In the news

I do like people's earnest protests against all this rubbish when Trump attacks others to distract from the fact that he's usually guilty of precisely what he accuses others of ('Crooked Hillary'), but as Trump is not in charge of his faculties and needs help (badly, not that he would ever allow himself being helped now and will probably die as desperate as he has been most of his life), these protests are exactly what he wants to provoke. It's obviously hard to ignore either (a) a wealthy man with unearned power over many others or (b) the President of the United States, but the best thing would be to ignore him. He would soon disintegrate.

Some nasty shit going on in Germany at the moment:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/16/suspect-in-german-politicians-has-links-to-far-right

Echoes of the Jo Cox murder.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jun/17/painted-bike-lanes-waste-money-cycling-commissioners

Turns out cycle lanes are just painted bits of tarmac that don't really help! Who knew?!

I blame Oliver for not pointing it out, he’d have known.

I think he knows. The letter shows that the commissioners/champions for cycling & walking in Britain's six largest cities have been listening to what Oliver has been telling them for quite some time.

It is a pity that the press reports focus on painted cycle lanes when they are just one example of the incompetence and intransigence of the Department for Transport and its ministers over many years.

Everyone knows that the DfT is unfit for purpose and needs a good kicking. It's good to see some city officials putting the boot in. Their letter is worth reading:

https://greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/media/2145/19-1309-secretary-of-state-policy-ask-letter-for-cycling-and-walking.pdf

We ask that the Department for Transport change their appraisal methods to focus on efficient use of road space and total people movement, rather than being based around capacity and journey times for vehicles.

Visited a friend who lives in Bethesda, we got lost driving around the "bad" parts of Baltimore. It was seriously scary.
People kept giving us the eye as we were obviously out of place and on their turf.
He's a surgeon who often gunshot woulds in the ER. He never saw one before moving there from Canada.

[ncsb] The bike with 2 kids top left of that letter was stolen from pictured owner recently. [/ncsb]

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Ramsaye was being slightly ironic ...

For the record, I haven't told the 'commissioners' anything. While the DfT has long had a reputation as a poorly-run department in thrall to the status quo, that letter is just the same old tosh that people have been trying for decades and that hasn't worked. Blaming the DfT for it is just buck-passing.

It's no surprise that the press has picked out the bit about cycle lanes, as with the exception of a brief mention of Road Danger Reduction, all the rest is just waffle based on rubbish 'research' (and even RDR is a jargon term that most people don't understand).

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/17/accidental-cat-filter-appears-on-pakistan-officials-briefing

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I'm certain I read, whilst the media world was at peak-quiver about The Wire,
that John Hopkins was running Surgical Courses for the US Military,
as it was the easiest way for trainee military surgeons to get experience of assault rifle wounds.

Dallas Morning News photog waiting to go into court runs into this dickhead. Shot up the courthouse but police or SWAT stopped him permanently

These muppets all look the same don’t they.

Apparently Elizabeth Holmes, of Theranos infamy, has married some rich kid, allegedly just to help pay her legal costs.

Dupe or not, judging by this picture the guy seems to be a white supremacist. Seems appropriate.

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Petzl - headtorch choice of alt-right rich kids everywhere...

@Ubergroover
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-48606826

https://www.lfgss.com/profiles/58978/

You mean to tag me?

Saw that-its taken years of lobbying by some very ill but determined people to get the current media attention... Hope it yields some actual improvement in clinical diagnostics and care. I'm still experiencing weird autoimmune disorders/chronic inflammation and contemplating paying yet more money for private treatment the NHS has conspired to deny me and my partner who got written off as having chronic fatigue syndrome..

It’s hard to @ you with the umlaut over the u!

It's a persistently annoying, if very minor issue that in English the word 'umlaut' is used for the diaresis. The "Umlaut" in German is actually the whole letter of Ä, Ö, and Ü, and they are separate letters, not just 'a, o, or u with an "umlaut"'.

Am i missing something or is this just fucking terrifying

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/payout-for-yoga-teacher-hit-by-cyclist-as-she-crossed-road-on-her-phone-a4169716.html

Cyclist Shouted, sounded a horn, swerved, was knocked out... and the pedestrian still gets compensation.... they were on their phone and walked out on the road.

how does this work?

It's the principle of vehicle user should be prepared to stop/avoid collision if driving to conditions, that never ever gets applied to car drivers except in extreme circumstances...

Utterly ridiculous double-standard and, as you say, terrifying.

I just thought it would only be in the case of a driver making an error, as far as that is concerned it seemed they did everything right and yet were deemed responsible

It's the principle of vehicle user should be prepared to stop/avoid collision if driving to conditions, that never ever gets applied to car drivers except in extreme circumstances...

Is that true though?

I thought getting compo from an accident involving a driver was pretty easy.

This is incredibly judgemental, but as soon as I read "air horn", I sided with her. Genuinely have you ever seen/heard anyone with an air horn on their bike who didn't ride like a massively aggro cunt?

Also from 15mph through a crossing in busy traffic with peds crossing through the stationary cars?

The argument would be that if they'd done everything right they would have avoided a collision. I.e Charlie Alliston case.

Can the cylist put in a counter claim if it has been ruled that she was 50% responsible for the accident?

Also, she is a yoga teacher who "who works for a City finance company". Do merchant banks teach yoga now?