Monday Morning Report

After several minor quakes rattled the South Bay last week, a magnitude 6.5 earthquake about 20 miles off of the California coast shook coastal towns in Humboldt County Saturday afternoon. Damage mostly consisted of downed power lines, broken pipes, shattered glass and toppled shelves. Mark Ritz of Kinetic Koffee in Arcata momentarily lost power and his Internet access, but otherwise reports no real damage. Humboldt County is about 300 miles north of Santa Cruz, California as the crow flies.

The city is repaving a 2000 foot section of road in my town using Federal ARRA ('stimulus') funds. Because the regional transportation commission has a "Complete Streets" style requirement in place for any project that accepts ARRA funds, a new sidewalk and bike lane will also be installed on Bean Creek Road as part of this paving project. This is one example where a Complete Streets policy can be very helpful.

Pedal powered trash collection in Northhampton, Massachusetts.

Peak Car Ownership? Some people hope so.

For those sitting under a log this past week: People are upset about Facebook's lack of action regarding a group inciting violence against cyclists. There's an anti anti (i.e. "pro cyclist") group now to counter. Carson Blume has organized a protest ride around Facebook HQ in Palo Alto Saturday, January 23 at noon.

James's notes on Sanyo's Eneloop bike.

Cool: A new Banshee Spitfire?

Totsumo Yamaguchi worked for Mitsubishi in Nagasaki. He was in Hiroshima for a business trip when the Enola Gay dropped the Little Boy atomic bomb on that city. Yamaguchi lost his hearing, was blinded and burned over half of his body from the blast. He returned home to Nagasaki three days later just in time for, you guessed it, Fat Man's atomic explosion. Yamaguchi passed last week at the age of 93. More here.

Salud! I now direct you to The Bike Intelligencer weekend roundup of bike news.