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_posts/2015-01-19-Kickstarter-Dillenger-E-Bike-For-Under-400-AUD.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title:  "Kickstarter: Dillenger E-Bike For Under $400 AUD"
+date:   2015-01-19 12:00:00 -0700
+categories: crowdsource
+---
+Evidently Dillenger decided to redesign their <a href="https://dillengerelectricbikes.com/shop/electric-bikes/cheetah-folding-electric-bike/" target="_blank">Cheetah folding ebike</a> and decided to run a <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1182676007/a-quality-dillenger-folding-electric-bike-for-unde?ref=category" target="_blank">Kickstarter</a> for it. It seems like they are only using Kickstarter as a marketing stunt, but nothing wrong with that. Dillinger wants to make an electric bike for the masses, and this fits the bill at $400 (329.02 USD as of 18/Jan/15).
+<!--more-->
+<h3>Fold up electric bikes are awesome</h3>
+For transportation, fold up electric bikes just make life easier. Just think, instead of using that gas guzzler for running errands around town, just hop on the electric bike and go (weather permitting). Perhaps take a trip into the city, the fold up features will let the bike be easily transported to the city and avoid expensive cabs or stressful driving conditions.
+
+With a sub $400 vehicle, this opens up the market for anyone to have cheap, reliable transportation. Sure, no one will likely tour the country on an E-bike, but with its claimed 45K(~28mi) range, a person can go a pretty good distance, especially for those who live in cities.
+
+Better yet, e-bikes under a certain speed typically don't need to be licensed, plated, or insured (at least in the USA) which drives costs down even further. Some states of course, may charge fees for any electric vehicle, and given time the taxes will eventually come as electric bikes become more popular.
+
+Dillenger's Cheetah reaches speeds up to 20km/h (~12mp/h) with peddle assist, meaning most state laws shouldn't require a motorcycle license. Thinking of peddle assist, the Cheetah does come with pedals, so if the battery dies while out and about, one can always peddle to safety.
+
+Vandwellers, boatdwellers, and other alternate home lifestylers will love the convenience of the fold up bike. Park the van near the city; explore the city on bike. When tiredness sets in, start using the electric motor. The biggest problem for these people? Lugging the 28kg(~62LBS) bike in an out of the vehicle.
+<h3>Will this ship?</h3>
+The bike will ship. As noted above, Dillinger already sells the Cheetah, and this redesign is funded already. Dillinger sells many different electric bikes, and they are an already established business. If for some reason, Dillinger were to fail to ship, it would be a horrible black mark on their business that they may have trouble recovering from.
+
+Dillinger ships worldwide, and through Kickstarter, according to Dillenger, the bike will cost $399 AUD or "Approx. $323USD, 212GBP, 270EUR."
+
+Kickstarter levels are all mostly the same. A $1AUD donation style, $19AUD get a t-shirt, the $399AUD as a limited run, another limited run at $409AUD, and a wholesale option for $3990AUD.  The wholesale option nets 10 bikes at the $399AUD price, and they will pay half the cost on shipping. Shipping rates do not seem to be disclosed, assuming they are not included in the pledge levels.
+
+NOTE: To ship a current model Cheetah to Illinois, the cost is about $68 via USPS from their US website.
+<hr />
+
+Yea this thing is going to ship. Why wouldn't it? They are an established company and it would look terrible if they were to botch this. I believe there are shipping costs they will ask for on top of any pledges, but I don't see any mention of this. If this sounds interesting to you go support them on their <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1182676007/a-quality-dillenger-folding-electric-bike-for-unde?ref=category" target="_blank">kickstarter</a>. So what do you all think? At $350ish USD, are you ready to take the plunge?
+

_posts/2015-01-25-Perhaps-Hiatus.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title:  "Perhaps Hiatus"
+date:   2015-01-25 12:00:00 -0700
+categories: General
+---
+Turns out that I don't care too much for writing about crowdfunding every week.  This week, I'm simply going to take a Hiatus.  Next week?  Probably another "stream of consciousness" style post, and then probably back something new in crowdfunding.  That said, I do want to give an honorable mention to a Kickstarter that looks pretty cool.
+<!--more-->
+<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1908899476/avas-demon-book-two?ref=category_popular" target="_blank">Ava's Demon</a>
+
+I don't know much about it, but apparently this is book two and <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/profile/1908899476/" target="_blank">Michelle Czajkowski</a> has already published the first book via Kickstarter.  Upon reaching 250K in funds she will be able to hire Studio Yotta, whose animation talents are featured in the kickstarter video, to do awesome.
+
+<hr>
+Nope, nothin' today.  Enjoy!

