Maybe not quite yet, but I can hope. This article is right on:

9 Things Many Americans Just Don’t Grasp (Compared to the Rest of the World)
Americans' lack of worldliness clouds our views on everything from economics to sex to religion.
By Alex Henderson / AlterNet March 25, 2015
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/9-things-many-americans-just-dont-grasp-compared-rest-world

It will get you a girl in a bikini if you believe the ad. I bet the gas mileage stinks.

interesting new 2-wheeled motorized urban personal transport
it folds up tiny and goes 25km/hour
looks like it rides as instinctively as a bike--after a while
http://www.yikebike.com/site/gallery/video/yikebike-discovery-channel
my concern is the sort of posture that it traps you in, upright but slumped
like we need any more reasons to slouch and be sedentary

For fuel scavenging this looks like a great manual pump, discussion and other pumping ideas found here.

Whoa, Nelly.

I took the amtrak from Portland to Seattle and back again. On the way there a young couple traded their business class seat to me, so they could sit together. I liked business class. There was a nice little heater right by my chair, and the seat was big enough to sit crosslegged in. On the way back, I took my comp ticket to the ticket counter to ask if I could upgrade it to business class. The lady checked and checked in the computer, and the moment she realized that my ticket was a comp, she scoffed, and said "No! This is a free ticket!" as if it was totally outrageous that I thought I might get away with riding in business class. I am after all just skiing riffraff, with a green gregory pack on my back and an old north face jacket. I thanked her for her help and went away to contemplate the class divide. I came out below it that time.
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They make it look so easy...and where is the law?

We arrived back in Portland after 10pm last night. Our flight from Atlanta was delayed, first by a late-arriving plane and later we know not why, but we sat in the plane for 90 minutes after boarding before it started to move. I personally think that the airlines would get a better reaction if they were to be honest about needing to do repairs on a plane rather than keeping us in the dark. The silence regarding the reason for the delay causes suspicions of worse things than the probable truth. Many of us would be reassured to know that they were fixing something about the plane.
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Today I took a break from studying and Suzanne and I went downtown. We walked over the 17th Ave and caught a bus that took us near the Ross Island bridge, where we jumped off, crossed a street and got on a 19 going across the Ross Island bridge (#1) downtown. We rode to the north end of downtown and got off in Chinatown, and walked down to the Saturday Market (yes I know it's Sunday). The marimba band that I had heard before was playing again! I was so pleased. The band is Boka Marimba, and I bought a CD, but the music coming from little computer speakers cannot compare with the vibrant sound of this band live. They are incredible. The whole crowd was smiling and dancing, as before. We listened to them for 3 long songs, then walked the market, checking out the arts and crafts. Then we threaded our way past the gauntlet of homeless people on the stairs to walk out on the Burnside bridge (#2). We found a corner in the sun and out of the wind, and stopped there for a few minutes to watch the boats and the city. By the time walked back from the bridge we were really cold. It isn't that cold here, but for some reason 40 degrees here seems a lot colder than 20 in Flagstaff. We ducked into a bar for a coffee with Baileys and some pizza. Once we were warm, we went back out on the street and waited for another bus, taking the 4 across the Hawthorne Bridge (#3) to Division. It was good to get out on the town with Suzanne. We haven't gone out much. The bus system here is quite good.
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