The Velodrome - 2016-09-27

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12:19 AM

@Criggie lol. Americans traded security for freedom decades ago. @Móż There is less of that here in Alaska. For me personally, I'll follow another cyclist at a polite distance if the view is nice. Elsewise I announce "ON YOUR (insert side here)" and pass. The only ridiculous interactions I've had with other cyclists was a physician I saw one dark fall morning riding to work with lights. When I suggested he get some, he went into a tirade at me.

He shut up after I told him that if he had made it through med school, he should be able to figure it out.

BURN!

@SuspendedUser I've heard it called "Melbourne safety black" and it's popular here too. Unfortunately the easy availability of cheap high power lights also means we get a lot of those on the bike path too, and I'm not entirely sure which is worse.

@SuspendedUser assuming he doesn't get hit while he's puzzling that one out... hey, did you do that intentionally?

That's pretty much like driving in this town. Lots of people with moose lights, or military kids with high powered headlight upgrades that they didn't bother properly adjusting.

Of course in the winter, I am fond of using aggressive riding tactics when I encounter snow machines on the bike path. So really, I am no better. I am fond of yelling "Are you illiterate?" since there are "No Motorized Vehicle" signs posted on all of them.

I generally ride with a high powered handlebar mount that is properly adjusted to not blind people unless you are riding a recumbent and 10 feet directly in front of me, I have a HP head mount that I reserve for high beam style usage when the path is clear. But yeah, people are a-holes everywhere.

I was pretty lucky when I was commuting. I had like 25% or less of a ride that was through neighborhoods (sharing the roads with cars) and everything else was on a well separated bike path that was supposed to be non-motorized.

As to living in the "land of the free" I am interested to hear opinions on this bike related incident (not really that related) boingboing.net/2016/09/22/cops-pepper-spray-15-year-old.html

12:44 AM

From the title alone - I know that 15 year olds know absolutely everything and everyone else is always wrong.
Now having read the story I'm curious to know the other side. Boingboing is not known for "balanced journalism"

Another point - men have a barrier with offering comfort to children and females.

Story.... I remember once walking the dog on a rainy day, and there was a kid about 6 years old paddling in the gutter, completely alone.

Quiet street so noone around.

Eneded up flagging down a car that happened to be coming out a driveway.

fortunately driver was a middle aged female

so we could witness each other and not run any risks of any bad accusations

@SuspendedUser I'm glad I'm white.

turned out the kid was being watched by his elder brother who was distracted by xbox games, while mum slept.

We ended up calling the cops cos no idea what else to do

@Móż I am indifferent to it because I don't know anything different. I could try to spin it someway else, but that would be a lie.

Also happy to be in a country where the government kills fewer people than yours does, although admittedly any claims Australia makes in that area mostly point out how awful the country of comparison is.

Did anyone actually watch the full video?

12:50 AM

but the boinboing story sounds really wrong on the cop's part.

@SuspendedUser (un?)fortunately I have non-white friends and family, so it directly affects me fairly often.

sus: no - I'm at work and its clearly not work.

oh, fair enough.

@SuspendedUser refuse to watch that sort of video at all. A friend recently explained that he refuses to watch bike crash/scare videos, except AIPP ones where you know that no-one is going to get hurt. I'm much the same - I used to watch FailArmy but they've gone more into injury video which isn't my thing.

I am not sure anyone gets hurt per se. The pepper spraying isn't as "brutal" as some I have seen.

I won't say that's how the whole thing should have happened, but I will say that it happened exactly as I would expect in the current "system". And in this case the system is the fault of both the girl's parents and the cops.

12:56 AM

"it makes me sick" <-- not good neutral journalism... that's emotive.

I guess what makes me sick is that the whole thing is so scripted and everyone is doing it wrong for the right reasons, but it's popular right now to blame the police.

1:32 AM

Police are people too

It all breaks down when they are perceived as something other than people.

@SuspendedUser I still remember a cop getting sprayed in Sydney and needing hospital treatment followed by 3 days off work. I can't make myself believe that the cop was some kind of special fragile petal. That stuff is nasty. "less lethal", sure, which is good.

@Criggie I think the causation runs the other way in this case. Police are used as an occupying army to enforce laws made for the benefit of others, against the community. For some reason the community tend to regard them as arseholes. NZ cops have traditionally been more Peel less army.

also, people aren't right in the head after an accident.

Doesn;t matter if they can walk normally, they're off-base

heheh

NZ cops eat oranges and bananas than their international brethern ?

they're more a-PEEL-ing ?

bah-doom-CHA

@Criggie I get the impression that total subservience at all times is not enough for some US cops. The fruit puns, on the other hand... maybe the spray has its uses?

Bring down the grapes of wrath!

providing a zesty aftertase?

