Right after Anna Wolfe won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing how many millions in federal welfare funds for Mississippi went to athletes like Brett Favre, cronies and pet projects, she and her newspaper Mississippi Today are facing a defamation lawsuit from the state’s former governor, Phil Bryant, and prison time if they don't end their careers by revealing sources.
No prosecutions for those who stole the taxpayers funds.
Had to use a pair of vice grips to remove the cover of my #Garmin power meter pedals because they were stuck enough that trying to use the hex socket to remove the cover just resulted in it stripping. (Yes, I'm using hex keys that are known to be good.)
I occasionally get people messaging me after doing a surface-level analysis of how many people die each year from crashes while cycling versus other countries.
This is often done to "debunk" the need for safe cycling infrastructure.
This graph shows the real reason.
Notice that the VAST majority of cycling-related deaths in NL are from people over 60.
People over 60 are more likely to die in any serious crash.
In other countries, these people don't cycle at all, because it's not safe.
Now some might then go on to say that older people shouldn't be cycling, then they'd be "safe".
But these people are still dying (often at even higher rates) in other countries; they just don't show up in "cycling" statistics because they're not cycling.
Instead they die of heart disease, or other diseases related to inactivity. Or they die in car crashes.
This is why comparing road safety statistics between countries is extremely difficult, especially for cycling.
In fact given how many are cycling in the Netherlands, this isn't a lot, makes me wonder if there would be a better way of counting, like crash/death per kilometers or hours driven.
Also what is happening with 20-30 years old driving cars?
@lanodan drivers in their 20s are novice drivers and are therefore more likely to get in a crash, but they are also more likely to drive dangerously, especially men.
To the extent that it's "more likely to drive dangerously", that should also lead to an increase in bike fatalities at that age, which doesn't show in the data. I think it's almost all driving inexperience.
Given the number of dutch over 60 cyclists, I wonder if there is a nontrivial number of them crashing e.g. directly after having a stroke while cycling. As in those that would have had a stroke in front of the TV in other countries.
Cycling deaths are up in a lot of places with good bike lanes. Because bikes are way up. The Toronto Police commissioned a report saying to direct riders away from "dangerous" stretches (like cycle tracks on Bloor) because of the number of collisions at intersections along the route. They forgot to calculate the denominator, at all...
There's also an entire story to tell about old people still being able to move and enjoy their city, instead of being stuck at home because they are not allowed to drive anymore.
And of course this is completely ignored by anti-urbanists, because to them, "cyclists" are men between the ages of 20 and 35 who irrationally like bicycles. They cannot comprehend utility cycling done by people of all ages, because of their wilful ignorance.
Tbh, that perception also makes it hard to improve things:
I live in a city in Germany that got an award for its biking infrastructure. But there's only one bike lane and no special traffic lights or actual improvements.
Instead there's parking lots near the rhine so you can park your SUV, get your bicycle out of the trunk and cycle along the rhine on the weekend.
IMO cycling as mode of transportation and cycling as sport are as close to one another as commuting by car and F1.
@portaloffreedom I have a rant coming on about infrastructure for whomst. Helped move my niece last week, Boston Chinatown to Somerville. Bike+trailer works really well for that, but Goo Maps routed me on two "walk your bike" ramps. That's not bicycle infrastructure, especially "walking" a bike with a bunch of boxes on a trailer (the bike gives much, much better purchase on that load, something not understood by the walk-yer-bike crowd).
also I believe the Netherlands records "cycling" deaths that police in most other countries would refuse to record as a road death because no motor vehicle was involved or it occurred on a road that cars can't use
@meena yes. There was a recent uptick in cycling deaths in the Netherlands and all sorts of media outlets around the world interpreted it incorrectly, coming to all kinds of ridiculous conclusions and stupid "solutions."
After looking at the actual data, nearly 100% of the increase came from elderly people using ebikes.
Once you know that, then you can work on actual solutions.
Not from actual use, but vaguely. Must have read about it back in the day. I had a 68000 Amiga and the 68040 was the fastest they ever put in an Amiga, I think.
In the end I decided that since the bottle of bitters says 39% alcohol on it and doesn't say anything about refrigeration, I'm storing it at room temperature.
Anything 30% alcohol or above *should* be pretty shelf stable. However, there will always be chemical reactions still happening as the components of the bitters interact and meld. Heat, sunlight, and oxygen can contribute to these.
