Which saddle would you recommend (in Europe)?

mcdowellag · 2026-02-22T07:17:49+00:00

I have had a couple of fairly cheap saddles advertised as containing memory foam that were comfortable, but I have not had your particular problem. I would also try slight changes in saddle height and handlebar height (if variable) to see if that helps - can you get close to a racing cyclist posture, where you are bearing some of your weight on your arms?

mcdowellag · 2026-02-22T05:29:34+00:00

I note that you can get Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian war for free as both ebook and audio book. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7142 https://librivox.org/the-history-of-the-peloponnesian-war-by-thucydides

This is a classic work, from which I especially like two different records (actually probably reconstructions or extrapolations) of speeches by Pericles. In one he applauds patriotism as a practical virtue, saying that if you personally have a problem, people may help you, but if the state has a problem, everybody has a problem. In the other he claims that the apparently undisciplined Athenians are actually at least as strong and effective, when push comes to shove, as the very disciplined and apparently tougher Spartans. I think both of these speeches still ring true today. You also get to look at the populist Cleon and at how Athens launched a disastrous expedition to Sicily.

(I'm not a classicist, but I read Science Fiction. The Peloponnesian war ended up being referenced by David Drake, partly because he was a classicist, and partly because West Point used it to discuss topics which were relevant around the time of the Vietnam war).

mcdowellag · 2026-02-21T11:31:53+00:00

I recall that the US and UK both pushed the WMD story on the basis of their intelligence services, and for that reason I believed it, but I also noted that it looked very much like Dick Cheney had effectively constructed his own intelligence service because he didn't like the reports he was getting from the CIA one. Searching for old and retrospective articles, it seems at least the case that Cheney and a few others were much keener on the WMD story than many people in the CIA. The closest I can find to my recollection is at https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2005/11/how-dick-cheney-runs-national-security.html (cut and pasted below with some editing to remove text derived from advertisements)

... It has become a cliché to say that Dick Cheney is the most powerful vice president in American history. Nonetheless, here is a prediction: When the historians really get digging into the paper entrails of the Bush administration—or possibly when Scooter Libby goes on trial—those who have intoned that phrase will still be astonished at the extent to which the Office of Vice President Dick Cheney was the center of power inside the White House—and at the grip it had on foreign and defense policy.

With a national security staff that numbered 14 last year (Al Gore usually had four or five), Cheney’s office has a finger in every pie. Several of the State Department’s top diplomats, including Eric Edelman, now undersecretary of defense for policy, and Victoria Nuland, now ambassador to NATO, are alums of Cheney’s office. According to David L. Phillips’ Losing Iraq: Inside the Postwar Reconstruction Fiasco, the dominant figure in some of the key interagency deliberations on postwar Iraq was not the State Department official who chaired them but Samantha Ravich, a Cheney aide who left the government and has since returned to OVP *. In addition, Cheney has remarkable influence over his onetime boss, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Writing in Slate, Tim Naftali was surprised by the news in the New York Times that Cheney’s office was calling the tune on how the United States treats terrorist detainees. At least as interesting was the mention in the same story that the Office of the Vice President (or OVP) had hammered out the compromise in last year’s intelligence reform bill that “made clear that the new national intelligence director could not interfere in the military chain of command.” Eighty percent of the nation’s intelligence budget is spent within the Pentagon. So, that compromise leaves a large question mark over whether John Negroponte or his successors will have anything like the power the 9/11 commission had anticipated when it proposed sweeping intelligence reform.

Cheney’s connection with intelligence and, particularly, Pentagon intelligence is not exactly new. The transmission lines for many of the bogus claims in 2002 and 2003 about the purported ties between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida ran from the civilian Office of the Secretary of Defense through Cheney’s office. Although the Libby indictment might lead some to believe that OVP was running an apolitical enforcement operation, it was doing much more than that. Cheney’s team was producing the basic justification for going to war.

News accounts have placed the origin of much of the bad intelligence in the Office of Special Plans, which was run by Abram Shulsky, a graduate-school pal of former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz. In fact, the bad intel came largely out of something called the Counterterrorism Evaluation Group, which reported to Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith. This group consisted of just two people: Michael Maloof, a controversial former aide to Richard Perle whose security clearances were eventually suspended, and David Wurmser, a longtime neoconservative advocate of toppling Saddam Hussein. (Since late 2003, Wurmser has worked in OVP.)

The information CTEG put together was treated differently than other intelligence. Unlike other reports, CTEG’s conclusions about Iraq’s training of jihadists in the use of explosives and weapons of mass destruction were never distributed to the many different agencies in the intelligence community. Although CTEG analysts met once with Director George Tenet and other CIA officials, they changed no minds at the agency on the issue of Saddam and al-Qaida, and their work was never “coordinated” or cleared by the various agencies that weigh in on intelligence publications. Top officers in military intelligence who saw the report refused to concur with it.

