Caley is a good agent I think and knows the properties - a seemingly vanishing talent with people renting out apartments, but he is a bit high strung/ADD and drives like a maniac. At stop lights he alternately slams on the brakes, hits the gas, advances 2-3 cm, repeat. Then I cycled to Islington, found an agent listing a flat I'll see tomorrow near King's Cross, was nearly deafened by road construction, almost hit by a cement mixer, got stuck behind a reeeeking trash truck for two blocks, made another appointment to see flats at 10:30 tomorrow, rode back to Nature, found out I'd made my first f'up (not too bad I think), worked till six, rode back to Camden/Black Katz, saw another flat which was really nice only no opening windows and a totally f'd up bathroom floor, walked back to my bicycle, rode back to the flat, carried the bike upstairs, frantically searched the apartment for the swipe key to Nature that I thought I'd lost, found it, and now am writing this blog entry.
Here are the fish and chips I ate two nights ago.
I had a long discussion today with other Nature editors about the safety, or lack thereof, induced in a population of bicycle riders by wearing helmets. The arguments against using a helmet are that it makes you feel safer so you go faster, that helmet use creates the erroneous impression that riding is dangerous, which it is not, and that drivers treat helmet-wearers with more disdain. This last opinion has been tested a bit by real scientists and there is some evidence that drivers get closer to helmet wearers. I don't buy the experimental designs though and think that probably the only way to test this is with a video game experiment, where you have some kind of driving experience in which the streets have lots of bikers either wearing or not wearing helmets. And then the game will somehow measure the distances between cars and riders and there's your answer. At least in the video game world.
I also have some middle chest congestion coming on which is either a cold or I'm getting sick from the London air which perhaps is not cleaner than Logan after all.
4 comments:
professor - so that is why schweneker never wore a helmet, or only sometimes. good luck flat hunting. sounds challenging.
schweneker is imponderable so I hesitate to confirm or deny your supposition.
Yes the flat search process bites. I'd say half of the bathrooms smell like mold.
In the video game world, drivers would hit all bikers (helmets or no) at high speed and say, "Huh huh. I just pwned that guy!"
Yes I discussed your point today with the Nature editors at lunch and they agree with you. My alternate solution is to do the test as part of a setup using a driving simulator as part of an exam, a random sample of people, and instructions to do something like "drive from point a to point b". This way people would be trying to drive normally.
Post a Comment