It’s not often that I write about developments in Bulgaria but this week I got about 70% of my laughs from local news so I thought I’d share the entertainment.
Why should either species preservation ( including humanity) or common sense concern these radicals. Stupid is as stupid does. You are correct - these are so sad that they provide comic relief.
I have never believed the "greens" or environmentalists actually care about endangered species. They are more concerned about being able to say that "Big Oil killed something somewhere, so oil is bad." To them, endangered species are just a tool they can use to stymie progress. The bustards in India are doomed if they need environmentalists to protect them. Years ago studies showed that wind turbines were killing more than 1 million bats a year in the US, often endangered species of bats, but no one cared. That number is likely much larger now. The wind developments in the US actually have Federal permits to kill eagles, and other raptors, often endangered, and they kill large numbers. But meanwhile the oil industry labors under extensive rules that protect Prairie Chickens, forcing them to not be able to drill during mating season, antelope migration season, sand lizard habitat, and hundreds more rules for little known species which are often localized subspecies that must be protected. I have to hire a biologist to study the location for every well that gets drilled. In some places I cannot put a well within sight of a raptor nest, and that line of sight can go for miles, but I could build a wind turbine there. I always argued the best way to protect the prairie chickens was to start breeding them and then releasing them into the wild (same with sand lizards), but getting a private permit to breed an endangered species requires Federal approval, and likely legal protests from places like Center for Biological Diversity, who themselves make money by suing Federal agencies that fail to protect endangered species. Its a racket run by lawyers. The governor of Kansas did decide to start breeding prairie chickens, but I never heard if the program was successful. I have no issue with trying to protect endangered species, but lets be pragmatic about it, and recognize that we have other tools to use that are currently denied to us. Environmentalists dismissed the breeding program as absurd .
When a species occupies a very small geographical foot print, it's effect on the ecology is tiny. Other than sentimentalism, what real world loss is there for those species to go extinct?
I hate to say it because I am sentimental and unashamed about it but this is a valid question. Then again, we can't know what ripple effects there may be from the extinction of a species. Okay, maybe not the tiny-footprint ones but most of the rest. And we totally know what happens when bat numbers go down. They're important pollinators and insect population controllers. Not that it matters to the windfolk.
I think most conservationists got the climate change disease. There used to be people actually doing work to preserve species and their habitats. Once upon a time.
Same. I park at a convenient lot and walk from there, Stara Zagora is small enough to get most places I need by foot and it's healthier, anyway. In Sofia, I take the bus. There are too many dangerous drivers there.
Several years ago I was driving down 183 and came up behind one of those small boxy Datsuns (can't remember model name) with six folks from the south in it.
The right rear tire was literally bouncing up and down to a height of some inches above the road.
I dropped back about ten car lengths and remained vigilant. It was not long before the tire was gone and the car was spinning involving a few others that got too close. I had room to brake and veer around.
If there's been some way to flash a big warning sign over them....
What a great Friday smorgasbord of a post. I learned to drive in a 1964 Chevy C-10 pickup. Straight 6 engine, 3-speed with shifter in the column. No power steering. The town I lived in had parallel parking only downtown. This type of parking was always fun for me, even in my old truck. I used to love to watch the poor parkers make endless trips around downtown, waiting for at least three consecutive open spots, so they could easily park their behemoths. This was 1975 & little cars didn't exist in my hometown, with the exception of about 5 Volkswagen beetles. I wish you the best when you are parking in Sophia. Sure wish I still had the pickup. 🤘😎🤘
Parallel is fun, I like it. Parking was one reason why I wanted a small car, in addition to the fact I am myself small and can't really see myself steering a tank of an SUV along streets not meant for this kind of vehicle.
This quote (hopefully Google Translate got it mostly right) is striking!
"One of the novelties on "Vitosha" Blvd. is that the bike lane has been moved to the road, not on the sidewalk, so that there are no conflicts."
Sidewalk cycling has a high crash rate both among bicyclists and pedestrians but also bicyclists and motorists at driveways and intersections.
If the bike lane is separated from the remaining traffic lanes by vertical barriers, a bus lane, or parking, then bicyclists and motorists can expect to get into the same bicycle-motorist conflicts at any driveway or intersection.
It is right. I didn't know they'd put bike lanes on the pavements but I'm not surprised. I've seen plenty of cyclists cycling on the pavement even in the absence of specially delineated lanes -- they're too scared to cycle on the streets and I understand that but as a pedestrian, I have more than once felt the urge to shout at them to get off there. If on foot, walk. If using wheels, do be so kind as to join the other wheeled vehicles. Same with e-scooters, annoyingly.
