Estimates of the size of the porn industry vary widely. But really, does size matter? The mere existence of the porn industry, or any form of porn for that matter, is evidence of social malaise to some. Different folks attribute different diagnoses to the phenomenon — from moral depravity to gender exploitation.

Of course, I have my own opinions on this. But I’d like to get your collective opinions instead. I’ll gather the interesting comments from down below and thread them into a coherent conversation on this main space. Any and all comments are welcome, anonymously posted or otherwise. You can feel as free to offer an opinion as a studied thesis (of course, the thesis carries more weight with me ).

I know that the registered bloggers on this site are mostly male. I’m hoping the lurking ladies will make up for any gender imbalance in perspective.

Here is an incomplete list to get you started:

1. Is porn an “evil” in and of itself? Even if it isn’t, does it lead to evil?
2. Does porn necessarily imply exploitation?
   1. What about amateur porn? (consider Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, exploited?)
   2. What about secondary effects of porn? (i.e. even if the amateur porn producers aren’t exploited, does having porn cause society to sexualize and objectify other people)
3. Is it desirable to ban pornography?
   1. What about freedom of expression?
   2. What is the line between what is banned, and what is not? Who decides? (Justice Stewart’s ridiculous cop-out : “I know it when I see it”, is not an acceptable answer)
   3. Is it even possible to ban pornography? What would the side-effects be?
4. Child pornography is bad, right? If all porn is bad, then you can skip this question.
   1. What about child porn that doesn’t involve children in its production.
   2. Same question for animal porn. If that’s bad on the grounds of “non-consent from participants”, then how does this compare to other uses of animals’ bodies (which animal consents to be eaten?).
5. What about keeping porn away from children?

Type away.

“On February 27 I waked up suddenly, at 3:34 am, Santiago de Chile time, shaken by the most violent earthquake that I had never experienced before. During 90 seconds I was convinced that I was living my last minutes on this world; I was terrified, not because of dying, in some way I was surrendered to death, but because I thought that it would be very painful. I live in an eleventh floor apartment, and I thought that the violence of the movement would break the building: I felt like being swallowed by the unlimited power of nature; I was minute, weak, insignificant in front of such almighty energy.”

Read the full account here:
http://www.yogzilla.com/2010/03/02/the-force-of-nature/

(image courtesy youtube)


Last August I read an interesting Business Week article about how worldwide bicycle sales had remained robust despite the recession, and that the fastest-growing segment thereof was electric bicycles. This week even the New York Times saw fit to report on the trend. While I had heard of electric bicycles before, and even tried out one that a neighbor of mine had bought a while back, I could never think of what I would use one for.

The Business Week article intrigued me enough to read several of its links, and links from those links, and one item that struck me in particular that I wasn’t previously aware of was the availability of electric conversion kits for existing regular bicycles. A few months earlier I had re-acquired my old mountain bike from my brother, who had been using it for the previous 16 years. Or rather, he had used it for a few years before buying a fancier model, and mine had been gathering dust in his garage ever since. The sad part was it had been suffering the same fate in my garage too for the preceding few months before I read that article and had a ‘eureka’ moment.

I had bought another mountain bike when I moved to Florida for grad school, which I used daily for commuting then (I lived close to campus), but hardly ever used after graduating. I guess after I got into motorcycling, recreational bicycling just wasn’t really my thing! Anyway, before that bicycle was stolen a few years ago (damn thieves), I had used it for commuting exactly twice. Both times, I arrived at work drenched in sweat and so exhausted (no pun intended; I merely mean fatigued, though exercising strenuously in traffic fumes can’t be healthy) that I wasn’t useful for at least the first hour after arriving. I therefore never considered bicycle commuting a serious option.

Anyway, the aforementioned ‘eureka,’ in case you haven’t figured it out, was to convert my old bike (which has sentimental value to me having originally been given to me by my late mother) to electric and use it for commuting. I spent several weeks researching various kits, and found that prices range from about $500 for cheapo Chinese kits with heavy lead-acid batteries to nearly $10,000 for some models with light and energy-dense lithium batteries. Having had bad experiences with some inferior Chinese products, I decided to buy a decent mid-range kit and eventually decided on the NiMH-battery-equipped E+ Flex kit by Electric Motion Systems.

Features I like about this kit:

1. Motor integrated into rear hub - allows use of conventional pedals, chain, and gears for exercise when desired
2. Batteries integrated into front hub - keeps center of gravity low and uses battery weight to increase gyroscopic stability (also, doesn’t force you to sacrifice luggage rack or a bottle cage for battery storage, if that’s important to you)
3. Regenerative braking - charges batteries while braking like a hybrid car
4. Made by a company from a developed country - in this case U.S.A.

Some other kits I considered are from Bionx, which is Canadian and has many of the same features (including regenerative braking), and E-BikeKit, which uses a front wheel mounted motor and offers a choice of battery types. There are several companies out there, but some don’t seem very reputable, so in general, buyer beware. A good source of info for anyone considering an e-bike or e-bike conversion is the Endless Sphere forum.

