Green Howards back in Afghanistan

Well the boys have had a year away from the place and are now off for another go at the Taliban. Good luck lads and keep you heads down.

More.

Yorkshire World Champion

Keep your cricket Yorkshire has a new world champ. Congratulations Steve Peat!

It was cool that last years world champ was an English man but a Yorkshire man is the tits. A true legend in the sport. More world cup wins than anyone else and now world champ at 36. He's shown true grit to stick at it this long and it's paid off.

Best trail I rode this summer.

This is a video of the CBC trail in the North Shore of Vancouver BC. Riding this trail was probably the highlight of the summer trip this year.

Not only was the construction the best I've ever seen but every inch of it was a challenge.

Fun times :)

Thanks Mark

I love this

Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs Inc. from Chris Cairns on Vimeo.

Thanks Greg

This Kid rocks

It looks like my little one has some competition. I guess I'll have to tell him tonight that he's got 2 years to catch up. It looks like I'm tyaking Bri to Whistler for his 4th birthday :)

I suppose 2 and riding trails on your push bike isn't bad though.

This 4 year old is rocking it. I like the 360's and the cross ups.

Enjoy

Roadies beaten by a mountain bike

I love this article. A British pro MTB rider decided to enter a road race in South Africa and only had his MTB with him. He won :) That must of pissed the roadies off.

The last of the greatest generation

The last of Britain's greatest generation of soldiers has finally been laid to rest. More. Yes I know the term is usually used for WWII veterans but those that came before in WWI showed sacrifice and sense of duty on a scale hard to imagine.

They marched shoulder to shoulder in orderly line across no mans land by the thousands. Pipes and drums ringing in their ears they marched into withering machine gun fire. As their friend fell around them they kept on coming keeping their formation. 50,000 teenagers and young men dead before lunch. They didn't do it for a greater cause but a sense of duty to their country that hardly exists in Britain today.

All this at times in the face of incompetent and arrogant leadership given their rank due to their social position rather than leadership qualities. It was a massive waste of life playing in a chess game for dying monarchies but their bravery rose above that.

RIP Harry Patch and all your brothers in arms. The nightmares are over.

Lest We Forget

The lads in Afghanistan

A vid from my boys in Afghanistan proving as I've always know that we are always up for a good fight. It's been almost 18 years since I took off the uniform for the final time but you never really leave. It's a family you remain a member of for the rest of your life.

Last time they went I only had a couple of good mates left serving (Benny, Mac, Gazza) This time I will have less friends there but all Howards are brothers and my thoughts are with them constantly.

Unfortunately, not every one came back and 2 more names were added to my list of the fallen I remember always.

Good luck on round 2 boy and remember those who've gone before you will always be with you.

HowArd Green Howard!

XIX

Extreme bottle opening

Check out the end of this video. How does he not fall of his bike opening the bottle.

The Rock Stars

Mark & Ryan

Whistler is my Happy

Chris & Ryan

Whistler Video

We're riding too much to be bothered blogging but here's some video for now.

whistler update

Day 3 and every one has survived to varying degrees. The mountaint rocks and i've ridden the thing on my own bike. We're having a day of relaxing and taking some photos of the village trails. I'll get some posted tonight.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Park and Ride in Grangetown????

This new rail project is a great thing for the local community in the tees valley and should provide a boost for the economy.

However, who in their right mind came up with the idea of a park and ride in Grangetown or South Bank. Have they ever been there. I have some good friends who live in both places but there isn't a chance in hell I'd leave my car there all day while I went to work.

The Parmo goes national

The Teesside delicacy the Parmo is to go national and distributed through Asda more. A cousin of the Italian Parmesan Chicken/Pork we've been keeping this little delight to ourselves for years.

Next thing you know there will be one of them regional food wars going on where only true Parmos are made in Boro. Mind you in true boro fashion we won't protest to the EU for new legislation to say you can only call it a parmo if it's made in Boro. We'll just send a tranny van round full of lads and kick the shit out of the pretenders.

I think I've got the slogan "Made in Boro by daft lads"

Death of a great man

Henry Allingham one of the last remaining survivors of world war 1 has died this weekend. When asked how he wished to be remembered he said "I don't, I want to be forgotten. Remember the others". I for one think this is one wish we should not grant this great man as by remembering him we remember the others. He become the embodiment of all those that were locked in perpetual youth by the carnage that was world war one.

Finlay let your memories wash away and rest in peace!

More.

Middle Aged Maddness

Well just over a week to go to my summer holidays and I'm buzzing. British Columbia, Canada is our destination. Whistler bike park and Vancouvers north shore are the main destinations. 7 Great mates, 11 days and the best mountain biking in the world. Sounds like a killer trip for a bunch of young lads living that summer to remember.