It's now clear that the worshipers of climate change are nuts. Not just in the U.S, but all over the world. Exxon's merger with Pioneer Resources was just about at the FTC Khan's chopping block, when the people without a clue decided to let the merger move ahead, on one condition. Scott Sheffield from Pioneer could not, I say NOT, be on the Board of Exxon. Uh oh, he must have really screwed up! But, in the mind of the greenies and Khan, Sheffield the all powerful operator in the Permian Basin, colluded with OPEC. Yes, this guy whose company that was purchased by Harold Hamm can move OPEC, like Biden, the President of the United States convinced Saudi Arabia to increase its production, and as a good ally would to the global leader, they cut production by 1.5 million. So, Exxon already told the SEC to go crap in their hat over the twit shareholders who squealed like little piggies when they dropped their demand for the Scope 3 emissions proposal but to be put into its Proxies, and but Exxon, (unlike ConocoPhillips, Chevron and the rest, let it in since they knew it wouldn't pass muster), sued the little twits.
Don't think Exxon has much truck with CA these days since it's written down a combined $5B with Chevron and both will be outta there. So, Newsom is trying to muscle Exxon to drop its lawsuit with the nitwits, but for now Exxon is giving Newsom the finger "again"!
:D I see a lot of inadvertent angle parking here. I haven't seen a Soviet car in Sofia for years -- people are wealthier there, most cars are relatively new. Sadly, a new car does not a good driver make.
With any luck the Letzte Generation will be the last generation in which we must deal with this brand of fool. Given how they feel about children, they're not likely to directly raise many inheritors of their ideology, although I guess they're kind of like Cuckoo birds stealing the brains of other folks' children in the schools. Hmmm, that metaphor isn't quite right. Oh well. Neither are they.
The fools in Austin keep taking away lanes that serve thousands of cars to make lanes that serve dozens (if that) of bicycles. Grrrrr.
I am truly not attempting to be a "Pick Me" but driving here in the Philippines is a dark art and actually getting more difficult by the day, with road-rage shootings happening more regularly 😂
When reality confronts idealism it is often tears. Not this time. Irina, thanks for the laughs.
It's my pleasure, Allen.
Why should either species preservation ( including humanity) or common sense concern these radicals. Stupid is as stupid does. You are correct - these are so sad that they provide comic relief.
Hilarious post
I have never believed the "greens" or environmentalists actually care about endangered species. They are more concerned about being able to say that "Big Oil killed something somewhere, so oil is bad." To them, endangered species are just a tool they can use to stymie progress. The bustards in India are doomed if they need environmentalists to protect them. Years ago studies showed that wind turbines were killing more than 1 million bats a year in the US, often endangered species of bats, but no one cared. That number is likely much larger now. The wind developments in the US actually have Federal permits to kill eagles, and other raptors, often endangered, and they kill large numbers. But meanwhile the oil industry labors under extensive rules that protect Prairie Chickens, forcing them to not be able to drill during mating season, antelope migration season, sand lizard habitat, and hundreds more rules for little known species which are often localized subspecies that must be protected. I have to hire a biologist to study the location for every well that gets drilled. In some places I cannot put a well within sight of a raptor nest, and that line of sight can go for miles, but I could build a wind turbine there. I always argued the best way to protect the prairie chickens was to start breeding them and then releasing them into the wild (same with sand lizards), but getting a private permit to breed an endangered species requires Federal approval, and likely legal protests from places like Center for Biological Diversity, who themselves make money by suing Federal agencies that fail to protect endangered species. Its a racket run by lawyers. The governor of Kansas did decide to start breeding prairie chickens, but I never heard if the program was successful. I have no issue with trying to protect endangered species, but lets be pragmatic about it, and recognize that we have other tools to use that are currently denied to us. Environmentalists dismissed the breeding program as absurd .
When a species occupies a very small geographical foot print, it's effect on the ecology is tiny. Other than sentimentalism, what real world loss is there for those species to go extinct?
I hate to say it because I am sentimental and unashamed about it but this is a valid question. Then again, we can't know what ripple effects there may be from the extinction of a species. Okay, maybe not the tiny-footprint ones but most of the rest. And we totally know what happens when bat numbers go down. They're important pollinators and insect population controllers. Not that it matters to the windfolk.
I think most conservationists got the climate change disease. There used to be people actually doing work to preserve species and their habitats. Once upon a time.
Reverse parking favored for me as well. And I have been convinced to never drive downtown in large and medium sized cities again.
Same. I park at a convenient lot and walk from there, Stara Zagora is small enough to get most places I need by foot and it's healthier, anyway. In Sofia, I take the bus. There are too many dangerous drivers there.
First the double down. Then triple. Then......
How far can it go?
https://youtu.be/nFTRwD85AQ4?si=t08Dk85rFjCDeI4Y
Palpitations from parking straight in? 😆 You’re wound tight, Irina. Breathe! I get PVCs only from driving behind Mexicans in junk vehicles.
