A-bike

2007-03-31
“So named because of its "A" like shape in use, the A-bike is designed to be folded and unfolded* in under 10 seconds with a 3 click telescopic mechanism, to a folded size just 67 x 30 x 16 cm.
Heat treated aluminum and high strength glass fibre reinforced engineering polymer constitute the majority of the frame. Weight: 5.6kg.
The internal twin chain gearing system is totally encased at the rear. Pedal cadence remains the same as a normal bike.”.
The A-bike, from Sinclair Research.
A-bike

Right: A-bike, from Binch Shin’s photo.
Requires Flash Player; *requires Quick Time Player.

Categories : Uncategorized

Fallacies

2007-03-29

“These pages provide information about a variety of informal fallacies.
Put roughly, a fallacy is a mistake in reasoning.”.
(Michael C. LaBossiere)
For example:

Appeal to Common Practice

“If what is moral is determined by what is commonly practiced, then this argument:

  • Most people do X.
  • Therefore X is morally correct.

would not be a fallacy. This would however entail some odd results.

For example, imagine that there are only 100 people on earth.
60 of them do not steal or cheat and 40 do.
At this time, stealing and cheating would be wrong.

The next day, a natural disaster kills 30 of the 60 people who do not cheat or steal.
Now it is morally correct to cheat and steal.

Thus, it would be possible to change the moral order of the world to one’s view simply by eliminating those who disagree.”.

Reasoning: Fallacies, by Michael C. LaBossiere, from Opifex Phoenix.

Extract reproduced under ©Dr. Michael C. LaBossiere.

Categories : psychology

Strida

2007-03-25

“The Strida is the only folding bike that is greaseless, corrosion resistant, and virtually maintenance free. It’s also the world’s lightest folding production bike and can easily be rolled when folded.”.

strida

“The beauty of the Strida is its simplicity.
In addition, many common ailments of a standard bike (loose headset, rusty chain, warped rims, tire/brake pad wear, worn chain ring teeth, gear trouble, etc) have been engineered out of the Strida. You pedal, you go.”.

(From the FAQ on strida.nl)Above: Strida 3, from gum.hk.

Categories : technology

Bennett Robot Works

2007-03-19
“These robot sculptures are made form a mixture of found objects which are both old and new.

The materials are wood, metal, bakelite, glass, plastic, rubber and paint.

Each robot takes about a month to build.
They are not meant to be a toy.
New robots are always in the works.”.

Bennett Robot Works, by Gordon Bennet.

Galileo

Right: Galileo, ©Bennet Robot Works.

Categories : art

Headphoneland

2007-03-17
David “My name is Gavin Mullan and I’m living in Belfast.

I’m eighteen and I’ve been taking photographs since I was about 16, and only recently realized how much I love to do it.”.

Headphoneland, a photoblog by Gavin Mullan.

Above: David, portrait detail, from the headphoneland archives.

Headphoneland’s content is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs License.

Categories : photo