10:40 - Same old same old
Current mood: caffeinated
Category: caffeinated Religion and Philosophy

Things are pretty stable so far today, I'm going to post this blog and then go mow the lawn. Tonight we have drum jam at church, just like we do every 2^nd and 4^th Friday. Tomorrow I ride my bike to Pagan Pride Day where I'm working as security. (Yeah I know, I'm old and crippled, but we really don't expect any problems with security there. I'm just supposed to be the Scary Biker.)

A rider on the Six Gap ride gets a flat tire and wipes out. SixGap rider's injuries are fatal This is one of those wrecks you can only avoid by not being there, when you flat the front tire you are going to go down and usually without much choice as to where you are going to land. This rider was on a paid ride which means that she was probably wearing a helmet, and she still died from a severe brain injury. This is just the "stuff" that can happen when you ride a bike, and there's not much you can do to prevent it. At least someone is going to get some healthy organs out of this if the organs are donated. We cyclists have very good organs to donate, usually.

An unlicensed driver runs from LEO and kills one and injures 9 more, and the one killed is one of us. Police: Driver kills cyclist, hits crowd What is it about FL? I'm glad I didn't live there too long back in the 60s or I would be incapable of rational thought by now... (J/K Floridians) Police chases are another one of those situations where you as a cyclist have no control over what happens, your best bet is to stay alert and if you detect a police chase in your area get off the road until you know the chase is not going to affect you.

An Irish cyclist is hit by a car, details in a year or 2. Cyclist killed after collision with car This is the frustrating thing about using wrecks from the UK and Ireland, you know something went down and people got hurt, but they wait as long as 2 years to release the details of the wreck, and by then it's so old that unless it was a spectacular crash it doesn't make the news, and I have no way to use the wreck as a teaching tool for avoiding a similar situation.

I can use this wreck in Oz as a teaching tool. No one stopped to help injured cyclist If you get in a wreck bad enough to lose consciousness or be unable to hop up and immediately get back on your bike, get thee to an ER as soon as possible. If your cell phone is working (assuming you have one, I don't) then call 911 (or your local equivalent) and request an ambulance. This guy didn't and it almost cost him his life.

More later, maybe after I mow the lawn or get back from the Drum Jam.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Currently listening : Neruda By Red Rider Release date: 1993-01-16

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13:04 - Death, destruction, and mayhem, I need another cup of coffee...Pt. MKLXI
Current mood: quixotic
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Horrible of horribles I'm out of coffee, and people were being extra stupid this morning. I should rephrase that, people were not stupid, but they sure were acting stupidly. There was much discussion about the "new American capitalism" on the talk radio today, as if the country was not a fascist state where gains are privatized but risks are socialized. I already posted about the CEO with the lottery-winner takehome pay, and while I only know of the one for sure I'm sure that his compensation was not that far out of line with the rest of "the Street". Another example was my doctor the Lab Rat Keeper needed me to come in for followup from earlier work, because they had to check the physical response of dropping from a relatively high dose of the study medication to zilch, to see if side and beneficial effects dropped at the same rate. But I had not budgeted for making 2 bus trips there in one week, so I did not have the $3 I needed to buy a day pass to get there. The office's answer was to send a cab to pick me up and bring me back, at a cost of $45 plus tip. A monthly bus pass is $40, for the price to send a cab out I could ride DART for a month for the same money and save them $5. I have some non-bicycle related stuff at the end of the blog post that might be of interest to people but i won't put it in the bikejournal.com wrecks thread, so all you BJ people are going to have to come to my blog to read it.

First off the block is a SWSS wreck that is so obviously a right hook I'm shocked the driver hasn't been arrested for providing false information on a police report. Bicycle, minivan collide in Colebrookdale Township; rider 'critical' with head injuries I mean, really, a vehicle passes a bicycle and then the bike swerves into the passenger side of the vehicle at an intersection? Give me a break, other than the multiple broken bones in my leg I got in my wreck...

