"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." "Like I always say, there's no 'I' in "team". There is a 'me', though, if you jumble it up." We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do. Wisdom - that part of knowledge that isn't only true, but also happens to be helpful. Wisdom speaks softly... Thereafter the volume increases proportionate to the level of ignorance A punctured bicycle
On a hillside desolate
Will nature make a man of me yet? All designed objects are propaganda for a certain way of life. Sometimes we need to stop analysing the past, stop planning the future, stop figuring out precisely how we feel, stop deciding exactly what we want, and just see what happens. We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person. "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence." --Napoleon Bonaparte The best designed clothes: invite being removed but reward being kept on. It's that you just can't take the effect and make it the cause | It seems to me that British people are on average rather more interested in cars than is good for them. In one sense this is understandable. On hearing that I normally drive rather infrequently, more than one person responded by saying that they “couldn’t manage without a car”. It’s easy to see why people believe this, given the way the country’s transport infrastructure is arranged. For many people it is genuinely difficult to imagine living without a car in the UK. Given the ubiquity of the car as the only way of getting about, it’s perhaps also not surprising [ continue reading Reflections on England ] The battle lines have been drawn in Kent over, well, a line, the Herne Bay Times reports. The offending yellow stripe runs for miles along the promenade in Herne Bay, apparently in order to stop cyclists who use this section Oyster Bay Trail cycle route from riding off the edge of the prom and onto the beach. In what’s looks like a classic “health and safety gone mad” versus “never underestimate the public’s stupidity” style disagreement, objectors are equating the painted line to an act of vandalism while council bosses insist it is a legitimate safety measure. Herne Bay [ continue reading “Brainless” warning line “an insult to cyclists” (well anyone actually) ] Hipster-hate blogs are multiplying online. But who are these much-maligned trendies – and why do people find them so irritating? Perhaps we should learn to love our skinny-jeaned friends instead There was a party going on in London E5; a house party in one of the Victorian terraces that line the streets in this modest area of east London. There had been parties on the street before, only on this particular Friday evening two months ago, guests wore Ray-Bans, deep-cut v-neck T-shirts and skinny jeans. They were also, according to one partisan report, in possession of “a sound system [ continue reading Hipsters? they are getting on some people’s nerves, or so it seems ] I’d imagine that hardly anyone outside the cycling World knows that Cycling England even exists and cares even less what it stands for. Cycling England, like CTC are great for the already converted but utterly crap at projecting out to the non-cycling public who couldn’t give a hoot what a Cycling Demonstration Town is, or indeed how cycling would benefit them. Cycling England was never going to set the World alight on a meagre budget of £60m per annum (Honda’s ‘Impossible Dream’ advert cost £4.5m alone for perspective). Above all, if Cycling England is a Quango then its foundations [ continue reading so long, and thanks for all the Cycling England pish ] Offered a choice between the products of the grape and the hop, Peter Swann admits that he would go for wine every time. But in his capacity as professor of industrial economics at Nottingham University, he has become fascinated by the workings of the brewing industry, and the phenomenal spread of microbreweries in particular, helped in no small measure by tax breaks from Gordon Brown when he was chancellor. The result is a new paper called The Fall and Rise of the Local Brew – a heartening tale, he believes, with implications for other sectors of the economy. “The [ continue reading Big beer producers caught on the hop ] “Mrs Thatcher is 85 today but ironically she’s been knocked off the news by a Government that looks after their miners! « LOL – RT @iancawsey” . This seems to be one of the commonest tweeted perspectives this morning. Great news that they will get the lads out of their mine but what a media scrum! Don’t the billionaire politicians line-up to get in the pictures with people they were barely aware of before? Let’s see how the miners cope with fame of this magnitude, it will not be easy to adjust. It’s hard for me to believe that Chile [ continue reading at least she won’t know anything about it ] Just in time for Christmas …. Is the white people’s SUV and golfing Church of the saints of Groundwork UK still going? Just wondering Watch out for transport spending levels in next week’s Comprehensive Spending Review. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond is expected to be one of the ministers with the biggest axe – chopping nearly 40 percent from the DfT budget – but if he announces any road building funding whatsoever, critics will call foul. He has been pressed and pressed that cycling offers a good return on investment. Good for local economies; good for health; good for people; good [ continue reading bonfire of the quangos set for Thursday ] Long ago I came to the decision that to fight for ‘cycling infrastructure’ was fun but often a pleasant, chatty, waste of time. Congestion, squalid public-transport, rising health-care costs due to overwhelming levels of morbid-obesity, pragmatic convenience, and lack of space are always going to be the true legislators. There is only one reason people don’t cycle; because they are lazy – no other reason. Don’t listen to the whinging excuses about, lack of cycle-lanes, danger, weather, or anything else, they are lazy, and why not? Being whisked around in a heated armchair with piped music while you get obese [ continue reading enough about bicycles already ] This spew of a speech must surely go down in the annals as one of the most