Look out for buffers!
Hide the hair.
Don’t use the badly-mounted maul.
Don’t open the lid of the picker before the engine stops.
I was drunk at work.
Be careful with forks.
Be careful extending the wires.
Don’t walk under the transmission arbor.
Copyright.2011. Buzzfeed.com All Rights Reserved
Robert Kubica, Renault R31
© WRI2
Robert Kubica (1:13.144) topped the final day of Valencia testing with the new Lotus Renault GP R31.
The team measured downforce levels with some aero tests in the morning, involving running the car at constant speed on the straight and found that results tied in with their wind tunnel figures.
“I think we can split the day into two halves because we had some problems in the morning and only managed to do our first real run about 1:30pm,” Kubica said. “After we solved the issues with the car we managed to do a bit of set-up evaluation and tyre work although we didn’t complete the laps we targeted.
Even so, after solving its electrical gremlins the team put 95 laps on the car and technical chief James Allison added: “Our first three days of testing have not been without incident. The first test has shown that tyre management will be absolutely critical, so it was good to make progress in that regard.”
Adrian Sutil (1:13.201) was back on duty for Force India and completed more than 100 laps with the old VJM03, focused on collecting Pirelli data, and posted second quickest time of the day.
Jenson Button (1:13.553) drove the interim McLaren, a day ahead of the launch of the new car in Berlin, and was third quickest, ahead of Mark Webber (1:13.963), who did more than 100 laps in the new Red Bull RB7 after a problematic first day.
“There are some quick cars out there but it was a good finish to the test for us. Overall the team has done a bloody awesome job – to get the car here for the first test and do the work we’ve done straight out of the box, it’s impressive.”
Felipe Massa (1:14.017) took over from Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari F150 and ended the day fifth quickest, a couple of tenths up on Timo Glock (1:14.207) with last year’s Virgin, with Richard Branson’s team due to unveil its new car in London next Monday.
F1 rookie pastor Maldonado (1:14.299) got over 100 laps of experience with the new Williams FW33 as the team concentrated on getting its KERS system running.
Fellow rookie Sergio Perez (1:14.458) was close behind in the new Sauber C30, a tenth quicker than Michael Schumacher (1:14.537) who got in some meaningful running with the new Mercedes, familiarizing himself with KERS for the first time.
“I am pleased with that and with how the car was behaving,” the seven times champion said. “This is not our final race car for the season but a lot of elements have already proved to be a significant step forward. I felt totally comfortable in the car.”
Sebastien Buemi (1:14.801) also familiarized himself with KERS and did 73 laps in the new Toro Rosso STR06. Narain Karthikeyan (1:16.535) was a couple of seconds slower than his qualifying simulation best of yesterday with the HRT.
Team Lotus had Jarno Trulli out in its new chassis but the team was still suffering from the power steering problems of yesterday and Trulli, although happy with his initial impressions of the car, did installation laps all day.
Copyright. 2011. grandprix.com. All Rights Reserved
Fernando Alonso, Ferrari F150
© WRI2
Fernando Alonso put another 100 plus laps on Ferrari’s new F150 in Valencia, his 1:13.307s best lap proving 0.31s quicker than reigning champion Sebastian Vettel (1:13.614) in the new Red Bull RB7 on the second day of testing at the Spanish track.
Vettel did another morning in the RB7 before handing over to Mark Webber (1:17.365), who only managed a handful of laps after experiencing installation problems with the pedals. “It wasn’t the smoothest of days but we’ll be back tomorrow,” he said.
Third quickest was Paul Di Resta (1:13.844) with last year’s Force India as the team gears up for the launch of the VJM04 next week. “We’re not going for times, just trying to get representative data with the Pirelli tyres,” the young Briton explained.
Lewis Hamilton (1:14.352) was fourth quickest with an interim McLaren MP4-25 as the team attempts to simulate 2011 downforce levels. The new car is launched in Berlin on Friday and there is speculation that it may have a Renault-style trick front-exiting exhaust system aimed at optimizing aerodynamic performance from the floor.
