When old things bring riches

I've always enjoyed the Antiques Roadshow series of shows, both the English and US versions. For those who don't know them, a team of experts in antiques travels to a city, and they hold an 'open house' where anyone can bring in anything to be valued. Most of the stuff, of course, isn't particularly valuable: but now and again a real undiscovered gem explodes on the scene, to universal delight (and not a little envy, I'm sure!).

Two recent examples caught my eye. The first, in England, involved an extremely rare porcelain plate.

Never before in the TV show's three-decade history has a plate been awarded a six-figure valuation.

But that's exactly what happened when Wendy Jones took an old piece of crockery to the Antiques Roadshow.

. . .

She only attended the roadshow event near her home in Aberglasney, Wales, because her husband wanted some books valued.

Seeking something to take long, Mrs Jones grabbed the 22-inch plate on her way out of the door and casually transported it in a Tesco carrier bag.

But it turned out to be the most valuable plate to have appeared on the BBC programme in its 31-year history.

Expert valuer John Axford told Mrs Jones that the 18th century oval-shaped plate was commissioned by the Prussian East India company for Frederick II.

Made between 1750 and 1755, it is constructed out of hard paste porcelain and is decorated with the arms of the Hohenzollern family, the order of the black eagle and the Maltese Cross.

There are pieces of the service in the best museums around the world but only two items have been sold in the last decade, Mr Axford said.

He then delivered his valuation of £100,000 [about US $156,000] to a 'speechless' Mrs Jones.

. . .

Mr Axford, an expert from Woolley and Wallis auction house in Salisbury, Wiltshire, based his estimate on a much smaller soup plate from the service recently selling for £31,000 [about US $48,000].

He said: 'It is the most valuable thing by far that I have seen on the roadshow.

'It is a fantastic piece of a very rare Royal service and is very unusual.'

There's more at the link.

The second, here in America, surprised me, as I'd never realized how valuable early Native American weaving had become. Here's a video clip.

I bet he was pleased! That's enough to make his retirement a lot more comfortable!

Peter

Remind me never, EVER to take this road!

The video clip below shows an astonishingly narrow mountain pass with hairpin bends. I haven't been able to identify the road or the country - can any readers help? Anyway, the passing skills required of heavy vehicle drivers on this pass simply boggle the mind.

I'd hate to be the filling in an eighteen-wheeler sandwich on that road!





Peter

Doofus Of The Day #318

Today's Doofus is from Wyoming.

Police say a man suspected of stealing a bottle of Schnapps from a Wyoming grocery store didn't have the best escape route planned.

Riverton police say the 26-year-old ran out of the store after grabbing the bottle of liquor and a package of cough drops Wednesday and hid in a nearby building, which happened to be the police station.

Police say the man then ran out of the police station, but not before a dispatcher had spied him on the station's surveillance camera and alerted officers.

The man, who police say was drunk, was caught soon after.

Yep. If you're going to steal the hard stuff, don't partake of it before your crime, or it might backfire on you!



Peter

Now that's a good idea!

I'm amused to see that a Japanese company has found a way to recycle all the shredded paper that's produced by the ton in modern offices.

"White Goat" [is] a miracle-working machine by Oriental Co., Ltd that directly recycles office paper into toilet paper. Users need only add water along with any embarrassing e-mail printouts or unwanted TPS reports they need shredded, and out comes TP of dubious softness.

A built-in shredder starts off the action in a right satisfying way. The shredded paper then moves on to a pulper where it gets dissolved in water. The pulp becomes wet paper and is eventually dried and rolled up into ready-to-use toilet paper. We imagine that this mysterious process may resemble a high-tech Japanese version of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

"White Goat" reportedly will go on sale this summer. The machine takes half an hour to produce one neatly wrapped toilet roll and uses the equivalent of 40 sheets of standard office paper per roll. That supposedly saves 60 cedar trees each year ...

There's more at the link. Here's a video clip of the machine.

At a reported $100,000 per machine, the capital investment might be a bit steep for many companies . . . and I can't help but wonder whether employees might not add lots of staples and paper-clips to the shredded paper they use to make their bosses' TP!





Peter

The revolving door of justice

As a prison chaplain, I got used to many recently-released inmates ending up back behind bars within a short time. The staff used to moan and bitch about it constantly. Many times we had to release somebody whom we knew - knew, beyond a shadow of doubt - would re-offend within days or weeks. What's worse is that we knew some of them would hurt, perhaps maim, even kill their soon-to-be-victims. However, the law took no account of how they'd behaved during their time behind bars, and wasn't interested in our knowledge of their criminal potential. If their sentences were over, we had to let them go . . . and start counting the days until they were rearrested.

US courts began to address this problem with the 'habitual offender' statutes that came into vogue a couple of decades ago. If a criminal had a record of several prior felonies, the DA or other prosecuting authority could apply for a much longer sentence than his present crime might warrant, on the grounds that he or she was an habitual offender. This has helped to keep some of the bad guys from reoffending, because they're serving long terms in the slammer: but the civil libertarians and bleeding-heart liberals continually complain about such laws. They've never had to deal with the consequences of letting such inmates loose on society, that's clear . . .

A report from Britain indicates that they're having the same problem with repeat offenders over there.

Incredibly, 42 per cent of criminals found guilty but given an absolute discharge [i.e. no punishment] by courts last year had 15 or more previous convictions.

So had 29 per cent of those given a conditional discharge, 26 per cent of those fined, 27 per cent of those who received a community punishment and 26 per cent of those whose sentences were suspended.

There's more at the link.

I have a small suggestion for those worried about 'habitual offender' statutes and the long - I admit, sometimes unreasonably long - sentences they entail for someone whose current offense may be relatively small. How about this? Let's dish out the sentence that the crime(s) deserve, precisely and exactly as the law lays down; and then let's add one year to the sentence for each and every prior felony conviction, plus six months for each and every prior misdemeanor conviction. If you steal a chocolate bar, you get convicted of misdemeanor theft. Your punishment for that crime alone might be a slap on the wrist (like being fined enough to pay for it): but your five felony and seven misdemeanor prior convictions mean that you also get an 8½-year prison sentence. Next time (since this is your eighth misdemeanor conviction) you'll get nine years on top of whatever sentence your next crime attracts.

