on this day, 60 years ago.

no less than confirmation of einstein's theory of general relativity.

see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8061449.stm

many thanks

to tanc, tiernan and mark for an excellent memorial day bash at jimmy's.

for those who attended, you know how good the music was.

cheers!

the last hurrah at #501

we're putting the apartment up for sale after memorial day.

we will celebrate our last party with our friends.

cheers.

it doesn't look like jesus...

from the new york times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/science/16fossil.html?hpw

not your everday view of the world...

click on image for full screen

sign of the day award goes to:

hubble's last mission

what your tax dollars can get you when not spent on fighting a war, or propping up banks.

today is the launch of the last ever mission to service the hubble space telescope. since 1990, it has cost taxpayers some $10 billion. that amount seems high, but considering the thousands of people over the past 2 decades that have worked/are working on this project, that figure seems miniscule compared to the $2 billion per week that the war in iraq is costing...or the AIG bailout.

republicans always refer to government spending as 'wasteful', yet strangely they remain silent when it comes to the towering sums the united states spends on its military.


the hubble space telescope and the US Government (via the tax payer) has given the world the most successful scientific experiment in history.

science channel is covering the launch live, beginning at 1:30pm eastern.

so here's to the triumph of science, and the positive side of paying taxes.

e-mail to speed tv

http://www.speedtv.com/feedback/

dear sirs,

i have just had the grave misfortune to witness the AMA superbike and Sportbike race this past saturday.

it's hard to know where to start, so i'll try to be succinct.

without doubt, you are simply incapable of covering motorcycle racing on a national level.
apart from occasional annoying racing which interrupts the inane tv ads...you actually stopped the broadcast to interview jamie hacking. if he was jesus, sent down from above to save the world from my sins i wouldn't have wanted to watch this shit. also, do you really think it is a good idea to stop watching the racing so we can listen instead to some podgy, shirt-tucking cunt in a studio wearing a brown shirt? i guess at least the colour was right...

and who is the guy that sounds like he was recently caught running moonshine in the commentary box...such a plus.

but who am i to complain, since whoever paid for the producer's lobotomy obviously got his wish.

in a sentance: you have reduced 2-wheel racing to nascar.

one word sums up your AMA motorcycle racing coverage: CRAP.

in europe, they actually commentate on racing (without adverts).

please inform your presenters that ducati is not pronounced 'DooCahrdee'...

i understand that one doesn't always have to murder both the programme and the language at the same time...

oil cooler for the monster

not looking forward to riding in d.c. on an air-cooled motor, so hope this helps a bit.

(as in the engine temperature soaring in stop & go traffic, and my legs being cooked)

astronomy picture of the day

click on photo for full screen size.

alas, i did not capture this image...

go to:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap090503.html

getting away for daisy's birthday

skyland resort, shenandoah.

click on this photo for the view from our accommodation.

Pontiac - RIP

It’s Official, G.M. Kills Pontiac Brand

brilliant race 1 of world superbikes from Assen, Holland.

fucking incredible ride from ben spies.

not your average weekend ride...

racing does not get any better. wow!

great race from britain's leon haslam.

i know i'm getting old, because i remember going to watch his dad race at donington park...


race 2, next.

happy birthday

to my mum

:)

the economy is so bad that even the sun has dimmed.

The Sun is the dimmest it has been for nearly a century.

from the bbc:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8008473.stm

twat of tax-day award goes to:

this guy.

...who's never been abroad, and doesn't have any black friends.

on a miserable, damp, cold, workday tuesday -

you really can't beat bangin' out some underworld....

it had to happen sometime...

GM to team up with Segway...

this is not a joke

GM and Segway have announced a new joint project dubbed P.U.M.A., which stands for Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility that aims to create two-wheeled car replacements for cities.

it looks like an electric dustbin.
a $5,000.00 electric dustbin!

this may come as a shock to detroit, but i believe a two-wheel vehicle already exists for cities:

it's called a bicycle.

