Did you know? Apparently there are now 25 megaton nuclear bombs. Know how powerful one stick of dynamite is? Well, one of those nuclear bombs is as powerful as 50 billion pounds of dynamite. With a B. Okay, so if they exploded one of these over my apartment? It would wipe Denton off the face of the earth. And it would catch a whole, whole lot of Lewisville, too. The fallout would kill everyone in D/FW within a few hours. Now, let's say they busted out 100 of those suckers on the country. Why don't you go here and try out this fun Blast Mapper yerself?

Nintendo is suing the company that owns Daily Radar. Not sure what motivation they have, but the lawsuit concerns an "unauthorized" guide Imagine Media did on one of Nintendo's Pokemon "games". Screenshots, it seems, now violate copyright laws or so Nintendo thinks. Imagine Media is powerful. They publish many magazines and run several websites. Of course they're taking the knee-jerk reaction, but they almost have a point. I just don't see how this is in any way a good business decision for NOA.

Update: Powell was confirmed as Secretary of State, by unanimous decision. Finally, something most everyone can agree on. Can you imagine if he ever ran for office?

News flash: riding in airplanes frequently has been connected with a higher risk of cancer. Something to do with cosmic radiation..............

So how 'bout those Mavericks, eh? Two stunning comebacks in two nights. Thursday's game will probably go down in the highlight books. Down by 22 in the first quarter, down by 13 with a minute left in the game, they sank 3 3-pointers and had the best luck with the best free-throw shooter on the other team missing 4, yes, 4 free-throws in the last minute... they brought it to overtime and then won easily in OT. I really want to see a Mavs game this year, they're doing very well.

Superbowl. Giants vs. Ravens. I guess I'd have to pick the Ravens. I think they show a more balanced attack, and I also think the Giants got huge luck last week against the Vikes. I'm not too excited about either team. I really wanted to see Tennessee vs. the Vikes.

I was thinking about how fast a bike needs to be for me to be completely satisfied with it. While I really like the idea of a 7 lb. per HP ratio (about Interceptor/B12/FJ level), I'm gonna go a lot more conservative and say a bike should be able to do the � in under 13 seconds, 0-80 in under 7 seconds, and have a top speed over 120 mph. That's very conservative! Consider that the fastest stock bike right now does the � in under 10 seconds, 0-80 in 4.1 seconds, and has a top speed over 190, and you can see I think I'll be satisfied with a middle of the line bike. I can hardly even conceive of how quickly a lightly modified Busa accelerates, but I can also say my 454 at 75% is an exhilirating thrill ride which sets the heart to flutter and pastes a grin on the face. And it's a big step down from my target range above. Garsh, when did Camaro Z28-level acceleration start seeming pokey? My Stealth is fast. My 454 is faster. WAAAAY faster. The world is a beautiful place. I love life. Spring and summer are paradise. The streets will be paved with gold.

The thing is that I'm not real big on top speed. True, a steady 100 mph in a car feels very much like a steady 20 mph in a car inertia-wise--there are no forces acting on your body; while 100 mph on a bike FEELS like 100 mph, or rather about 150 mph, because of the wind and the open air and the closeness with your environment. But still, I'm much more into the acceleration portion of our ride. I don't think I'll be trying to go much faster than oh 70 on the 454, maybe 90 on my next bike. Unless I go to track school.

Okay, it's now time for those tax cuts to take effect. Not for me, it's for my family. I wouldn't say they're hurting, but you can't buy a $50,000 car (and pay cash), cut your hours down from 56 to 40, rennovate two whole rooms in the house, have the kind of Christmas everyone had, and stare rising social security taxes in the face (a self-employed person pays BOTH ends of his social security tax and one end of all his employees' social security tax) without feeling a little lean. The tax burden my family has is a little absurd considering they receive right next to zero benefits for it. Can I just say, my father really isn't getting his $80,000 worth (ss and fit)?

Today we saw a BMW Z8 on the highway. It's a $140,000 car. It has neon brakelights. It is fast.

Dean Kamen, the inventor, says Ginger is "a bigger deal than the internet". Steve Jobs says of IT, that cities will have to architected around IT. It's not known what Ginger is. Is it transportation? Sonictherapy? An orgasmotron? Oops. I had a picture of one artist's conception of a possibility... but the link suddenly went bad. Hmmm. Anyway, it was a one-wheeled scooter-type thing that you stand up straight on. Yah, I don't think that thing would qualify as being a bigger deal than the internet either. I guess you can read about IT here

E.

My friend Jesse is becoming quite the handy man with Perl/html type stuff. You should see his next diaryland design. When it's finished.

AND NOW... some gratuitous bike pictures.

First, here is the new Aprilia. Let's hear the great and powerful aaahhs. Notice the matte paint, very popular in Italy. Aprilia is just eating Ducati alive these days in the supertwin class. Adam is supposed to get one of these.

Here is a new friend of mine named 1fastchick. A sizzling hottie (also very nice and a smarty) who rides a sizzling bike, an R6 with Stage 3 tuning and one size lower sprocket on the FRONT! Do you know how insanely quick that bike is with her lithe form piloting it?? Oh my god, the engine's only pushing 5 pounds per HP. We're talking world-class almighty power.

Kerb rides this. Look at that engine. That's right, Honda, of all companies, stuffed a gigantic SIX cylinder engine into this touring/cruising bike. The Valkyrie was a watershed moment for Japanese bike makers.

sgimonger/|AoC|Irix, the guy who wants nepenthe on his team, rides this. It's a bone-stock R1 (stock except it's been factory-tuned for the thin Colorado air). Superbike of the year, three years running.

Evan is the youngest member of the CTA. He rides a small Virago 250 (illegally, of course), but more interestingly, he built this mini-bike himself! Evan is a mechanical genius. There are pics of him wheelying this little bike!

And this is CSL, kind of the organizer of the CTA. He rides one of the most stunning looking bikes I've ever laid eyes on, a Falco, but his first love is dirt riding. This is him on some sort of motocrosser (looks like a four stroke).

Last but not least, two pictures of the bike which was for me the ultimate superbike while I was growing up. Yah, I know, I spent a lot of fast time on the Z1, and it was most definitely fast, but the FJ was IT! This was how a superbike was supposed to look and sound. If I could find one of these... oh mama.