Doofus Of The Day #351

Today's Doofus is from England.

The Press Complaints Commission has rejected a privacy complaint from a woman about an article and pictures of her in Loaded magazine under the headline "Wanted! The epic boobs girl!"

She was said in the article to have the "best breasts on the block". The accompanying pictures of her were taken from the internet and readers were offered a reward of £500 [about US $739] for assistance in encouraging her to pose for the magazine.

The complainant said that the article intruded into her privacy. The somewhat provocative photographs had been uploaded to her page on Bebo in December 2006, but they had since been published on numerous other sites without her permission.

She said the magazine's article, published in February this year, had caused her upset and embarrassment, and that publication was in breach of the privacy clause in the editors' code of practice.

But the PCC decided that the pictures had been given such a wide circulation that it was no longer credible to describe them as private.

Had Loaded taken them from the Bebo site without them having appeared widely on other sites, the commission might well have reached a different decision.

The magazine, in contesting the complaint, explained that it was commenting on pictures that had been given extremely wide circulation on the net and pointed out that the complainant's photograph had featured in the top three of a Google image search on the word "boobs".

The commission did sympathise with the woman, and accepted that the tastefulness of the article was questionable. However, the issue for the PCC was whether the publication of the information was intrusive, and it decided that it was not.

The commission didn't think it possible to censure the magazine for commenting on material that had already had such wide circulation, and which had already been contextualised in the same way (ie, as an exemplar of beautiful breasts) by many others.

There's more at the link.

Lady (?), here's a hint. If you don't want your boobs splashed all over the Internet, not to mention the printed Press . . . don't publish pictures of them for all the world to see!!!

(Oh - and for those who want to see the pictures concerned, they don't show nudity, but they're still not entirely safe for work, so I won't post them in plain sight. Click on the links below for a small selection of them.)

Boobs 1

Boobs 2

Boobs 3

Boobs 4

Boobs 5

Peter

Wowing the bow-wows?

It seems that Sydney, Australia, is to host a concert of a different kind.

Will they play Bach? Or Offenbach? What about something by the Pet Shop Boys?

New Yorkers Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed will outdo Spencer Tunick's naked photo shoot by staging one of the strangest events to be seen at the Sydney Opera House as part of their Vivid Live festival next month.

Music for Dogs - a high-frequency concert that aims to captivate canines while being inaudible to their owners - takes over the northern boardwalk on June 5. It has been inspired by the music that Anderson, a legendary performance artist who is curating the festival with her rock legend husband, has been playing to her beloved rat terrier, Lollabelle, for 11 years.

"She likes things with a lot of smoothness but with beats in them,'' Anderson said from her Manhattan loft. ''Things with voices and lots of complicated high-end stuff. Chk-chk-chk-chk-chk ... that kind of stuff."

The free morning concert will be as short as, well, a chihuahua. "Dogs don't have a giant concentration span - 20 minutes tops,'' Anderson said. ''Actually, I think a lot of shows for people would be improved if they were 20 minutes. Shows are too long - my own included. I dream of making something that's a perfect half hour and then it just goes on and on."

How will humans know if anything is being played? "You can just about hear it sometimes," Anderson said. "And you look at it on the meters and you see what it's doing. And your dog's ears will be twitching."

Anderson doesn't anticipate any canine crowd problems. "We won't be playing any sudden noises," she said. "We don't want them to get super-excited. But it's OK with me if they run in circles. ''They can express themselves and make a little mosh pit if they feel like it. Maybe we'll have a buffet later as a reward for coming to the show."

There's more at the link.

Hmm . . . I smell opportunity here! I could stage a performance for pooches (charging a stiff admission fee, of course), play nothing at all, and get away with it because the human audience wouldn't be expecting to hear anything anyway! If they complained that their dogs didn't seem interested, I could always put it down to canine distemper . . .



Peter

Campfire SUCCESS! - too much so!

Last week we saw what happens when one adds too much gasoline to a burn barrel filled with trash. Now comes a similar lesson concerning campfires.

I love how the flame followed the gasoline fumes along the ground, spreading out, and causing a hasty retreat! Perhaps next time a little less enthusiasm (not to mention a little less gasoline) will produce happier results.



Peter

A long overdue commemoration of courage

I'm delighted to read that the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command of World War II is at last to have its own memorial erected in London. The Daily Mail reports:

A memorial to the 55,000 airmen of Bomber Command who died helping defeat Hitler has finally been given the go-ahead.

The £2.5 million [about US $3.7 million] monument will recognise the extraordinary sacrifice, courage and dedication of the young men – 65 years after the Nazis were crushed.

Council chiefs overruled local objections to give permission for the tribute to be built in Green Park, close to Buckingham Palace.

The decision is a massive victory for campaigners who blamed Britain’s failure to honour members of Bomber Command who lost their lives fighting tyranny on ‘political correctness’.

After the war there was widespread unease over the controversial tactic of carpet-bombing German cities which caused up to 600,000 civilian casualties.

Part of the memorial, which will be unveiled in August next year, will be constructed from sections of melted down aluminium from a Halifax bomber shot down over Belgium in May 1944.

. . .

The men of Bomber Command suffered ten per cent of all the casualties in the war.

Fewer than 3,000 of the 125,000 bombers, who came from all over the world including the Commonwealth, are still alive.

There's more at the link.

Unlike the USA, where veterans of the US Army Air Force's European bombing campaign during World War II have been honored ever since, successive British governments have avoided recognition for their own bomber veterans. The enormous destruction and loss of civilian life caused by the RAF's night bombing campaign have been an issue of conscience for many. Nevertheless, the men of Bomber Command carried out the orders of their superiors, and for years on end perished in great numbers in order to provide at least some offensive action against Germany. My father was among them for a time; I've written before about his wartime service. Their courage deserves this long-overdue recognition.

Peter

"He who sings, prays twice" - or does he?

The saying "He who sings, prays twice" is attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430). I wonder whether he'd have used it after reading this BBC news report?

It is meant to be a beautiful, melodic and spiritual start to the day.

But the morning calls to prayer by some of Istanbul's muezzins and imams have had locals plugging their ears rather than reaching for their prayer books.

The problem is such that following a flood of complaints by locals, special classes for the tuneless culprits have been set up.

. . .

The improvement scheme was put together by Mustafa Cagrici, the city's head of religious affairs, who is determined to make sure all of the city's 3,000 mosques produce a beautiful call-to-prayer each morning.

