The temperature in my office varies between 77 and 78 so why is my butt cold? and the Feed

One of the questions tormenting mankind it is. Either my thermometer is busted, or there is something that has seriously changed in my levels of temperature tolerance. I mean I’m the guy who used to wear shorts year around, now I’m getting cold in a room that is 77°F? That’s a large change of temperature tolerance, or maybe I’m just so heat acclimated that it will take a while to get ready for winter this year. I did notice that I now have a couple of pairs of shorts that fall off if I don’t pooch my tummy out to keep them tight all the time, so maybe I have lost some more body fat or my glutes don’t hang out as far as they used to. Either or both of those could result in my feeling cold because of a lack of internal heat generators or inability to keep the heat I generate contained in my body with insulating body fat.

This popped up again in the Feed. Ex-Episcopal church bishop who killed cyclist pleads guilty to manslaughter, drunken driving and Former Episcopal Church Bishop Who Killed Cyclist While Driving Drunk Pleads Guilty also Ex-Bishop Who Killed Cyclist Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter this too Ex-Bishop Who Fatally Struck Cyclist Pleads Guilty To Manslaughter I could have sworn I did this last month…

It only took two years and the building owners complaining about “squatters”. Police shut down notorious ‘Slabtown’ stolen bike chop shop Why is it they can get a half-dozen cops to run a stop sign sting when some busybody makes a single phone call, but a criminal operation that cops witness in operation goes two years without being able to shut it down?

Same state as WoaB but Kansas is closer than this wreck. Boy struck by vehicle moved to Houston hospital From the damage to the bike I’m going to assume the kid could have made it across the road had the weapon vehicle been doing the 35 MPH speed limit, because I didn’t see anything blaming the victim.

Meanwhile in TN. Bicyclist struck, killed by car in Sumner County and Woman killed while riding bike on Cross Plains highway Hit from behind wreck as the cyclist turned, or is that the next paragraph?

I know for sure this cyclist was hit preparing to make a left turn. Cyclist Struck, Killed In Henderson Co. and Cyclist killed in crash on U.S. 64 in Hendersonville also Henderson Co. Mother Hit, Killed While Riding Bike to Work Notice the cyclist is being blamed for not wearing a helmet or a glow-in-the-dark clown suit, while nothing was said about the drivers not driving according to conditions because they couldn’t stop when they saw her preparing to turn.

In OR two cyclists are hit at the same time by a blind driver. 1 cyclist dead, 1 injured in Newberg crash According to Google the wreck was 30 minutes before sunset and everyone was going west, with an elderly driver behind the wheel of the weapon vehicle. Unfortunately in situations like this cyclists are dependant on drivers doing the right thing and driving according to conditions, because there is nothing a cyclist can do to make herself more visible against the glare of the sun.

If I’m reading this report right the cyclist pulled out right in front of the weapon vehicle without activating the crossing signal. Eleven-year-old boy injured in bike crash The street view shows the switch to activate the crossing lights on a pole on the opposite side of the path from the stop sign, facing away from the path. To put it bluntly this was designed to get cyclists killed.

Some mixed news from IA. UPDATE: Police ID Council Bluffs bicyclist killed, driver arrested Cyclist getting killed = bad, killer getting arrested = good. Another hit-from-behind wreck because the driver failed to drive according to conditions.

I think it’s time for Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: New website seeks to undo Rowena road diet, and more news about kindhearted people

Still in CA. Brentwood: Bicyclist killed by suspected DUI driver ID’d as Brentwood woman Another driver and cyclist headed west, but this time about an hour before sunset.

He owns the championship-winning IndyCar team, he has one driver in the Chase and another who can win his way in, and teams contending for the USSCC in road racing, so he goes for a bike ride to relax. Chip Ganassi injured in bicycling accident I have to say that I didn’t have that much hardware when I broke 4 bones in my wreck.

A wreck in CT leaves a young victim and several people damaged by the wreck from a distance. Classmates remember Waterbury teen killed after being hit by car The only thing about this link that was the same when I filtered it is the URL.

From the really eastern part of the Great White North. Cyclist killed in collision in Sydney Since they aren’t blaming the cyclist on this one and it sounds like it may be an intersection wreck from the side… More Cape Breton Regional Police continue to investigate crash that killed cyclist

Update on another cyclist hit in the Great White North. Injured cyclist is recovering Just a reminder this was a SWSS wreck.

