On Tue, 30 Oct 2018 11:48:07 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

On 10/30/2018 2:50 AM, James wrote:
On 30/10/18 9:59 am, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2018 06:38:42 +1100, James
wrote:

On 29/10/18 11:47 am, John B. Slocomb wrote:

This past week the news here has reported the death of a Philippine
bicyclist who was in Thailand participating in a 1,000 km Audax.

About 01:30 on Tuesday, the 24th, Russel Perez, 55, from the
Philippines, was struck by a van that run a red light and died, after
having completed approximately 950 km of the 1,000 km. ride.

Naughty van.


On 25 Nov police reported that a damaged van, a white Toyota, was
found at a garage in Min Buri district in Bangkok. It was taken to the
police station for forensic and fingerprint testing.* The police said
a man drove the van to the garage on Wednesday morning for repairs
saying that the vehicle hit a cow.

On 26 Nov.Police arrested a 29-year-old van driver who ran a red light
and fatally hit a 55-year-old Philippine cyclist joining a
long-distance event early Tuesday morning. He was charged with,
reckless driving causing death and damage, failing to help his victim,
failure to inform an official of the incident, running a red light and
using drugs.

Ah.* I see the van had a driver.

The media usually word these stories as though the motor vehicle did
something it shouldn't.* It is a common problem.* No mention of the
driver having lost control, or not paying attention, or being
distracted, etc., except maybe sometimes as a footnote.

The language used in motor vehicle crash stories is usually very
different from bicycle crash stories, where it is usually the rider that
is noted to have done something - not the bicycle.

I suppose that at least some of the wording was a result of people
initially seeing what happened. i.e., people saw a van hit a bicycle
but they couldn't see whether it was driven by a man, woman or an evil
spirit.


In my limited experience, the incident rate of vehicles being driven by
spirits, evil or good, is nil.* There are of course spirited drivers and
drivers under the influence of spirits, but it would suffice to say a
person driving a van hit a bicycle (and rider).

Well:

We're pretty sure our house has an electronic poltergeist. I can give
details if you like, but the run of weird electronic happenings has been
far too strange and far too long, affecting too many electronic devices.
Latest example: last night, our programmable thermostat refused to turn
the temperature down at night. I woke in the dead of the night to
stumble downstairs, lower the temperature manually, and write a reminder
note to re-program it. But this morning, the programming is fine.

(And it makes sense, if you think about it. Hasn't it been years since
you've read about dishes flying about kitchens on their own? The
poltergeists are having much more fun with electronics!)

This is pertinent, because we're hearing more and more about driverless
cars. Those will be packed full of electronics, and probably poltergeists.

Well, given that "numbers don't lie" and computers are simply machines
that can count to 2 (although they call it 0 and 1) thus it would seem
that a computer controlled auto couldn't be wrong and by elimination
it must be the bicycle's fault.
cheers,

John B.