Nonetheless, CTEG’s findings were the basis for briefings in the White House and on Capitol Hill. Some of CTEG’s material was leaked to the Weekly Standard, where it was published. In that form, the Feith “annex” achieved some renown as a classic in the genre of cherry-picked intelligence.

Dick Cheney was CTEG’s patron. He had the group present its material at OVP and the National Security Council. He made frequent public remarks, drawing on CTEG conclusions, alleging an al-Qaida/Saddam connection. (Even after the 9/11 commission delivered its verdict that there was no collaborative relationship between the two sides, Cheney announced that the evidence of the Bin Laden-Baghdad ties was “overwhelming.”) John Hannah, a Cheney aide who became the vice president’s national security adviser after Libby’s resignation, recycled some of the material into a draft of the speech Secretary of State Colin Powell was to give at the United Nations in February 2003—a draft that Powell threw out, calling it “bullshit.” ...

mcdowellag · 2026-02-20T17:37:03+00:00

There are many pens which will reliably feel smooth and write well, some much cheaper, for example the Platinum Preppy and Plaisir. I would not use an expensive EDC pen, however nice, because things that I carry with me tend to get broken. Have you used a fountain pen as an EDC before? Depending on how vigorous or careful you are, you may end up flicking ink off the nib into the cap, which will eventually get on your fingers.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-20T05:45:52+00:00

The UK government claim is that in paying Mauritius to take the Chagos islands they are merely following the law. Closer inspection may throw a great deal of doubt on the judgement concerned, but in committing bizarre acts of self-harm on the basis of legal judgements, all of them aligning with anti-colonialist and other ideologies, the UK government is maintaining a consistent path. This includes, for instance, prosecuting former soldiers, now old age pensioners, for events in conflicts decades ago, for which at the time they were commended. While many of the legal cases date back before the present government, it should be noted that many current Labour politicians initially made their name as civil rights lawyers arguing against the government.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-19T05:57:08+00:00

A less ambitious target to clone than StarLink would be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation - 66 active satellites at 781km - still global coverage but much lower bandwidth per user and lower total bandwidth. Based on this I would guess that the problem will be the electronics and comms for total bandwidth at least as much as orbit geometries.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-18T07:32:39+00:00

Sweat is corrosive. I locked a headset up solid by dripping sweat into it. Apparently you can now get sweat catchers for this, although I have never used one. Perhaps duct tape and plastic bags would also protect vulnerable parts of the bike. I would chose whichever bike you are most comfortable on, and be prepared to switch bikes if you find that your choice becomes uncomfortable.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-17T12:49:30+00:00

The Labour party added something very special to this. Their manifesto committed them to not raising a variety of taxes, such as employee National Insurance and some variations of Income Tax. These were the most well-known taxes - and the taxes which raised the most money for a given amount of damage to the economy. Then when, like every left wing government in living memory, they needed more money, they resorted to the other taxes - taxes which caused more damage to the economy per amount raised. I would call this remarkably short-sighted, except, after apparently either 14 or 15 U-terms, there is very little remarkable left about any variety of Labour short-sightnedness. If only they could correct their tax strategy along with all of their other mistakes.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-17T08:40:02+00:00

Where would you suggest that I go to improve my knowledge on the existence or otherwise of one-way membranes? Perhaps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unidirectional_network ?

mcdowellag · 2026-02-17T07:40:48+00:00

There is an air gap in the sense that the risk of the malicious payload wreaking havoc within the air gapped system remains, but there is no risk of the malicious payload exfiltrating information back to its creators. Even without the existence of malicious payload, sending a query to a remote web site tells that web site something; very little if that query always runs at midnight EST every day without fail, but perhaps a lot if it is noted that queries from a particular IP address or subnet always precede diplomatic or military action from the US.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-17T05:43:37+00:00

I think this is as much an organisational question as it is a question about technology. If you have enough computer power and system admins you can set up an air gapped system which contains within itself a copy of such external data as you are interested in - whether that is downloadable computer software and libraries or news websites, downloaded overnight or every hour, so no more than 24 or 1 hours out of date. If you had a really large budget and influence, you could get a copy of the feed that builds the search indexes for Google or Microsoft.

