Real Fibt.

I got side tracked last post and went off on a personal story from my past. I have other Olympic stories but they will wait for a later day. Anyway, if any of you had been paying attention you know where the fibt comes from. I know I want to do a little piece about bob sleighs but the fibt part may just be riling you, so . . . .

FIBT is the worldwide governing body for all the sports in the bob sleigh style. It stands for International Bobsleigh and Tobogganing Federation (whose abbreviation is actually IBTF) Makes no sense. So . . . it stands for Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing. Established in Paris, France in 1923 and yes, that's French.

The bob sleigh hales from Switzerland around 1897. Basically 2 toboggans bolted together end to end riders crouched down and blasted over the icey streets of St. Moritz. Refinements to the sleighs and dedicated tracks of ice gradually replaced crazy Swiss wizzing past horse drawn carriages. The name bob sleigh refers to the back and forth bobbing of the riders as they tried to squeeze every ounce of speed out of the steeds. The bobbing didn't do shit for speed but the name stuck. Once customs sleighs and tracks showed a governing body came into existence, the FIBT.

The 4 man bob sleigh debuted at the 1924 Winter Olympics where the Swiss won gold. Surprise. After that the format moved around from 6 man crews with 1 women member, back to 4 and then 2 and 4.

Wooden sleighs remained the norm until the 50's when molded fiberglass and steel rails took over. They are most like the sleighs we see now. A very old winter sport it remains one that has the enduring appeal rivaling the most "extreme" modern sports. Not for the faint hearted its been described as the "champagne of thrills".

Fibt.

Lucky west coaster that I am, I will be treated to a winter Olympics in just a few short years. This will be my second Olympics, having lived through the Montreal games of 1976. Living where the Olympics happen is a weird thing indeed. My street (and house) was on the the route for all the major long distance running and cycling events. This being the first games after the calmness and serenity of the '72 Olympics the streets were patrolled by soldiers. Good plan.

The house I lived in was a rambling old mansion long gone to seed inhabited by university students, writers and me. Every day the newspapers ran an Olympics section with all the events for the day, locations and list of athletes by country. Because the house was set back from the street and was on a hill, the garage was built into the slope and had a flat roof a good 20 feet high, easily clambered upon from the front lawn. A few days before the start of the games we were visited by the major TV networks who wanted to set up their cameras on this prime spot. Actually the view up the boulevard was superb: Tree lined, sweeping gentle turn opening onto a straight away. Soon we had NBC, ABC and local TV elbowing each other on our front lawn.

We would read the daily lists, find the name and number of the competitors we wanted to cheer on, and wait by the cameras. The cycling events were almost impossible to cheer at because of the speed, but the marathon and walking (especially the walking) were very easy to look down the street and find your guy, or girl and get ready to cheer.

Someone in the house found an enormous Finnish flag, I mean big. Must have been 10x20 easy. We got in into our heads that it would be real neat to find Finnish athletes that were competing in something that went past our house, and wave the flag madly and cheer as they went past. Trouble is the Finns had a very small Olympic contingent in 1976, so we were scratching our heads over this till we spotted one in the marathon. Now the marathon is the crowning summer Olympic event. Its huge and is held near the end of the games, a final salute to the heraldry that is the Olympic games.

We had the flag, the cameras were focused, the crowds gathered. The front runners scooted past, then a few middle packs and then nothing. Hmmm, had we lost our guy? Way back, I mean way back there, a distant speck emerged. We had our man. With flag a-waving and cheers and hoots the lonely marathoner wobbled past. Head bent in concentration, face red and sweaty, the runner heard us. For one moment his pace quickened, his stance stiffened and a look that was a cross between happiness and bewilderment covered his face. Soon he was receding down my street.

And by the way, this was supposed to be a piece about bob sleighs, hence the title. Check tomorrow.

I'll have one Colossus, a Bletchly Park and a Heath Robinson.

William Heath Robinson, British cartoonist, was a man who truly epitomized the spirit of this blog. His improbable, zany and positively unsafe at any speed designs are just what man, and womankind have been dreaming up and actually making for years.

Robinson began his career as a children's book illustrator in the late 1890's. His art adorned such classics as the The Arabian Nights and a Midsummer's Night Dream. He didn't start with the crazy gizmo's until the his own books came out in 1902 and later in 1912. During the First World War he began to sharpen his craft with a series of war related cartoon collections. Published in 1934, Absurdities is a collection of inventions that included a machine to remove warts from the top of your head (you sat down in it) and another device to bring life back to stale scones.

Although not used this side of the Atlantic, we prefer a Rube Goldberg, a Heath Robinson can be described as a richly complicated invention that produced everyday results. I like the machine that threw water at howling cats or the pancake machine above.

Have a cigar.

So Fidel Castro is stepping down as El Presidente. I'm not at all surprised.
When you hit your eighties running one of the few remaining communist
dictatorships in the Western world has gotta take it out of you.

