Tommy Peters' Bicycles

When someone in clergy is seen in a lie, you instinctively protect him, but when he is no less the pontiff, you expect him to protect himself, to come clean, to explain, to apologise, to recant if necessary. Pope Benedict’s pontification at the Yad Vashem memorial in Jerusalem in May 2009 prompts me to step into the shoes of his speechwriter and pen a Preamble to the Pontiff's speech : - “Dear all, before I talk of the tragedy of the Shoah, let me tell you of one Joseph Ratzinger, a loyal member of Hitler’s Youth during World War II. Joseph and his ilk are versed in Mein kampf , the doctrine that preached and eventually propagated the dreaded Holocaust against your forefathers. Regretfully, he partook in its ideology and stands here in lament, humbled and in tears. He asks forgiveness, not least from the Almighty, but from all before him. Joseph Ratzinger is me – Pope Benedict XVI " On the same platform Muhammad Ahmad Hussein the Grand Mufti of the Palestinians, ren...

Recently, I replaced the Disk icons on my iMac with images downloaded from Interfacelift.com. The standard Macintosh HD icon is now an iMac image ; the Boot Camp -drive is a Windows Flag ; Time Capsule is a Burger Stall ; the iTunes WD Data -drive is a Greek Music House and the i Tunes WD Backup -drive is an Umbrella . Hundreds of intuitive icons are available at the site and I herald the artists' who share their wonderful creations without charge. To complete the procedure, I applied five steps. (1) Placed the desired icons on the desktop. (2) Clicked GetInfo (cmd-i) on the original icon and opened the GetInfo pane. (3) Copied the desired icon (cmd-c). (4) Clicked the original icon on top of the pane until a bluish hue surrounded it. (5) Pasted the desired icon on the original (cmd-v). The image above is the end-result (click for a larger view) and the video below shows the procedure (Blogger does not offer a larger view). To revert changed icons to status quo, I s...

The History of Classical Music © Author: Richard Fawkes Narrator: Robert Powell Duration: 5 hours: 5 minutes Publisher: Naxos Audiobooks (August 1997) Duration of each Chapter:- 01 The Early, Medieval and Renaissance Periods [1hr: 13min] 02 The Baroque and Classical Periods [1hr: 18min] 03 The Romantic Period [1hr: 17min] 04 The Twentieth Century [1hr: 17min] Synopsis: From the Gregorian Chant to Henryk Gorecki, the first living classical composer to get into the pop album charts, Fawkes tells in four chapters, a fascinating story spanning a thousand years of Western classical music and composers who sought to express in music, the deepest of human feelings and emotions. Polyphony and Sonata form, Serial music and relevant musical expressions are explained and musical excerpts from highly praised recordings of recent years, illustrate the narrative. Narrator: Powell played Jesus in Franco Zeffirelliís Jesus of Nazareth, a f...

J ustin, you are doing good work. Your blog adds immense value for the man-on-the-street. Expect some bureaucratic nonsense from some bar-council uptight about advertising limitations and such but for our sakes, please stay the course. I have a question about YouTube and copyright infringement. At what point does Satriani relinquish control of his work! His live performance at Anaheim 2006 is ‘downloadable’ from YouTube not only via Websatch, his YouTube page, but also through accounts of his fans. It is reasonable to assume that it is illegal to take and use what you have not paid for or what you do not have permission from the owner to take. For all intent, it is ‘theft’ - synonymously known as ‘download’ in the digital platform. The video depicts One Robot’s Dream , a track I ‘stole’ via the relevant algorithm in Safari’s Activity Window. Safari is one browser that makes the algorithm route possible but that is another issue. Observe the quality of the video. All tracks ...

Thomas B.L. Kerk is described here as a ‘corporate lawyer’ and ‘art connoisseur’ and an ‘idealist’ in this brief. I refuse to dim the focus. I simply know him as a friend who brings humanity to the door; everything else about him is commentary. He arrives with the simplest of objectives. On the eve of Christmas, he prematurely exited a function and graced my home with 4 pints and a thumb drive. The unconventional gift bore images of people, consensual, honest and real as there are. Quite unlike those who foist self-serving imagery and travelogues, Kerk transports the human spirit. He deftly sets aside the messenger and highlights the message. I thought I share a little teaser, mindful the limits of the visual do not bear out the depth of the lens; Kerk’s Lens, as the commentary is aptly titled. Audio: To The One Who Knows (Yanni) ©

The slides depict some of them and I am especially proud of the Cannondales. I purchased the (black) SV3000 in 1994 and the (red) SV4000 in 1996. As a tribute to Joe Montgomery (if you are reading this), they are stacked on Minouras and glow in the dark with little spotlights trained on them. “Joe, both Cannondales are still regular on the trails though the single cranked Rockwell replica is not helpful uphill, but clipped on the DX, I manage” The DeltaV and FoxR are great on the SV3 and I have no complaints on the Moto 120 and Alps 4r on the SV4. My sin with the SV3 is that I upgraded to the 2nd generation XTR. The 1st generation is still with me though and I intend to revert to convention before some die-hard takes me to task. Elaine Wong Kar Yan, a marathoner/triathlete from Hong Kong, figured free-riding the SV3 into her stamina-building program. Inverting the stem and sawing off a replacement seat post, the 'V' accommodates her inseam. The petite athle...

Elementary to most, but scanning artwork at 600 rather than 300 dpi causes Front Row to display grainy covers at Song level, although they are perfect at Album level. At 300 dpi, the covers comes out clear at both levels. Cheers, Tommy