Mars - anyone seen it yet ?
Philip Dodd
All the talk of Mars being as close to Earth that it will be for the next 300
years.
Has anyone seen it yet through the clouds ? I did last night. A bright
dot. It seemed to move around a good deal, although must have been me tired
after a hectic day.
Not really weather for Mars-spotting though ! And the BBC weather forecast
for Leominster speaks of 4 as a night-time temperature for Leominster on
Saturday night ! BRRR ! No wonder that Roman they dug up recently had
socks on as well as sandles !
Philip Dodd, about as much use at astronomy as a chocolate fireguard
--
Please replace NOSPAM with . for email contact
Philip Dodd - the website - http://home.freeuk.net/phildodd
Philip Dodd
org> wrote:
>
>>Has anyone seen it yet through the clouds ?
>
>practice. It was a grate atmosphere, as it had just stopped raining.
>It did seem to move around a bit.
Good for you - glad you saw it. I'd forgotten that you do bell ringing - you
did mention it here once before.
One of my neighbours - quite a well-built man - lost the end of his finger in
an accident in the Stoke Prior belfrey whilst taking part in a Tuesday-night
practice. Not as simple as "just pulling a rope" to ring them then ?
Philip Dodd
Philip Dodd
wrote:
>Saw it about a fortnight ago, while it was still clear and before all
>the hoo-haa started.
Ledbury's always first around here !
>
>Mars takes about 22.5 of our months to get round the sun. Both planets
>will be close together every 25.5 months, as we 'lap' Mars. However,
>because neither follows a true circular orbit, 'close' can vary by many
>tens of thousands of miles every time. That's only a few hair-breadths
>in astronomical terms, and insignificant compared with the diameter of
>the Earth's orbit (about 186 *million* miles).
>
As long as neither of them is being driven by any of the Lugg Valley Primrose
bus drivers, I don't mind !
>>It seemed to move around a good deal, although must have been me tired
>>after a hectic day.
>Was this before or after your visit to the Lamb?
>
Ha ha - wishful thinking ! Not this time. My work colleague has been having
a well-earned week's holiday, so I've been extra-busy this week, and my little
legs ache afterwards.
Incidentally, I heard a news item about some of the Herefordshire lanes
being turned into "quiet lanes" for walkers and cyclists. ISTR Ledbury was
one of the venues....heard anything about that ?
Philip Dodd
Tony Williams
Philip Dodd <p...@phildoddNOSPAMfreeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> Incidentally, I heard a news item about some of the Herefordshire
> lanes being turned into "quiet lanes" for walkers and cyclists.
> ISTR Ledbury was one of the venues....heard anything about that ?
I think there was something in the Ledbury Reporter last week.
Don't recall any details (of how they would do it), and it seems
to be only at the stage of floating the idea, for discussion.
Some lanes are getting quite dangerous around here, with more
and more commuters (and delivery drivers) doing rat-runs.
--
Tony Williams.
Philip Dodd
org> wrote:
>I wonder who this was? I know some of the people who ring at Stoak
>Prior, especially some of the people who go to Leominster on a
>Thursday. They could have lost the end of their finger through a rope
>splicing injury (rope splicing is associated with sharp knives), or
>through something they were doing to one of the bells.
>
No it was when they were ringing the bells. It was 3 years ago. I'm not
entirely sure of his name. He used to be a painter & decorator. John, I
think his first name is, but I might be wrong. Wears glasses. When you
next see the Stoke Prior ringers, give them my regards. I don't see much
of any of them at present, what with shift-work.
Philip Dodd
ote:
> I think there was something in the Ledbury Reporter last week.
> Don't recall any details (of how they would do it), and it seems
> to be only at the stage of floating the idea, for discussion.
>
Coinciding with your posting, there was a bit on the local radio news about
it. Aparently it could mean the junctions of lanes selected being narrowed
as well as speed restrictions.
> Some lanes are getting quite dangerous around here, with more
> and more commuters (and delivery drivers) doing rat-runs.
>
There's a claim too in the Times, Thursday 28 August, p 4, that "Local roads
crumbling as councils divert budgets". The condition of local roads has
fallen sharply over the past year, because budgets have been raided for other
purposes such as Social Services and education. The Times quotes from a
survey of 55 out of 203 local Highway Authorities. The road maintenance
backlog is now at 8.3 billion UKP, or 150 UKP for every person in the UK.
A fifth of the councils surveyed said that they spend more than 10% of their
Highways budgets settling claims for accidents caused by potholes !
The councils say that they want a guaranteed budget over a 5-year period from
the Government for highway repairs - aparently funds from the Government
fluctuate, suspiciously increasing when elections are approaching !