ridiculous collections of words and hyperbole this week – I refuse to believe that many of the people in that hall truly believed a word of it. DAILY MAIL GOVERNMENT. (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» YouTube – Philip Hammond: rail is “subsidised”; roads are “investments”: .) [ continue reading Philip Hammond: rail is “subsidised”; roads are “investments” ] Saw this post by a blogger I enjoy and respect and find that I am troubled by the action of the post here. I am told that in Switzerland every registration number is searchable to owner and that this results in more polite and considerate driving. Any cyclist, or driver for that matter, must be aware of the number of drivers phoning, texting, smoking, eating and whatever else while their children roam the car unrestrained and wonder at why it is so difficult to photograph and prosecute by tech with an equal approach to all offenders. It’s easy [ continue reading Identifying scofflaw drivers – how far is far? ] (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» Anthony McNeill MANL Twitter Dissertation: .) More schoolchildren are daily being killed by traffic on the highways of the world’s poorest nations than by deadly infectious diseases such as Aids, tuberculosis and malaria, prompting campaigners to call for a UN-backed target to halt the spiralling numbers of traffic fatalities by 2015. Road accidents claim the lives of 3,500 every day, 3,000 of which are in poor countries. Watkins said that more lives, of those aged five to 14, were lost on the roads than to “malaria, diarrhoea and HIV/Aids”. Unlike these deadly diseases, road traffic injuries were “conspicuous by their absence from the international [ continue reading 3,500 killed EVERY DAY by drivers ] Cyclists and drivers ‘Sharing the road’ in London (A503, Walthamstow) and ‘cyclists not sharing the road’ (Netherlands, pic: David Hembrow). A new report published by the Department for Transport examines the views of cyclists and drivers about each others’ behaviour and considers them in the context of ‘road safety’: Qualitative research was carried out with cyclists, other road users and the parents of young cyclists to explore views on the positives and negatives of cycling, accounts of stress and risk on the road, views on the potential problems in interactions between cyclists and other vehicles, [ continue reading ‘Cycling, Safety and Sharing the Road’: new DfT report ] Please join us to help stop the destruction of the oldest cycle track in Britain – the 1948 Olympic Cycling Championships venue. The future of this important community facility is looking bleak as the site is under-funded and deteriorating. The venue provides an exceptional resource for cyclists and the local community and its loss would be tragic. We aim to find a way to secure the future of the site and make it a viable long-term facility for all including local residents and schools – Save The Velodrome You can’t do anything but back this [ continue reading Save Herne Hill Velodrome! ] “Our city’s addiction to Big Macs and other high-fat fast food is literally breaking our hearts,” says Susan Levin, M.S., R.D., PCRM’s nutrition education director. “It’s time to tackle the district’s heart disease problem head-on. A moratorium on new fast-food restaurants could be a critically important step toward fighting this epidemic.” A PCRM survey shows that Washington has more McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC outlets per square mile than eight other cities with similar population sizes. Offerings at these restaurants include high-fat, high-sodium products such as McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese Extra Value Meal, which has 61 [ continue reading arch rivals and the silent killer ] Goodness knows where all this is leading to. The mapping revolution is barely six years old. What will be on offer 10 years hence? Maybe it will be live satellite imaging, so you can see when a car leaves a parking space in the next road, or try to track down Osama bin Laden from your mobile phone. The prospect of anyone in the world being able to make their own contribution to a map – thanks to free access to satellite positioning techniques – is awesome, but so is the downside. Some of the fears emerged at a [ continue reading We no longer go to maps, they come to us ] I am opposed to the building of the “mosque” two blocks from Ground Zero. I want it built on Ground Zero. Why? Because I believe in an America that protects those who are the victims of hate and prejudice. I believe in an America that says you have the right to worship whatever God you have, wherever you want to worship. And I believe in an America that says to the world that we are a loving and generous people and if a bunch of murderers steal your religion from you and use it as their excuse to [ continue reading If the ‘Mosque’ Isn’t Built, This Is No Longer America | MichaelMoore.com ] In the modern context, what I don’t understand is this: that with the music of the entire planet now available in abundance, so few people seem interested in the creative cross-pollination it might inspire. So it is that you end up with the grim spectacle of good old Noel Gallagher, making the case against the rap titan Jay-Z appearing at the UK’s most fondly loved festival: “I’m not having hip hop at Glastonbury. It’s wrong.” The latter artist had a much better reception than some people expected. Then again, think back to events at this year’s revels, and the [ continue reading Morrissey’s parochialism echoes the whole indie tribe ] Shortly before Ronnie Lee Gardner was shot through the heart by a five-man firing squad at Utah State Prison, Mark Shurtleff tweeted: “I just gave the go ahead to Corrections Director to proceed with Gardner’s execution.” “A solemn day,” Mr Shurtleff typed, “Barring a stay Utah will use most extreme power and execute a killer. Mourn his victims. Justice.” Gardner, 49–who spent 25 years on death row for gunning down a lawyer during a failed court-room escape–chose to die by firing squad, an option open to him because he was convicted before Utah adopted lethal injection in 2004. He [ continue reading How To Die By Firing Squad ] Open letter to Norman