Another wreck that I can't say for sure what happened except that it looks very suspicious. Bicyclist killed; police seek information Multiple blunt trauma injuries, and a broken bike. Dang I hope he died before finding out his bike was destroyed, that would have been awful...And yes, I'm trying to inject a little levity in a grim situation, a dead cyclist is a terrible thing.

A kid crossing a highway is killed in Canadia. Child cyclist killed trying to cross highway near Drummondville The only comment at the time I posted this to my blog blamed the cyclist for being there. Way to go Canada!

And a cyclist was hit in Ireland. Cyclist killed in road accident Wow the amount of information from UK and Irish papers is just overwhelming isn't it. I mean I have so much information I can hardly tell who was at fault in this wreck.

The new Chevy Volt will get a substantial tax break when it becomes available, thanks to the bailout bill. Chevy Volt to get you a $7,500 tax break It seems the tax break was aimed straight at the Volt, because no other vehicle made even comes close to meeting the requirements of the break.

And H2 fueled vehicles get a little closer to practical as a efficient method of storing the gas without losses becomes available. Carbon nanotubes might make hydrogen vehicles practical ... someday Yes nanotubes might be used to trap the pesky H2 molecules in a matrix where they could be used at leisure, rather than escaping through steel high pressure tanks. That would mean my fuel cell powered e-assist bike could be made with a smaller and lighter fuel tank, and I still wouldn't pollute the air when it was running. I wonder how a H2 filled nanotube container would behave in a fire?

Now go ride your bikes, however they may be powered; legs, batteries, solar cells or hydrogen fuel cells.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Currently listening : One Step Ahead of the Spider By MC 900 Ft. Jesus Release date: 1998-09-08

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16:23 - Late Feed, Pt. QRSTUV and nothing about the bailout
Current mood: aggravated
Category: Religion and Philosophy

OK I was going to post something to the RANS Yahoo group, but when I opened up the window to post to the group I had another Feed report.

Two reports on a story in DE. SUSSEX: Bicyclist killed in crash near Laurel and Bicyclist killed in crash near Laurel Since the only witnesses were in the SUV I'm skeptical of these reports, but from the pictures at the scene I couldn't either confirm or deny the truth of the statements. Condolences to the children injured by flying glass in the SUV.

And from Jolly Olde comes another Ghost Bike report. Ghost bike a reminder of cycle victim This is the first bike/car wreck I have ever heard of where there was a fatality in the car, that in and of itself makes this memorable.

Billed @$.02, Opus

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12:32 - More CARnage, death in the streets Pt. CQVXXMCL
Current mood: betrayed
Category: Religion and Philosophy

I should have put yesterday's edit in a separate post, more people would have seen it that way. For those of you that didn't catch it, Wall Street CEOs are compensated at a rate that would stagger a Lotto winner, with salaries (direct cash compensation) that are many times the total annuitized payout of most lottery drawings every year. The Lehman Brothers CEO that testified in Congress Monday was paid more in 8 years that the largest lottery jackpot in history paid out over 26 years for running his firm into the toilet. The winner of the world's largest lottery jackpot took his winnings in cash, for a lump sum of almost $300M, but if he had decided he wanted the whole jackpot instead of just part of it, he would have gotten $18.25M per year. The CEO of Lehman Brothers got $62.5M per year cash compensation. Why he still walks the streets alive is a question I can't answer. I guess $62.5M buys a lot of security, Blackwater kind of security. When I worked for a company that went under, about 20 years ago, my last 2 paychecks bounced and I was basically out both the time and the money, as well as the fees for the checks that I wrote on those funds that also bounced. From what I understand the company accountant went to Jamaica with the payroll account, and set himself up quite nicely in retirement...

On the bicycle scene away from high finance and other skullduggery, people were getting killed and injured, all over the world. What I can't believe is the number of people commenting on the articles saying the cyclist deserved what he (or she) got for being there even when it's quite obvious the driver of the motor vehicle was at fault.

More info on that wreck in OH from yesterday, with a name of the victim. Bicyclist killed in crash in Lorain County Another article with comments that blamed the victim for being there to be hit, this one had a twist, blaming the victim for being an ex-con.

