Catatonic

Minim prepares to drive companion human crazy by relentless luxurious purring until he receives tuna flakes!

The BBC, quoting on an article published in Current Biology, notes that cats manipulate their human companions by purring. This seminal finding is the work of Dr Karen McComb and colleagues from the Centre for Mammal Vocal Communication Research, University of Sussex, UK. Now really! I've no wish to denigrate the work of Dr McComb who, judging by her publication record, is a highly respectable scientist, but the axiomatic nature of this paper is staggering. What's next, I wonder? Parents give in to demands from perpetually whining children for a bit of peace, perhaps? I need to know where she gets her grants...!

The Cat Came Back

Mad Dog's new wheels, c1992: since then some TLC has been involved as well as a bit of a sleep

Much has happened on the world stage in my minor blogging hiatus and it's hard to know where to begin. So I'm going to follow the maxim (mine) that when all else fails post about something automotive. Well it's too early for the Monte Carlo but I am getting ready to do some rallying next month. Hopefully nothing too demanding, just a nice Time-Speed-Distance event around Oregon for a couple of days with my very enthusiastic daughter. No Mini this time as I have a new rally weapon. Well not exactly new; I've owned it since 1992 but it's been in hibernation for nearly a decade and undergoing a major refit for the past year. I'll post the story of how this cheerless cat was brought back to life over the next day or so.

I've Been Busy

Woo -it's been ages since I posted anything. Well, I haven't been asleep I can assure you. Hopefully some of you are still checking the site. I'll be writing about all sorts of stuff very soon so please stick around...

24 Hours at Le Mans

Like many other petrolheads, I've always been fascinated by the Le Mans 24 hour race. As a schoolboy I was spellbound by the epic duels between Ferraris, Ford GT40s and Gulf Porsches. Some of the mystique and atmosphere was captured in the eponymous Steve McQueen film (which must have the best race start sequence of all time). More recently a new and very compelling documentary, Truth in 24, has been made which chronicles the fabulously successful Audi Sport team. The photography is stunning and the narration by Jason Statham is surprisingly good. Best of all this 98 minute long film is downloadable free of charge from the iTunes store.

Hat tip to Chuck Goolsbee for this one.

Holier than Thou

A recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has found that the more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists.

Why am I not surprised by this...?

One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest

"Candleing" eggs on which influenza virus is grown for vaccine preparations (photo from CDC image library).

A couple of weeks ago I jokingly remarked that I thought I had bird flu. Then after the emergence of the H1N1 variant about 10 days ago I speculated (again with tongue in cheek) that the infection was swine flu. Now I think it was more likely Mad Pig Disease. The 24 hour news cycle seems to have created more journalistic craziness and hysteria than I would have believed possible. Over the past week I've seen more column-inches and heard enough hours of broadcast media devoted to the topic to last me a lifetime. If-it-bleeds-it-leads journalists, dull-as-ditchwater talking heads (often not very knowledgeable), hysterical citizens and even a nasty little cabal of right wing wingers who attribute the outbreak to a combination of illegal immigrants and a ploy by President Obama to push a national health care agenda have been driving me to distraction.

No question, flu is nasty, indeed I believe the 1918 "Spanish Flu" pandemic (also an HINI variant) which may have killed up to 50 million people holds the dubious distinction of being the most deadly infectious disease in human history. However we are not in the post WW1 era and current indications seem to suggest that this current iteration of swine flu is not particularly virulent. While there is a need for vigilance, I just hope this trend continues. In the meantime, maintain droplet precautions, keep washing your hands and taking that vitamin C...

RIP Pontiac

MD with Pontiac Firebird on California Big Sur coast road, November, 1982

The woes of General Motors seem interminable. Today they announced the phasing out of their Pontiac "excitement" division with the loss of 21,000 jobs worldwide. The loss of great automotive names always seems sad especially when one has a personal connection. The first car I bought when I arrived on the shores of California back in 1982 was a Pontiac Firebird. Truthfully it wasn't a great car but it had a nice V8 motor and transported me around San Francisco as well as the California coast and mountain roads for 7 or 8 years. It survived a head on collision with a stolen VW Beetle (suffering a mere scratch to its bumper -the VW was destroyed) and an on another occasion after having had a door dented in an accident (again not my fault) the insurance cheque helped pay for my first Apple Macintosh. I never did get the door fixed and the car acquired a wonderfully battered Mad Max look. The transmission failed the night my daughter was born and having lost reverse gear I remember physically heaving the thing backwards in order to get it our of its street parking slot so that I could make my way to the hospital. Eventaully it was sold in San Diego to make way for an outrageous Trans Am (remember them?) but that, as they say, is another story...

