Old and grumpy. A noble appearance.

Doesn’t surprise me though, unfortunately still a lot of unenlightened drivers everywhere, including here. Just ride out and take the road if it isn’t safe for them to pass.

but a local in a Volvo estate almost took 3 of us out once due to his impatience..

Hmm, don’t know who that was (amazingly, I don’t know anyone with a Volvo estate, despite living in the middle of the Surrey Hills all my life).

Very impressed that you can tell it was a local. Clever.

Mud is minimal at the moment, cos ground frozen. Quite extensive patches of frozen, bumpy slush which is a challenge to walk on, more so to ride on. Forecast is for it to warm up a bit – less ice, more mud.

Watch the roads, they aren’t as easy as they look. But you all drive dead slow through the villages anyway…

There is sort of a mutually assured destruction by DDoS going on!

By the way, for anyone driving to Holmbury/Peaslake/Abinger/Coldharbour – roads are almost completely clear but don’t get casual, because there are odd patches of pure ice that’ll surprise you.

No slush, but substantial patches of hard frozen stuff that was slush. Very bumpy ice, basically. The more oft used tracks may have a mostly clear line (I haven’t actually been to any mtb tracks, but am in the woods every morning, including this morning) but these patches of ice are difficult to walk on.

On the plus side there is no mud!

where are the x rays or other proof, anyone can say they fell off their bicycle or is it just a feeble excuse?

Dumb. :roll:

I like him, or at least I did on Mock TW, but I lasted about two minutes of the first one.

All things being equal – ie. done all the checking-out you can do, all that, I don’t think it makes any difference at all. Some pure bred dogs can be in-bred, some crosses can be well bred.

I like mine anyway.

The absurdity. In seeking to demonise a guy that has not actually committed any crime Palin and others have actually committed a very serious crime themselves, in calling for his murder.

They may not have stolen the information but they are knowingly handling stolen goods (in this case data). They are not innocent.

That kinda makes sense, but Wikileaks are only one step up the chain to The Guardian et al. Why is it ok for the mainstream media to make merry with this “secret information”, when it is not ok for Wikileaks to have their place in the chain?

The crime is in the original leak, not in other people in the chain. Wikileaks problem is that their name contains the word leaks, but they aren’t doing the leaking!

It must be the case, I think, that much more indendiary revelations are just around the corner and the US are desperate to cut it off.

Indeed – nothing to do with morality, everything to do with political puppetry.

A big credibility gap should be opening here – how can western governments accuse, for example, China of censorship and political imprisonment when they are essentially doing the same thing?

The Americans in their ultimate arrogance seem to have overlooked the fact that he can’t be guilty of treason against the US – because he isn’t flippin’ American!

Neither is he guilty of the leaking! The one that did the leaks was – an American!

He repeatedly asked to meet with Swedish prosecutors previously, then they dropped all the charges.

Then a Swedish politician revived the case, and brought about this Euro warrant.

Then he volunteered himself to police to answer charges.

Now no bail.

Police state, police world!

Yes – that’s what we’ve been talking about!

Nice looking frame. Would be even better with a fork that fits?

Nice link, DrJ

The creepy thing is that anyone can find out just how thin these allegations are – but out media persist in briefly and baldly calling it a warrant for arrest for rape, without exploring any further. Now – why would they do that?

Anyone who thinks our media is not in the hands of the government is deluded. Worse – it’s effectively in the hands of America’s government.

Horner should shut it – he got what he wanted all along, ie SV WDC.

I actually feel a bit better about how 2010 turned out now – Webber had SV equalled, but then tailed off at the critical time. And now we know why. I thought he just bottled it, but I was doing him a disservice.

Amazing that he walked away from the Valencia flip, and then picked up a fracture on a push bike.

It’s the reaction to it that I find pretty incendiary. People seem to think it is perfectly ok to call for his murder, to assume that he has committed a crime, to willfully ignore what these Swedish charges are*, to not even wonder who is conducting “cyber attacks” on WL – etc etc.

*Just consider this one question – why has our media not discussed these sexual assault charges? Not gone into it at all? Just mentioned that they exist and that they are “rape”?

The whole thing is so full of outrageous double standards and outright lies it’s hard to know where to start.

How about many, including Sarah Palin, calling for his murder?
When he hasn’t committed a crime.
He didn’t solicit or collude with the leaks, merely received them. Just like the rest of the media are receiving them and passing them on.

Shoot the messenger.

If I did’nt know better I’d say that was advocating single speeding!!!!