Well something like that, apart from the fact that the kid of the group is 29 and the rest of us are from the mid 30's to early 50's in age. It's billed as my 40th birthday trip, but I'd of given any designation just so I could of pulled the trip off. Also, instead of sleeping 7 to one room in a hotel we have rented a luxury apartment. That wage slave thing pays off.

While I'm on the trip I'm going to try and post daily video and picture updates and some blogs from the lift cutesy of the iPhone. Additionally I'm going to try and get some of the lads to post on their thoughts as a kind of running diary. The last time I tried a running diary was in the mid 90's on a mountain biking trip to Amsterdam. Don't ask!

I've been planning this trip since I got off the plane coming back last time, 3 years ago.

Mid life crisis? I don't think so just a continuation of a life spent doing stupid things on a bike :)

Here's a sample of what's in store for us:

Check please!

No wonder China can do what they want to protesters. Check the article here.

The flow of wealth from the US to China at the end of it's reign as the leading empire is similar to the last great shift. That shift being the transfer of wealth from the British Empire to the US during and after the second world war.

It will be interesting to see how the US handles this shift. The UK struggled to readjust for years will the American ego allow it to adjust.

Ride at own risk Pansy

I've been riding mountain bikes for a long time and had quite a few of the injuries in this article pluss a few others.

These pansies whyning about it cause trails to be closed. You ride trails at your own risk. If you don't know the trail you check it out before you try anything. If you crash the first thing you should do is look at what you did wrong. Also, there are no official bike trails up there they are all bootleg but tolerated, and have been for all 40 years of my life. To say they need sighs would change that and have the effect of getting the trails closed to bikes rather than spend the money on signs.

I liked the land managements response of you ride at your own risk.

The reason I'm sensitive about this one is that Errington woods is where I started riding and where I started BMX and mountain biking over the years. I've been allover the world and ridden some of the best trails it has to offer but The Woods will always be the first.

Non locals whinging about our trails and getting them shut would piss me off.

Old birds don't breed

I've always doubted the mental capacity of anyone in their late 50's or more having kids. You will be to old to do stuff with your kids and may die of old age while they are kids.

Also what kind o state are you going to be in to control a teenager when your infirm ed.

I'm just coming up to 40 and it makes me think how I'm going to discipline a teenage boy when I'm nudging 60.

This article typifies why it's so wrong at old age to have kids.

No Shit!

It took a bunch of scientist to figure out that swearing helps with pain. I could of told them that when I was 6. I reaffirm my belief in that theory most weekend. The more the pain the nastier the swearing. Here's the article on the study.

Listening to a great man

I had the pleasure a couple of years ago to listen to Niel Armstrong speak about about project he worked on to install a mirror, on the moon. It blew me away and I was thankful to have the experience.

After reading the following article I realise how lucky I was.

Once an object of desire

I spotted this article on the Sony Walkman the other week and it amused me. The kid is evaluating it as an antique.

I can remember the Walkman being an object of my desire for a while. I never actually owned one as they were out of my price range at the time.

Mobile music in a form factor that's not the size of a laptop bag, Brilliant! I now carry all the entertainment I could need on my phone.

Zambikes

What a great idea and I want one. I've been following Craig Calffie's bamboo bike project for a few years now. They are expensive but have a lot of merit and cool factor. Anyway when I read this article that you were going to be able to by versions of these bike but produced locally in Africa with the profits going back to the makers I was in. Also the fact that they are going to be cheep helped as in: USA built $2600+; Africa built $475.

I have all the parts spare to build it up, it's pay day and it's for a good cause let's go for it. Well it's never that simple. I checked the Acifa bike web site and the buy a bike page is blank. Also, the Calffie site has no mention of it.

I guess I'll just have to wait and see when I can get my Bamboo Bike.

Nice one Liz

The Elizabeth Cross is now to be awarded to the families of soldiers killed in action. See the BBC Article here. It is also good to see that it is backdated to 1948 and covers those killed by terrorism so the Troubles will be covered.

I know this doesn't do shit to bring back the dead but it's a nice memento to be passed down through the generations to keep the memory of the fallen alive. The accompanying signed letter from the queen adds to the touch.

It's nice to see that now and again the establishment just do things that are right for no better reason than they should be done.

blogging from the iPhone

I've not realy got anything to say I'm just feeling out blogging from my new iPhone. It's a bit of a pain in the arse to be honest but it's still cool.

Mobile Blogging from here.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Only mad dogs and Englishmen

Well I'm Finlay getting acclimatised to the summer down here in Florida.

There has been a heat wave on down here for the last week. In northern Florida that temperatures +/- 102°F/38°C with a heat index of +/- 114°F/45°C.

You guessed it daft arse here has been trying to ride in it every day. That's despite the locals being advised not to attempt exercise out side. Obviously I was aided by growing up in the hot and humid conditions in Teesside and the extra 30+ lbs of insulation I carry on my one pack abs. The only other thing I can credit with me being here writing this and not in hospital wired to a machine is my 6 months in the tropical weather of Aberdeen.

