Teraflop chip hints at the future

The chip is the size of a fingernail. 11 years ago...




11 years ago, the same computing power required 2,000 square feet...!

from the bbc:

A chip with 80 processing cores and capable of more than a trillion calculations per second (teraflop) has been unveiled by Intel.

The Teraflop chip is not a commercial release but could point the way to more powerful processors, said the firm.

The chip achieves performance on a piece of silicon no bigger than a fingernail that 11 years ago required a machine with 10,000 chips inside it.

The challenge is to find a way to program the many cores simultaneously.

Current desktop machines have up to four separate cores, while the Cell processor inside the PlayStation 3 has eight (seven of them useable). Each core is effectively a programmable chip in its own right.

But to take advantage of the extra processing power, programmers need to gives instructions to each core that work in parallel with one another.

team nutty could definitely use some of that....

business as usual...

from the new york times:

Congress Finds Ways to Avoid Lobbyist Limits

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 — The 110th Congress opened with the passage of new rules intended to curb the influence of lobbyists by prohibiting them from treating lawmakers to meals, trips, stadium box seats or the discounted use of private jets.

But it did not take long for lawmakers to find ways to keep having lobbyist-financed fun.

In just the last two months, lawmakers invited lobbyists to help pay for a catalog of outings: lavish birthday parties in a lawmaker’s honor ($1,000 a lobbyist), martinis and margaritas at Washington restaurants (at least $1,000), a California wine-tasting tour (all donors welcome), hunting and fishing trips (typically $5,000), weekend golf tournaments ($2,500 and up), a Presidents’ Day weekend at Disney World ($5,000), parties in South Beach in Miami ($5,000), concerts by the Who or Bob Seger ($2,500 for two seats), and even Broadway shows like “Mary Poppins” and “The Drowsy Chaperone” (also $2,500 for two).

The lobbyists and their employers typically end up paying for the events, but within the new rules.

ireland vs france

should be a great match-up, with ireland playing at home.

france look very strong, but the irish are the favourites, i know i should pick france, but i'm not. i'm going with ireland.

happy birthday to:

our very good friend, saleem.

cheers mate :)

quality time with quality people - there is no substitute...

Scotland vs Wales

i'm rooting for wales, but scotland will be looking to rebuild after england gave them a good thumping last weekend.

have to go with scotland, playing at murrayfield.

England v Italy (Sat)

from the bbc:

England aim to continue their revival under head coach Brian Ashton when they face Italy at Twickenham on Saturday.

Jonny Wilkinson inspired England to a 42-20 win over Scotland last week and he can become the highest points scorer in championship history against Italy.

There are two changes to the starting XV, Nick Easter and Iain Balshaw replacing Joe Worsley and Olly Morgan.

Italy coach Pierre Berbizier has made seven changes to his starting line-up following the 39-3 defeat by France.

England are in buoyant mood following the Calcutta Cup victory on Saturday which saw returning fly-half Wilkinson claim 27 points in a stunning display.

And Wilkinson's first score against Italy will take him past former Wales star Neil Jenkins as the most prolific points accumulator in Five or Six Nations Championship history.

Wilkinson is currently tied with Jenkins on 406 points.

The Newcastle fly-half will also, if he gets on the board, join a select group of players to have racked up 900 points in international rugby.

The Scotland match was Brian Ashton's first game in charge following Andy Robinson's sacking in November, which came after a run of eight defeats in nine Tests.

And although England claimed a comfortable win, Ashton wants an improvement from his side on Saturday.

"We have talked about the mentality of winning, and we have enough experience in this team now to know what it takes to win Test matches," he said.

"Italy will take us on in the scrum and in the lineout, they will box-kick and they will be very confrontational.

"The lineout could be a huge theatre because Italy did a lot of damage to France in that area. I do know it will be a battlefield between numbers eight down to number one, and whatever the weather throws at us, we will throw it right back. It is not a concern.

"Discipline is hugely important, and conceding 14 penalties last week was unacceptable.

"You are never 100% happy as a a coach. For example, we didn't get enough go-forward possession in the first 20 minutes last Saturday - there was too much of us going from side to side."

england should land this comfortably...

Bangladesh cabbie is toast of NYC

from the bbc:

A Bangladeshi immigrant taxi driver in New York is the toast of the Big Apple after returning a $500,000 lost bag of diamond rings to their rightful owner.

get this; turns out that the owner of the diamonds had a $10.70 fare, and she paid him $11.00. that's a 30 cent tip... (or 2.8%)! not even a measly dollar!

i'd she got very lucky, wouldn't you?

how much do you reckon this same woman tips her hair stylist...?

wanna see the hubble space telescope pass overhead ?

the hubble space telescope passes at an elevation high enough to be seen in the d.c. metro area this evening. not once, but twice!

the first pass occurs between 6:00pm, from the South West West horizon, and reaches it's highest angular elevation of 20 degress, with respect to the horizon to the South at approx. 6:06pm. it will dip below the South Eastern horizon at 6:12pm.

the second pass (much darker and easier to see, but also lower in the sky) will occur at 7:42pm, again rising from the South West West horizon, reaching a maximum angular elevation of 12 degrees, with respect to the horizon to the South at approx. 7:48pm. it will dip below the South Eastern horizon at approximately 7:52pm.

to get a good view, you will need a good southerly horizon, unobstructed by buildings if you are at ground level. if this is impossible, then try and get up somewhere highto improve your chances.

bundle up with all your cold weather gear. it will be cold outside. amateur astronomy in winter is no joke!

i will be up on my roof deck, fully kitted out, looking like i'm off on a polar expedition somewhere, but hopefully i won't get cold, and i stand a very good chance of seeing the hubble space telescope with nothing more than my eyes and a pair of binoculars. i should get to see venus and mercury, too (no extra charge...)

should be a good test of my winter weather gear...

want to see the planets venus and mercury just after sunset?

from sky & telescope magazine:

Catch the solar system's two inner planets at once; this week elusive Mercury is lower right of Venus in twilight. They're much more different in brightness than indicated here. Look too early and Mercury will be invisible; look too late and it will have set!

