chriscalcite

I think it actually stands for Afro-Caribbean Society - a one of the many societies at the University. Any student can join, you don't have to be of Afro-Caribbean origin, just have an interest in the area (or like visiting Jamaica!). So it's not actually racist at all, more Uni-societyist.

You have a point that Leeds somehow seems to have slid itself into the role of Paris in the Tour de France. However, they are pretty damn central to the TdY wherever it goes, so it does make some sense. It's hard to avoid Leeds (though trust me, I do try). I'm not sure the denizens of Sheffield Forum could handle the same level of road closures every single year without exploding in apoplexy

With the best will in the world, you do realise that every cycle race is not going to come to Sheffield every year don't you? Even the Tour de Yorkshire can probably only be expected to show up in the city every five years or so - Yorkshire's a big place and they want to ride on different roads.

Yes, I guess it's a bit like skiing centres in the Cairngorms. Or the paddling pools in Rivelin Valley Park. Or owning an ice-cream van anywhere. Oh wait... The fact is that there are quite a few outdoor pools in the UK, the nearest only a dozen miles away. They are apparently gaining in popularity and they are apparently operating in a financially stable manner despite being seasonal. It can and is being done up and down the country. I don't think that you're going to make a fortune out of it, which like you say, would rule out most private companies. I also agree with you that the council shouldn't be responsible for this either - in an ideal world they would - but in the current (IMHO unjustified) financial circumstances, no way. Most of the pools and lidos appear to be operated by trusts and similar grass roots organisations These seem to be mostly groups of people who aren't out to scrape every last penny out the system for profit. It's almost as if you run something for the benefit of the community rather that the benefit of shareholders there's all sorts of other things you can do. And thus ends the Communist manifesto

I think what killed the outdoor pool in the 60's and 70's was the same thing that hit the British seaside holiday - the advent of cheap flights to the Med. That trend has been pretty much reversing this last decade or so, and there has been a resurgence of interest in lidos. See for example this article in The Guardian (other quality papers are available): https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jun/18/campaigners-bring-lidos-back-to-life?CMP=share_btn_link Whilst I wouldn't say that Sheffield could economically sustain SIX outdoor pools, I would be very surprised if at least one, heated outdoor pool wasn't a popular destination in the city. Yes, it would be massively oversubscribed during the sunny weather, but I'm sure there are a hardcore of training triathalon and open water swimmers (another growth area), plus genuine aficionados who would keep it going through the cooler months.

Yes, it's so bad that I kind of 'hang back' approaching that junction shortly after the lights have gone green. I'm always expecting one last car to come flying through on red down the hill. It definitely needs another couple of seconds of red between the the two sets of lights.

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin

Streets Ahead (@sccstreetsahead) have been publishing regular stills from the traffic cams on Twitter these last few days. So the cameras are working, they're just not working for us.

There were over a dozen all neatly parked in a row outside Weston Park Museum main entrance late Thursday afternoon. I would have taken a picture but it was getting pretty dark at the time.

As ever, NewsThump finds the right words: http://newsthump.com/2017/11/29/hgv-full-of-liquid-diabetes-heralds-start-of-christmas/

Well I thought Coca-Cola are pretty much credited with the invention of Father Christmas in his current guise? (i.e. a jolly, fat, bearded man in a red suit). So you may as well ask "what has X got to do with the story of Christmas?" where X could be anything from John Lewis's adverts to Christmas Trees via roast turkey and Die Hard, 'cos none of them have.

This is a direct lift from the instructions for a TomTom Go800 "The clock on your navigation device is automatically synchronised with the satellite clocks. You can also set the clock manually, for example when the device is indoors and unable to receive a satellite signal. The default setting is to automatically adjust the clock for the current time zone." From what I recall of using a Garmin SatNav (or GPS as they call them) in the USA, it automatically set the date as well as the time. I know it worked too because it had the ability to log trips and the dates were posted alongside each trip when you downloaded them. C.

I recognize this is just an anecdote, not data or scientific evidence, but in my personal experience my car, (which has a mpg computer), gets a better average on Shell/BP/etc than it does on supermarket fuel. It appears to do even better on the 'Advanced' fuels. Whether this difference is enough to offset the cost I don't know. As for supermarket fuel killing engines, well my last but one car was run on whatever was handy at the time including a lot of Tesco fuel. I sold it at 225K miles and it was perfectly happy...

I saw it when it was first unveiled in London a couple of years ago - it's quite fun in my opinion. I am looking forward to seeing what the artist, Alex Chinneck, actually has planned as a permanent sculpture at the side of the Tinsley viaduct.

My personal hope is, as the students get more picky with their choice of accommodation, the less salubrious student houses in places like Broomhill and Crookes will start to become harder to let, or at least become not worth it economically. Why do I wish this? Well, many of these houses are lovely stone buildings that are just perfect for Sheffield residents to live in again. OK, they'd need gutting inside, but you'd probably want to redo the interior anyway. I'd have one myself in a flash if it wasn't for the buy-to-let people driving prices up.