"For some reason, these imams were hired even though their voices are not good, they just can't sing!

"We're doing our best to help our imams and muezzins to improve their singing."

He says that since lessons started, complaints have dropped from hundreds a month to just dozens, an improvement that can be credited to the singing teacher, Seyfettin Tomakin.

. . .

Sadly, for some, no amount of teaching will ever be enough.

"There are some people who can't improve - no matter how much training you give them," said Mr Cagrici.

"So we connect their mosque, by radio, to a central mosque where there's an imam who can sing."

There's more at the link.

I have both fond and less-than-fond memories of the call to prayer. I've heard it beautifully sung from mosques in Africa and Asia . . . and I've heard the most discordant cacophony imaginable from untrained muezzins in US prisons as they called their fellow inmates to prayer. Sometimes the latter sounded like nothing so much as cats fighting! I wonder if I could tape-record that Istanbul central mosque's radio broadcast, and send it to a few chaplains I know? It might spare them a great deal of auditory distress!



Peter

Rich boys' toys indeed!

I've written in the past about luxury VIP interiors for airliners, which are custom-produced for individual buyers. I've just found an article in the Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine that gives details of how these special interiors are prepared. Here's a brief extract.

Engineers at Lufthansa Technik recently faced a tough problem: How do you install a 300-pound bronze racehorse in a large private jet? The client insisted that it be secured to the cabin floor by only one leg. Solving that type of problem can make a company’s reputation in the demanding business of creating aircraft interiors for the wealthiest individuals in the world.

Luxury completions, one of the services provided by aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul facilities, is a global business, and currently one of the healthiest sectors of the aircraft industry. In one particularly active center, at EuroAirport near Basel, Switzerland, three companies employ 3,000 workers to complete new aircraft or to refurbish gently used ones, a process that can last two years and add 10 tons of innards to a hull that either arrives hollow or is gutted after it lands.

. . .

“Our commercial work is still high-quality of course, but it’s fitness for a particular purpose,” says Clark Goodison, a Scotsman who manages the master craftsmen in the production support shops for Lufthansa Technik Switzerland. “You get on and off an airliner within two hours. You have your sandwich and the seats are comfortable enough. But the Sultan of Brunei, who might fly his aircraft four times per year, wants everything to be perfect. The VIP completion is about the precision. It’s the quality, it’s the finish, and a lot of the feel is artistic. Our staff look three times at a task before they decide to do it.”

To ensure consistent trade skills and promote a company culture, Lufthansa Technik launched an apprentice program more than 50 years ago. This year, some 800 apprentices, ages 16 to 20, work in its German plants. Some, after completing internships subsidized by the German government, will work under a master for months to years before taking on a less supervised role in the company.




Karl Eikelmann is the senior director of production at Jet Aviation Basel. “We tell recruits that in cars you only do production, and it’s always the same work. Here, you don’t see the same work twice,” says Eikelmann. Most of the 60 specialists in the Jet Aviation upholstery shop came from automotive factories (a common recruiting ground for all three companies). The shop sews every stitch needed in the aircraft cabin, from the carpet to the sofa to the window shades to, for the very particular client, a fine fabric lining for dresser drawers.

Before any of the craftsmen begin work, however, interior designers determine the clients’ needs and desires. The consultation ordinarily takes months.

. . .

Completions firms try to accommodate all requests. “Some customer may ask that all the controls on his main chair in the cabin for the entertainment system be transferred from the right to the left side, and that’s just fine with us,” says Lufthansa’s Goodison. “Maybe he wants to sip his champagne with the other hand.”

Part of the process may include constructing a full-size mock-up in white Styrofoam, right down to the king-size bed, conference room, and gourmet galley, to help the customer’s designer picture the floor plan.




At Jet Aviation, such a mock-up costs $600,000 on average, and stays intact just long enough for a walk-through. Since most design is proprietary, and many furnishings unique, the mock-up is then destroyed.

Some requests just can’t fly. Lufthansa Technik had to reject a Middle Eastern client’s demand for an open flame in the cabin, reminiscent of a nomadic desert campfire. The company offered an alternative — an electrical appliance that created an artificial fire — but the project was abandoned. Jet Aviation worked exhaustively to craft a sofa designed like an immense seashell, but could not build it to meet weight and height requirements, or the regulation that such seats must withstand 9 to 16 Gs.

But Lufthansa was able to make one dream come true: a night sky rendered in tiny diodes, to imitate a constellation the customer had enjoyed one special evening.

. . .

Lufthansa Technik offers a completion for the Airbus Corporate Jet or the Boeing Business Jet, with a cabin starting at six million euros ($8.5 million). A high-end completion can add $30 million to a hull that costs $60 million empty, according to director of marketing and sales Thomas Foth.

“Of course this depends on the materials,” explains AMAC’s Ruedi Kurz. “One customer wants mother of pearl inlay on all of the cabinets. Another wanted all of the carpets to be silk, and that’s another half-million right there.”

“Smaller business jets can be completed in the lower eight-figure range,” says Wolfgang Reinert, a spokesman for Lufthansa Technik. “The bigger an aircraft is and the more individual a customer’s wishes are, the more expensive it will be.” Wide-body hulls, such as the Airbus A340 or the Boeing 747, “can reach the nine-figure range.”

No figures have been confirmed for the completion of the so-called “Flying Palace,” a $320 million Airbus A380 with an interior designed by British firm DesignQ for Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. One aircraft interior design firm estimated that finishing the two-level, 6,000-square-foot interior will cost $150 million.




Such high-profile projects—Prince Al-Waleed made headlines by becoming the first individual to purchase the enormous Airbus—may be good for business, but AMAC’s Schramm says that word of mouth is the completions firm’s best marketing tool.

“The customers know each other, and they know each other’s pilots,” says Schramm. “They go to the Gulfstream operators’ conference and the other operator groups. They go to EBACE [a European trade show]. They know who is getting service at each of our competitors.”

“I have customers contacting me, I have never contacted or heard of them,” says Ruedi Kurz. “It’s a different kind of corporation than a typical U.S. one. In these regions, it’s more like a private family operation.”

. . .

Ingenuity may be the most important qualification for workers in the luxury completions industry today. That 300-pound bronze racehorse? Lufthansa Technik engineers found a way to install it in the private jet and still meet all the safety requirements.

