Hard to believe,
perhaps, but there's a group of people even more anti-cyclist than
me. A Spanish safety organisation - fed up with 'leniency' towards
cyclists 'creating risky situations' - is calling for registration,
reflective jackets, helmets and third party insurance to be made compulsory. They are, says the organisation, ‘effectively immune’
to liability for accidents they cause, including injury or damage
suffered by pedestrians. And they should be fined for not respecting
road signs and markings. Amen to all that, say I. Even if it does
smack of going to the opposite extreme. The group even goes so far as
to say that pavements and footpaths should not be adapted to include
cycle lanes, as pedestrians and bikes 'do not go together' and
accidents are very likely when they coincide. I would have thought this depended on the width but I guess this assumes the cyclists
would remain in the bike lane. Which does actually happen. In
Germany.
Everyone will recall
the horrendous rail crash outside Santiago de Compostela 18 months
ago. Some will remember that all relevant executives of the track and
train companies were acquitted of all charges by the investigating
judge. And that the only person in the dock remains the hapless
driver. Well, a new expert's report endorses the view that bad
decisions were taken in respect of safety, in the face of both resistance
from engineers and, later, complaints by drivers about risk.
Additionally, there was negligence in the servicing of the train's
brakes 2 days before the crash. So, we wait to see whether any
executives will return to the bench or whether the trial will remain
a whitewash of both the suits and the politicians responsible. Some of
the latter, it's claimed, revised the planned works so that the line
would be 'finished' in time for regional elections. Who'd be
surprised?
I showed the list of
221 Spanish insults to my friends of a Friday dinner. To a man, they
were scornful of the suggestion the list was either comprehensive or
up-to-date. I rather got the impression they felt they could compile
another list of at least 221 more modern insults. What a language!
Well, February 3 came
and went and the illegal houses in the gypsy settlement at the bottom
of the hill were not demolished. A new date has been set for this
coming week but I fear this show will run and run.
There was a nice foto
of one of our local drug barons in the papers yesterday, looking like
a lawyer or a banker and insisting he'd got his huge fortune by
smuggling only cigarettes in the 90s. The judge declined to believe
him and jailed him for 6 years, plus a fine of €21.5m. Various
other family members were also jailed, including his daughter, the lawyer.
Global Warming: See here for the posing of a good question.
I
occasionally turn on the subtitles to BBC programs and have noticed
the occasional mistake born of simultaneous 'translation'. But
nothing as amusing as them referring to the Chinese Year of the
Horse as the "Year of the Whores".
Finally . . .I read a
review yesterday of a new Honda car with 9 gears. And here's me
wondering why mine has just 6. Is this, I wonder, related to the fact that
the car is a 4x4?
Finally, finally . . . I've just been contact by a 'happy, sociable' young lady called Anna. She's so keen to meet me, she's sent me the same message 7 times, albeit with different headings.
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