We are gathering a group of Austinites that can help him see this vision to fruition. As a bike friendly office with two full time bike commuters rolling in and out each day we’d love to see it go. If you want Austin on the B-Cycle map get off your Facebook and get over here. If you have any great ideas for how to drive grassroots awareness of this mission drop us a comment, tweet it, or just launch it into the universe in your own special way.

In the United States and most Western countries, diet-relatedchronic diseases represent the single largest cause of morbidityand mortality. These diseases are epidemic in contemporary Westernizedpopulations and typically afflict 50-65% of the adultpopulation, yet they are rare or nonexistent in hunter-gatherersand other less Westernized people. Although both scientistsand lay people alike may frequently identify a single dietaryelement as the cause of chronic disease (eg, saturated fat causesheart disease and salt causes high blood pressure), evidencegleaned over the past 3 decades now indicates that virtuallyall so-called diseases of civilization have multifactorial dietaryelements that underlie their etiology, along with other environmentalagents and genetic susceptibility.

- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Rip is officing in our space as we prepare to help him launch a marketing website that will support sales of his new book, The Engine 2 Diet. It advocates eating a plant-strong diet full of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. The diet has been medically proven to cause dramatic reductions in LDL cholesterol (that’s the bad one) levels in as little as two weeks. Weight loss is another, more visible, and perhaps more motivating benefit.

When we look at the issues facing our country and world The Engine 2 Diet rises to the challenge in so many ways. We are proud of Rip for making the telling of this story such a huge part of his life. The book hits stores on the 25 of February. The site we are creating will launch January 1st. Keep an eye on your news stand for major stories about this book in early 2009.

Jeff Manning is a limited edition person. Wicked smart yet a dude. Cocksure yet self effacing. A boy from Boston who fits right into Texas. You get the idea. A walking contradiction. Oh yeah, he also likes to wear pink. To celebrate this we gifted him his own limited edition (2 issue) pink Butler Bros tees. He wears them proud and dares people to comment. Soon he will be our neighbor as the Lance Armstrong Foundation heads east in 2009. Jeff does great work keeping the LAF connected to the outside via the web. We look forward to working with him in 09 to help put the beat down on cancer.