text:
they come when you least expect it, but somehow find your soul in the right place to receive the message
if it were necessary to sit a qualification exam prior to owning and riding a race bike, it would likely not be too far-fetched to consider the following as one of the questions: are legends born or are they created? discuss. if the same query were applied to the world of pop music, it would be a simple answer, for few are the legends who appear from the swamp, so to speak. simon cowell is responsible for most.
the fortunate incumbent required to sit this metaphorical exam, however, need only avail themselves of the rare, yet magnificent volume 'henderickx's non-illustrated survey of cycling history' (vol73, no 17), a sizeable, faux leather bound tome that contains many a forgotten or hitherto unknown gem regarding the beautiful sport. where else would one learn of the incident concerning eddy merckx and that emperor penguin? and it is surely a curious conclusion to that tale that such a bird never once made a repeat appearance.
but it is around 1973 that the concept of the agonist surfaced in conjunction with the realm of road-racing. agonism was not only known prior to the early seventies, but in many cases, celebrated as an integral feature of the confirmed sportsman, linked clearly to the kapeletti family who, surprisingly enough were wont to distance themselves from the association. as the saying goes, there's nowt so queer as folk.
the kapeletti's denial of any participation in the almost clandestine succor affair led to its being dismissed as purely apocryphal, but were that truly the case, it is difficult then to explain the rise and subsequent obscurity of the agonists known to be competing in the beautiful sport. consider too, the mythical jersey design that formed a part of the short-lived history of the kapeletti cycling team competing in 1973. avoiding, deliberately or otherwise, the modern day fascination for designing by committee or focus group, this legendary team apparel has assumed a level of fame that has outstripped that of the legendary cycle team.
though many a rider (six, in fact) of the kapeletti period went on to success in the one-day classics and monuments of the sport, along with a further three who took victory in the grand tours, to a man, they despised the jersey foisted upon them on the morning of their first race. however, as alex dowsett has given voice in the comic this past week, when turning professional, a rider gives up almost all notion of equipment or clothing preferences. the kapeletti family loved it.
however, the fact that the jersey may as well not have existed, considering that no end of research by henderickx in the composition of volume 73 of his historical survey has unearthed a single photograph, and even had that been the case, as an non-illustrated survey, we'd have no way of viewing it in any case. this is, however, but a diversion. cycling, though often described in europe as the sport of the working man, has its existential side. were this not the case, we'd hardly have paid lip-service to the agonists. for it is all but impossible to recognise one of their number amongst the peloton. despite agonism having at one time infiltrated the pelotonese to a substantial extent, there were still many thundering across the country roads of central europe who thought of themselves simply as bike racers.
were that the case, and i would be the first to agree that there is much evidence to support such a simplistic theory, we surely would not have the classics and monuments of the sport? other than geographical location, each race would be essentially the same; none would differ greatly apart from the number of left turns as opposed to those veering to the right. agonism, and all that such an epithet entails, rasies mere competition from such a base level to something altogether more celebratory, bringing many to the status of legends. when put like that, does it not make so much more sense?
the jersey is now all that remains of the 1973 kapeletti team, or at least, the legend of its creation. though reviled and mocked by many, including the poor unfortunates who had no option but to compete in its colours, the intervening forty years have now conferred the status of genius upon it.
should you find yourselves with a few moments (or hours) at your disposal, perhaps we could also share a few words regarding artur kapeloshivsky's theories of frame atmospherics. with carbon frame design and construction surely reaching the pinnacle of its development, kapeloshivsky's search to quantify the compositional differences of the air occupying the frame tubes of famous and successful cyclists, is surely worth a moment or two of your time?
agonism has many yet unexplored facets.
i am indebted to the publishers of 'henderickx's non-illustrated survey of cycling history' (vol73, no 17) for permission to go off on a tangent of my own making while referencing this essential publication.
kapelmuur independent
more of the folding stuff
in 2009, i visited the fair village of portland, during which i was introduced to a sizeable number of the town's frame-builders by my voluntary tour guide for the occasion, the inestimable mr chris distefano. the extent of his graciousness stretched as far as being driven to the airport on a saturday morning, briefly interrupted by a visit to courage cycles, the compact and bijou workshop of which occupied a garage at the rear of aaron hayes' home. his work is/was delectable, and the rather fine dark blue courage bicycle leaning against the workbench featured those shiny connectors that allow the breaking down of a conventional frame for ease of transport.
a folding bike jim, but not as we know it. and that, quite frankly has been the awkwardness that has dogged the folding bike market almost since its inception.
i have reviewed a couple of folding bikes on the post in past years; one from brompton and the other a bright yellow example from dahon. though i wish no disrespect to either manufacturer, both gave the distinct impression that the folding mechanism had been the prime consideration, with the bicycle part coming a distant second. the brompton folded in a different manner to that of the dahon, but it is perhaps something of an obvious necessity that some of the strength lost through having split the tubing in half and welded on a hunking great hinge, needed to be restored. and this restoration seemed to me at least, to have added one or two pounds to the entire edifice.
and while it would be a foolish person (unless you're michael hutchinson) that expected a folding bike to ride like a colnago, a modest degree of resilience wouldn't have gone amiss. but those little twenty or sixteen inch wheels are not truly built for speed, and drop bars rarely fold well. add to that the likelihood of shimano di2 or campag eps becoming available for the folding market anytime soon, and we must surely accept that a folding bike is a folding bike is a folding bike.
or is it? and does it have to be?
montague bikes of cambridge, massachusetts are demonstrably not bromptonesque in their thinking. backed by some mit thinking, they have a unique take on the methodology of taking a full-size, 700c wheeled bicycle and folding it in half. but they have now taken even that just a small step further and introduced a hitherto unseen level of customisation. not to the method of folding, you understand, but to the componentry the customer can now specify to hang from his/her folded racing bicycle. granted, their top of the range fit is unlikely to trouble the uci's minimum weight restriction arriving at a healthy 12kg, give or take a gram or two, but every folding bicycle has to encompass a compromise or two somewhere in its make-up.
as montague's marta choya stated "With the new framesets, riders can build a full size folding bike, with any off the shelf components they like, and still easily fold their custom bike for the car trunk, closet, or public transportation". the custom program includes three different frame styles: a single speed with horizontal dropouts, a road bike with carbon fork, and a hard-tail mountain bike. montague is now taking orders for frames which will ship next month. montague's product manager, jonathan vandenberg was keen to point out, "Montague frames are compatible with a wide variety of industry standard components, so they're easy to customise. For our 25th Anniversary, we decided it was time to offer fully custom builds for folding frames."
despite the company being based in massachusetts, montague folding bicycles are available in the uk and across europe via their appointed distributor, 2x2 worldwide who are based in tamworth, staffordshire. as more and more people start to look seriously at adding one or two bicycles to the household, necessities such as storage and transport are going to impinge far more than is likely the case for the pelotonese, and more than just one or two of those potential customers are going to be more impressed with a full-size bicycle than that of the more commonly sized folder. add the option of speccing it just the way sir bradley would have it, and it does look like an idea whose time has most definitely arrived.
in a foldable sort of way.
montague folding bikes usa | montague folding bikes uk
it's a classic
earlier this week, animator and illustrator richard mitchelson put out a call to arms on twitter for favoured sayings or mantras used in cycling situations. though i tendered just a couple, one was a variation on a more common saying, my derivative of which is "some days you get the mountain, and some days the mountain gets you". i think it relatively self-explanatory. an excellent example of the latter part of that saying took place today, as many of us rejoiced at the commencement of the one day road-race battles in central europe.
now referred to in its contemporary, yet linguistically challenging name as omloop het nieuwsblad (or het nosebleed as i find it easier and more humorous to refer), the race itself first ran in 1945 as omloop het volk, organised by the newspaper het volk in answer to the tour of flanders. the latter, far more well-known race, first run in 1913 had become the property of het volk's newsprint rival, the previously mentioned het nieuwsblad. i'm sure you can see where this is going and why it fulfils the "some days the mountain gets you" part of the equation, for in 2000, both newspapers merged for economic reasons and explaining why we now have a classics road race that is all but impossible to pronounce.
but if one so-called spring classic were not enough, on sunday (24th) there's a second bite at the cherry with kuurne-brussels-kuurne, a race which also commenced in 1945. the existence of both races as back to back events is a single factor in providing the pelotonese with the superb sense of cycling heritage that inhabits a whole gamut of grainy black and white photographs and years of anecdotal deeds of derring do. the latter have perhaps less to do with reality and more to do with the limited communications technology available to the journalists of those early days. a bit like watching highlights of tour stages on itv4, though we now have ned boulting to fill in the gaps from actual footage, in the forties and fifties, more often than not, necessity was the mother of invention, with the emphasis heavily weighted on the invention.
yet despite wall to wall internet, and relatively easily accessible footage of these historical yet modern one-day classics, and presumably a larger audience than was once the case, they seem not to have lost one iota of their attraction. and yet again, as seems endemic in modern culture, there is a screamingly obvious contradiction, one that i have mentioned on more than one previous occasion.
as the well-aged roads used for the classics degrade, with the possible exception of the pave in paris-roubaix, they are repaired with the benefit of modern techniques and materials, most of which do not include cobbles. thus, when faced with a cobble strewn ascent or even flat stretch of road, the majority of riders opt for the smoother and more contemporary gutters that border their way ahead. and who can blame them? well, it seems that we can, for did we not switch on to see towering strength in the face of cobbled adversity? you bet your sweet bippy we did. so how dare they ride at the roadside when we had all hoped to see some serious grovelling over uneven surfaces.
yet, topically enough, and a conversation in which i played no small part, the banter round the office on friday morning was of the parlous state of islay's roads. for there are many singletracks out towards the west on which there is little or no evidence of the original road surface whatsoever. most of them resemble the pair of jeans i owned at art college; patchwork all over, apart from the pockets. why is it that the council have not seen fit to apportion the millions required to have them billiard table smooth? do they not realise how uncomfortable they are when riding a bicycle?
i think it's called double standards, for though the chaps being admonished on the telly are being paid for the luxury of being both shaken and stirred, if you were amongst their ranks, are you telling me you wouldn't look for the smooth stuff too?
by now we'll all be aware of the winner of het nosebleed and can look forward to kbk after the sunday morning ride, during which i will endeavour to avoid every smooth part of road in my path. which, to be perfectly honest, won't be a particularly onerous task.
as we say on twitter #springclassicsyeah (and the man in the red tights won)
hearts and champions
several of children that mrs washingmachinepost looks after on a daily basis are at the stage of their life careers where sheets of paper, felt-tip pens, crayons and pencils are front and centre for many of the days' enjoyable activities. there have been pictures of boats and helicopters, dinosaurs are a confirmed favourite because it's fun to make the associated roars, cars and planes and many another item that is seen as fair game for the purposes of rudimentary illustration. in all the time ascribed to such graphic activity, never once to my knowledge, has any child attempted to draw a bicycle.
as one with a modest degree of artistic ability, a personal attribute that is known to one or two of the children, i am regularly besieged by cries of 'draw me something brian'. you won't be in the least surprised to learn that most of my initial attempts on paper or megasketcher are geared firmly towards that of the velocipede. yet, i need only commence drawing two circles and one of them already has their tiny paw on the lever that clears the drawing from the grey screen.
if kids are generally so enthralled with bicycles, why are they so averse to drawing them?
my current theory, based purely on partial observation, is that they're simply too hard to render with any coherent degree of skill. let's face it, lacing 32 spokes three-cross into a rim is a hard enough technical exercise for the uninitiated adult; you can imagine how much more difficult it might be for the under fives to draw one. and can anyone of that age be expected to know on which side of the frame the chainset appears? plus, racing cars, helicopters and dinosaurs are so much more exciting at that age.
however, there is no doubt that, for the practised artist, drawing a verisimilitude of a bicycle is something of a towering achievement. despite my proffered artistic skill (such as it is), i very much doubt i could apply it to the sight of a speeding racer or, in fact, a stationary bicycle. like many an intriguing object, it all looks a lot simpler than reality will demonstrate, and i have the greatest of admiration for those who maintain the bicycle as the principal object of their artistic endeavours.
such as david atkinson, for example.
currently a resident of kitchener in ontario's waterloo region, about 100km west of toronto in canada, david's palmares consists of some quite excellent paintings of riders, jerseys, caps and cycling related ephemera that would suitably enhance any wall within viewing distance of the archetypal cycling obsessive. like me for instance. such is the integrity of his illustrations, that he must surely have had an artistic training that contributed to such technical prowess? so is he college trained, or just simply darned good at it?
"I've designed and drawn throughout my life. I didn't study art in college but I did have a very inspiring art teacher in high school. I've learned and continue to learn the necessary skills along the way."
but if i might return briefly to my original point, that, since bicycles augmented with speeding riders, are hardly the simplest of objects to accurately or even impressionistically depict, why eschew the joys of landscape, portrait or still life in favour of the bicycle? even artists have to think carefully about the commercial aspect of their careers, compromising between artistic speciality and the ready, willing and able market to which the results might be sold. so why, for david atkinson, is it all about the bicycle?
"Hmmm... I imagine the magical childhood experience of learning to ride a bike and the adventure which consequently unfolds of seeing life from a bicycle must have something to do with my current artistic fascination. As I grew up, the simple thrill of bicycle riding was enhanced by my discovery of bicycle racing. My older brother had saved up his dollars and purchased a custom built Bertrand racing bike. He also conjured up a small portable television and negotiated permission (we grew up in a household with no television) for us to watch the Race Across America and ABC's coverage of the Tour De France. In this newfound world of television images and high tech racing machinery the thing that really caught my artist's eye was my brother's replica La Vie Claire jersey. I was a big fan of the bold designs of Piet Mondrian. So began my continuing fascination with the designs and visual appeal of bicycle riding and racing.
"I remained a spectator more or less until much later on (1999) when I started riding for fitness, pleasure, adventure and escape. My interest grew to a sort of fanaticism over a decade of "training" and eventually I found myself racing for one season (2009) in the Ontario Cup series. I now have many thousands of kilometres of road riding experience which feeds into the feel of my bicycle paintings and has created a habit of looking regularly at the world of bicycles."
apple computer was, at one time, infamous for its not invented here stance. if the chaps at 1 infinite loop had not brought the item to the table, they weren't interested in adding it as a string to their bow. it is a dalliance that affects many walks of personal and commercial life, and one that easily assumes a disproportionate affectation for the practising artist. does one wish to be at the behest of others, compromising one's artistic stance in the service of the filthy lucre, so to speak? however, economic reality down the centuries has meant that even the great masters were often beholden to their patrons, stylising their subject matter to suit the vanity of their patrons. does david prefer to live by the fruits of his own engendered labour, or do commissions feature large in the portfolio of hearts and champions?
"I love to work on commissions. I have lots of experience in graphic design and enjoy the challenge of using my hand/eye skills to incorporate someone else's concepts and visions into a strong visual reality."
cynics that we undoubtedly were when learning our trade at art college, that it wasn't too long before one or two of us sussed that appending the words 'mixed media to the little card accompanying any work for exhibition, garnered it a faux artistic importance that it doubtless was undeserving of. though it remains a truism that many works are indeed conducted in mixed media, does atkinson have any preferences as to that which constitutes his work?
"I am interested in working in any media. I was recently commissioned to create a sculpture incorporating five used ZIPP 404 carbon tubular wheels . My original set of 'Hearts and Champions' paintings are made with acrylic underpaintings and finished with oil paint and spray enamels."
in my second year at college, there was a guy very much out of step with what passed for the accepted college mode of painterly output. he was in his final year of study and had opted to make photo-realism the object of his research, using airbrushes, acrylics and all manner of devices to render paintings that were almost indistinguishable from the photographs from which he worked. fabulous though they were, several of us could not quite comprehend why anyone would put so much effort into reproducing an image that already sat before him, and had taken but a fraction of a second to create.
however, it has to be said that there is a sizeable audience for those with the prowess to demonstrate an unparalleled technique of almost photographic reproduction. almost as many, in fact, as the number of artists who would be seriously offended if asked had they worked from photographic imagery. would david be offended if one such as i, enquired whether he worked from photographs?