This way, someone with no prior offenses (or only a few) will draw a relatively light sentence, and will hopefully be able to learn from his mistakes. Those who can't or won't learn from their mistakes will make more of them, and their time behind bars will get longer, and longer, and longer . . . until society no longer has to worry about them at all. The revolving door will simply stop revolving for them.

Seems fair to me. What say you, readers?

Peter

As Lawdog would say, *Gigglesnort!*

From one of my favorite Web cartoons, Sequential Art, the latest panel (click the image for a larger view):







Peter

The daftest action scene of all time?

Courtesy of Dark Roasted Blend, we find this video from an Indian movie, 'Alluda Majaka', made in 1995. It's . . . it's . . . well, you judge for yourself!

Unbelievable!



Peter

Spam yesterday, Spam today, and Spam forevermore!

I was highly amused - not to mention impressed! - to read of a British Army cook in Afghanistan who prepared Spam for his troops for an unbelievable 42 days, after other supplies were interrupted by enemy action.

Army chef Corporal Liam Francis refused to surrender when food supplies were interrupted by Taliban fighters for six weeks.

With almost no gastronomic ammunition to hand, the 26-year-old opened tin after tin of the chopped pork and ham and produced a series of dishes to rival the famous Monty Python Spam sketch.




'I was surprised what we could do: Sweet and sour Spam, Spam fritters, Spam carbonara, Spam stroganoff and Spam stir fry,' said the father of one from Tidworth, Wiltshire.

'We were on compo [field rations] for six weeks and we only had one menu - Spam.'

But he added that the troops were relieved when fresh supplies finally arrived. 'The first day off Spam, I prepared battered sausages, chips and curry sauce,' he said. 'The Sergeant Major said it was the best meal he had ever had.'

. . .

He was forced into emergency action at the Forward Operating Base in Sangin when Taliban fighters shot down a civilian supply helicopter the day before he arrived, leaving him without the usual beef burgers, chicken, sausages and fish and chips.

. . .

A spokesman for Spam said: 'We were most impressed with the recipes Corporal Liam Francis came up with. The soldiers do an amazing job and we were pleased that we helped in some small way.'

Corporal Francis is now back in the UK's main base in Helmand province, Camp Bastion. In a single week the kitchens there get through 7,500 burgers, 2.5 tons of chicken breasts, 20,000 baguettes and 4.5 tons of potatoes and chips.

There's more at the link.

Personally, I'd give him a bravery award for daring to feed his troops Spam every day for so long - and I'd give the troops a unit award for putting up with it!

Meanwhile, for those who aren't Monty Python aficionados, here's their (in)famous Spam sketch.

Peter

The first X-rays

An audio slide show on the BBC Web site started me thinking about the impact of X-rays back in the 1890's, when they were first described by Dr. Wilhelm Röntgen.




The first published X-ray picture was taken by him of his wife's hand, and caused a media sensation. According to Wikipedia:

Nearly two weeks after his discovery, he took the very first picture using x-rays of his wife's hand, Anna Bertha. When she saw her skeleton she exclaimed "I have seen my death!"

The outpouring of enthusiasm and interest over the new discovery was enormous. McClure's Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 5, published in April 1896, had a big article about the new field. Here's a short extract.

Exactly what kind of a force Professor Röntgen has discovered he does not know. As will be seen below, he declines to call it a new kind of light, or a new form of electricity. He has given it the name of the X rays. Others speak of it as the Röntgen rays. Thus far its results only, and not its essence, are known. In the terminology of science it is generally called "a new mode of motion," or, in other words, a new force. As to whether it is or not actually a force new to science, or one of the known forces masquerading under strange conditions, weighty authorities are already arguing. More than one eminent scientist has already affected to see in it a key to the great mystery of the law of gravity. All who have expressed themselves in print have admitted, with more or less frankness, that, in view of Röntgen's discovery, science must forth-with revise, possibly to a revolutionary degree, the long accepted theories concerning the phenomena of light and sound. That the X rays, in their mode of action, combine a strange resemblance to both sound and light vibrations, and are destined to materially affect, if they do not greatly alter, our views of both phenomena, is already certain; and beyond this is the opening into a new and unknown field of physical knowledge, concerning which speculation is already eager, and experimental investigation already in hand, in London, Paris, Berlin, and, perhaps, to a greater or less extent, in every well-equipped physical laboratory in Europe.




This is the present scientific aspect of the discovery. But, unlike most epoch-making results from laboratories, this discovery is one which, to a very unusual degree, is within the grasp of the popular and non-technical imagination. Among the other kinds of matter which these rays penetrate with ease is the human flesh. That a new photography has suddenly arisen which can photograph the bones, and, before long, the organs of the human body; that a light has been found which can penetrate, so as to make a photographic record, through everything from a purse or a pocket to the walls of a room or a house, is news which cannot fail to startle everybody. That the eye of the physician or surgeon, long baffled by the skin, and vainly seeking to penetrate the unfortunate darkness of the human body, is now to be supplemented by a camera, making all the parts of the human body as visible, in a way, as the exterior, appears certainly to be a greater blessing to humanity than even the Listerian antiseptic system of surgery; and its benefits must inevitably be greater than those conferred by Lister, great as the latter have been. Already, in the few weeks since Röntgen's announcement, the results of surgical operations under the new system are growing voluminous. In Berlin, not only new bone fractures are being immediately photographed, but joined fractures, as well, in order to examine the results of recent surgical work. In Vienna, imbedded bullets are being photographed, instead of being probed for, and extracted with comparative ease. In London, a wounded sailor, completely paralyzed, whose injury was a mystery, has been saved by the photographing of an object imbedded in the spine, which, upon extraction, proved to be a small knife-blade. Operations for malformations, hitherto obscure, but now clearly revealed by the new photography, are already becoming common, and are being reported from all directions. Professor Czermark of Graz has photographed the living skull, denuded of flesh and hair, and has begun the adaptation of the new photography to brain study. The relation of the new rays to thought rays is being eagerly discussed in what may be called the non-exact circles and journals; and all that numerous group of inquirers into the occult, the believers in clairvoyance, spiritualism, telepathy, and kindred orders of alleged phenomena, are confident of finding in the new force long-sought facts in proof of their claims. Professor Neusser in Vienna has photographed gall-stones in the liver of one patient (the stone showing snow-white in the negative), and a stone in the bladder of another patient. His results so far induce him to announce that all the organs of the human body can, and will, shortly, be photographed. Lannelougue of Paris has exhibited to the Academy of Science photographs of bones showing inherited tuberculosis which had not otherwise revealed itself. Berlin has already formed a society of forty for the immediate prosecution of researches into both the character of the new force and its physiological possibilities. In the next few weeks these strange announcements will be trebled or quadrupled, giving the best evidence from all quarters of the great future that awaits the Röntgen rays, and the startling impetus to the universal search for knowledge that has come at the close of the nineteenth century from the modest little laboratory in the Pleicher Ring at Würzburg.

