Novel Times, Novel Measures

The virtual home of Lawrence S. Grodeska

October 23, 2006 • 5:15 pm 1

Total Information Awareness, aka Bavarian Illuminati

OK, this may be old news, but I just saw the logo for the Total Information Awareness Office of the National Security Administration again and can’t help but think of the all-seeing eye of Illuminati lore. Check this out:

total information awareness

What’s up with that? The Eye in the Pyramid shining down on the globe, specifically on both the South and North American Continents?! I ask you, innocent coincidence by hapless government flunkies or intentionally brazen signal of plans for world domination by a shadowy hand running a puppet regime? And how about the Latin tagline, “Scientia Est Potentia” — “Knowledge is Power”. Now that’s scary. Also notice the DARPA acronym, signifying the Prying Pentagon behind these new, well-funded snoops. Apparently, the data net that had been cast far and wide by TIA is being dumped into DARPA computers for who knows what unsavory ends.

Hey, I’m not making this stuff up, kids. Maybe the Illminati symbology in theTIA logo is just a coincidence. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a shadowy group trying to gain ultimate control over the plebes of the world — otherwise known as the Government of the United States of America.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Et Cetera, U.S. of A.

October 23, 2006 • 2:34 am 0

Project Fixie: To Scavenge and To Buy

Well, I’ve been reaaallllly slacking on posting the final photos of the fixed gear project. That is, of course, because I’ve been spending all of my free time riding my bike instead of writing about it. Funny, that.

But I get ahead of myself. Imagine you are transported back two months ago…I’ve just recounted which parts I was able to salvage from the old frame. Turns out, after scrounging the used bins at Re Cycles bike shop in Berkeley and coming up blank, I realized I was also able to resuse the crank set as well:

crank

This was a welcome suprise — though I overlooked them the first time around, the Sugino crank shafts and spider were just what I needed, actually of decent quality and saved me almost 75 smackers! You’ll also notice the cable housing that I pulled off the old bike which was put to good use.

As mentioned, the Sunday salvage trip didn’t turn up much aside from a pretty cool, old-school brake lever. Here’s a not-so-clear shot of the brake lever on the handlebars in mid-tape job:

flopped, chopped and wrapped

Since I wanted to finish the bike sometime this century, I decided to relent and started buying new parts. This was always part of the plan, especially a few key components for which new is much safer and easier than used. It took a while to assemble everything I needed, but these parts were fun to track down and envision fitting together. Here they are arranged for your viewing pleasure:

miscellaneous bicycle parts

Of particular interest is the chain — pregreased, I might add — along with the chain ring that is affixed to the spider on the drive-side crank arm by the chain ring nuts, as well as the cog which threads on the the back wheel and is held in place by the lock ring.

And there you have it — chain, chain ring, cog — that’s as complicated as it gets with fixed gears. Unless, of course, you are trying to convert an old frame from the 80′s that was built in Japan. Putting all these pieces together wasn’t quite so simple, as you will soon learn. Up next, the trials and trevails of Project Fixie!

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Et Cetera

Welcome internet traveller! You've reached the virtual home of LSG. Check back for aperiodic updates of words, images and ideas.
                       

TWITTER: @lsgrodeska

Categories

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.