"I do use photography in my process. In my teenage years I became interested in photography and was fascinated with taking photographs of the TV screen. I continue to experiment with the unique characteristics of photographs taken of live action on a computer monitor. For my paintings of pro races I'll watch the live internet feed and shoot as the action happens. The final painted images include not just my impressions of watching racing but also the experience of watching it from afar through the artistic eyes of the TV camera operators and the moto drivers. Locally I sometimes take my GoPro camera on rides and shoot hand held video footage of riders and scenery. I then review the footage as it plays and shoot still photos in the same manner I do with the race coverage. In both cases the resulting images are used as a starting point for my paintings."
painters such as leon kossoff and frank auerbach produce works of thick impasto that can often take years to realise, continuously scraping off each layer of paint before reworking the image until it satisfies their sensibilities. are david's works the result of painstaking hours at the canvas, or do the images resolve themselves a little more prudently?
"My level of interest in painstaking details seems to vary with each individual piece. In general I am most pleased when my art has a strong "feeling" to it. (of course this is subjective) Often the details that I spend more time with are of a graphic and compositional nature. I'm not sure if the results would be described more as expression or impression but in the end the experience is all happening in the viewer."
the disclaimer at the top of thewashingmachinepost rather firmly states that this is a website concerning itself pretty much solely with the world of the bicycle, a stance that i am more than comfortable with, even if i do have a tendency to digress every once in a while. the imagery prevalent on hearts and champions is also predominantly concerned with the bicycle. does he prefer to inhabit the world of cycle racing, or is there latitude to encompass other schools of thought? and does he, at the same time, see an evolution to his work, or are there self-imposed restraints?
"I suppose my artistic influences would come from just about any art that I have seen. As a child I spent a lot of time looking at picture books of many different artists. I notice that interesting artistic styles and visuals from life around me seem to make appearances in my work so I guess my experience of influence is that it's continuous and ongoing. Evolution seems unavoidable. Choices are made along the way to try working in one way or another but restraint doesn't come to mind. I like to dive into a project and find out what it demands and enjoy what appears in front of me. Practical tips from other people and newly discovered art materials are always influential too. Life is the influence. All of it."
ultimately, every successful artist has to come to terms with the need to exhibit. whether that is viewed as a necessary evil or, indeed, the very raison d'etre of those long hours in the studio depends a great deal on each individual's personality. in this age of the interweb, it is perfectly possible to simply show one's wares in pixelated format, relying on paypal for the monthly stipend. david atkinson is currently showing at the mercury espresso in toronto; is this something he views as part of his metier, or would he prefer to remain comfortable in the confines of his studio?
"I really enjoy exhibitions. They are exciting to prepare for. I hope to keep that going continuously. Exhibitions give me a chance to meet people, which provides some variety and contrast to the quiet studio hours. I will be taking the bike paintings around the Ontario race circuit this year and also introducing some handmade posters, prints and a line of t-shirts based on my paintings."
and finally, almost as a follow on from the naming conventions of rock bands such as led zeppelin, pink floyd and toad the wet sprocket, a website can adopt any moniker its protagonist sees fit, whether the resulting name has any audible or visual semblance to the site's content. i might offer up thewashingmachinepost as a pertinent example. in atkinson's case, why hearts and champions?
"Hearts and Champions' came to me in a very simple way one day as I was working on the original set of paintings. A heart shaped stencil I'd made was sitting next to a board on which I had painted the famous world champion stripes. The story started to fill in. The "Hearts" refers to the common element and the metaphorical centre of every human. The "Champions" refers to the sporting side of bike riding and the mythical stories of competition and racers. The slogan "We Ride The Same Roads" ties it all together. Because both champions, pleasure riders, and commuters literally ride the same roads and share the same heart we have a unique opportunity to mingle on and off bikes and share our experiences of the ride and life."
the paintings of david atkinson can be viewed online at heartsandchampions.cc. photos of all the images are by aaron schwab whose own work can be seen at aaronschwab.ca
friday 22nd february 2013
i was asked to design a poster the other day. actually, that's not strictly true, for in truth it was an advertisement for inclusion in the programme for a forthcoming event. text and pictures were duly e-mailed through, along with the information that the programme was heading to the printer's the following day, so i would really need to complete the advert pretty much immediately. nothing quite like being given a dod of liebensraum.
were it not enough of an imposition that work had to be undertaken with deadlines looming, there were added instructions asking me to send a copy prior to the final instance being sent to the printer.
naturally enough, there were dimensions to be adhered to, dimensions that were not supplied by the client (no change there then), but fortunately the amount of text left a reasonable amount of room for manoeuvre. so, under duress, i completed the artwork and duly sent a copy to the client for any alterations and sign-off. and it's at this point that the contradiction crept in.
one of the iniquities of the ubiquitous powerpoint is the conditioning that any sort of a list ought to be preceded with bullet points. this may be perfectly acceptable when beamed onto an off-white wall in some anonymous conference room, but it sure as heck isn't the ideal graphical solution for printed matter, advertisement or no advertisement.
i had, therefore, removed every last bullet point from the client's original copy, and increased the line spacing between each feature in the list to accentuate their differences. though hardly cutting edge, the end result looked not unpleasant. however, the message on return asked to have the bullet points reinstated (aaargh) and the spacing between each item decreased on the basis that 'there's nothing wrong with a bit of white space'
now perhaps it's just me, but does that not strike you as a contradiction in terms? for surely, if i remove space from between each line, the apparent white space will be decreased, rather than increased? however, i should be careful who and what i criticise, for in truth, i am about to be totally contradictory myself.
a couple of days ago, my digital version of peloton magazine arrived in my inbox (well, actually the link arrived rather than the digital publication itself. sorry to be pedantic). though we've yet to make it as far as march, the cover bar code includes the legend april 2013, a feature of many a publication i have yet to comprehend. however, chronological bizarreness aside, it is in fact, a rather fine issue, including as it does an interview with tom boonen and jeremy powers and taylor phinney, accompanied by a distinctly classics theme.
did i ever mention how much i like the spring classics?
anyway, my contradiction concerns itself not with the editorial contents of the magazine, but that of one of the advertisements; for the latest assos ladies jersey, an item referred to in a rather attractive script by the name s5.ladyellisse, strangely missing a word space between lady and ellisse. someone else with a powerpoint fascination; intercaps.
quite why the young lady in the photo is wearing spray-on black latex trousers and high-heeled shoes along with the s5.ladyellisse jersey is quite beyond my ken. though i find the jersey design somewhat less than attractive, that is surely an entirely subjective statement not necessarily transferable to any adjacent observer. i have no idea whether the female pelotonese will find this paricular selection of colours appropriate for their velocipedinal activities or not, nor do i know whether its presentation will be found pertinent to the female sporting aspiration.
happy to lay myself open to accusations of ignorance, i find it a rather sexist means of advertising, but i'm willing to take advice from counsel.
however, the contradiction is surely to be found in my described dismissiveness. for though i think the presentation to be entirely wrong in so many different ways, other than the two page advertisement for sram red in the same publication, this is the only one that truly caught my attention. perhaps for all the wrong reasons, but it caught my eye nonetheless. and correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't that exactly what an advert is supposed to do?
and were it not sufficient to proffer individuality in advertising, i might quote from the assos website regarding this particular design series. "The featured graphics are unusual compared to what we are accustomed. Let it grow on you. It will all make sense. The colors and names selected have been inspired by great operas, except the Moussa. Its featured color is what the fashion world and textile industry have established as the color of the year. This color of the year decision process is taken by a select group of influential individuals who meet once a year in a secret place in France to discuss trends and technologies. When the day is over, the color decision is formulated and the color of the (coming) year is announced. When you wear the Moussa, you show that you are on the cutting edge."
pretentious? moi?
i dare say the chaps and chapesses in san pietro di stabio would tell me to go sponsor myself.
assos cycle clothing
thursday 21st february 2013
i have been remiss. in fact, my remissiveness has reached almost criminal proportions, for i have barely wiped a bicycle tube clean since the new year dawned over islay. i can recall the day when each bike ride would have ended with my grabbing a sponge and soapy water to drench the velocipede and restore it to its former shiny glory. however, i figure my location is extreme and remote enough, that if we promise to keep this to ourselves, perhaps no-one need suffer indictment.
there has, however, been such an unbroken chain of crap weather almost all of this year, that the last thing on my, or anyone else's mind has been to divest myself of weather-beaten garments and once more enter the fray to apply the same care and attention to the bicycle as i would wish upon myself. for were miss kirstein of sugar wheelworks fame to happen by of a sunday afternoon (unlikely, i know, but i like to think of it as dramatic licence), she would have been aghast at the highly inappropriate state of each and every spoke on that tied and soldered chris king rear wheel.
rather than the brilliant shine that a set of stainless steels really ought to offer the innocent bystander, these appeared as if coated with a coarse matt black substance which, in truth, they were. however, one can bear only so much embarrassment; it is beyond the pale to spout forth the pelotonic dialect at each and every opportunity, all the while concealing the skeleton in the closet. eventually, something had to give, and that moment happened on one day earlier this week.
there's no doubt that, as is reputedly the case for the professional mechanic, lashings of soap and water would have had the desired effect, but in this particular case, i enlisted the aid of that morgan blue chap who so kindly supplied chamois cream only moments ago. this assistance was two-fold, stage one living up to the descriptive colour in the shape of a one litre bottle of clear blue liquid bike wash.
according to the instructions imprinted on the label, one ought to splash 100ml into ten litres of water. however, rather than an entire fleet of bicycles, i had only one chris king cielo clamped within the workstand, and such a quantity seemed a tad excessive for my requirements. so i resorted to guesswork. filling a bucket half full of warm water, i added a couple of capfuls of bike wash to move onto the next part of the equation. unfortunately, it seems my guesswork is not metric in intent, and i ended up with rather more bubbles than i'd bargained for.
however, an excess of foam is never a truly iniquitous problem, for i think it likely the bike can only be cleaned skin deep. mrs twmp's childminding kids would have enjoyed the overabundance of bubbles. since the agricultural nature of the island is unlikely to keep the frame and now shiny rear spokes in the manner to which they hope to become accustomed, i would surely bear no criticism were i to have stopped at that point. and as a product of belgium, a country i have unilaterally twinned with the hebrides, it would surely be used to the consistency of grit disguising the cycle formerly known as cielo. it may not have resembled sir bradley's tour winning velocipede at each stage start, but it was a darned sight cleaner than had been previously the case.
but morgan blue was not content to leave things as they now were, for cuddling up to the one litre bottle of bike wash, was an aerosol can of bike polish. surely the ideal companion and an inseparable pair? having allowed the frame and odd bits to dry, after removing the remaining soap bubbles, it was a simple matter to spray everything in sight, careful not to get any on the wheel-rims and brake shoes. it is then a simple matter of grabbing a nearby cloth and shining every bit of my beloved bicycle. the results were impressive to say the least.
i have now promised self and morgan blue that i will not allow this situation to repeat. as often as possible, i will use shine as my mantra. and when i get one of those roundtoits, i have every intention of moving onto the next stage, by taking advantage of some morgan blue chain cleaner and lube.
much as i hate the cliche, might i impress upon you to watch this space.
belgium's morgan blue offer their one litre bottle of bike wash for only £9.95 and a 400ml aerosol tin of polish at an rrp of £9.99.
morgan blue | windwave
rotor spray
i'd love to say that 'm not nostalgic, for i think it's probably quite trendy to be of such a mind, but in truth i'm as prone to discussions and thoughts about the good old days as anyone else. in my role as percussionist of the county, i played at a double birthday the other evening, two celebrations that gave cause for concern. one birthday was that of an eighteen year-old and the other a fifty year-old; an incongruous and seemingly unresolvable clash one would have thought.
thus, in the process of hedging their bets, the organising family had booked those of us willing to encourage flailing limbs all across the dance floor in some resemblance of traditional scottish dance, along with a disco comprised of more speakers, amplifiers and lights than possessed by the grateful dead in their heyday. rather surprisingly, it worked remarkably well, a statement that could not, in truth, be applied to the on-stage sound mix.
however, all those speakers and computer controlled flashing lights made me yearn for a nostalgic personality, because that level of thudding bass when the disco took over, all but obliterated the record that was apparently being unidentifiably played. oh for the good old days of motown, stax and parlophone vinyl, where it was technically impossible to cut the grooves wide enough to sustain that painful level of bass response. digital has, in my considered opinion, a great deal to answer for.
and nostalgically speaking there are features of cycling that, if not the subject of subtle degradation, are perhaps no longer to be seen at all. as i'm sure i have mentioned on more than one previous occasion, i have a stunningly hefty, yet rudimentary tool for effortlessly removing the inevitably well stuck fixed cup, once a beloved accompaniment to the square taper bottom bracket. and oh how we revelled in the introduction of the splined isis development, one that inevitably brought with it the requirement for at least one more workshop tool.
few will raise an eyebrow at my recent discovery that the very tool kept for the purpose of removing the crank bolt from a standard square-taper, had not, in fact, been seen for at least a couple of years. and during those 24 months, it has not been missed. crank affixation such as this has entered the annals of history and thus subject to nostalgia.
disc brakes do not, as yet, feature even on the periphery of such thoughts of yesteryear.
as more or less compulsory contemporary affixation on mountain bikes, disc brakes are accepted as the norm. and if the american influence has its way, there may be more of the euro pros on the cyclocross scene swapping cantilevers for at least cable-operated discs come october this year. but meanwhile, the union cycliste internationale have yet to cave in to the inevitable pressure calling for the allowance of discs in road racing circles. i still have my (serious) misgivings over this development, but there's no chance whatsoever that pat mcquaid is going to call asking for my opinion on the subject, so, like everyone else, i'll have to put up with whatever they eventually decide.
however, perhaps in a foretaste of what is to come, those in a better and independent position to prepare have already begun to countenance that which is already a permafix in offroad, a strong likelihood in 'cross and possible hell on earth in the world of professional road racing. a well known hippo, with a highly favourable reputation in all matters pertaining to the cleaning and fettling of comtemporary and vintage bicycles, no matter their individual constitution, has had his eye very firmly on the rotor.
purely in the interests of research i have in my possession a disc brake cleaner, a pre-production sample if you will, which has made its way to thewashingmachinepost workshop for extensive testing.
although on the surface this may appear as a rather irreconcilable quandary, fortuitous circumstances have smiled upon my faux professorship. for though not a single velocipede in my possession has anything other than cantilevers or dual pivot calipers, luck has dictated that i am currently the temporary owner of an hydraulic disc equipped colnago. there will be, in the fullness of time, a rather lengthier dissertation on the efficaly of such rotating perforated steel, but for the time being, the present onus is on keeping them shiny, efficient and protected from the elements.
it would not be unseemly to consider the portended benefits of such a spray-on liquid, for, one would think, even at the speeds managed by yours truly, surely their rotating mass and need of passing a couple of friction pads on a regular basis would keep them free from unwarranted detritus? perhaps so, but one need only power through grit laden puddledom to hear less than subtle scraping for one or two metres after the event; that cannot be good.
and though i'm sure you will read not a word of it in the marketing blurb preparing us for the great disc transition, those rotors squeal like banshees when cold, wet or both. i am insuffciently appraised of disc brake technology to pinpoint the exact reason for this state of affairs. it may indeed be simply the cold and the wet, but for whatever reason, it is publicly embarrassing, especially when riding near ten thousand pounds worth of bicycle. it really ought not to happen in my opinion.
this particular disc spray is as kind to friction brake pads as fairly liquid is to housewifely (or househusbandly) hands. its evaporative qualities mean that it causes no discernible reduction in braking power if even for a matter of mere seconds. secondly, it shines those rotors to the level of a shaving mirror, while removing any stray particles of grit that may have inadvertantly adhered to the surfaces, both back and front (or verse and obverse to be technically correct).
squeal reduction did initially seem to be quite favourable, and perhaps repeated use would make serious inroads to such audible embarrassent. however, i cannot deny that it took only a few cold kilometres and a smattering of puddles to restore volume to full flight. that might just be a cross the professionally hydraulic racer has to bear.
as mentioned above, my review sample exists currently in prototype format only; the label is devoid of instructions for use, though i have my sources. on the surface of it (see what i did there?) this particular disc cleaner is pretty darned toot'n and, if we all shout loudly enough, ought to be coming to a set of rotors near you in the foreseeable future.
perhaps by that time, we'll all be nostalgic for calipers.
purple harry
tuesday 19th february 2013