It's odd to read of their astonishment at the uses of X-rays that we take for granted today, and shows how major a step forward was Dr. Röntgen's discovery. He was rewarded with the very first Nobel Prize in Physics, in 1901.

I recommend both the BBC audio slideshow and the McClure's Magazine article. Both illustrate how amazed our forefathers were at this new perspective on life and health. It certainly amazed me to read them!

Peter

Flying with the fastest birds in the world

The video below contains some remarkable footage shot by cameras attached to peregrine falcons and goshawks. It's well worth watching.

Amazing! I marvel that they were able to mount the cameras in such a way as not to slow down the birds or get in the way of their wing muscles.

Peter

St. Anthony's Monastery is restored

I'm very pleased to read that the restoration of the Monastery of St. Anthony, the oldest monastery in Christendom, has been successfully completed. Discovery News reports:

Egypt's antiquities chief on Thursday unveiled the completion of an 8-year, $14.5 million restoration of the world's oldest Christian monastery, touting it as a sign of Christian-Muslim coexistence.




. . .

Top archaeologist Zahi Hawass ... showed journalists the work at St. Anthony's, an ancient compound at the foot of the desert mountains near Egypt's Red Sea coast.

"The announcement we are making today shows to the world how we are keen to restore the monuments of our past, whether Coptic, Jewish or Muslim," he said, referring to the dominant Orthodox Coptic Christian sect in Egypt.

. . .

St. Anthony, widely revered as the founder of Christian monasticism, settled in this remote mountainous area at the end of the 3rd century to live in isolation. Upon his death, his followers built the monastery, which was completed around A.D. 350 remains in use to this day.

In the government-sponsored project, workers renovated the fortress-like ancient wall surrounding the monastery and the walls of its two main churches -- the 14th century Church of the Apostles and the 6th century Church of St. Anthony. They also renovated monks' quarters and a 6th century tower into which monks would retreat during attacks by marauding Bedouin tribes throughout the Middle Ages.

A modern sewage system was also installed for the monastery, which is home to several dozen monks and is frequently visited by Christian pilgrims.

Amid the renovations, archaeologists from the American Research Center in Egypt discovered the remains of the original monks' cells dating back to the 4th century under the Church of the Apostles. After they were excavated, archeologists in 2008 covered them with thick glass so that visitors to the church can see them below their feet. ARCE also renovated stucco paintings in Church of St. Anthony.

There's more at the link.

I've visited the Monastery of St. Anthony. It's a place absolutely steeped in prayer. If you have the inner sense to listen, you can hear the silence speak to you. After so many centuries of occupation by men spending most of their time in prayer, meditation and contemplation, it's almost as if a spiritual presence has soaked into the very walls of the place. It's an uncanny feeling.

There are also very old works of religious art, for those so inclined, including frescoes and paintings. Here are a few examples from the Egyptology Online Web page on the monastery (from which the picture above is also taken). It's recommended reading.




If you ever find yourself in Egypt, and near the Monastery, it's well worth a visit. See the Monastery's Web site for more information.

Peter

They found it!

Back in November last year I wrote about an expedition to Antarctica that planned to search for whisky left behind by Sir Ernest Shackleton. It seems they found it! The BBC reports:

Five crates of Scotch whisky and brandy belonging to the polar explorer Ernest Shackleton have been recovered after more than 100 years in the ice.

They were buried beneath Shackleton's Antarctic hut, built in 1908 for a failed expedition to the South Pole.




Some of the crates have cracked and ice has formed inside, which means experts will face a delicate task in trying to extract the contents.

The ice-bound crates were first discovered three years ago.

The master blender at whisky company Whyte and Mackay said the find was a "gift from the heavens" for whisky lovers.

Richard Paterson, whose firm supplied the Mackinlay's whisky for Shackleton, said: "If the contents can be confirmed, safely extracted and analysed, the original blend may be able to be replicated.

"Given the original recipe no longer exists this may open a door into history."

The alcohol was removed from the ice by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust, which had initially believed there to be just two crates.

Al Fastier from the trust said: "To our amazement we found five crates, three labelled as containing whisky and two labelled as containing brandy.

"The unexpected find of the brandy crates, one labelled Chas Mackinlay & Co and the other labelled The Hunter Valley Distillery Limited, Allandale, are a real bonus."

Mr Fastier said the trust was confident the crates contained intact alcohol, given that liquid could be heard when the crates were moved.

The smell of whisky in the surrounding ice also indicated full bottles of spirits were inside, albeit that one or more might have broken.

There's more at the link.

Hmm . . . century-old Scotch and brandy, well preserved in ice? Why do I suspect that the 'scientists' and 'technicians' thawing out those crates are going to have an awful lot of eager amateur helpers? And why do I suspect that it'll all have to be tasted "to make sure it's still good"?



Peter

Why cats and exercise don't mix

The video speaks for itself.

Ouch!!!





Peter

A miraculous rescue

The Daily Mail reports on an amazing rescue, co-ordinated from hundreds of miles away.

A German man owes his life to a woman who rescued him from 350 miles away – thanks to his camera.

The man lost on a frozen stretch of the North Sea was facing almost certain death when he flashed his camera in the hope that someone might be out watching the same beautiful sunset he had set out to witness.

Luckily the camera flash off the coast of St. Peter-Ording near the Danish border was witnessed by a female nature lover sitting in front of her computer in the Westerwald region near the Rhine hundreds of miles away in southern Germany.

She was monitoring a camera set up on the beach to record the vivid sunset.

Seeing the camera flashes she alerted local police who in turn sent through an emergency call that resulted in a patrol rescuing the man as temperatures plunged to -20° centigrade (-4° Fahrenheit).

German authorities said it was the first incident of its kind where a person's life had been saved in this way.

Police spokeswoman Kristin Stielow said: 'He was walking on the ice, got disoriented and would probably have either fallen through the ice or succumbed to the cold.

'He was very lucky that this lady was sharing the same natural phenomenon but from the warmth and safety of her own home.