Two links to the same UK wreck at the same paper less than 18 hours apart. Norham Road collision: Man arrested after cyclist injured in North Shields and the later one Norham Road collision: Man due in court after cyclist injured in North Shields The first link makes it sound like a possible attempted murder charge, the second is “causing injury by dangerous driving“.

As more and more cyclists are injured by potholes in the UK, there inevitably comes the backlash against the people who failed to maintain the roads. Injured cyclist plans to sue council over potholes In the UK road users are allowed to sue local agencies in charge of maintaining the roads when they are not maintained.

I have to admit that I clicked on this link mostly to find out what kind of animal a sjambok was. Patrols after sjambok attack on cyclists Silly me, a sjambok is some kind of weapon, but I still don’t know what one looks like so I googled it and found this Sjambok

I think we have a winner for the hyperbolic letter of the year award. Letter: Bicyclists the ‘ISIS of rural roads’ Really, ISIS of rural roads? There must be a huge number of car/bike wrecks where everybody in the car died that I haven’t heard of.

Are you riding with the wrong cranks? Are shorter cranks better?

Rhetorical question: Are you ready to save the world? The World Could Save Trillions With Buses and Bikes

Last link is a different take on the Barnes Dance. Video: Pedestrians Turn Busy Intersection Into Dance Floor

And I feel like hell, again. I need to do something about this, maybe get a better chair?

Billed @€0.02, Opus

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Grocery day again, and the Feed

Back into the fray I go after the physically draining experience of yesterday. This time is just grocery buying using my new phone to keep the list legible. Given that Mrs. the Poet’s arthritis has made her handwriting worse than mine, and that I was given the options of passing penmanship, passing typing, or failing 8th grade, you can see how having the list kept in a neat sans-serif font would be an improvement. Putting the list on the phone has one major disadvantage, our normal shopping strategy is a divide and conquer of Mrs. the Poet doing shopping for the “core” part of the store, and I get the stuff at the “edges”. But with the list on my phone, and Mrs. the Poet being such a Luddite that working an Android phone is emotionally beyond her (she’s smart enough to do it, she just doesn’t want to bother learning how), I have to be with her to read the list off the phone and also the particulars of the various coupons and specials we are getting. This means we take twice as long as before.

My take on what’s important today says the then-17YO driver who tested 0.101BAC% more than 2 hours after the wreck, and more than 8 hours after the party she threw ended, when she ran over a cyclist while driving backwards in her truck, is probably the Big Story. Documents: House party, drug use preceded DUI crash that killed cyclist and Anchorage teen who hit, killed cyclist in court Friday also Prosecutor: Teen used drugs, alcohol before hit-and-run collision that killed cyclist The party ended about 0300 more or less, the cyclist was hit at 1000 or so, the driver was arrested at 1030, the blood draw was taken 1250, and the sample showed 0.101BAC%. To get that reading more than 10 hours after the party supposedly ended means she had to have been completely blitzed at the party. And apparently the defense has never heard of second-hand smoke, or THC retention, because they are blaming the cyclist for getting hit by a drunk driving a truck backwards at a high rate of speed as reported by witnesses. The defense story of the cyclist riding on broken pavement up a false flat at 30-35 MPH would be comical if the cyclist was alive to laugh at it.

Just a few miles west of WoaB, another cyclist executed by another drunk driver. Bicyclist Killed in Hit-and-Run Crash in Haltom City The crime scene footage shows a mangled bike that is so badly damaged I can’t actually tell which way the cyclist was going when she was hit. When I can’t tell if a cyclist was hit from the side or from behind or even head on, that bike is wrecked. I’m kinda sorta not convinced the cyclist was hit from the side, but I can’t even state she was hit either from the back or head on with more than a 50% level of confidence.

NYC drivers be crazy. 82-Year-Old Woman Fatally Struck By Dump Truck Driver In Bushwick At this point facts point to insufficient time to cross the street allowed before the light changed, and the dump truck driver failing to make sure there was nothing in front of the truck before driving over the victim. That said I put at least 50% of the fault for this wreck on the infrastructure, and the fact that they allowed the truck in the city in the first place.

Upstate are not much better. Bicyclist killed after crash in Kingsbury identified This wreck sounds very similar to the one that killed Larry Schwartz, mirror to the back of the head. Helmet or not you are dead in this kind of wreck.

