I think that private vehicle ownership is partly what destroys a real sense of community, and a scheme like the one you suggest wound help engender that again.

By isolating people that don't live near a convenient public transport route?

Fat lad from well off part of rural north Yorkshire lives up to stereotype shocker.

Bonobos are mad for it. They are also pacifist vegetarians unlike their violent meat eating chimpanzee cousins.

Surely the problem with all this type of thing is that the result will be that the only people still wanting to have contact with children will be the very people who should not have contact with them, as they will be the most motivated.

This sounds like the dangerous dogs act to me – bad legislation introduced too quickly as the result of a media panic about an overhyped single incident. If the Soham murders hadn't been in the summer silly season they'd not have received the disproportionate coverage they did.

Fighting Talk (from Radio Five, sorry "Five Live")

After hearing Turing described as "a codebreaker" dozens of times this morning, I'm tempted to get a new petition going that he should be recognised as laying down the theoretical foundations of computer science.

Not one mention of Turing Machines, computability, the halting problem, or even of the Manchester Mark One. People know what Newton or Watt did, but when it comes to Turing only one application of his work is ever referred to. It's amazing how computers (and more important, the fact that a machine that can mimic any other machine is even possible) are taken for granted in this way.

Simple words used incorrectly – affect vs effect

Coincidentally I just had to correct my boss on this one, he'd filled in a load of bug reports saying that the operation of our software wasn't effected by a control setting – what? My complaint must have had an affect through, since he's effected a change in all the reports now.

The problem was definitely to do with an API function though, not a API function (you can only say that with a scouse accent, try it). An SDK consists of lots of APIs by the way.

Beer and salted crisps = Isotonic

The Wimbledon AFC game is off, so he must be talking about England Ladies v. Deutschland Fraus in the European Final.

Is it on BBC2?

My only complaint about sanitisation is Porter Clough climb that was flattened and resurfaced. Although from what I've read this was done by the local farmer in order for him to access his land.

It was definitely the work of Sheffield Council PROW team.

At Easter I saw several families with kids pushing bikes up from Ladybower to Whinstone Lee Tor because they'd got one of the useless free maps from Fairholmes visitor centre that just has dashed lines for 'bike paths', they had no chance of cycling either up or down that particular BW.

On the other hand, going round the reservoirs is boring – so I don't see what would be wrong with a couple of more interesting 'blue' and maybe 'red' type routes being added, it wouldn't remove any of the natural trails, and it's certainly preferable to the natural trails being sanitised to make them more accessible.

trailmokey's post worries me because I'm 40 years old and have cycled for 35 of those years, and I've never had a lesson! Clearly I am a danger to myself and society in general and from henceforth I will drive to work even on sunny days.

Remember everyone, cycling is dangerous. Step away from the bike.

Seriously though, schools cannot tell pupils not to cycle to school or impose any rules. They could say that the bike isn't allowed on school property, but that's about it.

On this note:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/08/cycling-to-school

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/green-living-blog/2009/sep/08/cycling-schools

Is it too early / commercially sensitive to drop a few brewery/beer names yet? Will there be a good range of beer styles as well as breweries? (wouldn't want 13 dark ales one quarter and 13 pale ales the next… though some seasonal variation like heavier beers in the winter might be nice I suppose).

You can download a patch so that old versions of Word can read .docx files. If it's the home computer that has Office 2003 then you should do that.

For some reason, though, in rivelin the footpaths are also being resurfaced, and I really can't understand who that benefits, as you have to be pretty able to manage the steepness of the trails.

As I said in my earlier post, based on conversations I have had with council officials, they seemingly often aren't really in a position to take sensible pragmatic decisions even if they had the nous to do so, as they have to jump through any number of bureaucratic hoops, i.e., ensure all the relevant boxes are ticked. Something called "access" is important, so if a path is resurfaced it must be to some standard.

Common sense thinking like the fact it is very steep so infirm people will not be able to manage the path no matter what the surface is like, doesn't seem to be within a council officer's remit, even if he could be bothered to think that way in the first place.