Enzo Custodi-Morsli has arrived :)

congratulations to mum & dad.

cheers!

a new season of formula farce..

whatever last week's race was, it certainly didn't look like anything i remember of formula 1.

the cars look stupid & FUCKING UGLY!

starting the race as the sun went down, just to try & placate bernie ecclestone who wanted a night race? whatever happened to driver safety being paramount?

ending the race on a safety car...how thrilling.

just give me a genuine racing spectacle, instead of a marketing machine masquerading as motor sport.

...i shall still get up at 4:30am to watch the malaysian grand prix on sunday morning, though.

at least the europeans take to the streets to protest

americans are too busy twittering about social change...

ah, the good old days...before bush.

in 1969, america managed to put a man on the moon (and much more incredibly, bring him back, along with the rest of the crew).

george w bush is just 23 years old.

dr. evil plans to hold the world ransom for $100 billion - an amount of money that didn't exist then.

and the only things toxic were oil spills.

40 years later, the insurer, AIG is bailed out 9along with every major bank), dwarfing dr. evil's absurd demands.

an american insurance company (the world's biggest) that is in the business managing risk...

george bush's 'weapons of mass destruction' have turned out to be homegrown banks on wall st, and the financiers that run them.

47 million americans without health insurance and the worst financial crises since the great depression. how's that less taxes, free market ideology working out - privatizing the profits and socializing the losses? no thanks!

and we have a president in obama that actually seems willing to DO something constructive, even if it is politically suicidal and unpopular. if you think it's bad now, just imagine "drill, drill, drill", mcpain et al, running the show from 1600 pennsylvania ave.

i'm not quite sure why all the pundits assume it's worse in europe. europe has a social framework of caring for its people.

in terms of human suffering, it's much worse over here.

without doubt, the opening decade of the 21st century is not going according to plan.

1999 seems so long ago, now.

cheers, george. it's not all your fault, but you stood by and did nothing for the average american, except to leave them with a true, lasting legacy of your stewardship. debt & higher taxes.

how very republican.

"so, what's your name?"

so i'm watching the ski jumping last night, when this fellow appears.

his name, Andreas Wank...

see his official homepage:
http://www.andreaswank.de/

did you know...

that the nation's capital, washington, d.c., suffers an AIDS epidemic to rival that of 3rd world countries?

see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7947443.stm

...perhaps the pope should have visited anacostia and gone on a walk-a-bout disguised as a poor, black male while he was here, instead of having streets closed and secret service swarming everywhere for him.

you really can't beat...

starting the weekend off with a bacon buttie (with tomato sauce).

bashing General Motors.

GM launched the new Camaro yesterday.

now, i've long been a basher of GM. , but i have to give it to them with their new camaro.

despite GM having a truly terrible website - see below:
http://www.gm.com/vehicles/?seo=goo_|_2008_GMBP_Retention_|_IMG_GMBP_GM_General_|_GM_General_DKI_1_|_gm

while it's not my cup of tea, at least it looks like it was designed by someone who hadn't recently had a lobotomy, or was an exercise in how to immediately bore male car buyers and small boys alike.

america's car industry could use a positive icon, and to all the tree-hugging naysayers, this car was not designed to sell in huge numbers, so who cares if the gas mileage is rubbish compared to a prius.

america could use a little sex appeal right now.

Maewyn Succat's day.

not quite so easy on the tongue as St. Patrick - only named Patrick when he became a bishop.

and he was a Scotsman.

and gave the irish christianity.

which would ultimately lead to scores of americans, wearing ridiculous green clothing, drinking heavily, and not having a clue who St. Patrick was, his life or what he did some 1,500 years later.

cheers.

...and i wonder just how many, 'celebrating' will reflect upon the recent shootings in northern ireland.

the ignorance of land of guns.

the GOAT turns 30

imagine being so good at what you do that you are referred to as the 'GOAT

Greatest Of All Time

and you've just turned 30.

amazing.

anyone that doesn't think he is the greatest didn't watch his performance at laguna seca last year.

one of the greatest battles on two wheels i've ever seen.

skyline drive.

