I’m taking a group of local young people to the National Holocaust Centre next month in response to this past week. I want to provide them with skills and knowledge to assist their debating the current issue.

As part of the young people’s learning the Holocaust Centre facilitators will help lead a discussion on conditions for genocide and use several examples. This will include examples of the Nazis and compare those to others including Cambodia, Rwanda, and Israel – Palestine.

On that basis, contextually I’m presuming that there can be discussions assessing the historical and current similarities / differences. Otherwise by the literal definition that’d mean the amazing work of the UK Holocaust Centre would be anti-semitic which would clearly be a ludicrous accusation.

The definition of Anti-Semitism includes that to make a comparison of the actions of Israel / IDF to the actions undertaken by the Nazis is deemed to be Anti-Semitic.

Just a pre-emptive note but before this thread possibly gets closed again if talk gets too heated and even incendary, may I thank the Mods for reopening this thread. I think it’s been generally a good continuation of the discussions and hopefully informative for many.

If the thread does get closed , can the Mods possibly do so for a 24hr ‘cooling off’ period and then look to reopen.

French school teacher stabbed to death this morning. Attacker was shouting ‘revenge’ amongst other things.

It would appear from initial French comms that the individual was known to French Security Services. This cycle of violence has just got to stop. On all sides.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67101089

Grant Shapps MP just shatt himself live on R4. He had his balls nailed to the wall by Mishal Husain over the UK Gov seemingly being supportive of 1.1m Gazans being asked to move in 24hrs.

You could almost hear his brain ticking over, ‘don’t say anything implicating the UK to war crimes, don’t say anything implicating the UK to war crimes’.

Imagine if our Government issued an order for 100% of the residents of Birmingham to move out and entirely leave within 24 hours. With roads and infrastruucture already partially destroyed… I’m sure that’d go well.

Bloody hell, what are we witnessing.

Ernie – I’ve done a number of charity bike rides for MAP over the years. A great organisation and they have historically navigated the politics of the situation with great skill and composure.

MAP gave me a great excuse to charity mtb ride 500km in 7 days just over 10 years ago, a very memorable week.

Genocide – ‘Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people[a] in whole or in part. In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly’.

See you in International Court Netanyahu.

Interesting to hear William Hague this morning warning Israel from falling into the trap set by Hamas by undertaking a ground assault on Gaza as revenge.

Estimates on BBC2 Newsnight last night stated that a ground assault in Gaza would lead to upwards of 20,000 Gaza civilian deaths.

Also signaling the important and insightful post that @brownperson has made here, thank you for the input and your contribution.

I’ve seen Aliens once or twice before,many years ago now, I’d never seen Alien though.

I was just about to switch TV off and go to bed last night and just so happened to watch the first 5 minutes… needless to say I rolled into bed at 12.40am once it’d finished! What a film. Can’t believe I had a good night’s sleep after watching that to be honest.

It took me back to the days of playing Alien 3 on my SNES.

Of the top 100 prizes, only 2 were in Premium Bond accounts opened pre-2000, and yet the majority were in accounts opened post 2015. Hmm… ‘random’…

Maybe I’m just bitter because I didn’t win a thing for the 8th month in a row! :-P

Had an aviation spotter life ambition achieved yesterday!

I was a passenger as my wife was driving south on M6 through the Lakes south of Tebay J38. Just as we hit the valley floor past the junction, 2 x F35s dropped in, travelling head on towards us in the middle of the valley. Both passed directly overhead and as they did so banked hard right with contrails. I opened the car window at 70mph and the noise was still proper loud. Awesome.

I’ve always wanted to see a military jet on that classic Lakes valley section of the M6, still can’t believe we saw the F35s right there! :-D

Felt quite bizarre watching today’s stage. What should be a GC bike race just felt like a scripted WWE match to guarantee a fairy tale ending.

For all the stick and hate that Vingo is getting are we really saying that if Remco or Pog were 8 seconds down on a Grand Tour win they’d just suck it up and roll in?

‘It’s only the Vuelta’…wow?!?

‘Yeah, don’t worry, its only the US Open, not Wimbledon…’.

Imnotverygood – thank you, you’ve 100% made the point I was getting at. If Vinog gives this up to his deputy today then it’s a historic sporting gesture / ‘promotion’.

Put yourself in the mind of a bike racer who is only 8 seconds down on 1st place overall towards the end of a Grand Tour and that you’re clearly the stronger rider than the person in the red jersey.

What would you honestly do?

Scenario: You’re at work, worked effing hard all year, been offered the promotion that you want and deserve but because someone nice guy in your team is also interested you withdraw your request for promotion and let them have it instead. Hmm.

In my mind if Vinog doesn’t attack Kuss today then it’ll be one of the biggest gestures sport has ever seen.

To quote Jonas at the end of the stage, ‘I would love to see Sepp to winning this Vuelta A Espana’.

Pretty clear statement, think the Twittersphere needs to unmelt itself.

My heart would like Kuss to win for all the incredible team wofk he’s put in over the years though.