“The new Pirelli tyres are easy to get a feel for,” Hamilton said, “but there’s not as much grip as we had last year. They drop off quite a bit too, and are a little harder to control over a longer stint, but it’s the same for everybody.” Others also reported that tyre drop-off was dramatic, as much as 6-7s by the end of a stint.
Robert Kubica (1:14.412) was fifth fastest with the new Lotus Renault GP R31 but the surprise of the day was a 1:14.472s best from Narain Karthikeyan with last year’s HRT, sandwiching himself between the Pole and Nico Rosberg’s 1:14.645 with the new Mercedes.
Kubica ran with a new steering wheel design and felt happy with the button layout, which made it easier to manage the workload associated with KERS and the adjustable rear wing. Flow Viz paint was used on the car in the morning to allow the team to confirm that the new aero package was working as expected.
“It’s always difficult to judge things after just one day in the car, especially with so many changes compared to last year,” Kubica said. “The main factor is definitely the new Pirelli tyres, which have a big influence on how the car behaves. We ran on some of the different compounds to start getting a feeling for them. We did have a couple of mechanical issues with the car and we couldn’t complete the entire programme, but we still did lots of laps.”
“It was a much more satisfying day than yesterday,” Renault’s James Allison confirmed. We did over a hundred laps, the KERS system and the DRS wing worked flawlessly and we managed some set-up work alongside the routine task list of pre-season checks.”
While tempting to believe that Karthikeyan, returning to the F1 paddock for the first time since 2005, had found a short cut on the Circuit Ricardo Tormo, it was a pukka time. The world’s fastest Indian was running low fuel, was on the supersoft Pirelli compound, reckoned to be worth the best part of a second, and it’s worth remembering too, that last year’s cars are 20kgs lighter. Even so, it added up to a decent effort.
Timo Glock (1:15.408) was eighth quickest in the Virgin, with their new car due to be launched next Monday in London. Rubens Barrichello (1:16.023) was ninth with the new Williams before handing over to rookie team mate Pastor Maldonado (1:16.266), the reigning GP2 champion, who finished the day just a couple of tenths down on F1′s most experienced man.
Seven hundredths quicker than Maldonado was fellow rookie Sergio Perez (1:16.198). The first Mexican in F1 since Hector Rebaque in 1981 managed 42 laps in the new Sauber C30 before his activity was cut short by a power train issue early in the afternoon. The test concludes with its third day, tomorrow.
Copyright.2011. grandprix.com All Rights Reserved
Photograph by Art Streiber.
New York, N.Y.— “I’m crazy, I’m nuts,” Justin Bieber tells Vanity Fair contributing editor Lisa Robinson. “Just the way my brain works. I’m not normal. I think differently—my mind is always racing. I’m just … nuts. But I think the best [musicians] probably are.” Robinson reports that Bieber considers the “best” to be the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Tupac. “Music is music, and I’m definitely influenced by Michael Jackson and Boyz II Men and people who were black artists—that’s what I like. But I like their voices and I like how they entertain—it’s not about what color they are.”
“Michael [Jackson] was able to reach audiences from young to old; he never limited himself,” Bieber says of the King of Pop, of whom he has a sticker on his bedroom mirror in his tour bus. “He was so broad, everybody loved him, and that’s what my goal is—to basically make people happy, to inspire them, and to have everyone root for me.”
“It’s hard to really balance myself. A regular kid, if he catches the flu, he just gets to go home,” Bieber says of the challenges of trying to be a regular teenager. “But I can’t do that…. Everything is important. But, you know, my sanity is important, too. Even if I’m angry, I’ll just put a smile on my face and fake it. I don’t often fake it—what’s me is me….I know I have to give up a lot of myself, or a lot of a private life.”
Robinson talks to one person who has the most access to Bieber’s “private life” these days, his bodyguard Kenny Hamilton. “I feel like I’ve become an expert at covert operations,” says Hamilton about “friends” (girls) who sneak in to visit Justin on the mandatory one to three days off a week that he gets to just “be a kid.”
