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Almost a thousand surviving veterans of British nuclear tests in the South Pacific launched a bid for compensation at London's High Court this week, claiming that they have suffered repeated and recurring health problems due to the 1950s tests.
The 970 ex-servicemen from Britain, New Zealand and Fiji claim they have suffered illnesses - including cancer, fertility problems and skin defects - due to exposure to atomic weapons radiation fall-out during the tests, and that the British government at the time did not do enough to protect them from the fallout.
The tests concerned took place on Australia's mainland, on Christmas Island, and on Monte Bello Islands between 1952 and 1958. The Ministry of Defence is expected to argue that the case cannot go ahead as it is "time-barred" - launched outside the legal time limit. The three-week hearing will decide whether a full trial goes ahead.
Before a courtroom packed with members of the British Nuclear Test Veterans Association, Benjamin Browne, the claimants' lawyer, cited numerous reports showing links between radiation exposure and cancer incidence.
He told judge David Foskett: "The veterans say that the case for compensation is made. Yet, not only has the government failed to offer that compensation, it resists all these claims with the utmost determination and all the colossal resources, legal, financial and scientific, at its command."
He also pointed out that, after the many years during which claims for compensation have been made by the veterans, this is the first time that the Ministry of Defence has argued that it is too late to take the case to court, and he argued that such a defence is disengenuous.
Ministry of Defence lawyers have argued that despite the fact that the veterans had suffered a variety of illnesses since the tests more than 50 years ago, they cannot prove that their health problems were caused by the radioactive blasts.
Ministry of Defence lawyer Charles Gibson, told the court that while the veterans were owed a "debt of gratitude" for their service, they had nothing to prove that their exposure to radiation from the bomb blasts caused their health problems.
"These claimants have alleged that they have obtained evidence to prove each of the injuries was caused or materially contributed to by low dose radiation," he said, "but we submit that the evidence they have deployed in support of the individual cases doesn't come remotely close to proving causation. We submit that none of the cases can properly proceed."
The veterans from Britain, New Zealand and Fiji claim they were used as guinea pigs during the tests so the British government could study the effects of radiation fallout. About 25,000 servicemen from Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji took part in the tests, which started in 1952 on the Montebello Islands off the West Australian coast. More tests were held at Emu Field and Maralinga in South Australia as well as on Christmas Island (now Kiritimati) and Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean.
Charles Gibson rejected claims that the veterans were deliberately exposed to radiation fallout, saying that such allegations were an attack on the scientists and public servants who designed and implemented the tests and who were also present at the blasts.
He also noted that an Australian royal commission held in the mid 1980s into the tests at Maralinga had heard evidence that at no time were servicemen used as guinea pigs. Instead, mice, goats and rabbits as well as manikins dressed as men were used to test the effects of the blasts.
"No personnel were treated as guinea pigs," he said, "The royal commission found that men weren't themselves target response items."
Evidence obtained by lawyers acting for the veterans, but previously undisclosed, suggests that in addition to the usual fallout from the nuclear blasts, the bombs themselves were plated with depleted uranium - a substance later used in conflict zones such as Iraq and elsewhere.
The outcome of the British court case is being closely monitored in Australia as nuclear test veterans there prepare to launch a class action against the Australian Government. In the 1950s Australia allowed the British to test nuclear bombs in its remote desert areas with the test sites being patrolled by Australian police.
One veteran involved in the compensation claim is the seventy-year old Malcolm Harris, of Masterton, New Zealand. He has suffered from a wide range of illnesses that he directly attributes to the tests he took part in. As a member of the New Zealand Nuclear Test Veterans committee, Mr Harris is speaking on behalf of himself and two others.
Mr Harris has suffered for years from rashes and dermatitis, has been diagnosed with post- traumatic stress disorder and anxiety problems, and also suffers from deafness and joint pain in his back, knees and hips.
However, he says he is more worried about the problems faced by his eldest son, James, who was diagnosed early in life with Crohn's disease, which causes chronic inflammation of the small and large intestine. He spent most of the 1980s in Wellington Hospital.
"We thought we had lost him on three occasions," Mrs Harris said.
His younger son, Stuart, is generally in good health but Mr Harris and his wife, Margaret, fear for future generations of their family, because of the fact that problems caused from exposure to radiation can skip generations only to appear later.
As a crewman aboard HMNZS Pukaki, Mr Harris experienced five bomb tests in the Pacific in the late 1950s. "We were at ground zero as it was called, and after the explosions we steamed right through the radiation cloud," he said. After the tests, he and the others involved were issued with a special service medal "for hazardous duty".


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subset: commoncrawl


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(Photo: AP)
A 28-year-old police officer investigating a reported burglary in southeast England has died after being dragged by a vehicle, police said Friday.
Police have arrested and detained 10 males on suspicion of murder in the death of Andrew Harper, 28. The youngest is 13 while the oldest is 30.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "deeply shocked and appalled" by Harper's death, and said his thoughts were with the officer's family, friends and colleagues.
"It is the most powerful reminder that police officers up and down the country put themselves at risk every single day to keep us safe," Johnson said. "They have my absolute support."
Thames Valley Police Chief Constable John Campbell said that although the cause of Harper's death had not yet been confirmed, he had been "dragged along by a vehicle."
"He was out of his police vehicle at the time," he added.
Harper, with the Roads Policing Proactive Unit, was killed in Berkshire, in southeast England, at 11:30 p.m. Thursday. Campbell said it was a terrible day for the force.
"And to add further angst to what are terrible circumstances, Andrew was only married four weeks ago."
Officers remained at the scene of the incident as forensic investigators took photographs of items on the road. Two white tents were also erected.
In the past decade, 10 officers have been killed in incidents involving criminal suspects in England. The most recent involved Police Constable Keith Palmer, who was stabbed in the 2017 attack on Westminster Bridge and Parliament, which was deemed terrorism-related.


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Research & Analysis by John R. Woods
Pension Benefits Among the Aged: Conflicting Measures, Unequal Distributions
Estimates of total benefits paid by employer sponsored pension plans seem to vary widely between different data sources and measures. Such discrepancies have been used to support differing conclusions about the effectiveness of the pension system. This article examines several measures of aggregate pension benefits in 1990, a year particularly rich in available data. Exploratory analysis suggests that the greatest source of discrepancy lies in differing treatments of lump-sum distributions, although the study also identifies several other types of payments that are variously, and erroneously, counted as pension income. Age of recipients is an important factor in analyzing different measures of aggregate pension benefits; discrepancies are much smaller among the aged than in the population as a whole, The analysis also provides new evidence about the unequal distribution of pension benefits among the aged, confirming from two data sources that benefits are heavily concentrated among higher income groups.
Pension Coverage Among the Baby Boomers: Initial Findings From a 1993 Survey
Pension Vesting and Preretirement Lump Sums Among Full-Time Private Sector Employees
Pension Coverage Among Private Wage and Salary Workers: Preliminary Findings From the 1988 Survey of Employee Benefits
Pension Coverage Among Private Wage and Salary Workers: Preliminary Findings from the 1988 Survey of Employee Benefits
Pension coverage is declining in the United States, and most of the decline can be attributed to decreasing coverage among younger workers. In addition, it appears that the types of pension coverage are shifting, with a decline in traditional pension plans and an increase in 401(k) plans.
These are perhaps the most important findings from a 1988 survey of American workers, similar to pension surveys in 1972, 1979, and 1983. The 1988 survey collected data from a sample representing 114 million workers who were currently employed. This paper examines patterns of pension coverage among all private wage and salary workers, but focuses on those working full time.


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Message regarding the passage of John H. Willis, Jr.
Provost Michael R. Halleran sent the following message to the campus community on July 6, 2012 - Ed.
Dear Colleagues,
I write with great sadness to share the news that John H. Willis, Jr., who retired from William & Mary in 2002 after a distinguished 43-year career, passed away Friday morning, June 29, at MCV in Richmond.
In 1959, Jack began teaching as an instructor at William & Mary after earning his B.A. in English at the University of Virginia in 1951, serving in the U.S. Navy for three years, and pursuing graduate study at Columbia University. He left William & Mary in 1961 to undertake doctoral work at Columbia, returned the next year as assistant to President Davis Y. Paschall and as Instructor of English, and was awarded a Ph.D. with distinction from Columbia in 1967. In 1964 he was appointed Assistant Professor of English and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1967 and full Professor in 1977. His first book, William Empson, based on his dissertation, was issued by Columbia University Press, and in 1992 his second book, Leonard and Virginia Woolf as Publishers: The Hogarth Press, 1917-41, was published by the University Press of Virginia. In recognition of his scholarship, teaching, and service at the College, Jack was appointed Forrest D. Murden Professor of English, a position he held from 1991 to 1996. In his last decade of teaching he received a slew of awards, including the Thomas Jefferson Award in recognition of his long-term service to the College (1997) and the Thomas Graves Award for Sustained Excellence in Teaching (2001).
Throughout his years at William & Mary Jack worked in several administrative capacities – as Administrative Assistant to the President (1962-65), as Associate Dean of the College and as Assistant Vice-President for Academic Affairs (1967-1972), as Acting Dean of Graduate Studies, and as Branch College Liaison Officer from 1968 to 1972, during which time Christopher Newport emerged as a four-year institution. From 1985 to 1989 he served as Chair of the Department of English during a time when the department began to hire a significant number of women faculty for the first time. He also served on virtually every significant committee in the English Department, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and College, including the Ferguson Publishing Seminar Committee, the Procedural Review Committee, the Faculty Affairs Committee, the Faculty Assembly, and the Advisory Committee on Promotion and Tenure, which he chaired from 1991 to 1993.
As Jack emphasized in a 2006 interview available in the College's Special Collections Research Center, his first love throughout his career remained teaching, and legions of students in the classroom and in the Christopher Wren Association, through which he offered courses nearly every semester for the past ten years, can testify to his energy and dedication. A specialist in modern poetry and modern British literature, Jack was famous for courses on every level, from freshman writing classes to graduate and senior seminars on James Joyce, W. B. Yeats, and Virginia Woolf. He was awarded the Alumni Teaching Fellowship Award in 1981, and right up to his retirement received enthusiastic accolades from his students. Not one to rest on his laurels, Jack continued teaching in the Christopher Wren Association, where his classes on James Joyce, Seamus Heaney, Joseph Conrad, Shakespeare, Chaucer, and T. S. Eliot's poetry always attracted full classrooms and long waiting lists.
He is survived by his wife Anne R. Willis, and their three children John Willis, Tom Willis, and Susan Brodie. A memorial service will be held at Bruton Parish Church at 2 p.m. on Saturday, July 21, followed by a memorial reception in the Wren Great Hall at 4 p.m. In lieu of flowers, Anne Willis and her children ask that contributions be sent to a fund being established at the College of William & Mary in memory of Jack Willis. Gifts can be sent to the College of William & Mary, P.O. Box 1693, Williamsburg, Virginia 23187. Checks should be made payable to the College of William & Mary Foundation, with a note or memo line indicating that the gift is in memory of Jack Willis.