There's more at the link.

Nice if you've got the money, I guess . . . although at the upper end of the market, paying $150 million for an interior, on top of at least that much (probably more like twice that much!) for the plane, produces a final price that makes me gulp! Clearly a toy for only the richest of boys.

Peter

When a hillside flows like a river

This amazing video clip shows a mudslide in Italy following a prolonged period of rain. The entire hillside seems to flow like water in slow motion.

Remarkable video! Kudos to whoever took it.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #350

Today's Doofus is from Arizona.

According to the Mohave County Sheriff's Office, 55-year-old James Lyle Pierson failed to kill himself when he crashed his car off a cliff in an attempt to create an explosion that -- if it had worked -- probably would have blown him to smithereens.

Pierson packed his car with propane bottles, gasoline, and shotgun shells, which were rigged to an ignition device, before he took the plunge down a cliff about eight miles from Oatman.




Mohave County police officials say the reason the car -- and Pierson -- never blew up was because the ignition device failed.

After crashing his car off the cliff, and realizing that his suicidal plans had been thwarted, Pierson walked eight miles to Oatman, where he called authorities.

. . .

Pierson was taken to the Valley View Medical Center, where he was treated for his injuries and released.

As if failing to kill himself wasn't enough, police decided to add a little insult to what apparently wasn't enough injury to kill him, and arrested Pierson.

Pierson was charged with disorderly conduct involving a dangerous instrument, a felony, and taken to the Mohave County Jail.

There's more at the link.

Why is it that would-be suicides are so very often weirded-out by their desire to end it all? I mean - to go to all that trouble . . . and then fail anyway! There's also the added risk to innocent lives; those who might have been affected by a premature explosion, the rescue workers who had to disarm the car, and so on. Why put them at risk? This sort of selfish don't-care-about-anyone-else attitude is something I've seen very often in wannabe suicides. I simply can't understand it.

Peter

I hope Sony thinks again

More than two years ago I wrote about how some organizations were taking Sony Playstation 3 consoles and wiring them together, running the Unix operating system, as a low-cost way to get really high-end processing power. It looks as if the US Air Force Research Laboratory did likewise: but now it, and others doing the same thing, have been caught short by Sony's latest move. Ars Technica reports:

When Sony issued a recent PlayStation 3 update removing the device's ability to install alternate operating systems like Linux, it did so to protect copyrighted content—but several research projects suffered collateral damage.

The Air Force is one example. The Air Force Research Laboratory in Rome, New York picked up 336 PS3 systems in 2009 and built itself a 53 teraFLOP processing cluster [shown below].




Once completed as a proof of concept, Air Force researchers then scaled up by a factor of six and went in search of 2,200 more consoles (later scaled back to 1,700). The $663,000 contract was awarded on January 6, 2010, to a small company called Fixstars that could provide 1,700 160GB PS3 systems to the government.

Getting that many units was difficult enough that the government required bidders to get a letter from Sony certifying that the units were actually available.

Another grotesque waste of taxpayer dollars? Exactly the opposite, according to research lab staff. Off-the-shelf PS3s could take advantage of Sony's hardware subsidy to get powerful Cell processors more cheaply than via any other solution.

. . .

The result was the 500 TeraFLOPS Heterogeneous Cluster powered by PS3s but connected to subcluster heads of dual-quad Xeons with multiple GPGPUs.

The Air Force team ordered the hardware, spent days unboxing it and imaging each unit to run Linux, and then... Sony removed the Linux install option a couple months later. (One can only imagine what happened to those 2,000 PS3 controllers and other unneeded accessories.)

Sony's decision had no immediate impact on the cluster; for obvious reasons, the PS3s are not hooked into the PlayStation Network and don't need Sony's firmware updates. But what happens when a PS3 dies or needs repair? Tough luck.

We checked in with the Air Force Research Laboratory, which noted its disappointment with the Sony decision. "We will have to continue to use the systems we already have in hand," the lab told Ars, but "this will make it difficult to replace systems that break or fail. The refurbished PS3s also have the problem that when they come back from Sony, they have the firmware (gameOS) and it will not allow Other OS, which seems wrong. We are aware of class-action lawsuits against Sony for taking away this option on systems that use to have it."

A similar issue will confront academic PS3 clusters, which have sprung up in labs across the country. In 2007, a North Carolina State professor built himself a small cluster that he cobbled together after "he spent a few hours one day in early January driving from store to store to purchase the eight machines."

The University of Massachusetts has 16 machines networked into a cluster called the "Gravity Grid," used to look at gravitational waves and black holes. According to the physicists at UMass, the PS3's "incredibly low cost make[s] it very attractive as a scientific computing node, i.e., part of a compute cluster. In fact, it's highly plausible that the raw computing power-per-dollar that the PS3 offers is significantly higher than anything else on the market today."

All such projects will last as long as the machines survive or used machines are still available, but new hardware can't be added and refurbished machines can't be used. A class-action lawsuit has recently targeted Sony for removing a promised feature retroactively, though the issue is unlikely to be decided anytime soon.

There's more at the link.

As a former computer systems professional, I'm sorry that Sony has seen fit to disable this use of their consoles. I hope that pressure from users such as the USAF Research Lab will lead them to reconsider. The processing power of such consoles is much cheaper per unit than buying special dedicated high-end workstations, and the ingenuity shown by systems designers in adapting games consoles to high-end processing needs deserves recognition, I think.

Peter

Hand wash FAIL!

Words fail me . . .

Is it even possible that someone can be so dumb? Well . . . obviously the answer's "Yes", but I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it!





Peter

So much for international law!

The Russian Navy seems to have a refreshingly practical approach to the application of international law to pirates. The BBC reports:

Ten suspected Somali pirates captured by the Russian navy last week may have perished after their release, a defence source in Moscow has told reporters.

Marines seized them during a dramatic operation to free a hijacked Russian oil tanker far from shore, killing an 11th suspect in the gun battle.

They were released in an inflatable boat without navigational equipment.

Within an hour, contact was lost with the boat's radio beacon, the defence source said.

"It seems that they all died," the unnamed source was quoted as saying by Russia's Interfax news agency.

Russia initially said the 10 pirates would be taken to Moscow to face criminal charges over the hijacking, but they were released instead because there were not sufficient legal grounds to detain them, the defence ministry in Moscow said.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Russia is a signatory, gives sovereign nations the right to seize and prosecute pirates.