At the beginning of July, someone marked all of the flaws in our main lane
into Stoke Prior with a yellow spray-can. It's now the end of August, and
nothing's been done. Seems slow going !
Philip Dodd
e:
>
>Has anyone seen it yet through the clouds ?
A good website for photographs from recent days is :
For the next few days, it'll feature pictures of Mars as taken by the Hubble
space telescope. There is an FAQ giving information about Mars too. Not a
place to spend the summer holidays - I'm sticking to Shanklin IOW...
Some fascinating Hubble photographs are available at :
http://www.seds.org/hst/hst.html
They include the furthest galaxy identified. It is 13 billion light years
away. If you bear in mind that light from the Sun takes 6 light minutes to
reach us, that puts it into context.
Philip Dodd
Tony Williams
Philip Dodd <p...@phildoddNOSPAMfreeserve.co.uk> wrote:
> Coinciding with your posting, there was a bit on the local radio
> news about it. Aparently it could mean the junctions of lanes
> selected being narrowed as well as speed restrictions.
Trouble is, country lanes always have to be wide enough for
tractors and trailers
> There's a claim too in the Times, Thursday 28 August, p 4, that
> "Local roads crumbling as councils divert budgets".
[snip]
A contributory factor to damage on side roads must also be
increase in heavy traffic on them.... lorries these days
are far too heavy for the foundations of many of our country
lanes.
> At the beginning of July, someone marked all of the flaws in our
> main lane into Stoke Prior with a yellow spray-can. It's now
> the end of August, and nothing's been done.
Perhaps you chose the wrong shade of yellow Philip?
--
Tony Williams.
Colin
[...]
>>Has anyone seen it yet through the clouds ? I did last night. A bright
>>dot.
> the hoo-haa started.
Same here - for a while in mid-August it was clearly visible over the
street lights and just above the horizon as you walked down St Owens Street
in Hereford around closing time.
Got me scratching my head enough the first time I saw it for me to fire up
xephem on my PC to find out what it was once I got home. Not an easy
program to operate, either, when you've got an entire Friday night's worth
of beer sloshing around inside you...
Regards, Colin.
--
'Mr Tulip here once got even more money than that for saying just a
few words, Charlie,' said Mr Pin soothingly. 'Yeah, I said, "Give
me all the ----ing cash or the girl gets it,"' said Mr Tulip.
Terry Pratchett, 'The Truth'.
RJ Webb
<to...@ledelec.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <slrnbl1o...@phildodd.freeserve.co.uk>,
> Philip Dodd <p...@phildoddNOSPAMfreeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> Coinciding with your posting, there was a bit on the local radio
>> news about it. Aparently it could mean the junctions of lanes
>> selected being narrowed as well as speed restrictions.
>
> Trouble is, country lanes always have to be wide enough for
> tractors and trailers
>
And all this gratuitous road narrowing and pinchpointing is eroding
the life expectancy of cyclists. Its scarey approaching a pinch point
wondering about the patience and overtaking behaviour of the vehicle
behind.
Richard Webb
Tony Williams
> And all this gratuitous road narrowing and pinchpointing is
> eroding the life expectancy of cyclists. Its scarey approaching
> a pinch point wondering about the patience and overtaking
> behaviour of the vehicle behind.
They don't have to. All the traffic calming measures in the
villages around Aylesbury provide an unbroken cycle track
down the nearside. Some of the single-lane working schemes
are very dangerous to motorists though, due to insignificant
warning signs.
--
Tony Williams.
Colin
> And all this gratuitous road narrowing and pinchpointing is eroding
> the life expectancy of cyclists. Its scarey approaching a pinch point
> wondering about the patience and overtaking behaviour of the vehicle
> behind.
mode rant=on, slavering=optional
Indeed. However, perhaps those cyclists who only come out in the summer
months, and who then seem to treet the public highway as their private
gymnasium could take a few lessons in road safety from the old gentleman
whom I over take happily, and with adequate safety, every now and again on
or near the s-bends around the turning off to Kenchester and Credenhill on
the A438.
He wears a full-body HV vest with reflective stripes. He sits straight in
the saddle (which, along with the handlebars, is correctly adjusted to his
height), rather than crouching down with his elbows and knees sticking out,
and he pedals the vehicle in an appropriate gear and at a rate which
enables him TO HOLD THE FUCKING THING IN A REASONABLE APPROXIMATION OF A
STRAIGHT LINE!
As a result, even on those nasty little bends, drivers are able to signal
and pass him without endangering either him or themselves.