1:37 AM

Kiss my hairy kiwifruit!

I can't en-durian too much more of this.

oh god you had to bring stinkfruit into it

those are HIDEOUS

banned in Singapore.

I got some for work once

they must have been treated because they smelt okay

but took them to work to share around

and they tasted awful

I see you're working the review queue, but apparently just the two of us is not enough.

1:39 AM

Lots of noobs lately. Which is not a bad thing

@Criggie that's odd, they'd probably gone off. We have rotting jackfruit in our fridge ATM. A related speciies, if my nose is any guide.

1 hour later…

3:02 AM

@Móż Just the two of you?

3:38 AM

Nah I tend to hit it in my morning, which is before moz wakes up

stupid timezones.

3:53 AM

@Criggie We could be like Russia. One time zone.

theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/sep/22/…

Aussies say helmets work

China has one timezone

not russia

russia has like 11

4:09 AM

Thanks for quick fact check :-)

i went to china a few months ago.

@Batman Yay for misleading stats. If you're heading for the road, a helmet is a good idea. However wearing a helmet correlates with an increase in risk percentage

@Criggie Eh?

got terribly sick afterwards

perhaps those who don't wear helmets are too slow to have as many accidents.

4:10 AM

@Batman Seems to be a balanced article. Interesting stats.

I recall the given-space analysis - cars pass closer to bikes whose riders wear helmets, on average

@Batman What kind of sick?

So its intertwined with other things

high fever, couldn't eat anything, couldnt keep my balance since the response was delayed

coughing

@Criggie Yes, everything is connected :-) (Err, not really)

4:12 AM

spent 2 weeks basically getting all my calories from gatorade cause it was the only thing i could keep down

@Batman No diagnosis?

Sounds like a stomach bug

the doctors gave me like 10 different pills

Deli Jelly Belly ?

He wasn't in India :-)

coudlnt breathe either

so yeah, not going back to china i suppose any time soon

4:14 AM

@Batman You use "like" a lot. Seems like(!) too many extra superfluous redundant and unnecesary words.

like, that's your opinion, man.

@Batman You're probably immune now :-)

How do you know I'm a man?

I could be a dog :-)

@andy256 - that i do. which is odd, because i didn't grow up in the valley.

@Batman Valley?

Valley girl is a socio-economic stereotype depicting a class of women characterized by the colloquial California English dialect Valleyspeak and materialism. The label originally referred to a swell of upper-middle class girls living in the early 1980s Los Angeles commuter towns of the San Fernando Valley, but in time the term became more broadly applied to any woman or girl—primarily in the United States and Canada—who engendered the associated affects of ditziness, airheadedness, and/or greater interest in conspicuous consumption than intellectual or personal accomplishment. == In popular... ==

4:18 AM

@Batman Very quick. Got it.

@Batman I suspect you're not a girl either.

correct.

Did anyone watch the debate?

i did.

Winner?

hillary had more control i think, but at the end fo the day neither really answered any questions

the clear loser is the american people

4:19 AM

As opposed to prefered winner?

Er, yeah. Bad vs horrible.

To quote my friend, "Neither of these candidates would be able to qualify for my high school debate team. I can feel my IQ dropping by the second."

LOL!

I think though that the media will declare hillary victory though.

If appearances and demeanor count, I thought H won easily.

what was interesting was at the beginning of the debate, cnn flat out admitted that they steered the debate against romney last time

4:21 AM

And she answered more questions.

We didn't get the here in our feed.

i live in a college town, so there are almost no trump supporters here for balance

Trump supporters have balance?

Oops

One thing I think that showed is that Trump has a glass jaw

well, not all trump supporters are looneys -- they're always portrayed as racist bigots. but the simple thing is that a lot of them are just ordinary people, especially lower class people here who've lost out a lot and have no way of making it up

yeah we knew that

Yes I agree not looneys.

Just that Trump offers them an illusion.

fool all the people all the time ?

4:25 AM

well, trump offers them an illusion. but neither of them have shown any meaningful plan to help them

Dogs cant be fooled.

if you live in one of these manufacturing towns or coal towns or whatever, there's nothing

/me fake-throws a tennis ball.

Ducks

once the company leaves or whatever.

4:26 AM

then you throw it for real as they turn back.

@Batman Yep

But overall, the Donald shows no grasp of economics

Some of these places are 60 miles from a supermarket, and a lot of times end up getting run over by drugs.

nobody really revealed much about policy. it was an embarassment to america.

Dropping taxes on the super rich doesn't help those people

Yep.

the funny thing is, hillary has said similar things: theintercept.com/2016/06/27/…

in any case, i live in a state that's going to send its electoral votes to hillary. I may as well use my popular vote to a 3rd party in the hopes that they gain enough votes (5%) so they get some funding next time

Depends if you agree with that interpretation.

