Ben Ainslie wins again

This is a joint post with Wiggia. The triple Olympic gold medallist admitted that of his previous Finn Gold Cup victories, this was the sweetest of them all for having won it on his home waters in Cornwall. “This is by far and away the best because I grew up and learned to sail here [...]

Congrats, Chelsea

Whatever you think of them and Abramovwhateverhisnameis, this was a sterling effort:

Chess news rushed to you

From Chessalee and Chuckles: the World Chess Championships: After four games of the World Chess Championship match in Moscow, which began on Friday, Viswanathan Anand, the titleholder, and his challenger, Boris Gelfand, have been unable to make a dent in each other. All four games have been draws, and there has been little drama, as [...]

Speaking of bicycles, were we?

Click pic:

The old or the new?

Above – the old J Boats that once fought out the America’s Cup.  Not the fastest boats, they were the sleekest and most beautiful and though this is a replica, the overall look and feel – they seem so right to purists.

The cyclist in Britain

The Quiet Man has a nice post up at OoL on the cyclists who jump red lights issue.  He quotes the survey:

We get our cholesterol in different ways

So, there I was yesterday, looking in the cupboard/fridge – half a jar of chilli, the remnant of the ham from Sunday lunch, beans and cherry tomatoes plus some spaghetti [no grain today]. Bitta bread. Cholesterol? Never heard of it. Meanwhile, Chuckles sends his lunch:

Could this save the bookstore?

Techdirt: Jim O points us to the story of the Harvard Bookstore, where the new owner set up an on-demand printer/binder to see if he could leverage the opposite trend. People don’t just shop physically then buy digitally—they also shop digitally and buy physically: Maybe access to the vast universe of digital content could also [...]

Wimmin on tricycles N3579

Vineyards of Italy

1 Tuscany at San Gimignano Italy is the one wine growing country in the world to literally have vineyards in every region of the country from north to south, east to west the islands, everywhere. Ally all that with the country that grows more grape varieties than anywhere else and you have a mix that [...]

The new face of the America’s Cup

These are a small version of the boats which will contest the AC in 2013 and these are the World Championships, from Cascais, Portugal.  The match racing is good, the camera angles and mikes on board make it live – how would you fancy sailing on one of these? The more interesting racing is around [...]

Aesthetics not entirely in the eye of the beholder

1.  This outfit is discussed below The BuzzFeed page on “68 Photos Of Badly Dressed Celebrities, Large Hats, And Drunk People At The Kentucky Derby” came my way and allow me to point certain things out before starting.

Was it over the line?

The rule is that it has to be “past the line”.  Not past the crossbar – past the line.   There does appear a lean to the goal frame backwards at the top.  The camera is not completely aligned with the line, that’s true.  To align it, it would need to move fractionally to the right.

Looking at sails

Solving sail and hull design problems is usually a matter of compromise and weighting.  Every rig has its advantages and drawbacks and in eclectically combining the best of all, the result is often a mess which doesn’t have any of the advantages. Often, a rig is great in that context, in that size, on that [...]

More on velodromes

1 Old Velodrome Buffalo poster Velodromes are simply tracks for racing bicycles, developed in the early 1880s in line with the fast growing pastime/craze that cycling was providing. They soon expanded and became part of the sporting scene of the period. The very first velodrome was in Paris, the Buffalo opening in 1893. The sport [...]

Amy Williams

She’s retired – too many injuries, lost the urge as a result.  Sad but it happens.  She must never be forgotten.  One commenter wrote: I love the Winter Olympics, it’s so much more fun than all that summer nonsense. Amy, you were a great winner for the UK, congrats on what you have achieved, and [...]

Beef

What is it with beef?  You can have a meal with chicken – yep, it’s nice.  You can eat roast duck – yummy with julienned cucumbers and onion, in a pancake and with hoisin sauce.  That’s better. But it’s only beef which causes you to stay fed, to stay full, to feel you’ve really had [...]

Wimmin [?] on bicycles – part deux

Wimmin distracting cyclists?

I came across this old photo, I think it gives a whole new thrust to the wimmin /bicycle combination:

On rainy days and Aquarians

Just an afterthought on today – wet day, stuck indoors.  Wonder in nine month’s time what we might see a sudden increase in across the UK?  And remember, the little mites are going to be Aquarians. LOL – you might have unwittingly [or not] contributed today to bringing more Aquarians into the world. 

A pauper’s Sunday lunch

When you’re on the breadline, bread is what you need to bulk out your meal. Sunday lunch was: 1. Minestrone soup with croutons a la Higham; 2. Main dish *: 3. Steamed [stewed] apple with various spices and blackcurrant yoghurt; 4. Coffee and various biscuits and chocolate. Later:

Friday quiz

This little boy is the son of seven times World Professional Sprint Champion Antonio Maspes, he is standing at the bottom of the banking of the most iconic velodrome in the world, it was host to ten new world attempts at one event all successful between 1935-1986, it is also a renowned rock venue having [...]

Doing our bit for office harmony

Sometimes, a little more smackdown is needed. Sometimes, one barrel is just not enough. Sometimes, you just need to unload a whole caseload of marshmallow justice on some office miscreant.

Masterchef masterclass

Today, making gravy:  

London women and bicycles

From the London Weekly Standard, via Mark Wadsworth: Not forgetting this one, which is pretty heroic: or should that be “heroinic”?

Card tricks

Memories of Australian wines

Referring to Wiggia’s earlier post on Australian wines, I’d like to add a few things, perhaps too many for a comment on his post.

Wiggia on Australian Wines

1 Penfolds Grange Hermitage In the world of wine, Australia can be credited with kicking the old world so hard in the everyday drinking stakes that they have taken over twenty years to see the light and are still recovering.

Becher’s Brook

Have just read about six pages of comments at the Telegraph and Mail about the race and what strikes me with that, as well as with some recent events at Orphans, is the extremism or rather the flight to deeply entrenched positions, from where no reasoning is possible. On both sides, the most strident and [...]

One stick, some balls and a girl on the table