Showing posts with label american. Show all posts
Showing posts with label american. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
North American P 51 Mustang
North American P 51 Mustang
Produced by North American Aviation, the P-51 Mustang was one of the most successful, most famous aircraft in World War II. It was introduced on 1942, flew most of the time as long-range bomber escorts in raids over Germany, and also saw limited service in the Pacific Theatre. In the beginning of the Korean War, the P-51 had been the main fighter of the United Nations but was forced to convert into the ground attack role with the introduction of more and more jet planes. Nevertheless, it remained in service with some air forces until the early-1980s, an extraordinary long period of time for a fighter that was introduced in 1942.
Four North American P-51D Mustangs of the 375th Fighter Squadron.Available link for download
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Native American Bat Mitzvah and Barbie Construction Set
Native American Bat Mitzvah and Barbie Construction Set
This week I attended an unusual Bat Mitzvah ceremony performed according to Native American wisdom and customs. Bar/Bat Mitzvah is a Jewish celebration of youth maturity, which typically takes place at the age of 12 (girls) and 13 (boys). Traditionally they were held only for boys and signified a boy becoming old enough to follow religious commandments. With the wave of feminism that demanded equal rights for both genders, some non-orthodox Jews started celebrating maturity ceremonies for their daughters as well: Bat Mitzvahs.
The ceremony I attended was an intimate, women-only, spiritual gathering where our 12-year old relative was welcomed into the world of women. We ate (no religious celebration goes without it), played Native-American drums, learned a Native-American song, took turns to tell our wishes to the hostess and hang them on her giant dream-catcher. But, most importantly, we were empowered with the stories of traditional Native-American women wisdom. This may have been a free interpretation of their traditions but it still sounded good. We were reminded that Earth and Nature are of a female gender, that both nurture us all in; That spirit of a household centers on a woman, and if she is well everyone will be well, therefore it is important to take good care of ourselves physically, mentally and emotionally; That the average mom lacks thousands of hours of sleep yearly; That in the rush of our obligations to work, husband, kids we frequently forget ourselves; That sometimes it is important to do nothing and not feel guilty; That we should teach our daughters not to be servants of the needs of others. We were told that in the Native American households not the oldest son but the youngest daughter inherits the house or business she grew up in, her husband comes to live with her family because a woman defines a house; and that by Native American tradition younger women are taught by older women the wisdom of life. The latter reminded me of a girlfriend of mine, a manager at one of the big financial companies who went to a female VP of her company and asked to be mentored by her professionally. We were also told that in a fight for equality with men we frequently emulate them and lose our feminine traits. That while we fight our periods with pills and society defines pregnancy to be a professional disability, in the Native American communities menstruating women were gathered for a VIP treatments. This all was true and hard. While the younger girls at the ceremony enjoyed the celebration rituals, the older women reflected on how slow and painful such changes are in our still rather traditional society.
Two days later an article in NYTimes I discovered some surprising statistics that showed that we may be a bit further ahead in these transition than we think. It states that according to the latest Census Bureau data, one-fifth of fathers with preschool-age children and working wives said they were the primary caretaker in 2010. And 37.6 percent of working wives earned more than their husbands in 2011, up from 30.7 percent 10 years earlier. As women spend more time at work, men start to do more shopping. Hence the surge in male grooming products, male-targeted advertising and store rearrangements. Barbie and Lego both came up this year with house construction sets for girls, aiming at fathers looking for daughters presents and luring daughters into the engineering world with likable colors and context. These sets have been named "hot holiday toys" by Amazon and Target, and their sales doubled the predictions last year. But not only fathers are buying them. Emphasis on developmental toys has never been so high. Sociological research says that "playing with blocks, puzzles and construction toys helps children with spatial development. Children with better spatial thinking are more likely to eventually go into mathematics, engineering, science and technology." While the connections between Barbie construction set and true gender equality are vague, our awareness to the importance of nurturing scientific and engineering skills of our girls as we do with our boys is obviously on the rise. These skills may open many doors for our daughters and guarantee financial independence that many of their mothers and grandmothers didnt have. Financial independence will likely allow them to take better care of themselves physically, mentally and emotionally. As more women will be climbing up the professional ladder, the more comfortable and relaxed everyone on the ladder will be with feminine wisdom, nature and physiology. Unfortunately one thing we may not be able to solve - and this is a lack of mothers sleep.
Mega Blocks Barbie Build n Style set
Lego Friends construction set, image by eilonwy77, distributed under CCL.
Available link for download
Monday, March 27, 2017
North American Handmade Bicycle Show coming to Richmond
North American Handmade Bicycle Show coming to Richmond
The NAHBS is coming to the east coast, Virginia for that matter.