Yesterday’s Daily Ted. Morning Links: LA’s Mobility Plan 2035 passes the council, but the fight isn’t over yet; cyclist critically injured in OC You didn’t think I would forget, did you?

Today’s Daily Ted. Morning Links: Newport hit-and-run driver turns himself in, and more fallout from the new LA Mobility Plan

Another CA wreck. 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL ON BICYCLE STRUCK BY HIT-AND-RUN DRIVER IN NEWPORT BEACH and NEWPORT BEACH MAN ARRESTED IN HIT-RUN INVOLVING 14-YEAR-OLD GIRL Incidents like this are what makes me glad that hit-and-run carries the same minimum sentence as DUI homicide in CA. Maybe if this gets more publicity people would stay at the scene and call 911 so the victim has a better chance of survival.

Another wreck in CA, this was a bad week for them. Cyclist killed in El Cajon collision Yet another SWSS, you would think that by now LEO would be wise to this after the two wrecks with onboard video showed the cyclists riding in a straight line while the weapon vehicle failed to move over to pass. There was a comment that the driver failed to react until after the cyclist was hit and flying through the air that somewhat backs this up.

The cyclist hit by a driver on a CA frontage road is recovering. Bicycle accident victim recovering

The 30th anniversary of the seminal NWA album has spawned a meme that not even cyclists can resist. The Slow Bicycle Movement (what, you thought I would show that in my blog? Click the link.) 😀

More on the MI cyclist killed by a hit-and-run driver. Lawyer, authorities talk in Lake Orion cyclist’s death I still say the statement from the lawyer shows the driver did it on purpose. And Family members organize charity bike ride to remember Lake Orion woman who was killed in hit and run

Another MI cyclist died. Bicyclist struck, killed in Grand Rapids The cyclist was killed while riding in the crosswalk in front of a stopped vehicle that didn’t stay stopped while he was in front of the vehicle.

OK this driver needs to be lost in the system for a century or two. Cyclist hit by alleged drunk driver in Hancock Co. dies; Teen held for OWI and Police: Teen accused of OWI in cyclist’s death tested at four times legal limit this, too 1 cyclist dead, another injured OK killer driver was drunk and underage to drink, there should be a nice comfy place under the jail for him. DEEP under the jail.

More on the acts of terror against cyclists in West Canuckistan. Aggressive acts towards cyclists discredits drivers I guess acts of terrorism could be called “aggressive”.

This video is now part of the UK driver’s ed curriculum. How to overtake cyclists – the video all drivers should watch well the new drivers will have to watch it, we can only hope the current ones will as well.

Another driver cursed with a wreck in Jolly Olde. Drink driver injured teenage BMX rider and four-year-old boy I say let him rot, but since this is the UK he will probably get community service, and points on his license.

Crappy infrastructure proposed in Oz. Cycling groups urge Moreland Council not to adopt double cycle lanes on Sydney Rd Seriously, they are going to paint two bike lanes and allow parking on one set part of the time, which is when the other lane is active? What are they on, and can they share?

These guys need to share, too. Surgeons urge ‘more responsible attitude’ to bike helmet laws You know you would think surgeons would be a little more reality-driven. Are they sure this isn’t a conservative terrorist front group?

And I’m all outta links.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Unkillable Badass Poet

I thought this was supposed to make my life better, and the Feed

I got a call this morning from the surgeon I was referred to by the Lab Rat Keeper saying he couldn’t see me because he wasn’t on my insurance network. I thought my insurance was supposed to make my life easier not more stressful. Now I have to log into my insurance provider’s information page, find my policy, and find a doctor I can get to who is also in my network, make another appointment, do the consultation, and then after all that maybe I can get this huge lump removed from my neck so I can wear a helmet while riding my bike and finish a cup of coffee or can of soda without pain. Seriously, I feel like using bad language about this, which is something I almost never do except as something to make a joke.

Up first, a potential weapon in the war on distracted driving. New device in the works to catch texting drivers And in reply to the comment about creating a detector for such a device, ain’t gonna happen, the device detects a cell phone sending a text without creating any electronic signature of its own. Broadly put, it’s a radio receiver tuned to the frequency of a texting cell phone and is no more detectable than any other receiver.

