Nice headline: High gas prices propel a new 'moped madness'

I wish I could ride a moped to work every day, but instead I have to drive a car because it's about 40 miles on freeways and over a major bridge and then out into rural Marin County. Anyway, there is nothing cooler than a vintage Vespa if you ask me, so I like this story:

High gas prices propel a new 'moped madness'

By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Tue Apr 25, 4:00 AM ET

ATLANTA - How it happened, Devin Biek still isn't exactly sure.

Infatuation with an Italian Vespa scooter led this resident of Elkhart, Ind., to an ad on eBay, a trip to Iowa, and a triumphant return with a 1978 Rizzato Califfo moped that wouldn't start. After its carburetor was de-gummed, the creature roared to life in a puff of blue exhaust.

Four years later, Mr. Biek is still hooked. "Once you ride one, you have to have one," he says. "It's consumed my entire life, and I have no real explanation for it."

The moped and its bigger, flashier cousin, the scooter, are swarming out of Jimmy Carter's America and into George W. Bush's republic - a movement propelled by soaring gasoline prices surpassing those of the late 1970s and by legions of Americans who take seriously the call for oil independence. If the serious intent is mixed with a little fun from "moped gangs" who call themselves the Heck's Angels or the Hardly Davidsons, so much the merrier.

Though Gen-Xers and baby boomers are among those flinging a leg over these two-wheelers, the vehicles may owe their newfound cachet to their embrace by a younger set. Sometimes called "the millennials," they are said to embody a sense of social purpose, adopt a "team" approach to life, and rebel from their elders by hewing to the small-scale. It's an attitude with a simple message: Small-bore is cool.

"This [moped resurgence] is a reflection of a deeper generational shift going on," says Neil Howe, a cultural historian and coauthor of "Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation." "The idea of a big, bad, dangerous gas-guzzling machine is not the millennial style. They prefer something that is not only socially responsible in a big sense, but also in a little sense: It makes less noise, and it's less likely to get them into an accident."

Though mopeds have conquered most of the globe, their acceptance in the United States has sputtered, at best.

But places like Atlanta - a temperate, young-blooded city where travel through interconnected neighborhoods is safe, and where Euro cool is evident in clothing shops and restaurants - the small-bore engine is increasingly seen as a fun, practical choice.

Scooter dealer Bill Gornto knew he was onto something after hurricane Katrina, when some gas pumps around Atlanta read $9 a gallon and people came in "looking like zombies." He said he became a "scooter therapist," selling a record 20 scooters that week. "I almost felt guilty about it," he says, "but then people were telling me, 'No, man, you're doing a good thing.' "

Atlanta commuter Jeff Smith never really saw himself as a motorcycle guy. But four months ago he bought a used Vespa and soon purchased a second, larger one that's fast enough to take on the interstate. "I worried people were going to say, 'Why are you riding your girlfriend's bike?' " says Mr. Smith. "But instead people stop me every day and ask: 'What is it? How many miles to the gallon does it get? And how much does it cost?' "

To be sure, US sales of small-bore cycles aren't yet at their peak - 300,000 units in 1978. But sales are up 500 percent since 1999, and rose from 83,000 units sold in 2004 to 130,000 in 2005, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council. A new moped starts at $1,000, and fancy scooters go for more than $5,000. What distinguishes the scooter from the motorcycle is mainly its small-bore engine and small-diameter tires.

In fact, the tattered denim jackets and faux toughness of moped enthusiasts are boldly tongue-in-cheek, open invitations to small-bore envy. While the age of the average scooter owner has nearly doubled in the past five years to over 40, cultural experts credit mopeds' acceptance to the cachet of the kids, who often travel in packs.

The Creatures of the Loin gang out of San Francisco's rough-and-tumble Tenderloin District grew from 25 to nearly 100 since 2004. In Chicago's Ukrainian Village, the Peddy Cash gang, bundled in wool caps, often ride into the wee hours. The Moped Army was founded in Kalamazoo, Mich., and boasts about 300 members. The subject of a documentary film and a comic book, the Army draws about 10,000 regular visitors to its website. Its motto: "Swarm and destroy."

The "millennial" generation, born just as the moped faded from American roads in the early 1980s, is the vehicle's perfect arbiter, some experts say. Coddled and safety-conscious, it also has an unapologetic sense of civic awareness. "This is a generation that has no need to prove themselves by riding around on a big motorcycle on the weekends; they're already cool," says Ann Fishman, CEO of Generational Targeted Marketing Corp. in New Orleans.

So far, the moped remains a stranger in a land where a full-size truck is a top-selling passenger vehicle. Fatalities of moped riders have doubled since 1999, to 100 in 2005. But nonfatal accidents dropped over the same period, from 6,000 to 5,000, says the National Safety Council in Itasca, Ill.

