Can’t imagine what’s leading to all this weirdness;

Latest dream involved Tahnee Seagrave getting all antsy about this thread…

Now why would that be?

Suprised no one has responded to this…

there has to be less of us.

That I agree with.

But global genocide is such a loaded term. 😉

Weird thing is, the targets of industrialized genocide tend to be in countries where there’s far less wealth and thus consumption (albeit normally a wealth of natural resources to be exploited)

That would suggest either:

a) We need to reconsider where the (environmentally destructive) weapons are aimed

or alternatively,

b) Reduce consumption

Could that and the previous points raised regarding how Theresa May’s Husband, BAE, HSBC and British Cycling fit into the palm oil debate be ‘too political’ perhaps?

Hang in there tough guy… of course, I wouldn’t normally say that to a roadie, but fair play, seems like you’re doing grand having read the extent of your injuries!!

Whilst I can appreciate some folk are a touch incredulous that a flimsy bit of polystyrene can save lives, bear in mind that polystyrene expands considerably after the compression of impact…

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a616948.pdf

Having seen multiple folk knocked unconscious in full face helmets (including one that left a significant crack in the chin piece), I’d hate to think what might have happened without the damping provided by the helmet.

there has to be less of us.

That I agree with.

But global genocide is such a loaded term. 😉

Weird thing is, the targets of industrialized genocide tend to be in countries where there’s far less wealth and thus consumption (albeit normally a wealth of natural resources to be exploited)

That would suggest either:

a) We need to reconsider where the (environmentally destructive) weapons are aimed

or alternatively,

b) Reduce consumption

Perhaps it is a touch more political than it 1st appears…

What’s the bets some bloody do good hippy type rocks up and mentions how HSBC are all tied into Orangutans loosing their habitat and the Iceland ad not being broadcast…

Hmmm…

Well at least it doesn’t involve lucrative arms deals for BAE Systems, right?

Oh:

After her appearance at the cenotaph today, let’s not forget Theresa May has a hand in all this:

And that HSBC and BAE Systems are heavily tied.

So, how come HSBC ended up sponsoring British Cycling anyhoo…

Hmmm… odd one last night;

dreamt I was Danny Macaskill’s dog and to start with it was great, him taking me for walks with amazing scenery and fantastic smells, then when we got home, feeding me well and being an all round nice guy.

Then for whatever reason, he started making unreasonable demands of me, feeding me rotten meat so I’d fart, shart and puke, then making me eat that too!!

Turned out that Jimmy Savile had introduced him to Prince Charles back in the day and what with all his talking to plants, old big ears had convinced Danny to talk to trees.

The question is, why did the trees get Danny to poison me?

Had a horrid one last night…

I was a spy, but rather than all the glamour portrayed by James Bond, my double life basically consisted of being a slave, having been coerced into it.

What with all the secrecy, it wasn’t something I could talk to anyone about, but nonetheless, every time I got close to someone, they were tortured and/or killed.

Grim

Perhaps the original question should be:

From a Global perspective, do we really want leaders who say one thing and do another, spending tax money on arms deals and covert conflict, hastening the demise of the planet with the vast resources required for their machines of war?

So many wars come about due to dark dealings by intelligence services, be they Russian, Iranian, Saudi, Israeli, CIA or MI6.

It’s worth noting the last 4 are the ones responsible for the rise of Al-Qaeda (and ISIS).

Yemen has a history of strong links to Al-Qaeda;

for more on that, check Ali Soufan (of Looming Tower fame)’s book:

The Black Banners; The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War against Al-Qaeda

It details the FBI’s work (including FBI’s head of counterterrorism John O Neill, who lest we forget retired after a smear campaign, before being killed in WTC7) in the wake of the Al-Qaeda bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, before expanding on events surrounding 9/11 and the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program.

The name comes from the vast swathes of text redacted by the CIA… take for example this page of Abu Zubaydah:

<span id=”ebooksProductTitle” class=”a-size-extra-large”></span>

This is intrinsically linked to not only the Jamal Khashoggi case, but Kenneth Clarke’s role as head of the All-Party Parliamentary group on Extraordinary Rendition.

Questions still remain about what involvement the current UK National Security Adviser (and his recent more senior role, Cabinet Secretary) Mark Sedwill had in the Extraordinary Rendition Program.

Hang on, what’s this got to do with Yemen?

Well, you may remember Keith Vaz was chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee when Mark Sedwill was questioned about the 114 missing VIP child abuse files:

https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/home-affairs-committee/news/140706-sedwill-ev/

<span id=”ebooksProductTitle” class=”a-size-extra-large”></span>

Now aside from dirty laundry, washing machines and Jim fixing it, Keith Vaz also happens to be chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Yemen

http://www.yemenappg.com/

Being fairly well acquainted with some of the main trailbuilders and James who started the petition, there’s a fair bit I could add to this debate, but I’ll give it a few days before I decide whether to stick my oar in…

Hang on though, what does that and Nick Clegg’s recent appointment to Facebook have to do with all of this?