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NYU President John Sexton today officially kicked off NYU's Momentum Campaign, NYU's effort to raise $1 billion to expand and improve scholarship aid at NYU. The focused, six-year campaign will raise both current funds and gifts for the endowment to provide financial aid assistance in perpetuity.
NYU President John Sexton today officially kicked off NYU's Momentum Campaign, NYU's effort to raise $1 billion to expand and improve scholarship aid at NYU. The focused, six-year campaign will raise both current funds and gifts for the endowment to provide financial aid assistance in perpetuity.
The campaign will be led by Evan Chesler, the chairman of Cravath, Swaine, and Moore and an NYU Trustee who credits the financial aid he received as both an NYU undergraduate and an NYU law school student as crucial to his success.
The campaign has already raised more than $200 million, including more than $75 million in a collective lead gift from a group of "partner" Trustees -- Marge and William R. Berkley, Barbara and Evan R. Chesler, Jay M. Furman, Susan and Martin Lipton, Klara and Larry Silverstein, Judy and Michael H. Steinhardt, Bea and Anthony Welters, Leonard A. Wilf, and The Starr Foundation.
John Sexton said, "We've had an ambitious agenda at NYU during my 11 years as president, and the NYU community has had many successes of which it can be proud. But when I am asked what I think is NYU's most persistent and pressing challenge, and what our most important fundraising priority is, the answer is: financial aid. In spite of spending over $195 million annually in grant aid, and in spite of significant improvements over the past decade, we are still not where we want to be or need to be, largely owing to our low per- student endowment. And that's why I consider the Momentum Campaign so important – a focused and high-profile effort to increase NYU's ability to award scholarships."
Evan Chesler said, "I attended NYU at a time when it was going through an existential financial crisis. But in spite of how short money was then, the University remained so focused on its mission that it was willing to extend a generous scholarship to a young man who it felt showed promise, and I became the first in my family to go to college and to law school. So I consider it a great honor to be the chair of the Momentum Campaign, in hopes that when we are done, NYU will be able to extend to even more young people the chance to have an education they might otherwise not be able to afford."
Two New Scholarship Programs Begin Right Away
NYU is starting two new scholarship programs as outgrowths of Momentum Campaign: the Finish Line Grant program, and the Global Pathways Scholarship (GPS) program.
The Finish Line Grant program, which will begin next semester, provides scholarship assistance to undergraduates receiving financial aid as they approach their final semester, lowering their debt upon graduation. NYU will provide grant aid equal to 10% of a student's cumulative need-based federal loan amount, thereby reducing the total amount owed. This represents a permanent reduction in a student's debt of not only the grant amount, but the compound interest that would have been paid on it.
The Global Pathways Scholarship program, which will start next fall, will review each student who has expressed an interest in studying abroad at one of NYU's global sites, and – depending on his or her financial need – add to their financial aid package a grant (up to a maximum of $4,000) to cover the additional costs of studying abroad. The GPS program will enable this distinctive and integral NYU experience to be made available to students who otherwise might have been precluded because of financial constraints, such as lost wages or the added expenses of travel.
About NYU
New York University, founded in 1831, is one of the world's foremost research universities and a member of the selective Association of American Universities. The first Global Network University, it has degree-granting university campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai; has a dozen other global academic sites; and sends more students to study abroad than any other U.S. college or university. Through its 18 schools and colleges, NYU conducts research and provides education in the arts and sciences, law, medicine, business, dentistry, education, nursing, the cinematic and performing arts, music and studio arts, public administration, social work, engineering, and continuing and professional studies, among other areas.


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TRX, Plyometrics, & Weight Training Classes Virginia Highland (Strength)
When it comes to your health and fitness, find TRX, Plyometrics, & Weight Training Classes classes that can keep you motivated with high-energy and variety. At Burn Studios in Virginia Highland, we have the Strength classes you need!
From energetic music and amazing instructors, our team at Burn Studios in Virginia Highland works hard to foster a community that motivates and pushes you and your workout routine to the next level.
Get started today and sign up for health and fitness classes at Burn Studios in Virginia Highland.
TRX, Plyometrics, & Weight Training Group Classes
There are many benefits when it comes to health and fitness classes.
Strength Training
Amp up your energy with a strength training workout. From building confidence to boosting energy and burning calories, there are many benefits when it comes to strength training as exercise. Never tried TRX, plyometrics or weight training? Now is the time to start!
Feel The Strength Training Burn At Burn Studios
You can also choose from a variety of our other health and fitness classes, including:
- Burn Cycle
- BurnBox
- Yoga/Sculpt
- Cross Burn
- 30/30
- Strength


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8503 Greenbelt Rd, Suite T4
Greenbelt, MD 20770
Would you like your smile to be a bit brighter than it is right now? We can make it happen at Zebrowski Dental Care, with professional tooth whitening for brighter natural looking teeth. Dr. Robert Zebrowski's Greenbelt, MD area office can effectively lighten your stained or discolored tooth enamel. Whiter teeth not only look great, they improve your self-confidence.
If you're looking for dentures that look great and last, look no further than Zebrowski Dental Care located in the Greenbelt, MD area. Robert Zebrowski, D.D.S. will assess your needs and fit you with durable, comfortable, natural-looking dentures - at a price you can afford.
Greenbelt area restorative dentistry at Zebrowski Dental Care can produce natural-looking results. If you have a damaged or missing tooth, we can help.
Our highly skilled team will assess your need for a crown, bridge, implant or other procedure to restore or improve your smile. Our goal is to provide quality dental care for your life-long oral health.
If you're interested in natural-looking bridges and dentures, look no further than Robert Zebrowski, D.D.S. who practices in the Greenbelt, Maryland area. Using modern materials and techniques, Dr. Zebrowski can achieve the natural look you seek. You will be very pleased with the comfortable, long-lasting results.
Dr. Robert Zebrowski has a gentle touch and provides comfortable cleaning for a whiter smile. Offering orthodontics for general practitioners in the Greenbelt, Maryland area, Dr. Zebrowski assures you that a bright, healthy smile is the result of regular, preventative, professional dental cleanings.
Ashton Dental Group
5850 Waterloo Rd # 250
Columbia, MD, 21045-1943
Brown, Wendy A D.D.S.
10400 Shaker Dr
Columbia, MD, 21046-1194
Chu, Nguyenanh D.D.S.
6955 Oakland Mills Rd # O
Columbia, MD, 21045-5849
Graybeal, John C D.D.S.
10778 Hickory Ridge Rd
Columbia, MD, 21044-3646
Not so long ago, children usually had dental braces only if their family could afford them. Now adults are wearing dental braces in greater and greater numbers. And there's never been a better time to make this choice.
Dental braces are smaller, lighter, easier to clean and wear comfortably. A whole new world of orthodontic materials that work better and faster is available to us as adult braces . There are ceramic braces, invisible braces and many other choices for adults who want to improve their smile.
Ceramic braces offer a less-visible alternative to the more established metal braces. They blend in more with the natural color of teeth and may make the braces look more appealing. Ceramic braces may not be as strong metal and may require a longer treatment time.
Metal bands are only a memory. We use new plastics and bonding adhesives. Wire and brackets can be "super-glued" directly onto the teeth. There are some dental braces that seem "invisible."
Nitinol (thanks NASA!) is a new metal that retains its shape and is strong enough to withstand the force exerted by orthodontic appliances.
Moderate gaps can even be invisible with lingual braces glued to the back of the teeth.
If you think you need dental braces, or maybe you're interested in the visual appeal of ceramic braces, check out all your options, because there has never been a better time!
If you want to avoid looking unattractive while you straighten your teeth, you may find clear braces an attractive option.
You can get the orthodontic work you need without having to compromise aesthetics along the way.
When people say "clear braces," they usually mean what orthodontists and braces dentists call ceramic braces.
Instead of the big ugly metal brackets used in traditional braces, these braces have tooth-colored ceramic brackets that are far less noticeable.
Clear elastics and white-colored metal means everything is less visible to others.
But sometimes when people talk about "clear braces," they mean Invisalign braces or another system of clear plastic aligners.
Though they straighten teeth, they are no braces per se. The trays fit over the teeth like an ultra-thin mouth guard, slowly moving teeth into place.
They're not just invisible; they're also removable. But, as with so many other things, beauty can have its price.
Ceramic braces cost slightly more than their metal counterparts. Moreover, the ceramic brackets are somewhat more prone to breakage. And plastic aligners simply can't move teeth as dramatically as can actual braces.
Make sure you've learned the pros and cons before making a final decision.


