The most chilling interview with a troll that I've come across asked said troll why he did it, his answer was "because I can".
Which speaks to me of impotence, insecurity and powerlessness that is desperate for an outlet.
As mentioned above, it is much worse in the USA. I'd recommend "It's OK to be angry about capitalism" by Bernie Sanders who points out that the USA ranks 26th in the 'World Democracy Index' putting it in the 'flawed democracy' category and 42nd in the 'World Press Freedom Index' right behind Moldova and Burkina Faso. We're heading there. The USA is now an Oligarchy not a Democracy.
And great posting a.twiddler, spot on
Search found 1599 matches
- 27 Mar 2024, 8:02am
- Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
- Topic: "Why is the right at war with cyclists?... "
- Replies: 26
- Views: 1289
- 27 Mar 2024, 7:43am
- Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
- Topic: Clevedon Seafront - Cycle track removal - Active Travel England
- Replies: 15
- Views: 671
- 26 Mar 2024, 8:59am
- Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
- Topic: Clevedon Seafront - Cycle track removal - Active Travel England
- Replies: 15
- Views: 671
Re: Clevedon Seafront - Cycle track removal - Active Travel England
I agree with Mike, assume you are talking to Donald Trump (my brother as a CEO had the same issue) you need a few bullet points on half an A4 sheet, no more
My main worries are that:
a) The cycle contraflow will be dangerous for pedestrians crossing the 'perceived' one way road, especially from cafe to seafront and is likely to invite ire from ill informed motorists
b) The 30+ parking spaces will consume much of the current wide and popular promenade and create a busy road where avoiding maneuvering cars will take priority over enjoying the seafront.
c) Has anyone asked both those promenading the front and the cafe owners what they think?
My main worries are that:
a) The cycle contraflow will be dangerous for pedestrians crossing the 'perceived' one way road, especially from cafe to seafront and is likely to invite ire from ill informed motorists
b) The 30+ parking spaces will consume much of the current wide and popular promenade and create a busy road where avoiding maneuvering cars will take priority over enjoying the seafront.
c) Has anyone asked both those promenading the front and the cafe owners what they think?
- 25 Mar 2024, 9:13am
- Forum: Campaigning & Public Policy
- Topic: Clevedon Seafront - Cycle track removal - Active Travel England
- Replies: 15
- Views: 671
Re: Clevedon Seafront - Cycle track removal - Active Travel England
I know the area very well, my daughter lives about half a mile away and we regularly frequent the seafront cafes which have not suffered in any way, they are always packed. It is also a joy to be able to wander safely across what is now a very quiet road.
The new arrangement has deprived visitors of the 'sit in the car and gaze across the Bristol channel' option but as there is ample free parking in nearby roads and there are plenty of seafront benches you could look at the new design as encouraging walking as well as cycling.
This may be upsetting for some disabled residents and visitors but surely getting from a parked car to a bench merely 200m away is not impossible - or am I being too harsh?
The new arrangement has deprived visitors of the 'sit in the car and gaze across the Bristol channel' option but as there is ample free parking in nearby roads and there are plenty of seafront benches you could look at the new design as encouraging walking as well as cycling.
This may be upsetting for some disabled residents and visitors but surely getting from a parked car to a bench merely 200m away is not impossible - or am I being too harsh?
- 19 Mar 2024, 12:41pm
- Forum: The Tea Shop
- Topic: Just how long will it take to turn this ship around?
- Replies: 103
- Views: 2937
Re: Just how long will it take to turn this ship around?
Just one plea Al, please take immigration out of the equation, there is a long and shameful history of governments either in trouble or seeking power who go for the easy kill of blaming blameless immigrants.al_yrpal wrote: ↑19 Mar 2024, 9:17am Its untenable. As we all know net immigration is approaching 1 million, thats 1,000 Grenfell Towers per annum. Lots of demand and greed since the early 2000s has forced up housing costs, the banks have piled in distributing big mortgages like confetti and any real drop in housing values would severly burn them and collapse the economy. Thus the least well off are toasted by unaffordable housing costs and Putins energy premium.
Personally I cannot see any way out of these conundrums that lie at the heart of Britains problems.
Al
The unconstrained capitalism that controls both the US and the UK is the source of the problem. There is plenty of money around but in all the wrong places. To quote just one US example. The ex-CEO of Moderna was awarded a golden parachute of $926M to go away and do nothing whilst paramedics saving lives every day get a pitiful wage.
Allowing profit or the 'invisible hand' to control everything in our lives is about as sensible as allowing the Catholic Church to run the world - and look where that got us.
- 19 Mar 2024, 8:56am
- Forum: The Tea Shop
- Topic: Just how long will it take to turn this ship around?
- Replies: 103
- Views: 2937
Re: Just how long will it take to turn this ship around?
I've pondered this many and oft. The Northants countryside is awash with Stupendously Unnecessary Vehicles, so I often ride back through the poor areas of town to remind myself of how the majority live.Pebble wrote: ↑18 Mar 2024, 11:53pm And are things really 'utterly desperate', I see lots of wealth everywhere, yes there will be some poor, but most people seem to be awash with money. I go past the local primary school, so many of the kids are getting dropped off in 30, 40, 50k giant SUVs. Are folk just brainwashing themselves into thinking they're poor?