'He was not a local - a local wouldn't have attempted this. He was boundlessly naive.'

Police said the female hero has asked that her name is not revealed to the media.

The man in his 40s was treated for mild exposure after his ordeal.

He is planning a visit to the woman he owes his life to when he has recovered.

There's more at the link.

I hope the man follows through on his plans for a visit - and takes with him the largest, most delicious box of chocolates and the biggest magnum of champagne he can afford! She's surely earned them!

Peter

Good for Japan!

I'm astonished to read a report on diplomatic negotiations with and over North Korea, in which Japan's approach is questioned by the journalist, who reports that other parties are 'irritated' at Japan's intransigence.

It was one of the most bizarre episodes of the Cold War.

Men, women and children snatched by communist spies and bundled aboard creaking fishing boats in the most mundane circumstances: on the way home from school, on shopping trips, during a romantic stroll along a windswept beach.

Decades later, Japan is still some way off establishing the truth about North Korea’s abductions of at least 17 of its citizens, spirited away between 1977 and 1983 to the world’s most reclusive state.

There, they were employed as mentors to communist agents hoping to pass themselves off as Japanese; some were allegedly murdered so their identities could be used by spies taking part in missions on the other side of the Japan Sea.

While the rest of the world grapples for an appropriate response to modern-day North Korean security threats – a rumoured ballistic missile test in early April and the development and proliferation of nuclear weapons – Japan simply refuses to let the abduction issue die.

Not that there hasn’t been some progress. In 2002, five abductees were allowed to return home after a meeting between the then Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il.

In an extraordinary mea culpa, Kim apologized for the abductions, carried out on his orders during the regime of his father, Kim Il-sung, but insisted that four of the 17 had never entered the country, and that another eight had died.

. . .

Japan, though, is convinced the missing abductees are still alive, and that the North is refusing to release them because they know too much about the regime’s espionage operations.

Tokyo has warned it will never accept a nuclear deal with North Korea that excludes a satisfactory explanation of the abductees’ fates, potentially depriving the North of much-needed food and energy assistance from its wealthy neighbour as a reward for disabling its nuclear capabilities.

But Japan’s hardline approach carries a huge risk. Not only could it find itself diplomatically isolated at the talks as other countries rush to denuclearize the Korean peninsula, it could find itself at odds with its closest ally, the U.S.

Privately, other parties in the talks are irritated by Japan’s refusal to separate the abductions from the nuclear threat. And despite U.S. promises to pursue an all-encompassing resolution to the North Korean question, few expect it to allow differences over the abductions to stand in the way of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

Yet no Japanese administration can afford to make concessions. The abductions have become a cause celebre among many voters, moved by frequent media coverage of distraught relatives begging for their loved ones to be released.

Now the families are pinning their hopes on the Obama administration. “International pressure against the North, particularly from the United States, is indispensable to any resolution,” they said in a recent open letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

There's more at the link.

Well, of course Japan's intransigent! If I were Japanese, I'd never let my government have a moment's peace about this. After all, we're talking abduction and murder here! How could anyone with any conscience just ignore it, and let it lie unresolved? If anyone reading this thinks that current political reality trumps past crimes, ask yourself this: how would you feel if your husband, or wife, or son, or daughter, were among those abducted? Changes things, doesn't it?

I sincerely hope that Japan keeps up its pressure on North Korea, and that the other parties to the negotiations don't allow political factors to let the seventeen victims disappear into limbo, their fates forever unknown.

Peter

A lawsuit from - and for - the history books?

I'm intrigued to read of a rather unique lawsuit filed against the British government by ten individuals representing the Bunyoro tribe in Uganda. The Daily Telegraph reports:

Ten Ugandans are suing the British government for £300 billion [about US $473 billion] in damages for crimes committed by colonial officers in the late 1800s.

The group are seeking damages for crimes committed during the 1893-1899 war in the northwestern Bunyoro region.

Their lawyer Crispus Ayena Odongo said: "Before this war the population of Bunyoro was stated to be 2.5 million. But by the end of the war there were only 150,000 Bunyoro that could be accounted for.

"The people who were responsible for invading the place should tell us where the rest are."

. . .

The suit alleges that between 1893-1899 the British, using their own fighters and those imported from Buganda, decimated Bunyoro in an attempt to force the tribal monarch to sign an agreement with the colonial government.

Odongo, who previously served as the chief legal adviser to the Lord's Resistance Army rebel militia during failed peace talks, said his case relied heavily on dairies from colonial field officers.

He said the kingdom had never recovered from the massive losses by the British backed invasion.

The case is currently pending in a Ugandan court.

Britain has hired local legal representatives who have insisted the British government enjoys diplomatic immunity.

There's more at the link.

This is interesting on all sorts of levels. First, of course, there's the undeniable slaughter of primitive tribes by many colonial powers - even including the United States, according to some authorities, in its relationships with the Native American tribes and the inhabitants of conquered Spanish colonies like the Philippines. If one colonial power (Britain) can be successfully sued for its long-ago actions in one country (present-day Uganda), I'm sure the concept would spread like wildfire (not least because lawyers would stand to make a mint in fees).

Second, there are the legal issues. Does the Bunyoro tribe have legal standing to sue the British government? After all, they're not the rulers of Uganda, and so can't claim a political status. Can they demonstrate that they have somehow continued the authority of the tribal government during the late 1800's, and are thus entitled to sue on behalf of their predecessors in office? Also, do the ten nominal plaintiffs have the express permission and approval of the tribe to bring the lawsuit, or are they acting in their personal capacities? If the latter, I imagine they can't sue for damages on behalf of the tribe, only for themselves - and then they'll have to demonstrate how they, personally, were impacted by Britain's long-ago colonial actions.

Finally, there's the issue of boundaries. Was the kingdom of the Bunyoro actually part of an entity that is today Uganda, or was it independent of the other tribe(s) in the area? If so, then it might be argued that a Ugandan court has no standing in the case, as the events occurred in an area which at the time was not part of any Ugandan state, politically, historically or geographically.

This could get very interesting!

Peter

Jet boat racing again

I've posted on two occasions about the spectacular accidents jet boat racers can sometimes experience. Now, here's a video showing how a course should be tackled. It's accident-free, but just as spectacular!

That's got to be one of the greatest adrenaline rushes ever! I wonder what the G-forces are through some of those very tight corners? It looks to be enough to require a G-suit!