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Northwest United Methodist Church
Sunday, October 01, 2023
Northwest United Methodist Church
South Bend, Indiana
Be A Part Of It!
Would you like to be a part of a warm, caring circle of friends?
Then you'll love Northwest UMC. You'll enjoy friendly, authentic people and
relevant messages that can help you in your everyday life.
If you're looking for a place to make new friends and connect with God,
come visit us on Sunday. Worship starts at 9:00 am.
Join us at 9:00 AM Sunday
In person
Kidz Praise For Toddlers During Worship
FREE Refreshments After Service
Our Vision:
As a neighborhood church in a growing community,
Northwest United Methodist Church
is committed to quality worship, education,
fellowship and outreach.
We strive to bring everyone, especially
children, into a relationship with Jesus Christ
through the power of love and the Holy Spirit.
Our Mission:
To make disciples for Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Just for You...Operation Hydration
Verse of the Day...
Online Giving Click on link below


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Seventh Chancellor Guided UC San Diego to Historic Growth and Scholarly Achievement
Marye Anne Fox stepped down in summer 2012
Marye Anne Fox, the seventh Chancellor of UC San Diego and the first woman to be appointed as permanent Chancellor, led the university during a historic era of extraordinary campus growth and unprecedented financial challenges. She assembled a diverse leadership team and set a visionary course for UC San Diego's next 50 years and beyond. Under her leadership, UC San Diego successfully completed a billion-dollar capital campaign, celebrated the campus's 50th anniversary, improved campus climate, and expanded at a record-setting pace to accommodate increasing numbers of students and a billion-dollar research enterprise.
"During her tenure as Chancellor at UC San Diego, Marye Anne Fox has added striking breadth and depth to the university's already sterling reputation … The accomplishments of her service give renewed energy and purpose to the institution, and set a visionary course for the 21st century."
Mark Yudof, President of the University of California


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The IUE satellite was launched on January 26, 1978. It had an expected lifetime of 3 years, with a goal of 5 years, but exceeded that beyond anyone's wildest dreams. When it was shut down on September 30, 1996, it had been in continuous operation for 18 years and 9 months.
IUE was an international collaboration between three groups: NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the United Kingdom's Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC; now Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, or PPARC ). NASA provided the launch, spacecraft engineering support and software. ESA provided the solar panels and a satellite command station outside of Madrid, Spain, and the UK provided the Vidicon cameras. Observing time was split between two spacecraft command stations. NASA operated the spacecraft for 16 hours a day from Goddard Space Flight Center, and VILSPA (the Villafranca satellite control station) operated it for 8 hours a day.
IUE Short Wavelength spectra of the Jupiter southern aurora on 17 July 1994
The two pictures show the spatially resolved spectrum of the south aurora of Jupiter on July 17 1994 after the impacts with the SL-9 comet fragments have started. The spectra were obtained with the SWP camera (1100-2000 A) using the large aperture which was centered at -60 degrees latitude on the Jovian central meridian.
The signature of the aurora are the emission-like features at the top edge of the spectra near the center of the image and those close to the Lyman alpha line (on the left) which fills in the whole aperture. These are the Werner and Lyman bands produced by H2. The change of these features is apparent between the two spectra taken four hours apart. This shows the temporal and spatial evolution of the auroral emission.
IUE's geosynchronous orbit allowed for real-time operation, which made IUE very flexible. Astronomers came to the spacecraft command stations to direct their observations and inspect the data as they were collected, much as they do at ground-based observatories. Two on-board spectrographs covered ultraviolet wavelengths from 1200 to 3350 Å.
Observers from around the world took advantage of this workhorse observatory, gathering data from a wide variety of astronomical sources. Short and long wavelength spectrographic cameras covered ultraviolet wavelengths from about 120 to 340 nanometers. These wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation are obscured from the ground by the Earth's protective ozone layer.
Astronomers study multiple wavelengths in order to learn more about the objects of the universe. Simultaneous data acquisition is essential in order to gain the most knowledge of certain transient events. Thus, very often IUE was used in conjunction with other telescopes from around the world. These collaborations have involved spacecraft such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the ROSAT, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, the Voyager probes, the Space Shuttle's ASTRO-1 and ASTRO-2 missions, the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer, Japan's ASCA satellite, as well as numerous ground-based observatories.
Science Highlights
- Objects observed by IUE include virtually every type of object in the universe, from planets and stars to galaxies.
- One of IUE's strengths was the ability to rapidly respond to targets of opportunity such as comets, novae, and supernovae.
- IUE obtained the only ultraviolet data of the outburst of Supernova 1987a in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
- By tracking on the nucleus of fast-moving Comet IRAS-Araki-Alcock, IUE was able to obtain the first detection of molecular sulfur in a comet.
- During July 1994, IUE (along with the rest of the globe) spent a good deal of time observing Jupiter when Comet Shoemaker-Levy collided with the planet.


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Jim Hansen had canoed a bit when he was a Boy Scout. And when he and his wife, Gail, got married, they sailed a little on their honeymoon in a sail-rigged catamaran. Those brief but happy experiences led the Salt Lake City area couple to purchase a Sea Eagle SailCat, Sea Eagle's new sail-rigged, twin-hulled, inflatable catamaran.
Jim and Gail learned how EASY it is to operate the SailCat…and they learned it more QUICKLY than they anticipated.
Instant sailing lesson
"We took our 14' SailCat down to Sand Hollow Reservoir in southern Utah," says Jim. "As we were sailing around, I saw what would make a great picture: our SailCat with beautiful red rock cliffs in the background. With my life jacket on, I got in the water with our waterproof camera. Just then the wind kicked up and off sailed my wife and dog, Abby, our miniature schnauzer."
"While Gail was still within shouting distance," Jim told us, "I gave her sailing instructions and she was able to come about. In just three passes, she was able to pick me up. We were laughing too hard to remember to get the picture I originally went in after so these will have to do."
Doesn't take up any space
The Hansens work in the healthcare industry. They live in a condo and own a small motorhome "the size of an airport shuttlebus," says Jim. "We really enjoy it and have taken it all over the state. We put a luggage rack in the receiver hitch to carry our SailCat. That way it doesn't take up any space inside the motorhome." Between trips, "the boat folds up and goes in a closet with the golf clubs," says Jim.
Jim and Gail have taken their Sea Eagle SailCat to nearby Bear Lake and have sailed in the very salty Great Salt Lake. Future motoring-and-boating trips may include a trip to Puerto Penasco, Mexico, often called Rocky Point, south of Phoenix.
Easy to transport, easy to sail
Like so many folks these days, Jim shopped online and chose an inflatable Sea Eagle for convenience. "There's no trailering," he says, "and no hassle with launching. I put it together right on the beach and launch it easily."
"We'd sailed a catamaran on our honeymoon," Jim said, "so we knew a catamaran is a good, stable sailing platform. We got the SailCat Comfort Package with two seats. We love the SailCat's size. It's large enough that it commands respect from other boaters. It's good and stable when power boats are zooming by and throwing wakes.
"If a friend was interested in a SailCat, I'd tell them to do it, says Jim. "In fact my brother's looking into getting one right now." Thanks for your story and photos, Jim. See you on the water!
— Do YOU have Sea Eagle stories and photos to share? Please email us today. Our blog visitors want to see!


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While meeting spaces at GHM hotels offer stylish comfort, modern technologies and multilingual professional support, our business travellers benefit as well from the intimate boardrooms in the Alps or practising negotiating techniques in the Muscat souks. Where your work takes you around our world, GHM provides suitable corporate environments balanced with exceptionally memorable amenities and activities for your team's professional success and personal pleasures.
Explore meetings and corporate functions at the following GHM properties:


