Posts by Alan Fisher

Sheesh

@AC if someone breaks the law, they pay the price; end of story

@all the angry drivers....what is wrong with you all? All this vitriolic hate of everyone on two wheels is quite sad really. You, as is usual of tabloid readers (I'm sure you're not all tabloid readers, but you're behaving like they do) you take one or two isolated incidents and apply the same layer of bitumenous coating to all with the same applicator! Dear me. I don't hate all drivers and some have been terribly polite and considerate, i return the favour. I've been hit and run once or twice and once the driver got out, took me and bike to hospital and gave me their insurance details without quibble, admitting it was their fault. I'd hate to have one of you lot hit me, I'd be off to the great bike shed in the sky just for being on the same road by the sound of it!

Surely in today's climate of energy worries, someone using truly green transport responsibly should be given some measure of respect?

Also I'd like data please, to back up your claims. How many, exactly and empirically data supported, of how many accidents on British roads have been CAUSED by (not involving but caused by) cyclists and how many deaths they have caused? No rush, whenever you're ready.

AC, yes my cause is simple. We have licences (free due to zero emission status of bikes, or maybe a small annual fee) and are subject to the Highway code and law and punishment. I propose the points system exactly as drivers have. Jumping lights, speeding (it is possible, believe it or not to crest 30 or 40 mph on the flat if you're fit enough and on a good bike - mine probably cost more than most of your cars to buy if you bought 2nd hand)...I'm all for fair play in other words. But that means the road is as much for us tax-paying cyclists as you drivers.

As far as the vitriol, get over it, you're just annoyed that you get stuck in queues and we don't...no big, you can still go faster than us and crash into lamp posts and stuff.

I've never hit a pedestrian

I've never cut anyone up

I've never ran a red light and slow on amber always

I never ride on the pavement except in special areas where this is permitted

I never drive too close to cars and, if it's tight, I let them on by and stop myself

I always use high viz and lights when needed

I don't pollute or drive recklessly or drunk

I don't blare annoying music out at people (my generic fruit related pmp device is plenty)

I'm very fit and healthy and am never late anywhere

Ergo, myself and my acquantences are MORE considerate and polite than the majority of drivers..

So get over it and realise the driver is not god nor in anyway superior to cyclists. We should all get along and stop being such utter fools. I'll bet after my reasonable discourse here, my good points will be ignored and you'll continue to drone on about how evil we all are.....

Don't have a go at cyclists please

I'm a serious cyclist and, while I won't defend the type of cyclist I cannot stand; those who ride on the pavement and ignore traffic signs, i have been hit and badly injured by motorists TWICE whilst following the rules of the road and wearing Hi-Viz clothing!! Drivers treat all cyclists with contempt and I have had to use some pretty flash moves to avoid being injured more often......many drivers disregard other road users and this law cannot come soon enough for me.

For anyone who may challenge me so, I would also welcome Cycling Licenses on a compulsory basis and it'd stop us real cyclists getting such a bad reputation

back to topic, yes a car is a dangerous weapon and if it's misused, then the user should be appropriately punished....

using your mobile in the car has been illegal for ages now so there's no excuse

Train some chimps to do it....

I used to work for the company who runs this and it amazes me that there aren't more mistakes.....Capita paid peanuts and employed anyone who could string a sentence together 10 years ago and I don't think they've changed......why farming something as important as this out to any company who wants to make money is beyond me.....

I didn't have to go through any CRB checks back then but I did to join Samaritans as a volunteer....shouldn't THEY also be checked?

To perfiddy with what the Government says

we've still got a responsibility ourselves......we can't decry what the government says and then do nothing until they come up with a decent idea.....if they can't give us answers we must find more.....

look at the fuel 'crisis' ...governments of the US and UK do jack squat about it and insist grubbing up the Antarctic and Amazon rainforests is the plan....but car companies are developing non fossil fuel vehicles and quiet, studious science types are also developing alternatives. We have to do it ourselves and force the old law of supply and demand through......the governments will listen if the people act en-masse.....if demand for fossil fuels dries up, they'll change their tune sharpish. There are too many vested interests in oil and gas for it to be put aside like that, but if people stop using it.....

penguin coz they don't like oil platforms

Intreresting points

It's just a shame the usual Gordon Brown Marmite Effect (GBME) has dominated the comments again.....I'm personally nuetral to Gordon though hate that "yeast extract"y stuff ...urrrgh! Maybe we should live on fungus like that though, nutricious, easy and cost effective to grow.....unpalitable to many, thus possibly halving obesity problems....it has vitamins too, anything which tastes that bad must, surely? There, problem solved, "let them eat generic gungy-fungi spreadables!" says Gordon! he should give me a job i think ;)

But to be serious, the amount of food the average Brit wastes is frightening, just go to a restaurant and see half full plates left because eyes tend to oft be bigger than bellies or people want to be seen to be able to afford large amounts etc.....me and the lady wife waste very very little as we do a lot of home cooking (I work a 40 hour+ week and cycle 20+ miles a day too so no excuses) and use up any left over veggies and meat we have around....buy what you need and not feed the greed, it's easy really.....

the waste issue is a serious one and one for which we are all responsible, can't blame the incumbrant government for that one chaps...