Update on a hit-from-behind wreck in NM. UNM student charged in cyclist’s death to appear in court Drunk, (slightly) and high on pot (that must have been some good weed if they could still smell it on him and detect it in his blood a day later). Also hit-and-run drivers should never be allowed bail as they have already demonstrated a propensity to flee as long as they retain the ability to do so.

An OH wreck with most of the information blacked out by LEO. Teen bike rider injured after crash with car I see a completely undamaged bike supposedly ridden by the victim but I can’t tell if that brake handle is connected to a brake because of the unfortunate choice of background (the officer’s black pants). The undamaged bike strongly indicates a sideswipe wreck where the weapon vehicle struck the cyclist without ever hitting the bike. That would indicate hit-from-behind protocols as the best method to avoid but absent more information I really hesitate to make any recommendations about the wreck.

A CT cyclist suddenly finds himself getting “up close and excessively personal” with a motor vehicle. Bicycle Rider Injured In Ellington Car Collision Car making a U-turn means no reaction time for the cyclist as the turn would have begun after passing the car going the opposite direction, leaving infrastructure that separated the cyclist from drivers doing stupid things that could get cyclists killed the only way to prevent this wreck.

Update on a DE wreck. Police believe they have Audi that hit Hockessin cyclist I sincerely hope they catch and imprison the driver of the weapon vehicle for a very long time as it looks like the cyclist was hit riding the opposite shoulder of the road from the direction of travel for the weapon vehicle. This makes avoiding the wreck even harder than previously assumed, from “very difficult” to “OMG WTF!?!”. The cyclist was hit on the inside of a turn the driver obviously cut.

Another wreck in CA. Cyclist Injured Over the Weekend On PCH Mode not given but the injuries are consistent with a buzz job gone really bad so preliminary advice is going to be hit-from-behind protocols to avoid or reduce damages, and get that infrastructure “up to Dutch” to prevent.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Pasadena bike club refuses to support Gran Fondo in bike-unfriendly Beverly Hills Why should cyclists support a city that has shown so little support for doing anything for cyclists besides take their money?

Still in CA, some Infrastructure! news. New traffic law take effect today to improve cyclist safety I do wish they had chosen a better picture than the salmon cyclist dodging the skateboarder in the bike lane to illustrate this article.

Infrastructure news from OH. Bicycle safety stressed at memorial for slain cyclist The reason I put this one in “infrastructure” instead of “lifestyle” was the calls for enforcement and bike lanes in the original link.

I can think of no greater indictment against a locale’s infrastructure than this headline. One cyclist a day is killed or injured on Lancashire’s roads

And a further indictment against the entire UK. John O’Groats to Land’s End cyclists warned over safety At least one fatality every year!

I’m thinking this guy doesn’t spend too much time on the roads… Opinion: There is no war between motorists and cyclists That would be technically correct in that it’s more of a slaughter of unarmed non-combatants by the forces of motordom than an actual “war”. Wars usually have casualties on both sides, and I have yet to read of a cyclist hitting a car and killing everyone on board in any of my reports from Australia. It is worth noting that this is from the same corporate group that brings Faux Nooz to the US…

Maybe we will need these less if we get infrastructure built to CROW standards? The black box for CYCLISTS: Bike helmet has built-in data recorder to capture the moment a person crashes I find it funny that the country with the greatest mode share for cycling in the world also has the lowest helmet-wearing rate and cyclist death rate.

Last link, I got this in my inbox from at least 3 different FB friends… Daily Spin Class Only Thing Keeping Mom From Driving Car Full Of Kids Into Ocean

And those were all the links that gave me fits or giggles today that had something to do with bicycles.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet (thank you David Willis)

Another report from the Front, the Feed

One of the sites I read regularly is At War With the Motorist which describes the trials and tribulations that poor drivers are forced into by the ubiquity of bicycle infrastructure in the UK. The point being of course that there is next to no bicycle infrastructure in the UK and the majority of what is there is placed for the convenience of drivers, not cyclists. If there is a war going on the drivers have us outnumbered, out materielled, out infrastructured, and out gunned both physically and politically. The war goes badly my comrades…

The war goes so badly that the enemy is killing our youngest recruits while still in training. Just a few miles west of where this blog is headquartered, a little girl was killed while riding a bicycle. Bicycle rider killed at Arlington apartments identified The little girl was killed while riding in the parking lot in front of where she lived. This is a children’s play area, why can’t people drive like they have sense in a children’s play area?

