Seemingly trivial things that intrigue you

Munsford0

Saw a hilarious lack of coordination last summer. Stretch of country road hastily surface dressed by one gang, white lines painted by another - in places over piles of loose chippings and in one case a hedgehog. So when a third lot came along later with the road sweeper, they hoovered up most of the white lines at the edges of the carriageway. Genius!

OK, so the bloke painting the lines was unlikely to be moonlighting from his day job on the Large Hadron Collider, but still...

Pross

pinno said:

kingstongraham said:

Pross said:

kingstongraham said:

surrey_commuter said:

I thought I imagined cycle lanes on the A3. For those not familiar it is a two lane dual carriageway with motorway like slip roads which must make cycling exciting

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.180422,-0.6516995,3a,62.6y,12.97h,70.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNstb4jzP0kbuaeERCm_5NA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

What's even more baffling is that it ends after the slip road. All I can assume is they've put it in to encourage anyone who does cycle on there to cross the slip road rather than staying on the mainline in the path of merging vehicles.

Edit - yes, I'm pretty sure that's why they've done it. They only have the markings immediately either side of slip roads so it is to divert them into crossing on the slip itself instead of riding across the mouth of the merge or diverge areas which does actually make some kind of sense in safety terms. They just haven't done it very well.

I love the little give way sign on the bike path.

Pedestrians have this innate and uncanny ability to just step out in front of you without looking, soi therefore, the road designers think we are just as stupid and need signage*.

However (and as a caveat), I think you would have to be a bit stupid to cycle along that stretch of dual carriageway if you had the choice.

*Pross will step in here and say it's just regs but we don't need that level of logic and understanding in here as it's just no fun.

It's not regs, I assume it is a solution that someone came up with to solve a problem (real or perceived). There was probably a collision between a cyclist and vehicle on one of the slip roads and this was the response. I don't know the area so don't know if cycling on there has any benefits / is the only realistic option.

I'm not opposed to cycling on dual carriageways but even the same road can vary considerably over adjacent sections e.g. I used to be quite happy time trialling on the A40 between Abergavenny and Raglan (8 miles with a roundabout at each end and a decent width hard strip together with fairly low traffic flows) but the same road on longer TTs used the section to Monmouth which has slip roads, narrow hard strip and much higher traffic as it links the M4 to the M50 & M5 so I used to avoid that.

Pross

kingstongraham said:

pblakeney said:

kingstongraham said:

Pross said:

kingstongraham said:

surrey_commuter said:

I thought I imagined cycle lanes on the A3. For those not familiar it is a two lane dual carriageway with motorway like slip roads which must make cycling exciting

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.180422,-0.6516995,3a,62.6y,12.97h,70.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNstb4jzP0kbuaeERCm_5NA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

What's even more baffling is that it ends after the slip road. All I can assume is they've put it in to encourage anyone who does cycle on there to cross the slip road rather than staying on the mainline in the path of merging vehicles.

Edit - yes, I'm pretty sure that's why they've done it. They only have the markings immediately either side of slip roads so it is to divert them into crossing on the slip itself instead of riding across the mouth of the merge or diverge areas which does actually make some kind of sense in safety terms. They just haven't done it very well.

I love the little give way sign on the bike path.

Is it just my eyesight or did they really paint part of the bike sign on the verge?

No, but there is one on a drain.

It's not even a cycle lane, it's just the (narrow) hard strip you get on a dual carriageway that they've slapped some cycle symbols in. Technically you can't get into it as it has got a broken line for the start.

Pross

orraloon said:

There are similar arrangements, divert off main carriageway cross slip road at right angles then carry on, on the A34 and A43. Those are heavy, high speed traffic routes. Would have to be psycho or suicidal to ride on them.

The A34 was even designed that way (don't know the A43 very well) although it's noticeable that they only do it at the merge slip road and cyclists that do choose for some bizarre reason to use that route have to take their changes with the diverging vehicles. From memory the A46 put cycle routes onto the downgraded old road.