Okay, this week's shop is a GORGEOUS jewelry shop called The Salty Cat Co. She has modern metal jewelry that's made out of brass, copper, and sterling silver. She also has pretty beaded jewelry made out of gems and pearls. You should check out this shop! I LOVE IT!
This week, The Salt Cat Co is offering up this stunning Bamboo Copper Etched Bracelet as a prize. Wow, I wish I could win! All you have to do is go to The Salty Cat Co store and choose an item to be inspired by. Make any creation and link it to the EtsyInspired challenge blog for THIS CHALLENGE. Entries are due by Friday Oct 2, noon Pacific time. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use keyword EIC55.
In addition to the stunning bracelet, the Unity Stamp Co is sponsoring another prize for this week. One additional winner will win this awesome stamp set, Folk Inspired. The winners will be drawn randomly. What are you waiting for? Go be EtsyInspired!!
I don't have a card for you this week. I feel like death. But check out my awesome DT, they have lots of inspiration!
And as this is our last challenge for September, we say a special thank you and goodbye to Sarah Parker. Sarah, you have been a wonderful addition to our team this month...thank you for sharing your talent with us! You can keep an eye on Sarah and her work by following her blog HERE.
I sure hope you feel better soon, deary!
Take it easy and FEEL BETTER!!!
Take care of yourself & I hope you get to feeling better very soon!
Sending you some energy and hugs! I hope you are feeling better soon!
Sorry that you are feeling bad! Hope you start feeling better really fast.
Hope you feel better soon, Ashley!!!
Congrats on winning the goodies on Katy's blog! Hope this week goes better for you!!
I'm sorry you are feeling good. That is no fun. I do love your new EIC blog! It looks awesome!
Love Dana's store! I referred her to you! Wish I would have gotten to participate in this one!


