My apologies to Debbie Harry, but some headlines write themselves!
Canada’s National Do Not Call Registry went into effect September 30th. But registering only with the government’s registry doesn’t mean you can get through dinner without the annoyance of telemarketers calling just yet. Unfortunately, the legislation that made the registry a reality was considerably diluted before passing, thanks to the efforts of businesses, political parties, non-profits, and other groups eager to keep on ringing those phones.
But, you do have a couple of other options if you want to reduce the intrusions on your privacy. First of all, register your home address and phone number with the Canadian Marketing Association’s do not contact list. You can use this service to prevent CMA members from mailing, faxing, or calling you. It won’t however get rid of unaddressed flyers and advertising mail. You need to put a “No Junk Mail” sign on your mailbox to prevent that from happening. If you do so… and are still getting un-addressed solicitations, visit the Red Dot Campaign website for a letter you can download and send to Canada Post to restate your desire to eliminate unwanted and unnecessary mail. Your letter carrier should honor this request, although getting rid of those bundles of flyers thrown onto your porch from the sidewalk remains at this time, nearly impossible.
There’s also a third (and very effective) way to eliminate these bothersome missives. Canadian law professor Dr. Michael Geist has created ioptout.ca -- a website that takes care of the task of contacting organizations not bound by the do not call rules and specifically asking them to remove you from their lists. It lets you opt out on a global basis, or selectively, on the off chance you are dying to hear about the latest offer from a particular organization.
Registering with all three (Gov’t, CMA, and ioptout.ca) do not call lists took me about ten minutes. Getting removed from the lists can take up to two months, so some patience is required before the calls stop coming.
Registering with any or all three of these services will not prevent you from receiving un-addressed materials from the House of Commons, electoral information from all three levels of government, or community newspapers.
One of the great advantages of our age is that we can find the information or products we seek with a simple web search. Google has become sophisticated enough to serve up ads relevant to our interests based upon the websites we visit. The argument that advertisers need to reach out to us is increasingly invalid. Successful advertising in the 21st century has more to do with delivering a compelling argument to choose a particular brand, to those customers who’ve already demonstrated an interest in something, rather than spamming the universe in the hope that a few folks might be convinced to check out your service or product. Propping up a dying way of doing business at the expense of an individual’s privacy and precious free time is, to my mind, a disservice to everyone. Further, I believe the argument that pollsters need to hear our thoughts for politicians to govern effectively is specious. If interviewing a few hundred people is supposedly indicative of the public mood 99% of the time, nineteen times out of twenty (whatever that gobbledy-gook means!), then surely a simple read of the letters to the editor of any newspaper, or the comments section of online news sites is just as indicative of public perception, and doesn’t require bothering people with (often) manipulative questions when they are at home with their families.
Good luck getting rid of the unsolicited intrusions… and in making your telephone and mailbox tools that help you, rather than appliances that herald annoyance and interruption. Oh, and if you’re in the market for some writing or video editing services, please take a look at my website and feel free to call or email. You’re the type of person I do want to hear from!
My Sony laptop died on the 20th, hence the long break between posts. One would think technology might last longer than three weeks (the time between purchase and watching the screen go black… never to work again). Yes, one would think that… and spend the rest of their road trip wondering what important emails one was missing and lamenting the lack of new content with which to delight my legions of fans. Well, Mom anyways.
Shelton McMurphey Johnson House, Eugene OR
To their credit, London Drugs is replacing the machine and giving me a good deal on retrieving the data from my hard drive.
Enough about the vagaries of technology however, who doesn’t have a horror story involving a reliance on computers being thwarted?
The Good:
Watching Sam Whittingham break a world record and seeing how all the competitors at the World Human Powered Speed Challenge exhibited ‘Spirit of the Game’ in the finest fashion, from volunteering with running the event, to helping other riders out with parts, advice, and good wishes. A great bunch and an incredibly cool event. Who knew standing around the desert waiting for a biker to zip by in a carbon-fiber capsule could be so much fun?