Robinson reports that Bieber says he wants to go to the moon, to outer space, but only when it’s 100 percent safe—or maybe just 90 percent—and that he hated school, is tutored on the road, doesn’t read much, but has the best-seller Rich Dad Poor Dad on his tour bus because Will Smith told him to read it. Robinson also reports that he sometimes suffers from insomnia, “I just turn over all night and think. My mind races,” he says. “I think about all the things I didn’t have time to think about during the day—like family and God and things that should be more important but you don’t have time to think about, because you just get caught up [in everything else] during the day.”
Such as the legions of screaming girls. Bieber tells Robinson that he knows girls scream for him because he’s Justin Bieber, but he thinks they might also scream for him because he’s cute. “Not trying to be arrogant, but if I walked down the street and a girl saw me, she might take a look back because maybe I’m good-looking, right?”
Bieber admits to Robinson that he’s O.K. with having a predominantly female fan base. “For younger guys, it’s like [they think] they’re not cool if they come to my concert. That’ll [change], I think; it’ll happen, maybe when I’m 18. But meanwhile all their girlfriends are coming to watch me.” Bieber is also aware that despite his success not everyone will be his biggest fan. “Of course, I think that people are just waiting for that time when I make a mistake and they’re gonna jump on it….There’s gonna be haters,” Bieber tells Robinson. “I know I’m not going to make a life-changing bad decision, as some people have. I’ve seen it happen too many times. I could be my own worst enemy, but I don’t want to mess this up.”
Robinson talks to Bieber’s mom, Pattie Mallette, about her son’s start as an Internet sensation. “I put up a little video on YouTube [under the name “kidrauhl”] for Grandma and some relatives to see, and the next thing we knew, all these strangers were clicking onto it, probably because they recognized the song.” Then, Mallette recalls, “it was ‘Oh look, honey, you have a hundred views.’ Then ‘Oh wow, a thousand views.’… Next thing we knew, thousands and thousands of views. But it never once occurred to me that there would be a music career out of this.”
Mallette also tells Robinson that, after a personal encounter with God, she believes that she and Justin have been put on earth to bring light and inspiration to the world. But Mallette is wary of show business and its potential consequences: “We don’t have yes-men around him. I don’t want him being a diva.”
Robinson also speaks with Bieber’s close friend and mentor, A-list musician Usher. “You could immediately tell that this [was] a kid who has style—he’s a hip kid,” Usher says of Bieber, who he says is like his “little brother.” “It was the antithesis of Disney and Nickelodeon.” A supporter from the beginning, Usher brought Bieber to Island/Def Jam executive L. A. Reid. “I knew what L.A. was gonna do—the same thing he did to me. Let’s bring in employees and we want to see how he reacts to women.”
“I see myself just growing. I didn’t know that any of this was really possible,” Bieber tells Robinson of his future. “I grew up in a really small town with not a lot of money, and I liked singing, but it was just something that was a hobby. As I get into it more, I want to grow as an artist, as an entertainer, and basically perfect my craft. I want to be the best that I can be.”
He’s not the only one who didn’t see his fame coming. When asked if he ever envisioned this level of fame for his grandson, Bieber’s grandfather Bruce Dale responds, “No. Never. He was supposed to be a hockey player.”
The February issue of Vanity Fair is available on newsstands in New York and L.A. on Thursday, January 6, and nationally and on the iPad on Tuesday, January 11.
Copyright. 2011. Vanity Fair. All Rights reserved
Groundhog Day, February 2, has basically everything going for it that I love in a holiday — It marks a point in a season; it’s full of folklore and wisdom, superstition, ceremony, civic charm, mystery, agrarian history, and weather — and it was featured in perhaps my all-time favorite movie of the same name, which itself is a study in acceptance and inner calm while being outright hilarious in nearly every frame.
Altogether now: It’s Groundhog Day!
