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Cycling into the killing fields

by Simon Brooke in Auchencairn, Tuesday, 22 May, 2007

The highway code is changing, and it will put cyclists at risk. This issue is so important I'm posting two articles on it; this one is polemic. [read more]

Medals, counting and chauvinism -- Sunday, 24 August, 2008
The British media - the BBC inter alia, although they may not be the worst offenders - have been making a big deal about 'Team GB' coming fourth in the 'medal table' as if that somehow reflected credit on the second most obese nation in the world, the nation of lard arsed couch potatoes whose nearest approach to athleticism is the five- metre waddle from the double yellow line to the pizza counter.
It's not cricket! -- Monday, 18 August, 2008
Well, we're half way through the Olympics.And already jounralists are saying we spend too much on cyclists, that our cyclists are pampered... It's not cricket.
Spartan? -- Tuesday, 15 July, 2008
A colleague directed my attention to an essay on 'Spartan Programming'. I think it misses the point.
The spread of knowledge in a large game world -- Sunday, 27 April, 2008
These days we have television, and news. But in a late bronze age world there are no broadcast media. News spreads by word of mouth. If non-player characters are to respond effectively to events in the world, knowledge has to spread.
Worlds and Flats -- Saturday, 5 April, 2008
Rendering a convincing distant view in computer-generated virtual environment is hard. There's an enormous amount of data in a distant view, and if the viewer is moving in real time it becomes computationally unaffordable. This essay outlines an algorithm for greatly reducing the computational cost, thus making it affordable.
The Witcher: Story telling of a high order -- Thursday, 28 February, 2008
I've been engaged in discussion recently about whether fantasy fiction can ever be literature - needless to say, I argue that it can. Can a video game be literature, or at least art of high quality? Experience the Witcher, and find out
The old road -- Sunday, 17 February, 2008
The old road has sunk back into the landscape. It's still a good road, well engineered, avoiding swamps and hollows, built, for the most part, of well graded, well compacted stone. It's a road used now by the shepherds on their quadbikes, by the horse folk out exercising, and by walkers in the summer. But a cross bike, now. This is a road for a cross bike.
The best wee act of hegemony in the world -- Sunday, 9 December, 2007
I wrote some months ago about the size of Dumfries and Galloway, considered against the independent countries of the world. Now I'm taking that argument to Scotland. The Scottish national debate has been set too long in terms of Scotland's supposed 'small nation' status, and that's worse than a myth. It's a lie.

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