Health & Safety well in action at the Blue Peter studio…! :-D

‘The pegging around the bike idea may not work’. Wild camping indeed. :-D

Been quite pleased that our June gas + elec bill was £87, July has been £79.

DD was set at £130/month but energy provider has allowed me to now reduce it to £98/month, ~£230 in credit currently.

1930’s semi with double glazing, combi boiler. Just me and my wife and we’re pretty eco minded but use the heating when we need it.

She’s finally reached the low enough level of poor performance that even Rishi has now had enough of her.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66382232

..

‘Because they’ve never done it in the past’ – that’s a ridiculous statrment, especially considering F1 is meant to push boundaries.

F1 in 1960 – ‘oh no we can never put aerofoils on our racing cars, F1 has never done that before’…

thehols2 – you’ve missed my point there.

Every car in the 2023 BTCC is a legal car but on a sliding scale they lose up to nearly 90% of their 15 sec / lap hybrid boost if they’re winning races, why is this so hard for F1 to adopt?

If someone was to travel to Utter Pradesh right now and burn a copy of the Hindu Vedas + kill a cow openly on the street you’d see yourself lynched. Different faith but same response.

My question is why on earth the FIA / F1 Ltd haven’t applied either ballast being added to the ’23 Red Bull on a ratio of +KGs per win? Or how about following BTCC where the winning cars lose the 15 secs/ lap hybrid electric boost. Why on earth can’t F1 as the pinnacle of motorsport be any near having the pinnacle of motorsport rules?

I don’t watch F1 anymore, since the end of 2021 season debacle it’s a waste of time. However, if the ’23 Red Bull was 100kg heavier than the rest of the field plus it had no hybrid boost to use I might return to watching F1 just to see the look on Horner’s face. :-D

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Farage continuing to bitterly complain on R4 world at 1 just now that the ‘elites’ have made his life a misery now that he’s not got the £££££££££ x millions available to bank with Coutts…

He’s merely the equivalent of a drunk pub goer getting chucked out for being drunk & disorderly.

It was very, very close to the fan nearly bringing down the Yellow Jersey due to the chain reaction that followed the initial Jumbo rider hitting the deck and taking out the riders further left.

Effing ridiculous fan behaviour yet again. Beyond stupidity.

I was visiting friends in the Peak District last weekend and happened to pop into the Alpkit / Sonder shop in Hathersage, plenty of helpful staff in there.

Prior to having a wander around Hathersage I had no idea that Alpkit HQ was based there so it was nice to have a 10 minute bike shop mooch.

Not frame only unfortunately but just a thought to throw in, the Cannondale CAAD13 Disc has room for 30mm tyres and front & rear mudguard mounts. Nice racey geo although not quite as aggressive as the previous CAAD12 from what I gather.

ianc – enjoying following your ride updates.

I’m heading up near Alnwick in June for a mini-break with my wife, we’ve never visited Northumberland before. I won’t be biking but we’ll be getting good walks in, wondered if you could recommend some nice walking routes? We’ll certainly be doing Bamburgh area on one day.

My swinging nutsacks have enjoyed all manner of pecking the past few weeks, highly satisfying to sit back and enjoy. Birds everywhere, even had Jays visiting.

BUT, a filthy great heron has started appearing in my garden and it’s scaring off the tits enjoying watersports on my koi pond cascade.

Judging by Planet X’s pricing policy the company will be listed for sale at £2.5m one week, then £1.8m the next week with a ‘Flash Sale’ for one day in between for £1m…

Bought a pair of tanwall Conti GP 5000 S TR in early 2022 because they were the only place in Europe that seemed to have them in stock at that time. Price was good also.

They took about 13-14 days to arrive from BikeInn. I was quite entertained tracking them – they literally passed through a different European country every day on their way to the UK, was a mad route!

Funnily enough at the weekend I swapped out the 30mm One TLE tyres I had on my Winter road wheels for the past 2 years for brand new 32mm Pro One TLE. Both pairs set up tubeless.

Initial impressions from first ride yesterday are that the Pro One TLE were much easier to fit compared to the b*stard tight bead of the One TLE. The Pro One do ride slightly more smoothly, but I’m comparing 32mm Pro One (65psi) vs 30mm One (75psi) so extra width plays a part in that.

Purely feel so not scientific in the slightest but I felt the Pro Ones have slightly more speed in them and roll ever slightly more easily, not massive but just a feeling. The Rolling Resistance website link above seems to provide evidence of the the wattage difference.

The Pro One TLE I fitted at the weekend are also tanwall so naturally look waaay betterer than the all black One TLE. :-)

I’ve a pair of Roval Terra CL here, awesome wheels on my gravel bike, highly recommended. £970 at Certini is very good deal as Rrp is £1400.

1408g, 33mm depth, 30mm width – I’ve even used mine as a lightweight road climbing wheelset, very good in that respect also.

And you can also get custom DT Swiss 350 hub stickers for £15 to personalise your bike – jungle camo oil slick hubs FTW! :-)

As a near on 20 year customer for CRC / Wiggle they lost me as a customer 12 months ago when Evri became their delivery method, this new website mess just gives me another reason to shop elsewhere. CRC really does need to shape up, much better competition out there these days.