I think it's USA, Portugal and the UK that head the wealth inequality index, so seeing islands of conspicuous wealth is to be expected There is, I speculate, another factor. Those who are 'left behind' and feeling inadequate to boot having been bombarded with adverts telling them everything they 'should' own will often purchase a 'status symbol' car that they cannot afford to bolster said flagging self esteem. I also speculate that this is sometimes made possible by the low second hand prices for such thirsty and 'expensive to run' vehicles. Try checking the age of your local school run SUVs.
- 13 Mar 2024, 10:03pm
- Forum: The Tea Shop
- Topic: UK Politics
- Replies: 949
- Views: 74410
Re: UK Politics
And they say corruption is a third world problem.
Guess he's scared a socialist government might re-nationalise the NHS and derail the gravy train
Guess he's scared a socialist government might re-nationalise the NHS and derail the gravy train
- 6 Mar 2024, 8:00am
- Forum: The Tea Shop
- Topic: Sellafield
- Replies: 37
- Views: 1632
Re: Sellafield
There it is in a nutshell, lifestyles need to change, nuclear power will never be safe both in terms of reactor reliability and waste toxicity.Biospace wrote: ↑5 Mar 2024, 6:27pm The problem is that there's a question mark over whether the EROI (energy return on investment) of stored or buffered renewable energies is sufficient to maintain lifestyles we've come to expect, including the replacement of power generation as needed.
Much as I'd prefer it not to be the case, I can see there is likely some requirement for nuclear power stations for another few decades.
As a 'Reliability' engineer you'll never convince me that you can contain hot water in any type of system for 100yrs plus. Look at the lengths they have had to go to simply maintain the steel superstructure around Chernobyl for the time required to decommission that disaster area.
- 29 Feb 2024, 8:31am
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: Sturmey Archer 5 speed Hub - Slipping gears
- Replies: 26
- Views: 2445
Re: Sturmey Archer 5 speed Hub - Slipping gears
Thanks for all the info Brucey, looks as if I could use either hub as they'd be employed on my 'shopper' and not subjected to extreme stress.Brucey wrote: ↑28 Feb 2024, 3:17pm he first production 5-star hubs all broke because some twit let them be put together and then sold with dodgy sun pinions, that simply had't been made properly. in truth, the hub design (which included such things as cantilevered planet pinions) wasn't that great anyway, but by the time the first batch left Nottingham, the die was already cast. The chances are that your hub was made later and has sun pinions that are OK but there is no way to check them easily. Since the consequences of failure are pretty dire (think of the 'chestburster' scene in the first Alien movie, yes failure can take out the hubshell too) it may be prudent to change the Sun pinions anyway.
Both the S52 and the 5-star use a pull chain on the left side. This arrangement in the S5/2 relies on two springs fighting one another in gears 1 and 5 which is somewhat sub-optimal. Folk do say this can work OK, but the S5/1 never had a pull-chain on the left, it had a pushrod instead. The original S5/1 pushrod control has been nla for years, but having successfully converted numerous similarly-sprung 4s hubs (mainly FG and FW models).to 5s, and ridden a very long way (over decades) on them to boot, I can safely tell you there is a much better way. Now I didn't come up with this idea, but I wish I had.
The better way involves using a simple pushrod on the left which is not difficult to make. The pushrod itself can be made from any convenient 3/16" steel rod (I have used a 6" nail before now) which can be bent into an 'L' shape, where the short side is about 20mm and the length of the long side is determined by the length of the axle. A standard SA chain and adjuster is fitted to the short side of the L. I used a short length of old spoke as a rivet, having drilled everything to 2mm diameter and filed a suitable feature onto the pushrod. The toggle key can be replaced with a reshaped and shortened pawl pivot pin, which is far stronger. In use, the 'pull' of the gear lever is turned into a 'push' into the hub by the simple expedient of routing the control via the back of the dropout. In many cases there is already a triangular cut-out in the dropout which can be used. All that is required is to ensure that the SA chain runs on a nice radius, which can usually be achieved using a swiss file.
If the spring in the hub is particularly feeble (which you might like because it reduces parasitic.drag in gears 2 and 4) then it may not be strong enough to pull the cable properly, in which case you can fit an additional external 'helper' tension spring whose only job is to pull the cable towards the hub. If you fit a 'helper' spring it can be hooked between the frame and the adjuster and in addition, it can remain connected even when the wheel is out.
Particularly if one is fitted to each side, this can help the gear cables not to come unshipped when the wheel is out, since they are always under tension from the helper springs. I have made perfectly satisfactory helper springs using old spokes. They can be coiled around a suitable mandrel (about 6mm is best) and a typical long spoke is long enough for about 12 turns and can still have ~40mm at each end for hooks to be made. It isn't a bad idea to run the gear cable down the middle of the helper spring; this makes everything neat and tidy as well as ensuring that the pull of the helper spring is correctly aligned.