He has been one person who has been in a few people's sites off and on over the years. Some would think he is wiley,shrewd and possess just a small measure of luck. I'm sure he is all that and more. Judging from the quality of the attempts on his life, I am not so sure there were not many worries around his dinner table.

Fabian Escalante, former head of the Cuban Secret Service, estimates there were over 600 tries at offing Fidel since he took power. That's more than a hundred a year. Them's some bad assassins.

Castro was known to be an avid scuba diver and one idea had the CIA filling
really large sea shells with explosives. Or . . . still on the diving theme, inoculate his dive suit with toxic fungi. That would make him real itchy I suppose.

Then there are the standard spy stuff with pen darts and poisons. One story
has the CIA recruiting a former lover to poison him. The pills were carried into the boudoir in a face cream jar. They dissolved in the cream. The only way to poison him then would be by shoving cold cream in his mouth while he slept. Again, pissing him off. Other poisonings were tried including specially prepared handkerchiefs and coffee.

Less glamorous attempts had members of the Cuban mafia being paid off by the CIA to
score an old fashioned hit or Cuban exiles in bomb plots.And yes it
seems the CIA did develop exploding and /or poisoned cigars.

Not another war.

Anyone who reads the news knows that the HD DVD and BlueRay DVD war is over. In elephant / mouse like fashion Blue Ray has stomped HD. The Falklands of technological battles. Toshiba announced today that it was leaving the war and will stop making HD DVD's. Sony, maker of the BlueRay system must be thinking back to the original "tech war", the VHS vs BETA battle.

In 1974 Sony came up with the Beta video cassette system and planned on marketing it manufacturers starting in 1975. JVC had other ideas. They made the VHS (for Video Home System) cassette. Laser Discs were available too but though far superior in picture quality, they lacked recording capabilities.


Both tape systems could play video but the neat thing was that they could record stuff also. Either with a camera or direct form TV. It started a cultural shift that is still felt today.

Sony had pioneered video cassette technology with the U-Matic video system which came out 5 years earlier and worked with other manufacturers, including JVC, to establish industry standards. The U-matic cassette was the basis for their BETA system.

When JVC entered the fray in 1975 their VHS cassette could record up to 2 hours. BETA could do 1 hour. BETA's picture quality was superior, in part due to shorter run times, but 2 hours was seen as an advantage. As the battle progressed, both Sony and JVC addede record time to their tapes. But that means more tape in the case which means slower record times and that adds up to poorer quality. In the end VHS could just top 10 hours on one tape while BETA could do 5. The consumer could buy 2 of those for every one of JVC's. Seems obvious where this was going to go.

The pictures, they're alive.

I have been following the goings on with the US primary races and of course read the news in between the stories of who is doing what to whom. One notable piece to catch my eye whilst on CNN today was a story about how Polaroid will cease making its instant film for the cameras it stopped making several years ago. Sounds like their factories will wind up production with whatever supplies they have left and then that's it folks. I just took a look at the Polaroid's website and they still have their instant cameras and film listed.

Edwin Herbert Land, inventor and scientist came up with polarized film for filtering light. Although he studied chemistry at Harvard, he didn't earn a degree. His polarized film invention was good enough for him to team up with his Harvard instructor in 1932 and form a company to promote it and any other related inventions. After WWII Land was on vacation with his family when his wife pointed out it was a shame their vacation pictures had to be developed and not viewed instantly.

In 1947 Land unveiled his instant camera called the Land Camera. It first went on sale 2 years later. The camera went on to enjoy a long successful history and Land never stopped working with film and optics. Not all of his creations were successes however. In the late '70s he created Polavision, an instant movie camera.

The idea was cool but the format (about Super 8 size) was small and the the cartridge had to contain film reels and the additives to develope the whole shebang on the spot. The developed film could then be viewed on a special viewer. The camera required filming in only daylight or very well lit situations. The death of this product was the introduction to market of the first video cameras that were just as instant and could be viewed on TV screens. Hey ya can't win em all. Thanks for 60 years of real "instant" photography.

You got some explaining to do . . . .

Galileo Galilei was called before the judge this day in 1633. He was in Rome to face heresy charges stemming from his belief that the earth orbits the sun, not the other way around. Hey its an easy mistake he said, anyone could have done it. You look up, there's the sun, who's to say what orbits what? The judge didn't by it.

Actually his goose was fully cooked. He had faced the Roman Inquisition already and had pleaded guilty in hopes of a lighter sentence.

Nicolaus Copernicus, noted Polish astronomer, had discovered that, in actual fact, the earth and quite a few other heavenly bodies orbited around the sun. He did not have to battle the Catholic Church however. But Galileo being a good scientist not bound by religious doctrine could readily see that Copernicus was correct. After all, he had built some of the most sophisticated telescopes then available and noted first hand the comings and goings of the heavens.

People loved him. This fame and visibility made the papacy suspicious, even though he was appointed court mathematician at Florence. Once he bagan to expound Copernicus' theories Rome reeled him in.

He remained under house arrest at Arcentri until his death in 1642. Moving at glacial speed Rome finally forgave and forgot the condemnation and arrest in 1992. No rush guys.