Leaving them unrefrigerated is fine, but you will notice slight changes over longer periods of time (~2 years or so). If you keep them in the fridge, those changes will happen more slowly.
If they'll be used up in a year, though, it won't matter.
more danger of evaporating than going bad. no need to refrigerate.
at some point, even with a tight lid, it will lose the alcohol, so it won't taste the same, but unless it's been open more years than you can remember, probably ok.
They are high enough alcohol that you don't *need* to, but depending on the type you might *want* to keep the flavour from changing. OTOH my grandfather bought a bottle of angostura bitters in the 1940's, and only finished it in the 1980's, with apparently no distinguishable change in taste in that time.
For cyclists living in apartments, how do you store your bikes?
My apartment building doesn't have bike storage, so it stays in my unit. But it takes up too much floor space so looking for a way to get it off the ground.
depends on the bike, I used to have a fixie hanging on the wall above the TV on a horizontal top tube rack, though I had to dry it off first if it got wet, only used it a few times per month. A folding bike half folded can fit in the floor of a closet and still be quick to get out daily. There are wall mount assist track /hook racks that might work for storing an e-bike or road/MTB upright, though that takes nearly as much floor area. If you have a high ceiling, double pulley..
that also depends on whether you can screw things in or get the owner to approve/install something. Some of those wall mount things might work on the side of a large wardrobe cabinet or similar furniture, or consider a freestanding work stand that could hold up the bike and have storage below it.
The principle of the SCHWALBE CLIK VALVE, winner of the Eurobike Award 2024, is very simple: it works intuitively with a click. What does it need? The valve and the corresponding pump head or pump head adapter. With the Clik Valve, this can be clicked onto the bike valve with minimal force and removed again very easily after successful inflation.
It doesn't matter which valve and pump you currently have - thanks to conversion kits for all existing bicycle valves and most pumps. To change the bicycle valve, simply replace the valve insert (Sclaverand, Presta, Dunlop, tubeless valve), for the car valve there is an adapter that is screwed over the valve (and can be easily unscrewed again to be able to use petrol station pumps).
The pump head adapter can be integrated into the pump head of current pumps (by clamping or screwing in), even with hand pumps. The Schwalbe Clik Valve can also be inflated with normal SV (Presta) pumps - thanks to this reverse compatibility, you are never at a loss in any situation. And SKS will already be offering its own CLIK VALVE pump at Eurobike.
Schwalbe will soon be producing the first tubes with the Clik Valve.
I didn't realize the issues they mention were issues.
So I guess I just don't care: eventually we'll just have another type of bicycle valve on the bikes in garage. As long as there's a little converter thingy available it'll be fine.
The Clik Valve sounds like a good idea and I love the innovation. I'm not about to replace my existing Presta and Schrader stuff, so it's good to see that there are conversion kits.
I was prepared to dismiss this as standards proliferation but I actually like it. I appreciate that it's compatible with Presta pumps and the conversion kits seem pretty reasonably priced.
I've seen a lot of people struggle to get pump heads to fit well on both Presta and Schrader valves for a variety of reasons - insufficient hand strength, not knowing which position the locking lever is supposed to start in (it varies between manufacturers), damaged pump head gaskets. This seems to address all of those.
If it works as well as they advertise, I'd really like to see this standard take over.
My biggest concern - and I don't see it addressed anywhere - is that it might not be an open standard, and unless Shwalbe and the inventor are reasonable about licensing fees it might just inspire more competing standards.
It'd be nice if it means breaking a valve stem isn't as easy, I guess? Or if it became the new defacto pump so I don't have to worry about breaking cheap plastic Presta converters on cheap emergency mini-pumps for Schrader valves?
I don't necessarily doubt it might be better, but I doubt that it isn't just marginally kinda sorta better.
I am reasonnably curious. It looks cool, however I am not sure I am ready to retrofit all my pumps (1 for each bike + track/home pump) for click adapter + all my bikes valves. I'd have to do the math. I guess it is an easier choice for people who have only one bike.
I've lived with presta valves for decades after all.
After reading the article, I'm still having trouble understanding what it does differently.
If the promises are true, then good, Presta is fragile, and a not-fragile option would be nice. I won't buy it unless my pump already fits, and that was not entirely clear (adapter? do I have to carry it?).
