I’m sorry you’re poor… but it’s not my fault

You can empathise though.

Same as last year:

“The summer sun is fading as the year grows old”

Haven’t seen many “What lights” threads yet mind.

That’s a different issue altogether.

That told me!

Most reasonable people would accept that face covering in this instance is not a “free” choice…

I think that might be an assumption too far for me.

Me too, but having said that, if women have been living in a society that has conditioned them into making this “free” choice. Is it really a “free” choice?

Factor in wages that are typically higher than private sector (on average), shorter working hours, more holiday, “flexi” time, more sickness absence (paramedics on 16 days sick a year at the last count), an absence of effective performance management so no-one ever gets fired for poor performance… and the cries of “we’re not valued” frankly ring a bit hollow when you compare this to fate of the many poor sods who are struggling though on low wages in the private sector, trying to bring up families on limited incomes and resigned to having to struggle through retirement in the knowledge that the biggest contribution to pension was the contribution they made as a tax payer to someone else of the same age who retired 15 years before them.

Someones been selling the lie effectively. Don’t believe everything you read about the public sector/private sector perceived divide.

That said….. If someone can give me a valid reason, religious or otherwise for wearing a balaclava into a bank, I’d be interested to hear it.

Hmmm, it’s January, the heating isn’t working (in the bank) and you’re cold!

It’s dusty in here today, but then I just farted in an open bag of Allisons.

Watch out for naked flames. Whumph!

The world is changing.

Okay I retract my question, it’s suddenly getting a bit too complicated for my brain to cope with.

People drive cars near roadies all the time, no?

Yes, but I think the point is the “provided it’s driven correctly.” bit is not correct.

I think I’d also take issue with the “inherently” safe bit. Cars do seem to be a lot safer than they used to be but I wouldn’t be willing to put the confidence in them that your father does!

Duh!

😆

I’d be pretty safe driving a JCB around a classroom

Course you would, you safely ensconced inside it away from the dangers of schoolchildren!

Not sure how safe the kids would be though.

Having said all that, JCBs and the ilk are pretty speciailised and potentially very dangerous pieces of kit. Their use is a bit more strictly controlled than a normal car.

It’s not something I agree with, but an interesting POV.

It’s interesting that someone can hold such an opion without recognising the inherent falalcies. Mind you, my parents do something very similar! It’s not an uncommon opinion…

Is an issue for trans-pacific shipping, though, iirc. Or at least one of the Oceans. And yes one of our Terrain/Sea simulators for Radar Altimeters did (correctly) have gradient as one parameter for Sea.

How does that work then? Is it due to differing air pressures acting on the water causing bulges and depressions? Like a storm surge?

it annoys me when cyclists don’t use suitable cycle paths when they are put it. Everyone’s idea of what is suitable varies but the principle remains.

How can you be annoyed when you’re acknowledging that what you consider suitable, may not be for someone else? Not sure I understand that one, seems a bit ‘doublethink’

during my last ‘talk’ with my Dad, he casually remarked that if the bicycle had only just been invented it would not be considered safe enough to be allowed on the road

…and cars would? I think I know which is more likely to be given the okay from the HSE (or other appropriate H&S body) for use in public areas.

😆

You would though, wouldn’t you.

Great story to tell down the pub.

Sh*t. Gutted.

Anyway, Malthus has been critiqued enough in the past for ignoring other impacts on resource production and population level so I’ll leave it at that for now.

Sorry, I assumed “was” meant past tense. Maybe “Malthus will be right”. 🙂

Malthus was right.

Was he? When? Trying to think of a Malthusian Catastrophe but struggling a bit…

Without a drastic reduction in world population from a massive world war or natural disaster such as a comet strike or new plague, progress towards non-violence from (largely) the male population or some other massive or unlikely event, it will only get worse.

The question now is – what will the endgame look like?

A drastic reduction in world population is not necessary, useful? Maybe, but not needed. There are plenty of resources (renewable ones) that can be used to allow people to live long and happy lives in relative comfort.

Non violence and population control are two goals that can be achieved relatively simply by empowering and educating women. All the resources already exist, everything is in place we just need to change our attitude (as a species) and start recognising and educating everyone to the same extenet.

