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I get all my high end electronics through Argos as then I don't have to run the "is it fake" gauntlet with Amazon. Highly recommend.


Also in the UK - I've noticed a gradient in "aggression around cyclists", i.e. it's most awful in the south and gets progressively better the further north you go.

(I've never had issues when cycle touring in Scotland)


That goes for any "unconventional" outdoor sports really (i.e. anything that's not footy or horses). North is always up for crazy random shit, but good luck explaining paddleboarding or mountainbiking to someone in Cambridgeshire.


I can’t speak to Cambridge specifically but there are 4 B1KE mountain bike parks alone in the south of England (Wind hill, Rogate, Tidworth and S4P) so I’m not convinced of this north/south divide. There are others than just B1KE mountain bike parks too.


To be fair, you'll have a hard time explaining anything involving mountains to someone in Cambridgeshire.


...Suffolk Mountain Rescue has been established with the aim of rescuing a neglected mountain and bringing it back to safety.


Have you read "The Water Knife" by Paolo Bacigalupi? Mostly set in Phoenix when the water has run out.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23209924-the-water-knife


Not "how I learn" per-se, but how I make time for learning (biggest problem for me, by far) is to do 30mins of $whatever before I turn on my work laptop, no excuses.

The book "Atomic Habits" mostly inspired this - the idea of setting both a clearly defined time and place for doing something + making it easier to do the right thing / harder to do the wrong thing. The "before laptop is turned on" is important for not drifting onto Slack and blasting through various notifications.

I've gone from spending literally years thinking "I really need to read more papers and these textbooks" to actually making solid progress on stuff I care about.


This is my experience too comparing UK and USA. I worked as a cleaner for some summer schools at university and only the American students (c.f. UK and Japanese students who were also there) treated me like I was complete trash. It was very eye opening.


Rebanks (author of this article) studied History, which I imagine has quite a different mix of people than e.g. engineering or one of the sciences.

I can't find out the college he attended, but I agree that college choice really can impact who you meet and the general "vibe".

My experience at Cambridge (similar path to you, Alex) is also at odds with this article.


I've read both and think English Pastoral is marginally better.

Less sheep, more general farming stuff and stronger narrative of old-school farming with his grandfather to modern industrialised then to present where he's doing more regenerative agriculture.

You can get a signed copy from his local Lake District bookshop btw: https://www.samreadbooks.co.uk/product/EnglishPastoral/2244


In the UK the majority of drivers who kill cyclists do not go to prison https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-28345522

It's a common bit of dark humour in the cycling community that if you want to get away with murder, make sure the victim is riding a bike at the time.


The comic "Three" does a good job of telling the story of Helots in Sparta.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20638282-three


He also points out in this post that rape was so common there's an entire, identifiable social class of Spartan bastards (_nothoi_ / _mothakes_).

> But we don’t need to guess or rely on comparative evidence, because this rape was happening frequently enough that it produced an identifiable social class. The one secure passage we have to this effect is from Xenophon, who notes that the Spartan army marching to war included a group he calls the nothoi – the bastards (Xen. Hell. 5.3.9). The phrase typically means – and here clearly means – boys born to slave mothers.


Is that suggesting that all "bastards"' mothers were raped?


When you're a slave, you don't have a choice about what happens to you. If you cannot refuse, you cannot consent. That makes it rape, yes.


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