Velonews just announced the North American Handmade Bicycle Show is coming to Richmond, VA on February 26-28.
I am beside myself. Since almost the beginning of my bicycling career Ive been enamored with custom frames. It is just the ultimate culmination of two of my passions: cycling and making things. I just love the fact that you can make something. Actually anything whether it is a table, boxes, a fishing rod, a knife, but a bike, sheesh its my nirvana. Steel tubes, welding and paint. From a raw materials perspective, not much, but designed right its just a thing of beauty.
My very first local hero of cycling in Davis, CA was a local expert mountain bike racer, Kurt. Kurt, the ex..pert was the saying. Super super nice guy who helped me get into racing and would always offer tips on training and riding. Enough so that I forgive him for trying to shift my truck into reverse when going 55mph on the highway. He wasnt that good at driving stick and was going for the 5th gear overdrive and went to reverse instead. I also forgave him for taking us on a incredible epic without telling us how much food to bring. All I remember was this other guy, Mike, getting all pissed off at Kurts goofy smile and happy go lucky comments after 4 or 5 hours. Every time Kurt opened his mouth to say something, Mike would immediately talk over him and say..."Shortest way home, Kurt... Shortest way home".
Anyway, Kurt had a Rock Lobster hardtail. They were all hardtails back then. Deep burgandy with yellow decals with black letters. Man I loved that bike.
Years later when I finally had a little money, I decided to get a new frame. Turns out that I do not fit the typical mold. Ive got long legs and short torso, in fact my inseam is similar to some people 3-4 inches taller than me. So I decided to go the custom route and got a BREW. In fact got my wife one too.
Over the years I got a second BREW, went through a lugged road bike phase then a single speed cross phase, but I didnt design the geometry right on that, otherwise I would have kept it. Somewhere in there, I scored a custom Ti road frame on ebay. That might have been a keeper except the top tube was just too long and a short stem would not cut it, as it threw the handling off for my extremely fine tuned senses. I also didnt care for the feel of the Ti. It was light for sure and it definitely muted some of the road buzz, but no joke, to me it didnt have this little bit of liveliness that a good steel frames has.
And then moved to a TIG welded road frame. Which is my current love. That bike has hit the spot for the time being. Sometimes I want to not like a frame after a period of time so that I can justify going for a new one. This one is pretty darn perfect. But the wonderful thing is that the frame is the heart and everything else can be swapped on it to create a virtually new bike. A repaint, new wheels, a new shock, and you gotta new bike.
I think my favorite is the TIG welded frame, hardtail mtb and road. There is something really clean looking and utilitarian about it. But there is also a beauty to the lines of a good frame. Sometimes Ill be in the garage or basement where the bike is on a trainer and Ill just look at it. For several minutes at a time.
Years ago there were only a handful of builders and hardly any dedicated mountain bike builders. Recently, with the advent of the internet and resurgence of things like the single speed, 29ers, 650Bs, free ride-hardtails, hipster bikes, dedicated commuting bikes, beach/snow bikes, cyclocross...custom frames are in a golden age.
Youd think that with so many production companies out there who now offer many options in sizing that you wouldnt need to go custom unless you just wanted to. But take my road bike for example. Its got a 49cm Seat tube length (c-c) but only a 51.5 effective top tube length. Most road bikes that have that short a top tube, have much shorter seat tubes. I also got an upsloping top tube and a 14cm head tube length so that I wouldnt have to use one of those high rise stems in order to get the bars high enough for my inflexible back and hamstrings.
My wife is very petite, and even with the proliferation of womens specific road bikes, there are still few options for frames. There is still a market for customs from a hard to fit perspective, but its really about 1) having something that few others have; 2) supporting a small company/one person; 3) being able to bug someone on email every other day about the tiniest detail of the location of a cable stop and the gold fleck on the clear coat. Frame builders consider many potential customers and many of their actual customers to be time toilets, cause bike geeks can suck a lot of time from someone, and a $500 deposit is license for a desk jockey to email every day about their frame.
Id love to go to framebuilding school. There are a few other classes around the country and lots of online resources and some out of print books. Its one of those Im going to go sometime things, just got to find the time and allocate the funds. My bucket list is pretty much Go to frame building school.
Right now I want a single speed mountain bike. This is probably a passing fad and after a few weeks on Brush mountain Id be over it. But Ive tried the chain tensioner route and want a real singlespeed. I also want a commuter built on my road bike geometry.
I daydream about building and selling frames but highly doubt Id like to do that for a living, rather Id like to build a few a year... No hipster bikes though.
Available link for download
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
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