rachel.blog

insignificant ramblings of a 50-something woman

  • When is it ok to discuss climate change?

    I just watched this speech by the Philippine Climate Change Commissioner, Yeb Saño, at the UN climate conference in Warsaw. He pleads for action on climate change with passion, breaking down in tears at one point. It’s well worth watching. Yeb Saño makes a direct connection between climate change and the tragedy unfolding in the…

  • Sock puppet

    Just a quick post to warn other bloggers about sock puppets. I recently found one on my blog. These are people who comment under a false identity to make it seem like more people are critical of your posts than is really the case. In some cases, a sock puppet’s purpose may be to add…

  • Bristol

    We have come to Bristol for the weekend to see some friends. Bristol is a very cool city. Where Edinburgh is perhaps a little too perfect, Bristol is a little rough around the edges in an endearing sort of way. A bit like Glasgow. There’s some good cycling infrastructure here too. Bristol is famous for…

  • Cycling, naughty words and vegetarian biscuits

    I have had a couple of flat tyres on my bike recently. It is very annoying when this happens because it is almost always when I am cycling or about to go cycling. What it has made me realise is how much I prefer cycling to walking and running because what usually happens is that…

  • Wind farms: love ’em or hate ’em?

    I promised one of my commentators that I’d write a blog post about wind farms. This is perhaps against my better judgement since there is sure to be a heated discussion in the comments but I am not usually one to shy away from a good debate.  So here goes. Why do wind farms generate…

  • Edinburgh

    Our last stop before returning to York is Edinburgh. Edinburgh is magnificent. Bill Bryson wrote about it in his book, Notes from a Small Island, but he painted it in a slightly unfavourable light. His objection, if I recall correctly, was that Edinburgh is full of all the same high street shops that plague most…

  • Geneva

    Another day, another city, another sister. This time we’re in Geneva visiting Ben’s sister. I have never been all that fond of Geneva because it has somewhat of an exclusive feeling to it. It also seems to be full of banks and shops selling expensive watches. Something that they do very well here though is…

  • How the richest 1% live

    Global wealth has risen considerably over the last 10 years but this wealth is spread unevenly. The richest 1% have more than 46% of all global assets and the richest 10% have more than 86% of wealth. Here’s a neat youtube video which graphically illustrates this inequality. So what do the 1% spend all they…

  • TukTuk Azur

    My sister and her partner run a Tuk Tuk business in the South of France around Antibes, Cap d’Antibes and Juan les Pins. Today we got our first ride in one of these three-wheeled contraptions. They are electric, nippy and very, very cool. The electric motor makes them quiet and environmentally friendly but the best…

  • Where am I?

    I am here. Why is there a shower on the beach? Is this not the strangest sight ever? It’s not the presence of a shower that I find odd – I like to be able to rinse the sand off as much as the next person – it’s the placement of the shower. After you’ve…

  • Playing God with Earth’s thermostat

    In an attempt to propel the discussion from “is it or isn’t it happening” to “what should we do about it”, I want to bring up the topic of geo-engineering. This is essentially large-scale manipulation of Earth’s climate by us. It comes in many flavours from capturing CO2 for storage deep beneath the sea to developing…

  • Russell Brand on voting | Halloween festivities

    Russell Brand is guest editor for The New Statesmen and he’s written a surprisingly good essay about, what exactly is hard to say, but I would say it’s a sort of Russell Brand philosophy of everything. You can read it here – Russell Brand on revolution. It is very long but well worth reading. Here’s…

  • River Ouse

    Last week the river Ouse looked very full. Yesterday I thought, wow, it’s even fuller. This morning it is double WOW! Here’s a photo of the river, taken from the bike path, yesterday afternoon.   Here’s a photo taken from the same spot this morning.   And here in portrait mode so you can see…

  • York Minster with kids

    We finally got around to venturing inside York Minster today with two small children in tow. Yes, it is beautiful and magnificent, but unlike other cathedrals we’ve been in, York Minster has hands-on activities for adults and children. There was this thing inside  (called an orb apparently) that looks a bit like a cancerous growth,…

  • Soccer and cycling in York

    Every Saturday morning, Daniel plays soccer. He is 6 years old, mildly autistic and has Tourette’s syndrome. We have tried many extra-curricular activities for him before, including soccer, but he never enjoyed any of them. But he loves the soccer coaching in York because it’s run by the mother of someone in Daniel’s class who…

  • Online shopping in the UK

    Yesterday I ordered some groceries online. I thought I had ordered 1kg of carrots and 1kg of bananas.  What I got instead was a single carrot in a bag and a single banana in another bag. This is one of the pitfalls of online grocery shopping. Don’t get me wrong here though, I absolutely adore…

  • Climate departure and Daily Mail hyperbole

    There was an article in the Daily Mail last week predicting a global warming apocalypse.  Here’s the headline: Apocalypse Now: Unstoppable man-made climate change will become reality by the end of the decade and could make New York, London and Paris uninhabitable within 45 years, claims new study Read more: Daily Mail The Daily Mail…

  • Should helmets be compulsory?

    I thought I’d conduct a poll (see below) to see what readers of my blog think about legislation to make helmets compulsory. One of the things I like about living in York is that I don’t *have* to wear my helmet when I go cycling. I can just jump on my bike and dash out…

  • How the Dutch got their cycle paths

    A friend of mine shared this video with me which I found really interesting. It discusses the reasons why the Dutch have such brilliant cycling infrastructure today and you get to see some of it in action. I wish more countries would follow suit.

  • More excrement from James Delingpole

    There’s nothing quite a like an article written by James Delingpole to spoil my evening and incite anger. His articles are almost always inflammatory, biased, full of inconsistencies and quite often wrong. I just read his latest turd in the Telegraph and with each line I felt my blood pressure rising and my anger escalate.…