nutty's 45th birthday

strong week for team nutty

team nutty - world ranked 863 in climate prediction






general electric - world ranked 869 (you'd think they'd be able to throw a bit more computing power than nutty at climate prediction modelling, wouldn't you?)



oracle corporation - world ranked 884 in climate prediction. they must be hard up or something...

French set new rail speed record

A French high-speed train (TGV) has smashed the world record for a train on rails by a big margin, reaching 574.8km/h (356mph).

anyone tried taking the train from dc to new orleans?

i did it once for halloween. it takes 13 hours to get to atlanta (where you get off at some place resembling a small post office perched over a highway), and then another 11 hours to get to new orleans.

that's 24 hours...

america. where there is no investment in fast public transportation infrastructure.

...the acela doesn't really count, because just look at the route covered compared to the rest of the country.

and america's the richest nation on earth. how come the french can do it?

oh i forgot, europe hasn't completely sold out to the automobile industry.

see previous blog...

US 'must regulate car pollution'

The highest court in the US has ruled that the government was wrong to say it did not have the power to regulate exhaust gases from new cars and trucks.

Twelve states and 13 campaign groups brought the landmark case against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The US Supreme Court said the EPA had offered "no reasoned explanation" for refusing to regulate carbon dioxide and other harmful gas emissions from cars.

The ruling was close, with five judges voting in favour and four dissenting.

...the environmental protection agency. you'ld think they'd be batting for the other side, and actually be the ones calling for emission curbs, wouldn't you?

government agencies. named after things they don't do.

sept. 2005

president bush in the aftermath of hurricane katrina:

"The work that has begun in the Gulf Coast region will be one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen."

how's that coming along, george?

james toseland from england wins in front of a home crowd

James Toseland dominated the first World Superbike race of the day to take an emotional win in front of his home fans at Donington Park in England.

max biaggi basically had the win all sewn up in the second race, and then went and screwed up at the last corner and ran wide to let noriyuki haga cut inside to clinch a thrilling victory. the tv shot of his team crew said it all...it is his first season in world superbikes, though, but max was racing motogp from 2002 until 2006, so a fundamental racing mistake.

bet he won't do that again at donington.

Poor Nations to Bear Brunt as World Warms

from the new york times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/science/earth/01climate.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The world’s richest countries, which have contributed by far the most to the atmospheric changes linked to global warming, are already spending billions of dollars to limit their own risks from its worst consequences, like drought and rising seas.

But despite longstanding treaty commitments to help poor countries deal with warming, these industrial powers are spending just tens of millions of dollars on ways to limit climate and coastal hazards in the world’s most vulnerable regions — most of them close to the equator and overwhelmingly poor.

Two-thirds of the atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that can persist in the air for centuries, has come in nearly equal proportions from the United States and Western European countries. Those and other wealthy nations are investing in windmill-powered plants that turn seawater to drinking water, in flood barriers and floatable homes, and in grains and soybeans genetically altered to flourish even in a drought.

In contrast, Africa accounts for less than 3 percent of the global emissions of carbon dioxide from fuel burning since 1900, yet its 840 million people face some of the biggest risks from drought and disrupted water supplies, according to new scientific assessments.

As the oceans swell with water from melting ice sheets, it is the crowded river deltas in southern Asia and Egypt, along with small island nations, that are most at risk.

Scientists say it has become increasingly clear that worldwide precipitation is shifting away from the equator and toward the poles. That will nourish crops in warming regions like Canada and Siberia while parching countries — like Malawi in sub-Saharan Africa — which are already prone to drought.

While rich countries are hardly immune from drought and flooding, their wealth will largely insulate them from harm, at least for the next generation or two, many experts say.

the rich, industrialised west. built on the back of free slave labour. how will history will record it's efforts on behalf on mankind's poorest and under-privileged, when presented with all the information it ever needed during the first decade of the 21st century.

i guess that depends on who gets to write it...

darfur anyone? pity it hasn't got huge oil reserves, or anything else, the west wants...

history records that every great, advanced civilisation ends.

i wonder when our time is up?

world superbikes from donington park in england

world superbikes racing tomorrow (sunday) at 3pm on speed channel.

of course, not quite the same as riding in torrential rain on your bike to the race track with your mates on their bikes, spending the day watching the race sitting on tarp, in appalling weather conditions out in the open, and then riding back home completely soaked...

...and then meet up for some beers later on and reckon on what a great day's racing you saw.

nascar fans....

victor's not feeling very well...Liverpool 4-1 Arsenal

the crouch-a-tron scores a hat-trick!

Peter Crouch's first hat-trick at club level saw Liverpool leap-frog Arsenal to go third in the Premiership.

