I really am a scatter-brain, and the Feed

I left a ton of stuff out of yesterday’s post, specifically stuff about that lump on the back of my neck. Since I can’t recall exactly what I said and did not say (and I’m too lazy to open another tab and read it, I know that’s bad and I’m lazy) I’ll just go through the list. First of all this lump has been there for many years, at least 5 if not longer. Second there was some imaging done when I first noticed it by the Lab Rat Keeper to make sure it wasn’t something that was going to kill me (it isn’t going to kill me, it’s just really annoying now). Third the person checking me out yesterday was concerned that it has grown over the vertebrae on my neck and around the side of my neck and is concerned it may have become invasive. Fourth, it isn’t a sebaceous cyst because those are painful when poked they way I got poked during the exam yesterday, and not as firm as the lump on the back of my neck. So the thing they are really concerned about is that it might be invasive somehow and removing it might be a problem, and that it pretty much has to be removed sooner rather than later. The MRI is to determine how invasive it is and to positively identify what it is so that it can be removed without surprises when the operation gets done.

And with all that walking my feet hurt pretty bad when I got up this morning. 😛

Up first because The Onion is not the strangest source I have today. ‘What If No One Travels Anywhere Ever Again?’ Wonders Panicked Transportation Secretary Yep, nothing like a little existential angst to get the blood pumping in the morning.

Down the road from the Beautiful suburbs of Hell. I Can’t Even Why some people think we “need” a toll road through the middle of what was sold to the public as a park when the bonds were passed nearly 20 years ago now. No park, just a highway where there were pictures of people sailing little boats in tiny lakes in the brochures promoting the bond issue. Lakes that were never in the “official” bond proposal.

This note is TX-specific. Action Alert: Ask your representative to vote YES on HB 80 Since texting is a 21st Century blight upon humanity (and no I’m not just being old, I text when appropriate) it is only fair that TX should get in the 21st Century and ban it while driving.

Another TX specific paragraph on infrastructure. Texas House Takes Center Stage I like this one, because putting a designated portion of the general fund into transportation means we can demand a designated portion be put to non-motorized transportation. I suggest that $3 Billion be apportioned by fatalities for improving the safety for cyclists and pedestrians. I don’t meant that 16% of that $3 Billion should be put aside for cyclist and pedestrian infrastructure, I’m saying that 16% of the transportation budget up to that $3 Billion should be set aside for cyclists and pedestrians since this is a non-car source of funding.

And even in Houston they see the benefits of greater density in development. Houston Feels Downtown’s Lively Enough to Stop Development Tax Break The tax break had an initial cutoff of 2500 housing units that was quickly extended to 5000 when it was discovered that there was enough demand to support them, which is also about to get topped out years ahead of projected dates.

An experiment that worked out so well they wanted to make it permanent. Banning Cars Can Be Good For Business Whodathunkit? Giving more space to people instead of cars is good for business.

Our Daily Ted is really good today. (Late) Morning Links: Griffith Park road under attack, more on Sunday’s CicLAvia, and stupid Scot cop tricks

Would you like a secure lightweight lock for your crabon wunderFahrrad? LITELOK®: Lightweight, flexible and super secure bike lock. The mix of fibers in the braid that replaces cables and chains requires different cutting methods to separate, making one mode take way too long to get through and leading to thieves getting caught red-handed.

MPLS is getting serious about connected bicycle infrastructure. Minneapolis protected bike lane list for 2015 swells

What do you do when the air becomes dangerous to breathe? Ban cars for a day. Half of Paris just took a mandatory day off of driving OK ban half of cars, with the option to ban the other half the next day if needed.

Someone does not understand the concept of woonerf. 6 Places Where Cars, Bikes, and Pedestrians All Share the Road As Equals Woonerf are places where the motor vehicle is tolerated as something that has to be there but people would prefer not to be there, or basically a rowdy guest that has to be on its best behavior or get tossed out.

