I love how taken aback the “old school” newsgathering operations are that blogs scooped them, and in many cases surpassed them, in covering the South Asian earthquake and tsunami catastrophe. The best quote I’ve heard in this regard was today on NPR: a “technology contributor” named Xeni Jardin said, breathlessly, that bloggers aren’t just “fat blowhards sitting on couches in the suburbs writing about what they saw on the news” anymore.

Note [1.7.05] …… In the comments, bentley points out that Xeni Jardin is actually a contributor to boingboing, which is a fantastic blog (this being a perfect example why). I have to eat some crow and revise my reflexive sarcasm above in the light of this fact, which I didn’t know beforehand. It must be that Ms. Jardin was engaging in some sarcasm herself on NPR, although it was kind of hard to discern that over the airwaves. Anyway, my belated apologies.

Details are still slightly hazy, but « United’s pilots are fighting the weird backroom maneuvering » which resulted in us taxpayers getting soaked with the responsibility of the pilots’ pension fund, thanks to United’s epic and clueless executive mismanagement:

‘Pilots at United Airlines will fight plans for an involuntary bail-out of their pension scheme, threatening to unravel agreements needed to bring the US company out of bankruptcy. Their angry reaction follows a surprise intervention last week by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which runs a national insurance scheme for all US companies. The group fears being held responsible for $6.4bn of unfunded pension liabilities across United’s four pension schemes and decided to minimise losses by taking pre-emptive control of the pilots’ plan. But union leaders representing this highly-paid group accuse the PBGC of singling them out for “vindictive” punishment, as the early move means they will receive $140m less than hoped.

’… The union also questioned whether the quasi-government agency was deliberately seeking to wreck union agreements with the company. “We are equally concerned about the timing of the PBGC action in the midst of a pilot membership vote over the tentative pilot agreement. “We question whether the PBGC’s action may be designed to confuse the pilot group, undermine the membership ratification process and deprive the pilots of the benefits and protections of the tentative agreement.”

’… Separately, United announced on Monday it had reached “tentative” cost-saving agreements with two other unions, although it remains unclear if these include terminating their pension schemes as well.’

Well, since the Fascists have installed their minions in almost every corner of government, purging anyone who dissents, and since, subsequently, agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board have become very anti-worker, you can bet the move was a sop to United and Fascist Party benefactors in some way.

Too bad the pilots get left holding the (now-worthless) bag and taxpayers get stuck with any bills.

Ah. Life in the reign of Emperor George II. Ain’t all the higgledy-piggledy-ness grand?

I was going to get a good start on my riding program by biking every day, but alas, it was not to be.

I biked five miles on Saturday the first, but as I was returning, I noticed the rear tire was low. So I went to the gas station at Packard/Stadium to air it up. I guess the gauge was inaccurate and I apparently over-inflated the front tire. I biked home fine, but a couple of hours later as I was making dinner, there was a very loud bang in the front of the house and I thought we were being attacked.

Turns out the innertube and tire on the front of the Bobcat pretty much exploded. It ruined the tire and put a two-inch-long shred in the innertube.

So today I went back to « Ann Arbor Cyclery » and had to buy a new front tire and tube. I also got a new, accurate gauge.

The shop wasn’t open Sunday, so between that and all the rain today, I’ve lost two days of riding already.

Oh, well, I’ll just have to make up for it somehow.

While waiting on the installation, I picked up a new catalog for « Marin Bikes ». This year’s Bobcat Trail is little changed from the 2004 model I bought, with one exception: the 2005 model is matte black and totally slick looking. Almost makes me wish I’d waited, but I’m still happy with my red one.