funny site: conservapedia

I read an article about a website called conservapedia. It's a website that is designed to compete with wikipedia, but says things the way that conservatives would like to hear them. It's quite funny because it's supposed to be more neutral than the "liberal" wikipedia, however there is an undeniable slant. For instance, "war on terror" has an extremely brief entry compared to wikipedia, with no mention of controversy or public opposition to the war. The entry for George W. Bush is also similary glowing, with no negative or controversial statements about his presidency. When the entry talks about the economy during his presidential term, the only things credited are increasing CEO salaries, and doubling of oil company profits. Yep, that pretty much sums up the interests of the current administration! This is definitely one of the funniest websites I have seen to date. Even though I'm studying business, I really hope that I don't turn into an greedy elitist pig. Some sense of social equality would be great. I guess I could always go live in Sweden, but apparently it is very liberal and socialist (hence evil). Despite paying the same percentage of income tax, all Swedes enjoy universal health care, social services and free education. Sounds like socialism is really not working for those scandanavians.

titanium tourer link

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/bikearthride
Here's the link to the aforementioned round the world tourer. Pictures weren't ready yesterday, but I'll try again today. Cheers!

pics tomorrow

my photos will be ready to pick up tomorrow, and I'm pretty excited to see them, although I don't expect very good image quality.

I've been reading some different touring blogs, and I'm pretty surprised at how much stuff some people actually bring along. One person started a 3 year, around the world bike tour, and I'm amazed at all the extra stuff he is willing to carry. His bike is a monster custom titanium rig that uses extra thick tubing and weighs probably 40 pounds, and he pulls a trailer, and all together has mounts for 14 water bottles, and he carries 20 liters of water per day. In addition, he has front and rear racks, full size rear panniers, what looks like a metal handlebar bag and a gigantic container in his trailer. He also has a giant tent AND a hammock. And an alarm for his bike. And a laptop computer. Is all of that really necessary? I could see needing some of that stuff at different times, but carrying it all from the start? I never found myself carrying more than 3.5 liters of water at a time on my trip to Italy, and there were some hot days. I could understand bringing 20 liters around if crossing a desert, but riding in the US and going through towns almost every day, I find it a bit much. I also have a buddy touring Australia right now with a laptop computer, and while I would rather carry 5 extra pounds of food, or another book, he loves having it. I could never justify bringing more than the bare essentials for survival, plus a journal and a small music player. I guess people's needs are different, as well as their goals. Some people want to take a shower every day and make touring a high-tech experience, and while I may personally might think it is excessive to ride a 150 pound rig, I am absolutely glad that people are interested in touring and riding bikes in general. The aforementioned tourer has obviously put a lot of planning into his rig and his trip, and I definitely wish him all the best, but I wonder if he will begin shedding some of the unnecessary items along the way.

another 3 nation tour

I just arrived back from my tour to Venice from Augsburg! I left on Friday afternoon, and shared a train ticket with Bodil. She continued on to Munich to visit our friend Candyse, and I began my trip. I was able to camp in a real campsite every day except that first one, where I found a clump of trees in the Bavarian countryside to set up my tent in. Here are a couple of pictures that Bodil took of my departure.
Watch out, this bike means business!There were quite a few other bike tourists on the train, and like the vast majority of trains in Germany, this one had a car that was dedicated to holding only bikes. The other people were starting their tours in Munich.
Just about to leave the trains station on my trip! I packed light enough that my tent, and helmet fit inside of my panniers in addition to clothes, tools, etc.

I'll be developing my disposable cameras soon, and I hope the pictures came out okay. More stores from the tour then. It rained for 3 of the 8 days I was riding, and of course I didn't bring any rain gear despite having a lightweight gore-tex shell, and a rain cape. I also didn't bring a sleeping bag, opting instead for my wool bag liner. I was cold almost every night! Other than that, the trip was a blast, and I was very impressed with the infrastructure for cycling in Italy. I rode on a bike trail that could have been built six months ago, and was obviously cleared regularly. Every couple of kilometers, there were picnic tables and bike racks for taking breaks during a tour.

On the last day, it was raining, and there were no campsites between the lake I was at and Venice, so I just rode all the way there. I left at 8am, and didn't get across the bridge to the city until 10:30pm. It was a total of 160km or so (102 miles), which I am very proud about riding with panniers. It was a pretty miserable ride, and my clothing was soaked all day, but my bike didn't let me down, except for a bent tooth on the small chainring during an extremely rough mountain bike section of the path.

I spent the night in a campsite near Venice, and they were kind enough to store my luggage and bike on Saturday when I went to explore the city. I caught a night train back to Munich, and eventually arrived back in Reutlingen at about 12:30.