An e-assist bike for military use, when sometimes it is critical to be able to move faster than 20 MPH. Trefecta DRT: The $25K high-tech, military-grade electric super bike

And I’m all out of links again. I’ma have a little lie-down for my leg now.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet

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Blue is back in the garage somewhat the worse for wear, and the Feed

First the good news, Blue is sitting next to Francis/es in the garage and is in repairable condition. Now the bad news, he was not well cared for while he was away. He is missing the kitty litter bucket panniers I built, and also the taillight I added. Apparently whoever removed the panniers just ripped the brackets apart which had the side effect of also removing the taillight that was bolted to the back pannier bracket. The headlight still had the NiMH cells I had in it when Blue was stolen which means those cells haven’t been charged since 08/2013. I have them in the charger now and the charger indicates the cells are in at least halfway decent condition, so we will see what condition the light is in after the cells come up to charge. The tires are flat, so I will probably need to get new tubes. The worst things are the seat cover, shifters, and rear derailler. I’m pretty sure the rear derailler was ruined after the police got the bike because it was left without putting the wheels back on after the officer had to remove them for transporting Blue to the evidence locker. The rest of it is because I’m pretty sure Blue got left outside and uncovered most of the time after he was stolen. So, the repair list so far is two shifters and a rear derailler, seat cover, probably a new chain and rear cluster (they were on the verge when Blue was stolen), tubes and maybe tires, and a new taillight and NiMH batteries for it. I will also need to get a battery for the computer and repair the mounts for the speed and cadence sensors. Lots of work to do. Lots of parts to buy.

Up first, more on the doored cyclist in Oz. Cyclists ride in memory of Italian killed in Sydney Road dooring incident and Riders pay respect to Alberto Paulon, killed in Brunswick dooring I don’t get the reduction of the speed limit to 40 km/hr because the speed limit was already reduced to 40 kph for the time period the cyclist was killed (daylight). The speed of passing traffic had nothing to do with the wreck, what caused the wreck was allowing parked cars to place the advisory bike lane (the dashed line made the lane advisory i.e. be aware there might be bikes present) completely inside the door zone. What made the wreck fatal was the size of the vehicle which was traveling at between 20 and 25 MPH when it hit the cyclist. The cyclist barely hit the ground when he was hit by the truck, meaning the truck driver had no time to react to the cyclist falling in front of him, and unless the speed limit was reduced to 10 km/hr (6 MPH) there was no way for any driver to react to the cyclist. Remove the parking and the danger goes away. This is almost 100% an infrastructure problem caused by over-allowing for cars.

Also a semi-big story is a cyclist killed in Canuckistan. City will see its 16th ghost bike in 8 years and Family of Edmonton cyclist killed still waiting for answers

FL is starting to realize that they are killing cyclists, and their [$DEITY]-awful infrastructure has a lot to do with it, that and their really crappy driving. Florida bike crashes: 7 things that may shock you The handlebar camera and rear-facing camera video was very unnerving, particularly when you realize how much further away the wide angle lens makes close passes look.

East Canuckistan fines a driver a small amount for being at fault in a fatal bike wreck. Driver fined in death of cyclist I don’t know exactly how much the driver was fined because the article was behind a paywall. But from the first sentence I knew the driver was at fault in the wreck.

They caught another suspect in the knife murder of a teen cyclist in Jolly Olde. Fourth arrest over cyclist Alan Cartwright’s murder

And can you believe this? John Oliver Created a Summer Blockbuster to Make You Care About Our Infrastructure “If anything exciting happens, we’ve done it wrong.” This is critical to cyclists as they even mentioned in the video, where a cyclist dies because of a pothole that tossed him off the bike.

This just in, the old batteries in the headlight took a charge and the headlight works, Yay! XD

And I’m outta links again, see you on Sunday.

It’s Tuesday again yay! and the Feed

Welcome to another day that I pump artificially by taking portions of Monday’s Feed and holding them until now. That gives me a few more links to post today and lets me finish quicker on Monday. Otherwise I wouldn’t get Monday’s post finished until about 0200 Tuesday…

First up I’m trying to get hit-and-run with injury upgraded to the same crime as it would be had a drunk driver remained at the scene, because right now in TX a drunk driver can take years off his/her sentence by claiming ignorance of the wreck and turning themselves in the next day, after all the alcohol gets processed out of their body. Hit-and-run should be as great a crime as DUI manslaughter The only thing that can get hit-and-run investigated and prosecuted is to treat it like any other assault with a deadly weapon. One step at a time…

A potential source of hit-and-run drivers for Portland, OR. Travel site says ‘driving cyclists off the road’ is rite of passage in Portland – UPDATED The article has been taken down, but Google Archive and the Wayback Machine (thank you Mr. Peabody) never forget…

Who wants to live forever? How Exercise Keeps Us Young Not live “forever” but be as healthy and physically happy (I can’t say what cycling will do for emotional happiness beyond make it easier to find) as you can be until you do die.