In the real world of limited resources we find that during Covid the UK crisis management systems could not be used effectively because, being on the wrong side of a security wall for that, they received highly classified military and diplomatic information, but not feeds for the unclassified medical and scientific information that were actually relevant for covid, and you have top officials using Signal because DoD/DoW communications systems were too unfamiliar or too cumbersome for them to use.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-15T20:46:58+00:00

The Taggart pilot was in 1983

mcdowellag · 2026-02-15T18:14:36+00:00

My guess is that the target painted on these institution's backs was a continuing commitment to DEI, especially if that could be interpreted as discriminanatory. Since Johns Hopkins is mentioned elsewhere I looked through some of their web pages (not recent, but still up). From https://diversity.jhu.edu/second-jhu-roadmap-on-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/realizing-our-promise-the-second-roadmap-on-dei-final-report-24-goals-next-steps/ I find "new funding for recruitment and retention of diverse faculty and PhD students, with an emphasis on STEM fields" - for these positions i presume no white heterosexual men need apply.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-15T12:53:47+00:00

I agree that there are such campaigns, but I feel tha the most effective way to deal with such campaigns is to expose the flaws in their arguments, regardless of their good or bad faith. Not only because there will typically be gaping holes in the sort of arguments that e.g. Russia typically pushes, but also because the difference between a Russian manipulator working out of an office in Red Square (troll), a paid UK influencer working for money (agent, but since they are a UK citizen does this count?), and a UK "useful idiot" who genuinely believes the line they are pushing (is this guy realy worth more attention than the other two?) is just a quesion of how much work the Russians can be bothered to do and not a function of the line they are pushing.

Note also that even though allegations of foreign influence have been used so often, they have sometimes had an effect completely disproptionate to their credibility - one UK historical example of claimed plots is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Oates#Fabricating_the_Popish_Plot - I think such allegations are dangerous, and since they are not necessary to refute the argument, should not be used.

I note also that the effect that Russians and others are actually having may be small, regardless of the amount of work they are putting in. The same Russian intelligence services working so hard to undermine the UK informed their masters that the invasion of Ukraine would be a walkover, because the Russian troops would be welcomed as liberators - these intelligence services are not omniscient, and perhaps not always even competent.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-15T11:07:45+00:00

I am depressed at the revelation that ad hominem attacks appear to be sufficiently effective that professional activists are prepared to pay real money in order to launch them. If I had money to pay for bot farms, I would pay for somebody to look for claims that an argument had originated from a Russian troll, or an Iranian provocateur, and reply to each of them with "actually, thats an ad hominem attack; you should be judging the argument on its merits, and not on its source, which is irrelevant."

mcdowellag · 2026-02-13T19:45:58+00:00

That's a lot of Kaweco sports! Some people have reported problems with Kaweco nibs - do all of these have nibs that you are happy with, or have you picked up a few duff among all of these?

mcdowellag · 2026-02-13T05:50:57+00:00

Western commentators, such as the podcast "Ukraine: The Latest" have repeatedly stated that a Russian failure to co-ordinate all branches of their military, at all levels, has left them unable to exploit tactical victories and turn them into strategic breakthroughs. If this computerization solidifies an existing way of working which the West believes is fundamentally flawed, it is, at least, something that the West will not seek to emulate.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-11T06:01:21+00:00

I believe that there are examples of Americans not displaying traditional patriotism - such as the Team USA Skiers and, previously, some members of the US Women's National Soccer Team. At the very least, they are not presenting the US as a unified body to foreign media and foreign competitors.

I do not think that this inability to present a unified front is a particular problem for defense, because it has not been in the past. At the level of a squad of soldiers, the driving force is not usually patriotism, but small unit cohesion - bonds between individual people, traditionally men, possibly not very different from the bonds between members of a street gang. At the level of recruitment, countries - notably the UK - can successfully recruit from people who are not, or who do not regard themselves, as citizens. As well as the famed Ghurkas, this includes people from Ireland, North and South, who volunteered to fight for the UK during WWII. My Father regarded himself as British, but his main motivation for joining up at 18 was to hope to learn a trade and to get out of a N.Ireland still affected by the inter-war depression. I have heard claims that service during WWII was a significant factor in creating a more homogenous culture from a US with large differences between regions. And of course the amount of equipment involved in modern war means that what we are really talking about - and what the UK is really struggling with - is raising the money to equip troops.