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The Red October malware network is one of the most advanced online espionage operations that's ever been discovered. That's the conclusion of Moscow-based security firm Kaspersky Lab, which first discovered Operation Red October–"Rocra" for short–in October 2012.
"The primary focus of this campaign targets countries in Eastern Europe, former USSR republics, and countries in Central Asia, although victims can be found everywhere, including Western Europe and North America," according to research published by the security firm. The attackers, who appear to speak Russian but to have also used some Chinese-made software, seem to have focused their efforts on stealing diplomatic and government information, as well as scientific research, from not just PCs and servers but also mobile devices.
The Red October attacks began in 2007, and remained active at least through Sunday, which was the day before Kaspersky Lab first publicly detailed its research into the espionage operation.
In a more detailed technical analysis published Thursday that stretches 140 pages, Kaspersky Lab provided additional information about the operators' attack techniques, including the malware family used in the attacks, which it's dubbed Sputnik, and which was used to infect just hundreds of systems. "According to our knowledge, never before in the history of [information security] has [a] cyber-espionage operation been analyzed in such deep detail, with a focus on the modules used for attack and data exfiltration," said Kaspersky Lab
But studying an espionage malware operation such as Red October, which was designed to steal data from specific targets — assigning people unique ID numbers and in some cases employing malware modules customized solely for that target — is complicated by researchers not being able to see the data that was stolen or recover every attack module.
Accordingly, Kaspersky Lab researchers determined to play the victim. "To get around these hiccups, we set up several fake victims around the world and monitored how the attackers handled them over the course of several months," they said. "This allowed us to collect hundreds of attack modules and tools. In addition to these, we identified many other modules used in other attacks, which allowed us to gain a unique insight into the attack."
All known Red October attacks have been launched using spear-phishing emails with attachments carrying "enticing names," said researchers. The attachments recovered to date have been malicious Excel and Word documents, although attackers also appear to have used the so-called Rhino exploit for a Java bug first found in 2011. Regardless of the attack, the goal is to infect a target system with backdoor and dropper software known as Sputnik.
To be clear, Kaspersky Lab said that Sputnik isn't as advanced as the Flame malware that it was the first to discover, and which was reportedly the product of a U.S. cyber-weapons program. Flame tapped world-class crypto to create a never-seen-before type of collision attack on Windows Update, which allowed attackers to instruct targeted Windows operating systems to install their malware. At the time, Kaspersky Lab researcher Alexander Gostev likened the capability to the "god mode" cheat in videogames that makes a user invulnerable and allows them to move about a game at will.
Still, the Red October operation is extensive, and attackers have designed or customized more than 1,000 modules and tools, which they could instruct any Sputnik-infection system to download. To help analyze all of those different attack modules, Kaspersky Lab has grouped them into nine categories: reconnaissance (to gather information about a targeted system immediately upon infection); password (for stealing passwords); email (to steal emails); USB drives (monitor and steal data); keyboard (log keystrokes); persistence (plant malicious plug-ins in applications such as Microsoft Office and Adobe Reader); spreading (scan for new targets on a local network); mobile (grab data from smartphones and other PC-connected devices); and exfiltration (transfer all collected data to command-and-control server).
Researchers have yet to recover samples of all modules that were used by attackers. For example, a USB infection module hasn't yet been recovered. "We suspect that this module is capable of infecting removable storage, running arbitrary modules from other groups and [saving] data back to the USB drives," they said. No doubt the hunt for more Red October and Sputnik clues to continue.
Information Week


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Tag: Anonymou Sabu
Bump and Update from 5/25/14: As expected, Anonymou Sabu, aka Hector Monsegur, was sentenced to time served today. The judge called his cooperation "extraordinary." See below for the link to his online postings that resulted in his bail being revoked and serving 7 months.
After three years, Anonymou Sabu, aka Hector Monsegur, will finally face a federal judge for sentencing on May 27. The infamous former member of Lulzsec and Anonymous, who agreed to cooperate the night of his arrest on June 7, 2011, agreed to plead guilty to 12 felonies in August, 2011, including nine counts related to computer hacking; one count of credit card fraud; one count of conspiring to commit bank fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft. Charges pending in four other federal districts were dropped as part of his deal. His plea agreement is here.
The maximum possible sentence for the 12 counts is 122 years. His sentencing guidelines call for a 259 to 317 months sentence (2 years of which are a mandatory minimum.) His guidelines are based on a total loss amount of $20 million to $50 million (the loss caused by his direct participation was $1.5 to $2 million).
As a reward for his cooperation, the Government is seeking no jail time -- a sentence of time served -- with the served part being 7 months he spent in pretrial detention in 2012 after he violated his plea agreement by posting online without authorization and had his bond revoked. [More....]
(5 comments, 816 words in story) There's More :: Permalink :: Comments


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In light of the recent furore* over CFI's bafflingly vacuous response to Ron Lindsay's behaviour, some prominent members of the freethinking community have decided to pull back their participation in an organization that they see as not adequately representing their values. Some have even gone so far as to encourage others to do the same. This is pretty much boilerplate activist behaviour: someone says or does something unacceptable, you don't patronize or support them anymore. We applauded it when Chick Fil A's Dan Cathy made homophobic statements and people stopped buying his chicken. We applauded it when Rush Limbaugh said… well, basically the stuff he always says, but this time we paid attention.
And yeah, maybe boycotts don't always work, and maybe they're often impractical what with megacorporate ownership of pretty much everything, but they're a pretty non-controversial method of expressing displeasure with someone or some entity whose actions you strongly disagree with.
Unless, of course, you're criticizing CFI and Ron Lindsay, in which case it's a "witch hunt".
Now, to be sure, this is not the only circumstance under which I've seen this comparison dredged, unwillingly, into a place it doesn't belong. It is, however, a distressingly common circumstance to see people decry any and all criticisms of or actions taken against someone who is on 'their team' as a "witch hunt". Oftentimes they will invoke the ghost of old Joe McCarthy, and generally bloviate about how innocent people are being dragged through the muck by (fill in the blank). [Read more…]


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Some Help
NC_013316:796895 Clostridium difficile R20291, complete genome
Host Lineage: Peptoclostridium difficile; Peptoclostridium; Peptostreptococcaceae; Clostridiales; Firmicutes; Bacteria
General Information: Clostridium difficile R20291 was isolated in Stoke Mandeville Hospital, UK in 2006 and is closely related to the North American hypervirulent BI strains. Clostridium difficile, a Gram-positive, spore-forming anaerobic bacterium, is the leading cause of infectious diarrhea among patients in hospitals worldwide, causing C. difficile infection (CDI). An important nosocomial pathogen, it is frequently associated with antibiotic treatment and causes diseases ranging from antibiotic-associated diarrhea to life-threatening pseudomembraneous colitis.


text: Haylie Pomroy has helped countless clients lose up to 20 pounds in just 4 weeks –all through the fat-burning power of food. Hailed as "the metabolism whisperer," Haylie reminds us that food is not the enemy, it's the rehab needed to rev-up your sluggish, broken-down metabolism and turn your body into a fat-burning furnace. On this plan you're going to eat a lot. You're going to eat three full meals and at least two snacks a day – and you're still going to lose weight. What you're not going to do is count a single calorie or fat gram. You're going not to ban entire food groups. You're not going to go carb-free or vegan or go cold turkey on the foods you love. Instead, you're going to rotate what you're eating throughout each week according to a simple and proven plan carefully designed to induce precise physiological changes that will set your metabolism on fire. Phase I (Monday-Tuesday): Lots of carbs and fruitsPhase II (Wednesday-Thursday): Lots of proteins and veggiesPhase III (Friday-Sunday): All of the above, plus healthy fats and oils By keeping your metabolism guessing in this specific and deliberate way, you'll get it working faster. This isn't just a theory, it's the results-based product of Haylie Pomroy's successful programs. It's worked for celebrities, for athletes, and for people with chronic illnesses who need to lose weight, doctor's orders. Now it's going to work for you. In 4 weeks not only will you see the weight fall off, you'll also see your cholesterol drop, your blood sugar stabilize, your energy increase, your sleep improve, and your stress dramatically reduce. All thanks to the miraculous power of real, delicious, satisfying food! Complete with 4 weeks of meal plans and over 50 recipes – including vegetarian, organic, and gluten-free options – this is the silver bullet for the chronic dieter who has tried every fad diet and failed, the first time dieter attempting to kick her metabolism into gear, and anyone who wants to naturally and safely eat her way to a skinner, healthier self.


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Samsung, LG to unveil 105-inch curved TVs
Samsung and LG Electronics Inc. said their curved TVs will get bigger and sport the sharpness four times the regular HD television sets.
Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. said their curved TVs will get bigger and sport the sharpness four times the regular HD television sets.
The world's two largest TV makers will display ultra-HD TVs with curved screens that measure 105 inches diagonally in Las Vegas next month, they said in separate statements Thursday.
The South Korean TV makers began selling curved TV sets earlier this year made with advanced displays called OLED measuring 55 inches.
The upcoming premium TVs set will be made of LCD panels packing more than 11 million pixels, 5,120 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels high. But not much video content is available for the ultra-HD TV sets.
TV makers hope the launch of the new hardware technology will fuel growth of content. Japan's Sony Corp., among the industry players betting that the ultra-HD images will become the new standard, is working on both gadgets and movies in ultra-HD, also known in the industry as 4K.
Asian TV makers are trying to excite shoppers with new display technology. But limited video content in ultra-HD resolution and price tags will likely limit appeal. Samsung and LG kept mum on prices.
Follow HT Tech for the latest tech news and reviews , also keep up with us on Whatsapp channel,Twitter, Facebook, Google News, and Instagram. For our latest videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.