Training wheels seem like an automated kickstand, which sounds like a pretty amazing feature. Especially with a heavy load (like a full-grown adult), getting the kickstand down can be a challenge sometimes.
@Andres4NY totally. I tend to tilt a lot going around corners (Bullitt X) and I would want confidence they only deployed at very slow speeds. I like their naming as “landing gear.” It could be great—I’d love to see reviews of that feature.
We know that US literacy rate is dismal, but as an engineer, let me tell you, *math literacy* is way worse. Even among "college educated" professionals.
I think I want to sell the CRF450RL. I can work with how tall it is, but the engine is extremely high-strung. Even after warming up, it wants to stall when giving it even moderate or more throttle, which is the "flame-out" issue that reviewers have been complaining about for years. If I can't trust the engine, I can't trust the bike and I don't need that when touring (on-road or off-road).
(The luggage is plenty good and I plan on keeping it for whatever in the future.)
I have been very happy with my vstrom 650. It has an engine tuned for very friendly power delivery and some tech specifically for anti-stall.
The 800 is kind of ugly and requires premium fuel, but I can't speak to how it rides. I have no regrets with the 650. Riding as one this is plenty of power for everything you would do on road or off.
1/ "Supremacists officially made it a criminal offense to become poor while in possession of a living human body. You could say its not so bad, because they made it legal for local governments to criminalize the act of sleeping outside. The reality is that if you are unhoused, you are outside, & if you are outside with a human body, then you have to sleep eventually. The moment you become unhoused in fascist America, your body becomes a crime that can be punished in whatever fashion best suits—but in any case, our for-profit prisons have a new greenfield they can turn into double-digit growth, especially since the same private equity that manages prisons is making sure that housing is less & less affordable. All those that rely upon prison slave labor for their operational models will have a fresh free labor pool from which to draw. The American tradition of cruelty toward those being pushed by fascist greed into poverty will continue & christians & capital will be well pleased." https://www.the-reframe.com/a-fools-hope/
How to be hopeful people in this age of deliberate ignorance, empty optimism, lazy cynicism, and manufactured despair. A more useful definition of hope than these false ones we're offered.
TIL a 2015 sexism study using Halo 3 found that "Low-status males that have the most to lose due to a hierarchical reconfiguration are responding to the threat female competitors pose. High-status males with the least to fear were more positive"
Pro Tip: If a website uses a customer support chatbot that makes it impossible talk reach a real person, you can typically bypass the chatbot and get in touch with a company representative via your credit card’s chargeback system
I bought a Chinese dirtbike decades ago. I had a lot of fun on it, but sourcing new parts was so difficult when things broke that I eventually just left it by the road with a sign that said "free"
There are so many empty lots and abandoned building and houses, yet we're having a housing crisis. I'd say it makes no sense, but a better assessment would say the current situation is criminal. :/
TIL internet meme stars from the 2000s (Numa Numa, Hide Yo Wife, Leeroy Jenkins, and more) met and created a trailer for a film called "The Chronicles of Rick Roll" (2016).
http://www.popmalt.com/the-chronicles-of-rick-roll/Like Us On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PopMaltFollow Us On Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/PopMaltOf...
reminder that WInnie the Pooh isn't supposed to be a real bear. he is canonically a plushie. he's like a preternaturally animated plushie. he has seams and his stuffing can even come out
I used to have a wooden marionette duck named Wood Duck who I would feed grapes by putting them up to his beak and then eating it myself. There's also things like tea parties where, say you have a rag doll (and also that you are a child), you're probably not going to pour tea into the doll's face. A child might do this. Or, the teacup might be empty, or have sugar water, or the tea may go undrunk.
Anyway this is all to say that I think Christopher Robin eats an awful lot of honey while pretending to feed it to his plush bear, and that the whole Hundred Acre Wood story takes place in a child's imagination and none of them are actually alive, only real in the Velveteen Rabbit pre-fairy sense.
@wohali @teledyn there's a whole bit in the book about his name. It's Edward but also Winnie the Pooh but actually its Winnie ther Pooh which is apparently a joke about whatever type of english accent the kid would have had but i didn't get that at all as a kid
@gamingonlinux I figure it probably helps to have the suggestion from a reader anyway: I'd have been glad to hear about this from them if I hadn't heard it from you.