Actually yes, but not in the way you mean! One sweet speed – not too fast, not too slow. Goldilocks speed.

I like this – finding just a nice sweet enjoyable speed. Ever faster is not necessarily better (beyond a certain point), if you define better in terms of more fun. When you get the flow so you don’t need to pedal, and indeed very seldom need to brake, then I think the enjoyment is maximised.

Of course this sweet speed might be a lot faster than you once thought possible, but that doesn’t mean that adding speed continues to be better ad-infinitum.

This was the very first ride since the leg breaker! Ironic that my favourite driver missed the WDC due to taking part in my fave leisure activity!

Priceless irony that Ponting would surely have loved a reduction in overs when KP was smashing them left right and centre. Well, mostly left and centre.

Get in there England. Twist the knife – no mercy!

Impressed that you stuck with it. Not sure why you did, but credit anyway.

+1 for cleaning the volume control. Losing one channel very likely the same.

Built in phono is rare these days. Ebay could be a good place…

Overnight rain has altered the situation to officially being a bit of a mess. Bumpy slush would be about right. Lots of standing water. Hope it melts fully before the -6 on Sunday.

Roads not as lively, but still need a bit of caution.

Sorta depends on your idea of fun. I’ve just been up Holmbury Hill on foot with the dog – I think you’d struggle to ride up, because walking is quite heavy going. It is getting a little trampled flat in places though. I’m not going to bother personally, and I haven’t got to travel anywhere.

Edit: It is going to be warm with a bit of rain tomorrow, if the forecast is to be believed…

Abinger Common yesterday morning – we had a couple/few more inches through the day on top.

This pic is yesterday, doesn’t look any different today. Holmbury is same (pic is Abinger Common).

Snow is really deep here, like trying to ride through fluffy sand. Walking is a lot more enjoyable!

Snow is about 12″ and very powdery – not the best to cycle in! The rain may see it off I guess.

Road through Holmbury is currently packed snow and lots of parked cars. Most of the car parks will be tricky to get in and out of.

To be honest I wouldn’t bother driving here ’til it improves – the roads are tricky enough for essential journeys, and the cycling won’t be up to much. A walk would be a lot more enjoyable.

I’ve been out in the car this morning from Abinger Common (2WD). Hollow Lane (goes from Wotton to Leith Hill) is passable but requires caution.

Went down to Holmbury last night – made it there and back ok, but probably wasn’t sensible. Steep hills would not be on. Road through Holmbury is packed snow and also lined with parked cars. You also might have problems getting in and out of many of the car parks.

I’d probably advise parking somewhere like Gomshall station, but to be honest the snow is 12″ deep and very powdery – not the best stuff to cycle in.

P_B – don’t know about unbidden, but generally speaking women are far more open to the kind of advice being discussed here than men. How or why you get to the point of offering advice at all is a different matter.

As for OP, unless they were already participating in my group ride it would need to be a matter of imminent serious injury to be a good reason to speak up!

well now that we know china probably wont protect n korea, infact accept a unified korea under seoul then the american action doesnt seem that bad

How is it not so bad? What the F does it have to with the US? If they have a role it should be to encourage peace, not to provoke and prod.

Don’t see why NK gets all the blame for provocation. Why did they shell the island? (Not saying this is justified, BTW) Because SK was holding exercises right on the very verge of the border. And the US/SK response this time? To hold more exercises. How reasonable.

SK and the US are deliberately inflaming the situation. Plus I don’t believe the Wikileaks story is any kind of coincidence – timing way too sweet.

Annoying I guess, and potentially dangerous. Not as stupid as driving too close to the car in front, which you will see every minute of every day nevermind in crappy conditions. I honestly cannot understand why so many millions of drivers can’t see how idiotic it is.

Charge Spoons are every bit as good as their rep. Fantastic value, AND they last for ages.

Don’t have a Sony, so don’t know what the menu wotsits are called myself, but it won’t be hard. You really should do it though, because the standard settings (like in the tv showrooms) are just horrible. Everything turned up to 11 etc.

I went for Philips in the end and googled around for someone’s settings, then copied those and made minor further tweaks for my own sake.

A really good shortcut is to put the tv into movie mode, which will probably turn off most of the crap. It will probably look unexciting at first – but this is better!

CRT better? Have you got into the set up and tuned-up your picture? All the factory settings are atrocious on all makes of new tv, but the results can be sublime once you’ve turned all the gubbins down – almost no sharpening, easy on the colour and contrast, very careful about “enhancement” features etc.