(The blue 10° scale is about the size of your fist at arm's length.)
Sky & Telescope diagram.

moto gp season only a month away...

yes, ted haggard is 'completely heterosexual'.

if only he'd been to a few bike races...

Ted Haggard Pronounced ‘Completely Heterosexual’

from the new york times:

Haggard also said his sexual contact with men was limited to the former male prostitute who came forward with sexual allegations...

yeah, i'd say that makes you completely hetrosexual...

what to see from a 5th floor apartment window..

while light pollution kills most faint deep sky objects in the middle of washington, d.c., there's still a few great sights that anyone can see with nothing more expensive than a pair of binoculars. in fact a telescope won't allow you to see big open clusters as well as binoculars because of their smaller field of view. there are many misconceptions about amateur astronomy, and needing a 'powerful' telescope always comes in at number 1.

take this open star cluster in the constellation taurus, for example.

it's called the hyades, and is the nearest open star cluster to us at a distance of only 150 light years - 900 trillion miles...

space is a vast empty place. but very pretty in a few places.

wales vs ireland

this should be a great game.

ireland look very good right now and i'm giving it to ireland.

smile if you're happy...

as exxon and shell execs and shareholders enjoy shamefully record profits at the expense of the planet, did you know that your nation's leader is about to
ask lawmakers to cut more than $70 billion from medicare and medicaid in the next five years?

yep. this is the white house's great idea on how best to balance the budget by 2012.

and good news in the united states'position with regard to climate change..(no, not really)

from the new york times:

The Bush administration, which until recently avoided directly accepting that humans were warming the planet in potentially harmful ways, embraced the findings, which had been approved by representatives from the United States and 112 other countries on Thursday night.

Administration officials asserted Friday that the United States had played a leading role in studying and combating climate change, (what, by refusing to sign the kyoto protocol, or adopt any enforced reductions in emissions, you mean?) in part by an investment of an average of almost $5 billion a year for the past six years in research and tax incentives for new technologies. (that's really working out so well for the planet, isn't it?)

At the same time, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman rejected the idea of unilateral limits on emissions. (to do so would be ridiculous...) “We are a small contributor to the overall,(we're the world's largest polluter) when you look at the rest of the world, so it’s really got to be a global solution,” he said. (i really would like just to punch his lights out)

The United States, with about 5 percent of the world’s population, contributes about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions, more than any other country.(doesn't that completely contradict what the secretary of energy said? - see above comment)

we have a saying back home that so aptly applies to this psychotic:

"i wouldn't cross the road to piss on him if he were on fire"

england vs. scotland.

england vs. scotland

come on england!

i have live bbc tv coverage! that means no adverts, no dancing in the end zone, no stopping the play every 20 seconds, no adverts for pick-up trucks!!!!, NO ADVERTS AT ALL, IN FACT!!!, no prima donna 'stars', no kevlar body armour, players helping each other up after hard tackles, no trash-talking, and finally, no media talk about how hard it's been for this player or that player, blah, blah, blah, and finally, the commentator's have no idea how much money anyone is making...

in your face the NFL!

nutty's pick to win the tournament:

either ireland or france.

definitely not england...! we are a shambles... :(

it will be very difficult for italy not to finish last.

italy vs. france

nutty's prediction: france.

they are just too fast and strong for italy, but it could be entertaining in the first half. i'm going to listen to it on the radio.

six nations rugby!

alright; first we have:

Saturday, 3 February
Stadio Flaminio, Rome

Italy v France (Sat)

Kick-off: 1330 GMT
Live - BBC One, BBC Sport website. Updates - Five Live

Italy host defending champions France in the opening match of the 2007 RBS Six Nations in Rome on Saturday.

The Azzurri finished bottom of the table last year after four defeats and an 18-18 draw against Wales.

The hosts have claimed the Wooden Spoon five times in seven tournaments but led France at half-time in 2006 before running out of steam in a 37-12 defeat.

France, who won the title on points from Ireland, will be desperate to impress in World Cup year on home soil.

But France, who have won the Five/Six Nations title 15 times, lost twice to the All Blacks and scraped to a 27-26 win over Argentina in the autumn. (yes, but the all-blacks have played some of the best rugby in the world this past year, and must be highly tipped to lift the world cup…)

followed by:

Saturday, 3 February

England v Scotland (Sat)

Twickenham, London
Kick-off: 1600 GMT
Live on BBC One, Five Live, BBC Sport website

England are looking to launch a successful new era under coach Brian Ashton when they host auld enemy Scotland at Twickenham on Saturday.

The world champions (that’s us, believe it or not…) are desperate to bounce back after losing eight (eight!) of their last nine Tests under Andy Robinson.

Scotland are on the up after coming third in last year's Six Nations with wins over England, France and Italy.

team nutty now in the world's top 7,000 teams

nutty is a little 'surprised' that none of the mates have joined team nutty...

how much longer must he and daisy tread alone?

Exxon Sets Record on Annual Profits

hundreds of climate scientists and government officials from around the world have worked all week behind closed doors and frequently darkened windows in a united nations building in paris to summarize the factors behind global warming in a report to be released friday.

so how exactly is the collective world going to tackle the issue of global warming? you can have all the meetings you like, but someone’s actually got to do something, and soon.

here’s a crazy idea: one that can’t possibly work, of course… why not implement a special climate-change 5% tax on the net profits of all companies whose business is the extraction of fossil fuels? i’m speaking primarily of the coal, oil and gas industries.

i propose this as exxon reports a $39.5 billion annual profit, the largest annual profit ever for an american company, and yet surely, is anyone left in any doubt now, that the continued burning of fossil fuels directly affects all peoples living on this planet, and fragile ecosystems alike. the overwhelming scientific consensus agrees that the world’s largest consumer of energy (1/20th of the world’s population consumes ¼ of the world’s energy) cannot go on ignoring the mounting evidence that it is now a global problem.

exxon’s absolutely staggering profits (let me just explain how much money that really is: $39,500,000,000) – that’s $108 million dollars a day profit! , along with those of the rest of the oil and gas industry, will be enjoyed only by their respective executives and shareholders. the by-product of what they sell can now be demonstrated to be directly contributing to global warming. these companies and their shareholders are getting rich at the expense of everyone else. doesn’t this seem completely wrong?

they can all very easily afford to pay a 5% tax on their net profits. i think that leaves them with with 95% profit, doesn't it?...so they’re not going out of business, but look at the massive capital investment that alternative energy research projects would receive if this were to become reality.

undeniably, they can afford to pay. these corporations don’t own the planet, and yet why does it seem they do?...

anyone remember the exxon valdez oil spill? some ten years later:

‘To the naked eye, Prince William Sound may appear “normal.” But if you look beneath the surface, oil continues to contaminate beaches, national parks, and designated wilderness. In fact, the Office of Technology Assessment estimated beach cleanup and oil skinning only recovered 3-4% of the Exxon Valdez oil and studies by government scientists estimated that only 14% of the oil was removed during cleanup operations.

