Don't Spread This Image Around The Internet

Apparently our president-elect doesn't care for it. So please respect his wishes.

A Contributing Factor To The Misinformed Electorate

NPR did some snooping and tracked down one of prime creators of fake news web sites, Jestin Coler. Coler owns a company appropriately named Disinfomedia.

"The whole idea from the start was to build a site that could kind of infiltrate the echo chambers of the alt-right, publish blatantly or fictional stories and then be able to publicly denounce those stories and point out the fact that they were fiction," Coler says. 

He was amazed at how quickly fake news could spread and how easily people believe it.

One site, nationalreport.com, is still active. I've seen it before and you don't have to look at it for more than two seconds before realizing it's obviously fake.

During the run-up to the presidential election, fake news really took off. "It was just anybody with a blog can get on there and find a big, huge Facebook group of kind of rabid Trump supporters just waiting to eat up this red meat that they're about to get served," Coler says. "It caused an explosion in the number of sites. I mean, my gosh, the number of just fake accounts on Facebook exploded during the Trump election." 

I noticed. Hence I stopped following a bunch of people on Facebook who kept parroting this crap. On the bright side, my news feed doesn't get me riled up any more.

Coler says his writers have tried to write fake news for liberals — but they just never take the bait.

There's little comfort in knowing that many people didn't fall for the fake crap when you consider how many did.

DOH!

Kathy has decided she wants a touring bike so we can do some longer rides together, which is exciting for me. Bike fit is very important and I really like my Elephant NFE. Having similar bikes and components would make maintenance easier for me. Glen doesn't make an extra small frame NFE so I was wondering how a small frame would work out for her.

So I emailed Glen and asked if anyone in the local area had a small frame NFE. This was his response.

"There is a guy here in town that has a small NFE. He goes by the name of Hank Greer. You may know of him, he’s quite the cyclist."

I'm still laughing about this. I am such a fucking moron.

Last Cyclocross Race Of The Season

Today was the last cyclocross race of the season locally. I entered three races: single speed, Cat 4, and masters 60+. They were in that order and back to back. John Abernathy of The Bike Hub and Simon Hartt of Two Wheel Transit had their trailes and tents set up just beyond the finish line. I stopped by and asked if they were doing beer hand ups. John pointed to the two cases, "PBR or Rainer?" I went with PBR. I l opened a can and either John or Simon handed it to me when I stopped by during each lap. I went through one can per race.

I managed to get my five laps in for during the first two races even though I was stopping for beer each time. In the second race I finished my fourth lap in the knick of time so I got to do one more. I knew that wasn't happening in the third race. I was beat and those 40+ and 50+ masters tear the course up. To ease my pain I accepted additional PBR hand ups. One on the long straightaway to the finish line. (I stopped and traded cans with Simon.) And a couple at the run up. There were also peeps at the run up. Those didn't go down as good as the beer.

Once I was done racing, I cleaned up and stationed myself at the run up for the juniors race. I had a wad of one-dollar bills and a couple of fives. The kids have it really tough on the run up and grabbing a dollar bill or two helps make their day. But they're really focused on getting up the hill so you have to get their attention to look for the money. Their reactions are great.

"Money? Where?" Look all around. Spot it. Drop the bike and go grab it.

Fun times.

Single speed fun in race #1.

Early on in race #1 so I'm still all smiles.

 Race #2 with the inestimable John Speare fixin' to pass me.

Race #3. I'm pretty tired. Thing I'll go home now.

(Thanks to Bryan MacDonald for the photos.)

What Lack Of Diversity?

This selfie taken by vice president-elect Pence zipped around the interwebs a few days ago. As you can see, our fair congresswoman, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, is prominently featured up front. And she should be because she's the only female member of the House Republican leadership. 

But a lot of people took issue with this photo. Many people observed there was a lack of diversity in this picture of Republican legislators, staff, etc. And when you look at that sea of white faces you have to admit that finding Waldo would be quite the challenge.

Well, Cathy wasn't about to let those lack-of-diversity charges go unanswered. I found her response in this article.

"There is a lot of diversity when you look at the experiences, the backgrounds," the Washington lawmaker, who has been reelected to her post as Republican conference chairwoman, told Fox News' "Fox and Friends" program.

"We are younger," McMorris Rodgers said Friday. "You look at our leadership team. We're 23 years on average younger than the Democrats. I do believe we need to continue to grow the party, though, and continue to reach out to every corner of this country, every person, so that they know that the policies, the proposals are the ones that are going to prove their lives."

That explanation helped me a lot. I mean, I see mostly white men in the photo and quite a few of them have grey in their hair. I count at least nine women and five of them are right up front for your viewing pleasure. But when you only consider the Republican leadership, which Cathy thinks is the most important point to make here, there's supposedly a huge age difference.

Well who knew that from looking at this photo of Republicans?

And then there's background and experiences. This threw me off at first but then I realized Cathy was speaking in code. Background. It's a clue. Look in the background of the photo. To the far left. See? Diversity!

Experiences. Another clue. Look at the people up front. "Hey, everybody, we're taking a picture on three. Ready? One. Two. Three!" 

Congresswoman Virginia Fox has no idea why Pence is pointing with a stick that has a flat square thing on the end so she is looking for the photographer. See? Diversity!

You just have to know how to look for it.

Checking Out New Roads

Yesterday I headed out with the intent to ride Valley Chapel Road and then following Harvard Road north from the small town of Rockford, connecting with Mica Peak Access Road, summiting the peak, and coming down the north side on Henry.

Valley Chapel Road is a very pleasant ride. It runs alongside Latah Creek for a while and offers some beautiful countryside.

Heading north from Rockford did not go as planned. First, I made a wrong turn onto East Harvard Branch. Then I climbed that road to a dead end. Getting back onto Harvard I found that the part that connects to Micah Peak Access Road is an unmaintained summer road that starts out with a pretty steep climb. I didn't feel like putting out the effort so I wandered my way back home. I think next time I'll come in from the north on Henry. That way I won't have as many miles under my belt by the time I start climbing.

Regardless, all in all it was a very nice 67-mile ride.