Peter

Forget bacon - how about meatballs?

My post yesterday for bacon lovers drew an e-mail from a reader, Tom H., who writes:

Forget bacon! That stuff is bad for you! Now, meatballs . . .

He provided a link to this article from November last year.

An American restaurant has set a new record after its chefs cooked up the world's largest meatball.

Owners of Nonni's Italian Eatery in New Hampshire created the mega-meatball, which weighed in at 222.5 pounds.




Matthew Mitnitsky, owner of Nonni's, said the giant ball of mince was authenticated as the largest on the planet after being weighed by officials from the state weights and measures department.

A Guinness Book of World Records official also confirmed it as a record breaker and presented Mr Mitnitsky with a plaque.

The old record of 198.6 pounds was set just over a month ago after Los Angeles-based talk show host Jimmy Kimmel vowed to beat a record set in Mexico. That record of 109 pounds was set in August.

There's more at the link.

Er . . . ah . . . OK! I'll grant you, Tom, a 222-pound meatball is pretty darn impressive! Now, let's see you eat it . . . all of it!



Peter

Some great nature photographs

The Daily Mail has two really interesting articles with great shots of animals in their natural environment.

The first is about a diver who's apparently made friends with a young sperm whale.

Peering solemnly nose-to-nose at each other, this is the Whale Whisperer and his friend - Scar the 10-year-old giant of the sea.




These spectacular images show Andrew Armour bonding with the colossal sperm whale in the warm Caribbean waters off the island of Dominica.

Taken on the weekend, the photographs offer stunning insight into the lives of other pod members travelling with Scar.

In one picture a large group of 'socialising' whales come together - giving the impression they are meeting up for a chat.

And in another they arrive in a perfectly formed procession - almost like they are part of an underwater military march.

The jaw-dropping series of images show how a decade spent befriending the gentle giant allows Andrew, 45, to stroke and gracefully swim alongside the 32-foot mammal.

Whale watch operator Andrew, from Dominica, said: 'Our bond began in 2000 when my wife Rhona found him injured out at sea when he was just a calf. We think he might have been attacked by pilot whales but we are not sure.

'His head and dorsal fin were injured and he came to our boat, perhaps seeking some comfort. The most we could do was pet him and his injuries left him with some scarring.

'From then on he and another young female would approach us whenever they saw our boat. We could even call him over.

'Now he recognises me when I am swimming. I feel like he even knows my voice. I can get very close with him because we trust each other. I even clean lice off him and he lets me do it.

'Other whales in the area don't tend to stay in the same place when humans are around but Scar seeks interaction and seems to enjoy being petted.'

There's more at the link, with more photographs.

The second is about a leopard in Botswana who decided to eat a porcupine for supper. Bad, bad idea . . .

The big cat was left with sore paws and a bruised ego after losing out in a battle of wits with its spiny opponent.

Using all his hunting techniques, the two-year-old male tried pouncing on the porcupine from above, prodding him and trying to roll him over, but to no avail.




Undeterred, the hungry feline even tried extending a gentle paw as the porcupine shook its foot-long spines ferociously.

After 25 minutes and several painful spines in his paws, the big cat was forced to accept defeat and retreat with his tail between his legs.

The incredible moment was captured on camera by professional wildlife photographer Shem Compion in the Mashatu Game reserve, in Botswana.

Again, more at the link.

Both articles are highly recommended for nature lovers. Great photography!

Peter

The London Blitz, caught on film

I've written before about how my parents met and married in England during the early years of World War II. While my father went overseas for three years to fight the war in the Western Desert, my mother remained in England. Her nights were spent standing watch for incendiary bombs, armed only with a bucket of water, another of sand and a stirrup pump. She told me of the terror of hearing the bombers overhead, hearing the bombs fall and their explosions, and seeing the red flare of flames in the night sky as England's cities burned under the Blitz.




With that in mind, I was interested to find this video clip of the Blitz in London during 1941. It's silent (the sound of a film projector has been added to the video by whoever edited it), but it shows the true horror of those months and years. It's a sobering thought that our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents went through that . . . I wonder if we'd hold up as well as they did in similar circumstances?

Let's be grateful that we don't have to live under such a constant, imminent threat of violent death - and let's spare a thought for those, elsewhere in the world, who do live under such threats. Their nemesis is more likely to be a terrorist bomb than one dropped by an enemy aircraft, but the terror is no less real.

Peter

A vintage mission of mercy

I was surprised and pleased to read on the Web site of Vintage Wings of Canada about a mercy mission to Haiti using a 40-year-old-plus Grumman HU-16C Albatross amphibious aircraft to bypass the bottleneck at the airport at Port-au-Prince.




Vintage Wings reports:

A group of twelve doctors and nurses from Marquette, Michigan, were trying to find a way to get themselves and several tons of donated supplies from the US to Haiti to participate in the relief efforts. The doctors and nurses have partnered with Partners In Health, a long-standing Haitian health provider with an excellent reputation, to man an under-staffed hospital in the Haitian city of Les Cayes.

Their biggest problem was that they had no way to get to or through the crowded Port-au-Prince Airport. Had they gotten there, the state of the roads and the lack of infrastructure would have kept them from contributing to the relief efforts.

This group managed to make contact with long-time Albatross owner and operator, Bill DaSilva. Bill’s plane, US registered N7025N, was already in Florida for the winter. Bill DaSilva quickly agreed to donate their aircraft and time to get these doctors and nurses to their destination, bypassing the usual, blocked relief routes by flying directly to the beach at their destination. Only the Albatross is capable of carrying this load from Miami directly to the waters off of Haiti and returning without refueling in Haiti. Without this transport, the mission was doomed.

The team went to Florida, loaded the Albatross with supplies, and set off on the long, slow flight to Haiti. The medical mission's blog posts, reported at the Vintage Wings link, provide more information. Here's their account of their arrival.

After a long, slow climb to clear the mountains of western Haiti, the Albatross descended into the area of the port city of Les Cayes. The flight crew completed a reconnaissance inspection of the landing area, flying low over the city and bay selecting a suitable landing site.




