2025-10
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2025/11/01/2025-10/
Rolling Stops
I was browsing my recent Reddit history and got to this comment about “rolling stops” and I am going to stand by this:
I roll stop signs on my bicycle, for this very reason. (Reasons: stop signs are placed with cars in mind instead of bicycles, it takes a lot of energy to start from a full stop instead of coasting near zero, and bicyclists have excellent visibility.) What happens in Sunnyvale though is a driver sees a bicycle coming to a stop sign and they go full panic and try to yield to me. I come to a complete stop and have to wait as they signal frantically from behind heavily tinted windows. I check my watch. I take a sip of water. If nobody has honked at them I yell “please go already you have the right of way its the law” &c. Then I continue on my way.
The best drivers take their turn. I don’t really care if they come to a full stop or not. Slow way down and check behind your a pillars and make sure there is nobody in your path. Bicycles have no a pillars, just tired meat motors trying to get somewhere on a hot day.
Waiting for the light
My Favorite Notebook
My favorite notebook. I found it in a book shop in Mountain View, near the turn of the century. It was small, like 4×6 or 5×7. The pages were a bit thicker than normal writing paper, suitable for sketching. It was spiral bound, so could lay flat and even flip open all the way. And the cover was rubber, maybe 3 millimeters. It was small and durable and good for taking whatever written or sketched idea came to mind. A wonderful companion to have at hand, especially for a guy whose daily wear at the time included cargo shorts.
Sometimes I contemplate The Best Tool for capturing thoughts. The modern smart phone is always at hand but the interface is optimized for consumption over expression. A paper notebook is less universally at hand, but that rugged little bugger with the thick pages that could lie flat . . . I still remember that one fondly.
Old traveling companions
Monuments of Past Hatred
I caught the tail end of a talk with Jelani Cobb at City Arts & Lectures on KQED. He described a museum in Russia that features Nazi artifacts. Because of what they represent and the blood price paid to acquire them, they are displayed on the floor. He suggested this as a good strategy for Confederate monuments. We should display them to remember history, but pull them off their pedestals and leave them lying in the mud. “Here’s a monument to that war that you lost.”
Remembering the Past
NPR Claims Anti-Fascism is a “Far-Left Ideology”
Earlier this month, President Trump welcomed right-wing influencers to the White House for a roundtable about antifa, the far-left movement or ideology opposed to fascism.
Far-Left Ideologues on Foreign Soil
21 Monkeys
Via https://www.wapt.com/article/monkeys-on-the-loose-near-heidelberg-mississippi/69181629:
All but one of the rhesus monkeys that escaped from an overturned truck in Jasper County were euthanized, according to officials. “We are continuing to look for the one monkey that is still on the loose. The monkey that got away actually crossed interstate, went out into a wooded area.”
The monkeys, weighing approximately 40 pounds each, are aggressive toward humans and require personal protective equipment to handle.
The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office originally said the monkeys carried hepatitis C, herpes and COVID. Tulane officials stressed that the animals were not diseased or infectious.
I am sure those monkeys have good reasons for being aggressive towards humans and I am rooting for the one that got away to find a nice place to hole up safe.
We are all diseased monkeys desperate to escape
