocks produce oil. In this theory there is a biological component (the bacteria) which constitute the oil-generating process, but the originating material in not degraded organic material, but rather geological carbon gases. The path is carbon gas --> bug --> oil.

[Article continues at link. My father has been talking about this for years. - Trevor Blake]

Labels: science, transportation

Trevor Blake: Bird Nest [LINK-ZUM]

This sign, photographed on 11 July 2007 in Portland OR, is no longer there.

Labels: art, commerce, portland, transportation, trevorblake

Trevor Blake: Baljinder Badesha of Brampton [LINK-ZUM]

In September 2005, Baljinder Badesha was charged with the crime of riding a motorcycle without a helmet. Mr. Badesha countered by saying that as a Sikh he is required to wear a turban whenever he leaves his home and that nothing can touch his turban, therefore he is unable to comply with the law in this matter. The State hired a professional engineer to simulate wearing a turban while riding a motorcycle. This was done by placing a turban on a mannequin head and subjecting the mannequin head to 300 kph winds in a wind tunnel. The turban in a turbine unwound, which the State used as evidence that it was a danger to Mr. Badesha and to other riders. Mr. Badesha then rode his motorcycle on a close speedway at 110 kph to demonstrate that his turban would not unwind. The State has further claimed that since it will pay the medical bills of Mr. Badesha should he be injured in a motorcycle accident, the State has a reason to insist on his safe use of a motorcycle. The case continues to make its way through the courts.

Many of my favorite topics are woven into this story. Ancient superstition is trumping common sense and personal safety. The State is demonstrating it can't demonstrate justification for its laws. No simple answer appears in accomodating public safety versus individual choice, or superstition versus the secular state, or socialized medicine versus un-asked-for 'care' from the State. My view counts for nothing here, but perhaps a suitable compromise might be that Mr. Badesha should be allowed to ride without a helmet and the State should be relieved of providing him medical care should be be injured while riding without a helmet.

Labels: islam, theocracy, transportation

Trevor Blake: Milestones [LINK-ZUM]

Today, for the first time in my life, a person significantly younger than me offered me their seat on the bus. I was delighted and declined their offer.

Labels: portland, transportation, trevorblake

Trevor Blake: Headlights [LINK-ZUM]