Via Macronomics:

Macronomics: Air Traffic is pointing to additional economic activity weakness.

BUY IT NOW: AMAZON

uh huh

Moving cycling forward? Or, with their mutual everybody-quit-doping-in-2006 tall tale, consigning a new generation of young riders to the hell of having to take all the latest products and lie about it?

liked both of these guys a lot more when they were pedaling more and talking less.

Cruiser style frame, apehanger bars and 10 speeds.

LYONS – The driver facing charges in a crash over the weekend that killed a bicyclist in Lyons spoke out against cyclists at a series of public meetings in 2010.Catherine Olguin with the Boulder County District Attorneys Office says Patrick Ward is due in court Thursday at 2 p.m.Deputies arrested Ward Saturday afternoon in Lyons on eight charges, including vehicular homicide, for the death of a Boulder bicyclist.Ward lives in Lyons and has gone on the record in that town out at least six times to express his displeasure with the cyclists who share the road.Lyons resident Colleen Dickes understands the tension between people in cars, and people on bikes.”Theres a lot of cyclists,” Dickes said. “People are always trying to avoid them. I think there is always going to be a friction.”Patrick Ward knew that friction well.Lyons Town Administrator Victoria Simonsen confirmed to 9NEWS that Ward, 69, spoke at public meetings in March, April, May, June, and July of 2010 when the town was considering a 10-year plan that included promoting cycling in Lyons.

via Driver in crash that killed cyclist in Lyons expressed growing frustration with bicyclists | 9news.com.

While geopolitical risks abound, market fundamentals suggest a more comfortable global oil supply/demand balance over the next five years. The MTOMR forecasts North American supply to grow by 3.9 million barrels per day (mb/d) from 2012 to 2018, or nearly two-thirds of total forecast non-OPEC supply growth of 6 mb/d. World liquid production capacity is expected to grow by 8.4 mb/d – significantly faster than demand – which is projected to expand by 6.9 mb/d. Global refining capacity will post even steeper growth, surging by 9.5 mb/d, led by China and the Middle East.

via IEA – May:- Supply shock from North American oil rippling through global markets.

As NPR’s Tom Gjelten reports:

“Petroleum engineers have always known about the untapped underground oil in the United States, but it was unreachable, trapped in tight shale rock. Then the engineers figured out how to crack the rock. Hydraulic fracturing — fracking — got that ‘tight oil’ finally flowing in places like North Dakota.”

via Huge Boost In U.S. Oil Output Set To Transform Global Market : The Two-Way : NPR.

Wrong, Tom. The tight oil has been ‘reachable’ for several decades, it was just such an expensive process that it made no sense to do it when oil was cheap — a money-losing proposition. Now, all the cheap oil is gone, and out comes the ‘unconventional’ oil.

Gjelten also said that the decline in oil consumption in the US was due to efficiency (check the VMT chart Tom). There was no mention of depletion of existing fields, or the striking decline rate of fracked shale wells. And he reported that cheaper oil is just over the horizon.

Would it hurt Mr. Gjelten to do just a tiny bit of research on the topic of his reports so he doesn’t sound like a complete idiot?

To claim credit for lowered carbon emissions due to natural gas and then also support the idea of exporting LNG (where fully 25% of the base energy is combusted in order to simply liquefy the product) is hypocritical. These are two ideas that work against each other.  Either you use natural gas wisely and efficiently as you move away from coal resources and claim a carbon credit for these actions, or you support throwing 25% of natural gas’ energy right into the atmosphere just to cool it for transport.  

So it’s a fallacy to imply that exporting natural gas will help lower carbon emissions. In all honesty, total emissions will most likely be higher than otherwise – because let’s be realistic; the most likely path is for humanity to burn up all the natural gas and then burn up the coal next.

Further, where the U.S. carbon emissions have gone down due to less coal being burned, that happy circumstance resulted in Europe doing exactly the opposite:

[...]

Does natural gas help to lower carbon emissions?  No, it merely pushes the carbon emissions elsewhere while the U.S. feasts on relatively cheap natural gas domestically.  The only thing that lowers carbon emissions is NOT burning coal, natural gas, or petroleum – collectively.

via The Obama Administration's Policy on LNG Makes No Energy Sense | Peak Prosperity.

Garmin is packed full of “riders with controversial pasts.” Let’s see if he has the same venom for them as they defend their Giro title.

While his move was bold, that Di Luca was unable to hold his attack on Tuesday is encouraging.

The day when the pro peloton is clear of suspicion will likely never materialize. However, the day when the peloton is clear of riders with controversial pasts may be only a few years away.

via Commentary: Why Battaglin’s Giro stage win matters.

Translation: Di Luca’s defeat helps us pretend that they’re not all still doping.

Costco Connection – May 2013 – Page 48-49.

…Some helmets offer more protection, with harder shells and fewer ventilation holes, but will not be as comfortable for long rides, says Robert Hurst, the author of several bicycle-related books, including The Bicycle Commuter’s Handbook (FalconGuides, 2013). “You don’t need to spend a ton of cash to get a decent helmet, but steer clear of bargain-bin knock-offs that haven’t been certified by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission,” he says.