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Do you need official resources to research about South Asia? This grouping of titles includes historical publications about China, Taiwan, India, and more.
Some popular products within this collection are:
Avoiding the Trap: U.S. Strategy and Policy for Competing in the Asia-Pacific Rebalance
Taiwan's Offshore Islands: Pathway or Barrier? (part of the Newport Paper series collection)
India-Japan Strategic Cooperation and Implications for U.S. Strategy in the Indo-Asia-Pacific Region
Indian and Chinese Engagement in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Comparative Assessment
According to Wilipedia, Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographicallly south of China and Japan, including Indonexia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singaport, Malaysia, and others. (citation: Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/2WftxMc Press Ctrl-c to copy bit.ly/2WftxMcbit.ly/) Additionally, the Center for Southeastern Asia Studies at Northern Illinois University, also includes Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Burma (Myanmar), Brunei, and a few others to this region. (citation: Northern Illinois University Center for Southeast Asian Studies http://bit.ly/2MjFOKV Press Ctrl-c to copy bit.ly/2MjFOKVbit.l)
In GPO's official collection of resources, you will find a variety of publications, consisting of numerous historical primary source print reference volumes from the renowned Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) seiies to include:
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, V. 5: Vietnam, 1967 --at a reduced list price while supplies last
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964-1968, V. 6: Vietnam, January-August 1968 --at a reduced list price while supplies last
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Vol. VII: Vietnam, July 1970-January 1972
Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume IX, Vietnam, October 1972-January 1973 and more from this series available in this collection
The Borderlands of Southeast Asia: Geopolitics, Terrorism and Globalization
The Mayaguez Crisis: Mission Command and Civil-Military Relations
Unity of Mission: Civilian Military Teams in War and Peace
Marine Advisors With the Vietnamese Marine Corps: Selected Documents
A New Type of Great Power Relationship Between the United States and China: the Military Dimension
Aquí encontrará publicaciones en español del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos. Here you will find Spanish-language publications from the U.S. Government, from materials for the naturalization test to parenting guides and more.
These curated special collections of US Government publications represent a specific Federal agency, event or topic of broad interest to Americans. Some are suggested by the Federal agencies themselves or staff members of the GPO. Publications featured in this collection represent previous themes such as Books That Shaped Work in America, which featured books from the Department of Labor (DOL) , Books We Love from GPO staff members as well books tied Top News Stories.


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$ 21,900.00
This sleek, minimalistic rug was handmade in Morocco in the 1970s. It measures 188 x 345cm so is perfect to sit in front of a 2 or 3 seater sofa.
BENI OURAIN Rugs are handwoven on looms, using a decades old technique and natural, undyed wool. The wool is highest grade, gathered from sheep raised over summer pastures on the high slopes of the Beni Ourain territory.
The Beni Ourain rug was born in the Middle Atlas mountains of Morocco as method of cover during snowy winter months. What we know as the Beni Ourain rug is actually a thick, densely woven, furry blanket used by nomadic shepherds for warmth and cover. The thick, long strands of wool and dense weave call to mind a white bearskin.
A genuine Moroccan rug is a great investment. Not only are these rugs one of kind, but they contain no chemicals or synthetic dyes.
The rugs are imbued with the symbolism of the nomadic Berber tradition. This "Infinite Rapport", means the pattern and the spirit of the work extends beyond its physical borders.
The patterns are inspired by the snowy, rocky fields and mountain streams that characterise the maker's mountain landscape. It is also inspired by the rituals of the Berber women, including fertility, birth, and the protective role of men, are narrated in an abstract form. The maker will express her worldview on a field of cream, with decoration in delicate lines of henna brown and dark sable.
BENI OURAIN Rugs show changes in pattern throughout the rug , reflecting a change in life events. This could be because a different weaver has taken over the rug or spontaneously decided to change pattern.
Constructed using the typical Berber knot, which encircles two strands of the warp instead of one, makes the rug particularly plush and supple.
In the Berber tradition, the finished rug becomes a well loved possession and part of their home and their history. The Berber carpet, with its simplistic form and geometric purity, appears so contemporary to the Western eye and will fit in the most comtemporary of environments, adding character and texture.
All are hand washed then sun dried in the Marrakesh sun before arriving in HK.
➤ Color: Natural cream white, black-brown, brown
➤ Age: 30 to 40 years
➤ Material: Wool + recycled thread
➤ Pile: Medium
188 x 345 cm


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Hi Sweet Friends,
Ever since I started sharing my journey from Hot Pockets to whole foods, I've often heard that it's difficult to afford a healthier lifestyle. I won't argue with you there. Real food is pricier than processed food made in a lab or a factory. And you will certainly see a jump in the grand total on your grocery receipts. But over time you'll get the hang of it, and I promise it will become more manageable. There's always a silver lining, my friends—and the price "jump" can be more of a baby bunny hop.
Today I'm sharing my top tips for saving money on nourishing, plant-based foods. But before I dive in, I hope to inspire you with this one statement:
Do your best to invest in yourself today, your future depends on it.
Even on a limited income, we can each make small upgrades that have a massive impact on our health. And get this, your body will be so grateful that it will reward you tenfold. It will literally move mountains when you give it the slightest improvement. Now let's get started!
Here are my go-to tips for nifty, thrifty plant-happy shopping:
1. Budget and meal plan.
First step, set a comfortable budget. Then, examine your fridge and pantry. I bet you've got a lot of goodies in there. Next, map out your menu with my easy meal plan. Don't skip this step, hot shot. Kitchen champions succeed not because they are the best of chefs, but because they plan their arses off. With more experience, you'll get the hang of it.
2. Buy bulk.
While navigating the grocery store head straight to the bulk bins and stock up! As your bulk food staples grow, you'll have shorter shopping lists and an arsenal of inspiration for your home-cooked meals. Added bonus: Display your beautiful beans, grains and spices in mason jars throughout your kitchen. Home-decor, Crazy Sexy style!
3. Shop local: Farmers markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).
Farmers markets are a great place to buy organic foods on the cheap. In-season produce is almost always going to cost less, so try to be flexible and cook with the harvest. A CSA is another thrift-tastic way to eat with the seasons. If a CSA half-share seems like more veggies than you could eat or afford, see if a friend wants to go in on it with you. You can also freeze a portion of your haul for later or make a green juice! Here are some great websites for finding a market or CSA near you: Local Harvest, Eat Well Guide, Farmer's Market Online.
4. Learn the Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteen.
If you can't afford a 100-percent organic lifestyle, don't sweat it. Check out the Environmental Working Group's lists to determine your priorities for organic purchases. They even created an iPhone app. Now that's handy!
5. Stock up on the essentials during sales.
I know it may seem like I'm giving you mixed messages, but if you arrive at the supermarket and there's a big phat sale on organic bananas, snag those babies! They may not have been on your meal plan, but you can cut them up, freeze 'em and pop them in your smoothies or soft serve ice cream later. The same goes for dry staples like grains and beans that aren't going to go bad in your pantry.
6. Grow your greens.
As you'll see in the coming weeks, we're starting our first vegetable garden (I'm so excited!). It's exponentially more economical to grow your own food. Whether you live in a studio or a McMansion, there's always room for a few pots of greens. A two-dollar packet of mixed lettuce seeds will support your salad habit for months. If you're a city gardener, check out You Grow Girl, Garden Girl TV and Urban Homestead. For country folks like myself, check out The Vegetable Gardener's Bible and Four Season Farm.
7. Cut back on restaurants.
Aye, Chihuahua, do those restaurant bills pile up! Rather than escaping to the local Denny's, make your kitchen the new hot spot. Fabu cookbooks, romantic dinners at home, potlucks, picnics and rowdy get-togethers all make dinner a family affair. I'm not saying that you should never step foot in a restaurant again; just try to limit your visits.
8. Make your food last and get creative with leftovers.
Wash and store your produce in Debbie Meyer Green Bags (they extend life expectancy). And when your produce looks like it's about to go south, resuscitate it in a delicious stew. How about leftovers? Don't toss them. With a little TLC, leftovers can be transformed into fresh new meals. Batch cooking is another way to save time and money. Double or triple your favorite recipe and freeze the leftovers for a quick and healthy meal when you're in a pinch.
9. Buy used.
Buying a new juicer or blender may not be in your budget, but what about a used one? Craigslist, eBay — even your friends and family — might have an affordable, gently used model. In the meantime, you can still juice with any old blender and strainer (cheesecloth or nut milk bags work great!).
10. Skip the bells and whistles.
If you're like me, you definitely have budget leaks, aka knee-jerk spending at Amazon, Target, Starbucks and on all those raw food goodies. Identify where you can tighten your belt and invest in your company (you are the CEO of your health after all), not someone else's. Don't let transforming your plate be intimidating or cost prohibitive. As always, you don't need to upgrade everything all at once. Make a plan and pace your bank account.
As you can see, there are tons of ways to make a plant-powered plate work for your wallet if you're ready to use a little elbow grease.
When my food expenses start creeping up, it's usually because I'm being a bit of a slacker, not because of my veg-inspired diet. I'm not planning my meals. My apron is dusty. The takeout menus get more play than my ukulele. Make new habits by trying one of my tips per week. You can do this!
Your turn: What are your savvy, money-saving solutions?
Peace & prosperity,


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Robbie Diamond
Robbie Diamond is the Founder, President and CEO of Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE). In 2006, he came together with Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President, and CEO of FedEx Corporation, and General P.X. Kelley, USMC (Ret.), 28th Commandant of the Marine Corps, to form SAFE's Energy Security Leadership Council, a group of prominent business leaders and retired senior military officers dedicated to combating the nation's dangerous dependence on oil. Since then, SAFE and the ESLC have been at the forefront of the energy policy debate, successfully helping to shape legislation in 2007 and shepherd a new, comprehensive energy bill through the Senate Energy Committee in 2009.
Diamond is also the President and CEO of the Electrification Coalition, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit group of business leaders committed to promoting policies and actions that facilitate the deployment of electric vehicles on a mass scale in order to combat the economic, environmental, and national security dangers caused by the nation's dependence on petroleum. The Coalition was launched in November 2009, and as its first official act, released the Electrification Roadmap, a sweeping report outlining a vision for the deployment of a fully integrated electric drive network.
Prior to his roles with SAFE and the Electrification Coalition, Diamond served as Deputy Director of Community Outreach on Senator Joe Lieberman's 2004 presidential campaign. Before that, Diamond was a Director at the Washington firm Fontheim International LLC, working in all practice areas of the firm. Prior to coming to Washington, he worked with senior executives at Seagram Spirits and Wine Group on special projects.
Diamond earned an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Toronto in Peace and Conflict Studies and Political Science, as well as a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School.