Compare him to the assorted, brain dead, seasonal, lycra-clad
kiddie-fiddlers who seem to infest Hereford (and other such conurbations)
when the weather isn't too inclement:
They ride vehicles equipped with over designed (so as to speak) handlebars
over which they crouch, heads down, and attempt to hammer along at speeds
well in excess of 20mph. The end result of this is that they wobble and
veer like a drunk in a dodgem, and leave overtaking vehicles to make a
best-guess at the cyclist's likely trajectory, select third and then floor
it in the hope that the cyclist isn't about to take a random and unseeing
walk towards the centre-line.
Some of the choicest pieces of cyclist mis-behaviour the I've observed this
summer are listed below:
One cyclist immediately behind another suddenly deciding to overtake the
leading cyclist without either looking or signalling and as a car driver
was signalling and maneuvering to overtake the pair of them.
Some idiot attempting to negotiate the cattle market roundabout in Hereford
on a bike, changing lanes at random, and making no signals of any kind
(aside from at any drivers who sounded their horns at him...). Oh, and he
had his child strapped to a plastic seat behind his saddle, just to up the
stakes a little further.
Two people on the one bike, attempting to negotiate the Belmont roundabout
by dint of wobbling determinedly around it and assuming that every other
bugger would stop for them.
Add to those gems the innumberable instances of cyclists trailling along,
paying no attention to anything around them, riding with no lights after
dark and happily hopping from pavement to road to pavement at random with
scant regard for either motorists or pedestrians and then, perhaps, we're
just starting to get some perspective on the terrible life of hardship led
by cyclists.
If myself, or any other motorist, were to operate our vehicles in a manner
similar to that which the majority of cyclists consider acceptable, then
we'd end up banned, fined and probably in chokey, within a week or two.
I took a course and examination called the Cycling Proficiency Test when I
was aged eight. It was done at school. It worked and was effective: Between
the ages of ten and seventeen I cycled between forty and fifty miles each
and every week, often after dark on busy and twisty roads without serious
incident, and which I ascribe to being taught how to use a bike safely on
the public highway whilst at school. Similarly, I went on to cycle safely
around the streets of rush hour north London for a couple of years after
that.
I can only assume that teaching school children basic road safety went out
of the window some time ago, to judge by the wierd and wonderful (and often
insanely dangerous) behaviour of many cyclists at present.
There are good and competent cyclists around (like the gentleman I
mentioned above), just as there are motorists who appear to have little
fear and less sense, but proportion of downright dangerous cyclists I
encounter without doubt exceed the proportion of equally bad motorists.
Oh and on the subject of *motorists* who should be shot on sight, a big
hello to the braindead copper who nearly caused myself, a people carrier
and an old lady in a Micra to collide with each other at just after eleven
o'clock the other Sunday night on the cattle market roundabout, when he
shot through between us at high speed and with virtually no warning. A big
hint to you, Dixon old chap - blue lights are *very* difficult to see in
your mirrors at night when you've just come off of a roundabout. Try
switching your siren on or simply slowing down for long enough for other
road users to spot you and get out of your way, you utter arsehole. I've
seen better driving from the pimply boy racers who hang around down by the
swimming pool in the evenings.
mode rant=off
Regards, Colin (who feels much better for that!)
RJ Webb
<invalid...@bluehill.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>mode rant=on, slavering=optional
<rant snipped with pleasure>
Why the rant.. Bloody obvious that you have spent far less time on a
bike than I have driving a car...
20 mph is reasonable, bet you dont move your ton of metal at that
speed.. Also at speed you cannot swerve about as you describe, bikes
just dont work like that. Besides at this time of year you are often
better off carrying the bike as the hedge trimmers are out in force.
Too true about bright colours... Perhaps they might outlaw stealth
cars - the ones that materialize out of the same colour tarmac at
you.. A real pain when driving (on a bike you can hear them)
Live and let live....
We have a common problem , thoughtless road engineering. Pain in the
bit on the saddle whether I am riding or driving (yes a lot of folk do
both so there are not two tribes).
So why the effing declaration of war?
--
Richard Webb
Motorist- frequently stuck in a queue in Hereford (and grateful to
those on bikes.. they could be in a car stuck in front of me)
Colin
> On Wed, 03 Sep 2003 23:24:44 +0100, Colin
> <invalid...@bluehill.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>mode rant=on, slavering=optional
> <rant snipped with pleasure>
>
> Why the rant.. Bloody obvious that you have spent far less time on a
> bike than I have driving a car...
You apparently didn't read to the end of the post - I did forty to fifty
miles a week on a bike for around six years. With some basic respect for
other road users as I did so. So I do know what I'm on about.
> 20 mph is reasonable, bet you dont move your ton of metal at that
> speed.. Also at speed you cannot swerve about as you describe, bikes
> just dont work like that.