I went through this conversation with the guy about Clough Lane last year, and just went round in circles. The upshot being that they've now put speed limit signs up because obviously cyclists go faster now on the smooth surface, causing user conflict same as nbt mentions for the pennine bridleway.

They've also widened a lot of footpaths in Whiteley Woods and are looking like they will shortly resurface the main footpath to Forge Dam (other side from the bridleway), when what really needs doing is the canal and ponds above the path need to have all the leaks fixed, and then the drainage of the path sorted. But they almost certainly won't do that, they'll just make the path through the woods look like a path in a garden or park. Which will get washed away because of the leaks from the ponds above.

As nbt says, mtbers tend not to be organised like walkers and horsey groups. And then in the case of the Porter Valley there is also the Friends of the Porter valley group, there's probably one for Rivelin and other areas as well, and they've been campaigning for years to get the mill ponds fixed before they all crumble away but so far nothing has been done.

So fight it if you can.

The trouble is, councils have a legal responsibility to maintain the highway – so the byways that get complained about will probably get to the top of the list, and unless they have no money will at some point get done. I don't understand how in Sheffield's case they have the money for sanitising bridleways on the urban fringe, but can't afford to upkeep the main roads properly, but apparently the money comes from different budgets.

Everyone I've ever spoken to that works for the council thinks only in terms of the burocracy and paperwork that surrounds all these issues, and not about the reality on the ground.

with a confident rider on board

There's a riding school above Fulwood, so I guess there might be a few learners around.

From speaking to a couple of Sheff council transport types I know socially, it seems they don't 'get' mountain biking, one of them (a road cyclist as it happens) quoted a load of blather about the importance of 'access' when I asked him about the Clough Lane resurfacing (the fact it's so steep no cyclist but a mountain biker would ever use it passed him by completely).

Wow, it turns out that the Daily Telegaph is more balanced than singletrackworld.

If a similar study showed that after a rail disaster some people switched from rail to cars, and there was an increase in road accidents, would you all get so excited?

It's a psychology study, about people's perception of risk versus actual risk.

There are enough anti-cycling rants in the newspapers (Times especially for some reason) without seeing them when they're not there.

The main thing that worries me about this article is that Telegraph headline writers don't know the difference between psychologists and psychiatrists, which is a very much like not knowing the difference between astronomers and astrologists.

I don't see what there is to get het up about – all they are saying is that people switched from travelling by tube because of a perceived but in reality tiny danger of death and switched to another mode of travel which has a small but real danger of death.

It's not saying cycling is dangerous, it's saying that it's more dangerous than travelling by tube. Which is true, terrorists or not. But some people felt more safe taking charge of things rather than going back in the tube. In the same way many people are happier driving than travelling by plane, even though planes are statistically safer.

Move along nothing to see here…

Don't know if I missed something, but I always think new tyres seem a bit iffy for the first few hundred miles. Doesn't it say something about being careful until they are run in on the guarantee?

yes of course you will want to take the cable car up the hill from morzine ;-)

but there's much more choice of places to stay than in avoriaz, and it's no great hardship to get the cable car (unless you are miles out of town I guess).

Les Houches just outside Chamonix also seems to be fairly unknown to Brits despite being a great little place IMHO. Cham itself is overrated I think, lots of disparate little areas and not so good for intermediates.

Megeve is also nice but expensive and also not so high.

Loads of places, Chamonix valley, Portes du Soleil (Morzine, Avoriaz, Les Gets), etc. You can get to the Italian side of Mont Blanc as well in less than 2 hrs.

votchy – I think you'll find it's pretty standard on lots of other cars, e.g., VW/Audi. Not a Ford thing at all, it'd be pretty wierd if Volvo didn't have it.

Personally I like the C30 but probably wouldn't buy one – the interior is great and the 2.5l turbo is fast, the funky looks are fine, but the boot contents being on display and not being able to get a bike in wouldn't work for me.

They flew right over my house while I was sat in the garden, very low, made an incredible sound. Wondered if they went everywhere at 500 feet but I guess they were on approach to Ladybower (they'd have had to climb to get over the hill between Sheffield and Ladybower).

