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Millennium Bridge workers hang straw bales after ancient bylaw triggered

theguardian.com

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Re: Millennium Bridge workers hang straw bales after ancient bylaw triggered

#51

Post by Mountain_Skies »

gmcharlt wrote: post #29
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The city adjacent to me has a law that all heads of households must have a firearm Oklahoma?

Dunno about Oklahoma, but Kennesaw, Georgia, does have a gun ownership requirement, passed in 1982 in response to Morton Grove, Illinois, banning handguns. Kennesaw's neighbor, Acworth, is the one with the rake ownership requirement -- passed in response to Kenneswaw's gun law -- though it is not immediately clear to me whether that ordinance is still in effect.

Kennesaw's law allowed for conscientious objection and had no penalty for non compliance so it was effectively dead when passed but did make quite the splash in the international press. Crime rates in Kennesaw did drop significantly after the law was passed but the same was true for surrounding communities without the law, most likely due to them becoming affluent bedroom communities for Atlanta's white collar class.

Re: Millennium Bridge workers hang straw bales after ancient bylaw triggered

#52

Post by dwroberts »

suprjami wrote: post #24

Daylight Savings Time was first proposed to save candles, everything after is a forced retcon. This equally anachronistic law fits with that quite well. We are all very good at being modern humans.

It might have been proposed for that reason but it was actually enacted in England (in 1916) for war time productivity during WW1.

It’s not really clear if it ever would have been adopted if it were not for the war.

Edit: really interesting snippet I happened upon:

> This Bill, as your Lordships know, will have effect only while the war lasts. It may therefore be regarded in the light of an emergency measure, and as an experiment. If the public are dissatisfied with the results produced, the Bill can easily not be renewed at some future time.

That didn’t turn out as expected eh

Re: Millennium Bridge workers hang straw bales after ancient bylaw triggered

#53

Post by tomaytotomato »

I wonder what the cost of implementing this bylaw was on the tax payer, here is a guess:

- Health and safety assessment by specialist HSE officer - £10k

- Procurement of organic sustainable hay bale - £2k

- Consultation with local community to ensure hay bale is not offensive to straw bale enthusiasts - £5k

- Transportation costs - £500

- Lawsuit from worker hurting shoulder when mounting the hay bale over bridge side - £80k

- Admin and project management costs - £12k

Did I miss anything?

Re: Millennium Bridge workers hang straw bales after ancient bylaw triggered

#54

Post by Joker_vD »

jimnotgym wrote: post #37
suprjami wrote: post #24

Daylight Savings Time was first proposed to save candles, everything after is a forced retcon. This equally anachronistic law fits with that quite well. We are all very good at being modern humans.

My brother always said, 'why can't people just do the things they were going to do 1 hour earlier/ later rather than changing the clocks' Sometimes the obvious is too sensible.

> why can't people just do the things they were going to do 1 hour earlier/ later

That's pretty much the result of the summer-winter time changes, but you don't have to have the plaques with hours of work read "9:00–17:00 Mon-Fri in winter; 10:00–16:00 Sat in winter; 8:00–16:00 Mon-Fri in summer; 9:00–15:00 Sat in summer".

Re: Millennium Bridge workers hang straw bales after ancient bylaw triggered

#55

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

walthamstow wrote: post #6
tjrgergw wrote: post #4

British people love old stuff like Americans love cars and guns.

I don't know if you've ever been to London, Rome or Kyoto, but Americans actually fucking love old stuff

> but Americans actually fucking love old stuff

to visit, absolutely. But you don't see the Americans insisting on getting their own ceremonial King as head of state in name only. They prefer to love that stuff at a visiting distance. This is also why "Downton Abbey" etc does so well in the USA.

Re: Millennium Bridge workers hang straw bales after ancient bylaw triggered

#57

Post by arethuza »

PLenz wrote: post #31
hobo_mark wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You often see... Where in the world is such a thing a frequent enough sight to say that?

The US for one, where it evolved into a Christmas Tree at the top upon "topping out".

Is that done just at Christmas or all year round?

Re: Millennium Bridge workers hang straw bales after ancient bylaw triggered

#58

Post by DrBazza »

The ianvisits site is the go-to for this sort of thing, from 5 days ago, the Grauniad is always a bit slow on the uptake:

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/an-ancient-law-requires...

Want to build a new market? Oh, there's a 775 year old bylaw about that...

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/the-city-of-londons-mar...

Re: Millennium Bridge workers hang straw bales after ancient bylaw triggered

#59

Post by ljf »

beardyw wrote: post #56

I thought this was a more interesting story https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/05/artist-ben-w... Painting dropped chewing gum (600 works on the bridge) seems heroic to me.

Years ago I worked in Soho and watched him paint a piece of gum outside my office - it was stunning and real piece of art. I got a few photos that evening. The next morning it had already been scrapped out - I imagine by an art collector of sorts, as the rest of the gum on the pavement hadn't been touched. Shame to see it go, but interesting while it was there.

Re: Millennium Bridge workers hang straw bales after ancient bylaw triggered

#60

Post by ljf »

jimnotgym wrote: post #37
suprjami wrote: post #24

Daylight Savings Time was first proposed to save candles, everything after is a forced retcon. This equally anachronistic law fits with that quite well. We are all very good at being modern humans.

My brother always said, 'why can't people just do the things they were going to do 1 hour earlier/ later rather than changing the clocks' Sometimes the obvious is too sensible.

I guess it keeps things uniform - would all jobs follow that pattern? All schools? Pubs? When would the lunchtime rush?

I mean there could be some great benefits (spread out the rush hour crush) but I think it would cause more confusion than the current system.

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