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  Today's irritating modern consumer device is a smoke detector. It's one of the modern type which comes with a built in lithium battery which is claimed to last for ten years. I bought this one in May 2022 and it failed overnight, so it actually only lasted slightly over 4 years. Not impressive. The intermittent "replace the battery" peeping noise began to irritate our dogs which was even more annoying than it would have been if it just irritated us. I had of c...

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  Petitie om identificatietekens op politieuniforms verplichten te maken: https://actie.degoedezaak.org/petitions/maak-identificatietekens-op-politieuniform-verplicht

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  So today some of the worst people on earth using the most environmentally destructive tools on earth brought down a huge part of the internet by exploiting a potential problem found many years ago in PHP which was previously not practical for anyone to exploit. It only became "practical" to exploit this problem because "AI" came along to automate the boring and repetitive work required to do so. Absurd amounts of computing power were applied specifically to break into other...

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  The conditions under which Gaza's population is heading into winter are inhumane. But not enough people in my country are paying attention to the issue. Tonight's was the last pot banging demo outside Assen station this year. I'm hoping for some kind of Christmas miracle so we don't have to return on the 8th of January. Unfortunately, with the plight of Palestinians having been pushed out of the news there doesn't seem to be much chance of a rapid improvement so I expect w...

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  Hot day today. I went out for a bike ride this morning before it got it really hot, but returned almost immediately because it didn't seem healthy to cycle with the awful air quality. There's a wild fire in the south of the Netherlands and the smoke had come all the way to Assen. This afternoon the wind had turned and I took parcels to the post office. By that time I didn't really want to cycle any further due to the 33 C temperature. I'll try to ride a bit further this evening...

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  I've been working on a secret project this month. 20 years ago I lived in the UK and decided I had to go on one epic bike ride before leaving the country so in July 2006 I cycled from Land's End to John o'Groats - the length of the country from the furthest South-West point to the furthest North-East. The route that I took was just over 1700 km and it took ten days of cycling. It was fun, but also quite dangerous. A lot of those km were on A-roads, some of them on dual carriageways w...

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  A group of us visited the Dwingeloo radiotelescope on Sunday. I've often cycled down there to ride over the heath or sit near the radio telescope and eat my lunch, but not been on a guided tour before. I recommend it. You can currently book a tour on Sundays and Wednesdays in July and August. Real discoveries were made here. This was once the largest radiotelescope in the world, a title which of course it has not held for many years. But the telescope can now do more than it could in the 1...

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  This link gives access to 62 blog posts about infrastructure which work well in the Netherlands to make cycling accessible and safe for everyone, giving examples of what would also work elsewhere, perhaps in your country: http://www.aviewfromthecyclepath.com/search/label/what%20works #cycle #cycling #infrastructure #cyclepath #bicycle #safety

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  Today's weather was really nice and the #assenliggers went for a bike ride as we do on Sundays. @twilwel@mastodon.nl, @TheoZw@mastodon.nl and Gert provided the excellent company today. My personal target for today was to reach a total of 0.08 Gm on the bike computer in my Mango velomobile, which was reached a few km before I got home. 84 km in total. Not the longest ride we've ever done, but certainly one of the sunniest. #regel17 #velomobile #cycling #biketooter #netherlands #drenthe #...

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  Today's baking. Two loaves of bread and an apple pie. The pie used up the last of the frozen apples from last year. The bread was made with yeast from the bottom of some beer that we had last week. All baked with our own solar power, which we'd have had to pay to export to the grid if it hadn't been used for baking. #baking #vegan

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  Gil Scott-Heron. Whitey's On The Moon. Nothing much has changed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goh2x_G0ct4 #whiteysonthemoon #gillscottheron #artemis2

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  Here I am, approaching the age at which several tiny company pensions for the many companies that I worked for in the UK ought to start paying out, and I'm faced with this. "You must be a UK resident". "UK passport or driving licence" "must be a UK current account in your name" No, no, and No. Brexit took away a good part of my income, which is part of why I'd like to be able to access these pensions early. Brexit also t...

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  A couple of photos from today's recreational velomobile ride in Drenthe and Groningen. Not one of our longer rides, but I did at least cycle along for more km than my age. There was a strong wind again today so the velomobile's and their much better aerodynamics really made a difference, certainly compared to my ride yesterday on an open bike in similar condtions when I really felt the effect of the headwind. #regel17 #velomobile #cycling #biketooter #netherlands #drenthe #gronin...

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  A few photos from yesterday's recreational velomobile ride through Drenthe and Groningen with @twilwel and @TheoZw , and two others not on Mastodon. #regel17 #velomobile #biketooter #cycling #netherlands #drenthe #groningen