bioluke (5 years ago) Inappropriate?
You sir are a master of dealing with poke-through. Going through your gallery, I realized a lot of those extreme muscle and curve morphs would be tricky to get clothing to conform to and was in awe.


Euro 2.50 to the Rest of the World. Charges will be higher for larger items or where multiple items increase the weight of the package.
Registration is expensive. I will charge what it costs but it ain't cheap unfortunately..
I will use a varierty of UK stamps on the package. I ABSOLUTELY guarantee delivery and if it is lost in the post it is MY problem.
I will group purchases to reduce shipping costs. I will register items but at customer's expense.
For multiple orders, I will consider discounts. I want you to keep coming back!!
I am a Canadian now living in the South Downs National Park in the United Kingdom. I have worked and lived in the UK, US as well as both East and West Africa. I became a stamp collector at the age of 8. I am a member of the East Africa Study Circle, the Revenue Society and am a 30 year member of the American Philatelic Society (135500).
During high school and university I was a member of the Kiribati Philatelic Society and its successor the Tuvalu and Kiribati Philatelic Society.
After University I worked part time for a few years at John H. Talman a Toronto stamp dealer and auction house.
I have in my life been a member of the Lakeshore Stamp Club, la Ville St Laurent Stamp Club, the Port Credit Stamp Club, The University of British Columbia Stamp Club, the Austin Stamp Club, the Burlingame Stamp Club, the Nairobi Stamp Club.
During my business career I have worked in Canada, the US, UK, Kenya, Tanzania and Sierra Leone.
My passion is African stamps but through my trading often have other countries to sell.
Let's face it I am a stamp nut and a bit of an accumulator, you never know what I might turn up.


