How exciting was that? I followed this over the past couple of days and seeing the team at NASA erupt in cheers when the successful touchdown was confirmed warmed my heart.

Have a look for yourself.

Yesterday evening, NASA published a blog post that contains recordings from the surface of Mars made by Perseverance.

Listen to it and try not to smile. These are actual sounds from the another planet in our solar system.

I am so looking forward to the high-resolution images that will be coming from the rover going forward.

Image source: nasa.gov

And the above picture showing the Perseverance and Mars 2020 spacecraft components on the surface post landing just makes me want to reread (or rather re-listen) to “The Martian” by Andy Weir. Such an excellent book.

There’s an interesting article up on Gravel Cyclist:
“Has Gravel Riding Got You Over-Tired / Over-Tyred? – By Big Head Todd”

In the article the author, Big Head Todd, vents a bit about the trend towards ever more aggressive tyres on gravel bikes these days, whether that be people adding them because they think they need them or because bicycle manufacturers add them as spec.

Reading through it, I nodded my head a lot because, inexperienced as I was/am with tyre choice, I’ve fallen into the same trap not too long ago and it took many rides on all kinds of terrain to take a step back and rethink how much tread I actually need.

My gravel bike sports a pair of WTB Nano 40 right now. These are absolute overkill for a lot of the gravel roads that I encounter. The Specialized Pathfinder Pro with 38 mm on my second wheel set (slick center channel and fairly tame knobs on the sides), are far more appropriate and offer much more versatility. The reason the Nano 40 spend more time on my bike than the Pathfinders, is because in recent months, I’ve been riding on terrain that would typically be considered MTB territory most of the time. And even if I leave out the occasional section of tame single track, I kind of enjoy going up challenging climbs with this bike; loose ground, roots, and sometimes muddy paths, where I struggle to find traction even with the WTB Nano 40 at low pressures and a gearing of 30 in the front and 40 in the back.

The Specialized Pathfinder Pro are an utterly delightful bit of rubber. Very much comparable to the excellent Donnelly X’Plor MSO 40 mm but more durable. They take a bit of getting used to, in that finding the right tyre pressure for the right terrain and rider/system weight isn’t as simple as with other tyres. Once I had a rough idea about that, it was simple to do the first half of a ride on gravel with stupid low pressures, letting the Pathfinder Pro climb really well and spend the second part of the ride blasting down a hill on tarmac, the tyres inflated to a higher pressure.

I’m glad that I have the WTB Nano 40 but at the same time, it would have been nice to know and understand the true capabilities of seemingly tame gravel tyres.
So if you’re looking for a good set of rubber for your do-it-all bike, think hard on where you ride and do some research before defaulting to the monster truck option.

I stumbled across this on Twitter. Originally this seems to be from the platform Quora but I wasn’t able to find the original posting.

The question asked:

Why do people get angry when I try to share the word of God with them? I only do it because I care about them deeply and don’t want them to end up in hell. I feel like some people avoid me because of this. Is there any way to get through to them?

A person calling themselves “Doug Robertson” responded with this:

The entire process is not what you think it is. It is specifically designed to be uncomfortable for the other person because it isn’t about converting them to your religion. It is about manipulating you so you can’t leave yours.
If this tactic was about converting people it would be considered a horrible failure. It recruits almost no one who isn’t already willing to join. Bake sales are more effective recruiting tools. On the other hand, it is extremely effective at creating a deep tribal feeling among its own members.

The rejection they receive is actually more important than the few people they convert. It causes them to feel a level of discomfort around the people they attempt to talk to. These become the “others”. These uncomfortable feelings go away when they come back to their congregation, the “Tribe”. If you take a good look at the process it becomes fairly clear. In most cases, the religious person starts out from their own group, who is encouraging and supportive. They are then sent out into the harsh world where people repeatedly reject them. Mainly because they are trained to be so annoying.
These brave witnesses then return from the cruel world to their congregation where they are treated like returning heroes. They are now safe. They bond as they share their experiences of reaching out to the godless people to bring them the truth. They share the otherness they experience.
Once again they will learn that the only place they are accepted is with the people who think as they do. It isn’t safe to leave the group. The world is your enemy, but we love you.

This is a pain reward cycle that is a common brainwashing technique. The participants become more and more reliant on the “Tribe” because they know that “others” reject them.
Mix in some ritualized chanting, possibly a bit of monotonous repetition of instructions, add a dash of fear of judgment by an unseen, but all-powerful entity who loves you if you do as you are told and you get a pretty powerful mix. Sorry, I have absolutely no wish to participate in someones brainwashing ritual.