Baker, minister for cycling, walking, buses, alternatives to travel, etc Giving “freedom” to local authorities with less money and no precise remit to spend it on cycling will result in more kids failing to learn to ride. Many will be unhealthier and fatter and our roads will be clogged with more parents driving their kids around everywhere. Make no mistake – your decision will affect real lives. So Norman, ask yourself this. What is Norman Baker for? Or more precisely, what is the point of you being in the Department for Transport? Are you a fig-leaf [ continue reading Norman save cycling cash | Christian Wolmar, an open letter ] My Thought: yes. Re-bury please. SHOULD we consider the privacy or reputation of the individual when analysing an Egyptian mummy? The assumption that ancient corpses are fair game for science is beginning to be challenged. Though strict ethical guidelines apply to research on modern tissue samples, up until now there has been little discussion about work on ancient human remains. In a recent paper in the Journal of Medical Ethics (DOI: 10.1136/jme.2010.036608), anatomist Frank Rühli and ethicist Ina Kaufmann of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, argue that this is disturbing because research on mummies is invasive and reveals intimate information [ continue reading Do Egyptian mummies have a right to privacy? ] Russian police trying to make motorists respect pedestrians on zebra crossings thought of drafting in exotic zebras to halt Moscow traffic. Only, police in the Russian capital could not get any zebras – so they painted black stripes on white horses instead. They paraded the horses over crossings, forcing motorists to slow down and read road safety messages. Thousands of pedestrians die in road accidents COLLISIONS in Russia every year. (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» BBC News – ‘Zebra’ stops cars in Russia road accident campaign: .) [ continue reading ‘Zebra’ stops cars in Russia road ‘accident’ campaign (what’s accidental?) ] You might not have noticed because most of the British press seems curiously reluctant to cover it, but earlier in the week, the New York Times produced some new evidence that the Conservative party’s chief spin doctor Andy Coulson knew much more about the phone hacking scandal of 2006 than he was letting on. Maybe they were too busy covering allegations regarding William Hague’s sexuality, and his emotional revelations about not being gay that came out at the same time, handily and totally coincidentally for the Conservatives’ spin doctor. Ahem. (CLICK HERE FOR MORE »» Five Chinese Crackers: [ continue reading What would the Met get in return for not looking hard at News of the World phone hacking? ] A specially upgraded Russian Akula class submarine has been caught trying to record the acoustic signature made by the Vanguard submarines that carry Trident nuclear missiles, according to senior Navy officers. Russian subs stalk Trident in echo of Cold War – Telegraph. Jeremy Hunt has recently suggested that hooliganism caused the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 people died, then apologised “IF his comments caused any offence” (which many regard to be a more offensive gesture than his original remarks). There are, at the time of writing, 150 comments published under the short apology on his website. But the people leaving comments on Jeremy Hunt’s ‘blog’ deserve to be warned that Jeremy’s apology is scheduled for deletion (probably within a month) along with any comment(s) they contribute. No, I am not extrapolating wildly from Jeremy Hunt’s recent mass deletion of tweets; I [ continue reading Jeremy Hunt: when only the freshest information will do | Bloggerheads ] Wonder why I am having a Hollywood/Reality crossover … “Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution.” — Clay Shirky I think this observation is brilliant. It reminds me of the clarity of the Peter Principle, which says that a person in an organization will be promoted to the level of their incompetence. At which point their past achievements will prevent them from being fired, but their incompetence at this new level will prevent them from being promoted again, so they stagnate in their incompetence. The Shirky Principle declares that complex solutions (like a company, or an industry) can become so [ continue reading The Shirky Principle; ‘Institutions will try to preserve the problem to which they are the solution’. ] 350 from Hans Hansen on Vimeo. What does the number 350 mean? 350 is the most important number in the world—it’s what scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Two years ago, after leading climatologists observed rapid ice melt in the Arctic and other frightening signs of climate change, they issued a series of studies showing that the planet faced both human and natural disaster if atmospheric concentrations of CO2 remained above 350 parts per million. 350 graffiti art — so beautiful! | 350.org. [ continue reading 350 graffiti art … so clever ] | Shirdi Sai Baba: "Before you speak, ask yourself: Is it kind, is it true, is it necessary, does it improve upon the silence?" Well known fact that any kiss where one or other party is in control of heavy machinery doesn't count for quality assessment purposes. There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action. The honest heart that's free frae a' intended fraud or guile. However fortune kick the ba', Has ay some cause to smile. Life consists in replacing one worry with another, and one desire with the next, what the Buddhists call ‘grasping’ or upādāna in Sanskrit "Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future." "Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die." A wrong decision isn't forever; it can be reversed. The losses from a delayed decision are forever; they can never be retrieved. heavy words thrown lightly And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. Whenever you commend, add your reasons for doing so; it is this which distinguishes the approbation of a man of sense from the flattery of sycophants and admiration of fools “The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.” |
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