Via Police cannot be trusted with fines, magistrates warn – Telegraph: Police cannot be trusted to hand out summary justice and will act as “judge and jury” if given powers to issue more on-the-spot fines, magistrates have warned. In an extraordinary attack, the Magistrates’ Association said it is a “certainty” that […]
Read MorePost Tagged with: "Responsibility"
Some favourite quotes from Karl Popper
Karl Popper is without doubt my favourite character in political philosophy. He was rational, believing knowledge and truth to be objective, but aware of the boundaries of reason. A scientist but concerned with the mechanisms of society. By humanitarian inclination a social democrat — when that meant “Marxist” — but […]
Read MoreSkyhook reserve static line
Follow the link from the photo for a sequence of images showing how, when the main parachute is cut away in an emergency, the Skyhook RSL deploys the reserve parachute using the main as a drogue. The reserve is professionally packed in the white bag on the left, which pulls […]
Read MoreBBC NEWS | Town switches off speed cameras
Via BBC NEWS | England | Wiltshire | Town switches off speed cameras. Swindon has become the first English authority to scrap the use of its fixed speed cameras. The Conservative-run borough council said it was reinvesting the £320,000 a year maintenance costs for the five cameras in road safety […]
Read MoreCameron: Giving power back to the people
Via The Conservative Party | News | Speeches | David Cameron: Giving power back to the people: The British state has developed over centuries into a powerful entity charged with delivering important goals. To protect its citizens from internal and external threat. To redistribute wealth from the richest to the […]
Read MoreParty Election Broadcast – 20th May 2009
A great victory: Brown defeated over Gurkha rules
Gordon Brown’s government has suffered a shock defeat in the Commons on its policy of restricting the right of former Gurkhas to settle in the UK. MPs voted by 267 to 246 in favour of a Lib Dem motion that all Gurkhas be offered an equal right of residence. Tory […]
Read MoreSimon Jenkins: Swine flu? A panic stoked in order to posture and spend | Comment is free | The Guardian
Interesting comment at the Guardian, but people are taking this very seriously: We appear to have lost all ability to judge risk. The cause may lie in the national curriculum, the decline of “news” or the rise of blogs and concomitant, unmediated hysteria, but people seem helpless in navigating the […]
Read MoreKTM 950 Supermoto in a Cotswold sunset
I took a beautiful ride in the Cotswolds this evening on my KTM 950 Supermoto. What a privilege it is to live in such countryside and to have such a magnificent bike: KTM 950 Supermoto in a Cotswold sunset, originally uploaded by stevenjbaker. The roads were superb: open, clear and […]
Read MoreWhy skydive?
Someone suggested to me that the reason for skydiving is the thrill of the risk to life. Um, no, not quite. It is because, for about a minute, the skydiver is at liberty in the sky without an aeroplane. It is because skydiving is an exercise in personal responsibility, for […]
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