Stevo_666

kingstongraham said:

What's the point of a bike lane like this? It's in Putney.



https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4592236,-0.2175598,3a,75y,33.53h,82.64t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s0n4kvdLKM59Nq5IQVjUCVQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

At least its wider than the old one which appears to me marked by a yellow line.

monkimark

No need for a broken line, you enter the cycle lane via this marvellous piece of highway engineering
England
https://maps.app.goo.gl/aUzPPdxUXjbKVj27A

Pross said:

kingstongraham said:

pblakeney said:

kingstongraham said:

Pross said:

kingstongraham said:

surrey_commuter said:

I thought I imagined cycle lanes on the A3. For those not familiar it is a two lane dual carriageway with motorway like slip roads which must make cycling exciting

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.180422,-0.6516995,3a,62.6y,12.97h,70.43t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sNstb4jzP0kbuaeERCm_5NA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

What's even more baffling is that it ends after the slip road. All I can assume is they've put it in to encourage anyone who does cycle on there to cross the slip road rather than staying on the mainline in the path of merging vehicles.

Edit - yes, I'm pretty sure that's why they've done it. They only have the markings immediately either side of slip roads so it is to divert them into crossing on the slip itself instead of riding across the mouth of the merge or diverge areas which does actually make some kind of sense in safety terms. They just haven't done it very well.

I love the little give way sign on the bike path.

Is it just my eyesight or did they really paint part of the bike sign on the verge?

No, but there is one on a drain.

It's not even a cycle lane, it's just the (narrow) hard strip you get on a dual carriageway that they've slapped some cycle symbols in. Technically you can't get into it as it has got a broken line for the start.

webboo

Watching Brokenwood on the drama channel, given the adverts that are on. It would appear that I should be driving a Mercedes’, holidaying in the Caribbean island and drinking alcohol free Guinness.
That’s intriguing 🤔

focuszing723

Just how a tiny seed can grow into a plant, how eyes have developed, reproduction...

It does make me think "how the bloody hell" n stuff. I know it's millions of years of evolution, but still, pretty fantastical.

pinno

focuszing723 said:

Just how a tiny seed can grow into a plant, how eyes have developed, reproduction...

It does make me think "how the bloody hell" n stuff. I know it's millions of years of evolution, but still, pretty fantastical.

That's god's magic.

orraloon

focuszing723 said:

Just how a tiny seed can grow into a plant, how eyes have developed, reproduction...

It does make me think "how the bloody hell" n stuff. I know it's millions of years of evolution, but still, pretty fantastical.

Just ask the Muskrat, it controls everything. Doesn't it?

rjsterry

focuszing723 said:

Just how a tiny seed can grow into a plant, how eyes have developed, reproduction...

It does make me think "how the bloody hell" n stuff. I know it's millions of years of evolution, but still, pretty fantastical.

You'll like this.

The timespan between Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus is longer than the timespan between Tyrannosaurus and the present. Evolutionary time is difficult to conceptualise. That's how we have time to evolve the eye several times over.

briantrumpet

orraloon said:

focuszing723 said:

Just how a tiny seed can grow into a plant, how eyes have developed, reproduction...

It does make me think "how the bloody hell" n stuff. I know it's millions of years of evolution, but still, pretty fantastical.

Just ask the Muskrat, it controls everything. Doesn't it?

...apart from steering wheels that fall off.

monkimark

One of my daughter's favourite facts (and mine for that matter)
Time is long.

rjsterry said:

focuszing723 said:

Just how a tiny seed can grow into a plant, how eyes have developed, reproduction...

It does make me think "how the bloody hell" n stuff. I know it's millions of years of evolution, but still, pretty fantastical.

You'll like this.

The timespan between Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus is longer than the timespan between Tyrannosaurus and the present. Evolutionary time is difficult to conceptualise. That's how we have time to evolve the eye several times over.

pinno

The Neoproterozoic era was 460 million years.

"The earliest fossils of complex multicellular life are found in the Ediacaran era..." (90 million years).

pinno

briantrumpet said:

orraloon said:

focuszing723 said:

Just how a tiny seed can grow into a plant, how eyes have developed, reproduction...

It does make me think "how the bloody hell" n stuff. I know it's millions of years of evolution, but still, pretty fantastical.

Just ask the Muskrat, it controls everything. Doesn't it?

...apart from steering wheels that fall off.