I for one can say yes certain things effect me but I cant possibly take everything I hear as my problem/or care about. This doesn’t make me a thoughtless person just real and perhaps a little selfish at times…

Yep, me too. Think most people are. There’s a lot of people in the world, a lot of evil sh*t going down and a lot of love and happiness too. It’s the yin/yang of the world/universe we live in. Best just do waht you can to make it better in your own way. If we all followed that script we wouldn’t have have the cr*p we do on the News.

And what makes cyclists be seen as different? The funny clothes and the plastic hats, for one.

Car culture, we’ve been sold a dream for the last fifty years that cars and personal mobility will give us ultimate freedom. That dream is being recognised as a nightmare by all the folk in traffic jams day-in day-out. They need someone to blame, a suitable “out group” that won’t bite back. Cue the funny looking people who don’t have to wait in the same queues as the “normals” and get to enjoy cheap, reliable, healthy transport for free (compared to cars anyway).

It’s an age old issue with human group behaviour, same as racism, sexism, ageism, but on a slightly smaller scale and a slightly shorter timescale.

Should be okay, I’ve run Avid discs with deore brakes and Avid brakes with tektro and no-name discs before. If the diameters are the same any differences in width of the disc should be allowed for in the setting up of the caliper itself.

Not a stupid question either!

(snip) not all of us go in for risk compensation though. Just prefer to protect the brain if something bad happens..

Is that not the risk compensation that you don’t go in for?

It worth noting that whilst flying is currently affordable, i suspect that in 20 years, with fuel costs having rocketed, it will get a lot lot more expensive!

True, it’s only a matter of time before aviation fuel is taxed properly (like petrol and diesel). It’s also only a matter of time before HGVs and LGVs are taxed properly because car traffic is reducing = less tax revenues. So the cost of goods will go up, unless a cheaper way to shift them can be found… …trains!

Afterall, of all the people who work in london, what proportion go there to simple sit at a desk infront of a computer??

A lot, a stupid amount in fact. Got to be one of the most inefficient way of doing things yet we’ve all bought in to it!

The big advantages are likley to come when people start to realise that shifting freight by road is going to get a lot more expensive soon and the 90% decrease in rail freight over the past few decades will have to be reversed. That way you’ll all get clearer motorways and goods will still be quick and easy to shift by rail. It’s a win-win…

…except for the capital investment in the infrastructure, oh and Eddie Stobart will have to sell a few lorries and buy a few trains. Still it’s got to be better than spaffing it on new roads. That was a spectacular failure.

We’d be better off spending 80 bil on reducing the number of private and commercial road journeys.

Good idea. Maybe we could increase rail capacity

😀

Might be emotional blackmail but you can’t say it won’t happen.

Whether it will or won’t happen is irrelevant. You’re trying to prove a point based on tugging on the heartstrings of people without using any kind of logical or rational argument. It’s a poor way to get your point across and ignores so many other factors that may influence the greater picture of accident causation and resultant effect.

You’re trying to simplify a matter so that it becomes a red-top soundbite and something like this has too big an effect, is too complex and potentially influences too many lives to go around blithely mouthing off without considering the impact* of what you’re saying.

* For example, if research yet to be conducted demonstrated that risk compensation ended up with far more KSIs than lack of helmet wearing. NB I don’t know if it does or not, but I’m not willing to argue it isn’t important based on personal anecdotes and the mythical army of “dribbling patients” wheeled out to support the point.

Loving the attempted emotional manipulation by the helmet devotees!

Blackmail is a dodgy trait at the best of times, but using it to try to win points in this way is particularly sick.

Graphite is a conductor, so once it pings into a circuit board or something, it could cause all sorts of problems.

They could use wax crayons instead. Is there a Russian equivalent of Crayola?

Isn’t there something to be said for the massive increase in freedom of information we have since the Internet became so widespread? The Govt./Police/The Man have and are trying to regulate it but it’s not going to happen in a hurry.