Western officials were very surprised when the Russian authorities dropped plans to put the pirates on trial in Moscow, the BBC's Richard Galpin reports from Moscow.

Now there is even more surprise the pirates were set adrift in the Indian Ocean to make their own way home, he adds.

. . .

Cdr John Harbour, spokesman for the EU naval force in Somalia, Navfor, said the Russian navy had been within its rights to release the suspects.

It was, he told the BBC News website, impossible to judge their situation without knowing the details of the boat - described as an inflatable by Russian sources - and the radio beacon they had been given.

There's more at the link.

Well, that tends to sort out the problem right there, doesn't it? Wonder what sort of 'accident' happened to the boat? A collision at sea with a Russian warship, perhaps? And I'm sure Commander Harbour lived up to the best traditions of the Royal Navy, and kept a stiff upper lip and a straight face when he made his statement!





Peter

Doofus Of The Day #349

Today's award goes to the road marking contractors serving Wolverhampton in England.

A baffled motorist was left fuming after returning to her parked car to find double yellow lines painted either side of it - and a parking ticket slapped on the windscreen.

Bungling parking officials fined June Williams yesterday despite road markings only being painted round her vehicle after she had parked.




Debt collector Mrs Williams, 58, said she has parked in the same spot on Mondays and Tuesdays near work in Wolverhampton for 18 months.

But when she left her Mitsubishi Challenger in her usual spot and returned to her car after work at 4.30pm, she found newly painted double yellow lines had been painted up to her front wheels - then restarted behind her car's boot.

To cap the bizarre episode, she was slapped with a £70 fine on her windscreen - but is refusing to pay it.

. . .

Alistair Merrick, Wolverhampton City Council's chief officer with responsibility for parking enforcement, apologised to Mrs Williams, adding: 'Clearly this ticket has been issued in error. It will be cancelled.'

There's more at the link.

Typical of the bureaucratic approach, isn't it? "We've painted the markings now, so you're in violation - even if you were there first; so we'll give you a ticket!"

Grrr! Bureaucrats!





Peter

"Exotic Antimatter"

Space.com reports that scientists have succeeded in creating a rather special form of antimatter.

Scientists have created a never-before seen type of exotic matter that is thought to have been present at the earliest stages of the universe, right after the Big Bang.

The new matter is a particularly weird form of antimatter, which is like a mirror-image of regular matter. Every normal particle is thought to have an antimatter partner, and if the two come into contact, they annihilate.

The recent feat of matter-tinkering was accomplished by smashing charged gold atoms at each other at super-high speeds in a particle accelerator called the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y.

Among the many particles that resulted from this crash were bizarre objects called anti-hypertritons. Not only are these things antimatter, but they're also what's called strange matter. Where normal atomic nuclei are made of protons and neutrons (which are made of "up" quarks and "down" quarks), strange nuclei also have so-called Lambda particles that contain another flavor of quark called "strange" as well. These Lambda particles orbit around the protons and neutrons.

If all that is a little much to straighten out, just think of anti-hypertritons as several kinds of weird.

Though they normally don't exist on Earth, these particles may be hiding in the universe in very hot, dense places like the centers of some stars, and most likely were around when the universe was extremely young and energetic, and all the matter was packed into a very small, sweltering space.

There's more at the link.

Reading this in the light of yesterday's article on physics and experimentation, it's fascinating to realize how little we know, despite all our pretensions to understanding. We know such things exist, and we can even create them - fleetingly - under experimental conditions, but we don't know why they exist, or what they do, or even whether we'll ever find them in Nature. I daresay that in a few centuries time, our children's children's children will still be studying things like this, and probably others that we haven't even dreamed of yet.

Somehow, I find that a comforting thought. It's nice to have unsolved mysteries to challenge us.

Peter

A truly daft exercise machine!

I've previously mentioned my research into treadmill desks. My search for information led me to this Reuters report about a novel adaptation for treadmills.

And he wants $2,500 for that??? I think I've heard everything now . . .





Peter

A hero's guns go on display

The BBC reports that the personal weapons of a famous World War II soldier have been identified, and are to go on display at a museum in Scotland.

Six firearms which once belonged to World War II hero Geoffrey Hallowes have been handed over to a museum after being found at a house in Surrey.

The guns were discovered in March 2008 by a woman who was clearing out the property in Walton-on-Thames and handed them over to police.

Firearms specialists established their link with Mr Hallowes, who served with the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

They have now been given to the Gordon Highlanders Museum in Aberdeen.

Mr Hallowes served with the Gordon Highlanders in the Far East before joining the SOE in Europe in the second half of the WWII.

He helped to organise the French Resistance after D-Day and received a number of gallantry awards, including the Croix de Guerre and Legion d'honneur.

In the 1950s, after his return to Britain, he married the wartime SOE heroine and George Cross holder, Odette Sansom, the subject of a 1950 film starring Anna Neagle.

Odette died in 1995 and Mr Hallowes in 2006.

. . .

The firearms are to be displayed alongside Mr Hallowes' war medals.

"The acquisition of these firearms is the most important addition to the museum's armoury since it opened in 2007 and will become the most important items in the firearms collection as a whole," said curator Jesper Ericsson.

"This is because not only can we connect these firearms with an individual, but an individual with an extraordinary history."

There's more at the link.

For those interested in the firearms, they included:

1. a US-made M1 Carbine in caliber .30 Carbine;
   
2. a copy (made by Ithaca) of the famous Model 1911 pistol, in caliber .45 ACP;
3. a British Enfield no. 2 revolver in caliber .38-200;
4. a Colt Model 1903 pistol in caliber .32 ACP;
5. and a German MP40 sub-machinegun and Luger pistol, both in caliber 9mm. Parabellum. Presumably these weapons' former German owners had no further need of them after wartime encounters with Capt. Hallowes!

(I note, too, that private ownership of most of those weapons was strictly illegal in England. One may surmise that Mr. Hallowes, based on his experiences during the war, either wanted a few mementos of the occasion, or was determined not to be caught short if things ever went to hell in a handbasket again! I suspect the latter. One can't help but like his spirit.)