Kudos to Amtrak personnel and the transit workers and drivers of Washington. With only a couple of exceptions, they were invariably helpful, pleasant, and eager to assist.
Cold beer in convenience stores and gas stations. Nothing better after 8 hours of riding than knowing a frosty beverage is as close as the nearest corner store. Extra points for the ginormous cans!
Eugene, Oregon. One can see why college towns are such desirable places to live, especially when cruising down quiet streets at the start of the school year; autumn’s onset delivering a slight briskness to the air. Factor in eating establishments that have heard of cuisine beyond the deep fryer and you’ve got an oasis for anyone whose tastes don’t include a side of ranch dressing… for French fries.
The Nevada landscape at sunrise and sunset. When you’re raised on mountains, ocean, and evergreens, dry scrub, faraway hills, and expansive skies are a novelty.
Getting a flat tire, realizing your pump is broken, but then being told by a helpful local that a heavy-duty mechanic shop is about a hundred paces away. Lemons… meet lemonade, in the form of Cliff the Myrtle Creek mechanic and his handy-dandy air compressor.
The I-5. Wide shoulders and direct routes made this very busy highway a good idea when I wanted to rack up the miles.
The Bad: The I-5. Aforementioned wide shoulders were usually littered with glass and tire remnants. The constant drone of traffic wears you down eventually too. Having the shoulder narrow at bridges and overpasses makes no sense at all. Hey, let’s make it more dangerous for cyclists right where it’s already more dangerous! I’d also like to extend a middle finger to the jerk in the cargo van who nearly clipped me on a bridge outside of Roseburg. The one and only time I actually thought I was a goner on the whole trip. Grab a brain moron!
Bus-sized RVs towing SUVs. C’mon, that’s not camping. History will judge you… to be bereft of any sense of obligation to our children and grandchildren. Or maybe I’m just bitter. Hauling 100 pounds of bike and gear over too many summits tends to leave one looking askance at people doing it the easy way.
Religion in politics. The flag and Jesus appear to be central to the American psyche. You see and hear a lot concerning the two. And, on their own, there’s room for both. The frequency with which they are combined however, left me feeling like I was living the prologue to A Handmaid’s Tale. Frankly, I think one could make the argument you can either be a patriot, or a Christian, but not both simultaneously, in that the former preaches division and exclusion, while the latter is a belief system based on acceptance and inclusion. But that’s just me.
The Ugly: Aboard the Amtrak train, two older gentleman… one from Texas, the other a transplanted Englishman. Once they get around to talking about Obama, English asshole says, “I lived in Africa and let me tell you, apartheid works.”
Chris bites tongue and resists urge to kick the bloody English racist right in his Union Jacks.
Oh, but it gets better. The Lone Star loser replies with, “Yeah, we brought ‘em over here, gave ‘em jobs and food, now they act like we owe them something.”
By now I’m grinning the maniacal smile of someone resisting the urge to deliver a lecture to senior citizens on how, after this much time on the planet, their utter stupidity concerning the realities of history and discrimination makes them fools of the first order. I leave the observation lounge instead… and return to my seat wondering how people get to be so ignorant in these supposedly enlightened times.
Thankfully, that was my only outstanding negative experience. For the most part I found every American I crossed paths with to be friendly, helpful, and more than willing to engage a stranger, especially compared to the stand-offishness we tend to exhibit in Canada.
Public art to remember Japanese internment and the Nisei soldiers who served with distinction during the Second World War - Eugene OR.
I’m thinking next year it’ll be the September in Nevada tour. Burning Man, Battle Mountain, and then Interbike in Vegas. Anybody want to come on a road trip?
Sam Whittingham, the Canadian cyclist and bike builder who has dominated the sport of HPV racing for nearly a decade, pedaled his Varna Diablo III recumbent bike to a new world record speed of 82.3 mph (132 kph) late Thursday, under conditions that veterans of the World Human Powered Speed Challenge were calling the best they’d ever seen. Whittingham, who has been making this annual trek to the high plains of Nevada since the late 90’s, has been unsuccessful in bettering his 81.5 mph mark for six years. This year however, Whittingham rode the Georgi Georgiev designed and built Varna streamliner through the 200 meter speed trap in just over five seconds, becoming the first person to go faster than one tenth the speed of sound solely under his own power.
