What does it all mean?

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Being only an occasional user of the Newsgeoup, can I appear stupid and ask
what does OT mean at the start of a title for a post?

"Off Topic".

--
Hywel

Robin Long said:

Being only an occasional user of the Newsgeoup, can I appear stupid and ask
what does OT mean at the start of a title for a post?

Got knocked off again last week. Stupid motorist didn't see me. Bike
mostly white, halogen headlamp on, reflective strips on jacket and Ronhill
bikesters, also on shoes and rucksack. At the risk of opening up the helmet
debate again

Don't think you can get away with it that easily, friend.

Quoted message said:

this is the second time I have been gratefull for wearing one.
No, I'll never know if it saved my life or serious injury but the last one
was split in half. My head wasn't.

Crumbs, that's an argument *for* wearing helmets?

Quoted message said:

I hope it will always be my choice but
it's a choice I will always take.

Philosophically speaking, is that actually a choice, then?🙂

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 19:16:36 -0000, "Robin Long"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Being only an occasional user of the Newsgeoup, can I appear stupid and ask
what does OT mean at the start of a title for a post?

Off-topic.

Quoted message said:

Got knocked off again last week. Stupid motorist didn't see me.

That's on-topic, but off bike...

Quoted message said:

Bike
mostly white, halogen headlamp on, reflective strips on jacket and Ronhill
bikesters, also on shoes and rucksack.

Ah, full stealth mode ;-)

Quoted message said:

At the risk of opening up the helmet
debate again, this is the second time I have been gratefull for wearing one.
No, I'll never know if it saved my life or serious injury but the last one
was split in half.

It failed? Shocking. Still, that's PFDBs for you - first little bang
and they fall apart. You do know the difference between the behaviour
of polystyrene foam in plastic deformation and brittle failure modes,
of course?

Mind you, the helmet wearers among us do seem to suffer more than
their fair share of contratemps...

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at Washington University

Just zis Guy said:

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 19:16:36 -0000, "Robin Long"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
<[email hidden]>:

[snip]

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Got knocked off again last week. Stupid motorist didn't see me.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Bike
mostly white, halogen headlamp on, reflective strips on jacket and Ronhill
bikesters, also on shoes and rucksack.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

At the risk of opening up the helmet
debate again, this is the second time I have been gratefull for wearing one.
No, I'll never know if it saved my life or serious injury but the last one
was split in half.

[snip]

Quoted message said:

Mind you, the helmet wearers among us do seem to suffer more than
their fair share of contratemps...

Perhaps something similar attracts trouble to all this brightly coloured
clothing and lights etc.? Perhaps it just makes the cyclist an easier
target?

A couple of decades ago in Bristol (perhaps elsewhere also) cyclists
were officially advised "Be Bright - Wear White". More than a few of us
responded "Fight Back - Wear Black". This inoculated us against any
dangerous delusion that we were visible and therefore somehow safe from
motor vehicles.

JLB said:

Perhaps something similar attracts trouble to all this brightly coloured
clothing and lights etc.? Perhaps it just makes the cyclist an easier
target?

I think its like that old cycling adage, if you look at what you want to
avoid, you'll hit it. Motorists look at bright visible cyclists and
therefore run into them. Simple really ;-)

Tony

Quoted message said:

Being only an occasional user of the Newsgeoup, can I appear stupid
and ask what does OT mean at the start of a title for a post?

"Off Topic". It provides immunity to flames for posting OT stuff. People
that don't like OT stuff in the newsgroup can filter out anything with OT
in the subject line.

Quoted message said:

the last one was split in half.

Replace it every two-three years. They become brittle over time, and
absorb almost no energy in a crash. I suppose still good for preventing
cuts and grazes, but almost entirely useless at preventing serious
injuries. <Guy> Oh, wait... </Guy>

"Tony Raven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

JLB said:

Perhaps something similar attracts trouble to all this brightly coloured
clothing and lights etc.? Perhaps it just makes the cyclist an easier
target?

I think its like that old cycling adage, if you look at what you want to
avoid, you'll hit it. Motorists look at bright visible cyclists and
therefore run into them. Simple really ;-)

I think it's called target fixation. Where once the target is aquired the
pilot/driver freezes and is unable to take avoiding action and flies/drives
straight into it. ;-)

KC

in message <[email hidden]>, Just zis Guy,

you know? (') said:

It failed? Shocking. Still, that's PFDBs for you - first little bang
and they fall apart. You do know the difference between the behaviour
of polystyrene foam in plastic deformation and brittle failure modes,
of course?

Mind you, the helmet wearers among us do seem to suffer more than
their fair share of contratemps...

Consider this graph: <URL:http://www.cyclehelmets.org/jpg/index_11.jpg>

Yes, I know you've all seen it before. No, I don't know (and would
really like to know) the source of the figures. The important
confounding variable here is of course the proportion of trips taken by
bicycle: there is evidently a very strong negative correlation between
the proportion of trips taken by bicycle and the proportion of cyclists
wearing helmets.

We kind of assume that the smaller number of fatalities is a consequence
of the higher proportion of trips, and that the lower proportion of
helmet wearing is just a coincidence. But I'm not sure if that's an
assumption you should bet your life on.

What is a fact, and unquestionable, is that, over Europe as a whole,
cyclists who don't wear helmets are less likely to be killed or injured
than cyclists who do; and that's a thought worth thinking about.

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; how did we conclude that a [censored] cartoon mouse is deserving
;; of 90+ years of protection, but a cure for cancer, only 14?
-- user 'Tackhead', in /. discussion of copyright law, 22/05/02

Just zis Guy said:

Mind you, the helmet wearers among us do seem to suffer more than
their fair share of contratemps...

KNocked Off Bicycle - Helmet Evaded Accidental Decephalisation.

--
Chris Malcolm [email hidden] +44 (0)131 651 3445 DoD #205
IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK
[http://www.dai.ed.ac.uk/homes/cam/]