Paul Larsmon

_{Journalist, commentator, economist and now e- bike aficionado}

I was probably around four or five when I learned how to ride a proper bicycle, two wheels not three, and no stabilisers. It was in the yard of my dad’s family farm in Norway, struggling to stay upright on a pig-iron heavy lady’s bone shaker. My older brother Dave was running along behind, clutching the saddle to keep me vertical – until he wasn’t. I sensed his absence and knew, immediately, that I could now ride a bike. And all that meant in terms of freedom.

I’ve been riding bikes ever since – rushing around suburban pavements to meet up with childhood friends; tearing down forest paths against the stop-watch with cow-horn handlebars and no sense of mortality. Commuter cycling to the station, sticking the bike in a slam door guard’s van and then hurtling across London sans helmet, sans fear (and still without a sense of mortality).

And latterly, mostly on hybrids, be-jeaned and be-shorted .   Unlike wrapped-in-Lycra friends, who spent more on their wheels than I did on a whole bike.  But I’m not sure they enjoyed the sights, smells and sounds of the countryside any more than me. Mostly they always looked unhappy and in pain.

And then, well, I got older. Hills and headwinds conspired to curb my enthusiasm. The bicycle stayed in the garage, garnering cobwebs. I started thinking about mortality.

It was a chance encounter with the bike of my chum Lindsay’s wife that changed everything. Lynda’s bicycle had a motor! Four power settings so naturally, being male, I went straight to the top one and took off down their cul-de-sac like Barry Sheene. Later I learned that, legally, the battery-powered motors must cut out at 15.5 mph. But of course, you can get to that mind-bending velocity as slowly or quickly as you like.

Anyway, it changed my life. Straddling my e-bike, I have been on many day rides (even during Covid) and, pre-plague, on a few longer trips: the Peace Trail around the Ypres battlefields for example, and 150-odd miles across North Devon. Both in the excellent company of said Lindsay, who now has his own e-bike.

So here, as they say, is the science.

An e-bike is not a moped. It’s a normal bicycle aided by a battery charged electric motor. This is usually situated in the rear wheel hub. The battery is charged from a normal three pin plug and takes a few hours to go from zero to full. Charging will cost no more than 10p.

The bike has gears (usually 7/8) and you still have to pedal. The heart beat rises! At the end of a full day you feel knackered and in need of beer!

There are usually four power modes, so you can choose how much you want to be assisted. As you would expect, the higher power you choose, the less the range. Battery capacities vary. I found that on a fairly hilly route (eg  up to Exmoor and down again), I could easily do 50 miles. But the size of the battery is an important consideration, dependent on what sort of cycle trips you are planning.

There is as big a range of e-bikes as there is for the ordinary variety: hybrids, mountains, fold-ups…

And, of course, prices vary hugely.

I’d go for mid-range. One of the big price drivers with traditional bikes is weight. So you pay more for less (a bit like designer bikinis). But weight isn’t really so important when you have a motor. I reckon you can get a very decent ebike for around £1500. 

So – it’s good for you.

It’s good for the environment (especially if it stops you getting in the car).

And it’s good for your smile!

What’s not to like?

FACT BOX

• Sales of electric bikes tripled during the UK’s Covid summer (Halfords)
• UK consumers bought 100,000 ebikes in 2020, up 40% on the previous year (Mintel)
• Ebike sales are expected to more than double by 2025, to 6.5 million units (The Confederation of the European Bicycle Industry – Yes! It exists!)
• The UK government is planning subsidies to encourage ebike buying which could see prices slashed by 30% (The Times)

#e-bike #cycling #health #lifestyle #ypres

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Wars are always bad, and the people who fight them are too, usually. They have to be to survive. So any glamorization of one side as heroic freedom fighters and the other as The Evil is nearly always a simplification for children and elderly men with a drink problem. Anyone who has studied the troubles in Spain’s Basque Country knows this well. In the British Isles, no one knew it better than Chris Ryder, a veteran reporter on the Northern Ireland beat, with both sides in his contacts book, and a healthy scepticism for the claims of each.