Long story short I thought the weather was going to assassinate me on a nightly basis.

Well the weather broke last night and I was flying. I hardly broke a sweat and rode twice as far in the same time.

What was this cool temperature you may ask? 94°F/34°C! Yep it was still hotter than a hookers knickers on a Saturday night and I thought and my body acted like it was cool.

It just goes to show that perception is relative. My mother was complaining that it was too hot and humid on Teesside this week 75°F/24°C. I'd of been wearing arm warmers if last night was anything to go by.

Nice Little Jump :)

A nice little gap jump from those crazy guys in Canadia :)

Can Society Justify Anything

It looks like nowadays that nobody can be held accountable for anything. In the latest case of someone beating an infant to death it's not his fault.

I don't care. One of the fundamental ideas of the legal system is to protect society from those that pose it harm. This teenager knew what he did was wrong or he would not of had the reaction he did. Even if he didn't he's a danger to those weaker than him and should be locked up.

If that had been my teenage son he would of happily gone to jail rather than face me. People today no longer have authority figures they fear either a parent, teacher or the law.

That fear of an authority figure is how army's around the world instill self discipline into young men at their most rebellious time of life. This discipline than enables these men to run into life threatening situations that every part of their being is telling them not to.

Even if you are morally bereft to the extent that you can do the most despicable things that fear can stop you.

For me those figures were foremost my Father, some teachers and then a procession of Sargent Majors. By the time I no longer feared these authority figures I had the self discipline to make the right choices myself.

Stop the excuses and start using consequences.

Even Darth Vader has had Prostate Cancer

It looks like even the dark side of the force won't protect you from prostate cancer. Luckily Darth Vader is a survivor here.

On the hopefully side lets hope this research plays out to a success.

The Stig or not the Stig

Well it looks like they have Finlay revealed the stig here. Michael Schumacher!

Even though the helmet was removed on the show the BBC still refuse to confirm this.

Shall we have more twists in this Saga. I'll have to wait until later in the year to see this episode here in the US.

I was putting my money on it being batman.

Being a legend comes naturaly to some

If over 30 years ago you and of a group of friends invented one of the fastest growing sports in the world (Mountain Biking) you could be quite happy that your life had had an impact on the world for the better. If you were the person responsible for identifying and assembling the components required to perform that sport (The Mountain Bike) and the first to bring it to market you could be similarly pleased. If you dedicated over 30 years of you life to all aspects of a sport the same could be said. Garry Fisher has done all these and more, so putting him in the sporting legend status.

However, sometimes it's the small things a legend does that are really cool. I read this article the other day and it impressed me. Garry donated a $3000 bike he had bought to haul his kids around to a local guy to do the same. The only condition was that the guy must do the same when he had finished hauling his kids about and donate it to another parent. This is a man who usually acts globally on initiatives but is still connected to his local scene and so acts on a personal level also.

All I can say is thank you and keep up the good work Mr Fisher.

Banksy going legit

Well almost.  I love this guy.  He is the single artist responsible for giving me any real interest in art.   I'm a northern bloke and "We don't do Art" :)  The social commentary in his art is very profound and is a great reflection of the world around us.

He has an exhibition in his home town at the city's art gallery.  In true Banksy style it was a stealth mission.  For the first time in my life I'm disappointed that I cannot get to an art gallery. 

The article on the show can be found here.

Slide Show here.

And for those of you who've never seen his work you can see it on his web site here.

I never thought I'd be posting an article on art.  Next thing you know I'll be eating tofu and going to yoga :)

Finally a fact pulled from wikipedia not even his parents know he is Banksy "banksy's parents think their son is a painter and decorator.".  Are they going to be impressed when they find out.

3D trail preview

Stu raving about a new tail he was riding this weekend Lee Quarry.  On checking it out I found this.  A cool 360 image of the trail system that you can navigate through.  They must of been waiting a while to get the nice weather.

It would be cool to see this used for other trail systems.  Obviously it is not going to work on wooded trail.  Very cool though.

Sick

Not many things make me feel sick but I can never read an article on baby Peter without feeling sick to my stomach and wanting to inflict world of pain on those who did it.  I have a son of the same age and I guess that's why it gets to me.  

If someone did this to little Bri the law better act fast or I would happily take a long time killing these people.

Well the British legal system now has it's chance to prove it works.  For me no amount of time in jail would be long enough.  However, I feel anything less than 10 - 15 years before parole would be a travesty.  Let's see!

A Great Day

This is a great day for the Gurkhas and the British people.  These guys have served us for 200 years and are now getting what they deserve UK citizenship.  

How many of us who gained citizenship as a birthright have done as much as these men to deserve it.  