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« Talmudic Question #120 | Main | Pictures Considered #25 : Getting A Ride »
Three Roads to Cellular Compartments
by Merry Youle
Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward.
They may be beaten, but
they may start a winning game.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Organelle option #1: The eukaryote way
Figure 1. The old vision: a 'simple' bacterial cell and an 'advanced' animal cell. Source
The contents of our own cells, like those of all eukaryotes, are compartmentalized within a collection of diverse, membrane-bounded organelles. The lipid bi-layer margins, studded with embedded transport proteins, pass some molecules while blocking others. The enzymes that catalyze sequential steps in a metabolic pathway are often clustered together inside a structured organelle, a strategy that increases metabolic efficiency while also protecting the cell from toxic intermediates. Bacterial cells, lacking the intricacies of internal membranes, were long pictured as non-descript hodge-podges, simply bags of enzymes, as if that were the best that four billion years of evolution could achieve. Now we know that is not so. Lipid membranes are not the only way to organize cellular contents, nor are bounding membranes necessary in order to construct functional 'organelles.'
Organelle option #2: Bacterial microcompartments
Figure 2. Transmission electron micrographs of carboxysomes. A Thin section of Synechococcus showing a typical carboxysome (arrowhead). C Thin sections of Halothiobacillus neapolitanus grown in air, showing aggregation of carboxysomes (arrowhead) in the nucleoid region of the cell. Bar = 100 nm. Source
What are these bacterial microcompartments? As explained in a recent review article: Bacterial microcompartments (MCPs) are sophisticated protein-based organelles used to optimize metabolic pathways. They consist of metabolic enzymes encapsulated within a protein shell, which creates an ideal environment for catalysis and facilitates the channeling of toxic/volatile intermediates to downstream enzymes. Each MCP is bounded by a polyhedral protein shell, typically 100 − 200 nm in diameter. Being small and polyhedral, they were mistakenly thought to be phages when first noticed in TEMs of cyanobacteria. The bacterial shell proteins self-assemble into MCPs by forming flat hexameric tiles that then connect to form the mature,multi-faceted particles.
MCPs are widespread in the bacterial world; predicted homologs of the major shell protein have been found in 23 bacterial phyla so far. They are also functionally diverse. Each MCP shell encloses the enzymes of a particular metabolic pathway. Those known as carboxysomes contain RuBisCO and are the sites of carbon dioxide fixation — as much as 25% of the total global activity. A varied group of MCPs, called metabolosomes, carry out the catabolism of an assortment of small organic compounds. Both types of MCP were described in detail in an earlier post.
It takes more than shell self-assembly to build functional MCPs. The right enzymes need to be stationed in their interior, each one positioned for efficient function. This is achieved by assembly itself. Enzymes destined for the lumen bind to specific sites on the appropriate shell proteins prior to shell assembly. They hold on as the shell proteins associate to form the structure, and thus end up encapsulated and attached to the interior surface. The protein shell works more magic; it governs molecular traffic into and out of the MCP. Pores formed by the shell proteins allow small, strongly polar molecules to pass, while blocking less polar or non-polar ones. Sophisticated dynamic gated mechanisms govern transport of some other molecules. In summary, these are highly evolved structures worthy of a place in the bacterial cell.
Organelle option #3: Nanocompartments
Figure 3. A Cryo-EM image of a native encapsulin nanocompartment without (top) and with (bottom) masking out of the electron-dense core. B Sections through the single-particle reconstruction of the native Myxococcus xanthus encapsulin nanocompartment. Bar = 10 nm in A and 25 nm in B. Source
Nanocompartments are also protein-bounded bacterial organelles but smaller — typically 22 − 32 nm in diameter — and unrelated to their larger counterparts. One nanocompartment family, including those characterized in Thermotoga maritima, assemble their shells from the protein encapsulin. Numerous other bacteria may do likewise; an iterative BLAST search of sequenced genomes in 2007 found 49 homologs to T. maritima's encapsulin.
What do these smaller organelles do? One clue came from comparing the neighborhoods where these encapsulin genes are found in several bacterial genomes. These genes are typically part of a two-gene operon along with a gene involved in the oxidative-stress response:either a gene for an iron-dependent peroxidase or for a ferritin-like protein. The similarity to ferritin turned out to be significant. Ferritin forms multimeric 'cages' that store iron and regulate its availability to the cell, and some of these nanocompartments perform a similar function.
Researchers studying Myxococcus xanthus observed a few small, icosahedral structures in vegetatively growing cells. On closer look, these proved to be nanocompartments of the encapsulin family. Each has an icosahedral protein shell (32 nm diameter) constructed from 180 encapsulin monomers. As with the microcompartments, their shells are thin with abundant pores, some lined with charged amino acid residues and others with non-polar residues. The inner surface of the shell contains numerous conserved polypeptide binding sites that interact with C-terminal 'tags' present in the proteins destined for encapsulation. In M. xanthus, two encapsulated proteins with ferritin-like iron binding capabilities attach to these conserved binding sites. The resulting nanocompartments have a dense core containing both iron and phosphorus (approximately 4:1 Fe:Pi). Using STEM (scanning transmission electron microscopy), the researchers estimated that each nanocompartment could store 30,000 iron atoms — an order of magnitude more than the smaller ferritin cages. Impressive indeed!
Figure 4. Encapsulin nanocompartments are upregulated during starvation and protect the cells from oxidative stress in M. xanthus.Oxidative stress response was monitored during exposure to 0.5 mM hydrogen peroxide. D Survival of wild-type (blue curve) and mutant strain with disrupted encapsulin gene (yellow curve; encA::pCR2.1 disruption). E Survival of wild-type (blue curve) and mutant with encapsulin in-frame deletion (orange curve; ΔencA). Source
Why might a bacterium need such iron storage capacity? Although iron is needed for some metabolic enzymes, during oxidative stress it can cause problems by catalyzing the production of damaging hydroxyl radicals through the Fenton reaction. Perhaps these iron-storing nanocompartments might regulate the level of iron in the bacterial cytoplasm to reduce damage from oxidative stress. To test this hypothesis, the researchers deleted or disrupted the encapsulin gene in M. xanthus and then exposed mutant and wild type cells to oxidative stress in the form of 0.5 mM H2O2. Loss of encapsulin reduced the survival rate by more than 50% under their experimental conditions. In another experiment they stressed wild type cells by starving them for amino acids. Here they found no increase in the amount of encapsulin per cell but observed a five-fold increase in the number of nanocompartments. Since protein synthesis was limited by amino acid starvation, it makes sense that the protective response was at the level of assembly and did not require de novo synthesis. (They did not report the effect of starvation on the cellular levels of the two ferritin-like proteins that bind the iron within the nanocompartments.)
Is there a phage lurking somewhere?
Where did these unexpected bacterial polyhedral protein shells originate? Since such self-assembled protein structures are the hallmark of viral capsids, you might suspect that they were a phage invention that was later co-opted by a few particular Bacteria and Archaea. Is there any evidence to support that idea? Not so far for the microcompartments, but yes for the icosahedral nanocompartments. Since the known encapsulin proteins are all homologs, it is not surprising that those compared so far all have the same 3D structure (i.e., fold). However, it is most intriguing that their shared fold is the versatile fold first observed in the lambdoid phage HK97 (family Siphoviridae). That cosmopolitan HK97 fold is used by viruses of all three domains of life. Thus its ancestral form is thought to have arisen very early in the evolution of life, before the divergence of the three domains. Now we find that canny bacteria have co-opted this versatile fold and put it to their own uses. We've seen this sort of bacterial thievery before on STC (e.g., in gene transfer agents and pyocins). In the microbial world there are no laws protecting intellectual property against theft. Although such co-optation is infrequent, successful gene pirates can win big.
(Click to enlarge) Figure 5. Encapsulin proteins from both bacterial and archaeal nanocompartments have the same fold as the major capsid protein of the phage HK97 (Siphoviridae). A Encapsulin from M. xanthus (pdb4PT2); B Encapsulin from Thermotoga maritima (pdb3DKT); C Encapsulin from Pyrococcus furiosus (pdb2E0Z); D Major capsid protein from the HK97 prior to DNA packaging (pdb3E8K); E Major capsid protein from the HK97 capsid after DNA packaging (pdb2FT1). Models are rainbow-colored, with the N-termini of the solved structures in blue and the C-termini in red. T numbers are triangulation numbers; the higher the number, the more protein monomers that comprise each icosahedral face and typically the larger the capsid. T=7 capsids usually require scaffolding proteins for assembly, whereas the T=1 or 3 capsids do not. Source
Postscript: How might a bacterium have stolen capsid from a phage? Perhaps it happened like this… (If terms such as temperate and prophage are unfamiliar to you, refer to an earlier post on lysogeny.)
Once upon a time, a temperate phage, perhaps an ancestor of HK97, took up residence as a prophage in the chromosome of its host. Life there was good for the prophage, albeit slow-paced. The host did all the work including prophage replication, while the prophage in turn thwarted infection attempts by related phages. Then one day disaster struck. The host's DNA replication machinery had allowed a copying error to slip through, an error that destroyed the prophage's ability to excise from the chromosome, thus leaving it stranded there, helpless, never able to infect again. Slowly, over the course of time, its now useless genes would be eliminated as excess baggage by the host. This is a familiar story retold in most bacterial genomes. However, in this particular case capsid proteins were synthesized and were still able to self-assemble in the cytoplasm into a smaller, simpler version of the original phage capsid. Not one to reject manna from heaven, the host put those protein shells to work to store its stash of iron and phosphorus. Soon, via HGT, this trick spread throughout the bacterial world. Then came a day in 1956 when a researcher reported sighting virus-like particles in TEMs of a cyanobacterium, and the story, with further embellishments, is now spreading through the research world. Likely some enterprising nanotechnologist will adapt this protein manna to serve his own purposes. This evolutionary tale is not over yet.
Merry Youle is a phageophilic microbiology writer/editor living on the Big Island of Hawaii and STC blogger emerita.
April 05, 2015 at 09:00 PM in Evolution, Teachers Corner | Permalink