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by Shona L. Halson, Head of Discipline for the Australian Institute of Sport
Recovery from training and performance provides numerous benefits during high-level training and competition. Below is a summary of some of the standard recovery techniques triathletes would be well-served to integrate into their training program.
Sleep is extremely important for numerous biological functions, and sleep deprivation can have significant effects on athletic performance, especially when it comes to longer sessions. Evidence suggests that many athletes may be clocking less than eight hours of sleep per night. Increasing sleep or napping may be useful to increase the total number of hours of sleep and thereby enhance performance.
Related Article: The Science of Sleep for Athletes
Do it: Keep your bedroom cool, dark and quiet. Eye masks and ear-plugs can be useful, especially during travel. Create a good sleep routine by going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time, and avoid watching television or using the computer in bed, or watching the clock.
Many recovery strategies for elite athletes are based on medical equipment or therapies used in patients. Compression clothing is one of these strategies. It has been traditionally used to treat various lymphatic and circulatory conditions. Compression garments are thought to improve venous return through application of graduated compression to the limbs from proximal to distal. The external pressure created may reduce the intramuscular space available for swelling and promote stable alignment of muscle fibers, attenuating the inflammatory response and reducing muscle soreness.
Researchers have found a reduction in delayed onset muscle soreness 24 hours after runners wore compression during continuous exercise. While not statistically significant, there has been a trend shown that a 10k effort can be completed faster when such garments are worn. Subjects wore commercially available graduated compression stockings, with the compression highest at the ankle (18-22 mmHg) and reducing by 70 percent to the top of the stocking, which ended below the knee.
Do it: Compression garments appear to be beneficial for recovery in trained athletes. Recommendations include wearing the garments for at least 60 minutes post-exercise or competition.
Various forms of water immersion are becoming popular with elite athletes. While athletes have been using hydrotherapy for a number of years, we are now beginning to see increased research into water immersion, recovery and performance. The most common forms of water immersion are cold water immersion (CWI), hot water immersion (HWI) and contrast water therapy (CWT), where the athlete alternates between hot and cold water immersion.
It's important that athletes experiment with a variety of strategies and approaches to identify the recovery options that work best. However, it is known that optimal recovery from training and competition may provide numerous benefits for athlete performance.
Do it: Use appropriate temperatures and duration for water immersion. Research has found positive effects of water immersion in temperatures of 10–15°C / 50-59°F for cold water, and 38–40°C / 100-104°F for hot water, with a duration of 14 to 15 minutes of either cold water immersion or contrast water therapy.
This article is sponsored by 2XU, the official compression partner of IRONMAN.


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One of the upsides to working at a bookstore is stumbling across hidden gems of the literary world. The gem I happened upon a couple of weeks ago, Nic Brown's new novel, Doubles, isn't exactly hidden: the acclaimed author of Floodmarkers takes his sophomore swing with a story entrenched in the world of tennis. I got my hands on a copy of an uncorrected proof a customer was buying just long enough to jot down the title and author, and found that Brown had the thumbs up of many a folk, including The New York Times Book Review (from his prior work): "What Brown does so expertly is to summon the brief, intimate moments—the single word shared between two characters, the simple gesture that quietly reveals hope."
Doubles was released last week, and TSF got the chance to interview the tennis-loving author via email. Check out our revealing and candid exchange from this bright writer below.
TSF: First and foremost, why name your main character "Slow Smith?" We're obsessed with it, but there's gotta be some calculations behind such a name. Explain.
Nic Brown: Slow is almost seven feet tall and has a ridiculously long service routine. His doubles partner, Kaz – who started playing with him when they were five years old – coined the nickname when they were kids. At the time, Kaz didn't know much English, but he did know the word "slow" and would yell it at Smith when he took too long between serves. Hence, the nickname. It stuck. Also, because of Slow's height, he just sort of lopes around the court in these big floppy steps.
TSF: Golden. And sure as heck better than "Bepa." Did you take into consideration the name of famous American tennis player Stan Smith? There's some similarity there…
NB: Yeah, the name is a nod towards Stan Smith. I mean, I knew Slow was going to be the character's first name, so I figured I'd make it alliterative and give him a last name that echoed Stan Smith. Also, Stan Smith's kids played college tennis in the area [Brown is a North Carolina native] – his daughter played at UNC and his son at Duke. It seemed a fitting allusion, albeit one that is totally unrelated to the actual narrative.
We're digging the Doubles cover, photographed by Michael Rolph.
TSF: Before we dive too far into your narrative work in Doubles, tell us a little about yourself.
NB: I grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. I spent most of my time playing drums and skateboarding, but – barring skating – the only sport I played or was even remotely into was tennis. I did play quite a bit of it – losing 100% of my matches against my primary foil, Ralph Brabham from down the street – but was never on any teams or leagues or anything. I was a fan, but it wasn't until later, when I became very close friends with the tennis player Tripp Phillips, that I started to become really obsessed with the sport, both as a spectator and player.
Read more about Doubles, and Brown's adventuring in the world of Challenger tennis, his thoughts on tennis relationships, who his favorite players are and how he discovered John Isner 10 years before his 11 hours of fame-making.
TSF: Got it. So for you, why then base a novel around the tennis world? What sort of dramatics helped play into your story telling? How do you think an audience can connect to something like this?
NB: As I mentioned, tennis became really important to me after I became good friends with Tripp. We met through a mutual friend when we were 19 or 20, and have been close since. At the time we met, Tripp was the star tennis player at UNC, in Chapel Hill, where I live. After he graduated and went pro, I took advantage of some down time and went to several tournaments with him, using his coaching pass for entrance. Tripp is a rather extreme character, and so many hilarious and amazing things happened at these tournaments with him that I found myself re-telling the stories all the time when I came home. Since I was starting a new book at the time, I figured I should probably just write about what I was obsessed with. Tripp is a doubles specialist, and the red-headed-stepchild nature of the doubles niche within the tennis world appealed to me. More so, the fact that people have to work together to win lends itself to a successful dramatic narrative, one that anyone in any sort of partnership can identify with. But mostly, I was just obsessed. I mean, I was crunching doubles rankings points off obscure stat sheets on Steve G Tennis. So, to try to keep myself from wasting too much time, I just combined my interest with my writing. It made me feel like I was doing research when I was goofing around, either playing or watching tennis.
TSF: That's kinda how we feel about TSF, working and goofing off all in one! Too bad we don't get paid for it. From the reviews, it seems as though Doubles (full disclosure here, we haven't read the book) could be more about relationships of an unhealthy nature: Slow and Kaz have this rift but they can't seem to win without each other; Slow's wife Anne is in an unfixable coma; and his Manny is obsessive. What sort of statement are you trying to make there? To me, it is a recipe for great storytelling.
NB: Like any partnership, doubles teams – especially those that have been together for a long time – function very much like a marriage. The players are close, their world is insular (they're traveling internationally sometimes every week), they rely on each other financially, and just like a marriage, the relationships, at least those in the book, are complicated and complex. Add a few actual marriages to the mix and you have enough dramatic potential for five novels. I wouldn't say that the relationships in the book are unhealthy, though. They're just complicated and messy and hopefully resonate as true.
TSF: Tell us a little more about your time with Tripp and the work/play life that led you to eventually writing a tennis-themed novel.
NB: I was with Tripp when he made his run at the [2006] US Open, but more importantly, I was with him at some challengers and smaller events where I got to spend some time with other players and see the less glamorous side of the tour. I was living in New York during the few years that Forest Hills held a challenger in the weeks before the French Open, and Tripp would come up and play and I would spend as much of my time as possible there. The setting – this storied former site of the US Open – was amazing, especially when coupled with the contemporary reality of a sparsely attended challenger tournament on the grounds. It was poignant and melancholy, and much of the book is set there. This all happened before I wrote the book, though, so the act of doing research was inverted. I wrote the book afterwards because I had inadvertently done all this tennis research just through the rubric of a good friendship.
TSF: For a book about the quirks, drama and sexuality of the tennis world, why not stick with a more female-based cast of characters? You've got plenty of inspiration in the stories of Capriati, Kournikova, Mary Pierce and the like.
NB: For me, the odd relationship aspects in the book are less about tennis and more about the fact that any partnership, be it a doubles team or not, is a profoundly complicated thing. That said, I love the superstitions and rituals that pop up in the world of tennis players, and I definitely mine that trope for all it's worth.
TSF: If, today, a producer came to you and said that they wanted to take Doubles to the big screen, tell us who you'd like to cast as your actors: Slow, Kaz, Manny, Anne. If you could pick any tennis player, who would get an on-screen cameo?
NB: OK. Well, when I was first drafting the book – and this was a few years ago – I had in mind that Slow was very similar to another tall, big-serving tennis player from North Carolina named John Isner. At the time, no one in the world had heard of Isner. Of course now, after his Wimbledon marathon, he's doing Letterman and the international press circuit. So it might be hard to get him, but I think he'd have to make a cameo. Of course, I'd have to slide Tripp in too.
But since Isner isn't an actor, he can't play Slow. We'd probably need to get Owen Wilson to reprise his pro tennis role from The Royal Tennenbaums. Russell Brand would probably make a good Manny. Kaz is hard. He's half Japanese and half African-America – not an easy casting call. For the sake of the film, we could consider the Japanese genes latent and call in Don Cheadle. And for Anne, put Carey Mulligan in a blond wig and I think she'd do.
TSF: Speaking of the pro tour, who lands in your favorite box? Both current and former players.
NB: First and foremost The Magician, Fabrice Santoro. After that, I love Boris Becker and Goran Ivanišević. And as for current players, I can't get enough of Monfils.
TSF: What would Slow have to say about the Wimbledon that just took place? Was he impressed by Nadal's play? How did he react to the Mahut-Isner record-setting serve-a-thon?
NB: Slow couldn't have been more pleased with the Isner-Mahut match, considering he is basically a fictional version of Isner. In a similar way, he'd have been pretty happy to see Berdych and his big Czech self get through. As for the rest of it, Slow would have thought it was predictable. Including Roger's unfortunate and early departure, and Nadal's unbelievable play – even if he looked utterly beatable against Petzschner.
TSF: And what about you? If there was another storyline in tennis that you could write on, what would it be? Why?
NB: I think I've tapped the tennis world for all I can get in regard to fiction, but when it comes to real life, there's always something I'm interested in. Right now, it seems like Ernests Gulbris is an infinite font of possible storylines, both for his crazy untapped talent as well as his somewhat unhinged Safin-like personality. And Thomas Muster just accepted a wildcard into a challenger and lost 2 and 1 in the first round. Would love to talk to him about the logic behind that one.
TSF: Eek! So would we! Finally, we totally dig your cover. Tell us about it and how it came about? Who is the photographer and do the four chairs symbolize the connectedness of Slow, Kaz, Manny and Anne?
NB: The photographer, Michael Rolph, isn't someone I know personally, though I love the image too. I found it searching through some tennis photos and thought it resonated well with the book. I like that first and foremost, it's a great photo. It's just icing on the cake that the image works perfectly with the book as well. To avoid that problem of having a photo of someone contrast with how the reader envisions a specific character, I didn't want images of any actual people on the cover. So, as it is, the empty chairs here do a good job of representing the main characters while simultaneously sounding a melancholy note that resonates with the storyline.
(cover image by michael rolph via nicbrown.net)
Doubles: A Novel by Nic Brown is available in paperback from Counterpoint Press for $10.85 or on the Kindle for $9.99 from Amazon.com. If you're in the North Carolina area, catch one of Brown's readings this month at a number of independent bookstores.