To many riders, everything about the moped makes sense. "There's the price, the gas mileage, the whole retro thing, belonging to a unique group," says Biek. "Besides that, they're phenomenal machines."

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Click this title to check gas prices anywhere in US

Thanks to George W's "outstanding" leadership (not), it looks like gas prices will be rising all summer.

Just enter your zip code in the site below, and it tells you which gas stations have the cheapest prices (and the highest) on gas in your zip code area. It's updated every evening.

http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip=&src=Netx

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Falling Ice, Not Once But Twice

*This is wild--these huge chunks of ice are randomly falling out of the sky. Of course it is assumed these are coming from airplanes, but it is an odd coincidence because this just happened recently in Oakland where I live, too. Here's the story:

Mysterious ice chunk falls in Loma Linda
by Elizabeth Fernandez, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, April 14, 2006

(04-14) 13:30 PDT LOMA LINDA (San Bernardino County) -- Oakland isn't the only California city to experience a mysterious chunk of ice hurtling from the sky this week. In Loma Linda, a block of ice estimated to be the size of a microwave oven crashed through a metal roof of a recreational center Thursday.

"I've been in the fire service for 31 years, I've heard and read about these things, but I've never seen this in person," said Rolland Crawford, division chief of the Loma Linda Fire Department.

Two tennis players were batting a ball around outside the Drayson Center at Loma Linda University Thursday morning when they heard a strange sound, Crawford said.

"They described it as the sound an artillery shell would make -- shoosh, shoosh," he said. "They looked up. They didn't see the ice, nor did they see a plane."

At the time, Loma Linda was enjoying a classic spring day, blue skies with not a cloud in sight and temperatures in the 60s.

The ice slammed into the gymnasium roof, pushing through metal, wood and insulation and landing near a wall. No one was injured and even the gym floor was spared damage.

Opaque, a brilliant white with black specks that might have been inflicted upon its crash landing, the ice tore a hole that measured about 2 1/2 feet by 1 foot, Crawford said.

While the slab broke apart on impact, the largest chunk retrieved was the size of a bowling ball. The university put that chunk into a freezer for safekeeping.

"The ice was not blue, it was not clear, it was completely white," Crawford said.

Crawford believes the ice toppled from a passing, unheard airplane. Loma Linda is in the flight path of aircraft flying to Ontario Airport with much additional air traffic heading east to Los Angeles International Airport.

"It's not a meteor," said Crawford. "Space objects tend to burn up--this looked like a piece of ice you'd find on the side of a road in the mountains."

The FAA will be investigating the incident and may have some answers in terms of identifying aircraft in the vicinity.

But some residents of Oakland, who experienced a similar phenomenon, are simply living with a mystery.

On Saturday morning, a giant chunk of ice splashed down on Bushrod Park along Shattuck Avenue. No one was injured by the ice which, like Loma Linda's was clear and created a similarly- sized crater measuring 2 feet wide and 1 1/2 feet deep.

The hazardous-materials team of the Oakland Fire Department analyzed the contents and found that the ice contained nothing more mysterious than water.

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Tsoknyi Rinpoche

I have had the good fortune to hear the Tibetan Dzogchen teacher Tsoknyi Rinpoche give teachings both last weekend in Berkeley and at Spirit Rock this week (where I now work). Today he discussed "rigpa" and how to work with it (pure awareness). Below I am including a basic bio on him. He is pretty young (maybe 35) and has a great sense of humor.

Here's the bio:

"Tsoknyi Rinpoche III was recognized by His Holiness the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa as the reincarnation of Drubwang Tsoknyi Rinpoche I. He is a renowned master of the Drukpa Kagyu and Nyingma traditions and the lineage holder of the Ratna Lingpa Lineage and the Tsoknyi Lineage.

Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s teachers were Kamtrul Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, his farther Tulku Urygen Rinpoche, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, as well as Adhi Rinpoche. Rinpoche is the abbot of Ngesdon Osel Ling Monastery in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. He is the abbot of two nunneries in Nepal, Chimey Gyatsa Gorgon Nunnery and Institute and Gechak Nunnery, as well as the abbot of one of the largest nunneries in Tibet, Gechak Gompa. Rinpoche also heads fifty-five monasteries in the eastern Tibetan region which practice exclusively the Tsoknyi Lineage and the Ratna Lingpa Lineage.

Ngesdon Osel Ling Monastery is his seat in the East. Yeshe Rangsal in Crestone Colorado is his seat in the West. Since 1991 Tsoknyi Rinpoche has been teaching in the Dzogchen tradition. He has students in many countries in Asia, Europe, the Near East, and South America, as well as Australia, Canada, Mexico and United States. Tsoknyi Rinpoche, communicating from the ancient teachings into the modern mind, is one of those rare teachers whose lighthearted yet illuminating style appeals to both beginners and advanced practitioners. This unique style is reflected in his books, Carefree Dignity and Fearless Simplicity."