The Next Fight

We need to bring the pay and pension up for all soldiers as it is crap but before we do that we need to bring the Gurkhas up to that shit level.   The pension was the main reason I left as I could not see myself struggling to get by from the age of 40 with no transferable skills.

A guy who joined the infantry with me in 1986 would of served in Northern Ireland, Iraq, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.  After 22 years of traveling from one shit hole trouble spot in the world to another he would be let go and on the dole.  He would have 15 years to get buy until his pension kicked in.  I've seen these guys driving taxis and other shit jobs.  They'll retrain you as a HGV (Truck) driver, another shit job where you are away from your family for extended periods.

Where is the UK's version of the GI bill.  Give these guys a free education and the chance of a great future.  Admittedly, Some squaddies have trouble licking the sticky side of the stamp but some are very intelligent but would not consider this path unless it was opened up to them.  I would never of thought of is until Stu led me down this path.  Now I make more than the general that led me.

For me heading to my 40th birthday it is mission accomplished.  In 1991 I made the decision to leave the army so I could have a future beyond the age of 40.  Through some good decisions and lots of luck I've done that and more than I could wished for.  However, I should not of had to leave the army to accomplish this.

A Yorkshire Man on top of the world

Congratulations to Steve Peat on winning more World Cup Downhill races than anyone else ever.

Or here in America he's the winningest World cup racer ever.  To beat Nicolas Vouiloz is a big deal and he has now put himself up there with the greats of the sport.

Let's hope he now goes on to have that season that injury and accident have denied him over the years.  We want the World Cup and the World Championship back to Yorkshire.

Football and cricket are letting us down so lets adopt Mountain biking as the new Yorkshire passion.

(English by birth, Yorkshire by the grace of God)

Blond

Just got this one on twitter from Shedfire and love it.

Perverts getting off lightly

I read the article that Stu refers to here the other day and found it disgusting also.  The pervert was getting his sentence reduced because of his human rights.  He is now going to get less than a year for each time he got a daughter pregnant.  I say he forfeited his rights the moment he started shagging his children.

Personally I'd like to get all medieval on these people but society wouldn't stand for it.  The iron lady or the rack may be a bit of a deterrent.  If not it would make me feel better.

As a compromise he should be getting for one offence and multiplying that by the total number of offences.  A first time pervert getting his daughter pregnant one would probably get something minimal like 5 years.  Multiply that by 19 and he's off away for 95 years, that should just about do it.

It should be general population also.  You caused someone else to live in fear you should do the same yourself.

The Scouts go extreme

Just knowing your knots won't cut it now in the scouts Bear Grylls is taking over.  Not just the skinny kid will be eating worms but all of them :)

How many 5 year olds can you fight

31

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Loosing your roots

It's the end of an era for my home town.  The town of Middlesbrough was built for workers to exploit the steel in the local hills.  It became a leader in the steel industry and one of the worlds great bridge builders.  Our bridges can be found all over the world including a little on over the harbour in Sydney. 

Today it has been announced that Corus is to close it's plant on Teesside (more).  The steel city has lost it's soul and it's skyline.  The night time skyline that only a local can truly love.  The flames shooting into the air and the lights twinkling like yellow and orange stars.  This is the skyline that inspired Ridley Scotts Bladerunner.

Then there is the jobs.  An industry that used to directly employ 60,000 - 100,000 men in it's hay day now employs 2,000 and is about to employ none.  

This for a region that has in real terms only not been in the grips of recession for the last 10 years since the mid seventies.

Hopefully the effects won't be as bad as last time industry was decimated on Teesside.  If not the local kids will be stitching footballs for nike.

Good look to all the boys who are now looking for another cushy number to earn their living at.

RIP Steel City.

I love this swine Flu joke

Poo and friends 

New Toys

Well I got a new video camera last night and was out playing with it.  Another misspent evening in Tallahassee.   It's the sony Webbie HD.  It's small, light and easy to use but I'm not sold on the quality.  We'll see I'll update on my progress playing with it.

My justification for it was that we'd lost the video camera and it was my sons second birthday this weekend.  Hell you can find a justification for any new toy.  It also turns out the mother-in-law had our comcorder.

Anyway here are the results from my trial run.

3D Movies

It looks like the media to deliver home 3D TV is here.  However I believe that hard copy delivery of data is about to be an obsolete concept.  When every home has connections in the 100 Mbs range on average why would manufacturers of digital content go to the expense of building facilities to produce the hard copy.

It is a cool technology though and will be a great backup option for the huge amount of digital data we are about to start gathering.  I've just gone through the process of upgrading all my storage capacity to handle all the media I'm gathering.  The size of the drives, 1 TB, would of been staggering only a few years ago.

Rioting

I know rioting is a good laugh and it's impossible not to get carried away. But if you get busted you should pay the price. I think the bank is overstating the costs on this one but hey she smashed their shit they want thair money back.