This answer resonated with me not just in the way it mirrored experiences I had with certain types of people considering themselves religious. Also with the increasing number of people who believe in conspiracy myths, particularly those fuelled by or based in anti-semitic and fascist movements.

Ich habe gerade Urlaub und versucht meinen Social Media-Konsum auf ein Minimum herunterzufahren. Leider hat das aufgrund der Demo in Berlin nicht geklappt.

Wie erwartet war diese Demo ein Desaster auf ganzer Linie, ein wiederholtes Beispiel des völligen Versagens des Innenministeriums auf Bundes- und auf Berliner Landesebene, und für mich der aktuellste Hinweis auf einen Staatsapparat, der zunehmend von Rechtsradikalen und Rechtsextremen unterwandert wurde.

Die Bilder von Reichsflaggen vor dem Deutschen Bundestag und die versuchte Erstürmung des Bundestagsgebäudes durch Rechte und andere verabscheuungswürdige, demokratiefeindliche Personen haben mich nachhaltig entsetzt.
Diese Aktion war angekündigt. Es war klar, dass es versucht werden würde. Nur durch den beherzten Einsatz dreier Polizisten unter Lebensgefahr wurde die vollständige Erreichung der Ziele der Rechtsextremen vereitelt.

Aus dem oben verlinkten Tagesschau-Artikel:

SPD-Kanzlerkandidat Olaf Scholz schrieb: “Unser Grundgesetz garantiert Meinungsfreiheit und das Demonstrationsrecht. Es ist die Antwort auf das Scheitern der Weimarer Republik und den Schrecken der NS-Zeit. Nazisymbole, Reichsbürger- & Kaiserreichflaggen haben vor dem Deutschen Bundestag rein gar nichts verloren.”

Schöne Worte. Wäre super, wenn da Konsequenzen folgen. Herr Scholz, wieso überdenken Sie nicht mal ihre Aussagen zu den gewaltsamen Niederschlagungen linker Demos in Hamburg vor ein paar Jahren? Ach und CumEx steht auch noch im Raum. Nur mal so am Rande.

Unser Innenminister Horst Seehofer hat – ausgerechnet in der Bild am Sonntag – folgendes gesagt:

“Meinungsvielfalt ist ein Markenzeichen einer gesunden Gesellschaft. Die Versammlungsfreiheit hat aber dort ihre Grenzen, wo staatliche Regeln mit Füßen getreten werden” […] “Das Reichstagsgebäude ist die Wirkungsstätte unseres Parlaments und damit das symbolische Zentrum unserer freiheitlichen Demokratie. Dass Chaoten und Extremisten es für ihre Zwecke missbrauchen, ist unerträglich. Ich danke der Polizei, dass sie uns heute schnell und konsequent davor bewahrt hat. Der Staat muss gegenüber solchen Leuten mit null Toleranz und konsequenter Härte durchgreifen.”

Wieso wundert es mich nicht, dass Seehofer nicht „rechte Chaoten und Rechtsextremisten“ gesagt hat?

Wir brauchen keine leeren Worte, sondern konkrete Maßnahmen zur Bekämpfung von Rechtsextremismus und Rechtsterrorismus. Diese Politiker könnten etwas bewirken, sie haben die Autorität und die Mittel etwas zu tun.

Ich bin mittlerweile einfach nur noch sauer und meine Geduld, speziell für unaufrichtige und gefährliche Relativierungen von Links und Rechts, ist auf einem Tiefpunkt.

Oder anders ausgedrückt: Personen in Positionen der Macht, in Positionen mit politischem Einfluss, mit einem Mandat zum Schutz unserer demokratischen Grundordnung, die sich nicht zum Antifaschismus bekennen, die ihren Einfluss und ihre Fähigkeiten nicht in den Schutz unserer Demokratie investieren, sehe ich fortan als rechten Sympathisant:innen, rechte Kollaborateur:innen, oder einfach Rechtsextreme. Und diese Personen müssen mit allen legitimen Mittel in unserem Rechtsstaat bekämpft werden.

Oder nochmal anders ausgedrückt: Keine Toleranz für Intoleranz!

Quelle: Reddit thread
Spanisches Original: Pictoline

Well, I succumbed.

After so many road rides on my commuter/road bike with its 1×12 gearing, I realised that having a proper drop bar road bike would be nice because switching the wheel set on Battle Cat, my gravel bike, becomes annoying quickly with my riding being 60/40 gravel/road, and I really don’t want to put aero bars on my gravel bike.