For the benefit of readers who may never have heard of her, Mr. Hallowes' wife, Odette Sansom, was a truly impressive woman. Her World War II exploits may be read here (link is to an Adobe Acrobat file in .PDF format). It's a remarkable story, and highly recommended reading. For her courage, particularly in refusing to betray her comrades under German torture, despite being condemned to death and treated most brutally, she was awarded (amongst other decorations) the George Cross, which is a medal not familiar to most Americans. It's second only to the Victoria Cross (Britain's equivalent of the US Medal of Honor) for purposes of protocol. As Wikipedia states:

The GC is the civilian counterpart of the Victoria Cross (VC) and the highest gallantry award for civilians as well as for military personnel in actions which are not in the face of the enemy or for which purely military honours would not normally be granted.

I think the concept of the GC is an excellent idea, as it allows recognition of non-combatant courage of a similar level or nature to that required to win the VC (or MoH). The US has nothing like it, and I wish it would consider a similar decoration, perhaps a Cross of Honor to go with the MoH. Ms. Sansom was the first woman to be awarded the GC. (It would later be awarded [posthumously] to two of her colleagues in SOE who died at German hands.) She always insisted that her GC should be regarded as recognition of all SOE's female agents who died under torture in France and Germany.

One hopes that Mr. Hallowes and his wife have been reunited with old comrades in the life to come . . . and that we, today, may learn from their example of courage and self-sacrifice, and emulate it if necessary. Truly, they were remarkable people.

Peter

Physics, reality, and the gap between them

There's a very interesting article in the Independent newspaper in England about the problem of physics becoming separated from independent, experimental proof of its postulations.

Dark energy is the latest and most daunting puzzle to confront cosmologists, adding to another mystery that has haunted them for decades: dark matter. Nearly 90 per cent of the mass of galaxies seems to be made of matter that is unknown and unseen. We know it must be there, for without its gravitational pull the galaxies would have disintegrated. Cosmologists in particular and physicists in general, are now faced with the stark reality that roughly 96 per cent of the universe cannot be explained with the theories at hand. All our efforts to understand the material world have illuminated only a tiny fraction of the cosmos.

And there are other mysteries. What is the origin of mass? What happened to the anti matter that should have been produced along with matter during the big bang? After almost a century of success at explaining our world using the twin pillars of modern physics – quantum mechanics and Einstein's general theory of relativity – physicists have reached a plateau.

The way forward will involve reconciling quantum mechanics with general relativity into a theory of quantum gravity. In situations where the two domains collide – where overwhelming gravity meets microscopic volumes, such as in black holes or in a big bang – the theories don't work well together. In fact, they fail miserably. One of the most ambitious attempts to bring them together is string theory, an edifice of incredible mathematical complexity. Its most ardent proponents hope that it will lead us not just to quantum gravity but to a theory of everything, allowing us to describe every aspect of the universe with a few simple equations.

But the theory's hoped-for denouement is nowhere in sight. Far from explaining our universe, string theory seems to predict the existence of 10,500 universes or more. Crucially, the theory is so far from being verified experimentally that it has become the poster child of what is wrong with physics today. Theory has lost touch with experiments – and, so, with reality.

The greatest advances in physics have come when theory has moved in near-lockstep with experiment. Sometimes the theory has come first and sometimes it's the other way around. It was an experiment in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley – showing that the speed of light is not dependant on the motion of the observer – that influenced Einstein's 1905 formulation of the special theory of relativity. A decade later, Einstein produced the general theory of relativity, but it was only after experiments in 1919 verified a fascinating implication of general relativity – the bending of starlight by the sun's gravity – that the theory gained widespread acceptance. And throughout the early to mid-1900s, theorists and experimentalists jostled and outdid each other as they shaped quantum mechanics. An equally fruitful collaboration occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, when particle physicists theorised about the fundamental particles and forces that make up the material world, and experiments confirmed their startlingly accurate predictions. But this energetic interplay is now deadlocked. The discovery of dark energy and dark matter, along with the failure, so far, of experiments to find the Higgs boson (thought to give elementary particles their mass), has allowed theorists free rein. Ideas abound, adrift in a sea of speculation. Can the next generation of experiments help anchor the theories to reality?

There's more at the link. Words in italics are my emphasis.

I couldn't help but compare the author's point to the state of climate research. Remember the models predicting anthropogenic global warming? They weren't based on observations or experimentally proven, repeatable results. They were theoretical models, constructed mathematically, which became the bedrock of the 'science' of climatic prediction. It turned out to be pseudo-science, of course . . . none of the models, when fed actual temperature and weather records from the past, could accurately portray what turned out to be the real-world results of those figures a few years later. Not one of the models has demonstrated any accuracy under rigidly-controlled experimental conditions. It looks like the problem has spread to other areas of science as well.

Fortunately, according to the author, there's a good deal of experimentation going on to tackle the immensely intricate questions raised by 'theoretical physics'. He mentions several in the article, and more in a book he's written. It's encouraging to see that scientific rigor is still being applied.

Peter

Secrets of the hangover

I'm intrigued by a report that scientists have discovered the molecule that causes hangovers. Live Science reports:

Scientists have discovered the molecule in the brain that leads to hangovers. The neuropeptide, a brain-signalling molecule, is believed to cause the body to experience withdrawal symptoms as the brain tries to adapt to different intoxication levels.

The neuroscientists from the University of Southampton's School of Biological Sciences studied the simple brains of C. elegans worms, which have a makeup similar enough to the human brain when intoxicated or dependent on alcohol.

What they found was striking.

Basically, when a worm brain (similarly, a human brain) is exposed to drinking over a long period of time, it becomes accustomed to certain intoxication levels. The brain experiences a series of withdrawal symptoms when the drinking stops.

Typically, these hangover symptoms can include anxiety and agitation, even seizures.

"This research showed the worms displaying effects of the withdrawal of alcohol and enables us to define how alcohol affects signalling in nerve circuits which leads to changes in behavior," said professor Lindy Holden-Dye, a neuroscientist of the University's School of Biological Sciences and member of Southampton Neurosciences Group (SoNG), who led the study.

When the worms were given small doses of alcohol during their withdrawal their irritable behaviors eased. Unfortunately, this approach to combating a hangover also increases the chances for alcohol dependency.

Alcohol dependency and abuse are among the most common mental disorders. This study, published in PLoS One journal, showed hope for an average 13 percent of the adult population that suffers from these disorders.

There's more at the link.