As far as my own personal experience, the E+ Flex kit conversion has been great! It only took me a couple of hours to install all the parts (two new wheels with new tires; two new brake levers with switches for the regenerative braking; backlit controller/display showing charge status and cycle computer functions; throttle; and data/power cables), and the company has been very responsive to any questions I’ve had. Riding the bike is just like riding a regular bike except you have the option of applying the throttle to get a little boost from the motor and batteries. Note that you still have to pedal - the motor and batteries do not have enough power to propel the bike on their own. Well, not unless you and the people behind you have a lot of patience; you could eventually get across an intersection, but not before the light turns red again (you’d also drain the battery much quicker than if pedaling too). What the electric assist does is precisely that: assist. It makes pedaling easier, and therefore allows you to reach a higher speed while pedaling than you could unassisted. How intensely you pedal is entirely up to you.

I’ve been using it on average for about three days a week to commute from home to work, work to the gym, and the gym to home - a total distance of about 14 miles a day - since September 2009. While my main motivations were to restore (and get use out of) an old bicycle and enable a green commute*, I’ve been pleasantly surprised to find I’ve lost 6 pounds. The best part is, while I’m now getting nearly an extra three hours per week of cardio, it doesn’t really feel like exercise. I pedal at a comfortable pace and arrive at work without - or only barely - having broken a sweat (for those so inclined, the controller offers resistance modes for more rigorous exercise or for going downhill slower with a sort of engine braking). Another benefit is that I now actually notice the scenery on my way to work, which I previously didn’t see enough of to even think it was worth noticing.

If you’re looking for a different way to get or stay fit, consider turning your commute into a fun, effective, and barely noticeable workout!

Here’s a pic** (clickable for larger image):

*Doing the math assuming $2.50 per gallon of gasoline, 19.6 lbs. of CO2 produced per gallon of gasoline, $0.11/kWh electricity cost, 1.33 lbs. of CO2 produced per kWh of electricity (2007 U.S. generation data), and 78 miles/kWh (28 miles maximum range/0.36 kWh battery capacity), one gets over 1100 mpg in terms of CO2 emissions and nearly 1800 mpg in terms of fuel cost. Those aren’t typos; the math really works out to eleven hundred and eighteen hundred miles per gallon comparative emissions per mile and cost per mile, respectively (for our metric friends, that’s 0.2 & 0.13 l/100km, or 480 & 750 km/l). No hybrid car can touch that!

**The rear case is a motorcycle trunk I added so I’d have lockable, waterproof storage for my briefcase, gym bag, groceries, etc.

Postscript Feb.17, 2010:

Bicycle Safety: I forgot to mention that the very first day I biked to work last fall, I was rather unnerved by the traffic on my regular (car/motorcycle) route.  I did a search for ‘bicycle safety’ that same day and found this great site that I highly recommend: www.bicyclesafe.com.  Two of their tips I’ve adopted are to use a different route when bicycling that includes streets with less traffic and lower speed limits, and to wear a reflective vest even during the day.  In addition, a few days ago while driving my car I noticed a rider with a helmet-mounted rear flashing taillight like mine (see pic below and comment #2), who had it switched on during the day, and I have to say it was really noticeable even in daylight, so I’ve started riding with my blinky on during the day too.  Definitely put it on your helmet vs. your bike - the higher up it is, the more visible it is.

Maintenance/Repair: Another excellent site I’d like to point people to if they’re not already familiar with it is the Sheldon Brown site (scroll down to the yellow box for specific sections).  Absolutely fantastic info if you’re into keeping an older bike on the road (or just maintaining a new one; the Park Tool book I mentioned in comment #2 below is extremely helpful in either case too).

Howard Zinn, the people’s historian, died today.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=382840

There is nothing more satisfying than a story well told. Even better when it’s a yarn full of fantasy and flights of fancy, narrated with spirit, and accompanied by musicians who understand and enliven the tale with their efforts. Leave the world at the door, and prepare to be transported with words and music to the city of the dead.

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/90226

http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/the-spiritthings/382186/

Along the way, we had to go through the now rather large town of Maricopa. When I first moved to the Phoenix area in the late ’90s, Maricopa was a sleepy little backwater. During the real estate boom a few years ago, developers built numerous residential properties here, which sharply increased the traffic to and from Phoenix. Town officials responded by implementing a 25 mph speed limit in town. I was reminded of this as I accelerated spiritedly from a stoplight (but only, honestly, to about 35-40 mph) and found a motorcycle cop honking at me from my left. Luckily, he only gave me a verbal warning before making a U-turn. Derek commented later that he probably just wanted to check out my new Buell.

