Paul Allen

Lisa Nandy, the UK culture secretary, claims that #PalestineAction "wishes harm on the British people."
That is simply false. It is yet another retrospective justification by this government for its unjustifiable ban on the group.

Switching off wind farms on July 4th lost 113,831MWh of clean energy, only to replace it with gas.

The map shows how much wind farms were curtailed that day alongside boundary capacity:

🟢 Spare cap. at boundary
🟠 Close to limit (poss. constrained)
🔴 At limit (constrained)

Will the ESG rules mean that the big tech companies will be removed (due to AI expansion using no renewable energy)?
Sadly many of the schemes seem to concentrate on G rather than E.

Trees and grass framing a view of the City of London in the distance.

This is the equivalent view in London - the buildings of the City of London seen from Hampstead Heath, near Kenwood House.

What they say: "Without ample free parking, my customers will go elsewhere, and I will go out of business."

What they mean: "I drive to my business and I don't want to be inconvenienced. I have no idea how my customers get here but I assume they are just like me."

Genocide.

Also it can be annoying for drivers, as (able) pedestrians often give up and cross the road, leaving the traffic lights stopped for no one.
I have requested TfL to reduce my local crossing from 28 seconds, but to no avail.

Anyone know why TfL has not replaced these missing bollards on Clapham High Street after resurfacing? Cyclists now have less protection than before! A backwards step 😠

Transport planning – time to reimagine the rules For transport planners, opportunities to think outside the box are few and far between, writes James Gleave, Director of Mobility Lab, in this guest blog.

Is it time to reimagine the rules that govern transport planning?

"To make the radical changes that our climate goals and society demand of us, our written & unwritten rules need to be challenged," writes James Gleave of Mobility Lab in this guest blog:

Westminster Clearance This week, I'm going to pick on a fairly new cycle track in London as handy little worked example on the application of Local Transport Note...

They should have read your article about Westminster Bridge!
therantyhighwayman.blogspot.com/2022/04/west...

In my part of North London, thankfully the compliance is much higher.

They used to be very common at the start of the EV transition (pre good Tesla).

This is the first day I’m headed into work where it’s raining when I’m riding in. That’s 216 days into the year. The myth of “I can’t ride into work because it rains all the time in the UK” is exactly that; a myth.

Aldwych, London from above, with a total tree canopy between the buildings.

And the road nearby (that still has cars) has wonderful tree cover.

What will expanding Heathrow do to UK’s net zero plans? Government is counting on tech to provide a panacea, but there may be simpler ways to keep climate goals on track

flying is in effect subsidised, through the tax system. To encourage people… the government would need to make rail journeys cheaper or flights more expensive… require investment, and the latter would annoy some middle-class voters. Therefore neither seems likely.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Should we be building battery storage at the edges of cities, so that we don't need to increase the grid connections?
Obviously we will still need new grid connections to the wind farm regions as well.

New style temporary traffic signs with ballastes bases.

I've seen some of these alternative signs in Camden. They take up much less space and could allow the cycle lanes still be used.

What's happening to cycling on TV in the UK? Explaining the Eurosport closure, TNT Sports, pricing, and how to watch Hours from the end of Eurosport in the UK, Cyclingnews picks apart the complex picture of cycling subscriptions in 2025

But unfortunately not in the UK, where TNT Sports have increased costs from £6.99 a month to £30.99, so lots of us have stopped watching live racing.
www.cyclingnews.com/features/wha...

Me too. Many are good rules, but some I just can't agree with e.g.
Rule #29 // No European Posterior Man-Satchels.
I'd rather let the bike carry the load than fill my jersey pockets.

Lovely photo, although certain people might disagree.
Rule #49 // Keep the rubber side down. It is completely unacceptable to intentionally turn one’s steed upside down for any reason under any circumstances.

www.velominati.com

3 varifocal spectacles, 4 reading glasses and various lenses.

During my year of retinal problems, my eye strength kept changing, so I self tested reading glasses, then took out one lens and taped it to my normal varifocals. After the cataract replacement, I got an expensive long term varifocal.

Two temporary road signs, but with a heavy plastic Base. They take up less footprint than normal metal tent style frames.

I've seen some of these alternative signs in London. They're still on the footway and cycle lane, but they do take up less room.

By supporting the expansion of Heathrow Airport and spreading outright lies about decarbonising flying, Labour has again capitulated to lobbyists.
This is its defining characteristic: doing whatever powerful lobbyists ask, regardless of the social, environmental and even political costs.

This is really good. If I can paraphrase, men can make themselves more attractive by being able to do things competently and by assuming that the woman they are talking to has a richer inner life that is nothing to do with them. Status is irrelevant to a left-wing theory of getting laid.

Photo of a nineteenth century French man glaring disapprovingly at some paper

The first guy who figured out that hot air holds more water vapor looked like this. We've known that warming temperatures mean heavier downpours for a very long time

Excellent. The price of Lime bikes had got too high - more than public transport, even for short journeys!

Carl Sagan’s Baloney Detection Kit: A humanist guide for detecting bulls%!t. 1. Confirmation of Facts – Always seek independent evidence. Don’t rely solely on what a single source tells you. 2. Encourage Debate – Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view. 3. Question Authority – Authority is not a substitute for evidence. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities. At most, there are experts. 4. Try More Than One Hypothesis – Consider alternatives. If you stick with one idea, you’re more likely to interpret new evidence as confirmation of your own theories. 5. Stay Open to Changing Your Mind – Be willing to abandon ideas that don’t hold up to scrutiny. Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours. 6. Quantify Where Possible – If whatever it is you’re explaining has some measure, some numerical quantity attached to it, you’ll be much better able to discriminate among competing hypotheses.

Carl Sagan's 'Baloney Detection Kit' – a set of tools for sceptical thinking and scientific reasoning, designed to help people spot logical fallacies, misinformation, rhetorical tricks, and deceptive arguments 👀

Lime bike lying beside a path in a park.

Lime bike next to the cycle parking on the edge of the park.

Lime bike seen abandoned in a park for two days, so I wheeled it to the edge. Whilst it's partly Lime's responsibility, it's mainly unthinking humans.
@limebike.bsky.social

What did you think of Andor?
It was interesting to see life from the perspective of employees and managers of the Empire.

And the museum sadly says taxi!
"The nearest main line station is Birmingham International which also serves Birmingham Airport, the NEC & the Museum. There is a taxi rank at the station with a journey time of less than 5 minutes to the Museum."
www.nationalmotorcyclemuseum.co.uk/visit-us/get...