Activity in the port city was abuzz as the sight of the low-flying Navy seaplane caught the attention of the entire area. The first landing approach was stable and on-target, yet the rush of local boats and canoes into the bay forced a pull-up and return for landing. Fortunately, the small watercraft were separated enough that a landing clearway was available on the second approach. The rough seas and large swells tested the limits of the Albatross and crew, as the aircraft was launched by a swell on the first touchdown, forced again skyward as the veteran seaplane pilot DaSilva used every bit of his experience and ability to wrestle the ship through several more oscillations and high sea waves to safely bring the relief mission to a stop in the turbulent Caribbean sea.




The serenity of the long, scenic flight was exploded by the flurry of activity that met the crew as they attempted to approach the shore and anchor in the bay. With thousands of local residents rushing to the shore, many jumping into the bay and swimming toward the strange site that was the ex-Navy Albatross, as well as dozens of small watercraft approaching the sturdy yet surface-fragile aircraft, the team members struggled to communicate to the non-English speaking residents to remain clear of the aircraft and especially not allow small canoes and boats to puncture the aircraft's skin. Fortunately, with a combination of local residents' slight understanding of english and Dr. Dan Hardie's usable command of the Creole language, improved greatly by his bushing up by studying the Creole dictionary on the 5-hour flight, minimal order was achieved as the self-contained dinghy was inflated and Dr. Hardie and two team members made their way to shore. The U.N. security force, luckily having a presence in Les Cayes, was able to set up a security perimeter with their significant numbers and allow the off-load of crew and supplies from the relief ship. The transfer of the entire cargo load was arduous at best in the rough sea waters, as concern mounted over the possibility of damage to the craft from the local boat that was offered for assistance. Fortunately, the load was safely transferred and the last of the crew boarded the ancient, but sturdy, boat.




The flight crew wasted no time in preparing the Albatross for take-off, as the team members on the ground coordinated with local residents to clear the take-off lane. DaSilva and the flight crew of three battled the high waves and turbulent sea to return the aircraft to a more natural element as they lifted off the water and began the long return flight to South Florida. DaSilva would later describe the entire experience in a single phrase, exclaiming, "That was sporting!"

Meanwhile, the initial medical team members were met with a hero's welcome as hundreds of local residents, many children, rushed to the streets to catch a glimpse of the spectacle. Cheers went up as the crew rounded every turn, slowly making their way to the Hopital Immaculee Conception (Hospital Immaculate Conception) to meet up with the local medical staff. Back at the landing site the remainder of the crew awaited further instructions and made friendships with the much-appreciative locals. Handshakes and smiles were evident throughout the crowd as the battered yet resilient Haitian locals greeted the relief members. After the crew was re-assembled they conducted a tour of the facility and supplies and began plans for the week-long mission, on what will assuredly prove to test the limits of supplies and equipment as the dedicated crew of doctors and staff prepare to supply aid to a ravaged country by helping residents of this Haitian port city.

. . .

As the medical team settled in, the flight crew continued the challenge of the entire mission as they made their way back to Florida, now proceeding in the ever darkening skies of the Caribbean. The strong headwinds suffered during the flight to Haiti necessitated a fuel stop in the Turks and Caicos Islands. After refueling, the Albatross lumbered into the sky once again, but shortly after takeoff, enroute to Florida, the aircraft suffered an electrical failure which affected the navigation gyro instruments, and, additionally, had a warning light that led to a forced landing in Nassau, the Bahamas. The crew spent the night, repaired the electrical problem and headed back to Ft. Lauderdale. Plans are under way to facilitate the transport of the remaining supplies and medical crew aboard the Albatross to Les Cayes, hopefully Monday afternoon.




Monday, the medical team is exhaustively working under extremely difficult conditions and a lack of supplies and proper tools to provide emergency medical care to patients, some severely injured in the earthquake and waiting nearly two weeks with multiple fractures and injuries that have gone untreated, with little or no attention to injuries and often times no available pain medication. The team will work long into the evening, perhaps through the night, as the remaining crew members anxiously await their opportunity to join their team and provide additional care and support.

You can find more of their story in the Vintage Wings article, and on the Albatross Haiti Relief Mission Web site. They're urgently in need of funds for fuel and other flying expenses, so if you want to toss a few dollars their way, they'd be very grateful. Funds can be directed through a church, or directly - see the Web site for details.

It's good to see an old aircraft returning to prominence to ferry supplies when no other means was available, and good to hear of the enthusiastic participation of all concerned. There are many more photographs of the Albatross at Vintage Wings. Recommended reading for all aviation enthusiasts.

Peter

'Climategate' gets more and more interesting

By now I'm sure everyone's heard of 'Climategate', the treasure-trove of e-mails exchanged between proponents of 'global warming' and 'climate change', which have demonstrated conclusively that many of the said proponents have been falsifying, hiding and twisting data for years - decades! - to support their theories. (Warning: the Wikipedia link provided above is subject to editing by pro-climate-change individuals who have, in the past, suppressed dissenting views, so you may want to read more widely if you require further information.) Now that this correspondence is out in the open, it's proving what some have been saying for a very long time: that an elitist scientific and academic cabal tried to ride roughshod over correct scientific investigation in order to promote an ideological agenda that was not based on fact.

Philip Stott in the UK has a very interesting look at the current state of affairs.

For over a month now, since the farcical conclusion of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, I have been silent, partly through family commitments abroad in the USA, but also because, in this noisy world, in ‘The Clamour Of The Times’, it is on occasion better to be quiet and contemplative, to observe rather than to comment. And, as an independent academic, it has been fascinating to witness the classical collapse of a Grand Narrative, in which social and philosophical theories are being played out before our gaze. It is like watching the Berlin Wall being torn down, concrete slab by concrete slab, brick by brick, with cracks appearing and widening daily on every face - political, economic, and scientific. Likewise, the bloggers have been swift to cover the crumbling edifice with colourful graffiti, sometimes bitter, at others caustic and witty.

. . .

And what can one say about ‘the science’? ‘The ‘science’ is already paying dearly for its abuse of freedom of information, for unacceptable cronyism, for unwonted arrogance, and for the disgraceful misuse of data at every level, from temperature measurements to glaciers to the Amazon rain forest. What is worse, the usurping of the scientific method, and of justified scientific scepticism, by political policies and political propaganda could well damage science sensu lato - never mind just climate science - in the public eye for decades.

. . .

... the biggest collapse is in the media, the very ‘mechanism’ through which the greedy Global Warming Grand Narrative has promulgated itself during the last ten to twenty years.