And another OH cyclist is injured outside Columbus. Cyclist Critically Injured In Crash Not much information yet on this one besides the fact that a cyclist was hit. The only thing police are releasing was that a white pickup truck was involved. It may have been a hit-and-run.

A hit-and-run seriously injured a TN cyclist. Bike rider struck on Willow Police are still uncertain about the name of the victim, either because his ID was lost at the scene or because he wasn't carrying ID. I now wear a pair of dogtags I had made at the local ArmyNavy store for $7 plus tax, but if you're feeling a bit more flush you can get a discount on RoadID from the bikejournal.com store and never have to worry about LEO not being able to contact your loved ones in case of an accident. (You're welcome, slantz)

A BMX rider is injured making a video. Murray BMX cyclist seriously injured If you're going to do stunts be aware that you are risking injury every time you perform a stunt. I can admire the athleticism that goes into stunt riding (excuse me "freestyle riding") but if everything doesn't come out within the margin for tolerance, well you get injured or dead. I consider riding in Dallas traffic an extreme sport, but that has more to do with the people I have to share the roads with than the actual activity. BTW if that link doesn't work it's because I hand coded it instead of using the linkifyer at MySpace.

Another article from the Great White North on the MTB cyclist that broke his neck trying to ride a slippery wood ramp. Cyclist seriously hurt. Rescuers carry victim through rugged terrain to air ambulance

And from Jolly Olde there's another roundabout wreck with a bike. Teenage Cyclist Injured In Crash From other cycling sites from the UK I understand that roundabouts are the third most likely scenario for serious or fatal injury in the UK, beaten only by left hooks and right crosses (they drive on the wrong side of the street there).

And that's pretty much it. I'm sure I'll get more later, or financially inspired rantings if nothing else.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Currently listening : Minimum-Maximum By Kraftwerk Release date: 2005-06-07

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15:21 - Bad Feed Day
Current mood: alive
Category: alive Religion and Philosophy

I had to go visit the Lab Rat Keeper again this morning, and go through a whole mess of tests to see how the research medication is working for me, including a pregnancy test. For some reason the nurses think giving a pregnancy test to a man is sooooo funny, but as a scientist and engineer I would speculate the pregnancy test is to make sure the meds aren't messing with my reproductive hormones. Any way, I wasn't pregnant ;)

Up first is what the Wall Street bailout means to you as a cyclist. (Yes there was something in it for cyclists) Bike Commuter Act Rides the Bailout Bill Hundreds of billion$ for Wall St and their greed, $240 a year for cyclists, if you can talk your employer into participating. Yeah that's fair.

EDIT: Well it just gets better and better, I was reading the paper (news paper, remember those?) and they gave the cash compensation of the CEO of Lehman Brothers, that huge Wall Street firm that went belly up a little while ago and started this whole flood of sewage rolling downhill. Yeah, well the way they put it was $500, 000, 000 over the last eight years. That is $62,500,000 a year average, or 4 times the 25 year payout on tomorrow's TX Lotto jackpot drawing, every year for eight years, or more than the 26 year annuitized payout of the largest lottery jackpot in history, IN JUST EIGHT YEARS and his company went down the tubes. Imagine what the guys whose companies aren't tanking are getting, or will be demanding from their boards of directors now...

A brew theater is named as a memorial to a cyclist that apparently liked a beer or 2 when not driving or riding. Eugene's first brew theater named in honor of cyclist killed by car Fortunately I don't think the driver of the car was drunk, otherwise we would have had an irony meltdown in OR.

A cyclist was run over from behind by an SUV in CT. Local bicyclist killed in accident with SUV OK so the driver stopped as soon as he knew he hit the cyclist, that's one point to him, but the amount of devastation at the scene with bicycle parts (and presumably bits of the rider's PPE) scattered for a considerable length of the road speak to an extremely high rate of knots at impact (my bike was hit between 45 and 65 MPH and I got back everything but the rear fender) which is several million points against the driver. Ditto the telephone pole the driver hit before stopping.

A cyclist is hit and killed in OH. OSP: Bicyclist killed in Lorain County The cyclist was blamed for wearing dark clothing...

