That freaking lawnmower still won’t start, and the Feed

One of the places they saved money on the lawnmower we bought was the carburetor. It has absolutely no controls or adjustments, and basically does not work when ambient temperatures fall much below 60°F and is really iffy below 70. I mean once you get it started it runs fine, the hard part is getting it started the first time because of the lack of controls. There is a choke lever on the side but it isn’t connected to anything…

I got an update on a pedestrian fatality I wanted to share if the URL will work. Breaking News: After 47-Second Hearing, Driver Who Ran Over 3-Year-Old Is Found ‘Not Guilty’ If anything exemplars the “Motors Uber Alles” mentality amongst LEO this one does it. The victim was crossing the street with the crossing signal for several seconds holding her grandmother’s hand when the killer made a left turn across the crosswalk the victims were using, hitting the grandmother and running over the head and torso of the little girl. There is video evidence of this from someone with a dashcam pointed at the crosswalk in question, and still the tickets were dismissed. I have heard rumors that mob hitmen are now waiting for their targets to cross the street so they can be run over and publicly killed without any repercussions. I guess it all depends on do you want the victim dead, or do you want the victim dead and a message sent.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Mealy-mouthed Mobility Plan goes to Planning Comm; pope raffles bikes to feed homeless Anyone in Rome want to take my €10 and buy a ticket?

The depiction is still more convenient for pedestrians than an actual city. Brilliant visual illustration of how much #publicspace we have given to #cars I mean think of it, you can walk across one of those planks any time, crosswalks require waiting for cross vehicle traffic to clear before you can hurry across and hope a turning vehicle doesn’t run you down.

Cyclists in Oz are facing a quandary. Injured cyclist’s $1.6 million payout sends ACT riders scrambling for insurance There is only one vendor for bicycle insurance in Oz because until now there was almost no need for it.

There is a reason why there was a school of art called “the Dutch Masters”. This Dreamy, Glow-in-the-Dark Bike Path Was Inspired by Starry Night I mean if you have a glow-in-the-dark bike path to work with why wouldn’t you make Art from it? Isn’t this cool?

And those are all the links today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet

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Running a bit late because I had outside things to do, and the Feed

First things first, tonight is the last night that I have to sleep by myself as Mrs. the Poet returns from meddling visiting with her family before the Holidays make travel too expensive for our retired selves. She got to hold the new baby while she’s still little and cute and relatively not-noisy. I’m hoping that the relatively good travel weather holds and her flight gets through without a problem.

Today was fun outside day. I made another attempt to get the lawn mower started to do the last cut of the year, with no success. It’s just too cold for the engine we have, the line between not enough prime and flooded is just too narrow to get the thing started. Then I had to get on the bus to mail that check to the artist that won the art contest last year after the first one came back last month after spending the last 8 months floating around Canada someplace (long story) and after I got back I took one of the tenants with me to use a coupon for free hamburgers at a local place (Whataburger). It was about 2000 when I got home the last time and started filtering the Feed.

Up first is a dose of Our Daily Ted. Open wide! Morning Links: 16-year old killer of randonneur Matthew O’Neil gets off with barely a slap on the wrist I know, there aren’t supposed to be any links to wrecks, and there still aren’t. This is only a link to an article that has links to a wreck, so that’s 2 degrees of separation.

And it finally showed in the Feed and not as a link from another article. Bono’s bloody Sunday: U2’s Tonight Show appearance canceled after singer falls off bike in Central Park and needs surgery – days after door falls off his plane in mid-air Dude can’t get a break unless it is a bone. Ouch!

Proof that common sense is not a prerequisite for running for office in NYC. Central Park’s Speed Limit Will Fall To 20 MPH Of the 8 people killed by a bicycle rider this century in NYC 2 died in Central Park, one that stepped into the bike lane in front of a cyclist leaving no time to react, and a second that was hit by a cyclist dodging a group of pedestrians that had just stepped into the bike lane with barely enough time to react to avoid the first group but not enough to react to the pedestrian in his escape path. Neither cyclist was going fast enough to charge under the new speed limit. And this is on top of the proposed ban on bicyclists texting, something else that has not been a problem, and will result in exactly zero change in the death rate caused by cyclists. Ticketing people that drive on the sidewalks would prevent up to 50 pedestrian deaths a year…

I’m including this because he was killed walking back to his motel. LGBT leader killed crossing U.S. 1 The poor guy was pinballed twice into another vehicle for a total of three impacts by three separate vehicles. It is not conclusively known what caused the first impact as the only surviving witness was the driver of the weapon vehicle, but it is believed he was struck in the lane of travel. Then the next lane of travel, then the turn lane…

Infrastructure! news from Scotland. A fine for careless driving or speeding every five minutes Gee, they sure go a long time between tickets there, a whole 5 minutes.

A little battery-powered assist. Sweat-free cycling: A2B e-bikes give an extra kick in hope to aid urban transport Only thing I disagree with is the regen that kicks in at speeds over 20 MPH, that’s way too low for a bike that is limited to 20 MPH under power.

And those are all the links I have today(tonight?).

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet