I got wrapped up in a gig yesterday/last night, and the Feed

As I was saying, I was involved in an activity yesterday and last night and did not get home until nearly midnight, and by the time I ate it was nearly 0100. So I decided to finish reading my e-mail, less the Feed folder and it was after 0200 when I got done, which is way too late to be filtering and reading links and composing a blog post. So I didn’t, sorry. And I’m going to be late again Friday because I’m going shoe shopping in the AM and there is a church function I have to attend in the PM. So Friday’s post will post sometime early Saturday morning as per usual, but later than usual.

I’m going to open again with several rounds of Our Daily Ted. Is California’s new three-foot passing law making a difference? and 13-year old boy killed while walking his bike in Boyle Heights and Morning Links: Bike share is booming, Finish the Ride’s Damian Kevitt prepares to run the LA Marathon

A link that I found separately from Ted’s links on the change in policy after a LASD deputy ran over a cyclist in the bike lane while on duty. Sheriff’s officials curb deputy in-car computer use Really, change the rules after you kill a guy!?!one If I had any give-a-damn left I would be outraged, but I think I mentioned back when I stopped linking wrecks here that my give-a-damn was depleted, and it has not yet returned in any quantity.

One of the reasons why I have such a hard time keeping up my give-a-damn is idiots like this, in Oz. Driver who mowed down seven Sydney cyclists in bid for lesser charges after new lawyer said allegations were ‘too harsh’ and Charges too serious in NSW cyclists crash Really, “too serious”? You ran down 7 vehicles from behind that were in the lane you should not have been driving in, and “dangerous driving” is too serious a charge? I would have charged you with 7 attempted murders because you obviously meant to kill the lot of them.

“Should distracted driving be as serious a crime as drunk driving?” Trial hears van driver Philip Sinden was texting before crash that killed cyclist Daniel Squire in Ringwould This is another case of SWSS because the driver did not pay attention to what was on the road in front of him. He was too busy texting his “lover”.

I’m sure most of my readers are no stranger to what a cyclist looks like after a wreck, but if you need something to show a bike-hating person you have to associate with, this is the link. Cyclist left covered in blood after collision in Sheffield This is what a cyclist looks like wearing a helmet in a wreck with a motor vehicle, notice that the top of his head is completely uninjured.

A little infrastructure news from Jolly Olde as they “do something” to reduce the CARnage in the streets. 20mph speed limit to begin on major London routes in radical plan to save lives

And while they try to “do something” to save lives you get imbeciles like this plod. Can your child cycle on the pavement?

Legal infrastructure under debate in Scotland. Mark Beaumont backs new law for cyclists and walkers This is another take on the “vulnerable road users” laws in some states and communities here in the US, based on the “presumed liability” laws in the Netherlands and other countries.

And another “blame the victim” proposal in Oz. Partner of cyclist killed on Kings Park Road in Perth calls for mandatory high-visibility wear And all motor vehicle occupants should be wearing helmets and fireproof coveralls, after all race drivers do both, so it just makes sense, right?

And thank [$DEITY] I’m finally done for the night.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

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Hello, Monday, and the Feed BTW did you know it is MLK Jr. Day?

Well I did it last night, I burned the two hats I used to focus the spell that caused the guy that tried to kill me to kill himself. And I did it without causing the karmic backlash that a “Kill Yourself” spell would have caused me, all I put in the spell was “All that you wish upon me will happen to you instead”. Had the guy decided to wish I would win the lottery, then he would have won the lottery, but he didn’t, and now he’s dead.

And today we celebrate the legacy of a man who only asked that people be judged by their character instead of their skin pigmentation. Sadly people today judge by the size of the checking account(s) first, then skin pigmentation, so that it’s hyper-rich, mega-rich, super-rich, rich white (all the preceding are white), rich POC, middle-class white, middle-class POC, poor white, Everybody Else. It’s the color of your money, not your character that counts. I wonder what Martin Luther King Jr. would have thought about people and culture in the second decade of the 21st century?

On those lines here is Our Daily Ted: Do something today to make the world a better place

Someone in TX had a good time using a bike to get to camping. Bikepacking Colorado Bend State Park Using a bike to carry your stuff instead of walking with it on your back is a much smarter way to do it. There are few places that you can go backpacking that you can’t get to with your stuff strapped to a MTB.

Sometimes you just feel so good you have to go for a bike ride. WATCH: Michael Bennett celebrates Seahawks win with bicycle ride

Someone else stealing a cop’s police bike won’t get the same results. MAN CAUGHT ON CAMERA STEALING PHILLY COP’S POLICE BICYCLE This is the bicycle equivalent of stealing a cruiser with all the junk in and on it and expecting to be able to fence it. And in reality everything except the frame and maybe that trunk bag can be removed and sold to someone.

