@hembrow@todon.eu
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hembrow

@hembrow@todon.eu

Writing about cycling and its place in a green future world since the 1990s. See my blog and other writings elsewhere.

I also run a webshop which provides parts which are sometimes hard to find for practical everyday bicycles. If you can find parts locally then support your local cycle shop. Otherwise perhaps I can provide you with parts that you can't find locally.

321 ppm. That was a long time ago.

#humanpower #cyclist #vegan #dutch #nederland #netherlands #bicycle #fiets #velomobile #climate #sustainability #cycling #infra #grandad

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hembrow, to diy
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

Another DIY project completed. We now have an infrared panel for heating in the bathroom.
There's already a heat pump to provide warmth downstairs for our living areas. IR seems like an ideal way to add a little bit of immediate supplementary heat in the bathroom. A bathroom does not need to be heated all the time, it only needs to feel reasonably warm when you're in there.
Holes drilled, electrics rearranged (slightly dodgy connection made by the previous owner found an eradicated) and it's good to go.

Picking up the IR heating panel from a DIY store. It's on the Xtracycle, which is ideal for transporting longer than usual loads. There's also a length piece of ducting on the bike which pokes out behind the IR panel.
The lower mounting holes for the heater are over tiles on the wall, but the upper holes go into the wall above the tiles. Therefore to mount the IR panel upright on the wall I needed two spacers. A few minutes with FreeCAD and I had an STL file on an SD card to fit into my little Velleman Vertex 3D printer. This thing works really well. Truly excellent value when on sale for just €60 last May.

hembrow,
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

@po3mah They'd put stranded wire into a twist-on wire connector. It cut off most of the strands leaving a poor connection. Luckily, it only supplied a light and a socket which we occasionally use for a radio so the low current hadn't actually caused a problem. But anyway, that's been fixed.

hembrow, to cycling
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

Today's bike ride was the initial outing of the restored Kuifje's Raket (Tintin's Rocket) Quest.

Harry (@twilwel) has been working on this for some time and he's done a great job. It looked quite rough a few months back, but now it looks and works like a completely new velomobile.
#velomobile #velomobiel #tintin #KuifjeRaket #biketooter #cycling #bicycle #netherlands #regel17 #recumbent #ligfiets

Theo's Milan and Harry's rocket in front of me as we head out into the countryside.

CelloMomOnCars, to Electricvehicles
@CelloMomOnCars@mastodon.social avatar

#FactCheck: 21 misleading myths about #ElectricVehicles

"Electric vehicles (#EVs) significantly cut lifecycle greenhouse gas #emissions in almost all circumstances and are the key technology for decarbonising road transport."

E.g.: Lifecycle EV emissions break even with those of gas cars at only 16,000 miles or less. Beyond that the climate wins all the way.

But there is a whole myth making machine that is trying to make. you think otherwise. Get the fact check here:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/factcheck-21-misleading-myths-about-electric-vehicles/

hembrow,
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

@CelloMomOnCars Beware relativism. No car is ever a win for the climate.
People who actually have no car have a far smaller environmental footprint than those who own cars, regardless of the power source of any specific car.

hembrow,
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

@CelloMomOnCars I know that you know that, but many people do not ;-)

The article presents the idea of fewer cars as being quite marginal and difficult. It's not so: We all lived with fewer cars in every previous year of our lives.

I think talking of "even larger climate benefits" completely lets people off the hook. There's no "benefit", but merely perhaps a slightly lower impact due to choosing one car over another. People read articles like that and see little more than encouragement to buy new cars.

Here in the Netherlands there are now over 10 times as many cars as there were when I was born. i.e. even if each modern car had just 1/10th of the environmental impact of a 1960s car, they'd still have a far greater combined impact. But modern cars actually have impacts far greater than 1/10th of older cars, so actually the situation is far worse now than it was then, despite many promises by car manufacturers to clean up their act.

What's more, it was already obvious in the 1960s that the number of cars was unsustainable. They were the subject of critical writing and protest even before I was born, but we now have 10 times as many of them and 10 times the issues.

I don't think we should ever let past us a suggestion that buying a new car can be in any way positive for the environment.

US car ownership has also grown by a factor of about 5-6x in the same period. The same thing applies. We all lived in a time when there were fewer cars. Not in ancient history - we only have to look back a short period within our own lifespans to see what life was like with fewer cars than today.
Los Angeles in 1959. Huge traffic jams and a warning that road construction won't keep pace with the rise in car ownership.
The Netherlands in 2020. A worse traffic jam than Los Angeles in the 1950s. Why didn't we learn the sensible lesson from those warnings, that cars would only create bigger issues over time.

hembrow, to Electronics
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

This 7403 (quad two input OC nand) has been sitting around since the 35th week of 1974 and I've finally found a use for it.