A decade later, the ecosystem still suffers. Substantial contamination of mussel beds persists and this remarkably unweathered oil is a continuing source of toxic hydrocarbons. Sea otters, river otters, Barrow’s goldeneyes, and harlequin ducks have showed evidence of continued hydrocarbon exposure in the past few years.
The depressed population of Pacific herring – a critical source of food for over 40 predators including seabirds, harbor seals and Steller sea lions – is having severe impacts up the food chain. Wildlife population declines continue for harbor seal, killer whales, harlequin ducks, common loon, pigeon guillemot, and pelagic, red-faced cormorant, and double-crested cormorants.


it’s everyone’s planet, not the oil and gas companies. i say if they want to get super rich digging it up, extracting fossil fuels buried deep beneath the surface so we can all burn it, well then let them, and make them pay for the consequences of their actions. in doing so, alternative energies receive massive capital investment, thereby driving new technologies. not only that, but the oil and gas companies themselves will be quick to jump on the bandwagon once they see a marketable product/technology that they can sell to industry. they still want want to make a lot of money out of selling energy, long after the fossil fuels have run out...

and after we’ve started with the ones that sell it, i say we quickly slap a progressive climate tax on the fossil fuels themselves. after all, we're the ones burning them, releasing all the CO2 into the atmosphere because we actually rather like having power for our homes, our cars, our computers, our big flat screen tv's, our sound systems, and our x-box's...that way, everyone is forced to change their individual usage habits, and let's be honest, people just don't change their habits unless they have a strong incentive to do so, or they have to. so you just have make them, and changing everyone's habits (yes, you ridiculous-looking escalade xlt & hummer owners) is exactly what it’s going to take to stop all the geography maps from having to be redrawn because there's now a lot more water, and a lot less land to look at (sorry polar bears...)

and the united states of america has an opportunity to step up and actually do something really good for a change, instead of kicking sand in the world's face, refusing to sign the kyoto treaty, silently proclaiming that their economy is the most important thing on the planet, wanting everyone else to put their house in order first, and not look like the arrogant, spoilt, uncaring bastard it does right now.

because otherwise, it's all just a load of hot air...

a lunar halo visible over dc tonight

12:30am: daisy just texted me from pennsylvania to tell me there's a halo around the moon. it looks a lot better there than it does in d.c....

this is actually a fairly common sight and is caused by high, thin, cirrus (read hazy) clouds containing millions of tiny ice crystals scattering the moonlight. each ice crystal acts like a miniature lens.

we see a halo because most of the crystals have a similar elongated hexagonal shape, and the light entering one crystal face and exiting through the opposing face refracts 22 degrees, which corresponds to the radius of the moon halo. luckily, it looks a lot prettier than it sounds...

so, to produce a lunar halo, you must have:

* moonlight, and
* a thin veil of hexagonal ice crystals between our eyes and the moon.

this is very similar to sunlight and rain falling between our eyes and the sun to produce a rainbow.

we also sometimes see a similar sun halo visible during the day.

so now you know!

so when's it going to happen, and where?

i got to thinking today what with all the talk of global warming, if sea levels rise, what would be the first officially recognised island to be 'lost' to global warming, and when?

surprisingly, i have read of nothing of this. surely one particular island land mass is going to be the first to go.

i have no idea, but somewhere like indonesia, or the arctic must rank fairly highly.

Racehorse Barbaro put down

i was on the exercise bike at the gym yesterday, and the woman in front of me is reading the paper (why do people read at the gym...? the ones that read, are the ones that never break a sweat, seem to just go through through the motions, and are only only half committed in their workouts) tanc, victor, & maro, are you guys reading 'wuthering heights' during your workouts?

so anyway, the headline on the sports page reads 'a racehorse that made us care'. barbaro has been put down. sorry, euthanised...this is d.c.

a racehorse that made us care? why, because he won?....

a racehorse that loses and becomes injured isn't euthanised, we don't care, because we're never going to hear about it, and the poor animal is shot in the head and becomes dogmeat. yeah, sure: "made us care...."

cards, flowers? tears? but not for the losers, just the winners...

iraq

why does america's 'king' think he can 'fix' everything?

i think it's the movies.

except this isn't fucking hollywood!

there aren't any good-looking american heroes, overcoming impossible odds. no cheesy divorced husband-wife scientist/military couple working get-togethers, to save the world from destruction.

it doesn't matter if you send another 20,000 soldiers shouting "we're the best, of the best, of the best, sir!" because where they're going, they're not the best (because you're not fighting a war on your terms).

3 years on and 3,000+ highly trained american personnel later, might have taught you what the russians already knew from afghanistan.

if you kick a ball, it moves (yes landon donovan, and the us soccer team)

if you get thrown against a brick wall, some 30ft through the air, nobody's getting up, looking all tough, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of their mouth, and saying "is that all you got "mother fucker!"

if you start a war, all hell breaks loose. people actually die horrible painful deaths. they do, honestly. the american news media isn't going to show any bodies coming back home, or any graphic images of dead us personnel.. how 'real' is that coverage?

and speaking of real. unlike hollywood, real-life doesn't have happy endings for everyone. just because george says we can't do this and we can't do that, doesn't make any difference to the actual outcome. THERE IS NO HAPPY ENDING FOR IRAQ, GEORGE!

his use of rhetoric is that of a 12 year-old, practicing for a school play; and a poorly written one, at that.

his command of language is also that of a 12 year old, but one who hasn't paid attention in class. if he were a dog, i'd bark myself.

it's hard not to recall h. g. wells' famous opening lines to 'war of the worlds':

'No-one would have believed in the early years of the twenty-first century...'

what does he do after 9/11? 'Bush urges Americans to spend'

He tried to set an example for Americans by taking Washington DC Mayor Anthony Williams out for a high-profile steak dinner in Washington. (i'm sure he got to shake hands with the mayor (i know something you don't george, unless your reading this...ha, ha!) see below george:

http://ablokesblog.blogspot.com/search?q=mayor+

you can't turn back the arrow of time, george. you just don't get it, do you?

watch 'control room'...

hey: how's your knowledge of nursery rhymes, george?

how 'bout this one?