The parasitic drag in gears 2/4 in all S5 type hubs as well as converted FW and FG hubs can be greatly reduced by modifying the larger sun pinion so that a carrier can be used beneath it. It is possible to make a suitable carrier from an AW clutch carrier. In use, the spring bears against the carrier instead of the sun and the sun is completely unloaded and free to rotate. In fact, the only load the carrier should ever see is the spring load, so even a very thin-walled carrier such as the modified AW part will work fine.
It is necessary to revise the springing inside either hub when fitting a left side pushrod; In the case of some S5 hubs it is simply a case of removing the spring hidden inside the gear 2/4 sun locking cup. However, if you have an axle where the left side toggle key works on the larger sun pinon directly then you will need to fit a weak spring inside the cup, to ensure that the smaller sun comes unlocked when making the 4-5 shift or the 2-1 shift. In the case of the 5 star, I think it is possible to fit something in the slot for a short compression spring to bear against and make the pushrod work, but there is perhaps less to be gained here; sure, the hub will be more reliable and you won't ever have to find a difficult toggle chain and you won't be at the mercy of your toggle key integrity in the same way, but you are not solving a fundamental problem like you are with the S5/2.
Just one further question, given your proclivity for engineering modifications, could I use a Shimano 3-speed bell crank instead of your manufactured push rod (suitably modified of course) as I have some of them in my spares box
Cheers
Stradageek
- 27 Feb 2024, 3:52pm
- Forum: Bikes & Bits – Technical section
- Topic: Sturmey Archer 5 speed Hub - Slipping gears
- Replies: 26
- Views: 2445
Re: Sturmey Archer 5 speed Hub - Slipping gears
Ok Brucey, I have an aluminium shell 5s2 and a steel shell 5-Star. These are both dual cable hubs, I believe, and I have a range of shifters including a dual lever affair that looks like a 10-speed derailleur downtube shifter.
I'm yet to build either into a wheel but I'm naively assuming that using a dual lever shifter will mean that I just have an AW3 with two sun gears selected using the other lever - what could go wrong?
I suspect the answer could be complicated
I'm yet to build either into a wheel but I'm naively assuming that using a dual lever shifter will mean that I just have an AW3 with two sun gears selected using the other lever - what could go wrong?
I suspect the answer could be complicated
- 23 Feb 2024, 8:10am
- Forum: The Tea Shop
- Topic: What colour is your bike?
- Replies: 26
- Views: 1042
Re: What colour is your bike?
Hilariously my Bacchetta Strada is apparently painted 'Ferrari Red' oh the irony
- 22 Feb 2024, 12:31pm
- Forum: The Tea Shop
- Topic: Why does Trump lie so much?
- Replies: 235
- Views: 13627
Re: Why does Trump lie so much?
Even better on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juvfEZsZqUY, you may not like Anthony Scaramucchi (and to honest there's not much to like) but his analysis of Donald Trump is impressive. Well worth a watch.Bonefishblues wrote: ↑20 Feb 2024, 7:55am Trump's ex Comms Director (of 11 days) speaking frankly. Worth a listen
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/a ... 0645605839
- 22 Feb 2024, 12:24pm
- Forum: For Sale - bits of bikes, etc.
- Topic: Clear out
- Replies: 7
- Views: 1157
Re: Clear out
pm sent re dishing tool
- 18 Feb 2024, 1:11pm
- Forum: The Tea Shop
- Topic: UK Politics
- Replies: 949
- Views: 74410
Re: UK Politics
On the interleaved topic of Israel in this thread, I've just read this on BBC News
However, on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu announced that his government had unanimously voted to formally oppose what it called the "unilateral recognition" of Palestinian statehood.
He said any such agreement must be reached through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
"Israel rejects outright international dictates regarding a permanent accord with the Palestinians. An accord, should it be reached, will only come through direct negotiations between the sides, without preconditions," a government statement said.
Am I alone in seeing the irony in this statement when you consider how Israel came into being
However, on Sunday, Mr Netanyahu announced that his government had unanimously voted to formally oppose what it called the "unilateral recognition" of Palestinian statehood.
He said any such agreement must be reached through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
"Israel rejects outright international dictates regarding a permanent accord with the Palestinians. An accord, should it be reached, will only come through direct negotiations between the sides, without preconditions," a government statement said.
Am I alone in seeing the irony in this statement when you consider how Israel came into being
- 18 Feb 2024, 12:56pm
- Forum: The Tea Shop
- Topic: UK Politics
- Replies: 949
- Views: 74410
Re: UK Politics
Thanks for the links Jonathan, always good to feel you are not aloneJdsk wrote: ↑18 Feb 2024, 8:45amI recommend CORE Econ. It's a big collaboration trying to improve the teaching of economics taking into account the way the world is and how it works. And using open source materials.Stradageek wrote: ↑18 Feb 2024, 8:37am ...
I worry that politicians and the corporations that control them are determined to keep us looking at the world from a 'capitalist status quo' viewpoint. The world is as it is because the rich and powerful want it to stay that way. We need to start thinking bigger, not looking at how we can tinker round the edges of a corrupt system.
...
https://www.core-econ.org/about/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CORE_Econ
Jonathan