Fallen Into Knowledge

Here is another, about half way into the ride, taken while re-grouping

Here we are just before leaving on the ride - I would estimate between 200-300 people total rode.

I just now got back from this month’s Critical Mass, and as I’m sure will be reported heavily on the local news tonite, the Mayor, Tom Potter, rode with us (as previously noted, see below). When I asked him why he wanted to ride with us, he responded that he had received conflicting reports on the movement from those who rode and the police the are inevitably our escort; so he wanted to see for himself what this was all about. He also noted that he had just planned on showing up - this wasn’t supposed to be a media event. But it was - it seemed as though every local TV station was filming and reporters were present from every local newspaper. Also, since the word got out about the mayors riding with us, there were hundreds of cyclists present.
I talked with some of the people there and got the vibe that many people who want to participate in the ride haven’t because of the stories of police “harassment,” but given the mayors presence now felt comfortable.
It was an enjoyable, peaceful ride. I only heard a few directions from the police escort - all aimed at preventing cyclists from breaking the law - and only saw a few angry drivers, most of whom quickly had a bicycle police officer talking with them. It was a good ride! It will be very encouraging if we see people come back to do it again next month.

On a lighter note…here is a page-full of photoshopped Mars pictures. Not all of the photos are the greatest in skill or taste, but there are some gems in thar web space. Filter wisely.

The genetic modification of foodstuff is a tricky issue: clearly some modifications, like when a tomato is no longer vegetarian-friendly, can be labeled “frankenfood.” But does modifying a seed to make it more resistant to disease as difference of degree or kind? How much should a consumer be told? RDD This exhibit is thought provoking.

Here is a link to some audio files of N.T. Wright talking about the church. As if hearing Wright talk about the church wasn’t interesting enough, his audience for these lectures is an Emerging Church Conference. Fascinating indeed!
Future of the People of God talks | open source theology

This is an interesting story, both in the traditional sense - the subject matter is interesting (its about people in my age group), and also in another sense - I hadn’t thought of myself as too unusual in this respect. That is, the article describes the life/growing up patterns of those between 21 and 31 as being novel in many ways, but since I am in the midst of those experiences that the article describes (not only I, but also most of the people I spend a significant amount of time with) I hadn’t considered my experiences to be unusual.
Why is it taking longer for us to become fully naturalized adults (married/family/financial independent/home owners)?
1. We are poorer (I, for one have never managed to break the poverty line)
2. School takes longer, is more expensive, and has less impact on our future financial well-being (and, oh, what a combination that makes)
3. Job security is harder to come by.
Those seem to be the tree main reasons that the article posits for this phenomena. Those three things are definitely true, and are certainly factors, but I think that there is something else that the article mentions in a (one) sentence that is more important than the above considerations: We have lost faith. Fulfillment, having a sense of purpose, a vocation (as opposed to a career): This is deemed more important than the finantial well being - or “entering adulthood.” That is to say, I think that my generation is a generation of idealists in a world without clear ideals. We do not believe in previous generation’s version(s) of success - but neither are we sure what our definition of success should be. We have lost faith, and we are determined to find it. And finding it takes time. And finding it looks to many people (including some of the people in the linked article) liike wandering. But we are not - we are dissatisfied with the world that we have grown up into, and so we are trying to shape a new world (or at least a place in the world) that we can be satisfied with/in.
the online version of this article is truncated - I advise you to find the print versionTIME Magazine: Grow Up? Not So Fast
BTW This rambling is officially a rough draft.

I just finished watching the trailer for the upcoming movie “kingdom of heaven. Given the world climate right now I am less than excited about Americans producing a movie about the Knights Templar, to whatever extent that the movie may or may not be based on history. No matter how we slice it, the Crusades are a touchy subject, and certainly not something the west should be glorifying. I am disturbed.
Kingdom of Heaven

“Portland’s mayor is tentatively scheduled to ride with Critical Mass through downtown.
Less than a month on the job, the mayor will be riding with the same bunch of freewheelers who were left feeling dragged through the gear grease by his predecessor.
The monthly bicycle ride is supposed to be a celebration of Portland’s bike culture and a protest of automobile dominance. But former Mayor Vera Katz and the Police Bureau saw it as a public-safety problem, in need of a serious crackdown.
No pedaling violation became too small for the dozen or so motorcycle and bicycle cops who chased the riders monthly. The Critical Mass riders say the constant torrent of tickets is harassment and a waste of limited city money.
Apparently, Potter wants to pedal with the pack and judge for himself.”

This spot marks an absent post. Someone, rightfully, objected to the post, and so I have deleted it. I had offered a link to a new site, Overheard in the Office, which in its first three days looked mighty funny, and so I linked to it so as to share the amusement. However, the quality of the humor, as was noted by the anonymous comment, deteriorated rapidly. I apologize to that reader of this blog, I did not intend to endorse humor that is crude, nor do I endorse such humor.