'...and all the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put humpty together again!'

Great Barrier Reef could soon die

From the bbc:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6312147.stm

Great Barrier Reef could soon die

The reef is Australa's greatest tourist attraction

Australia's famous Great Barrier Reef could be dead within decades because of the effects of global warming, according to a leaked report.

The study warns that the organisms which make up the reef's coral could be bleached, because of warmer seas.

The report was compiled by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and published by The Age newspaper.

The Great Barrier Reef is regarded as the world's largest living organism.

It is Australia's number one tourist destination, attracting a million visitors a year, and is home to sharks, turtles and numerous brightly coloured fish.

that should make james m. inhofe just smile and shake his head

need a reminder who james inhofe is? it’s a good read. this man is supposed to be educated…


Climate Change Update
Senate Floor Statement by
U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe(R-Okla)

January 4, 2005
As I said on the Senate floor on July 28, 2003, "much of the debate over global warming is predicated on fear, rather than science." I called the threat of catastrophic global warming the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," a statement that, to put it mildly, was not viewed kindly by environmental extremists and their elitist organizations. I also pointed out, in a lengthy committee report, that those same environmental extremists exploit the issue for fundraising purposes, raking in millions of dollars, even using federal taxpayer dollars to finance their campaigns.

For these groups, the issue of catastrophic global warming is not just a favored fundraising tool. In truth, it's more fundamental than that. Put simply, man-induced global warming is an article of religious faith. Therefore contending that its central tenets are flawed is, to them, heresy of the most despicable kind.

Furthermore, scientists who challenge its tenets are attacked, sometimes personally, for blindly ignoring the so-called "scientific consensus." But that's not all: because of their skeptical views, they are contemptuously dismissed for being "out of the mainstream." This is, it seems to me, highly ironic: aren't scientists supposed to be non-conforming and question consensus? Nevertheless, it's not hard to read between the lines: "skeptic" and "out of the mainstream" are thinly veiled code phrases, meaning anyone who doubts alarmist orthodoxy is, in short, a quack.

I have insisted all along that the climate change debate should be based on fundamental principles of science, not religion. Ultimately, I hope, it will be decided by hard facts and data-and by serious scientists committed to the principles of sound science. Instead of censoring skeptical viewpoints, as my alarmist friends favor, these scientists must be heard, and I will do my part to make sure that they are heard.

…In addition, last month, popular author Dr. Michael Crichton, who has questioned the wisdom of those who trumpet a "scientific consensus," released a new book called "State of Fear," which is premised on the global warming debate. I'm happy to report that Dr. Crichton's new book reached #3 on the New York Times bestseller list.

I highly recommend the book to all of my colleagues. Dr. Crichton, a medical doctor and scientist, very cleverly weaves a compelling presentation of the scientific facts of climate change-with ample footnotes and documentation throughout-into a gripping plot. From what I can gather, Dr. Crichton's book is designed to bring some sanity to the global warming debate.

…Dr. Crichton states that, "Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be a natural phenomenon," and, "Nobody knows how much of the present trend might be man-made." And for those who see impending disaster in the coming century, Dr. Crichton urges calm: "I suspect that people of 2100 will be much richer than we are, consume more energy, have a smaller global population, and enjoy more wilderness than we have today. I don't think we have to worry about them."

For those who do worry, or induce such worry in others, "State of Fear" has a very simple message: stop worrying and stop spreading fear. Throughout the book, "fictional" environmental organizations are more focused on raising money, principally by scaring potential contributors with bogus scientific claims and predictions of a global apocalypse, than with "saving the environment."

no doubt about it. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) should have just asked dr. michael crichton. he’d have said there’s nothing to worry about, australians shouldn’t panic just because a bunch of silly so-called scientists are scare-mongering the good people of the outback, and everyone should remain calm, because coral is a fact, and it is here to stay. period.

Duck comes back from dead, again

from the bbc:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6309159.stm


Perky the duck has had a difficult couple of weeks

A duck which survived being shot before spending two days in a refrigerator has now overcome major surgery - despite briefly dying on the operating table.

Florida vets working to repair the gunshot damage to Perky's wing panicked when the duck's heart failed.

But they managed to resuscitate the bird, who shot to fame when she was found alive in the hunter's fridge two days after being shot.

Perky now has a pin in her wing, but is expected to make a good recovery.

'She's alive!'

The duck entered surgery with vets confident that she would survive the procedure despite serious injuries to her wing, leg and beak.

But her heart failed during the operation, prompting senior vet David Hale to declare her officially dead.

"We lost her. You know, the bird's dead and it's over. I'm sorry," he said, recalling the operation.

"And then, you know, up comes that head and the wings start flapping and, honestly, what, 20 seconds later, I mean the bird was, like, up."

Few details have been made public about how the medical team brought Perky back to life, but the Associated Press said she was revived using CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

There were scenes of high emotion in the operating theatre, said Noni Beck, of the Goose Creek Wildlife Sanctuary.

"I started crying: 'She's alive!'"

Perky made international headlines when she shocked a hunter's wife who found her alive after being stored inside a refrigerator for two days.

Mr Hale said the duck's slow metabolism helped her survive the low temperatures for so long.

…just makes you want to rush out to virginia, buy a gun, shoot an animal who has done nothing to you, and is just trying to survive, and join the NRA…

well, that's a relief!

'team nutty' is somewhat extremely pleased to discover that 'team hardsoft' is a long, long, long way behind...