105 miles of no d.c. traffic.

hardly any traffic.

magic.

the recession bites deeper...

let's face it, it must be an absolute nightmare not making it in forbes' magazine top 20 richest people list...

bernie madoff. proof that you never want all your eggs in one basket. and also that if you're perceived as rich, somehow you must be trusted.

of course, if you're an ex-banker/financier that has already reaped huge bonuses while helping to drive the world's economies into a ditch and subsequently 'retired' now that taxpayers are stuck with footing the losses, then i guess you've won.

too big to fail simply means an incentive for so-called 'moral hazard'. in the good years, bonuses flow, and when on the rare occasion everything goes so horribly bad (like now) that the institution that showered financial rewards during all those successful years (when they were busy making bad bets) can no longer meet its capital obligations once those bets prove to be a disaster.

heads the banks win and tails the taxpayer loses.

the best show on tv.

brilliant.

the absurd notion that somehow we can fix everything...

is it only me, or does anybody else find it disturbing that the economic reality we are facing today has been met (bush: the economy is strong...), or presently: 'we can rebuild, and america will once again lead the world..' is fundamentally flawed?

why do we collectively think that we (western ideology) can make everything better?

while we have been happily sailing towards the cliff edge, nobody cared, and yet as soon as the house of cards starts crumbling around us, we expect miracles (and immediate ones, at that).

greed, credit, and leverage, and a policy of deregulation created the problem, and it's not going to be fixed until we address the root cause - however unpalatable the consequences may seem, both for 'main street', which is media-financial speak for you and me, and the the investors of this world and those that work in the industry.

so here's my take:we're all in a big ditch. and we are just going to 'be' in this ditch until someone gets us out. but i can't tell you exactly when the tow truck will arrive...

...nor how deep the ditch actually is.

as for the so-called 'best & brightest' on wall st. they ALL got it wrong.

perhaps it's time to revisit whether the profit motive of the individual actually benefits the long term of the whole.

and by that, i mean the poorest of the world as well as the richest.

and there is an awful lot of the very poor that didn't benefit from all the past's wealth creation in the industrialised nations of this planet ...

or to put it another way:

why does the business cycle exist?

daytona 200

watched the daytona 200 race last night on speed channel.

if this is north america's most prestigious motorcycle road race i must be missing something.

a rolling start, safety car, cautions...the last few laps were a farce.

boring!

nascar on two wheels.

this chap won the first ever race there in 1937.
i imagine it was a lot more interesting.

better than watching the news...

been watching the long way down - a motorcycle trip from john o'groats in scotland to cape town, south africa.

liked this one more than the earlier 'long way round', perhaps because i'd seen it, and africa is such a vast, mixed continent.

adventure.

brilliant.

at least the racing's good...

great opening round from phillip island in round 1 of the world superbike championship.

haga won by just 0.032 sec in the first race, with ben spies notching up his first world superbike win in the second.

it promises to be a great season.

(among all the economic gloom & doom).

Dow Below 6,800; Lowest Close Since ’97

AIG reports biggest ever quarterly loss by a company ($460,000 a minute)


...and that's after receiving $150,000,000,000 of taxpayer money.

i must be a little slow...

credit created the problem, so we're solving it by creating more credit and securitization, so that those securities can be sold to investors that bet on them. sound familiar?

...and just what figure does 'systemic risk' amount to?

if the banks aren't willing to lend, they'll have no income. so make them give up their so-called toxic assets at a bargain price to the taxpayer, and let all americans profit when the economy turns around, instead of existing shareholders.

why do 19 banks have more say than 300 million people?

everybody else is having to 'deleverage'.

oh well, i guess it's just bad luck if you're retiring soon and you had all your savings in equities...

but that's your problem, right?