Interesting that giving more alcohol during withdrawal eased the symptoms. It looks like the folk-medicine 'hair of the dog' hangover cure may have something to it, after all. I guess the next step is to develop medicines to control the molecule in question . . . although whether that'll prove to be a good thing is debatable. I mean, if one can cure the effects of over-indulgence in alcohol, might that not encourage those prone to such problems to over-indulge even more?

Peter

Too much time on their hands!

What happens when office workers run out of work?

Well, in the case of those in the video, they play bowls . . . with occupied desk chairs!

I'm not sure whether to feel more sorry for the aching participants, or the office manager who'll have to replace several chairs in the not too distant future!





Peter

Unfashionable laws?

I'm amused to find that women in Paris (including female police) appear to be breaking the law on a regular basis. The Telegraph reports:

A law banning women from wearing trousers in Paris may finally be lifted more than two centuries after first being enforced.

The curious rule was first introduced in late 1799 by Paris' police chief, and stipulated than any Parisienne wishing to "dress like a man" must seek special permission from the city's main police station.

This makes the laissez-faire French capital theoretically more hardline than Islamic states like Sudan in the fashion stakes.

But a group of ten French MPs has now submitted a draft bill to parliament to remove the law, which has survived repeated attempts to repeal it.

In 1892, it was slightly relaxed thanks to an amendment which said trousers were permitted "as long as the woman is holding the reins of a horse".

Then in 1909, the decree was further watered down when an extra clause was added to allow women in trousers on condition they were "on a bicycle or holding it by the handlebars".

In 1969, amid a global movement towards gender equality, the Paris council asked the city's police chief to bin the decree. His response was: "It is unwise to change texts which foreseen or unforeseen variations in fashion can return to the fore."

The latest attempt to remove the outmoded rule was in 2003, when a Right-wing MP from President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party wrote to the minister in charge of gender equality. The minister's response was: "Disuse is sometimes more efficient than (state) intervention in adapting the law to changing morays."

Given that trousers are compulsory for Parisian policewomen, they are, in theory, all breaking the law.

The rule is already contradicted by legislation that has made men and women equal in the eyes of the French constitution since 1946.

There's more at the link.

As for the reluctant minister . . . how does one say 'sexist pig' in French, anyway?



Peter

To continue the automotive theme . . .

. . . of the previous post (see below), we have a report of a British enthusiast who's built a street-legal car - out of a coffin!

A former gravedigger has built a 100mph single-seater car using a 7ft-long steel coffin for the body.

Phil Bissett, 62, bought the unusual handmade coffin for £98 [about US $145] on internet auction site eBay and has dubbed his new creation 'Holy Smoke'.

The tattoo artist from Harold Hill, near Romford in Essex, normally customises hearses in his spare time.

Mr Bissett said the head-turning car has almost sent a couple of people to an early grave.

'The first time I took it out one bloke nearly fell off the kerb and into the gutter when he saw it,' he said. 'Another was madly trying to take pictures from his Hummer and almost crashed into the back another car.




'It looks like something the Adams family would drive. People react funnily to this, my wife won't go near it.'

The coffin originally cost £1,500 [about US $2,220] and had been imported from Mexico when Mr Bissett spotted it online.

. . .

'It was padded inside and I've left the handles on it so people can see it's a coffin. It's even got what they call a time capsule inside to identify the body.'

Mr Bissett transformed the 75kg [165 pound] steel coffin into a fully taxed and roadworthy car by using the engine of his daughter's 1972 VW and parts from a dumper truck, a beach buggy and an old Ford car and even wheel spinners made out of grave vases.

The number-plate of the bone shaker is DIGG in honour of Mr Bissett's former occupation.

The casket has been spray painted with the words Holy Smoke drifting across a graveyard scene and the words Rust in Peace across the lid.

Along the sides Mr Bissett had painted 'I put the fun in funerals' and 'I see dead people' and on the petrol tank it says 'Embalming fluid only'.

There's more at the link.

I can't blame Mr. Bissett's wife . . . I'm not sure I'd ride in it either! It could be classified as 'tempting fate', to put it mildly!

Peter

Automotive imagination!

I'm amused and impressed to read of one man's dedication to building his own fleet of street-legal 'bumper cars'.




Benchrace e-zine reports that the owner, Tom Wright, has built seven so far, all powered by 500cc. or 750cc. motorcycle liquid-cooled engines with six-speed gearboxes.




Chassis and bodies are all home-made.

Jalopnik reports:

Yes, you read that right, these little beasties are street legal. They run on either Kawasaki or Honda motorcycle engines and co-opt vintage bumper car bodies into the most awesome form of mini-car we've seen in too long. There's seven of these little monsters floating around California, and they're all the creation of one man, Tom Wright, a builder in the outskirts of San Diego who figured the leftovers of the Long Beach Pike amusement park needed a more dignified end than the trash heap.




They were originally powered by Harley motors but they rattled like hell and Tom replace them with Honda or Kawasaki 750's and a couple have been measured as capable of 160 MPH, which is terrifyingly fast in machines with such a short wheelbase. Doesn't mean we would totally rock one should the opportunity present itself.

There's more at the link, including larger photographs.

Congratulations to Mr. Wright for his vision and enthusiasm. I hope I get to see these in the flesh sometime!

Peter

A unique and very lonely lighthouse!

I was intrigued to read about the world's most lonely lighthouse. It's in the city of Cologne, in Germany - about 125 miles from the sea as the crow flies! The Austrian Times reports:

The Helios lighthouse has stood among factory chimneys, warehouses and wasteland since 1890 after it had been ordered from the manufacturer Helios-Elektrizitäts AG by the German government to be situated on the island of Zanzibar. But shortly before it was due to be delivered Zanzibar was handed over to the British - who announced they did not want a German-made lighthouse on their island.

The lighthouse maker located at the heart of the Ehrenfeld industrial estate since 1881 then decided to use the unwanted building as a way of advertising their products - but so far from the sea they attracted few buyers and by 1904 the firm was bust despite a buyout by AEG and Siemens.

But although Cologne is landlocked and the lighthouse factory bankrupt, the tower has been a good advert for the maritime business. Carpenter Max Dietrich Bahr, 74, a former sailor, makes ship's steering wheels in his small workshop located in the car park below the lighthouse.




And there is even a shipyard nearby - even though the city and even the nearest river and lake is miles away.

Now the former lighthouse factory is a furniture warehouse, and the factory chimneys that once dominated the skyline have vanished and been replaced by modern buildings. But the Helios lighthouse - the only genuine functioning lighthouse that never saw the sea - has remained.