The ducati 1098, weight: america's love affair with it, and the price of gas.

about 15 years ago, i had just finished the first year of a 3 year degree in economics, and my university had offered 7 students a chance to take the second year in brescia, in italy. i jumped at the chance. i took in a couple of itailian foreign language students at my house in cambridge beforehand to give me a chance learn some of the lingo.

instead of flying on the cheap, i thought it would be a great adventure to drive across northern europe instead, and arrive in italy courtesy of a 6 month-old vw golf.

had i tried to pick a longer route, i’d have probably have failed (1,500 miles...) i first went to visit my brother who was working in holland (totally featureless landscape, save for canals, fields of flowers, and windmills) and living in noordvijk, a beach town.

next stop, switzerland. first of all, there’s mountains everywhere, and you’re greeted by guards at the border carrying machine guns, who force you to buy a motorway pass good for a year. next: that was nothing prepared to the shock of looking at the petrol pump as I tried to try and work out in swiss francs what the cost was of filling the tank. this was 15 years ago, and i reckoned it was the equivalent of 7 quid a gallon…that’s $14.. (then).

then on to italy. crazy, mad, impossible, expensive, in otherways inexpensive (decent wine being one of them).. yet always wonderful. took me 6 months to adjust to living there, and 6 months actually enjoying being there. anyone going to live in italy better had not go with any expectations of what they want from italy. this is italy. you will learn…

what does this have to do with the ducati 1098? well, in america, carroll shelby showed those italians a thing or two, that by stuffing a big engine into a small AC (british) car, you could make it go faster. a lot faster. he beat ferrari at it’s own game. that’s something the tifosi don’t particularly worry about too much, as they will only be too happy to tell you that the only manufacturer to have competed in every single season of formula one isn’t the ford motor company. and besides, i doubt many 6-year old boys and 80-year olds alike in america, can describe accurately the sound of a ford engine…in italy, it’s a very different story with the scream of the flat 12 boxer of the hallowed name of the italian marque.

very high (relative to the united states) prices of petrol have resulted in some small, very interesting cars (that perform) and high taxation of larger engined vehicles across europe. in the united states, vehicles have grown dimensionally larger and heavier, gas prices have been (still are) absurdly cheap ($3 isn’t expensive…) and a government that has basically repeatedly driven it’s knee into the balls of public transportation can’t pretend otherwise when there’s been no real capital investment in anything other than continued road-building projects to speak of in the past 20 years or so.

so now we have a situation where detroit is hemorrhaging like leech’s are back in business, at fords and general motors, and all the while these industry bosses are very busy indeed laying off tens of thousands of long-time employees, and shutting down entire factories. yet amazingly these giants of industry continue to market their same, tired line of gas-guzzling pick-up trucks during every commercial break on nfl sunday. bill ford’s ‘bold innovations’, my arse! i’m not seeing any of them on my flat screen…is anybody else? does anyone in the united states know that ford actually produce a car called the ford focus? it's a small, fuel-efficient passenger vehicle...

instead, here’s what everyone saw every single commercial break during the 2006 fox nfl football sunday, sponsored by ford.

Ford F-150 Pick up Truck: Built-Ford-Tough:

this vehicle's specs: 202hp, and it weighs 3,159 kg. that's nearly 35 lbs of weight 'per horsepower'

‘bold innovations’? compared to what! a rock? oh, sorry, that’s a chevy silverado…

so carroll shelby kind of rewrote the book on car performance. but not for long, and only really in america. while nascar (snzzzzzzzz) goes round and round and round, in ovals, touring car championships and rallys, show the auto industry a very different solution, as does indy car racing. it is no surprise (except maybe to americans) that nearly all indy cars are manufactured and engineered in northamptonshire, england. a culture that forces adaptation is the one best placed to extract the most out of limitation (kind of like evolution…)

in america, it’s just the opposite, cheap and plentiful gasoline supply hasn’t created the conditions or market or competition necessary at these very highest levels of racing. good old economics…..(kind of like evolution…)

ask anyone in europe who has been on a racetrack and they will almost universally answer the question “how do you make a vehice go faster?” with “make it lighter”, then “make it more powerful”. this obsession with weight is so well respected, yet so little understood across the pond, it seems, until only of late.

skiing offers a perfect analogy: anyone can go fast downhill in a straight line, but try and make a few quick turns, and all of a sudden, mass works viciously against you. a quick search of all the world cup men’s downhill slalom championship winner’s weights will show that there hasn’t been a single one of nfl offensive tackle proportions…it’s the same for a vehicle on the road or on a track. weight is the enemy of performance, handling, braking, and fuel econmy. period. but you'd never know that living in america...

and so to ducati’s 1098. by the numbers, it puts out 160 bhp and it weighs 173kg…
that's 2.4 lbs of weight 'per horsepower'....!!!!!!!!

this remarkable saturation of pure motorcycling purpose and intent, is an expression of passion as much as it is of design and technical ability. if i were ever able to cock my leg over it, i’m quite sure my hands would be clammy as i grip the ‘bars, my mouth would be dry, my mind racing, my nerves a wreck, and my stomach muscles would be in knots. and this is before i've even started the engine!

when you can speak thus of a member of your stable, bill ford; that is what i would call 'bold innovation'!

until then, it's a pick-up truck...

Lorry driver rains cash on crowd

from the bbc:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6304943.stm

A German lorry driver has thrown away tens of thousands of euros after winning a radio competition by promising to do precisely that.

Marko Hilgert pledged to give away three-quarters of the 100,000 euros (£65,800; $129,000) prize money.

He was as good as his word and threw notes onto the town square of Kaiserslautern, in western Germany, as he was suspended above it in a crane.

Some 3,000 people scrambled to collect the notes as they rained down.

Mr Hilgert kept the rest of the prize money to pay off part of his mortgage.

"If I threw three quarters of it out of the window, I would obviously still profit," he said.

"But the people also profit from this, and that's what people realised when they voted for me as the winner of the competition."

could you see this happening anywhere in america...?

e-mail to the Economist : Rich man, poor man

Rich man, poor man

in reference to the article 'Globalisation and the rise of inequality'

http://www.economist.com/printedition/

letters@economist.com

Dear Sirs,

I read your article ‘Rich man, poor man’, thinking perhaps the author, James Fryer, had made a mistake. Surely this piece should have been titled 'Rich man, poor people'.