The break in the ‘Media Wall’ began in the tabloids and in the ‘red tops’, ... but it is today spreading rapidly - yet once more as theory predicts - to the so-called ‘heavyweights’ and to the BBC. In the past, uncritical and apocalyptic stories and programmes were given the highest prominence, with any sceptical comment confined to the briefest of quotations from some benighted, and often snidely-mentioned, sceptic squeezed in at the very end of the piece (“For balance, you know”). Today, the reverse is becoming true, with the ‘global warming’ faithful firmly forced on to the back foot. Yet, in our post-modern world, it is the journalistic language being employed that is the true indicator of a new media order. Listening to good old Roger Harrabin this morning, reporting on BBC Radio 4’s flagship ‘Today’ programme, was a revelation in this respect; the language, and even the style, had altered radically.

The collapse is now so precipitate that there will inevitably be some serious losers caught out by it all. The UK Met Office could well be one, with the BBC rightly reviewing its contract with them. At the moment, Met Office spokespersons sound extraordinary, bizarre even. They bleat out ‘global warming’ phrases like programmed robotic sheep, although they are finding it increasingly difficult to pull the wool over our eyes. It is terribly 1984, and rather chilling, so to speak. It is obvious that the organisation is suffering from another classical academic state, namely that known as ‘cognitive dissonance’ [see here and here]. This is experienced when belief in a Grand Narrative persists blindly, even when the facts in the real world begin to contradict what the narrative is saying. Sadly, many of our public and private organisations have allowed themselves to develop far too great a vested interest in ‘global warming’, as have too many politicians and activists. These are increasingly terrified, many having no idea how to react, or how to adjust, to the collapse. It will be particularly interesting to witness how, in the end, the Royal Society plays its cards, especially if competing scientific paradigms, such as the key role played by water vapour in climate change, start to displace the current paradigm in classic fashion.

. . .

I have long predicted, and in public too, that the Copenhagen Conference could prove to be the beginning of the end for the Global Warming Grand Narrative. It appears that I may well have been right, and, indeed, I may have considerably underestimated the speed, and the dramatic nature, of the demise.

Where this all leaves our politicians and political parties in the UK; where it leaves climate science, scientists more generally, and the Royal Society; where it leaves energy policy; where it leaves the ‘Green’ movement; and, where it leaves our media will have to be topics for many later comments and analyses.

For the moment, we must not underestimate the magnitude of the collapse. Academically, it is jaw-dropping to observe.

There's more at the link. Highly recommended reading. Mr. Stott's comments are about developments in the UK, of course, but similar effects are being felt here in the US as well.

I'm under no illusions that the battle against the global warming/climate change alarmists has been won. They've invested far too much of their time, money and personal intellectual credibility into their campaign to simply walk away from it. The big thing is, though, that their lies, smear campaigns and falsehoods have been stripped away. From now on they're going to have an uphill battle convincing those who've been following recent developments that there's any fire behind the smoke to which they point so grandiloquently.

I'm irresistibly reminded of a bumper sticker I saw here in Louisiana not too long ago:

AL GORE CAN KISS MY CARBON FOOTPRINT

Quite so!





Peter

OK, bacon lovers, you asked for it!

I have several friends (fellow bloggers, shooters and the like) who wax lyrical about the magic of bacon. I get the feeling that if some of them could wear bacon clothing, shower in bacon grease, and sleep with a bacon-scented partner every night, their lives would finally be complete! They can even use the excuse that a bacon sandwich apparently really does cure a hangover.

Needless to say, whilst I like bacon, after quadruple bypass surgery it's unlikely to feature in my diet for some time to come (except in very small quantities, very occasionally). Nevertheless, I thought I'd give my bacon-binging buddies something to dream about by mentioning some of the bacon oddities I've found on the Web recently. Here goes!

The first is from that emporium of oddities, Lollyphile. They take the oddest flavors and make lollipops out of them. Among their offerings are Maple-Bacon Lollipops.




They describe their creation as follows:

We’re proud to say that we’re the first people to ever make a bacon-based maple bacon lollipop. And not just any bacon, either - we use sustainable, organic, cured bacon - we kinda felt that it went well with the pure Vermont maple syrup we were using as a base, you know?

While we admit that it’s pretty far from the norm (it’s definitely not kosher!), once you make that initial leap of faith and try it out, we’re positive that you’ll love it. The salty chunks of bacon make a delicious and unique counterpoint to the subtle sweetness of the maple, and oh, yeah - you’ll be eating an oh-my-god maple bacon lollipop!

A perfect gift for the sweet-toothed pork aficionado in your life.

Yes . . . but at $2.50 apiece, I'd rather order bacon with a full breakfast, thank you very much!

Next we have the world record bacon, lettuce and tomato (BLT) sandwich. This was created last August in St. Louis, measuring in at 179 feet 2 inches, and incorporating 500 pounds of bacon, 1,280 pounds of tomatoes, and 100 heads of lettuce.




There's a multi-page photographic essay with details of its construction, including a video clip of proceedings. Must viewing for the bacon-lovers among us!

Finally, there's a Web site called This Is Why You're Fat. It's full of pictures of the most disastrous gastronomic adventures imaginable . . . enough to give my newly-repaired heart palpitations just looking at them! Needless to say, bacon plays an important part in the excesses portrayed there. Here are a few examples.

Bacon & Chicken Narwhal (recipe)

The Double Coronary Burger: a burger topped with five slices of bacon,
four slices of cheese, two fried eggs, mayo, lettuce, tomato, and onion
between two grilled cheese sandwiches.

French Toast Cupcake with Maple Frosting & Bacon

Tony’s BLT: One pound of fried bacon on a toasted Italian bread with lettuce, tomato and mayo.

That last one looks enough to finish off just about anyone! There's lots more gastronomic ghastliness at the link. Very entertaining . . . some of them are even mouth-watering, surprisingly enough!

There. That should keep bacon-lovers satisfied for at least the next five minutes!



Peter

The love life of a ninja

They say that 'love hurts' . . . well, for this ninja, it certainly does!

Peter

Is Toyota lying to its customers?

They may be lying by omission (saying nothing) rather than admitting anything. Karl Denninger poses this uncomfortable question in his analysis of the recall of millions of vehicles by Toyota. He points out that there have been questions raised about 'runaway' Toyota vehicles, where the accelerator stuck full-on and could not be shut off, even burning out the brakes when they were applied, and indicates that at least one fatal accident may be related to this. He goes on to say that the software used by Toyota doesn't have a fail-safe function so that it will shut off the ignition when the brakes are pressed, unlike some other manufacturers.