Local councillors are now considering what to do with the building including the possibility of allowing tours and exhibition inside, and are even considering a plan to put a small beach bar with imported sand in the area.

. . .

Andre Schmitz said: "Who knows, with global warming it might still end up by the sea."

There's more at the link.

Just an amusing bit of history to brighten your Sunday.

Peter

Nifty!

I've been watching the evolution of so-called 'smart phones' with interest, particularly Google's Android phone operating system, which seems to hold promise as an open-architecture system that can be adopted and customized by almost any phone manufacturer. I like that better than the closed architecture of Apple's iPhone.

There's a new application available for Android phones that sounds really useful. Fortune reports:

The mobile application for Android got updated today with the ability to snap a picture of some words and instantly translate them into the language of the owner.

Google's Goggles mobile application has always been a fun tool. The idea is that if you snap a picture and upload it to Google (as well as your location/time), Google could present more about that object, and by extension, your surroundings. It isn't always terribly accurate in identifying what is in the picture, but the results are sometimes helpful, if not amusing.

Today, Goggles got a very specific use feature that will help travelers and readers of foreign language texts immensely. Now you can point your Android camera at a sign, book, or any sort of foreign word, snap a picture, and get a translation. Google uses optical character recognition, or OCR, to turn the image into words, and then uses its translation services to turn those words into a language you recognize.

There's more at the link.

I can't remember how often I've been in a foreign restaurant, really hungry, but unable to translate the items on the menu so I could be sure what I was ordering. With this new app, that problem would be a thing of the past. Perhaps it's time to look into an Android phone for myself.

Peter

World's biggest food fight?

Back in January I posted about the hummus 'war' between Lebanon and Israel. At that time, Israel had just taken the lead with a record 4,090 kilograms (8,998 pounds) of hummus, prepared at the village of Abu Ghosh.




The BBC reports that Lebanon has mounted a counter-offensive, and now holds the high ground.

Lebanon has claimed the latest victory in the continuing battle with Israel over which country can make the largest serving of hummus.

Some 300 chefs set the new record, creating a huge 10-tonne vat of the chickpea-based dip in Fanar.




That more than doubles the previous record of about four tonnes, set in January by cooks in the Israeli-Arab town of Abu Ghosh near Jerusalem.

Both Lebanese and Israelis claim hummus as a national dish.

A Guinness World Records adjudicator confirmed that Lebanon now held the record.

Hummus is a dip made of chickpeas, olive oil, sesame paste, lemon juice and garlic. The chefs mixed the ingredients together in a giant plate which itself claimed a record for the largest earthenware dish.

According to another report, the Lebanese chefs prepared precisely 10,452 kilograms (22,994.4 pounds) of hummus - the same as Lebanon's size in square kilometers. That's almost 11½ US tons of the stuff!

Lebanon already holds the record for the largest quantity of taboulleh prepared at one time (set last year), and according to the report, local chefs are now looking into setting another record, this one for felafel. Hey - as long as Israel and Lebanon can keep it on the level of a food fight, instead of shooting at one another, I imagine a great many people on both sides of the border will be very happy!

Peter

Bush pilots hold their annual party

As I write this, Miss D. and Jenny S. are on their way by car from Anchorage to Valdez, Alaska, for the annual May Day Fly-In. I wish I could be there too, but unfortunately I'm stuck in the lower 48 . . . (pout, sulk, etc.).

The May Day Fly-In is a bit of a misnomer. It's always held on the weekend of Mothers Day, freeing up the previous weekend for the annual Alaska Airmen's Association Trade Show and Conference. No problem, of course - most of those attending the Fly-In attend the Trade Show as well. Miss D. helped organize it, and had some amusing stories of events (like telling USAF officers where to park their C-17's and F-15's and other assorted expensive ironmongery!).

One of her best tales concerned the annual aircraft raffle held for the benefit of the Association. This year, the prize was a highly customized Supercub bush airplane.

The Supercub raffled off for the benefit of the Alaska Airmen's Association.
Details of all the modifications and upgrades to the aircraft may be found here.

Apparently the gentleman who won this year was a very popular winner. A couple of years ago his aircraft was destroyed when another plane bounced the wrong way on landing and crashed into it. He hasn't been able to replace it, probably because of the very high cost of a good bush aircraft. Seems he bought five tickets for the raffle to support the Airmen's Association, not expecting any results (they sell 7,500 tickets each year at $50 apiece, or 5 for $225), and flatly refused to believe it when they called to tell him he'd won! Needless to say, he's a very happy camper right now. (Who wouldn't be, winning a quarter-million-dollar aircraft for an investment of a mere $225?) Gives me a nice warm fuzzy feeling to see someone's luck change for the better like that.

The Fly-In attracts most of the bush pilots in Alaska. They spend the weekend talking shop, eating, drinking, and displaying their skills at short take-offs and landings (essential in the environment in which they fly every day). Here's a video clip of highlights (and one low-light) from last year's competition.

That was an expensive 'oops' . . . not much airframe damage, but a new propeller and an engine overhaul (made necessary by an over-torqued drive shaft) don't come cheap!

Good luck to all those taking part this year, and I hope everyone has a great time.

Peter

Why background checks are useful things

It seems a school board in Germany didn't check up too closely on their philosophy teacher.

School governors have sacked a philosophy teacher from his job teaching 14-year-olds after discovering his secret life as a blood smeared death metal rock singer.

By day shaven-headed Thomas Gurrath discussed ethics with his pupils at the high school Germany.

But by night he calls himself The Bloodbeast and writhes around on stage covered in animal blood with topless backing singers and his band Debauchery.




The band's biggest hits include 'Kill Maim Burn' and 'Torture Pit'.

Shocked officials ordered Gurrath to quit saying his performances were a form of mental instability that made him unsafe to be around children.

"It was very worrying to listen to his music and then realise he was teaching our children," said one parent.

I don't know . . . from what I've seen of modern youth, I'd imagine that they'd give him far more attention and respect in class if they knew about his extracurricular activities!



Peter

Feeling hungry?

I note with gastronomic awe that a number of world records have recently been set for the largest food item (in a number of categories). My attention was drawn initially by a report of the world's largest burger, cooked just yesterday.