They should issue it over the counter, unless you are late in which case you may have to go to the local DVLA office.

barca is quite right, Sheffield is an urban hell hole as you can see. Don't even think of coming here..,

Ideally what I'd love is:
– easy access to the countryside (like jump on my bike and be out in the hills straight away if possible)
– affordable rental, would really like to have a place with a garage instead of a tiny 1 bed flat!

ideally what she'd love is:
– at least some of the arts/culture of London
– decent shopping
– good & affordable links to London for weekends away

Sheffield (west side).

– Ride out into Peak District
– from suburbs of either terraces or semis with garages
– but still close to town
– Crucible and Lyceum theatres, galleries, independent cinema, loads of live music, plenty of students so lots of nightlife
– City centre perhaps not the best for shopping due to proximity of Meadowhell, but at least you get the choice of both
– Plus Manchester, L**ds and Nottingham also easy to get to
– London is 2 hours away on train

Dunno what Barca is on about, don't think he's been here.

Bristol and Edinburgh are also good, maybe Leeds at a push (never liked the place much myself). Manchester is much bigger with more of a big city feel, which means you get to live both miles away from the centre and also miles from the countryside – though when you do eventually escape the Peaks aren't far.

Not sure who these people in the first result are

but they're looking at this view which is 2nd result

Although that's not a good photo, this is better

Sunday afternoon – Ladybower down broken railway, up to Aston, up Hope Brinks to Hope Cross (probably passing lots of MBR readers going the other way), Blackley Clough down "potato alley"(?), up Rowlee, Lockerbrook descent to Gores Farm and reseroir, tea and flapjacks at Fairholmes, then up (push mostly) to Whinstone Lee Tor, and fast down to Ladybower pub.

Slightly too fast down as put a half inch hole in back tyre, fortunately only 50 metres from the pub – had to improvise repairs with cardboard to cycle back to car ;-)

Will wine glasses be plastic as well I wonder?

Actually as long as they only put lager in plastic and beer that tastes of something in glass then everyone should be happy.

Thornbridge Jaipur (you can't go wrong with anything from Thornbridge) or Kelham Island Pale Rider if you like pale ales, if you prefer darker beers try Abbeydale Brimstone.

Oops double post

Thornbridge Jaipur (you can't go wrong with anything from Thornbridge) or Kelham Island Pale Rider if you like pale ales, if you prefer darker beers try Abbeydale Brimstone.

The Guardian is different to some other papers. It will and does, publish articles by people with which it strongly disagrees.

That's the funniest thing I've heard in ages.

As a northerner, I'm offended by "Churchill" the dog and his comedy northern accent. Also the Admiral add is clearly offensive to senior naval officers. And as for the Martians in the Smash adverts from the 70s… well clearly that's why aliens haven't yet made contact, they're just embarrassed about out xenophobic attitudes to alien robots that like instant mashed potato.

Don't know what the Eastern European thing is about, Alexandr and Sergei are comedy characters which are clearly meant to be Russian:

http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/meet-team

Has the Guardian become a parody of itself yet?

Never mind about Blacka which is quite different to Stanage and probably depends quite a lot on the amount of mud, but just the two ways down from Stanage seem to marked the wrong way to me.

The way down to the plantation car park is marked a black, and fair enough as the top section is very hard, I've never done the whole thing cleanly. The causeway though is just impossible, I don't see that it's rideable at all in the middle section of boulders. I guess this is due to erosion from all those 4×4 vehicles, but above some of you are claiming that you can just "blam down it"?

Is it 'cos I is riding a hardtail?

In the book at least the Martian's superior technology and ruthless industrial slaughter is a metaphor for the British Empire's thoughtless exploitation of the rest of the planet (obviously in the book, set in Victorian times, the Martians attack England, being the superpower of the time), whereas the Martians fall not to Britain's military might, but to a humble disease. In other words it is all about hubris.

The Jeff Wayne album is better than the Spielberg movie though…

I don't want to use an amp and line out because I want the convenience of a remote control for the ipod.

Get a dock with a remote and line-out into your amp. Sorted.

Those docks with speakers are awful, just plug the ipod into a proper hifi.