I don't get anti capitalist. If you don't want the nice shit capitalism gives you fuck off and live in the third world. Especially these lazy layabout who blame their slovenliness on not being into the system. Yea the system sucks but we all have to do it.

However I do like the thought process:

"At the time she got caught up in the heat of the moment. She thought it would be a good idea to go into the [bank's] foyer. When she got inside she thought it would be a better idea to smash up the computer. She said she changed her mind and tried to throw the computer through the window instead."

I've had some brilliant ideas like this before and fully understand where they come from but I've also paid the price when caught.

A Good day to rant

It looks like today was a good day to rant at the news :)

Traitor to the cause & Enemy of the State

No shit people want to kill Martin McGuinness. I know a bunch of people who would love to see him killed.

During my time serving in the conflict he was head of the IRA army council and hiss younger brother Willy was in charge of the IRA in Norhtern Ireland. He is ultimately the person responsible for the Enniskillen attack and many more just as vile but unreported. You followed orders in the IRA or you got you kneecaps removed with a drill. He was a terrorist leader, Bush had him for lunch by the way.

So yes I wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire. If he'd of given me a legal opportunity to kill him back in the day I would of jumped at the chance. In fact I'd of rather gone medieval on him. This is how I feel about him now after 20 years of mellowing just imagine how I felt then.

He was the leader of one of the best Terrorist organisations in the world fighting for a united Ireland. They trained the Libyans, Syrians, Hammas, FARC and had training bases in the middle east, South America, Africa. The were the McDonald's of Terrorism a branch every where. He gave that up and disbanded this organisation for the cash cow job as second minister without delivering a united Ireland. No wonder the ideologists want to kill him. That's what happens to traitors in the republican movement. He should of know this he has approved many punishment beating and killings.

You reap what you sow.

Our best warriors

This ruling on UK residency for the Gurkha's is an outrage (link). These guys are unbelievable and deserve everything that can be given. I've worked with Gurkha's in my time in the army and have the utmost respect for them. In fact I don't know of a serving or ex squaddie that does not.

They have fought in every war we've had since they joined us and have been one of the most effective units in those conflicts. Just to join the British army these guy can walk 1000 mile through the Himalayan mountains. Once they arrive at the selection course they are put through test that would cripple a seasoned squaddie.

One of these great men I had the pleasure of meeting was a CPL Tappa. A funny guy. Even though he'd been in the British army about 15 years at this point his English was still broken. The respect he showed me as a British squaddie was unbelievable to the point of embarrassment. Even though at the time he outranked me and was 10 years my senior he always called me Sir no matter how many times I told him to call me by my name. The quote that will always remind me of Tappa when out drinking was "We good Soldiers we fight".

He'd done his bit though, leading his section clearing trenches in some of the final battles of the Falklands war. The Argentineans did not give up against the Gurkha's neither as they had been told they did not take prisoners but ate them. He told me of having to kill enemy because they would not surrender. They would run out of ammunition and come at him with bayonets. As anyone knows you don't get into a knife fight with a Gurkha. As tappa told it he told them it was a bad idea and then woosh woosh woosh no more. He carried the mental scars of war, you could see them just below the surface. His were not as bad as some I've seen but they were affecting his life. His career record highlighted this. He was good at his job and battle proven so he'd get promoted and then the switch would flip and he'd end up a private again.

Under these new rules this great servant to our nation would not get residency. Is this right? He is just one of thousands.

We owe them and it's time to pay up.

Get a life

Wow these silly cows need a slap. I'd freak the fuck out if someone started trying to look like me. Mind you I don't think anyone would want to look like a fat northern bloke :)

Check the article here.

Ryan's latest idea

Well the brother in law just sent me this video and said he's building it at my house.  I'm in.  I'm just not paying his medical bills.

Happy St Georges Day

Happy St Georges day to those of you with the good grace to be born English.  No green beer or outlandish American party here for this one.  Which is good as I'd have to spend the whole day explaining to people that no they are not English because they went to London once.    

I'm glad we are finally getting to recognise our day.  The Scottish and Irish have been able to shout about themselves for years.  If we're doing it, it's been regarded as arrogant or even racist.  Fuck that I think we should shout.  Hell we have a lot to shout about, we did rule half the world you know ;)  We've given the world the industrial revolution, Evolution (Yes it is real bumb ass), The Web, and the cat scan among other things.

Yes we've been tw*ts in the past.  Hey you can't rule the world by being nice all the time.

I'm and avid English nationalist but also a fervent unionist as we are stronger together than apart.  As I've traveled the world I've realised how much alike the home nations are.  Americans may may be our cousins but the home nations are our brothers.   Brothers that will kick the crap out of each another after a few pints but brothers none the less.  You take the accent out of it and culturally we are virtually identical, a bunch of idiots that like a drink and a good time.  