Ted Reader set a sizzling mark Thursday by creating a hamburger at Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto that tips the scales at 268 kilograms, or 590 pounds. If someone were to chow down the equivalent of the colossal creation in quarter-pound portions, he or she would have to devour 2,360 burgers.

If the mark stands, that would make mincemeat of the previous Guinness World Record of around 84 kilograms, or 185.8 pounds. However, Reader says they still have to wait for Guinness to give them the official nod that they’ve claimed the biggest burger crown, which he anticipates will take a couple of weeks.




The award-winning chef used a specially designed grill with a built-in forklift mechanism designed to flip the oversized culinary creation.

Reader says it took six hours to cook the behemoth of a burger, starting off with a patty weighing 139 kilos [306 pounds]. The grilled patty was then nestled in a 48-kilogram [106-pound] bun, dressed with lettuce, cheese, tomatoes, red onions, pickles and barbecue sauce.

“I’m amazed that we got it out of the grill and onto the bun,” Reader says. “That was the whole trickiness to it, but it’s held together, it’s edible, it’s delicious.”

There's more at the link.

Hmm . . . if, as the article claims, one would have to eat 2,360 quarter-pound burgers to equal the new record burger, that gives us a basis for calculation. McDonalds lists the calorie content of their 'Quarter-Pounder' burger as 410 calories. Multiplying that by 2,360, we get 967,600 calories! The normal daily calorie requirement for an average, moderately active male is about 2,500; so that translates into over 387 days worth of calories in the new record burger - more than a year's intake!

Impressed, I looked for other recent record-size food items. They weren't hard to find.

In Italy, chefs cooked up the world's largest asparagus omelet.

Cooks in Canino, Italy, used 100 kilos of asparagus in the recipe and used seven litres of olive oil to fry the six foot wide creation in a giant pan.




Then - after its dimensions had been verified by Guinness World Records officials - they cut up the smack to serve it it spectators.

"It was delicious and it's quite something to have eaten part of a world record," said one fan.

Not to be outdone, Romania has produced the world's largest peasant omelet.

Master Chef Stefan Bercea and his team of 19 Chefs made an omelette that weighed 3.75 tonnes (8,267 lb) and has 223,02 square feet (20,72 square meters)-setting the world record for the Largest Peasant Omelette during the 3rd edition of the "Selgros International Open Air Cooking Championship" in Bucharest.

The World's Largest Peasant Omelette was made of 30,000 eggs, 1.5 tons of potatoes, 300 kilos of vegetables, 400 kilos of bacon, 400 kilos of cheese, 200 liters of vegetable oil, 30 kilos of parsley, 15 kilos of salt and 3 kilos of pepper.




The giant pan used to cook the Largest Peasant Omelette was lifted into position with a crane.

Master Chef Stefan Bercea and his team of 19 Chefs spent no less than four (long) hours stirring the Largest Peasant Omelette with giant wooden palettes.

Once done, the giant omelette was enjoyed by everyone visiting the "Selgros International Open Air Cooking Championship" in Bucharest.

An omelet weighing over four US tons??? That's a lot of eating, right there! Here's a video of the making of the omelet. I had to laugh at the number of gas cylinders fueling burners under the outsized frying-pan they used.

Next, the world's largest plate of nachos was produced by Northstar Church in Frisco, Texas.

Frisco’s Northstar Church welcomed 355 teens and their parents to build a 3,555 pounds, 48-foot-long tray of nachos loaded with chips, cheese, salsa and jalapenos - setting the new world record for the Largest plate of nachos.

The previous Guinness world record for the Largest plate of nachos was a 3,158-pound plate of nachos, set in 2008 by a restaurant in Richmond, VA.




A custom plate, 48-feet long and 4-feet wide, was built to hold 2,200 pounds of yellow tortilla chips, 600 pounds of nacho cheese, 200 pounds of shredded cheddar cheese, 250 pounds of sour cream, 250 pounds of jalapeños, and 200 pounds of picante sauce.

After the chips came the nacho cheese, the picante sauce and the jalapenos. Then came the heat lamps borrowed from local auto body shops to cook the concoction. The final weight: 3,555.25 pounds.

Last but not least, also from Texas, we have the world's largest chicken-fried steak.

The Cowtown Diner is boasting the “Full O Bull”: a four-pound slab of top round, that, after being coated in panko crumbs, deep fried and slathered in cream gravy, weighs about ten pounds, runs $70 and packs a whopping 10,000 calories - setting the world record for the Largest Chicken Fried Steak.

The world's largest chicken fried steak, a 64oz, gravy-slathered slab of tenderized top round runs $70, or $.00 if you actually take it down solo. Because no steak's complete without sides, the Bull isn’t considered finished until you also stuff in 6lbs of mashed potatoes and 10 slices of Texas toast.




On the plus side, unlike the 90 minutes allotted some grudge-match eating deals, there's no time limit: you've literally got from 7am opening 'til 2am closing, and if you fail, they offer the consolation prize of doggy bags.

The Cowtown Diner started serving the world's largest chicken fried steak when it opened in January. Since then, the restaurant has dished up about 15 orders of the bovine behemoth complete with sides: six pounds of mashed potatoes and ten slices of Texas toast.

How many fat grams are packed in such a preposterous meal? "We were afraid to calculate that," said Scott Jones, owner of the Cowtown Diner.

"We also didn't want to figure out the Weight Watchers points."

So who eats this thing? According to Jones, just about everyone. "Couples, groups of four," he said. "I had a table of six college guys try one the other night, and they had to take the rest home in a doggy bag."

Ordering a day in advance is required, as the world's largest chicken fried steak takes 45 minutes to prepare, starting with whole milk-bound breading that requires the chef to roll the meat up like a carpet to flip; then it's off to a flat grill for a hot-oil splash bath, a searing session aided by a steel pizza shovel, and a 10-min convection-oven bake to ensure even cooking.

Including the XL pizza pan it's served on, the finished protein planet weighs 9lbs and measures 14in in diameter; to up the ceremony, the chef and a procession of servers actually carry it like the Ark of the Covenant to your table.

After reporting all those gargantuan gustatory gizmos, you'll forgive me if I don't feel hungry for a while, won't you?





Peter

They say you can put wheels on anything . . .

. . . but I'd never have thought of this!!!

Just as long as he doesn't try to corner too fast. It might turn into a whirlpool tub!

I've no idea where the video was taken. Can any readers help?

Peter