Also, despite the changing of the legislation and the increase in morally suspect powers to enforcement authorities, is it not still the case that budgets are being cut left, righ,t and centre? Who is going to actually do the donkey work to spy on all of us? There’s potentially a lot of “revolutionaries” (for want of a better word) who could be up to no good (from the Govts. POV) but their going to need a lot of people to listen in on phone calls, read e-mails/SMS etc…

Every Police state needs a well resourced Police force, that’s something I’m not sure we have.

that is the worst of both positions you either wish to have faith in the imaginary sky wizard whose existence you cannot prove but hope for or you accept there is no evdience for said sky wizard

That’s not an either/or position though. I’m really jealous of folk who’ve got Faith in their chosen relegion, in many cases it seems to make them happier/more content with their lot. So it’s something I’d quite like too.

However, I also accept that there isn’t really any evidence for the ‘ole Sky Wizard so kind of stuck in Limbo.

Basically an optimistic atheist, or agnostic if pushed.

But anyway, Hitler = Gay defo, pope = hitler = gay, Hell* yeah!

*On the understanding that there isn’t any evidence for such a place to exist either, except for Coventry of course.

No accidents on the roads, only incidents.

Fault has to lie somewhere (well, in 99.99% of cases anyway)

As for lorry bans in the city if they can only go in and out at certain times means that there must still be people in them areas to accept them deliveries so it’s Ok for the people who have to work late to get squished?

Well, if they used out-of-town distribution hubs and changed vehicles from HGVs to Transits then the vast majority of deliveries would occur by smaller vehicle. Those requiring larger vehicles would be operating on quieter roads, with fewer cyclists therefore less risk all around. I can’t really see that being an argument that it’s therefore okay to KSI shift workers.

Also the tipper lorry scenario. .. Obviously delivering to a building site. If you lived next door to that sore would you be happy about building works all through the night?

Those could easily be covered by traffic management plans, method of construction statements and on-site HSE requirements, hence operating in normal office hours.

I don’t think a full lorry ban would work and there’s always going to be exemptions and exceptions required. It does depend on the level of enforcement of any such ban and how serious the enforcers are about it. I think these kind of issues would be ironed out before the ban came into effect though. Much like the various exemptions for congestion zones/RUC zones.

I always stop. It really harms my times, but it’s the commuting equivalent of riding clean.

I’m going to use that one in the future Molly!

I don’t think they do it realising the blind spot and risk.

It’s a very harsh punishment for a mistake that is very easy to make (and sometimes encouraged due to road engineering/marking). Undeserving of the Darwin award I think.

But as for banning large vehicles from busy areas at certain times is a stupid idea

No, it’s a great idea, and not just from a road safety perspective, from a congestion and road longevity POV it makes good sense. Most urban roads were not built to accomodate the behemoths we have on the roads these days. Trunkroads and motoroways were. Using distribution centres outside of urban areas reduces costs, improves safety and is better for society and the environment.

It’s only the haulage industry’s outdated views and modes of operation that keep it from happening on a bigger scale, never understood why they aren’t keen to change: it would make so much sense longer term. But then, the movement of goods in Britain is pretty inefficient anyway.

And presumably if we banned cycling on roads that would also help reduce the accidents?

Probably, but that’s going to have knock on consequences eleswhere (increased sedentary lifestyle, illegal cycling on public roads etc.) not sure it’s practical to be honest. Just like I don’t think banning motorcyles is practical (or reasonable for that matter).

I think the Swedish chap behind Vision Zero said that motorcycles would be discouraged over the long term and that there would come a poiint where they would be considered too unsafe by the general population, rather than an outright ban. The same could be said for bicycles. I doubt either proposal would get the support necessary to enact them though!

Useful to at least consider these things though, just because one or two comments seem unreasonable it doesn’t mean the whole lot is.

There’s a nice little spot called the Blue Lake in an old slate quarry in Arthog, near Fairbourne. Not too far to walk, generally quiet and very sheltered, it’s surrounded by sheer rock walls and slate. It’s blue due to the copper sulphate (I think), and is very good for skimming stones!

Have a google for it, also it’s not very big, more of a pool than a lake.

Water…it’s about 99% as effective as oil as a lube…but oil will stay on the chain longer!

Water in this weather would last about 5 minutes!