Our long national nightmare is (almost) over

In less than 24 hours the worst president in the history of these United States will be removed from office. Pity it couldn’t be done at the point of a gun. But at least the village idiot of Houston TX will be removed from “the Button” that can destroy human civilization in 24 hours.

As you might guess I’m not a big fan of “W”. In fact I both loathe and despise him. The man was a graduate of a prestigious Ivy League school, and he could not even pronounce the word “nuclear”. Add to that his brilliant roll in the incident at Ft. Hood when vandals attacked the pagan worship area and desecrated one of the altars, and the Religious Reich started baying about how pagans shouldn’t be allowed to “contaminate” our good Christian troops when the Chaplain’s Manual has detailed instructions on how to lead a Wiccan circle in the absence of local Wiccan clergy… and there comes “W” with the statement that witchcraft isn’t even a real religion.

Then somebody got him to run for President, and those of us in TX who had sense were overjoyed. TX law requires someone already holding office to leave office before running for a different office, and we thought that he would have to quit embarrassing us as our Governor and he would never win the election so we would be rid of his stupid self. We never expected him to be declared winner, honest. To be truthful I was shocked that he even won the Republican nomination to run for President.

So on the behalf of the minority of Texans with functional brains (not including me anymore, damned drunk in a pickup truck) I apologize for the last 8 years. Just don’t try to tell me you never pulled a prank that got out of hand…

Billed @$.02, Opus

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It’s still a mess

Yes the Feed is still a mess, I was clicking, reading, and deleting for more than 3 hours this morning. You would not believe the trash I had to wade through, links to articles about racist police motorcycle clubs, links to articles about horseback riders thrown from their horses, articles comparing peace negotiations in the Philippines to riding a bicycle, articles on criminals riding bicycles… Bleagh!!

First up is a link from another WordPress blog on a (so far) fantasy product to illuminate the road with a virtual bike lane. Light Lane – Concept from Altitude’s Alex Tee and Evan Gant This at the moment is not a real product, but it could be made for real. The current image showing the concept has a single projector under the saddle of the bike, which would not work forward of the rider’s legs, however installing 2 additional projectors on the handlebars takes care of that problem, and the additional projectors would not have to be “smart” as they would only be drawing straight lines on the ground to mark the safe zone, while the “smart” laser projector draws the bicycle lane marker behind the bike. No charge for that BTW, just use the name of this blog, or Opus, to describe the additional projectors.

My other link is an update on a wreck that never made my Feed. Colombian cyclist dies I don’t know why this missed the Feed the first time, because from what I have been able to find out about this wreck it was pretty violent, the driver was injured by the cyclist coming through the windshield, and the rider did not completely regain consciousness before he passed on.

And that’s the Feed for this morning, now the rant.[rant]

There are too many cyclists getting killed trying to cross the roads in FL, especially in the last week. There are some similarities between the wrecks, both were trying to cross major highways, one because that was the only road to go on at that intersection because of a lack of connecting secondary roads, the other because there was a major shopping area nearby and the only way to get to it was to cross a large highway, 4 lanes in each direction, with 2 lanes of service/frontage road on each side. In other words, the infrastructure played a major part in these wrecks, along with some lack of attention from either the cyclist, the driver, or both. To FL legislators: it is imperative that infrastructure be changed to accommodate all road users, not just the ones driving cars.[/rant]

That’s all folks.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Still more hits

Well the day has begun and is almost over in some parts of the world, as the last Feed makes plain. Just because I have to sleep once in a while on a different schedule than theirs is no reason for their life to stop halfway around the world.

First up a Middle East country is having some difficulty enforcing their helmet laws. Cyclists dump helmets despite stringent laws Apparently cyclists there have discovered that helmets will do nothing to prevent wrecks, and danged little to prevent injuries. Sure your head is protected up to 12.5 MPH with increasing levels of injury above that, but what about trauma to other areas of the body, like internal organs or major blood vessels? You’re on your own there. That said, a bike helmet is the only Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) you can get for bike riding. It’s crappy but it’s also all you get so wear it for what it’s worth.

From Oz we have a very poorly written report on a killed cyclist that somewhat blames the cyclist for being there to get hit, and in some places just doesn’t make any sense at all. It did not need to happen “Paramedics were called by the man died at the scene.” Um, yeah whatever. Like I said, in many places it was pretty much impossible to decide what the writer (or the editor) was trying to convey.

Also from Oz is a report on a recalcitrant State agency withholding data from a group trying to increase bicycle safety. RTA accused of stalling cycle-death study Apparently that one State agency is blocking access to vital information about bike wrecks that will be used to change laws or re-allocate enforcement of existing laws to prevent cyclists’ deaths. Of course ultimately it’s all futile, everybody dies. But everybody deserves to die in a nice comfy bed of maladies related to advanced age, should that be their choice. Getting killed by a careless driver is not how I choose to go, unless my death can be used as a means to prevent others’ deaths.

Billed @$%.02, Opus