This IC has been hanging around for so long because I almost never needed open collector outputs, but for today's project those outputs are at last exactly what I do need. It pleases me no end that I've just found a use for one of the parts that I bought when I first started doing electronics as a hobby.

I'm using this to ensure that two relays which should never be switched on at once actually never can be switched on at once, no matter what happens with a software crash, bug, or whatever. It'll be used in the ventilation controller that I'm currently building.

TTL chips made in 1974 are especially cursed because it's so easy to mistake them for something else.

None of your fancy modern LS here, at least so long as you don't look at the rest of the circuit which uses relatively modern stuff to do the actual "thinking".
#electronics #ttl #TexasInstruments #ttldatabook #7403

It's a simple circuit, just twice this. I'm ANDing each channel with the inverted version of the other channel. As I actually need an active low open collector output this chip is ideal and I'll only need one pull-up resistor per channel (two in total).

hembrow, to cycling
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

Photos from today's second parcel run, featuring typical everyday Dutch cycling infrastructure.

The first photo shows a bus-stop bypass, but the cycle-path is straight and reasonably wide (about 2.5 metres wide for single direction use) so this doesn't inconvenience cyclists.

The second photo shows a junction with a side road. We have priority and drivers have a place to stop at 90 degrees to the cyclepath and look both ways before they cross.

The second isn't perfect. Sight lines to the right are less than ideal, and drivers sadly cannot be relied upon to drive safely. But generally this infrastructure works well.

There's more about Dutch cycle-paths here, including lots of photos:

https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/cycle%20paths

And if you need bicycle components and would like them to at least begin their journey to you on a bike, click here:

https://www.dutchbikebits.com/
#biketooter #cycling #cargobike #bicycletrailer #dutchbikebits #cyclepath #cyclinginfrastructure #dutchcycling

The same bicycle next to a junction with a side-road. We have priority on continuous red asphalt which goes through the road. Note that drivers have a place to stop and look before they cross the cycle-path. The cycle-path on the other side of the side-road is bidirectional and (nearly) twice as wide as the one that we're on. This photo was taken just a few metres further on than the first. This is normal, mundane infrastructure in the Netherlands which you find everywhere.

hembrow, to random
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

"Despite a collapse in testing, which means the figures will be grossly understated, the number of death certificates giving Covid-19 as a cause has been climbing steadily as autumn approaches, rising from 80 per week in early August to 306 in late September. Who knows what the real number may be?"

"There’s plenty of masking going on, but not the kind that prevents infection."

I'm sure it's just the same here in the Netherlands. The main difference seems to be that our media aren't interested in discussing this at all.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/16/covid-deaths-rise-scrap-mask-wearing-hospitals

hembrow, to Netherlands
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

The centre of the largest telescope in the world* is conveniently situated within cycling distance so on Sunday's open day a group of us cycled there.

You can read more about it here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-Frequency_Array_(LOFAR)

https://www.astron.nl/telescopes/lofar/

  • It's described as "the largest radiotelescope in the world which can operate at the lowest frequencies that can be observed from earth" and it's about a thousand km wide, which makes it a nice example of peaceful international scientific cooperation.

Our velomobiles parked next to the cycle-parking
People crowding around to hear an explanation of how the telescope works. There were a lot of activities going on. This isn't the whole crowd.
One of the low frequency (10-80 MHz) antennas. The high frequency (120-240 MHz) antennas are much smaller and grouped together under the black plastic box on the left of the photo.

hembrow,
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

The centre is called superterp. It's a little artificial island (a terp) which stays dry though the area around it has been reclaimed for nature so is quite wet these days. This again is a nice example of cooperation. It's an area which is interesting to biologists as well as to astronomers.

There was also this charming display of poop. The challenge is to identify the animal from its poop.

hembrow,
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

And now some photos of other things that we saw on the way there and back

View from a lookout tower of velomobiles on the ground.
Following Harry through the forest

hembrow,
@hembrow@todon.eu avatar

One of the cycle-paths that we wanted to use was closed. Instead of going straight through here we were required to make a 2 km detour. The sign tells us why. Beavers, a protected species, have made their home under the cycle-path. So we'll have to wait for a new route which avoids disturbing them.

The information board tells us why. A 2 km detour because of beavers under the cycle-path. That's a new one !

