iPod = Death
While biking down in D.C., Joel has noticed the same thing I have here Boston. People are turning into idiots in their efforts to shut out the city. Or iPods highlight the inherent selfishness of people in the public sphere. I am not sure which. He’s designed this logo which I think would make a fine sticker campaign along the Charles River Trail.
It’s not only the runners at fault for deteriorating trail etiquette, blaring their iPods so they can’t hear you screaming “On Your Left!” and ringing your little bell. Cyclists biking too fast in busy sections of trail, without lights, passing without warning, and often with their own iPods, bear responsibility, perhaps more so. Cycling with an iPod is like riding in the dark with sunglasses. No matter how slow you cycle, you are still moving too fast to willfully block out the environment around you.
In the hierarchy of use, we must yield to pedestrians, even the ones with their wandering minds weaving on the trail having their own mental “Rocky” moment. Yielding is hard to do if they can’t even hear you. So in addition to wanting a “Nano” for no notable need, I have been thinking about getting an ear-splitting air horn for my bike to remind the sonically absorbed joggers that other folks are on the trail.
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8 Comments
there are two issues….
the safety issue
and
the notion that these people are missing the world around them
(well… there are more than two issues)
I blogged about “the new beach” some time ago
seems that people can not live in the momement
http://gwadzilla.blogspot.com/archives/2005_03_13_gwadzilla_archive.html
there is so much to witness in front of us
but the technology is preventing us from seeing it
as a child our family took long painful family trips from our various east coast cities to visit family in the mid-west
we did this without GameBoys, Travel DVD Players, or even headphones
we passed the time looking at the cars around us
counting cows or spotting deer
admiring vast open landscapes with little houses and big barns
there were billboards
there were Stuckey Stops
we even convinced our parents to stop at some of the “kitchy” tourist destinations of times past
there was Ruby Falls and Mammoth Cave
we took brief stops at Civil War battle grounds and maybe a second at a scenic overlook
remember… we were still trying to “make good time”
so we could not really soak it all in
but
we saw more than an LCD screen
…drives me crazy here on the trails around Mpls!
Maybe the answer isn’t a horn, but a cattle prod…battery-powered, enough for one good ZOT if an iPodder is weaving your way. It could make one’s headlight batter multi-use…. :-]
– TOB
You know you want an Air Zound really, don’t you?
Also I’m looking forward to the day when portable EMP weapons are available. Unfortunately right now “portable EMP weapons” means “fits into the back of a van”…
Bingo. HERF not EMP; from http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2004/05/journal_homemad.html:
* Extreme lethality for electronic components (and fuel systems).
* Repair is extremely difficult — it requires high level systems analysis.
* Replenishment is easy (nothing except power is expended).
* Scalable size (a weapon that weighs less than 10 lbs is possible).
* Limited collateral damage.
I daresay it’s not entirely impossible to hook up a battery to a dynamo to be able to recharge at will, too…
Obvisouly Steve, you’ve got a bit more freedom up there in Canada to be surfing the web looking at kooky terrorist/anti-terrorist weapons. I’d be a bit afraid Gonzales and Cheney are looking at my internet logs.
Now on this Microwave Beam…do you think you could hook it up to a dyno-hub?
Normally, I don’t like to kvetch on my blog, saving those gloomy keystrokes for unhappy teenagers and the maladjusted, but while I am complaining about these small daily annoyances (instead of drilling in the ANWR for example), I’m going to add: I really hate how more and more people are showing up at the post office to mail things but box and label them at the counter while everyone in line waits. Those people really get on my nerves.
Well, I just did a bit of looking around. A typical microwave oven (which is really all you need) pulls down 1200 watts, at 120V that’s a 10 amp draw (gotta love the easy maths here). The SLA battery for my bike lights to give a comparison is (if I recall correctly) 6V, and will power the 15W lights for an hour, so I figure the draw’s 2.5 amps. Needless to say this isn’t going to power a 10A draw for very long (it’ll probably be a race between the hookup wire melting and the batteries inside going pop), so I think it’s going to take a car battery to provide sufficient current.
That said… the pdf linked to in the article I linked was talking about power output in the range of milliwatts/cm^2, so in theory it should be possible to scale this down to a short distance, low energy weapon. You wouldn’t be able to run it directly off a dynamo, but you should be able to charge up some chunky capacitors that’ll be the power source.
Of course, this is all handwaving, as I don’t have any experience building microwave equipment – all my experience has been low voltage comms stuff (modems, specifically).
People being unprepared pisses me off too. It always amazes me at MEC how many people get to the head of the queue and then are surprised they have to show their membership card for scanning – despite the fact it happens every time they buy from MEC. Muppets.
So Steve,
What you are telling me is that with a car batter stapped to the my rear rack, a lead vest, and the guts of a microwave oven mounted on my helmet, I could zap the iPoder’s to a deafening silence?
It sounds like a piece of technological cake. I’ll get Vic working on it right away!
Or better yet, perhaps I could hide in the bushes and create a hidden zap zone by the Harvard Bridge!
Hmmm….the mind reels at the possibilities…and unfortunatley, the dark uses this technology is probably inflicting somewhere.
Ok, back to the pollyanna world I much prefer.
Good grief, no! You wouldn’t need a lead vest at all! The microwave is, fortunately, directional 🙂
The basic problem is you need to be able to provide a fairly high voltage for the magnetron. This is doable with a beefy capacitor and appropriate transformer, I’m sure (he says, waving his hands) Vic can do the calculations for what size cap and transformer would be required and how heavy they would be
For the microwave transmitter itself… I’m pretty positive we had microwave generating wands at school, because I remember a friend of mine telling me how he microwaved an unsuspecting classmate’s head (!) with one and the effects it had (headache and increased temperature, as I recall). I don’t think you need to mount anything on your helmet, as a result; I’m guessing everything should fit into your handlebar bag with a transmitter rather appropriately akin to an Air Zound attached to your handlebars (perhaps with velcro for ease of removal for better aiming).
So, putting it all together, you have a fairly big capacitor (I’m guessing about the size of a coke can), a transformer (mmm… lots of copper wire) and a vaguely gun-like wand/horn. I’m guessing around 5-10lbs or so. I *think* the requisite hardware to step up the voltage from a dynamo would be relatively light, but I’m honestly not sure what the output from a dynamo is…
There’s always the paintball pistol alternative, of course. Replace the contents of the paintball with bleach if you’re feeling particularly vindictive to car drivers.
Er. This is all hypothetical, of course. Apart from the bit about my friend microwaving someone’s head in class. That bit’s 100% true.