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Ultimate versatility for portrait photography or video work. Our range of Pop Up Backdrops are made from a thick, non-reflective 150gsm cotton muslin and is a solid Black colour on one side and a solid White colour on the other.
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In the fall of 1993, I decided to move to New York City. I had done a lot of research and had some target spots for jam sessions which produced gigs. On top of my list was the Dean Street Café in Brooklyn. I didn't know who was running the session but I knew the routine: go down there, talk my way into playing, then hang out at the bar talking to people to get a gig. That's just how I thought it worked.
When I got to the Dean Street Café, it was a little dive, and people were stacked outside waiting. Inside it was thick with people. I edged in the door, worked my way through the mobs of people, and stood next to the bass player. I listened to a tune or two, then this sax player comes over to me and says, "Hey, you wanna play bass?" He goes to the mic, thanks the last bass player, asks my name, and puts me on the bass.
The first tune they called was "Cherokee." I had just learned that tune but hadn't played it, so I didn't really know it. It was upstairs (which is jazz-speak for crazy fast), and I think there were about twelve sax players and trumpet players, and the piano wanted to solo. Everybody took multiple choruses so I played "Cherokee," upstairs, for maybe half an hour, on my first jam session in New York City. I was Worn Out! Then they changed the drummer and called another tune—and it went on like that for seven or eight tunes. I was on the bass for three hours that night, and I was mad because I wanted to schmooze and meet some people and get some gigs.
I think now that he was throwing me a break by not letting me off the bass, but I wasn't sophisticated enough then to know it.
Fast forward to this spring. Craig Bailey, this veteran saxophonist from New York, is being interviewed for this year's Artist-in-Residence gig in the Jazz Studies faculty. He tells this exact story! So now I know that the hotshot running that jam at the Dean Street Café was none other than Craig Bailey.
I'm thrilled that Craig is joining us this year. What's special about him, besides his deep love for the culture and tradition of jazz, besides his high level improvisational skills—he's a monster player!—and besides his accomplishments writing and arranging for large and small ensembles, what's special is that this guy is a naturally gifted nurturer of musicians. He's the kind of person who is always in that position of helping young musicians learn things, doing outreach shows, sharing his love for the music. As I saw all those years ago at the Dean Street Café, he loves a jam session—he wants to see young people dig in and find their voices.
He's going to be a great addition to our faculty this year. He's a brilliant player—you can hear Cannonball Adderley in him, and Sonny Stitt, and of course Bird's language, but also some Johnny Hodges. He's got some modern language too. His experience with Ray Charles has taught him the value of entertaining—he's got deep pockets in the blues area.
I'm especially looking forward to having him down at The Cool Wednesday Night Hang each week. We always have a great time over there, but I'm sure adding a jam master to the ticket will heighten the experience a few notches. I hope all of you will find yourself free on a Wednesday evening and come down to enjoy the music and the repartee, and support our young musicians as they get ready to fly on their own.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Smile experienced a serious mail server issue this morning. In addition our paging and alert system did not provide alerts. The mail system is repaired, and we are working through our alerting system. This is unacceptable to us here at Smile, and we sincerely apologize. We will be posting more information here as it becomes available.
92 queries in 0.749 seconds.


Is Nerf's biggest and most powerful blaster worth the price?
Dart Warfare is a column dedicated to the review of foam dart weaponry.
Once you feel the heft of Nerf's latest mega dart launcher, the Mastodon, one thing becomes quickly apparent: this is not a toy for children. A child could conceivably convince an adult to spend the 79.99 MSRP on the massive gun, load in the 6 D batteries, and somehow lift the 7.2 pound gun up high enough to fire. However, it's far more likely this monster will sit comfortably in the collection of adults with disposable income and a need to definitively, absolutely, win any Nerf fight in their homes.
First, the technical details: the Mastodon is a huge gun, and at nearly three feet long, it might be the largest Nerf blaster by combined weight and size available (the Centurion comes in at the longest, but is also surprisingly light). It sports an automatic flywheel-style launch system for the mega darts, pulling from a 24 slot rotator drum. The drum itself is loaded individually, versus a removable system like other large capacity blasters. Finally the Mastodon comes with a shoulder strap, right or left handed handle system, and three tactical rails. Nerf claims the gun will hit ranges of up to 100 feet, through rigorous testing by the Geek Taco staff places the average at a still-respectable 70 foot average. It can empty it's full 24 dart payload in just under 10 seconds.
If there is one thing this blaster has going for it, it's intimidation. It's hard to convey just how impressive the gun is, and the menacing sound it makes as it whirls into action. The design is big, bulky, and loud, with a surprisingly comfortable grip and upper handle. Though the main color is the standard Mega Dart Red, there are a few accents in orange and grey that bring a good level of dimension to the aesthetics.
However, most Nerf fans won't be buying this gun for it's looks, so thankfully the Mastodon delivers in raw power. While the Mega darts have always had more power behind them than other nerf guns, the Mastodon takes that to the next level. Within 20 foot ranges, the darts can leave welts, knock over lamps, and generally cause destruction. Like the rest of the Nerf automatic blasters, this power diminishes at about half the range of the dart, so victims at the 50-70 foot range will only feel the normal (if not still powerful) impact of the usual Mega launcher. Due to the open drum, quick reloads are possible, though intense firefights might still necessitate the use of a backup blaster or friend for cover while reloading. Accuracy is surprisingly good, with targets at around 30-40 feet taking over 80% of fired shots, due to the extreme force of the darts.
With it's impressive features, the Mastodon brings along a few issues. The tactical rails are weirdly placed along the top of the gun, putting them in direct conflict with the upper handle. Not that you'll be using a scope or red-dot with the Mastodon, but it would have been nice to match up some add-ons for looks only. Once the upper handle is in place, it is impossible to remove without damaging it, so households with right and left handed gunners will need to pick who gets the most comfort (though the gun can still be fired while being braced on the lower half, this requires a surprising amount of arm strength). Finally, the $80 price tag is too huge to ignore, especially as batteries are not included.
For Nerf warriors looking to equip a heavy weapon that can easily hold down a door or provide cover for more accurate weapons, the Mastodon is a win in almost every category. However, for the casual enthusiast, the price and heft of the blaster might prove too much to handle. It's up to the individual user to determine whether this heavy statement is worth the heavy price.


Distance vision test – a play?
Dear World & Everyone In It is a ground-breaking new poetry anthology presenting the work of over 60 of the most talented and interesting young poets currently writing in the UK. Chosen by one of the country's leading young poetry editors, inspired by American precedents, and growing out of The Rialto's recent series of young poets features curated by Nathan Hamilton, it is the first British anthology to attempt to define a generation through a properly representative cross-section of work and a fully collaborative editorial process.
By drawing on the poets' own recommendations, this anthology represents more effectively and appropriately a new generational mood - hybrid, playful, collaborative, ambitious, inclusive, cooperative. Less top down, more bottom up, it speaks also of other movements in our world, and even ends up challenging parochial notions of Britishness by including overseas poets who live or work here and who have become engaged and influential in the scene.
Avoiding, or ironising, older, oppositional attitudes, Nathan Hamilton introduces his anthology with an essay describing 'this new generation's hybridisation of two aptly ironic and business-sounding "strains" in UK poetics - taxonomised as "product" and "process"'. His lively analysis juxtaposes modernist approaches with those exploring more traditional modes, hoping to bring some of the pleasures of the former to a wider audience.
Dear World & Everyone In It is an indispensable summary or starting map for anyone wanting to explore and enjoy more of the current UK poetry landscape or seeking to better understand what's going on out there.
The poets included are: Rachael Allen, Andrew Bailey, Emily Berry, Ben Borek, Siddhartha Bose, Elizabeth-Jane Burnett, James Byrne, Stuart Calton, Tom Chivers, Tim Cockburn, Becky Cremin, Emily Critchley, Joe Crot, Patrick Coyle, Amy De'Ath, Laura Elliott, Stephen Emmerson, Amy Evans, Ollie Evans, S.J. Fowler, Miriam Gamble, Jim Goar, Matthew Gregory, Elizabeth Guthrie, Emily Hasler, Oli Hazzard, Colin Herd, Holly Hopkins, Sarah Howe, Tom Ironmonger, Meiron Jordan, Katharine Kilalea, Sarah Kelly, Luke Kennard, Laura Kilbride, Michael Kindellan, Agnes Lehoczky, Frances Leviston, Eireann Lorsung, Chris McCabe, Michael McKimm, Fabian Macpherson, Toby Martinez de las Rivas, mendoza, James Midgley, Marianne Morris, Camilla Nelson, Kei Miller, Tamarin Norwood, Richard Parker, Sandeep Parmar, Holly Pester, Heather Phillipson, Kate Potts, Nat Raha, Sam Riviere, Sophie Robinson, Hannah Silva, Angus Sinclair, Marcus Slease, Andy Spragg, Ben Stainton, Keston Sutherland, Jonty Tiplady, Emily Toder, Simon Turner, Jack Underwood, Ahren Warner, Tom Warner, Rachel Warriner, James Wilkes and Steve Willey.


text:
25 Years of Outlook
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Hauteur Balloon
An impassive Modi is of no help in thawing the House freeze
By Vrinda Gopinath
Illustration by Saahil
Vrinda Gopinath	August 17, 2015 00:00 IST Hauteur Balloon
-0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53
"Who was the prime minister when 63 MPs were suspended in March 1989?" asked a desolate Venkaiah Naidu, the voluble Union minister for parliamentary affairs, addressing the media in his office in Parliament, even as the Opposition denounced Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's order suspending 25 Congress MPs for unruly behaviour two days ago. "So, does the Congress believe 25 MPs today is more than 63?" he asked sardonically. Naidu's chagrin hits the sorest point of the Modi government—how did the Congress's 44 MPs take on an absolute government with full majority, the first in 30 years?
If the triumphant Modi government of a year ago believed the crushed Congress and other vanquished Opposition parties would just roll over and die, it was sorely mistaken. It should have known that you have to win the battle in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha for key policies and legislation to be passed. So what if you don't have the numbers in the Upper House, the Raisina Rules clearly lay down how to win friends and influence...
THIS ARTICLE IS PRICELESS...
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Vrinda Gopinath	National	Opinion
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text:
Cratomus is een geslacht van vliesvleugeligen uit de familie Pteromalidae. De wetenschappelijke naam van dit geslacht is voor het eerst geldig gepubliceerd in 1820 door Dalman.