Bloody Icahn

why does this man just HAVE to be a pain and try and ruin the life of those of us who use YAHOO and line his already ample pockets just for the sake of it??

I'll boycott anything MS and Yahoo related if this goes ahead and encourage anyone else to do so too...

@Mark

yes mark and 200 years ago reality was that some old chap in a bedsheet with a flowing beard made everything, almost everyone accepted that - now many beg to differ.

Disease was caused by bad air or 'animalicules' (soon to be called bacteria) were dismissed and fantasist nonsense...

Facts, old boy, are more flexible than the ruler one loves to twang off the edge of one's desk, no? Chew on this;

"a fact is simply a commonly reached consensus of an idea which, at present, remains neither fully proven or full disproved."

in other words, "a million people believing in a stupid thing does not stop it being a stupid thing"

and finally to quote the inestimable Mr Pratchett "my bum has been a bum for a very long time but i still don't listen to what it ways"

*sigh* @Mark

mate, no-one is saying your partner is ugly or that your dress sense stinks....simply that an open mind is required......any form of learning and knowledge acquisition requires an open mind does it not? One simply must doubt in order to learn and question EVERYTHING....that's how one learns....no-one dared question Einstein but Hawking did....no-one dared question the Church but Galilleo and Copernicus did......to state there is NO possibility when there is only theory and inferance to support such a statement is facile in the extreme

sheesh the anger...

why can neither side accept they can BOTH be wrong and maybe BOTH right at the same time?

As far as I'm aware this LHC is something quite new, doing things which are quite new; hence the entire point of CERN building the bloody thing. Ok?

therefore is there not an itsy-bitsy possibility that it could do something, shall we say unpredictable, yea even NEW? This new thing could be beneficial to humanity or it could be detrimental; catestrophically in all likelyhood.

SO....those of you who crow on about your abilities or lack thereof in maths and/or science are missing the point. Could Pythagoras have predicted the advent of computers? Copernicas the idea of black holes?

Just because the numbers add up does not make it true, else science would not require experimentation, coz we'd know everything already!

So why all the arguments I don't know.....you sound like a load of religious people arguing about whose god is best when you're using second hand and often inaccurate information to back up your surmises.

Fact; science is flawed and changeable

Fact: maths is not perfect and merely a tool

Fact; my facts aren't facts when one looks at it but I felt in an ironic mood.

I'll also add a science and religion angle as there are similarities. Both are methods used to try and explain that which we do not understand and therefore fear. We hate not knowing so we use our brains to foment an airtight explaination to make ourselves feel better. Then, because it's our security blanket, we get angry when it's challenged because, if we're wrong then everything falls apart. Any belief system is bad for you, try to see what is and not what you expect to see.

Now put your toys away children and wash your hands!

@ Eric Worral

I also love the way we assume that because our society and species evolved one way and did things in a certain fashion that every other species in the universe did....how do we know radio is the best way?? Just coz we don't know about it don't mean it don't exist.....

I think it's human arrogance in the extreme to think that just because these green fellas don't use Morse Code or radios that they is fick and so forth.....maybe they can't find us either because no species in the universe would use a communication method capable of frying their brains......

The Big One

Someone is after the Big One....science tells us we cannot break the Light Barrier so they're after the next one, controlled black holes and bending of space/time in order to see if we can break the Reality Barrier......scientists have been on about this for ages since those proton experients which hinted towards dimensional shift and possible other dimensions...

But I says...what's in them other dimensions/realities is best left where it is, thank you very much Mr Swiss Scientist!

hmmmm

I love these people; well we're experts on something nobody has ever seen before because of what some folks what are clever with maths said! It's like someone in the Amazon rainforest whose never had contact with civilisation arguing with me whether Mars or Snickers is better because they read it somewhere (errm in a leaflet which fell from somewhere in their language, just by chance, of course...ok ok my theory is full of holes too!).....when will people just stand up to these boffins and say "come on come on; you're just guessing, admit it!" ???

Let the people choose

I've stayed off posting and just sat and read the debate and found I agree with Taskis...I'm an agnostic but, as long as no religous person attempts to shove their beliefs down my throat (I have an issue with those on the street who constantly tell me I'm going to Hell and so forth, then try to make me believe I am wrong in my own belief)..I have my own personal belief and do not deny the existance of some Intelligence higher than our own who may or may not have had a hand in creating lots of things; I cannot accept pure randomicity of creation, too many things are too perfectly conceived. Therefore everyone else is entitled to their own beliefs, whether they square with mine or not. It is arrogance in the extreme to be of the mindset that you are unquestionably right on such weighty topics as the purpose and meaning of life, the Infinate and the universe.

I do not despise religion per se, I do dispise arrogance though