_posts/2015-02-01-Freewrite-Snow-Snow-Snow.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title:  "Freewrite: Snow Snow Snow"
+date:   2015-02-01 12:00:00 -0700
+categories: freewrite
+---
+"Well, it's time to go to bed", I thought.  So I decide to let the dog out one last time.
+
+It's probably around 5 in the morning.  Still pretty dark, but the suns coming up.  It was beautiful out.  Unfortunately though, it was beautiful because snow was pouring out of the clouds in droves.  The last time I was outside it looked like winter was over.  Now there is 15cm of snow on the ground.  Fuuuuuckkk.  It's going to suck when I wake up.
+<!--more-->
+
+Around noon I lay awake.  Thinking about this great idea I have for an article, thinking about how much getting out of bed to go to the bathroom is going to suck.
+
+"I have some bad news,"  I hear someone say.  "We need to plow the driveway."  Fuck, that's right. Snow.
+
+I get dressed and put on my warm under-layers and set to work.  Thank the lord for plows.
+
+This particular plow has a plastic <em>cage</em> that attaches to the plow to protect the driver.  Shortly after getting the plow going it's too warm and I start sweating, my under-layers are awesome.  The plow can handle everything the sky was throwing at it, but not when the road plows trap everything in with 1.5 meter drifts.
+
+My poor truck, that had no snow around it yesterday, was now blocked in thanks to the plows.  I suppose I should be happy they didn't hit my truck.  I saw the plows plow someone in who was trying to shovel out her truck.  The plow blade came within a half meter of her.  Fuck you city.
+
+After 45 minutes my plastic cage is becoming too difficult to see through, fuck it.  I took the cage off, and discarded my coat.  I was too well dressed for this anyway.
+
+I don't usually mind snow, but when suddenly everything is buried, I'm glad I've decided to move someplace where it doesn't snow quite so much.  Even without the move, this is more incentive to work from home.  Where so long as I have electricity and internet, I can pay the bills.
+
+<hr>
+
+So I thought of a couple great articles to write, so next week is a crowd project.  But the next week... Back to something real to write about.  Enjoy all.
+
+Note: Despite this being a freewrite, I still run a spell check.  No use in leaving typos in.

_posts/2015-02-08-Should-Cooks-Wash-Their-Hands-A-Prefered-Indifferent.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title:  "Should Cooks Wash Their Hands? A Preferred Indifferent"
+date:   2015-02-08 12:00:00 -0700
+categories: philosophic
+---
+Discovered via <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/108290759057490500986/posts/cN5yh2WoaZU" target="_blank">this</a> google+ post, senator Thom Tillis is questioning whether government should regulate food service hand washing policies.
+<!--more-->
+
+Most people take one look at this idea and think, "What the fuck is wrong with our government," but we must look deeper into it.  Should people wash their hands before serving food?  For safety? Yes.  Should employers enforce that their employees wash their hands before serving food? To keep customers happy? Of course.  However, government shouldn't be forcing the hand.  The market should.
+
+Senator Tillis apparently believes that it should be up to the establishment, but they should still post a sign in the case that they choose not to enforce their employees to wash their hands.  As Jon Stewart says, if you take away the regulation for hand washing, but then go ahead and enforce regulation to have a sign... That doesn't help the problem of regulation.  It is still regulation.
+
+Many establishments will likely continue to have hand washing policies, but some places may choose to relax, or remove, these policies.  What is the result?  People will likely get sick.  Dysentery is a horrible thing to have.  
+
+So enough negative, what positive effects could this have?  When John gets sick after eating at "The Rusty Bucket", chances are he will tell all his friends to avoid that place like the plague.  Market balance.
+
+Companies will likely enforce hand washing policies regardless of regulation. Is this the same result as have regulation in effect? No. The end result perhaps, but at least this way it's taken care of with freedom.  Not with the exchange of freedom for the illusion of safety.
+
+Remember the Jack in the box e. coli outbreak of 1993?  While they were in compliance with the law, undercooked meat was still responsible for at least four deaths.  The response?  Many law suits and regulatory change in required temperatures for beef.
+
+Were the regulations necessary?  Jack in the Box lost many customers, money in lawsuits, and nearly went bankrupt.  However, while the new regulations were first only in Washington state, what did Jack in the Box do?  They mandated a new cooking temperature nation wide.  Why would they do that?  To prepare for future federal regulation?  Hell no.  They wanted to stay in business.
+
+What if we get rid of the regulations? What about the customers?  How many people need to get sick before we give up and go back to regulations?
+
+Freedom should never be given up for safety.  As in the Jack in the Box reference, people will boycott companies who get people sick.  People will become more aware of what they eat, and who they let prepare it.
+
+Having to worry about whether or not company xyz might get us sick, would at least give us back one level of consciousness.  Even better, perhaps more people will go back to eating at home.  If people were more aware of what they were doing to themselves, chances are they would eat fast food a lot less often.
+
+<hr>
+So this is a bit of a touchy subject, because people die.  Should we regulate to prevent loss of life?  Do we exchange freedom for life?  I don't think so.  Market forces are more than able to take care of any issues that arise.  What if I'm wrong?  Then the people who choose not to be aware of life around them die.  That's part of life.  Being aware.  If you choose not to do it, you risk yourself and others around you.  What do you think about regulation?  Are market forces not enough?  Comment below.
+
+If you want to see a more raw response from me, feel free to look at the comments of the google plus post introduced at the beginning of this article.