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Secret of spilling coffee revealed
Scientists have only recently discovered the answer to a very modern dilemma: why does coffee spill when you walk? Dr Karl spills the beans on the very serious science of sloshing liquids.
Coffee is probably the world's most popular legal drug. And so, in our busy day, at some stage we will usually walk from here to there carrying a cup of coffee. And every now and then, the coffee will spill. Now this might be a surprise to you, but it took till 2012 before two engineers systematically explored this very familiar phenomenon.
The engineers were H C Mayer and R Krechetnikov from the University of California. The problem of spilling coffee is very complex, and involves two separate fields — biomechanics and the engineering of sloshing liquids.
Let's deal with sloshing liquids first. This field is, surprisingly, very important. Liquids that are out-of-control and sloshing can sink a tanker ship, starve a car engine of fuel, and make a liquid-fuelled rocket fail.
Now for biomechanics, which lead to the coffee cup going through some very complicated motions.
As you walk, your centre of mass follows a rather strange pathway. Your gait depends on many factors such as your gender, age, state of health and so on. After all, walking has been described as "a series of controlled falls". Your centre of mass is continually speeding up and slowing down in your direction of travel, as well as rising and falling — and oscillating from side to side to boot. When you are walking, you typically rock from side to side at about 1.25 hertz, while you oscillate back and forth at around 2.5 hertz. But that's just the motion of your centre of mass.
Your cup of coffee is joined to your centre of mass via your hand, and your wrist, elbow and shoulder joints. Each of these can move in a motion that is very different from what your centre of mass is doing. Your cup of coffee can tilt to the left or right, it can pitch down or up in your direction of travel, or it can even swivel to the left or right.
The engineers drew the appropriate diagrams of a walking person and of a cup, and then labelled all the relevant positions, velocities and accelerations. What they called "a frictionless, vorticity-free, and incompressible liquid", you and I would call "coffee". And we would know "an upright cylindrical container" as a "cup".
And then they began to work out the natural resonant frequency of the coffee oscillating in the cup.
But what is a 'natural resonant frequency'?
Suppose you half fill a bathtub with water. Get something with a decent surface area (such as a breadboard) and gently pat it onto the surface of the water at one end of the bathtub - and then remove the breadboard. You'll see a wave head to the other end of the bathtub. It will then bounce off and head back to your end. And it will continue back and forth, bouncing off the ends of your bathtub every few seconds. So for water, your bathtub has a natural resonant frequency of a few seconds.
Your coffee cup is much smaller, so it has a higher natural resonant frequency. Depending on whether you have your coffee as an exquisite espresso or a cavernous cappuccino, the frequency might range between 4.3 and 2.6 hertz.
Typically, you pick up your cup of coffee while you are stopped, and then you accelerate. This acceleration generates the initial slosh of coffee. You continue to accelerate for a few more steps until you reach cruising speed. Typically, the initial slosh will continue to amplify until get your first coffee spill around the sixth step.
The engineers suggest a few solutions.
First, if you make the walls of the coffee cup flexible, they will absorb the energy of the incoming wave and dampen down the initial slosh. Second, you could install (inside the top of the cup) a series of concentric rings (like egg rings). These would break down the large mass of a single slosh into a bunch of smaller sloshes, which would be much easier to control. A third solution would be to perforate or to drill holes in these rings. Not only would this make the rings lighter, but it would further dampen down the sloshing.
Of course, you'll always try the low-tech approach of "the targeted suppression of resonance frequencies", otherwise known as "watching your step".
Published 29 May 2012
© 2023 Karl S. Kruszelnicki Pty Ltd