Believe in magic.

In the early 50's a French inventor and tinkerer, Andre Cassagnes, came up with what was eventually to be the Etch a Sketch. A stylus, controlled by joysticks, scraped it over an aluminum powdered sheet of glass. The contraption was housed in a box and originally called the Telecran. "Ecran" is French for screen. The shape mimicked the other insanely popular screen emerging in households at the time, televison, hence Telecran.

Anyway, the device made its way to the 1959 International Toy Exhibition in Nuremburg where Ohio Art Toy Company president Henry Winzeler first saw it and had to have it in America. The original still had the joysticks so when Winzeler looked at it he decided to replace these with 2 knobs. This had advantages in that the toy was immediately more intuitive to use and it looked a lot more like a TV, which was great marketing.

If you have the patience and want to see the inside of one, simply draw a whole lot of horizontal lines. In essence you will remove all the aluminum powder from the glass and then you can peer into the case through a nice clean window.

Quick, hide the deer.

Godric of Finchale was a hermit. Though definitely reclusive his reasons were more holy than selfish. Born 1065 died in 1170. He was a saint to some though not officially canonized. He was born of humble parents and initially made his way in life at very ordinary jobs. He mainly sold things and probably was pretty good at it as he made his way round Europe and the Mediterranean and Northen Africa.

Along the way (around 1100AD) he had a pretty intense moment with the spirit of Saint Cuthbert and found the path to God. Thereafter he devoted himself to religious service.

Now he had been at sea for many, many years and its not surprising he wanted to be alone when he got back to England. He wasn't ready just yet to go all the way for solo living so he lived with Aelric the hermit,(not sute what that did for the hermit status but who's keeping score). Not much on this guy except he was a stone mason and probably also a designer or architect.

Aelric lived just a few more years and Godfric had his wish. But the sea beckoned again and off he went for one more tour of the Holy Land before settling back again in England at Finchale, in the shadow of Durham Cathedral.

That was it for the rest of his life. He rarely saw visitors and if he did they were approved by the Bishop of Durham. He became known in those parts as an animal lover and would be seen if at all caring for local animals.

Roll with that.

Hugo Montenegro died this day in 1981. His theme music for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly not only cemented his place in pop culture as THE spaghetti western music but also was a not bad hit going up to #2 on the Billboard Charts in 1968. I'm still pickin tumbleweeds outta my teeth.

A gifted band leader and arranger he was able to play anything. From lush orchestrations to crazy dance beats. He worked for many labels both as an artist and musical director but it was Muzzy Marcellino's whistling and Montenegro's arrangment of the famous movie's theme that led to stardom. He appears on the track "sounding Italian" in the background.

He also scored music for The Man From Uncle and I Dream of Jeannie's iconic theme. Always willing to experiment he produced several electronic albums in a genre that was later called Space Age Pop.

Its my tunnel.

Just a bit of touch up for the post about Webeck Abbey. Got a chance to look up some pictures. It was a really big place. Seems the old abbott of Welbeck had some piastrs.

Here's a few statistics to mull over:

It contained an indoor riding house nearly 400 feet long and over 100 wide, lit by thousands of gas lamps.

There were several tunnels over a thousand feet long leading to, among other things, a riding school, and one tunnel, mentioned in yesterday's post, that was a mile and a half long wide enough for two carriages and led to a rail siding.

Underground rooms abounded. The Great Hall and sometimes picture gallery was 160 feet long. That's the picture gallery above.

And oh yeah, all the rooms were pink. The vast majority of the weird stuff, including the addition of lots of bathrooms, at least one toilet in every room, was the work of the Duke of Bentinck.

Abbey fine, how are you?

I am very, very tired but excited to tell you about a truly fine recluse. Don't know if I got the whole story in me tonight but I'll give it a crack. I give you Welbeck Abbey, home to the Portlands dukedom. In actual fact I'm interested in the 5th Duke of Portland, W.J.C Scott-Bentinct,as fine a hider away as you'll ever get.

Welbeck Abbey is a big joint. One of the biggest in the North Midlands. The duke definitely kept to himself. He kept small apartments for himself in one distant corner of the mansion and would only commuinicate through notes left in drop boxes fitted to the doors. His meals came on a miniature railway from the kitchen. The house rule was if a servant encountered him they were to pass as if he wasn't there. He himself would do the "I'm invisible". The punishment for having an interaction with the Duke? Skate until you drop on the Abbey's skating rink. What a brute.

To keep himself busy he built an entire other mansion under ground. The construction took thousands of builders and when completed was truly spectacular. It contained a 2000 seat ballroom and a library over 200 feet long. There were tunnels everywhere and they even extended out into the hills surrounding the Abbey. Don't know what he needed all the room for. He never had anyone over. If he travelled he took a carriage through one of these tunnels to a railway siding where he was secreted onto a closed rail car and whisked to London.

After his death in 1879, visitors found some real odd stuff: Most of the rooms were pink and in the only room in which the Duke lived were found hundred of green boxes with a single wig in each.