For every Chief executive there are nearly always hundreds, possibly thousands, or more that often meet the same unfortunate news as those sawyers and gluers of Galax, Virginia. in your article. To say these are the glory days of global capitalism is to ‘tip your cap’ and place your publication’s ‘feet’ firmly in the trenches of the Mr. Nardelli’s of this world, and to only nod a passing respect to the sawyers and gluers, for I ask, Is it not their capital economy as well? You say they are not happy. I say, go to Galax!. Maybe ‘happy’ isn’t the appropriate word. Something that more accurately reflects the small town’s true gloom and despair, might have served them better, and fairer.

I quote: ‘The first rule is to avoid harming the very miracle that generates so much wealth. Take for instance the arguments about high executive pay’. Really?, Miracle?, For the executives like Mr. Nardelli, perhaps. I’m sure the gluers and sawyers, and all those on the receiving end of similar bad news don’t see it as a miracle, so how true can that statement really be? Wealth creation is a wonderful thing, but left unchecked, it can hardly be said to be a miracle.

No better example can be offered than here in the United States. I live just a few short blocks away from the Whitehouse. From this building, policy has been written, decisions made, actions taken that not only affect people here in Washington, D.C., but the rest of the country, and the rest of the world as well.

This richest nation on earth, (let’s not forget; built on the back of free, slave-labour) cannot presently manage to send its children to school and college for free, cannot provide free health care for its citizens, and has homeless people wandering and sleeping on the streets in plain view of the Whitehouse. Not only that, but people who are obviously in very real need of care have been forced out onto the streets from institutions, because of repeated cuts in government spending, all while the richest sectors in society enjoy increasingly fabulous wealth. I invite James Fyrer to spend a day with me, here in the nation’s capital, where I will take him on a tour of some very uncomfortable sights. It won’t take very long…

Nobody can argue too strongly that wealth creation is not the way out of poverty, but as for a ‘miracle’, I don’t think the sawyers and gluers of Galax, Virginia, or anyone unfortunate enough to be living on the streets are on their hands and knees right now, giving thanks to the Lord; but there again, I guess not too many of them are subscribers to the Economist…

Mark Solomon
Washington, D.C.

the Dakar Rally

Stephane Peterhansel earned his third Dakar Rally driving title on Sunday despite not winning a single stage. However, French motorcycle rider Eric Aubijoux became the second fatality in this year's race. The 42-year-old died near the end of the 14th stage between Tambacounda and Dakar in Senegal on Saturday.

South African motorcyclist Elmer Symons, 29, competing in his first Dakar Rally, died after an accident during the fourth stage on 9 January.

Last year, 41-year-old Australian motorcyclist Andy Caldecott died.

Two children were also killed in Guinea and Senegal after being hit by vehicles passing through their villages.

Two years ago, 2001 and 2002 champion Fabrizio Meoni of Italy and Juan Manuel Perez of Spain, both motorcyclists with KTM, were killed.

the dakar rally is the world's toughest rally...

Bush Insists U.S. Must Not Fail in Iraq

that's some pretty big talk, george, considering you've had three years to bollocks everything up and push iraq to the point of collapse, with mounting weekly, deadly attacks (currently 900 or so) from the warring factions. but there again, talk is cheap, unlike lives lost. you'll be out of office in two years, while everyone else will be very busy still dealing with carnage and nightmare you've created, and still unbelievably, think you can manage. (that's probably because the whitehouse, or his ranch in texas, isn't anywhere near baghdad...)

you're an idiot; it's a pity you're the world's most powerful idiot.

in case you didn't know, george, britain created iraq, a 'manufactured' country, some decades ago, from a land that didn't want to become one, and america now seems to think that because it wants a democracy there, it can somehow miraculously engineer one.

and let's be quite frank, bushy; you're no churchill...

somebody had better lend you a few history books...,

or any book on the middle east that wasn't written by an american.

oh, and how's new orlean's doing, george? the poorest half that hasn't been rebuilt, i mean....i only ask, because amazingly, you didn't even mention the devasted gulf state of louisiana in your state of the union address...or have you already so quickly forgotten?

Bush asks for 'a chance' on Iraq

i hope all the tens of thousands of families that have had mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters blown up into parts of limbs and unrecognisable fragments of skulls, and bloody pieces of meat, strewn about their capital by countless car bombs, were watching in baghdad...

they must have really appreciated that smile, george...

state of the union address

whilst most of the country watched the president's national address last night, we chose instead to watch 'the party' with peter sellers.

mayor anthony williams, richard III, and steve teague's birthday

so it's just before the performance starts of the opening night of the shakespeare theatre company's production of richard III at the lansburgh theatre, in d.c. my friend saleem, has very generously got rebecca and i tickets to join him as guests, as our christmas present.

so i go to the bathroom and am standing, taking care of number one. there is only one other bloke in the men's bathroom, and he is standing in the next stall. as you do, you perform the cursory sideways ' face glance', to my surprise, i recognise that the guy next to me is none other than the ex-mayor of d.c, anthony williams. "hmm. well, i'm not going to be a twat and say anything. let the bloke take a wazz in peace", i think. and so he finishes, walks to the paper towels, takes a very quick one-two drying rub, deposits the barely touched paper towel in the trash, and exits.