Ryder was correspondent for both Sunday Times and then Telegraph. Because of his reporting, the Provisionals soon planned to kill him, but were dissuaded because of the PR damage it would inflict upon their cause. His admiration for the courage of the security forces was manifest, but:

…… Ryder did not shy away from the controversies that dogged the regiment. He faced full-on the issue of secret dual membership of the UDR with loyalist paramilitaries and the regiment’s reputation as a sectarian force among the nationalist population, arguing that the UDR would have to be disbanded as part of necessary reforms to the security system.

Courage indeed to attack your own side, especially given the insane passions of the time.

Off duty he was a generous man, husband and bon viveur. We link his full Guardian obituary below, from which our quote is taken. What could intelligent people like him achieve in peace, if they lived in a place where their neighbours had not descended into a sociopathic and futile conflict, like all the others?

Chris Ryder obituary | Media | The Guardian

we thank Mr Lindsay Charlton of Kent for this story

#northernireland #ira #uda #udr #thetroubles #journalism #chrisryder

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Lindsay Charlton

In 1982, while working as a reporter for Granada TV in Manchester, I was fortunate enough to meet a small, dynamic elderly man by the name of Benny Rothman. The occasion was the 50^th anniversary of the Kinder Trespass by a group of 400 ramblers, who in 1932, walked from Hayfield to Kinder Scout in the Peak District. _{(see link below-ed)}

Benny, a member of the British Workers Sports Federation, was one of the leaders of three groups of walkers who converged on Kinder Scout in defiance of the landowners and gamekeepers who blocked their path. Scuffles broke out on the summit, five of the walkers were arrested, but the point was made and the event widely covered in the national press of the day. The point being that the British countryside should be the open and accessible to men and women of every background and class.

According to the Hayfield Kinder Trespass Group, this act of civil disobedience was one of the most successful in British history. It arguably led to the passage of the National Parks legislation in 1949 and helped pave way for the establishment of the Pennine Way and other long-distance footpaths. Walkers’ rights to travel through common land and uncultivated upland were eventually protected by the Countryside and Rights of Way Act (CROW Act) of 2000. Though controversial when it occurred, it has been interpreted as the embodiment of working class struggle for the right to roam versus the rights of the wealthy to have exclusive use of moorlands for grouse shooting.

Later generations in the UK, have become accustomed to being able, armed with their trusty Ordnance Survey Map usually found these days on a smartphone, to traverse an astonishing 150,000 miles of footpaths and byways across the UK. Along these ancient routes we follow in the footsteps of our ancestors who forged these paths often thousands of years ago. Few countries in the world have a comparable network for public enjoyment.

But there’s a problem. Somehow according to the Ramblers, we have forgotten, lost or just misplaced almost 49,000 miles of footpaths that are now unrecorded and missing from our current official maps. They all need finding, recording and recovering by 2026 when the legal record of rights of way will be updated.

It’s a massive challenge, and if you care about the countryside and our ability to roam then the Ramblers need your help fast. Their ‘Don’t lose your Way Campaign’ aims to restore these historic routes and you can track down missing paths where you live using their mapping tool.

Time to get those walking boots out, and follow Benny’s ghost across this green and pleasant land. Details of how to get involved can be found here:

https://www.ramblers.org.uk/news/latest-news/2020/november/dont-lose-your-way-reveals-lost-historic-paths.aspx

Note: There are some great photos of gamekeepers waiting for the original Kinder trespassers in the archives if you can track them down.

Mass trespass of Kinder Scout – Wikipedia

_{Lindsay Charlton is a journalist, entrepreneur fell walker and an enthusiast for many healthy sports}

#bennyrothman #kinderscout #rambling #health #sports #countryside #nationalparks

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A big thank you to all our many contributors readers and followers. You are all becoming far too numerous to name, but can we say how much strength we take from your constant, friendly presence. Not only are you all the cutting intellectual edge of humanity, but some of your ideas for cocktails aren’t bad either.