I classify myself a Yorkshire man, English man and British subject in that order.  For that reason this day is mine.

Here's to England's Day

Happy St Georges day

God Save The Queen 

Code Comments

I've just had this sent to me by Stu.  More of these comments should be put in code to cheer peoples day up when their fixing it.

stop(); // Hammertime!

This particularly amuses me.  If you don't code you won't get most of them.

And here's a good one to go with it on coding standards.  The hardest one I've had to deal with is one contract where all 'if' statements had to be written what I consider backwards i.e. if condition = variable or if ('John' == nameVar) {statements...}.  This messed with my head for a long time.

The French and their hollidays.

I know the French are easy targets but they set themselves up.

I was about to buy something on e-bay the other day and the only place in the world I could find it was the French e-bay.  I took a pause just before I pulled the trigger on the item to make sure I was going to buy it and it wasn't just one of my many impulses.

On returning to the site guess what?  Yep the french seller had gone on Holiday. I got the message at the top of the screen.  Firstly, I didn't know you could set e-bay up to go on Holiday or is this just a feature for our industrious friends of the cheese eating variety.  Secondly, where in the world are you that you cannot access the Internet.

Need less to say if Piere does not get back from holiday by next week Adolf is getting the sale.

Here's a link to the page.

Idiots caught up in Google street view media frenzy

These people are idiots.  They complain about invasion of privacy from google street view yet they  live in the country with the most surveillance cameras in the world.

Classic English idiots jumping into the hype the tabloid press pump out.

My house has been on street view since it was launched and I love it.  The only regret I have is I never swept the leaves up in the front garden.  I've used this tool in many cities to find a building I'm looking for.

Red Friday

I've just recived an e-mail that I've attached below from a friend of mine I used to be in the army with.  The idea is simple and brilliant. 

 I see the rection from the public depicted in the story all the time here in the US in the usual over the top American way.  They love their troops and are not afraid to show it.  I have never witnessed this reaction in the UK.  We are British, reserved, it is implied how we feel and it does not need to be said.  Well it does need to be said.

We had a saying in the Army "Civvies only like us when they need us".  Lets change this.  I for one will be wearing red on fridays from now on.

Thanks Red Dog

Here's the e-mail it can say it better than me:

RED FRIDAY
 
 
Terry

 Last week I was in  West London attending a conference.

 While I was in the airport, returning home, I heard several people behind me beginning to clap and cheer.
 
I immediately turned around and witnessed one of the greatest acts of patriotism I have ever seen.

Moving through the terminal was a group of soldiers in their uniforms,  as they began heading to their gate everyone (well almost everyone) was abruptly to their feet with their hands waving and cheering.

When I saw the soldiers, probably 30-40 of them, being applauded and cheered for, it hit me. I'm not alone. I'm not the only red blooded Briton who still loves this country  and supports our troops and their  families. Of course I immediately stopped and began clapping for these young  unsung heroes who are putting their lives on the line everyday for us so we  can go to school, work, and enjoy our home without fear or reprisal.
 
Just when I thought I could not be more proud of my country or of our service men and women a young girl, not more than 6 or 7 years old, ran up to one of the male soldiers.

He knelt down and said 'hi,' the little girl then asked him if he would give something to her daddy for her.

The young soldier didn't look any older than maybe 22 himself, said he would try and what did she want to give to her daddy.

Suddenly the little girl grabbed the neck of this soldier, gave him the biggest hug she could muster and then kissed him on the cheek.

The mother of the little girl, who said her daughters name was Courtney, told the young soldier that her husband was a Corporal and had been in Afghanistan for 5 months now.

As the mum was explaining how much her daughter, Courtney, missed her father, the young soldier began to tear up.

When this temporarily single mum was done explaining her situation, all of the soldiers huddled together for a brief second.

Then one of the other servicemen pulled out a military looking walkie-talkie.

They started playing with the device and talking back and forth on it.

After about 10-15 seconds of this, the young soldier walked back over to Courtney, bent down and said this to her, 'I spoke to your daddy and he told me to give this to you.'

He then hugged this little girl that he had just met and gave her a Kiss on the cheek.

He two finished by saying 'Your daddy told me to tell you that he loves you more than anything and he is coming home very soon.'

The mum at this point was crying almost uncontrollably and as the young soldier stood to his feet he saluted Courtney and her mum.

I was standing no more than 6 feet away as this entire event unfolded.

As the soldiers began to leave, heading towards their gate, people resumed their applause.

As I stood there applauding and looked around, there were very few dry eyes, including my own.

That young soldier in one last act of moment turned around and blew a kiss to Courtney with a tear rolling down his cheek.

We need to remember everyday all of our soldiers and their families and thank God for them and their sacrifices.

At the end of the day, it's good to be British.

RED FRIDAYS
Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing Red every Friday.

The reason?

British men and women who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority'.

