In the news

^ There it is!

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/02/case-against-london-cyclist-dropped-crossed-red-light-safety

Good to know

Not really.

What message does that send? that it's okay to try and get in the front instead of waiting behind the offending vehicle?

Yah really.

It sends the message that you're entitled to (slightly and safely) break laws in a situation of personal safety, without being harassed by the fuzz.

Yup, occasionally things happen where you might need to break a traffic law, they do not encompass every single thing that could ever happen, that should be taken into account in odd situations like these.

I agree, but in his case, it wasn't.

There was no need to go in front of the pack.

What it says is that on this one occasion, having had the benefit of a high profile campaign, the CPS decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute. So it isn't really anything except them avoiding possible embarrassment. If you or I were to do what he did on the roads tomorrow we'd probably get done the same*. It does not have the benefit of being a stated case as there was no court case so means the square root of fuck all.
*I have a warrant card, draw your own conclusions (though I don't trust The Met any more than the rest of you).

Sounds like he was in a multi lane road going straight ahead, the right turn lane was behind a light and had traffic waiting in it. Maybe he should have moved over to turn right sooner and join the queue but he didn't (and many people would have done the same), so probably figured it'd be easiest to join at the front, when he arrived the ASL was blocked so he waited ahead of the line. Illegal but probably the best thing to do once he got there and not worth a FPN.

What it says is that on this one occasion, having had the benefit of a high profile campaign, the CPS decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute. So it isn't really anything except them avoiding possible embarrassment. If you or I were to do what he did on the roads tomorrow we'd probably get done the same*. It does not have the benefit of being a stated case as there was no court case so means the square root of fuck all.
*I have a warrant card, draw your own conclusions (though I don't trust The Met any more than the rest of you).

It's better than nothing but agreed that going to court and setting a precedent publicly would have been much better. I don't have 2.5k and a pro bono OJeffcott if this happens to me...

^^ Yeah. The "cycle training" thing to do would be to hang back but not everyone can ride 100% ideal 100% of the time - once he's got to the front he has to do the safest and least disruptive thing, i.e. not block the forward lanes, and prevent the driver speeding past him as is likely if he waits alongside the encroached car.

BBC News just had Nigella leaving court, she looked dignified and resolute, but then some schoolboys shouted "You fucking wanker" and giggled and the spell was broken.

video of guy being rescued from a sunken ship
(EXCLUSIVE) Man Survives 60 Hours in Air Pocket of Sunken Ship At Bottom Of Atlantic - YouTube

I won't pretend to understand it all, but having lots of fun reading up on the recent turmoil in the world of darknet marketplaces and bitcoins.

Random quote:
"...The chechen Mafia, with their $25M bounty? What if they catch this Czech guy, and 5% of the world's future exchange currency moves from the EU to the caucuses? ..."

http://www.reddit.com/r/SheepMarketplace/

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/did-one-of-the-silk-roads-successors-just-commit-the-perfect-bitcoin-scam

^^ Yeah. The "cycle training" thing to do would be to hang back but not everyone can ride 100% ideal 100% of the time .

Unfortunately, and I'm not saying you are doing this, but cycle training is often portrayed on here as nothing more than a dogma. Ed is well intentioned, and has the right idea, but, as many of us have pointed out to him before, he doesn't know when to shut up. He's not the only one, and this is not a personal dig at Ed, who I think is often unfairly maligned.
It's not a tenet of cycle training that every fucking incident has to be responded to with an explanation of what the rider could have done better. Cycle training does not exclude the possibility that people are just people and people sometimes get it wrong or that some police officers are just jumped-up little wankers who like to throw their weight around.

Great post Will.

Great post Will.

.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-350

^Aliens.

jumped-up little wankers who like to throw their weight around.

You just can't let go of the fat jokes can you? Hmmpf!

Random quote:
"...The chechen Mafia, with their $25M bounty? What if they catch this Czech guy, and 5% of the world's future exchange currency moves from the EU to the caucuses? ..."

They must mean the Caucasus ...

#despairsoftheworld

Please make this smaller: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/04/e2v-pulse-immobiliser

You just can't let go of the fat jokes can you? Hmmpf!

They're tenacious little buggers, they sit on your chest and pin you down.

Please make this smaller: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/04/e2v-pulse-immobiliser

Ha. I read that thinking 'I'll just shield my electronics or use an old car".
It didn't even cross my mind for a bike-mounted version. Want.
Want. Want.

Finally!

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/showbiz/353951/This-Morning-have-no-plans-to-hire-Katie-Hopkins-after-Glasgow-tragedy-tweet

Please make this smaller: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/04/e2v-pulse-immobiliser

stop all the cars!

not really news, but I found this really interesting:
"Nicky Crane: The secret double life of a gay neo-Nazi"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25142557