The Life-Sized City Blog

Internet nostalgia... remember those spam emails that flourished a while back (I'm sure they're still around) where the sender pretended to be the son/nephew/cousin of some African despot who had $10/$20/$30 million bucks in - as a rule - oil money but needed someone in the west to fence the money? Bikes are the new oil. Bikes are hot. First it was the adult entertainment industry and now it's the scammer-rama crowd. Check this out, recieved today at Larry vs Harry 's inbox: From: Collins Consults Date: 8. feb 2011 12.14.49 CET To: collins.abutu@yahoo.com Subject: SPORTS BIKE CONTRACT SUPPLY Dear sir, The Federal Ministry of Youth & Sports Development,Nigeria,wants a capable supplier to handle the supply of 30,000(Thirty-thousand) units of Sport bike project. Payment is 100% Telegraphic Transfer upon contract signing in advance before delivery. Therefore if you are interested and capable of handling the contract ,contact us as soon as possible...

A historical photo of two classic figures in bicycle history. Two knife sharpeners. They rode about both the countryside and the city, offering their blade sharpening services to anyone who would pay the price. The usual setup was like the bicycle on the left. The back bicycle wheel was rigged with an external cog onto which a strap was attached so that they could sit stationary and pedal whilst sharpening knives, scissors and all manner of blades. The chap on the left as a similar but seemingly more complex system. The last time I saw one was in the city centre about ten years ago. Parked in a courtyard behind a trendy café, he was handed knives from the chefs through the window and he would mount his bicycle and sharpen them to perfection. Here's a more recent version from the streets of Africa. Wonderful. Thanks for the link in the comments.

Some of you may recall that Copenhagenize/ Copenhagen Cycle Chic were the proud recipients of one of Yahoo!'s Purple Pedal bikes last year. The bikes are equipped with a mobile phone with a camera, which is run off a solar panelled box on the back. It takes a photo every minute when active and instantly transports it back to a Flickr website and the Purple Pedals website, complete with geotag. When the bike is stationary for three minutes, it goes to 'sleep' and will awake once again when it is put into motion. All quite flash. All went well for a good while. I rode it around, for example, when the Portland crew came to Copenhagen on a study trip last fall. Here's a photo series taken by the bike's camera . After that there were some technical difficulties involving... well... technical stuff. I'm pleased to say that the bike is up and running again and, after a week in Copenhagen, the bike is now in Tanzania! My friends at Baisikeli, the development org that ...