Interesting Links for 18-12-2023

[andrewducker]

1. Masha Gessen, a Jewish author is having their Hannah Arendt award (named after a Jewish historian and genocide scholar) canceled for writing an essay on Gaza and how it is genocide.

(tags:Jews genocide Israel Palestine )

2. Grendel and the Grinch

(tags:Christmas myths )

3. Covid in England update: expect a bumpy Christmas and New Year

(tags:Pandemic UK doom )

4. Good and bad cycle lanes

(tags:bicycles cycling transport design )

5. Warhammer edges closer to TV

(tags:Warhammer TV )

Comments

[dewline]

1. Gessen definitely has a righteous Problem with far-right politicians of anywhere. Putin, Trump, Netanyahu...and now I have extra context.

3. (sarcasm) Wonderful. (/sarcasm)

[calimac]

1) Gessen's article doesn't use the word 'genocide' to describe the Israeli government's actions. Which is good, because that would be an inaccurate and inflammatory word. The situation is bad enough without overselling it.

[adrian_turtle]

Correct. The government objections to Gessen winning the prize is because of her statements about Gaza becoming a "ghetto" like those in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. It was Lit Hub that used the term "genocide," and I've seen quite a lot of discourse about how far attempted-genocide needs to go before the word can be used. (Not just in the current context. It turned up in discussions about Rwanda, Bosnia, Uigyars...situations that are bad enough it's hard for me to really imagine.)

Cycle lanes

[anna_wing]

As someone who knows Cambridge, and has been nearly run over by cyclists on more than one occasion (not only in Cambridge) I am quite interested to know if there is a traffic-planning reason for this difference in approaches.

What is the actual goal of the cycle lanes? Are they trying to expedite the passage of the cyclists on one road and slow them down on another?

Re: Cycle lanes

[calimac]

Stanford, I may ruefully report, is another university overrun with cyclists who are the terror of pedestrians.

Re: Cycle lanes

[andrewducker]

Edinburgh has those as well. We really need cyclists held to the rules.

Re: Cycle lanes

[anef]

We do, but also we need road design that encourages them to do that rather than militates against it! (I am a cyclist and a pedestrian and a motorist in the aforementioned Cambridge. Sigh!)

Re: Cycle lanes

[channelpenguin]

Absolutely agree.

My pet hate when I lived in Guildford was that strictly speaking I should have ridden my bike round the entire one way system to cross the town. One small use of the pavement negated that. Much time and danger saved. But I hate riding on the pavement, even when it's actually allowed - is shared area with pedestrians. It's too dangerous for all. And annoying.

Despite rules and fines (issued by the Ordnungsamt), the classic Berlin cyclist is to be found riding their bike

on the pavement
in the dark
without lights
talking on the phone
smoking a rollup
drinking a beer

(And yes, I have actually seen this full stack, more than once!)

Re: Cycle lanes

[anef]

Your top four are cetainly in evidence in Cambridge, and often in combination or all at once. To be added to this is (in term time) the 9 o'clock rush. If you are on the road between 8.50 and 9 am you will be run over by everyone who is late for lectures.

[bens_dad]

On-pavement cycle lanes also have a "where do I put the bus stop ?" problem, eg Oxford Road, Manchester

Oh and here is a fun one on Hills Road, Cambridge. They divert the on-road cycle-lane the the left, so that the cycles don't overtake the stopped bus in oncoming traffic ... which means that you take three steps off the bus into the cycle lane.

Sorry the pictures are not embedded.

[channelpenguin]

This is a Berlin tram stop classic (in mirror image)