In an early morning ceremony today, groundhog Punxsutawney Phil rose from his heated burrow at Gobbler’s Knob, PA, and signaled to his handlers that he saw no shadow today and accordingly foretold an early end to winter. Over the 125 years that the ceremony has taken place, Phil has seen his shadow 98 times and not seen it only 16, counting today. (Records don’t exist for every year.) The last time he didn’t see a shadow was in 2007. In 2008, the crowd booed the prospect of “six more weeks of winter”, as they no doubt would have today, when a smaller than usual crowd stood in the freezing rain to watch the ceremony.
The same article also notes that Phil’s “handlers” make the prediction for him. What do we think of that?
How did the groundhog tradition get started?
According to this excellent Groundhog Day site, German settlers arrived in the 1700s in the area of Pennsylvania, northeast of Pittsburgh, which had been previously settled by the Delaware Native Americans. The Germans celebrated Candlemas Day, originally a Medieval Catholic holiday to mark the mid-point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. The holiday also has roots in Celtic-Gaelic and Pagan cultures, where it is celebrated as St. Brigid’s Day and Imbolc, and is a time of festival, feasting, parades, and weather prediction, as well as candles and even bonfires to mark the sun’s return.
According to Wikipedia, the origin of the word “Imbolc” is “in the belly”, and among agrarian people, Imbolc was associated with the onset of lactation of ewes, which would soon give birth to lambs in the spring.
The German settlers of Pennsylvania put candles in their windows and believed that if the weather was fair on Candlemas Day, then the second half of winter would be stormy and cold. While this has always seemed counter-intuitive to me, this site explains the science of Groundhog Day and that cloudy weather is actually more mild than clear and cold. It makes sense, then, that the shadow would portend six more weeks of winter. (A lifelong mystery is solved.)
The English and Scottish had wonderful sayings to mark this occasion:
The serpent will come from the hole
On the brown Day of Bride,
Though there should be three feet of snow
On the flat surface of the ground.
– Scottish saying
(Note the serpent instead of the groundhog.)
If Candlemas be fair and bright,
Winter has another flight.
If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,
Winter will not come again.
– English saying
Punxsutawney’s first Groundhog Day celebration was in 1886, and though other towns, particularly in the eastern U.S., have Groundhog Day ceremonies, none is nearly as famous as Punsxutawney’s. Some of this may lie with the groundhog’s official name, “Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary”. Still more popularity, and tourists, have come as a result of the movie Groundhog Day. The first official Groundhog Day prediction in Punxsutawney? No shadow – early Spring.
This site has more information about the groundhog itself and about the filming of the movie.
If you are a Groundhog Day movie obsessive like me, you will enjoy this site that breaks down exactly how long Bill Murray’s character, Phil the Weatherman, experiences Groundhog Day in Gobbler’s Knob.
Shadow or no, here’s wishing you a happy remainder of the winter, a ceremony or two, a dash of lore and wonder, and a fruitful spring.
Photos: Aaron Silvers, Creative Commons
Copyright.slowfamilyonline@wordpress. 2011. All Rights reserved
CAIRO — The future of the Arab world, perched between revolt and the contempt of a crumbling order, was fought in the streets of downtown Cairo on Wednesday.
Tens of thousands of protesters who have reimagined the very notion of citizenship in a tumultuous week of defiance proclaimed with sticks, Molotov cocktails and a shower of rocks that they would not surrender their revolution to the full brunt of an authoritarian government that answered their calls for change with violence.
The Arab world watched a moment that suggested it would never be the same again — and waited to see whether protest or crackdown would win the day. Words like uprising and revolution only hint at the scale of events in Egypt, which have already reverberated across Yemen, Jordan, Syria and even Saudi Arabia, offering a new template for change in a region that long reeled from its own sense of stagnation.
“Every Egyptian understands now,” said Magdi al-Sayyid, one of the protesters.
The protesters have spoken for themselves to a government that, like many across the Middle East, treated them as a nuisance. For years, pundits have predicted that Islamists would be the force that toppled governments across the Arab world. But so far, they have been submerged in an outpouring of popular dissent that speaks to a unity of message, however fleeting — itself a sea change in the region’s political landscape. In the vast panorama of Tahrir Square on Wednesday, Egyptians manned makeshift barricades, belying pat dismissals of the power of the Arab street.