On making a vice into a virtue, if they won’t clear the snow from the bike lane just make it a linear skating rink when temperatures are below freezing. Edmonton Freezeway Could Let Workers Skate To The Office

I think the whipped cream is easier to write and draw with than the shaving cream idea from a few weeks back. Illegally parked cars marked with whipped cream in Berlin

If you think that all the HiViz clothing does is make you an easier target, you might be right. HIGH-VIS CAN’T SOLVE DRIVERS’ INATTENTIONAL BLINDNESS AND ITS PROMOTION HAS FAILED and On becoming a Christmas tree on two wheels Along those lines I find it is funny that drivers can’t seem to see my bike, but they can spot a ball peen hammer in my left hand a quarter of a mile away.

Going after the wrong thing and ignoring what is really dangerous seems to be a universal failing among LEO as this UK report shows. Spokes Woman: Caversham crackdown shows why we need to change our attitudes towards cyclists

Infrastructure response to a NYC cyclist’s death? Hoyt Jacobs becomes first NYC cyclist to die in 2015 The infrastructure response that is kinda buried in the story is mandatory sideguards in front of the rear wheels of a truck that would push a cyclist or pedestrian away from the rear wheels and turn a near absolute death wreck into a survivable collision.

MN infrastructure is starting to look better and better. St. Paul’s downtown loop offers latest skirmish in battle of bike lanes vs. parking spots Now if they could just convince local business that people on bicycles can actually get stuff bought in their stores home after they make the purchase.

Another link to the trial that found a truck driver and the company he drove for negligent in the death of a SF cyclist. Woman’s Family Awarded $4 Million In San Francisco Trial For Negligent Big Rig Driver That Killed Cyclist I guess the reason this was news today is the judge may have issued the final decree in the case.

A little non-news from Oz. Cyclists or drivers. Council campaign to make roads safer Things cyclists do annoy drivers, but things drivers do get cyclists killed.

What might road vehicles look like in the far future of 2050 when all the easy oil is gone? The Future Cycles The “luxury vehicle” is set up “wrong” though. Real rich people would not pedal their own cars, not when they could pay someone else to do that for them. The “real” luxury vehicle of the future will have the two people up front pedalling while the rich person(s) ride in the back in the comfy seat. Or they will have a low-speed electric vehicle that does the same thing with solar power and without the sweaty, smelly, people in the front. More Designers Morph Bikes and Cars into Green Frankenvehicles

The previous paragraph assumes an orderly transition from fossil fuels to HP, but in case there is a somewhat less orderly change you might want to have this vehicle. Could the Survival Bike be your Bug Out Vehicle of Choice?

And that looks like all the links for today, slow day for a Monday.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

The annual Yule fight has begun, on Wreck-Free Sunday

One of the byproducts of the over-commercialization of Christmas has been the pushback of the acceptable decoration dates for both the first and last “acceptable” decorations going up. And as the “last” date moves closer to September the intensity of the annual fight over putting up the Yule decorations in Casa de El Poeta also increases, because my date hasn’t changed from what it has always been (12/20). I have been accused of many things because of this with “Grinch” being one of the kinder things. I’m sorry, but I’m firmly of the opinion that the “specialness” of a holiday gets less so as the dates of the holiday get moved further apart, and for me “Yule” starts 12/21 and ends 1/1 the next year. So, the decorations go up 12/20 and come down 1/2 AFAIAC. If that makes me a Grinch, then I’m a Grinch. Grinch, grinch, grinch, I’m being all grinchy. I still haven’t gotten the hang of being green and covered with fur like Oscar the Grouch, but I am embracing my grinchyness. When does Festivus begin?…

I really should be promoting my new hat some more. Not just because I really like it but because I have come to the realization that the magicks I placed on the first hat need to be stopped. I publicly declared the first hat as a double bird flipped at the guy that hit me and a “return to sender” of his intentions, and within a few months of making this public, the guy was dead by his own hand. Thing is I didn’t know that, so I subconsciously kept the spell going until the hat wore out completely, then bought another one that was almost identical and kept it until it wore out declaring it as “the replacement” for the first hat, which literally transferred the spell to it. So I have this spell working like mad with no target left alive, which is not good. So, very soon I will do a public ceremony where I burn the old hats and declare that spell at an end, and declare a new spell for the public good. The new spell will target the powers-that-be to generate some real (Dutch CROW manual) bicycle infrastructure for the Beautiful Suburbs of Hell.

New hat.

Old hat.

There is a debate (of sorts) on the use of HiViz by cyclists. What do you think? Encouraging high-vis gear I think this is one step removed from victim blaming, but what do you think?

Today is one of those days that I have a concept running around in my head, but no words to attach to that concept. This is one of the facets of aphasia, the worst of them. Most of the time I just have a word or two that I have to track down inside my head and eventually I do that and finish the sentence and then the rest of the blog post. This time I lost the whole shooting match, a whole paragraph or more. And if you don’t think that’s frustrating, then you have never written for a living…

So, to save what is left of my dignity and sanity, I will cut it off right here rather than continue to beat my head against the biggest writer’s block in the world.

PSA, Opus the unkillable badass Poet