And getting more of these may let you do more of what was recommended in the preceding paragraph. Traffic Gardens Galore “Traffic Gardens” are park-like settings with lots of paths painted up like streets and roads so that children can practice their “road sense” in an environment where mistakes would not be fatal but easily correctable. The small size and frequent intersections keep speeds low so that any collisions are more scraped knees and elbows than broken bones.

Remember that year they recalled every car because they were killing so many people? Citing Indefinite Safety Issues – Car Companies Recall Every Vehicle Ever Made If any other mode of transportation killed like motor vehicles it would be regulated into non-existence or safety. Look at trains and airplanes, when I was a pilot I had to take a flight test every 2 years if I hadn’t gotten a new rating in the meantime. When was the last time you had to take a retest at the DMV?

Speaking of cars killing people. Is “Safe” Road Design Killing Bicyclists and Pedestrians? I think it has become quite obvious that making streets that are specifically designed to move lots of cars makes every other mode dangerous.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: Aaron Paley talks CicLAvia; a visionary from the past; and a pedal-by fooding in Seattle

Given how cyclists trying to get to sidewalk bike parking are treated by the NYPD, how is this guy not dead or in a hospital with multiple gunshot wounds? Cabbie Rams Cop Cars & Drives On Midtown Sidewalk In Crazy Rush Hour Rampage Seriously, he rammed multiple cop cars and drove on the sidewalk, riding a bicycle on the sidewalk without endangering anyone gets you a ticket that looks like the interest payment on the National Debt, and so far the driver does not even have a ticket (though the TLC did suspend his hack license for 90 days).

Philly works to get drivers out of the bike lanes, how well did they do? So, How Did #UnblockBikeLanes Work Out? I think (hope?) that picture at the top is pre-campaign.

How long should I celebrate the schadenfreude on this one? Bail Set For $2.5M For Bishop Charged In Cyclist’s Death That said, there is something in the Constitution about “excessive bonds or bails” when holding someone for trial.

Hit 3 cyclists from behind and then after it comes out the lights were pulled from their bikes after the wreck to make it look like they were riding ninja file a suit about how hitting them has harmed you, now going on for 2 years. Canadian Driver Who Hit Three Bicycling Teenagers Suing Victims’ Families For Emotional Trauma How about filing suit against this driver because knowing she is still out there driving makes you traumatized, Canadian readers (I know you’re out there, I get regular hits from Canadian IP addresses)?

Another court link, this one from Oz. Driver sobs in court over death of 70yo Perth cyclist Paola Ferroni I wonder is she sobbing over the death of the cyclist, or because she may have to go to prison or jail because of it?

Another Wounded Warrior ride. Bayou-to-Brookley ‘Indy Ride’ cycling event celebrating veterans to be part of Mobile Aerofest This looks like a good ride except that it is in AL.

And I’m fresh out of links now.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the Poet (still an unkillable badass)

I like myself better doing things this way, and the Feed

That headline takes some explaining, and I’m just the guy to do that. I mean it’s my blog, I’m the only one with the password, and I’m the guy that typed in the headline. I’m literally the only one that can explain that headline…

OK comedy aside, since I quit reading the wreck reports every day I feel better about myself, a little more every day. I mean it hasn’t helped much against my PTSD, but it has helped with my depression to not read about people getting killed or injured several times a day. I still get a wreck sometimes in the infrastructure links, but this is not anywhere near as bad as it was just a few weeks ago when I quit doing the wrecks.

Our Daily Ted. Morning Links: The Times says every driver should ride a bike, and cops throw the book at a Hawthorne rider Not to be confused with our other Daily Tedd.

From the same area, some people can’t tell the difference between a sidewalk and bicycle infrastructure. San Jose enacts partial ban on sidewalk bicycle riding downtown Just FYI “sidewalks are not bicycle infrastructure” is a tag that has been in use a long time in this blog.

And a little closer to home we get another case of inadequate infrastructure. One year after cyclist’s death, safety of Houston streets remains unclear ahem Unless something is done to tame the multi-ton killing machines, Houston’s streets will remain killing fields. Or deadly streams, the simile kinda breaks down there. But the problem is entirely that of the motor vehicle, unless severely restrained, kills indiscriminately.