“The street is not afraid of governments anymore,” said Shawki al-Qadi, an opposition lawmaker in Yemen, itself roiled by change. “It is the opposite. Governments and their security forces are afraid of the people now. The new generation, the generation of the Internet, is fearless. They want their full rights, and they want life, a dignified life.”
The power of Wednesday’s stand was that it turned those abstractions into reality.
The battle was waged by Mohammed Gamil, a dentist in a blue tie who ran toward the barricades of Liberation Square. It was joined by Fayeqa Hussein, a veiled mother of seven who filled a Styrofoam container with rocks. Magdi Abdel-Rahman, a 60-year-old grandfather, kissed the ground before throwing himself against crowds mobilized by a state bent on driving them from the square. And the charge was led by Yasser Hamdi, who said his 2-year-old daughter would live a life better than the one he endured.
“Aren’t you men?” he shouted. “Let’s go!”
As the crowd pushed back the government’s men, down a street of airline offices, banks and a bookstore called L’Orientaliste, Mr. Abdel-Rahman made clear the stakes.
“They want to take our revolution from us,” he declared.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition force, has entered the fray. In a poignant moment, its followers kneeled in prayer at dusk, their faces lighted by the soft glow of burning fires a stone’s throw away. But Mr. Abdel-Rahman’s description of the uprising as a revolution suggested that the events of the past week had overwhelmed even the Brotherhood, long considered the sole agent of change here.
Dignity was a word often used Wednesday, and its emphasis underlined the breadth of a movement that is, so far, leaderless. Neither the Brotherhood nor a handful of opposition leaders — men like Mohammed ElBaradei or Ayman Nour — have managed to articulate hopelessness, the humiliations of the police and the outrage at having too little money to get married, echoed in the streets of Palestinian camps in Jordan and in the urban misery of Baghdad’s Sadr City. For many, the Brotherhood itself is a vestige of an older order that has failed to deliver.
“The problem is that for 30 years, Mubarak didn’t let us build an alternative,” said Adel Wehba, as he watched the tumult in the square. “No alternative for anything.”
The very lack of an alternative may have given rise to the uprising, making the street the last option for not only the young and dispossessed but also virtually every element of Egypt’s population — turbaned clerics, businessmen from wealthy suburbs, film directors and well-to-do engineers. Months ago, despair at the prospect of change in the Arab world was commonplace. Protesters on Wednesday acted as though they were making a last stand at what they had won, in an uprising that is distinctly nationalist.
“He won’t go,” Mr. Mubarak’s supporters chanted on the other side.
“He will go,” went the reply. “We’re not going to go.”
The word “traitor” rang out Wednesday. The insult was directed at Mr. Mubarak, and it echoed the sentiment heard in so many parts of the Arab world these days — governments of an American-backed order in most of the region have lost their legitimacy, built on the idea that people would surrender their rights for the prospect of security and stability. In the square on Wednesday, protesters offered an alternative, their empowerment standing as possibly the most remarkable legacy of a people who often lamented their apathy.
Everyone seemed joined in the moment, fists, batons and rocks banging any piece of metal to rally themselves. A man stood on a tank turret, urging protesters forward. Another cried as he shouted at Mr. Mubarak’s men. “Come here!” he said. “Here is where’s right.” Men and women ferried rocks in bags, cartons and boxes to the barricades. Bassem Yusuf, a heart surgeon, heard news of the clashes on television and headed to the square at dusk, stitching wounds at a makeshift clinic run by volunteers.
“We’re not going to destroy our country,” said Mohammed Kamil, a 48-year-old, surging with the crowd. “We’re not going to let this dog make us do that.”
From minute-by-minute coverage on Arabic channels to conversations from Iraq to Morocco, the Middle East watched breathlessly at a moment as compelling as any in the Arab world in a lifetime. For the first time in a generation, Arabs seem to be looking again to Egypt for leadership, and that sense of destiny was voiced throughout the day.