HannahCelsius, to random

deleted_by_author

    •
    hembrow,
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    @HannahCelsius Not tired of hearing about these protests at all. For me personally it's just a shame that I live too far away to be able to experience it for myself.

    hembrow, to cycling
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    The last day of the Road Cycling European Championships was in Drenthe today. The Elite Men's race started in Assen very close to where we live but we decided to ride out into the countryside to see them go by there instead and maybe ride a long for a bit with them.

    This turned out to be impractical. It was difficult to tell when they'd arrive, and when they did so each group zoomed past at 50 km/h making it impossible to catch up from a standing start. There were also a lot of people around watching the race so we couldn't cycle at full speed on the cycle-paths.

    But in any case it was a fun thing to do.
    #regel17 #cycling #ek #wielrennen #sport #uec #uci #biketooter #cycleracing

    Lots of people were here (and everywhere else along the route) to see the cycle race go by
    We tried to ride alongside for a bit but it was very difficult to do so because there was basically no warning that they were approaching and then they'd shoot past at 50 km/h leaving you no chance to build up speed. This was my second try, and they're already gone.
    A couple of km later I saw one of the stragglers go past, followed quite quickly by the broom wagen.

    hembrow,
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    But this kind of cycling is anything but green. The cars outnumber the bikes, and there are helicopters as well. So these guys would get better fuel efficiency if they'd sat four to a car and driven the route.

    Sport in all its forms has to change. The spectacle is fabulous, but it can't continue in this fossil fuel powered form.

    At least one helicopter as well. I've enjoyed watching the TV coverage as we got to see lots of nice aerial shots of the area in which we live, but it's not sustainable.

    breadandcircuses, (edited ) to climate

    Earlier today, I asked why our leaders aren't doing anything about the climate emergency.

    See -- https://climatejustice.social/@breadandcircuses/111086269448211389

    Over at Media Lens, David Edwards poses a similar question, albeit with far more damning evidence than I provided...

    "Climate Collapse – The Grim Silence Of Our Leaders"

    None of us has previously witnessed a barrage of extreme weather events of the kind that has been devastating lives across the globe this summer.

    Canadian wildfires the size of Austria, a Hawaiian town incinerated by a hurricane-fueled firestorm, a Greek island devastated by three years of rainfall in a single day, a Libyan city washed into the sea after 40cm of rain fell in twenty-four hours leaving 20,000 dead, killer hurricanes fueled by oceans overheated by climate change.

    And then there were the extraordinary heatwaves in Italy, Spain, France, Japan, China; the floods in Madrid, Barcelona, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Beijing, Manila, on and on, with temperature, wind, and rainfall records shattered the world over.

    Almost as astonishing has been the indifference of our leaders. The silence has been deafening. Where are they? Why is no one joining the dots and demanding some kind of serious response?

    There's much more in the full article, and I hope you will read the whole thing.

    LINK -- https://www.medialens.org/2023/climate-collapse-the-grim-silence-of-our-leaders/

    #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency

    hembrow,
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    @breadandcircuses And today in the Netherlands we're talking about the government budget. It's expected that our government will say that they are "helping people" by keeping the price of petrol and diesel for cars artificially low.

    That's in a country where we know that annual fossil fuel subsidies have grown to about €50 billion per year (~ €2500 per person per year), despite the government promising more than a decade ago to phase these subsidies out.

    In a country known worldwide for cycling, our populist / neolib politicians continue to force car ownership and usage upon us, while talking about freedom.

    https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/dutchcarownership

    dangillmor, to random
    @dangillmor@mastodon.social avatar

    USENET, one of the original -- and always decentralized -- social networks, never completely went away. Now it may be on the verge of a comeback. https://www.theregister.com/2023/08/30/usenet_revival/

    hembrow,
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    @kentborg Which one ? I had a Serdar Argic (Armenian genocide) t-shirt and another with something about Canter and Siegel (green card lawyers). I don't think either T still exists, though, unfortunately.
    The first guy at least had a political point to make. The other two just wanted your money.

    Edited to add someone's photo from the internet of the Serdar Argic "Howling through the wires" shirt.
    @SteveBellovin @dangillmor @jvagle

    jbmr, to random Dutch

    Men in suits! The biggest threat to humanity.

    hembrow,
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    @jbmr It reminds me of something Michael Moore once wrote:

    White people scare the crap out of me... I have never been attacked by a black person, never been evicted by a black person, never had my security deposit ripped off by a black landlord, never had a black landlord... never been pulled over by a black cop, never been sold a lemon by a black car salesman, never seen a black car salesman, never had a black person deny me a bank loan, never had a black person bury my movie, and I've never heard a black person say, "We're going to eliminate ten thousand jobs here — have a nice day!"