High Adventure: The True Story of the First Ascent of Everest

just finished reading this great account of the first ascent of everest.

what struck me within the first few pages (and this continued until the very end of the book) was that there was not once a single mention of a name of any manufacturer.

today, we live in a world where we don't go out and buy something, instead, we buy (xxxx) - the name of the manufacturer who makes this or that something.

we are constantly bombarded by names, logos, adverts, & images from corporations, desperate to sell us everything they make at every available opportunity. our future will be one of ever-increasing advertising (how fucking great!)

anyone remember sports stadiums? they used to be named after people or places...

how refreshing to read an entire book and not once have the name of any manufacturer mentioned, even once.

imagine that.

great book. worth reading even if just to escape from the world of advertising...

thank you!

just wanted to say a very big thank you to all my friends for a truly great 45th birthday. special thanks as always to tanc & tiernan. wouldn't have been an event without you.

i would also like to publicly apologise to mr. tancred dickens for breaking up his set and ruining his flow, and completely taking the piss by jumping on the decks and within two records, i somehow found myself playing some dark, blokey music (which i said i wasn't going to do), which quite understandably left tanc saying something that sounds a lot like "clucking bell"

i don't think it helped that tiernan did the same thing later on, and tanc proclaimed that he'd been "double-shafted" - he is quite correct, but i believe my shafting was more of a complete and utter piss-take.

my humblest apologies mate. even nutty has some below-the-belt moments.

i am of course, quite mystified how any of this could have happened in such a quiet, peaceful, soothing environment, sipping herbal teas, quietly reflecting on the poetic sounds of the zen of nature (played left-foot, ambient-fun style) at very low volume...

it was also very nice of chloe to stop by for some tea & biscuits.

some photos to follow once i get them back in a couple of days.

gentlemen: start your engines...

Rossi storms to victory in Spain

from the bbc:


Five-time world champion Valentino Rossi got his first win of 2007 and disappointed the home fans as he beat Dani Pedrosa at the Spanish MotoGP.

what an absolutely thrilling 250cc race, with the lead changing between a battle between four riders absolutely going at it for 9/10 of the race. one of the best races i've seen in any class.

any nascar fans that think their division of motorsport is interesting should have witnessed this race.

nice win for rossi on the eve of my birthday :)

Spanish MotoGP.

go rossi!

i really hope he wins the title back this year.

he's simply a genius on two wheels.

just watch and believe.

only this season and next before he moves on.

speed channel (271 on comcast) 5pm 250 cc race, 6pm motogp, eastern time.

friday night at be bar

very good evening with quality music, instead of the usual progressive or eighties crap being force-fed like it is everywhere else.

idiot of the evening had to go to one of the two white guys leaving as we were waiting for a cab, one of whom said to the other as they got into their suv "that place is so lame" - why, just because you couldn't get laid...dude?

they wouldn't know good music if they heard it.

scene people. now there's a definition of lame for you: when the music is secondary to the enjoyment of the evening of going out to a club.

anyone for tennis?

had a great time supporting our local tennis hero, krissey, this past sunday (she's the pretty one in the middle)

er, some very artistic camera work daisy...

nutty's birthday

borat at kenny & milena's + pizza

can't remember the last time a group of people laughed so hard watching a film.

brilliantly funny.

Starbucks label unveils McCartney

from the bbc:


Sir Paul McCartney has been named as the first signing to the music label of coffee house chain Starbucks.

Sir Paul is one of popular music's biggest names...

sheer breathtaking promotion of underground music...

i really hate this little bastard

americans might like the use of the accent

a cultured cockney? - there's no such thing!

it's an actor's fake, america.

Swiss dig world's longest tunnel

from the bbc:

For centuries, the Alps have served as a natural trade barrier between northern and southern Europe.

Sending Italian wine to the Netherlands, or German washing machines to Greece, means a long, slow journey along narrow alpine valleys, through tunnels and over passes.

Faster than flying

As long ago as 1994, the Swiss voted in a nationwide referendum to put all freight crossing their country onto the railways. Naturally, such an ambitious plan was not going to happen overnight, but now the project dubbed the engineering feat of the 21st Century is slowly taking shape.

Deep beneath the Alps, the Swiss are building a high-speed rail link between Zurich and Milan. It will include, at 57 kilometres (35 miles), the world's longest tunnel.

A key feature of the project, which is new to alpine transport, is the fact that the entire railway line will stay at the same altitude of 500 metres (1,650ft) above sea level.

This will allow trains using the line to reach speeds of 240km/h (149mph), reducing the travel time between Zurich and Milan from today's four hours to just two-and-a-half. That would make the journey faster than flying.

makes a change from chocolates and watches...

he's just so eloquent...

Don’t ‘Pack Up,’ Bush Says After 4 Years of War

"you go find someone to grab the chairs, i'll find somebody else's son to take the table..."

Island leopard deemed new species

from the bbc:

Clouded leopards found on Sumatra and Borneo represent a new species, research by genetic scientists and the conservation group WWF indicates.

Until now it had been thought they belonged to the species that is found on mainland southeast Asia.

Scientists now believe the two species diverged more than one million years ago, and have evolved separately since.

...clearly there is no scientific evidence for the support of evolution (kansas board of education)

a guide to the six nations rugby championship, by country

americans: only irish on st. patrick's day...

as a little test to see just how ignorant the new york times is, you can go to their web site: http://www.nytimes.com/, type in a search for st. patrick's day, and you will see a whole load of answers returned.

now do the same for six nations rugby.
nothing. never mind that tomorrow ( on no less day than st. patrick's day itself) the irish could actually win one of europe's most prestigious sporting tournaments. that ireland might lift the championship tomorrow is absolutely huge, since they haven't lifted the title since 1974. that's 33 years...

over here it's a case of everyone dresseing up as idiots (like at my local ymca gym, for instance) who isn't irish, and being completely unaware of what is actually important to anyone who is irish, and do imitations of frat-boy binge drinking.

meanwhile, anyone who is irish will have a chance to celebrate if everything falls their way. a win is not enough. the outcomes of the other two matches decide the championship title.

well done new york times!