In a very familiar report, a man riding a bicycle was hit in a crosswalk. Bicyclist Ian Wolfe Hit And Killed By A Car In West Potomac Park Given that a criminal investigation is ongoing in this case it seems likely that LEO don't believe the cyclist was crossing against the red in the crosswalk either.

The name of the 11YO that was killed by a monster pickup truck was released. 11-year-old bicyclist killed in collision identified A kid on a BMX bike against a F350 pickup truck is no matchup at all.

Somebody doing a dumb stunt in Canadia on a MTB is injured and possibly paralyzed. Cyclist badly injured Yeah riding narrow ramps with stuff on your tires is lots of fun when you make it, but when you don't...

In Canuckistan more about the kid that was hit crossing a bridge on his bike. Cyclist killed on bridge At least now we have independent verification that the kid went down by himself first and was injured in the first rider-on-road impact, then was run over with the car by the driver. Still no word on if weather played a factor in the initial crash. Criminal charges are still being investigated against the driver for leaving the scene.

In Jolly Olde a kid is hit by a school bus, and everybody is sad. Tributes for schoolgirl cyclist It's from the Beeb, it must be true.

Another UK collision, between a cyclist and a motor vehicle in almost the exact same spot as several previous encounters. Teen cyclist injured on notorious road Several critical injury or fatal wrecks in the span of 3 years indicates either an engineering problem with the infrastructure, or an enforcement problem at that site.

And that's all I got today, but remember what the little girl said about future developments.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Currently listening : Minimum-Maximum By Kraftwerk Release date: 2005-06-07

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17:38 - Updated Feed
Current mood: tired
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Yes, we got more Feed after the morning rant was posted. Here it is.

Another cyclist is killed in Middle Canuckistan. Teen cyclist killed in crash on Dawson Bridge There are more questions than answers in this report.

From Jolly Olde are 2 reports on a cyclist getting hit by a bus (coach). Cyclist killed in crash and UPDATE: Road reopened after cyclist killedBesides the fact that the cyclist was hit by a bus it's a typical UK wreck report.

And another report on the man who was killed on a charity ride in the UK. Barford cyclist dies while fundraising Horrible story.

I hope there won't be any more reports to link today.

Billed @$.02, Opus

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10:05 - Rainy days and Mondays, we got both
Current mood: caffeinated
Category: caffeinated Religion and Philosophy

Karen Carpenter would be totally bummed to be living here today. And for those of you who are too young to remember Karen Carpenter, she was the singer in a duet act with her brother, and one of their hits was a song called "Rainy Days And Mondays" which had the line in the chorus "Rainy days and Mondays always get me down." And today is Monday and it's raining here in the Metromess, mostly a cold drizzle, but sometimes a downpour. Oh the Feed was very poor again today, mostly noise and no stories from the US at all.

In fact all of our reports came from the Great White North today. Umm "both" not "all" of our reports are from the GWN. First up is Canuckistan with a wreck caused in great part and blamed on poor, aging infrastructure. 'Fix that bridge,' says injured cyclist Yeah she got a broken skull, and yeah she was wearing a helmet, and no there were no other vehicles involved in the wreck. Wear your helmet anyway, it's all you got to protect yourself in case of a crash. I think what they are trying to say is the surface in the bike lane has pretty much zero traction in the wet and needs to be redone to make it safe in the rainy Pacific NW.

Next up is a MTB crash in Canadia. I understand the attraction of off road bicycling, I just think riding in an area of known poor traction is just asking for a wreck like this. Cyclist seriously injured, airlifted by rescuers Yeah playing where you can get your neck broken is a real good idea. But if that's your thing, enjoy!

And that's all I got this time.

Billed @$.02, Opus

Currently listening : Minimum-Maximum By Kraftwerk Release date: 2005-06-07

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15:59 - Very poor signal to noise ratio today
Current mood: bummed
Category: Religion and Philosophy

The Feed was huge, but the signal to noise ratio was very poor. Way too many motorcycle wrecks in the Feed today, all you motorcycle riders SLOW DOWN and stay on the pavement, almost all the motorcycle wrecks today were single vehicle where the vehicle or the rider ran into a stationary object off the roads at a high rate of speed.

