This is really quite disturbing. I was born in Manhattan and it makes me ashamed to be a former New Yorker.

Here in London (I've since emigrated) critical mass is going strong. However unlike New York we have complete police support. Every month we get about 20-30 bike police who ride with us and help stop cars and argue with black cabs. In some ways they're coming along too because they ride the same streets as us. They even bring an ambulance bike for falls and the like.

Also I think it's a bit suspect that the article doesn't consult one Hittitologist.

As the article states the plague eventually came back to bite the Hittites. You can read about this in a series of Hittite (incidentally the first attested indo-european language) texts entitle the "Plague Prayers".