On old Japanese cars?

briantrumpet

pinno said:

briantrumpet said:

orraloon said:

focuszing723 said:

Just how a tiny seed can grow into a plant, how eyes have developed, reproduction...

It does make me think "how the bloody hell" n stuff. I know it's millions of years of evolution, but still, pretty fantastical.

Just ask the Muskrat, it controls everything. Doesn't it?

...apart from steering wheels that fall off.

On old Japanese cars?

https://twitter.com/WashTimes/status/1633589517453246465

pinno

Oh, old electric cars.

briantrumpet

pinno said:

Oh, old electric cars.

It's probably just as well that space rockets don't have steering wheels.

pinno

briantrumpet said:

pinno said:

Oh, old electric cars.

It's probably just as well that space rockets don't have steering wheels.

2 bits of string and a rudder.

Pross

briantrumpet said:

pinno said:

Oh, old electric cars.

It's probably just as well that space rockets don't have steering wheels.

The steering wheel on the Tesla was sacrificial as they’re designed to be self-driving but no-one else is up to the genius of Musk and we haven’t got there quick enough.

pinno

Yeah, Musk has already designed his Mars condo.
Poor guy, it must be so frustrating for him that his staff haven't built it yet.

pblakeney

pinno said:

Yeah, Musk has already designed his Mars condo.
Poor guy, it must be so frustrating for him that his staff haven't built it yet.

I hear they are having trouble with the air source heat pumps.

pinno

pblakeney said:

pinno said:

Yeah, Musk has already designed his Mars condo.
Poor guy, it must be so frustrating for him that his staff haven't built it yet.

I hear they are having trouble with the air source heat pumps.

...and the ground source pipes seem to flap about a bit.

rick_chasey

It's quite hard to fathom the scale of WW2 in Eastern Europe.

People are talking about how high the Russian army's attrition rate is. https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/03/08/how-many-russians-have-been-killed-in-ukraine

Here we see that already Russia has lost more men in this war in Ukraine than the combined total of all the other wars they have fought since WW2.

We're looking at a total casualty list of 200,000 or so, including killed captured and wounded, in a year. That's a whole war, not just battles.

By comparison, the battle of Stalingrad, which lasted 5 months, saw a victorious Russia lose roughly 1.1 million. It's just absolutely mad how big those numbers were. Over basically a large town or small city.

Kherson is only half the size, to give you an idea.


Just over Kiev in 1943 in the same war, Soviets lost 118,000 men...in 10 days!!!

pinno

Surely Russian losses not only feed back to the families they are from and is unsustainable?

surrey_commuter

rick_chasey said:

It's quite hard to fathom the scale of WW2 in Eastern Europe.

People are talking about how high the Russian army's attrition rate is. https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2023/03/08/how-many-russians-have-been-killed-in-ukraine

Here we see that already Russia has lost more men in this war in Ukraine than the combined total of all the other wars they have fought since WW2.

We're looking at a total casualty list of 200,000 or so, including killed captured and wounded, in a year. That's a whole war, not just battles.

By comparison, the battle of Stalingrad, which lasted 5 months, saw a victorious Russia lose roughly 1.1 million. It's just absolutely mad how big those numbers were. Over basically a large town or small city.

Kherson is only half the size, to give you an idea.


Just over Kiev in 1943 in the same war, Soviets lost 118,000 men...in 10 days!!!

There are many reasons to defend/attack a city.

In the future Bakmut will be seen as the anvil on which Zelensky broke the Russian army or a crazy political decision that weakened his own forces and position.

rick_chasey

yeah yeah, sure sure.

It's the scale that gets me. The size of the armies are almost 2 orders of magnitude bigger than now. It's just vast. So enormous.

briantrumpet

My private thoughts about campaigns to return the state pension retirement age for some women to 60.

morstar

In London for work night out last night. Stay around for a bit today to do some touristy stuff.

Foolishly end up at Westminster around lunchtime, absolutely heaving.

Why was some numpty jogging (more trying to) through this part of the city. Made an absolute arse of himself trying to get through the crowd at a speed that simply wasn’t possible. Run somewhere else numpty or just walk that bit if it’s unavoidable.

veronese68

Similarly, idiots trying to run along the South Bank on a sunny weekend. If you want to run, rather than be seen to run, you wouldn't go along there.