And remember this. Yes, things are a bit bad right now. But people have lived through much, much worse. Take the poor blighters in the sixth century. Bubonic plague, wars, climate change, massive volcanic eruptions and really high taxes-all in the same short period. It’s a theme we shall return to. Meanwhile, read all you can lay your hands on about it-and be grateful that you live now.

#plagueof justinian #procopius #kyleharper #lateantiquity #byzantium

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Fans of Graham Greene will recall how quickly the marvellous lifesaving discovery of penicillin was quickly exploited by spivs, crooks and racketeers. The very best in human nature was quickly made a playpen for the worst. As we write, the great roll out of vaccines has just begun. So far there is no example of a Harry Lime at work in our midst. But a short supply backed right up against an almost fractal level of demand must carry enormous dangers.

Ian Bremmer of Time (via Apple News) gives us a timely article on the jealousies and nastinesses that could ensue if we are not careful. It’s from an American, nation-level perspective, but waht is true for nations is often true of individuals as well.

What Happens Next as the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollouts Begin | Time

For the British perspective, Nature trails the Guardian on how the UK \government must struggle to come up with a fair and effective system. We don’t envy them!

Doses of the Pfizer—BioNTech vaccine have begun to arrive in UK hospitals after it received emergency authorization last week. The first shots will be given to people over age 80, starting tomorrow. Care-home residents had been designated as a top priority to receive the jab, but health authorities are still exploring how to distribute the vaccine outside hospitals because it comes in deep-frozen packs containing 975 doses that must be stored at –70 ℃ .The Guardian | 5 min read And…An Immunologist Writes. Here’s a lovely Q & A piece from the Conversation where Tracy Hussell tries to answer some of the questions which any intelligent person might rightly have. ‘Is it safe to have more than one type of COVID vaccine?’ and other questions answered by an immunologist (theconversation.com)

Our Personal view? We want an mRNA based vaccine, because they are new and cool. (literally). When we were young, you were the coolest kid in the class if you were the first one to buy the new T Rex record or have platform brogues. The old attenuated vaccines are so last century! Look it all up in Wikipedia if you don’t believe us. By the way- Wikipedia is the most fantastic source of knowledge for everyone. Here’s how you can donate.

Support Wikipedia – Wikimedia Foundation

^{We thank Mr Peter Seymour of Hertfordshire for today’s story}

#mrnavaccines #vaccines #covid19 #sarscov2 #coronavirus #pfizer #moderna #astrazeneca

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The worst abusers are those who deny they’re doing it. After this you won’t be able to deny what you are doing any more. We’re all guilty of this abuse, and we’ll suffer for it if we don’t stop. And what is this abuse? What we are all jointly doing to the world’s beautiful oceans.

The oceans regulate our climate. They produce most of our oxygen. They feed us-or rather they did until we overfished. Now we dump in millions of tonnes of plastic and even more horrible pollutants. Our massive global warming is turning the seas acid, and natural treasures like The Great Barrier Reef are bleaching to death. Our lights and industries disrupt the lives of birds and whales.

The first call on intelligent action is to know your problem. This week The Conversation has launched a series called Oceans 21 which is designed to brief all intelligent citizens and give you a starting point. After that, it’s up to you. But we imagine that a number of you have families who need a future -it’s a pretty basic human right, we think. So once again, we say, don’t read this, read The Conversation and its series below. Oh-and they have some great pictures!

here’s the series sampler

The world’s ocean is bearing the brunt of a changing climate. Explore its past and future in our new series (theconversation.com)

even the Pacific is in real trouble-see if you can bear to read this

It might be the world’s biggest ocean, but the mighty Pacific is in peril (theconversation.com)