Soorten
Het geslacht Cratomus omvat de volgende soorten:
 Cratomus cancellatus Cockerell, 1916
 Cratomus leucophthalmus Ashmead, 1888
 Cratomus megacephalus (Fabricius, 1793)

Pteromalidae

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
from distutils.core import setup

if __name__ == '__main__':
	import sys

	exec(compile(open("groupdocs/version.py").read(), "groupdocs/version.py", 'exec'))

	setup(
		name = __pkgname__,
		version = __version__,
		author = "GroupDocs Team",
		author_email = "support@groupdocs.com",
		description = "A Python 3 interface to the GroupDocs API",
		keywords = "groupdocs, document management, viewer, annotation, signature",
		license = "Apache License (2.0)",
		long_description = open('README.rst').read(),
		platforms = 'any',
		packages = ['groupdocs', 'groupdocs.models'],
		url = "http://groupdocs.com/",
		download_url = "https://github.com/groupdocs/groupdocs-python3",
		classifiers = [
			"Development Status :: 4 - Beta",
			"Intended Audience :: Developers",
			"Operating System :: OS Independent",
			"Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
			"Topic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python Modules",
			"License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software License"
		],
		data_files=[('', ['README.rst'])]
	)


I guess I should know better than to make plans by now. A friend I hadn't seen for several years dropped by my office yesterday with some tickets to see the Vancouver Canucks play the Colorado Avalanche. I'm not a huge sports fan but I do enjoy watching ice hockey. Probably because 1) It's fast – team's can go from winning to losing, literally in a few seconds of game time 2) It's the first time where my local sports team has actually stood a chance of winning anything 3) I live in Canada It was a great game. The Vancouver Canucks won six to nothing and there were smokies, mini donuts and beer. No work on F Bomb although I did produce an entry for Tuesday Tales 18 – Break. You can find a link to it on the Free Fiction page.


Following the success of our Wales Premiere in Cardiff, FTWW's North Wales screening of the ground-breaking film Endo What? took place on the evening of Wednesday, May 25th 2016. Huge thanks go to Coleg Llandrillo, who provided the venue and refreshments free of charge to attendees – and enabled us to deliver a really informative and empowering event.
We were very pleased to have a full house on the evening, with endometriosis patients and their families; members of the Soroptomists; Llandrillo College's head of Occupational Health; Ysbyty Glan Clwyd's gynaecological clinical lead, and the entire team from Arrowe Park Hospital Wirral's specialist BSGE Endometriosis Centre in attendance.
Following the screening, the floor was opened up to questions, and the Arrowe Park specialist surgeons spent at least an hour discussing symptoms, diagnosis, gold standard treatment, and referral pathways with patients. Indeed, we were happy to hear them confirm all FTWW has been saying about current treatment strategy for this disease, ie: that diagnosis in the primary care (GP) setting continues to take an unacceptably long time, and that, ideally, regular gynaecologists should do no more than take pictures during a diagnostic laparoscopy – and then refer on to a tertiary specialist centre where excision, in a multi-disciplinary setting, can be performed.
FTWW representatives then spent some time chatting with the Arrowe Park team, and are very excited to report that they would very much like to help us to deliver our proposed GP 'professional development' sessions on recognising, diagnosing, and treating endometriosis. To that end, we have some important meetings coming up with representatives of the North Wales health board (Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board) to see how we might progress this provision further.
We will keep you all posted, of course so watch this space!
Thanks to North Wales Pioneer for providing coverage of the event, online and in print.
More photos of the evening on our FTWW Instagram page!


text:
Q: Jquery how to replace a data object on max-width ( flickity ) i'm new here and this is my first question.
I have some galleries with flickity library in a simple page, when is desktop every gallery has 3 pictures per dot sliding every 3 seconds and when the res is set to smartphone the gallery viewport should switches to 1 picture per dot.
So here is the html code:

as you can see there is an object called groupCells 3, that mean, that the gallery will switch 3 cells per time, but if i go in smartphone mode, i need to say to the data attr that groupCells must be 1 when max width is set to 991px
So here is my query:
$(window).resize(function () {
var viewportWidth = $(window).width();
if (viewportWidth < 991) {
        $( ".flick" ).data( "flickity" ).groupCells === "1";
}

});
Of course, won't work.
What's wrong with it?
Thanks for you support!

A: Try this
$(window).resize(function () {
  var viewportWidth = $(window).width();
  var json = $( ".flick" ).data( "flickity" );
  if (viewportWidth < 991) {
    json.groupCells = 1;
    $( ".flick" ).data( "flickity" , json);

  } else {
    json.groupCells = 3;
    $( ".flick" ).data( "flickity" , json);
  }
});

A: Thanks a lot TheBrutalX !! :D I hope this will help someone esle!!
I talked with him directly and we solved this problem in another better way.
This first post works perfectly but the script should be wrote at the end of the html to work properly.
Then, here his solution:

Jquery to start the gallery and resize placed at the end of the html to work properly when resized:
 var slider_setting = {
            cellAlign: 'left',
              contain: true,
              groupCells: 3,
              autoPlay: true,
              wrapAround: true,
              prevNextButtons: false
        };
    $(document).ready(function(){
        $(".flick").each(function(){
            var viewportWidth = $(window).width()
            if (viewportWidth < 991) {
              slider_setting.groupCells = 1;
            } else {
                slider_setting.groupCells = 3;
            }
            $(this).flickity(slider_setting);
        });
    });
    $(window).resize(function () {
        var viewportWidth = $(window).width();
        if (viewportWidth < 991) {
          slider_setting.groupCells = 1;
        } else {
            slider_setting.groupCells = 3;
        }
        $(".flick").each(function(){
            $(this).flickity('destroy');
            $(this).flickity(slider_setting);
        });
    });

Thank you very much TheBrutalx!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


This stunning mirror will bring your living space to life with its handmade tapestry design with feather and macrame detail. This special wall art will bring a beautiful and natural boho vibe to your look. It comes in black or white.
Materials used are 100% natural cotton rope, feathers and glass.
The size of the mirror and detail is a diameter of 55 cm. The glass mirror is a diameter of 20cm.
Please note because this item is handmade, there may be a 3 -5 cm difference in the size measurements. Please allow for this.


Hey, could you tell me where you ordered Vol. 1 + 2? Found Vol. 2 on BBTS Website, available for preorder. Vol. 1 they only sell on Hasbrotoyshop, but it says out of stock, no preorder available. Appreciate your help.


When we are in utero and are infants, we go through stages of development that help us grow both physically as well as mentally. During these stages we naturally do certain physical movements that help us through each stage. We repeatedly do these movements, building muscle and opening pathways to our higher thinking brain, until we no longer need them. These stages are defined by the automatic reflexes that our bodies exhibit, that become inhibited once they are integrated.
A good example is the stage that includes the Tonic Labyrinthine Reflex (TLR). At this stage, from in utero to about 4 months, when placed on his tummy, a child will pick his head up, even though his head is about the same length and weight as the rest of his body. Where does he get the strength? He doesn't have it – it is a reflex that he cannot control. Meanwhile, while he continues to pick his head up, he gains control, builds muscle, and develops neurodevelopmentally. Some of the symptoms of a retained TLR are poor posture, inability to cross eyes, and poor sense of time.
There are six primitive reflexes that I work with, although this is just a subset of all. More information on this subject can be found in the book Reflexes, Learning, and Behavior by Sally Goddard. The primitive reflexes that I work with cover the six groupings of symptoms found below. The names, in order by group, are Moro Reflex, TLR, Spinal Galant, Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR), Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (STNR) and Palmar Reflex.
It takes just minutes a day to integrate these primitive reflexes at any age, beyond the early childhood stage. The exercises need to be done daily, or at least 5 times a week for about a month in order to see a change. I have seen children suddenly understand math, finally being able to memorize and remember, and for the first time being able to write a paragraph on their own. One 10 year old boy, who had embarrassing bedwetting issues, had his first dry week after working on integrating the Spinal Galant.
These reflexes set up the body and mind to be able to handle and work through the next phases in the Pyramid of Potential: the sensory-motor system, the cognitive development, and finally academics. If you are finding that issues are "stuck" then start here!!
In reviewing the above list, if you saw a cluster of 3 or more symptoms in the same group, then there is reason to believe that some stages of neurodevelopment did not happen to a great enough degree. Purchase Maintaining Brains Everyday DVD for a 15 minute exercise video and complete it every day for 30 to 90 days. If you miss a day, add 2 to the end. If you miss a week start over. Changes should be noticed within 2 to 3 weeks. If you have not seen any changes in the above symptoms within 30 days, you may have to look deeper. Although this works for about 80 percent of the people, it is not the silver bullet (nothing is!). Look into Mind and Body Health - nutrition, exercise, anxiety, depression, disease.
Enjoy the exercises! Although I am in my 60s, I still do them!