Postcard from Alaska

Over the Easter weekend I had occasion to visit Alaska. My itinerary included a couple of nights in Anchorage and a brief road trip down the Kenai peninsula. What an amazing place -quite possibly the USA's final frontier. Despite the spectacular scenery, I don't think I have the fortitude to ever live there. Anyway here are some photos:


Glacier run off from the Chugach Mountains.


Blatting down the Seward Highway. Traffic is sparse to say the least.


Hungry teenage Moose didn't object to me taking his photo. By the end of the year this animal will have grown a full rack of antlers.

The Long Good Friday

I'm still feeling pretty groggy but at least I'm up and about -there was a time at the beginning of the week when I thought I might be found in few weeks with the cat eating my carcass. What a nasty little bug that was. Anyway until my creative juices start flowing again I'm going to leave you with a clip from The Long Good Friday, a classic British gangster flick which apart from being 30 years old features a menacing Bob Hoskins in just about the only character he's ever played, a young Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan's in his debut role, some great photography of London's Docklands before it became yuppified, a terrific soundtrack by Francis Monkman and source material for just about all of Guy Ritchie's films. A true classic.

Best wishes to all for a happy Good Friday.

P.S. Inexplicably, the above clip credits Debra Winger for appearance in TLGF. As far as I know the closest she got was a 1978 offering entitled "Thank God It's Friday" which was about disco! 

Psittacine Cain

African Grey Parrot (image from Wikipedia and used under a creative commons license: original photo by Tournon)

Dear Readers,

I'm sick as a parrot and feel like hell! Everything hurts including my hair. I think I might have bird flu. Doubtless it's some filthy bug I picked up on my travels in the UK last week. Normal blogging will be resumed when the drugs begin to work...

MD

A Long Time Coming

Match hero Ronan O'Gara -from this side of the Atlantic it seems fitting that he was born in San Diego

Ever since I was an undergraduate in Cardiff in the early 1970s I've wanted to see an Irish Grand Slam. Back then the horribly partisan nature of the crowd at the (now defunct) Cardiff Arms Park made me pray for Welsh annihilation although I have to confess my vehemence may have been fueled by the fact that the average Taffy took me for an Englishman. Well anyway it was a long wait but worth it. Saturday's victory not only put paid to the Welsh in thrilling style (I was glued to BBC's Radio 5 Live -the best reporting I could find over here) but ended a 61 year drought for the Green -let's hope a second Grand Slam won't take so long.

As an aside, I've actually met, albeit briefly, the father of match hero Ronan O'Gara, who happens to be a prominent microbiologist. Oh well, so much for name dropping...

P.S. Just one more thing...for in case anyone thinks I'm being more cryptic than usual, I'm talking about Rugby and specifically The Six Nations Championship and Ireland's dominance of the competition this year.

Vanishing Point to Zabriskie Point

MD drives through Death Valley, California, Spring 1983

Today I'm going to take the leitmotif on Vanishing Point that has been swirling around several blogs recently in a slightly different direction. The Antonioni film Zabriskie Point was another early 70s cult classic that featured sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll packaged in an anti-establishment theme. Perhaps a little more arty than VP (heck, this is Antonioni for goodness sake -did anybody understand anything that went on in any of his films?) but it had its share of explosions and a fabulous soundtrack featuring Pink Floyd.

Both films were set in the California desert. Specifically, Zabriskie Point is located in Death Valley. Philippe Picavet has just reminded me of this amazing place. The photograph above was taken on my one and only visit twenty six years ago. Unfortunately I didn't get to drive it in a muscle car. I must revisit. Maybe next time I'll be in an E type Jaguar....

Going Green

Clonakilty, Co. Cork

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody!

Oh, and here's an essay I posted on my "Irishness" awhile back.

Is it Fun Being a Billionaire?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

As I've said before, I don't usually do politics on this site although I can barely contain myself with the current misuse of bailout money. However, I'll let legal process and karma deal with the rapacious scoundrels of AIG, RBS and their ilk and save my rants for other time. In anycase I could hardly express myself better than Jon Stewart whose delicious annihilation of bloviating finance pundits is a joy to behold. And his eloquence in summing up the egregious Sir Allen Stanford is more than refreshing.

Vanishing Point Revisited

I know, I've just posted on this 1970s cult flick but a delightful piece of irony has come to light. Chuck Goolsbee keeps drawing my attention to this terrific piece of nonsense and in my usual nostalgia-driven obsessiveness I noticed something quite hilarious. If you the watch the above clip, you will notice a few frames from a scene (at 37 secs) in which our hero, Kowalski, is offered "anything" by an attractive young blonde lady who appears in the middle of nowhere, stark naked and riding a motorcycle (as I recall he was the consumate gentleman and declined). Well it transpires that the actress, one Gilda Texter, did little further acting but went on to have a very successful Hollywood career in Wardrobe Management and as a Costume Supervisor. It's a funny old world...!