We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for Country and home in record breaking numbers.

We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing.

We get no liberal media coverage on TV, to reflect our message or our opinions.

Many Britons, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of  Britain supports our troops.

Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home, sending a deafening message that every Briton who supports our men and women afar will wear something red.

By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make Great Britain on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football team

If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family, It will not be long before Britain is covered in RED and it will let our troops know the once 'silent majority’ is on their side more than ever, certainly more than the media lets on.

The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is...'We need your support and your prayers'...

Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.

IF YOU AGREE -- THEN SEND THIS ON

IF YOU COULD NOT CARE LESS THEN HIT THE DELETE BUTTON.

IT IS YOUR CHOICE.

THEIR BLOOD RUNS RED---- SO WEAR RED! ---

Lest we Forget.

A cool city bike park

Who said you need tons of down hill for a killer bike park.  Check out the builders here.

Attack Monkeys

This is an example of the stupid shit you come up with when traveling every weekend mountain biking.  My best mate Stu and I spent the second half of last year going to mountain bike centers in Scotland (second only to whistler) every weekend.

Anyway, we got to talking about what we would build if we had our own park and what features we would have.  Finlay we got to what wildlife obstacles we would have.  Whistler has it's grizzlies, California it's mountain lions and Florida it's gators.  After much discussion we settled on attack monkeys.

You know the kind, you are about to hit the skinny and they jump on your back and push your helmet over your eyes.  Your just about to cross it up over the 10' gap and they start throwing pine cones at you.  Your just about to rail a berm and they put sticks in your spokes.  You get the picture.

Any way we came to the conclusion that we needed these on my local trail.  As it's a fight club rules trail I shall refer to it in all future posts as WTWK (We Tell We Kill).

We needed a plan to get them over here from the UK.  As Stu pointed out they don't travel well.  The plane would have to make an emergency landing after about half an hour.  As his parents are coming out to see me next week I suggested he subdue them with some spiked bananas and put them in his mams case.  This lead to us wondering what the possible discussion would be like at customs.  Find our best guess below.

Officer: Anything to declare mam?

Margie:  No.  

Officer: What's this?

Margie: Erm a stoned attack monkey!  

Officer:  Is it on business or pleasure?

Margie: It's an attack monkey they always mean business.

Anyway, next time you are on the trail and you get a stick in your spokes beware as it may be an ambush and some attack monkeys may of escaped from WTWK.

The way to develop a bike.

I've been following the blog of Shedfire (the guy who designed the on-one bikes) on the development of his new bike the Ragley to be built by Linskey in Tennessee.

This post is in the cable routing and I love it he had a great idea.   through it out there and the user comments helped him with the design.

Here's the article.

Soft Footballs

I know I'd take a free football any day of the week but come on.  They give the kidds soft balls because the regular ones are to noisy when kicked.  What no one slams car doors around there or is the whole town padded to keep it quiet for the delicate residents.  Smells of to many retired people to me.

This article was sent to me by Stu.

Yeh sign me up I'd love to go.

Holiday packages to war zones.  You come home with a flack vest shaped tan.  Check the loonies out here.  The army will pay you to go if you realy want to people.

A bike park in the south

I've just found this.  I cannot find any more details and the sight seems to be down but the prospect of a bike park near Ashville NC should be fun.

Athiest mountain bike ride

This posting is fine but I wonder how long it would take SORBA to pull the counter group ride.  As far as I can tell religion has no place in mountain biking.  Especially as other faiths would not be tolerated in the same way.

I suppose we are in the south and the god squad try to push their personal beliefs into everything.

----------------------Follow up------------------------------

Well that topic caused more debate than I ever thought it would.  We are still in the south though God, Guns and pickup trucks.

The answer to this one would be niether

Who's the best parent ?  Niether! 

The good old days :)

How much has realy changed I still have to fix shit for the wife :) 

The next Lady Diana

It looks like Michelle Obama is going to be the next Lady Diana.  The next female icon of our age to be put on a pedestal.  More

Sametime Aware View Columns

Well I've just found an undocumented feture of sametime aware names columns in views. In R8.5 you are only able to have one names column showing the online status. You can set the "Show online status" check box on as many columns as you want but it will only work for one. Supprisingly that one column will be the right most enabled names colun in the view.

As usual this limitation is not mentioned anywhere in the documentation, help or online forums.

It's a great feature but a shame about the limitation and the lack of documentation of it.

If anyone knows of a solution to this please let me know.

Hiking Tires

Vibram Hiking tires, check the article out here.

Bear Bells

Apparently bear bells are today required for riding in the BC area of Canadia.  Straitline have come to our aid with bike specific bells to let those wandering grizzlies know that lunch has arrived.

Check out the promo video here.

Straitline telling the story is funny(here).