_posts/2015-02-15-Attack-People-Not-Ideals.md

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+---
+layout: post
+title:  "Attack People, Not Ideals"
+date:   2015-02-15 12:00:00 -0700
+categories: philosophic
+---
+Quite a lot of people choose to attack people for their ideals, instead of the ideals themselves.  Why?
+<!--more-->
+
+An obvious example would be <a href="http://conservativetribune.com/famous-rocker-humiliates-kanye/" target="_blank">extreemeist media</a>, but we see this everywhere.  People who are against Catholics attack the people following it for things of history such as the crusades.  Why not attack the ideal?  Tell the people, "Hey, these people did some messed up stuff.  Why do you follow them?" instead of the more common, "You follow the catholic way of life?  You're stupid."
+
+The same thing happens outside of politics and religion of course, it happens anywhere people have differing opinions.
+
+“Why would you give that game a 6/10?  What's wrong with you? “
+
+“You don't vaccinate your kids?  You kill people.  You're fucking stupid.  You should vaccinate your kids.”
+
+“How the fuck can you say it's not ok for homosexuals to marry?  You're a pretentious asshole.”
+
+We hear these things all the time.  The lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual (LGBT) movement likes to do shit like this.  They attack people for having ideological difference from their own.  
+
+To be clear, they do not attack the idea of not allowing LGBT to marry or to have equal rights, they attack the person for not believing it should be ok for LGBT to marry.  That's fucked up, and we need, as a country, to stop attacking people foolishly.
+
+Best case scenario?  A person is attacked, they become defensive, no chance of gainful argument.  If you feel vaccinations are important, argue against their ideals.  Don't attack them and call them <em>killers</em> because they feel they are doing what is best for their children.  
+
+Or as the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/14/us/colorado-gay-woman-funeral-service/" target="_blank">LGBT community</a>...
+
+In summary, the church decided they didn't want to perform a funeral for a lesbian.  What happens in response?  Outrage.
+
+Why?  Why is there outrage?  Most people already know the church doesn't like homosexuality, so why would this be an outrage?  It's like getting pissed off that jalapenos are spicy and not sour.  It's a bloody fucking stupid way to think.  What's worse?  They want apologies.  That's fucked up.  Most people probably think an apology is warrant, but this is what is going on.
+
+The LGBT community is asking the church to apologize for what it believes in.  That is way overkill compared to what the church is doing.  The LGBT community and supporters want the people to apologize for their ideals.  Just let that sink in before you jump on the apology bandwagon.
+
+<hr>
+
+What the fuck people?  Stop trying to force your beliefs on others.  Stop saying that your beliefs are right and others are wrong.  If one person thinks homosexuality is wrong... is he the one that is wrong?  No. And neither are you.
+ 
+Homosexuality is neither right nor wrong, it just is.  Right and wrong are simply attributes people add to ideas.  Stop telling people they are wrong simply because your ideals are different from theirs.  That's fucked up.
+
+<h3> COMMENTS </h3>
+
+Lindsay
+February 17, 2015 at 2:30 am Edit	
+
+Great post. I found two typos. The second time you mention the word “Catholic” you didn’t capitalize it. The last sentence in the second paragraph after the LGBT Community link says “warrant” instead of “warranted.” I figured you’d appreciate the pedantry.
+
+    logen
+    February 18, 2015 at 7:34 pm Edit	
+
+    Looks like you are correct, two’s not too bad though.
+