A NJ town mourns a principal architect of their bike plan as he is killed riding a bicycle. Death of a bicyclist in a bike-friendly town

Difficult as it may seem now, motor vehicles only exist because bicycles did first. We are the architects of our own destruction. The Secret History of Cars Begins With Bicycles I find it fascinating that Hitler hisself tried to eliminate the bicycle from the history of the motor vehicle, leading to a new way to invoke Godwin’s law with bicycle-haters: “You know who else hated bicycles? HITLER!”

A little Lifestyle from the most deadliest state in the US to walk or rode a bike. Teen killed in bicycle crash remembered as brilliant student RIP

As much as I hate to admit it this might be the best cycling accessory to become available this century. PEZ Test: Fly6 Camera Review Get one, with bike camera video becoming accepted as evidence in wreck prosecution they may be the key to getting the idiot driver that hits you off the roads. The idiot driver that hit me took himself off the roads with a drunk driving wreck.

And I finally ran out of links and reasons to avoid reading them and posting them. I’m done today.

Billed @€0.02, Opus the unkillable badass Poet

Sammy the Sharing Squirrel scripts on Wreck-Free Sunday

I was going to live-blog the final race of the Sprint Cup season from Miami, but I figured that if you are interested in that kind of thing (Sprint Cup Racing) you are watching it too, so a summary at the end, but no live-blog. So instead I’m going to script out a few PSA to animate and show on the Cartoon Network late night block that used to be called Adult Swim, then was Toonami for a while. I haven’t watched it in a long time (as you can probably tell), because they went with a lot of inane live action programs, and I don’t watch the Cartoon Network for programs that are not animated. Anywho, I’m told that PSA campaigns in this programming block that utilize humor work well at getting the message across.

Script 1.

CUTE MUSIC

SAMMY: Sammy the sharing squirrel here to remind drivers that sharing the road with bicycles means giving bicycles a full lane and moving left to pass in the next lane over. Sharing the lane is like sharing a pair of pants without letting the first guy take them off…

Animated sequence of large bear pulling out Sammy’s waistband and sticking legs inside the pants legs with Sammy.

SAMMY: (strained voice) You have to leave room for the guy that was there first.

CUTE MUSIC and FADE OUT

SCRIPT 2

SAMMY: Sammy the sharing squirrel here to remind drivers that sharing the road with bicycles means giving bicycles a full lane and moving left to pass in the next lane over. Sharing the lane is like being forced to swim with sharks and no shark cage.

Animated sequence of Sammy swimming with a smiling shark wearing a short skirt styled like a pair of board shorts. Shark is not being aggressive, just swimming way too close.

SAMMY: Just because you aren’t trying to be scary does not mean that you aren’t scaring people.

CUTE MUSIC and FADE OUT

SCRIPT 3

SAMMY: Sammy the sharing squirrel here to remind drivers that sharing the road with bicycles means giving bicycles a full lane and moving left to pass in the next lane over. Remember roads are first-come, first-served, not fast-come, fast served.

Animated sequence of Sammy driving a convertible with the speedometer pointed to “Speed Limit” with a bear driving a house-sized SUV roaring up on him and driving right over him.

SAMMY: Just because you drive faster does not give you more right to the road than someone slower.

CUTE MUSIC and FADE OUT

SCRIPT 4

SAMMY: Sammy the sharing squirrel here to remind drivers that sharing the road with bicycles means giving bicycles a full lane and moving left to pass in the next lane over. Remember there is is no such law as “The rule of gross tonnage” on the roads.

Animated sequence of Sammy driving a convertible with the speedometer pointed to “Speed Limit” with a bear driving a house-sized SUV with the grill logo “Split Level” roaring up on him and driving right over him.

SAMMY: Remember a bigger vehicle does not have a greater right to the roads, bicycles have equal right with cars, trucks, or motor homes.

CUTE MUSIC and FADE OUT

SCRIPT 5

SAMMY: Sammy the sharing squirrel here to remind drivers that sharing the road with bicycles means giving bicycles a full lane and moving left to pass in the next lane over. Remember that cars are not the only thing allowed to use the roads.

Animated sequence of bicycle leading a group of road users that stretches out to an unseeable horizon, none of which are cars or trucks.

SAMMY: (voiceover the animated sequence) Remember that there are lots of other people using the roads perfectly legally with just as great a right as a person driving a motor vehicle, including bicycles, farm vehicles, mopeds, (herds of sheep, a platoon of soldiers, a cattle drive) fade out through the line in parentheses

CUTE MUSIC and FADE OUT

There you go, Hollywood. Five 15 second PSAs to show to adults late at night and (hopefully) ooze through thick skulls. You’re welcome.