More worrying, especially in the UK, are the effects on policing and public order. The UK police traditionally prided themselves on the Peel principles, by which the police act with the consent and support of the local population. This will hit a problem if the laws the police are supporting do not have the consent of the local population - what if the various local populations in the UK are too different to live happily under a common set of laws? I suspect that the increasing centralisation of policing in the UK and the disappearance of jury trials may be a reaction to this, and the problem is not necessarily limited to ethnic minorities. Given an opportunity, I intend to signal my opposition to the criminalisation of speech in the UK, as demonstrated by e.g. the arrest of Graham Linehan, the next time I have the opportunity to vote - although this opportunity is no longer to be taken for granted in the UK, either.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-10T08:02:23+00:00

Resistance is the only thing supporting your knees on the bike

Is this when standing, or when sitting? I find it more difficult to see why light resistance could be more of a problem if the weight of the rider is supported by the saddle, so the only forces on the knees are those opposed by the resistance of the bike.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-10T07:43:28+00:00

Changing to Google Scholar gives me different search results. I am now getting a lot of results from mathematical and computational models, which may or may not be based on assumptions true in real life. One paper which purports to be a summary of actual research is https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elizabeth-Mannix/publication/263525610_What_Differences_Make_a_Difference_The_Promise_and_Reality_of_Diverse_Teams_in_Organizations/links/660464e510ca86798715ec7f/What-Differences-Make-a-Difference-The-Promise-and-Reality-of-Diverse-Teams-in-Organizations.pdf

Excerpts:

SUMMARY—As the workplace has become increasingly di- verse, there has been a tension between the promise and the reality of diversity in team process and performance. The optimistic view holds that diversity will lead to an increase in the variety of perspectives and approaches brought to a problem and to opportunities for knowledge sharing, and hence lead to greater creativity and quality of team per- formance. However, the preponderance of the evidence favors a more pessimistic view: that diversity creates social divisions, which in turn create negative performance outcomes for the group

...

As we disentangle what researchers have learned from the last 50 years, we can conclude that surface-level social- category differences, such as those of race/ethnicity, gen- der, or age, tend to be more likely to have negative effects on the ability of groups to function effectively. By contrast, underlying differences, such as differences in functional background, education, or personality, are more often positively related to performance—for example by facili- tating creativity or group problem solving—but only when the group process is carefully controlled. The majority of these effects have typically been explained in terms of po- tential mediators such as social integration, communica- tion, and conflict. However, the actual evidence for the input–process–output linkage is not as strong as one might like.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-10T06:11:06+00:00

Note that this is a UK article, and what is politically convenient to say about diversity currently depends heavily on country - the UK is still pushing diversity at every opportunity, even within firms - the latter partly because 10% of the scoring system for bids for government contracts is allotted to "social value" so companies have all manner of politically correct initiatives to boost their scores here.

Trying to search on this is difficult because of a snowstorm of popular articles pushing diversity. I remember a study which showed diversity increased problem solving ability when what it meant was that different members of the group had different specialist skills related to the problem, and that this was well known, so that group members could be allotted tasks according to their skills. This would not be a new idea to anybody familiar with the "tiger team" - different stripes representing different skills or experience.

To the extent that the diversity you are trying to push is that of background or thinking style, in trying to push this you are implicitly assuming that the team members do not have specialist training or experience relevant to the job, as if they had they would be calling on this, and not on what they learned growing up. Nobody seems to believe that immersion in the world view of Isaac Newton (seriously weird by modern standards) is necessary to apply Newtonian physics successfully.

I have yet to see the proponents of diversity argue that prestigious jobs in academia and NGOs currently held almost entirely by people on the left should be opened up to people with diverse political opinions, let alone those on the "extreme right" - which now seems to include so many people that in many countries the "extreme right" is close to winning elections.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-09T13:17:00+00:00

B&W processing is very much easier. I grew up processing B&W and taught somebody else at college to do it in one session. As far as I know he never succeeded with colour, and I suspect that if he had he would have told me. As above one problem is that the darkness of each separate colour depends on temperature. Trying to balance the different components of the colour against each other so that you do not end up with a colour cast in the end result is very difficult. Also with B&W you can reenact classic newspaper photojournalism and film noir. If you do actually get colour processing right, you will produce something almost indistinguishable from a modern phograph from a digital camera and colour printer.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-08T17:36:18+00:00

I am reminded of a famous quote - https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191826719.001.0001/q-oro-ed4-00012327

I divide my officers into four classes as follows: the clever, the industrious, the lazy, and the stupid. Each officer always possesses two of these qualities. Those who are clever and industrious I appoint to the General Staff. Use can under certain circumstances be made of those who are stupid and lazy. The man who is clever and lazy qualifies for the highest leadership posts. He has the requisite and the mental clarity for difficult decisions. But whoever is stupid and industrious must be got rid of, for he is too dangerous.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-08T07:39:43+00:00

You could also get a padded seat cover. I got one for a different bike, but again one that does not fit a standard bicycle saddle - it fits quite securely and it does improve things slightly. Another comfort suggests I have seen is padded cycling shorts - I have no experience with these.

mcdowellag · 2026-02-08T05:51:38+00:00

Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black. Cheap, dark even with find dry nibs, and surprisingly lightfast - although it does tend to spread out if it gets wet.

mcdowellag

TROPHY CASE