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupid_White_Men

    dgar, to random
    @dgar@aus.social avatar
    hembrow,
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    @dgar Cyclists, eh. Always complaining. Why would you want a small part of Earth when they're already promising to send you into space ?

    atthenius, to space

    Next week, #NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies turns 60, and we are celebrating our anniversary with some retrospective talks on our history… and forward thinking talks about our future.

    I have been appointed to present “History and Future of #Climate Modeling”, so I’ve been interviewing many GISS alumni.

    The back-stories to the published development are fascinating.

    I’ve asked my boss to get a film maker to document these oral histories better. It would make a great documentary imho.

    Instantaneous cloud cover from Somerville et al 1975. This early NASA GISS weather model (derivative of UCLA’s Mintz and Arakawa 3-layer model) was moved wholesale to GSFC in the late 1970’s and evolved into their weather model, while NASA GISS started from scratch with a 1D Radiation model.
    The first publication of what became the GISS climate model. At this point, it is mostly a 1D radiative model driven by Hansen and Lacis. “Climate Impact of Increasing Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide” Hansen et al 1981. Jim was inspired by seminal work of Suki Manabe at GFDL, but he believed (turns out rightly) that the global radiative balance is THE critical thing to get global temperature…

    hembrow,
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    @atthenius It's a bit of an aside, but is this work still done in FORTRAN ? I'm kind of reassured to hear that it's still doing good work, despite all the efforts over years to encourage people to migrate to more modern languages, many of which have fallen by the wayside.

    (I've almost zero personal history with FORTRAN. I started learning it out of curiosity when I used Prime minis in the early 80s but my work was always with other languages - mostly C and assembler).

    hembrow, to random
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    This prick just flew over my head again. He seems to divert from a direct route just to go over Assen. In a climate emergency it really should be illegal to fly aircraft like this just for fun.

    It's this aircraft. Yeh, I'm sure, there's something really essential that he's doing in this thing which requires burning 100s of litres of fuel to travel a short distance.

    hembrow,
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    And as expected he's now back on the ground in the same place as he started after 45 minutes of burning jet fuel and treating the people of Drenthe and Groningen to noise and air pollution.
    These things apparently burn about 80 gallons per hour, which I think works out as slightly short of 500 kg of CO2 produced by a 3/4 hour pleasure flight.

    hembrow,
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    And he's back flying over my head again. Emitting half a ton of CO2 while creating a noise nuisance across several provinces, and doing that several times a week, is an extraordinarily antisocial hobby.

    CelloMomOnCars, to random
    @CelloMomOnCars@mastodon.social avatar

    "If global warming reaches or exceeds 2C by 2100, [scientists say] it is likely that mainly richer humans will be responsible for the death of roughly one billion mainly poorer humans over the next century.

    The peer-reviewed literature on the human mortality costs of carbon converged on the "1,000-ton rule," an estimate that one future premature death is caused for 1,000 tons of fossil carbon burned. "

    The abstract of the paper uses the tag

    https://phys.org/news/2023-08-climate-changing-human-billion-deaths-century.html

    hembrow,
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    @CelloMomOnCars This is terrible. It's a horrible indictment of how we live.

    The 1000 ton rule implies that three average EU citizens will between them kill two people to maintain their lifestyle. The average American will kill a bit more than one person in their lifetime and the average resident of Qatar will kill about three people in their lifetime.

    Billionaires are of course the ultimate leaches and some of them have emissions which are high enough to kill others at the rate of dozens of people every year.

    Killing dozens of people every year to maintain your own lifestyle is obviously not something that anyone should consider to be acceptable, but hundreds of millions of average people in rich countries each being responsible for about one other person's death is also not exactly innocent behaviour. We can't hide behind the worse crimes of others.

    https://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/2020/02/who-are-one-percent-super-polluters.html

    hembrow,
    @hembrow@todon.eu avatar

    @henry79 That's very much my experience as well. There are lots of people who are apparently "concerned" about climate change, some of whom even go on protests, but at the same time they think they have a right to a completely unsustainable lifestyle.

    In their next breath they may well tell you that they're going to some far off place on holiday (with justifications such as "I've worked hard so deserve it") as if this isn't at all connected to that other subject.

    Flying is only one example. See also cars, meat consumption etc. There's a lot of destructive behaviour going on amongst people who do have a choice.
    @MattMastodon @CelloMomOnCars

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