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Friday, April 29, 2011
Not The 70s: SPACE PRECINCT (1994)
Fans of Gerry Anderson's UFO and Space: 1999 - or anyone looking for 70's-styled sci-fi - may want to check it out. It's not a great sci-fi show, neither is it a great cop show, but it has its charms. It can be purchased from Amazon here: Space Precinct: The Complete Series
Thursday, April 28, 2011
LOGAN'S RUN (1977) TV Series Publicity Stills
According to the TV Shows on DVD website, Warners Archive will be releasing the 14-episode series on manufactured-on-demand DVD later this year.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
SPACE: 1999 (1976) Power Records Ad
Power Records line of Space: 1999 audio adventures. I have no idea who the artist is - probably someone on-staff at Neal Adams' Continuity Studios, which provided most of the art for the Power comics - but it's a wonderful piece of art.
Check out Rob Kelly's Power Records blog to read - and hear - these (and many other) 70s Power Records adventures!
Check out Rob Kelly's Power Records blog to read - and hear - these (and many other) 70s Power Records adventures!
Saturday, April 23, 2011
The character was killed off at the end of that first The Six Million Dollar Man two-parter - can't have your hero tied down, you know - but, much to the network's surprise, public outcry to the death of Jaime Sommers was immediate and unprecedented. Wagner, an exceptionally fine actress, had been so appealing in the role that viewers - especially young ones - were deeply upset by the character's fate, so plans were made to revive the character.
If you grew up in the 70s thrilling to the adventures of the bionic duo, this DVD set from Universal is highly recommended. The show holds up surprisingly well, and Wagner really makes those distinctively 70s fashions work. The stories vary in quality, but the character remains a strong, smart, funny, positive role model, and it's no wonder that everyone loved her. The Second Season is scheduled to be released next month, and is available for pre-order online. Here are links to both seasons at Amazon.com:
The Bionic Woman: Season One
The Bionic Woman: Season Two
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
QUARK (1976) Pilot Publicity Stills
Here's a selection of press stills for the pilot episode of Buck Henry's sci-fi spoof, Quark, which originally aired on May 7, 1977. The series (all seven episodes of it) followed that fall, with one major cast change: ship's science officer O.B. Mudd, played by Douglas Fowley as an absent-minded, and possibly a little mad, scientist, was replaced by Richard Kelton as Ficus, the logical, unemotional Vegeton.
Interestingly, Cyb and Tricia Barnstable were credited as "Cibbie and Trisha Barnett" in the pilot.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Captain's bLog: 0418.11
I'll probably re-post another old article or two, as well - the site gained a lot of new readers over the last month and a half, and it seems logical (and time-effective) to spotlight some of those older pieces for the convenience of new visitors.
• And... here's a sweet Enterprise painting by Star Trek production designer/artist Andy Probert that was used by Paramount to promote Star Trek - The Motion Picture back in 1979.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
YOR, THE HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE (1983) Theatrical Posters
I actually went to see this in the theater in '83, lured in by Columbia's ad campaign, which promised everything that a teenage geek guy could possibly want to see in a movie: cavewomen, dinosaurs and laser guns & flying saucers! Unfortunately, what I got was a low-budget, badly-dubbed, disjointed disappointment. I saw it again just a few years ago on cable, and was then able to appreciate it a bit more for its camp value - but, then, I'm more open-minded about movies now than I was at age 17-18.
Margheretti was no stranger to sci-fi. Back in the Sixties, he had directed a number of popular space operas - Space Men, Wild Wild Planet, War Between the Planets, et al - but, like pretty much all of his many exploitation movies, Yor is a somewhat slapdash, sloppy - but energetic - mess. It's entertaining, but you feel guilty enjoying it.
I don't feel guilty about enjoying these posters, though; the U.S. one-sheet at the top is kinda bland - and previews the sort of static, Photoshop crap we see these days - but I really like the "underground comix" look of the second, and that third one resembles the covers of many of the fantasy paperbacks on my shelves. Interestingly, the artist of this piece has actually swiped Frank Frazetta's interpretation of the Battlestar Galactica Cylon Raiders (as seen in THIS painting) for the spaceships!
Considering how prevalent this flick was on 80s cable television, I'm surprised some cult video label hasn't released it on U.S. DVD. It can be watched/bought via Amazon Instant... but that's not really the same.
Posted by Christopher Mills at 5:12 AM 12 comments:
Friday, April 15, 2011
SPACE: 1999 - "The Alien" Model Kit
Apparently, this car is actually a modified (with extra sci-fi gadgets & "alien" figure) reissue of a George Barris 1970 design car called the "Moonscope" (reissued by AMT again in 2002).
Rerun: JASON OF STAR COMMAND (1978-79)
In honor of Space: 1970's new masthead, I thought I'd re-present one of the earliest posts I wrote for this blog: my review of the 1978-79 Saturday morning space opera, Jason of Star Command! I've added a few new screenshots and made a couple small edits. Enjoy - and have a great weekend, Star Kids!
Jason of Star Command. A more action-oriented spin-off of the studio's aforementioned Space Academy, cost-effectively recycling many of the same expensive sets and models, but eschewing the previous show's "educational" stories in favor of Star Wars-styled space opera, Jason was serialized sci-fi in Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers tradition, complete with cliffhangers, cute robots, and flamboyant villains in sweeping capes.
Craig Littler, Superbeast), a Han Solo-esque soldier of fortune attached to Star Command (a nebulously-defined organization that apparently ran the Space Academy and used it as their base), against the evil, would-be ruler of the universe, Dragos (the wonderful Sid Haig, Galaxy of Terror, Spider Baby, The Devil's Rejects). Other cast members included Jimmy Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek –TOS) as Jason's commanding officer, exotic Tamara Dobson – Cleopatra Jones herself! – in a recurring role as a mysterious alien babe with psi powers, and cute Susan O'Hanlon (All My Children) as a perky Star Command junior officer. Other regulars included Charlie Dell as an absent-minded professor and John Russell as a blue-skinned, hard-nosed Commander.
Jason was intended as more of an action-adventure than its predecessor. Unfortunately, this being 70's network kid's TV, Jason couldn't punch, trip, shoot, or even give a mean look to anybody. "Action" existed primarily in the form of endless running up and down corridors, soaring and swooping model spacecraft, and clearly-identified unmanned "drone" ships blowing up.
John Carl Buechler (Ghoulies, Cellar Dweller) and some decidedly cool, memorable stop-motion monsters from many of the animation wizards who'd worked on the film Planet of Dinosaurs.
In fact, as impressed as I was with the miniatures and effects on Space Academy, the FX work on Jason, by the same team, shows a marked improvement, both in conception and execution. The sheer quantity of and variety of shots is impressive. Pretty amazing, considering their limited resources. For fans of old school special effects (guilty!), these episodes are something of a treasure trove of pre-computerized FX work.
Tarzan & The Super Seven anthology show, but in its second season, it graduated to its own half-hour berth. BCI's out-of-print three-disc DVD set (Also available as part of the Filmation Sci-Fi box set - see below) includes all the episodes from both seasons.
The full-frame transfers are on a par with the Space Academy discs, a little soft, but light-years better than the bootlegs that floated around the comic book conventions for years.
Lou Scheimer was clearly a science fiction fan, and thanks to him, sci-fi addicted kids of the 70s were able to enjoy futuristic fun every weekend for most of the decade. Along with the live-action shows, Filmation also brought to the screen animated versions of Star Trek and Flash Gordon, and original creations like Space Sentinels and Blackstar. Other studios dabbled in the genre, but Filmation seemed to have a real love for it, and I, for one, am grateful. Thanks, Lou!
Space Academy and Ark II, Jason of Star Command was released a few years ago on DVD by BCI. That original set is out of print – and BCI is out of business – but just before the company closed shop, it released all three series in one box set.
Both editions are still available if you look around for them; in fact, here are some links:
• Filmation Sci-Fi Box Set
• Jason of Star Command - The Complete Series
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D1 Grand Prix Las Vegas - Hotter Than Hell
D1 Grand Prix USA Heats Up Las Vegas
Related Video
When we say hotter than hell, we mean that 100% literally, figuratively, whatever - it was hot in every sense of the word. I have never been in such desert heat before in my life - then again neither had most of the D1 drivers. With the mercury hitting 112 and track temperatures hitting 150, the drivers entered a whole new blistering territory.
This D1 Las Vegas exhibition match was the most nerve-racking suspense-filled drifting event I have ever witnessed. Pit crews were constantly struggling to adjust the cars so they wouldn't go flying off the asphalt. Scorching heat and marbleized rubber do not make for an easy drift around the track. We witnessed the best of the best Japanese pro-drifters slam their cars into the wall because the pavement was simply too damn hot to get enough traction. Their usual 100+mph entry speeds were now a recipe for disaster. With each car that came down the track, the crowd watched and wondered in nail-biting suspense if this next heat-challenged drifter was going to hit the wall.
Further complicating matters was that the track temperature varied greatly from when the drivers practiced in the afternoon to when their final runs took place at night. What worked for them earlier was often a huge miscalculation later in the day. Adding to the challenge of the unrelenting heat was that the Las Vegas Motor Speedway set up a very narrow course that didn't leave a lot of room for error. Gone was the banked expanse of the California Irwindale track - this was a narrow short course that barely fit two cars side-by-side.
The fans were amazing in spirit and number, considering the sweat-inducing heat. Some of the attendees in the huge crowd were specially rewarded as they got up close to the action: the bleachers were so near the track many walked away with tire spew all over their faces.
Our favorite D1 announcer, Toshi Hayama, kept everyone entertained throughout the heat wave. In between runs the crowd got to check out the pits, which were not roped off so you could see every detail of the drift cars' set-up and the action of the crew changing suspension specs and tires. After all the crashes there was a lot of duct-taping bodywork going on as well. This event was also run at the same time as the NHRA Sport Compact series so fans could alternate between watching drifting and drag-racing.
This Grand Prix featured over twenty drift cars, with about half of their drivers being American, and about half being Japanese. All of the Japanese favorites were on hand to sign autographs for the fans, including Kazama, Yuke's Kumakubo, Yoshihara and monkey-man Nomura. The Drift King himself, Tsuchiya, also met with fans as he announced the event for Option video. The American drivers also put out an impressive showing, with Tanner Foust of AEM leading the way. Foust managed an unprecedented 120 qualifying points, a first in D1GP history, and was the first qualifier among all of the drivers. Unfortunately for Foust, he was out in the first round after a sticky emergency brake caused him to not stop in time and tap opponent Tanaka, an automatic disqualification. It was a sad event for the American side, as he was our best candidate to try and take the win.
Also representing for the American side was Alex Pfeiffer, who, after smashing his AE86 previously, was now piloting the show car worthy BRS RX-7. This pink beauty was designed for time attacks, so Alex was facing an uphill battle to make it cooperate for drifting. Ultimately a throttle problem knocked him out during the first round of the Best 16.
Although young scion Ken Gushi was on hand with his Mustang, he was clearly no match for Toshiki Yoshioka, who took his Corolla all the way to the final win.
In not so glorious news, Dynamic Autosports' Robbie Nishida took off his Quaker State 240's front bumper and failed to make the Best 16.
Also not making it to the Best 16 was Blitz's Nomuken, who smashed the legendary GT-R (and Turbo cover car) into the wall during one of the final qualifying rounds. After head mechanic Abe had stayed up all night perfecting the car, it was quite a sad sight.
Right after Nomuken crashed, two other Japanese drift cars also saw the wall. With the American drivers going next they saw the consequences of 90+mph entry speeds so they took it a little slower in the 80-90mph range. It was difficult for the drivers to find the perfect threshold between going too slow and looking sluggishly uncompetitive and going too fast and totaling their vehicles.
After running the Best 16, and the Best 8, the drifting field was whittled down to four: Tanaka in a Skyline, Yoshioka in his Corolla, Komoro also in a Corolla, and Kumakubo piloting an Impreza. Kumakubo was the odds-on favorite, as he has been drifting competitively for something like 15 years. The man has a lot of experience to say the least. He put the smack-down on Komoro's AE86 in the semi-finals and advanced his Suburu to the finals. In the end the engine-that-could won out and Yoshioka's Corolla took home the glory.
For all the riveting action you'll just have to go out and buy the Option DVD to watch it, as our few pictures here can't do these battles justice. (You can also see our Turbo staff ducking as drivers hit the wall that we were precariously standing next to.)
With the crowd waving orange D1 do-rags in the air, this Grand Prix was a resounding success despite the heatstroke-inducing temperatures. Hopefully all of the partying the D1 drivers did in Sin City eased away their memories of crashing and losing. We hope D1 returns to Las Vegas next year since it's a great destination for out of town fans to fly in, see some spectacular drifting, and hit the sights and sounds of the Vegas Strip. Just bring your hats, sunscreen, ice packs, misters and fans with you.