Who's to say what they said once they were undergoing this sort of torture, I doubt it was written down by any eye witnesses and any accounts by their followers claiming they remained true to the end have to be highly suspect.

Actually no, it would be a disastrous thing for humanity since the very first I am going to use my replicator for is to churn out a billion strong army of 50M long venomous flying crocodiles with a taste for human blood.

He said he hates the American version of writing where the author has to explain everything 3 times so the audience can understand it.

Idiot !

What you've quoted says that were a bike lane exists cyclists are under an obligation to use that rather than the road. If no bike lane exists then they can use the road provided it's not a motorway or something where cycling is specifically prohibited.

So far as the UK goes this is not even enforceable as proved by a recent case of man who was hit by a car whilst cycling on the road. The driver tried to argue that since there was also a bike lane which the cyclist wasn't using it wasn't his fault he hit him. Needless to say the car driver lost and cyclists can choose whether they cycle on the road or the cycle path.

The worst problem I would run into is people racing in front of me and then taking a right turn into some store right in front of me

Yes that is extremely irritating, very dangerous and also often far too common. It's one reason why I try and ride quite far out from the kerb so that people actually have to think about overtaking me, will hopefully remember where I am when they do the turn and so I have an escape route round the back of the car rather than slamming into it's side.

Asking me to stay in such unsafe conditions is unreasonable

What we're talking about here is the time it takes you to follow a cyclist around a blind bend on a winding hill road. You appear to be saying that you think it's fine to overtake him on the bend accepting the risk that he may be knocked to his death on the cruel rocks below or you may kill an oncoming driver as you pull out.

You seem to be saying you feel as though you're forced into doing this because you're worried that the people behind you might be driving even more dangerously than you are ?

I have no idea where you live where it's illegal for cyclists to be on the road but where I live they have every right to be on the road and we have a lot of narrow winding roads as well, going downhill cyclists can actually go down them faster than cars can so the only problem is if you're behind them on the way up and even this is not a problem for people of consideration, yes you might have to slow down for 1-2 mins but then there will be a safe passing place or if not the cyclist will almost always pull over for you and let you past.

The fact your trying to justify reckless, dangerous and inconsiderate driving by blaming it on a fear of what others might do is frankly very worrying.

Now you're being silly, if you feel that unsafe and react to 'pressure' from drivers behind you then I'd say you probably be shouldn't be on the road in the first place.

The fact is that both cyclists and motorists are legally allowed to use the road, along with horses and carts, tractors, articulated lorries and all sorts of other things and the key to safe and relaxing journeys for everyone is for everyone to treat other road users with respect and make sure that your own driving/cycling whatever is considerate and safe.

To an extent I agree with you, I commute down a very busy dual carriageway where the average speed is somewhere between 70 - 80mph. Every Wednesday between 4 - 5pm, right in the middle of the rush hour, some absolute cretin on a pedal powered tricycle takes up the entire left hand lane whilst he crawls his way up the hills towards Lichfield. Consequently motorists approaching from behind are forced to slam on their brakes and switch lanes which is extremely dangerous for everyone as the ripple effect causes increasingly sharp braking all the way down the road.

There are several dozen far nice routes between Burton & Lichfield which this moron could take that don't involve endangering everyone else's life but this idiot is apparently either too stupid or too selfish to take them.

On the other hand I am a keen cyclist myself and would take issue with the part where you claim you're forced to overtake the cyclist around a blind bend. No one is forcing you to do that, if the safe course of action is not to overtake the cyclist then don't overtake them. I've often been cycling on roads such as that which you describe but only when they are the only option to get to where I want to go and if the car drivers are treating me with respect and slowing down behind me rather than trying to run me off the road I will pull over and let them pass when it's possible for me to do so. If drivers are trying to run me off the road then I'll cycle as close to the middle of it as I can so they have no choice but to slow up behind me.

+1,000,000,000 trillion million billon. I love you NYCL and I'd love shove my tongue down your ear hole and lick just a tiny part of your incomparable brain, and then maybe have your children.

Banks deals with exactly this issue in his novel Feersum Enjinn which deals with an Earth populated by those left behind after a large proportion of the Earths previous population upped and left for pastures new.

Since their technology was pretty sophisticated in the first place, everyone is capable of living comfortable and fulfilling lives and most of the engineering and scientific types left with the diaspora no one left on Earth bothered that much with any new science, or even to understand the old stuff which became a problem when an immense galactic dust cloud encroached on the sun.

Luckily provision had been made for this type of scenario and the diaspora had left behind a very feersum enjinn to deal with it.

Also I would imagine that whatever power this microwave generates is absolutely insignificant in comparison to the output of the sun.

Ha ! Who's going to claim now that the government aren't really monitoring my every move with their high flying satellites, mole machines and robotic cuckoos.

'Just happened to be in the the right place' to film this eruption, pull the other one !

There is, quite clearly, a massive difference between multimedia systems fitted into cars by the manufacturer and general portable DVD players.

I completely agree there's no way you can stop idiots bringing their DVD player into the car and watching it whilst they're driving but since it is very easy for the government to mandate that those which are fitted by the manufacturer do not work whilst the car is in motion then this is a very good thing for the government to do.

but natural selection has a way of dealing with that...

It directs them all to America ? Natural selection is more cunning than I thought.

If some moron watching TV whilst she should have been watching the road mows down my family and crushes my children under her wheels I can tell you I wouldn't give a toss that she'd be paying the price for her lack of personal responsibility.

There is no justification at all for anyone to ever be driving a car and watching TV at the same time. Absolutely never and that moronic contrived example of emergency broadcasts given by someone above is pure nonsense. That being the case the government should make damn sure that any such device deactivates the moment your car starts moving and punish anyone tampering with it.