Brian Crozier = Founder member of Shield Committee and ‘the 61’, Instrumental in Thatcher’s rise to power, European Head of Le Cercle, which has several ties to child abuse networks the world over.

Julian Lewis = Named by Crozier as the most prominent UK player in ‘the 61’ the international private intelligence network set up by Crozier in collaboration with other Le Cercle Members. Played key role in original cover up of North Wales Child abuse and trafficking.

Wholly relevant given the origins of Nick Clegg’s political career under Leon Brittan, who despite extensive propaganda to the contrary was never cleared of child abuse… Like Jimmy Savile, Cyril Smith and Greville Janner, he was never charged, but that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

The people who have ‘cleared’ Leon Brittan are of the same ilk as Crozier… after all, like many journalists with ties to the intelligence agencies, Crozier was still welcomed to the fold even after Forum World Features was exposed as a CIA propaganda operation.

Speaking of propaganda, Crozier was also closely associated with Rupert Murdoch, to the extent that Murdoch bailed out Crozier’s publishing company, Sherwood Press.

Also in the United States there was strong circumstantial, if not conclusive, evidence that he helped fund the clandestine activities of Brian Crozier, an anti-communist campaigner with connections to the British and US intelligence services. Crozier had a long history of anti-communist activism, including running a CIA-sponsored operation called Forum World Features, which syndicated right-wing articles to newspapers. In his autobiography, Crozier acknowledged his financial backers, including “Rupert,” subsequently identified as Murdoch by one of Crozier’s associates. In December 1990, the Guardian reported that Crozier’s publishing business, Sherwood Press, was bailed out by News International, Murdoch’s British holding company. News took a half-stake in the business and assumed liability for its debts, then said to total £90,000.

Murdoch, like many media moguls, has been known to publish propaganda on behalf of the intelligence services,

‘the link between the security services and the whip’s offices in parliament’

Well, that goes some way to explaining why Special Branch intervene when VIP abuse is reported…

May also give us some background why Julian Lewis, known to have played an active role in covering up abuse in North Wales, was elevated to the Privy Council, under the supervision of Nick Clegg… who is now being knighted for his services.

Final note for now… both Clegg and Cameron were mentored by members of the Cambridge Mafia: Clegg by Leon Brittan and Cameron by Norman Lamont (who like Crozier, was also European head of Le Cercle)

Nick Clegg appointed as Facebook’s head of global affairs and communications in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

To be expected I suppose…

Just gonna throw this into the mix…

“This new way to treat wood makes it 12 times stronger than natural wood and 10 times tougher,” says senior researcher Liangbing Hu, from the University of Maryland.

“This could be a competitor to steel or even titanium alloys, it is so strong and durable. It’s also comparable to carbon fibre, but much less expensive.”

“It is both strong and tough, which is a combination not usually found in nature,” adds another of the team, Teng Li from the University of Maryland.

“It is as strong as steel, but six times lighter. It takes 10 times more energy to fracture than natural wood. It can even be bent and moulded at the beginning of the process.”

https://www.sciencealert.com/new-super-wood-stronger-than-steel

‘You abandoned me’…

That renovo link sounds like a similar situation to what happened with the Lahar carbon gearbox DH bike… payments taken, orders not delivered, rather than a fundamental flaw with wood.

Sorry guys, much as I’d love to show you that bike in full, the simple fact is that it’s toooooo sexy for youze and would likely blow you mind.

Wouldn’t be at all surprised if the filthy capitalist was thinking of building a burly steel full suspension frame; I remember emailing him a few years back with some filthy capitalist ideas of my own and he seemed pretty interested.

Can you imagine… the additional stiffness and compliance of steel, countering the additional leverage and flex of the swing arm caused by larger wheels, not to mention the guaranteed fitness to be gained from riding a bike weighing similar to a rampaging bullock!!

For what it’s worth, there’s every chance the mint press article is as biased as Bellingcat, but in the other direction; perhaps the truth is somewhere in the middle; could we have a situation where what Bellingcat says is true, but the mint press article is equally true?

After all, it’d be foolish to pretend Russia doesn’t have intelligence services that do dark deeds (or has a clean human rights record), but as the ties between the likes of Paul Manafort and Oleg Deripaska have shown, there are many overlaps when it comes to the darker arts of ‘democracy’.

Not forgetting the Trump Pee tape… but surely that couldn’t link to the Salisbury poisonings, could it?

It all gets a bit complex when steel is 3 times stiffer than alu though; I had a steel full suspension bike with a burly steel rear end…

Even though it had a puny by modern standards 135QR axle, it tracked like a downhill bike, with a noticeable improvement in holding a line on off camber sections compared to the alu enduro bike I had before it.

Nonetheless, despite this stiffness, it also had a pleasing level of compliance.

Wasn’t the lightest mind…

I remember ages ago there was an excellent article regarding how frame feel was influenced by resonance and harmonics, but I can’t for the life of me find it.