“I tell the Arab world to stand with us until we win our freedom,” said Khaled Yusuf, a cleric from Al Azhar, a once-esteemed institution of religious scholarship now beholden to the government. “Once we do, we’re going to free the Arab world.”
For decades, the Arab world has waited for a savior — be it Gamal Abdel-Nasser, the charismatic Egyptian president or even, for a time, Saddam Hussein. No one was waiting for a savior on Wednesday. Before three decades of accumulated authority — the power of a state that can mobilize thousands to heed its whims — people had themselves.
“I’m fighting for my freedom,” Noha al-Ustaz said as she broke bricks on the curb. “For my right to express myself. For an end to oppression. For an end to injustice.”
“Go forward,” the cries rang out, and she did, disappearing into a sea of men.
Monday, during a news conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu noted that while the main cause of unrest doesn’t stem from radical Islam, such forces could take over a country in turmoil. The next day he said – in a closed-door diplomatic-security consultation — that Israel supports advancing free and democratic values in the Middle East, but warned that neither would be achieved if radical forces are allowed to exploit the processes and take power.
President Shimon Peres also spoke in this vein, advising the world to study the results of the pressure for free elections that brought Hamas rule to Gaza but not a single day of democracy to Gazans since. “Democracy is not just elections because if you elect the wrong people, you bring an end to democracy.” True democracy, he said, starts the day after elections, in ensuring the people’s human rights and welfare.
These messages are intended for the West, whose pressure on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has been successful, whether by design or miscalculation, to the point where results could be out of the comfort zone for Israel and others.
The question is, who needs to do what about it.
Israel’s having — or thinks it is — one of those “told you so” moments, which it’s trying to be rather mature about. But these are short-lived and one can’t bask — or wallow — in them for long. Sooner or later, you need to get back to work.
And work means the peace process.
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni said Tuesday that Israel needs to take dramatic action that will end the conflict with the Palestinians; this will help moderate regimes in the region. Netanyahu also sees a lesson in regional unrest for the peace process, but a different one. The possibility of here-today-gone-tomorrow alliances – he often nods to both Iran and Turkey as examples — proves security is the key to peace. Security is imperative, Netanyahu says, to sustain any peace achieved through direct negotiations and keep it in place, “should the peace unravel.”
News conferences with Merkel served Israeli leaders an opportunity to address Egypt, Iran and the peace process, but she wasn’t just an extra. Given recent events, she said, it is urgent to accelerate the peace negotiations. After meeting with Peres, Merkel said peace between Israel and the Palestinians “must ensure security for Israel, define the borders of the Palestinian state and resolve other core issues on the agenda.” Meeting with students at Tel Aviv University, where she received an honorary doctorate, Merkel was more direct. You are missing a historic opportunity now, Merkel said, and ”history will not give you many more.”
The peace process will be on the agenda of the so-called quartet, scheduled to meet in the coming days. While members try to come up with a way to revive the negotiations, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat is urging them to recognize a Palestine within the 1967 borders, according to media reports. This is the current vein of Palestinian diplomatic strategy but also taps into current events, with rights and democracy in the air.
Back to the regional flux. The time has come to start preparing for a new regional order, said an editorial in the Haaretz newspaper Tuesday. “Instead of clinging to the old, collapsing order, Netanyahu must seek peace agreements with both the Palestinians and with Syria in order to make Israel a more welcome and desirable neighbor,” it advised.
***********************
With “stability” this week’s buzzword, the single-most stable fixture in Israel is expressly unstable these days. Tuesday evening, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak canceled the appointment of Yoav Galant, who was supposed to take over as military chief of staff mid-February, putting an end to a long saga. Yair Naveh has been tapped with a temporary two-month appointment, during which authorities will go back to the drawing board to select the chief of staff. Though not a surprise under the circumstances, the precedent is still a shocker and army sources say the military is being weakened at a most dangerous time. Perhaps it won’t necessarily change anything in the big picture but together with other things, it’s not adding any joy in Mudville tonight.
– Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem
Copyright. 2011. The Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved
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