Moving to the pacific NW of the US, a driver is arrested in a hit-and-run of a cyclist. Updated: Man Arrested in Fatal Austell Hit and Run Incident Yep, typical. Wait long enough for any intoxicants to be flushed or metabolized from the body then report you hit “something”. That way you can claim you weren’t intoxicated and that you never saw anything out on the road. The problem in this case was that the wreck was witnessed by people that had no problem being able to see the cyclist and who had a good view of the wreck. I’m sure LEO in this case will find some reason to let the guy off the hook somehow.

A SoCal cyclist is hit from behind by a driver that could not manage to stay in a single lane who then left the scene. Hit-and-Run Crash Kills Bicyclist on Highway 101 I think we can safely assume the driver was under the influence of some kind of intoxicant or asleep when this happened. Anyway to avoid hit-from-behind protocols might have helped avoid the wreck, and a rear facing HD video camera might have gotten a clear shot of the vehicle, driver, and the license plate. Someone needs to make a camera that has a shock activated shutoff that stops recording 5 minutes after the wreck so that LEO can identify the perps in hit-and-run against cyclists, and the courts need to accept the video record as evidence in cases against hit-and-run drivers. EDIT: After posting this I got news that this may have been deliberate. Encino cyclist killed in Leucadia; local TV speculates an attempted vehicular serial killer could be at work with links to reports of other similar wrecks with identical vehicles.

Another account of the arrest of the LB Fire Captain who hit-and-run a cyclist. Long Beach Fire Captain Accused Of Drunk Hit-And-Run Free On Bail I’m still trying to wrap my head around why no charges have been officially filed yet. I mean he was followed from the scene by witnesses who identified him as the driver of the vehicle that hit a cyclist IN THE FREAKING BIKE LANE and was drunk at the time, so why no charges yet? Are they having a hard time counting that high before completing the list of charges?

Up to the Great White North, a cyclist is severely injured by infrastructure that was not up to standards. Biker badly injured after yacht club accident The helmet broke which means that it failed to function, but the cyclist also had spinal injuries that were much worse than his head injuries. Basically the helmet failed in use, but the injured parts would have been injured anyway because they were not protected by even a properly functioning helmet. My helmet protects against facial injuries, but it costs a whole bunch and was designed for use by Downhill MTB riders and BMX, not regular road use.

Still in the Great White North but in West Canuckistan, a bike-ped bridge is taken out of service by corrosion. It could be a manic Monday on the Blue Bridge So what’s happening is about 2000 bicycle crossings a day will be moved onto the car side of the bridge, plus an even greater number of pedestrians, with the majority of these crossings taking place during rush hour. This could get interesting in the Chinese Curse sense of the word.

In Oz a weekend so full of wrecks that a cyclist hitting a parked car is only a small paragraph in a huge report. Six dead, numerous injured during horrific weekend on SEQ roads OK back-channel on this one, there is a possibility that the cyclist was forced into the parked car by another vehicle not letting him move over, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Moving on to “Lifestyles of the Bicyclic and Famous” the Tour Of Battenkill is coming up shortly. Tour of the Battenkill a big draw If you’re in the area this is a really fun race to watch.

And last link is to a charity ride that raises money for cyclists hit by people who are uninsured or underinsured, or for cyclists who are injured without a vehicle involved. Off and riding: Tour de Ed bike ride continues its help for cyclists The ride was begun to help the victim of a hit-and-run wreck but has since expanded to help more cyclists.

And that’s all the news that gave me fits this morning.

Billed @$0.02, Opus

We be BADD

Bicyclists Against Drunk Drivers, we be BADD. This was the off the cuff brainchild of Paul Tay mentioned in the comments section of one of the articles about the 3 cyclists hit by an alleged drunk driver (who allegedly stunk of beer and was allegedly falling down trying to walk away from her vehicle after it was blocked by other drivers when she was allegedly trying to drive away from the wreck).

I’m soliciting comments on this one, what do you think? We already have an acronym and a draft slogan, and a constituency of cyclists injured and survivors of cyclists killed by drunk drivers. We have a brain damaged blogger who may have been hit by a drunk driver to push it (that would be me). We have zilch organization as of the moment (but MADD was started by a single woman who lost her family in a drunk driving wreck), but with the internet that can be changed in a few days.

PSA, Opus