That said, this article might provide a few clues:

https://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0511/Burleigh-0511.html

For a bit of balance of the type the BBC seems to lack;

Omidyar’s Intercept Teams Up with War-Propaganda Firm Bellingcat

In addition, Bellingcat’s founder Elliott Higgins is employed by the Atlantic Council, which is partially funded by the U.S. State Department, NATO and U.S. weapons manufacturers. It should come as little surprise then that the results of Bellingcat’s “findings” often fit neatly with narratives promoted by NATO and the U.S. government despite their poor track record in terms of accuracy.

Bellingcat’s funding is even more telling than its professional associations. Indeed, despite promoting itself as an “independent” and open-source investigation site, Bellingcat has received a significant portion of its funding from Google, which is also one of the most powerful U.S. military contractors and whose rise to prominence was directly aided by the CIA.

Google has also been actively promoting regime change in countries like Syria, a policy that Bellingcat also promotes. As one example, leaked emails between Jared Cohen, former director of Google Ideas (now Jigsaw), and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed that Google developed software aimed at assisting al-Qaeda and other Syrian opposition groups in boosting their ranks.

Pfff, you wish pal, blatantly just another wannabe!

They let things slide and don’t question the BS.

This is the real issue, though to find out why that is, you have to dig a bit deeper:

Some of them want to use you, some of them want to abuse you…

Soooo much truth in these lyrics, unfortunately.

Course, song was written way before the internet and all the trolls who lurk out there

I’m giggling to myself at the prospect of all the pro racers seeing this thread, but staying out of it, because they know in their heart of hearts the answer is Nico Vouilloz, Sam Hill or Greg Minnaar or for the ladies Anne Caroline Chausson, Rachel Atherton or Tracy Moseley, though of course when you start getting into the more freeride/freestyle side, things get a bit more complicated… I would mention XC, but to my shame I have to admit my ignorance in that field.

Anyhoo, a few weeks back it somehow ended up with just Greg Minnaar and I riding down the Pleney, though it doesn’t really count, as we never exchanged a word (we weren’t in the lift together, I just caught him up 😁), he was recovering from injury and I’d had 2 teeth out the day before. Nonetheless, his fluidity and speed were of course impeccable.

Riding with the RideIO team at the mega was great; Emyr Davies is a top guy and has mad skills to boot (he must be one of the top UK finishers of the mega, with an 8th the year before), and aside from being speedy buggers Louis Meade and Will Hart have top bantz.

I’ve also ridden with the Dudes of Hazzard, though due to unfortunate circumstance, some of those memories are a bit tarnished.

It’s a shame in a way; because all told, Dirt was pivotal in growing the audience of DH, both in the days of print and as social media began to take off.

What I always used to love about Dirt was the down to earth honesty, with Billy writing from a caravan and chickens, farm animals and shonky old hardtails juxtaposing seamlessly with the latest and greatest kit that the keen minds of MTB design could muster.

But perhaps all things have their time and place and the glitz and glamour of Pinkbike will rule the waves until the next big thing comes along and taps into the collective consciousness.

Glad to hear Billy and Ed are still following their passion, they used their platform well to inspire many and help grow the scene from it’s infancy.

Something tells me this isn’t just about the print mag though…

Dirt used to have some of the best online content;

If you think back, the Parkin Brothers (who now do the Red Bull DH coverage) and Wyn Masters used to be behind Dirt TV, but for whatever reason, they jumped ship.

Same goes with the likes of Sven Martin and Laurence CE, who used to handle much of the photography;

Question is, what was going on behind the scenes for that to happen…

Seems you’ve answered your own question there Woppit…

You may recall I made similar claims of the Catholic Church

Perhaps we’re experiencing a degree of misunderstanding here nick, for whatever reason; the reason I disagree with John McCain (and many others who attended his funeral) are the policies (often based on lies) he and others have used to wreak havoc around the world, not 40 years ago, but up to and including the present day; causing bloodshed, injury and death and leading to vast numbers of refugees, which contrary to claims of peace, has achieved little but stoking further hatred, endangering innocents on all sides of the conflict.

I know how much everyone looks forward to my photos…

This one of Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis and the lord of darkness himself, Peter Mandelson at a Spectator event should liven the debate a bit:

Of course, being as it was taken back in 2010, it could be dismissed as ancient history; but there again, so could Mandelson’s key role in Tony Blair’s rise to power, beginning in the 1980s, which still has impact today…

Perhaps rewriting history and sugar coating the horrific truth in your favour is the mark of a skilled politician…

No doubt many of those at John McCain’s funeral have used such tactics to get away with (mass) murder.

Still, as long as everyone is calm and mature about it, there’s really no problem and business (after all that’s what it is) can continue as normal.

Personally though, I still think overt and covert invasions of countries on the other side of the world in support of despotic regimes is probably not in the interests of the majority of the inhabitants of this planet.

Well, perhaps I’m being a touch judgemental, but I would’ve thought if you bombed people, then they tortured you, the best route after that would be to advocate for less bombs, not more.

Surely that’s the real path to tolerance, understanding and peace…

The simple fact is:

You can’t handle the facts…

Full support to Colin Kaepernick and good on Nike for such a hard hitting advertisment; can’t help but wonder if the backlash will lead to rednecks and mouth breathers campaigning for worker’s rights in Nike Factories…