“I’ve been knocking on this door for years,” said Whittingham just before his record-breaking run. “I want in!”
He had already posted a 79 mph and 80 mph run during the week of racing (Sept. 15 - 20) but the achievement also means a big payday for Sam, as he will claim the $26,748 deciMach prize as the first rider to clock an 82 mph top speed on the long, flat stretch of highway outside of Battle Mountain known as SR 305. What makes the achievement even more remarkable, is the fact that it was Whittingham’s second run of the day, after an 80 mph run in the morning. In a sport where the riders are usually pulled from their machines so oxygen-starved that they can barely stand, after five minutes of maximum pedaling effort inside an aerodynamic capsule with little or no air circulation, one speed run a day is the norm -- to allow time for their bodies to recover. Whittingham could conceivably have ruined his chances of a better run on Friday or Saturday with the double duty, but unlike many Nevada wagers, this one paid off.
Hot, still air is ideal for pushing the enclosed recumbent bikes to their maximum speed -- exactly the conditions that prevailed Thursday evening. Whittingham, who is a household name in this little-known sport, had a picture-perfect start, quickly disappearing from sight amidst the heat shimmer of the arrow straight, two lane blacktop road. Just five minutes later Whittingham tumbled out of the bike to wild cheers from spectators and volunteers, cementing his claim to the title of world’s fastest man.
Whittingham's 82 mph run sets a new world record
video: Chris Keam, Earl Cassorla
Whittingham has crashed at over 70 miles per hour before, with the Varna alternately bouncing and flying down the highway, like a stone skipped over a pond. He’s ridden the Battle Mountain course more than anyone. But even without the record-breaking achievement to make it memorable, Thursday night’s run is one Whittingham will never forget.
“I was flying down the course, but I was getting bumped around like crazy,” said Whittingham after the run. “That was one of the scarier runs of my life, because I’ve never gone that fast ever before!”
Speeds continue to creep upwards at the Human Powered Speed Challenge, but so did the wind velocity during the Tuesday evening runs, wreaking havoc on expectations for the most speed-friendly weather of the week. Sam Whittingham and Fred Markham are still the two fastest riders at the event. “Fast” Freddy clocked the higest speed of the night, posting a 72.05 mph run despite the cross winds buffeting the course and bedevilling the riders’ efforts. In fact, Freddy was too fast for my camera work, blowing by my position well ahead of the chase car I was using as a reference point to try to spot his sleek black Easy Varna during its run. I talked to Freddy just before the afternoon session however, to get a sense of what it’s like to chase the title of word’s fastest self-propelled human.
"Fast" Freddy Markham
Whittingham remains fast, but a timing malfunction left him without an official time for his second run of the event. He’s reported to have been above 70 mph again. At this point Sam’s record-setting 81 mph run from 2002 still stands, but there’s little doubt that he’d love to claim the $25,000 deciMach prize by officially exceeding the 82 mph mark.
Whittingham signs kids' drawings of HPVs at the Battle Mountain civic center on Tuesday afternoon.
Whittingham's unofficial 70-plus mph run
Other notable action -- the Orion trike piloted by Chuck Royalty reaches 66.08 mph, now the fastest HPV trike ever.
Orion Speedtrike's record-setting run on Tuesday
Can Chuck and bike designer Raymond Gage hold on to this accomplishment? Georgi Georgiev has an unearthly-looking camera trike waiting in the wings and it would be no surprise to see it perform a little of that Varna magic if and when it hits the course.
The latest Georgi Georgiev creation
Warren Beauchamp gets a little help from his friends as Georgi and Steve Nash assist him to put a smaller rear cog on his bike -- to achieve a higher top speed without over-revving at the pedals. Beauchamp ups his top speed, recording a 61.80 run.
Warren Beauchamp's Tuesday effort
Ellen Van Vugt is still the fastest woman at this year’s event with a 62.92 run on Tuesday, while Jason Erickson’s first run in yet another Varna clone, the Varnator, delivers a 60-plus mph run as well.
Good conditions prevailed on Monday, during Day One of competition at the 2008 World Human Powered Speed Challenge, with riders posting very respectable times and looking forward to even higher speeds today.
Once again the Varna machines have proven themselves – Georgi Georgiev designed bikes delivered the top two speeds in the men’s division , with a Varna clone built by Steve Nash clocking the fastest woman’s run.
Perennial favourite Sam Whittingham has to feel good about his chances to crack the 82 mph deciMach barrier (one tenth the speed of sound) this year. Whittingham went through the speed traps in the Varna Diablo III at 79.76 mph to post the fastest speed on the day and the third fastest run ever. With four more days of racing on tap, it appears this could be the year the Canadian makes history. Hot on his heels and eager to dethrone the genial king of Battle Mountain however, are American Fred Markham and Hollander Hans Wessel. Markham posted a top speed of 70.02 mph in his Varna Mephisto to take second place on the day and become the fastest over-50 rider in history, while Wessel was a close third, clocking a top speed of 68.48 in the Mertens/Van Vugt Speedhawk. That effort has given Wessel the title of second fastest European rider ever. Only Damjan Zabovnik has gone faster... and he's not here this year, so Wessel has the top spot in his sights.
Ellen Van Vugt was the only female rider on the course on Monday, but she didn’t let lack of competition quench her thirst for speed. Van Vugt rode her Steve Nash-built Varnowski at a speed of 57.70 through the timing area... the sixth fastest time overall.
Conditions for Tuesday are again looking ideal, with clear skies and hot temperatures forecast. Event Organizers Al and Alice Krause will let the racers make their runs as early as possible in today’s afternoon session, hoping hotter temperatures will let riders take advantage of the higher speed potential available when they slice through the warmer air in their aerodynamic machines.
Below, shaky video of Whittingham and Markham. Today I’ll be standing further away and hoping to improve MY performance, as a cameraman chronicling the exploits of these daring and creative teams.
Sept . 12, 2008 – 7:35pm, somewhere between Eugene and Klamath Falls, Oregon.
Can one stall a train? Apparently, yes. The scheduled stop at Eugene lasts longer than expected when the locomotive decides it’s more loco than motive. We wait, and wait. Of course, mere minutes after the conductor says we can disembark to stretch our legs, the engine comes back to life and we are hurried back aboard to continue our journey. Traveling south, the forests change. For a life-long resident of the B.C. coast, the abundance of deciduous trees are a novelty, as are the pine forests -- when one is more used to the firs and cedars that characterize the Wet Coast. It grows darker earlier too, the moon already up and about, moving across the sky, watching over us.
Boxing a bike is easier than I thought. Delighted to see a Momentum magazine at the local coffee shop where I'm frantically checking email and writing this post twenty minutes before the boarding call for the train.
More when I get to Sacramento, including, hopefully, some nice pictures from the Coast Starlight train trip
Sunset on Chuckanut Drive – Sept. 10/08 Photo: Chris Keam
Sept. 11 9:00am – One mile south of Larrabee State Park I crossed the into the US border yesterday afternoon at the Peace Arch border crossing . I didn’t ask Border Protection Officer Engels if he’s any relation to Marx’s good buddy Fredrich. This seems prudent as humour doesn’t appear to be his strong suit. Also, I have no desire to see my penchant for trivia turn into a good reason to be refused entry to the USA. He’s already less than impressed by my destination, which he’s never heard of, not to mention the idea of bike racing in the Nevada desert. He asks me what kind of bikes, I say recumbents... the kind you lay down on. He just shoves my passport and drivers licence back to me. Clearly my story is too bizarre to be made up and I’m too much hassle for even a cursory search of my baggage. It’s back roads all the way to Ferndale, where the Visitor Information lady plies me with the touring cyclist’s favourite schwag... free maps. Her recommendation to take the old Pacific Highway is a good one. It gets me most of the way to Bellingham without too much traffic to contend with. Dinner at the Chuckanut Brewery and Kitchen –a microbrew Helles and sweet chilli beef salad is inhaled with gusto before an evening ride to Larrabee State Park, pitching, a tent in the dark, then a cup of hot tea and to bed. I aim for an early start but settle for being on the road at 8:45am. All’s well for an entire mile. Traffic accident and road closure! Time to break out the laptop and compose this entry. It will be about an hour before it opens, still less than going back and around. The bigger bummer is the lack of breakfast. I’d planned on eating at the first town I hit along the way. Fortunately, some nearby blackberry bushes are providing a little sustenance while I wait and I have my stove and camp espresso maker at hand. When in doubt, make a cup of joe.