When I saw a good offer for a used Litespeed road bike, I pounced. It’s a 2004—I think—Litespeed Tuscany and it had a mix of Campagnolo Record/Chorus 2×10 components, Zonda G3 & G4 wheels, a 46/36 carbon FSA crankset, and a 13–26 cassette.

Hopping on the bike for the first time was a strange feeling. Not only had I never ridden a Campagnolo group¹ before, the geometry was completely off. And I mean … what?
The previous owner of the bike supposedly is 2 cm shorter than I am and has a 1 cm shorter inseam length. It felt like I was lying on the bike and not sitting on it. My only guess is that the previous owner must have a long torso and long arms. I wasn’t able to do anything about the crazy long reach of the drop bars or the 110 mm stem or the 35 mm setback of the seat post but all of this was going to change anyway.

I was going to completely dismantle the bike and upgrade the components, mostly with things I still had in my workshop and some which I bought used off classifieds:

• Full mechanical Shimano Ultegra R8000 groupset with a 11-speed 11–32 cassette.
• The Easton EA90 crankset with a 46/30 chainring, that I ran on my gravel bike, because I like my legs and the hills here are steep.
• An Easton EA70 seat post and stem. The seat post has no setback and the stem is 70 mm long.
• A Canyon H17 drop bar replaces the very strangely shaped FSA drop bars.
• The Fabric Scoop Pro Shallow saddle that served me on my commuter until then.
• Specialized HD Wrap bar tape.²

I searched for a new wheel set, too, but anything that could have be seen as an improvement over the Campagnolo wheels that were already on the bike would’ve made this project unnecessarily expensive. To my utter delight I found that Campagnolo used to make (and maybe still makes) 11-speed Shimano HG free hubs for these old wheel sets and the switch was just as easy as with the DT Swiss wheels that I’ve come to get used to over the past few years. Considering that this wheel set is 14+ years old, I was rather impressed, and really; it looks hella cool.
The tyres are Continental Four Seasons in 25 mm and barely show signs of wear, so they’re sticking around, too.³

This past weekend, after I had all components and tools I needed, including a Shimano ISIS bottom bracket removal tool that was kindly lent to me by the owner of a local bike shop, and I began the process of disassembling bike, cleaning everything thoroughly, checking for as of then unseen defects, and putting it back together with new parts.

The process involved a few neat little bike maintenance firsts for me: shortening a carbon steerer tube, installing a BSA bottom bracket, and setting up modern symmetric dual pivot road bike rim brakes — and there I was thinking properly aligning disc brake pads was fiddly. I’ve learned quite a bit and I’m happy about it.

The end result looks like this:

I’m still getting used to the horizontal top tube—it kind of betrays the age of the frame—but the first proper ride this morning was gobs of fun. I picked a short but taxing route up a familiar hill with a manageable gradient to see how it climbs and down a proper descent to see how fast it would go.⁴

During the assembly process, I kept wondering what to call this new bike and it came to me while blasting down the road from St. Peter towards Eschbach: sticking with the „Masters of the Universe“ theme the bike will carry the name „Swift Wind“.

The aero bars are coming on over the next few days and I need different pedals for it but I am very much looking forward to all of the riding I’ll be doing with it.

In the process of setting up my second CR 1600 Spline wheel set tubeless, I ran into the issue of the wheels not holding pressure again. The tubeless valves that DT Swiss provide with their wheels, or rather the gasket used, simply doesn’t seal well in those rims (the middle and right gaskets in the picture below).

For this wheel set I bought a set of Muc-Off Tubeless Presta Valves, which also came with three different types of gaskets. Being hopeful, I tried using the gasket that looked similar to the one supplied by DT Swiss and it was a failure, like last time. The tyres/wheels wouldn’t hold air well and my workshop smelled like Muc-Off sealant all day.

The solution was to switch to the biggest gasket supplied with the valves (pictured left). Even with the valve screw tightened down with less force, I got a proper seal immediately and the next morning the tyre pressure gauge showed the same 4.8 Bar I pumped the tyres up to.

Yesterday I took the bike out for a ride and everything worked perfectly with no pressure loss whatsoever.

Side note:
Apart from this issue with getting a good tubeless valve seal, the wheel set(s) have been incredible. Considering the amount of abuse I subject one of them to, it’s surprising that it still runs perfectly true. Really good value for money. Fitting most tyres (tubeless or tubed) is a breeze.

I adore Amber Ruffin’s comedy and I look forward to her appearances on Late Night with Seth Meyers every time.