Several years ago I was driving down 183 and came up behind one of those small boxy Datsuns (can't remember model name) with six folks from the south in it.
The right rear tire was literally bouncing up and down to a height of some inches above the road.
I dropped back about ten car lengths and remained vigilant. It was not long before the tire was gone and the car was spinning involving a few others that got too close. I had room to brake and veer around.
If there's been some way to flash a big warning sign over them....
:D I must note I'm a relatively new driver and I had trouble measuring side distances when parking head-on. With reverse, I don't have that problem.
May the Indian Bustard of paradise fly up their nose!
What a great Friday smorgasbord of a post. I learned to drive in a 1964 Chevy C-10 pickup. Straight 6 engine, 3-speed with shifter in the column. No power steering. The town I lived in had parallel parking only downtown. This type of parking was always fun for me, even in my old truck. I used to love to watch the poor parkers make endless trips around downtown, waiting for at least three consecutive open spots, so they could easily park their behemoths. This was 1975 & little cars didn't exist in my hometown, with the exception of about 5 Volkswagen beetles. I wish you the best when you are parking in Sophia. Sure wish I still had the pickup. 🤘😎🤘
Back then ya'll used to actually drive.
Now people just "point"
Parallel is fun, I like it. Parking was one reason why I wanted a small car, in addition to the fact I am myself small and can't really see myself steering a tank of an SUV along streets not meant for this kind of vehicle.
This quote (hopefully Google Translate got it mostly right) is striking!
"One of the novelties on "Vitosha" Blvd. is that the bike lane has been moved to the road, not on the sidewalk, so that there are no conflicts."
Sidewalk cycling has a high crash rate both among bicyclists and pedestrians but also bicyclists and motorists at driveways and intersections.
If the bike lane is separated from the remaining traffic lanes by vertical barriers, a bus lane, or parking, then bicyclists and motorists can expect to get into the same bicycle-motorist conflicts at any driveway or intersection.
It is right. I didn't know they'd put bike lanes on the pavements but I'm not surprised. I've seen plenty of cyclists cycling on the pavement even in the absence of specially delineated lanes -- they're too scared to cycle on the streets and I understand that but as a pedestrian, I have more than once felt the urge to shout at them to get off there. If on foot, walk. If using wheels, do be so kind as to join the other wheeled vehicles. Same with e-scooters, annoyingly.
It's now clear that the worshipers of climate change are nuts. Not just in the U.S, but all over the world. Exxon's merger with Pioneer Resources was just about at the FTC Khan's chopping block, when the people without a clue decided to let the merger move ahead, on one condition. Scott Sheffield from Pioneer could not, I say NOT, be on the Board of Exxon. Uh oh, he must have really screwed up! But, in the mind of the greenies and Khan, Sheffield the all powerful operator in the Permian Basin, colluded with OPEC. Yes, this guy whose company that was purchased by Harold Hamm can move OPEC, like Biden, the President of the United States convinced Saudi Arabia to increase its production, and as a good ally would to the global leader, they cut production by 1.5 million. So, Exxon already told the SEC to go crap in their hat over the twit shareholders who squealed like little piggies when they dropped their demand for the Scope 3 emissions proposal but to be put into its Proxies, and but Exxon, (unlike ConocoPhillips, Chevron and the rest, let it in since they knew it wouldn't pass muster), sued the little twits.
Don't think Exxon has much truck with CA these days since it's written down a combined $5B with Chevron and both will be outta there. So, Newsom is trying to muscle Exxon to drop its lawsuit with the nitwits, but for now Exxon is giving Newsom the finger "again"!
Reverse and straight in parking are both so pase... Here at Sam's club we do ANGLE PARKING!
In all honesty the solution is to raise auto taxes and get all those 30 year old Soviet beaters to the junk yard.
:D I see a lot of inadvertent angle parking here. I haven't seen a Soviet car in Sofia for years -- people are wealthier there, most cars are relatively new. Sadly, a new car does not a good driver make.
With any luck the Letzte Generation will be the last generation in which we must deal with this brand of fool. Given how they feel about children, they're not likely to directly raise many inheritors of their ideology, although I guess they're kind of like Cuckoo birds stealing the brains of other folks' children in the schools. Hmmm, that metaphor isn't quite right. Oh well. Neither are they.
The fools in Austin keep taking away lanes that serve thousands of cars to make lanes that serve dozens (if that) of bicycles. Grrrrr.
Well, I do hope we get lucky. You make a good point about their attitude to children, so there's hope.
I am truly not attempting to be a "Pick Me" but driving here in the Philippines is a dark art and actually getting more difficult by the day, with road-rage shootings happening more regularly 😂
What an exciting place you live in! Road rage shootings?! This is a whole new level of road rage.
Perhaps the reports of vax induced psychosis are based on solid ground?
Maybe. We'll probably know in five years or so.