The NY Times published this piece on July 4th, to convince Americans to NOT vote, written by a guy who DOES vote, a guy who is a right wing Christian nationalist, a guy who reportedly supported the January 6 insurrection, and a guy who cosplays Hitler.
Legacy media is absolutely failing us and hastening the downfall of democracy. Smh what a disgrace.
I kind of prefer traditional search engines over textual LLMs that require the input of coherent sentences for the models to "understand". The older way was like driving stick or riding a "normal" motorcycle, while LLMs are like driving automatic or riding a gasoline-powered motorscooter. 🤪 #LLM #AI
Consider trying Perplexity - my main use-case is to just type in an unfamiliar word and press send. It comes back with a paragraph to explain what the word means, with linked citations to the web pages that the information came from. It has almost replaced Google/Bing on my phone, since "what does that word mean" covers 90% of my phone searches anyway.
I used it last night to learn that the unfamiliar word on a menu was a type of goat cheese that I had not heard of before.
1. open site 2. close email subscription pop up 3. close push notifications 4. dismiss cookies pop up 5. dismiss the request for your location 6. close the "did you find what your were looking for?" dialog 7. apologize to those around you for the loud swearing 8. try to remember why you opened the site in the first place
Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •Now some might then go on to say that older people shouldn't be cycling, then they'd be "safe".
But these people are still dying (often at even higher rates) in other countries; they just don't show up in "cycling" statistics because they're not cycling.
Instead they die of heart disease, or other diseases related to inactivity. Or they die in car crashes.
This is why comparing road safety statistics between countries is extremely difficult, especially for cycling.
Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •It's also complicated by the fact that the Netherlands has very very high quality data about cycling (like modeshare), while other countries do not.
So you're comparing good data to guaranteed incomplete and/or inaccurate data.
And if somebody tries to "debunk" Dutch cycling infrastructure design by looking only at "cycling deaths per capita" I just immediately block them.
That's just moronic when over 80% of people cycle here, while less than 1% of people cycle in many other countries.
Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell:
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •In fact given how many are cycling in the Netherlands, this isn't a lot, makes me wonder if there would be a better way of counting, like crash/death per kilometers or hours driven.
Also what is happening with 20-30 years old driving cars?
Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱
in reply to Haelwenn /элвэн/ :triskell: • • •Kernel Bob
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •To the extent that it's "more likely to drive dangerously", that should also lead to an increase in bike fatalities at that age, which doesn't show in the data. I think it's almost all driving inexperience.
In any case, thanks for sharing this data.
Bjoern Michaelsen
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •Tristan Ridley
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •They forgot to calculate the denominator, at all...
Dek 👨🚀🐧🚀
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱
in reply to Dek 👨🚀🐧🚀 • • •correct.
And of course this is completely ignored by anti-urbanists, because to them, "cyclists" are men between the ages of 20 and 35 who irrationally like bicycles. They cannot comprehend utility cycling done by people of all ages, because of their wilful ignorance.
justJanne
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •Tbh, that perception also makes it hard to improve things:
I live in a city in Germany that got an award for its biking infrastructure. But there's only one bike lane and no special traffic lights or actual improvements.
Instead there's parking lots near the rhine so you can park your SUV, get your bicycle out of the trunk and cycle along the rhine on the weekend.
IMO cycling as mode of transportation and cycling as sport are as close to one another as commuting by car and F1.
dr2chase
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •skittles
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •It’s the same with pedestrians, but somehow we never talk about that…
And it’s the opposite with car crashes, and in Germany it’s used as an argument against regular driving tests beyond a certain age.
Yeah, of course old people are less likely to be involved in a crash, it’s because they drive less 🤪
What you need to be looking at is how often they’re the main cause of crashes they’re involved in… (In Germany at age 75+ it’s 76%!)
MJ Ray
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •vurpo 🏳️⚧️
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •eena meena me
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱
in reply to eena meena me • • •@meena yes. There was a recent uptick in cycling deaths in the Netherlands and all sorts of media outlets around the world interpreted it incorrectly, coming to all kinds of ridiculous conclusions and stupid "solutions."
After looking at the actual data, nearly 100% of the increase came from elderly people using ebikes.
Once you know that, then you can work on actual solutions.
Nazani
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •Peter Brown
in reply to Not Just Bikes 🇳🇱 • • •