Mr. Denninger sums up:

Note what's NOT in the "official" Toyota announcement by Toyota USA's statement above - any mention of a software change, as Toyota's President asserts that the software is perfectly ok - and safe.

But then we have Autonation's CEO, and this is what he said this morning ... [he] confirms that they're changing the software!

Why is it that Toyota USA's President didn't bother to mention the software?

Is Autonation (a Toyota dealer) misinformed or is Toyota trying to bury any mention of part of the fix - that it is changing ECU software?

You decide whether Toyota has been and is now being straight with people or not.

There's more at the link. Sobering reading, but very important stuff. If I were driving a Toyota, I'd want some answers, at once if not sooner - and I wouldn't be driving my vehicle any further until I got them, and was satisfied with them!

Peter

Haiti's earthquake damage and its environment

There's a very interesting article on the Haitian disaster at Global View. The author makes the point that the country's ecological and economic woes are inextricably linked to the devastation caused by the recent earthquake. Here's an excerpt.

Most people wouldn’t consider an earthquake to be an environmental issue. But while the tremors that shattered Haiti early this month have nothing to do with the island’s degradation, the extent of the suffering they unleashed is a direct result of the country’s ecological woes.

The reason can be seen from the sky. The devastated nation shares its island with the Dominican Republic, but misfortune always seems to strike on its side of a border that is demarcated by an abrupt shift from lush green to bare brown. While the Dominican Republic has largely managed to preserve its trees, Haiti has lost 98 percent of its forest cover.

. . .

It’s no coincidence that Haiti is both the poorest country in the western hemisphere and the most environmentally devastated. Decades of poverty, population growth and near anarchy have stripped the countryside of its forests and split farms into small, infertile plots. “What you see in Port-au-Prince — the concentration of people in the slums, which creates violence, which creates disease — it’s because the people cannot produce more in the countryside,” Max Antoine, executive director of Haiti’s Presidential Commission on Border Development, told me when I visited the country in 2007.

If deforestation has made the country poor, the resulting destitution exasperates the environmental degradation. Forests disappear. The slopes lose their soil. Farm land slips away. Entire villages disappear under mudslides. Roads and bridges are wiped away. The slums continue to swell. The country sinks deeper into poverty. Pressed to survive, another farmer chops down another tree to sell in the city as charcoal. “It’s not a vicious circle,” said Philippe Mathieu, the Haiti director for the Canadian charity Oxfam-Quebec. “It is a spiral. Each time you make a turn, you have less space.”

This month’s tragedy showed how tight that space has become. On Sunday, the official death toll climbed to 150,000, and the government suspects the figure could double. Many lost lives could have been avoided if buildings in the capital had been built to withstand earthquakes. Many others could have been saved if systems for emergency response and medical care had been in place. As a point of comparison: In 1989, an earthquake of exactly the same strength struck San Francisco at almost exactly the same time of day. The death toll was 63.

But unlike San Francisco, Port-au-Prince doesn’t have building codes. And if it did, its residents couldn’t afford to comply; most concrete blocks in the capital are handmade, with cheap, light materials. Even the buildings built by the United Nations couldn’t withstand the quake. As for coordinating an emergency response, Haiti wasn’t able to maintain much of a police force — never mind staffing a system of first responders or supporting a strong medical infrastructure. So when the earthquake struck, the residents of the capital were left pretty much on their own.

There's more at the link. Highly recommended reading.

Peter

Nanotechnology in the everyday household?

I'm intrigued to read about a nanotechnology product known as 'Liquid Glass'. The Daily Mail mentioned it in a news report, but I wanted to know more, so I went to the Web site of the distributor, a German company named Nanopool. Here's what they have to say about it.

“SiO2- ultra thin layering” is the technical term for Liquid Glass. Apart from a select group of professionals, few people in the UK know about this stunning technology. If you walk around Ataturk’s Mausoleum in Ankara you are walking on it; if you visit certain hospitals in the UK you are touching it. If you see an unusually clean train you are probably looking at it, and if you wonder how your white settee looks so clean, you may be sitting on it. All of these surfaces have been coated with invisible glass.

The flexible and breathable glass coating is approximately 100 nanometres thick (500 times thinner than a human hair), and so it is completely undetectable. It is food safe, environmentally friendly (winner of the Green Apple Award) and it can be applied to almost any surface within seconds . When coated, all surfaces become easy to clean and anti- microbially protected (Winner of the NHS Smart Solutions Award ). Houses, cars, ovens, wedding dress or any other protected surface become stain resistant and can be easily cleaned with water ; no cleaning chemicals are required. Amazingly a 30 second DIY application to a sink unit will last for a year or years, depending on how often it is used. But it does not stop there - the coatings are now also recognised as being suitable for agricultural and in-vivo application. Vines coated with SiO2 don’t suffer from mildew, and coated seeds grow more rapidly without the need for anti-fungal chemicals. This will result in farmers in enjoying massively increased yields . Trials for in-vivo applications are subject to a degree of secrecy, but Neil McClelland, the UK Project Manager for Nanopool GmbH, describes the results as 'stunning'. “Items such as stents can be coated, and this will create anti sticking features - catheters , and sutures which are a source of infection, will also cease to be problematic.”

When asked about how the technology works, Neil, said “In essence, we extract molecules of SiO2 (the primary constituent of glass) from quartz sand, and then we add the molecules to water or ethanol. Unfortunately, as they say in the movies , if I told you any more …..”. Neil comments further, “The really clever part is that there are no added nano-particles , resins or additives- the coatings form and bond due to quantum forces. Our research informs us that in all probability, we offer the most versatile coating in the world. We are happy to hear about any other technology which offers the same range of applications. Very soon almost every product that you purchase will be protected with some form of easy -to -clean coating. It just so happens that we offer something that everyone finds fascinating . The concept of spray -on glass is just mind -boggling”.

This technology is now available for domestic use in Germany. Full scale retail availability in the UK will commence in early 2010.

There's more at the link.

This looks really interesting! I can see all kinds of useful applications. For example, the Daily Mail article mentioned that if a silk shirt is treated with this stuff, even red wine will roll right off it, leaving no stain. The saving on laundry bills alone should be mind-boggling!

I look forward to reading more about Liquid Glass, and seeing the first retail uses of the product.

Peter