InBabel @InBabel@writing.exchange

@mastobikes Now my 3 speed shopper is a 14 gear Euro tourer. The steel frame was allegedly manufactured in Poland, rear hub is German, rear rim Belgian, spokes are from Switzerland and the saddle is from England because no bike is perfect. On finishing the conversion first thing I did was cycle to a cafe for coffee.

@mastobikes I finished the upgrade of my bike, from a 3 speed to 14 of the finest German bicycle gears available. The trickiest part was cold-setting the rear frame from 127mm clearance to 135mm clearance. Then the next hardest was building the new rear wheel. I also had to swap out the bottom bracket to alter the chainline. Rohloff hubs need a 54mm line. My old hub was also a coaster brake so I needed to fit a new rear calliper brake.

Riding a Brompton through central London is like trying to pilot a spaceship through an asteroid field, and we all know what the odds of successfully doing that are.

And ethical trainers company. Run and established by undocumented migrants in Spain, employing people to help them gain residency. They formed a workers co-op and manufacture their products in Spain. With people paid a proper wage at all stages. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jun/09/barcelona-street-sellers-take-on-nike-with-top-manta-own-brand-trainers

I noticed that a lot of the customers in FP were women, which is a shift, women are an increasing share of the audience but not the creative level.

Why are there so few women writing comic books, it's 2021. I saw a graphic novel in Forbidden Planet today called Paper Girls, and the creators are four dudes. It's bizarre. Women feature so heavily on covers and so little in the credits.

I hate social media lol.

I read the phrase “women helping each other to bury bodies” as helping each other to bury the past. Which is perfect.

There’s a lovely quote in this NewYork Times interview with Sinead O’Connor “But a few months ago, when she moved into her blissfully remote cottage, she found that several other single women lived alone nearby. Soon a couple of them had come by offering bread and scones, and she found herself with a crew of girlfriends for the first time since she was a teenager. “We bury bodies for each other,” she said.” https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/arts/music/sinead-oconnor-rememberings.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB (Opening it in a private tab avoids their paywall.)

It should be noted that it wasn't the cops who caught the bomber, it was an Antifa dude going undercover for ten years, that knew who he was as soon as the cops published CCTV images of the man they thought was the bomber.The authorities didn't deem the far right a significant threat until the bombings started.

Just watched Nail Bomber: Manhunt on Netflix. I remember at the time in London the sense of fear and anger, and the solidarity march with victims and people from the three communities attacked. Its a great lesson in how pathetic the far right are. We were so used to bombings and bomb threats back then, but this was a different level of hatefulness. The documentary does a decent job of conveying that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suwOJAY2Q7Y

Are there any Doctor Who fans in the UK who don’t do their own Doctor Who podcasts?

How this for a judgement. The cops lied, the judge knows they lied but says there is no case to answer for because they were “under no obligation to tell the whole truth” to the public enquiry. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/may/26/hillsborough-trial-of-former-south-yorkshire-police-officers-collapses

Unexpectedly San Marino are my favourite of the night. #Eurovision

The Finland entry is kind of great in its own angry metal way. #Eurovision

Sorry to German friends, I’m not digging your entry. He seems like a lovely lad, but the song isn’t doing it for me. #Eurovision

Smart people will discuss “the economic reasons” for the rise of nazism, and never make the final connection, that capitalism caused world war 2.