September 2004 Archives

I send a lot of these to people as I get them, so apologies if you've already seen them.

1 - Upside-down map - Australian Stuart McArthur drew his first upside-down map in 1970. Why? Well, why should Europe be at the top anyway? His teacher told him to re-do his assignment if he wanted to pass. 40 odd years later and he's sold 350,000 copies of the buggers.

2 - Mad map - It's a special type of madness that tries to organise the entire history of US business scandals into an A4-sized diagram. The good thing about this is that that diagrams are normally used to communicate complex information more effectively than words. This diagram is a failure. But a joyous one.

3 - Simon and Garfunkel Tennis - A tennis game where you get to play the umpire. An unusual approach to Flash gaming but the simple absurdity made me grin!

4 - Platform World - Lots of little stickmen, jumping and climbing around. Someone has tiled it to make a gigantic image of an epic stickman world. It's pleasingly like something by MC Escher. And another one...

5 - KFC-a-like Spotting - KFC sell protein to poor people, but the real poverty stricken people eat in KFC-a-like restaurants. You know, the lettering will be the same colours as KFC but the logo will be "Texan Fried Chicken" or best of all, "Kent's Tuck Inn Fried Chicken." This site is compiling photos of all the variations.

6 - Are You Northern? - A test so that you can tell if you're northern. "It was based on an extremely large sample of eight friends," the creator brags "And I can conclusively say that it is largely 64% correct."

It occurred to me while watching the Olympics this year why sport in general appeals to so many people. Bear with me on this...

I think the reason it's so compelling to watch is the expression of human emotion. It's about trying, the joy of winning and the agony of losing. One of the most enduring images of the Olympics was Paula Radcliffe slumped on a Greek roadside, having pulled out of the marathon, her face a picture of anguish, sadness, frustration and pain.

Now, I have spent a fair chunk of my time trying to explain to various people why I find motor sport such a great sport to watch. With drivers tucked away inside a cocoon of carbon fibre, and hidden behind helmets and fireproof overalls, it's pretty hard to gauge their emotions. Until the race finishes at least.

Once a race is over, drivers can release all their aggression and emotions that have built up, that's where the human element of motor sport is there to see.

Most people won't know this, but I'm here to educate (!). One such moment of humanism in motor sport was at Le Mans in 1967, where Dan Gurney created a now traditional act. Standing on the victory podium, he was handed the obligatory bottle of champagne. But Gurney wanted to share his mighty achievement with the throng of people surrounding him. Instead of drinking it, he spontaneously decided to spray it over the assembled crowd.

Speaking later, he said, "I was so stoked that when they handed me the Magnum of Moët et Chandon, I shook the bottle and began spraying at the photographers, drivers, Henry Ford II, Carroll Shelby and their wives. It was a very special moment at the time, I was not aware that I had started a tradition that continues in winner's circles all over the world to this day"

Now to be honest, spraying champagne is no longer a spontaneous burst of emotion and therefore doesn't really hold that much of mystique anymore. It's all part of the routine, part of the post-race schedule: finish race, go to the podium, accept trophy from random dignitary, spray champagne, go to the press conference. When someone does something because they have to, it doesn't have the same impact.

Having said that though, there are some drivers who are joining Gurney in creating some of the most evocative images of motor sport success.

There's a guy in American NASCAR racing, whose name escapes me, who used to celebrate winning by driving the wrong way around the circuit. Carl Edwards, a Craftsman Truck driver, celebrates each win by doing a back flip from the tailgate of his truck. Somewhat bizarrely, Helio Castroneves has earned the nickname of Spiderman from having a need to climb fences when he wins...

But the victory celebration that has had the most impact since Gurney's belongs to Alex Zanardi. He has given the world the donut, a moment of car-spinning, tyre-smoking madness. They're spectacular to watch and convey perfectly the joy of winning without the driver ever having to leave the car.

Once again though, donuts are becoming increasingly common. In fact, Dario Franchitti was so worried about the quality of his that after winning a recent IRL race he apologised to the fans!

One of the points about a victory celebration is not to conform to a set routine. If spontaneity and emotion take over then fantastic. Isn't that what sport should be about?

The highlight of this month was wrestling with my computer every spare second I had in order to restore it to something resembling working order...

So that's why I've been decidedly quiet on the internet front. How ironic is it that installing a virus protection program can completely screw about your computer?! Anyway, it's working well enough for me to write this for now.

I don't really have any plans for the future to be honest! That sub-heading doesn't refer to my long term future - that's all planned in my mind. Now's not the time for that though.

In the short term, the next couple of weeks, I plan to write some stuff for here, up the update rate. But also to add lots more stuff to the education site. While I've been having problems with my computer, all I've been able to do is surf the internet. This has meant that I've been able to visit lots of interesting new places! And I'm fantastic at online Scrabble... But also I've been thinking about how much "stuff" I see too. Take in some excellent images. And I've been slowly gathering together some pictures that I like for ages now. And I've published them on here now - giving credits to original owners and stating where they are from if I can remember. Those pictures can be viewed here (opens in a new window).

Among those is a set of images I saw on a forum. The main premise is that a guy was talking a leisurely stroll through his local wood when he saw something glinting. He walked towards it and saw it was a digital camera. The lucky... Anyway, on the camera are some fantastic images. Check them out!

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