Once out of town and back on the open road, we accelerated back up to 55 (or thereabouts…). Actually, we really didn’t go much faster as the temperatures out in the countryside had dipped into the low 40’s and neither of us wanted to increase the windchill more than necessary. When we stopped at the cafe, we found to our great chagrin that it was closed, had been renamed “Good Times Cafe” with Miller Lite logos, and didn’t look nearly as charming as I remembered. Determined to find breakfast, we headed east towards Casa Grande, and along the way found a golf resort and hotel in the middle of nowhere. They had an excellent - and open - restaurant where we both ordered the Southwestern Eggs Benedict (with chorizo - yum! No meal pic unfortunately as we were too ravenous to think of anything other than eating).

Amply nourished, we eventually headed south through the Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation, though it took us a while to get there due to a few detours. Once there, it took us a further while to find a paved road, though once we did, we were rewarded with fresh asphalt, minimal traffic, and outstanding desert views.

Unfortunately, the detours had taken their toll on our fuel levels, and gas stations are few and far between on the reservation. We were both near the bottom of our reserve tanks when we pulled into a health center (the only building cluster for miles), only to be told the nearest gas station was 18 miles away. After unsuccessfully asking around for gas on-site, we decided to press on, with whoever didn’t run out of gas (and would hopefully make it to the gas station) returning with a fuel container for the unlucky one who didn’t make it. I ended up being the latter, sputtering to a stop about 8 miles past the health center. Of course, being stranded in the desert in December is a lot better than being stranded there in July! It really wasn’t that bad, and was actually rather serene, listening to the sounds of various desert wildlife in the distance.

Although a few cars drove by that I tried to flag down, only two stopped: a young couple in a Subaru who unfortunately couldn’t give me any fuel (but then, how many people nowadays carry a fuel hose and hand pump in their car for siphoning?); and a Border Patrol agent in his work truck who asked if I had anyone helping me. I let him know my friend had gone on ahead but might likewise be out of gas further up the road. In any event, Derek finally returned with a one gallon water jug full of premium stowed in one of his cavernous saddlebags. His Kawasaki Concours had gone an astonishing 48 miles since his reserve light first came on, and it was still running when he got to the gas station (he probably could’ve gone another 2 miles for an even 50). My Buell Firebolt ran completely dry after 34 miles on reserve (now I know…). Hey, if nothing unplanned happened, it wouldn’t be an adventure!

We proceeded west to the aptly-named town of Why to top off my tank. The original plan was to then head south through the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to the border town of Lukeville, across from Sonoyta on the Mexican side. However, due to the time we had lost with searching for and running out of gas, plus the detours earlier, we decided to skip that part of the itinerary and head north to Ajo for a late lunch. In the ten-mile stretch between Why and Ajo, there appeared to be the prominent remnants of mining operations, with a rugged yet majestic beauty of their own.

Ajo actually has some nice, historic-looking buildings in its downtown area, but we didn’t take the time to sightsee (next trip!). The place we stopped at was on the northern outskirts of town and rather basic, though their enchilada-style burritos really hit the spot!

After lunch, we proceeded north through a rather scenic portion of the desert, especially in the late afternoon light.

Continuing north towards Gila Bend, we encountered a Border Patrol checkpoint. We had seen another one earlier while heading south, but didn’t need to stop then since that one, like this one, was only checking northbound traffic. The car ahead of us had Mexican license plates, so the guards checked his papers, but when it was our turn they waved us right through (I guess it would be pretty hard to hide a bunch of illegal immigrants on a motorcycle). On a side note, I was amazed by the level of Border Patrol presence on this ride; after we got a few miles south of Casa Grande, it seemed like every fourth or fifth vehicle on the road was a Border Patrol one.

At Gila Bend, we hopped on I-8, then retraced our steps from the former Burnt Bun Cafe back to Phoenix, ending at a friend’s place for happy hour. Overall, it was a very enjoyable 300+ mile ride. If you don’t ride, you should, but at the very least please watch out for motorcycles. If you do ride, watch out for cagers and keep the rubber side down!

You couldn’t possibly remember me.
I was four and your brother’s best friend.
Four is too young to have a crush on your friend’s didi, isn’t it?

You were beautiful.
You had to be.
You had sweet multicolored saunf to offer me - every time I knocked on your door.
The saunf could not have been sweeter than the palms that held them.
How come your bangles always matched the colors of the saunf?
Those bangles couldn’t have been more delicate than the wrists that wore them.

I hope you found the man of your dreams.
I pray that your children are as beautiful as you were.
I wish you all the happiness that you gave me and more.

But dear Radha, sometimes I can’t help but wonder.
Are you sad? Now?
If the waves ever carry this message in a bottle to you …
I hope you never forget that you are Radha, beloved of the Lord Krishna.
And that this four year old still thinks that you must be
The most beautiful girl in the world.

Two of the main contributors are Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser, both bestselling authors whose recent works have helped cast light on the greasy innards of our food supply machine.

Creative tweeting from a historical perspective. More at historicaltweets.com. Hat tip to @sreenet.

The pressure is on enough that our buddies across the pond also started their own tweeting with Tweetminster (Westminster, get it?).

Is this going to be information overload or is this going to be actually a useful way to keeping track?