Brains are different like bikes are different.

The dominant analogy for the brain has tracked the leading technology of the day.

The human brain was like a clockwork, then a hydraulic system, then an electronic circuit, then a digital computer, then a computer network, – until the present day, when, according to Stephen Kosslyn & Wayne Miller, writing in the Wall Street Journal, the brain is like a bicycle:

Our brains are not engaged in some sort of constant cerebral tug of war, with one part seeking dominance over another. (What a poor evolutionary strategy that would have been!) Rather, they can be likened roughly to the parts of a bicycle: the frame, seat, wheels, handlebars, pedals, gears, brakes and chain that work together to provide transportation.

The distinguished scientist and journalist continue:

Although the ... parts of the brain are always used during all of our waking lives, people do not rely on them to an equal degree. To extend the bicycle analogy, not everyone rides a bike the same way. Some may meander, others may race.

To be sure, Kosslyn &  Miller are right: Brains are like bikes.

But Kosslyn &  Miller are wrong, in that brains are not different like bikers are different; brains are different like bikes are different.

The apt bike analogy for inter-individual differences in brain function is not inter-individual differences in how people ride bikes, but rather inter-individual differences in bikes. Road bikes, mountain bikes, cyclocross bikes, touring bikes, BMX bikes, commuters, recumbents, etc. – bikes are different.

Brains are like bikes, and brains are different from one another like bikes are different from one another – not like how cyclists ride differently from one another, okay?

Because otherwise, you're just putting Descartes in the saddle.

Proofreadings is important!

(on the Capital Crescent Trail, in Washington D.C.,)

"Bucky is not like other dogs. But he is like ..." Part III. ("Visually similar images" from Google's "search by image")

(click on an image for full-screen)

Bucky is not like other dogs. But he is like a motorcycle, or Gerald Ford, or Harry Potter... ("Visually similar images" from Google's "search by image")

(click on an image for full-screen)

Is it wrong?

Is it wrong to love covet admire a bike for its fenders?

Proofreading is important, part 0.695

Cannondale claims to make a bicycle with a frame weighing 0.695 grams, which is about the weight of one grain of (uncooked) rice:

(screenshot from cannondale.com)

"Ideas flee the prison of the mind ..."

Escapism? I think escapism is healthy. Every time you cast a thought forward or look to the sky, you're escaping. I don't think of escapism as something outside of yourself; it's something natural and fundamental, like breathing. Everything we have was "escaped" into creation, right? Ideas flee the prison of the mind, become real. I believe in it as much as I believe in riding my bike or lying in the grass or digging in the dirt or eating bread or drinking water or skinning your knee. It's key.

- from the interview with Brian Chippendale in the July/August 2012 issue of the Believer.

Expanding internal collet.

Are you buying a new bicycle – or maybe just replacing some handlebars – in order to be able to use the new "Reverse Lever" from Paul Component Engineering, "a bar end lever designed for use at the ends of bullhorn or porteur style handlebars," which attaches by means of a three-piece "expanding internal collet?"

Expanding internal collet.

Expanding internal collet.

Expanding internal collet.

(When you mount the levers on your bike, no one will be able to see the expanding internal collets, because the expanding internal collets are, well, internal.)

Made in USA. Available in black and silver. To go on that bike – you know the one! – that really needs a pair of these new levers. With expanding internal collets.

On average, each bike has a fork.

A mysterious video of what appears to be a pushmi/pullyu tandem bicycle has appeared on the Facebook page of Paul Component Engineering (There's no way to embed, or even to link to, the video here; you need to click through to their Facebook page, and then find and click on the video, which is entitled "Trust us. We're professionaaaaaaaahhhhhhls.").

On the other hand (h/t: cycleexif.com), Olli Erkkilä's beautiful and poetic Graduation Project at the Institute of Design in Lahti, Finland was a "forkless" cruiser:

"There’s been an accident at the traffic lights and we need an ambulance fast!"

What is Lego saying about cycling?

(h/t: Bike Snob NYC)

What's plugging your bars?

For a short time, the fine people at Rivendell Bicycle Works have our favorite Nitto anodized aluminum bar plugs on sale, reduced from $16 to $11 the pair (in blue, gold, & red; for road (drop) bars only, not mountain bars).

(photo from 1/10/11; that bolt takes a 3 mm allen wrench)

Wooden pedals.

Here's a somewhat tighter shot of the Smithsonian's Ho Chi Minh TrailBike:

The Smithsonian's TrailBike.

We rarely see bikes of any kind in museums, let alone trendy artisanal bikes featuring custom steelwork and wooden accessories. Today though, in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, we came upon this twin-forked Ho Chi Minh Trail bike:

Apparently though, these bikes were not ridden, but pushed:

"Ho Chi Minh Trail

The North Vietnamese dispatched troops and tons of supplies along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a series of rough roadways and footpaths that led through the highland jungles of Laos and Cambodia to South Vietnam. Civilian porters pushing overloaded bicycles transported everything from boxes of ammunition to bags of rice."

Yes, it's a bike-related post for Earth Day.

We love most bikes, but we wonder whether riding this one might make us safer in traffic.

I like to watch the pretty bikes go by...

I often bike in Rock Creek on the weekends with a friend who is kind and clever and fun but who does have the (possibly testosterone-fueled) proclivity to take any cyclist passing us as a personal challenge, to be met with robust acceleration and chasing-down.

In contrast, I'm generally happy when passed by a serious cyclist on a serious bicycle, because, well, for them to spend big money on their fancy "racing" bike and stuff, and then to not be going faster than me – that would be a little sad, wouldn't it?

Outside.

To make a bicycle work, we have found that it is not sufficient to pedal it, you must also keep air in its tires.

To put air into our bicycle tires, we got a great big floor pump with a silly name, which, to our surprise, came with a magazine subscription.

At least, that's what the magazine told us, when we asked then please why are you sending us your magazine, they said, you're getting it as a gift from the big online retailer from whom you bought that great floor pump. Maybe among all those papers we recycled along with the box that had the pump was one paper that said thank you for your business we are giving you a magazine subscription. No problem. But no thanks. We don't need to recycle that magazine every month.

So, we went to that magazine's website and entered the subscriber ID from our subscriber's label and selected 'cancel subscription' – and were offered three more free issues:

"Would you consider not canceling at this time if we offer to extend your current subscription by 3 issues at no extra cost"?

What was that old joke? The two old ladies are at dinner, and one says, the food here is so bad, and the other says, yes, and the portions are so small.

brains & bikes (again!)

Riding the bike we featured yesterday would certainly challenge your cephalic flexure.

Made in Japan by Mr. Shin-ichi Konno.

We've never seen a bike quite like this Cherubim that was on display over the weekend in Austin, Texas at the North American Handmade Bicycle Show (here's another view, with its creator).

Going on now!

We are perhaps thinking about bikes more than usual this weekend because of the 2011 North American Handmade Bicycle Show in Austin, Texas, going on now.

They sold all seven.

We regret to inform our readers that the production run of the Minion bicycle from Autum [sic] is sold out.