Checkmate !

Thanks for all the help and references re: digital cameras. The jury is still out and I need to fully explore as many possibilities as I can, although a purchase of a Canon is looking more probably than say the purchase of a Sony model.

Thanks also for the pointer to the device that enables changing gear by pressing down with either the heal or toe rather than up. This I may be able to handle in which case you'd be a brave man to let me drive your bike when (one day!) I visit you guys in Arizona :-)

"Men writing letters to men" .. at first this sounded slightly gay, but you're not talking about "love letters" doh :-)

Mods vs Rockers. Oh yes. I saw the tail end of this when I was a very young lad. In fact, my dad was a "rocker" apparently. Had the BSA an all.

It was marvellous to read the story you posted by Graham, and I've never liked taxmen (people who work for the Inland Revenue, you know the ones George Harrison was singing about on "Revolver") - for a number of reasons, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He's a good writer, not dissimilar from your own good style sir. Looking at the picture of him on the bike though I smiled. Something is wrong here, linked to "machoness" or breeding rights, the bird with the brightest feathers - that sort of thing. I'm much more interested in functional - rather than good-looking - bikes. I do appreciate art, don't get me wrong, but the bike is just too fancy. Those long forks never helped anyone. I always wanted a Honda Transalp, probably because of my height, it's a tall bike, I never owned one.

I never owned a bike, but had long terms loans of two bikes in my time, a Suzuki 500 and a Kawasaki 550, and I can't even remember what models they were. Had lots of fun on them. I did a 3000 mile tour on the Suzuki (which I borrowed from a client!) in 1992 and went from London to see the Olympics in Barcelona and then onto Seville for the Exposition. Fond memories, I have lots of photos in the garage somewhere which I will have to dig out and scan in.

In the meantime here is a Transalp:
















There is a chess tournament going on, the current World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik vs a computer called Deep Fritz 10. The World Champ was schoolboy mated in 1 and lost game 2, the match is now scored at 1.5 - 0.5 in favour of the silicon. Four games to go. Here is the position in which the human, playing with black pieces, decided to play his black queen to the e3 square. Can you see the move that the white comp played to mate the human? The pundits are calling Qe3 the biggest blunder ever made by a World Champion. Ever. People are saying that the match must be fixed, as before Qe3 was played, the game was effectively drawn, with perhaps even a slight advantage to the human.



















The correct move was Kg8. In the press conference afterwards the human said "I have no explanation for the move I played".