It Could Be Worse

As widely reported elsewhere, a judge has ruled that cyclists may be partly at fault if they are knocked off their bikes while not wearing a helmet. The issue was discussed on BBC Radio 2 by Matthew Bannister, standing in for Jeremy “Daily Mail FM” Vine.

Just after the intro to the piece, there was an advert for the BBC’s coverage of Formula 1 car racing (something that encourages some drivers to drive like idiots), an unfortunate juxtaposition but typical for the MSM, where “dog bites man” or “car driver kills people” isn’t news.

Seeing as my comment wasn’t read out, I thought I’d publish it here.

Cycle helmets aren’t a panacea. They tend to cause cyclists to take more risks, and some research has shown that helmet-less cyclists are shown more respect and given more overtaking room than helmet-wearing ones.

The only thing that compulsory helmet wearing will do is reduce the number of cyclists. Fewer cyclists = less safety for those who remain. The greatest thing that would increase cycle safety is more cyclists.

There were lots of messages and calls saying “yes, you should wear a helmet” “a helmet saved my life” and “helmets should be compulsory”.

They should all go and read The Bicycle Helmet Research Foundation. The issue isn’t as simple as “wearing a helmet = greater safety”.

There was also the usual “serves them right, pavement terrorists” rubbish, as well. This person should ride a bike for a bit, and then comment further.

(I found this in my inbox during a clearout…)

A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Prada suit, Gucci shoes, Dior sunglasses and D+G tie, leans out the window and asks the shepherd, “If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?”

The shepherd looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing flock and calmly answers: “Sure. Why not?”

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer, connects it to his Vodafone cell phone, surfs to a NASA page on the internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite navigation system to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.

Within seconds, he receives an e-mail on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with hundreds of complex formulae. He uploads all of this data via an email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturised HP LaserJet printer, turns to the shepherd and says: “You have exactly 1,586 sheep.” “That’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my sheep,” says the shepherd.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the boot of his car. Then the shepherd says to the young man “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my sheep?” The young man thinks about it for a second and then says: “Okay, why not?” “You’re a consultant” says the shepherd. “Wow! That’s correct,” says the yuppie. “But how did you guess that?”

“No guessing required,” answers the shepherd. “You showed up here even though nobody called you, you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked, and you know f**k-all about my business. Now give me back my dog.”

Got up and packed the van in a hurry, got the 9am bus back into Venice and visited the church Santa Maria della Salute and the church Santa Maria Gloria dei Frari which was really impressive. There were lots of large paintings (it was like a gallery) and 2 huge tombs, one that of Titian (he’s a painter, if you don’t know).

Checked out of the campsite at noon and headed towards more Alps! Joined the motorway and enjoyed the awesome and fantastic scenery, didn’t do any mountain climbing this time, which I’m sure the van was thankful for. Had Burger King on the way (shocking, I know) as Tim had a craving for a burger.

After heading into Bologna for some last minute essential purchases – sun-dried tomatoes, parmigiano, porcini and fresh figs (yummy) – we set off for Venice.

Arrived at the campsite at about 2:30pm (it took a bit of finding); we settled down, visited the supermarket and then chilled out in the sunshine.

Had a bit of a lie-in before catching the campsite’s private bus at 12:30pm. Arrived in Venice at 1pm and wandered around the bus station for a while a bit unsure as to where we were supposed to go. Found a busy main street and followed it; bought a map of the city.

Venice is pretty, with lovely views but we got a bit swept along the tourist trail without really knowing any better. There were lots and lots of shops and street sellers selling beautiful venetian masks and glass objects (vases, jewellery, sweet dishes). This was all wonderful to begin with but after about 2 miles it began to wear a bit!

We had unwittingly taken a long route to the main attractions such as the Basilica but we got off the beaten track a bit and enjoyed seeing the canals and bridges. When we arrived at the main square – Piazza San Marco – it started to rain (only the second time in 2 weeks so we didn’t complain too much) and everyone headed for shelter. The area was completely jammed with people and the queue to get into the Basilica was large so we headed for the Bridge of Sighs. Was still raining so we didn’t linger too long.

By now we were quite tired from all the walking so we walked back to the Rialto (large bridge) and grabbed some pizza: huge yummy slices. We bought a few pressies (you’ll have to wait until Christmas!!) and headed back for the bus. We felt a bit disappointed and worn out by the crowds and endless shops so we decided to return early the next day and visit a couple of the sights we wanted to see.