And petty little disputes over fishing rights will seem pointless if there is no fish at all left in the Atlantic

The Atlantic: The driving force behind ocean circulation and our taste for cod (theconversation.com)

#pollution #globalwarming #plastic #fishing #greatbarrierreef

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Let’s appreciate it just for once

Everyone ‘s going out again to pubs and shops and markets, and telling each other “the vaccines are coming-everything will be alright!” As Mr Gary Herbert points out, the sheer amount of slog, not only to design, but also test, regulate and distribute your vaccine is truly mind crunching. So before we take it all for granted, as if we were spoiled children, he has tipped us this article by Sam Fazell of Bloomberg which gives some idea of the hours so many superb professionals put in. Thanks.

How AstraZeneca-Oxford Can Recover From Thieir Covid-19 Vaccine Stumble – Bloomberg

Nature too have this on the same theme-a bit more of it!

Developing COVID-19 vaccines in record time is an eye-watering accomplishment — but it’s still just the beginning. Hospitals and health workers — who are, in some places, overwhelmed and exhausted — are needed to administer them. Pregnant and breastfeeding women, who make up a significant chunk of health-care and care-home workers, have been left out of clinical trials. Similarly, there are no data on how the front-running vaccines affect children under 12. STAT explores the challenges that must be overcome to make the most of the spectacular scientific achievements of vaccine-makers.STAT | 23 min read

Knowledge is a dangerous thing

So many of us take freedom of enquiry for granted, Yet in some countries being a scientist can cost you your life, if the regime doesn’t like you. Here is the latest instalment in the ongoing saga of Ahmadreza Djalali, who has fallen foul of the regime in Iran. Nature‘s intro and Guardian link says it all-but of you want to help, perhaps your country’s Overseas Ministry (here we call it the Foreign Office) might be pressured.

A medical researcher who was under threat of imminent execution in Iran has been granted a reprieve, reports The Guardian. Physician–scientist Ahmadreza Djalali, a scholar in disaster medicine who has dual Iranian–Swedish nationality, was sentenced to death in Iran three years ago on a charge of spying. Sweden, the United Nations and the global scientific community have pressured Iran to re-examine his case. It is not known whether the stay of execution is temporary or could lead to release, perhaps via a prisoner swap like the one that led to last month’s release of British-Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert.The Guardian | 5 min read
Read more: Alarm as execution looms for scientist on death row in Iran (Nature | 4 min read)

Why waste time spotting liars?

There’s so few of them about! Particularly in fields like finance, politics and on the internet. If however you want a field guide as to how to spot this rare species. then Cody Porter has some insights in The Conversation

Spotting liars is hard – but our new method is effective and ethical (theconversation.com)

If it’s broken-fix it

We have always maintained that the chief guarantor of political stability in Britain after the second world war was the twenty-five year mortgage. It produced a new class with a stake in their society; Mrs Thatcher‘s council house sales of the nineteen eighties merely extended the tradition. Now in 2020 our housing market is drawn out to breaking by inequality. A whole new generation of discontented renters is rising, prime material for the attentions of revolutionaries and destabilisers. Here’s Matthew Thompson of The Conversation. And we bet this is not just a British problem either.

Public housing needs radical reform: here’s how (theconversation.com)

Quote of the week, chosen by Dr SP Day

In this age of liars and people who keep denying plain facts, we think this quote from the Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll, is entirely apposite:

Just the place for a Snark!” the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.

“Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What I tell you three times is true.“

We have taken the lines from Wikiquote: Here is the reference

The Hunting of the Snark – Wikiquote

That’s quite enough for a busy weekend!

#covid-19 #sars-cov-2 #coronavirus #vaccine #astrazenecaoxford #Ahmadreza Djalali #iran #ukhousing #liars #lewiscarroll

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^{Our thanks this week to an inspiring teacher, mentor, polymath, musician and friend, Mr Mike Mooney}

When we asked Mike for a contribution to Friday Night Cocktails, he was forthright:

“There’s only one cocktail for me. One massive measure of vodka, mixed with double that of Big Tom. Yum!”