Yes they damn well do, hence my comment about twits using the road as a
gymnasium - you get someone on their bike, arse off of the saddle in a high
gear and attempting to race the cars and 'get fit'. The bike flips left and
right on each stroke of the peddals, and it is additionally damn difficult
for the rider to hold a longer straight line, because his or her view is
focussed on the tarmac a yard or two ahead of them.
And no, I drive my three-quarters of a tonne of metal at speeds varying
from walking pace up to 70mph. I've patiently followed cyclists at 15mph
for anything up to half a mile on a number of occasions, waiting for a safe
place to pass them (and studiously ignoring the cars behind attempting to
'push me along'), only to have the bastard blindly swerve into the center
of the road as I finally move up to pass.
I also attempt to make my speed appropriate to the prevailing conditions -
cyclists who attempt to force their bikes to a speed at which they cannot
safely control them are not doing so and are as much a hazard as someone
who attempts to drive a car at 50mph in a 30mph zone, for example.
> Besides at this time of year you are often
> better off carrying the bike as the hedge trimmers are out in force.
No argument from me on that one. I replaced a lot of bike tyres because of
that, and several car ones, too.
> Too true about bright colours... Perhaps they might outlaw stealth
> cars - the ones that materialize out of the same colour tarmac at
> you.. A real pain when driving (on a bike you can hear them)
Can't say I've ever met one of them (with the possible exception of a black
Beamer that passed me at 90-100 on the A505 recently - very scary as he did
it on a bend, too), or is this a James Bond reference of some sort?
> Live and let live....
Fine, but I'm not nearly so altruistic as to steer underneath a stone truck
simply to protect a cyclist who has just zipped out of a side turning
without looking.
> We have a common problem , thoughtless road engineering. Pain in the
> bit on the saddle whether I am riding or driving (yes a lot of folk do
> both so there are not two tribes).
A little basic road *maintenance* would ease the situation somewhat in a
lot of cases, as would more dedicated cycle lanes etc. However that dosen't
excuse the large number of cyclists who drive in a dangerous manner.
> So why the effing declaration of war?
Because I hear a hell of a lot of griping from cyclists about how dangerous
the roads are for them, and then, on a daily basis, see very many of their
compatriots driving in a fashion that would cause motor vehicle drivers to
have the coppers down on them like the proverbial tonne of building
materials.
Anyway, it was a rant, not a declaration of war: a declaration of war would
be when I fitted Death Race 2000 style accoutrements to my car and went out
looking for cyclists to score.
Regards, Colin.
RJ Webb
>Fine, but I'm not nearly so altruistic as to steer underneath a stone truck
>simply to protect a cyclist who has just zipped out of a side turning
>without looking.
Now this illustrates why I have such a problem with bike bashers...
A vehicle leaves a side turning without looking... Fair enough, that
is wrong. It happens too bloody often. Where I get upset is with the
assumption that this behaviour is: 1) restricted to cyclists, and 2)
inevitable if you are a cyclist.
How such a gentle and inoffensive form of transport causes such
upsetis a mystery, says more about the character of the folk that get
upset probably. Or do those of us that know how to do it properly not
get noticed?
>
>> We have a common problem , thoughtless road engineering. Pain in the
>> bit on the saddle whether I am riding or driving (yes a lot of folk do
>> both so there are not two tribes).
>
>A little basic road *maintenance* would ease the situation somewhat in a
>lot of cases, as would more dedicated cycle lanes etc. However that dosen't
>excuse the large number of cyclists who drive in a dangerous manner.
>
>> So why the effing declaration of war?
>
>Because I hear a hell of a lot of griping from cyclists about how dangerous
>the roads are for them, and then, on a daily basis, see very many of their
>compatriots driving in a fashion that would cause motor vehicle drivers to
>have the coppers down on them like the proverbial tonne of building
>materials.
If only..... And I speak as a motorist that has just run a summer
evening gauntlet of Wayne Kerr and his Nova driving baseball cap
friends....
I have stopped riding to work because I have been engineered off the
road in the name of speed reduction. That means one more car clogging
the place up. The engineering itself is not evil, but it makes me so
much more vulnerable to folk who cannot use the road correctly
themselves.... The roads were not broken, now that they are mended,
you are at the mercy of the road handling skills of baseball caps at
pinch points.
The problem is with dangerous and inconsiderate road users, I fail to
see the relevance of the nature of vehicle these idiots are using. And
I am sick of the doctrine that all cyclists are an evil menace,
because of a small number of unlit bastards riding on the pavement.
They are wrong, not our mode of transport.
Better to direct our anger at a common enemy
Richard Webb