4:30 AM

Its funny - we have local body elections at the moment, and theres a significant whiff of americanisation in the advertising.... "vote for Jamie ! I promised free parking at the hospital and you got it"

@Batman If everyone make a protest vote you get an outcome like Brexit.

brexit was a popular vote. the us election is decided on an electoral vote.

so the american people go and put their ballots in.

I agree on the difference, but the key point is that many vote for exit as a protest

and were then dismayed to see the result

The system we have here is quite different

i think with brexit also there was the idea that it wouldnt happen

We have various forms of preferential voting, in various jurisdictions

Compulsory voting too.

4:34 AM

right now, its abundantly clear that its not a home run either way.

but we'll see

The morning news will tell a story

My opinion from afar is just that

Anyhow, gotta have some late lunch ...

Ciao for now!

enjoy

I wish voting forms had "other" as a choice

and if "other" wins then none of the nominees can stand again.

its like the weakest link

then i think people would always choose other.

you need to penalize other somehow to incentivize not other. or make other only win if its very high relative to the others.

Possibly.

4:57 AM

@andy256 until you woke up :)

@Batman Rissel is also Australian, and his point that helmets work more by reducing the number of cyclists than by reducing the injuries to the remaining cyclists. That's where the 70% number comes from - mandatory helmets halve the number of cyclists, and the remaining cyclists have a 40% reduction in serious head injuries... yay helmets.

The problems is that people who are put off cycling don't usually replace it with other exercise, and the negative health effects of that are significant. And the increased danger from fewer cyclists is also real. blah blah blah... the safety point also works for motorists and pedestrians... why aren't they mandatory for them too?

5:50 AM

heh 131 lines of new text here when I get home.

We been chatty today

yeah - I'm planning a "ride around the park" for work people at christmas time

non-strenuous, short ride

might have to hire some spark bikes if the work ones are insufficient.

@Móż No problem with wake up time. Just other stuff to be before I can get online. Life. Don't talk to me about life.

16 hours later…

9:41 PM

Life - you never win.

10:24 PM

@andy256 "he just phoned up to wash his head at us"... I still find the video version weird, though, it's so primitive.

I'm lucky in that regard, I have no life. Well, except the life in the garden, which seems to be 90% weeds right now. Need to plant more stuff-that-I-want so the weeds don't have the opportunity. Oh, and it's officially spring, I got swooped on the way home.

11:06 PM

I have never been swooped.

Not by birds anyway

The puppy likes to nom feet that are pedalling.

11:46 PM

@Móż Unfortunately that is what will survive.

@andy256 yes and no. The war right out the front has unambiguously been won by the silverbeet. Rainbow chard and rocket have vanished, but so have the weeds and the shrubby-hedgy-thing is desperately growing out over the footpath coz the silverbeet is shading it out. Well, there's a rocket refuge under the lemon tree (which has aphids and is not doing well). Also, the tomatoes appear to have killed the clover/alfalfa green mulch where they are, as well as most of the weeds.

We also have some kind of brassica-looking-thing that has come up, it looks a bit like jerusalem artichoke but isn't. I swear I never planted them, but there's a couple of square metres of them. They're easy to uproot so I'm kinda leaving them for now because they are dense enough to crowd out the other weeds. But we really need to work out what to plant, and plant it.

Silverbeet, rocket and lettuce are all self-seeded, BTW. And the silverbeet is going to seed, regardless of how vigorously I "harvest" it :) We are having it in just about everything right now... by "we" I mean "I", girly is eating out a lot right now.

You might need to mow your silverbeet

Also, egg factory is back on steam, we're getting ~3.75 eggs a day (Erma Chicken is still not laying). So I am exercising my "recipes containing eggs, silver beet and chilli". Did I mention that the chilli bushes are also doing well? Since I mowed the basil trees under the chilli has taken off.

Or plough it under.

Or do you have to "plough things over" and "dig it under" because you're already down-under?

@Criggie nah, once it gets a bit over a metre high it falls over by itself, and I cut it just above ground level and compost the bits. The electric mower is not too keen on big chunky bits.

11:58 PM

Time to get a goat.

@Criggie I dunno, that quantum gravity stuff is all a bit hard for me. I just a engineer.

Or a taranaki slasher

they're awesome for gardening

@Criggie not allowed. We checked. I am more focused on designing the garden not to need that. For all that the soil on half the property is 5cm of garden centre crap over the clay cap over the acid sulfate "soil", stuff seems to grow quite well. I have been slashing and digging up the roots of the rose bushes on and off, but we still have rose shoots coming up. Except the bloody lemon tree, which is... a lemon.

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Sep '1627

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