Cycling beyond the edge of civilization

Super-Storm Sandy has turned New York City into a temporary wilderness, virtually impossible to enter using traditional means (car, train, subway, airplane). This story on the Bloomberg.com website has some good advice - take a bike!

Writer Tom Randall: "Commuters are filling bike lanes in greater numbers than usual this morning. Staring out the window of an idling car, I wished I were one of them. The sun is shining and the streets are full of optimism. Don’t forget your helmet."

Farther away... across the sea in Bangladesh... the San Francisco Chronicle reports that dozens of "Info Ladies" ride their bicycles to remote villages, with notebook computers and internet connections, and help people connect to the outside world. The women get training and a job, and they are providing a valuable service. (Some communications are free; others, like Skype, cost a reasonable $2.40 per hour.) What's not to like?

As of right now, there are 60 "Info Ladies," but it's so popular that by 2016 they estimate they might have 15,000!

Photo from the SF Chronicle story.

(Let's pause and feel gratitude, for living in a place where info and everything else we might need are so available and abundant!)