"hang on a minute!" i think. "he hasn't washed his hands!" this is the ex-mayor of d.c., and i imagine that this man is going to be shaking a lot of hands this evening...he just wiped them a couple of seconds with a paper towel and that was it. (bet he didn't think the bloke that he was standing next to would be writing all this...or perhaps he would have made sure he washed his hands)

i wash my hands (sufficiently) and take my seat and immediately inform saleem, rebecca, and saleem's friend, may. the following opening night production of richard III somehow already seems 'special'.

as for the production itself, i'd rate as a 6 out of 10. i think it's incredibly difficult for an english person to really enjoy any foreign production of shakespeare having been 'brought up' on the royal shakespeare company. the guy portraying richard is excellent, as are a couple of others, but the two children are simply terrible. prince edward being less of a nightmare than the younger brother, who is not only unable to act, but as soon as he opens his mouth, it seems he has a bowl of plums wedged in it. the only thing being murdered on stage at that moment is the queen's english. it's impossible not to want to harpoon them both from where i'm sitting.

shakespeare is undoubtedly very difficult, even at 'home' so perhaps it's too easy to be critical, and richard III is probably one of the harder plays.

afterwards, we went to rosa mexicano, for some rockin' guacamole dip. suddenly, a mexican waiter inserts a margarita into my hand and insists on telling me about a british comedy tv series of fifteen years ago entitled 'only fools and horses'. this comedy show is completely and utterly inappropriate to the environment i'm in...

the guacamole and finger foods are delicious, and there's the expected fawning on the so-so actors. my hatred for the youngest child only deepens when he enters the restaurant wearing some sweatshirt zipper with a union jack design. i inform my friends that at this point in elizabethan history, there is no union between scotland and england, and no child acting this part in britain would have ever worn such an offensive item. i think this part of english history is completely lost on americans. they simply think of england as the same as britain! i bet 95 out of 100 americans are unable to even describe an english flag...

then, it was jump in a cab and head to science club and celebrate steve teague's birthday. happy birthday, steve. we love you lots! great to see a lot of faces we hadn't seen for too long.

lovely evening. great to end it at science club with a lot of friends. shame the ex-mayor doesn't have the common decency to wash his hands after using the bathroom. you know, people don't change their personal hygiene habits, especially so at an opening night at the theater, which makes me shudder to think of all the people that have touched their mouths and faces after shaking hands with mayor anthony williams...

comet mcnaught from australia!

only thanking the lord when you win, or something good happens.

after watching the two thrilling games today between chicago and new orleans, and indianapolis and new england, i was dismayed to hear the owner of the indianapolis colts giving "glory to god for this victory", and then tony dungy, the head coach, for "thanking the lord for this victory".

you know what? i have never, ever, once heard tony dungy thanking the lord every time new england, or any other team, for that matter, has beaten his team previously. or is it the case that you only thank the lord when you win, and everything goes the way you want, tony? that doesn't sound very humble, christian, or much like the teachings of the bible...

or how about a natural disaster when hundreds, or thousands of innocent people get killed, and a few people are discovered alive, and their respective families say "it's a miracle; the lord must have been watching over them" er, what exactly was he doing while all the other people were getting killed? again, i never, ever, heard any members of any family that held devoutly religious beliefs heap praise and thanks upon the kind lord because he had just 'allowed' a member of their family to die, only when he'd actually saved one. how very strange, given that only in death, can the true believer actually meet god. you'd think it would be other way around, wouldn't you?

i call this extremely selective praise and worship.

i mean, think how refreshing it would be to hear coaches say: "i would just like to thank the lord for.. the terrible way we played the game, for the humiliating loss we suffered today, all our season-ending injuries, the loss of our dear friend, the division title-game, the future's out of reach... thank you lord, for making the other team better than us! you know what? i thank you so much, lord, i'm gonna' get down on my hands and knees right now, and pray they beat us again next year as well! hallelujah!"

after all, isn't the lord deserving of praise all the time?

Arsenal 2-1 Man Utd

great victory, arsenal.

even better was jens lehmann's grab of his ankle right at the very end. brilliantly funny.

7 days, redha...

it's urlacher's & manning's sunday.

as much as i like the new orleans saints, and it's impossible not to like sean payton, or admire what what he's done for this sports franchise (whatever happened to the word 'team', in america?), i'm still rooting for chicago.

i think it has a lot to do with the cold weather, and nothing to do with rex grossman. brian urlacher is the ultimate defensive back (sorry ray lewis, but you need to stop dancing like an ice skater, you're not on amphetamines (or are you...), and those pesky murder charges didn't exactly help your sporting claim to true greatness. i don't care how quick he is , ravens fans. the measure of a man is taken by more than a stopwatch. pretend there isn't a camera on you and just play your position.

payton manning. please, please, please, beat the #@!*&^!%.. new england patriots!

i'm off to meet victor to show some blokey support (at 11am!) at fado, in chinatown, as arsenal take on manchester united.

"up the ....!"

Hope You Saved Your Glow Stick

from the new york times: (i previously mistakenly said the bbc)

TO most people in Britain, rave is a memory, and a blurry one at that. For four years at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, Britain’s youth took to the fields, forests and warehouses, took Ecstasy, wore some of the silliest outfits ever devised — like cricket hats, white gloves and gas masks — and ushered out Thatcherism in a strobe-lighted haze of electronic music that shook the ground they danced on.

Then Parliament passed the Criminal Justice Act of 1994, which humorlessly characterized rave music as “the emission of a succession of repetitive beats,” and gave police the power to shut raves down. That swiftly put an end to the scene’s drug-induced violence — and to the scene itself.

But if you happen to be in London these days, there are signs that something like rave is stirring again.

“The first time around, rave really seeped into the mainstream,” said Carri Mundane, 26, a designer who was a child during the first rave scene but kept the fliers amassed by her older brother. “The music was in the charts, and everything just became a little bit more psychedelic.”

This time, it’s more insular. And it’s different in other ways, too: some of the music is rock, not electronica, and the scene is no longer as defined by the twin illegalities of drugs and trespassing.
Ms. Mundane, the designer, who wears brightly colored clothing that has made her an arbiter of rave fashion, said, “What I like about rave is the positivity of it, the fact that it is so utopian.”

… yeah, that’s exactly it, love…no way was it about doing stacks of drugs and just rollin’ yer tits off all night long, dancin’ to thumpin’, bangin’ beats with sweaty strangers, everyone smiling, cos’ they're all havin’ a fuckin great time, nobody caring, or giving a toss, an’ never any trouble, except for the wanker police.