The closest thing we had to a Big Story was the report on the ride to honor 4 cyclists killed in September in the Twin Cities. Cyclists rode in honor and remembrance you might want to take something for acid stomach before you read the comments in that one, and Saturday Tribute To Fallen Bicycle Riders for the lawyer's view of the situation.

A wreck in Las Vegas NV has only one witness the driver of the huge truck that hit the 11 YO cyclist. 11-year-old bicyclist killed when hit by pickup truck I don't trust reports where they don't list other witnesses besides the driver and occupants of the killer vehicle.

A little sidebar article of advice for the cyclist included in a bunch of space fillers. Get wheel: Tips for autumn bike riding Don't take the advice too seriously.

And that's what was decent to give you today.

Billed @$.02, Opus

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15:55 - Not another Feed, Noooo
Current mood: bitchy
Category: Religion and Philosophy

I went for a nice ride around the neighborhood checking out the yard sales etc. and when I got back there was another Feed lurking in my inbox. It was horrible, and now you get to read all about it.

The Big Story is everybody else jumping on the band wagon on a report I posted about this morning on a guy killed while on a charity ride in the UK. Charity cyclist killed in crash and Charity cyclist killed in road accident and you are Real News when the Beeb posts your story to their web site Cyclist killed on charity journey Not much I can add, the guy seems to be a decent guy that was trying to give back to his community and really loved cycling.

A cyclist in SoCal is hit from behind in the bike lane, a different cyclist this time than the report I linked yesterday. Bicyclist killed in collision identified as Antelope man and Bicyclist killed in Roseville is identified This makes 2 cyclists hit from behind in a bike lane within one week and 40 miles, what is it with SoCal drivers?

And finally the life of a cyclist in Canuckistan is worth $CAN2300. Driver who killed cyclist fined $2,000 I know the headline said $2000, but in the body of the story there was an additional $300, and a 3 month suspension on her drivers' license. Obviously the life of a cyclist isn't worth much in the Great White North, less than 500 lbs of back bacon.

And as the little girl said, watch this space for further developments.

Billed @$.02, Opus

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10:11 - Time to give you the Feed then go for a ride
Current mood: awake
Category: Religion and Philosophy

Well the Feed was of manageable proportions this morning, and it is perfect weather for a ride. So I'm going to get through this as quickly and painlessly as possible and get out on the roads.

An update on that Corpus Christi bike wreck that killed a Naval Aviator out for a ride. Naval aviator killed on bike ride a jokester who loved life I still say the pickup truck driver is getting away with murder, OK well not actual murder as in pre-meditated by the legal definition, but still getting away with killing a man. His actions were mitigated by immediately stopping and calling 911, but still he killed a man and isn't even getting a traffic ticket to raise his insurance.

Another article on the number iof cyclists being hit recently in the Twin Cities area of MN. On a plume from the past, risk, sermons and more ... They actually mention the cyclist deaths and injuries due to car wrecks in the second part of the article. A tour by an antique steam locomotive was more important...

And another article on the ride to memorialize the 4 cyclists killed in Twin Cities last month. Bike ride will memorialize four who died It's terrible that it took 4 people dieing in just over a 3 week span to wake people up to the fact that there are more bikes on the roads now, due to economic and environmental factors, but people are more aware in the Twin Cities that there are bikes on the streets and roads and they are not going away.

From Jolly Olde, a cyclist on a charity ride is killed. Police name cyclist who died in A38 road traffic collision For my American readers the date on the article is for yesterday expressed in the European format of DD/MM/YY. Now as to what actually happened, they don't know yet, the forensic analysis of the wreck scene has not yet been completed.

And finally from the Emerald Isle, an older gentleman out for a bike ride is killed. Elderly cyclist and teenage driver killed in separate road crashes

That's the Feed, after winnowing out the motorcycle crashes, gangbang killings, and assorted dreck, and you're welcome.

Billed @$.02, Opus

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