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Local cyclist Frank Glandorf has this interactive map of the 500 bicycle related crashes that occurred between 2004 and 2007 in Cincinnati.
The map starts Downtown—it's based on Google Maps—but you can grab it and move it all around. It shows where 1, 2, 3 and 4+ accidents have happened. I found it really useful to scan my daily route between Norwood and CityBeat and see where others have been hit.
- Stephen Carter-Novotni
Photo via Wiki Commons
The Business Courier is reporting that Cincinnati's Central Riverfront Park will include bicycling facilities, rentals, a repair shop and (most importantly for serious bikers) a shower for two-wheel commuters.
Central Riverfront Park means the Banks development, btw. A PDF of the park plans is here.
Thanks to the good folks at Queen City Bike for the lead.
- Stephen Carter-Novotni
Photo via Wiki Commons
Walk Score is a free online tool where you can enter your address (or the address of your prospective home) and get a score on how walkable your neighborhood is. Mine scored a 68 out of 100 and the neighborhood where I hope to move is a 91. The online app also yields a map populated with dining, entertainment, community resources and shops.
San Francisco scores at the top while Jacksonville is lost in the mire at #40 among US cities. Downtown Cincinnati's score is 89.
Thanks to Trent at the Simple Dollar blog and his story on reducing the number of cars in his household.
- Stephen Carter-Novotni
Photo of a Tokyo street via Wiki Commons
This isn't particularly healthy, but cheap stuff always makes me smile.
Busken Bakery
is celebrating its 80th anniversary. Coffee and a donut is 10 cents for today (July 29) only.
Grab one, but just one!
- Stephen Carter-Novotni
Last night I managed to complete a very simple DIY conversion I'd been wanting to get to for some time. I moved all of the ugly cords, streaming from my computer and its components up under my desk, freeing myself from the trip hazards of the traditional silicon rats nest.
Here's a link to some other ideas on how to execute, but it's all pretty simple:
1) Find a power strip that can accompany all your gear and mount it underneath your work area. Mine needed two short screws and slid right into place. I actually used a t-square ruler this time, so I only had to drill once.
2) Wind the cords into short lengths, leaving just the amount you need to stream over the top and power your devices.
3) Secure your bundles and guide the wires to your devices using electrical anchors. You can kind of see these in the pic I took from under my desk. These are short (1") plastic bridges with nails on either side. These are very sharp, so be careful! Put the wire underneath and hammer them in place. These are usually used inside your walls to run power lines. I used anchors to hold up the power supply boxes, which usually add to my floor mess.
Bonus: As you can see in the link, you can also mount hard drives, WiFi transmitters and more up underneath.
- Stephen Carter-Novotni
NPR has this excellent audio report on young children with gender identity issues—children born anatomically as boys who believe they are girls. (They say gender identity "problems" in the story, though I hesitate to repeat this assertion. Maybe the problem belongs to society, not these kids.)
In the story two different sets of parents with children with these issues explain the paths they walked with their extraordinary children: The east coast parents tried to suppress their son's preference for behaving as a girl, taking all of his girl's toys away. The west coast parents allowed their son to make the switch, starting school as a girl.
The psychologists speaking in the story disagree about which course is best. If you discourage the trans behavior, are you suppressing the child's "real" identity? If you assist the child in living as the opposite gender are you pushing a child with a flexible identity into becoming someone they only think they really are?
I tend to think that gender identity is fixed at a very young age, though it's very hard to separate out the acculturation that we as parents encourage. I wouldn't be intellectually honest if I didn't acknowledge my own uncertainty about this.
- Stephen Carter-Novotni
(Photo from Wikimedia Commons - A transwoman with "XY" written on her hand at a Paris demonstration in 2005.)
Since the enactment of Title IX in 1972, young women (at least in theory) have the same access to school sports programs as young men. In Michael Sokolove’s book Warrior Girls: Protecting Our Daughters Against the Injury Epidemic in Women’s Sports the author says that the incidence of women's sports injuries has risen dramatically.
Sokolove argues that a combination of coaching women that disregards that their bodies are different from mens, a lack of cross training and a tendency for women to try and prove themselves by overdoing it during workouts has caused the rise in debilitating injuries.
Fresh Air has this interview with the author. The first chapter of the book is at this link as well.
(Photo from Wiki Commons)
- Stephen Carter-Novotni
It's worth a tad more than you paid for it.
The folks over at Life Hacker offer up free digital fitness guides. Included are computerized fitness diaries, tunes to sweat along with, working out with sledgehammers and going from zero to 100 push ups in six weeks.
- Stephen Carter-Novotni
Today was the third time I attended the Contemporary Arts Center's 44, a sort of lunch hour variety show that runs every Monday from noon-2 p.m. (So maybe we'll call it "lunch hours". I guess it depends on how long you can slip away from your office.)
Every week the CAC hosts a different performer (typically a musical act, but there's always a performance aspect) and serves lunch to those folks who've ordered it ($10) by the previous Friday. (I am never this organized.) You can bring your lunch, too. The draw is usually upwards of 30 other city dwellers.
Anyway, it's a lot of fun and I've enjoyed two Art Noise acts like today's performance by C. Spencer Yeh and a Cincinnati Opera performance. I find these acts to be engaging and meditative, which beats the normal office lunchtime gossip.
The picture, courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Center is of Yeh's drummer. He's blowing through some sort of device onto the face of the drum. His performance was given to palsy-like thrashes and sways.
Check out the schedule here.
- Stephen Carter-Novotni
