Over the next six days, I am biking from my House in Emerald Hills, CA to Santa Barbara. Today was the first day: My House to Santa Cruz,a total of 65.2 miles. It was absolutely gorgeous, and a little bit harrowing at times. The first bit is a 1800ft in cumulative climb up to Sky Londa, where the Hell’s Angels used to gather and Ken Keezy and the merry pranksters created the hippy movement. From there, a descent to San Gregorio Beach where I chilled for a while. Then, 38 miles of highyway 1 (cabrillo highway) while sucking on Fructose/Glucose ShotBlocks and listening to minimal Techno in my earbuds. What a great ride so far. Weather was gorgeous and the sea view along HWY 1 is phenomenal.
What am I bringing? Click the image and mouse over each thing in flickr.
Start at 10:48 @ Home.

After a snack at San Gregorio, facing south.

At San Gregorio, facing East.
I know these photos are boring. Better scenery and action tomorrow.
Luckily my Dad, who’s been dressed like a Serengeti photographer, and my dog, who’s stoked met up with me in San Gregorio for food and water. The three of us are now blogging in a hotel room in Santa Cruz after a sumtuous and ample seafood dinner. Man was I hungry.
Map of Day 1: View Larger Map
Special thanks:
http://www.inl.org/bicycle/coast/

http://www.bitrot.de/bike_sfla.html

Bicycling the Pacific Coast
Sean Follmer

»Sports Tool Poetry« by Joo Youn Paek.

[From VVORK]

Yesterday, the financial times sent out an email newsletter with a few cool features. First is a world currency map. Scroll down a bit and click the map. My countries are in green, others are in red.

Second:

Neil Buckley, Moscow bureau chief, travels 2,000 miles along the route of the Trans-Siberian railway from Irkutsk to Vladivostock in Siberia to discover the changing character of Russia.
Watch the audio slideshow to discover why President Vladimir Putin, increasingly feared and distrusted abroad, enjoys rising popularity at home.
(Japanese Used Car Mules in Vladivostok is particularly interesting)

Also Related: Map of the market and also for the Nikkei 255.

Hong Kong bridge deal gets green light

Financial deals are reached for an ambitious $7bn bridge linking Hong Kong, Macao and China’s Guangdong province to cut travel time and draw investments”

(Via FT.com – China.)

Joe…You make me so proud.

For architects and industrial designers, finding sustainable materials to use in building projects has long been a challenge, with providers and information scattered all across the web. Ecolect, which just launched last fall, aims to provide a single, central library of sustainable materials that makes it easier for designers to be ‘green.’

Rhode Island-based Ecolect, which was founded by two Rhode Island School of Design graduates, hopes to save designers time and money by answering three important questions: where to find sustainable materials, what makes them sustainable, and who else is using them and how. Toward that end, the site features materials with sustainable attributes—eco paints and bamboo flooring, for example—complemented by content that stimulates discussion about sustainability. Case studies illustrate the successful use of sustainable design, and users can contribute reviews and images of materials in use. The site’s blog, meanwhile, discusses how ecology affects the world. Ad-supported Ecolect is free for users.

‘We saw a unique and unmet need in the marketplace,’ explains Matt Grigsby, one of the site’s cofounders. ‘From there, we set out to not only create the world’s first free and accessible sustainable materials library, but also build a tight-knit global community, where individuals from around the world can go to learn and connect around the issue of sustainable design.’

Grigsby won last year’s Rhode Island Innovation Awards Rising Star Innovator title for his role in developing Ecolect, and the company itself has been named a finalist in the 2008 SXSW Web Awards, the winner of which will be named next month. The trend toward sustainability isn’t going away anytime soon, so the opportunities are many in supporting and informing those who make it happen. Since the distribution of building materials varies widely by country/region, this is definitely one to set up in your own neck of the woods. Or how about applying the concept to other industries?

Website: www.ecolect.net
Contact: pvd@ecolect.net

Spotted by: Mark M.

(Via Springwise: Promising new business ideas for entrepreneurial minds.)

so+ba: Swiss Graphic Design In Tokyo: “What do the Swiss and Japanese have in common? Great graphic design, of course! Tokyo-based Alex Sonderegger and Susanna Baer comprise Swiss design duo so+ba, beautifying books, magazines and much more with their keen Swiss conceptual approach and a strong line of typography (which they teach at Tama Art University.) Appropriately, their cosy work space [...]

(Via PingMag – The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things”.)