When we pressed him for a little more detail he replied:

“Big Tom is a spiced tomato juice (RRP £2.69) that has the perfect combination of Worcester sauce, Tabasco, pepper, salt, celery salt and everything else besides. The addition of ice depends on the outside temperature: in summer yes, in winter no.”

We must admit we hadn’t heard of Big Tom until now. But thanks to Mike we have found their fun website and thoroughly recommend its lists of recipes and tales. Including why the Bloody Mary should be stirred with a stick of celery, and many other thoughts and ideas.

Thanks, Michael and a happy weekend to all our thinkers everywhere.

Bloody Mary – James White Drinks (bigtom.co.uk)

#bigtom #bloodymary #jameswhite #cocktails

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It’s going to be a cold hungry Christmas for a lot of people. Can you help, like Good King Wenceslas did? For younger readers, here is our version of the famous carol:

Good King Wenceslas

Good King Wenceslas last looked out, one night while watching telly

When a poor man came in sight, sad and slightly smelly

It was proper cold that night, he could tell by glancing

I can’t sit here, it just ain’t right, enjoy Strictly Come Dancing

“Bring me flesh and bring me wine, there’s some upstairs, I knew it

ASDA Chardonnay is fine, that should probably do it

Pot noodles and odds and ends are nowhere near enough

Bring Auntie Bessie’s, Uncle Ben’s-proper pukka stuff!”

They loaded up the car and went round all the local food banks

It made old Wenceslas feel well good to see the children give thanks

“Christ!” he mused, “it’s well alright, doing things for others

Even if some look like Chavs, they’re someone’s wives and mothers!”

#goodkingwenceslas #marcusrashford #homeless #covid19crisis #hungry

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As we write these lines, the breaking news this morning is that the UK Government has licenced the Pfizer-BionTec vaccine for national use; it was the first of the three great vaccine breakthroughs. Obviously readers of LSS will hope for the maximum uptake of vaccine in all countries-but. Yes, let’s tread very cautiously here, because if we want to maximum uptake, we will not get there by demonising and making fun of those who are worried or have their doubts.

In a marvellously humane and thoughtful piece for The Conversation, Caitjan Gainty and Agnes Arnold Foster explain why. There are good historical reasons why some people distrust vaccines. Some of it seems to be due to genuinely questionable behaviour by certain large pharmaceutical companies and the CIA. (we shall refrain from including “of course” in that last sentence). Moreover early attempts at vaccination seem to have been accompanied by attempts to reinforce class domination and to humiliate. Don’t demonise, don’t polarise and don’t condemn is the authors’ message.

We think at this point it is relevant to introduce one of the best stories we have ever heard in our lives, for it says so much about human psychology. It took a while to find it again, so we’ll let Karen Pollock of Huffpost tell it for you

 Captain Cook famously exploited the power of the ban. He had observed that German sailors suffered from far lower rates of scurvy than English ones. The medical knowledge of the time had no explanation for this (now we know it was caused by vitamin C deficiency). He wondered if it was the German habit of eating sauerkraut, and ordered that his men have a daily ration. When his men refused to eat such strange, foreign food, Cook’s solution was simple. He banned his men from eating the sauerkraut and labelled the barrels “officers use only”. The sauerkraut quickly disappeared and rates of scurvy declined.

There is no better way to make a policy fail than to force it on people. There is no better way to get people interested than to ban something. If you don’t like that, try moving out into the Cosmos and ask to join another species.

^{Our thanks to Mr Peter Seymour of Hertfordshire for this story}

Vaccine hesitancy is not new – history tells us we should listen, not condemn (theconversation.com)

Gotta Ban Them All | HuffPost Life

#vaccines #covid-19 #coronavirus #sars-cov-2 #captaincook #reversepsychology