"so utopian".....oh, and "the positivity" (hey!, do you think you could make mine a diet rave-light, please?...) positivity! that word didn't even exist then.

e-mail to the discovery channel's 'the military channel'

i have just watched your program 'iraq: the untold story'

i take great umbridge with not only the title of your program, but the content of the program.

what hypocrisy!

perhaps the discovery channel might have done a little, or any research outside of american biased interests, and watched ‘control room’. of course, i didn’t expect a fair, or unbiased representation, but to call this program ‘the untold story’ is beyond belief. i didn’t recall too many references to the al jazeera news network, or the iraqis point of view of the invasion…nicely unbalanced approach wouldn’t you say? untold story? whose? not theirs!

tell me, did any researchers of the discovery team actually watch ‘control room’ in the making of this program?

i await your expected generic response, and am posting this e-mail to my blog for anyone to read.

the hornbeck family - what were they thinking!

let me get this right. the people in the photograph above, are the parents of the 11 year-old missouri boy who was abducted, and for the last four years has apparently endured psychological torture, and quite possibly physical, and sexual torture as well.

this, allegedly at the hands of a pizza-delivery guy by the name of michael devlin.

this story is horrific enough, but now, less than a week after the young hornbeck has been returned by the authorities back to his tearful family, he appears on a television screen!.
yes; his parents have put him on a national television show to tell their story.

er, don’t you think the parents might consider that they first have a duty to try and protect their 11 year-old son? do they really think that by hauling themselves, and him, before the cameras and the entire nation, that this is in any way possibly conducive to the boy’s very best long-term psychological interests? i somehow doubt it.

can either of his parents even spell the word psychological?

to say that this poor kid can’t get a break is a massive understatement. you’d think his parents might allow him to begin to have some room to breathe, some space to move, and hopefully regain some lost dignity.

i'm no expert, but i'd have thought a good therapist was the way forward, not a battery of bright lights, some production manager barking orders, a tv crew, the normally funny, but all-of-a sudden 'concerned'(for added effect) show-host, a lap-dog, carefully chosen, mostly female audience , tearily nodding along on-cue, and the rest of the production that is the very false 'reality', that is a television show.

people never fail to disappoint…

well i'm sure he'll thank them for the experience when he's older...

nutty finally sees the comet!

finally!

from the rooftop of our light-polluted apartment building, bang in the very heart of, hazy, washington, d.c. this time, i finally managed to see comet mcnaught, both naked eye, and with a pair of 10x50 binoculars on a tripod.

at just before 4pm, i spotted it. at first it was very difficult to discern from all the plane contrails (especially in d.c. so close to national airport) but after eliminating a few false alarms, i saw it.

i was amazed to see it easily naked eye about 15 mins later.

i'll be out tomorrow for more of the same.

a naked-eye daytime visible comet is extremely rare. in fact this is the brightest comet of the last 40 years!

tomorrow will probably be your last chance to see this comet, as the weather's not looking too good, and by next saturday it will be below the horizon.

it will be positioned approx 20 degrees below the sun to the south west, and the best time of the day to see it will be between 3:30pm and 4:30pm.

as it's a couple of outstretched handwidths away from the sun, be very careful if you try and use binoculars to spot it. NEVER LOOK AT THE SUN USING BINOCULARS! if you ever want to see again, that is.

if you do miss it, all is not lost.
it is next scheduled to make an appearance in 4534...

e-mail to lexus

i have just seen your tv advert showing a lexus dropped from the sky. at the end, your announcer, smugly proclaims "so much for gravity".

i would just like to point out to your smug announcer, your ad agency, lexus, and toyota engineers, that gravity is the strongest known force in the universe.

should lexus actually manage to produce a car that can withstand the incredible destructive gravitational forces present at the singularity of a super-massive black hole, please don't hesitate to contact me immediately.

sincerely,

nutty.
washington, d.c.

Your PCs forecast climate future

from the bbc:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6268595.stm

A computer model of climate run on home PCs in conjunction with the BBC has yielded its first results.

About 250,000 people downloaded software from climateprediction.net onto their home computers, each running a single simulation of the future.

team nutty is proud to take part in this experiment, and is currently ranked 1,102.

Colombia seizes $54m drugs cash

from the bbc:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6274063.stm

The cash came from shipments delivered by the Norte del Valle cartel, which Washington says has moved more than 500 tons of cocaine to the US.

The first stash of $19m was found in vacuum packed blocks hidden behind a false wall in Cali.

Three other hoards were found earlier this week around the city.

President Alvaro Uribe said he wanted to congratulate the police for a "great accomplishment".

"This is a positive step toward having a Colombia without rebel organisations, without paramilitaries, without drug traffickers or corruption," he told reporters.

that’s complete bollocks, and rhetoric, mr. uribe. it’s impossible to stop a product from being sold that has a 17,000% profit.

that’s why nobody’s done it. including yours and the united states government.

Climate resets 'Doomsday Clock'

from the bbc:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6270871.stm?ls

Experts assessing the dangers posed to civilisation have added climate change to the prospect of nuclear annihilation as the greatest threats to humankind.

As a result, the group has moved the minute hand on its famous "Doomsday Clock" two minutes closer to midnight.

The concept timepiece, devised by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, now stands at five minutes to the hour.

The clock was first featured by the magazine 60 years ago, shortly after the US dropped its A-bombs on Japan.

Not since the darkest days of the Cold War has the Bulletin, which covers global security issues, felt the need to place the minute hand so close to midnight.

…nice to wake up to

'Perilous choices'

The decision to move it came after BAS directors and affiliated scientists held discussions to reassess the idea of doomsday and what posed the most grievous threats to civilisation.

Growing global nuclear instability has led humanity to the brink of a "Second Nuclear Age," the group concluded, and the threat posed by climate change is second only to that posed by nuclear weapons.

"When we think about what technologies besides nuclear weapons could produce such devastation to the planet, we quickly came to carbon-emitting technologies," said Kennette Benedict, executive director of the Chicago-based BAS.

The announcement was made at simultaneous events held by the magazine in London and in Washington DC that included remarks from the English Astronomer Royal, Sir Martin Rees, and physicist Stephen Hawking.

…like these guys know anything…


look on the bright side; at least i didn’t mention bush!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANonAJY61zE

Control Room (2004)

this is an absolutely must-see documentary film. period.

put it straight to the very top of your netflix queue.

Barack Obama

i don't know why people are questioning his credentials to run for president.

i mean, how much worse can he be than the one we've already got?