Bucking the Trend (1)

Nescafé Classic squares off against Starbucks' Via

Ah, Starbucks. I'm not sure how it's possible to screw up a business plan based on unrestricted sales of legal addictive stimulants to consenting adults but somehow the company has got itself into difficulties. And now some (doubtless overpaid) marketing whizz kid within the organisation has come up with a grand plan to save it from extinction. Or at least protect the obscenely large bonuses of the upper echelon Fat Cats (better not get me started here -I'll save some material for a another post). Anyway the answer to SBUX's current woes is not, as you might reasonably think, a new distribution and roasting system to stop the coffee tasting stale and burned* or perhaps a fair and equitable compensation system for all employees. Oh, no. It's...pause for drum roll...Instant Coffee! My goodness this is pure genius. I mean all the customer has to do capture the "Starbucks Experience", as I once saw it described, is add water. And here's the best bit. A 4 gram sachet of Via, enough for 1 cup is only $1.00. Yes, that's right a measley dollar. SBUX executives are calling this landmark devlopment a "Game Changer". I'm sure that in a recession people will be queuing up around the block to buy their packets of Via. Personally I'm going to stick with my Nescafé Classic as old habits die hard. And a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that a 4 gm spoonful of this old standby equates to 10 cents a cup.

*A quick test of a free sample has revealed that Via does indeed accurately mirror the "Starbucks Experience" in the comfort of your own home: it tastes stale and burned just like the real thing!

Mad Dog International: Site Visitors

MD&E is in it's 5th year and this is my 500th post. I've come a long way since noticing my first visitor (it took a month or so). Over the past week I've been recording the countries of origin of my visitors. The results are quite astonishing -see below. All the US states and 58 countries (61 if you count the constituent dominions of the UK). This is truly an international site. Welcome everybody, thank you for visiting and please keep dropping by. Oh, and this is where you are from:

1. Algeria
2. Argentina
3. Australia
4. Belgium
5. Bolivia
6. Bosnia and Herzegovina
7. Brazil
8. Bulgaria
9. Canada
10. Chile
11. China (mainland)
12. China (Hong Kong)
13. Colombia
14. Croatia
15. Czech Republic
16. Denmark
17. Egypt
18. Finland
19. France
20. Germany
21. Greece
22. Hungary
23. India
24. Indonesia
25. Iran
26. Ireland
27. Israel
28. Italy
29. Japan
30. Korea (South)
31. Latvia
32. Lithuania
33. Luxembourg
34. Mexico
35. Netherlands
36. New Zealand
37. Norway
38. Phillipines
39. Poland
40. Portugal
41. Romania
42. Russia
43. Saudi Arabia
44. Singapore
45. Sweden
46. Slovakia
47. Slovenia
48. South Africa
49. Spain
50. Switzerland
51. Taiwan
52. Thailand
53. Trinidad & Tobago
54. Turkey
55. UK (inc. Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland)
56. Ukraine
57. USA (all 50 states)
58. Venezuela

Update: As of 31st March, I've also had visits from Bahrain, China (Macau), Costa Rica, Estonia, Iceland, Jamaica, Jordan, Kuwait, Macedonia, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Peru, Tunisia and Vietnam.

Vanishing Point

Goodness, I can't believe it's been a week since my last post but life has once again caught up with me and insisted that I do things other than blogging. So forgive me for this placeholder even though it's quite an entertaining one. I blame Chuck Goolsbee, friend, fellow petrolhead and "road scholar" (geddit?) for reminding me about this piece of early 70's nostalgia. I mean what formula for a cult film works better than sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll set against an anti-establishment backdrop and combined with a suicidal car chase? Fantastic stuff, indeed.

Incidently the music is by the excellent Bob Segarini and Randy Bishop who must be one of the most under-rated combos of all time.

Adrenaline Junkies

This is probably the most insanely elegant activity I have ever seen. Now I wonder where I can get one of those suits....??

Update: Actually you can get them here. $1000. Hmmm...

The Long and Winding Road

Chuck has been waxing lyrical about different kinds of roads. Well how about this one for a nice winding effect...?

And on that note, I'm going to wind up my posts on the Monte Carlo for now, although I'll probably write occasional snippets from time to time.  Just watch out for the full story in the April issue of Mini Magazine (it's great -I've seen the proofs already). So all that remains is to say a big heartfelt "Thank You" to all those individuals and organisations who helped The Team in any way. Special appreciation goes to:

• Minispares, Hertfordshire, UK, for extremely generous sponsorship
• Piper Cams, Kent, UK, for our camshaft and ancillary parts
• Mini Magazine, and in particular Craig McBeth, for agreeing to publish our story,
• Marilyn Connell, Houston, Texas for graphic design work

Thanks everyone! Now let's raise a glass to "Next Year in Monte Carlo"!