text:
Q: Calculating a conditional expectation Suppose that $X$ follows a beta distribution with parameters $\alpha > 0$, $\beta > 0$. I want to calculate
$$\frac{\int_c^1 x f(x) dx}{P(X \geq c)} - \frac{\int_0^c x f(x) dx}{P(X \leq c)}$$
for some constant $c \in (0, 1)$.
I have tried the following code. While it works in the $\alpha = \beta = 1$ case, it seems won't run (at least in a reasonable amount of time) in other cases. What am I doing wrong? The code is below:
less[c_, \[Alpha]_, \[Beta]_] :=
 Integrate[x PDF[BetaDistribution[\[Alpha], \[Beta]], x], {x, 0, c}]/
  CDF[BetaDistribution[\[Alpha], \[Beta]], c]

more[c_, \[Alpha]_, \[Beta]_] :=
 Integrate[
   x PDF[BetaDistribution[\[Alpha], \[Beta]], x], {x, c, 1}]/(1 -
    CDF[BetaDistribution[\[Alpha], \[Beta]], c])

diff[c_, \[Alpha]_, \[Beta]_] :=
 more[c, \[Alpha], \[Beta]] - less[c, \[Alpha], \[Beta]]

Plot[diff[c, 0.5, 0.5], {c, 0, 1}]

A: $Version

(* "13.2.0 for Mac OS X x86 (64-bit) (November 18, 2022)" *)

Clear["Global`*"]

dist = BetaDistribution[α, β];

dpa = DistributionParameterAssumptions[dist]

(* α > 0 && β > 0 *)

DistributionDomain[dist]

(* Interval[{0, 1}] *)

Integrals are generally faster and simpler when given the appropriate assumptions.
less[c_, α_, β_] = Assuming[dpa && 0 < c < 1,
  Integrate[x PDF[dist, x], {x, 0, c}]/CDF[dist, c] // Simplify]

(* Beta[c, 1 + α, β]/(
Beta[α, β] BetaRegularized[c, α, β]) *)

more[c_, α_, β_] = Assuming[dpa && 0 < c < 1,
  Integrate[x PDF[dist, x], {x, c, 1}]/(1 - CDF[dist, c]) // Simplify]

(* (-Gamma[1 + α] Gamma[β] +
   Beta[c, 1 + α, β] Gamma[
     1 + α + β])/(Beta[α, β] (-1 +
     BetaRegularized[c, α, β]) Gamma[
    1 + α + β]) *)

EDIT: Use FunctionExpand
diff[c_, α_, β_] = Assuming[dpa && 0 < c < 1,
  more[c, α, β] - less[c, α, β] //
   FunctionExpand // FullSimplify]

(* ((1 - c)^β c^α Gamma[α] \
Gamma[β])/((α + β) Beta[
     c, α, β] Gamma[α] Gamma[β] -
   Beta[c, α, β]^2 Gamma[1 + α + β]) *)

Plot[diff[c, 0.5, 0.5], {c, 0, 1}]

EDIT: Or more simply,
p[c_, α_, β_] = Assuming[0 < c < 1,
  Expectation[x \[Conditioned] x >= c, x \[Distributed] dist] -
    Expectation[x \[Conditioned] x < c, x \[Distributed] dist] //
   FullSimplify]

(* ((1 - c)^β c^α Gamma[α] Gamma[β])/((α + \
β) Beta[c, α, β] Gamma[α] Gamma[β] -
   Beta[c, α, β]^2 Gamma[1 + α + β]) *)

diff[c, α, β] === p[c, α, β]]

(* True *)


text:
Phytomyza vomitoriae este o specie de muște din genul Phytomyza, familia Agromyzidae, descrisă de Kulp în anul 1968. Conform Catalogue of Life specia Phytomyza vomitoriae nu are subspecii cunoscute.

Referințe

Phytomyza


Please call or email for catering and private chef services.
Experience the taste, texture and smoky deliciousness of food grilled over a Palisade peach wood fire. Kathi Bledsoe and her family are originally from the Central Coast of California, an area rich in diverse culinary culture. Santa Maria Style barbecue is her inspiration and the foundation of her food truck menus. Kathi uses locally produced fruits, veggies, meats, cheeses and wine in her catering and personal chef menus when ever possible.
Reserve your date now! Weddings, reunions, birthdays....summer dates are going fast. Call 970-260-3474 to book your event.
Katy Q's BBQ will come to your location!
Katy Q's BBQ is a unique alternative to traditional catering. Watch your food sizzling on the grill! Your guests can come to the cabin to order food or we can serve buffet style. The scent of food grilling over the peach wood fire wafts through the air and ignites everyones appetite.
The best garlic bread EVER!
A gorgeous August afternoon wedding and reception in Paonia!
Beer and butter basted chicken, roulade of pork loin for 150 guests!


It's been pretty quiet here on Pixelated Crumb over the past several months, but I assure you, it has not been quiet in my home. The last recipe I shared with you was written at the end of March. Exactly one week after I shared my favorite pizza recipe with you, my daughter was born. My life turned inside out, the world seemed to spin simultaneously faster and slower, and sleep became elusive. Days and nights ran together. I spent my days pinned to a chair feeding Melanie, the only steps on my Fitbit coming from pacing around the apartment, rocking her, desperately trying to quiet her cries and lull her to sleep. I never expected motherhood to be easy, but nothing prepared me for the reality of being so depended upon. Who knew such a tiny little thing could be so incredibly demanding? Who knew a baby could cry for hours on end? Only every parent before me, I suppose. How did everyone make it look so easy?
I think Emily at Five and Spice described the "utter bliss combined with total desperation" of being a new mom so perfectly. Being a mom is hard. Honestly, much harder than I ever could have imagined. But to look at your child – this tiny little human being that you made – is unparalleled. There are times when I'm utterly exhausted with so much to do, but I still find myself just sitting there looking at Melanie sleep. It's like a campfire that you just can't look away from. She makes this sucking noise when she's sleeping that is music to my ears. I love that sound just as much as her shrieks of laughter. And her smile is like an ocean that swallows me whole. One flash of that gummy smile and I almost forget the hours that I was up with her in the middle of the night the night before. Almost.
In the early weeks after Melanie was born, I often wondered how I had managed to eat all week without either my husband or I cooking (answer: lots of wonderful food from my mother-in-law and frozen Tikka Masala from Trader Joes). Melanie will be eight months in just over a week and we still haven't resumed our old life of cooking. Our meals are simple and prepared as quickly as possible. We make lots of panini, quesadillas, and homemade pizza. Anything that requires minimal prep and cooking time. My baking has been limited to a few batches of banana muffins and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I miss cooking and especially baking so much, but we never seem to have enough time and our new apartment has maddeningly little counter space (oh yes, did I forget to mention that just a few months after having a baby we moved 400 miles away to Maryland for Joseph's new job?).
After a brief hiatus, I'm back to the recap of our trip to Europe that I promised. I just had a sneaking suspicion that you might be more interested in a recipe for the most amazing pumpkin pie ever just days before Thanksgiving. Now I'm back to Europe, so to speak.
After Brussels and Bruges, we headed to Amsterdam where we promptly set out to find rijsttafel. What's rijsttafel, you ask? Translated, it's rice table, but what it really means is a table full of small Indonesian samplings. Why we don't have this in every city in the United States is beyond me. It's the perfect way to get to try several different dishes ranging in color, level of spiciness, texture, and of course flavor. In short, you get to try a little bit of everything. We had 10 small dishes ranging from chicken satay to lamb curry, to tofu curry, plus a large bowl of rice to share between the two of us and we had no problem polishing it all off.
As I said last time, since my knee surgery I've been pulling my weight around the house by suggesting to Joseph what he can make for me. And when I opened my weekly e-mail from Food52 last weekend, I immediately clicked on their menu suggestions for 4th of July and stopped scrolling when I got to the "Seriously Delicious Ribs." I was so excited that when I called out to Joseph, well, we're lucky he didn't call an ambulance, thinking there was something wrong with my knee.
We were supposed to go to Burlington, VT for 4th of July weekend, including one of my favorite places on earth, the Restaurant at the Inn at Shelburne Farms, to celebrate our second anniversary. Our anniversary was June 19th, but between traveling and people traveling to visit us, we hadn't had time to properly celebrate. My grandparents lived in Burlington and we used to go every summer so besides being a really nice town, it's a very nostalgic place for me and I was really looking forward to it. When my doctor's office called and told me that the doctor could squeeze my surgery in on July 1st, I panicked. I talked it through with Joseph and my boss at work, and finally decided it would be better to just get the surgery over with. I was so sad that it took me a few days to get around to canceling the reservations. Oh well. I'm sure we made someone on the waitlist very happy, and hopefully we'll still be able to get up there later this summer.