Sept. 11 – 11pm Finally in Seattle, at the Days Inn, after twelve hours on the bike or bus, an awesome chilli dog at Polly’s Java Shack, various Gatorades, a Propel caffeinated water, one popsicle, a love/hate relationship with the I-5 that turns to wistful remembrance when I have to exit it outside of Everett, one wrong turn shortly thereafter, a new friend made at the Everett bus stop, and three beers and a turkey and swiss at the Hurricane Grill across the street from the hotel. Today’s notable quote, the girl who gets on the Seattle 510 Express and begs off paying the fare with, “I just got out of jail.” Gotta try that sometime! Tomorrow, the train to Sacramento.
Roadkill count to date: Unidentifiable white fur – probably a cat One raccoon One rabbit One small squirrel One really big rat One garter snake One seagull One small brown bird, probably a sparrow.
One of my favourite films is the Spencer Tracy classic Bad Day At Black Rock. It's not about someone taking the brown acid at Burning Man. It's set in a tiny town in the Arizona desert. In the opening scene, Tracy disembarks with just a suitcase, at a small train station in the middle of nowhere. Luckily for him, he isn't going to Battle Mountain, Nevada and bringing a bike, a laptop, a couple of cameras, camping gear, clothes for two weeks on the road, extra water bottles, bike tools, etc, etc. Because if he was, he'd have to disembark at Reno. As will I. 168 miles from where I'm going, rather than the 50-ish miles I'd be riding if the nearby town of Winnemucca had a train station.
In planning my trip I sought advice from the Washington Bike Alliance. Mark Canizaro helped me figure out which bus I could take from Everett to downtown Seattle (Thanks Mark!)... but it was his offhand remark about boxing my bike for the Coast Starlight train trip from Seattle to Sacramento that sent me scrambling to the Amtrak website. In reserving my tickets, the agent told me airily I could put my bike on the train as "checked baggage". I imagined the delightfully convenient experience of rolling my bike onto some special freight car, (a service they do offer on some trains) racking it, and marveling at the forward-thinking nature and 21st century-ishness of such an experience. Alas, it is not to be. I'll be pulling off pedals, loosening handlebars, turning down bar-ends, and generally monkey-wrenching to get my machine box-ready for the trip. Which is a drag, but so it goes. The real hassle is the lack of train station at Winnemucca, which means if you want to get off there, all you can take with you is two pieces of carry-on luggage. Cue the extra hundred miles of riding. With what seems like a hundred pounds of bike and gear. Nevada is pretty flat right? How hard can self-propelled, online reporting from obscure places on the high plains of the continental U.S. be anyway? Let's find out.
Follow all the action of the Human Powered Speed Challenge 2008 right here. I’ll be travelling to Nevada and filing daily reports as Sam Whittingham of Quadra Island attempts to pedal the Varna Diablo III (designed by Georgi Georgiev) faster than his current record of 81 mph. For more information on this event, look for my article about the race to be the fastest self-propelled human in the world, soon to be published in The Tyee (thetyee.ca).
Sam Whittingham prepares for his first qualifying run in the fourth version of the Varna Diablo
Beautiful paint on "Fast" Freddy Markham's machine
Sam's second run -- this time in the Diablo 3
Built for speed, not comfort
Volunteer spirit makes the event a success