With the protests following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in the U.S. continuing and the Trump Regime doing everything they can to brutally crush them, Seth Meyers and his team have started bringing on more black voices during the recent shows. Amber Ruffin spoke of two of many encounters she had with police as a black person.

Monday, 01 June 2020

Tuesday, 02 June 2020

Wednesday, 03 June 2020

Thursday, 04 June 2020

The Dutch artist Mark Dolk posted this drawing on their Instagram page on 10 May 2020. A few days ago, as the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S.A. rose over 100,000 people and Donald Trump went golfing once again, the image went viral.


There is a criminal in the White House. A traitor to the American people, aided and abetted by a corrupt Attorney General, encouraged and protected by a criminally depraved Republican Party who use Trump as a shield to pursue their worst impulses and to enrich themselves and their friends.

This man and his cronies are actively dismantling what remains of the democracy of the United States and they do not care how many U.S. citizens they kill to achieve the goal of turning the republic into an empire.

As the researcher and writer Sarah Kendzior said

This is a transnational crime syndicate masquerading as a government

Trump and the rest of his regime must be voted out and prosecuted. There is nothing they fear more than losing the election in November because if they do, there’s a faint chance they might face consequences for their actions, and they are doing everything in their power to prevent this from happening.

Das unser deutscher Verfassungsschutz zumindest inkompetent ist und häufig höchst bedenkliche Entscheidungen trifft, war schon bekannt, bevor die Ausmaße der Terrorserie des NSU ans Licht kamen. So viel ist, denke ich, unumstritten.

Mit den Äußerungen des ehemaligen Chefs des BfV, Hans-Georg Maaßen, am 07.09.2019 zu den Hetzjagden gegen ausländisch aussehende Menschen durch Rechtsradikale in Chemnitz, fragte ich mich zum ersten Mal wie weit – nicht ob – der Verfassungsschutz von Rechtsradikalen und Rechtsextremen unterwandert wurde.
Die offensichtliche ideologische Nähe von Maaßen und der NSDAP-Nachfolgepartei AfD machen dies nicht besser. Und überhaupt ist Herr Maaßen der Verfassung und dem Grundgesetz gegenüber eher feindlich eingestellt.

Jetzt bewirft sich der Berliner Verfassungsschutz mal wieder nicht mit Ruhm, indem das Klimaschutzbündnis „Ende Gelände“ als linksextrem eingestuft wird.

Diese und viele weitere Vorfälle lassen mich daran zweifeln, ob der Verfassungsschutz tatsächlich noch den ursprünglichen Auftrag verfolgt, oder mittlerweile nur noch ein weiteres Werkzeug von rechten und neoliberalen Akteuren ist. Und diese Vorstellung gefällt mir überhaupt nicht.

Es ist, meiner Meinung nach, Zeit das Bundesamt und die Ableger in den Ländern einer sehr gründlichen Prüfung zu unterziehen. Alle Personalentscheidungen und Handlungen der letzten paar Jahrzehnte gehören genau unter die Lupe genommen und daraus müssen Konsequenzen gezogen werden.

Since going 1× on my gravel bike, I’ve had a couple of instances of dropping my chain on quick and bumpy descents. Pelting down a forest road at 50+ km/h, this was quite scary. It was also a bit surprising because the combination of equipment on the bike is supposed eliminate or heavily reduce the chances of dropping the chain:

• Shimano RD-RX800 clutch rear derailleur
• e*thirteen XCX Plus 9–39 11-speed cassette
• Race Face 32-tooth narrow-wide chain ring

The chain dropping only happened in the 9-tooth cog, which led me to think this might be caused by a lack of chain tension combined with the e*thirteen cassette. I got in touch with the e*thirteen support team and received a really great response, pointing out a number of scenarios and ideas for solving this issue: increasing the B screw tension, shortening the chain by a couple of links, or adding a chain guide.

Since I a) didn’t want to mess with the B screw too much so as not to degrade shifting performance, b) I sized the chain properly, and c) a chain guide is also out of the question because it would completely ruin – Ruin! I say! – the clean aesthetics of the bike, I looked for a different solution and I think I found it in a Garbaruk chainring.

Garbaruk builds these chainrings with 40% taller teeth and an overall longer tooth profile, as the two photos below show well, I think:

The overall fit of the chain on the chainring is also much tighter and the effect of this has been very positive.

Since mounting the Garbaruk chainring, I have yet to drop the chain, no matter the situation. I hope it’s going to stay that way and I’m curious how quickly the chainring is going to wear down.