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Always a fifth, eh?

In an online interview on The New Yorker website this week, Peter J. Boyer discusses the current plight of the Episcopal Church. Having grown up in a staunch Episcopalian family (Trinity Episcopal Church in Staunton, VA--complete with Tiffany stained glass windows), I found the following passage pretty amusing:

"Episcopalians, to people who aren’t Episcopalians, are country-club people. I grew up in an evangelical family, Pentecostals and so on—the Baptists were High Church to us. To most denominations, Episcopalians were people who went to a sandstone church with high arches and stained-glass windows, and were very proper. They always got out just on time so they could hurry over to the country club. The jokes were always things like “Whenever four Episcopalians get together, there’s always a fifth.” To people who were not Episcopalians, it was a very Cheever-y kind of culture. But, in truth, there has been a pronounced divide within the Episcopal Church, particularly lately. The leadership of the main body of the Western Church and the American Church has become, increasingly since the Second World War, the theologically liberal Church. Much the same has happened to many of the mainline denominations—big, old Protestant churches. As they have become more liberal, adventurous, and postmodern in their interpretations of the Bible, their pews have started to empty out. Their congregations get older, grayer, and sparser. And fervently faithful people have tended to leave and join megachurches or more evangelical denominations.

There is a concentrated, focussed, and deliberate plan within the Episcopal Church to reclaim it from the liberals."

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Depleted Uranium--Trojan Horse of Nuclear War

I just did a Google search and ran across this scary article about the use of depleted uranium by the US military on http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/.

I also want to go on record right now as stating emphatically that I am 100 percent opposed to ANY and ALL use of depleted uranium in U.S. weaponry. It is a crime against humanity, all other living beings, and the Earth. Now read the following:

"Since 1991, the United States has staged four wars using depleted uranium weaponry, illegal under all international treaties, conventions and agreements, as well as under the US military law. The continued use of this illegal radioactive weaponry, which has already contaminated vast regions with low level radiation and will contaminate other parts of the world over time, is indeed a world affair and an international issue. The deeper purpose is revealed by comparing regions now contaminated with depleted uranium — from Egypt, the Middle East, Central Asia and the northern half of India — to the US geostrategic imperatives described in Zbigniew Brzezinski’s 1997 book The Grand Chessboard. The fact is that the United States and its military partners have staged four nuclear wars, "slipping nukes under the wire" by using dirty bombs and dirty weapons in countries the US needs to control. Depleted uranium aerosols will permanently contaminate vast regions and slowly destroy the genetic future of populations living in those regions, where there are resources which the US must control, in order to establish and maintain American primacy.

Described as the Trojan Horse of nuclear war, depleted uranium is the weapon that keeps killing. The half-life of Uranium-238 is 4.5 billion years, the age of the earth. And, as Uranium-238 decays into daughter radioactive products, in four steps before turning into lead, it continues to release more radiation at each step. There is no way to turn it off, and there is no way to clean it up. It meets the US Government’s own definition of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

After forming microscopic and submicroscopic insoluble Uranium oxide particles on the battlefield, they remain suspended in air and travel around the earth as a radioactive component of atmospheric dust, contaminating the environment, indiscriminately killing, maiming and causing disease in all living things where rain, snow and moisture remove it from the atmosphere. Global radioactive contamination from atmospheric testing was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs, and still contaminates the atmosphere and lower orbital space today. The amount of low level radioactive pollution from depleted uranium released since 1991, is many times more (deposited internally in the body), than was released from atmospheric testing fallout."

Also, here's another disturbing recent article from http://www.makfax.com.mk:

Balkan syndrome - cause of death of 28 Italian soldiers

Rome, 14:11

As many as 28 Italian soldiers involved in UN missions in the Balkans have died of the so-called Balkan syndrome and other 158 soldiers have been reportedly ill, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quotes extracts from Defense Ministry's annual report submitted to parliament.

The report says testicular cancer, nephropathy and Hodgkin's lymphoma have been identified as cause of death of the Italian peacekeepers serving in the Balkans.

The report says the above mentioned diseases are likely to have been induced by exposure to depleted uranium. The trigger of the disease has not been scientifically confirmed thus far, nonetheless, cancer incidence among military personnel in the Balkans is said to be linked with uranium-tipped weapons.

The report further says that Pentagon has already acknowledged that during NATO-led air strikes on Yugoslavia, alliance's planes had fired nearly 11.000 missiles containing depleted uranium.

Falco Accame, Chairman of Defense Ministry's Board investigating cancer cases among Italian peacekeepers, said nobody could tell for sure that the diseases are linked to depleted uranium exposure, however, "we cannot rule out the link between DU weapons and the death of young people". /end/

http://www.makfax.com.mk/look/agencija/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=1&NrArticle=19613&NrIssue=429&NrSection=20

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