The scary side of education in the US

I just spotted this link on twitter (a rather famous cyclist posted it).  It looks like Texas is going to mess with science now.  It's amazing how local officials can control what our kids are taught here in the US.  Could this not be mitigated by a nationalized self governing school body.  Education should be run by educators or am I just being a Communist.

When little Bri gets to school and come home with this rubbish he'll get one answer.  Either your teacher or the person who tells your teacher what to teach are f**king idiots.  

Christianity, 2000 years of scientific meddling.  We are still re-learning things we knew back then because it was banned so their stories would work.

OK I'm a heretic

When to buy your new mac

My ipod is getting old (G1 mini) and starting to randomly disconnect itself from the car stereo.  Anyway, as we all know you buy a new iPod and a week later apple release a new one.  They seem to be the best secret keepers in the world, governments all over the world could learn from them.

So while doing research on which model to buy next I came across this site.  It is not official figures on where things are in production but a best guess on production life cycle figures from the past.

It looks like I'll be waiting for the new touch and hoping my mini does not blow up in the meantime.

Mac Buyers Guide

A site I just love

Yep every now and then I go geek.  This site is one of the best I've seen.  It has a clean look that is pleasant on the eyes.  Also, it's fun putting a smile on your face when you first see it and so engaging you.  Finally, the content is just the right amount as not to overload you and is well laid out.

The latter should be the case as Coleen is a content professional.  I've never worked with content professionals just graphic artist on building sites but from this showing I can definitely see the advantage.

All that needs to be done now is convince clients of that in the domino world.  All to often the developer does the lot and it shows.

The Flying Scotsman is back

Graeme Obree the flying Scotsman is back and everyone has the chance to beat him.  They guy who took on the dopers and won so they changed the rules.  His story is inspirational and proves the corruption of the pro circuit.

If you don't know the story check it out here.

Bike Porn

If I rode XTR I'd be in a world of financial pain now.  Bike porn

Development of a bike brand

Shedfire the as yet unnamed bike brand.  Well there has been a sneak peak at the logo but that's it.  The Brand is being built by Brant Richards. the guy responsible for On-One.  

He sold On-One last year and is now designing new bikes and starting a new bike company.  You can follow the development of the bikes on his blog.  The great part about this is you get the reasons for design elements strait from the horses mouth.  If you ask a question on why he has made a design decision he has probably thought of your solution and discounted it.

He's building a bike for him. a ti hard tail designed for big forks.  Also, a women's bike I'm guessing using his wife as a rider template.  They will be in the UK mold of do anything go anywhere last forever bikes that are what most of us really need.  Even though a lot of us get caught up in the light weight Xc bike thing and never race a day on it.

Enjoy the blog I am.

Luckiest man in the world!

Or is he.  To go on a buisness trip and someone drops a nucular bomb on you is unlucky.  To survive it is very lucky.  To return home the next day and for it to get a nucular bomb droped on it is very unlucky.  To survive that one is beyond belife.  To survive to 93 with that amount of radiation is impressive.  More.

They should inspire us all.

These guys show us how we should all live our lives.  Let nothing get you down.  As a wise man one said you are always in shit just the depth varies.

The quote of one amputees getting a running magazine off his mates in hospital made me laugh.  That's army humor.  But for luck there go I.

Got my Legs tore off by some XC Racers

Well last night was my first true cross country ride in a while.  I rode with the guys from Higher Ground Bikes.  A great bunch of guys but fast.  It was less tortoise and hare and more Cheetah and Elephant.  Them on their lightweight XC race sleds, Lycra and clipped in and me on the beast that is my SC Nomad, baggies and flat pedals.

Apart from almost giving myself a heart attack every time the Cheetah stoped the Elephant came rolling up.  I managed to roll into to the finish with the last of the racers.  Admittedly he was a roadie and a young lad but as an almost 40 fat git I'll take that.

A good night all in all and I'll definitely do it next week even if it may kill me :)

Spiderman to the rescue

I love it Spiderman rescues boy from ledge more.

Little Blue performance pill

How can you tell the dopers at this years tour. They are wearing baggy shorts with a distinct bulge. Yep viagra has now been found to enhance oxygen transfer at altitude. click here.

The post race massage requires a happy ending though :)

Polygamy in Utah

OK so I have enough jobs with one wife so why a guy would want more I don't know. If it was a collection of playboy bunnies I could understand it. Article here.

However, making it illegal seems wrong to me. It's a choice between consenting adults. Forcing it underground only has the same effect as with other things it criminalises otherwise law abiding people and gives a community for undesirables to hide in.

If it was legal and in the open could we not then direct attention to the sickos within the community that are involved in forced marriages and under age marriages. If you validate the marriage as you do for a green card less girls would fall through the cracks. Those who have not validated the marriage could be easily identified and investigated.

Happy Birthday Roger

Sir Roger Bannister the first man to run a mile in under 4 mins is 80 today.