[Originally posted on Project Pedal. Please leave your comments on Pedal's site. Thanks!]

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Hopefully you've watched Episode Two, and have a basic understanding of "how" the relationship between bikers and crew will function.

Here's what we are looking for: A small group of bicyclists - already planning to ride coast to coast (west to east), preferably along Adventure Cycling's Northern Route, during the months June & July of this year.
The less money you have as a group: the better. The more you are fundamentally opposed to staying in hotels and hitching rides: the better.

So, how does this work? Easy - simply introduce yourself. You can do this by sending an email. You can write a blog post and leave a link in the comments of this site. You can use your friend's camera to post a video on Blip.tv, Revver or YouTube. Contact us through Pedal's mySpace.

Be creative. This process is simply an introduction. The more you include - the better for starting a conversation.

The deadline for introductions is May 1st.

(Note: I should make it clear that Pedal is not a safety net... meaning Pedal will not be financially involved or supportive in anyone's travels. We are merely searching for people who are comfortable in being tailed - as unobtrusively as possible, of course.)

tags: pedal, documentary, indie, vlog, blog, bicycle, coast-to-coast, community, funding

This vlog from Sustainable Route was shot in New Orleans - watching was both very inspiring to me, and very upsetting at the same time.

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"Inspiring" because everyday people are out there making a positive difference. And "upsetting" because the shots that Ashley & Megan took of the city were just unbelievable - nothing has changed. It looks like the city was hit only a month ago. Where is our government? Oh, right, they are trying to stir up public support/fear for Iran.

The *official* release of Democracy isn't up on the site just yet, but it's days away - I decided it sounded safe enough to download the latest nightly build and I'm really, really liking the new features.

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Saturday morning I got the "bright" idea to drive 3 hours east, north of Twentynine Palms, California, to spend a day taking pictures of a large crashed military-plane out in the middle of the desert.



Needless to say, this idea didn't turn out so well. Lucky for Amanda & I; Angela is awesome and drove out to save us... despite the fact that she was both terribly deprived of sleep as well as hung over. Thanks Angela, you rock.

From Yahoo! News: LIMA (AFP) - Between 30,000 and 50,000 mercenaries are working in Iraq, making them the second largest military force there after the occupying United States.

The case of Iraq "is a new manifestation of the use of mercenaries that has caughts the US by surprise", Spain's Jose Luis Gomez del Prado - a member of the UN working group on mercenaries - said Fridayduring a visit to Peru.

The United States has 130,000 soldiers in Iraq, he noted. Britain has 10,000 troops.

Gomez del Prado told a news conference thousands of Peruvians, Chileans, Colombians, Hondurans and Ecuadorans had been contracted to work as mercenaries in Iraq, thanks to an array of legal loopholes.

The trend has caused widespread public concern in Peru.

Rights workers have voiced concern that people are being hired to work as security guards in Iraq but are then given military training and asked to perform "previously unforseen tasks" which draw them into full combat.

Gomez del Prado's Colombian colleague, Amada Guevara, told the news conference that in some cases, workers were contracted by existing companies who exploited legal loopholes. But in other cases, they were taken on by ghost firms who arrived in a country, opened an office for a month, contracted workers and then disappeared without trace.

"This amounts to privatisation of warfare," she said.

Gomez said new legislation and better government oversight was necessary to prevent citizens desperate for well-paid jobs being lured into a mercenary career which put their lives, health and rights at risk.