I don’t have a lot of kind things to say to most journalists these days. The fourth estate has failed us badly over the past eight years of patriot acts, wire-taps and torture policies. But as always there’s an exception. Melissa Block and Robert Siegel were in China’s Sichuan Province covering other stories when the earthquake hit. The reports they’ve been filing are both incredibly compassionate and professional, painting a picture with their words and ambient audio that the talking heads on CNN could never come close too. 

Follow their blog or find your local NPR station. 

The iphone camera isn’t half bad and surprisingly easy to use while driving…

The Big-Apple to Big-Easy Rally is technically defined as an ‘American Banger Rally’. The goal– to take a car who’s total cost/value is no more than $250 and drive it from New York to New Orleans over Memorial Day weekend.

The vehicle must cost less than $250. If you did not purchase the car you must provide a signed witness statement from someone stating that they feel $250 is on the expensive side as a valuation for your car. An accompanying photo of them laughing themselves senseless upon first site of the car is a plus.

It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. - Sir Edmund Hillary.

The self-described bee keeper, philanthropist, and first person (along with Tenzing Norgay) to climb Everest, back when no one was really sure if it could be done, died to day at 88. Here’s hoping there’s some type of climbing and exploring fun in the afterlife.

In my continued efforts to not leave the site alone for more than a month at a time, I’ve created an unholy marriage of two javascripts - the random image puller, and the lightbox script - so that I now have random lightboxed images in the banner of the site.

Useful ? no. Cool ? Probably not. No Idea what the hell I’m talking about ? Me neither, just click the pretty picture at the top of the page, fun things should happen.

This could be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

The Air Race is not just about speed - precision is crucial to success because any mistakes incur penalty points which are then added to the pilot’s time. Flying low to the ground at speeds that can reach 400kph, while attempting difficult turning manoeuvres, requires immense skill that only a certain number of pilots in the world possess. That is why the pilots are hand selected based upon their expertise and experience. These pilots are at the top of their game. They have to be – the Air Race exerts huge demands on their flying abilities and they have to withstand forces of up to 10G. There is no room for error.

More badassedness available here, with additional YouTube fun here.

I’m a long-time fan of This American Life, but hadn’t seen the Showtime adaption of the radio series until now. Extremely well done. You think we’ve solved racism in America ? Think again.
(FYI - this is pretty PG-13 in terms of language - it is on Showtime after all )

What’d you do this Saturday ? We (ill-advisedly) stood in the lake and watched people fling themselves off a two story ramp, wishing (particularly given some of my previous projects), that we’d gotten in on the fun. Sponsored by everyones favorite form of legal, liquid crack. See the photos here.

I’m not trying to brag or anything but I’ve been around more than a few of the various out-doorsy scenes around this town. The mountain bikers, road biker, rope climbers, boulderers, gym-rats, running people, tri-people, stoner-backpackers, kayakers – the list goes on. The rowing dock people though, are probably the most interesting (from a people perspective), the most diverse for sure. Old, young, fat, skinny, tall, short - take your pick. The old guys that run the dock are what imagine myself being like as an older cyclist - as knowledgeable as they are cranky. A fine example is Sommers. I don’t know if this is the guy’s first or last name, but he seems really cool until you screw something up (which no matter what you do, you will screw something up around this dude) after which his handlebar mustache just exudes dismay-for-the youth-of tomorrow. Once you get ‘the look’ you’re pretty much left with the options of running away, or drowning yourself in the lake in the hope that your death will at least give him hope for the world, as there will now be one less asshat screwing up his day.

Take yesterday. After spending the entire day recovering from Saturday night, I decide to go for a row. As I’m getting setup I glance up to see what looks like half the 15 to 17-year-old population of Austin, in sit-on-top kayaks heading my way. A part of some ill-conceived youth outing. I imagine it was a similar feeling to the Japanese at Guadalcanal, looking out over the pacific and seeing nothing but American ships and slowly contemplating how monumentally screwed they were. Thus, in my haste to get the hell out of dodge, I didn’t push off from the dock hard enough, while simultaneously some freak gale decided to fire down the lake at precisely the wrong moment.

The result was chaos: I got pushed into two other rowing shells, and passel of giggling high school girls who had less of a clue as to what to do than I did. Finally the trip leader for the kayak excursion essentially tugboated me out of the traffic snarl. Quite humiliating. As I’m getting pushed to freedom, there’s Sommers standing on the dock, staring directly at me - the cause of the wretched clusterfuck . He stands there perfectly still for a moment, while his mustache imperceptibly twitches. Then his mouth flattens into an underscore and he shakes his head ever so slightly, walking away, leaving me to pursue option one of the Sommers-scorn-avoidance plan.

Like I said. It’s an interesting scene.

When you check out theses pictures, cue up the theme to the Magnificent Seven, Chariots of fire, or if you’re a dork like me and bought the soundtrack to Off Road to Athens that would work best. My Pictures | Jeremy’s Pictures.