My last suggestion for awhile (no cheering, please). If the requirement was for a vehicle which could carry all the contestants at one time, it would force the design away from a simple bicycle type thing. And if the race course surface was varied (paved/dirt/mud), it would demand a more imaginative design than a simple thin tired bicycle componant vehicle, welded from bike frames, etc. Rich.

-- Richard SantaColoma (helio6@hotmail.com), January 25, 2001

Answers

you kno ,wer in the 21 st centry now not in the flint stones ,i think it sounds stupid

-- todd turner (turner3@txol.net), January 25, 2001.

Let's see... yes, TODD, without pedals, like your buddy Fred, I suppose it would be a little silly. Now, what have you built lately?

"you kno ,wer in the 21 st centry now not in the flint stones ,i think it sounds stupid": "you"-uncapitalized "kno"-mispelled "wer" -mispelled "centry" -misspelled "now not" -missing comma "flint stones" -misspelled, uncapitalized "i" -uncapitalized "think" -I doubt it "it sounds stupid" -what does? I forgot by now.

-- Rich SantaColoma (helio6@hotmail.com), January 25, 2001.

Oh, please let me criticize Mr. Turner. I realize that this thread is far out of date but for the record:

Ok, so we're in the 21st *century*. I suppose that means that we have such advanced technology that we don't have to use our bodies anymore. Oh wait, medical science says that we're massively obese and getting fatter at a neck-breaking pace! Disease after disease and disorder is found to be caused by lack of exercise, from clogged arteries to hemorrhoids to depression (yes, depression is greatly lessened by exercise) and multiple diseases are cured or treated with exercise. What's more, we have an "energy crisis". Bush plans to solve this problem by hopping from one oil country to the next, I mean one rogue nation to the next with our military might to control new petroleum and natural gas resources, and even drill new one by reversing the protection of natural lands (which is another story entirely).

So, the average idiot can figure out that there's something wrong with this situation. Of course, Mr. Turner is not your average idiot. He thinks that it's stupid to think about human powered vehicles. I mean, you might solve more than one problem at once, eegads! Let's see, you wont need an external fuel to power it. You wont need to spend extra money to supply your vehicle with an external fuel. You wont be emitting more carbon and other pollutants into the atmosphere -- pollutants that not only damage the environment killing off species after species of wildlife, changing the average temperature of the earth by several degrees, but *also* causing countless diseases in humans from asthma to allergies (oops, if we stopped that it would hurt the income of doctors). But you would *also* be correcting the health problems associated with lack of exercise! (Oh no! More lost revenue from the healthcare industry who’s cost only increases by 18% per year in America!!). If that is Mr. Turner’s concept of “stupid”, then I would sure hate to see is “smart” (the mind reels and stomach turns at the very thought).

But alas, this might take effort and, gee, I thought all of this technology existed so we could be more lazy and sit on our bums. Well, perhaps that is more of what shapes Mr. Turner's perceptions than the use or lack of use of cranial matter. Did I mention that exercise increases short term memory thereby helping to facilitate advanced reasoning?

So if anybody runs across this old thread, don't let society think for you. You may find that there's really nobody at the wheel!!

-- Daniel Santos (daniel.santos@pobox.com), December 22, 2004.